The latest full-length from Kishi Bashi, 'Kantos' is a work of exquisite duality: a party album about the possible end of humanity as we know it, at turns deeply unsettling and sublimely joyful. In a sonic departure from the symphonic folk of his critically lauded 2019 LP 'Omoiyari' a career-defining body of work born from his intensive meditation on the mass incarceration of Japanese-Americans during World War II the Seattle-born singer/songwriter/producer’s fifth studio album encompasses everything from Brazilian jazz and ’70s funk to orchestral rock and city pop (a Japanese genre that peaked in the mid-’80s). Informed by an equally kaleidoscopic mix of inspirations the cult-classic sci-fi novel series Hyperion Cantos, the writings of 18th century enlightenment philosopher Immanuel Kant, a revelatory trip to ancient ruins on the island of Crete Kantos ultimately serves as an unbridled exaltation of the human spirit and all its wild complexities.

During the earliest stages of creating songs for the album, Ishibashi’s main intent was to return to his highly eclectic musical roots, in part by tapping into his jazz background and by delving into the dance-rock-leaning sensibilities he previously embraced as co-founder of Brooklyn-bred indie band Jupiter One. But not too long into the songwriting process, he stumbled upon an AI-equipped website capable of composing catchy song hooks based on a Prompt a turn of events that quickly catalyzed the existential inquiry at the heart of 'Kantos'.

Although his ruminations on AI, transhumanism, and humanity’s troubled fate indelibly guided the making of Kantos, Ishibashi nonetheless views the album as “less of a warning about this kind of hubris but more a celebration of the very characteristics that make us human: desire, passion, empathy, and love.” “If there’s anything I want people to come away with when they hear this record, it’s a feeling of excitement about the possibilities of human-created art,” he says. “Even as we’re learning more about all the amazing things AI can do, I think humans will always be one step ahead in terms of our creativity and innovation. There’s still no limit to what we have to offer.”

TRACK LISTING

1. Violin Akai
2. Chiba Funk
3. Late Night Comic
4. Colorful State
5. Escape From Knossos
6. Icarus IV
7. Hollywood Intermission
8. Lilliputian Chop
9. Analógico Brasil
10. Make Believe
11. Call It Off
12. Tokyo Love Story (Love Story Wa Totsuzen Ni)

RIYL: Ra Ra Riot, Thao, Regina Spektor, Andrew Bird, Typhoon.

"Omoiyari" means to have empathy and consideration for others, and act on it. This fall, the American indie-folk multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter Kishi Bashi is set to release the companion album to his forthcoming documentary song film, titled Music from the Song Film: Omoiyari. Consisting of two LPs "The Songs" and "The Score" the release showcases what is essentially the soundtrack to Omoiyari, the feature-length motion picture co-directed by Kishi Bashi, aka Kaoru Ishibashi or "K," which is being released via MTV Documentary Films in November.

Focusing on K's own six-year journey of discovery surrounding his research of the incarceration of 120,000 Japanese Americans that followed the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the film is part social justice documentary and part song-film experiment. The album includes K's live improvisations, which are featured in the documentary, many recorded on the sites where the concentration camps stood. Written during and about the artist's transformational dive into his personal identity and serving as a broad survey of the Japanese American experience as well as the incarceration Music from the Song Film: Omoiyari serves as an evocative musical accompaniment to the lessons of empathy and compassion portrayed in the film and highlights the process and power of one of modern indie's most talented musicians. 

TRACK LISTING

Intro At The Piano
Red, White, And Blue
Improvisation At Heart Mountain
Summer Of ‘42 (orchestral Edition)
Improvisation In The Root Cellar
ļ

Originally released in 1979, "Art of the Acoustic Steel String Guitar 6 & 12" was Robbie Basho's 15th record, and his magnum opus of solo guitar. It is the culmination of his life's effort to usher guitar music into a new artistic paradigm, and to "establish the steel string as a concert instrument indigenous to America. This album represents Basho’s most technically fine guitar work. In both composition and performance, the album is enormously complex and yet conveys an effortlessness unique to Basho. As he famously espoused, “My philosophy is quite simple: soul first, technique later.” The richness of Basho's soul emanates from this record as distinctly as each note ringing from his steel strings. Only one song on the record (“Pasha II”) features Basho’s enigmatic voice, but it may be his most extraordinary vocal performance – his voice calling out through a shimmer of strings, singing ancient syllables with timeless emotion. The remaining ten instrumental songs roam through Eastern and Western modalities, dark and light meditations, wild and restrained expression. With "Art of the Acoustic Steel String Guitar 6 & 12", Basho summons rich allusions, hallucinations and delicately numinous passages. As he said, "It's not about going far out, it's about going far in. It's about a deeper feeling." These are deep waters indeed, as substantial and enriching today as they were 35 years ago.

Remastered from the original tapes. Artwork is presented in very much the same fashion as the original release with a few minimal changes made to include new information. Paper stock (heavy reverse-board) and pressing weight (140 gram) have been upgraded. New vinyl masters were cut by the excellent John Golden. A download for high quality Mp3's and FLAC is included.

"All the highlights of Basho’s work are found here: eccentric tunings, modal playing and a keen ear for Eastern music (which he studied and incorporated into his music), and a spirituality that could neither be outshined by the technical flashiness nor the (unavoidable?) exotic undertones." – TINY MIX TAPES.

Bulat teamed-up with friend and collaborator Jim James of My Morning Jacket on the album’s production, driving 600 miles from her home in Montreal to La La Land recording studio in James’ hometown of Louisville, Kentucky. Bulat originally met James backstage at the Austin City Limits music festival; the two reconnected when she toured with him in the summer of 2013 and became friends. Good Advice is a departure from Bulat’s previous work, with her voice backed up by drums, bass, electric guitar and keys. James plays electric guitar, synth, saxophone and bass on the album; further Louisville guests including members of Houndmouth, Twin Limb, Seth Kauffman of Floating Action and more also join Bulat.

“Pop songs can take all those big statements and those big feelings that you have,” Bulat says. “You don't need to necessarily have everything so detailed because everybody understands. Everybody understands those feelings.” “Basia has something truly unique,” says James. The duo recorded the album over several visits Bulat made to Kentucky. “I knew immediately that it was the exact right place to be,” says Bulat. “To go so far from home, then to find that it felt like home.”
Of the sessions, James recalls, “The entire process was so amazing. Hearing her voice just exploding out of her soul brought us all to tears in the control room. Watching Basia come out of her shell with great power was an extraordinary thing to witness.”

Good Advice follows Bulat’s critically acclaimed Juno and Polaris Music Prize-nominated 2013 release, Tall Tall Shadow, which The Line of Best Fit calls “a brilliant and engaging pop record” and the Austin Chronicle praises for its “lovely, spectral musing that balances indulgence with homespun tendencies.” In the two years since, Bulat has played shows across North America and Europe with Sufjan Stevens, Destroyer, Daniel Lanois, Bahamas and more.

Since the release of her debut album, Oh My Darling, Bulat has shared the stage with artists including Arcade Fire, The National, Nick Cave, St. Vincent, Beirut, Andrew Bird, Tune-Yards, Sondre Lerche, The Tallest Man on Earth, The Head and the Heart, Owen Pallett, Devotchka and many more. Known for her talents on little-known instruments including the autoharp and charango, Bulat has also been tapped for tributes to Leonard Cohen and The Band.

STAFF COMMENTS

Millie says: ‘Good Advice’ is a breath-taking album which is filled with heartache. It begins with her deep soulful voice, it’s bold and resolute then the end of the album shows us an enchanting whimsical finish (the song Someday Soon especially) It’s very emotional; you need to listen to it!

TRACK LISTING

1. La La Lie
2. Long Goodbye
3. Let Me In
4. In The Name Of
5. Time
6. Good Advice
7. Infamous
8. Fool
9. The Garden
10. Someday Soon

Basic Rhythm follows up his album 'On The Threshold' with an EP that lays out the explicit connections between hardcore and footwork. A connection made even clearer by the inclusion of a rare remix by Chicago footwork originator RP Boo. "2 Da Core"'s punchy rolling drums are levelled up against rough samples and a vocal hook pitched up and down in classic hardcore style. "Get Up" runs a tubby bass under hazy vocal samples and weird sound effects. RP Boo's remix of "2 Da Core" disassembles the track into pieces, building a stalking helicopter-like rhythm which plays hide and seek with the samples, while the closing track "Nuh Ramp" rounds off the EP with tumbling micro-edited rhythms and a melody built from small colourful sounds that draw on the Caribbean roots of this music. 

TRACK LISTING

A1. Da Core
A2. Get Up
B1. Da Core (RP Boo Remix)
B2. Nuh Ramp

Basic Rhythm returns to his Jungle roots for his final release with Planet Mu. Harking back to the golden era of the mid 90s, but with a contemporary slant, Basic Rhythm hands in three dance floor killers, with a remix from the grim reaper himself, Loxy. The titular track, Cool Down The Dance, opens with a jittery fragmented drum pattern and wooshing stereo effects, lending a slightly disorienting feel to the intro before the well known vocal refrain leads into a monster amen drop. Deep subs, amen breaks and steely stabs roll out this dance floor banger.

This is followed up with an absolute behemoth of a track. Horse Mout’ utilises an infamous vocal sample in a fresh way, building upon the intro with waves of dubwise effects before launching into a devastating onslaught. With support from scene stalwarts DJ Storm and Flight this one has been smashing up dance floors! The third track is a remix of Cool Down The Dance by Loxy, bringing his inimitable cool production style to the fore, stripping away the amen layers to reveal something for the darker corners of the dance. One for the head noders and the eyes down crew. The final track, Satta, is a nod to the dub of Augustus Pablo, King Tubby, and On U Sound. A slow boiling minimal intro that drops into the extreme minimalism of just a kick drum and sub bass line belies the swagger of the eventual drop. Swinging drums in an almost military pattern tumble and stagger around the core line of kick drum and sub bass, lending this an almost drunken air.

TRACK LISTING

A:

1/Cool Down The Dance
2/Horse Mout'

B:

1/Cool Down The Dance (Loxy Remix)
2/Satta 

Anthoney Hart returns with his second Basic Rhythm album for Planet Mu. 'Electronic Labyrinth' is a maturing of his sound that draws a line under his work as Basic Rhythm thus far. The title itself conveys the overarching theme of the album, evoking the journey through a musical labyrinth that Hart has undertaken over the last 30 years or so, following a path through to the centre where these disparate strands have coalesced and solidified into a coherent whole.

The underlying themes are of a more personal nature, intimated by the cover photo of St Fabian Tower where Hart first joined the now infamous Rude FM in the late 90s, the sometimes misleading directness of the track titles, as well as explicit references to books such as Wilson Harris’ Palace of the Peacocks, the ontological promiscuity of Harris’ writing mirrored here in Hart's own musical endeavours. What you end up with is an album that not only draws upon a wide range of influences from both the musical and literary worlds, intertwining them within a deeply personal context that imbues the music with a depth of meaning, but that is also somehow more coherent despite such a wide range of references and hidden meanings. It is at once both an album of subtexts open to interpretation, and a cohesive whole that fits together perfectly.

TRACK LISTING

A:

1/Craft
2/Hayward Road
3/Acid Track
4/Larkin Around

B:

1/Electronic Labyrinth
2/Techno
3/Palace Of The Peacock
4/The Secret Ladder

BASIC is a mind-meld between Chris Forsyth, his frequent running partner (and formidable 6-string thinker) Nick Millevoi, and Mikel Patrick Avery (Natural Information Society).

"This Is BASIC", their debut album, is a complex and entrancing instrumental LP recasting forgotten scraps of guitar history into a moving mosaic of strings, skins and electronics.

Taking inspiration (and their name) from the 1984 Robert Quine/Fred Maher album ("Basic"), Forsyth and Millevoi got together for a run of low-key jam sessions using an Alesis drum machine for rhythm tracks and forging a collaborative language from angular polyrhythms, pulsing baritone-guitar lines, and shimmering chorus-pedal washes (another stylistic nod, this time to the glistening post-punk of the Durutti Column and numerous 4AD bands).

Avery was soon enlisted on drum kit a setup that quickly morphed into a single drum, bell, and a bespoke electronics rig of his own creation. The trio quickly flowered into an improvisational swirl of disorienting electronics, hypnotic throb, and dense flanged-guitar harmonics: three unique voices spinning a complex conversation of textures and rhythms.

TRACK LISTING

For Stars Of The Air
Nerve Time
Positive Halfway
Last Resort Of The Gambling Man
Versatile Switch
New Auspicious

43°C, the debut LP by French electronic producer Basile3, is the result of a decade of cultivating a musical identity that focuses on hybridization, sonic recycling, and playfulness. The enigmatic title "43°C" signifies a haze of bliss (4+3=7, the producer's lucky number) backdropped by the ecological state of a world that’s grown slightly but surely warmer.

In this anticipation fiction, Basile3 offers a soundtrack that is an exploration of club music, electronica infused with r&b and ambient synths. The French producer warmly invites listeners to his state of mind, blooming with genre-bending floating soundscapes.

Featuring TelmaCappelo, Daisy Ray, Loydfears, Lucy Sissi Miller and Minor Science.

TRACK LISTING

1. Wire Rise Feat. Lloydfears
2. Air Quality
3. Grateful, After All
4. U Stole The Summer
5. Secret Gathering
6. Love Machine Feat. Daisy Ray
7. 4Friends
8. My Window Feat. Lucy Sissy Miller
9. In The Clouds
10. Sirens Feat. Thelma Cappello
11. …And Tuning (Stereo Mix)

The first new release by iconic composer, William Basinski, since the hugely acclaimed Lamentations (2020). September 23rd is the first release in William Basinski's new Arcadia Archive series. Recorded in September 1982 in his first loft in the pre-gentrified DUMBO neighbourhood in Brooklyn, New York, September 23rd is a recently unearthed early entry in what has become a hugely inspirational and influential catalogue. Built from a piano piece that Basinski composed in high school in the mid-1970s, September 23rd quickly evolved into a vastly different work.

As Basinski explains: "The original piano recordings were made on a piano belonging to my downstairs neighbour, John Epperson – later known more famously as world-renowned drag artist, Lypsinka – at 351 Jay Street aka Casa Degli Artisti, our first loft in New York. It was recoded with a little portable (probably Radio Shack) cassette deck sitting on the piano as I improvised a piece I had been working on since high school. It was pretty terrible, but when I did the John Giorno/William Burroughs cut-up technique, suddenly I had something to put through the Frippertronics loop and feedback loop tape delay system – and boy did I get results. A very prolific time for a young, wacked-out queen in NYC."

“At its best, William Basinski’s music inspires the sort of rapturous testimony usually reserved for peak experiences, cult leaders and the dead.” – Pitchfork. 

TRACK LISTING

1. September 23rd (40:11

Blank Tapes bring us the debut album release from Bass Clef, aka Ralf Cumbers. Having spent years refining and distilling his sound, Ralph finally locked himself in his tiny studio in Hackney. Eight months later he emerged with a clutch of demos that contained some of the freshest, most dazzling beats that the label's posse had heard in years. Opting out of the race for the latest sequencer / processor / sound card that drives much IDM, Ralph is somewhat of a connoisseur of vintage analogue equipment. Utilising just an old four track cassette recorder, a drum machine, a sampler, an ye olde synth and valve compressor, Ralph has conceived a striking and original debut. Think of the viral dub spaces of Mad Professor, the DIY intimacy of Third Eye Foundation or the brain-teasing beat programming of Afx, all with live interventions on trombone, theremin and cowbells (always a good combination!) and you're nearly there.

Following his acclaimed LP on Punch Drunk ‘Reeling Sideways’, Ralph Cumbers' Bass Clef now joins other Bristol imprint Idle Hands and brings us two brand new tracks.

"Dawn Chorus Pedal" is a deep, acidic house track, but with one foot planted in the UK bass production soundscape; the combination of drum breaks lifted from the jazz sphere, a killer compressed electronic bassline and some lush synths will have you harking back to the early UK techno sound. "You Don't Know Don’t Know You" has more of a wonky-hop / fractured beats style. Stuttering, halfstep percussive breaks, sleazy bassline throbs and 8-bit synth lines are the order of the day here.

John Barrett returns with his second full length for LA label Innovative Leisure as Bass Drum of Death. Elevating Bass Drum of Death from the scrapheap of garage rock challengers fighting for attention, 'Rip This' is BDoD’s most impressive record yet, combining the best elements of the American rock underground with a raw approach that’s original and exciting.

Bass Drum of Death’s appeal has always transcended the band’s roots in the local Oxford, Mississippi touring circuit where John Barrett first cut his teeth. Since his debut 7-inch on Fat Possum back in 2008, he’s realised this potential again and again, most notably with his genre-bending collaboration with Odd Future’s Mellowhype and a slot on the infamous Vinewood Boulevard radio station on the GTA V videogame. But it’s with 'Rip This' that Barrett has really hit his stride.

The process has been markedly different throughout. For previous albums 'Bass Drum of Death' (Innovative Leisure, 2013) and 'GB City' (Inflated Records, 2011), Barrett wrote all the material himself at home and recorded it on a basic GarageBand setup. This time around, he enlisted drummer Len Clark as a fulltime member and collaborator and UMO bassist Jacob Portrait as producer. Over a two-week stint at Prairie Sun Studios in Sonoma County, California the trio created the first BDoD studio album.

