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Bear In Heaven’s new album is aptly titled ‘Time Is Over One Day Old’. It’s a record with a visceral relationship to time and its processes. Where invulnerability and ambition can support you as you grow, at some point they become dead weight and being true to yourself means casting them off, starting anew. This plays out as a powerful analogy for the band across the arc of their career.
They’ve always made intriguing records, here especially. It’s easy to see why musicians fall hard for this band. They entice and envelop you. Any ‘Bear In Heaven’ song will most likely greet you with a provocative beat, textural synthesizers and unassuming but adeptly supportive bass and guitar, all exquisitely arranged and glistening. Jon Philpot’s high, smooth, strong voice is so tightly wound into the music that it can be easy to overlook the lyrics, Bear In Heaven’s capacious third dimension. Philpot is a centre seeking, contemplative writer who captures the fleeting thoughts that underscore our emotional lives, the interactions with the world that are both difficult to express and anathema in daily conversation.
While all of this can be said of any Bear In Heaven album, each varies wildly in tone and approach. 2007’s ‘Red Bloom Of The Boom’ is ambitious and experimental. ‘Beast Rest Forth Mouth’ (2009) was a pivotal record that still feels important, seductive and intense. On their 2012 album ‘I Love You, It’s Cool’ the structural and musical ideas are challenging and masterfully developed. For ‘Time Is Over One Day Old’, we witness the band once again turning their gaze inward and prioritizing their evocative abilities in line with or even slightly ahead of technical skills. It feels very much in the tradition of BRFM in that way. It’s beautiful; it’s moving.
Here Philpot and partner Adam Wills are more deeply collaborative than ever. This album is darker at times, louder than their others; it feels personal and direct. ‘If I Were To Lie’ places Wills’ bass groove front and centre, ‘Demon’ is riveting and propulsive in spite of its dark pointed lyric and ‘They Dream’ dissolves into three and a half minutes of deeply satisfying ambient synth work in its second half. Wills has always been the band’s anchor, providing rock solid, rhythmic bass lines and guitars that blur the boundaries of Philpot’s synth. Though in moments such as the final track ‘You Don’t Need The World’ Wills cuts through with an audacious, biting guitar hook. It’s a great culmination of the album’s sense of release. This album isn’t about being dark, it’s about releasing darkness and frustration.
When bands age well, their vitality takes shape. They wear but with intention. They trim excesses. Throughout this album one can hear a band at peace with themselves. They’ve learned to cut back on that which is merely impressive and to concentrate on simply what is crucial. For Philpot this is about making something lasting. “A lot of shedding, getting rid of layers and preconceptions… breaking up with old ways of thinking, old ways of being, starting to look at this thing in a new way and finding something positive.” The result is a record that will stay with you.
Mixed by Nicolas Vernhes (Deerhunter, Matthew Dear, Wild Nothing, War On Drugs).
They’ve always made intriguing records, here especially. It’s easy to see why musicians fall hard for this band. They entice and envelop you. Any ‘Bear In Heaven’ song will most likely greet you with a provocative beat, textural synthesizers and unassuming but adeptly supportive bass and guitar, all exquisitely arranged and glistening. Jon Philpot’s high, smooth, strong voice is so tightly wound into the music that it can be easy to overlook the lyrics, Bear In Heaven’s capacious third dimension. Philpot is a centre seeking, contemplative writer who captures the fleeting thoughts that underscore our emotional lives, the interactions with the world that are both difficult to express and anathema in daily conversation.
While all of this can be said of any Bear In Heaven album, each varies wildly in tone and approach. 2007’s ‘Red Bloom Of The Boom’ is ambitious and experimental. ‘Beast Rest Forth Mouth’ (2009) was a pivotal record that still feels important, seductive and intense. On their 2012 album ‘I Love You, It’s Cool’ the structural and musical ideas are challenging and masterfully developed. For ‘Time Is Over One Day Old’, we witness the band once again turning their gaze inward and prioritizing their evocative abilities in line with or even slightly ahead of technical skills. It feels very much in the tradition of BRFM in that way. It’s beautiful; it’s moving.
Here Philpot and partner Adam Wills are more deeply collaborative than ever. This album is darker at times, louder than their others; it feels personal and direct. ‘If I Were To Lie’ places Wills’ bass groove front and centre, ‘Demon’ is riveting and propulsive in spite of its dark pointed lyric and ‘They Dream’ dissolves into three and a half minutes of deeply satisfying ambient synth work in its second half. Wills has always been the band’s anchor, providing rock solid, rhythmic bass lines and guitars that blur the boundaries of Philpot’s synth. Though in moments such as the final track ‘You Don’t Need The World’ Wills cuts through with an audacious, biting guitar hook. It’s a great culmination of the album’s sense of release. This album isn’t about being dark, it’s about releasing darkness and frustration.
When bands age well, their vitality takes shape. They wear but with intention. They trim excesses. Throughout this album one can hear a band at peace with themselves. They’ve learned to cut back on that which is merely impressive and to concentrate on simply what is crucial. For Philpot this is about making something lasting. “A lot of shedding, getting rid of layers and preconceptions… breaking up with old ways of thinking, old ways of being, starting to look at this thing in a new way and finding something positive.” The result is a record that will stay with you.
Mixed by Nicolas Vernhes (Deerhunter, Matthew Dear, Wild Nothing, War On Drugs).
TRACK LISTING
Autumn
Time Between
If I Were To Lie
They Dream
The Sun And The Moon And The Stars
Memory Heart
Demon
Way Off
Dissolve The Walls
You Don’t Need The World
Blue Hours sees the much-loved folk-rock duo – made up of Andrew Davie and Kevin Jones – once again team up with producer Ian Grimble on what is one of their most personal records to date.
Speaking about the new album, Davie says: “Blue Hours is a kind of imaginary space you get into at night, a place where you process difficult things or where you try to figure everything out.”
Themes on the album include both self-reflection and mental health after both struggled with the latter in recent years. “It’s the main over-arching theme with this record,” Davie explains. The group, who have worked with mental health charity CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably) previously added: “It probably speaks to our struggles and hopefully many other people’s too. Men are not very good at talking. We’re not really taught how to – men have no idea how to talk about this stuff, certainly to each other.”
The pair describe the conceptual blue hours headspace that gives the new album its title as being “somewhere between a hotel, a mental health hospital, a bar that stays open later than anywhere else, a paradise, a dream, a nightmare and an endless sea of corridors and staircases leading you to rooms that represent memories – good, bad, happy or difficult.”
Despite the album’s challenging themes, it’s an album drenched in hope too. “We wanted this to be a celebration of music,” Jones continues. “I think that informed some of the bolder decision making on this record. At a time when music was so distant, it felt important to make an album that sounded hopeful, celebratory, ambitious and beautiful in spite of the heavy subject matter in some of the songs.” Jones adds: “It was almost like we needed to shout louder than before because we felt that there were more barriers between the audience and us. We needed something to transcend that.”
Speaking about the new album, Davie says: “Blue Hours is a kind of imaginary space you get into at night, a place where you process difficult things or where you try to figure everything out.”
Themes on the album include both self-reflection and mental health after both struggled with the latter in recent years. “It’s the main over-arching theme with this record,” Davie explains. The group, who have worked with mental health charity CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably) previously added: “It probably speaks to our struggles and hopefully many other people’s too. Men are not very good at talking. We’re not really taught how to – men have no idea how to talk about this stuff, certainly to each other.”
The pair describe the conceptual blue hours headspace that gives the new album its title as being “somewhere between a hotel, a mental health hospital, a bar that stays open later than anywhere else, a paradise, a dream, a nightmare and an endless sea of corridors and staircases leading you to rooms that represent memories – good, bad, happy or difficult.”
Despite the album’s challenging themes, it’s an album drenched in hope too. “We wanted this to be a celebration of music,” Jones continues. “I think that informed some of the bolder decision making on this record. At a time when music was so distant, it felt important to make an album that sounded hopeful, celebratory, ambitious and beautiful in spite of the heavy subject matter in some of the songs.” Jones adds: “It was almost like we needed to shout louder than before because we felt that there were more barriers between the audience and us. We needed something to transcend that.”
STAFF COMMENTS
Barry says: This is another beautiful outing from Bear's Den, both orchestral and tender in equal measure. These are grand, bold pieces with a brittle and fragile core, both cathartic and touching.TRACK LISTING
Side A
New Ways
Blue Hours
Frightened Whispers
Gratitude
Shadows
Side B
All That You Are
Spiders
Selective Memories
On Your Side
All The Wrong Places
An incredibly prolific 2022 saw Bear's Den release their highly-praised fourth studio album 'Blue Hours' in May, which peaked in the UK Album Charts at No 6, and their original soundtrack for the Apple TV+ series Trying, on which they collaborated with the likes of Maisie Peters and Jade Bird.
2023 sees folk-pop duo Bear's Den return once again to release a pair of new EPs, First Loves and White Magnolias.
Formed in London 2012, Bear's Den have amassed a dedicated and international fan base with their anthemic songs. With 4 studio albums under their belt, as well as a collaborative project with composer Paul Frith, they have been a regular fixture in the charts of UK and Europe since their inception. Their debut album 'Islands' also garnered a nomination for an Ivor Novello Award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically.
Having toured around the world playing theatres, arenas and festivals (including Reading and Leeds, Glastonbury Festival's Other Stage, Pukkelpop, Lowlands and Bonnaroo), in 2019, following the release of their third album 'So That You Might Hear Me' they returned to their origins for a tour of tiny 'Highlands and Islands' venues across Scotland and a supporting documentary. No stranger to music documentary making, the band also featured heavily in the award-winning documentary Austin To Boston alongside Ben Howard, Nathaniel Rateliff and The Staves.
2023 sees folk-pop duo Bear's Den return once again to release a pair of new EPs, First Loves and White Magnolias.
Formed in London 2012, Bear's Den have amassed a dedicated and international fan base with their anthemic songs. With 4 studio albums under their belt, as well as a collaborative project with composer Paul Frith, they have been a regular fixture in the charts of UK and Europe since their inception. Their debut album 'Islands' also garnered a nomination for an Ivor Novello Award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically.
Having toured around the world playing theatres, arenas and festivals (including Reading and Leeds, Glastonbury Festival's Other Stage, Pukkelpop, Lowlands and Bonnaroo), in 2019, following the release of their third album 'So That You Might Hear Me' they returned to their origins for a tour of tiny 'Highlands and Islands' venues across Scotland and a supporting documentary. No stranger to music documentary making, the band also featured heavily in the award-winning documentary Austin To Boston alongside Ben Howard, Nathaniel Rateliff and The Staves.
TRACK LISTING
Evelyn
Helen Of Hammersmith Bridge
Summer & Smoke
Teach Me, Ava
White Magnolias
Loneliness
Honest Mistake
Imitation
To celebrate 10 years since Bear's Den's celebrated 2014 debut album 'Islands', they're releasing the vinyl in a brand new blue colourway.
The album includes fan favourite singles such as "Agape" and the Ivor Novello nominated "Above the Clouds of Pompeii".
In the last decade the band have gone from strength to strength, touring the world and selling out large venues across UK, Europe and US. and playing all the major festivals. They've also released a further 3 studio albums, several EPs, a collaborative orchestral project with composer Paul Frith, and written the soundtrack for Apple TV series Trying S3.
The album includes fan favourite singles such as "Agape" and the Ivor Novello nominated "Above the Clouds of Pompeii".
In the last decade the band have gone from strength to strength, touring the world and selling out large venues across UK, Europe and US. and playing all the major festivals. They've also released a further 3 studio albums, several EPs, a collaborative orchestral project with composer Paul Frith, and written the soundtrack for Apple TV series Trying S3.
TRACK LISTING
Agape
The Love We Stole
Above The Clouds Of Pompeii
Isaac
Think of England
Magdalene
When You Break
Stubborn Beast
Elysium
Bad Blood
Scruniversal's sub label Tunes Delivery invites Moscow scene veteran Leonid Lipelis to don his Beard In Dust moniker for their third instalment, one which he dips into various different eras of dance history for inspiration. There's a distinctly late 80s feel to opening tune 'Music of the U', complete with sampled bell stabs and the kind of beats that wouldn't be out of place on an S'Express or early Coldcut house affair. 'The Armenian Break' and 'City of Love' look back even further, back to the female-fronted disco efforts of the 70s, the latter adding a touch of Balearic flourishes. 'Abstractish P' circles around some serene arpeggios, with rave whistles and, as it progresses, twisting guitar notes, lending it an individual air, while closer 'RoRyaRe' nods to ExCel-era 808 State with some nice bleepery before settling into more progressive headnodding territory and some distinctive synth play.
STAFF COMMENTS
Mine says: New Beat, Disco, Balearic, House... you name it, this record's got it!TRACK LISTING
Music Of The U
The Armenian Break
City Of Love
Abstractish P
RoRyaRe
Double LP gold here, The Beastie Boys finest fifteen tracks throughout their incredible career. This record features some of the best tunes such as ‘Fight For Your Right’ and ‘An Open Letter to NYC’ but is filled to the brim with all the best of beasties. The Beasties consistent 'triple trouble' MC style is the thread that runs through each track here, creating cohesion to this whole LP, which presents us with a great overview of their career so far.
TRACK LISTING
A1. So What'Cha Want
A2. Brass Monkey
A3. Ch-Check It Out
A4. No Sleep Till Brooklyn
B1. Hey Ladies
B2. Pass The Mic
B3. An Open Letter To NYC
C1. Root DowN
C2. Shake Your Rump
C3. Intergalactic
C4. Sure Shot
D1. Body Movin' (Fatboy Slim Remix)
D2. Triple Trouble
D3. Sabotage
D4. Fight For Your Right
NOT FOR SALE ONLINE - PRICE IS £117.99 - See Instore for ordering details...
To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Beastie Boys’ multi-platinum album Check Your Head, UMC release a limited-edition reissue of the rare 4LP deluxe version of the album, originally released in 2009 as an artist store exclusive. The long out-of-print and much sought-after box set features the 2009 remaster of the original double album, plus two extra LPs of bonus content including remixes, live versions, and B-sides. All four LPs are pressed on 180-gram vinyl and housed in a fabric wrapped, stamped, hardcover case.
Originally released in April 1992, Check Your Head was a milestone for Beastie Boys on multiple levels: It was their first album to be produced, in its entirety, by Beastie Boys with Mario Caldato Jr. and to feature keyboard player Keyboard Money Mark, as well as the first to be recorded at the band’s own G-Son studios in Atwater Village, CA. Most significantly, however, Check Your Head marked the return of live instrumentation to the forefront and backbone of the Beastie Boys sound, with the bulk of the album featuring Mike D on drums, Adrock on guitar and MCA on bass for the first time since the band’s early 1980s hardcore punk recordings.
