‘Nocturama’ is the twelfth studio album by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, released in 2003.

To date, it is the last Bad Seeds album to feature founding member Blixa Bargeld.

This album reunited Nick Cave with Nick Launay, who had produced The Birthday Party’s groundbreaking ‘Junkyard’ 21 years earlier.

Featuring the singles ‘Bring It On’, ‘He Wants You’ and ‘Rock Of Gibraltar’, this album finds Cave moving away from ‘Murder Ballads’ and the gory fire and brimstone of yore, and exploring more personal themes.

More than twenty years into his career at this point, Nick Cave proved himself worthy of the comparisons made in the press on his behalf: now he could stand alongside the likes of Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash and Tom Waits, as a storyteller who could be unflinchingly honest in his work, whilst continuing to grow his fan base.

TRACK LISTING

Wonderful Life
He Wants You
Right Out Of Your Hand
Bring It On
Dead Man In My Bed
Still In Love
There Is A Town
Rock Of Gibraltar
She Passed By My Window
Babe, I’m On Fire

‘Tender Prey’ is the fifth studio album from Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds and was released on 19th September 1988. The album was produced by Flood and recorded during several sessions over the course of four months in West Berlin - where the band were based at the time - and London.

The album opens with ‘The Mercy Seat’, which has been subsequently played at almost all of the band’s live performances since 1988 and was later covered by one of Cave’s biggest influences, Johnny Cash. ‘The Mercy Seat’ was released as a single in May 1988 as a precursor to the album and ‘Deanna’ was released shortly after the album hit the streets.

Cave later admitted that the album “was made at a difficult time in my life when things were spiralling out of control in a lot of areas.”

TRACK LISTING

The Mercy Seat
Up Jumped The Devil
Deanna
Watching Alice
Mercy
City Of Refuge
Slowly Goes The Night
Sunday’s Slave
Sugar Sugar Sugar
New Morning

‘The Firstborn Is Dead’, co-produced by Nick Cave, the Bad Seeds and Flood, is the second studio album released by Cave & The Bad Seeds, and was originally released on June 3rd 1985.

Cave explores his fascination with the American South, with references ranging from Elvis Presley to ‘Blind’ Lemon Jefferson.

Recorded in Berlin, Cave later said of this album, "Berlin gave us the freedom and encouragement to do whatever we wanted. We'd lived in London for three years and it seemed that if you stuck your head out of the box, people were pretty quick to knock it back in, particularly if you were Australian. When we came to Berlin it was the opposite. People saw us as some kind of force rather than a kind of wacky novelty act”.

The album's title is a reference to Jesse Garon Presley, the stillborn identical twin of Elvis Presley, and ‘Wanted Man’ was Cave’s own take on a song Bob Dylan wrote for Johnny Cash. Dylan gave his permission for the lyrics to be changed, with Cave’s interpretation referencing his friends.

TRACK LISTING

Tupelo
Say Goodbye To The Little Girl Tree
Train Long Suffering
Black Crow King
Knockin’ On Joe
Wanted Man
Blind Lemon Jefferson

With ‘Your Funeral… My Trial’ The Bad Seeds expanded their personnel by adding Thomas Wydler on drums, enabling Mick Harvey to display his considerable multi-instrumental talents.

This was the band’s fourth studio album and was released on November 3rd 1986, and was originally released as a double EP, with production duties handled by Flood and Tony Cohen.

Cave later remarked "That particular record, which is my favourite of the records we've done, is very special to me and a lot of amazing things happened, musically, in the studio”.

“There are some songs on that record that as far as I'm concerned are just about perfect as we can get really- songs like ‘The Carny’, ‘Your Funeral, My Trial’, and ‘Stranger Than Kindness’, I think are really quite brilliant“.

TRACK LISTING

Sad Waters
The Carny
Your Funeral My Trial
Stranger Than Kindness
Jacks Shadow
Hard On For Love
She Fell Away
Long Time Man

The Cave Singers’ writing is unfettered; their songs possess a quality of deliverance. Each track of their four album catalogue compels movement, physical and emotional. It can manifest as the tapping of one’s foot, nod of the head or even a silent lifting of the heart. The Cave Singers’ melodic harmonies pull the body to the present, demanding our attention beyond all of the other noises of the world.

‘Banshee’ brings The Cave Singers back to their original three piece line up and also their approach to songwriting: an exchange of Derek sending Pete a riff and Pete responding with vocal ideas. From there the songs come together. The album was recorded live in July of 2015 over 6 days with producer Randall Dunn. The record is warmly anchored in the members’ creative familiarity with one another. Yet there is a new thirst to ‘Banshee’, one that can be attributed to the combination of the band taking a year off to work on other projects Pete Quirk’s solo album and the Kodiak Deathbeds’ debut record and their return to songwriting from distanced correspondence.

Lead vocalist Peter Quirk possesses a spiritual healing quality that rides within the tonal waves of his lyrics. Driving guitars, foottapping percussion and Quirk’s powerful vocals make an intricate quilt that blankets the audience in comfort, aggressively communicating a gentle reminder: we are soft bodies trying to survive with one another. ‘Fade Away’ highlights this: “With the sun on our back we will never get cold, with the light in our eyes it’s alright to get old, whatever your story might say, however, it's told, let it go, let it let go, let it fade away.”

The Cave Singers remain approachable while retaining the complexity of writing skills possessed by folks who have dedicated their lives to music. Their appreciation of varied sounds, the writing process and performing in every type of venue, house and festival possible allows them to connect with those they speak to. Their passion for their craft translates from their recordings and resonates through their performances. The Cave Singers are the people’s band.

TRACK LISTING

That’s Why
Lost In The Tide
Southern Bell
Who’s Well
Strip Mine
Cool Criminal
The Swimmer
Fade Away
Christmas Song
Light In The House

‘Naomi’ is the fourth record from North Western mystics The Cave Singers. Written over the span of ten months and recorded in one, it bears a new and more expansive production style that captures the live performance energy the band has developed over the past five years.

The album was engineered and produced at Avast Studios in Seattle by Phil Ek (Fleet Foxes, Built To Spill, Shins, Modest Mouse). Each song functions like a chapter in a bigger story, addressing themes of the past, exhuming the memories under moonlight. There are songs of addiction, car ownership, fireworks, tree houses, moving to New Mexico, and God, each shifting in all the ways that make life difficult and miraculous, astounding and beautiful.

The core trio of singer Pete Quirk, guitarist Derek Fudesco and drummer Marty Lund have added longtime friend Morgan Henderson (Blood Brothers, Fleet Foxes) on bass and extra instrumentation to round out The Cave Singers family. Together they have charted new territory for the band both musically and spiritually, while remaining true to their distinctive brand of brushfired folk. After some time in the dark wealth of the unknown, they have returned to the light with a revitalized purpose.

TRACK LISTING

1. Canopy
2. Have To Pretend
3. No Tomorrows
4. It's A Crime
5. Week To Week
6. Evergreens
7. Shine
8. Karen's Car
9. Easy Way
10. Northern Lights
11. Early Moon
12. When The World

"No Witch" is The Cave Singers’ rock record. Laid to tape with dark wizard producer Randall Dunn (Black Mountain, Sunn O))), Boris), "No Witch" is grander and more lush than The Cave Singers' previous efforts. It's also a nervier, scrappier affair: greasy guitars buck and rear up; Eastern influenced blues snake through songs; gospel choirs rise up like tidal waves.

There are big, grinning nods to "Beggars Banquet" - era Stones, the best of Mellencamp / Tom Petty (‘Clever Creatures’) and the juke joint legends of Mississippi like Junior Kimbrough and RL Burnside ("Black Leaf" and "No Prosecution If We Bail"). Of course, it’s all filtered through that particular, magical Cave Singers formula: Pete Quirk’s reedy, behind-the-beat delivery and existential wordplay, Derek Fudesco’s lyrical guitar runs and drummer Marty Lund's no nonsense rhythms.

"No Witch" is a new found sheen to the aura that made The Cave Singers' music so special to begin with. All told, there's treasure to be found here for the biker gang weekender, the double rainbow chaser and all that falls in the valley between them.

TRACK LISTING

1. Gifts And The Raft
2. Swim Club
3. Black Leaf
4. Falls
5. Outer Realms
6. Haller Lake
7. All Land Crabs And Divinity Ghosts
8. Clever Creatures
9. Haystacks
10. Distant Sures
11. Faze Wave
12. No Prosecution If We Bail

B-Side & Rarities Part I contains material from Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds’ 30-plus year career. This collection features 56 tracks including rarities, out-takes, covers & B-sides from 1988-2005 across 3 volumes, compiled by Mick Harvey.

TRACK LISTING

PART I CD1

1. Deanna (Acoustic Version)
2. The Mercy Seat (Acoustic Version)
3. City Of Refuge (Acoustic Version)
4. The Moon Is In The Gutter
5. The Six Strings That Drew Blood
6. Rye Whiskey
7. Running Scared
8. Black Betty
9. Scum
10. The Girl At The Bottom Of My Glass
11. The Train Song
12. Cocks 'n' Asses
13. Blue Bird
14. Helpless
15. God's Hotel
16. (I'll Love You) Till The End Of The World
17. Cassiel's Song
18. Tower Of Song
19. What Can I Give You?

PART I CD2

1. What A Wonderful World
2. Rainy Night In Soho
3. Lucy (Version #2)
4. Jack The Ripper (Acoustic Version)
5. Sail Away
6. There's No Night Out In The Jail
7. That's What Jazz Is To Me
8. The Willow Garden
9. The Ballad Of Robert Moore And Betty Coltrane
10. King Kong Kitchee Kitchee Ki-Mi-O
11. Knoxville Girl
12. Where The Wild Roses Grow (Original Guide Vocal Version)
13. O'Malley's Bar Pt. 1
14. O'Malley's Bar Pt. 2
15. O'Malley's Bar Pt. 3
16. Time Jesum Transeuntum Et Non Riverentum
17. O'Malley's Bar Reprise
18. Red Right Hand (Scream 3 Version)


PART I CD3

1. Little Empty Boat
2. Right Now I'm A-Roaming
3. Come Into My Sleep
4. Black Hair Band Version
5. Babe, I Got You Bad
6. Sheep May Safely Graze
7. Opium Tea
8. Grief Came Riding
9. Bless His Ever Loving Heart
10. Good Good Day
11. Little Janey's Gone
12. I Feel So Good
13. Shoot Me Down
14. Swing Low
15. Little Ghost Song
16. Everything Must Converge
17. Nocturama
18. She's Leaving You
19. Under This Moon

Following on from the successful ‘An Idiot Prayer’ live album and livestream event released this year, Nick Cave Productions & BMG announce B-Sides And Rarities Part I & II.

B-Sides And Rarities Part I & II contains material from Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds’ 30-plus year career. This collection features 83 tracks across 7 x 180g LPs housed in a deluxe case bound slipcase with foiling, featuring exclusive photographs and sleeve notes written by Sean O’Hagan (The Guardian & The Observer).

This is the first time Part I, compiled by Mick Harvey and originally released in 2005, has been made available on vinyl. It comprises 56 tracks including rarities, out-takes, covers & B-sides from 1988-2005.

Part II, compiled by Nick Cave & Warren Ellis and features 27 tracks from Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! in 2006 to 2019’s Ghosteen. Including 19 rare and unreleased tracks including first recordings of ‘Skeleton Tree’, ‘Girl in Amber’, ‘Bright Horses’ and ‘Waiting for You’.

TRACK LISTING

PART I LP1
A1. Deanna (Acoustic Version)
A2. The Mercy Seat (Acoustic Version)
A3. City Of Refuge (Acoustic Version)
A4. The Moon Is In The Gutter
A5. The Six Strings That Drew Blood
A6. Rye Whiskey
A7. Running Scared
B1. Black Betty
B2. Scum
B3. The Girl At The Bottom Of My Glass
B4. The Train Song
B5. Cocks 'n' Asses
B6. Blue Bird

PART I LP2
A1. Helpless
A2. God's Hotel
A3. (I'll Love You) Till The End Of The World
A4. Cassiel's Song
A5. Tower Of Song
A6. Rye Whiskey
B1. What Can I Give You?
B2. What A Wonderful World
B3. Rainy Night In Soho
B4. Lucy (Version #2)
B5. Jack The Ripper (Acoustic Version)

PART I LP3
A1. The Ballad Of Robert Moore And Betty Coltrane
A2. The Willow Garden
A3. King Kong Kitchee Kitchee Ki-Mi-O
A4. Knoxville Girl
A5. There's No Night Out In The Jail
A6. That's What Jazz Is To Me
B1. Where The Wild Roses Grow
B2. O'Malley's Bar Pt. 1
B3. O'Malley's Bar Pt. 2
B4. O'Malley's Bar Pt. 3
B5. O'Malley's Bar Reprise

PART I LP4
A1. Red Right Hand
A2. Time Jesum Transeuntum Et Non Riverentum
A3. Little Empty Boat
A4. Right Now I'm A-Roaming
B1. Come Into My Sleep
B2. Black Hair
B3. Babe, I Got You Bad
B4. Sheep May Safely Graze
B5. Opium Tea

PART I LP5
A1. Grief Came Riding
A2. Bless His Ever Loving Heart
A3. Good Good Day
A4. Little Janey's Gone
A5. I Feel So Good
A6. Shoot Me Down
B1. Swing Low
B2. Little Ghost Song
B3. Everything Must Converge
B4. Nocturama
B5. She's Leaving You
B6. Under This Moon

PART II LP6
A1. Hey Little Firing Squad
A2. Fleeting Love
A3. Accidents Will Happen
A4. Free To Walk (With Debbie Harry)
A5. Avalanche*
A6. Vortex *
B1. Needle Boy
B2. Lightning Bolts
B3. Animal X
B4. Give Us A Kiss
B5. Push The Sky Away
(Live With The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra)*

PART II LP7
A1. First Skeleton Tree*
A2. King Sized Nick Cave Blues*
A3. Opium Eyes*
A4. Big Dream (With Sky)*
A5. Instrumental #33*
A6. Hell Villanelle*
A7. Euthanasia*
A8. Life Per Se*
B1. Steve McQueen*
B2. First Bright Horses*
B3. First Girl In Amber*
B4. Glacier*
B5. Heart That Kills You*
B6. First Waiting For You*
B7. Sudden Song*
B8. Earthlings*

B-Side And Rarities Part II was compiled by Nick Cave & Warren Ellis and features 27 tracks from “Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!” in 2006 to 2019s “Ghosteen”. Also features 19 rare and unreleased tracks including first recordings of ‘Skeleton Tree’, ‘Girl in Amber’, ‘Bright Horses’ and ‘Waiting for You’.

STAFF COMMENTS

Darryl says: Cave and Ellis, what a winning combo! Nick Cave remains one of the greatest talents working in music today, and this offers a fascinating insight into the killer tunes they decided not to release along with some fantastic tracks that were only deemed worthy of B-Side status.

TRACK LISTING

PART II LP1 & CD1

1. A1. Hey Little Firing Squad
2. A2. Fleeting Love
3. A3. Accidents Will Happen
4. A4. Free To Walk (With Debbie Harry)
5. A5. Avalanche*
6. A6. Vortex *

7. B1. Needle Boy
8. B2. Lightning Bolts
9. B3. Animal X
10. B4. Give Us A Kiss
11. B5. Push The Sky Away
(Live With The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra)*

PART II LP2 & CD2

1. A1. First Skeleton Tree*
2. A2. King Sized Nick Cave Blues*
3. A3. Opium Eyes*
4. A4. Big Dream (With Sky)*
5. A5. Instrumental #33*
6. A6. Hell Villanelle*
7. A7. Euthanasia*
8. A8. Life Per Se*

9. B1. Steve McQueen*
10. B2. First Bright Horses*
11. B3. First Girl In Amber*
12. B4. Glacier*
13. B5. Heart That Kills You*
14. B6. First Waiting For You*
15. B7. Sudden Song*
16. B8. Earthlings*

*previously Unreleased

‘Henry’s Dream’, the seventh album by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, was released in April 1992. It remains a big favourite amongst Bad Seeds fans and is notable for Neil Young producer David Briggs’ ‘live-in-the-studio’ method. Cave and Mick Harvey re-mixed the album and it has a vague concept, with song narratives overlapping and / or sharing characters.

‘When I First Came To Town’ is based partly on Karen Dalton’s recording of the traditional song ‘Katy Cruel’.

Cave later claimed the songs were heavily influenced by street beggars he saw in Brazil. “They’d get their acoustic guitars with one or two strings and bang away and make a racket that had no sense whatsoever. It was very violent and seemed to come straight out of the heart. Very unmusical.”

TRACK LISTING

Papa Won’t Leave You, Henry
I Had A Dream, Joe
Straight To You
Brother, My Cup Is Empty
Christina The Astonishing
When I First Came To Town
John Finn’s Wife
Loom Of The Land
Jack The Ripper

• Lovely Creatures is the most comprehensive overview of the recorded work of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds to date. Spanning thirty years of music from their debut album From Her To Eternity through to Push The Sky Away their 15th studio album, the collection navigates one of the most exhilarating, idiosyncratic and inventive bodies of work created in contemporary music.

• Included are long-standing live favourites “Stagger Lee” and “The Mercy Seat”, their hit single from 1995 “Where The Wild Roses Grow” through to recent fan favourites “Jubilee Street” and “We No Who U R”. There are songs that newcomers may only know from their appearance on film and television soundtracks, notably “O Children” (Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows Pt. I) and the ubiquitous “Red Right Hand”, most recently familiar to fans of the series Peaky Blinders.

• The album was compiled by Nick Cave and founding member Mick Harvey, with help from the current Bad Seeds. 