TRACK LISTING

1: Electric
2: Left For Dead
3: For Blood
4: Everything's The Same
5: Sin Is In 10
6: Black Don't Glow
7: Burns My Eye
8: Lose My Mind
9: Better Days
10: Route 69 (Yeah)

One of the three outrageously talented Deenmamode brothers (Mo Kolours & Reginald Omas Mamode IV), Jeen Bassa has carved out a reputation as one of the leading beat-tape producers in the game today. His warm and woozy productions mix up slo-mo, mechanised funk with hues of neon soul and blue, jazz notes. An artist that clearly stands out in a world that’s saturated with bland Dilla and Madlib-esque pastiches.‘All My People’ takes listeners on an electronic journey through hip hop, soul, jazz, funk and pan african sounds, hugely influenced by Bassa’s Mauritian roots.

TRACK LISTING

Audio Visual
Herb & Rhythm
Dramatise
Poets House
My People
Body Talking
The Landscapes
Do The Do
Latin Fingers
Cocoa Lotion
Ode To The Funk
Outro

An acoustic show recorded in Poland and featuring the Camel bassist on fine form in front of a rapturous audience.

For the fourth Serie Pegaso release, Periodica invites the listener on an escapist adventure through the ‘Citta’ Futura’ of Bassolino. With arrangements assisted by Paolo Petrella and a host of contributing musicians joining along, the album presents a paradise of sun-seared fusion colorations…horns skronking and six strings riffing over latin dance rhythms, liquid keys and cosmic leads setting the air aflame, and filmic guitar themes riding across epic deserts as spaghetti western belles sing romantic tales amidst flute and piano. It’s a sonic world of texture, mood, and cinematic magic, where midnite funk grooves transition into sorcerous prog rock melodrama, and where symphonic soul themes sing out over galactic percolations and kinetic disco jamming. It's full of Italian spirit and sophistication throughout and is the perfect tonic to take you away into paradise mode. 

TRACK LISTING

A1. Napoli Visionaria
A2. 'E Parole
A3. Oro Di Miele

B1.Malavita
B2. Città Futura
B3. Fuga Finale

Doom Days, Bastille’s grippingly confident third album, is a record of hope for turbulent times. Made by Dan Smith with bandmates Kyle Simmons, Will Farquarson and Chris ‘Woody’ Wood, and producer Mark Crew, it sees the Grammy nominated, Brit winning four-piece stretch out and open-up like never before.

Doom Days marks something of a shift in perception from its widely acclaimed No.1 predecessor ‘Wild World’, which confronted the world and the actions of those in power. Recorded throughout 2018 at the band’s South London studio, “One Eyed Jacks”, the new album captures the need to temporarily switch off and escape whilst taking the listener on a big night out in search of distraction from the surrounding apocalypse; be that screaming along to the radio in the back of an Uber careering through the city (the electric Quarter Past Midnight), getting loved up in the company of good friends (future classic 4AM), a casual hook-up (Another Place) or the end-of-night longing to be with somebody (the captivating Those Nights). It revels in the bad decisions we make both personally in our relationships and collectively on a macro scale (Bad Decisions), tells a relatable tale of being cornered into a deep discussion about the world’s problems when all you want to do is have a good time (Million Pieces), and wryly confronts modern anxieties, taking side-swipes at phone addiction, porn addiction, fake news and climate change denial (the uncompromising Doom Days).

Doom Days finds Bastille at their most lyrically provocative, most accomplished, and most vital. It taps into globally felt worries whilst also working on a much more intimate level. Setting the album over the course of one night allows the band to hold a mirror up to the world using personal, relatable situations.

TRACK LISTING

Quarter Past Midnight
Bad Decisions
The Waves
Divide
Million Pieces
Doom Days
Nocturnal Creatures
4am
Another Place
Those Nights
Joy

London four piece Bastille return with their long-awaited second album ‘Wild World’, following their worldwide number 1, multi-platinum debut album ‘Bad Blood’ which spawned the humungous chart and radio hit singles ‘Pompeii’, ‘Things We Lost In The Fire’ and ‘Of The Night’. Bastille toured the world many times over in support of ‘Bad Blood’ writing and recording ‘Wild World’ along the way. Wild World retains the vivid, rich, filmic song-writing of its predecessor but pushes the band’s distinctive sound in exciting new directions.

Artist waldemar bastos was recorded and produced by arto lindsay and david byrne in new york. Its title, which means “blacklight” in portuguese, is a hint to the powerful sorrow the music holds: pretaluz is an elegiac response to the angolan civil war, drawing on influences near and far like the fado, semba, zouk, and morna, to create indelible songs. “with his dramatic pauses and dynamic vibrato rising above subtle rhythms picked out on nylon-string guitars, everything mr. Bastos sings emerges as a lament of enormous sadness,” wrote the times.

Now on vinyl for the very first time, this limited 25th anniversary edition of pretaluz is a contender for the best-sounding record on luaka bop.

TRACK LISTING

1. Sofrimento
2. Rainha Ginga
3. Muxima
4. Kuribôta
5. Morro Do Kussava
6. Minha Família
7. Menina
8. Querida Angola
9. Kanguru

Bat For Lashes - aka Natasha Khan - releases her fifth studio album, entitled Lost Girls, via AWAL Recordings.

Lost Girls is another brilliant full-length in Khan's incredible, acclaimed discography, mixing sounds she's always loved -- heavy bass lines, synth arpeggios, Iranian pop beats, cascading choruses -- with some of her finest songwriting to date. It's an album full of romance, an homage to Los Angeles, to being a kid in the 80's, to films that touched and changed her life.

Spanning 10 tracks, Lost Girls sees Khan dreaming up her own fully formed parallel universe, creating an off-kilter coming of age film in which gangs of marauding female bikers roam our streets, teenagers make out on car hoods and a powerful female energy casts spells and leave clues for us to follow.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Khan releases her most synthy outing yet, with the saturated vibe of 80's synth-pop perfectly complimenting her airy, enchanting vocals. Brilliantly produced and brilliantly written throughout, this is sure to go down as her best LP to this point, a dreamy triumph.

TRACK LISTING

1. Kids In The Dark
2. The Hunger
3. Feel For You
4. Desert Man
5. Jasmine
6. Vampires
7. So Good
8. Safe Tonight
9. Peach Sky
10. Mountains

‘The Dream Of Delphi’ is an ode to motherhood created in LA, Natasha’s second home, during the Covid-19 pandemic. It’s a sonic archive of a time when Natasha birthed her daughter Delphi earth side. The record weaves together ten song poems, documenting the polarity of navigating both an exterior world that was seemingly turning upside down, whilst also experiencing theprofoundly personal and transformational early moments of mothering Delphi, named after the Greek Oracle, the ancient future teller. The music became Natasha’s sanctuary, born out of stolen trips to the studio, where each track was improvised and completed in a few hours and chronologises her diary like offerings over a period of two years; from “TheMidwives Have Left”; to writing a “Letter To My Daughter”; and all the way through to “Waking up”, as well as a cover of her daughter’s favourite song, “Home”.

While the storytelling behind Bat For Lashes’ previous albums have traditionally used otherworldly narratives and female lead characters (e.g. ‘Laura’, ‘Daniel’ and ‘The Bride’), for the first time, ‘The Dream Of Delphi’ is about Natasha’s personal experience of themagical and sometimes melancholy intimacy of early motherhood. This record creates a more private form of mythology around the music than her previous work. ‘The Dream Of Delphi’ touches on more of an instrumental “Bat For Lashes” world, and shows Natasha to be both a confident composer and craftswoman of intimate landscapes. While the music creates a more womb-like, ambient space for the listener, it still leaves ample room for her signature dream pop songwriting to vibrate through. Natasha has worked with Brad Oberhofer, Mary Lattimore and Jack Falby on this record.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A grand, beguiling epic from Natasha Khan, with sweeps of orchestration and soaring instrumental hooks working beneath her always-beguiling vocals. This time sees the narrative a little more personal, with her lyrics focused on her motherhood and feeling during the pandemic.

TRACK LISTING

The Dream Of Delphi
Christmas Day
Letter To My Daughter
At Your Feet
The Midwives Have Left
Home
Breaking Up
Delphi Dancing
Her First Morning
Waking Up
The Dream Of Delphi (Extended Strings Version)

Salsoul is the 9th studio album by trailblazing Filipino-African American singer Joe Bataan, featuring his classic single ‘Mujer Mia’.

Re-issued for the first time since 1973 on limited edition blue translucent vinyl, Salsoul was born out of Bataan’s love for salsa & soul, which developed during his youth in New York’s Spanish Harlem.

Such was the impact of Bataan’s new sound, that Salsoul served as the catalyst for the creation of a label by the same name. Formed by brothers Joseph, Kenneth & Stanley Cayre, Salsoul Records spearheaded a new generation of charismatic artists that, influenced by soul, funk & Latin dance rhythms, gave the label a signature sound.

Re-emerging in samples and remixes, the Salsoul Records catalogue is proof of the label’s enduring legacy and it’s crucial role in shaping the sound of a new wave of disco. 

TRACK LISTING

Mi Nube
Muchacho Ordinario
When Sunny Gets Blue
Mujer Mia
Fin
Latin Strut
Johnny
Peace, Friendship, Solidarity
Aftershower Funk
Continental Square Dance

RIYL: William Basinski, Wolf Eyes, Gas, Tim Hecker, Emeralds, Yellow Swans, Flying Saucer Attack. Steve Bates is an artist and musician known for his work with post-rock ensemble Black Seas Ensemble, duos with Timothy Herzog and Sophie Trudeau of Godspeed You! Black Emperor, amongst others, as well as a series of digital-only sonic explorations on his own label, The Dim Coast. All The Things That Happen is his first full-length album for Constellation. For this album, Bates pursued a more stripped down exploration of the noisier terrain of the cheap timbre and tonality of the much-loved Casio SK-1 keyboard sampler. These sounds were fed through a variety of electronics, effects, amps, cassettes recorders to shift into their current form heard on these tracks.

Steve notes that all the tracks started off as ambient, "but I always kept reaching for more texture and noise." Getting reacquainted with the Casio SK-1 was the initial focus on developing the music here. Processed and manipulated during the recording and mixing stages, these initial SK-1 sessions became the foundation of this body of music. Working within the rich world of experimental electronics, these tracks have a core melodicism to them and maybe even a melancholy, as distortion and overtones saturate and spray the music in various directions, while feeling whole and integrated as a body of sound. A fixture of Winnipeg's burgeoning anarcho-punk and social justice community in the 80s-90s, Bates played in hardcore and indie rock bands (XOXO, Bulletproof Nothing) while contemporaneously continuing to fiddle obsessively with the shortwave radio his father bought him as a child — sensibilities that continue to meld and inform his sound work to this day. Bates founded the Send + Receive Festival in 1998, a crucial development in putting Winnipeg on the map for avant music and experimental sound art, which he helmed for seven years. Moving to Tiohti:áke/Montréal in 2005 he took on the Sound Coordinator position at Hexagram (Concordia University), released solo and duo work on ORAL_records and two albums with his Black Seas Ensemble on The Dim Coast, while pursuing myriad other ongoing audio research, installation and collaborative projects. His exhibition and site-specific works have been presented throughout North America and Europe, Chile and Senegal. 

TRACK LISTING

A1 Groves Of…everything!
A2 These Problems Are Multiplied By The Difficulty I Have In Front Of A Tape Recorder
A3 Glistening
A4 Covered In Silt And Weed
B1 Destroy The Palace
B2 Glimpse An End
B3 Bring On Black Flames
B4 We Do Not, Nor To Hide
B5 September Through September

Marina proudly present: The long-awaited reissues of all three classic Marina albums by The Bathers - “Lagoon Blues” (1993), “Sunpowder” (1995) and “Kelvingrove Baby” (1997). In new beautiful deluxe editions - all remastered plus enhanced artwork. And on vinyl for the first time ever!

The Bathers (aka Chris Thomson) from Glasgow are somewhat of a Scottish national treasure. Listen to these albums, and you’ll know why. Enter a musical universe of intricate arrangements, lush orchestrations, swoony vocals and songs of deep emotional beauty. With nods to Van Morrison, Tom Waits, David Bowie, Tim Hardin and Leonard Cohen. Moody wurlitzers and mesmerising pianos are joined by violins, accordians and acoustic guitars to create a hypnotic, totally unique sound. Chamber pop at its very best.

Liz Fraser of The Cocteau Twins contributes vocals on a couple of songs on “Sunpowder”. A match made in heaven with the music of Chris Thomson. James Grant of Love & Money - Thomson’s fellow musician in legendary 80s pop band Friends Again - supplies backing vocals and guitar on “Kelvingrove Baby”. Isobel Campbell from Belle & Sebastian plays cello on “Lagoon Blues” and “Kelvingrove Baby”.

Turn the lights down low - turn up the volume - and get on a trip with these very special, truly cinematic and, yes, quite spectacular albums.

The LP editions are limited to 690 copies each. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Lagoon Blues Pt. 1
2. Venice Shoes
3. Gracefruit
4. Never Too Late
5. Fermina Fair
6. Easter – For Edda Van Heemstra
7. Pissoir / The Ornella Mutiny
8. Through The Old Holmwood
9. Sweetheart Sessions
10. Lolita
11. Via D’Oro
12. Ave The Leopards
13. Carnival
14. Easter Sorbonne
15. Lagoon Blues Pt. 2

Marina proudly present: The long-awaited reissues of all three classic Marina albums by The Bathers - “Lagoon Blues” (1993), “Sunpowder” (1995) and “Kelvingrove Baby” (1997). In new beautiful deluxe editions - all remastered plus enhanced artwork. And on vinyl for the first time ever!

The Bathers (aka Chris Thomson) from Glasgow are somewhat of a Scottish national treasure. Listen to these albums, and you’ll know why. Enter a musical universe of intricate arrangements, lush orchestrations, swoony vocals and songs of deep emotional beauty. With nods to Van Morrison, Tom Waits, David Bowie, Tim Hardin and Leonard Cohen. Moody wurlitzers and mesmerising pianos are joined by violins, accordians and acoustic guitars to create a hypnotic, totally unique sound. Chamber pop at its very best.

Liz Fraser of The Cocteau Twins contributes vocals on a couple of songs on “Sunpowder”. A match made in heaven with the music of Chris Thomson. James Grant of Love & Money - Thomson’s fellow musician in legendary 80s pop band Friends Again - supplies backing vocals and guitar on “Kelvingrove Baby”. Isobel Campbell from Belle & Sebastian plays cello on “Lagoon Blues” and “Kelvingrove Baby”.

Turn the lights down low - turn up the volume - and get on a trip with these very special, truly cinematic and, yes, quite spectacular albums.

The LP editions are limited to 690 copies each. 

TRACK LISTING

Danger In Love
The Angel On Ruskin
Delft
Faithless
For Saskia
Weem Rock Muse
The Night Is Young
Send Me Your Halo
She’s Gone Forever
The Dutch Venus
Sunpowder

Being the first of a string of brand new projects, this eponymous first album sees Soundway taking a slightly different direction in 2012 and beyond. Championed mostly for their work in un-earthing and re-releasing classic, rare and vintage tropical recordings, Soundway have started signing new acts that have drawn on and been inspired by the kind of music found on the label’s groundbreaking compilations and re-issues. What originally started out as a radio show designed to promote new African music has slowly evolved into a collaborative project crossing continents.

Here the label releases the debut album from Batida, the brainchild of Angolan / Portuguese DJ Mpula aka Pedro Coquenão. A distinctly modern and vibrant project with its feet firmly rooted in the past, Batida combine samples from old 1970s Angolan tracks with modern electronic dance music. Music is the starting point but through dance, graphics, photography, radio and video, Batida expands, taking in politics and social commentary but always bringing it back to the party.

Whereas nearly all of kuduro (Angolan electronic music) has no obvious references to its country’s musical heritage, it is deeply engrained in Batida’s music. Sampling tracks from 1970s Angola, Batida is a reinterpretation of Angola’s musical past, bringing it firmly into the modern day. Batida’s high energy live show features dancers, live samples, percussionists, MCs alongside visuals and images (both archive and new) of Angolan streets, war and fragments of tribal life.

STAFF COMMENTS

Philippa says: The brainchild of Angolan / Portuguese DJ Mpula aka Pedro Coquenão, Batida are a distinctly modern and vibrant project combining samples from old 1970s Angolan tracks with modern electronic dance music.

Batida release new album “Dois” via Soundway Records. Strands of afro-house, kuduro, benga, semba, samples from The Clash and old Angolan movies and afro-beat tracks, African MCs and musicians from all over the world are all deftly mixed together by Pedro Coquenão.

Inspired by the multicultural hotbed of his home city of Lisbon and trips to Nairobi and back to Luanda, ‘Dois’ was predominately produced in his own garage-studio over a two-year period.

