Channel Zero is a band from Brussels formed in 1990 by Franky "DSVD" De Smet Van Damme, Xavier Carion, Tino De Martino and Phil Baheux. Their name came from an American rap song by the group Public Enemy called "She watch Channel Zero?". Inspired in its beginnings by Metallica and more generally by the thrash movement of the 90s. Play It Again Sam signed the group in 1994 and produced its third album Unsafe. This album allows them to make themselves known in the States, to perform in major European festivals and to be the headliner on a tour in Australia

TRACK LISTING

1. Suck My Energy
2. Heroin
3. Help
4. Black Fuel’
5. Fools Parade

Chantage are Eve Blouin and Vivien Goldman. This exclusive re-issue features the artwork from the original 7", the extended version of "It's Only Money" from the Chantage 12" and the dub version by Adrian Sherwood which previously was only released on On-U Sound under the project name Playgroup in 1983. Also features Bruce Smith (PopGroup/Slits), Carroll Thompson and Neneh Cherry amongst others.

TRACK LISTING

A. It's Only Money (Extended Version)
B. It's Only Money (On-U Sound Dub Version By Adrian Sherwood)

John Chantler’s ever-searching sensibilities lead him back to Room40 for a suite of crystalline modular synth intricacies realised at his home studio, now located in Stockholm after stints in Japan and South London, with additional recordings made at his now-local, world renowned EMS facility.

Which Way To Leave? can be read as a response to his new surroundings; a sort of reflexive reaction filtered and felt out thru finely meshed, gaseous layers of melody and timbral thizz with an absorbing, refreshing sense of strolling momentum and lush mindfulness allowing him to imperceptibly fold in guest contributions from Carina Thorén (his partner in For Barry Ray) on electric bass, and Okkyung Lee on cello.

It’s a sound that lies on the border between new age optimism and the abstract traditions of 20th century concrète and electro-acoustic traditions, mixing the home-brewed, psychedelic potency of one discipline with the more studious processing, diaphanous dimensions and abstract textures associated to the other realm, making their putative borders porous and interchangeable via subliminal transitions and angular incision.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Modern musique concrete for the discerning synthesist (or those fond of a synth or two). This is a suite of modular synth excursions and woven ambient textures, based on pinging vactrols and glassine hammered tones. Though there is a certain sparseness to the developmental process, it soon becomes warming and full-bodied, introducing washes of close reverb and top-heavy tines. Reminiscent of some of the more stripped-back collections on spectrum spools (Brett Naucke, Outer Space etc). Magnificently engrossing and imbued with a rich and communicable vision.

TRACK LISTING

1. Falling Forward                03:38
2. Two And Four                   02:18
3. Clearing                            01:04
4. Fixation Pulse                  06:22
5. Lesser Demands             02:27
6. All Visible Signs              06:31
7. First December               10:28
8. Second December         01:55
9. Beginning Again             06.56

Chaos In The CBD return with two more tracks on their In Dust We Trust imprint. 

Keeping with their tried-n-tested formula - inspired by Ron Trent and classic deep house - "Sirena Deep" has a warm and deep rolling bass line and beautifully layered keys. Washed over with a stunning flute accompaniment from long-term collaborator and legendary jazz musician Nathan Haines which adds the extra magic to this outstanding production.

On the B-side the boys deliver a slightly darker, mischievous and moody roller with "Outdoor Limit" - an 8 minute journey through minimal grooves, in what feels like the perfect soundscape for getting lost in a dark room in the small hours.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: London-via-New Zealand duo Chaos In The CBD return with more of their smooth, deep house stylings.

TRACK LISTING

A. Sirena Deep (Ft Nathan Haines)
B. Outdoor Limit

Entombed between the approaching war machine, Berlin's squat metal underground and the corrosive electronics broadcast from the Hague's bunker network, Chaosy's "Bad Magic" marks his first on the label, with tracks pulled together from equipment left behind in Ukraine and resurrected in makeshift studios while on the road.

Across the LP's eight tracks, the record dials into this modern day horror and occult activity from throughout the ages, flipping between cave dwelling techno, breakbeat, gnarled Ukrainian rap and wails found between the gaps in the machine. A full blown sonic assault into the belly of the beast.

TRACK LISTING

A1.Intro
A2. Jungeon
A3. Devil
A4. Tree
B1. Local Magic
B2. Dinar
B3. Bad Mirage
B4. Munch Scream

Aisha’s striking vocals sit centre-stage among her production of manipulated piano, electronic beats, sub-bass, sound effects and cello. Developed from an initial musical concept; melodies, structures and sounds bloom, exchange and reprise roles across the tracks, the EP evolving into a suite of four parts - the vocal tracks ("Progression", "Resolution") balanced by instrumentals ("It Will Come In Time", "Epilogue").

'The EP is about a natural progression, discovering courage and concurring fears. A small step in the right direction. A true understanding of my strengths and weaknesses that makes me feel much more emotionally balanced and focused.' - Aisha Chaouche.

Signing to Night Time Stories on the strength of a Soundcloud demo, Chaouche's debut album "Safe" was released in June 2018. The album chronicles events that occured in her formative years and the catharsis that occurred through her songwriting, the 12 tracks described as 'heartbreaking and spine tingling hymns” (Wonderland Magazine), having 'weightless, otherworldly qualities' (Uncut), 'richly textured sonic grandeur' (Bristol Live Magazine) and 'channeling the hymnal qualities of Cat’s Eyes, with the dense vocals of Medúlla-era Björk' (The Line Of Best Fit).

TRACK LISTING

A1. Progression
A2. It Will Come In Time
B1. Resolution
B2. Epilogue

The masterful follow-up to his universally celebrated 2017 album 50, Michael Chapman’s True North finds the elder statesman of British song writing and guitar plumbing an even deeper deep and honing an ever keener edge to his iconic writing. This authoritative set of predominantly new, and utterly devastating, songs hews to a more intimate sonic signature—more atmospheric, textural, and minimalist than 50, stately and melancholy in equal measure. Recorded in rural West Wales, True North unflinchingly surveys home and horizon, traveling from the Bahamas to Texas to the Leeds of Chapman’s childhood, haunted by the mirages of memory and intimations of mortality. Joining him on this introspective journey is a cast of old friends and new disciples: once again Steve Gunn produces and plays guitar, and fellow UK song writing hero Bridget St John sings, collaborating with cellist Sarah Smout and legendary pedal steel player BJ Cole, who has accompanied everyone from John Cale to Scott Walker, Elton John to Terry Allen, Felt to Björk.

The album begins with the gnawing regret of “It’s Too Late,” and every song Chapman sings thereafter directly references the passing of time—its blind ruthlessness, its sweet hazy delights in noirish language almost mystical in its terseness and precision. (The two transportive, gorgeous instrumentals, one per side, both have appropriately evocative—though decidedly not Northern—pastoral place names for titles: Eleuthera is an island in the Bahamas where Chapman habitually holidays every winter, and Caddo Lake straddles the border between Texas and Louisiana.) This is Chapman at his darkest and most nocturnal, yes, but also his most elegant and subtle, squinting into the black hours with an unseen smile. By the time True North is out in the world, Chapman will be seventy-eight years old and will have released nearly as many records, a staggering achievement. True North represents the most nakedly personal album of his career, his most authoritative, unguarded, and emotionally devastating statement. His universally celebrated full-band 2017 album 50 flirted with much-deserved triumphalism, offering a retrospective of his illustrious career, revisited in the company of the fellow UK song writing hero Bridget St John and a rowdy gang of younger acolytes including Steve Gunn, James Elkington, and Nathan Bowles. The production hearkens back to Chapman’s classic Millstone Grit (1973), as well as recalling Bob Dylan’s Time Out of Mind (1997); True North shares something of that album’s spectral gloaming, midnight heartache, and sly, self-knowing winks. Compared to 50, these recordings feel narrower in range, less overtly narrative and dynamic and more impressionistic and restrained, but they are correspondingly more piercing and arrow-like in their rending impact, more concerned with an archer’s deadeye aim than pyrotechnics. Whereas 50 featured two new songs among radical reinterpretations of material from Chapman’s deep catalogue, True North includes twice as many new numbers among its quiver of eleven arrows—“It’s Too Late,” “Eleuthera,” the fiery “Bluesman,” and slow-rolling album centre piece “Truck Song”—confirming the exultant return of Chapman the songwriter. The other songs were selected from various obscure corners of Chapman’s vast catalogue (“Youth Is Wasted on the Young” was previously recorded with Thurston Moore and Jim O’Rourke for a compilation, for example.) In these renderings they receive their definitive treatments, utterly transformed.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Chapman once again providing a tender but devastatingly evocative suite of brittle acoustic numbers, slowly strummed or skilfully picked cascades of guitar, all topped with Chapman's husky but perfectly fitting vocal accompaniment. Encompassing aspects of outsider folk and campfire revelry with the characteristic shadowy acoustic undercurrent inherent in all of his work. Quintessentially Chapman.

TRACK LISTING

A1. “It's Too Late” 4:25
A2. “After All This Time” 4:06
A3. “Vanity & Pride” 3:34
A4. “Eleuthera” 2:50
A5. “Bluesman” 3:35
A6. “Full Bottle, Empty Heart” 3:20
B1. “Truck Song” 6:08
B2. “Caddo Lake” 5:55
B3. “Hell To Pay” 4:13
B4. “Youth Is Wasted On The Young” 4:02
B5. “Bon Ton Roolay” 2:43

The legendary Guitarist chooses tracks from his two Americana albums and releases them on 180 gram 12” vinyl, featuring extensive sleevenotes.

Michael also took the photograph for the front cover.

TRACK LISTING

Swamp
Ponchateulah
Caddo Lake
Anything But The Blues
Blues For The Mother Road
When Dottie Goes Dancing
Apache Creek
Looking For Charlie In Nogales
Dust Devils
So Many Echoes

Their debut album documents the journey through their friendship, from school to where they now find themselves, commenting on what's around them.

"translating to ‘further beyond’, a latin naval term adopted by those exploring uncharted waters, we present a collection of our best works to date, each lyrically distinct but venturing into new territories that life presents; mass media, tory austerity, mental health, homelessness, the deprived nhs and the release that music gives you from it all. come with us to make sense of what lies beyond in this world through questions, power and statements that we stand by."

STAFF COMMENTS

Laura says: This is one of my favourite albums this year. Think the super melodic pop of The Rolling Blackouts but swathed in Rainy City drizzle rather than Antipodean sunshine.

TRACK LISTING

1 Full Round Table (Explicit)
2 Wayfinding
3 Kulture
4 Need You No More
5 Wide Asleep (Explicit)
6 Fair Game
7 Opaque
8 Not In Love (Explicit)
9 My Fall
10 My Fall II
11 Can I Trick

Emerging from Reading in the late 1980s, Chapterhouse burst onto the British music scene with 1990’s ‘Freefall’ EP and the critically acclaimed album ‘Whirlpool’. Impossible to categorise, the band were quickly embraced by both the music press and a global audience, and soon found themselves part of the emergent shoegaze scene alongside contemporaries such as Slowdive and Ride.

Curated by the band and overflowing with previously unheard material, ‘Chronology’ charts Chapterhouse’s progress through two brilliant albums, a number of classic singles and EPs, remixes by contemporaries such as Global Communication, Drum Club and Spooky, and their attempt to write and record an ultimately unrealised third album. Told through new interview material, previously unseen imagery and design overseen by the band themselves, this is the story of one of the most individual and enigmatic bands of their era, and one who continue to be cherished by both their original fanbase and a generation of new fans drawn to the shoegaze scene’s revival over the past decade.

Packaged in a hard slipcase box, complete with mini LP replica wallets and a 64 page booklet, and five years in the making, ‘Chronology’ is a definitive, in-depth set which will inspire nostalgia among fans of a certain age and creativity among those currently exploring similar sonic territory.

TRACK LISTING

Freefall, Sunburst & Whirlpool
1. Ecstasy Ii
2. Need (somebody)
3. Inside Of Me
4. Sixteen Years
5. Something More (sunburst)
6. Satin Safe
7. Rain
8. Feel The Same
9. Breather
10. Pearl
11. Autosleeper
12. Treasure
13. Falling Down
14. April
15. Guilt
16. If You Want Me
17. Something More

Pearl, Mesmerise And Courtyard Demos
1. Come Heaven
2. In My Arms
3. Mesmerise
4. Precious One
5. Summer Chill
6. Then We’ll Rise
7. For What It’s Worth (demo)
8. Confusion Trip (demo)*
9. Raised From Inside (demo)*
10. Get To Me (demo)*
11. Dream On (demo)
12. Never Enough (demo)*
13. In The Way (demo)*
14. If You Try (demo)*
15. Until You Try (demo)
16. Walk Water (demo)*

Blood Music And B-sides
1. Don’t Look Now
2. There’s Still Life
3. We Are The Beautiful
4. Summer’s Gone
5. Everytime
6. Deli
7. On The Way To Fly
8. She’s A Vision
9. Greater Power
10. Confusion Trip
11. Love Forever
12. Picnic (new Edit)
13. Age
14. Frost

Pentamerous Metamorphosis (blood Music Retranslated By Global Communication)
1. Alpha Phase
2. Beta Phase
3. Gamma Phase
4. Delta Phase
5. Epsilon Phase

Rarities And Remixes
1. Ecstasy I (demo)
2. Falling Down (freefall)
3. It Won’t Be Wrong
4. Losing Touch With My Mind
5. Die, Die, Die
6. Mesmerise (extended Remix)
7. Precious One (extended Remix)
8. We Are The Beautiful (spooky Extravaganja Mix)
9. We Are The Beautiful (spooky’s Ugly As Sin Mix New Edit)
10. Don’t Look Now (drum Club’s Sitar Trance Mix New Edit)
11. Montpellier Freeway*

Demos 1994-1995
1. Too Late (demo)*
2. Ocean Arms (acoustic Demo)*
3. Help Yourself (demo)*
4. More Than I Can Take (demo)
5. Let The Sunshine In (demo)*
6. Every Gift (demo)*
7. Feel (demo)
8. We Can Fly (demo)*
9. Another Life (demo)*
10. Medusa (demo)*
11. I Saw You (demo)*
12. Brighter (demo)
13. Make A Wish (demo)*
14. Zerodown (demo)*
15. Looking Back (demo)*
16. Crazy Kane (demo)

*previously Unreleased

In 1991, English shoegaze band Chapterhouse released the single “Mesmerise”, which was a non-album single. The track was cited by Robert Smith of The Cure as an influence on their 1992 album Wish. “Mesmerise” was released on the same titled EP which came out simultaneously with the single and contained three more non-album tracks, “Precious One”, “Summer Chill” and “Then We’ll Rise”. Later on, all four featured on the 1996 Rownderbowt and/or the 2007 The Best Of Chapterhouse compilations.

TRACK LISTING

Side A:
1. Mesmerise
2. Precious One

Side B:
1. Summer Chill
2. Then We'll Rise

Leading up to the release of their 1991 debut studio album Whirlpool, Chapterhouse released the single “Pearl” as the album’s only single. It reached #67 on the UK Singles Chart and remains one of their biggest hits. The track also features backing vocals by Rachel Goswell, who is the vocalist of Slowdive. The 12” of Pearl features two non-album tracks in addition, “Come Heaven” and “In My Arms”. Both were solely included on the 1996 compilation Rownderbowt.

TRACK LISTING

Side A:
1. Pearl

Side B:
1. Come Heaven
2. In My Arms

The British shoegaze band Chapterhouse released two albums during their existence, Whirlpool (1991) and Blood Music (1993). Blood Music spawned the single “She’s A Vision”, which was released during that same year and also appeared as a 12”, including three additional tracks. The 1993 EP She’s A Vision features two tracks from the album Blood Music, the title track and “Don’t Look Now”. In addition, the EP contains two mixes from that same album, including the mix of “Don’t Look Now” by The Drum Club, a popular dance duo based in the UK.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A
1. She’s A Vision
2. Don’t Look Now

SIDE B
1. Don’t Look Now (Drum Club Sitar Trance Mix)
2. Deli (Dark Jester Mix)

The British shoegaze band Chapterhouse released two albums during their existence, Whirlpool (1991) and Blood Music (1993). Blood Music spawned the single “We Are The Beautiful”, which was released during that same year and also appeared as a 12”. The 1993 EP We Are The Beautiful features the title track, a mix of the title track, and two additional tracks: “Frost” and “Age”. Except for “We Are The Beautiful”, none of the tracks have been released on Chapterhouse’s studio albums.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. We Are The Beautiful
2. We Are The Beautiful (Spooky's Extravaganja Dub Mix)

Side B
1. Frost
2. Age

Inspired by the likes of Slowdive and Ride, Chapterhouse were part of the short-lived 'shoe-gazing' scene of the early 90's, but unlike other acts who aquired a set of guitar pedals and headed off to the nearest recording studio, they mixed beats with their wall-of-sonic-guitar-fuzz to create records to stimulate both mind and feet!

This newly expanded reissue of their classic debut“Whirpool”, now includes all the B-sides from the singles 'Pearl', 'Falling Down' and the 'Sunburst EP', along with 'Die Die Die' which was originally only available on a free record that came with the vinyl version of the album and is on CD for the first time. Produced by the band alongside Robin Guthrie (Cocteau Twins), John Fryer (This Mortal Coil), Stephen Hague (New Order) and Ralph Jezzard, and featuring guest vocals from Rachel Goswell (Slowdive). The liner notes are from music journalist and long-time associate Andrew Perry, along with the lyrics in full (documented here for the first time), plus many photos, memorabilia and other clippings from the bands personal archive, and images of all of the releases featured on the album.