Lovely Creatures is available in four formats, all featuring personal and rare photographs of the band: Standard CD, Triple LP, Deluxe 3CD with DVD and the Super Deluxe Limited Edition package. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Laura says: Nick Cave has been one of the most influential and distinctive songwriter / performers of the last 30 odd years. With such a brilliant and varied catalogue spanning 15 LPs, I'd find it virtually impossible to select a mere 21 'best of' tracks, but Nick and ex Bad Seed Mick Harvey have managed it, and that's what you get here on the vinyl and standard CD editions of this release. The deluxe expands futher and is spread across 3CDs and a live/interview DVD.

TRACK LISTING

2CD Tracklist:
CD1
1. Loverman
2. Tupelo
3. Deanna
4. From Her To Eternity
5. The Weeping Song
6. Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!
7. People Ain't No Good
8. Higgs Boson Blues
9. Straight To You
10. Where The Wild Roses Grow

CD2
1. Into My Arms
2. Love Letter
3. Red Right Hand
4. The Mercy Seat
5. O Children
6. The Ship Song
7. Stranger Than Kindness
8. Jubilee Street
9. Nature Boy
10. We No Who U R
11. Stagger Lee

Vinyl Tracklist:
Side A
1. Loverman
2. Tupelo
3. Deanna
4. From Her To Eternity

Side B
1. The Weeping Song
2. Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!
3. People Ain't No Good

Side C
1. Higgs Boson Blues
2. Straight To You
3. Where The Wild Rose Grow

Side D
1. Into My Arms
2. Love Letter
3. Red Right Hand
4. The Mercy Seat

Side E
1. O Children
2. The Ship Song
3. Stranger Than Kindness

Side F
1. Jubilee Street
2. Nature Boy
3. We No Who U R
4. Stagger Lee

Deluxe 3CD + DVD Tracklist:
CD1: 1984 -1993
1. From Her To Eternity
2. In The Ghetto
3. Tupelo
4. I'm Gonna Kill That Woman
5. The Carny
6. Sad Waters
7. Stranger Than Kindness
8. Scum
9. The Mercy Seat
10. Deanna
11. Up Jumped The Devil
12. The Weeping Song
13. The Ship Song
14. Papa Won’t Leave You, Henry
15. Straight To You

CD2: 1994 – 2003
1. Do You Love Me?
2. Nobody's Baby Now
3. Loverman
4. Red Right Hand
5. Stagger Lee
6. Where The Wild Roses Grow
7. Into My Arms
8. People Ain't No Good
9. Brompton Oratory
10. (Are You) The One That I've Been Waiting For?
11. Come Into My Sleep
12. Love Letter
13. God Is In The House
14. He Wants You
15. Shoot Me Down

CD3: 2004 – 2013
1. Hiding All Away
2. There She Goes, My Beautiful World
3. Nature Boy
4. Breathless
5. Babe, You Turn Me On
6. O Children
7. Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!
8. Night Of The Lotus Eaters
9. We Call Upon The Author
10. Jesus Of The Moon
11. More News From Nowhere
12. We No Who U R
13. Jubilee Street
14. Higgs Boson Blues
15. Push The Sky Away

DVD
1. Interview, ‘Kippevel’, Netherlands, 1988
2. Night Of The Lotus Eaters, Docks De Suds, Marseilles, France 2008
3. Red Right Hand, Glastonbury Festival, UK, 1988
4. The Weeping Song, ‘Boxed Set’, Glasgow STV Studios, UK, 2001
5. Interview, New York, USA, 2013
6. Higgs Boson Blues, La Fabrique Studios, France 2012
7. Interview, ‘Stranger In A Strange Land’ Documentary, Berlin, Germany, 1987
8. From Her To Eternity, Perkins Palace, Pasadena, USA, 1984
9. Love Letter, ABC Studios, Australia, 2001
10. Interview, ‘Bish’s Biz’, Australia, 2013
11. Do You Love Me? ‘Boxed Set’, Glasgow STV Studios, UK, 2001
12. Interview, ‘Boxed Set’, Glasgow STV Studios, UK, 2001
13. Into My Arms, INmusic Festival, Zagreb, Croatia, 2008
14. We Call Upon The Author, B1 Maximum Club, Moscow, Russia, 2009
15. Interview, Ein Abend In Wien, Rotterdam, Netherlands, 1991
16. The Mercy Seat, Bizarre Festival, Germany, 1996
17. Interview, Columbus, Ohio, USA, 1984
18. God Is In The House, ‘Later With Jools Holland’, London, 2001
19. Interview, ’Bish’s Biz’, Australia, 2013
20. Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!, Globe Annexet, Stockholm, Sweden, 2008
21. Brompton Oratory, ‘MTV Live N Loud’, 1997
22. I’m Gonna Kill That Woman, Posthof, Linz, Austria, 1986
23. Jubilee Street, The Fonda Theatre, LA, USA, 2013
24. The Ship Song, Live At Paradiso DVD, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 1992
25. Interview, Lollapalooza, USA, 1994
26. Loverman, Bizarre Festival, Germany, 1996
27. Interview, Australia, 1988
28. In The Ghetto, Exit, Chicago, USA, 1984
29. Hiding All Away, ‘The Abattoir Blues Tour DVD’, Brixton Academy, London, UK, 2004
30. Interview, Australia, 1992
31. Where The Wild Roses Grow, ‘MTV Most Wanted’, London, UK, 1995
32. Deanna, St Luke’s, London, UK, 2008
33. O Children, Le Trianon, Paris, France, 2013
34. Interview, Festival Crazy Rock, Chile, 1996
35. Stagger Lee, The White Room, London, UK, 1996
36. Interview, Austin City Limits, Austin, Texas, USA, 2014
37. Interview, Australia, 1995
38. Push The Sky Away, The Fonda Theatre, LA, USA, 2013
39. There She Goes, My Beautiful World, ‘The Abattoir Blues Tour DVD’, Brixton Academy,
London, UK, 2004

Approx. Running Time 2hrs 5mins

‘Murder Ballads’ is the ninth studio album by Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds, released in 1996. As the title suggests, the album consists of new and traditional murder ballads, a genre of songs that relays the details of crimes of passion.

‘Where The Wild Roses Grow’ was a hit single and received two ARIA Awards and guest musicians on the album include Kylie Minogue, PJ Harvey and Shane MacGowan.

It was the band’s biggest commercial success to date, most likely helped by the unexpected repeated airplay of the ‘Where The Wild Roses Grow’ video on MTV, who even nominated Cave for their Best Male Artist award of that year, though this nomination was later withdrawn at Cave’s request.

‘Murder Ballads’ received almost unanimous critical praise with Rolling Stone awarding it 4 Stars and Entertainment Weekly rating the album very highly as well. Q magazine had this to say: “...Musically, The Bad Seeds touch on tinkling cabaret jazz, country-paced morbidity and every morose station between” while it ranked Number 7 in the NME's 1996 Critics’ Poll.

TRACK LISTING

LP / CD
Song Of Joy
Stagger Lee
Henry Lee
Lovely Creature
Where The Wild Roses Grow
The Curse Of Millhaven
The Kindness Of Strangers
Crow Jane
O’Malley’s Bar
Death Is Not The End

DVD (with CD/DVD Version Only)
Audio
Murder Ballads (5.1 & Stereo)
The Ballad Of Robert Moore
And Betty Coltrane
The Willow Garden
King Kong Kitchee Kitchee
Ki-Mi-O
Knoxville Girl
Video
Do You Love Me Like I Love You (Part 9: Murder Ballads)
Stagger Lee
Where The Wild Roses Grow
Henry Lee

Visually unique, One More Time With Feeling is a stark, fragile and raw documentary. Shot in 3D, colour and black & white, the film probes the deeply personal circumstances surrounding the making of Skeleton Tree (Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds 16th studio album) and features interviews and live performances by the band in the studio, along with interjected voice-over commentary by Nick Cave.

Originally conceived as a one-night-only global screening event to take place in 950 cinemas across 30 countries simultaneously on 8th September 2016, One More Time With Feeling extended its initial run over several days as cinemas sold out around the world. Due to overwhelming demand, this extraordinary film has returned to the big screen for its final run and is playing currently in cinemas worldwide.

Includes 3 exclusive short films from Andrew Dominik.

"Film of The Year" - MOJO

"Extraordinary" - **** Evening Standard

"A deeply personal film" - ***** Time Out

"An undeniably moving contemplation of shattering loss…a tremendously moving collage." - **** The Guardian

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds return with new album, ‘Wild God’.

“I hope the album has the effect on listeners that it’s had on me,” Cave says. “It bursts out of the speaker, and I get swept up with it. It’s a complicated record, but it’s also deeply and joyously infectious. There is never a masterplan when we make a record. The records rather reflect back the emotional state of the writers and musicians who played them. Listening to this, I don’t know, it seems we’re happy.”

Across ten tracks, the band dance between convention and experimentation, taking left-turns and detours that heighten the rich imagery and emotion in Cave’s soul-stirring narratives. It is the sound of a group emboldened by reconnection and taking flight. There are moments that touch fondly upon the Bad Seeds’ past but they are fleeting, and serve only to imbue the relentless and restless forward motion of the band.

Produced by Cave and Warren Ellis, and mixed by David Fridmann, Cave began writing the album on New Year’s Day 2023. With sessions at Miraval in Provence and Soundtree in London, the Bad Seeds added their unique alchemy, with additional performances from Colin Greenwood (bass) and Luis Almau (nylon string guitar, acoustic guitar).

“Wild God…there’s no fucking around with this record. When it hits, it hits. It lifts you. It moves you. I love that about it.” Nick Cave

TRACK LISTING

1. Song Of The Lake
2. Wild God
3. Frogs
4. Joy
5. Final Rescue Attempt
6. Conversion
7. Cinnamon Horses
8. Long Dark Night
9. O Wow O Wow (How Wonderful She Is)
10. As The Waters Cover The Sea

In 2022, Nick Cave and Warren Ellis returned to their native Australia for 16 shows, taking their acclaimed 2021 album ‘Carnage’ on the road, along with songs from the Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds catalogue. Three performances at the Sydney Opera House on December 16th, 17th and 18th were the climactic shows of an emotional trip, captured for a luminous new live album, ‘Australian Carnage - Live At The Sydney Opera House’.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Performers don't come much more experienced or capable than the songwriting powerhouse of Nick Cave & Warren Ellis, and 'live At The Sydney Opera House' perfectly captures a striking string of live performances of their most seminal works, new and old. It's a must-have.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A
1. Bright Horses (Live At The Sydney Opera House)
2. Carnage (Live At The Sydney Opera House)
3. White Elephant (Live At The Sydney Opera House)
4. Leviathan (Live At The Sydney Opera House)

SIDE B
1. Ghosteen (Live At The Sydney Opera House)
2. Waiting For You (Live At The Sydney Opera House)
3. Breathless (Live At The Sydney Opera House)
4. Balcony Man (Live At The Sydney Opera House)

Blonde boldly reimagines the life of one of Hollywood's most enduring icons, Marilyn Monroe. From her volatile childhood as Norma Jeane, through her rise to stardom and romantic entanglements, Blonde blurs the lines of fact and fiction to explore the widening split between her public and private selves. The film also stars Bobby Cannavale, Adrien Brody, Julianne Nicholson, Xavier Samuel and Evan Williams.

Cave and Ellis reflect on the making of the score: “Working with Andrew Dominik is always a challenging, but ultimately mind-blowing experience. Creating the score for this terrifying and complex reimagining of the Marilyn Monroe story was no different and, as always, it was a complete privilege to work with him. The darkest of films with a gorgeous spiritual score.”

TRACK LISTING

Shard
Gemini
Abortion
Glass Sliver
Gemini Acoustic
Goddess Of Love On A Subway Grating
Strawberry
Bright Horses (Instrumental)
Peroxide
I Love Love Love You All
Wig
Nembutal
Pearly

Carnage is a new album by Nick Cave & Warren Ellis, recorded over a period of weeks during lockdown.

Although the pair have composed & recorded many soundtracks together, and Ellis is a long-term member of The Bad Seeds, this is the first time they have released an entire album of songs as a duo.

Cave describes the album as "a brutal but very beautiful record nested in a communal catastrophe."

"Making Carnage was an accelerated process of intense creativity," says Ellis, "the eight songs were there in one form or another within the first two and a half days."

Cave & Ellis' sonic and lyrical adventurism continues apace on Carnage, an album that emerged almost by accident out of the downtime created by the long, anxious, global emergency.

Carnage is a record for these uncertain times - one shot through with moments of distilled beauty and that resonates with an almost defiant sense of hope.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Ellis and Cave go together like chips and gravy, there's no doubting that, but until now, they've not done a full album together that isn't a soundtrack. Now here we get the unmatched songwriting capability of both parties fully focused on an album in which they're allowed free reign and it's BEAUTIFUL. Cinematic in parts, but imbued with the melodic sensibilities that are generally missing from soundtrack work. A brilliant document of two of the greatest musicians in the business, and together, a force that simply can't be bettered.

TRACK LISTING

Hand Of God
Old Time
Carnage
White Elephant
Albuquerque
Lavender Fields
Shattered Ground
Balcony Man

Kings is a 2018 crime drama film directed by Deniz Gamze Ergüven (Mustang). Set in 1992, it follows Millie (Halle Berry), a woman living in South Central Los Angeles who takes in at-risk youths to live in her home. When the infamous Rodney King riots grip the city, Millie and her cavalcade of adoptees are thrust into the mounting chaos sprouting all around them. In time, they are forced into unlikely alliances in order to stay alive

Scoring duties for Kings fall to Nick Cave & Warren Ellis of Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds fame. In recent years, they have become a force to be reckoned with in the world of soundtracks, thanks to their impressive work on films like Hell or High Water, Wind River, and the National Geographic series Mars. Cave and Ellis, the later a repeat Ergüven collaborator, pull from their rich history in the music world to deliver an unexpected score that immediately transports the listener to a specific place in time – the hot, angry streets of Los Angeles in the summer of 1992.

Originally available as a digital-only release, Invada Records and Lakeshore Records present the original score by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis to the film La Panthère Des Neiges (AKA The Velvet Queen).

The soundtrack is one of Ellis and Cave’s most heartfelt and haunting film projects. 

High up on the Tibetan plateau. Amongst unexplored and inaccessible valleys lies one of the last sanctuaries of the wild world, where rare and undiscovered fauna lives. Vincent Munier, one of the world’s most renowned wildlife photographers takes the adventurer and novelist Sylvain Tesson (In the Forest of Siberia) with him on his latest mission. For several weeks, they’ll explore these valleys searching for unique animals and try to spot the snow leopard, one of the rarest and most difficult big cats to approach.

Ellis explains how Cave and himself came to be involved : “There is something about the heart of this film that draws you in. I realised after a day, that I wanted to do whatever it took to compose an entire original score. The film deserved to have its own musical voice. I booked five days and asked Nick if he could come in for a day to write a theme song and play some piano. He saw the film and stayed for four days. In the end we made what I think is one of the most beautiful films we have ever worked on. One of my favourite experiences ever working on a project. The stars are the animals in all their wild glory, as we have never seen them before, and man in reverence and wonder.”

TRACK LISTING

L'attaque Des Loups
Les Cerfs
Antilope
La Bête
Les Yaks
Des Affûts Elliptiques
Les Nomades
La Grotte
Les Princes
La Neige Tombe
Les Ours
Un Être Vous Obsède
L’apparition/We Are Not Alone

BMG are set to release an exclusive version of the acclaimed soundtrack “THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD” available on vinyl for the very first time.

Re-mastered and available on limited edition whiskey coloured vinyl with a gatefold sleeve.

Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, of the internationally celebrated bands Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds, The Dirty Three and Grinderman, have composed, played and produced a compelling and intense soundtrack for director Andrew Dominik's savage tale of the true West. The new score captures perfectly the charismatic and unpredictable nature of its central protagonist. Like the film, Cave and Ellis' music cuts through the mythic figure of Jesse James to reveal the complex, contradictory man beneath. Daring and passionately delivered, Cave and Ellis' beautiful soundtrack retains its captivating power even without the benefit of Dominik's images 

A powerful western drama set in the savage Eden of 1880s Australia; "The Proposition" is an elemental story of family conflict and primal violence, destructive love and divided loyalties. Featuring an international superstar cast including Guy Pearce, Ray Winstone, Emily Watson and Danny Huston, it is directed by John Hillcoat from a specially commissioned script by the globally acclaimed singer-songwriter Nick Cave. 'Because of Nick's narrative songwriting, the characters are so vivid,' says Hillcoat. 'I knew something really good would come out of it.' Cave has also composed the film's soundtrack in conjunction with Warren Ellis, his longtime Bad Seeds collaborator and multi-instrumentalist frontman of The Dirty Three. Incorporating soft chamber pieces, ghostly moodscapes and whispered laments, these 16 tracks are as starkly beautiful as the landscape of the film. Story and music are closely intertwined.

TRACK LISTING

1. Happy Land
2. The Proposition #1
3. Road To Banyon
4. Down To The Valley
5. Moan Thing
6. The Rider #1
7. Martha’s Dream
8. Gun Thing
9. Queenie’s Suite
10. The Rider #2
11. The Proposition #2
12. Sad Violin Thing
13. The Rider #3
14. The Proposition #3
15. The Rider Song
16. Clean Hands, Dirty Hands

Originally released in January 2010, Mute / BMG are set to release an exclusive version of the acclaimed soundtrack ‘THE ROAD’ available on vinyl for the very first time.

Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Cormac McCarthy (author of ‘No Country For Old Men’) ’The Road’ is an epic post-apocalyptic tale of survival of a father and his young son journeying across a barren America destroyed by a mysterious cataclysm, The Road boldly imagines a future in which men are pushed to the worst and the best that they are capable of….

Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, of the internationally celebrated bands Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds, The Dirty Three and Grinderman, have created an evocative score featuring violin and piano with beautiful fleeting melodies and eerie sound loops filled with terror and suspense. Cave and Ellis have previously scored John Hillcoat's critically acclaimed 2005 Australian 'Western', The Proposition’ and Andrew Dominik’s 2007 savage tale of the true west ‘The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford’, both reissued on Colour LP by Mute/BMG in the last year.