In 2012 Batida’s explosive self-titled debut came out on Soundway Records. Mixing the syncopated rhythms of Kuduro with elements of 1970s Semba and Congolese-influenced guitar licks, Pedro Coquenão won fans for an album that “demanded movement” (The Line of Best Fit) and “gave a view of the old and new, the West and Africa.” (The Guardian)

Much of the remix and sampling spirit from the first record remains but ‘Dois’ also features live instrumentation along with a host of different guests.

English, Portuguese, Quicongo and Zulu languages all feature on ‘Luxo’ with Spoek Mathambo (South Africa) & his crew contributing the lyrics together with Angolan MC Sacerdote and a guitar riff by Duncan Lloyd (Maximo Park). On 'Céu' Coquenão pushes things in a deeper direction, dis-assembling and reforming elements of the Francois & The Atlas Mountains studio sessions of the track 'Les Plus Beaux' .

TRACK LISTING

Side 1
1. Pobre E Rico
2. Ta Doce
3. Mama Watoto
4. Luxo
5. Bantu
Side 2
1. Ugali
2. Fica Atento!
3. La Vai Maria
4. Chat With Mr.Ochieng
5. Ceu

Mixing classical and contemporary sound, Mario Batkovic seeks to explore the sonic possibilities of the accordion, without effects or loops, rather through a mutualist symbiotic relationship between man and instrument. Challenging, hypnotic and grandiose; Batkovic’s symphonic vision is unique and he has received widespread critical acclaim, including Rolling Stone magazine who voted his self-titled debut album in the Top 10 ‘Best Avant Albums of 2017’

‘Introspectio’ is a self-questioning, self-examination of society and the meaning of sound. Featuring collaborations with electronic sorcerer James Holden and former BEAK> member Matthew Williams aka MXLX, in addition to drummer Clive Deamer (Radiohead/Portishead/Robert Plant/Roni Size), saxophonist Colin Stetson and concert choir Cantus Domus, Batkovic questions the place of sound, clichés and prejudices, taking the listener on a journey through infinite universes of sound.

Musical contrasts run throughout the album. Sound aesthetics versus compositional ethics play out, it all about creation and destruction as our sound researcher creates his very own macrocosm of music and sound. Whether solo or in collaboration, ‘Introspectio’ invites us on a rhythmically pulsating trip somewhere between dissolution and new beginnings.

TRACK LISTING

SANATIO
REPERTIO (w/ Clive Deamer & MXLX)
CHOREA DUPLEX (w/ James Holden)
QUIS EST QUIS (w/ Colin Stetson)
SURROGATUM
PRIMORDIUM FINALE

Masaki Batoh’s solo career continues to rise up with his 5th solo album, and second in the last two years, Smile Jesus Loves YOU.

As long time listeners of Ghost and The Silence are well aware, Batoh’s music is of the world and for the world . . . it exists as part of the conundrum of the world, for us to hear and form thought or feeling. We have no way of knowing it, other than to listen. The defiance of a fixed notion in Batoh’s world and music is made clear, as with the ambiguities of last year’s mortality meditation Nowhere, by the title of his new album. This shouldn’t be taken at face value. It might be a politically bitter statement. It might not be political at all, in this time of insane corrupt leaders who clearly believe in nothing except what they can use. It is a question for anyone who believes, or doesn’t believe. Listeners must come up with their own understanding, based on their own sentiment and where they find themselves in their evolving form.

Following the mostly solitary activity of making’ Nowhere’, Batoh has invited several guests to play with him for parts of ‘Smile Jesus Loves YOU’. Like family members, collaborators from The Silence and Ghost make guest appearances, including, for two songs, ex-Ghost and legendary percussionist Hiroyuki Usui (Fushitsusha).

For the journey of this new album, Batoh takes us a great distance, singing in Japanese, English, Spanish and Latin, including an amazing cover of one of his heroes, Atahualpa Yupanqui, with lyrics translated from Spanish to Japanese, giving them a haiku-like feeling.

Batoh plays a variety of stringed instruments throughout, as well as mellotron and shanai, supported at times by the playing of others on flute, piano, lap steel, saxophone, contra bass and drums. The songs expand amoebically, with music styles of the world shifting and merging to form their whole. Through phases of dark and light, including some new musical discoveries in Batoh’s world, we travel through the multipart epic title track to salvation.

This world is a difficult place, whether or not the gods will come to save us, but there is a happy ending for us if we accept and make it so. As with all of Batoh’s recent releases, Smile Jesus Loves YOU is a 100% analogue recording of absolutely human playing, with no digital copying and pasting. This allows us to hear and feel the air around the recording as if it is our own.

TRACK LISTING

In The Hour Of Serpent
Pobrecito Mi Cigarro
Uzumaki
No Momento
Sarabanda
Smile Jesus Loves YOU

Steven Clark (a.k.a Sci-Fi Steven from disco/punk legends bis) returns with his one-man-band project Batteries what seems like seconds after last year's self-titled snappy New-Wave debut. The debut's dystopian potential future themes remain, but this time both the musical and lyrical safety nets have been removed. With the "Devo plays Queens Of The Stone Age or vice versa" mantra still a loose guide, The Finishing Line opens with the vague reassurance of lost Punk 45 "The Fall-In-Love Club" before the safety is removed for the unhinged journey ahead. Remnants of Bill Nelson's Red Noise, Cardiacs and early Blur b-sides abound in "Mutual Enemies" and "Hidden Tracks" while there's edgy American metallic synth punk in "Pigs", "Pankhurst" and "Children Be Normal" which recalls Jesus Lizard and Brainiac. It's a restless itchy record, fleeting pop melodies are crushed by industrial strength guitars, but one that is a cohesive reward and illustrates Steven's unique musical vision. 

TRACK LISTING

1. The Fall-In-Love Club
2. Pankhurst
3. Hidden Tracks
4. Pigs
5. The Rules Are Wrong
6. Mutual Enemies
7. Future Studies
8. Children Be Normal
9. Data Intercourse
10. Gather By The Sea
11. Business As A Euphemism
12. The Finishing Line

Produced by Gareth Jones (Interpol, Wire, The Futureheads, Nick Cave), the explosive dynamics of "Children" provide a further teaser of the sounds of the debut album that will follow in August.

Battles follow a spectacular 2011, which saw the release of their acclaimed second album ‘Gloss Drop’, with a series of very special remix releases in 2012.

The series, titled ‘Dross Glop’, begins with a limited 12” featuring remixes of Battles tracks from Kompakt favourites Gui Boratto and The Field.

The entire series of tracks will be compiled and released later in the year as a CD album.

New York six-legged rhythmic juggernaut Battles are one of the most exciting and respected alternative bands of recent years and they return with their second album ‘Gloss Drop’.

The album ranges from lead track ‘Ice Cream’, a “grunty, squelchy, jubilant freakout” according to the NME, and Radio 1’s The Hottest Record In The World - a calypso tinged rhythmic juggernaut powering through the airwaves of Radio 1, XFM and 6Music, through to denser, more industrial tracks (‘My Machines’, featuring Gary Numan, is a prime example) – at times playful, at times hard-edged, but always unmistakably Battles.

Outgoing member Tyondai Braxton’s vocals have made way for a host of guest vocalists, ranging from Numan to Kazu from Blonde Redhead and Eye from Boredoms.

TRACK LISTING

Africastle
Ice Cream (ft Matias Aguayo)
Futura
Inchworm
Wall Street
My Machines (ft Gary Numan)
Dominican Fade
Sweetie & Shag (ft Kazu Makino)
Toddler
Rolls Bayce
White Electric
Sundome (ft EYE)

New York six-legged rhythmic juggernaut Battles are one of the most exciting and respected alternative bands of recent years and they return with their second album ‘Gloss Drop’.

The album ranges from lead track ‘Ice Cream’, a “grunty, squelchy, jubilant freakout” according to the NME, and Radio 1’s The Hottest Record In The World - a calypso tinged rhythmic juggernaut powering through the airwaves of Radio 1, XFM and 6Music, through to denser, more industrial tracks (‘My Machines’, featuring Gary Numan, is a prime example) – at times playful, at times hard-edged, but always unmistakably Battles.

Outgoing member Tyondai Braxton’s vocals have made way for a host of guest vocalists, ranging from Numan to Kazu from Blonde Redhead and Eye from Boredoms.

TRACK LISTING

Africastle
Ice Cream (ft Matias Aguayo)
Futura
Inchworm
Wall Street
My Machines (ft Gary Numan)
Dominican Fade
Sweetie & Shag (ft Kazu Makino)
Toddler
Rolls Bayce
White Electric
Sundome (ft EYE)

Battles return with their fourth album "Juice B Crypts" on Warp Records to follow their complex, mind-bending predecessors "Mirrored", "Gloss Drop, Dross Glop" and "La Di Da Di". Their latest album is a sensory overload of information that throws everything you thought you knew about Battles into flux once again. John Stanier's percussive power drives the LP through motorik, jazz and post rock, while the cubist keyboard and guitar melodies of Ian Williams capture the fractal pop majesty the group have made their own over the past decade or so.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: While Battles' previous outing definitely tread more through the math rock spectrum, and sometimes suffered cohesion losses through it's jagged momentum, 'Juice B Crypts'leans slightly more towards the free-jazz end of things, with loungey grooves and deep rolling basses keeping a solid backline behind their characteristic madness.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Ambulance
A2. A Loop So Nice...
A3. They Played It Twice (featuring Xenia Rubinos)
B1. Sugar Foot (featuring Jon Anderson And Prairie WWWW)
B2. Fort Greene Park
C1. Titanium 2 Step (featuring Sal Principato)
C2. Hiro 3
C3. Izm (featuring Shabazz Palaces)
D1. Juice B Crypts
D2. The Last Supper On Shasta (featuring Tune-Yards)

Battles, New York City’s preeminent experimental rock duo, drop a slick 12” of remixes from DJ Dairy & DJ Orient (black midi), Delroy Edwards, Shed, and DJ Nigga Fox.  The release sees the aforementioned artists using an array of sounds from across the spectrum of Battles’ latest LP "Juice B Crypts", released late last year. In utilizing the wide array of sounds, the remixers have created work that is not singularly indebted to one song or another, rather inspired by the sonic world of the album and serving as an extension of it. The remixers have utilized this creative freedom to the fullest, delivering a collection of songs that occupy distinctly different spaces of the electronic music landscape while retaining a shared connectivity to the original work. 4 uniquely individual remixes, remixing one of the uniquely individual bands of the new millennium, tied together by experimental spirit and a shared musical perspective. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: One of Warp's highly celebrated acts of late hauls in an imperative who's who of electronic music talent. A hype-list rightly deserved of their cult statuses - not a single one disappoints.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Stirling Bridge (DJ Dairy & DJ Orient (black Midi) Remix)
A2. IZM (Shed Remix)
B1. Juice B Crypts (Delroy Edwards Remix)
B2. Carnaval Supremo (DJ Nigga Fox Remix)

‘La Di Da Di’ is a bold opus of post rock and virtuosic instrumentals, cementing Battles firmly amongst the most influential alternative bands of the 21st century.

On their third album the rhythmic core of Battles is as full as ever. Opener ‘The Yabba’ is a gradual unravelling of math rock motifs that eventually explodes into the glitchladen ‘Dot Net’.

The atypical ‘breather’ moment that comes with ‘Cacio e Pepe’ is an exploration in harmony anchored by Battles’ characteristic repetition, whilst tracks like ‘FF Bada’ and ‘Summer Simmer’ are examples of the thick textural richness that can be found throughout the album. ‘La Di Da Di’ humbly parades the many weapons of Battles’ musicianship for which they are so well revered.

Following on from Warp's release of Battles "EP C/B" EP collection comes the New York quartet's debut album proper. Featuring members of Don Caballero and Helmet, the band create a sound that combines avant-rock, jazz and electronica, reminiscent of the abandonment of their NY no wave predecessors. Utilising prog-style time changes, the treated vocals of Tyondai Braxton, almost tribal drumming and synth distortion, the music teeters on the edge before being reined back in at the last moment. Battles are gods, superheroes sent to save us from musical mediocrity and "Mirrored" is a colossal masterpiece begging to join your record collection.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Arguably Battles' finest moment, Mirrors returns for a hugely awaited reissue on Warp records. Pitch-shifted vocals, syncopated drums, clangy guitar and obtuse time-signatures combine to create a surprisingly cohesive whole. Experimental but melodic, quirky and intricate. Art-rock meets math-rock (arth-rock?). Fantastic.

TRACK LISTING

Race : In
Atlas
Ddiamondd
Tonto
Leyendecker
Rainbow
Bad Trails
Prismism
Snare Hangar
Tij
Race : Out

"Tendency" is the second release for Battle on Transgressive Records, following the single "Demons", which sold out its 1500-only limited pressing in half a day, and the first fruits from sessions for their 'Debut Album of the Year' contender, recorded with Gareth Jones (Wire, The Futureheads, Nick Cave, Interpol and Einsturzende Neubauten) who has seamlessly managed to accommodate the epic scope of Battle's songwriting with their edgy and experimental tendencies, creating a track that you feel you've known your whole life, yet feel compelled to listen to repeatedly.

NYC's Battletorn's debut single sold out in a week, and their ten minute sets are becoming stuff of legend around NYC. Lead vocalist Beverly is one of the best female vocalists in the game, recalling the aggression of a female Jello Biafra. Fans of The Comes or Sin 34 or even JFA should take notice.

BATTS is the project of Melbourne based singer-songwriter and producer, Tanya Batt. After collaborating with NASA on her debut record ‘The Grand Tour’, Batt turned her sights back to Earth collaborating on this record with American artists - Sharon Van Etten & Deep Sea Diver. It was made in the Australian bush with her band members and honounary sixth member Alex O'Gorman engineering, surrounded by horses and lorikeets often joining the band for lunch.

The Nightline’s open-book honesty traces the contours of grief, trauma and living with disabling chronic illness, following Batt’s diagnosis with Vestibular Migraine and PPPD. Her unflinching ability to deal with deeply emotive subject matter, and her ambitious vision as a producer. After the passing of her father-in-law in 2019, Batt focused on making an album he would have loved.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Nightline
2. All That I Need
3. Summer In London
4. Blue Feat. Sharon Van Etten
5. Call It What It Is
6. Broken Toes
7. Reassess The Marks
8. Warm Wine
9. Temporary Selfish Behaviour
10. Free
11. Linger Feat. Deep Sea Diver
12. Keeping On

Classic compilation, now back in stock across two CD albums.

‘1979-1983’ was originally released as a double album on vinyl in 1985 and then split into two volumes for release the following year. Together they offer an in-depth introduction to one of the most influential bands of recent times.

TRACK LISTING

Double Dare
In The Flat Field
Dark Entries
Stigmata Martyr
Bela Lugosi’s Dead
A God In An Alcove
Telegram Sam
St. Vitus Dance
A Spy In The Cab
Terror Couple Kill Colonel
Dancing
Hair Of The Dog
The Passion Of Lovers
Mask

Classic compilation, now back in stock across two CD albums. 

‘1979-1983’ was originally released as a double album on vinyl in 1985 and then split into two volumes for release the following year. Together they offer an in-depth introduction to one of the most influential bands of recent times.

TRACK LISTING

Kick In The Eye
Hollow Hills
In Fear Of Fear
Ziggy Stardust
Silent Hedges
Lagartija Nick
Paranoia, Paranoia
Swing The Heartache
Third Uncle
Spirit
All We Ever Wanted Was Everything
Slice Of Life
She’s In Parties
The Sanity Assassin
Who Killed Mr. Moonlight
Satori
Crowds

Late 2018 will mark the 40th anniversary of Bauhaus. To celebrate, Beggars Arkive is reissuing six records from the band’s catalogue on limited edition coloured vinyl.

Formed in 1978, The legendary and hugely influential quartet hailed from Northampton, England and is comprised of Peter Murphy, Daniel Ash, David J and Kevin Haskins. The dark, dramatic music that they made, possessed far more force, variety and playfulness than the "founding fathers of goth" tag that is always attached to them.

Bauhaus' landmark debut album, In the Flat Field, came out towards the end of 4AD's first eventful year. Following the plan at the time, the band then "moved upstairs" to Beggars Banquet, for whom they cut three further albums before dissolving in 1983. They charted with their cover of David Bowie’s “Ziggy Stardust”, they’ve been and namechecked by everyone from Nine Inch Nails, Sepultura, Janes Addiction, MGMT, Interpol, Bjork, Nirvana and more.

A “best-of” collection of songs. Contains the studio version of “Bela Lugosi’s Dead”. All Music described it as “an excellent single-disc overview of the group's brief career, containing all of their essential songs, from "In the Flat Field" and "Bela Lugosi's Dead" to "Ziggy Stardust" and "Burning from the Inside…it's nice that there's finally a thorough single-disc retrospective of the groundbreaking goth quartet” and Pitchfork said it is “a fine retrospective of the material that both Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson claim was a “major influence” of their music.”

TRACK LISTING

Double Dare
In The Flat Field
The Sanity Assassin
The Passion Of Lovers
She's In Parties
Kick In The Eye (Remix Single Version)
Ziggy Stardust
Dark Entries
Hollow Hills
Mask
Silent Hedges
Bela Lugosi's Dead (Tomb Raider Mix)
Terror Couple Kill Colonel
Spirit
Burning From The Inside
Crowds

Late 2018 will mark the 40th anniversary of Bauhaus. To celebrate, Beggars Arkive is reissuing six records from the band’s catalogue on limited edition coloured vinyl.