Chapterhouse released two albums during their existence, Whirlpool (1991) and Blood Music (1993). Their debut album is a fantastic example of shoegaze at its best. The wall of sound approach is built around dance music structures and creates some heavy grooves.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. Breather
2. Pearl
3. Autosleeper
4. Treasure

Side B
1. Falling Down
2. April
3. Guilt
4. If You Want Me
5. Something More

The Chap, a pan-European modern pop group based in London and Berlin, began life at the beginning of the last decade. In their quest to create music which “sounds wrong”, they pre- empted the current flavour for lo-fi prog-pop by several years and spawned a legion of fans who couldn’t believe how a band that revelled in the multilayered detachment and precision of their recordings could dive headlong into the realms of hard rock n roll immediacy, gaining themselves a reputation as one of the most exciting, challenging, and engaging live acts around. After two seminal bedroom-produced albums, “The Horse” and “Ham” - the latter in particular gathering considerable acclaim from the likes of Errol Alkan, Kissy Sellout and The Wire Magazine - The Chap delivered a third album, the masterpiece that is “Mega Breakfast”. This album featured corporate motivational style anthems about “proper music” and wanting to clone oneself.

Despite being lauded by Pitchfork and many others, commercial success and world domination continued to evade The Chap, so they finally decided to “sell out” by recording a collection of pop classics that constitute their fourth album “Well Done Europe”. Needless to say, it’s another masterpiece featuring hit after hit, quite a few of which mention love and death and stuff like that. It sounds like the coolest new wave pop album ever recorded by a group of teachers (almost nobody in The Chap is a teacher).

TRACK LISTING

01. We’ll See To Your Breakdown
02. Even Your Friend
03. We Work In Bars
04. Obviously
05. Gimme Legs
06. Well Done You
07. Nevertheless, The Chap
08. Pain Fan
09. Torpor
10. Maroccan Nights
11. Few Horoscope
12. Chalet Chalet

Charalambides are the true originators of the US free-folk psyche movement. Tom and Christina Carter aka Charalambides have been recording and performing live in various configurations since 1991 and run their own highly acclaimed label Wholly Other. "Likeness" is the newest release from the duo. Recorded over a period of several weeks during the Spring of 2006, the album is a return to the spontaneous composition of previous Charalambides records such as "Houston And Union". Musically, the album departs from the warm psych of "A Vintage Burden" (their album from 2006) in favour of the lush and layered vocal strata of Christina's later solo works, and a chillier, more abrasive guitar sound that favours the Velvets over the Byrds. Lyrical content largely derives from public domain American popular song from the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, edited, rearranged, and largely deconstructed by Christina into abstract protest songs for the century at hand.

Charcoal Owls is the ever-evolving collaboration between musician Tom James Scott and poet/vocalist Russell Walker (Pheromoans, The Bomber Jackets). Their debut LP "Tin Roof" sees Scott draw on disparate forms - Satiesque minimalism, field recording, abstracted pop and improvisation to converse with the peculiar lyricism that Walker has perfected over his various activities. The result is a warm, absurdist meditation on suburban insecurity and the tragi-comic.

Tin Roof follows two sold out cassette releases on OneC Records and Night People. Opening with a lilting instrumental piece embedded with field recordings, Russell Walker’s narrative begins on 2nd track “Artificial Eyes.” Soon the listener is drawn into the curious worldview the writer has been expanding on for years, his wonderfully pathetic characters lightning conductors for provincial crisis and every-day profundities. Through out Tin Roof the listener’s ear is drawn by the juxtaposition of Scott’s minimal melodic lines and Walker’s often downright hilarious verse; “Anxious under tin again, one un-emptied wheelie bin.” There’s a real depth to mine – tracks like “Clapham Monster,” a one minute diary entry which will make any listener spit out their porridge in laughter, rub up against stark, downright beautiful pieces like “I Just Can’t Say When.” At another point “Grace Period” (featuring Rose Keeler on vocals) brings a soothing drone cadence after the acerbic, commuter-angst of “Twickenham Slags.”

The dichotomies at work on Tin Roof make it a truly unique world. Both sad and funny, minimal and busy, poetic and every-day. Once immersed it’ll be difficult to quite find your way out again.

30 Years on from The Charlatans debut appearance at the Reading Festival comes a special limited pressing of the bands seminal live set from Reading Festival 1992 recorded by the BBC.

Includes early singles Indian Rope, The Only One I Know, Then and Weirdo.

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: The Charlatans are often under appreciated within the hysteria of the whole Madchester thing, but let's not forget that their first LP debuted at number 1 on the real life pop charts! The following summer they played Reading and tore it apart with this blistering set which also featured the best 2 songs of their still not released follow up record. Seminal.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1) Out
2) You’re Not Very Well
3) Weirdo
4) Tremelo Song
5) Then
6) Can’t Even Be Bothered
7) I Don’t Want To See The Sights
Side B
8) The Only One I Know
9) Ignition
10) Indian Rope
11) Sproston Green

Released in 1997, when it went straight to the top of the album charts.

Building on the sound of their eponymous, previous release (‘The Charlatans’, also a Number One), the band’s performance on ‘Tellin’ Stories’ has the feel of a classic British Rock band combined with the more focused songwriting of Britpop. It has aged well.

Reissue of the original single LP on black vinyl.

TRACK LISTING

With No Shoes
North Country Boy
Tellin’ Stories
One To Another
You’re A Big Girl Now
How Can You Leave Us
Area 51
How High
Only Teethin’
Get On It
Rob’s Theme

This, their fourth album, came out in 1995. It was their most ambitious and focused album to date, and returned them right back to the number one slot in the charts. The album also spawned three UK top 40 singles, “Crashin’ In” , “Just Lookin’” and “Just When You’re Thinkin’ Things Over” which peaked at no. 12

When the Charlatans started out, there were countless bands “similar” to them, but they immediately catapulted to the forefront of the Madchester scene, standing alongside such icons as The Stone Roses and the Happy Mondays.

The band was/is successful because in addition to being able to ride the groove, they could also write amazing songs. These were the gifts that made them among the greatest British survivors of our time, rolling through tragedy and stylistic changes to amass a terrific body of work - one that was modern enough to play in clubs but classic enough to stand the test of time, and one that continues to grow to this day. They have notched up thirteen Top 40 studio albums – three of them number ones – alongside twenty two hit singles, four of them Top 10.

STAFF COMMENTS

Laura says: By the release of this album, they'd well and truly shaken off the Madchester / baggy tag. Previous album, Up To Our Hips had proved they were so much more than that, and this album was even more ambitious, perfectly combining killer melodies, dancefloor nous and great songwriting. One of my all time favourite albums!

TRACK LISTING

1. Nine Acre Court
2. Feeling Holy
3. Just Lookin'
4. Crashin' In
5. Bullet Comes
6. Here Comes A Soul Saver
7. Just When You're Thinkin' Things Over
8. Tell Everyone
9. Toothache
10. No Fiction
11. See It Through
12. Thank You

What can you say about this amazing band that hasn’t already been said? Also rans who out ran, under dogs who became winners, it’s been a long and winding road of heartache and seemingly unpassable obstacles that were always met with an unerring drive and positivity. This is a band who always believed in themselves and, just as importantly, the power of music.

I think it’s about 13 studio albums which this wonderful compilation covers. They’ve been going since 1989, but the thing is, their last two records are probably in their top three. 2015’s Modern Nature is second only to their Britpop era high, Tellin’ Stories. And it’s follow up, ‘Different Days’, not far behind. They constantly reinvent themselves, always sound fresh, always produce timeless classics which defy pigeon holing. From “The Only One I Know” through “Can’t Get Out of Bed”, “Tellin’ Stories”, “North Country Boy'' and right up to “Come Home Baby” and “Plastic Machinery”, the high quality never seems to drop and, as I said earlier, is possibly even getting better.

It’s well documented how this group has been beset by awful tragedy, so, I see the majesty of this incredible compilation as a testimony to the belief, dedication, and power of positive thinking that the original members clearly possess. In front man Tim Burgess the Charlatans have a modern-day folk hero. A man-child dreamer, believer, and cosmic schemer who spreads nothing but joy and love. He’s just a conductor for all good music, not just his own, and when his online listening parties took flight over Lockdown, he united a nation of music fans and even drew praise from Paul McCartney. The guy’s a hero and his band are too. This career defining best of is faultless: every home should have one.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: This is pretty much the essential document of one of Manchester's most legendary musical outfits. It's a heady collection that spans over thirty years of music...

TRACK LISTING

THEN1CD (CD)
A HEAD FULL OF IDEAS (BEST OF)
1) The Only One I Know
2) Weirdo
3) Can’t Get Out Of Bed
4) Jesus Hairdo
5) Just When You’re Thinking Things Over
6) North Country Boy
7) Tellin’ Stories
8) One To Another
9) How High
10) Forever (Edit)
11) Impossible (Edit)
12) Love Is The Key
13) A Man Needs To Be Told
14) Up At The Lake
15) Blackened Blue Eyes
16) Oh Vanity
17) My Foolish Pride
18) Come Home Baby
19) Let The Good Times Be Never Ending (Edit)
20) Plastic Machinery
21) Totally Eclipsing

THEN1CDX (2CD Deluxe)
CD1
A HEAD FULL OF IDEAS (BEST OF)
1) The Only One I Know
2) Weirdo
3) Can’t Get Out Of Bed
4) Jesus Hairdo
5) Just When You’re Thinking Things Over
6) North Country Boy
7) Tellin’ Stories
8) One To Another
9) How High
10) Forever (Edit)
11) Impossible (Edit)
12) Love Is The Key
13) A Man Needs To Be Told
14) Up At The Lake
15) Blackened Blue Eyes
16) Oh Vanity
17) My Foolish Pride
18) Come Home Baby
19) Let The Good Times Be Never Ending (Edit)
20) Plastic Machinery
21) Totally Eclipsing
CD2
TRUST IS FOR BELIEVERS (LIVE)
1) Polar Bear (Blackburn, King Georges Hall. November 1990 - BBC Radio 1)
2) Indian Rope (Reading Festival 1992 - BBC Radio 1)
3) Can’t Even Be Bothered (Reading Festival 1992 - BBC Radio 1)
4) Can’t Get Out Of Bed (Glasgow Tramway, Sound City 1994 - BBC Radio1)
5) I Never Want An Easy Life (If Me And Him Were Ever To Get There) (Glasgow Tramway, Sound City 1994 - BBC Radio1)
6) Then (Glastonbury Festival 1995 - BBC Radio 1) 7) Tootache (Hultsfred Festival, Sweden 1997). ***Exclusive To 2CD Deluxe***
8) Here Comes A Soul Saver (Hultsfred Festival, Sweden 1997)
9) Just Lookin’ (Hultsfred Festival, Sweden 1997) ***Exclsuive To 2CD Deluxe***
10) My Beautiful Friend (Delamare Forest, Cheshire 2007)
11) The Blind Stagger (Delamare Forest, Cheshire 2007)
12) Trouble Understanding (The Church Studios, London) ***Exclusive To 2CD Deluxe***
13) Sproston Green (Reading Festival 1999 - BBC Radio 1)

THEN1LP (2LP)
A HEAD FULL OF IDEAS (BEST OF)
A1) The Only One I Know
A2) Weirdo
A3) Can’t Get Out Of Bed
A4) Jesus Hairdo
A5) Just When You’re Thinking Things Over
A6) North Country Boy
B1) Tellin’ Stories
B2) One To Another
B3) How High
B4) Forever
B5) Impossible
C1) Love Is The Key
C2) A Man Needs To Be Told
C3) Up At The Lake
C4) Blackened Blue Eyes
C5) Oh Vanity
D1) My Foolish Pride
D2) Come Home Baby
D3) Let The Good Times Be Never Ending
D4) Plastic Machinery
D5) Totally Eclipsing

THEN1LPX (3LP)
A HEAD FULL OF IDEAS (BEST OF)
A1) The Only One I Know
A2) Weirdo
A3) Can’t Get Out Of Bed
A4) Jesus Hairdo
A5) Just When You’re Thinking Things Over
A6) North Country Boy
B1) Tellin’ Stories
B2) One To Another
B3) How High
B4) Forever
B5) Impossible
C1) Love Is The Key
C2) A Man Needs To Be Told
C3) Up At The Lake
C4) Blackened Blue Eyes
C5) Oh Vanity
D1) My Foolish Pride
D2) Come Home Baby
D3) Let The Good Times Be Never Ending
D4) Plastic Machinery
D5) Totally Eclipsing
E1) Polar Bear (Blackburn, King Georges Hall. November 1990 - BBC Radio 1)
E2) Indian Rope (Reading Festival 1992 - BBC Radio 1)
E3) Can’t Even Be Bothered (Reading Festival 1992 - BBC Radio 1)
E4) Can’t Get Out Of Bed (Glasgow Tramway, Sound City 1994 - BBC Radio1)
E5) I Never Want An Easy Life (If Me And Him Were Ever To Get There) (Glasgow Tramway, Sound City 1994 - BBC Radio1)
F1) Then (Glastonbury Festival 1995 - BBC Radio 1)
F2) Here Comes A Soul Saver (Hultsfred Festival, Sweden 1997)
F3) My Beautiful Friend (Delamare Forest, Cheshire 2007)
F4) The Blind Stagger (Delamare Forest, Cheshire 2007)
F5) Sproston Green (Reading Festival 1999 - BBC Radio 1)

THE CHARLATANS proudly announce their (Covid) delayed release of their 30th Anniversary tour and a 6 vinyl LP Box Set. Released on Then Recordings through Republic Of Music, ‘A Head Full Of Ideas’ is a five album, and exclusive 7”, career-spanning box set that sums up their remarkable progress from 1990 Manchester scene hopefuls to one of the UK’s most enduring and best-loved bands. The accompanying tour begins at Belfast, Limelight 22/11/21 and finishes in Aberdeen on 20/12/21.

The band have notched up 13 Top 40 studio albums - three of them number ones - alongside 22 hit singles, four of them top 10. The rollercoaster highs have been accompanied by some shattering lows, any which one of them could have felled a less resilient band, from nervous breakdowns to near bankruptcy and the deaths of two founder members.

Somehow, they have not just carried on but adapted and transformed. The classic Charlatans sound - driving Hammond organ, Northern Soul and house-influenced rhythms, swaggering guitars and Tim Burgess’s sunny yet somehow yearning vocal - is instantly recognisable. And in spite of everything they have been through their music is now more relevant than ever, The Guardian described their last album, Different Days as “one of their best ever”.

This limited box set, is a diverse collection portrayed over five Transparent blue vinyl LP’s, spanning their hits, classic live performances, unheard demo’s and rarities and remixes. Within the box will also be an exclusive Original Demo’s 7” featuring ‘Indian Rope’/’The Only One I Know’, as well as a signed print of a tour poster from the early 90’s, a booklet featuring unseen photographs and sleeve notes by friend and journalist Dave Simpson. There will also be triple vinyl LP version and 2CD deluxe of the box set featuring the hits albums plus the live album, and finally a cd or vinyl of just the hits albums.

Their iconic and hugely adored live track One To Another (circa 1997) provides the titles for the individual vinyl collection within the box set. Each piece of vinyl is named after a lyric from the song.

TRACK LISTING

THEN1LPXX (6x Vinyl Set Box Set)
A HEAD FULL OF IDEAS (BEST OF) (2LP)
A1) The Only One I Know
A2) Weirdo
A3) Can’t Get Out Of Bed
A4) Jesus Hairdo
A5) Just When You’re Thinking Things Over
A6) North Country Boy
B1) Tellin’ Stories
B2) One To Another
B3) How High
B4) Impossible
B5) Forever
C1) Love Is The Key
C2) A Man Needs To Be Told
C3) Up At The Lake
C4) Blackened Blue Eyes
C5) Oh Vanity
D1) My Foolish Pride
D2) Come Home Baby
D3) Let The Good Times Be Never Ending
D4) Plastic Machinery
D5) Totally Eclipsing

TRUST IS FOR BELIEVERS (LIVE)
A1) Polar Bear (Blackburn, King Georges Hall. November 1990 - BBC Radio 1)
A2) Indian Rope (Reading Festival 1992 - BBC Radio 1)
A3) Can’t Even Be Bothered (Reading Festival 1992 - BBC Radio 1)
A4) Can’t Get Out Of Bed (Glasgow Tramway, Sound City 1994 - BBC Radio1)
A5) I Never Want An Easy Life (If Me And Him Were Ever To Get There) (Glasgow Tramway, Sound City 1994 - BBC Radio1)
B1) Then (Glastonbury Festival 1995 - BBC Radio 1)
B2) Here Comes A Soul Saver (Hultsfred Festival, Sweden 1997)
B3) My Beautiful Friend (Delamare Forest, Cheshire 2007)
B4) The Blind Stagger (Delamare Forest, Cheshire 2007)
B5) Sproston Green (Reading Festival 1999 - BBC Radio 1)

PLEASED TO MEET YOU (DEMOS) (***EXCLUSIVE TO BOX SET***)
A1) C’mon C’Mon (Demo Version)
A2) Sleepy Little Sunshine Boy (Desk Mix Version)
A3) Dardanella (Demo Version)
A4) So Oh (Demo Version)
A5) Always On My Mind (Demo Version)
B1) Everybody Ha Ha (Demo Version)
B2) Commuter Computer (Demo Version)
B3) Crystal Eyes (Demo Version)
B4) Polar Bear (Demo Version)
B5) I Need You To Know (Demo Version)

ONE TO ANOTHER (REMIXES) (***EXCLUSIVE TO BOX SET***)
A1) Plastic Machinery (Sleaford Mods Remix)
A2) Nine Acre Dust (Chemical Brothers Remix)
A3) So Oh (Brian Jonestown Massacre Remix)
A4) Tellin’ Stories (The Go! Team Remix) **unreleased**
B1) Trouble Understanding (Norman Cook Remix)
B2) My Beautiful Friend (Jagz Kooner Remix)
B3) Hey Sunrise (The Orb Remix) **unreleased**
B4) You’re So Pretty, We’re So Pretty (Lo Fidelity Allstars Remix)

BONUS DEMOS 7” (***EXCLUSIVE TO BOX SET***)
A1) Indian Rope (Demo)
AA1) The Only One I Know (Demo)

Beggars Arkive is excited to announce the reissue of Between 10th and 11th, the second album by The Charlatans.