‘War Machine’ is a new Netflix film, directed by David Michôd and starring Brad Pitt and Tilda Swinton among many others.

Military snares set a sharp cadence beneath the score’s eerie synths and strings, instantly reminiscent of ‘Skeleton Tree’ by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds and the beautiful ‘Hell Or High Water’ score.

“Together we made a score that was both light and dark, propulsive and meditative at the same time. We developed a kind of ‘spiritual electronics’ that captured both the melancholy and the terrible absurdity of the Afghan war,” Cave and Ellis said in a press release. “It was a great pleasure to work with David Michôd, who is not only an extraordinary filmmaker but a musician too. Our favorite score!”

TRACK LISTING

Ah America
Humble Man
The Bubble
The Civilian Executive
In Liebe Dein (Roedelius)
Badi Basim
Kamee (Roedelius)
The Moon Landing
Our Noise
Fabelwein (Roedelius)
Jeanie
NY Snow Globe (Rachel’s)
Thousands Of Parades, All Over America
Marjah
Staunen Im Fjord (Roedelius)
The Hand Of Helping
Be Lovely
A Page In The History Books
War Machine

Perhaps best-known for his distinctive vocal style, Australian polymath Nick Cave here steps into the spotlight as librettist rather than performer, for a second operatic project with Belgian composer Nicholas Lens. Having collaborated on Shell Shock in 2014, they joined forces again during the global lockdown to create a new work, L.I.T.A.N.I.E.S.. At Lens’s request, Cave penned 12 litanies – “petitions to a divine maker” – simple, moving texts which the composer then wove into what he calls a “modest chamber opera of sleeping dreams”. Riding his bike around an unusually empty Brussels, Lens had been reminded of the magical stillness of the Rinzai Zen temples he had seen in rural Japan. Memories of these structures and of the inner peace he experienced while visiting them were the initial inspiration for the minimalistic, at times trance-like music of L.I.T.A.N.I.E.S., which features Denzil Delaere, N.L. Noorenbergh, Claron McFadden and Lens’s artist daughter Clara-Lane on vocals.

Ghosteen is the seventeenth studio album from Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, following 2016’s Skeleton Tree, and will be released via Ghosteen Ltd. The album was recorded in 2018 and early 2019 at Woodshed in Malibu, Nightbird in Los Angeles, Retreat in Brighton and Candybomber in Berlin. It was mixed by Nick Cave, Warren Ellis, Lance Powell and Andrew Dominik at Conway in Los Angeles.

"The songs on the first album are the children. The songs on the second album are their parents. Ghosteen is migrating spirit." - Nick Cave.

STAFF COMMENTS

Darryl says: Spread across two albums, "The songs on the first album are the children. The songs on the second album are their parents. Ghosteen is migrating spirit." Nick Cave, ‘Ghosteen is a deeply introspective and at times an emotionally devastating listen exploring his personal grief following the death of his son. A melancholic yet beautiful masterpiece.

TRACK LISTING

Disc 1:
1. The Spinning Song
2. Bright Horses
3. Waiting For You
4. Night Raid
5. Sun Forest
6. Galleon Ship
7. Ghosteen Speaks
8. Leviathan

Disc 2:
1. Ghosteen
2. Fireflies
3. Hollywood

‘Live from KCRW' is a live radio session recorded in Los Angeles in April 2013 & is the fourth official live album in the band's history.

It features a stripped-down line-up performing classic Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds material alongside four songs from their recent global hit album ‘Push the Sky Away’.

‘Live from KCRW’ album line-up:
Nick Cave: Piano, vocals
Warren Ellis: Tenor guitar, violin, piano, loops, backing vocals
Martyn Casey: Bass
Jim Sclavunos: Percussion, drums, backing vocals
Barry Adamson: Organ, backing vocals

TRACK LISTING

Higgs Boson Blues
Far From Me
Stranger Than Kindness
The Mercy Seat
And No More Shall We Part
Wide Lovely Eyes
Mermaids
People Ain't No Good
Push The Sky Away
Jack The Ripper

Vinyl Bonus Tracks:
Into My Arms
God Is In The House

At the heart of 'Push the Sky Away' is a naturalism and warmth that makes it the most subtly beautiful of all the Bad Seeds albums. The contemporary settings of myths, and the cultural references that have time-stamped Nick's songs of the twenty-first century mist lightly through details drawn from the life he observed around his seaside home, through the tall windows on the album's mysterious and ambiguous cover. The songs on this album took form in a modest notebook with shellac covers over the course of almost a year. The notebook is a treasured analogue artefact but the internet is equally important to Nick: Googling curiosities, being entranced by exotic Wikipedia entries "whether they're true or not". These songs convey how on the internet profoundly significant events, momentary fads and mystically-tinged absurdities sit side-by-side and question how we might recognise and assign weight to what's genuinely important.

The album has a clarity and sweet strangeness that's built upon the refusal to accept limitations, whether they be the traditional uses and sounds of musical instruments, lyric styles, or diminished spiritual horizons. It's not always apparent what instruments the band is playing: they may be traditional musical instruments but other sounds are clearly generated by objects unrelated to musical instruments. What's being created is a collective musical language that's rich and complex.

"Well, if I were to use that threadbare metaphor of albums being like children, then Push The Sky Away is the ghost-baby in the incubator and Warren's loops are its tiny, trembling heart-beat." Nick Cave

STAFF COMMENTS

Darryl says: Mellow, introspective and moody, 'Push The Sky Away' sees Nick Cave hit top form. Ably backed by the subtly brilliant Bad Seeds, this will go down as one of the standouts in the burgeoning cannon of classic Cave albums.

TRACK LISTING

1. We No Who U R
2. Wide Lovely Eyes
3. Water's Edge
4. Jubilee Street
5. Mermaids
6. We Real Cool
7. Finishing Jubilee Street
8. Higgs Boson Blues
9. Push The Sky Away

Skeleton Tree began its journey in late 2014 at Retreat Studios, Brighton, with further sessions at La Frette Studios, France in autumn 2015. The album was mixed at AIR Studios, London in early 2016.

The songs from the album are featured in the film One More Time With Feeling, directed by Andrew Dominik (Chopper, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Killing Them Softly). The film was comissioned by Nick Cave and is to be the only public statement to accompany the albums’ release.

Given event's in his personal life prior to the release of the album, it's understandable that this album is sombre affair. Although accompanied by a film, it is an album in its own right, rather than a soundtrack. Having said that, the orchestration which forms the backdrop to Nick's rich, half spoken - half sung narratives, has a similar cinematic feel to the haunting, atmospheric film scores that Nick and Bad Seed Warren Ellis excel at.

It’s probably not going to be your choice of listening prior to a night out on the town, but if it’s darkness you’re after, no one does that better than Nick.

A beautiful, moving album.

STAFF COMMENTS

Laura says: Given events in his personal life prior its release, it's understandable that this album is a sombre affair. Although accompanied by a film, it is an album in its own right, rather than a soundtrack. Having said that, the orchestration which forms the backdrop to Nick's rich, half spoken - half sung narratives, has a similar cinematic feel to the haunting, atmospheric film scores that Nick and Bad Seed Warren Ellis excel at. No one does darkness better than Mr Cave.

TRACK LISTING

1. Jesus Alone
2. Rings Of Saturn
3. Girl In Amber
4. Magneto
5. Anthrocene
6. I Need You
7. Distant Sky
8. Skeleton Tree

‘The Boatman’s Call’ is the tenth studio album by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, originally released in 1997.

The album is entirely piano-based and remains one of the most critically acclaimed releases of Nick Cave’s career.

Musically, the album’s tone is considered sombre and minimalist and marks a major departure. Moving away from full band arrangements and character-based narratives, the album’s music and lyrics move towards the more intimate sound of Cave’s solo voice accompanied by piano or a few other instruments.

TRACK LISTING

LP / CD
Into My Arms
Lime Tree Arbour
People Ain’t No Good
There Is A Kingdom
(Are You) The One That I’ve Been Waiting For?
Where Do We Go Now But Nowhere?
West Country Girl
Black Hair
Idiot Prayer
Far From Me
Green Eyes

DVD (With CD/DVD Version Only)
Audio
The Boatman’s Call (5.1 & Stereo)
Little Empty Boat
Right Now I’m A-Roaming
Black Hair (Band Version)
Come Into My Sleep
Babe, I Got You Bad
Videos
Do You Love Me Like I Love You (Part 10: The Boatman’s Call)
Into My Arms
(Are You) The One That I’ve Been Waiting For?

In June 2020, mid lockdown, Nick Cave performed a live set in the vast grandeur of in the West Hall of London's Alexandra Palace. The performance, featuring just Nick at the piano, was filmed and streamed in July and was a beautifully sombre affair that sat perfectly with the mood and uncertainty of the time. 

In recent years Nick has performed several solo shows with just a piano, covering material spanning his entire career, but whether it is the shadow cast by the global pandemic or the majestic splendour of the location, this songs here seem somehow more poignant than ever. Although recorded in such a vast space it is the intimacy of the performance that makes it such a compelling listen. Wonderful.

The Telegraph ****
"Cave's solo live stream could be the most the beautiful and sombre performance he's ever given"

The Guardian ****
"Cave’s performance in an empty hall, with just piano and voice, seems to try and ward off the terrifying silence of the Covid-19 age”

Evening Standard ****
"Gravitas echoes beautifully in the void of an empty Alexandra Palace"

The Independent ****
"‘Idiot Prayer’ performance is stately and beautiful”

The Arts Desk ****
"The dramatic minimalism of this setting is perfect for an expressive face, and such powerfully emotional songs”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: There is absolutely no stopping Nick Cave. Even a global pandemic can't halt his transformative live show, and the bleak solemnity of one man and a piano only serves to exacerbate the intoxicating experience.

TRACK LISTING

Spinning Song
Jubilee Street
Far From Me
Idiot Prayer
Sad Waters
He Wants You
Brompton Oratory
Higgs Boson Blues
Palaces Of Montezuma
Stranger Than Kindness
Into My Arms
Girl In Amber
The Ship Song
Man In The Moon
Nobody's Baby Now
Papa Won't Leave You, Henry
Black Hair
(Are You) The One That I’ve Been Waiting For?
Galleon Ship
Waiting For You
The Mercy Street
Euthanasia

‘While in lockdown I wrote a number of psalms, or small, sacred songs—one a day for a week.

The seven psalms are presented as one long meditation—on faith, rage, love, grief, mercy, sex and praise. A veiled, contemplative offering borne of an uncertain time. I hope you like it.’

Nick Cave.

The complete lyrics from cultural icon and bestselling author Nick Cave, spanning his entire career to date, with a new foreword by Andrew O'HaganFrom Nick Cave's writing for The Birthday Party, through highly acclaimed albums like Murder Ballads, Henry's Dream, DIG, LAZARUS, DIG!!! and Ghosteen, this is a must-have book for all fans of the dark, the beautiful and the defiant - for all fans of the songs of Nick Cave. 'The greatest living songwriter' NME'A glowing wire, a mainline to meaning ad feeling and art' New Yorker'Nick Cave is a true lyrical master. He can conjure empathy and hope out of thin air, light out of darkness' Cillian Murphy'His lyrics - so rich in the toils of love, so committed to memory and everlasting presence - are the best-made of his generation' Andrew O'Hagan'A poetic craftsman' Will Self'Alternative rock legend' Billboard'Cave's genius rings loud and clear' Evening StandardCover art by Aleksandra Waliszewska

The Sick Bag Song chronicles Cave's 22-city journey around North America in 2014. Racked by romantic longing and exhaustion, Cave teases out the significant moments - the people, the books and the music - that have influenced and inspired him, and drops them into his sick bag. The book began its life scribbled onto airline sick bags and later evolves into a restless contemporary epic, exploring love, loss, inspiration and memory.

New Zealand’s The Cavemen are back, ready to drink, fight, fxck and play some goddamn rock and roll! “Nuke Earth” is their 3rd footlong rekkid and it’s pure, primitive motherfuckin’ GARAGE PUNK like you lust after every night when you’re licking your sexiest leather record jackets, or ‘77 punk steeped in a moldy stack of bootleg Motörhead outtake LPs. The ‘Men have gone batshit crazy, and they’re in full-on attack mode here with 13 tracks of panty dropping chaos guaranteed to land you in jail faster than you can crack one off in a grindhouse showing an “Ilsa” film. Rock’n’roll is here to stay, and it’ll always be for the crazy kids… like it or lump it! 

TRACK LISTING

1:Lust For Evil
2:Criminal Love
3:Janey
4:Batshit Crazy
5:Chernobyl Baby
6:7 Day Weekend
7:The Night Jimmy Savile Died
8:Concrete Town
9:Don’t Wanna Hang
10:Gimme Beer Or Gimme Death
11:Elvis Is Alive
12:Thug
13:Speaking In Tongues.

Not just one album but two from Saint Nick. In a strange perverse way the loss from his band of guitarist Blixa Bargeld has seen them return to the taught, edgy and highly strung sounds that he helped to create: The sound of say "Let Love In", "Murder Ballads" and "Henry's Dream". Death, sex, religion, drugs, gospel gothic and deep romance in fact all of Cave's favourite topics are covered here in a fresh whirlwind of classic song after classic song. This stands up as one of Nick Cave's best ever albums, and don't forget, there's two of them!! Hallelujah!!!

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds release two previously unavailable tracks: Give Us A Kiss and Jubilee Street (live from The Sydney Opera House). The songs from the award-winning feature 20,000 Days On Earth will be available on a limited edition vinyl 10".

20,000 Days on Earth is a new feature film starring Nick Cave about 24 hours in his life. It premiered at Sundance, winning two awards – both the Editing and Directing Awards in World Cinema Documentary. The jury describing the film as “being arguably the most exciting film in competition… This is documentary storytelling at its most visionary and mindblowing”

The drama-documentary portrays a fictionalized 24 hours in the life of Nick Cave directed by Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard. The film was inspired by a calculation Nick had made in his songwriting notebook working out his time on earth. Forsyth and Pollard have taken this and from it crafted an innovative and powerful film that takes us inside Nick’s artistic process and celebrates creativity.

An album of covers by the likes of Leadbelly, Jim Webb, Alex Harvey, Gene Pitney, Tim Rose and the Velvet Underground amongst others, all reworked and reconstructed with expert menacing detail by the Bad Seeds who combine superbly with Cave's excellent vocal performance. The major shock here is how well this collection of songs works as an album!!!

This is one of the first four albums in a series that will see the band's entire album catalogue digitally remastered and remixed for the first time since their original release.
All 14 albums will be available as remastered CD and as a deluxe Collectors Edition which will feature the remastered album plus a DVD with the entire album in 5.1 surround sound, a specially commissioned short film made by acclaimed UK artists Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard plus the b-sides from the singles and exclusive sleeve notes.

Recorded at various concerts throughout Europe and Australia in 1992 and 1993. All of the classics are featured here, "Deanna", "The Ship Song", "Papa Won't Leave You Henry", "Tupelo", "Jack The Ripper", "From Her To Eternity" and many more. But none of those tracks eclipse the live energy of the utterly superb "The Mercy Seat". 13 tracks that showcase the genius and power of Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds in the live setting.

‘Nocturama’ is the twelfth studio album by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, released in 2003.

To date, it is the last Bad Seeds album to feature founding member Blixa Bargeld.

This album reunited Nick Cave with Nick Launay, who had produced The Birthday Party’s groundbreaking ‘Junkyard’ album 21 years earlier.

Featuring the singles ‘Bring It On’, ‘He Wants You’ and ‘Rock Of Gibraltar’, this album finds Cave moving away from ‘Murder Ballads’ and the gory fire and brimstone of yore and exploring more personal themes.

More than twenty years into his career at this point, Nick Cave proved himself worthy of the comparisons made in the press on his behalf: now he could stand alongside the likes of Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash and Tom Waits as a storyteller who could be unflinchingly honest in his work, whilst continuing to grow his fanbase.

This CD and DVD version includes the original album in 5.1 surround sound plus 7 bonus tracks and 4 bonus videos.

TRACK LISTING

CD
Wonderful Life
He Wants You
Right Out Of Your Hand
Bring It On
Dead Man In My Bed
Still In Love
There Is A Town
Rock Of Gibraltar
She Passed By My Window
Babe, I’m On Fire

DVD
Audio
Nocturama (in 5.1 & Stereo)
Shoot Me Down
Swing Low
Little Ghost Song
Everything Must Converge
Nocturama
Video
Do You Love Me Like I Love You (Part 12)
Babe I’m On Fire (15 Min Version)
Bring It On

A retrospective, rather than a single compilation, this spans 13 years and 10 albums from the debut "From Her To Eternity" to "The Boatman's Call". 16 tracks in total featuring the duets with Kylie and PJ Harvey, "Where The Wild Roses Grow" and "Henry Lee", the album favourites "The Carney" and "From Her To Eternity" and classic singles such as "The Mercy Seat", "(Are You) The One That I've Been Waiting For?" and "Straight To You".

‘The Firstborn Is Dead’, co-produced by Nick Cave, The Bad Seeds and Flood, is the second studio album released by Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds and was originally released on June 3rd 1985.

Cave explores his fascination with the American South, with references ranging from Elvis Presley to ‘Blind’ Lemon Jefferson.

Recorded in Berlin, Cave later said of this album: “Berlin gave us the freedom and encouragement to do whatever we wanted. We’d lived in London for three years and it seemed that if you stuck your head out of the box, people were pretty quick to knock it back in, particularly if you were Australian. When we came to Berlin it was the opposite. People saw us as some kind of force rather than a kind of wacky novelty act.”

The album’s title is a reference to Jesse Garon Presley, the stillborn identical twin of Elvis Presley, and ‘Wanted Man’ was Cave’s own take on a song Bob Dylan wrote for Johnny Cash. Dylan gave his permission for the lyrics to be changed, with Cave’s interpretation referencing his friends.

Also features the apocalyptic classic ‘Tupelo’.

This CD and DVD version includes the original album in 5.1 surround sound, one bonus track and three bonus videos.