Formed in 1978, The legendary and hugely influential quartet hailed from Northampton, England and is comprised of Peter Murphy, Daniel Ash, David J and Kevin Haskins. The dark, dramatic music that they made, possessed far more force, variety and playfulness than the "founding fathers of goth" tag that is always attached to them.

Bauhaus' landmark debut album, In the Flat Field, came out towards the end of 4AD's first eventful year. Following the plan at the time, the band then "moved upstairs" to Beggars Banquet, for whom they cut three further albums before dissolving in 1983. They charted with their cover of David Bowie’s “Ziggy Stardust”, they’ve been and namechecked by everyone from Nine Inch Nails, Sepultura, Janes Addiction, MGMT, Interpol, Bjork, Nirvana and more. They remain a huge cult concern, periodically reforming to wow their legions of dedicated followers.

Released in 1982, this is a live album, compiled from shows across the UK from 1981–82. Press the Eject… features a striking version of John Cale’s “Rosegarden Funeral Of Sores,” a particularly spooky run-through of “Hollow Hills” that out-creeps the studio version on Mask, and the punk rock fuzz-out of “Dark Entries”. Of course, “Bela…” appears here as well, in a luxurious nine-and-a-half-minute version. Washed in feedback and ever-so subtly accelerating and decelerating, this song is the true center of “Goth” mythology. This was mastered from HD audio files transferred from the original tapes.

TRACK LISTING

In The Flat Field (Live @ The Old Vic, London)
Rose Garden Funeral Of Sores (Live @ The Old Vic, London)
Dancing (Live @ The Royal Court, Liverpool)
The Man With X-Ray Eyes (Live @ Hammersmith Palais, London)
Bela Lugosi Is Dead (Live @ The Old Vic, London)
The Spy In The Cab (Live @ The Royal Court, Liverpool)
Kick In The Eye (Live @ The Royal Court, Liverpool)
In Fear Of Fear (Live @ The Royal Court, Liverpool)
Hollow Hills (Live @ The Old Vic, London)
Stigmata Martyr (Live @ The Royal Court, Liverpool)
Dark Entries (Live @ The Royal Court, Liverpool)
Terror Couple Kill Colonel (Live @ Le Rose Bon, Paris)
Double Dare (Live @ Le Rose Bon, Paris)
In The Flat Field (Live @ Le Rose Bon, Paris)
Hair Of The Dog (Live @ Le Rose Bon, Paris)
Of Lilies And Remains (Live @ Le Rose Bon, Paris)
Waiting For The Man (Live @ Fagins, Manchester)

UK post-punk pioneers Bauhaus' immensely influential “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” – originally released in 1979 – is considered the original gothic rock record.

The first official vinyl reissue of “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” and first release of complete recording session (including 3 previously unreleased tracks), mastered by Mandy Parnell.

The live version of “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” was in iconic 1983 film The Hunger. It has been covered by Nine Inch Nails, Massive Attack and Nouvelle Vague.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A seminal recording from one of the forbears of the gothic rock movement seeing such a resurgence at the moment. The Bela sessions includes the (almost) titular lead track (worth the entrance price alone) and three more unreleased gems. Essential.

TRACK LISTING

1. Bela Lugosi's Dead (Official Version)
2. Some Faces
3. Bite My Hip
4. Harry
5. Boys

The Bela Session is UK post-punk pioneers Bauhaus’ debut studio recording made in 1979. It includes the immensely influential “Bela Lugosi’s Dead”, which is the band’s first single and often considered the first gothic rock record, and has been covered by artists such as Nine Inch Nails, Massive Attack and Nouvelle Vague.

Complete recording session with previously unreleased tracks mastered from the original tape by Mandy Parnell who has worked with artists such as Frightened Rabbit, Björk and more.

20x28in archival poster from the band’s performance at Plan K, Brussels on April 5th, 1980.

TRACK LISTING

1. Bela Lugosi’s Dead
2. Some Faces
3. Bite My Hip
4. Harry
5. Boys

From 1971 to 1977, Peter Baumann was a member of the legendary Berlin band TANGERINE DREAM. The group were pioneers of the so called Berliner Schule (Berlin School) which had such a profound impact on electronic music. He produced a number of momentous albums at his Paragon Studio (by the likes of Conrad Schnitzler, Cluster, Hans-Joachim Roedelius) and also enjoyed success as a solo artist. His first two solo works are now being reissued with extensive liner notes and rare photographs. The influence of Tangerine Dream can clearly be heard on "Romance 76", although the arrangements are comparatively minimalist-a state of affairs for which David Bowie can be held partially responsible (see below).

With Peter Baumann on board, Tangerine Dream grew into one of the most influential bands in electronic Krautrock, sited somewhere between experimental electronica and progressive rock. Open to new ideas, Baumann's positive aura and eagerness to experiment galvanized the band's music almost instantaneously. His catchy melodies, rich in positivity, propelled Tangerine Dream into the charts.

After five years of chart appearances and extensive touring through Europe and North America, punctuated by several albums-including "Atem", John Peel's nominated import album of 1973-Baumann called time on his solo career with "Romance 76". "We found some time between tours and record productions, so Edgar recorded a solo disc and helped Christoph and me to develop our own music too. 'Romance 76' resulted from the urge to create new music. I felt we had begun repeating ourselves in Tangerine Dream and I was keen to discover new things, to carry on experimenting. Improvisation had been common to us all, but on your own it isn't quite so simple. I started to work on my own pieces." This shift in focus led him to leave Tangerine Dream towards the end of 1977. He and a friend set up the Paragon Studio in Berlin, which would earn a prominent place in music production history, but that's another story.

Still a member of the band in 1976, Baumann rented a hall in the ufaFabrik, Berlin to record "Romance 76". Sonic similarities to Tangerine Dream can be explained by the fact that the group used the same space for gig rehearsals, giving Baumann access to their instruments. The distinctive sound of a modular synthesizer system christened "The Big One" can be detected on "Romance 76", for example, along with a Mellotron.

Some tracks on the album, such as "Romance" and "Phase By Phase", are relatively minimalist in character. This airiness lends the unusual synth sounds space to unfold in all their glory. A state of affairs for which David Bowie is partially responsible, as Baumann recalls: "We were in Berlin and met him for dinner, then he would call in while I was recording the album, listening carefully to what I was working on. I explained to him what still needed to be done, but Bowie suggested: 'Leave it as it is, there's enough there already.'" At which point Baumann decided to look at the tracks in question as finished.

TRACK LISTING

1. Bicentennial Presentation (4:52)
2. Romance (6:08)
3. Phase By Phase (7:41)
4. Meadow Of Infinity Part I (3:48)
5. The Glass Bridge (3:45)
6. Meadow Of Infinity Part II (6:45)

Rayland’s new release ‘If I Was A Butterfly’ is his first new album in 4 years. The album is certainly his most experimental – diving deep into the indie psych space – but keeping the essence of Rayland’s beautiful songwriting. A couple years ago, Rayland released a Mac Miller tribute EP ‘Good Mmornin.’ Rayland was deeply inspired by Mac’s music but he approached it from an entirely different perspective. It was surely an experiment yet it really worked. His cover of “Small Worlds” has 11 million Spotify streams. It’s been incredible to see how this project connected with core Rayland fans and Mac fans alike – it expanded his following to a whole new space. The Mac Miller project was a bridge from Rayland’s last album ‘Wide Awake’ which came out in 2018. Since then, Rayland has been through a lot of heavy experiences. His father, the legendary pedal steel player Bucky Baxter (toured with Bob Dylan), died suddenly. Rayland went through heartbreak and found new love.

Thoreau had Walden Pond. Kerouac had Big Sur. Rayland Baxter? He had an old rubber band factory in Franklin, Kentucky, and it suited him just fine. As one of the hardest-touring artists on the road today, Baxter’s spent most of his professional life in transit, but ever since he was a kid, he dreamed of creative seclusion someplace lonely and isolated, somewhere he could sit still and devote his every waking hour to writing without interruption or distraction. When the opportunity finally presented itself in late 2016, the Nashville native pounced.

“I packed everything in my van and moved to Franklin for three months,” says Baxter. “It was the fist time I ever got to be alone and focus solely on songs like that. All I did was write, write, write all day every day. I was obsessed.”

By the time Baxter emerged, he’d penned more than 50 tunes and crafted a detailed blueprint for his spectacular new album, ‘Wide Awake.’ Deftly produced by Butch Walker, the record infuses Baxter’s easygoing, soulful sound with British Invasion melodies and rock and roll swagger, marrying lean, muscular songwriting with adventurous, inventive arrangements. It’s a cutting, insightful collection, one that takes a sardonic view the violence, greed, and division that seem to define the modern American landscape. Rather than point a finger, though, the music holds up a mirror, offering a sober reflection of the times thoughtfully bundled in bright, infectious hooks. There’s no judgment here, only keen observation, and Baxter implicates himself as much as his neighbor through it all.

“This is an album about decision making,” he explains. “It’s about being a human at the crossroads. Do I do good or do I do evil? Do I lie or do I tell the truth? Am I going to be happy or am I going to be sad? All of these questions and emotions are things I see in myself, and they’re the same things I see in everyone else no matter where I go.”

Baxter’s built a career on capturing those sorts of timeless, deeply human sentiments, bringing colorful characters to vivid life with equal parts humor and pathos. His debut album, ‘feathers & fishhooks,’ was a critical hit praised by Interview for its “well-worn maturity,” while NPR described “Yellow Eyes,” the lead single from his 2015 follow-up, ‘Imaginary Man,’ as “close-to-perfect.” Stereogum dubbed the record “an impeccable sophomore break-out,” and Rolling Stone hailed its pairing of “whimsical narrative with often deceptively complex arrangements.” The music earned Baxter festival appearances from Bonnaroo to Newport Folk in addition to tours with an astonishing array of artists, including Jason Isbell, The Lumineers, Kacey Musgraves, The Head and The Heart, Shakey Graves, Lauryn Hill, and Grace Potter.

“The six months leading up to the release of ‘Imaginary Man,’ that was the first time I really started playing electric guitar and performing with a band,” says Baxter. “We did my first headline run and toured that album for a year-and-a-half, and the experience really opened up this whole new sound for me. It helped me figure out more of who I was as an artist and a songwriter and a traveler and a human being.”

It was with that newfound sense of self that Baxter entered Thunder Sound, the abandoned rubber band factory-turned-studio in the cornfields of Kentucky that would become his home for three months of intensive soul searching and songwriting.

“I blanketed the windows so no one could see inside,” he explains. “I laid a mattress down next to an old Wurlitzer so I had somewhere to sleep. I had a guitar, a desk with a lamp and some paper and pencils, and that was it. For fifteen hours a day, I wrote.”

When it came time to record his mountain of new songs, Baxter relocated to Santa Monica, California, where he wrangled an all-star studio band that included Dr. Dog’s Erick Slick on drums, Butch Walker on bass, Cage The Elephant’s Nick Bockrath on guitar, and piano wizard Aaron Embry (Elliott Smith, Brian Eno) on keys. A producer and artist equally at home working with massive pop stars and indie stalwarts, Walker immediately embraced Baxter’s vision for the album, and the result is a sunny and altogether charming collection. Scratch beneath the surface, though, and you’ll find it’s populated by a cast of characters who project a vision of the good life as they struggle to keep it all together behind closed doors. On the punchy ‘Casanova,’ the singer reckons with debts he knows he’ll never be able to repay, while the volatile “Amelia Baker” charts the narrator’s descent into near-madness as he pines for a starlet perpetually out of reach.

“We have this society where we’re obsessed with celebrity and living on the top of the mountain,” says Baxter. “But what’s at the top? Maybe it’s a lonely place to wake up.”

Late 2016 was a particular tumultuous time in the country, and though Baxter did his best to isolate himself from the outside world while he wrote, it was inevitable that some of the chaos would seep in. On album opener “Strange American Dream,” a chiming piano and spare Motown groove give way to lush harmonies and unexpected melodic twists as Baxter sings, “I close my eyes and realize that I’m alive inside this strange American dream.” Meanwhile, the soaring “79 Shiny Revolvers” finds him reflecting, “you really wanna save the world, man / well, I wanna save it, too / we can blow ’em away / the American way.”

While ‘Wide Awake’ offers plenty of broad, wide-angle musings, some of its most arresting moments arrive bundled inside deeply personal memories and snapshots. The heartfelt “Everything To Me” is a tender tribute to family (Baxter’s father Bucky, who played pedal steel with Bob Dylan and Ryan Adams among others, contributes to the record), and the laidback “Let It All Go Man” is a reminder that there’s beauty in simply being alive.

“I actually started that song two years ago on a trip to South America,” says Baxter. “I was sitting on the porch of a house in this little town in Colombia, and I was all alone playing a gut string classical guitar, just staring out at the ocean and the beach in the middle of the night. It made me realize how much unnecessary stuff we hold on to, all the grinding away we do chasing success and money and missing the big picture. It made me realize what an incredibly beautiful gift it is to be human.”

That empty South American beach may have been a world away from the rubber band factory in Kentucky, but for Baxter, the effect was the same. The solitude offered a chance to observe, to reflect, to grow, to appreciate, and most importantly, to write.

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: Effortlessly melodic pop craftsmanship in a Southern/ West Coast easy stylee. This is the perfect album for the summer.

TRACK LISTING

1 Strange American Dream
2 Casanova
3 Angeline
4 79 Shiny Revolvers
5 Amelia Baker
6 Without Me
7 Hey Larocco
8 Sandra Monica
9 Everything To Me
10 Let It All Go Man

Each song on Bayonne’s Drastic Measures is orchestral in texture, unfolding in countless layers and kaleidoscopic tones. With great intensity of detail, the Austin-based artist otherwise known as Roger Sellers deepens that sonic complexity by weaving in elegantly warped samples of the field recordings he’s gathered for over a decade. But in its powerful melodies and pristine arrangements, Drastic Measures ultimately bears a pure pop lucidity even in its most grandiose moments.

Roger Sellers is a lot of things. He’s a minimalist composer with a knack for making hypnotic, enveloping songs from a few repeated musical phrases. He’s a gifted musician who is mostly self-taught, having abandoned formal study because it was draining the life from his work. He’s a self-described disciple of Phil Collins. What he is not, however -- despite multiple press reports to the contrary - is a DJ.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Swimming in reverb, soaring melodies are twisted together delicately below echoed vocals, rich percussion and slowly developing melodic counterpoint. It's a well balanced and beautifully accomplished suite of dreamers.

TRACK LISTING

A1. QA
A2. Drastic Measures
A3. Same
A4. Gift
A5. Enders
B1. I Know (Album-Version)
B2. Kind
B3. Uncertainly Deranged
B4. Abillia
B5. Bothering

This is the first album by BBQ since 2005’s Tie Your Noose on the historic Bomp! label. BBQ is Mark Sultan, who also has recorded many other albums and 45s, as well as playing in bands like The King Khan & BBQ Show, Almighty Defenders, Ding-Dongs and Les Sexareenos etc., etc. BBQ is his preferred monicker for playing as a very strict live-recorded one-man band.

This album serves as a little wink goodbye to any complexities past and a strong “welcome back” to the primitive, brusque and airy rock’n’roll which has made Sultan beloved since 2003. Forgoing lo-fi, BBQ is reinventing the one-man band, taking it back, for a loud, clear and raw sound; helmed by great songs, sung truly and passionately. Recorded by himself in his basement, live in one to two takes — twelve brand new killers.

“This is an examination of madness and loss,” says Brian Christinzio, the inimitable force behind BC Camplight. “I hope it starts a long overdue conversation.”

Fired by his ongoing battle with mental illness, Shortly After Takeoff is the final, and finest, chapter of what Christinzio calls his “Manchester Trilogy”, following 2015’s “How To Die In The North” and 2018’s “Deportation Blues”. All three albums were created after the native Philadelphian had moved to Manchester. Like Deportation Blues, Shortly After Takeoff spans singer-songwriter classicism, gnarly synth-pop and ‘50s rock’n’roll, with Christinzio’s similarly distinctive, flexible vocal carrying a fearless approach to lyrical introspection, but the new album is a major leap forward in songwriting sophistication and lyrical communication.

“It’s important to stress that this isn’t a redemption story,” he says. “I'm a guy who maybe lives a little hard and I’m in the thick of some heavy stuff. But as a result, I think I've made my best record.”

The “heavy stuff” has come thick and fast for Christinzio. Just days before How To Die In The North was released, he was deported and banned from the UK because of visa issues. Estranged from his new home, his girlfriend and his dog, unable to promote his album and back home with his parents, Christinzio sunk deep into the dark. An Italian passport, care of his grandparents, eventually allowed him to re-settle in Manchester, but then just days before Deportation Blues was released, his father Angelo unexpectedly died.

“I went into a spiral that was worse than any time since my twenties,” he recalls. Hence the title Shortly After Takeoff: the feeling of being suddenly thwarted by what life throws at you. Making matters worse was a neurological disorder that returned after years in remission: “I see TV static, and it messes with how my brain interprets everything from sound to my own feelings.”