Available on double clear vinyl and double CD, the reissue contains the original album plus remastered tracks from the oft-bootlegged live show from Chicago in 1991, known as Isolation 21.2.91, a holy grail amongst fans.

Between 10th and 11th was originally released in 1992 and feature the UK Top 20 hit (and biggest US single) “Weirdo”, as well as singles “Tremolo Song” and “I Don’t Want To See The Sights”

“A certifiable classic” - PopMatters.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Though there were mixed opinions on the new direction The Charlatans had taken on the darker ‘Between 10th & 11th’, the naysayers proved to be absolutely in the wrong with Flood’s production and a dreamier, shoegazy edge still sounding just as fresh today as it did at the time. A superbly written and formative album which includes one of my all-time favourite Charlatans tunes, “Weirdo”.

TRACK LISTING

LP1/CD1
I Don't Want To See The Sights
Ignition
Page One
Tremelo Song
The End Of Everything
Subtitle
Can't Even Be Bothered
Weirdo
Chewing Gum Weekend
(No One) Not Even The Rain

LP2/CD2
Imperial 109
The Only One I Know
Not Very Well *
Believe You Me *
Then
Happen To Die
Flower *
White Shirt
Indian Rope
Opportunity
Sproston Green
10th And 11th *
(* Denotes CD Only)

Produced by The Charlatans and Jim Spencer, and mixed by Craig Silvey (Arcade Fire, Portishead), ‘Modern Nature’ is the band’s 12th studio album. Originally released in 2015, the album features a cacophony of contributors: from drummers Pete Salisbury (The Verve), Stephen Morris (New Order) and Gabriel Gurnsey (Factory Floor), to Kate Bush’s backing singers Melanie Marshall and Sandra Marvin, strings by Sean O’Hagan and brass courtesy of Jim Paterson. Described by Q ‘as one the finest of their career’, the album debuted in the top 10 in the UK Albums Chart . Pressed on transparent yellow vinyl.

TRACK LISTING

Side 1:
1. Talking In Tones
2. So Oh
3. Come Home Baby
4. Keep Enough
5. In The Tall Grass
6. Emilie
Side 2:
1. Let The Good Times Be Never Ending
2. I Need You To Know
3. Lean In
4. Trouble Understanding
5. Lot To Say

Can it really be twenty years ago that The Charlatans furtively and then confidently appeared in the Stone Roses and Happy Mondays’ slipstream to carve their own distinctive, tough, psychedelic soundtrack for those brief, heady years when Manchester was the centre of the world? From that auspicious start they experienced career highs and lows, broadened their musical base and endured to become one of the era’s most respected and successful bands.

This 2 disc Expanded Edition includes "Some Friendly" restored to its original vinyl sequence plus a second disc of the non album singles and previously unreleased BBC sessions. It includes the UK top 10 single (and perennial classic) "The Only One I Know", the follow-up, "Then", and the "Over Rising" EP. All tracks have been re-mastered from the original analogue studio masters (except the BBC recordings). The set also includes a 20 page book with notes by the author John Robb.

TRACK LISTING

CD1 - Some Friendly
1. You’re Not Very Well
2. White Shirt
3. Opportunity
4. Then
5. 109 Pt.2
6. Polar Bear
7. Believe You Me
8. Flower
9. Sonic
10. Sproston Green

CD2 - Singles & Sessions
1. The Only One I Know
2. Imperial 109
3. Everything Changed
4. Then (BBC Peel Session)
5. Always In Mind (BBC Peel Session)
6. You Can Talk To Me (BBC Peel Session)
7. Polar Bear (BBC Peel Session)
8. You’re Not Very Well (BBC Goodier Session)
9. Indian Rope (BBC Goodier Session)
10. The Only One I Know (BBC Goodier Session)
11. White Shirt (BBC Goodier Session)
12. Then (Alternate Take)
13. Taurus Moaner
14. Polar Bear (12” Mix)
15. Over Rising
16. Way Up There
17. Happen To Die (Long Version)
18. Opportunity Three

Released in 1997, when it went straight to the top of the album charts, this year marks the 15th anniversary of ‘Tellin’ Stories’.

Building on the sound of their eponymous, previous release (‘The Charlatans’ - also a No.1), the band’s performance has the feel of a classic British rock band (the type which also contain ‘roll’ in the music), combined with the more focussed songwriting of Britpop.

The package contains the original album, re-mastered and cut from the analogue studio tapes, in addition to a collection of the single B sides, plus an unreleased, early version of ‘Don’t Need A Gun’, originally entitled ‘Rainbow Chasing’. Of the eight B sides only half were re-issued on the anthology ‘Songs From The Other Side’.

TRACK LISTING

With No Shoes
North Country Boy
Tellin' Stories
One To Another
You're A Big Girl Now
How Can You Leave Us
Area 51
How High
Only Teethin'
Get On It
Rob's Theme
Two Of Us
Reputation
Don't Need A Gun
Down With The Mook
Title Fight
Keep It To Yourself
Rainbow Chasing (Don't Need A Gun First Take)
Clean Up Kid
Thank You (Live)

Today we introduce Charles Howl, a London-based brit-psyche group with a thrillingly melodic sound.

Charles Howl release their debut album ‘Sir Vices’ with a dozen tracks that deliver. Comprised of Charles Howl & Bobby Voltaire (both of The Proper Ornaments) they elected to record at Syke Lane's warehouse studio on the outskirts of Leeds, utilizing the foggy and remote atmosphere. Locked away Howl honed his songwriting, and production skills, slowly bringing in a team of friends, including Chris Hicks (Talons) on bass and Wesley Patrick Gonzalez (Let’s Wrestle), who laid down a lead line on track 5 while round for a cup of tea.

As some of the last children of the ‘80s and with a britpop upbringing, it’s no wonder Charles Howl has produced an album that sounds like The Modern Lovers channeling The Stone Roses while maintaining its contemporary charm. It makes for an album that is outward looking with tight rhythms tying down whirling guitars and lustrous textures bouncing off melodies. 

Ray Charles has been described universally as the "The Genius" and "Father of Soul Music". He made his first recordings in 1947 and over the following years his career was in a continuous state of evolution. Encompassing many different genres, mostly blues, jazz, gospel and soul, Ray Charles developed a unique style, and his personal touch became evident in all the different projects he undertook. This was his first LP and includes such classics as "I Got a Woman", "Drown in My Own Tears" and "Hallelujah, I Love Her So", among others.

TRACK LISTING

Ain't That Love
Drown In My Own Tears
Come Back Baby
Sinner's Prayer
Funny (But I Still Love You)
Losing Hand
Hard Times (No One Knows Better Than I) *
Hit The Road Jack *
A Fool For You
Hallelujah I Love Her So
Mess Around
This Little Girl Of Mine
Mary Ann
Greenbacks
Don't You Know
I Got A Woman
I Believe To My Soul *

Charlevoix (pronounced SHAR-le-voy) are a trio of two girls and a guy who blend emo melody, rock dynamics and polymath originality to whip up quite a batch of tunes. "Begging Complication", is their nine song debut. Full of complexity and cute time changes, they also feature ex-members of Small Brown Bike and Lovesick.

Francesca Beard adds her breathy, spoken lines of poetry over the folk hop, hip pop and flamenco flourish of the band Charley Marlowe. It's an engaging sound, the sensual world rhythms and bluesy roots mixing with her imaginative and soulful lyrics.

‘BRAT’ is the eagerly awaited follow up to 2022’s ‘CRASH’, which reached number 1 on the UK’s official album chart, and promises to be an exhilarating club record built around high art references and social commentary.

Avant-pop and electronic superstar Charli XCX has become an iconic figure in the arts, having helped expand the landscape of popular music over the last decade by seamlessly traversing the underground and mainstream with her artistic output. Over the course of a trailblazing career, the multi-hyphenate creative has earned critical acclaim for her innovative style and entrepreneurial spirit and seen her forward-thinking approach reshape pop culture in the process.

Her lasting impact was cemented last year when Charli was honoured with the Visionary Award at the annual Ivor Novellos in London, while she also received the Powerhouse Award at Billboard’s Women In Music ceremony in Los Angeles in March.

TRACK LISTING

1. 360
2. Club Classics
3. Sympathy Is A Knife
4. I Might Say Something Stupid
5. Talk Talk
6. Von Dutch
7. Everything Is Romantic
8. Rewind
9. So I
10. Girl, So Confusing
11. Apple
12. B2b
13. Mean Girls
14. I Think About It All The Time
15. 365

Over the course of her trailblazing career, Charli XCX has earned critical acclaim for her forward-thinking musical output and refreshing entrepreneurial spirit that has seen her carve her own lane on the global pop circuit. A singer, songwriter, video director, documentary maker, radio host and record label boss, Charli’s story is one of an artist continuing to succeed without compromise.

Now in 2020, Charli is already breaking boundaries - this year has seen her first BRIT nomination for British Female Solo Artist, marking a huge moment of validation from a mainstream audience that Charli has built on her own terms. In reaction to the global COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, Charli has proven herself to be one of the most adaptable artists working today; initially providing programs of Instagram live sessions that invited various guests to spark conversation, share insight, or simply entertain fans across the world who are currently practicing social distancing. Charli’s vision then expanded further, leading her to announce ‘how i’m feeling now’ - a new album to be written, recorded and released in 39 days, completely in self-isolation. The creative process was also to push her collaborative stream in a unique way; opening up the recording, writing, artwork, music videos and more to fans for feedback and contribution - she also further inspired her fans’ creativity, allowing them access to song stems to create remixes and greenscreen footage to be edited using their own imagination.

‘how i’m feeling now’ has given further spotlight to Charli’s status as one of the most adaptable, exciting pop artists working today, and through it’s uniquely collaborative approach, provided a shared space for those who listen to feel safe enough to express themselves however they wish at a time when they need it most.

Charli XCX is an iconic figure in the arts, having helped expand the landscape of popular music over the last decade by seamlessly traversing the underground and the mainstream with her artistic output. Pop 2 is highly regarded as one of Charli’s most fan favourite records, and includes a plethora of iconic collab-orators including Caroline Polachek, Kim Petras, Carly Rae Jepson and Tove Lo. It features Pop 2 features track Unlock It which soared to popularity last year on TikTok, and single Out Of My Head.

Celebrating 5 years since original release, Charli XCX’s mixtape. Pop 2, will be available on translucent purple vinyl with updated packaging including poster and silver mirror board.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1 - Backseat (feat. Carly Rae Jepson)
2 - Out Of My Head (feat. Tove Lo And ALMA)
3 - Lucky
4 - Tears (feat. Caroline Polachek)
5 - I Got It (feat. Brooke Candy, CupcakKe And Pabllo Vittar)
Side B
6 - Femmebot (feat. Dorian Electra And Mykki Blanco)
7 - Delicious (feat. Tommy Cash)
8 - Unlock It (feat. Kim Petras And Jay Park)
9 - Porsche (feat MØ)
10 - Track 10

Charli XCX’s debut studio album, True Romance, reaches its milestone 10 year anniversary on 12th April 2023. To celebrate we have repressed True Romance on coloured silver vinyl. The album features the singles ‘You (Ha Ha Ha)’ and ‘Nuclear Seasons’.

As the last decade has unfolded, Charli XCX has only become more prolific, both as a performing and songwriter. This is particularly evident by the success of her most recent studio album, CRASH.

TRACK LISTING

Side 1
Nuclear Seasons
You (Ha Ha Ha)
Take My Hand
Stay Away
Set Me Free
Grins
Side 2
So Far Away
Cloud Aura
What I Like
Black Roses
You're The One
How Can I
Lock You Up

Here’s a superb new album on Polytechnic Youth, the last of the label’s trio of recent CD releases, aimed partly at circumnavigating the crazy world of vinyl pressing just now. The third here is an absolute beauty- by a country mile the label’s most bonkers, whacked out release, sample heavy, dancefloor friendly and all interspersed with voiceovers / track intros from Charlie Pellett of NY subway system announcement fame!

17 tracks, clocking in at over an hour (the CD’s biggest saving grace?) including a bunch of extras not included on PY’s mailorder LP edition from a couple of years back that sold out same day and is now a £30+ record. This is a nice opportunity to hear the album in full and is released as a one time pressing of 500.

“Formed in 2018, the London based duo fuse breakbeats, synths and samples to create eccentric alternative dance music, twisting and bending sounds into their own distinctive style using a vast collection of vinyl 45s. Their endlessly intriguing world has already drawn comparisons to the likes of DJ Shadow and Death In Vegas. With a backbone of funk and soul they blend together many different genres including ambient, trip-hop, dance, disco and more, creating a new form of sample-heavy, dancefloor-friendly electronica. ‘Journey Of Echoes’ is exactly this: a fusion of analogue grit, psychedelic colour and a mass of ramshackle ideas, and in a world where it's almost criminal to be joyous and inventive this is the soundtrack of a rebellion!” 

The International Feel label is back from an extended meditation. Well-rested and with a cornucopia of new ideas and records, IFeel is happy to announce the debut album from Charlie Charlie as the starting shot. „Little Things“ is the brainchild of Gabriella Borbély alias Bella Boo and Jens Resch better known as Chords. Born on a beach in Southern California instead of their hometown Stockholm, it is exactly what you would hope for such a record to be: pop music that is informed by hippie or counter culture and by a Balearic ethos (hence the International Feel address) that is free of blinkered definitions. In equal parts, the duo’s ten songs take the listener through honey dripping r&b, while respelling that certain Californian recording studio sound aesthetic, revisit vintage yacht rock and pop tropes as well as they are reflecting dance music influences in a broken, yet gold framed mirror. Most of all, it’s like a day dream that you don’t want to end. To quote our Italian friends from Edizioni Mondo: good listening experience!

Charlie is Gabriella Borbély – also known as Stockholm's deep house virtuoso Bella Boo. Charlie is Jens Resch – also known as prodigious producer/musician Chords. The two Charlies met on a beach in Southern California and immediately decided to write a song together.
That first track was built on the sampled sounds of a rusty drainpipe. Charlie fired up a dusty ARP Odyssey and played a woozy solo over the drainpipe beats, then the other Charlie did the same, using that same legendary 70's analogue synth. When they realized the two separately recorded solos played together in perfect harmony, they knew they had to keep heading down their newly found, shared musical path.
Charlie & Charlie have since continued making music together, describing their common process as liberating, free-flowing, genre-less. "Little Things", their debut album, is made up of tracks recorded in Los Angeles and Stockholm, using that very same ARP as well as pianos, electric guitars and machines like the Prophet 6, the Juno-106 and the Syncussion SY-1. Vocal contributions come from the Charlies themselves as well as friends like Mapei and Julimar Santos. 

TRACK LISTING

A1. Charly
A2. Nothing Here But You & Me
A3. Say It's Gold
A4. Save Us (feat Mapei)
A5. Venice Chocolate
B1. Hill St
B2. Frosty (feat Julimar Santos)
B3. New Hall
B4. Lorena (feat Mapei)
B5. Run

A somewhat enigmatic proposition by current UK standards, sounding refreshingly out of step with current trends, Charlottefield's second album is still undoubtedly informed by post-hardcore and post-punk experimentalism, yet bears witness to a band clearly focused on extending their sonic palette. It builds on the anglicised post-hardcore foundations of their previous album "How Long Are You Staying". Utilising a familiar four-piece, dual guitar, bass, drums and vocals template, Charlottefield's oeuvre is stripped of extraneous musical frippery, focusing instead on rhythmic, structural and textural detail; a constantly shifting dialogue between a democratic band.

Hard to find debut single originally released on Molesworth Records in 1988
Formed in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire after drummer Simon Scott met Guitarist Graham Garduilo in local band The Giant Polar Bears.

They were tour buddies to Ride and most of the late 1980s shoegaze bands. Simon Scott was stolen by Slowdive after a gig at the White Horse in Hampstead in 1990, where the Boo Radleys opened the three-band bill.

They split after releasing two albums. John Peel loved them and NME gave debut album Lovehappy 9 out of 10.

TRACK LISTING

Side 1
Are You Happy Now
Side 2
How Can You Say (you Really Feel)

Ross Charnock and Scott Russell are two sensitive country boys, corrupted by city life, who sing fragile three minute pop songs about life, love and loss. One from the hills and mills of Lancashire, the other from the bleak empty plains of Lincolnshire, together they create obsessive mantras of regret and longing set to a rickety backdrop of tender finger-tickled guitar and homely banjo.