TRACK LISTING

CD
Tupelo
Say Goodbye To The
Little Girl Tree
Train Long-Suffering
Black Crow King
Knockin’ On Joe
Wanted Man
Blind Lemon Jefferson

DVD
Audio:
The Firstborn Is Dead
(5.1 Surround Sound)
The Six Strings That
Drew Blood
Video:
Do You Love Me Like I
Love You (Part 2: The
Firstborn Is Dead)
Tupelo
Wanted Man

With ‘Your Funeral… My Trial’ The Bad Seeds expanded their personnel by adding Thomas Wydler on drums, enabling Mick Harvey to display his considerable multi-instrumental talents. This was the band’s fourth studio album and was released on November 3rd 1986 and was originally released as a double EP, with production duties handled by Flood and Tony Cohen.

Cave later remarked: “That particular record, which is my favourite of the records we’ve done, is very special to me and a lot of amazing things happened, musically, in the studio. There are some songs on that record that as far as I’m concerned are just about perfect as we can get really - songs like ‘The Carny’, ‘Your Funeral My Trial’, and ‘Stranger Than Kindness’, I think are really quite brilliant.”

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds appeared in Wim Wenders’ 1987 movie ‘Wings Of Desire’ performing ‘The Carny’ and ‘From Her To Eternity’.

This CD and DVD version includes the original album in 5.1 surround sound, a bonus track and a bonus video.

TRACK LISTING

CD
Sad Waters
The Carny
Your Funeral My Trial
Stranger Than Kindness
Jack’s Shadow
Hard On For Love
She Fell Away
Long Time Man

DVD
Audio:
Your Funeral... My Trial (5.1 Surround Sound)
Scum
Video:
Do You Love Me Like I Love You

"Pure Moods" features the quintet version of Cave that toured the USA and Europe in 2009. "Pure Moods" was recorded in semi-written, semi-improvised fashion following the annihilation of mainland Europe last fall. Afternoon sessions faded into the night and tripped into morning, songs coalescing, jams extending, beer bellies expanding. Fine-tuned, clean guitar amps grew crunchier and crunchier the longer their tubes burned, increasing tonal density accordingly as mass pushed volume. Cave throbs as an entity.

They core themselves around sickeningly tight drum and bass that drive like a thinline, curvy, armored-vehicle so that the sinewy, metaphysical guitar-work can punctuate, aggressive yet deceptively seamless, through any fleshy surface - be it human, water, or a wall of "Hot Bricks", the first nug on this here EP. All is surrounded by a glistening force-field of lake-misty keys and synths, like an unfurling cloak set to shroud and envelope a grungy beard or sixty.

'Chicago's Cave spiritually hail from a weird quadrant where the German pulse of Can and Amon Duul II overlap post-punk Britain' - Rolling Stone.

Reissue of Cavern Of Anti-Matter’s much sought-after first album, originally issued as a vinyl only edition of 500 copies on Berlin label Grautag Records. Finally getting the wider release it deserves courtesy of the band’s own Duophonic imprint. It has been recut as a triple vinyl set and is being made available on CD for the first time. The 3LP edition comes with a download card for the full album.

The recordings here actually represent the genesis of the whole Cavern Of Anti-Matter project: commissioned by artist Nicolas Moulin to come up with a double album of original material, Tim Gane (formerly of the much loved Stereolab) hunkered down in his home studio for three weeks with a collection of old sequencers, drum machines and analogue synths. With the assistance of Joe Dilworth and Holger Zapf he produced the 16 tracks that comprise ‘blood drums’. The initial pressing sold out instantly and offers followed to play live and make more records. As a result of this positive response, Cavern Of Anti-Matter have gradually evolved from one-off experiment to full-time band.

TRACK LISTING

01 You’re An Art Soul
02 Solar Diamond
03 Invocation Melodie In C
04 Hot Electric Insect
05 Irradiated Dream Mouth
06 Silver Dust
07 Sound-magic’s Death Ray Destroys The Vortex And Has Union With Infinity
08 Rotation And Particle Density In D
09 Blood-drums Machine
10 Adventures In One Octave
11 Movin’ On Static
12 Dystopian Shopping Mall
13 Strawberry Dust
14 Acid Death Picnic
15 Kool Boy Narcosis
16 Lament For Cement

Stereolab are veritable indie-rock legends, with a dedicated worldwide fanbase, and a band much beloved by their fellow musicians, with notable champions including Blur, Pharrell Williams (yes, really), Flying Lotus and Pavement. Most recently, and taking their fandom the extra mile, the prize has to go to !!!.

Cavern Of Anti-Matter are the new band from Stereolab mainman Tim Gane, now Berlin-based and collaborating with original Stereolab drummer Joe Dilworth, and synth wizard Holger Zapf.

We're very pleased to be helping out their label, Duophonic, with the release of void beats/invocation trex, Cavern Of Anti-Matter's first album proper after a number of limited vinyl releases. The album is an epic 72 minute journey featuring guest vocals from Bradford Cox (Deerhunter), Sonic Boom (Spacemen 3), and sound processing from Jan St. Werner (Mouse On Mars). 

STAFF COMMENTS

Sara says: I'm on a self-imposed ban of all non-essential purchases as I'm saving for my holiday but I heard this slab of mesmeric, krautrocking brilliantness from Stereolab's Tim Gane and decided this is essential.

Andy says: Hypnotic grooves, burbling modular synths and a guest appearance from mister Deerhunter and Sonic Boom. Very big on the shop stereo!

Barry says: You’ve heard Stereolab right? Well, this is Tim Gane of said band distilling the driven, head-nodding hypnotic intensity of their greatest work into an instrumental synth powerhouse. Motorik beats and soaring arpeggios form together into a rocking but predominantly electronic cacophony of driving rhythm and ecstatic melody. The whole of ‘Void Beats / Invocation Trex’ is lucid as a whole, but entirely dissectible and enjoyable piece by piece. “Insect Fear” is a cosmic and psychedelic trip through hammond-laced rock and Kosmische sequencing, perfect for vocals but even better without, leaving the push and pull of parts to form a sort of call/answer scenario, as one fades out the other comes roaring in. “Pantechnicon” is as grand as it sounds, and could easily be a flying-car laden skyscrapered skyline, viewed from a sunny panorama. An unbelievable and irresistible vision quest.

TRACK LISTING

01. Tardis Cymbals
02. Blowing My Nose Under Close Observation
03. Insect Fear
04. Melody In High Feedback Tones
05. Hi-hats Bring The Hiss
06. Liquid Gate
07. Pantechnicon
08. Black Glass Actions
09. Planetary Folklore
10. Echolalia
11. Void Beat
12. Zone Null

Cave return with a brand new album, entitled ‘Threace’, through Drag City, following their ‘Neverendless’ album.

‘Threace’ is a real ‘back to the lab’ kind of album for Cave. They have spent more time on these new sounds than they had before - which is saying a lot! All Cave music grabs at your ears and the soft tissue within, and yet this time it's just so much more crystalline, bottom-booting and all-consuming than ever before.

Threace comes on guitar up and jelly tight, saving the keys for colour commentary among the beats. Jeremy and Cooper explore their six-string relationship, finding shared space, ducking, parrying, working the edges, and finally twinning to awesome effect. Meanwhile, there's a fleeting blast of sax and flute textures in there that create new soul-jazz sensations. Last and most, Dan and Rex bring the heavy with the thickness while moving the rhythm with exceptionally light feet, playing colouristically while always driving, driving, ever driving, bearing the load and raising the arch under which everything happens in Cave.

Cave are known and loved for playing with rolling funk minimalism; ‘Threace’ finds them inhabiting their cutup aesthetic with tremendous ease and fewer reference points than before, accessing new depths of meditative stasis, and then torpedoing the dream on a dime to ride the riffs again.

The first Be With foray into the archives of revered German library institution Selected Sound is one of our favourites on the label - the super in-demand "Japan" from Victor Cavini, originally released in 1983.

Rare and sought-after for many years now, this is one of those cult library LPs that never turn up. With Daibutsu the giant Buddha of Kamakura’s presence gracing the hefty front cover, this is a record bursting with dope samples for adventurous producers: it’s koto-funk madness!

Victor Cavini was the library music pseudonym of prolific German composer and musician Gerhard Trede. He was known for exploring instruments and styles from around the world (he played over 50 different instruments himself) and Japan is
his collection of 14 musical sketches painted with traditional Japanese wind and string instruments. These are the sounds of traditional Japanese folk music re-interpreted through Western ears, with the occassional contemporary twist. Contemporary for 1983, of course.

These “Pictures of Japan” are hypnotic, sometimes frantic, but always beautiful. The first twelve tracks offer airy explorations of koto and flute, with other strings and percussion being added and then given their own space. Indeed “Pictures of Japan XII” is just drums.

And then “Pictures of Japan XIII” seems to come out of nowhere. But the subtle sleaze of its full band sound still doesn’t quite prepare you for the towering climax of “Pictures of Japan XIV”.

This is Japan’s undoubted standout piece, completely and wonderfully at odds with the rest of the album. It’s the reason this has become such a must-have record. It keeps the traditional Japanese instruments but combines them with shuffling funk breaks, electric bass high in the mix and a Godzilla-sized psychedelic fuzz guitar sound that might actually be a traditional reed flute pushed to its limits. Whatever it is, it sounds awesome.
Recalling both Rino de Filippi’s "Oriente Oggi" and Giancarlo Barigozzi’s "Oriente", the track’s a real head-nod groove for b-boys and b-girls alike that sounds straight out of a late 70s Yakuza film. Indeed, if you were told The RZA or Onra had cooked this up in the lab this century, you’d be convinced. It’s crazy that this dates from 1983.

The audio for Japan has been sensitively remastered for vinyl by Be With regular Simon Francis to keep all the character of the original recordings. Richard Robinson has handled the careful restoration of the original Selected Sound sleeve. Essential.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Pictures Of Japan
A2. Pictures Of Japan II
A3. Pictures Of Japan III
A4. Pictures Of Japan IV
A5. Pictures Of Japan V
A6. Pictures Of Japan VI
A7. Pictures Of Japan VII
B1. Pictures Of Japan VIII
B2. Pictures Of Japan IX
B3. Pictures Of Japan X
B4. Pictures Of Japan XI
B5. Pictures Of Japan XII
B6. Pictures Of Japan XIII
B7. Pictures Of Japan XIV

No one knows summer like Santa Monica’s Zach Yudin. “Can you hear it comin’?” he asks, at the start of ‘Cayucos’, the opening salvo by his band Cayucas.

With a nod to 60’s beach blanket pop gems and bonfire folk songs, Cayucas hits the waves runnin’, causing involuntary headbobs, finger snaps, toetaps and the ability to shake your booty like it’s strapped to a brand new set of maracas.

Producer / multi-instrumentalist Richard Swift deftly captures Yudin’s inimitable voice as it echoes through the barrel of the perfect wave. It's a song for the ages for sure.

B-side ‘Swimsuit’ continues to carry the torch, with its cocktail-lounge organ flourishes painting a picture of young, carefree days spent pining for your summer love.

For fans of Best Coast, Beach Boys, Andrew Bird, Small Black, Foster The People, Here We Go Magic.

As Zach Yudin and his twin brother and bandmate, Ben, went in to create their new album, what it all came back to was something personal. While they now call Los Angeles home, they drew from the nostalgia of their childhood growing up in Davis, CA; the nostalgia in their music that is as much about a place they’ve never been as any actual experience. And it was that wandering imagination and a punchy California dream that eventually grew to become Dancing at the Blue Lagoon.

While their sun-drenched, jangly, sometimes melancholic sound is quintessentially Californian, the album very much their California. It’s the sound of kids from the suburbs who fantasize in Technicolor, whose view of the Golden State is its own form of idealism.

Dancing at the Blue Lagoon is all about a band testing its comfort zone and asking us to do the same. Zach and Ben would “create bands that were more like a musical idea,” record a few songs, and then move on. Cayucas grew out of this period of experimentation. Cayucas has taken sound we thought we knew and turned in into something personal and complex.

TRACK LISTING

Big Winter Jacket
Moony Eyed Walrus
Hella
Champion
Ditches
Dancing At The Blue
Lagoon
Backstroke
A Shadow In The Dark
Blue Lagoon (Theme Song)

Shinkansen No.1 / New Ways is the second release from CC DUST, a new duo from Olympia, Washington featuring Maryjane Dunphe and David Jaques. Shinkansen No.1 introduces the record with a more industrial, harder edge than much of the group’s debut 12” (CC DUST – S/T), a fast paced, urgent song powered by by fast kick drums and Jaques’ bassline acrobatics.

CC Dust opened every show on their recent European tour with this salvo, a dark energy that spirals upwards, with Dunphe’s vocal giving the production space to build into a crescendo. New Ways on the other hand, is perhaps Dunphe’s finest moment yet set to disc. Dunphe is a performer who battles restraint, her every vocal performance a tour de force and New Ways is one of the most emotional and transcendent performacnes imaginable. With a terse retraint in the verses, the chorus here erupts into an anthem for doomed youth, with every crack in Dunphe’s voice hitting the listener square in the chest.

A light that casts shadow, CC Dust is doomed, romantic music anchored by Jaques’ live bass and the powerful performance values Dunphe has honed both in her punk group Vexx and in various film and performance projects. Musically, CC Dust’s precedents might be considered the European synth pop originators of the early 80s, there’s also an abundance of low-end hooks played on baritone and bass guitars that teases the ear like early New Order productions, but in Dunphe’s passionate vocal performances there’s a close-to-thebone reality that bypasses cool detachment.

CC Dust play and write real songs lived. A desire for desire. What is it? How does it manifest? Is it all worth the tumult? CC Dust offer no answers as there are none, but they ask the right questions in a life-affirming way. Doomed, romantic, unanswerable and vital.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A: Shinkansen No.1
SIDE AA: New Ways

Phantasy is proud to present the first ever solo single from celebrated DJ, curator and producer CC:DISCO!, ‘Chez Moi (Waiting For You)’, featuring Confidence Man.

Already a summer anthem in the playlists of DJs including DJ Harvey, Palms Trax, Job Jobse and Shanti Celeste, ‘Chez Moi’ stays true to the roots of house, disco and balearic styles across CC:DISCO’S much-admired record collection. Now arriving on limited-edition red, transparent 12” vinyl and accompanied by the tough but sensual ‘Out Of Your Mind’ on the flip, ‘Chez Moi (Waiting For You)’ is a sublime tribute to the heritage of classic New York dance floors like Sound Factory and Danceteria. It’s waiting for you…

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: It's hard to play down the universal adoration Confidence Man have garnered here at Picc HQ. I think every single member of staff loves them! So its ace to see them featuring on fellow Melbournian CC:DISCO!'s new single. A riot of a 2 track house party that everyone's gonna enjoy.

TRACK LISTING

A. Chez Moi (Waiting For You) Ft. Confidence Man
B. Out Of Your Mind 

Like an avalanche of foamy beer rolling through the mountains of Hokkaido, "Moon Deluxe" traps you in a cabin. Penned with friends and strangers alike, the shrill sound of natural destruction soundtrack the conversation. Mr. Cedermark hails from Glen Rock, New Jersey.

"Moon Deluxe" was recorded in Charlottesville, Virginia. Being an ex-member of Titus Andronicus he knows when to bring the rock, but there’s some lo-fi majesty woven amongst the crunch, Jeff Mangum could be in the room... or even Microphones.. a brilliant album for sure!

TRACK LISTING

01 Ad Infinitum
02 Moon Deluxe
03 Gloria '85
04 Anchorite
05 Untruth
06 X
07 Will Not Compete
08 Hard Livin'
09 It's Freezing
10 Your Dream Is Killing Me
11 I Won't Know Me Anymore

Originally released on Firstcask Records 2006, played by Aphex Twin at Field Day 2023. Ceephax essential oils, reintroduced into the water table.

Braindance, fifth gear electro, Cornish acid and distorted box jams, all humming with high voltage electricity and tons of anarchistic spirit. Squarepusher's little brother certainly knew how to make a rachet! 

RIYL: RX-101, Roy Of The Ravers, Paranoid London, AFX, Luke Vibert etc etc.

TRACK LISTING

01 Acid Highway
02 Red Dx Acid Extra Bd Shorter
03 Acid Whorl
04 Acid Causeway 1
05 Tough Grugoy Acid
06 Acid Surf Dream
07 Woodlice Acid

Gegenwelt (Parallel World) is the second LP by CEL, a duo Kubin and Zemler formed. More melodically evolved than their eponymous 2020 debut, it is an even more explicit example of the syncretic impulse that impelled these guys to form the band. Their basic notion was to explore the juncture between two streams of German underground sounds -- the Motorik 4/4 rhythms first posited by Can's Jaki Liebezeit and Kraftwerk's Klaus Dinger, and the sequencer-driven brain loops of early, experimental pioneers of the NDW, such as der Plan.

The Celebrate Music Synthesizer Group is a spicehunting collective formed in Rotterdam in the Summer of 2012, when multi-media cultural centre The Worm graciously opened their world class synthesizer studio to the current incarnation of Sun Araw Band. Cameron Stallones (Sun Araw, Magic Lantern), M. Geddes Gengras, Tony Lowe (CEO Raw Tings), and Butchy Fuego (San Gabriel, Boredoms) spent a week amidst Syrinx, Serge, and Surinamese victuals, tracking the self-titled double album live to 2-track.

The parabolic fruits were charted, graphed, and have been presented on a double vinyl album.

“It seems like the last three years have been filled with contrasts,” says Katrina Ford, force-of-nature singer in Baltimore’s Celebration. “Fantastical musical adventures against the backdrop of adult crisis.” From this collision of opposites comes the kaleidoscopic ‘Wounded Healer’, released via Bella Union. Drawing its galvanic thrust from contrasting elements, the band’s fifth album is their purest and most richly realised statement yet: intimate and expansive, cohesive and wide-ranging, bruised and restorative.