To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Beastie Boys’ multi-platinum album Check Your Head, UMC release a limited-edition reissue of the rare 4LP deluxe version of the album, originally released in 2009 as an artist store exclusive. The long out-of-print and much sought-after box set features the 2009 remaster of the original double album, plus two extra LPs of bonus content including remixes, live versions, and B-sides. All four LPs are pressed on 180-gram vinyl and housed in a fabric wrapped, stamped, hardcover case.
Originally released in April 1992, Check Your Head was a milestone for Beastie Boys on multiple levels: It was their first album to be produced, in its entirety, by Beastie Boys with Mario Caldato Jr. and to feature keyboard player Keyboard Money Mark, as well as the first to be recorded at the band’s own G-Son studios in Atwater Village, CA. Most significantly, however, Check Your Head marked the return of live instrumentation to the forefront and backbone of the Beastie Boys sound, with the bulk of the album featuring Mike D on drums, Adrock on guitar and MCA on bass for the first time since the band’s early 1980s hardcore punk recordings.
"Hello Nasty", the Beastie Boys' fifth album, is a head-spinning listen loaded with analogue synthesizers, old drum machines, call-and-response vocals, freestyle rhyming, futuristic sound effects, and virtuoso turntable scratching. The Beasties had long been notorious for their dense, multi-layered explosions, but "Hello Nasty" was their first record to build on the multi-ethnic junk-culture breakthrough of "Check Your Head", instead of merely replicating it. Hiring DJ Mix Master Mike (one of the Invisibl Skratch Piklz) turned out to be a masterstroke; he and the Beasties created a sound that strongly recalls the spare electronic funk of the early 80s, but spiked with the samples and postmodern absurdist wit that have become their trademarks.
"Ill Communication" follows the blueprint of "Check Your Head", accentuating it at some points, deepening it in others, but never expanding it beyond the boundaries of that record. It was the first Beastie Boys album not to delve into new territory, but it's not fair to say that the band were coasting, since much of the album finds the group turning in muscular, vigorous music that fills out the black-and-white sketches that comprised "Check Your Head". Much of the credit has to go to the group's renewed emphasis on their rhyming; there are still instrumentals, but the Beasties do push their words to the forefront, even on dense rockers like the album's signature tune, "Sabotage". But even those rhymes illustrate that the group is in the process of a great settling, relying more on old-school-styled rhyme schemes and word battles than the narratives and surreal fantasies that marked the high points on their first two albums. With this record, the Beasties confirm that there is indeed a signature Beastie Boys aesthetic, with the group sticking to a blend of old school rap, pop culture, lo-fi funk, soulful jazz instrumentals, Latin rhythms, and punk, often seamlessly integrated into a rolling, pan-cultural, multi-cultural groove.
TRACK LISTING
Sure Shot
Tough Guy
B - Boys Makin' With The Freak Freak
Bobo On The Corner
Root Down
Sabotage
Get It Together
Sabrosa
The Update
Futterman's Rule
Alright Hear This
Eugene's Lament
Flute Loop
Do It
Ricky's Theme
Heart Attack Man
The Scoop
Shambala
Bodhisattva Vow
Transitions
Celebrating the 30th Anniversary of Beastie Boys’ multi-platinum Ill Communication album, this limited-edition deluxe reissue is a rare version of the album that was originally released as a limited run in 2009. Long out-of-print and sought after by fans and collectors, it features lenticular cover art and includes a bonus LP with 12 bonus tracks (remixes, B-sides and rarities), all housed in a rigid slipcase and pressed on 180g vinyl.
TRACK LISTING
Disc 1
Sure Shot (Side A)
Tough Guy (Side A)
B-Boys Makin' With The Freak Freak (Side A)
Bobo On The Corner (Side A)
Root Down (Side A)
Sabotage (Side B)
Get It Together (Side B)
Sabrosa (Side B)
The Update (Side B)
Futterman's Rule (Side B)
Disc 2
Alright Hear This (Side C)
Eugene's Lament (Side C)
Flute Loop (Side C)
Do It (Side C)
Ricky's Theme (Side C)
Heart Attack Man (Side D)
The Scoop (Side D)
Shambala (Side D)
Bodhisattva Vow (Side D)
Transitions (Side D)
Disc 3
Root Down (Free Zone Mix) (Side E)
Resolution Time (Side E)
Get It Together (Buck-Wild Remix) (Side E)
Dope Little Song (Side E)
Sure Shot (European B-Boy Mix) (Side E)
Heart Attack Man (Unplugged) (Side E)
The Vibes (Side F)
Atwater Basketball Association File No. 172-C (Side F)
Heart Attack Man (Live) (Side F)
The Maestro (Live) (Side F)
Mullet Head (Side F)
Sure Shot (European B-Boy Instrumental) (Side F)
The joke of Licensed to Ill's cover - that the Beasties could crash their jet into the side of a mountain and keep on tickin' - serves as a good metaphor for a career that even some of their 1986 admirers thought might be over after the one-time-only shock of this full-length debut. That thousands of funk-junkie wannabes have since failed at re-creating its groove, breaking-the-law vibe, and ear-splitting mix of rock and rap is an even better joke. And funniest of all is the record itself, which packs dexterous boasts, aural puns, and lots and lots of yelling into a disc that can still be listened to with as much pleasure as it gave in '86.
TRACK LISTING
1 Rhymin & Stealin 4:08
2 The New Style 4:36
3 She’s Crafty 3:35
4 Posse In Effect 2:26
5 Slow Ride 2:57
6 Girls 2:14
7 Fight For Your Right 3:27
8 No Sleep Till Brooklyn 4:07
9 Paul Revere 3:41
10 Hold It Now, Hit It 3:26
11 Brass Monkey 2:37
12 Slow And Low 3:38
13 Time To Get Ill 3:40
The joke of Licensed to Ill's cover - that the Beasties could crash their jet into the side of a mountain and keep on tickin' - serves as a good metaphor for a career that even some of their 1986 admirers thought might be over after the one-time-only shock of this full-length debut. That thousands of funk-junkie wannabes have since failed at re-creating its groove, breaking-the-law vibe, and ear-splitting mix of rock and rap is an even better joke. And funniest of all is the record itself, which packs dexterous boasts, aural puns, and lots and lots of yelling into a disc that can still be listened to with as much pleasure as it gave in '86.
TRACK LISTING
A1. Rhymin’ & Stealin'
A2. The New Style
A3. She’s Crafty
A4. Posse In Effect
A5. Slow Ride
A6. Girls
A7. Fight For Your Right
B1. No Sleep Till Brooklyn
B2. Paul Revere
B3. Hold It Now, Hit It
B4. Brass Monkey
B5. Slow And Low
B6. Time To Get Ill
Derided as one-hit wonders, estranged from their original producer and record label, and in self-imposed exile in Los Angeles, the Beastie Boys were written off by most observers before even beginning to record their second album - an embarrassing commercial flop that should have ruined the group's career. But not only did 'Paul's Boutique' eventually transform the Beasties from a fratboy novelty to hip hop giants, its sample-happy, retro aesthetic changed popular culture forever.
With the considerable help of Los Angeles-based production duo the Dust Brothers, the Beastie Boys helped redefine what sampling could be with this record. Snatches of familiar music are scattered throughout the record - anything from Curtis Mayfield's "Superfly" and Sly Stone's "Loose Booty" to Loggins & Messina's "Your Mama Don't Dance" and the Ramones' "Suzy Is a Headbanger" - but never once are they presented in lazy, predictable ways. the Dust Brothers and Beasties weave a crazy-quilt of samples, beats, loops, and tricks, which creates a hyper-surreal alternate reality, evolving into a wholly unique record, unlike anything that came before or after. It very well could be that its density is what alienated listeners and critics at the time; there is so much information in the music and words that it can seem impenetrable at first, but upon repeated spins it opens up slowly, assuredly, revealing more every listen. Musically, few hip-hop records have ever been so rich; it's not just the recontextulations of familiar music via samples, it's the flow of each song and the album as a whole, culminating in the widescreen suite that closes the record.
A: Dancing like a drunk uncle at a very funky wedding.
B: Smiling like you've got a winning lottery ticket in your pocket.
With the considerable help of Los Angeles-based production duo the Dust Brothers, the Beastie Boys helped redefine what sampling could be with this record. Snatches of familiar music are scattered throughout the record - anything from Curtis Mayfield's "Superfly" and Sly Stone's "Loose Booty" to Loggins & Messina's "Your Mama Don't Dance" and the Ramones' "Suzy Is a Headbanger" - but never once are they presented in lazy, predictable ways. the Dust Brothers and Beasties weave a crazy-quilt of samples, beats, loops, and tricks, which creates a hyper-surreal alternate reality, evolving into a wholly unique record, unlike anything that came before or after. It very well could be that its density is what alienated listeners and critics at the time; there is so much information in the music and words that it can seem impenetrable at first, but upon repeated spins it opens up slowly, assuredly, revealing more every listen. Musically, few hip-hop records have ever been so rich; it's not just the recontextulations of familiar music via samples, it's the flow of each song and the album as a whole, culminating in the widescreen suite that closes the record.
STAFF COMMENTS
David says: I don't want to come across all 'hip hop isn't what it used to be' BUT you can't listen to this without.A: Dancing like a drunk uncle at a very funky wedding.
B: Smiling like you've got a winning lottery ticket in your pocket.
TRACK LISTING
To All The Girls 1:29
Shake Your Rump 3:19
Johnny Ryall 3:00
Egg Man 2:57
High Plains Drifter 4:13
The Sounds Of Science 3:11
3-Minute Rule 3:39
Hey Ladies 3:47
5-Piece Chicken Dinner 0:23
Looking Down The Barrel Of A Gun 3:28
Car Thief 3:39
What Comes Around 3:07
Shadrach 4:07
Ask For Janice 0:11
B-Boy Bouillabaisse 12:34
59 Chrystie Street
Get On The Mic
Stop That Train
A Year And A Day
Hello Brooklyn
Dropping Names
Lay It On Me
Mike On The Mic
A.W.O.L.
THIS IS A BLACK FRIDAY 2024 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON FRIDAY NOVEMBER 29TH ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.
IF THERE ARE ANY REMAINING COPIES THEY WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE ONLINE AT 8AM ON SATURDAY NOVEMBER 30TH).
Special Beat Service is a dynamic fusion of ska, pop, and punk influences and includes the standout hits I Confess and Save If For Later. This 2-LP deluxe edition also features live and non-LP tracks.
IF THERE ARE ANY REMAINING COPIES THEY WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE ONLINE AT 8AM ON SATURDAY NOVEMBER 30TH).
Special Beat Service is a dynamic fusion of ska, pop, and punk influences and includes the standout hits I Confess and Save If For Later. This 2-LP deluxe edition also features live and non-LP tracks.
Long before they were a band, Montreal duo The Beat Escape took a small first step towards a longer journey at a university video class. “We made a short oddball work; a video piece that followed two characters through a psychedelic waking dream,” say Beat Escapists Addy Weitzman and Patrick A Boivin of their founding collaboration. Many other projects and outside collaborations later, the duo have crafted a debut album their younger selves would be proud of: Released through Bella Union, the sublimely immersive ‘Life Is Short The Answer’s Long’ plays like a waking dream of near-psychedelic electronic pop, moving to its own beat in the push-pull of forward motion and submerged reflection.
That sense of propulsion ushers opener ‘Sign Of Age’ into rising view, its sparse drums, hypnotic sequence and melancholic chords resembling house music as reimagined by Angelo Badalamenti. The enveloping mood holds as ‘Moon In Aquarius’ unfurls like a nighttime road ahead, ghosted by narcotic harmonies. ‘Limestone Alps’ lingers meditatively, hymnal vocals reverberating. ‘Where Water Ends’ and ‘More Dreams’, meanwhile, navigate the porous boundary lines between Krautrock, Factory Records and obscure minimal wave records of the 80s.
That sense of propulsion ushers opener ‘Sign Of Age’ into rising view, its sparse drums, hypnotic sequence and melancholic chords resembling house music as reimagined by Angelo Badalamenti. The enveloping mood holds as ‘Moon In Aquarius’ unfurls like a nighttime road ahead, ghosted by narcotic harmonies. ‘Limestone Alps’ lingers meditatively, hymnal vocals reverberating. ‘Where Water Ends’ and ‘More Dreams’, meanwhile, navigate the porous boundary lines between Krautrock, Factory Records and obscure minimal wave records of the 80s.
STAFF COMMENTS
Barry says: Superb throbbing pseudo-synthery from The Beat Escape, Bella Union's answer to Pye corner Audio mix swooning pads and soaring vocal abstractions around a dynamic core of weighted percussion, flickering arpeggios and spine-tingling euphoric leads.TRACK LISTING
Sign Of Age
Moon In Aquarius
Limestone Alps
Where Water Ends
More Dreams
Then I Drift Away
Seeing Is Forgetting
Thousand Pound Shoes
Nemo Propheta
Here’s where it all began…This expanded double LP version of the “first album” thoroughly (though not completely) documents Beat Happening’s first four years of recorded history.
TRACK LISTING
A1. Foggy Eyes
A2. Bad Seeds
A3. I Let Him Get To Me
A4. I Spy
A5. Run Down The Stairs
A6. In Love With You Thing
A7. I Love You
A8. Down At The Sea
A9. Our Secret
A10. What’s Important
A11. Fourteen
A12. Bad Seeds (live)
B1. Run Down The Stairs
B2. In My Memory
B3. Honey Pot
B4. The Fall
B5. Youth
B6. Don’t Mix The Colors
B7. Christmas
B8. Fourteen
B9. Let’s Kiss
B10. 1, 2, 3
B11. Look Around
B12. I Love You (demo)
Is it okay to call Black Candy a departure? A Jungian descent into a darker psychological state? If the starkness of the cover art wasn’t enough of a harbinger, the edgier tone of Black Candy coupled with all this lyrical talk about gravediggers, lost boyfriends, ghosts and… pajama parties is enough to wonder just how close to the bonfire Beat Happening were willing to dance.
TRACK LISTING
1. Other Side
2. Black Candy
3. Knick Knack
4. Pajama Party In A Haunted Hive
5. Grave Digger Blues
6. Cast A Shadow
7. Bonfire
8. T.V. Girl
9. Playhouse
10. Ponytail
Released in tandem with the International Pop Underground festival, 1991 was a very good year on the S.S. Beat Happening. Songs from Dreamy crowd many fan favorite lists and with good reason.