One way to process tragedy is comedy, which elevates Shortly After Takeoff to a heightened plateau, from grief-stricken vulnerability to armoured bravado, from the black dog of depression to gallows humour. None more so than ‘Ghosthunting’, which opens with an extraordinary (fabricated) passage of Christinzio doing a stand-up routine, centring on the memory of hallucinating his father’s ghost. “I want to drag the listener into this world and hopefully they question why they feel uneasy,” he explains.

“I also wanted to make a record totally free of whimsy and irony, that was just clear and open and honest. I don’t think you really heard the chaos in Deportation Blues, but in Shortly After Takeoff, I can hear I’m finding undiscovered places to go, only because I was so lost. Lyrically, I wanted people to hear and understand me this time. Before, if I would have written about my father dying, I would have made up some weird bullshit, like an analogy about a tree shedding leaves or something. That Brian is gone. I have a direct line to the listener now. I have a direct line to myself too. It’s a benchmark moment for me.”

Shortly After Takeoff ends with the gorgeously tender 93-second ‘Angelo’, “a little fleeting moment for my dad. I wanted his name on the album, and something that sounded like a goodbye. It ends with the drums, like a heartbeat stopping…”

That’s Christinzio and Shortly After Takeoff: his best, most honest, open and frequently heartbreaking record.

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: Surely this must finally be the record which brings Brian Christinzio the attention he deserves. He is simply an incredible melodicist and creates tracks full of surprising twists and unusual turns. Dark, crazy but funnily inspirational lyrics are offset against the sweetest voice and catchiest songs you’ll hear all year. Just brilliant.

TRACK LISTING

1 I Only Drink When I'm Drunk
2 Ghosthunting
3 Back To Work
4 Cemetery Lifestyle
5 I Want To Be In The Mafia
6 Shortly After Takeoff
7 Arm Around Your Sadness
8 Born To Cruise
9 Angelo

“You shouldn't have a tough time finding the angle to Deportation Blues,” claims Brian ‘BC Camplight’ Christinzio. “The past few years have been a fucking nightmare.”

But what a fucking great record he’s made off the back of his nightmare. His second album for Bella Union, Deportation Blues is an exhilarating, dynamic document of calamity and stress, relayed through richly melodic and bold arrangements spanning singer-songwriter classicism, gnarly synth-pop, ‘50s rock’n’roll and various junctures between, mirroring their maverick creator’s jarred emotions and fractured mindset.

For the full story, you have to head back to before Christinzio’s Bella Union debut, 2015’s How To Die In The North. Born in New Jersey, but living in Philadelphia, Christinzio had released two albums while battling addiction and mental illness. Both albums won rave reviews and earned Christinzio a reputation as one of independent music’s most forward-thinking artists. Soon after, however, as illness rendered him unable to function as a working songwriter, Christinzio retreated to a life squatting in an abandoned church. Despite some notable appearances as a session pianist (Sharon Van Etten) and occasional live work for Philly faves The War On Drugs (Robbie Bennett and David Hartley were in the original BC live band) he knew a sea change was needed in order to regain his career and sanity.

Feeling he’d be “dead or in jail if I stayed”, he acted on a friend’s suggestion to cross the ocean to Manchester. There, Christinzio found new inspiration, new friends, a girlfriend, a dog, and finally a new album (his first in eight years).

So, imagine his mood when he fell foul of UK immigration. “I’d had such high hopes for How To Die In The North, and I was told I was being deported two days after it came out, and banned from the UK. The next thing I know, I’m playing Pac Man in my parents’ basement, thinking, this is my life now.”

Occasional gigs in Europe, where his Manchester-based band could meet him, and extended sojourns in Dublin and Paris, broke up the monotony, but it was still like “living in a constant panic attack.”

But then the cavalry arrived! Courtesy of his grandparents, Christinzio secured Italian citizenship. It cost time, money and a portion of his sanity, “but after a year and a half I could finally shove my Italian papers in their faces at the airport and return to sunny Manchester. The thing is, despite being American, I feel Mancunian, and I couldn’t think about making another record, until I got back.”

To add insult to injury, “Brexit happened, like a day after I got back. Can I get a fucking break here, please?”

Once the dust had settled, Christinzio realised, “I didn’t feel any better, I had so much anger, I felt destroyed. The demons were back and had lost me friends, I’d drunk too much, and I felt nothing but dread and disease. I thought, I can’t wait to hear what this next album is going to sound like.”

Recording in Liverpool’s Whitewood studios, Christinzio locked himself in the windowless studio and recorded almost exclusively in the dark. “The thoughts and sounds that began to flow out of me were pretty scary. I’m pretty sure the engineer started carrying a shiv in his pocket after about the second day. Nothing playful sounding came out. If the last album had elements of whimsy, the thought of any on this album made me want to vomit.” “A couple of months later we had finished Deportation Blues and emerged from the studio like mole people”. Christinzio recorded the album mostly on his own, plus drummer Adam Dawson, occasional guitar by Robbie Rush, and a couple of session horn players. The lead track is ‘I’m Desperate’, “an ominous synth burner,” says Christinzio, with a Suicide-style throb and a haunting female vocal counterpoint that underlines the album’s manic, careering edge, fantastic hooks and instrumental verve. It’s an uncompromising way to introduce Deportation Blues, likewise the album’s title-track opener. Bookended by metallic power chords, cascading synths and a gorgeous downbeat mood lead into slower doo-wop complete with howling falsetto. “It’s instantly a different, darker record than How To Die In The North,” Christinzio notes. Deportation Blues is also noticeably more electronic than its predecessor. “I was feeling cold so every time something sounded pretty, I replaced it with something that sounded like an ice pick. The apocalyptic nuclear feel really appealed.” Throughout, Christinzio sounds as if he’s walking a knife-edge. Take second track ‘I’m In A Weird Place Now’, a heady conflagration of Spector and Springsteen, with Christinzio confessing “And there’s something about Manchester town / And the silly little things she makes me do.” “I like the oppressiveness of the weather in Manchester, it brings everyone down to my level” he explains. The fried mood continues on ‘Hell Or Pennsylvania’, splicing woozy noir jazz lounge-drunk cabaret by way of ‘50s legend Jerry Lee Lewis - Christinzio’s entry point to music through his mother’s record collection. “It’s the first time I’ve reflected that on a record,” he says. “Jerry Lee was this guy bashing at a piano who didn’t give a shit, and I didn’t give a shit.” The lyrical reference to “lemon twirls” meanwhile, represents Brian’s struggle with substance abuse: “The big choruses are a celebration of cocaine whilst the jazz sections represent the lament, the familiar loathsome aftermath.” The sudden changes of mood and style are also metaphorical. For example, ‘Am I Dead’ embraces cinematic horns, broody pop and synth-bass afro-funk. “I go through highs and lows and have trouble staying entertained,” he admits. “A musical part can state its purpose in fifteen seconds, sometimes it doesn’t need repeating. The trick is tying everything together without it sounding confusing.” ‘Am I Dead’ is segued between ‘When I Think Of My Dog’ and ‘Midnight Ease’, two plush, heart-aching piano ballads with rippling saxophone. After ‘Fire In England’, a greasy, nervy rocker, is a bitter ode to British PM – and former immigration controller (as Home Secretary) Theresa May (“dresses like a bus seat, doesn’t she?”). It’s a complex, bleak record I guess” Christinzio concludes. “As dramatic as it may sound, this album was made by a dude who wasn’t sure he’d be alive the next day. Nothing is there for any other reason than it’s the truth. It’s not trying to sound cool or get on the radio.” Though Christinzio points out “this is no redemption I-saw-the-light story,” he is allowing himself a little bit of hope for once: “I’ve never been as pleased with where I am artistically as I am right now.” On top, his new band, “is phenomenal.” Alongside trusted drummer Dawson is Luke Barton (guitars, synths), guitarist Tom Rothery and multi-instrumentalist/ backing singer Ali Bell. Leading them is a man that a bartender in Manchester recently described as “like Mozart and Tony Soprano had a kid." Brian Christinzio, and BC Camplight, genius and pain, may be here to stay at last.

TRACK LISTING

1 Deportation Blues
2 I'm In A Weird Place Now
3 Hell Or Pennsylvania
4 I'm Desperate
5 When I Think Of My Dog
6 Am I Dead Yet?
7 Midnight Ease
8 Fire In England
9 Until You Kiss Me

Lost treasure needn’t be found in the distant past; the 21st century hides many artists who disappeared into the great wide yonder. BC Camplight is one such example. The alter-ego of American songwriter Brian Christinzio released albums in 2005 and 2007, both gems of a certain psych-pop vintage, combining eloquent songwriting with a self-destructive bent. Christinzio certainly knew it – he’s described himself as, “the guy who blew it.”

But this sublime talent with the keening vocal and fearless approach to lyrical introspection has another chance. His new album ‘How To Die In The North’, recorded in his newly adopted home of Manchester, England, is a fantastically rich, stylistically diverse trip. From dramatic, layered pop to a haunted take on Sixties sunshine-pop, from blue-eyed soul to speedy surf-pop, from sparser piano balladry to psychedelic showstoppers and a grand finale that’s part Nilsson and part Broadway showtune.

Originally from New Jersey, Christinzio started playing piano aged just four, inspired by his mum’s Jerry Lee Lewis and Nilsson records and his Dad’s classical collection. Depression and crippling hypochondria clashed with captaining the football team and a penchant for boxing. Post-school, he fell in with people, “willing to go through shit to be a musician,” which saw him relocate to Philadelphia where he occasionally played live with Philly faves The War On Drugs and guested on Sharon Van Etten’s album ‘Epic’.

He’s already done two sessions for long-term fan Marc Riley at BBC 6 Music, which featured Christinzio’s band of Mancunians who he met at The Castle Hotel pub, a watering hole in the city centre particularly popular with musicians. Christinzio also heard John Grant’s album on the jukebox there, which encouraged him to approach Bella Union. Grant’s cocktail of depression and self-sabotage thwarted an outrageous talent, but he took his second chance. The same deserves to happen to Christinzio, a similarly outsize, sharp and funny personality with a non-conformist streak. Far from dying, BC Camplight has been reborn in the North!

Is there a curse that says Brian ‘BC Camplight’ Christinzio cannot move forward without being knocked back? That the greatest material is born out of emotional trauma?

Whilst making his new album The Last Rotation Of Earth, Christinzio’s relationship with his fiancé crumbled after nine inseparable years. The album follows this break-up amid long-term struggles with addiction and declining mental health. The outcome is an extraordinary record, with Christinzio describing it as “more cinematic, sophisticated, and nuanced than anything I’ve done before. And more desperate”.

That Christinzio has bettered his previous album is an achievement, given that Shortly After Takeoff received the best reviews of his life. “A masterpiece,” said The Guardian’s 5 star review, “a half hour or so that roils with anxiety, stuns with beauty and, occasionally, provokes laughter.” Even then, fate intervened when the album was released in April 2020, just as Covid and lockdown kicked in, so he was unable to tour the record until late 2021. The Philadelphian then joked, “I can't wait to make an album that isn’t surrounded by some awful tragedy.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A wonderful return for Brian Christinzio, full of soaring pop songs and perfectly manicured melodies, as you'd expect. What's not so expected however is how BC's self-confessed pains and setbacks have resulted in such a wonderfully jubilant end-result. Heartfelt, grand and full of nuance, 'The Last Rotation..' is by far his most refined and enjoyable outing yet.

TRACK LISTING

Side A:
1. The Last Rotation Of Earth
2. The Movie
3. It Never Rains In Manchester
4. Kicking Up A Fuss
Side B:
1. She's Gone Cold
2. Fear Life In A Dozen Years
3. Going Out On A Low Note
4. I'm Ugly
5. The Mournin

A stone’s throw from the church where Desmond Tutu organised the escape of the most wanted anti- Apartheid activists of Soweto, BCUC rehearses in a shipping container-turned-community restaurant,

Where their indomitable outspokenness echoes in a whole new way. Like its elders, Bantu Continua Uhuru Consciousness sees its music as a hedonistic trance, but also as a weapon of political and spiritual liberation.

Bantu means people, Uhuru means freedom - the 7- pieces band led by vocalist Jovi Nkosi rekindle the freedom of awareness, giving contemporary voice to the ancestral traditions of indigenous peoples. Jazz sounds of 1970s and ‘80s productions replaced by hip-hop in!uences and punk-rock energy, taking the listener on an intriguing epic journey.

With only a few releases under their belt, BCUC took the world by storm with their mesmerising performances, winning crowds at festivals such as Glastonbury (West Holts), Roskilde, Dour, Worldwide, Womad, Fusion and Sziget to name a few, while collaborating with legends like Femi Kuti and Saul Williams.

‘Millions Of Us’ is their first full-length album and most ambitious work to date - distilling their magic on record, summoning mainstage festival-energy and stewing down, casting spells for the intimate audience. Recorded in Soweto, post dubbed and mixed in London the album is the coming together of this unique band and London’s On The Corner Records, a label that has been traversing underground sounds worldwide. 

TRACK LISTING

CD TRACKLIST:
1. The Woods
2. Thonga Lami (Cosmic LP Mix)
3. Ntuthwane (Extended Version)
4. Millions Of Us
5. Nkosi Message
6. Ntuthwane
7. Pieces Of Isht
8. Thonga Lami

LP TRACKLIST:
A1. The Woods
A2. Thonga Lami
A3. Ntuthwane
B1. Millions Of Us

Two of Belfast’s finest, BDK and Bobby Analog connect to create four club focused, disco house heavy hitters for Say Namm’s latest release. Channelling all the best elements of the hey days of the disco explosion, with the power of house music’s punch, to offer four peak time gems.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: We love a silly bit of disco-house business here at Picc HQ. Shit to shake a tail feather to, without taking yourself to seriously. BDK & Bobby Analog take that ethos and run with it across four fun tracks for your aural enjoyment. Whether in the bar, in the club, or the comfort of your living room - these belters'll make you move!

TRACK LISTING

A1. Bring It Around
A2. Don't Fight The Feeling
B1. Fantasy
B2. Get On Down

Round 3 from label boss BDK who returns to his own label for some fun uplifting disco bangers!

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Hard filtered disco-house fun from BDK. If yer into Sneak, old school Subliminal Sessions, Roule etc - then this should get you cantering around the club / living room no problem.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Lets Dance
A2. TUTTT
B1. Thelma
B2. Just Begun

4 full powered, disco-tinged, house bangers from the new 'white' off-shoot of the Say Namm camp.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Big Disco Banger
A2. I Don’t Want It
B1. Love Coming Over
B2. Please Don’t Rush

A special repress of the 2020 debut album by bdrmm which was hailed by The Guardian as a lockdown classic on its original release and ended up in Rough Trade’s top ten albums of the year. The release is part of Sonic Cathedral’s 20th anniversary celebrations which will also see the band playing through the album in full (alongside Ride, Pye Corner Audio and Moon Diagrams) at Hackney Church in London on October 12.

“A modern day shoegaze classic” – NME “The general roller coaster of being twenty-somethings in post-Brexit England who find themselves awash with a shimmering soundscape that recalls Oshin-era DIIV, Deerhunter’s Microcastle, or even The Cure at their most ambiently grandiose” – Under The Radar.

“At a time when we’re all looking for aural salvation from the chaotic inundation of all that is happening around us, bdrmm are the salve that eases the wounds of an archaic society, showing that anxieties are a natural flow of life” – Gigwise.

TRACK LISTING

1. Momo
2. Push/Pull
3. A Reason To Celebrate
4. Gush
5. Happy
6. (The Silence)
7. (Un)happy
8. If....
9. Is That What You Wanted To Hear?
10. Forget The Credits

While the world became socially distanced in 2020, Hull’s post-shoegaze, dream pop, heavy guitar effects quartet bdrmm made the kind of impact with their debut album any young band would dream about. Bedroom was hailed as “a heady, forward-thinking shoegaze distillation” by Clash magazine, the Guardian proclaimed “one of the underground hits of lockdown”, while NME awarded the album five solid stars and called Bedroom nothing less than “a modern day shoegaze classic.”

Now signed to Mogwai's Rock Action Records, the band return with I Don't Know, complete with their trademark effects-laden guitars and motorik Neu! grooves but now with added piano, strings, electronica, sampling and the occasional dance beat. Bdrmm fans will not be disappointed and the fans of Radiohead, Ride, Mogwai, The Cure that are yet to discover bdrmm would do well by blessing their ears with "I Don't Know".

STAFF COMMENTS

Liam says: Following on from their shoegaze drenched debut LP, Hull's bdrmm are here for round 2 with their follow-up 'I Don't Know'. Whilst the shoegaze leanings are still ever-present ('Pulling Stitches' is as My Bloody Valentine the band have ever sounded), bdrmm also cover sonic ground that leans more towards the electronica and even Radiohead side of the post-rock spectrum. Transcendental, ethereal and dripping in textures, bdrmm once again show their one of the best bands around!