Since the release of Albumin in 2014, the core trio of Ford, husband (multi-instrumentalist and organ player/rebuilder) Sean Antanaitis and drummer David Bergander have battled in times of struggle to uphold their founding strengths. “Midlife, we find ourselves dealing with bathroom renovations, death and elder care for parents, raising kids, careers, multiple surgeries, and totally fucked scheduling,” says Ford. “But despite it and yet inspired by it all, we have a place to come together and do this thing we love.”

TRACK LISTING

Rolling On
Velvet Glove
Spider
Sacred Clown
Summer Season
Granite
Freedom Ring
Stevie
Georgia Roots
Paper Trails
Drum And Phife

Beautiful debut album from the incredible Celia, conducted & arranged by Arthur Verocai and Rogerio Duprat and featuring songs by Lo Borges, Antonio Adolfo and Joyce amongst others. Celia recorded four self-titled albums for Continental between 1971 and 1977, ‘Amor’ in 1982 plus several more before she sadly passed away late in 2017, aged 70.

Celia was a Brazilian vocalist who worked frequently with master arranger-composer Arthur Verocai in her early years and many other heavyweights over the course of her extensive career. Joyce was particularly supportive in the making of this album, writing the beautiful “Abrace Paul McCartney” and her husband at the time, Nelson Angelo, recorded some of the songs.

TRACK LISTING

Blues
No Clarao Da Lua Cheia
Durango Kid
David
To Be
Abrace Paul McCartney
Pelo Teletipo
Adeus Batucada
Lennon - McCartney
Zozoio - Como E Que E Fotograma

The legendary 1972 album from Celia, arranged by Arthur Verocai with replica artwork.

Celia Regina Cruz recorded four self-titled albums for Continental between 1971 and 1977, ‘Amor’ in 1982 plus several more before she sadly passed away late in 2017.

Celia was a Brazilian vocalist who worked frequently with master arranger and composer Arthur Verocai in her early years and many other heavyweights over the course of her extensive career.

This, her second self-titled LP from 1972, features an all-star line up including Arthur Verocai, Erasmo Carlos, Roberto Carlos, Marcos Valle, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Nonato Buzar and Vinicius de Moraes amongst others.

Celia’s version of ‘Na Boca do Sol’ - taken from this album - is arguably her most well-known and well-loved song. An incredible take on Verocai’s original, featuring waling fuzz guitars, strings, piano, horns and drums. Needless to say clean, original versions of this record now change hands for silly money!

TRACK LISTING

A Hora EE Essa
Toda Quarta-Feira Depois Do Amor
Dominus Tecum
Ay Adelita
Vida De Artista
Mia
Na Boca Do Sol
Em Familia
Detalhes
E Preciso Dizer Adeus
Dez Bilhoes De Neuronios
Badalacao (Bahia, Volume 2)

This four piece rock / grunge / metal band are influenced (but don't necessarily sound like) Alice In Chains, Stone Temple Pilots, Soundgarden, Nine Inch Nails, Metallica, Queens Of The Stone Age and Favez.

Cellar Doors from San Francisco are leading exponents of the Third Wave of Psychedelia, and are blowing up fast on the West Coast. They have been coaxed out of their thriving undergound scene for support slots by invitation by the likes of Black Cycle Motorcycle Club, Roky Erickson, Allah-Las and more. Championed and now managed by Stephen Holt of the Inspiral Carpets, this is their highly anticipated debut album, dripping with pure power psych melody overlaid onto undulating post-punk walls of sound. Powerful, brooding and danceable at the same time, it is at once timeless and cutting edge.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Swimming in a hazy pool of languid distortion, shimmering reverb and lengthy vocal trails, Cellar Doors are a brilliantly modern take on classic psychedelia. Reminiscent of the classics of the 70's but imbued with the spirit of 90's shoegaze and 00's indie, they have managed to perfectly capture the sound of a hazy summer. Beautifully evocative and perfectly written.

Dedicated 21st Century polymath Kay Logan continues to expand her soundworld in every direction at once with her Helena Celle alias. A maximalist internal landscape of broken Jungle patterns, distorted synths and heavily warped instrumentation bent out of cognisance, If You Can’t Handle You At Your Worst, Then I Don’t Deserve Me At My Best is Logan’s most danceable, most fun and most gloriously congealed record to date.

Conceived in part as a response to her 2016 debut release If I Can’t Handle Me At My Best, You Don’t Deserve You At Your Worst, 2023’s update employs similar principles (degrading technology, the joy of chance, an outsider’s gaze onto the dance floor, an embracing of the occult) to delirious effect. If “I Can’t Handle” was lo fi and fragile in its technoid recasting of dance music, here Logan’s confidence allows a frantic playfulness that retains the spontaneity of all her output. It’s the work of a creative spirit revelling in the possibilities of sound, rhythm, texture and pattern. Helena Celle’s music opens up psychic space in front of the listener and invites them in. In this world, sounds and tropes once recognisable are rendered fractal, spectral and continually melting in and out of recognition. Simply put, Helena Celle might be detouring Drum & Bass, Techno and Breakbeat with a prankster’s grin but the result is pure ecstasy crushed into a part of the listener’s consciousness hitherto untroubled.

Opener I Did It My Way pokes fun at Sinatra but the message is clear, Helena Celle has no regrets. Sounding like a Jungle track shorn of a MC and deep fried in greasy acid, it uses cassette compression effects to push the sound far beyond the red. A breakbeat suffers multiple lashings of noise solos, heavily filtered synths and white noise blowing a crazy gale across the stereo pan. Ennobled Reception Of The Excellector (My Face When Mix) approximates French House perhaps or 90s dance chart music as performed by a rotting homunculus gurgling down the phone. It’s really that fun and carefree. Real Time... takes a stab at a kind of Techno EBM Cold Wave with no desire to sound like any of it, with waves of tape hiss rising up from some dark shore to wash over proceedings. Fellow sound artist and musician Jennifer Walton guests on the last track on Side A, an epic, fuzzed out Noise and rhythm excursion into cyber breakdown. Snow-Filled Chalice Of My Magonian Exile (titles of the year so far, right?) builds into a wall of beats, pads, manic, haywire synth patterns and a world-ending, distorted riff that points to an appreciation of Metal. The track posits all of reality as one massive computer game played by gods and this is the track played at the Game Over screen. A pixelated, fantastical club track that would simply eviscerate any club it was played in.

The whole of Side B is given over to a 20 minute epic, Original Besttrack (Abe’s Oddysee Extended Mix). A cohesive summation of the previous 4 tracks but stretched out, it recalls Aphex Twin’s furthest out tracks albeit boiled underwater, every element blown out so that even the ambient passages scramble brains and re-wire expectations. The restless, overwhelming music is glazed with a patina of hiss that renders the whole almost meditative: over the 20 minutes there is so much information to digest your brain starts plugging in directly to the music, settling in and accepting the mania as it comes. At the other end you’re wondering how you coped without it.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Though Helena Celle's musical output is undeniably made for a certain subset of electronic music appreciators, this new project sees Kay Logan's pieces get hefty reworks, morphing the intimidating scattered electronic shards into lo-fi techno, rolling industrial and fractured experimental house.

TRACK LISTING

1. I Did It My Way
2. Ennobled Reception Of The Excellector (My Face When Mix)
3. Real Time (Five Track Pentangle Edgelord Mix)
4. Snow-Filled Chalice Of My Magonian Exile (ft Jennifer Walton)
5. Original Besttrack (Abe's Oddysee Extended Mix)

Limited edition double LP with three non-CD bonus tracks. For fans of Wilco, GBV, Replacements, Big Star. Centro-Matic's music comes on like a sound from a distant dream, something new, yet unmistakably familiar.

Post apocalyptical, auditory machine-dirge signalling the shift in solar winds and featuring, amongst others Manchester finest hardware mangler, Ste Spandex. Cerberus Future Technologies is a new label featuring cosmic vibrations, interstellar energy and Orgonite-fuelled sonic communications beamed straight outta Levenshulme, MCR. This first compilation is a genuine treasure of a release. The cassette tape features 18 tracks from the galactic creative, mixed via analogue wizardry by starship commander Ste Spandex. Alongside this, purchase of the tape allows digital downloads to all tracks featured on the cassette as individual files - perfect for those DJs wishing to harness Cerberus' alien voodoo in their DJ sets. There's plenty of digital bonuses included too, but let's concentrate on the tape that you'll hopefully have in your hands. The music, as mentioned, conjures up images of a scorched Earth, after a thousand wars and conflicts have obliterated all organic life. Rather than take the sparse, barren aesthetic associated with this music metaphor, Cerberus opt for a fully crazed audio assault, filling the tape with frenetic sonic artefacts as the clattering and splurging of a thousand re-wired machines do battle against just-audible vocals and lashings of acid. Somewhere between Afrikans With Mainframes, Suicide and Ron Hardy all jamming away in a sherm stick-fuelled Muzik Box (Chicago) circa 2040AD. Fuckin' mindblowin'. Hats off to the crew for creating a new sound from our city - there's nothing like this out there at the moment pop pickers, and this surely marks a historical moment in our city's fine DIY heritage. A future classic - handily made collectable and tangible through this beautifully presented cassette tape and made accessible via its connection to the computers that we all live our life through. Essential.

For soundclips please visit:

http://cerberusfuturetechnologies.bandcamp.com/album/frequency-adjustments-volume-1

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Excellent stuff from this burgeoning East-side scene. Beaming truly otherworldly sounds into our collective consciousness, Cerberus Future Technologies could well soundtrack the beginning of a new era for mankind!

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A

Montauk Boys - Shakedown
Ste Spandex - Timequake
The Zest - Hollow Earth Disco
Ste Spandex Ft. Sarah Bates - Don't Be Shy
Montauk Boys - A Decision For The Committee
Licking Mirrors - Feed The Dog, Boy!
Ste Spandex - Inner Light Network
Ste Spandex - Never Ending
Montauk Boys - Pull The Plug Preston!

SIDE B

Ste Spandex - Action At A Distance
Licking Mirrors - Pussy Gon Cum
Montauk Boys - 900 Skulls
Ste Spandex - Drone Squad
The Zest - Beaver Machine
Licking Mirrors - Say Please To One Another
Ste Spandex - Danger Hot Liquid
Montauk Boys - Morning, Camp Hero
Montauk Boys - Swerdlow's Lasting Memories

'Post apocalyptical, auditory machine-dirge signalling the shift in solar winds and featuring, amongst others Manchester finest hardware mangler, Ste Spandex. Cerberus Future Technologies is a new label featuring cosmic vibrations, interstellar energy and Orgonite-fuelled sonic communications beamed straight outta Levenshulme, MCR.' This, their second compilation (after the first sold out in days) is another treasure of a release. The cassette tape features 17 tracks from the galactic creative, mixed via analogue wizardry by starship commander Ste Spandex. Alongside this, purchase of the tape allows digital downloads to some of the tracks featured on the cassette as individual files - perfect for those DJs wishing to harness Cerberus' alien voodoo in their DJ sets. The second volume of this essential series hints at a more dancefloor focussed, galactically tuned set; a stark contrast to the bleak, war-torn futurescapes that volume 1 conjured up. Its still completely hardware driven, and pumps and undulates as the crew only just maintain control of their powerful machines. Montauk Boy's "SBD" is an interstellar cruiser of the highest order, flying through the cosmos on a technicoloured highway straight outta F-Zero. Spandex's high octane drum workout, "Now Move Your Feet" should whip up any floor into a salivating frenzy; looping up percussion artefacts into oblivion while drawing us through a grainy, saturated tape fug. Excellent stuff; while another solo effort, "We're All Friends Here" sends us plummeting down a machine-elf occupied wormhole straight into technoid 5D; chattering gremlins and jewelled basketballs our only company. Again, the tape is mixed differently to the digital album, taking us on a more DJ-inspired journey through the tracks but as with the previous release - you get digital streams of the tape too, alongside some of the individual tracks, so you get plenty of angles to attack the tracks! Another amazing collection of music presented in a well thought-out format, the tape suiting the red-hot analogue vibrations much of the firm utilize. Highly recommended and stupendously limited - move quick!

Soundclips:

http://cerberusfuturetechnologies.bandcamp.com/album/frequency-adjustments-volume-2

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Second outing from the East Manc collective, and loosing none of that completely unique magic. The team showcasing more of their inimitable spectrum of sounds and vibrations. Future cosmic cassette classic!

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A
Kindred Dicks - Chew-Z
Ste Spandex - Breathe (Dub)
Skanky Magic - ThatOne
Ste Spandex - Burnin Up
Licking Mirrors - Rambo III
Ste Spandex - We're All Friends Here
Ste Spandex & Metrodome - Droppin Analogues
Skanky Magic - CV (Mix)

SIDE B

Montauk Boys - Photon Mirror
Skanky Magic - Talking To The Moon
Ste Spandex - Now Move Your Feet
Licking Mirrors - Daddy Never Took Me To School
Montauk Boys - Psi-ops
Ste Spandex - Breathe (Full Breath Mix)
Ste Spandex - I Fry Mine In Butter!
Montauk Boys - SBD
Kindred Dicks - The Materialization Of Winston Niles Rumfoord

Cerberus Shoal come from the state of Maine in the USA. They exist as an ever-evolving collective of musicians, who have, over more than a decade, produced 11 releases, which are quite varied in style. "The Land We All Believe In" is an exhilarating journey through the weird and wonderful realms of twisted avant-folk-pop, combining psychedelic, African, Arabic, Eastern European and other forms of music with some truly unique vocal performances.

4 track debut stomper of high energry riff smashing punk rock from that hotbed of now, Geelong / Victoria…yes, Australian spuzz at high volume… featuring members of Ausmuteants, ORB, Living Eyes and Wet Blankets. Like a blender was used on some early thrash metal, US hardcore sludge, and KBD compilations… play loud, play often. Smash your speakers. 250 copies only for the Northern Hemisphere.

"Their new track “No Life Til Cereal” taken from an upcoming 7” to be released through Anti Fade/Agitated clocks in at just over a minute but is as rowdy and rough with a nasty Flipper-like ‘ha, ha, ha’ in the chorus. Though it may not sound like it, the band are influenced as much by Wu-Tang’s 36 Chambers as they are the Goner records catalogue." NOISEY.

“…probably the coolest band in the world at the moment, a truly legit modern hardcore/punk band, and by far my favorite. It’s beyond exciting to try and help them in any and all ways we can and we’re honored to put their deliriously great new record [Jaded & Faded] out on Cult Records.” - Julian Casablancas

Jaded & Faded by Cerebral Ballzy is the band’s sophomore studio release, which follows 2011’s self-titled record. The album was recorded at Sonic Ranch outside of El Paso, Texas. Jaded & Faded is produced by David Sitek (TV on the Radio). Honor Titus describes Sitek as “...a fucking mad genius man... He knows what he wants, he knows how to get it and he stops nothing short of perfection. He’s really talented, and he’s a cool dude, we all love Dave.”

Describing his time in the studio while recording the record, Titus says “there was a lot of power-pop influence going on with [Jaded & Faded]. Dave just really honed in and made it a polished sound for us. Everyone that’s heard the second album in its entirety has just been like, you guys have stepped it up tremendously.” Jaded & Faded is mixed by David Kahne, who has previously worked with New Order, Stevie Nicks and the Strokes. Titus has described the sound of Jaded & Faded as “way more melodic… a lot of it is rooted in our favourite power pop bands like the Nerds and Blondie. Melodic punk that really holds something.

TRACK LISTING

1: Another Day
2: Fake I.D.
3: Parade Of Idiots
4: Better In Leather
5: City's Girl
6: Lonely As America
7: Downtown
8: Speed Wobbles
9: Fast Food
10: Off With Your Head
11: Pretty In The City
12: Be Your Toy
13: All I Ever Wanted

Ceremony make their Relapse Records debut with their highly ambitious new album, 'In the Spirit World Now'! The album sees Ceremony at the height of their creative output, as the always-evolving Rohnert Park quintet take various influences from post punk and rock to create one of the summer's most compelling and infectious records. "In the Spirit World Now" is full of layered sonic fury and anxiety, each song building up to a point and then descending down through a militant, catchy hook. “Turn Away the Bad Thing” sets the tone, guitars climbing around the driving bass line, as Ross Farrar sings, “It’s getting harder for me to be alright/Eyes adjusting to the dark/The momentum of all these last resorts built inside of me.” Songs like “Presaging the End” and “Calming Water” feel romantic and distressed, while “Further I Was” and “Years of Love” are driven by Farrar’s rebellious energy as he repeats the hook with a deadpan realness. “Years of love can be forgotten/In the hatred of a day.” But the true stand-out is the title track, “In the Spirit World Now”, a haunting pop gem with a sticky chorus and lead synth riff that plants itself in your head as Farrar chants the track’s name over and over like a mantra. “In the Spirit World Now" is a sort of nebulous and ectoplasmic place where things may not be quite what they seem,” he says. “It means sh*t is about to get weird.” The album marks a milestone for this Northern California punk outfit who have stayed true to themselves as songwriters throughout massive sonic growth throughout their storied career.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: From the fractured art-punk aesthetic of Wire or even bits of Sonic Youth, through wide-spanning cinematic shoegaze majesty and grungy snarling anthems, Ceremony have crafted a brilliantly varied and thoroughly enthralling collection of snappy punk anthems mixed with a huge variety of influences.

TRACK LISTING

1. Turn Away The Bad Thing
2. In The Spirit World Now
3. Further I Was
4. /
5. Presaging The End
6. Say Goodbye To Them
7. We Can Be Free
8. //
9. Years Of Love
10. Never Gonna Die Now
11. I Want More
12. From Another Age
13. ///
14. Calming Water

From London to Ibiza via Berlin, inspired by Chigago and Detroit, Ceri finds her truth in proper house music. ‘Can’t Pay My Bills’ EP provides a message of hope during uncertain times. Acknowledged as a “rising selector” by Crack Magazine, producer, label boss and record digger Ceri steps into 2024 with a brand-new EP ‘Can’t Pay My Bills” via her imprint “Find Your Own Records”.