TRACK LISTING
1. Me Untamed
2. Left Behind
3. Hot Chocolate Boy
4. I’ve Lost You
5. Cry For A Shadow
6. Collide
7.Nancy Sin
8. Fortune Cookie Prize
9. Revolution Come And Gone
10. Red Head Walking
“The biggest thing ever to happen to indie pop in America... Most of what's written about this band is all about that sweet pop and those childish affectations, but that misses the substance at the core: Their music was dark, damaged, full of fright and sex and death and vulnerability-- just like any real childhood...their hopscotch stories felt punker than Black Flag tattoos ever could.” - Nitsuh Abebe, Pitchfork
Exploding the teenage underground into passionate revolt against the corporate ogre since 1983, Beat Happening formed at Evergreen College in Olympia, Washington by Calvin Johnson, Heather Lewis and Bret Lunsford. The band combined a modern primitive pop sound with the D.I.Y. ethos of ‘anyone can do it’ and inspired countless bands and labels along the way. The music community that arose around the band and their label, K, may have seemed the sonic antithesis of their Seattle neighbors (and friends) but was no less influential.
The legend of Beat Happening, and of K, the label that Calvin Johnson founded, is full of big names they worked with before they were stars (Beck! Modest Mouse! The Gossip!), and big names they influenced (Kurt Cobain! Sleater-Kinney!) Less acknowledged, however, is that Bret Lunsford, Heather Lewis, and Calvin Johnson created some of the most original and surprising music to come out of the often deliberately weird American punk rock tradition. Working from a sonic template of the Cramps, Trouble Funk, Young Marble Giants, and messianic blues, Beat Happening confounded and often incited violence from audiences weaned on hardcore punk. In the place of macho aggression, Beat Happening confronted the all-ages scene with Heather’s low-key delivery and Calvin’s fey theatrics, topped off by his trademark dance move: rubbing his tummy. For a supposedly cutesy band, Beat Happening was adamant about asserting its right to exist, carrying itself with a punk as fuck attitude that would become a key inspirational lodestone for the generation of D.I.Y. bands that followed, including Bikini Kill and the Nation of Ulysses.
30 years since the release of their self-titled debut album, Look Around is a remastered, career-spanning double album anthology, handpicked by the band and a great starting point for the uninitiated as well a refreshing reminder to those who caught the wave the first time around. The 23 tracks range from their 1984 debut single, “Our Secret” b/w “What’s Important” (originally sold directly for $2.50 to individuals, but $4 to institutions) to “Angel Gone,” a single released in 2000 after eight years of inactivity.
Exploding the teenage underground into passionate revolt against the corporate ogre since 1983, Beat Happening formed at Evergreen College in Olympia, Washington by Calvin Johnson, Heather Lewis and Bret Lunsford. The band combined a modern primitive pop sound with the D.I.Y. ethos of ‘anyone can do it’ and inspired countless bands and labels along the way. The music community that arose around the band and their label, K, may have seemed the sonic antithesis of their Seattle neighbors (and friends) but was no less influential.
The legend of Beat Happening, and of K, the label that Calvin Johnson founded, is full of big names they worked with before they were stars (Beck! Modest Mouse! The Gossip!), and big names they influenced (Kurt Cobain! Sleater-Kinney!) Less acknowledged, however, is that Bret Lunsford, Heather Lewis, and Calvin Johnson created some of the most original and surprising music to come out of the often deliberately weird American punk rock tradition. Working from a sonic template of the Cramps, Trouble Funk, Young Marble Giants, and messianic blues, Beat Happening confounded and often incited violence from audiences weaned on hardcore punk. In the place of macho aggression, Beat Happening confronted the all-ages scene with Heather’s low-key delivery and Calvin’s fey theatrics, topped off by his trademark dance move: rubbing his tummy. For a supposedly cutesy band, Beat Happening was adamant about asserting its right to exist, carrying itself with a punk as fuck attitude that would become a key inspirational lodestone for the generation of D.I.Y. bands that followed, including Bikini Kill and the Nation of Ulysses.
30 years since the release of their self-titled debut album, Look Around is a remastered, career-spanning double album anthology, handpicked by the band and a great starting point for the uninitiated as well a refreshing reminder to those who caught the wave the first time around. The 23 tracks range from their 1984 debut single, “Our Secret” b/w “What’s Important” (originally sold directly for $2.50 to individuals, but $4 to institutions) to “Angel Gone,” a single released in 2000 after eight years of inactivity.
TRACK LISTING
Side A:
Our Secret
Foggy Eyes
Bad Seeds
What’s Important
Look Around
Bewitched
In Between
Side B:
Indian Summer
Other Side
Black Candy
Cast A Shadow
Nancy Sin
Knock On Any Door
Left Behind
Side C:
Red Head Walking
Fortune Cookie Prize
Hot Chocolate Boy
Pine Box Derby
Tiger Trap
Side D:
Godsend
Teenage Caveman
Noise
Angel Gone
This album compiles Beat Happening songs recorded between 1984 and 2000, including material long out of print on 45's and compilations, including the original version of "Nancy Sin". The last four songs are from the Screaming Trees / Beat Happening collaboration EP. This was originally included in the Beat Happening seven CD boxset "Crashing Through" and now its available in its own right.
Pulling together the lion’s share of Beat Happening’s non-LP material not covered by the expanded edition of the debut album, Music To Climb The Apple Tree By collects tracks from the band’s singles and compilation contributions along with their share of the Beat Happening/Screaming Trees EP. Essential ephemera.
TRACK LISTING
1. Angel Gone
2. Nancy Sin
3. Sea Hunt
4. Look Around
5. Not A Care In The World
6. Dreamy
7. That Girl
8. Secret Picnic Spot
9. Zombie Limbo Time
10. Foggy Eyes
11. Knock On Any Door
12. Sea Babies
13. Tales Of Brave Aphrodite
14. Polly Pereguinn
15. I Dig You
From the hypnotic, elegiac pulse of “Tiger Trap” to the meditative tone poem of “Godsend,” the quiet maturity and melodic confidence of You Turn Me On makes it a bittersweet swansong for Beat Happening, but what a way to go out.
TRACK LISTING
1. Tiger Trap
2. Noise
3. Pinebox Derby
4. Teenage Caveman
5. Sleepy Head
6. You Turn Me On
7. Godsend
8. Hey Day
9. Bury The Hammer
Reduced
Under the pseudonyms 4 A.M. and Beat Per Bar, Lupos Sobre-Vega released two eccentric 12”s, of what, in retrospect, can be called vernacular house music. Both records are individualistic collisions of New Wave, Bass, Freestyle, Hi-NRG, Acid, and Sample House recorded in Sobre-Vega’s home studio in Orange County, Los Angeles. Using a Yamaha QX-5, Roland S-50, his mom's Roland Juno 60, EMU drum machines, and Yamaha DX-7, he put his nascent jazz chops to use and laid down the idiosyncratic dance tracks that he would self-release on his own label, House Hold Records, in 1988 and 1989 respectively. Although both 12”s were credited to groups, Sobre-Vega confirms that “the so-called band members were club friends. A couple were models and actors, or just plain good ol’ dancers. They were strategically picked by me, of course. So yeah, 4 A.M. and BEAT PER BAR are 300% me. There is no other.”
Despite working within the confines of dance music’s ready-made rhythms, Sobre-Vega’s sensitivity transcends the inarticulate 4/4 beat - vulnerable, idealistic and yearning. The timeless themes on the records reveal his youthful worries about money, intimacy, love and sex. Looking back at dance music history, it is luminaries such as Arthur Russell, Sylvester, Grace Jones, Theo Parrish, and Larry Heard, that stand out as enduring visionaries that transcended stylistic trends. Mixed Signals is proud to illuminate Sobre-Vega’s work in the constellation of dance music’s radical dreamers with this EP comprised of two songs from each his scarce and singular 12”s
Despite working within the confines of dance music’s ready-made rhythms, Sobre-Vega’s sensitivity transcends the inarticulate 4/4 beat - vulnerable, idealistic and yearning. The timeless themes on the records reveal his youthful worries about money, intimacy, love and sex. Looking back at dance music history, it is luminaries such as Arthur Russell, Sylvester, Grace Jones, Theo Parrish, and Larry Heard, that stand out as enduring visionaries that transcended stylistic trends. Mixed Signals is proud to illuminate Sobre-Vega’s work in the constellation of dance music’s radical dreamers with this EP comprised of two songs from each his scarce and singular 12”s
TRACK LISTING
A1. Beat Per Bar - Thats Nice - Gimme A Couple More Us Jack Mix
A2. Beat Per Bar - Yahh Money
B1. 4 A.M. - Just Wait And See Deepest Mix
B2. 4 A.M. - Love It After Hours Mix
Our rogue musical chef Beatconductor returns with volume two of this now infamous serving. Dishing up another selection of tasty plates which marry classic rock and psyche of yesterday with modern styles of edit trickery and extension. Rush, Led Zep, The Rolling Stones & The Clash are all cooked up inna new style and served long and leisurely.
As illicit as Rishi Sunac's portfolio, much like volume one this is a vinyl only, one off pressing release.
Highly recommended! Be one step ahead of the next bar DJ with these exclusive edits...
As illicit as Rishi Sunac's portfolio, much like volume one this is a vinyl only, one off pressing release.
Highly recommended! Be one step ahead of the next bar DJ with these exclusive edits...
STAFF COMMENTS
Matt says: As illicit as Rishi Sunac's portfolio, Beatconductor returns with volume two of his louche rock edits LP. Perfect for the working DJ; you'll cause looks of confusion and knowing winks across the bar as these subtle touch-ups daze and confuse the masses.TRACK LISTING
Side 1
1. Tom Sawyer (6:53)
2. Love My Way (5:24)
3. Gimme Shelter (4:29)
Side 2
1. Love Or Confusion (4:47)
2. Whole Lotta Luv (6:01)
3. Clampdown (5:40)
4. Outro-Let There Be Rock (1:53)
Box set of the first five, highly collectable 7" singles released on Beatconductor's GATT label - our delectable Swede's newest incarnation of edits and mash-ups. As anyone following the series can attest - all the GATT releases so far have achieved the impossible task of being both crowd-pleasing and beard twiddling AT THE SAME TIME (!!!) summat 'ol Ture Sjöberg is very, very good at it.
Perfect chance to get in on the action if you missed these individual releases. All housed in a nice screen printed cardbox 7" box.
Super limited copies.
Perfect chance to get in on the action if you missed these individual releases. All housed in a nice screen printed cardbox 7" box.
Super limited copies.
STAFF COMMENTS
Matt says: Satiating the masses while piquing the interest of your local train spotters is no easy feet, trust me. But armed with a tidy selection of Beatconductor tracks, you can have both Karen dancing on the table, and Tarquin schmoozing up for a track ID. Ture offers up five of his killer 7"s at a multi-buy discount price! Absolute winner!TRACK LISTING
Side 1
1. The Drag Stop
Side 2
1. Something Better (edit)
Side 3
1. Finger On The Trigger
Side 4
1. Crazy In Kingston (7" Rework)
Side 5
1. Human Emotions
Side 6
1. I Can FIXX A Hole
Side 7
1. Think About It
Side 8
1. Let It Happen (unreleased 7" Mix)
Side 9
1.Wish
Side 10
1. I Miss You
The Swedish stallion comes correct once again with another clutch of mash-ups. This time turning his hand to the poppier end of the spectrum, as Tailor Swift, Peggy Gou and many more are given the Beatconductor treatment.
Pre-orders advised!
Pre-orders advised!
STAFF COMMENTS
Matt says: He's been keeping bar DJs on trend and Karen's at bay for over a decade now, Beatconductor can mashitup like no one else! This one's gonna be a big one, the ultimate get-out-of-jail-free card; as it features the monolith that is Taylor Swift.TRACK LISTING
Side 1
1. Fallin'
2. Sugar And Spajs
Side 2
1. Tell Me U Luv Me
2. Peggy Swift
Split EP with two tracks from each band. Indie slack-core stars, Beatglider released their debut album in the late nineties. Now the languid five-piece are back with two new songs. East coast England meets West coast USA, their music evoking memories of the late-lamented Pavement, My Bloody Valentine and Galaxie 500, fused with their own brand of wistful melancholia. Newcomers Shinri features members of the quietly acclaimed post-rock collective Junkboy. Their influences range far and wide – such as Elliott Smith, and The Flaming Lips to the more esoteric, pagan melodies of Bert Jansch, Vashti Bunyan and The Incredible String Band – fusing these ingredients together in their own inimitable style help to make Shinri a tantalising prospect.
THIS IS A BLACK FRIDAY 2024 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON FRIDAY NOVEMBER 29TH ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.
IF THERE ARE ANY REMAINING COPIES THEY WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE ONLINE AT 8AM ON SATURDAY NOVEMBER 30TH).
With a million preorders for “I Want To Hold Your Hand” in the UK, the single shot to number 1 in December 1963 knocking The Beatles’ own “She Loves You” from the top spot. This was to be the first official single for The Beatles on Capitol records and was backed by an extraordinary marketing campaign. With “I Saw Her Standing There” replacing “This Boy” for the other side, the single was rush-released in the USA in January 1964, climbing to number 1 on the Hot 100 by 1st February. Remaining on the chart for 15 weeks, it went on to sell more than 12 million copies worldwide – and with it, an unstoppable force was unleashed and Beatlemania had truly arrived.
Cut from the original US version of the master tapes by Kevin Reeves in Nashville, using all-analogue cutting process and using the original replica artwork.
IF THERE ARE ANY REMAINING COPIES THEY WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE ONLINE AT 8AM ON SATURDAY NOVEMBER 30TH).
With a million preorders for “I Want To Hold Your Hand” in the UK, the single shot to number 1 in December 1963 knocking The Beatles’ own “She Loves You” from the top spot. This was to be the first official single for The Beatles on Capitol records and was backed by an extraordinary marketing campaign. With “I Saw Her Standing There” replacing “This Boy” for the other side, the single was rush-released in the USA in January 1964, climbing to number 1 on the Hot 100 by 1st February. Remaining on the chart for 15 weeks, it went on to sell more than 12 million copies worldwide – and with it, an unstoppable force was unleashed and Beatlemania had truly arrived.
Cut from the original US version of the master tapes by Kevin Reeves in Nashville, using all-analogue cutting process and using the original replica artwork.
This landmark compilation has introduced generations of fans to the incredible history of the most storied band in music. For its 50th anniversary, the collection has been expanded with 12 additional tracks, including for the first time some of George Harrison’s earliest songs and some classic Beatles versions of R&B and rock ‘n’ roll hits that were so influential on the band.
The 3LP collection now contains 38 tracks, 30 of which have new mixes for 2023. The set’s 12 newly added tracks are collected on its 3rd LP. An insert contains new sleeve notes by journalist and author John Harris. For current fans and future generations alike, the new 1962 – 1966 collection is a joyous celebration of The Beatles’ timeless musical legacy.
The 2CD collection now contains 38 tracks, 30 of which have new mixes for 2023. The booklet contains new sleeve notes by journalist and author John Harris. For current fans and future generations alike, the new 1962 – 1966 collection is a joyous celebration of The Beatles’ timeless musical legacy.