TRACK LISTING

1. Alps
2. Be Careful
3. It's Just A Bit Of Blood
4. We Fall Apart
5. Advertisement One
6. Hidden Cinema
7. Pulling Stitches
8. A Final Movement

After the recent success of album "I Don't Know", bdrmm return with a 7” release of new track "Mud" and a remix of the recent album track “Be Careful”, which is reworked by fellow Hull outfit Fila Brazillia who have collaborated with everyone from Radiohead to Harold Budd, Black Uhuru, Twilight Singers, and The Orb. Recorded with long-time collaborator Alex Greaves (Working Men’s Club, Bo Ningen) during their album sessions at The Nave Studios in Leeds, “Mud” sees the band expanding further on their dynamic and sprawling sound, with oceanic production and atmospheric instrumentation, underpinned by the bands reverb heavy vocals.

bdrmm release a new EP, featuring their acclaimed recent single ‘Port’, alongside remixes by Daniel Avery, Working Men’s Club, A Place To Bury Strangers and more. The seven-track Port EP will be released digitally and on CD on April 8, with a limited-edition orange vinyl 12” version following later in the year. The EP is the Hull and Leeds-based band’s first major release since their debut album, Bedroom, which was hailed as a latter-day shoegaze classic when it came out in July 2020.

‘Port’, which was originally released as a single last October, marked a major step forward for the band. Sounding not unlike the Low of Double Negative or Hey What deconstructing The Temptations’ ‘I Know I’m Losing You’, it’s a much darker sounding song; its distorted drones and beats burst into life with frenzied guitar and howls of anguish. "It helped us consider the band in a much more fluid perspective,” says bassist and synth player Jordan Smith of the pivotal track. “Swapping instruments and redefining roles gave us time to spend working on new and more intriguing sonic ideas.”

This new experimental and more electronic approach was expanded as the standalone single release grew, almost accidentally, into a full EP, which features radical reworkings by Daniel Avery (a fearless, all guns blazing techno stomper); Working Men’s Club (New Order’s ‘Sub-Culture’ meets a long-lost early Warp Records classic); A Place To Bury Strangers (a feedback frenzy of total sonic annihilation); Tom Sharkett from Manchester krautpoppers W.H. Lung (DFA Records goes down to the death disco); Jonathan Snipes from LA-based experimental hip-hop trio Clipping (glitchy beats imploding into a wall of white noise); and Jordan himself, as Mouth Company, who brings proceedings to a close with a slow-mo trip-hop treatment.

“The idea originally stemmed from us joking about Daniel Avery remixing one of our tracks one day and we just kind of went from there,” explains singer Ryan Smith of the EP’s unusual genesis. “We’d arranged a remix swap with A Place To Bury Strangers and then somehow managed to gather all these other incredible remixes over the space of a few months, and it seemed ridiculous not to release them as one piece of work. It’s a real journey listening to them individually, but back-to-back it really is something.” He’s right, the seven tracks hang together perfectly, like the best kind of mixtape, despite each one being so different from the next. “I think the sparseness of the original mix gave a fair amount of versatility to whoever wanted to mess around with the stems,” adds Jordan. “I think that shows in the final EP – six completely idiosyncratic mixes that we all fell in love with.” “To have so many influential artists to us putting their own piece of DNA on what has become such an important track to us is so humbling,” gushes Ryan. “It’s brand new territory for us, and we just feel so lucky to have everybody involved.” The EP is being released ahead of bdrmm’s dates supporting shoegaze legends Ride in April and will be followed by their eagerly-awaited second album, which they are currently working on. “I am so excited to embrace the next chapter of bdrmm,” concludes Ryan. “It’s been a fucking tough ride, but one I never want to get off.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Superb band, brilliant song and LOOK at that list of remixers! Every single one is a wonderfully different take on the source material. The winner for me has to be the W.H. Lung remix by the superbly talented (and monolithically barnetted) Tom 'Sharky' Sharkett. Brilliant.

TRACK LISTING

1. Port
2. Port (Working Men’s Club Remix)
3. Port (W.H. Lung - Tom Sharkett Remix)
4. Port (Daniel Avery Remix)
5. Port (A Place To Bury Strangers Remix)
6. Port (Jonathan Snipes Remix)
7. Port (Mouth Company Remix)

Standard Tuning is the final song recorded at The Knave Studios, Leeds as part of the bdrmm's recording sessions for their acclaimed 2nd album "I don't Know" released last summer 2023. The 10" comes with a remix of album track "Alps" by Nathan Fake, an etched b-side and exclusive artwork by band member Jordan Smith.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A superbly atmospheric distillation of BDRMM's sound with a lot more propulsive electronics and airy shoegaze breeze. Backed with a lovely remix from Nathan Fake too! Nice.

TRACK LISTING

1. Standard Tuning
2. Alps (Nathan Fake Remix)

BDY_PRTS are a band hailing from Glasgow, Scotland comprising of two songwriters – Chicago-raised Jill O’Sullivan (of cult band Sparrow And The Workshop) and Jenny Reeve (of Strike The Colours and frequent Malcolm Middleton collaborator) - alongside drummer/producer Jonny Scott (The Kills, Chvrches and Marnie). Describing themselves as “electro future-pop” on record their music is a melody-driven, 80s-tinged indie-electro-pop fusion. Live BDY_PRTS sound is coupled with a unique and striking visual identity, aided by of the otherworldly and genre-defying costumes designed with visual artists Urara Tsuchiya and Lesley Anne Hepburn. On stage Jill and Jenny’s intertwining costumed limbs offer a visual feast whilst their vocals, melodies and full band set-up (with guitar and drums) one for the ear, creating a show full of sonic and theatrical flair. 

TRACK LISTING

1 IDLU
2 Welcome
3 Take It To The Top
4 Rooftops
5 Cold Shoulder
6 Breathe (In)
7 Breathe
8 Ghost In The Mae
9 Warrior
10 Shame 11 45 

In the mystical cycles of the sonic universe, every so often Manchester conjures up, seemingly from nowhere, an absolutely mind blowing LP; up there with anyone else the world over. Following in the footsteps of Moodymann's "Black Mahogany", Trus'me's "Working Nights", Floating Points' "Shadows" and more recently, Kyle Hall's "Boat Party" and llum Sphere's "Ghost's Of Them And Now", we have this expansive, full-vision of sound presented by our fair city's very own Garth Be. I don't make these comparisons lightly, but it's rare that something quite so perfect reaches our shop - and it's with great honour that I write these notes. "Marquis" opens with delightfully radiant pads and glowing licks that wrap around a bouncy, disjointed groove which Kyle Hall would be proud of. "Dreamline" retains that jazzy bounce and bright, optimistic keyboard work; joining the esteemed ranks of Vakula and all the aforementioned cats when it comes to sophisticated organic sound palettes. Then he flips the script. "Don't Want" is a PERFECTLY constructed MPC jam which should have Andres wetting his pants and Theo scratching his head. So onto the B-side and "Housekeysonbrandy" moves towards a 2AM dancefloor, rolling a tough mechanical train wreck across deep aquatic pads. The perfect pairing of hard edged tension coupled with blissful release. Smoothly inserting another smoky sample from the archives of Afro-American heritage. "Monday Club / Tuesday Nite" is possibly the elevated 'top ring of the pyramid', and aptly titled "On and On" - you won't want this beauty to end. Simple but ridiculously infectious, think "JB's Edit" on Theo’s SS001 - it really is that good. "GYB3" is the celestial workout you've been waiting for, and oh so perfectly timed! It's like Garth's some cosmic shaman, guiding us through our trip like a seasoned galactic explorer. In his own words - 'find your place in the cosmos and unwind your mind!' I felt like I'd been on a 250mics acid trip by the end of this track. Finally we have the most delectable of outro's with "Teakayo" - again working the MPC like Shane Warne works the reverse swing. Leaving you desperate for more, BE keeps things painfully tight and succinct, not a single groove on the record is wasted, and at least three of the tracks could well be extended across a whole side of a twelve inch. It's that Madlib-styled intensity which cuts each track at its very peak, keeping you riding the wave till the very end, with absolutely no room for boredom. Unrivalled.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: In the beginning there was Moodymann’s ‘Black Mahogany’, then came Trus'me and ‘Working Nights’, and the world of soul-infused crate-dug house music was good. Carrying on in the tradition of such luminaries we have our city's very own Garth Be, instantly making me draw comparisons to the aforementioned 'classics' of the genre, alongside more recent titles - Floating Points ‘Shadows’ and Kyle Hall's ‘Boat Party’. Distinctly informed by North England's rich dance music heritage, ‘The Seven Movements’ goes everywhere it's possible to go in seven tracks, from jazz-inflected house jams, celestial, meditative states and MPC grooves executed with all the style and finesse of a Shane Warne leg break. Garth Be is a cosmic shaman, guiding us through our trip with ease.
In his own words: "Find your place in the cosmos, and unwind your mind!" When the needle reaches the end of the record, you feel like you've been on one hell of a hallucinatory journey. A glorious story which ends perfectly with him securing Piccadilly’s coveted number two spot. Garth privately pressed the album himself at the start of the year, having no idea of the Earth-shaking, bar-raising potential hidden deep within the wax. It’s been an absolute pleasure both seeing the album gather momentum, writing the first set of sleeve notes and, most importantly, inflicting its mesmerising tones on our customers! Leaving you desperate for more, BE keeps things painfully tight and succinct, not a single groove on the record is wasted and it's that Madlib-styled intensity which cuts each track at its peak, leaving you riding the wave till the very end, with absolutely no room for boredom. Unrivalled.

Patrick says: We've been waiting for this to drop ever since we heard "Monday Club / Tuesday Nite" on the TP. Incredible, organic and soulful, this is the one.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Marquis
A2. Dreamline
A3. Don't Want

B1. Housekeysonbrandy
B2. Monday Club / Tuesday Nite
B3. GYB3
B4. Teakayo

The Nashville, Tennessee, garage rock group were signed as teenagers to the prestigious XL in the UK and Thurston Moore's Ecstatic Peace label in the US, with whom they released two widely acclaimed albums. They went on to tour with the likes of Arctic Monkeys, Sonic Youth, Le Tigre etc and have been cited as influences for groups such as Paramore and Big Joanie.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Be Your Own Pet are back! finally closing out a 15 year gap with the brilliant 'Mommy'. If anything, the sort of snarling indie-punk BYOP make is even more relevant now, with the current surge in garage punk and jagged indie-music perfectly aligning with the band's classic sound. A superb LP and a very welcome return.

TRACK LISTING

Side 1:
1. Worship The Whip
2. Goodtime!
3. Erotomania
4. Bad Mood Rising
5. Never Again
6. Pleasure Seeker
Side 2:
1. Rubberist
2. Big Trouble
3. Hand Grenade
4. Drive
5. Teenage Heaven

Over the past decade, Be.lanuit has made a name for himself in Ibiza, both as a DJ, artist and fashion designer. Across disciplines he radiates a deep-rooted bohemian spirit harkening back to the philosophy on which the Ibiza-scene was originally founded. This creative hearth of soulful hedonism has now borne a full-length album, one that reveals a sprawling composing talent and complete mastery of the melodic downtempo terrain.

Be.lanuit says:

“Hippie Picasso is an album inspired by the life of a hypothetical Pablo Picasso with a hippie soul. I have a deep interest in Picasso that sparked when a work by him caught my eye at the Louisiana in Denmark, incidentally on a trip with Kenneth Bager who runs Music For Dreams. Since then, reading his biographies and visiting Malaga where he was born, where the Mediterranean culture, especially through music, spreads out to the world.

The tracks revolve around Picasso’s artworks and moments in his life, all from the point of view of a dream of an imagined life on the island of Ibiza. The melodies are all reminiscent of the Mediterranean with flamenco airs, sometimes melancholic. Jazz has a subtle presence alongside the electronics. The Spanish classical guitar as well, one of his favorite instruments.”

The album features a range of artists from around the world such as the legendary multi-instrumentalist Tupac Peralta, DJ Pippi, Melón Jimenez, Lara Wong, The Swan and The Lake, Jonas Krag, WALTHER and OliO.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Another killer outing from Music For Dreams here doing all they can to remind us that there is more to the world than moist roads and dripping balconies. Big one for the summer relaxation this.

TRACK LISTING

A1. El Picador Telepathico
A2. Por Donde Pase
A3. El Malagueño
A4. La Espera
B1. Hippie Picasso
B2. Tren Destino A Paris
B3. Tú
B4. Circulo

Critically acclaimed, award winning icon for her generation, beabadoobee returns today to announce her forthcoming second studio album Beatopia (pronounced Bay-A-Toe-Pee-Uh). Due for release on Friday 15th July via Dirty Hit, Beatopia is a fantastical yet deeply personal world that was formed in the imagination of a 7 year old beabadoobee and has been carried with her ever since.

Housing Bea's most impressive work to date, Beatopia marks a huge progression, in 14 songs she traverses fuzzy rock, classic singer-songwriter, psychedelia, midwest emo and outright pop whilst remaining undeniably herself throughout.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Undeniably melodic and warmly produced throughout, Beabadooobee crafts beautiful pop songs imbued with a lightness and orchestral sway rarely seen in modern pop. It's gorgeously evocative and a great listen.

TRACK LISTING

1. Beatopia Cultsong
2. 10:36
3. Sunny Day
4. See You Soon
5. Ripples
6. The Perfect Pair
7. Broken Cd
8. Talk
9. Lovesong
10. Pictures Of Us
11. Fairy Song
12. Don’t Get The Deal
13. Tinkerbell Is Overrated
14. You’re Here That’s The Thing

This Is How Tomorrow Moves finds Beabadoobee stepping up to a new level in her abilities as a songwriter, crafting arresting melodies and pushing herself to develop and explore new frontiers of vulnerability, both in her storytelling and her relationship with herself.

Produced by legendary producer Rick Rubin and long term collaborator and bandmate Jacob Bugden, Beabadoobee swaps her bedroom for his infamous Shangri-La studio in Malibu to create a deeply self-assured record with a vast sonic scope of rock and pop.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Another selection of blistering pop-punk missives, airy synthy melodies and Beabadoobee's distinctive, soaring vocals. It's reminiscent of her earlier work, but with a clear sign of musical and emotional growth.

Beach Baby will release their much-anticipated debut album, 'No Mind No Money', on September 2nd. The band will be supporting Beaty Heart around the US in September, before playing their own series of headline dates across Europe Additional festival slots are still to come at Reading & Leeds and Festival Number 6, with across-the-board support at Radio 1, 6Music, Radio X and Spotify. Captured vividly across ‘No Mind No Money’, London four-piece Beach Baby have built up a tightly-sealed, vaguely surreal world of their own. Beach Baby’s touchstones have now evolved to include seminal acts on both sides of the Atlantic –from Parquet Courts and Mac DeMarco to Ariel Pink and cult lo-fi artist Cleaners From Venus. They each supported themselves throughout this creatively-intense period with make-ends-meet jobs, which included working in burger joints, ‘charity muggers', and - in perhaps the oddest of odd jobs - working as a script reader for production companies like Icon.

The aptly-titled ‘No Mind No Money’ touches frequently on those less-glamorous uncertainties of post-campus life: apathy, escapism, and the distance between your own future and the iconic bands or movies you grew up on. “One of the best new bands in Britain” Sunday Times Breaking Act. “Make no mistake, Beach Baby have every means of triumphing in the big leagues” DIY. “Captures the best of several genres – post-punk, baggy, shoe gaze, grunge –without sounding like a mess” Guardian. “That aching, inexplicable magic of college innocence is all here” Stereogum. “You’ll fall for this London foursome” i-D

In honor of 50 years of The Beach Boys’ timeless and often underappreciated albums, Capitol/UMC will release an expansive 5CD box set titled Feel Flows – The Sunflower and Surf’s Up Sessions 1969-1971 on Aug 27 that chronicles and explores in depth this metamorphic and highly influential 1969-1971 period of the band’s legendary career. Assembled by Mark Linett and Alan Boyd, the team behind 2013’s GRAMMY® Award-winning SMiLE Sessions, the expansive collection features newly remastered versions of Sunflower and Surf’s Up and boasts 135 tracks, including 108 previously unreleased tracks, live recordings, radio promos, alternate versions, alternate mixes, isolated backing tracks and a capella versions, culled from the album sessions.

Housed in a book style package, the set is rounded out with a 48-page book loaded with unreleased and rare photos, lyric sheets, tape box images, recording artifacts, insightful new liner notes by noted radio veteran and Beach Boys afficionado Howie Edelson, and new and archival interviews from Al Jardine, Brian Wilson, Bruce Johnston, Carl Wilson, Dennis Wilson, Mike Love, and others. Feel Flows will also be released in abbreviated versions including 4LP on black vinyl, 2LP black vinyl and 2CD editions.

The best Beach Boys album, and one of the best of the 1960s. The group here reached a whole new level in terms of both composition and production, layering tracks upon tracks of vocals and instruments to create a richly symphonic sound. Conventional keyboards and guitars were combined with exotic touches of orchestrated strings, bicycle bells, buzzing organs, harpsichords, flutes, Theremin, Hawaiian-sounding string instruments, Coca-Cola cans, barking dogs, and more. It wouldn't have been a classic without great songs, and this has some of the group's most stunning melodies, as well as lyrical themes which evoke both the intensity of newly born love affairs and the disappointment of failed romance (add in some general statements about loss of innocence and modern-day confusion as well). The spiritual quality of the material is enhanced by some of the most gorgeous upper-register male vocals (especially by Brian and Carl Wilson) ever heard on a rock record. "Wouldn't It Be Nice," "God Only Knows," "Caroline No," and "Sloop John B" (the last of which wasn't originally intended to go on the album) are the well-known hits, but equally worthy are such cuts as "You Still Believe in Me," "Don't Talk," "I Know There's an Answer," and "I Just Wasn't Made for These Times."