“The title track is inspired by the current economic situation in the world, and also features a positive message that reflects the values and true origins of house music, reinforcing the belief that we can overcome our circumstances and improve our situation” - Ceri


The new four track EP drips with Chicago, New York and Detroit jackin’ house with garage influence, and a sprinkle of ripping UK breakbeat for good measure. The people’s producer D'Julz steps up, on remix duties, contributing not one but two remixes to the label’s ongoing message of artist authenticity and collaboration. The remixes will be vinyl only, and the originals will see a digital release later in the year.

“I have collected D'Julz music for many years, his label started around the same time I started DJing, and it was and still is, one of the few labels that I buy on sight. I know it will always be quality. Something I aspire to do with my label too.”– Ceri

As an artist led label 'Find Your Own Records’ has become a home for genuine house legends Mr G, Fred P, Alex Arnout, and has rightly gained support from Mixmag, Resident Advisor, BBC Radio 1, BB6Music and BBC1Xtra.


As a DJ Ceri has performed marathon sets at Fabric, Corsica Studios, Pikes Ibiza, Thisishaven, and recently made her debut at the legendary Panorama Bar/Berghain. Confidently sharing the booth with club favourites Ryan Elliot, Jeremy Underground, Paranoid London and Objekt it’s certain the next year of live shows will be ones to remember for the UK artist. Inspiring far beyond the dancefloor, Ceri also regularly steps up as a masterclass host / panelist on creativity, mental health, meditation and wellness with renowned platforms Beatport, ADE, RedBull, Point Blank and Native Instruments, earning her a distinctive reputation as a multifaceted artist and thought leader.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Ceri 'Can't Pay My Bills' - Original Mix
A2. Ceri 'Ay Papi' - Original Mix
B1. Ceri 'Can't Pay My Bills' - D'Julz Remix
B2. Ceri 'Can't Pay My Bills' - D'Julz Dub

No introduction needed here – the French disco maestro, multi million record selling genius Cerrone lands a brand new synthesised and symphonic, signature disco workout ‘A Part Of You’ on his own label Malligator Préférence. A track that sounds as big and beefy as you’d expect from a man that has been making certified hits since the mid ‘70s, with four versions laid out in all their glittering glory, from the ‘Club Mix’ and Original on the A side, to the ‘Club Instrumental’ and Edit Instrumental’ on the B. A genuine must have for any lover of feel-good grooves.

TRACK LISTING

A1. A Part Of You And Me (Club Mix)
A2. A Part Of You And Me (Original Version)
B1. A Part Of You (Club Mix Instrumental)
B2. A Part Of You (Edit Instrumental)

Cerrone, the Godfather of disco, is celebrating his 50th career anniversary revisiting himself and with some guests all his classic tracks. “Cerrone by Cerrone” : 16 cult and classic hits reworked & mixed by Cerrone himself. A true celebration of the glitterball and Saturday nights out on the tiles! You'll recognize half the joints on offer but they come with some surprising twists and turns along the way! There's also remixes from Dimitri, Dave Lee, The Reflex and Mercer across a bumper packed and really quite extensive excursion. Recommended! 

TRACK LISTING

A SIDE
1. Give Me Love
2. My Desire
3. Got To Have Lovin'
4. Look For Love (The Reflex Revision)
5. The Only One (Mercer Remix)
B SIDE
1. Cerrone's Paradise (Joey Negro Soulful Mix)
2. Love In C Minor (Dimitri From Paris Remix)
3. Je Suis Music
4. Standing In The Rain
C SIDE
1. Call Me Tonight
2. Took Me So Long
3. The Impact
4. Hooked On You
D SIDE
1. You Are The One
2. Striptease
3. Supernature

'Cerrone’s 17th album "DNA" opens with "The Impact", a throbbing track of bendy entanglements all with an environmental stance. Halfway through, we’re treated to an excerpt of a speech from Jane Goodall, the world-famous primatologist and ethnologist: “Every single day we make some impact on the planet. We haven’t inherited this planet from our parents. We’ve borrowed it from our children. If we get together, then we can start to heal some of the scars that we’ve inflicted.” It’s hard not to draw comparisons with Supernature, in which Cerrone declared his first warning about man’s impact on the planet, 43 years ago.

This nine-track concept album is built on wandering contours and magnetic sparkle, from which bursts saturated oppressive synth pads ("Obsession"), a nod to PinkFloyd ("DNA"), and dramatic soundscapes ("Close To The Sky", "Experience") and clammy atmospheres that are delightedly languid. “What if I told you that the idea for Air Dreaming came to me after watching a video of a parachute jump featuring naked parachutists? When people ask me whether I’m still inspired by love and sex today, naturally my answer is yes.” Cerrone doesn’t deprive himself either of pushing Kraftwerk’s logic of unleashing robots on the dance floor (“I’ve got a rocket”, ”Let Me feel”), as his songs appeal to both the intellect and the body’s desire to move. “Let me dream, let me see, let me feel.”What better mantra for bringing this album full circle.

TRACK LISTING

The Impact
Resolution
Air Dreaming
DNA
I've Got A Rocket
Let Me Feel
Close To The Sky
Experience
Prediction

Cex's initial rise to fame came from a series of warm, skittery instrumental albums showcasing a dark mix of hard dance production and atmospheric ebb and flow. Recorded for a couple of highly respected electronic labels (Tigerbeat6 and 555). Hence the natural decision to release an instrumental version of his "Being Ridden" album. As an added bonus, there are three exclusive instrumental tracks on this disc that are not included on the vocal version!

Trust is hard, but trusting yourself is harder. Are the decisions you make the right ones? Is it worth taking risks if there’s no one around to talk you out of it? Is it brave to follow your arrow without knowing where that arrow will lead, or is it better to exercise caution? L.A. punk shredder Charles Moothart wrestled with some of these quandaries while making his second solo album under the CFM moniker, Dichotomy Desaturated. “I love working with other people,” he explains, “But there’s always been that side of me where I’ve wondered, “Can I do this without having someone tell me that it’s acceptable or good?’” Suffice to say, he pulled it off, and with aplomb, too.

This latest release is a toothy, swirling collection of songs that captures a variety of sonic moods—raucous, pastoral, pensive—while retaining an indelible melodic punch. The Laguna Beach-raised Moothart first picked up a guitar at 12 years old and got behind the drum kit for the Moonhearts at the age of 16 with fellow Cali six-string ripper Mikal Cronin. Since then, the 27-year-old journeyman has become a fixture in the West Coast community: he’s logged oodles of studio and stage time with Cronin and Ty Segall—both on his solo albums and as part of the ultra-heavy supergroup Fuzz, the latter experience driving him to make music on his own.

He struck out on his own with 2016’s solo debut, Still Life of Citrus and Slime; a year later, he’s back with this, which marks the first time Moothart’s written songs for the specific purpose of compiling them onto an album. This album embraces relative quiet alongside hardcharging riffs and bursts of incendiary color— there’s plenty of face-exploding moments on Dichotomy Desaturated as well, a sense of mischief that is nonetheless serious as all hell. Just listen to the record— the choice is obvious.

TRACK LISTING

1. Dichotomy
2. Pinch The Dream
3. Lethal Look
4. Rise & Fall
5. Saline/The Man/Kind To You
6. Voyeurs
7. The Set Up
8. Desaturated
9. Dead Weight
10. Message From The Mirror

Charles Moothart is releasing his third album under the moniker CFM. It’s called Soundtrack For An Empty Room and keeps it cookin’ off 2016’s Still Life Of Citrus And Slime and 2017’s Dichotomy Desaturated. Moothart is a frequent contributor on many of Ty Segall’s solo ventures but also as a co-conspirator in bands like the blazing jam unit Fuzz, and a fantastic monster of a group called GØGGS, which throws Segall and Moothart in with Chris Shaw of Ex-Cult. Something that’s immediately apparent on this album is that it’s a harder record than its predecessors. The shift isn’t subtle but it is tremendously cool. A lot of the material was written while Moothart was on tour with Segall and working on the GØGGS Pre Strike Sweep album. The first two CFM efforts gave Moothart the experience to work effectively on his own in the studio, the live shows infuse this with the confidence and attitude that comes from a lot of nights playing where there are no second takes. It is an exciting follow up and further proof that Moothart is one of those people with a lot of music in him.

“If I may speak completely for myself. It’s musicians like Charles, Ty, Chris Shaw, John Dwyer, Tim Presley and Mikal Cronin who are not only revitalizing Independent Music, but have forced the idea of the monolithic album, endless tour and then a year before another release to be but an antiquated and megaboring option. It’s a blast trying to keep up with their output. Super exciting. Lastly, all three CFM albums are great but Soundtrack To An Empty Room is the best one. It rips from start to finish.” - Henry Rollins.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A brilliant outing from one of the core members of some of the alt-underground's most blazing acts, CFM finds our charles in full fuzzy force, ripping through mind-melting riffage, covered in distortion and with no shortage of groove. Awesome stuff.

TRACK LISTING

1. Black Cat
2. Sequence
3. Street Vision
4. Greenlight
5. Lovely
6. Crashing Through The Static
7. Soundtrack To An Empty Room
8. River
9. Peace

CFM is Charles Francis Moothart. He has been making records for the past decade, playing various instruments in various bands—bass in The Epsilons, drums in The Moonhearts, and guitar in The Ty Segall Band and, most recently, Fuzz. Still Life of Citrus and Slime is Moothart’s first solo effort and it’s a great one.

Moothart says, “Still Life of Citrus and Slime—the idea of creating something outside of the comfort zone. Blending basic elements of necessity, release and escape. An attempt to fuse reality with the elusions of the possible. The music represents an elevation beyond the barriers of linear motion and self-doubt. It is similar to looking in a mirror and realizing that time trails itself constantly by just a millisecond. You cannot kill time, and you cannot exist on both sides of the reflex. Yet, to bridge the gap is to eliminate instinct and output in their purest forms.

“This record is a portrait of a person navigating the mechanics of two distinct machines. The first—the brain. The second—the Tascam 388. Eight tracks and a quarter-inch path to maneuver to the summation. The songs simmer from rare to well done. No matter the cut, the meat is fresh and still vibrating with life. “Fast, slow, wonky and straight. There are moments of everything in these grooves. At times it feels like it could come apart at the seams, but it doesn’t. It grabs the thread, bites the end, pulls it tight and continues the experiment. It’s rock ’n’ roll, and that’s all. The greener grass is browning on the other side. The drought is here to stay. The only way out of this mess is to put your head down and do the right thing. Keep moving, keep trying, keep creating, and project any positivity possible. Of course it is much easier to succumb to the wolf. Just forget about it, and pretend it is out of your control. Thankfully the wolf let down his guard. Having found refuge in a blanket of heartache and a bottle of wine, he took a cat nap in a manger of confusion.”

TRACK LISTING

1. You Can't Kill Time
2. Brain Of Clay
3. Lunar Heroine
4. Street Car History
5. Glass Eye
6. Slack
7. Habit Creeps
8. Clearly Confusion
9. Purple Spine
10. The Wolf Behind My Eyes
11. Still Life Of Citrus And Slime

In the words of Mac DeMarco: “Eddie Chacon is planet earth’s number one musician. Yesterday, today, and forever.”

"'The soulful singer had a worldwide hit with 1992’s Would I Lie to You, but he was dropped and his musical partner died. Now, he has poured his pain into a cathartic comeback album''

Eddie Chacon experienced proper, peak-nineties acclaim in the soul duo Charles and Eddie: they scored a global No. 1 in 1992 with “Would I Lie To You,” appeared three times on Top of the Pops, and featured on soundtracks from True Romance to Super Mario Bros..

Produced by John Carroll Kirby, the like-minded artist and collaborator with Frank Ocean and Solange Knowles, it features restrained percussion from Kanye West’s Sunday Service drummer Lamar Carter. Celestial soul as a break from chaos, these are quietly challenging songs as timeless as they are contemporary.

By that time, Chacon had already been navigating music in interesting ways, all the way back to his teen garage rock band with the late Cliff Burton (Metallica) and Mike Bordin (Faith No More). In the late ’80s, he released a full-length on Uncle Luke from 2 Live Crew’s label and signed to Columbia as a solo act. He was a working artist, always popping up in unexpected places: through the course of his career, Chacon would write, sing, or produce ten Top 40 hits around the globe.

Years ago, Chacon retired from music for a second calling as a fashion photographer and creative director. In an interview at the time, he said, “I was fortunate to have a 35-year music career and felt that there wasn’t that much more for me to say or achieve.” Very thankfully, that’s no longer the case. Private experiments, far from the major-label center he once frequented, began to feel urgent and new. “There’s nothing more exciting for me than getting to start from the beginning again,” he says today.

“Pleasure, Joy and Happiness” will be available on the boutique Los Angeles-based label Day End Records. This is a thoughtfully considered album of quiet, confident R&B: it doesn’t jump out at you, but rather gets in you.

Produced by John Carroll Kirby, the like-minded artist and collaborator with Frank Ocean and Solange Knowles, it features restrained percussion from Kanye West’s Sunday Service drummer Lamar Carter. Celestial soul as a break from chaos, these are quietly challenging songs as timeless as they are contemporary.

“What a rare and cool challenge it was for me to help Eddie re-emerge after a long hiatus,” says John Carroll Kirby. “I was excited to produce a record for him that captured the chill, laid-back wisdom and easy vocal mastery he has that you don’t see that much these days.”

Lead single “My Mind Is Out of Its Mind” finds a deep groove to try and contain spiraling heartbreak, while the sweet and wobbly “Trouble” balances the delightful near whisper of the title track “Pleasure, Joy and Happiness.” But even the project’s lightest moments feel sincere and mature. Altogether: a truly unifying release, coming from a man who’s earned the right to share such a regal, romantic sound.

“I used to think to myself,” Chacon says, “if I ever make a record again, I’d want it to be a record you’d have to be my age to make.”

TRACK LISTING

A1. Trouble
A2. Hurt
A3. Outside
A4. My Mind Is Out Of It's Mind
B1. Pleasure Joy & Happiness
B2. Papa
B3. Wicked World
B4. Above Below

'The "Blouse N Skirt" EP was made in a month long period and is my most cohesive EP to date. It features my signature wubs with a few deeper cuts. "Blouse & Skirt" has been mashing up the dances for a hot minute and I'm stoked to finally make it available to the masses on the fabulous DEEP MEDi" - Chad. 

Wubs for days indeed. Chad Dubz' wubs (say that after a bumps of K) are some of the deepest we've heard for a while, and his techy beat palette and sfx squiggles and lasers elevate this into primo dubstep territory. Chuck in some complimentary rastaman vox, tones of echo chamber tomfoolery and eerie, ghosty melodies and you'll see why this has got us shaking in our subwoofers.

Massive new one from the instituion that his DEEP MEDi - don't sleep. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Trouser shaking, argy bargy dubstep from the label that'd shape the very direction of the genre through its golden era. Gotta say I'm loving it!

TRACK LISTING

A1. Blouse N Skirt
A2. Made By Nature
B1. Judgement
B2. Night Ride

Me And Ennui Are Friends, Baby is the latest full-length from New Zealand-born, Melbourne-based singer-songwriter, Sarah Mary Chadwick, whose brutally honest songwriting has cast her contrary to the gentleness of most current music. Comprised entirely of minimal solo piano arrangements, the album is despondently clear-eyed and smirkingly self-deprecating, completing a trilogy of records that started with The Queen Who Stole The Sky recorded on Melbourne Town Hall’s grand organ, and her only outing to date featuring a full band, Please Daddy. Each record has followed Chadwick’s internal processing after a traumatic event, with Chadwick’s zeal for psychoanalysis front and center. On Ennui, Chadwick presents an exacting intensity with her choice to pare back to piano and vocals. It’s in this stark setting that she focuses on the attempt she made on her life in 2019. The methods Chadwick employed here contrast those of her previous full-band record, which thrust her into a very different world of rehearsal, planning, restraint and control as a functional tool. The result, 2020’s critically acclaimed Please Daddy, was her most aching and engaging achievement to date: “a raw, often unnerving experience,” which “delivers compelling and uplifting catharsis” (Mojo). Recording Ennui shortly after those sessions, Chadwick concludes her trilogy by returning to the most immediate compositional process she can muster, doing it alone, with less between her and the microphone than ever before. Joined by long time production collaborators, Me And Ennui was mastered by David Walker at Stepford Audio and mixed and recorded by Geoff O’Connor at Vanity Lair—both expertly bringing scale, subtlety and intangible ascendence to this recording. 

The Japanese band CHAI cast a spell on the world in 2017 with their debut album, PINK, a collection of songs that introduced their singular brand of playful pop. The enthusiastically feminist follow-up, PUNK, raked in accolades from the music press and fellow artists. That led to WINK, which CHAI made via remote Zoom sessions, a limitation that became a strength by allowing MANA (lead vocals and keys), KANA (guitar), YUNA (drums), and YUUKI (bassist-lyricist) to collaborate with artists abroad to create a work that found catharsis in their international community.

Unlike WINK, the band’s new self-titled album finds CHAI returning to their roots, drawing inspiration from their Japanese heritage and the music that raised them. “Everything reflected in the lyrics expresses our experience as Japanese women,” MANA says. CHAI’s ethos is one of inclusion, and lead single “We The Female!” – recorded live to honor the band’s riotous performances – beckons listeners into the mission. “We are human and were born as female, but we have both female and male aspects in each of our souls, each with our own sense of balance,” CHAI said in an accompanying statement. “We can’t just label ourselves into clear-cut, simple categories anymore! I’m not anyone else but just ‘me,’ and you are no one else but just ‘you.’ This song celebrates that with a roar!”