The 3LP collection now contains 38 tracks, 30 of which have new mixes for 2023. The set’s 12 newly added tracks are collected on its 3rd LP. An insert contains new sleeve notes by journalist and author John Harris. For current fans and future generations alike, the new 1962 – 1966 collection is a joyous celebration of The Beatles’ timeless musical legacy.
The 2CD collection now contains 38 tracks, 30 of which have new mixes for 2023. The booklet contains new sleeve notes by journalist and author John Harris. For current fans and future generations alike, the new 1962 – 1966 collection is a joyous celebration of The Beatles’ timeless musical legacy.
These landmark compilations have introduced generations of fans to the incredible history of the most storied band in music. For its 50th anniversary, the collections have been expanded: ‘Red’ has 12 additional tracks, including for the first time some of George Harrison’s earliest songs and some classic Beatles versions of R&B and rock ‘n’ roll hits that were so influential on the band. ‘Blue’ has 9 additional tracks including “Blackbird” and “Glass Onion” including the last new Beatles song, “Now And Then” for a total of 21 new additions which are all compiled onto the 3rd disc, effectively creating a ‘new’ LP for each set.
Together the 6LP’s contain 75 tracks, 36 of which have new mixes for 2023. The inserts contains new sleeve notes by journalist and author John Harris. For current fans and future generations alike, the new 1962 – 1966 & 1967 - 1970 collections are a joyous celebration of The Beatles’ timeless musical legacy.
Together the 6LP’s contain 75 tracks, 36 of which have new mixes for 2023. The inserts contains new sleeve notes by journalist and author John Harris. For current fans and future generations alike, the new 1962 – 1966 & 1967 - 1970 collections are a joyous celebration of The Beatles’ timeless musical legacy.
This landmark compilation has introduced generations of fans to the incredible history of the most storied band in music. For its 50th anniversary, the collection has been expanded with 9 additional tracks added chronologically, including “Blackbird”, “Glass Onion” and the new song, “Now And Then”. The last Beatles song, “Now And Then” completes John Lennon’s 1970s vocal and piano demo recording with parts played by Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, as well as a new arrangement for strings.
The 3LP collection now features 37 tracks, 6 of which have new mixes for 2023. The set’s 9 newly added tracks are collected on its 3rd LP. An insert contains new sleeve notes by journalist and author John Harris. For current fans and future generations alike, the new 1966 – 1970 collection is a joyous celebration of The Beatles’ timeless musical legacy.
The 2CD collection now features 37 tracks, 6 of which have new mixes for 2023. The booklet contains new sleeve notes by journalist and author John Harris. For current fans and future generations alike, the new 1966 – 1970 collection is a joyous celebration of The Beatles’ timeless musical legacy.
The 3LP collection now features 37 tracks, 6 of which have new mixes for 2023. The set’s 9 newly added tracks are collected on its 3rd LP. An insert contains new sleeve notes by journalist and author John Harris. For current fans and future generations alike, the new 1966 – 1970 collection is a joyous celebration of The Beatles’ timeless musical legacy.
The 2CD collection now features 37 tracks, 6 of which have new mixes for 2023. The booklet contains new sleeve notes by journalist and author John Harris. For current fans and future generations alike, the new 1966 – 1970 collection is a joyous celebration of The Beatles’ timeless musical legacy.
Using the original 1964 mono master, new lacquers have been cut all-analogue by Kevin Reeves at Nashville’s East Iris Studios. By constantly referring to the original first pressing, the album is are faithful to the original release while also enabling more musical information to be heard than was possible before. Featuring faithfully replicated artwork and a new four-panel insert with essay by American Beatles historian, Bruce Spizer. 180gram audiophile pressing.
TRACK LISTING
1. A Hard Day’s Night
2. Tell Me Why
3. I’ll Cry Instead
4. I Should Have Known Better (Instrumental)
5. I’m Happy Just To Dance With You
6. And I Love Her (Instrumental)
7. I Should Have Known Better
8. If I Fell
9. And I Love Her
10. Ringo’s Theme (This Boy) (Instrumental)
11. Can’t Buy Me Love
12. A Hard Day’s Night (Instrumental)
The biggest band in rock history sees their original catalogue digitally remastered for the first time with improved packaging, including extra rare photographs, expanded and new essays and all enhanced with a video mini-documentary on the making of each album in the Beatles own words.
1. A Hard Day's Night
2. I Should Have Known Better
3. If I Fell
4. I'm Happy Just To Dance With You
5. And I Love Her
6. Tell Me Why
7. Can't Buy Me Love
8. Any Time At All
9. I'll Cry Instead
10. Things We Said Today
11. When I Get Home
12. You Can't Do That
13. I'll Be Back
14. A Hard Day's Night Documentary
1. A Hard Day's Night
2. I Should Have Known Better
3. If I Fell
4. I'm Happy Just To Dance With You
5. And I Love Her
6. Tell Me Why
7. Can't Buy Me Love
8. Any Time At All
9. I'll Cry Instead
10. Things We Said Today
11. When I Get Home
12. You Can't Do That
13. I'll Be Back
14. A Hard Day's Night Documentary
TRACK LISTING
1. A Hard Day's Night
2. I Should Have Known Better
3. If I Fell
4. I'm Happy Just To Dance With You
5. And I Love Her
6. Tell Me Why
7. Can't Buy Me Love
8. Any Time At All
9. I'll Cry Instead
10. Things We Said Today
11. When I Get Home
12. You Can't Do That
13. I'll Be Back
14. A Hard Day's Night Documentary
'A Hard Day's Night' is the third studio album by the English rock band the Beatles, released on 10 July 1964 by Parlophone, with side one containing songs from the soundtrack to their film of the same name.
In contrast to the Beatles' first two albums, all 13 tracks on A Hard Day's Night were written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, showcasing the development of their songwriting partnership.
Released for National Album Day 2024 on white vinyl.
In contrast to the Beatles' first two albums, all 13 tracks on A Hard Day's Night were written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, showcasing the development of their songwriting partnership.
Released for National Album Day 2024 on white vinyl.
London – August 8, 2019 – It was 50 years ago today, on August 8, 1969, that the world’s most famous band stepped out from London’s EMI Recording Studios to stride, single-file, across the black and white stripes of Abbey Road’s nearby zebra crossing. With photographer Iain Macmillan balanced on a stepladder and one policeman stopping the street’s light traffic, The Beatles crossed back and forth three times, led by John Lennon, followed by Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison. Just six photos were taken, with the fifth selected as the cover shot for The Beatles’ penultimate studio album, Abbey Road, named after the tree-lined street in which the studios are located. Released September 26, 1969, Abbey Road was not The Beatles’ final album, as Let It Be followed in 1970, but it was the last one John, Paul, George, and Ringo recorded together as a band. The Beatles will celebrate Abbey Road’s anniversary with a suite of beautifully presented packages to be released worldwide on September 27 by Apple Corps Ltd./Capitol/UMe. Now available for preorder, the album’s 17 tracks are newly mixed by producer Giles Martin and mix engineer Sam Okell in stereo, high res stereo, 5.1 surround, and Dolby Atmos, accompanied by 23 session recordings and demos, most of which are previously unreleased.
“The Beatles recording journey had gone through many twists and turns, learning curves and thrilling rides. Here we were – still wondering at the magic of it all,” McCartney recalls in his written foreword for Abbey Road’s anniversary edition packages.
This is the first time Abbey Road has been remixed and presented with additional session recordings and demos. The album’s sweeping new edition follows the universally acclaimed remixed and expanded anniversary editions of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and The BEATLES (‘White Album’) released in 2017 and 2018, respectively. To create Abbey Road’s new stereo, 5.1 surround, and Dolby Atmos mixes, Martin and Okell worked with an expert team of engineers and audio restoration specialists at Abbey Road Studios. All the new Abbey Road releases feature the new stereo album mix, sourced directly from the original eight-track session tapes. To produce the mix, Giles was guided by the album’s original stereo mix supervised by his father, George Martin.
“The magic comes from the hands playing the instruments, the blend of The Beatles’ voices, the beauty of the arrangements,” Giles Martin explains in his written introduction for the new edition. “Our quest is simply to ensure everything sounds as fresh and hits you as hard as it would have on the day it was recorded.”
Abbey Road’s Super Deluxe box set presents 40 tracks – including “The Long One” Trial Edit & Mix for the album’s epic Side 2 medley – on three CDs (stereo) and one Blu-ray disc (Dolby Atmos, 96kHz/24 bit high resolution stereo, and 96 kHz/24 bit DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1). The four discs are housed in a slip-sleeved 12” by 12” 100-page hardbound book with McCartney’s foreword; Martin’s introduction; insightful, in-depth chapters written by Beatles historian, author, and radio producer Kevin Howlett covering the months preceding The Beatles’ Abbey Road sessions, track-by-track details and session notes, the cover art and photo shoot, and the album’s reception upon its release; plus an essay by music journalist and author David Hepworth looking at the album’s influence through 50 years. The gorgeous book is illustrated with rare and previously unpublished photographs, including many taken by Linda McCartney; never before published images of handwritten lyrics, sketches, and a George Martin score; Beatles correspondence, recording sheets, and tape boxes; and reproduced original print ads. The Super Deluxe digital audio collection presents all 40 tracks for download purchase and streaming in standard and MFiT formats, as well as in high resolution audio (96kHz/24 bit) for download.
Abbey Road’s limited edition Deluxe vinyl box set features all 40 tracks from the Super Deluxe collection on three 180-gram vinyl LPs. The album’s new stereo mix LP is packaged in a faithfully replicated sleeve, with the two Sessions LPs paired in their own jacket, presented with a four-page insert in a lift-top box.
Abbey Road’s Super Deluxe and Deluxe vinyl box sets’ 23 session and demo recordings are presented in chronological order of their first recording dates. “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” leads the charge:
For an overnight session on February 22, 1969, The Beatles were joined at London’s Trident Studios by producer George Martin and engineer Glyn Johns to record “I Want You (She’s So Heavy).” Abbey Road’s new edition combines a take from that session with the concluding part of the Trident master’s eight-track reduction mix made later at the EMI studios, revealing for the first time Billy Preston’s thrilling overdubbed organ solo. With their amps turned up high, The Beatles received a noise complaint from one of the studio’s neighbors in the Soho area of the city. The take starts with Lennon exclaiming, “My boys are ready to go!,” before the band is told about the complaint. Lennon replies, “What are they doing here at this time of night?,” then lays it down: “Well, we’ll try it once more very loud. And then if we don’t get it, we’ll try it quiet, like it might do it the other way. OK. The loud one, last go. Last chance to be loud!”
In the same month that the raucous Trident session took place, McCartney recorded a home demo of “Goodbye” for the Apple-signed singer Mary Hopkin and Harrison recorded a solo demo of “Something” at EMI Recording Studios. Both demos are featured on Abbey Road’s new edition. “Goodbye” makes its release debut. Although previously released on Anthology 3 in a version featuring guitar and vocal, the new anniversary mix of George’s “Something” demo features for the first time vocal, guitar and piano.
The Beatles reconvened at EMI’s studios and Olympic Sound Studios for sessions spanning mid-April to early May. On April 14, Lennon and McCartney recorded the single “The Ballad Of John And Yoko” in EMI’s Studio Three, with Geoff Emerick as the balance engineer. Two days later, the single’s B-side, “Old Brown Shoe” was recorded. Session recordings for these tracks, as well as three more songs started during this period, “Oh! Darling,” “Octopus’s Garden,” and “You Never Give Me Your Money,” are featured in Abbey Road’s anniversary edition.
The remainder of Abbey Road’s sessions took place in July and in August with George Martin producing, and with principal engineers Geoff Emerick and Phil McDonald taking turns at EMI’s groundbreaking new mixing console, the TG12345. On July 2, 3, and 4, McCartney, Harrison, and Starr recorded “Golden Slumbers”/“Carry That Weight” as a medley (Lennon was hospitalized in Scotland, recuperating after a car accident). A sequence of Takes 1-3 from the first day’s session is featured in the anniversary edition. Take 9 from McCartney, Harrison, and Starr’s backing track session for “Here Comes The Sun” on Starr’s July 7 birthday is also included.
On July 21, 22, and 23, The Beatles were in-studio to record “Come Together,” followed by additional sessions on July 25, 29, and 30. The anniversary edition features Take 5. On July 23, The Beatles began recording “The End,” which, along with McCartney’s timeless couplet – “And in the end, the love you take / Is equal to the love you make” – features Starr’s only drum solo on a Beatles recording. Take 3 is included in Abbey Road’s new edition. The next day, just before the band’s 34-take session for “Sun King” and “Mean Mr Mustard,” McCartney cut a quick studio demo for “Come And Get It” – later a hit for the Apple-signed band Badfinger. The demo’s original 1969 stereo mix, made with McCartney and Lennon present in the control room, is released for the first time in the new edition, as is Take 20 from The Beatles’ “Sun King” and “Mean Mr Mustard” session. On July 25, two more songs, “Polythene Pam” and “She Came In Through The Bathroom Window,” were recorded as one for inclusion in the album’s epic medley. Take 27 from that session is featured on the new edition.
After Harrison had transported his rare and cumbersome Moog synthesizer to the studios, four songs received Beatle-played synthesizer parts: “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” (Lennon), “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” (McCartney), and “Here Comes The Sun” and “Because” (Harrison). This was a very early use of the newly-invented instrument on a pop record. George Martin wrote arrangements for several tracks that were recorded in Studio One toward the end of the sessions in August 1969. The original overdubbed recordings of Martin’s scores for “Something” and “Golden Slumbers”/“Carry That Weight” are included in Abbey Road’s anniversary edition.
August 20, 1969 was the last time The Beatles were together as a band at the EMI studios, for an evening session to compile Abbey Road’s master tapes. The album’s sides were sequenced, with “Come Together” opening Side 1, and with the medley of “You Never Give Me Your Money,” “Sun King,” “Mean Mr Mustard,” “Polythene Pam,” “She Came In Through The Bathroom Window,” “Golden Slumbers,” “Carry That Weight,” and “The End” placed on Side 2. “The Long One,” a different trial edit and mix of the medley, including “Her Majesty” (ultimately placed 14 seconds after “The End” as an unlisted, hidden track) is included in Abbey Road’s new edition.
A few weeks before Abbey Road’s release on September 26, 1969, Apple’s press officer Derek Taylor revealed that the album was “recorded at nice, workmanlike sessions which usually began at 2pm and continued until the end of the evening.” Millions of Abbey Road LPs were pressed at manufacturing plants around the world. The album was another blockbuster release for The Beatles, holding the No. 1 spot on the U.K. albums chart for a total of 17 weeks and topping Billboard’s U.S. albums chart for 11 weeks. For their work on Abbey Road, Geoff Emerick and Phil McDonald won the year’s GRAMMY Award® for Best Engineered Recording, Non-Classical. In 1995, Abbey Road was inducted into the Recording Academy’s GRAMMY Hall of Fame, recognizing “recordings of lasting qualitative or historical significance.” The Beatles’ best-selling studio album, Abbey Road’s universal popularity and influence have continued to grow since its debut.