First as a journalist and then a publicist at Warner Brothers Records for nearly twenty years, Barbara Charone has experienced, first-hand, the changes in the cultural landscape. Access All Areas is a personal, insightful and humorous memoir packed with stories of being on the cultural frontline, from first writing press releases on a typewriter driven by Tip Ex, then as a press officer for heavy metal bands taking the bus up to Donnington Festival with coffee, croissants and the much more popular sulfate. To taking on Madonna, an unknown girl from Detroit, and telling Smash Hits 'you don't have to run the piece if the single doesn't chart', and becoming a true pioneer in music, Charone continues to work with the biggest names in music, including Depeche Mode, Robert Plant, Foo Fighters and Mark Ronson at her agency MBCPR.

The story of how a music-loving, budding journalist from a Chicago suburb became the defining music publicist of her generation, Access All Areas is a time capsule of the last fifty years, told through the lens of music.

"There's a strange optimism in pulling all of your negative traits out, revising and reviewing them, and then putting them back, in order," says Mike Wagstaff, of the band's intricate, gorgeous songwriting.

Chartreuse resist easy definition. The Black Country four-piece have been close friends since they were at college. In 2013, Mike and Harriet Wilson started playing folk music together ("We were not good at all," laughs Harriet), and a year later, they added a rhythm section, with the addition of Mike's brother Rory on drums and Perry Lovering on bass. Mike and Rory live together in Kidderminster in the West Midlands, while Harriet and Perry live just ten minutes away. They are very close friends and the songwriting is an extension of this intimacy. Their songs might find Harriet singing Mike's lyrics, or vice versa. "It takes a lot of trust, because the songs are not short of emotion," says Harriet.

Morning Ritual has been a long time coming, with Chartreuse honing their craft over the course of four well- received EPs and the standalone 2022 single 'Satellites', a collaboration with Orlando Weeks. Having experimented with partly producing their previous EPs, Mike stepped up as sole producer on 2021's 'Is It Autumn Already?'. But they had big decisions to make. Should they build on the tracks from the last EP, and turn it into a full-length album? Would they work with a producer, or would Mike do it himself? They had more than enough new material to start an album from scratch, and Mike was ready to produce it. The framework for Morning Ritual was starting to take shape. "It was a natural progression," says Perry.

TRACK LISTING

1. All Seeing All The Time
2. Backstroke
3. Switch It On, Switch It Off 
4. Who Bites Down
5. Shield From Bedlam
6. Agitated
7. Never To Be Real
8. Whippet 
9. Morning Ritual
10. This Could Be Anything
11. Are You Looking For Something 
12. Sorcerer's Eyes

Chartz were a short-lived Wolverhampton-based covers band who also performed original material written by founder members Bernadette (Berny) Cosgrove and Kevin Clark. During its short lifetime Chartz was a springboard for lead singer/guitarist Berny and keyboard player Kevin to showcase and develop their songs, following their originally working together to write and produce jingles. They wrote, arranged and produced this 12" Girls World in 1983 with lyrics "celebrating female strength and independence whilst loving and respecting their partner", says Kevin & Berny. Shortly after this they went on to win a Sony Songwriters of the Year award and moved to London to co-form Hard Times Productions, with the 1986 self-titled Hard Times LP leading to the single "Never Give Into Love" the year after for Supreme Records - and then came the exciting offer of a songwriting contract with Motown's publishing company in New York!

A 10-year spell in the Big Apple saw Berny's solo artist debuts on movie soundtracks "True Love" and Lonely In America", and, after increasingly lucrative publishing deals with the likes of Sony, EMI & Warner Chappell, she and Kevin were commissioned for songwriting projects with an exhaustive list of pop stars spanning from Matt Goss, Rick Astley and Des O'Connor to Gary Barlow, Sheena Easton, Gloria Gaynor, Jimmy Sommerville and countless others. Berny & Kevin also wrote and produced two platinum selling US number 1 albums with boy-band Dream Street, and their biggest song to date is the internatinal hit "Crush" by Jennifer Paige which has sold in excess of 12 million copies worldwide.

Berny & Kevin's illustrious career definitively went from "Chartz" to CHARTS, and here you are able to go back to where it started as we serve up the first ever vinyl reissue of "Girls World" (original copies of which change hands for over £100) with the extended instrumental and radio mix on the flip.

TRACK LISTING

1. Girls World (Extended Dance Mix)
2. Girls World (Extended Instrumental Dance Mix)
3. Girls World (Radio Mix)

Debut album from this San Francisco, female based duo. Chasms is the San Francisco based project of Jess Labrador and Shannon Madden. The duo crafts percussive dirges that are at once beautiful and menacing. Labrador's haunting vocals and hypnotizing guitar work wade between rhythmic bass lines and bursts of Madden's stinging feedback, laid on a bed of pummeling drum programming. The band's affinity for industrial rhythms, swelling textures, precise minimalism, and chaotic eruptions of noise sounds as equally informed by shoegaze as drone and doom metal—to choose just one would be a disservice. On the Legs of Love Purified, the band's debut full-length album, will see the light of day on October 14th. Written over the course of several years, the album explores the healing force of love and the exorcism of pain that inescapably accompanies it. Light cannot exist without dark, bliss without suffering. …Love Purified conjures this atmosphere of duality as it drifts through an expanse of emotion. While this is Chasms’ debut, they’ve been an active duo since 2012. They’ve released the When It Comes (Dream, 2012), Riser (Dream, 2014) EPs and the "Bad Evolution" single (Sleep Genius, 2012). They then collected a majority of the two Eps on the Subtle Bodies compilation album (Sleep Genius, 2014). Why hasn’t it taken so long for a debut album? Labrador spent a year recording the album herself despite a hand injury that made guitar playing and production work difficult and physically painful. Recording between the band's illegally rented rehearsal space and a cramped apartment compounded a sense of tension and isolation as the two struggled to not only finish the album but to also stay afloat in a city that is increasingly hostile to artists, and where the threat of eviction constantly looms. This underlying uneasiness and discomfort can be heard in these recordings, and it works not to mar their beauty but rather to emphasize it by contrast. 

TRACK LISTING

01. More Love To Be Found
02. Black Ice
03. Beyond Flesh
04. We’ll Go
05. Come To Harm
06. Intimacy
07. Between The Eyes On The Legs Of Love Purified

At the invitation of KPM Music, the wizard of Six Organs of Admittance steps behind his acoustic to produce a new instrumental guitar set. Library music, or deeply personal essays on a formative instrument? Under his fingers, Ben plays it both ways, making simply beautiful music that spans beyond the limits of folk, ambient and soundtrack music.

A new instrumental album of acoustic guitar playing from Six Organs of Admittance’s Ben Chasny! Everybody knows it’s been far too long since 2004’s much-beloved For Octavio Paz; even as the landscape has crowded with acoustic players, we’ve all been dying to hear Ben’s distinctive virtuosity again in this format. But The Intimate Landscape is so much more . . .

KPM Music, the legendary British library music company, extended an offer to Ben to make some songs for their library. Well aware of their history, he immediately agreed. The field of library music (music made for hire, for use in placement in films and advertising) is one that’s come to public consciousness only relatively recently in the long century of record-making, but the influence of such records has been felt for years in the aesthetics of many diverse artists, including several who’ve recorded for Drag City. So it’s a special thing for Drag City, whose appreciation for Ben’s unique artistry has been borne out over a countless variety of releases, to issue this really amazing entry in both the KPM Music tradition and the ever-expanding Ben Chasny/Six Organs of Admittance ouvre.

Ben chose the acoustic guitar for these recordings after considering the width and breadth of possible music he could make for the occasion. His approach while playing it was simple — deceptively so: to make music as present and immediate and beautiful as possible. This type of playing requires a deep breath before beginning, as it has to generate from within, as well as at the fingertips.

The resulting music is inventive and engaging, both in and out of the astral style of Ben’s music and the utilitarian genre of music to which he’s contributing. The album’s title — The Intimate Landscape — is a clue to these dual intentions, as is Ben’s use of his given name rather than the 6OOA alias he has preferred in his career. These songs manifest lovely themes played on acoustic guitar, recorded with spacious, almost pastoral ambiance; richly evocative pieces that can fill the multiple purposes of any sound library around the world. When paired with their titles, however — such as, “Last Night to Use the Telescope,” “Circular Road,” and “On the Way to the Coast” — these pieces are profoundly re-contextualized as potent personal expressions. So too are the songs with titles like “Water Dragon.” “Star Cascade,” and “Dust In the Ravine.” Two decades-plus into his life in music, Ben’s got the craft and ability to make music that can be encompassingly heard as intimate AND universal.

Going for melody, Ben employs a relaxed technical facility, supported by a few guitar overdubs, plus several well-placed synths and a passage of wordless vocalizing, accessing the murky depths of his reservoir of spirituality while hand-spinning irresistible sonic candy at the same time. This is a greatly engrossing listening experience, regardless of what the listener’s intentions are.

Given the rarity of such lovely acoustic essays from the fingers of Ben Chasny, and thanks to EMI and KPM Music, we’ll find ourselves returning to gaze over The Intimate Landscape often, for many years to come.

TRACK LISTING

A
The Many Faces Of Stone
Last Night To Use The Telescope
Waterfall Path
Cross-Winged Formation
Water Dragon
Star Cascade

B
Where Have All The Summers Gone?
Circular Road
Six Diamonds
Dust In The Ravine
Fading Blue
Second Moon
On The Way To The Coast

Chastity Belt talks a lot about intention these days—how to be more present with each other. The four piece—Julia Shapiro (vocals, guitar, drums), Lydia Lund (vocals, guitar), Gretchen Grimm (drums, vocals, guitar) and Annie Truscott (bass)—is nine years deep in this, after all. It seems now, more than ever, that circuit is a movement of intentionality, one that creates a space inside which they can be themselves, among themselves. It’s a space where the euphoria of making music with your best friends is protected from the outside world’s churning expectations. It’s a kind of safe zone for the band to occupy as their best selves: a group of friends who love each other.

Their fourth record, Chastity Belt, comes out of that safe space. After a restorative few months on hiatus in 2018, each member worked on solo material or toured with other bands. “So much of the break was reminding ourselves to stay present, and giving ourselves permission to stop without saying when were gonna meet up again,” says guitarist Lydia Lund. “It was so important to have that—not saying, ‘we’re gonna get back together at this point,’ but really just open it up so we could get back to our present connection.”

Their experience navigating adult life within the strange seasons of the music industry has Chastity Belt orienting themselves towards whatever gets them to feel the most present with each other, in any part of the band grind. With the luxury of spending several weeks in the studio with Jay Som’s Melina Duterte, Chastity Belt was able to experiment. The new self-titled album is the work of the band playing “old songs, and trying new things on top of it,” like adding more dynamic harmonies and violin, says bassist Annie Truscott. Lydia, Gretchen, and Julia all share lead vocals on different tracks on the album. The result is their most sonically developed and nuanced record yet; one that’s not only a product of, but a series of reflections on what it means to take what you need and to understand yourself better.

Many of Chastity Belt’s signature dynamics, from the silly to the sincere, have read as feminist gestures: the Cool Slut DGAF-iness, the shrugging off of the “women in rock” press gargle, the fundamentally punk act of creating music on your own as a woman, and being lyrically forthright. What the making of Chastity Belt reveals is that the band has tapped into a deeper tradition of women making art on their terms: the act of self-preservation in favor of the long game. In favor of each other. In this cultural moment, taking space like this to prioritize the love over the product seems progressive. Chastity Belt’s intentions have resulted in an album deeply expressive of four people’s commitment to what they love most: making music with each other.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: We were big fans of 2017's 'I Used To Spend So Much Time Alone' here in the shop, and this newest outing is sure to generate even more of a buzz. Slightly less driven, and a little more meditative, this LP retains all of the thoughtful beauty of their previous work but with a more mature and weathered outlook. Gorgeous stuff.

TRACK LISTING

1. Ann’s Jam (4:56)
2. Elena (3:20)
3. Effort (5:07)
4. Rav-4 (3:39)
5. It Takes Time (4:04)
6. Apart (3:33)
7. Half-Hearted (5:25)
8. Split (3:53)
9. Drown (4:06)
10. Pissed Pants (4:55)

A few years ago, while in a tour van somewhere in Idaho, the members of Chastity Belt—Julia Shapiro, Gretchen Grimm, Lydia Lund, and Annie Truscott—opted to pass the time in a relatively unusual fashion: They collectively paid one another compliments, in great and thoughtful detail. This is what we like best about you, this is why we love you. I think of that image all the time, the four of them opening themselves up like that, by choice. It’s hard to imagine other bands doing the same. But beyond their troublesome social media presence—see: the abundance of weapons-grade duck face, the rolling suitcase art—and beyond their moonlit deadpan lies, at the very least, an honesty and an intimacy and an emotional brilliance that galvanizes everything they do together. Which is a fancy way of saying: They’re funny, but they’re also capable of being vulnerable.

This June marks the release of I Used to Spend So Much Time Alone, their third and finest full-length to date. Recorded live in July of 2016, at Jackpot! in Portland, Oregon (birthplace of some of their favorite Elliott Smith records), it’s a dark and uncommonly beautiful set of moody post-punk that finds the Seattle outfit’s feelings in full view, unobscured by humor. There is no irony in its title: Before she had Chastity Belt, and the close relationships that she does now, Shapiro considered herself a career loner. That’s no small gesture. I can make as much sense of this music as I can my 20s: This is a brave and often exhilarating tangle of mixed feelings and haunting melodies that connects dizzying anguish (“This Time of Night”) to shimmering insight (“Different Now”) to gauzy ambiguity (“Stuck,” written and sung by Grimm). It’s a serious record but not a serious departure, defined best, perhaps, by a line that Shapiro shares early on its staggering title track: “I wanna be sincere.”

When asked, their only request was that what you’re reading right now be brief, honest, free of hyperbole, and “v chill.” When pressed for more, Truscott said, “Just say that we love each other. Because we do.” This is who they are, this is why I love them. - David Bevan, February 2017.

STAFF COMMENTS

Millie says: Chastity Belt deliver their third album with an effortlessly edgy set. The melodies feel raw and are perfectly matched with the jangly guitars which underline the entire album.

TRACK LISTING

1. Different Now
2. Caught In A Lie
3. This Time Of Night
4. Stuck
5. Complain
6. It’s Obvious
7. What The Hell
8. Something Else
9. Used To Spend
10. 5 AM
11. Don’t Worry (CD/Digital Bonus)
12. Bender (CD/Digital Bonus)
13. I’m Fine (CD/Digital Bonus)

In their decade-plus together, the four-piece Julia Shapiro (guitar, vocals), Lydia Lund (guitar, vocals), Gretchen Grimm (drums, vocals), and Annie Truscott (bass, vocals)—have created a resonant body of work. Live Laugh Love is a natural continuation. Against the bizarre backdrop of the past few years, Chastity Belt remained a supportive space for the members to grow and experiment, drawing on the ingredients most essential to their process since the beginning: authenticity and levity. Recorded over three sessions in as many years (January 2020, November 2021 and 2022), the focus became more about enjoying their time together in the studio than making it feel like work. Their ease and familiarity with engineer Samur Khouja in LA, who also recorded their last album, made for a particularly enjoyable process. Once completed, they returned to renowned engineer Heba Kadry who mastered the album.

Album opener “Hollow” sets the tone with a gently driving rhythm while guitar layers stream like sun rays through an open car window. A warmth radiates through Shapiro’s voice, even while grappling with feeling lost and stuck. “The older I get,” Shapiro says of the lyrics, “the more I realize that I might just always feel this way, and it’s more about sitting with the feeling and accepting it, rather than trying to fight it.” That wisdom seems to anchor Live Laugh Love. Chastity Belt has never shied from navigating the spectrum of difficult emotions, and an existential thread weaves throughout the subject matter. And yet the songs feel more grounded than ever; there’s a sense of quiet confidence and self-assurance that comes with being less numb and more present. Facing discomfort takes more fortitude, after all.

Live Laugh Love finds the members in their prime as musicians. Their parts trace intricate patterns over one another, but there’s room to breathe between the layers. Everyone contributes to the writing, sometimes switching instruments, and for the first time, all four members sing a song. It’s never been more apparent that they are creative siblings, cut from the same belt. “We’ve been playing music with each other for over a decade,” says Shapiro, “so it really does feel like we’re all fluent in the same language, and a lot of it just happens naturally.”

“Laugh” seeks in the balm of friendship, aware of the anticipatory nostalgia that hits during a good time that you’re already missing before it’s gone; the heavier guitar tones on “Chemtrails” streak ominous chord progressions over Grimm’s precision timekeeping, lamenting memories that won’t fade easily. During a transitional time, Truscott came across a note in their phone that read, “it's not hard all day, just sometimes,” which inspired a poignant line in the chorus of “Kool-Aid,” their first song as lead vocalist on a Chastity Belt recording. Another standout, “I-90 Bridge” shines with a silvery melody that soars as Lund belts one of the most resounding moments on the album: “Tell your girlfriend she’s got nothing to fear/I’m set in my head/My body’s a different story.” The track “Blue” saunters nonchalantly with a wink; you can almost hear Shapiro’s smile as she sings “Faking it big time/So I can hit my stride/Man, it feels good to be alive,” channeling early Chastity Belt channeling early ’90s before channeling the late Elliott Smith in a spiral of distortion and insight: “Don’t get upset about it/It’s gonna pass/Tell all your friends about it/They’re gonna laugh.” “We have such a strong sense of each other’s musical inclinations” says Lund. “I think this allows for a lot of playfulness…we can kinda surprise each other, like a good punchline would.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Jangling indie guitars float beautifully around airy vocal melodies, crafting a beautifully honed noise that lands somewhere between shoegaze, folk and art-rock. Brilliantly inventive throughout, but never shy a melody or two. Lovely stuff.