TRACK LISTING

1. Wouldn't It Be Nice
2. You Still Believe In Me
3. That's Not Me
4. Don't Talk (Put Your Head On My Shoulder)
5. I'm Waiting For The Day
6. Let's Go Away For Awhile
7. Sloop John B
8. God Only Knows
9. I Know There's An Answer
10. Here Today
11. I Just Wasn't Made For These Times
12. Pet Sounds
13. Caroline, No

Building on the success of 2021’s Feel Flows and the Sounds Of Summer product suite, UMe will be releasing 4 new packages based on the 1972 recordings by The Beach Boys from the albums “Carl and The Passions” and “Holland” in November.

The project is expansive with 120 tracks, 80 of which are previously unreleased!

The band is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year and through 2023 and a number of tentpole events will build consumer excitement through next year.

Recommended If You Like: Wild Nothing, DIIV, Real Estate, New Order, WAVVES, Mac Demarco, Best Coast, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Craft Spells.

Brooklyn bedroom-pop trailblazers Beach Fossils’ new album 'Bunny,' is a triumphant return for one of the 2010s most influential NYC bands. 'Bunny' is a precise blend of the luscious dream-pop atmospheres they notoriously honed on their earliest projects, the post-punk vigor expressed on 'Clash the Truth,' and the warm, sophisticated songwriting of 'Somersault.' Composer Dustin Payseur peppers the album equally with descriptions of the joy of fatherhood and the existential pleasure of smoking cigarettes out of a car window with friends - 'Bunny' features Beach Fossils' most personal lyrics to-date. This is a collection of new favorite tracks for fans of every era of Beach Fossils. Releasing on Payseur and his partner Katie Garcia’s own label, Bayonet Records, 'Bunny' will prove to be the culmination of a decade's worth of growth and experience.

STAFF COMMENTS

Liam says: Here at Piccadilly HQ, it's well known that we're purveyors of jangly indie - with Beach Fossils being one of the bands we've always come to champion over recent years. However, when we first heard 'Bunny' floating along the shop speakers, we knew we were in for something special.

Lead single “Don't Fade Away” is Beach Fossils at their very best - a perfect indie-pop track whose infectious melody you'll be humming non-stop. Similarly with “Sleeping On My Own” and “Tough Love”, tracks that have so much jangle they'll scratch any C86 (or should I say C23) itch. Elsewhere on the album, “Anything Is Anything”, “Feel So High” and “Numb” all skirt the line of treading into shoegaze, with the latter culminating in an expansive and rousing wall of sound. “Run To The Moon”s slide guitar results in Slowdive-meets-country (yes it works), whilst “(Just Like The) Setting Sun” is a shimmering slice of dream-pop. As for “Dare Me” and “Seconds”, both fit nicely into the garage/post-punky sound Beach Fossils carved out on their second record ‘Clash The Truth’.

With Beach Fossils' music in the past, there was always a sense that Dustin Payseur was making music that explored the nostalgia of a period he wasn't able to experience firsthand. But with 'Bunny', Payseur is able to look back at Beach Fossils as a whole and reminisce on a nostalgia that he himself created. In turn, this results in a flawless Beach Fossils record that is undoubtedly their best yet.

TRACK LISTING

1. Sleeping On My Own
2. Run To The Moon
3. Don’t Fade Away
4. (Just Like The) Setting Sun
5. Anything Is Anything
6. Dare Me
7. Feel So High
8. Tough Love
9. Seconds
10. Numb
11. Waterfall

Inspired by a love of artists such as Bill Evans, Lester Young, Chet Baker and Vince Guaraldi, Dustin Payseur reimagines some of his greatest hits from the Beach Fossils catalog alongside a group of formally trained jazz musicians. A rich and mellow mix of piano, saxophone, upright bass and brushed drums explore the contours of familiar songs, soaring Payseur’s melancholic harmonies to new heights.

Recommended if you like: Chet Baker, Norah Jones, Kamasi Washington, BADBADNOTGOOD, Wild Nothing, DIIV, Kevin Krauter.

"improvisational jazz, classical music, and Stereolab... his songwriting owes more to loop-based composition than garage-bound woodshedding." – Pitchfork.

TRACK LISTING

01. This Year
02. May 1st
03. Sleep Apnea
04. What A Pleasure
05. Adversity
06. Down The Line
07. Youth
08. That's All For Now

"7 is our 7th full-length record. At its release, we will have been a band for over 13 years. We have now written and released a total of 77 songs together.

Last year, we released an album of b-sides and rarities. It felt like a good step for us. It helped us clean the creative closet, put the past to bed, and start anew.

Throughout the process of recording 7, our goal was rebirth and rejuvenation. We wanted to rethink old methods and shed some self-imposed limitations. In the past, we often limited our writing to parts that we could perform live. On 7, we decided to follow whatever came naturally. As a result, there are some songs with no guitar, and some without keyboard. There are songs with layers and production that we could never recreate live, and that is exciting to us. Basically, we let our creative moods, instead of instrumentation, dictate the album’s feel.

In the past, the economics of recording have dictated that we write for a year, go to the studio, and record the entire record as quickly as possible. We have always hated this because by the time the recording happens, a certain excitement about older songs has often been lost. This time, we built a "home" studio, and began all of the songs there. Whenever we had a group of 3-4 songs that we were excited about, we would go to a “proper” recording studio and finish recording them there. This way, the amount of time between the original idea and the finished song was pretty short (of the album’s 11 songs, 8 were finished at Carriage House in Stamford, CT and 2 at Palmetto Studio in Los Angeles).

7 didn’t have a producer in the traditional sense. We much preferred this, as it felt like the ideas drove the creativity, not any one person’s process. James Barone, who became our live drummer in 2016, played on the entire record. His tastes and the trust we have in him really helped us keep rhythm at the center of a lot of these songs. We also worked with Sonic Boom (Peter Kember). Peter became a great force on this record, in the shedding of conventions and in helping to keep the songs alive, fresh and protected from the destructive forces of recording studio over-production/over-perfection.

The societal insanity of 2016-17 was also deeply influential, as it must be for most artists these days. Looking back, there is quite a bit of chaos happening in these songs, and a pervasive dark field that we had little control over. The discussions surrounding women’s issues were a constant source of inspiration and questioning. The energy, lyrics and moods of much of this record grew from ruminations on the roles, pressures and conditions that our society places on women, past and present. The twisted double edge of glamour, with its perils and perfect moments, was an endless source (see “L’Inconnue,” “Drunk in LA,” “Woo,” “Girl of the Year,” “Last Ride”).

In a more general sense, we are interested by the human mind's (and nature’s) tendency to create forces equal and opposite to those present. Thematically, this record often deals with the beauty that arises in dealing with darkness; the empathy and love that grows from collective trauma; the place one reaches when they accept rather than deny (see “Dark Spring,” “Pay No Mind,” “Lemon Glow,” “Dive,” “Black Car,” “Lose Your Smile”).

The title, 7, itself is simply a number that represents our seventh record. We hoped its simplicity would encourage people to look inside. No title using words that we could find felt like an appropriate summation of the album.

The number 7 does represent some interesting connections in numerology. 1 and 7 have always shared a common look, so 7 feels like the perfect step in the sequence to act as a restart or “semi-first.” Most early religions also had a fascination with 7 as being the highest level of spirituality, as in "Seventh Heaven.” At our best creative moments, we felt we were channeling some kind of heavy truth, and we sincerely hope the listeners will feel that." 

Much Love,
Beach House

TRACK LISTING

1. Dark Spring
2. Pay No Mind
3. Lemon Glow
4. L'Inconnue
5. Drunk In L.A.
6. Dive
7. Black Car
8. Lose Your Smile
9. Woo
10. Girl Of The Year
11. Last Ride

Take a vacation at the Beach House away from the hustle and bustle of the city. Let the Baltimore duo of Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally take you to a new place, a unique place where slow hazy pop fills the room with organs, slide guitars, reverb, echoes and simple yet unforgettable melodies. Beach House contains memories from past trips, times, and places: 70s Southern California (lunch with Karen Carpenter), mid 90s England (star-gazing with Mazzy Star no doubt), a weekend at Warhol's Factory in New York (shared a cab with Nico) and a camping trip in the Appalachians back in 1940 (with a country breakfast at Patsy's).

TRACK LISTING

Saltwater
Tokyo Witch
Apple Orchard
Master Of None
Auburn And Ivory
Childhood
Lovelier Girl
House On The Hill
Heart And Lungs
[silence]
Untitled

A 14-track compilation of songs from throughout their career so far. The album features two previously unreleased tracks “Chariot” and “Baseball Diamond”, which were recorded during the Depression Cherry and Thank Your Lucky Stars sessions, both albums of which were released two months apart in 2015.

"When we announced that we were releasing a B-sides and rarities album, someone on Twitter asked, “B-sides record? Why would Beach House put out a B-sides record? Their A-sides are like B-sides.” This random person has a point. Our goal has never been to make music that is explicitly commercial. Over the years, as we have worked on our 6 LPs, it wasn’t the “best" or most catchy songs that made the records, just the ones that fit together to make a cohesive work. Accordingly, our B-sides are not songs that we didn’t like as much, just ones that didn’t have a place on the records we were making.

The idea for a B-sides record came when we realized just how many non-album songs had been made over the years, and how hard it was to find and hear many of them. This compilation contains every song we have ever made that does not exist on one of our records. There are 14 songs in total.

The oldest song is “Rain in Numbers” and was recorded in 2005, during the summer when we formed the band. We didn’t have a piano, so we asked our friend if we could use his, which was pretty out of tune. We used the mic that was on the four-track machine to record the piano and vocals. It was originally the secret song on our self-titled debut.

Sequentially, the next couple of songs are from late 2008. We were so excited about “Used to Be,” that we recorded it right after writing it so that we could have it as a 7” single for our fall tour with the Baltimore Round Robin. We recorded our cover of Queen’s “Play the Game” in the same session. It was for a charity compilation benefiting AIDS research and we will continue to donate all profits from the song to that charity. As fans of Queen, we thought it would be fun and ridiculous to try to adapt their high-powered pop song into our realm. These songs were recorded at the same studio where we made Devotion.

There are a bunch of songs written and recorded in the 2009-2010 window. This period of time, as well as 2014, was our most prolific to date. “Baby” was written and recorded in October 2009 with our friend Jason Quever. “10 Mile Stereo” was recorded during the Teen Dream session in July 2009. Since we used tape, we often slowed the tape way down to create effects while recording. When we were doing that for “10 Mile Stereo” we decided we wanted to make an alternate version where the whole song was slowed down, hence the “10 Mile Stereo (Cough Syrup Remix).”

“White Moon” and “The Arrangement” were both songs that we didn’t believe fit on Teen Dream. “White Moon” originally appeared on our iTunes live session. Since that was recorded and mixed very hastily, we have remixed it to better match our current aesthetics. We have also remixed and included the version of “Norway" we did at that same session. The main reason we wanted to include “Norway” is that it features a very different bridge from the original version.

After the insane year of touring we had in 2010, we felt incredibly grateful to our fans for all that had happened. We wrote and recorded “I Do Not Care for the Winter Sun” during a break between tours and released it on the internet for free, unmastered. Well, it’s finally been mastered…

“Wherever You Go” Is another song from that era. We always loved this song but thought it sounded too much like our old music. We paused writing it and didn’t finish it until 2011 during the Bloom recording session. It appeared originally as a secret song on Bloom.

“Equal Mind” was also recorded during the Bloom session. We really like this song, but pulled it from the record when we realized it had the exact same tempo as “Other People.” They are like twins.

The Bloom sessions led to “Saturn Song” as well. This song is built on a piano loop we wrote while recording Bloom. It also contains sounds recorded in deep space. It originally appeared on a compilation of songs incorporating space sounds that was released in 2014.

Finally, there are two previously unreleased songs from the Depression Cherry/Thank Your Lucky Stars sessions. They are called “Chariot” and “Baseball Diamond.” "

TRACK LISTING

1. Chariot
2. Baby
3. Equal Mind
4. Used To Be (2008 Single Version)
5. White Moon (iTunes Session Remix)
6. Baseball Diamond
7. Norway (iTunes Session Remix)
8. Play The Game
9. The Arrangement
10. Saturn Song
11. Rain In Numbers
12. I Do Not Care For The Winter Sun
13. 10 Mile Stereo (Cough Syrup Remix)
14. Wherever You Go

Baltimore duo Beach House have returned with their sophomore full length entitled "Devotion", Alex Scally and Victoria Legrand have written eleven delicate pop songs about love, feelings, and, of course, devotion. Their new album is a sure-fire antidote to the winter blues. Beach House have developed their craft exponentially since their 2006 self-titled debut. The recording is crisper; the songs are fuller. This is a band that is taking the pop duo format to the limit. The organs, slide guitars and reverb are still there, but Beach House lay down some new sounds for their newest offering. While on their debut critics made comparisons to early 90s dream popsters like Mazzy Star, Slowdive and Galaxie 500, on "Devotion" listeners will also hear the band's longtime admiration for 60s Motown and country folk.

TRACK LISTING

Wedding Bell
You Came To Me
Gila
Turtle Island
Holy Dances
All The Years
Heart Of Chambers
Some Things Last A Long Time
Astronaut
D.A.R.L.I.N.G.
Home Again

Beach House return in January 2010 with “Teen Dream”, their third - and first classic - album, on Bella Union records.
The Beach House you’re about to meet isn’t the same as the one you’ll remember from before. Lives have been shuffled, tangled and re-aligned. When Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally returned home to their hometown of Baltimore last winter, they were worn out from touring and travel. But deep inside them hot energies were incubating, ideas they had been whispering back and forth in the wake of their sophomore full-length, 2008’s “Devotion”. By spring they began handing themselves over completely to these impulses, holing themselves up and exchanging ideas in a new, secluded practice space for dangerously long periods of time. As the songs that would become “Teen Dream” began to live, breathe and take shape, the duo were compelled to leave much of their personal lives behind them. “We were forced to let go of people and things we were holding onto as individuals” Legrand muses. “We were dropped into a wilderness, but we had more clarity than we’ve ever had before”.
Still driven to avoid distraction, the two marched further into isolation, deciding to bottle all those wild visions away from home. They packed up their lives and settled into a converted church in upstate New York with producer Chris Coady. For a month they continued the birthing process, sweating and pushing out sounds inside a cocoon of their very own weaving.
“Teen Dream” is the sound of a band bursting at its creative seams. It is without question more expansive and moving than anything they have shared before.

STAFF COMMENTS

Martin says: Alex Scally's crystalline wandering guitar lines spin a wistful web over Victoria Legrand's haunted, opaque vocals. A thing of bewitching melodic beauty.

TRACK LISTING

01. Zebra
02. Silver Soul
03. Norway
04. Walk In The Park
05. Used To Be
06. Lover Of Mine
07. Better Times
08. 10 Mile Stereo
09. Real Love
10. Take Care

“The Become EP is a collection of 5 songs from the Once Twice Melody sessions. We didn’t think they fit in the world of OTM, but later realized they all fit in a little world of their own. To us, they are all kind of scuzzy and spacious, and live in the spirit realm. It’s not really where we are currently going, but it’s definitely somewhere we have been. We hope you enjoy these tunes.” - Alex and Victoria/Beach House.

Become featuring the songs “American Daughter,” “Devil’s Pool,” “Holiday House,” “Black Magic” and the title track, and was produced by Beach House, with mixing by Alan Moulder (track 1), Trevor Spencer (tracks 2, 3, 5), and Caesar Edmunds (track 4), and mastering by Greg Calbi and Steve Fallone at Sterling Sound.

TRACK LISTING

1 American Daughter
2 Devil's Pool
3 Holiday House
4 Black Magic
5 Become

Beach House’s critically acclaimed 2007 sophomore album, ‘Devotion’, is also finally back on vinyl via Bella Union.

“Crisper, brighter, bolder songs that retain the Baltimore dream-pop duo’s melodic sense and vibe of elegant decay.” - Pitchfork (8.5 - Best New Music)

TRACK LISTING

Wedding Bell
You Came To Me
Gila
Turtle Island
Holy Dances
All The Years
Heart Of Chambers
Some Things Last A Long Time
Astronaut
D.A.R.L.I.N.G
Home Again

'Once Twice Melody', the first album produced entirely by Beach House, was recorded at Pachyderm studio in Cannon Falls, MN, United Studio in Los Angeles, CA, and Apple Orchard Studios in Baltimore, MD.

For the first time, a live string ensemble was used, with arrangements by David Campbell. Once Twice Melody was mostly mixed by Alan Moulder but a few tracks were also mixed by Caesar Edmunds, Trevor Spencer, and Dave Fridmann.

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: It's heartening to see every development of Beach House add to their already significant musical foundations, this time sees a significant orchestral presence come to the fore, offsetting their usual hazy swagger but perfectly fitting in with their already wildly cinematic inclinations. It's a beautiful and perfect meeting of melody and ambience, while retaining their airy, otherworldly sound.