Since Abbey Road’s release, the street’s zebra crossing has been one of the most celebrated and photographed sites in the world, protected as an historic landmark and visited by thousands of Beatles fans each year. Due to the success of The Beatles’ album, EMI Recording Studios was renamed Abbey Road Studios. Owned and operated by Universal Music Group, Abbey Road Studios is the most famous recording studio in the world and a global music icon.
“The Beatles recording journey had gone through many twists and turns, learning curves and thrilling rides. Here we were – still wondering at the magic of it all,” McCartney recalls in his written foreword for Abbey Road’s anniversary edition packages.
This is the first time Abbey Road has been remixed and presented with additional session recordings and demos. The album’s sweeping new edition follows the universally acclaimed remixed and expanded anniversary editions of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and The BEATLES (‘White Album’) released in 2017 and 2018, respectively. To create Abbey Road’s new stereo, 5.1 surround, and Dolby Atmos mixes, Martin and Okell worked with an expert team of engineers and audio restoration specialists at Abbey Road Studios. All the new Abbey Road releases feature the new stereo album mix, sourced directly from the original eight-track session tapes. To produce the mix, Giles was guided by the album’s original stereo mix supervised by his father, George Martin.
“The magic comes from the hands playing the instruments, the blend of The Beatles’ voices, the beauty of the arrangements,” Giles Martin explains in his written introduction for the new edition. “Our quest is simply to ensure everything sounds as fresh and hits you as hard as it would have on the day it was recorded.”
Abbey Road’s Super Deluxe box set presents 40 tracks – including “The Long One” Trial Edit & Mix for the album’s epic Side 2 medley – on three CDs (stereo) and one Blu-ray disc (Dolby Atmos, 96kHz/24 bit high resolution stereo, and 96 kHz/24 bit DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1). The four discs are housed in a slip-sleeved 12” by 12” 100-page hardbound book with McCartney’s foreword; Martin’s introduction; insightful, in-depth chapters written by Beatles historian, author, and radio producer Kevin Howlett covering the months preceding The Beatles’ Abbey Road sessions, track-by-track details and session notes, the cover art and photo shoot, and the album’s reception upon its release; plus an essay by music journalist and author David Hepworth looking at the album’s influence through 50 years. The gorgeous book is illustrated with rare and previously unpublished photographs, including many taken by Linda McCartney; never before published images of handwritten lyrics, sketches, and a George Martin score; Beatles correspondence, recording sheets, and tape boxes; and reproduced original print ads. The Super Deluxe digital audio collection presents all 40 tracks for download purchase and streaming in standard and MFiT formats, as well as in high resolution audio (96kHz/24 bit) for download.
Abbey Road’s limited edition Deluxe vinyl box set features all 40 tracks from the Super Deluxe collection on three 180-gram vinyl LPs. The album’s new stereo mix LP is packaged in a faithfully replicated sleeve, with the two Sessions LPs paired in their own jacket, presented with a four-page insert in a lift-top box.
Abbey Road’s Super Deluxe and Deluxe vinyl box sets’ 23 session and demo recordings are presented in chronological order of their first recording dates. “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” leads the charge:
For an overnight session on February 22, 1969, The Beatles were joined at London’s Trident Studios by producer George Martin and engineer Glyn Johns to record “I Want You (She’s So Heavy).” Abbey Road’s new edition combines a take from that session with the concluding part of the Trident master’s eight-track reduction mix made later at the EMI studios, revealing for the first time Billy Preston’s thrilling overdubbed organ solo. With their amps turned up high, The Beatles received a noise complaint from one of the studio’s neighbors in the Soho area of the city. The take starts with Lennon exclaiming, “My boys are ready to go!,” before the band is told about the complaint. Lennon replies, “What are they doing here at this time of night?,” then lays it down: “Well, we’ll try it once more very loud. And then if we don’t get it, we’ll try it quiet, like it might do it the other way. OK. The loud one, last go. Last chance to be loud!”
In the same month that the raucous Trident session took place, McCartney recorded a home demo of “Goodbye” for the Apple-signed singer Mary Hopkin and Harrison recorded a solo demo of “Something” at EMI Recording Studios. Both demos are featured on Abbey Road’s new edition. “Goodbye” makes its release debut. Although previously released on Anthology 3 in a version featuring guitar and vocal, the new anniversary mix of George’s “Something” demo features for the first time vocal, guitar and piano.
The Beatles reconvened at EMI’s studios and Olympic Sound Studios for sessions spanning mid-April to early May. On April 14, Lennon and McCartney recorded the single “The Ballad Of John And Yoko” in EMI’s Studio Three, with Geoff Emerick as the balance engineer. Two days later, the single’s B-side, “Old Brown Shoe” was recorded. Session recordings for these tracks, as well as three more songs started during this period, “Oh! Darling,” “Octopus’s Garden,” and “You Never Give Me Your Money,” are featured in Abbey Road’s anniversary edition.
The remainder of Abbey Road’s sessions took place in July and in August with George Martin producing, and with principal engineers Geoff Emerick and Phil McDonald taking turns at EMI’s groundbreaking new mixing console, the TG12345. On July 2, 3, and 4, McCartney, Harrison, and Starr recorded “Golden Slumbers”/“Carry That Weight” as a medley (Lennon was hospitalized in Scotland, recuperating after a car accident). A sequence of Takes 1-3 from the first day’s session is featured in the anniversary edition. Take 9 from McCartney, Harrison, and Starr’s backing track session for “Here Comes The Sun” on Starr’s July 7 birthday is also included.
On July 21, 22, and 23, The Beatles were in-studio to record “Come Together,” followed by additional sessions on July 25, 29, and 30. The anniversary edition features Take 5. On July 23, The Beatles began recording “The End,” which, along with McCartney’s timeless couplet – “And in the end, the love you take / Is equal to the love you make” – features Starr’s only drum solo on a Beatles recording. Take 3 is included in Abbey Road’s new edition. The next day, just before the band’s 34-take session for “Sun King” and “Mean Mr Mustard,” McCartney cut a quick studio demo for “Come And Get It” – later a hit for the Apple-signed band Badfinger. The demo’s original 1969 stereo mix, made with McCartney and Lennon present in the control room, is released for the first time in the new edition, as is Take 20 from The Beatles’ “Sun King” and “Mean Mr Mustard” session. On July 25, two more songs, “Polythene Pam” and “She Came In Through The Bathroom Window,” were recorded as one for inclusion in the album’s epic medley. Take 27 from that session is featured on the new edition.
After Harrison had transported his rare and cumbersome Moog synthesizer to the studios, four songs received Beatle-played synthesizer parts: “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” (Lennon), “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” (McCartney), and “Here Comes The Sun” and “Because” (Harrison). This was a very early use of the newly-invented instrument on a pop record. George Martin wrote arrangements for several tracks that were recorded in Studio One toward the end of the sessions in August 1969. The original overdubbed recordings of Martin’s scores for “Something” and “Golden Slumbers”/“Carry That Weight” are included in Abbey Road’s anniversary edition.
August 20, 1969 was the last time The Beatles were together as a band at the EMI studios, for an evening session to compile Abbey Road’s master tapes. The album’s sides were sequenced, with “Come Together” opening Side 1, and with the medley of “You Never Give Me Your Money,” “Sun King,” “Mean Mr Mustard,” “Polythene Pam,” “She Came In Through The Bathroom Window,” “Golden Slumbers,” “Carry That Weight,” and “The End” placed on Side 2. “The Long One,” a different trial edit and mix of the medley, including “Her Majesty” (ultimately placed 14 seconds after “The End” as an unlisted, hidden track) is included in Abbey Road’s new edition.
A few weeks before Abbey Road’s release on September 26, 1969, Apple’s press officer Derek Taylor revealed that the album was “recorded at nice, workmanlike sessions which usually began at 2pm and continued until the end of the evening.” Millions of Abbey Road LPs were pressed at manufacturing plants around the world. The album was another blockbuster release for The Beatles, holding the No. 1 spot on the U.K. albums chart for a total of 17 weeks and topping Billboard’s U.S. albums chart for 11 weeks. For their work on Abbey Road, Geoff Emerick and Phil McDonald won the year’s GRAMMY Award® for Best Engineered Recording, Non-Classical. In 1995, Abbey Road was inducted into the Recording Academy’s GRAMMY Hall of Fame, recognizing “recordings of lasting qualitative or historical significance.” The Beatles’ best-selling studio album, Abbey Road’s universal popularity and influence have continued to grow since its debut.
Since Abbey Road’s release, the street’s zebra crossing has been one of the most celebrated and photographed sites in the world, protected as an historic landmark and visited by thousands of Beatles fans each year. Due to the success of The Beatles’ album, EMI Recording Studios was renamed Abbey Road Studios. Owned and operated by Universal Music Group, Abbey Road Studios is the most famous recording studio in the world and a global music icon.
TRACK LISTING
SUPER DELUXE [3CD+1Blu-ray Set; Digital Audio Collection]
CD ONE: 2019 Stereo Mix
1. Come Together
2. Something
3. Maxwell’s Silver Hammer
4. Oh! Darling
5. Octopus’s Garden
6. I Want You (She’s So Heavy)
7. Here Comes The Sun
8. Because
9. You Never Give Me Your Money
10. Sun King
11. Mean Mr Mustard
12. Polythene Pam
13. She Came In Through The Bathroom Window
14. Golden Slumbers
15. Carry That Weight
16. The End
17. Her Majesty
CD TWO: Sessions
1. I Want You (She’s So Heavy) (Trident Recording Session & Reduction Mix)
2. Goodbye (Home Demo)
3. Something (Studio Demo)
4. The Ballad Of John And Yoko (Take 7)
5. Old Brown Shoe (Take 2)
6. Oh! Darling (Take 4)
7. Octopus’s Garden (Take 9)
8. You Never Give Me Your Money (Take 36)
9. Her Majesty (Takes 1–3)
10. Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight (Takes 1–3 / Medley)
11. Here Comes The Sun (Take 9)
12. Maxwell’s Silver Hammer (Take 12)
CD THREE: Sessions
1. Come Together (Take 5)
2. The End (Take 3)
3. Come And Get It (Studio Demo)
4. Sun King (Take 20)
5. Mean Mr Mustard (Take 20)
6. Polythene Pam (Take 27)
7. She Came In Through The Bathroom Window (Take 27)
8. Because (Take 1 – Instrumental)
9. The Long One (Trial Edit & Mix – 30 July 1969)
(Medley: You Never Give Me Your Money, Sun King, Mean Mr Mustard, Her Majesty, Polythene Pam, She Came In Through The Bathroom Window, Golden Slumbers, Carry That Weight, The End)
10. Something (Take 39 – Instrumental – Strings Only)
11. Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight (Take 17 – Instrumental – Strings & Brass Only)
BLU-RAY: Abbey Road
Audio Features:
- Dolby Atmos
- 96kHz/24 Bit DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
- 96kHz/24 Bit High Res Stereo (2019 Stereo Mix)
DELUXE 3LP VINYL BOX SET (limited Edition)
LP ONE: Side 1 (2019 Stereo Mix)
1. Come Together
2. Something
3. Maxwell’s Silver Hammer
4. Oh! Darling
5. Octopus’s Garden
6. I Want You (She’s So Heavy)
LP ONE: Side 2 (2019 Stereo Mix)
1. Here Comes The Sun
2. Because
3. You Never Give Me Your Money
4. Sun King
5. Mean Mr Mustard
6. Polythene Pam
7. She Came In Through The Bathroom Window
8. Golden Slumbers
9. Carry That Weight
10. The End
11. Her Majesty
LP TWO: Side 1 (Sessions)
1. I Want You (She’s So Heavy) (Trident Recording Session And Reduction Mix)
2. Goodbye (Home Demo)
3. Something (Studio Demo)
4. The Ballad Of John And Yoko (Take 7)
5. Old Brown Shoe (Take 2)
LP TWO: Side 2 (Sessions)
1. Oh! Darling (Take 4)
2. Octopus’s Garden (Take 9)
3. You Never Give Me Your Money (Take 36)
4. Her Majesty (Takes 1–3)
5. Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight (Takes 1–3) / Medley)
6. Here Comes The Sun (Take 9)
7. Maxwell’s Silver Hammer (Take 12)
LP THREE: Side 1 (Sessions)
1. Come Together (Take 5)
2. The End (Take 3)
3. Come And Get It (Studio Demo)
4. Sun King (Take 20)
5. Mean Mr Mustard (Take 20)
6. Polythene Pam (Take 27)
7. She Came In Through The Bathroom Window (Take 27)
8. Because (Take 1 Instrumental)
LP THREE: Side 2 (Sessions)
1. The Long One (Trial Edit & Mix – 30 July 1969)
2. Something (Take 39 – Instrumental – Strings Only)
3. Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight (Take 17 – Instrumental – Strings & Brass Only)
London – August 8, 2019 – It was 50 years ago today, on August 8, 1969, that the world’s most famous band stepped out from London’s EMI Recording Studios to stride, single-file, across the black and white stripes of Abbey Road’s nearby zebra crossing. With photographer Iain Macmillan balanced on a stepladder and one policeman stopping the street’s light traffic, The Beatles crossed back and forth three times, led by John Lennon, followed by Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison. Just six photos were taken, with the fifth selected as the cover shot for The Beatles’ penultimate studio album, Abbey Road, named after the tree-lined street in which the studios are located. Released September 26, 1969, Abbey Road was not The Beatles’ final album, as Let It Be followed in 1970, but it was the last one John, Paul, George, and Ringo recorded together as a band. The Beatles will celebrate Abbey Road’s anniversary with a suite of beautifully presented packages to be released worldwide on September 27 by Apple Corps Ltd./Capitol/UMe.
This is the first time Abbey Road has been remixed and presented with additional session recordings and demos. The album’s sweeping new edition follows the universally acclaimed remixed and expanded anniversary editions of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and The BEATLES (‘White Album’) released in 2017 and 2018, respectively. To create Abbey Road’s new stereo, 5.1 surround, and Dolby Atmos mixes, Martin and Okell worked with an expert team of engineers and audio restoration specialists at Abbey Road Studios. All the new Abbey Road releases feature the new stereo album mix, sourced directly from the original eight-track session tapes. To produce the mix, Giles was guided by the album’s original stereo mix supervised by his father, George Martin.