TRACK LISTING

Hollow
Funny
Clumsy
It’s Cool
Kool-Aid
Chemtrails
Blue
Tethered
1-90 Bridge
Laugh
Like That

Brandon Williams’ second full-length record as Chastity, Home Made Satan , is a new direction for the Whitby, Ontario-native. It’s an emotional and political concept album from the perspective of a young man who’s spent too much time alone, inside, isolated from the world. It’s about fear, and radicalization; an intense meditation on youth and extremism in an increasingly irrational and violent Western World.

Williams, who produces all his own music, set out to create something with a strong cinematic nature. “It’s so visual to me,” he says. “I’m scoring this picture I have, and trying to get it as close to people’s ears as it is in my mind.”

The new songs are gothier and poppier than ever, recalling ‘80s staples like The Cure and Siouxsie and the Banshees. Home Made Satan’s got “a bit more eyeshadow” than 2018’s genre-bending shoegaze-meets-post-hardcore Death Lust , and it’s got pop-punk hooks for days. Home Made Satan , with its lines about commies and American masochism and the Christian right, is meant to sing along to.

And when you do, you’ll mostly be singing about America. About hyper alienation and xenophobia, about the people who don’t have access to community, how people get stuck in their own worlds and become afraid of what’s outside.

“It constantly feels like America is falling apart,” Williams says, and that affects the whole world.

TRACK LISTING

1. Flames
2. Dead Relatives
3. Spirit Meet Up
4. Sun Poisoning
5. Anxiety
6. Last Year’s Lust
7. Bliss
8. The Girls I Know Don’t Think So
9. Still Feel The Same
10. Strif

Oklahoma’s Chat Pile have had an exciting 2022; they released their album God’s Country, toured the midwest and east coast in support of the album, announced their appearance at Roadburn Festival 2023, and while the band is working on LP2, they’re revealing details for their score for the indie film Tenkiller.

While not a proper full-length album, the Tenkiller score was written and recorded in the winter of 2020, and it waxes and wanes from the signature Chat Pile sound but also ventures into new ones including arena country music.

The band comments, “The music we made for Tenkiller is quite a bit different than what you may come to expect from us. We were given the freedom to really experiment and explore territories that we’ve never done before.” They continue, “It’s not going to be for everyone, but we hope some of you connect with what we set out to do.”

TRACK LISTING

1. TAH
2. Badman
3. Dad’s Drunk
4. The Fabulous Shitheads
5. LE
6. The Return Of Badman
7. Lake Time (Mr. Rodan)
8. Kids
9. QUAH
10. Badman 3: Die Badman Die
11. B4dm4n
12. Punishment Box
13. Beck’s Theme
14. OK
15. Badman V: A New Beginning
16. Bleeding Out
17. Tenkiller

This album, a product of two years of studio sessions, saw Château Flight engaging in musical dialogues, hitting record when inspiration struck. In the studio, that moment always comes, when a fragile and magical balance happens.

With a decidedly dubby-techno feel throughout, they naviage a range of tempos and moods with dexterity and creativity throughout. Featuring Johnny Nash on guitar, Cosmic Neman on "Mange", John Cravache on organ and Bony Bikaye singing on "Esika Molimo Ezali".  

Château Flight says :
• Playing electronic music, whether alone or not, must be joyous, fun, and make you feel good.
• The studio is not a sanctuary but a place of life. Technology must not be intimidating.
• Welcoming friends and new objects in the studio should be an infinite source of inspiration.
• If nothing happens in the studio, turn off the light and play a percussion record.
• With 25 years of experience, Château Flight can make you forget all your troubles, instantly and painlessly.
• The key to success: midi sync + din sync + external trigs.

TRACK LISTING

A1.Trombe
A2.Fordizm
A3.Esika Molimo Ezali
B1.Clair De Lune à Mykonos
C1.Allô?
C2.Mange
D1.Satanique Musette
D2.La Folie Studio
D3.Théâtre De Verdure

Chatham County Line have always combined traditional pop song writing with bluegrass arrangements to create a sound that is not traditional bluegrass any more than it is pop.

But it does reflect the spirit of the music for which their home state of North Carolina is known. On their latest album, Autumn, the band adds eleven new tracks to their deep catalogue. "You Are My Light," "Jackie Boy," and "Dark Rider," are stand-outs.

Playing traditional string band instrumentation around a single microphone while clad in suits and ties visually projects a similar sepia-toned timelessness. “We create a product that you’re familiar with and you’ll enjoy going back to because you know what to expect. My dad ran a local hardware store years ago and I always felt like we shared that.” says Dave Wilson.

Sure enough, like a small town store, there’s no dramatic tale or sexy hook to fuel the hype machine for Autumn, the seventh studio album since the Raleigh, NC-based Chatham County Line—Wilson, John Teer (mandolin/fiddle), Chandler Holt (banjo), and Greg Readling (bass, pedal steel, piano)—coalesced in the late 1990’s.

Instead, the story behind the workmanlike group’s newest release is simple: A veteran ensemble at the top of its game sticking to its considerable strengths—poignant songwriting and inventive acoustic arrangements that draw upon a broad array of American roots influences, highlighted by trademark three- and four-part harmonies that shine throughout. But like the flat-screen televisions that now dot those bowling lanes, the quartet respects its history—from bluegrass inventor Bill Monroe to innovators like John Hartford—while remaining mindful of more modern influences, including its members’ backgrounds in rock bands.

Hiyo is a coming out party in a lot of ways for a band that has been a staple of the American Folk Music scene for over two decades - Co- Produced and engineered by Nashville's Rachael Moore and including performances by Jamie Dick (Drums), John Mailander (fiddle) and Maya de Vitry (vocals), the album Hiyo pushes the sound of CCL past anywhere it has been before - For a band that spent 15 years performing around a single microphone, CCL has found new inspiration in all of the sounds the world has to offer.

"Synthesizers, drum machines, banjo...the world is really open right now to what constitutes folk music and we are grabbing on to that inspiration with both hands and not letting go," says leader Dave Wilson.

Produced by Rachael Moore & Dave Wilson. Recorded & Mixed by Rachael Moore (George & Tammy) at Echo Mountain in Asheville, NC. Mastered by Nathan Dantzler at The Hit Lab in Nashville, TN.

TRACK LISTING

1. Right On Time
2. Magic
3. Way Down Yonder
4. Heaven
5. Lone Ranger
6. B S R
7. Under The Willow Tree
8. She's Got You
9. Stone
10. Summerline

North Carolina-based ensemble Chatham County Line return with their eighth studio album titled Sharing The Covers. The album is, at its core, a tribute to those whom Chatham County Line hold dear, and a chance for the group to perform modern and traditional classics in the bluegrass-style they’re known for best. On the 13-track collection, CCL takes the familiar and adds a touch of originality to create a wholly new and inventive roster of covers by Tom Petty, Alton Delmore, John Lennon, The Louvin Brothers, Beck, James Hunter, and more

TRACK LISTING

I Got You (At The End Of The Century)
People Gonna Talk
Walk, Don’t Run
My Baby’s Gone
Bumblebee
Think I’m In Love
You Don’t Know How It Feels
Girl On The Billboard
Think Of What You’ve Done
Watching The Wheels
Tear Down The Grand Ole Opr
The Last Time
Gonna Lay
Down My Old Guitar

Australian punks The Chats' new album, Get Fucked, is fully loaded with 13 new, high-velocity punk tracks that rip from start to finish, and lyrically cover panic attacks, junkies, prison breaks, the price of smokes, surf mafia, being drunk in every pub in Brisbane and many more based on personal experiences.

TRACK LISTING

6L GTR
Boggo Breakout
Struck By Lightning
Southport Superman
Panic Attack
Ticket Inspector
The Price Of Smokes
Dead On Site
Paid Late
I’ve Been Drunk In Every Pub In Brisbane
Emperor Of The Beach
Out On The Street
Getting Better

Australian punks The Chats' album, Get Fucked, is fully loaded with 13, high-velocity punk tracks that rip from start to finish, and lyrically cover panic attacks, junkies, prison breaks, the price of smokes, surf mafia, being drunk in every pub in Brisbane and many more based on personal experiences.

TRACK LISTING

1. 6L GTR
2. Boggo Breakout
3. Struck By Lightning
4. Southport Superman
5. Panic Attack
6. Ticket Inspector
7. The Price Of Smokes
8. Dead On Site
9. Paid Late
10. I've Been Drunk In Every Pub In Brisbane
11. Emperor Of The Beach
12. Out On The Street
13. Getting Better

The Chats are a pub-punk shed-rock band from Queensland, Australia. They began playing together in high school, releasing their debut self titled EP a month away from graduating in 2016. Triple J described the EP as "seven joyous sky-punching tracks that combined 60s garage punk and 70s new wave punk" About nine months out of high school, The Chats went back into the studio to record their follow up EP, "Get This In Ya". The second EP sat online for half a year until the band had a viral hit with the music video for their song "Smoko", which racked in millions of views on Youtube in a couple of days, quickly becoming a viral hit and drawing attention from popular rock musicians Josh Homme, Iggy Pop, and Dave Grohl. Since then, The Chats have become notorious for their loud and chaotic live shows and their zero fucks attitude.

The Chats have sold out shows in Australia, New Zealand, the UK and Europe. They've toured with Australian punk legends Cosmic Psychos, US rock heavyweights Queens of the Stone Age, and fellow pisswrecks Pist Idiots. With a debut album in the works, as well as national and international tours, The Chats aren't showing any signs of slowing down soon. The Chats have coined the term "shed rock" to describe their sound. Their self-contained approach has been likened to that of King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard. They have cited Australian bands Cosmic Psychos, Dune Rats and Eddy Current Suppression Ring as major influences The band takes its name from the phrase "that's chat" - (Australian slang to describe something terrible) and Sydney suburb of Chatswood. 

Chaos For The Fly is the debut solo album from Grian Chatten, vocalist of Dublin’s critically-acclaimed band Fontaines D.C.

Rare moments of respite from a relentless touring schedule afforded Chatten the opportunity to start work on something for himself, occupying a completely different headspace from his hugely successful work within Fontaines D.C. Co-produced by the band’s longstanding producer Dan Carey, the album is arguably the most poetic we’ve heard from Chatten. Each song here has a sweep of colour and textures that breathe life into his lucid tales. Over its nine tracks, Chaos For The Fly is a record that takes in all of life’s rich emotions, transporting the listener to a place you not only want to visit, but will find yourself returning to again and again.

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: Grian Chatten, as I’m sure you all know, is the lead singer of Fontaines D.C. This is his first solo album and it’s an absolute corker! It only seems right, at this point, to own up to being not the biggest Fontaines’ fan, but that’s why this record is such a wonderful surprise to me. Whilst they thunder along in their rambunctious, post punkish style, Grian solo is a far more considered and down beat affair. Musically, Chatten seems to be referencing such poetic songsmiths as Leonard Cohen, Elliott Smith and, of course, Shane MacGowan, and he’s said that the whole album came to him in a vision whilst walking along Stoney Beach in Ireland. It’s interesting that he should share this as there is a tangible faded (seaside) glamour and epic, introspective vibe which shrouds the whole record. There are only nine songs here, but every one is a gem. Dan Carey is still on board as producer but, on this album Grian’s voice is pointedly out front, clear as a bell and centre of attention. His voice is stunning. And, as for his words, well these songs are pure poetry set to music; miniature films, if you like. My two favourite tracks are, funnily enough, back to back in the running order. “All Of The People” is just a brilliant melody with a harsh and apparently heart felt finger pointing lyric whilst “East Coast Bed” just drifts so gorgeously it’s in a genre all of its own!

TRACK LISTING

1. The Score
2. Last Time Every Time Forever
3. Fairlies
4. Bob's Casino
5. All Of The People
6. East Coast Bed
7. Salt Throwers Off A Truck
8. I Am So Far
9. Season For Pain

Ben Chatwin begins his new album with an instrument you’d least expect - a dulcitone. Created in the late 19th century, the keyboard hits tuning forks with felt hammers, sounding like an ornate music box. It serves as the perfect lead in to Heat & Entropy, whose title refers to how introducing heat (energy) and entropy (chaos) into any given system can create life, exploring the blurring lines between man and machine. The first Chatwin album to be recorded domestically, Heat & Entropy starts a new chapter for the Queensferry, Scotland-based musician. Under the name Talvihorros, Chatwin is known for his innovative combination of electronic experimentation and modern classical composition. However, last year’s The Sleeper Awakes took a left turn and exchanged vanguard minimalism for enhanced melodics. Heat & Entropy delves further into this world. The result is an ornate exploration into future possibilities.

On Heat & Entropy, Chatwin originally intended to use only strings, forcing him to explore lesser-known instruments. For “Standing Waves,” he attached pieces of metal, rubber and tape to the piano strings. “The Kraken” uses Terry Riley’s repetition as a starting point, but leads to distorted vocals and an intense, hammered dulcimer climax. “Euclidean Plane” incorporates a bowed mandolin and a three-stringed didley-bow, along with acoustic guitar and metallophone by Ben’s brother, Jordan Chatwin, who has had no formal training and learned guitar by ear, playing with unconventional tunings and chords.

Despite the unique sounds and textures Chatwin found among the strings, the lure of electronics proved too great. “The album then became about the tensions between the acoustic, or natural world, and the electronic world” he explains. “For me this is where the excitement lies…. It creates a unique world of contrasts and conflicting relationships.” Chatwin calls Heat & Entropy “an album of contrast, conflict and chaos, but also of complex relationships.” Melody rises above the maelstrom in these compositions. It’s an album of experimentation, of delicately contrasting the organic with the artificial, and ultimately of great beauty and sophistication. Heat & Entropy marks the emergence of an incredibly exciting and visionary Scots composer.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Pulsing ambient electronic fuzz meets spacey synth sweeps and industrial clanging rhythms. This, juxtaposed with the traditional strings make for a stunning and contrary coalition. Though initial furtive melodies are the basis of these compositions, they are soon challenged (and often overcome) by the impending electronic fog. Throughout, all these pieces maintain a balance rarely seen in electro-acoustic compositions, and end up being not only one world or the other but a beautiful and harmonious marriage of the two.

TRACK LISTING

1. Inflexion
2. Gravitational Bodie
3. Standing Waves
4. Phantom Lights
5. Oscillations
6. The Kraken
7. Surface Tension
8. Euclidean Plane
9. Corpseways

It is hard to believe that five years have passed since Sylvain Chauveau's last 'proper' album. Of course there have been re-issues peppering the years since 'Down To The Bone', as well as more than a few collaborations and soundtrack appearances, but Sylvain has purposefully waited to allow his ideas to come to fruition. On mentioning his new album a few years ago, Sylvain commented that he didn't think it would appeal to everyone and that he wanted to take a fresh direction. The Depeche Mode songs he had explored on "Down To The Bone" had given him ideas he felt he needed to explore, and "Singular Forms (Sometimes Repeated)" is his attempt at an album of 'songs'.

In many ways, "Singular Forms (Sometimes Repeated)" is constructed the way albums used to be – it is compact and filled with vocal hooks and melodies, yet Sylvain has deconstructed the musical forms he grew up listening to and reduced them to their base level. Vocal snippets fall through the stereo field and his signature piano motifs splutter and cough through processed digital hiccups. As Carsten Nicolai and Ryuichi Sakamoto deconstructed classical music, Sylvain attempts here to study and dissolve the roots of popular music. Each piece feels like it could have started as a three-minute pop sing-along before the accompaniments were stripped away and the component parts reduced to merely a backbone.

"Singular Forms (Sometimes Repeated)" is a daring and challenging listening experience. The widescreen theatrics of Sylvain's previous work have all but disappeared, leaving an album that is stark and incredibly beautiful. It is an album rooted in a love of art and music, both minimal and mainstream and celebrates Sylvain's influences. One listen might
only reveal surface details, but listen again and you will find much, much more.

Vinyl reissue of Chavez’s 1995 debut album - ‘Gone Glimmering’.

Cult favourite album, back in print after over ten years.

Chavez were formed from the ashes of Wider, inspired by the sonic approach of math rock pioneers Slint and post-punk outfit Mission Of Burma. Chavez utilize angular, asymmetrical riffs and dramatic dynamic shifts. The band are fronted by guitarist Matt Sweeney, who was previously a member of Skunk and Wider and played with Guided By Voices. Drummer James Lo also came from Wider and the band are rounded out by guitarist Clay Tarver (Bullet Lavolta) and bassist Scott Marshall.

Chavez never officially broke up but they released no new material and played few shows between 1999 and 2006. In 2001, during Chavez’s period of inactivity, guitarist Matt Sweeney went on to join Smashing Pumpkins frontman / guitarist Billy Corgan and Slint guitarist David Pajo to form Zwan. Most recently, Sweeney teamed up with Will Oldham (under the moniker Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy) for the 2005 album ‘Superwolf’, as well producing and playing on Early Man’s debut record for Matador, ‘Closing In’. He also played guitar on Johnny Cash’s ‘American VI’, released posthumously in 2010.