During their post-pandemic touring, performing for enormous crowds in cities like Santiago, Buenos Aires, and São Paulo made CHAI realize they had unlocked a global audience. CHAI wrote the new record on the road, finding time to record in the days between shows at Stones Throw Studio in LA, Ometusco Sound Machine in Mexico City, and Grand Street in New York. As they realized their liberatory, empowering message applied to people outside of Japan, CHAI considered what facets of their upbringing might resonate with audiences outside of their home country.

On CHAI, the band draws directly from city pop, a Tokyo-born sound popularized in the ‘70s and ‘80s. City pop was a Japanese take on Western lounge music, borrowing from jazz, boogie, funk, and yacht rock to create a sound that straddled two cultures. While city pop has recently found a US audience via TikTok and YouTube, CHAI grew up on the genre. For production, they tapped previous collaborator Ryu Takahashi, who shared their love of city pop, eurobeat, and the melodies of J-pop artists like Maria Takeuchi. “They wanted to dig into their Japanese identity, not in a traditional sense, but in this filtered Western way,” Takahashi says. Working well-equipped studios allowed them to experiment with aesthetics as-yet-unheard on a CHAI album. For example, at Stones Throw Studio, CHAI recorded “GAME” with the sole intention of writing something listeners will recognize as new wave, riding on a house synth line and minimalist production that recalls the eurobeat influences most recently associated with Robyn’s Honey. “GAME” might be the perfect distillation of CHAI’s ethic, as it urges listeners to keep moving through this life with joy and passion. Per MANA: “It’s not about winning or losing as competition, but about what you need to do, personally, to feel you’ve won.”

TRACK LISTING

MATCHA
From 1992
PARA PARA
GAME
We The Female!
NEO KAWAII, K?
I Can't Organizeeee
Driving22
LIKE, I NEED
KARAOKE

Chain & The Gang are different than the rest—you won’t see their name on the garbage heap of hyped bands pushed by paidoff web-zine tastemakers. They’re not “jingle-core,” tattooed onto your subconscious via Madison Avenue mind-control ad campaigns. They’re not middle brow NPR indie-listening for Prius-owning cubicle rockers or a tiresome teenage retread of ’90s surrender sludge. No, Chain & The Gang are singular, terrifying, and unparalleled. Not only the most ferocious live combo ever witnessed but also the world’s only anti-liberty rock ’n’ roll group. Their motto? “Down with Liberty … Up with Chains!”

This band doesn’t care about grades, likes, traffic or hits. They don’t petition publicists for goofy hype or pander to the corrupt institutions who molest rock ’n’ roll and use it as their plaything. Chain & Co. don’t play that game. They want total destruction of the insipid rock ’n’ roll status quo and the foul system from which it purports to offer relief, but in fact keeps afloat. They’ve released five uncompromising records, each one a brilliant, tossed-off sketchbook of insolence and provocation: Down with Liberty … Up With Chains!, Music’s Not For Everyone, In Cool Blood, Minimum Rock ’n’ Roll, and Experimental Music.

Now only one is needed: Best Of Crime Rock. Just recorded, it’s easily the best record, with the most passion, the most accuracy, the most cunning, and the most vigor. Every song on these records is a classic, each lyric an anthem. The tunes are simplistic to the point of parody; call and response rhythm chants which infiltrate the consciousness and leave the listener forever transformed. Each group member is a star. But together they’re something greater than the parts. An irresistible combo that provides the best hope for the future and the only answer to the embarrassing slime pit called “culture.”

TRACK LISTING

1. Devitalize
2. Certain Kinds Of Trash
3. Why Not?
4. The Logic Of Night
5. I See Progress
6. What Is A Dollar?
7. Mums The Word
8. Free Will
9. Come Over
10. Livin Rough
11. Nuff Said
12. Deathbed Confession

Welsh post-punk unit Chain Of Flowers return with their lofty and long-simmering sophomore full-length, rich with reckonings, reverb, and redemption: Never Ending Space. Despite some of the songs dating back a few years, the record first began materialising in earnest during the pandemic, by which point most of the band had relocated from Cardiff to London. Reunited and rejuvenated, they picked up where they left off, booking two multi-day sessions at Hackney hub Total Refreshment Centre with producer Jonah Falco. In this time they successfully channelled their kinetic chemistry into 10 full-blooded anthems of torn dreams, poetic delirium, and “hope stretched too far.”

Musically, Never Ending Space skews notably more maximal than the group’s previous work, fleshed out with trumpets, saxophone, synth, percussion boxes, and spoken word. (Smith jokingly calls them The Chain Of Flowers Orchestra). Yet the songs still swing and soar with a charged heart, ripe with hooks, drama and ragged melody. Opener “Fire (In The Heart Of Hearts)” stirs to life on a tide of wiry guitar and defiant horns, facing down the embers of love that still glow in the wake of pain: “Peace came tumbling like a shower of bricks / The mind twists slowly till everything fits.” A tense energy ripples throughout – from the nocturnal rush of “Serving Purpose” and “Amphetamine Luck” to the bruised battle cries of “Torcalon” and “Old Human Material.” Outliers like “Praying Hands, Turtle Doves” hint at proggy possible futures, while instrumental vignette “Anomia” offers an intriguing glimpse at a lesser heard facet of the band: swaying, shadowy, subdued.

The album’s title track is also its closing cut, a stomping, sparkling ode to “the wrong side of the night, where time goes to die.” Smith describes the scene: “Everyone’s talking, screaming, trauma bonding, but no one’s listening. Broken dialogue. Shouting over each other. You want to switch off, but everyone’s too fucked.” The guitars spiral and slide towards the oblivion of dawn, the chance to crash and do it all again. The song’s refrain captures the elision of time, spilling through the haze of days, from chaos to acceptance: “I can’t see the clock through the shrouds of smoke / Does it matter? / Common ground / In a never ending space.”

TRACK LISTING

1. Fire (In The Heart Of Hearts)
2. Cosmic Whip
3. Serving Purpose
4. Praying Hands, Turtle Doves
5. Amphetamine Luck
6. Torcalon
7. The Wall
8. Old Human Material
9. Anomia
10. Never Ending Space

Japanese culture has long since developed a fascination with the cute, the innocent, the throwaway; it’s termed ‘kawaii’, more of a cult than a concept, and it runs through the veins of incoming hyper-animated four-piece Chai.

Hailing from Japan’s Nagoya region, the band formed around identical twins Mana and Kana, before close friends Yuna and Yuuki completed the line up.

Imagine a world dominated by bright colours and squeaky clean plastic, where endless cartoons and guilt-free meal times combine to offer hymns to empowerment, and a rejection of the mundane. Imagine Chai’s electrifying, hallucinatory, but wonderfully real debut mini-album ‘Pink’.

Plugged in to pop culture on a 24/7 basis, Chai practically have modems for stomachs and phone lines for veins. Just the first glitter-strewn belch to eminate from Chai, ‘Pink’ is the kind of guilt-free hyper-pop overdose you’ve waited your entire life to hear. It’s cute, but beneath the surface there’s a whole new world to explore.

TRACK LISTING

Hi Hi Baby
N.E.O
Boyz Seco Men
Horechatta
Fried
She Is Kitty

Japanese four-piece CHAI may worship at the altar of kawaii - their homeland’s culture of cute– but they’re not about to be pushed around by the idle bosses and the ignorant patriarchy. The ultra-concise garage-pop race of their debut LP PINK is about to be overhauled on their new album. CHAI are ready to light the fuse; CHAI are PUNK.

“’PUNK’ for us, of course, is not the genre of music,” say the band. “‘PUNK’ to us is to overturn the worn-out values associated with ‘kawaii’ or ‘cute’ created up until this point. ‘PUNK’ is a word that expresses a strong sense of self. To be yourself more, to become the person you truly want to be, to believe in yourself in every instance!”

First single ‘Fashionista’ is a rebellious demand for self-acceptance in the face of society’s pressures: “Even if you don’t dress or do your makeup like how society expects you too, you’re still a “Fashionista” by expressing yourself how you want to. You decide what you want to wear, how you want to look, what you don’t want to wear, and that is what makes you a Fashionista!”

At the core of CHAI’s music is the concept of "Neo-Kawaii." They outlined to concept in several interviews in 2018. In Pitchfork's Rising interview, it's described as "a move towards the embrace and celebration of human imperfection. 'Neo-Kawaii' is properly summarized on the single 'N.E.O.' from PINK, which directly comments on oppressive beauty standards, offering a list of supposed imperfections that translate to 'Small eyes/Flat nose/No shape/Fat legs!' CHAI seek to reclaim them as perfect."

On ‘GREAT JOB’ CHAI compare house work to ridding yourself from all negativity. “Some people look at house work as a negative duty but it’s actually a positive duty that represents a refreshed, new you.” Yuuki picks up on this: “Of course we want to continue show our style of positivity-meets-pop but in life there’s definitely times of sadness, times of frustration and even irritating moments that with ‘PUNK’, we want everyone to know can be used as energy to fuel the positivity from the negativity”.

Lead singer and keyboardist Mana reflects this mood, this search for something heavier, but still retaining their ultra-pop framework. Maybe it’s the huge success in their native Japan, or even their cult status in the UK, touring alongside Superorganism last year – whatever the reason, there’s a silent change. She adds: “We feel a stronger sense of self… we want to create music with deeper meaning, we want to release more of our individuality”.

This inner strength comes out in the music. If PINK was a plastic, hyper-bright introduction then PUNK is a deeper, less blinding but more impactful graduation. It’s the movement from vivid orange to slow-burning red. Drummer Yuna adds: “Compared with our first album, PUNK represents a more concentrated version of all of our individualities”. Or as guitarist Kana puts it: “Everything has a PUNCH!”

Yuuki crafted the irrepressible album sleeve, with a laughing girl bursting through a shell. The message, they say, is clear: “Hello, New Me!” You under-estimate CHAI at your peril.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Chai is a fascinating middleground between clashing snarling punk (a-la Lovely Eggs etc), and the ever-increasing wave of synthy J-Pop. Brilliantly nuanced at points but swimming with the kind of carefree frivolity and funky grooves that make this an essential soundtrack to the summer.

TRACK LISTING

1 CHOOSE GO!
2 GREAT JOB
3 I'm Me
4 Wintime
5 THIS IS CHAI
6 Fashionista
7 FAMILY MEMBER
8 Curly Adventure
9 Feel The BEAT
10 Future

'Moth' is Chairlift's third studio album. 'Moth' was written and produced by the Chairlift duo - comprised of writer / producers and multi-instrumentalists Caroline Polachek and Patrick Wimberly - over the course of two years in the band's own studio, which they built in an old pharmaceutical factory in Brooklyn, NY. Throughout the recording process, Patrick and Caroline both pursued other recording projects and collaborations - from Caroline penning a song for Beyonce and collaborating with SBTRCT and Blood Orange, to Patrick producing for Solange and Wet. Alongside these collaborations, Moth was born. It has strong pop and R&B leanings, but pared with their own distinctly Chairlift style, and led by Caroline's flawless and expressive vocals. The result is Chairlift's most commercial-sounding album to date. An evolution from their last album, 2012's Something, Moth is a very New York City inspired album. Listeners can expect to be led through an aural mix of big, rich pop inspired hooks, vibrating bass, lively brass and sensuous R&B inspired vocals, all anchored in the duo's meticulously crafted instrumentation.

TRACK LISTING

1. Look Up
2. Polymorphing
3. Romeo
4. Ch-Ching
5. Crying In Public
6. Ottawa To Osaka
7. Moth To The Flame
8. Show U Off
9. Unfinished Business
10. No Such Thing As Illusion

Since breaking out in 2018, CHAI have been associated with explosive joy. At their live shows, the Japanese four-piece of identical twins MANA (lead vocals and keys) and KANA (guitar), drummer YUNA, and bassist-lyricist YUUKI have become known for buoyant displays of eclectic and clever songwriting, impressive musicianship, matching outfits, delightful choreography, and sheer relief. At the core of their music, CHAI have upheld a stated mission to deconstruct the standards of beauty and cuteness that can be so oppressive in Japan. Following the release of 2019’s second album PUNK, CHAI’s adventures took them around the world, to music festivals like Primavera Sound and Pitchfork Music Festival, and touring with indie-rock mainstays like Whitney and Mac DeMarco.

Like all musicians, CHAI spent 2020 forced to rethink the fabric of their work and lives. But CHAI took this as an opportunity to shake up their process and bring their music somewhere thrillingly new. Having previously used their maximalist recordings to capture the exuberance of their live shows, with the audiences’ reactions in mind, CHAI instead focused on crafting the slightly-subtler and more introspective kinds of songs they enjoy listening to at home—where, for the first time, they recorded all of the music. Amidst the global shutdown, CHAI worked on Garageband and traded their song ideas—which they had more time than ever to consider—over Zoom and phone calls, turning their limitations into a strength.

Their third full-length and first for Sub Pop, WINK contains CHAI’s mellowest and most minimal music, and also their most affecting and exciting songwriting by far. While the band leaned into a more personal sound, WINK is also the first CHAI album to feature contributions from outside producers (Mndsgn, YMCK) as well as a feature from the Chicago rapper-singer Ric Wilson. CHAI draw R&B and hip-hop into their mix (Mac Miller, the Internet, and Brockhampton were on their minds) of dance-punk and pop-rock, all while remaining undeniably CHAI. Whether in relation to this newfound sense of openness or their at-home ways of composing, the theme of WINK is to challenge yourself.

WINK is a fitting title then: a subtle but bold gesture. A wink is an unselfconscious act of conviction, or as CHAI puts it: “A person who winks is a person with a pure heart, who lives with flexibility, who does what they want. A person who winks is a person who is free.” YUUKI noted that “With this album, we’re winking at you. We’re living freely and we hope that when you listen, you can wink and live freely, too.”

CHAI came to see the album—with its home-y feel—as a collection where each song is like a new friend, something comforting to rely on and reach out to, as the album was for them throughout 2020. This impulse towards connection is in WINK’s title, too. After the “i” of their debut album PINK and the “u” of PUNK—which represented the band’s act of introducing themselves, and then of centering their audiences—they have come full circle with the “we” of WINK. It signals CHAI’s relationship with the outside world, an embrace of profound togetherness. Through music, as CHAI said, “we are all coming together.” In that act of opening themselves up, CHAI grew into their best work: “This album showed us, we’re ready to do more.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A vibrant mix of deep, grooving disco beats and perfectly effervescent production has come to characterise the CHAI experience, and 'Wink' is absolutely the peak of this aesthetic. Brilliantly playful but ram-packed with moments of sheer synthy perfection, CHAI really are one of the most exciting bands around at the moment.

TRACK LISTING

Donuts Mind If I Do
Maybe Chocolate Chips (feat. Ric Wilson)
ACTION
END
PING PONG! (feat. YMCK)
Nobody Knows We Are Fun
It's Vitamin C
IN PINK (feat. Mndsgn)
KARAAGE
Miracle
Wish Upon A Star
Salty

The time has finally come to grab your capes, don a pair of tights and load up the turntable ready for the show to begin. This is "Adventures Of A Reluctant Super Hero" - prepare for the Purple Assassin and the Scratchman as they come and save your city, the scene and hip-hop as we know it.

Featuring a who’s-who of collabs and guest appearances from hip-hop royalty, this 14-track record takes you to just about every corner of the genre, leaving no stone unturned. With Lyrics Born and Gift Of Gab joining on "Guard The Fort" to deliver a serious statement of intent to open the LP, the rest of the record is an adventure through funk, breaks, rolling basslines, buckets of groove and everything in-between.

Throw in a generous portion of expertly delivered bars and vocals from genre sidekicks like Harry Shotta, Skye (Morcheeba), Omar, Dynamite MC and more, and you’re left with a hip-hop record that not even the comic books could have conceived.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Hip Hop continues to be a dominating force as trap, grime and rap vie for the spotlight. Chali 2na & Krafty Kuts bring that old skool boom-bap flavour and keep us noddin' till sun down. Ffffressh!

TRACK LISTING

Endtro
Guard The Fort - Ft. Lyrics Born & Gift Of Gab
Bruce 2na 
Distance
Superheroes Anonymous - Ft. Jake, Ang 13, Dynamite, MC Spyce, Harry
Shotta, Jake The Detonator
South Coast Rocks
Superhero Kit
Black Vapor 
Feel The Power - Ft. Skye (Morcheeba)
Worth Fighting For - Ft. Omar
Waste No Time - Ft. Dynamite MC
Stay Tuned
Heartbroken Ft. Skye (Morcheeba)
Skillz - Ft. Joe Charman

Fresh from winning ‘Best Live Act’ at NI Music Prize 2023, Chalk relentless ascent continues to gather thrilling pace, with EP lead single ‘The Gate’ landing on the BBC 6 Music playlist (alongside PJ Harvey, IDLES, Sampha) to kick off 2024, whilst widespread praise throughout the press community (The Independent, NME, DIY, Dork, So Young, The New Cue, Rough Trade, Consequence of Sound) has certainly positioned the trio at the very forefront of the emerging indie elite.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Gate
2. Claw
3. Kevlar
4. Bliss

From Bryan Ferry’s side on stage for the past decade to lighting up your night sky with a neon symphony, Jorja Chalmers’ debut album "Human Again"

In 2004 Jorja Chalmers moved to London from Sydney, Australia with zero cash, her saxophone & a massive crush on an English boy she met while he was visiting Australia. Fast forward 3 years later and Bryan Ferry’s assistant caught Jorja performing at a nightclub in London. The next day she received a message inviting her to audition for his band. She met Ferry at his studio, played some Roxy Music tunes & as anyone who has caught one of Ferry’s live shows of the past 10+ years knows, has been a salient addition to his band ever since.

"Human Again" was written & recorded by Jorja in hotel rooms after performing Roxy Music & Bryan Ferry songs drenched in sweat each night. Finishing touches were added & distilled inside Ferry’s London studio & then brushed by Johnny Jewel’s glittering hands with Dean Hurley at the legendary Asymmetrical Studio in the Hollywood Hills. The combination is intoxicating. "Human Again" bottles that stark loneliness the artist faces night after night on the road. Sonically, the album explores the spaciousness alive inside the minimalism of Bowie & Eno’s "Low", her vocal reflects early Laurie Anderson alongside the troubled smoke of Badalamenti’s score for "Lost Highway", & the impeding doom of Goblin. Chalmers embraces the claustrophobia of a John Carpenter film cut with the patience & precision of Amon Duul. The quest to be "Human Again" is to be a stranger in a strange land.