“The magic comes from the hands playing the instruments, the blend of The Beatles’ voices, the beauty of the arrangements,” Giles Martin explains in his written introduction for the new edition. “Our quest is simply to ensure everything sounds as fresh and hits you as hard as it would have on the day it was recorded.”
This is the first time Abbey Road has been remixed and presented with additional session recordings and demos. The album’s sweeping new edition follows the universally acclaimed remixed and expanded anniversary editions of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and The BEATLES (‘White Album’) released in 2017 and 2018, respectively. To create Abbey Road’s new stereo, 5.1 surround, and Dolby Atmos mixes, Martin and Okell worked with an expert team of engineers and audio restoration specialists at Abbey Road Studios. All the new Abbey Road releases feature the new stereo album mix, sourced directly from the original eight-track session tapes. To produce the mix, Giles was guided by the album’s original stereo mix supervised by his father, George Martin.
“The magic comes from the hands playing the instruments, the blend of The Beatles’ voices, the beauty of the arrangements,” Giles Martin explains in his written introduction for the new edition. “Our quest is simply to ensure everything sounds as fresh and hits you as hard as it would have on the day it was recorded.”
STAFF COMMENTS
Andy says: Their final album, and it's a beauty! This is a gorgeous, opulent, warm rock record that set the tone for FM seventies music. And for its 50th Anniversary, ‘Abbey Road’ gets remixed and presented with additional session recordings and demos across six different formats.TRACK LISTING
DELUXE 2CD
CD ONE: 2019 Stereo Mix
1. Come Together
2. Something
3. Maxwell’s Silver Hammer
4. Oh! Darling
5. Octopus’s Garden
6. I Want You (She’s So Heavy)
7. Here Comes The Sun
8. Because
9. You Never Give Me Your Money
10. Sun King
11. Mean Mr Mustard
12. Polythene Pam
13. She Came In Through The Bathroom Window
14. Golden Slumbers
15. Carry That Weight
16. The End
17. Her Majesty
CD TWO: Sessions
1. Come Together (Take 5)
2. Something (Studio Demo)
3. Maxwell’s Silver Hammer (Take 12)
4. Oh! Darling (Take 4)
5. Octopus’s Garden (Take 9)
6. I Want You (She’s So Heavy) (Trident Recording Session & Reduction Mix)
7. Here Comes The Sun (Take 9)
8. Because (Take 1 Instrumental)
9. You Never Give Me Your Money (Take 36)
10. Sun King (Take 20)
11. Mean Mr Mustard (Take 20)
12. Polythene Pam (Take 27)
13. She Came In Through The Bathroom Window (Take 27)
14. Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight (Takes 1–3 / Medley)
15. The End (Take 3)
16. Her Majesty (Takes 1–3)
STANDARD [1CD; Digital; 1LP Vinyl
2019 Stereo Mix
1. Come Together
2. Something
3. Maxwell’s Silver Hammer
4. Oh! Darling
5. Octopus’s Garden
6. I Want You (She’s So Heavy)
7. Here Comes The Sun
8. Because
9. You Never Give Me Your Money
10. Sun King
11. Mean Mr Mustard
12. Polythene Pam
13. She Came In Through The Bathroom Window
14. Golden Slumbers
15. Carry That Weight
16. The End
17. Her Majesty
Using the original 1964 mono master, new lacquers have been cut all-analogue by Kevin Reeves at Nashville’s East Iris Studios. By constantly referring to the original first pressing, the album is faithful to the original release while also enabling more musical information to be heard than was possible before. Featuring faithfully replicated artwork and a new four-panel insert with essay by American Beatles historian, Bruce Spizer. 180gram audiophile pressing.
TRACK LISTING
1. No Reply
2. I’m A Loser
3. Baby’s In Black
4. Rock And Roll Music
5. I’ll Follow The Sun
6. Mr. Moonlight
7. Honey Don’t
8. I’ll Be Back
9. She’s A Woman
10. I Feel Fine
11. Everybody’s Trying To Be My Baby
The last of The Beatles be-suited, writing-to-order, perfect pop albums, this was a brilliant collection of songs from the film Help!, and other newies, that includes the superb "Ticket To Ride", "Yesterday" and of course, the title track itself. Albums in this era, up until about 1965, were simply collections of songs that could have been singles; there was no real concept of 'the album as a statement', as a piece of art in its own right. This was just pop music: short, simple, catchy, and in the case of The Beatles, brilliant!
Tracklisting
1. Help!
2. The Night Before
3. You've Got To Hide Your Love Away
4. I Need You
5. Another Girl
6. You're Going To Lose That Girl
7. Ticket To Ride
8. Act Naturally
9. It's Only Love
10. You Like Me Too Much
11. Tell Me What You See
12. I've Just Seen A Face
13. Yesterday
14. Dizzy Miss Lizzy
15. Help! Documentary
Tracklisting
1. Help!
2. The Night Before
3. You've Got To Hide Your Love Away
4. I Need You
5. Another Girl
6. You're Going To Lose That Girl
7. Ticket To Ride
8. Act Naturally
9. It's Only Love
10. You Like Me Too Much
11. Tell Me What You See
12. I've Just Seen A Face
13. Yesterday
14. Dizzy Miss Lizzy
15. Help! Documentary
Manufactured on 180-gram, audiophile quality vinyl with replicated artwork, the 14 albums return to their original glory with details including the poster in The Beatles (The White Album), the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart Club Band’s cut-outs, and special inner bags for some of the titles.
The titles include The Beatles’ 12 original UK albums, first released between 1963 and 1970, the US-originated Magical Mystery Tour, now part of the group’s core catalogue, and Past Masters, Volumes One & Two, featuring non-album A-sides and B-sides, EP tracks and rarities.
Since it was recorded, The Beatles’ music has been heard on a variety of formats – from chunky reel-to-reel tapes and eight-track cartridges to invisible computer files. But there has never been a more romantic or thrilling medium for music than a long-playing twelve-inch disc. We ‘play’ records. The process of carefully slipping the disc out of the sleeve, cleaning it and lowering the stylus provides a personal involvement in the reproduction of the music.
In September, 2009, The Beatles’ remastered albums on CD graced charts around the world. Seventeen million album sales within seven months was resounding evidence of the timeless relevance of their legacy. Through five decades, the music of The Beatles has captivated generation upon generation.
For producer Rick Rubin, surveying The Beatles’ recorded achievements is akin to witnessing a miracle. “If we look at it by today’s standards, whoever the most popular bands in the world are, they will typically put out an album every four years,” Rubin said in a 2009 radio series interview. “So, let’s say two albums as an eight year cycle. And think of the growth or change between those two albums. The idea that The Beatles made thirteen albums in seven years and went through that arc of change... it can’t be done. Truthfully, I think of it as proof of God, because it’s beyond man’s ability.”
There has always been demand for The Beatles’ albums on vinyl. Indeed, 2011’s best-selling vinyl LP in the United States was Abbey Road. Following the success of The Beatles’ acclaimed, GRAMMY Award-winning 2009 CD remasters, it was decided that the sound experts at EMI’s Abbey Road Studios should create new versions of The Beatles’ vinyl LPs. The project demanded the same meticulous approach taken for the CD releases, and the brief was a simple one: cut the digital remasters to vinyl with an absolute minimum of compromise to the sound. However, the process involved to do that was far from simple.
The first stage in transferring the sound of a master recording to vinyl is the creation of a disc to be used during vinyl manufacture. There were two options to consider. A Direct Metal Master (DMM), developed in the late seventies, allows sound to be cut directly into a stainless steel disc coated with a hard copper alloy. The older, alternative method is to cut the sound into the soft lacquer coating on a nickel disc - the first of several steps leading to the production of a stamper to press the vinyl.
A ‘blind’ listening test was arranged to choose between a ‘lacquer’ or ‘copper’ cut. Using both methods, A Hard Day’s Night was pressed with ten seconds of silence at the beginning and end of each side. This allowed not only the reproduction of the music to be assessed, but also the noise made by the vinyl itself. After much discussion, two factors swung the decision towards using the lacquer process. First, it was judged to create a warmer sound than a DMM. Secondly, there was a practical advantage of having ‘blank’ discs of a consistent quality when cutting lacquers.
The next step was to use the Neumann VMS80 cutting lathe at Abbey Road. Following thorough mechanical and electrical tests to ensure it was operating in peak condition, engineer Sean Magee cut the LPs in chronological release order. He used the original 24-bit remasters rather than the 16-bit versions that were required for CD production. It was also decided to use the remasters that had not undergone ‘limiting’ - a procedure to increase the sound level, which is deemed necessary for most current pop CDs.
Having made initial test cuts, Magee pinpointed any sound problems that can occur during playback of vinyl records. To rectify them, changes were made to the remasters with a Digital Audio Workstation. For example, each vinyl album was listened to for any ‘sibilant episodes’ - vocal distortion that can occur on consonant sounds such as S and T. These were corrected by reducing the level in the very small portion of sound causing the undesired effect. Similarly, any likelihood of ‘inner-groove distortion’ was addressed. As the stylus approaches the centre of the record, it is liable to track the groove less accurately. This can affect the high-middle frequencies, producing a ‘mushy’ sound particularly noticeable on vocals. Using what Magee has described as ‘surgical EQ,’ problem frequencies were identified and reduced in level to compensate for this.
The last phase of the vinyl mastering process began with the arrival of the first batches of test pressings made from master lacquers that had been sent to the two pressing plant factories. Stringent quality tests identified any noise or click appearing on more than one test pressing in the same place. If this happened, it was clear that the undesired sounds had been introduced either during the cutting or the pressing stage and so the test records were rejected. In the quest to achieve the highest quality possible, the Abbey Road team worked closely with the pressing factories and the manufacturers of the lacquer and cutting styli.
An additional and unusual challenge was to ensure the proper playback of the sounds embedded in the ‘lock-groove’ at the end of side two of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Requiring a combination of good timing and luck, it had always been a lengthy and costly process to make it work properly. In fact, it was so tricky, it had never been attempted for American pressings of the LP. Naturally, Sean Magee and the team perfected this and the garbled message is heard as originally intended on the remastered Sgt. Pepper LP.
Highly-skilled technicians have worked long and hard to make The Beatles on vinyl sound better than ever. All we need to do is listen to the results of their dedicated labour on the remastered LPs. Handle with care. But most of all, enjoy the music.
The titles include The Beatles’ 12 original UK albums, first released between 1963 and 1970, the US-originated Magical Mystery Tour, now part of the group’s core catalogue, and Past Masters, Volumes One & Two, featuring non-album A-sides and B-sides, EP tracks and rarities.
Since it was recorded, The Beatles’ music has been heard on a variety of formats – from chunky reel-to-reel tapes and eight-track cartridges to invisible computer files. But there has never been a more romantic or thrilling medium for music than a long-playing twelve-inch disc. We ‘play’ records. The process of carefully slipping the disc out of the sleeve, cleaning it and lowering the stylus provides a personal involvement in the reproduction of the music.
In September, 2009, The Beatles’ remastered albums on CD graced charts around the world. Seventeen million album sales within seven months was resounding evidence of the timeless relevance of their legacy. Through five decades, the music of The Beatles has captivated generation upon generation.
For producer Rick Rubin, surveying The Beatles’ recorded achievements is akin to witnessing a miracle. “If we look at it by today’s standards, whoever the most popular bands in the world are, they will typically put out an album every four years,” Rubin said in a 2009 radio series interview. “So, let’s say two albums as an eight year cycle. And think of the growth or change between those two albums. The idea that The Beatles made thirteen albums in seven years and went through that arc of change... it can’t be done. Truthfully, I think of it as proof of God, because it’s beyond man’s ability.”
There has always been demand for The Beatles’ albums on vinyl. Indeed, 2011’s best-selling vinyl LP in the United States was Abbey Road. Following the success of The Beatles’ acclaimed, GRAMMY Award-winning 2009 CD remasters, it was decided that the sound experts at EMI’s Abbey Road Studios should create new versions of The Beatles’ vinyl LPs. The project demanded the same meticulous approach taken for the CD releases, and the brief was a simple one: cut the digital remasters to vinyl with an absolute minimum of compromise to the sound. However, the process involved to do that was far from simple.
The first stage in transferring the sound of a master recording to vinyl is the creation of a disc to be used during vinyl manufacture. There were two options to consider. A Direct Metal Master (DMM), developed in the late seventies, allows sound to be cut directly into a stainless steel disc coated with a hard copper alloy. The older, alternative method is to cut the sound into the soft lacquer coating on a nickel disc - the first of several steps leading to the production of a stamper to press the vinyl.
A ‘blind’ listening test was arranged to choose between a ‘lacquer’ or ‘copper’ cut. Using both methods, A Hard Day’s Night was pressed with ten seconds of silence at the beginning and end of each side. This allowed not only the reproduction of the music to be assessed, but also the noise made by the vinyl itself. After much discussion, two factors swung the decision towards using the lacquer process. First, it was judged to create a warmer sound than a DMM. Secondly, there was a practical advantage of having ‘blank’ discs of a consistent quality when cutting lacquers.
The next step was to use the Neumann VMS80 cutting lathe at Abbey Road. Following thorough mechanical and electrical tests to ensure it was operating in peak condition, engineer Sean Magee cut the LPs in chronological release order. He used the original 24-bit remasters rather than the 16-bit versions that were required for CD production. It was also decided to use the remasters that had not undergone ‘limiting’ - a procedure to increase the sound level, which is deemed necessary for most current pop CDs.
Having made initial test cuts, Magee pinpointed any sound problems that can occur during playback of vinyl records. To rectify them, changes were made to the remasters with a Digital Audio Workstation. For example, each vinyl album was listened to for any ‘sibilant episodes’ - vocal distortion that can occur on consonant sounds such as S and T. These were corrected by reducing the level in the very small portion of sound causing the undesired effect. Similarly, any likelihood of ‘inner-groove distortion’ was addressed. As the stylus approaches the centre of the record, it is liable to track the groove less accurately. This can affect the high-middle frequencies, producing a ‘mushy’ sound particularly noticeable on vocals. Using what Magee has described as ‘surgical EQ,’ problem frequencies were identified and reduced in level to compensate for this.
The last phase of the vinyl mastering process began with the arrival of the first batches of test pressings made from master lacquers that had been sent to the two pressing plant factories. Stringent quality tests identified any noise or click appearing on more than one test pressing in the same place. If this happened, it was clear that the undesired sounds had been introduced either during the cutting or the pressing stage and so the test records were rejected. In the quest to achieve the highest quality possible, the Abbey Road team worked closely with the pressing factories and the manufacturers of the lacquer and cutting styli.
An additional and unusual challenge was to ensure the proper playback of the sounds embedded in the ‘lock-groove’ at the end of side two of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Requiring a combination of good timing and luck, it had always been a lengthy and costly process to make it work properly. In fact, it was so tricky, it had never been attempted for American pressings of the LP. Naturally, Sean Magee and the team perfected this and the garbled message is heard as originally intended on the remastered Sgt. Pepper LP.