Clay Tarver has kept himself busy directing various television commercials as well as writing the script for the movie ‘Joy Ride’.

The band were chosen to perform at the I’ll Be Your Mirror festival organized by ATP and Portishead in September 2011 in Asbury Park, New Jersey.

“Some of the most exciting rock songs of the last decade” - Pitchfork

“Probably weren’t the first mid-90s band to have their knotty guitar textures and algebraic time signtures called ‘math rock’, but they might have been the best” - Entertainment Weekly

The brainchild of original Virus vocalist Mike Virus, Cheap Sex formed in 2002, forged out of a need for real, socially aware punk rock. With the same unique mix of hardcore punk and socially-pertinent lyrics that made Cheap Sex a punk rock household name, "Written in Blood" promises to unleash the band's most aggressive and uncompromising material to date!

Henderson, Tennessee's Jeffrey Novak is a name familiar to those who pay attention to the whole lo-fi-garage punk underbelly of today's indie scene. He's released a handful of singles and at least one album on labels in the US and Europe as a one-man-band and with his former group, The Rat Traps. He's been at it for nearly five years and he's barely in his twenties. Cheap Time is his newest and most serious endeavour to date. Founded with Jemina Pearl and Nathan Vasquez of Be Your Own Pet, Cheap Time set out to recapture the essence of teenage schlock rock scuzz of such heroes as Redd Kross and The Runaways. Cheap Time's self-titled debut is 28 minutes of snotty punk pop perfection. From the New York Dolls via-Germs screech of "Tight Fit" to the anglophile power pop of "Ginger Snap" to the bubblegum bounce of "Trip To The Zoo", this debut has instant classic stamped all over its bratty face.

'Authorized Greatest Hits' is a compilation album by the American rock band Cheap Trick, originally released in 2000. The tracks were picked by the band members themselves, in contrast to 1991's 'Greatest Hits'. It contains several rarities, including one from the EP 'Found All the Parts'.

TRACK LISTING

1. I Want You To Want Me
2. Ain't That A Shame
3. Southern Girls
4. California Man
5. Surrender
6. Stop This Game
7. Voices
8. Dream Police
9. If You Want My Love
10. Tonight It's You
11. Everything Works If You Let It
12. Mandocello
13. I Can't Take It
14. She's Tight
15. That 70's Song
16. Walk Away
17. Can't Stop Fallin' Into Love
18. The Flame

Following two acclaimed EPs - ‘Coared’ and ‘SANS’ - as well as a double A-sided single, Wichita are very excited to present the highly anticipated self-titled debut album from Cheatahs.

An exploration of the possibilities of modern guitar music. A blend of ecstatic noise, ambient drone and visceral, earsplitting alt rock. Lyrics that touch on the complexities of relationships, nature, the city, memory, dislocation and self-identity. Altogether, their self-titled record displays a giant creative leap from the lo fi fuzz of their first two EPs.

Call it shoegaze, call it grunge, call it indie rock, but know that Cheatahs stand head and shoulders above all the other pretenders in terms of both tunes and intensity.

The band have been on the road with their friends Metz and more dates will be announced soon. They have previously played with Dinosaur Jr, Fidlar, Wavves, Best Coast, The Cribs, King Tuff and Cloud Nothings, amongst others.

For fans of Deerhunter, Swervedriver, My Bloody Valentine, Dinosaur Jr, Teenage Fanclub, Sugar, The Boo Radleys.

TRACK LISTING

I
Geographic
Northern Exposure
Mission Creep
Get Tight
The Swan
IV
Leave To Remain
Kenworth
Fall
Cut The Grass
Loon Calls

Both formats include an exclusive free Sacred Bones label sampler bonus disc CD.

Don’t sleep. Don’t retreat. Stay awhile. Let’s spend the night together. Cheena testify to a long history of New York nights, trading insults and borrowing beer at rooftop parties that began years ago. There’s plenty of New York in this band – Lou Reed’s better glam punches found a jawline or two among them, the heavy handed playing of the Dolls, and that particular manner of NY glam you can hear in Kiss– that’s all in Cheena.

Spend The Night With...is a soundtrack to nights where revelry and lust are never isolated from poor decisions and vanity, where the grave sincerity of a bathroom confession explodes into cruelty and hysteria. Nights on busy streets or crowded subway cars coloured with elegant ambition and constrained by the practicality of street smarts. While we say this is NY music, we must also say this is American music. One could imagine a timeless jukebox of American RNR history from hard glam to cocaine / codeine country has blasted into the imbibed ears of our Cheens for many nights on end. Thus we hear songs for and of the night, songs pieced together out of iPhone recordings of 5am guitar histrionics and lyrics scraped out of speed fried text exchanges. There is a long history of bands as disparate as the Byrds, Gun Club, and the Flesh Eaters which had to reconcile RNR with country and blues roots; a tradition of truly AMERICAN music that feeds on itself. This is where I would isolate the sound of Cheena.

America eating itself. Every generation gets the Cheena it deserves because we still live in cities and we still need RNR to live. We still need guitars to be gripped by gods. We still need bards to write odes to heroic crime and ignoble, destitute hedonistic excess, we still need music to drink to that also contains the darkness and disease of hangovers so we aren’t too far away from what is raw and what is real. With love and admiration, I kiss your hand from Melbourne to the Sacred Bones offices and the 538 roof. – DX (Total Control, UV Race, Distort).

TRACK LISTING

1. Cry For Help
2. Fever
3. Car
4. Jane
5. Electric Snoopy Gang
6. Stupor
7. Tarzan
8. 7 Nights
9. Liberated Animal
10. Lost My Way
11. M.E. (Bonus Track)

‘Like Shadows Dancing In The Dark’- Label Sampler Bonus Disc
Tracklist
1. Jenny Hval – Female Vampire (from Blood Bitch)
2. Exploded View – Orlando (from Exploded View)
3. Lust For Youth – Display (from Compassion)
4. Blanck Mass – Atrophies (from Dumb Flesh)
5. Wymond Miles – Divided In Two (from Call By Night)
6. Psychic Ills – I Don’t Mind (feat. Hope Sandoval) (from Inner Journey Out)
7. Institute – Perpetual Ebb (from Catharsis)
8. Cheena – Car (from Spend The Night With…)
9. Destruction Unit – Salvation (from Negative Feedback Resistor)
10. Marching Church – Living In Doubt (from This World Is Not Enough)
11. Flowers For Agatha – The Freedom Curse (from KBDR Vol.2)
12. Pop.1280 – USS ISS (from Paradise)
13. Almost Holy OST (Atticus Ross & Bobby Krilic) – Wild Moose
14. John Carpenter – Utopian Façade (from Lost Themes II)

Chelsea Light Moving is the current group led by Sonic Youth founder Thurston Moore. He is the songwriter and plays over-amped hyper electric guitar and sings with raw-glam-destructo vocals. The band is a four piece featuring Samara Lubelski, who has played violin with TM on his last two solo LPs (Demolished Thoughts and Trees Outside The Academy) and with Chelsea Light Moving plays deep psyche pop metal bass guitar. Keith Wood, who records under the aegis Hush Arbors, plays electric guitar with a pick forged from angel wing and John Moloney, aka “Pegasus”, approaches the drums like an asteroid hurtling toward Earth. The first  self-titled album was recorded in two spurious sessions with engineer Justin Pizzoferrato in Sone Lab, a killer studio in Easthampton Massachusetts. The band is ready to detonate any birthday party, wedding or hullabaloo in any country, planet or stratosphere that doesn’t support right wing extremist NRA sucking bozo-ology.

STAFF COMMENTS

Darryl says: Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth fame presents his new group, Chelsea Light Moving. Taking cues from early Sonic Youth guitar overloads like 'Sister' and 'Evol' but adding grungey noise detonations this four piece destroys all before it!

Paused in Cosmic Reflection is the definitive story of The Chemical Brothers. Told in the voices of Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons, with contributions from friends and collaborators, it is fully illustrated with 30 years of mind-bending visuals.

Record Store Exclusive Edition
- Housed in a bespoke slipcase
- Alternate colourway
- Ribbon marker
- Kate Gibb risograph art print
- Limited to 1500 copies

Paused in Cosmic Reflection is the definitive story of The Chemical Brothers. Told in the voices of Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons, with contributions from friends and collaborators, it is fully illustrated with 30 years of mind-bending visuals.

Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons are The Chemical Brothers. In the UK, they have had six No. 1 albums and 13 top-20 singles, including two chart-toppers. They were pioneers in bringing the big beat genre to the forefront of pop culture. Robin Turner has worked with The Chems for more than twenty years.

The Chemical Brothers have announced details of a 25th anniversary reissue of their visionary breakthrough second album.

Dig Your Own Hole was recorded and road tested in the underground. On its release on 7th April 1997, the duo’s second album immediately redrew the boundaries of the mainstream. What had been created as a relentless, rapturous soundtrack to basements and backrooms entered the UK album charts at No 1 on the back of two No 1 singles (Setting Sun and Block Rockin’ Beats), and the US Billboard charts at No 14. The first British electronic record to crack the US rock charts, it would go on to sell half a million copies in the States in six months.

Dig Your Own Hole always was, and always will be, a total trip. Painstakingly constructed like a mixtape, Dig… is an hour spent travelling through a kaleidoscopic tunnel; a tumble into a rabbit hole, destination unknown and light source not always visible. Once on the journey, gear changes shift the music’s speed without warning; bass and drums lock into a metronomic union, vocal samples fly in and out of the darkness. And it all builds, and builds, towards a giant, deeply psychedelic crescendo, a chaos cascade of woodwind and distorted noise.

There are myriad voices and musical contributors woven into the sonic fabric of the record - Oasis’ Noel Gallagher on Setting Sun, regular guest Beth Orton on Where Do I Begin, fellow astral travellers Mercury Rev on The Private Psychedelic Reel, samples of rapper Schooly D and DJ Kool Herc, liquid bass from Seggs and Ali Friend - yet each individual melds into the artistic greater good. No one reroutes the Chemical Brothers’ distinctive direction of travel. How could one even begin to try to?

The 25th Anniversary edition of Dig Your Own Hole features five previously unreleased tracks and alternate versions from the recording sessions. The first of these - a frenetic demo version of Elektrobank - is digitally everywhere today; the other four tracks (previously unreleased recordings Cylinders and I Love Tekno and alternate mixes of It Doesn’t Matter and Where Do I Begin) will follow in the coming weeks,

The album will be available as a CD with the 5 new tracks. The bonus tracks will each be released digitally over the coming weeks.

TRACK LISTING

1. Block Rockin’ Beats
2. Dig Your Own Hole
3. Elektrobank
4. Piku
5. Setting Sun
6. It Doesn’t Matter
7. Don’t Stop The Rock
8. Get Up On It Like This
9. Lost In The K‐Hole
10. Where Do I Begin
11. The Private Psychedelic Reel

Bonus Tracks:
12. It Doesn’t Matter (Alt Mix) 28/9/96
13. I Love Tekno (Alt Mix) 4/10/96
14. Elektrobank (Demo) 3/6/96
15. Cylinders 25/9/96
16. Where Do I Begin (Alt Mix) 15/6/96 

The undisputed masters of brain-altering, transcendent electronics return with their first studio album since 2010’s "Further". Released to coincide with headline slots at Glastonbury, Sonar and Bestival, The Chemical Brothers’ eighth studio album - "Born In The Echoes" - is a magnificent 11-track collection of lean, propulsive machine driven music. From juddering robotic funk to unhinged futurist freakbeat; icy spectral psych to rhapsodic analogue synthetics; from euphoric spiritual acid to harmonic ambient distortion, the album is the sound of a reinvigorated Chemical Brothers creating some of the most mind-expanding music of their career to date. "Born In The Echoes" features a stellar cast of collaborators including previous guests Q-Tip, Ali Love (EML Ritual) as well as first time visitors to the studio - St. Vincent, Cate Le Bon and Beck (his first new music since his Grammy winning album "Morning Phase").

The Chems bring us another collision of breaks and 4/4 beats, with influences taken from acid house, electro, rock and funk. Their fourth album proper, it saw Tom and Ed deploy their tough but funky brand of breakbeat driven electronics alongside more radio friendly, dare I say it, poppier moments. Chemical Bro. favourite Beth Orton makes another welcome appearance on "The State We're In", while a newly formed relationship with the Verve's Richard Ashcroft results in album closer "The Test" seeing Brothers Chem conjure up a fiery broth of rumbling breaks and epic chord changes, with Ashcroft throwing down a very "Loaded"-era vocal. "Come With Us", "It Began In Afrika" and "Star Guitar" all ensured this would be getting maximum radio play, while tracks like "Denmark" and "Pioneer Skies" ensured those headlining festival slots would have fresh material to blow the roof off with. "Hoops" and "My Elastic Eye" sealing the deal with classic Chemical Brother breaks. Another wonderful set from the duo.

Ok, onto the second release of the Chemical Brothers life changing discography and it was this one that really set the world on fire. "Dig Your Own Hole" saw the pair hit the mainstream - mainly due to the extensive licensing for advertising the album saw - forcing the pair to address the issue in interviews at the time (underground dance music doesn't belong on adverts - said the critics...). But for the less elitist this didn't bother us, it actually shone a light on this incredible act OUTSIDE of the club (remember, I was only 13 years old at the time!) meaning a whole generation of teenagers suddenly started listening to dance music and reading Ministry / Mixmag - even though we were too young to go to any of the clubs! Such was the mystic power of the Chems. Tracks off this album need little introduction. "Block Rockin' Beats" - you know that one. "Where Do I Begin" - saw the return of the fragile, Elf-like beauty that is Beth Orton on vocals and became a comedown anthem of the times. "The Private Psychedelic Reel" showed that they could do epic, festival pleasing songs - earning them regular appearance at Glastonbury and the multitude of outdoor raves up and down the country. Then there's fuckin NOEL GALLAGHER (!!!) on "Setting Sun" - instantly aligning the baggy, floppy haired duo with the massive, fledging Brit Pop scene. The rest, as they say, is history - the Chems became a global act; they headlined the Pyramid Stage about 5 years on the trot, James Holroyd (Piccadilly customer and Bugged Out! resident) became their tour DJ, again, cementing their credentials with the dance music aficionados of the day. Nine more albums were to emanate from the pair, with countless remixes and singles to boot. But to me, the first trilogy of albums, with "Surrender" following in 2001, where the absolute zenith for me, and iconic slices of UK dance music heritage that should be displayed with pride at any instance. A classic.

Wooah there! Let's start at the beginning then. One of many CLASSIC (and I really do mean that) Chemical Brothers LPs to be reissued this week. I actually discovered "Exit Planet Dust" AFTER the critically acclaimed, much lauded, "Dig Your Own Hole" (also in this week). Once "Dig..." had its clawed its way into a young 14 year old's psyche, one had to feverishly acquire everything that was released by these kings of breakbeat. I remember a CD shop in Aflecks selling me the CD of this record, originally released in 1995 (I think I got mine in '98) along with a load of 'live', 'B-side' and 'unreleased' CD-rs (cough cough). Anyway, they could do no wrong! This was their breathtaking debut - with a title hinting at the historical law suit which meant Tom and Ed went from being called The Dust Brothers to the Chemical Brothers. Meeting at Manchester university, the pair became synonymous with that late nineties breakbeat sound - along with people like Utah Saints, Fatboy Slim, Midfield General and Freddy Fresh. However, they also adapted and collaborated, with this record featuring the Charlatans' Tim Burgess alongside the (then relatively unknown) Beth Orton - both of whom would work with the dastardly duo again over their incredibly long and fruitful career. Although later veering into lots of different styles, for me the first three albums, this along with "Dig Your Own Hole" and "Surrender" could never be topped! Like Fatboy Slim's "Better Living Through Chemistry", or Leftfield's "Rhythm And Stealth" - undeniably British and essential pieces of our rich dance music legacy. Every home needs one!

The Chemical Brothers - one of the most acclaimed and innovative electronic duo in the world - have announced details of their tenth studio album For That Beautiful Feeling.

Recorded in the band’s own studio just near the south coast, this is a record that hunts for and captures that that wild moment when sound overwhelms you and almost pulls you under yet ultimately lets you ride its wave, to destinations unknown. It’s a record that pinpoints the exact moment you lose all control, where you surrender and let the music move you as if pulled by an invisible thread.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: There is absolutely no sign that The Chemical Brothers are slowing down, with 2019's incendiary 'No Geography' blowing people away and 'For That Beautiful Feeling' set to do so even more. It's a triumphant, heavy hitting marvel that is enhanced perfectly by Halo Maud's distinctive vocal talents. Classic 'chems and then some.

Matt says: Rocketing into orbit with the stadium inferno that is “Live Again”, there’s little chance to touch down, as Tom and Ed hit the thrusters for one of the most stratospheric ‘Chems LPs we can remember. A rousing & rebellious message for our times, with the usual smattering of guest appearances and sampled vox articulating their uplifting insubordination with soaring, memorable hooks.