TRACK LISTING

1. Once Twice Melody
2. Superstar
3. Pink Funeral
4. Through Me
5. Runaway
6. ESP
7. New Romance
8. Over And Over
9. Sunset
10. Only You Know
11. Another Go Around
12. Masquerade
13. Illusion Of Forever
14. Finale
15. The Bells
16. Hurts To Love
17. Many Nights
18. Modern Love Stories

Less than 2 months after the release of 2015′s much celebrated 'Depression Cherry', Beach House will grace us all with their sixth full length LP titled 'Thank Your Lucky Stars'. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: Beach House wowed us this year with their gorgeous comeback LP "Depression Cherry" and now, only 2 months later, they do something fairly unique in pop by releasing a second, brand new collection. This is not an odds'n'sods out-takes jobby. This is a just as brilliant sister record, totally beautiful in it's own right, but with an even better sleeve! Swoon again.

TRACK LISTING

Majorette
She's So Lovely
All Your Yeahs
One Thing
Common Girl
The Traveller
Elegy To The Void
Rough Song
Somewhere Tonight 

The debut Beach Riot album is finally here. It’s safe to say that ‘Subatomic Party Cool’ is well worth the wait - a record that’s jam packed with quality songwriting and enormous riffs, one after another, and hits a wide range of musical touchstones along the way. Black vinyl in slip sleeve.

Full of an infectious energy with more horsepower than the South American farm that guitarist/vocalist Cami left aged just 18 to come to the UK to seek pop stardom (Argentinian horse farming’s loss is Alcopop!’s gain), Beach Riot are a slacker pop force to be reckoned with.

Beach Riot cite their influences as ice-cream, weird guitars, PJ Harvey, Mudhoney, 4am mozzarella sticks, dark comedy, dungeons and dragons, and Brighton beach hangover fry-ups. We totally get that.

“90s fuzz, big riffs and dreamy harmonies - what more could you want?” - LOUDER

“Great dynamics, tension and killer choruses” - MOJO

“Gritty indie-pop brilliance” -The iNewspaper

TRACK LISTING

B.A.D.
Wrong Impression
Good To Know (That I’m Still On Your Mind)
Modern Dinosaur
Wraith
Unrequited Love
Medicate For Success
Faze
Sofa Surfer
She’s A Hurricane
Blush
Serial Scruff

Beach Slang's second full-length is a crash-and-thunder collection of songs about what it takes to keep yourself going, to make it through the rest of the night—hell, through the rest of your youth—and beyond. Frontman James Alex wrote much of A Loud Bash Of Teenage Feelings on their first album’s support tour, during which he spent a lot of time with the kids who’d picked up the record.

“A lot of the songs [on Loud Bash] are the stories of the kids who got turned on to Beach Slang by the first album,” says Alex. “They’re autobiographical, too, but kind of at a remove—I’m not that young kid anymore, but I used to be. You know how it is; rock and roll is a new crop of 15-year-olds picking up guitars every year and having at it. There was something really cool about documenting someone elses life, but seeing myself in it. I suppose that’s why we connect. We’re all kind of one big gang.”

TRACK LISTING

1. Future Mixtape For The Art Kids
2. Atom Bomb
3. Spin The Dial
4. Art Damage
5. Hot Tramps
6. Punks In A Disco Bar
7. Wasted Daze Of Youth
8. Young Hearts
9. The Perfect High
10. Warpaint

Dream Violence, Michael Beach’s fourth full-length, is an epic album that explores the duality of the human condition. Or, as Beach himself puts it, the album is about “human futility, passion, desire, anger, frustration, and the struggle to maintain hope in a somewhat hopeless time.” Dream Violence, then, addresses the existential crisis of being an artist in 2020. Known for his work touring with the Australian guitar pop band Thigh Master and the late, brilliantly eccentric Israeli guitarist Charlie Megira, currently the focus of a number of reissues by the Numero Group, Beach is the architect of a sound that is both well-built and ramshackle, straightforward and indeterminably complex, out of the norm yet familiar in all the best ways. Dream Violence unfolds like a revelation, filled with sonic tumbleweeds that reference Neil Young’s On the Beach, Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska, the Velvet Underground’s Loaded, and the Go Betweens’ Before Hollywood. Influences ranging from the enigmatic outlier Megira to Glenn Branca to the Oblivians are combined to create a new, exhilarating sound, part of the path that Beach has been on since 2008’s Blood Courses. A veteran of year-end indie rock round ups beginning with Golden Theft in 2013 and continuing with Gravity/Repulsion, released in 2017, Beach distills the best of those early albums and adds sharpened intent.

TRACK LISTING

1. Irregardless
2. De Facto Blues
3. The Tower
4. Metaphysical Dice
5. You Know, Life Is Cheap
6. Spring
7. Curtain Of Night
8. You Found Me Out
9. Dream Violence
10. Sometimes I Get That Cold Feeling

After a 12-year hibernation, Beachwood Sparks emerges with "Across The River Of Stars", a transcendent and succinct sonic odyssey - Under the guiding hand of Chris Robinson, the band's revival showcases their growth and musical maturity.

From their indie roots to this celestial return, the album bridges the past and present, offering a journey through cosmic and earthy landscapes. Within it's nine songs Across The River Of Stars invites listeners to rediscover Beachwood Sparks.

TRACK LISTING

My Love My Love
Torn In Two
Falling Forever
Gentle Samurai
Gem
Faded Glory
Dolphin Dance
High Noon
Wild Swans

This 3-song 12” of recently discovered studio recordings from the classic 6 piece Beachwood Sparks line-up just had to be pressed onto vinyl.

Recorded by Rick Parker at his Sandbox Studios near the beginning of the new millennium, the band had previously worked with Rick for their debut single on Bomp! These recordings capture what was going on in Los Angeles in the late 90s long before the Cosmic American Music revival.

More than a collectible record, we wanted to release something for the DJs in clubs and on the radio to play...It’s Limited to 500.

TRACK LISTING

One Two Three, One Two Three
Time
Canyon Ride

Beachy Head Is The New Project From Christian Savill (Slowdive) With Help From Rachel Goswell (Slowdive), Matt Duckworth (Flaming Lips) , Steve Clarke (The Soft Cavalry) And Label Owner Ryan Graveface.

In 2019 Christian Savill found himself alone and with a year off from playing guitar for his grown up band Slowdive. He started writing and demoing songs with no particular plan. From 2001 he had recorded with longtime friend and collaborator Sean Hewson as Monster Movie releasing several albums on Graveface Records. These new ideas felt different in that they’re more personal and honest.

Christian sent these sketches to good friends and multi instrumentalists, Ryan Graveface (Dreamend / The Casket Girls) and Steve Clarke (The Soft Cavalry) and Beachy Head was formed. Ryan and Christian put flesh on the bones in Savannah just before Covid struck. Matt Duckworth (Flaming Lips) added drums. In between lockdowns back in the UK Steve added harmonies and other instrumentation. The final touch of recording was Rachel Goswell (Slowdive / Mojave 3 / The Soft Cavalry / Minor Victories) contributing vocals on a few songs.

Beachy Head is a chalk cliff in Sussex. It’s one of Britain’s most popular beauty spots...

TRACK LISTING

Warning Bell
Michael
Distraction
All Gone
Looking For Exits
October
Hiddensee
Destroy Us

"Albidaya" in Arabic means "The Beginning", which in the case of Beaini’s, might be the return to the beginnings, or the start of the path. The album is conceptually a revisiting of the traditional and early psychedelic Arabic music, all through distorted paths and instruments, remashed and deconstructed sounds, recreating patterns with diverse instruments to give a different perspective of the sound itself. Includes musicians from Upperground Piero Bittolo Bon and Tommaso Cappellato. Commissioned by Annihaya in Lebanon by Sharif Sehnaoui, Raed Yassin and Hatem Imam - includes artwork by Maria Kassab.

“Almost entirely recorded in a day, and featuring cello, saxophone and drums in addition to electronics, Albidaya doesn’t attempt to replicate Lebanese folk music. Instead, it articulates a point of contact between various worlds.” Rory Gibb for the Wire

Hot Krautrock infused rhythms from this new band featuring Geoff Barrow of Portishead. Beak> were formed in January 2009 by three Bristol musicians, Billy Fuller, Matt Williams and Geoff Barrow. The band have very strict guidelines governing the recording and writing process of their work. The music was recorded live in one room with no overdubs or repair, only using edits to create arrangements. All tracks were written over a twelve-day session in SOA Studio's, Bristol. Sometimes a band can be no more than the sum of it's parts, but Beak> are an equation in which it's impossible to define equivalents or totals. Instead the meeting of three talent's form a foundation from which idea's assimilate and propagate. Those talents are: Billy Fuller. Reared in Bristol, on an aural diet of anything and everything, facilitated later by his time working in the cities top independent record shop Replay Records, and also playing with handfuls of bands – including Invada's first signing: Fuzz Against Funk, as well as Massive Attack, Robert Plant, and Malakai. Billy is Beak>'s thoughtful pulse; his bass a forceful origin for their superlative narrative arcs. Matt Williams. Picked up a Yamaha keyboard aged three and never looked back, as Team Brick creates dissonance that immediately elucidates free forming thought, and impacts heavily on Beak>'s rolling landscape. He enjoys playing air drums whilst cycling, singing lines from a favourite Latin prayer and doesn't understand the music he makes himself. Geoff Barrow. Musician and producer born near Bristol. Best known for forming and producing popular music group Portishead and part owner of the independent record label Invada Records.

This is the fourth Beak> studio album, imaginatively titled ‘>>>>’. At its core we always wanted it to be head music, listened to as an album, not as individual songs. This is why we are releasing this album with no upfront singles or promo tracks.

The recording & writing initially began in a house called Pen Y Bryn in Talsarnau, Wales in the fall out from the weirdness of the covid days. Remote and with only ourselves and the view of Portmeirion in the distance we got to work.

With the opening track, ‘Strawberry Line’ as the metronomic guide for the album, we then resumed recording, as before, at Invada studios in Bristol, whilst still touring around Europe & North/South America.

After playing hundreds of gigs & festivals over the years we felt that touring had started to influence our writing to the point we weren’t sure who we were anymore. So we decided to go back to the origins of where we were at on our first album. With zero expectations and just playing together in a room.

Hopefully we have achieved this.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Beak have definitely ascended on their latest, '>>>>'. Though their DNA has always had something in common with classic rock and psychedelia, the newest outing is so deeply psychedelic and grand that it almost defies explanation. Think the wilder side of haunting neo-folk and Kosmische music combined with post-rock and a dash of hypnotic dancefloor percussion and you're somewhere near. Brilliant madness.

TRACK LISTING

1. Strawberry Line
2. The Seal
3. Windmill Hill
4. Denim
5. Hungry Are We
6. Ah Yeh
7. Blood Miles
8. Secrets*
9 - Cellophane

(*’Secrets’ Not On Vinyl But Inc. In LP Download)

Two years in the making Kosmik Musik is a collaboration between artist Joe Currie, writer Ben Wheatley and musical group Beak>, who worked closely with the artists to provide a musical accompaniment for the graphic novel.

The soundtrack is pressed on 10" black vinyl and housed in a spined sleeve.

Ben and Joe met at art school in the 90s where they both were involved in a lot of comic book drawing and reading. It’s taken thirty years to finally get their acts together and create this book. In the meantime Joe has been sculpting and painting. Ben has been writing and directing films.

Kosmik Musik is melting pot of 2000ad, Metal Hurlant, Kirby tech, psychedelic 60s art, Doctor Who, Douglas Adams, Kraut Rock, Star Trek and Star Wars. A UK 70s English childhood basically.

The project comes with a sonic accompaniment by Beak> who have live dates on the horizon including Primavera Sound in LA

ABOUT KOSMIK MUSIK, THE GRAPHIC NOVEL: The galaxy is a big place–but not big enough for Mick and Eve as they are chased across it by cops, inter-dimensional plunderers, rogue artificial intelligences, middle-aged assassins and a third-tier superhero team. Come with us on a rip roaring, planet hopping adventure. Punches will be thrown, tears will be shed and music will be played on vinyl on vintage record players as Mick and Eve try to solve every sentient creature’s fundamental questions like why and what... and eh? Yes, dear reader, Kosmik Musik will unlock some of the more pressing mysteries of the universe. True Fact.

TRACK LISTING

KOSMIK MUSIK (Part 1)
KOSMIK MUSIK (Part 2)
KOSMIK MUSIK (Part 3)
KOSMIK MUSIK (Part 4)
KOSMIK MUSIK (Part 5)
KOSMIK MUSIK (Part 6)
KOSMIK MUSIK (Part 7)

Two new tracks from Beak>.

Pressed on black 7” vinyl with digital download card included.

‘Oh Know’ was originally released as part of NRML Festival in Mexico City as a music video release by Echo Panda Films.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: They do a stunning 7" Beak do, I remember 'Sex Music' getting a hell of a playing in the shop, and this newest outing is sure to go down just as well with a motorik backbeat perfectly laying the foundations for the syncopated groove and echoic vocal squawks. Filthy.

TRACK LISTING

Oh Know
Ah Yeh

There is an accepted music industry strategy, mainly from the mouths of experienced music managers and A&R men, that for a band to get ready to present themselves to the world they should go on tour. In most cases this advice works; the band hone their craft on the road so by the time they get on to ‘Later with Jools Holland’ they can amaze with their slick, tight rock performance. However, this doesn’t always work.

BEAK> formed by Geoff Barrow - Matt Williams - Billy Fuller in 2009 recorded their self-titled debut album in Bristol, created out of 12 days of improv sessions and then edited into song form. Shorty after releasing it on INVADA records UK and Ipecac records U.S., the band went on a successful tour, playing various festival dates across Europe and the U.S.

Buzzing from the tour, Beak> then returned to the studio to start work on ALBUM 2 only to find that the time on the road had taken its toll on the band’s delicately sensitive and creative nature. And, by consequence, had turned them into a truly awful-sounding pub prog-rock band. The magic had gone. It seemed that the band were thoroughly moribund.

Until... One rainy afternoon in Bristol after many tortured, truly terrible recording sessions something changed. It may have been the diesel fumes from the bands tour splitter bus had worn off, others say that the band simply turned their amplifiers down. We will possibly never know the true events of that afternoon but the band began to play and, once again
as before, their bleak, wobbly anti-blue note sound had returned, but this time with added synthesizers.

And so... recorded in one room live (with very few overdubs) Beak>> is upon us.

The mighty Beak> – made up of Billy Fuller, Will Young, and Geoff Barrow of that band fame – return with their most claustrophobic album yet, chock full of the krautrock grooves, meandering structures and off-kilter melodies that fans of the band have come to expect from them. Having knocked it out of the park with their ‘Sex Music’ single earlier this year, >>> carries on in the same subtle, bass-led vein.
The trio flirt with chaos throughout the album, pushing each instrument through layers of distortion and reverb to the brink of recognisability, and the countless eerie squeaks, sci-fi synths and fucked-with-strings only add to its otherworldly nature. >>> is as mesmerising as it is uneasy, teetering on a tightrope stretched between soft, winding compositions and edgy, no nonsense heft.
Pretty much every song is a highlight. ‘Birthday Suit’ is devastating, all fluttering synths, lo-fi vocals and heartbreak, while ‘Allé Sauvage’ is a dangerously danceable seven-and-a-half-minuter, with blips galore and razor sharp hi-hats driving the song along nicely. ‘RSI’ is a motoric gem. Scratch that – Beak> are a motoric gem.
But ‘When We Fall’ is on another level entirely. First released under the band’s Like easy listening music thrown off a cliff and pieced back together again, >>> is a Frankenstein’s monster of atmosphere, griminess, groove and space. Transcendent.

STAFF COMMENTS

Javi says: You’d be right to judge >>> by its brilliant cover because it’s a brilliant album, and one that’s likely to win 2018 for me. Buy it / play it / love it.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Brazilian
2. Brean Down
3. Birthday Suit
4. Harvester
5. Allé Sauvage
6. Teisco
7. King Of The Castle
8. RSI
9. Abbots Leigh
10. When We Fall

After years of toiling in obscurity, Willis Earl Beal is releasing his debut album, ‘Acousmatic Sorcery’, through Hot Charity / XL Recordings.

The album’s eleven songs are taken from a series of recordings Beal made while living in Albuquerque, New Mexico. After living in the Chicago area for his entire life, Beal felt compelled to be near the desert, an idea he had long romanticized. “The desolate atmosphere was always in my head,” Beal says.

He arrived in Albuquerque without a plan, a place to live, or enough money to live off of. He lived on the streets while trying to land a job and began singing to help him cope while sleeping rough. He spent days drawing and printing up his flyers, distributing them all over his new city. Eventually Beal found work as the night porter at a motel.

‘Acousmatic Sorcery’s scattershot approach and rudimentary instrumentals, along with Beal’s backstory, had people pegging him as an ‘outsider’ artist alongside Daniel Johnston and Jandek. And, as a fan of both men, Beal likes that distinction. “I'm glad I’m an outsider artist,” he says. “I can do whatever I want to and people don't know what to expect.”