Highly-skilled technicians have worked long and hard to make The Beatles on vinyl sound better than ever. All we need to do is listen to the results of their dedicated labour on the remastered LPs. Handle with care. But most of all, enjoy the music.
TRACK LISTING
Side 1:
1. Help! (2009 - Remaster)
2. The Night Before (2009 - Remaster)
3. You've Got To Hide Your Love Away (2009 - Remaster)
4. I Need You (2009 - Remaster)
5. Another Girl (2009 - Remaster)
6. You're Going To Lose That Girl (2009 - Remaster)
7. Ticket To Ride (2009 - Remaster)
Side 2:
1. Act Naturally (2009 - Remaster)
2. It's Only Love (2009 - Remaster)
3. You Like Me Too Much (2009 - Remaster)
4. Tell Me What You See (2009 - Remaster)
5. I've Just Seen A Face (2009 - Remaster)
6. Yesterday (2009 - Remaster)
7. Dizzy Miss Lizzy (2009 - Remaster)
Following on from the global success of ‘Abbey Road’, Apple Corps and USM are proud to present the next multi-format Beatles album reissue of ‘Let It Be’.
January 1969 – The Beatles planned to return to live performance, setting up in Twickenham Film Studios, London, for 21 days of rehearsals. They then decamped to their new studio in their Apple office building in Saville Row and on January 30th performed their last ever live group performance on the rooftop. All of this was filmed for a proposed documentary (eventually released in 1970). During the rehearsal process, they asked Glyn Johns, who had been hired to help with the live sound, to attempt a mix to create an album. This was never released, becoming known as one of the great ‘lost’ albums in rock history and is now included in this Super Deluxe Set. The album was delayed further and in fact became their 12th and final official album release on 8th May 1970 following additional production by American producer Phil Spector.
January 1969 – The Beatles planned to return to live performance, setting up in Twickenham Film Studios, London, for 21 days of rehearsals. They then decamped to their new studio in their Apple office building in Saville Row and on January 30th performed their last ever live group performance on the rooftop. All of this was filmed for a proposed documentary (eventually released in 1970). During the rehearsal process, they asked Glyn Johns, who had been hired to help with the live sound, to attempt a mix to create an album. This was never released, becoming known as one of the great ‘lost’ albums in rock history and is now included in this Super Deluxe Set. The album was delayed further and in fact became their 12th and final official album release on 8th May 1970 following additional production by American producer Phil Spector.
Manufactured on 180-gram, audiophile quality vinyl with replicated artwork, the 14 albums return to their original glory with details including the poster in The Beatles (The White Album), the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart Club Band’s cut-outs, and special inner bags for some of the titles.
The titles include The Beatles’ 12 original UK albums, first released between 1963 and 1970, the US-originated Magical Mystery Tour, now part of the group’s core catalogue, and Past Masters, Volumes One & Two, featuring non-album A-sides and B-sides, EP tracks and rarities.
Since it was recorded, The Beatles’ music has been heard on a variety of formats – from chunky reel-to-reel tapes and eight-track cartridges to invisible computer files. But there has never been a more romantic or thrilling medium for music than a long-playing twelve-inch disc. We ‘play’ records. The process of carefully slipping the disc out of the sleeve, cleaning it and lowering the stylus provides a personal involvement in the reproduction of the music.
In September, 2009, The Beatles’ remastered albums on CD graced charts around the world. Seventeen million album sales within seven months was resounding evidence of the timeless relevance of their legacy. Through five decades, the music of The Beatles has captivated generation upon generation.
For producer Rick Rubin, surveying The Beatles’ recorded achievements is akin to witnessing a miracle. “If we look at it by today’s standards, whoever the most popular bands in the world are, they will typically put out an album every four years,” Rubin said in a 2009 radio series interview. “So, let’s say two albums as an eight year cycle. And think of the growth or change between those two albums. The idea that The Beatles made thirteen albums in seven years and went through that arc of change... it can’t be done. Truthfully, I think of it as proof of God, because it’s beyond man’s ability.”
There has always been demand for The Beatles’ albums on vinyl. Indeed, 2011’s best-selling vinyl LP in the United States was Abbey Road. Following the success of The Beatles’ acclaimed, GRAMMY Award-winning 2009 CD remasters, it was decided that the sound experts at EMI’s Abbey Road Studios should create new versions of The Beatles’ vinyl LPs. The project demanded the same meticulous approach taken for the CD releases, and the brief was a simple one: cut the digital remasters to vinyl with an absolute minimum of compromise to the sound. However, the process involved to do that was far from simple.
The first stage in transferring the sound of a master recording to vinyl is the creation of a disc to be used during vinyl manufacture. There were two options to consider. A Direct Metal Master (DMM), developed in the late seventies, allows sound to be cut directly into a stainless steel disc coated with a hard copper alloy. The older, alternative method is to cut the sound into the soft lacquer coating on a nickel disc - the first of several steps leading to the production of a stamper to press the vinyl.
A ‘blind’ listening test was arranged to choose between a ‘lacquer’ or ‘copper’ cut. Using both methods, A Hard Day’s Night was pressed with ten seconds of silence at the beginning and end of each side. This allowed not only the reproduction of the music to be assessed, but also the noise made by the vinyl itself. After much discussion, two factors swung the decision towards using the lacquer process. First, it was judged to create a warmer sound than a DMM. Secondly, there was a practical advantage of having ‘blank’ discs of a consistent quality when cutting lacquers.
The next step was to use the Neumann VMS80 cutting lathe at Abbey Road. Following thorough mechanical and electrical tests to ensure it was operating in peak condition, engineer Sean Magee cut the LPs in chronological release order. He used the original 24-bit remasters rather than the 16-bit versions that were required for CD production. It was also decided to use the remasters that had not undergone ‘limiting’ - a procedure to increase the sound level, which is deemed necessary for most current pop CDs.
Having made initial test cuts, Magee pinpointed any sound problems that can occur during playback of vinyl records. To rectify them, changes were made to the remasters with a Digital Audio Workstation. For example, each vinyl album was listened to for any ‘sibilant episodes’ - vocal distortion that can occur on consonant sounds such as S and T. These were corrected by reducing the level in the very small portion of sound causing the undesired effect. Similarly, any likelihood of ‘inner-groove distortion’ was addressed. As the stylus approaches the centre of the record, it is liable to track the groove less accurately. This can affect the high-middle frequencies, producing a ‘mushy’ sound particularly noticeable on vocals. Using what Magee has described as ‘surgical EQ,’ problem frequencies were identified and reduced in level to compensate for this.
The last phase of the vinyl mastering process began with the arrival of the first batches of test pressings made from master lacquers that had been sent to the two pressing plant factories. Stringent quality tests identified any noise or click appearing on more than one test pressing in the same place. If this happened, it was clear that the undesired sounds had been introduced either during the cutting or the pressing stage and so the test records were rejected. In the quest to achieve the highest quality possible, the Abbey Road team worked closely with the pressing factories and the manufacturers of the lacquer and cutting styli.
An additional and unusual challenge was to ensure the proper playback of the sounds embedded in the ‘lock-groove’ at the end of side two of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Requiring a combination of good timing and luck, it had always been a lengthy and costly process to make it work properly. In fact, it was so tricky, it had never been attempted for American pressings of the LP. Naturally, Sean Magee and the team perfected this and the garbled message is heard as originally intended on the remastered Sgt. Pepper LP.
Highly-skilled technicians have worked long and hard to make The Beatles on vinyl sound better than ever. All we need to do is listen to the results of their dedicated labour on the remastered LPs. Handle with care. But most of all, enjoy the music.
The titles include The Beatles’ 12 original UK albums, first released between 1963 and 1970, the US-originated Magical Mystery Tour, now part of the group’s core catalogue, and Past Masters, Volumes One & Two, featuring non-album A-sides and B-sides, EP tracks and rarities.
Since it was recorded, The Beatles’ music has been heard on a variety of formats – from chunky reel-to-reel tapes and eight-track cartridges to invisible computer files. But there has never been a more romantic or thrilling medium for music than a long-playing twelve-inch disc. We ‘play’ records. The process of carefully slipping the disc out of the sleeve, cleaning it and lowering the stylus provides a personal involvement in the reproduction of the music.
In September, 2009, The Beatles’ remastered albums on CD graced charts around the world. Seventeen million album sales within seven months was resounding evidence of the timeless relevance of their legacy. Through five decades, the music of The Beatles has captivated generation upon generation.
For producer Rick Rubin, surveying The Beatles’ recorded achievements is akin to witnessing a miracle. “If we look at it by today’s standards, whoever the most popular bands in the world are, they will typically put out an album every four years,” Rubin said in a 2009 radio series interview. “So, let’s say two albums as an eight year cycle. And think of the growth or change between those two albums. The idea that The Beatles made thirteen albums in seven years and went through that arc of change... it can’t be done. Truthfully, I think of it as proof of God, because it’s beyond man’s ability.”
There has always been demand for The Beatles’ albums on vinyl. Indeed, 2011’s best-selling vinyl LP in the United States was Abbey Road. Following the success of The Beatles’ acclaimed, GRAMMY Award-winning 2009 CD remasters, it was decided that the sound experts at EMI’s Abbey Road Studios should create new versions of The Beatles’ vinyl LPs. The project demanded the same meticulous approach taken for the CD releases, and the brief was a simple one: cut the digital remasters to vinyl with an absolute minimum of compromise to the sound. However, the process involved to do that was far from simple.
The first stage in transferring the sound of a master recording to vinyl is the creation of a disc to be used during vinyl manufacture. There were two options to consider. A Direct Metal Master (DMM), developed in the late seventies, allows sound to be cut directly into a stainless steel disc coated with a hard copper alloy. The older, alternative method is to cut the sound into the soft lacquer coating on a nickel disc - the first of several steps leading to the production of a stamper to press the vinyl.
A ‘blind’ listening test was arranged to choose between a ‘lacquer’ or ‘copper’ cut. Using both methods, A Hard Day’s Night was pressed with ten seconds of silence at the beginning and end of each side. This allowed not only the reproduction of the music to be assessed, but also the noise made by the vinyl itself. After much discussion, two factors swung the decision towards using the lacquer process. First, it was judged to create a warmer sound than a DMM. Secondly, there was a practical advantage of having ‘blank’ discs of a consistent quality when cutting lacquers.
The next step was to use the Neumann VMS80 cutting lathe at Abbey Road. Following thorough mechanical and electrical tests to ensure it was operating in peak condition, engineer Sean Magee cut the LPs in chronological release order. He used the original 24-bit remasters rather than the 16-bit versions that were required for CD production. It was also decided to use the remasters that had not undergone ‘limiting’ - a procedure to increase the sound level, which is deemed necessary for most current pop CDs.
Having made initial test cuts, Magee pinpointed any sound problems that can occur during playback of vinyl records. To rectify them, changes were made to the remasters with a Digital Audio Workstation. For example, each vinyl album was listened to for any ‘sibilant episodes’ - vocal distortion that can occur on consonant sounds such as S and T. These were corrected by reducing the level in the very small portion of sound causing the undesired effect. Similarly, any likelihood of ‘inner-groove distortion’ was addressed. As the stylus approaches the centre of the record, it is liable to track the groove less accurately. This can affect the high-middle frequencies, producing a ‘mushy’ sound particularly noticeable on vocals. Using what Magee has described as ‘surgical EQ,’ problem frequencies were identified and reduced in level to compensate for this.
The last phase of the vinyl mastering process began with the arrival of the first batches of test pressings made from master lacquers that had been sent to the two pressing plant factories. Stringent quality tests identified any noise or click appearing on more than one test pressing in the same place. If this happened, it was clear that the undesired sounds had been introduced either during the cutting or the pressing stage and so the test records were rejected. In the quest to achieve the highest quality possible, the Abbey Road team worked closely with the pressing factories and the manufacturers of the lacquer and cutting styli.
An additional and unusual challenge was to ensure the proper playback of the sounds embedded in the ‘lock-groove’ at the end of side two of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Requiring a combination of good timing and luck, it had always been a lengthy and costly process to make it work properly. In fact, it was so tricky, it had never been attempted for American pressings of the LP. Naturally, Sean Magee and the team perfected this and the garbled message is heard as originally intended on the remastered Sgt. Pepper LP.
Highly-skilled technicians have worked long and hard to make The Beatles on vinyl sound better than ever. All we need to do is listen to the results of their dedicated labour on the remastered LPs. Handle with care. But most of all, enjoy the music.
TRACK LISTING
Side 1:
1. Magical Mystery Tour (2009 - Remaster)
2. The Fool On The Hill (2009 - Remaster)
3. Flying (2009 - Remaster)
4. Blue Jay Way (2009 - Remaster)
5. Your Mother Should Know (2009 - Remaster)
6. I Am The Walrus (2009 - Remaster)
Side 2:
1. Hello, Goodbye (2009 - Remaster)
2. Strawberry Fields Forever (2009 - Remaster)
3. Penny Lane (2009 - Remaster)
4. Baby, You're A Rich Man (2009 - Remaster)
5. All You Need Is Love (2009 - Remaster)
Using the original 1964 mono master, new lacquers have been cut all-analogue by Kevin Reeves at Nashville’s East Iris Studios. By constantly referring to the original first pressing, the album is faithful to the original release while also enabling more musical information to be heard than was possible before. Featuring faithfully replicated artwork and a new four-panel insert with essay by American Beatles historian, Bruce Spizer. 180gram audiophile pressing.
TRACK LISTING
1. I Want To Hold Your Hand
2. I Saw Her Standing There
3. This Boy
4. It Won’t Be Long
5. All I’ve Got To Do
6. All My Loving
7. Don’t Bother Me
8. Little Child
9. Till There Was You
10. Hold Me Tight
11. I Wanna Be Your Man
12. Not A Second Time
Manufactured on 180-gram, audiophile quality vinyl with replicated artwork, the 14 albums return to their original glory with details including the poster in The Beatles (The White Album), the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart Club Band’s cut-outs, and special inner bags for some of the titles.
The titles include The Beatles’ 12 original UK albums, first released between 1963 and 1970, the US-originated Magical Mystery Tour, now part of the group’s core catalogue, and Past Masters, Volumes One & Two, featuring non-album A-sides and B-sides, EP tracks and rarities.
Since it was recorded, The Beatles’ music has been heard on a variety of formats – from chunky reel-to-reel tapes and eight-track cartridges to invisible computer files. But there has never been a more romantic or thrilling medium for music than a long-playing twelve-inch disc. We ‘play’ records. The process of carefully slipping the disc out of the sleeve, cleaning it and lowering the stylus provides a personal involvement in the reproduction of the music.