TRACK LISTING

1. Intro
2. Live Again (feat. Halo Maud)
3. No Reason
4. Goodbye
5. Fountains
6. Magic Wand
7. The Weight
8. Skipping Like A Stone (feat. Beck)
9. The Darkness That You Fear (Harvest Mix)
10. Feels Like I’m Dreaming
11. For That Beautiful Feeling (feat. Halo Maud)

On "Further" The Chemical Brothers explore new grounds. From the first squeezed-out notes, those analogue dots and dashes that flash and spark from the speakers, "Further" sounds like a record that is trying to break out of its confines. Like an alien Morse code transmission, it pulses like an Earth bound signal that’s been bounced off the side of orbiting space debris. Snatches of voices found out in the ether cut through the machine fog, drifting across burbling analogue equipment lovingly kept working long after supposed sell-by date. By the time the click and thump of snare and bass drum arrive, the sounds are all encompassing, swirling around you with dizzying, disorientating effect. Noise is untethered by constraints of volume, seemingly leaping from left to right to middle with a life of its own. This was The Chemical Brothers' most psychedelic album to date, almost referencing Spiritualized's opus "Ladies And Gentlemen...." It shows Tom and Ed developing as they mature, veering away from the club and into the living rooms and coffee tables of the rave generation; music to lose your mind to, in the comfort of your own home! "Further" is the culmination of nearly two decades of psychedelic exploration, an immersive collection that sees The Chemical Brothers at their least-restrained and most free spirited, melodic best.

Needing no introduction, The Chemical Brothers make a very special appearance on Phantasy with a limited-edition vinyl pressing of Erol Alkan’s triumphant remix of ‘Goodbye’, a highlight from their recent, Grammy-nominated album, ‘For That Beautiful Feeling’.

Masterfully bridging soulful vocals and widescreen techno with their typical psychedelic edge, Alkan’s interpretation demonstrates his unique brotherhood with Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons. Across a near ten-minute journey, Alkan pushes the Brothers’ irresistible synth line further into dissonant analogue bliss, which coupled with celestial breakdowns, already counts as a personal favourite in the London DJ and producer’s diverse, enviable back catalogue of reworks. The other side of the record includes Alkan's previously unreleased instrumental.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Form an orderly queue! Two heavyweights meet for a titanic clash of stadium-destroying peak time energy. "Goodbye" has been Tom & Ed's closing song throughout their last tour and given the Erol Alkin treatment, who slices sawtooths and squarewaves together like a sashimi chef, it's taken to a whole higher elevation.

TRACK LISTING

A. Goodbye (Erol Alkan Rework)
B. Goodbye (Erol Alkan Instrumental Rework) 

"No Geography", the Chemical Brothers tenth studio album since 1995, features singles "Free Yourself" and "MAH" ('a short & bloody ride into our modern media psychosis' - The Guardian) and the forthcoming single "Got To Keep On". Many tracks feature vocals by Norwegian singer / songwriter Aurora while Japanese rapper Nene features on "Eve of Destruction".

It's quintessentially a Chemical experience from start to finish - combining the duo's uncanny knack at sound design and break manipulation with their usual playful, stadium-slaying production. Like contemporaries Modeselektor, Tom & Ed never take themselves too seriously, yet ably compete with the world's best producers. They combine the myriad and often fractured, disparate influences and styles across the dance music spectrum into something that they can confidently declair their own. 25 years in the game and you still know when it's a Chemical Brothers beat! Unmissable stuff from two of Northern England's greatest dance music exponents.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Brothers Chem return ahead of another world tour. Have they lost their magic? Definitely not. Like good wine, they get better as time goes on. Effortlessly turning their hand to whatever trend dance music throws at them; Tom and Ed ride again!

TRACK LISTING

1. Eve Of Destruction
2. Bango
3. No Geography
4. Got To Keep On
5. Gravity Drops
6. The Universe Sent Me
7. We’ve Got To Try
8. Free Yourself
9. MAH
10. Catch Me I’m Falling

Tom n Ed, possibly one of the UK's most influential and successful electronic music outfits, return with a brand new single: "No Reason". Featuring a bleak lyrical hook (provided by a vocal sample from Second Layer's "Courts Or War") - 'we have no reason to live / no reason at all / when will they kill us all' - the track's poignantly gloomy outlook is juxtaposed by one of their typically galvanized grooves - pairing up a punchy B-line with nuevo-disco drums, the odd vocal whoop and darting synth stabs. Add a lashing 303 and military snare rolls which allude to its shadowy war-mongering. It's stadium friendly, with soaring breakdowns and full fat processing; and has been going down a storm at their live shows for the past year or so.

As much as dance music is about hedonism and escapism, there's always been a political and social commentary underlining the best bits. The Chems perfectly balance energy release with wry contemplation on a track that is destined to become a global hit.

On the flip, they pop the cork off the dance tent, firing off sharp acid lines, precision beats and head-splitting reversals - layering up the incessant percussion lines for a fiery and frothy techno steam train that'll have everyone sweating and gasping for breath. Festival season better be ready! 

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Nihilistic in vocal content, with clever sampling of Second Layer (me neither) - The Chemical Brothers deliver a stadium slaying hit which still has summery connotations whilst biting hard at the jugular. Always the same, always different!

TRACK LISTING

A. No Reason
B. All Of A Sudden

As we move through the millennial years, so to The Chemical Brothers accompanied us on our musical journey. Onto album number five, and it's another winner, jam packed with breaks, hybrids, crossovers and collaborations. Opening with the monster new cut "Galvanize", featuring a killer rap by Q-Tip (and reaching no. 3 in the charts - their highest since "Hey Boy, Hey Girl"). Next came "The Boxer", featuring Tim Burgess again, but this time ditching the 'weedy' (his words) approach, for a more ballsy, anthemic chorus. "Push The Button" positioned itself at the top of the pile of heavyweight breaks-crossover LPs. While Fatboy Slim floundered and The Prodigy got all electroclash on us, The Chems stuck to what they did best; making block-rocking, chunky tracks (which have hooks!), either on a breakbeat tip, mellower moments or 4/4 electronic drivers (techno had, of course, began to take over breakbeat as the nightclub sound of choice), all of which create a proper, cohesive LP rather than a collection of singles and fillers. Other headlining colabs crop up: Kele Okereke (Bloc Party), Anna-Lynne Williams (Trespassers William), The Magic Numbers, Anwar Superstar (Mos Def's bro') all stepping up to the mic to contribute. By now they were global superstars, but they still had a foot in the underground club scene, and were still a formidable force live. One of the truly great British bands. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says:

Continuing with celebrating 40 years of disruption of the Virgin Records label, we’re pressing a very limited number of the some of the labels land mark albums as single and double vinyl LPs.

Released in 1999 'Surrender' proved that the Chemical Brothers were always bigger and better than the one dimensional big beat genre they'd been lumped with earlier in the decade. Showcasing Tom and Ed's expansive musical tastes the album takes in motorik krautrock rhythms, 80s electro-disco ('Out Of Control' featuring Bernard Sumner), Beatlesesque psychedelic block rockers ('Let Forever Be' with Noel Gallagher), fierce technoid bangers, sun-dappled dreaminess ('Asleep From Day' featuring Mazzy Star's Hope Sandoval) and mega festival smashes ('Hey Boy Hey Girl'). all given the widescreen Chemicals production feel.

Following their fourth consecutive #1 album, the double Grammy winning "Push The Button", 2007 saw The Chemical Brothers return with their sixth long player "We Are The Night"; twelve tracks that cover psychedelic warehouse party acid music, electro-breakers, dreamy Balearica, 80s inspired alt-dance sounds and even a bit of new rave, euphorically melodic and as uncompromising as their retina scorching live shows. Trailed by the madcapped, cartoony future funk of "The Salmon Dance", "We Are The Night" set its psychedelic stall out from the off, sweeping through krautrock killers "A Modern Midnight Conversation". As ever Tom and Ed gathered together a stellar list of contemporary vocalists to add depth to their tracks. This time round guest appearances come from Klaxons, Willy Mason, Fat Lip, Spank Rock, Ali Love and Midlake's Tim Smith. Grooves, bleeps and beats that sound like robots brawling - plenty of fuel for your salmon dancing party!

TRACK LISTING

No Path To Follow 
We Are The Night 
All Rights Reversed 
Saturate
Do It Again
Das Spiegel
The Salmon Dance
Burst Generator
A Modern Midnight Conversation
Battle Scars
Harpoons
The Pills Won't Help You Now

Chemistry Lane debuting on cult label Mai 68 (formed by the band of same name...).

"Mirrored Wall" exudes the kinda funky, electronic disco that Phenominal Hand Clap Band, Gramme and Crazy P all count as their bread and butter. The vocals in this instance are much more yearning, leaning themselves to a nocturnal indie-dancefloor swaying with youthful abandon.

"El Acusador" on the flip combines alluring, eastern scales, tight n funky live drums and plenty of analogue swells and SFX. It's picturesque, evocative and immits a kind of rigid, urban futurism that bands like Interpol and more recently Drahla both do. I like it! 

 

TRACK LISTING

A. Mirrored Wall
B. El Acusador

The post-garage-punk and psychedelic power pop anomaly Chemtrails return with their upcoming third album - their boldest yet with a more danceable and rhythm-driven style, armed with their trademark fuzzy guitars and playfully sinister melodies.

Working with producer Margo Broom (Fat White Family, Goat Girl) this time around, the group has traded in their DIY approach for a more hi-fi studio sound, remaining just as raw and wild as ever, but with a whole new level of focus and intensity.

TRACK LISTING

Detritus Andronicus
Bang Bang
Business Class War Paint
Sycophant's Paradise
Mushroom Cloud Nine
Join Our Death Cult
Pink Whale
Superhuman Superhighway
Apocalypstick
(Post-Apocalypstick)
Endless Stream Of The Bizarre

Eric Chenaux makes conceptual music that’s not meant to sound conceptual. He operates among various ‘traditions’ but perhaps most broadly, Chenaux’s records grapple with the relationship between improvisation and structure in very particular, unique, idiosyncratic ways – and quite without irony or cynicism, through love. Because fundamentally, Chenaux writes love songs, which he sings in a voice honeyed and clear, while his guitar gently bends, frazzes, chortles, diverges and decomposes.

This juxtaposition of his mellow, dexterous crooning and his highly experimental (and equally dexterous) guitar explorations, explodes even unconventional notions of singing and accompaniment, of tonal and timbral interplay between guitar and voice. As a solo artist, Chenaux’s improvisation methods are in certain literal ways solipsistic: as a singer-songwriter, he plays his guitar around and against his voice, challenging easy notions of harmony/harmoniousness, improvising ‘with himself’ in pursuit of surprising himself (and his listeners) as he unfurls ribbons of voice and instrument often to the point of seeming independence, all the better to capture – and be captured by – unforeseen, intimate moments of interdependence: a definition of freedom, as a profoundly intentional state of openness, presence and play.

Even within avant-garde currents of folk and jazz balladry, Eric Chenaux feels like an outlier. Yet his music remains wonderfully warm, generous and fundamentally accessible in spite of its irrefutable iconoclasm. Slowly Paradise is Eric Chenaux’s new solo record. It is a lovely collection of mostly long songs guided by soothing, buttery singing and bent, fried fretwork. It is arguably Chenaux’s most assured and essential solo work, building on the critical acclaim his previous releases Guitar & Voice and Skullsplitter have rightly garnered. 

TRACK LISTING

01 Bird & Moon
02 Slowly Paradise
03 An Abandoned Rose
04 Slowly Paradise (Lush)
05 There's Our Love
06 Wild Moon

RIYL: Betty Carter, Chet Baker, Jeanne Lee, Richard Youngs, David Grubbs, Derek Bailey, Smog, Goldfrapp.

Featuring Guest Ryan Driver, Say Laura is the follow-up to Slowly Paradise (2018) which landed Chenaux on the cover of The Wire among other accolades. The new record by Eric Chenaux is his most immaculate and pristine. Say Laura perfectly incarnates the counter-intuitive interplay of instrument and voice that Chenaux has been revealing and revelling in throughout the past decade: his gently unhinged juxtaposition of resplendently smooth, seductively assured singing and puckish, frazzled, thoroughly destabilized guitar could come from no other musician. The five wandering, wondering ballads on Say Laura bring Chenaux's semi-improvised but keenly intentional songwriting to its fullest, clearest, warmest and coolest articulation; uncompromising and generous, hyper-specific and loose, spartan and luxurious, elemental and ornate. And Say Laura breathes like no other Chenaux album. Voice and guitar are inscribed with elemental clarity in a wondrously open, symbiotic sonic space. His pure tenor croon glides through a crisp, reverberant ether while his fried guitar careens dizzily and giddily, every gesture and timbre captured in unflinching detail.

Opener “Hello, How? And Hey” immediately establishes these subtly heightened characteristics of elementalism, dualism and structure, with Chenaux’s vocal tracing gorgeous soaring melodies across a single beating chord, occupying all the space until guitar and Wurlitzer (courtesy of the album’s only guest, long-time collaborator Ryan Driver) enter in a cascade of twinkle and wah at the two-minute mark, eventually leaving the vocal behind as the song’s second half gives way to a woozy guitar and keyboard improv over the chordal pulse. Album closer “Hold The Line” follows a similar motif, the vocal playing more on folk and pop tropes, but wrapping up in time for a gloriously gnarled eight-minute instrumental ramble. “There They Were” is something closer to unprecedented in Chenaux’s twenty-year songbook: singing and soloing at the same time, he breathlessly repeats a joyous highlife-tinged vocal refrain without pause, cutting against his trademark languorous pace, propelling the song for miles.

Title track and lead single “Say Laura” is the centerpiece distillation of the album’s stylistic, compositional and spatial mission: sparse but lush, controlled but wild, every note in its place and all over the place. Interviewed as The Wire magazine's cover star in 2017, Chenaux said "the details of our lives are often produced with improvisation and experimentation and in my music, improvisation is a way to hear those details." The details on Say Laura achieve new heights of lucid acuity. Eric Chenaux keeps getting better; Say Laura captures him at his best. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Chenaux brings his unique production style and evocative songwriting to Constellation once again for this thoughtful and poised collection, reminiscent of spiritual jazz but with an inventive and unmistakeable avant-twist, all tempered with his distinctive and perfectly syrupy vox. A brilliantly dynamic and exciting return for Chenaux.

TRACK LISTING

01 Hello, How? And Hey
02 Your New Rhythm
03 Say Laura
04 There They Were
05 Hold The Line 

Eric Chenaux is one of Toronto's most prolific and respected musical iconoclasts, an experimental guitar virtuoso with over two decades of dedicated and diverse service to an artistic community that encompasses post-punk, lo-fi, folk, multimedia composition and performance (chiefly in collaboration with modern dance) and free and improvised music.

"Warm Weather" With Ryan Driver is Eric's third album for Constellation, which has been the conduit for his primary song-oriented solo work since 2006. Building on his fruitful collaboration with piano/synth/melodica player Ryan Driver - whose key role on the new album is signalled by his inclusion in its very title - the new record is without doubt Chenaux's most accomplished and focused work of forward-looking, contemporary balladry.

The album is available on CD and 180g LP in 100% recycled paperboard jackets.

TRACK LISTING

1. And So We Say
2. Since We're Smokey
3. Warm Charleston
4. Lavalliere #2
5. New Boon Harp
6. Mynah Bird
7. Ronnie-Mary
8. Cool Down
9. Warm Weather
10. Cold Dream

Started as a reggae band, Chequers were formed by the Matthias Brothers, John & Richard, in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire in 1973. Inititally releasing in the early part of the 1970s (with their first single Rudi's In Love charting in the UK) their sound then developed to also incorporate Philly soul influences in the mid-70s, then releasing a rare but solid LP 'Check Us Out', in 1976. The group eventually evolved into a seven piece funk outfit in the late 70s, playing shows to larger and larger audiences and touring throughout the UK & Europe.

1980 saw the birth of the Matthias brothers' own small independent outlet for the group, Matthias Records. The press release of the new label's first single declared that their "roots in the reggae and soul music of the last mod era" were being brought up to date, now embracing "the music of today and tomorrow...". That 45 (the cheeky pop-punk meets ska cover version of Midnight Hour, backed with the uptempo instrumental funk of Move Up) didn't necessarily come good on that promise. 3 years would then pass until this 45 showcased the throughly-updated & stellar electro-boogie sound of Hard Times and it's equally strong b-side If You Want My Love.

Following this neither Matthias Records nor Chequers as a group ever released anything further - the record's scarcity (and hideously inflated prices on today's secondhand market) hint at low sales and potential distribution problems upon it's original release, perhaps leading to the label and the group calling it a day. Conjecture aside, there's really no denying this record slaps, and with discogs prices reaching beyond ridiculous levels there is only one option - get it before it's gone!

TRACK LISTING

1. Hard Times
2. If You Want My Love

Edouard Cheritel is a Paris based French composer who has been working on classical compositions for almost 25 years. At the age of four he started to learn the clarinet at the National Conservatory of Lyon and stayed there for 21 years. During this long development of his musical capabilities he has learned to write and play chamber and symphonic music - he studied classical composition for 15 years - and worked in the fields of modern composition for another 6 years.

In the meantime Edouard always experimented with electronic music while being a member of several electronic and pop bands. The biggest commercial success was his project "Employee Of The Year", which has released two albums, layed several times on the French national television, has done remixes for SOHN & Wild Belle and provided several pieces for advertisements.

After building this foundation as a very versatile artist over years, Edouard Cheritel finished his first solo compositions called "Suite No1" in 2019. They form a compact debut Suite consisting of four movements combining the classical composition skills of Edouard with his sensitivity for electronic tunes and a lightly pop appeal, resulting in a partly melancholic and partly very energetic journey.