In "Red Light" metal machine magic grinds as a wish is granted. The saxophone wails, humming a new strain of serpentine song. The triggered, vast descent of "Suburban Pastel" unfurls as the landscape expands the mystery. This is visual music that slowly coils its wings around the listener.

Jorja’s pale blue eyes glance across the vivid landscape. Suspended in reverie, bathed in sound, adrift until the tidal brass of "This Is Where The Night Sky Begins" calls the dreamer back down to earth. As the needle drops again, the petal soft synthesizers sprawl toward the event horizon, hypnotized by the distant call of the Siren. Visions of intimacy & sentient contact triggered by endless weeks on tour. The human heart of a Saturday night still beating on Tuesday morning. The album’s closing track "Ship In The Sky" is the heroine’s journey into the unknown, without a compass.

TRACK LISTING

1. Human Again
2. Red Light
3. Black Shadow
4. She Made Him Love Again
5. Copper Bells
6. No Words
7. Our Love In A Glass So Thin
8. Suburban Pastel
9. This Is Where The Sky Begins
10. The Sum Of Our Sins
11. She Made Him Love Again (Reprise)
12. Ship In The Sky

Jorja Chalmers enjoys a quiet life. The Australian born mother of two lives in Margate, the Kent coastal town that is turning into something of a cultural hub. Yet there’s another, shadow version of Jorja Chalmers, one that resides in a liminal realm; a saxophonist & composer, a brooding, vampiric, twilight soul who yearns for some sense of aesthetic transformation.

New album ‘Midnight Train’ comes close to severing the two. Constructed during the long winter lockdown, Jorja would put her kids to bed before closing the door in the spare room, building lengthy, undulating passages of cinematic terror, patching together European art-pop glamour with outsider electronics. It’s composed, intense, & challenging – but it’s also utterly exhilarating.

“I feel incredibly proud of this album,” she says. “It feels like a life’s work squeezed into one space. It feels like I’m saying something.”

TRACK LISTING

A1. Bring Me Down
A2. I'll Be Waiting
A3. Rabbit In The Headlights
A4. Boadicea
A5. Love Me Tonight
A6. Nightingale
A7. Riders On The Storm
B1. Rhapsody
B2. The Poet
B3. The Wolves Of The Orangery
B4. On Such A Clear Day
B5. Midnight Train
B6. Underwater Blood

"The Moon My Saddle" is Chamberlain's critically acclaimed masterpiece. Moving away from their hardcore roots they came into their own as musicians with this home-grown , original sound drawing from americana, rock, country and emocore making this a superbly crafted record.

Finally here, the first release in our long planned Parish label reissue program. Students of late '80s digital reggae know that Edgar Whyte's Parish label is one of the finest labels of the period, issuing many singles and albums, with a unique selection of artists and a bunch of killer original rhythms. We've been working on this program a long time and are very pleased it's finally here. There will be a killer selection of reissues and previously unreleased tunes coming in 2024, all from master tapes. We figured it's only fitting to start off with what is likely the most in demand Parish single for '80s digital collectors, and from one of the label's signature artists. Everton Chambers' "This Love of Mine" came out in 1988 and is extremely tough to find, a ruff piece of stepping digital, even favored for play by the late great Jah Shaka.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: A rare-ass cut favoured by the great Jah Shaka, leading the pack of 80s digital reggae represses we've got in store for you this week. A true gem of the genre!

TRACK LISTING

A. This Love Of Mine
B. This Love Of Mine Version

‘Strange Times’ was the Chameleons’ third album, originally released in 1986 on the Geffen label and praised by the critics who reviewed it. Melody Maker called it “a marvellous departure” from their previous work and “a wonderful record,” describing it as “the band’s most inventive and winning album yet and as a fine a record as any guitar band has made this year - it should delight just about anyone.”

Singer and bassist Mark Burgess later said “‘Strange Times’ is my favourite. Personally, I believe it was the best lyrical work I’d done with the band and some of the best vocal performances, and I think the Chameleons really began to mature and move forward with this album.”

Noel Gallagher was quoted recently as saying “I’d forgotten how much this album meant to me. It came out in ‘86. I was 19!! I’ve been listening to it every day since and I have to say it’s blown my mind… again! It must have influenced my early years as a song writer because I can hear ME in it everywhere!!”

The Chameleons have long been named as influences on bands such as The Flaming Lips, The Killers and Smashing Pumpkins.

This recording from Preston Guildhall was taken from their current tour, which continues across the UK and Europe throughout 2019, ending at Manchester Ritz in December, supported by The Icicle Works.

The ‘Where In The World’ EP consists of four original Chameleons songs, rerecorded in 2017. As a feature of their current live set the songs were universally well-received by the fanbase and are presented here by popular request. ‘Dali’s Picture’ a discarded song written in 1981, ‘Ever After’ an unfinished demo from the ‘Strange Times’ session that produced the bands third album and ‘Denims & Curls’ and ‘Free For All’, which were demos for a fourth album that never materialized due to the band’s disintegration. Despite the years in between, all four songs feel fresh, vibrant and contemporary.

The Chameleons (known as The Chameleons UK in North America) were an English post punk band formed in Middleton, Greater Manchester in 1981. The band originally consisted of singer and bassist Mark Burgess, guitarist Reg Smithies, guitarist Dave Fielding and drummer John Lever (replacing original drummer Brian Schofield). They released six studio albums and one EP before disbanding in 2003. They have gained even bigger audiences of late, touring as ChameleonsVox and playing out their classic albums.

TRACK LISTING

‘Strange Times… Live’
(CD / 2LP)
Mad Jack
Caution
Tears
Soul In Isolation
Swamp Thing
Time/
The End Of Time
Seriocity
In Answer
Childhood
I’ll Remember

‘Where In The World’
(2LP Only)
Denims & Curls
Dali’s Picture
Free For All
Ever After

The Chameleons (arguably the best band to come out of Manchester) with their critically acclaimed classic third album, ‘Strange Times’. Recorded on the legendary Geffen label, it sees the band’s atmospheric post punk anthems with soaring guitars and driving rhythms at their peak, and Mark Burgess’s compelling vocals coming together to form a wall of the most beautiful noise you’ve ever heard.

In a post on his Instagram account in 2018, Oasis guitarist Noel Gallagher cited ‘Strange Times’ as an early influence on his songwriting: “I’d forgotten how much this album meant to me. It came out in ‘86. I was 19!! I’ve been listening to it every day since and I have to say it’s blown my mind… again! It must have influenced my early years as a songwriter because I can hear ME in it everywhere!”

Burgess later said, “‘Strange Times’ is my favourite. Personally, I believe it was the best lyrical work I’d done with the band and some of the best vocal performances, and I think the Chameleons really began to mature and move forward with this album…”

‘Strange Times’ was praised by the critics. Ian Gittins of Melody Maker called it “a marvellous departure” from their previous work and “a wonderful record.” Robert Palmer of The New York Times described it as “the band’s most inventive and winning album yet, and as a fine a record as any pop-rock guitar band has made this year. it should delight just about anyone.”

The Chameleons have long been named as an influence on bands such as The Flaming Lips, The Killers, The Editors and Smashing Pumpkins.

The album has been mastered by Steve Hall, whose works include The Flaming Lips’ ‘The Soft Bulletin’, Janes Addiction’s ‘Nothing Shocking’, Tom Petty ‘Full Moon Fever’, Green Day ‘Nimrod’, Blondie ‘Parallel Lines’ and ‘No Exit’, Alice in Chains ‘Dirt’ and The Beach Boys’ ‘Pet Sounds’.

TRACK LISTING

Mad Jack
Caution
Tears
Soul In Isolation
Swamp Thing
Time/End Of Time
Seriocity
In Answer
Childhood
I’ll Remember
Tears (full Arrangement)
Ever After
Paradiso
Inside Out
John I’m Only Dancing
Tomorrow Never Knows

Recorded in 1984 for a special performance for a satellite TV broadcast, this iconic gig at The Camden Palace features Middleton’s finest on top of their game and includes songs taken from ‘Script of the Bridge’ & ‘What Does Anything Mean? Basically’...

Released on vinyl for the first time, this album also includes 4 bonus tracks from the Arsenal concert, which was recorded for an independent Catalonian local tv channel, in 1985...

The cover art has been exclusively designed by Chams guitarist Red Smithies, who designed all official Chameleons studio releases.

TRACK LISTING

Side 1
1 Don't Fall 4:14
2 Intrigue In Tangiers 3:22
3 Monkeyland 4:29
4 Second Skin 5:40

Side 2
5 Singing Rule Britannia (While The Walls Close In) 3:40
6 Pleasure And Pain 4:04
7 Return Of The Roughnecks 3:28
8 A Person Isn't Safe 4:47

Side 3
9 In Shreds 3:59
10 Splitting In Two 6:28 (ATV Cover Version)
11 Here Today 3:55
12 Thursday's Child 3:16
13 Paper Tiger 4:01

Side 4 - Bonus Tracks From The Arsenal Gig, Recorded For An Independent Catalonian TV Show Called "temps Estranys" (strange Times..!).
14. Return Of The Roughnecks
15. Less Than Human
16 Splitting In Two
17.Here Today

• Live extravaganza from post-punk “sonic cathedrals” (©The Independent), The Chameleons featuring live sets recorded in the ‘80s across two CDs and one DVD

• Featuring two live shows at The Hacienda and Camden Palace that have never been previously released on CD and an earlier set at the Gallery Club

• Plus a DVD featuring all three shows and an episode of Catalan TV programme Arsenal devoted to the band

Formed in Greater Manchester in 1981, The Chameleons pioneered post punk, combining Reg Smithies’ and Dave Fielding’s layered, shimmering guitars, drummer John Lever’s tribal rhythms and Mark Burgess’ driving bass and impassioned vocals with lyrics often reflecting the anxiety and alienation of the Thatcher era.

“All tribal percussion and jagged guitar shards straining to frame vast vistas with one hand while clutching their alienated urban roots with the other.” NME

The Chameleons are an acknowledged influence on future generations of indie and alternative rock bands including Stone Roses, Oasis, The Charlatans, Smashing Pumpkins, The Flaming Lips, The Killers, The Horrors, The National and Interpol.

‘Elevated Living’ includes their two celebrated hometown Manchester shows, ‘Live At The Gallery Club’ (1982) and ‘Live At The Hacienda’ (1983) and their superb show filmed for the ITV, ‘Live At The Camden Palace’ (1984) on both CD and DVD. The latter two shows are presented on CD for the first time.

The DVD also includes an episode of Catalan TV programme Arsenal devoted entirely to the band. Broadcast in January 1986, it mixes four tracks taken from a live show at the Discoteca 666 in Barcelona from 1985 (also on CD) plus studio performances and interviews with singer/bassist Mark Burgess and drummer John Lever.

The Gallery show includes rarities ‘Nathan’s Phase’ and ‘Things I Wished I’d Said’, while The Hacienda includes early versions of ‘A Person Isn’t Safe Anywhere These Days’ under the working title of ‘Men Of Steel’ and ‘Thursday’s Child’ as ‘Years Ago’.

TRACK LISTING

DISC 1:
LIVE AT THE GALLERY CLUB,
MANCHESTER, 18.12.82
1 PAPER TIGERS
2 NATHAN’S PHASE
3 DON’T FALL
4 PLEASURE & PAIN
5 HERE TODAY
6 IN SHREDS
7 UP THE DOWN ESCALATOR
8 SECOND SKIN
9 MONKEYLAND
10 AS HIGH AS YOU CAN GO
11 THINGS I WISH I’D SAID
12 VIEW FROM A HILL
LIVE AT THE HACIENDA,
MANCHESTER, 28.1.83
13 PAPER TIGERS
14 PLEASURE & PAIN
15 MEN OF STEEL
16 YEARS AGO
17 IN SHREDS
18 DON’T FALL
19 SECOND SKIN

DISC 2:
LIVE AT THE CAMDEN PALACE,
LONDON 9.11.84
1 DON’T FALL
2 INTRIGUE IN TANGIERS
3 MONKEYLAND
4 SECOND SKIN
5 SINGING RULE BRITANNIA
(WHILE THE WALLS CLOSE IN)
6 PLEASURE & PAIN
7 RETURN OF THE
ROUGHNECKS
8 A PERSON ISN’T SAFE
ANYWHERE THESE DAYS
9 IN SHREDS
10 SPLITTING IN TWO
11 HERE TODAY
12 THURSDAY’S CHILD
13 PAPER TIGERS
ARSENAL: LIVE AT DISCOTECA
666, BARCELONA 7.6.85
14 HERE TODAY
15 RETURN OF THE ROUGHNECKS
16 LESS THAN HUMAN
17 SPLITTING IN TWO

DISC 3:
DVD: LIVE AT THE GALLERY CLUB, MANCHESTER, 18.12.82 TRACKLISTING AS DISC ONE
LIVE AT THE HACIENDA, MANCHESTER, 28.1.83 TRACKLISTING AS DISC ONE
LIVE AT THE CAMDEN PALACE, LONDON, 9.11.84 TRACKLISTING AS DISC TWO

ARSENAL: (SPANISH TV) 1985
1 DON’T FALL
2 SINGING RULE BRITANNIA
(WHILE THE WALLS CLOSE IN)
3 HERE TODAY
4 RETURN OF THE ROUGHNECKS
5 MONKEYLAND
6 LESS THAN HUMAN
7 PLEASURE & PAIN
8 SECOND SKIN
9 HOME IS WHERE THE HEART IS
10 IN SHREDS
11 SPLITTING IN TWO
NTSC DVD Visual Content.
FSK - 0

The Chameleons seminal debut album ‘Script of the Bridge’ restored and re-mastered for vinyl at Abbey Road Studios. Includes the gorgeous "Second Skin" also "As High As You Can Go", "Up The Down Escalator"  and "A Person Isn't Safe Anywhere These Days". Utterly essential. 

Contains two heavyweight (180g) vinyl discs together with a free digital download code.The two 12” discs are in white poly bags inserted into spined LP sleeve, featuring new artwork by Chameleons' guitarist Reg Smithies. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Martin says: That this band and LP exist in the shadows of more (rightly) celebrated Manchester contemporaries is down to unhappy accident, not any lack of brilliance. Forged in the same punk crucible, then moving beyond, they retained the fire and connection that was such an important part of punk's message but through a sublime and haunting interplay of guitar and keyboard melody that elevated them into the stars. This is not just one of Manchester's finest hours, it's one of the greatest post punk records ever recorded.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
Don't Fall
Here Today
Monkeyland

Side B
Second Skin
Up The Down Escalator
Less Than Human

Side C
Pleasure And Pain
Thursday's Child
As High As You Can Go

Side D
A Person Isn't Safe Anywhere These Days
Paper Tigers
View From A Hill

A re-mastered version of The Chameleons ultra rare ‘Tony Fletcher Walked on Water” EP is available now on ltd edition coloured vinyl and cd.

The 4 tracks were recorded in 1987 shortly before the band split and were originally intended as a follow-up to the Geffen album Strange Times. Considered by many to be among The Chameleons’ finest songs, the EP was originally released (and then quickly withdrawn from sale) more than thirty years ago. The new version is released with the full co-operation of the band. 

TRACK LISTING

Side A: Is It Any Wonder / Free For All
Side B: The Healer / Denim And Curls

Champagne Dub is a collective of selected artists who come together to practice psychedelic dub rituals. The project was conceived by drummer and producer Betamax (the Comet Is Coming, Soccer96) who makes a nod to a range of influences from free-improv, psychedelic, post punk, English folk, performance art and 70s dub. However the band also draws on the teachings of Zen Buddhist philosophy, to create sound without intention, to capture and dub the natural shape of subconscious intuitions.

After several explosive live shows, the group headed into the studio where they found themselves deep in the presence of a 1/4” tape machine. The results of which were soaked in a biochemically enhanced mix of reverb and analogue effects. This was then distilled into a potent psychoacoustic blend of syncopated hallucinations. Once the vision was truly realised and tested on some animals, it was deemed safe for public consumption and was thus released thru Faith and Industry records.

Bass player Ruth Goller (Melt Yourself Down / Acoustic Ladyland) applies her distinctive sonic boom to the low end of the group. Ed Briggs is a sound artist from Brighton who plays homemade synths incorporating mechanical parts from a Herdie Gurdy. He also programs using MaxMSP where he can perform mind melting sound granulation in real time. Mr Noodles, the anonymous performance artist / vocalist cuts a dark figure on stage. Noodles uses many voices, shamanic percussion and unpredictable movement, haunting the band with a plethora of dreamy mantras. Mexican artist Nahum Mantra's day job normally sees him working for the European Space Agency where he works as an artist / magician. Also known as member of Orchestra Elastique, "Drops" also sees him feature on his natural instrument the theremin. Finally, Betamax (The Comet Is Coming / Soccer96 / Superbest Friends Club / Hot Head Show) has been playing drums for ages. However after taking mushrooms he realised that there was a deeper layer of rhythm that remained trapped by his ego. An expression so honest, naked and uncultured that it had been withheld by the subconscious. It was a rhythm that couldn’t be understood - that always shifted, but always spoke the truth. Together, the sum of all these magically parts makes one cohesive and spellbound body of work. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Martin says: Mad psychedelic-dub concept album here from a range of talented muscians who work to create a unique and arresting piece of work.

TRACK LISTING

1. Schmooze Fest Part 1 3:01
2. Gatito Ven 3:44
3. Drops 6:14
4. Ed's Pipe 1:51
5. Nebulous 6:14
6. Schmooze Fest Part 2 1:43
7. Tundra 7:50
8. Tree Worship 5:18
9. Rubbing Poking