Beside the activities regarding the ongoing Suite series, Edouard Cheritel currently works on his debut solo full length and a project called "People" that he will realize in 2020. For "People" Edouard will compose music day-to-day together with and for the people in the pedestrian areas of Paris. Concrete plans for this project will be revealed at the end of 2019. In the future there will also be opportunitities to see his pieces being performed by himself solo in an intimate context or with a complete live orchestration he is currently working on.

TRACK LISTING

01 Movement 1 (4:54) 
02 Movement 2 (7:08) 
03 Movement 3 (3:26) 
04 Movement 4 (8:09)

Following a two year hiatus, the Ivor Novello award winning songwriters Cherry Ghost have regrouped and with the help of Dan Austin (Doves, Massive Attack) they have recorded one of the most hopeful, beguiling, theatrical, and ultimately captivating albums of the year. With an eclectic repertoire of songs that go way beyond simplistic melodies and rousing choruses, Cherry Ghost create a musical world of their own that’s as strong and as all-encompassing as a fictional voice. Songs are sung about and from the perspective of a variety of characters (young and old / male and female / rich and poor), while themes such as loss, revenge, regret, blasphemy and disillusionment wrestle with romance, hope, optimism all wrapped within a wickedly dark humour; "Beneath This Burning Shoreline" unravels like a fine southern gothic novel. The album opens with "We Sleep On Stones". The malevolent locomotive rhythm of the track signals a move away from the idea of Cherry Ghost as a solo project, showcasing a more refined and assured sounding band. With Krautrock flourishes this murderous ballad illustrates both lyrically and sonically the Cherry Ghost sound in 2010.

Running the gamut of human emotion, the album moves quixotically from track to track, exploring new narratives in each one, take "The Night They Buried Sadie Clay", a funeral march that celebrates the life of a dying woman that never gave in or gave up hope, or "Only A Mother", a tale of domestic abuse and promises unrealised that’s straight out of Morrissey book of poetic social commentary. Meanwhile, recorded live and in one take, the blasphemous ballad "My God Betrays" sees Cherry Ghost collectively bestow one of the most sorrowful and contemplative tracks in annals of contemporary music.

Euphoria is never far away and with new lead single, "Kissing Strangers" it is there in abundance. The dusty crooned vocals of Simon Aldred are wrapped around psychedelic lullabies, Glen Campbell guitars and stately drumming. It’s an ode to wayward souls trawling the night skies "Kissing Strangers" is a 21st century song for swinging lovers: young hearts on the chase and well groomed weekend brutes. Further jubilation comes in the form of "BlackFang", a 4 minute romp that revives the spirit of The Velvet Underground and "Luddite" eschews progress in favour of a skiffle-beat lament to the emotionally stunted.

TRACK LISTING

1. We Sleep On Stones
2. A Month Of Mornings
3. Kissing Strangers
4. Conquered Part 1
5. Only A Mother
6. The Night The Buried Sadie Clay
7. My God Betrays
8. Barberini Square
9. Conquered Part 2
10. BlackFang
11. Luddite
12. Diamond In The Grind
13. Strays

Cherry Ghost return with third album ‘Herd Runners’ on Heavenly Recordings.

For the last couple of years, Simon Aldred has been in a state of wilful musical schizophrenia. Since 2007, Bolton-born Aldred has - to all intents - been Cherry Ghost, a band known for perfecting a kind of widescreen North Western country soul. Yet the third Cherry Ghost album, ‘Herd Runners’, arrives after an extensive period in which Aldred’s own music been pulled in multiple different directions.

Firstly, as a songwriter-for-hire, Aldred has helped nurture the best of nascent British talent (including hugely tipped artists like Sam Smith and Kwabs). Latterly, he produced a set of critically lauded post-midnight electronic love songs under the Out Cold guise. Somewhere in the middle, there’s the small matter of the phoenix-like rebirth of Aldred’s Ivor Novello winning 2007 single ‘People Help The People’ as it went on to chart highly in fourteen different countries in 2010 when it was covered by the teenage singer Birdy.

Far from muddying the musical waters, each of these diversions has only helped sharpen Aldred’s songwriting, providing a major spur for the finest Cherry Ghost album to date. “Exploring different styles has helped my own songs,” says Aldred, “Musicians need to stretch themselves and keep on learning.” · It was that exploration that has helped bring ‘Herd Runners’ to life. Shifting from soaring, symphonic pop (‘Clear Skies Ever Closer’) to melancholic lock-in blues (‘Drinking For Two’) via an almost uncompromisingly hopeful rhythmic shuffle (‘The World Could Turn’), ‘Herd Runners’ is a sublime collection, a reminder of Aldred’s singular skill as a composer; a skill that can twist bitter loss into teary optimism (and back) in less time than it takes to toss a coin.

Lyrically, the album paints Edward Hopper-esque observations of the lives of others. Where previous records would have focused on the gloomy edges of the picture, ‘Herd Runners’ takes something of a longer view. “These songs aren’t as dark as those on previous records. This time round I thought it was important to keep a real empathy for the people I’m writing about.”

Recorded in Sheffield with longterm Richard Hawley collaborator Colin Elliot and mixed in Bath with Dan Austin, ‘Herd Runners’ is ten perfectly crafted tales of heartbreak and hope. That musical schizophrenia is clearly working wonders for Simon Aldred. Long may it continue.

TRACK LISTING

Clear Skies Ever Closer
Don’t Leave Me Here Alone
Fragile Reign
Sacramento
The World Could Turn
Drinking For Two
Herd Runners
My Lover Lies Under
Love Will Follow You
Joanne

As the final act before their hiatus ñ coming after three critically praised albums in a decade - 'Live at the Trades Club Hebden Bridge' is Cherry Ghost performing an intimate, starkly arranged set at the 2015 Heavenly Weekender.Released now for the first time ñ on double vinyl and download ñ this is perhaps the best realised collection of songs from Cherry Ghost, the alias of the Ivor Novello award-winning songwriter Simon Aldred. The instrumentation ñ Aldred is joined on keyboards and light percussion by Christian Madden and Grenville Harrop ñ brings to the fore Aldred's peerless songwriting, his oak-aged, prematurely wisened baritone.'History' wrote the Quietus in 2014, 'will be kind to Aldred', and this collection proves exactly that ñ with a bit of time and distance, the songs presented here show a highly singular, highly accomplished songwriter, aspiring to the pop classicism of Glen Campbell or Bill Callahan. All of human life is here ñ tracking a drizzly Northern gothic of last bus loneliness, late-night Spars, solitary drinkers, factory floors and Gods that betray.And yet, there's more than meets the eye.There's magnetic renderings of his best known songs - '4AM', 'People Help the People', the soaring 'Mathematics' - but surprises reveal themselves.'All I Want' and 'Herd Runners' candidly examine Aldred's sexuality, whilst the seldom heard b-side 'Bad Crowd' reveals Aldred to be a much funnier songwriter than remembered. What runs right through Aldred's work, however, is a yearning ñ a much tested faith in romance ñ so no wonder that the album ends on its most optimistic notes, at the darkest point of winter nestled in the West Yorkshire valleys, promising clear skies ever closer.

Heavenly Recordings release a vinyl repressing of Cherry Ghost’s classic debut Thirst For Romance. This is the first time this album has been pressed on vinyl since its release fifteen years ago when a very small number of double vinyl sets were manufactured.

When Thirst For Romance (Simon Aldred’s debut album as Cherry Ghost) arrived in July 2007, it sounded out of step with so much of its musical surroundings - a world of X Factor winners and Favourite Worst Nightmares; Umbrellas and In Rainbows.

Simon’s album came from a different place to everything else - it was a soul record, in so much as it was from the soul, and about the human soul. And it was a proudly Northern record - a fact celebrated in the sound of Simon’s voice and the people and places that populated his songs. While the music might have evoked glorious vistas and wide open spaces, the view here was very much the post-industrial North. Fifteen years after its release, Thirst For Romance musically sounds out of time, while Simon’s lyrics resonate more deeply now more than ever.

Thirst For Romance was co-produced by Simon Aldred and Dan Austin. The album’s glorious breakout track People Help The People - a prescient call for hope and empathy - gained a second life when covered by the artist Birdy. Doves frontman Jimi Goodwin plays drums on Mathematics and People Help The People.

Jeff Barrett on Cherry Ghost: “I saw Simon playing live and I loved it. I really loved it. It pushed all my Southern Soul buttons but it was coming via Bolton. He was singing blue collar love songs really in a similar way to how someone like Dan Penn sang them about the south. He was just singing about the north of England and painting these great pictures of Northern working class life and delivering them with this brilliant voice. After the show I hogged him, I didn’t want to let him out of my sight.”

Simon Aldred on Thirst For Romance: When I was writing the songs that became Thirst For Romance, I was very introspective, and finding Manchester claustrophobic. The light, the slate grey skies… it felt like there was a lid on it. And on me. The scope of the music I was writing made it easier for me to breathe. It allowed me to stretch my imagination and reach for something more.

TRACK LISTING

A1 Thirst For Romance
A2 4am
A3 Mountain Bird
B1 People Help The People
B2 Roses
B3 Dead Man’s Suit
C1 Alfred The Great
C2 Here Come The Romans
C3 False Alarm
D1 Mary On The Mend
D2 Mathematics

Album standout "We Sleep On Stones" is given the rework treatment by San Fran label Stones Throw affiliate Mr Chop & features Heliocentrics Malcolm Catto on drums and Jake Ferguson on bass. Comes backed with a once-in-a lifetime cover of Ce Ce Peniston’s uber-hit "Finally".

It’s with great excitement that Cherry Glazerr announces their new album, Apocalipstick, out January 20th. The band’s first album for Secretly Canadian was recorded at Hollywood’s iconic Sunset Sound studio with acclaimed producers Joe Chicarrelli (The Strokes, My Morning Jacket, The White Stripes) and Carlos De La Garza (Bleached, M83, Paramore).

To celebrate, the band is sharing “Nurse Ratched,” which was written by lead singer Clementine Creevy as she mused on the evil Nurse Ratched character in Ken Kesey’s masterpiece, One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest. The track’s slasher flick video is directed by horror film director/producer Roxanne Benjamin, who is known for her films Southbound and V/H/S, among other work. Perfectly timed for its release on Halloween, watch as what appears to be an innocent albeit bizarre hitchhiking ride turns into a bloody massacre. “Nurse Ratched” is the second single to be heard from the forthcoming record and follows the previously shared “Told You I’d Be With Guys.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Hard-hitting neon rock and roll. Aggressive Motorheaded guitars, pummeling drum riffs and half-time breakdowns. Chorused guitars, snappy snares and hollaring vocals come together into a satisfying chorus before breaking into rocking mayhem once again. Brilliantly accomplished, and great fun.

TRACK LISTING

1 Told You I'd Be With The Guys
2 Trash People
3 Moon Dust
4 Humble Pro
5 Nuclear Bomb
6 Only Kid On The Block
7 Lucid Dreams
8 Sip O'Poison
9 Nurse Ratched
10 Instagratification
11 Apocalipstick

Cherry Glazerr releases a 7” single with exclusive remixes by Reggie Watts and tUnE-yArDs via Secretly Canadian, in support of their upcoming appearance on The Late Late Show With James Corden.

TRACK LISTING

Daddi (Reggie Watts Remix)
Self-Explained (tUne- YArDs Remix)

It’s been four years since Cherry Glazerr released their resplendent third album Stuffed and Ready, but Clementine Creevy has been in no rush. “I’ve spent these years taking a hard look at myself, at my relationships, and writing about it,” she says. “I guess I’m coming to terms with a lot of my bullshit.” Cherry Glazerr has been on the road more often than not since Creevy was still in high school, and when the pandemic hit, she immersed herself in a static existence she’d been deprived of.

Creevy describes Cherry Glazerr’s ambitious new album, I Don’t Want You Anymore, as some of her most personal, raw music to date, a collection of songs that elaborate on this period of self-reckoning. It’s the first she’s produced since Cherry Glazerr’s garage rock debut, Haxel Princess, released nearly a decade ago when Creevy was a teenager.

Creevy describes I Don’t Want You Anymore as a “mature” album, moreso in reference to her personal growth than a reflection of the record, which in true Cherry Glazerr fashion is best described as Extremely Fun. To make it, Creevy linked up with producer Yves Rothman, who’s best known for his work with Yves Tumor.

Lead single “Soft Like a Flower” exemplifies that growth. A murky guitar riff inaugurates the track, before Creevy’s unguarded vocals enter the mix. She sings of a consuming obsession and is joined on the chorus by longtime bandmate Sami Perez. It’s proudly emotive, what Creevy calls an “Evanescence moment.” “It’s a real ‘losing your fucking shit’ kind’ve vibe,” she says. “I wanted this album to be just heart and soul. Completely exposed.”

I Don’t Want You Anymore uses the element of surprise to its advantage; each track is a radical reimagination of what Cherry Glazerr is and can be. “Bad Habit” opens with a spiraling vocal loop that Creevy began recording at home and it expands into a delirious downtempo dance track without ever invoking a guitar. The subsequent track, “Ready for You” is sung in funky staccato and the initially spare bassline on the opening verse is eventually overtaken by a massive, staticky guitar riff that reminds you this is, at its heart, a rock album. These are songs to soundtrack the listener’s life, a score to suit any occasion. The titular track makes a promise to an unnamed other, but the repeating lyrics on the bridge could just as easily serve as a love letter to listeners: “In the end, you’re always holding me.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Gigantic swathes of distorted poppy guitar riffs and shimmering shoegaze progressions. It's a huge thematic progression from her 2019 LP, 'Stuffed & Ready', bringing in myriad influence from pop-punk to driving garage rock and grunge.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A:
1. Addicted To Your Love
2. Bad Habit
3. Ready For You
4. Touched You With My Chaos
5. Soft Like A Flower
6. Sugar

SIDE B:
1. Golden
2. Wild Times
3. Eat You Like A Pill
4. Shattered
5. I Don’t Want You Anymore

After releasing 2016’s critically acclaimed Apocalipstick, Cherry Glazerr spent the next 18 months touring the world on their own steam. Between DIY All Ages venues, rock clubs, large festival stages, and massive theaters with some of the world’s best and most beloved bands (The Pixies, Flaming Lips, Slowdive, and The Breeders, among others), the band has really only stopped to work on their follow up, Stuffed & Ready. While furiously building the band’s sound and ideas, front person Clem Creevy enlisted Carlos de La Garza to be the band’s studio co-collaborator as they evolved the songs and refined the recordings.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Heavy in parts, but with a carefully graduated delivery, Clem Creevey's voice rides over the top, lending an air of assertive dominance whilst still moving with the changing dynamics of the music. Heavy as f**k at certain points before breaking down into echoing gothic malaise. It's a superb outing, and one sure to impress fans old and new.

TRACK LISTING

1. Ohio
2. Daddi
3. Wasted Nun
4. That’s Not My Real Life (feat. Delicate Steve)
5. Self Explained
6. Isolation
7. Juicy Socks
8. Pieces
9. Stupid Fish
10. Distressor

Neneh Cherry releases her first solo album in 16 years - a collaboration with RocketNumberNine, produced by Four Tet, and featuring a guest appearance by Robyn. The 10-track album, recorded and mixed over a five-day period is, out on Smalltown Supersound. It follows 2012’s 'The Cherry Thing', a collaborative record with free jazz, noise collective The Thing, which featured new versions of songs by The Stooges, MF Doom, Ornette Coleman, amongst others.

While her energy and demeanor may not have changed since the days of Rip Rig + Panic, musically, 'Blank Project' is a departure from anything Neneh has previously done, initially written as a means of working through personal tragedy. What stands out upon first listen is the album’s sparseness: loose drums and a few synthesizers are the only accompaniment to Neneh’s wildly poetic, sometimes-spoken, sometimes-screeching, soul-flooded and raw vocals. The space created by this minimal aesthetic leaves room for occasional pistes and flurries of rapid, yet throbbing and thunderous instrumentation. Featuring combined elements of beat poetry, avant-electronica and beautiful vocal melodies, it’s a record that uses simple ideas to create something entirely original. And despite the personal struggles Neneh was working through in writing this new material, the songs are far from introverted.

With 'Blank Project', Neneh continues to arrive at moments in musical history when there is an opportunity to subvert ideas of popular culture. She is subverting once again, only this time, although this record is musically bold, Neneh sees the stasis she’s challenging isn’t musical or societal, but her own.

STAFF COMMENTS

Philippa says: Neneh Cherry follows her collaboration with Nordic free jazz noise collective the Thing with the intense electro-percussive album ‘Blank Project’, first unveiled at the Manchester International Festival. The guttural analogue synths and pummelled kit drumming of power duo RocketNumberNine (brothers Ben and Tom Page) provide the backing for Cherry’s distinctive emotionally vulnerable soul-flooded vocals, while Four Tet’s Kieran Hebden proves to be the perfect producer for the project, stripping tracks back to their essential elements. The first solo record Cherry has made since the death of her mother, ‘Blank Project’ is stark, bracing, brooding and reflective. There is anger and sadness here, but this isn’t a sad record. This is a life-affirming angry howl at the world, a cathartic blast of intensity that leaps from the speakers. In an era of often soulless synthetic emoting, it’s good to have some raw emotion back with us. Raw like, er, Cherry!

TRACK LISTING

1. Across The Water
2. Blank Project
3. Naked
4. Spit Three Times
5. Weightless
6. Cynical
7. 422
8. Out Of The Black (Feat Robyn)
9. Dossier
10. Everything