In September, 2009, The Beatles’ remastered albums on CD graced charts around the world. Seventeen million album sales within seven months was resounding evidence of the timeless relevance of their legacy. Through five decades, the music of The Beatles has captivated generation upon generation.
For producer Rick Rubin, surveying The Beatles’ recorded achievements is akin to witnessing a miracle. “If we look at it by today’s standards, whoever the most popular bands in the world are, they will typically put out an album every four years,” Rubin said in a 2009 radio series interview. “So, let’s say two albums as an eight year cycle. And think of the growth or change between those two albums. The idea that The Beatles made thirteen albums in seven years and went through that arc of change... it can’t be done. Truthfully, I think of it as proof of God, because it’s beyond man’s ability.”
There has always been demand for The Beatles’ albums on vinyl. Indeed, 2011’s best-selling vinyl LP in the United States was Abbey Road. Following the success of The Beatles’ acclaimed, GRAMMY Award-winning 2009 CD remasters, it was decided that the sound experts at EMI’s Abbey Road Studios should create new versions of The Beatles’ vinyl LPs. The project demanded the same meticulous approach taken for the CD releases, and the brief was a simple one: cut the digital remasters to vinyl with an absolute minimum of compromise to the sound. However, the process involved to do that was far from simple.
The first stage in transferring the sound of a master recording to vinyl is the creation of a disc to be used during vinyl manufacture. There were two options to consider. A Direct Metal Master (DMM), developed in the late seventies, allows sound to be cut directly into a stainless steel disc coated with a hard copper alloy. The older, alternative method is to cut the sound into the soft lacquer coating on a nickel disc - the first of several steps leading to the production of a stamper to press the vinyl.
A ‘blind’ listening test was arranged to choose between a ‘lacquer’ or ‘copper’ cut. Using both methods, A Hard Day’s Night was pressed with ten seconds of silence at the beginning and end of each side. This allowed not only the reproduction of the music to be assessed, but also the noise made by the vinyl itself. After much discussion, two factors swung the decision towards using the lacquer process. First, it was judged to create a warmer sound than a DMM. Secondly, there was a practical advantage of having ‘blank’ discs of a consistent quality when cutting lacquers.
The next step was to use the Neumann VMS80 cutting lathe at Abbey Road. Following thorough mechanical and electrical tests to ensure it was operating in peak condition, engineer Sean Magee cut the LPs in chronological release order. He used the original 24-bit remasters rather than the 16-bit versions that were required for CD production. It was also decided to use the remasters that had not undergone ‘limiting’ - a procedure to increase the sound level, which is deemed necessary for most current pop CDs.
Having made initial test cuts, Magee pinpointed any sound problems that can occur during playback of vinyl records. To rectify them, changes were made to the remasters with a Digital Audio Workstation. For example, each vinyl album was listened to for any ‘sibilant episodes’ - vocal distortion that can occur on consonant sounds such as S and T. These were corrected by reducing the level in the very small portion of sound causing the undesired effect. Similarly, any likelihood of ‘inner-groove distortion’ was addressed. As the stylus approaches the centre of the record, it is liable to track the groove less accurately. This can affect the high-middle frequencies, producing a ‘mushy’ sound particularly noticeable on vocals. Using what Magee has described as ‘surgical EQ,’ problem frequencies were identified and reduced in level to compensate for this.
The last phase of the vinyl mastering process began with the arrival of the first batches of test pressings made from master lacquers that had been sent to the two pressing plant factories. Stringent quality tests identified any noise or click appearing on more than one test pressing in the same place. If this happened, it was clear that the undesired sounds had been introduced either during the cutting or the pressing stage and so the test records were rejected. In the quest to achieve the highest quality possible, the Abbey Road team worked closely with the pressing factories and the manufacturers of the lacquer and cutting styli.
An additional and unusual challenge was to ensure the proper playback of the sounds embedded in the ‘lock-groove’ at the end of side two of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Requiring a combination of good timing and luck, it had always been a lengthy and costly process to make it work properly. In fact, it was so tricky, it had never been attempted for American pressings of the LP. Naturally, Sean Magee and the team perfected this and the garbled message is heard as originally intended on the remastered Sgt. Pepper LP.
Highly-skilled technicians have worked long and hard to make The Beatles on vinyl sound better than ever. All we need to do is listen to the results of their dedicated labour on the remastered LPs. Handle with care. But most of all, enjoy the music.
The titles include The Beatles’ 12 original UK albums, first released between 1963 and 1970, the US-originated Magical Mystery Tour, now part of the group’s core catalogue, and Past Masters, Volumes One & Two, featuring non-album A-sides and B-sides, EP tracks and rarities.
Since it was recorded, The Beatles’ music has been heard on a variety of formats – from chunky reel-to-reel tapes and eight-track cartridges to invisible computer files. But there has never been a more romantic or thrilling medium for music than a long-playing twelve-inch disc. We ‘play’ records. The process of carefully slipping the disc out of the sleeve, cleaning it and lowering the stylus provides a personal involvement in the reproduction of the music.
In September, 2009, The Beatles’ remastered albums on CD graced charts around the world. Seventeen million album sales within seven months was resounding evidence of the timeless relevance of their legacy. Through five decades, the music of The Beatles has captivated generation upon generation.
For producer Rick Rubin, surveying The Beatles’ recorded achievements is akin to witnessing a miracle. “If we look at it by today’s standards, whoever the most popular bands in the world are, they will typically put out an album every four years,” Rubin said in a 2009 radio series interview. “So, let’s say two albums as an eight year cycle. And think of the growth or change between those two albums. The idea that The Beatles made thirteen albums in seven years and went through that arc of change... it can’t be done. Truthfully, I think of it as proof of God, because it’s beyond man’s ability.”
There has always been demand for The Beatles’ albums on vinyl. Indeed, 2011’s best-selling vinyl LP in the United States was Abbey Road. Following the success of The Beatles’ acclaimed, GRAMMY Award-winning 2009 CD remasters, it was decided that the sound experts at EMI’s Abbey Road Studios should create new versions of The Beatles’ vinyl LPs. The project demanded the same meticulous approach taken for the CD releases, and the brief was a simple one: cut the digital remasters to vinyl with an absolute minimum of compromise to the sound. However, the process involved to do that was far from simple.
The first stage in transferring the sound of a master recording to vinyl is the creation of a disc to be used during vinyl manufacture. There were two options to consider. A Direct Metal Master (DMM), developed in the late seventies, allows sound to be cut directly into a stainless steel disc coated with a hard copper alloy. The older, alternative method is to cut the sound into the soft lacquer coating on a nickel disc - the first of several steps leading to the production of a stamper to press the vinyl.
A ‘blind’ listening test was arranged to choose between a ‘lacquer’ or ‘copper’ cut. Using both methods, A Hard Day’s Night was pressed with ten seconds of silence at the beginning and end of each side. This allowed not only the reproduction of the music to be assessed, but also the noise made by the vinyl itself. After much discussion, two factors swung the decision towards using the lacquer process. First, it was judged to create a warmer sound than a DMM. Secondly, there was a practical advantage of having ‘blank’ discs of a consistent quality when cutting lacquers.
The next step was to use the Neumann VMS80 cutting lathe at Abbey Road. Following thorough mechanical and electrical tests to ensure it was operating in peak condition, engineer Sean Magee cut the LPs in chronological release order. He used the original 24-bit remasters rather than the 16-bit versions that were required for CD production. It was also decided to use the remasters that had not undergone ‘limiting’ - a procedure to increase the sound level, which is deemed necessary for most current pop CDs.
Having made initial test cuts, Magee pinpointed any sound problems that can occur during playback of vinyl records. To rectify them, changes were made to the remasters with a Digital Audio Workstation. For example, each vinyl album was listened to for any ‘sibilant episodes’ - vocal distortion that can occur on consonant sounds such as S and T. These were corrected by reducing the level in the very small portion of sound causing the undesired effect. Similarly, any likelihood of ‘inner-groove distortion’ was addressed. As the stylus approaches the centre of the record, it is liable to track the groove less accurately. This can affect the high-middle frequencies, producing a ‘mushy’ sound particularly noticeable on vocals. Using what Magee has described as ‘surgical EQ,’ problem frequencies were identified and reduced in level to compensate for this.
The last phase of the vinyl mastering process began with the arrival of the first batches of test pressings made from master lacquers that had been sent to the two pressing plant factories. Stringent quality tests identified any noise or click appearing on more than one test pressing in the same place. If this happened, it was clear that the undesired sounds had been introduced either during the cutting or the pressing stage and so the test records were rejected. In the quest to achieve the highest quality possible, the Abbey Road team worked closely with the pressing factories and the manufacturers of the lacquer and cutting styli.
An additional and unusual challenge was to ensure the proper playback of the sounds embedded in the ‘lock-groove’ at the end of side two of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Requiring a combination of good timing and luck, it had always been a lengthy and costly process to make it work properly. In fact, it was so tricky, it had never been attempted for American pressings of the LP. Naturally, Sean Magee and the team perfected this and the garbled message is heard as originally intended on the remastered Sgt. Pepper LP.
Highly-skilled technicians have worked long and hard to make The Beatles on vinyl sound better than ever. All we need to do is listen to the results of their dedicated labour on the remastered LPs. Handle with care. But most of all, enjoy the music.
TRACK LISTING
Side 1:
1. Love Me Do (Original Single Version) (2009 - Remaster)
2. From Me To You (2009 - Remaster)
3. Thank You Girl (2009 - Remaster)
4. She Loves You (2009 - Remaster)
5. I'll Get You (2009 - Remaster)
6. I Want To Hold Your Hand (2009 - Remaster)
7. This Boy (2009 - Remaster)
8. Komm Gib Mir Deine Hand (2009 - Remaster)
9. Sie Liebt Dich (2009 - Remaster)
Side 2:
1. Long Tall Sally (2009 - Remaster)
2. I Call Your Name (2009 - Remaster)
3. Slow Down (2009 - Remaster)
4. Matchbox (2009 - Remaster)
5. I Feel Fine (2009 - Remaster)
6. She's A Woman (2009 - Remaster)
7. Bad Boy (2009 - Remaster)
8. Yes It Is (2009 - Remaster)
9. I'm Down (2009 - Remaster)
Side 3:
1. Day Tripper (2009 - Remaster)
2. We Can Work It Out (2009 - Remaster)
3. Paperback Writer (2009 - Remaster)
4. Rain (2009 - Remaster)
5. Lady Madonna (2009 - Remaster)
6. The Inner Light (2009 - Remaster)
7. Hey Jude (2009 - Remaster)
8. Revolution (2009 - Remaster)
Side 4:
1. Get Back (2009 - Remaster)
2. Don't Let Me Down (2009 - Remaster)
3. The Ballad Of John And Yoko (2009 - Remaster)
4. Old Brown Shoe (2009 - Remaster)
5. Across The Universe (2009 - Remaster)
6. Let It Be (2009 - Remaster)
7. You Know My Name (Look Up The Number) (2009 - Remaster)
Manufactured on 180-gram, audiophile quality vinyl with replicated artwork, the 14 albums return to their original glory with details including the poster in The Beatles (The White Album), the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart Club Band’s cut-outs, and special inner bags for some of the titles.
The titles include The Beatles’ 12 original UK albums, first released between 1963 and 1970, the US-originated Magical Mystery Tour, now part of the group’s core catalogue, and Past Masters, Volumes One & Two, featuring non-album A-sides and B-sides, EP tracks and rarities.
Since it was recorded, The Beatles’ music has been heard on a variety of formats – from chunky reel-to-reel tapes and eight-track cartridges to invisible computer files. But there has never been a more romantic or thrilling medium for music than a long-playing twelve-inch disc. We ‘play’ records. The process of carefully slipping the disc out of the sleeve, cleaning it and lowering the stylus provides a personal involvement in the reproduction of the music.
In September, 2009, The Beatles’ remastered albums on CD graced charts around the world. Seventeen million album sales within seven months was resounding evidence of the timeless relevance of their legacy. Through five decades, the music of The Beatles has captivated generation upon generation.
For producer Rick Rubin, surveying The Beatles’ recorded achievements is akin to witnessing a miracle. “If we look at it by today’s standards, whoever the most popular bands in the world are, they will typically put out an album every four years,” Rubin said in a 2009 radio series interview. “So, let’s say two albums as an eight year cycle. And think of the growth or change between those two albums. The idea that The Beatles made thirteen albums in seven years and went through that arc of change... it can’t be done. Truthfully, I think of it as proof of God, because it’s beyond man’s ability.”
There has always been demand for The Beatles’ albums on vinyl. Indeed, 2011’s best-selling vinyl LP in the United States was Abbey Road. Following the success of The Beatles’ acclaimed, GRAMMY Award-winning 2009 CD remasters, it was decided that the sound experts at EMI’s Abbey Road Studios should create new versions of The Beatles’ vinyl LPs. The project demanded the same meticulous approach taken for the CD releases, and the brief was a simple one: cut the digital remasters to vinyl with an absolute minimum of compromise to the sound. However, the process involved to do that was far from simple.
The first stage in transferring the sound of a master recording to vinyl is the creation of a disc to be used during vinyl manufacture. There were two options to consider. A Direct Metal Master (DMM), developed in the late seventies, allows sound to be cut directly into a stainless steel disc coated with a hard copper alloy. The older, alternative method is to cut the sound into the soft lacquer coating on a nickel disc - the first of several steps leading to the production of a stamper to press the vinyl.
A ‘blind’ listening test was arranged to choose between a ‘lacquer’ or ‘copper’ cut. Using both methods, A Hard Day’s Night was pressed with ten seconds of silence at the beginning and end of each side. This allowed not only the reproduction of the music to be assessed, but also the noise made by the vinyl itself. After much discussion, two factors swung the decision towards using the lacquer process. First, it was judged to create a warmer sound than a DMM. Secondly, there was a practical advantage of having ‘blank’ discs of a consistent quality when cutting lacquers.
The next step was to use the Neumann VMS80 cutting lathe at Abbey Road. Following thorough mechanical and electrical tests to ensure it was operating in peak condition, engineer Sean Magee cut the LPs in chronological release order. He used the original 24-bit remasters rather than the 16-bit versions that were required for CD production. It was also decided to use the remasters that had not undergone ‘limiting’ - a procedure to increase the sound level, which is deemed necessary for most current pop CDs.
Having made initial test cuts, Magee pinpointed any sound problems that can occur during playback of vinyl records. To rectify them, changes were made to the remasters with a Digital Audio Workstation. For example, each vinyl album was listened to for any ‘sibilant episodes’ - vocal distortion that can occur on consonant sounds such as S and T. These were corrected by reducing the level in the very small portion of sound causing the undesired effect. Similarly, any likelihood of ‘inner-groove distortion’ was addressed. As the stylus approaches the centre of the record, it is liable to track the groove less accurately. This can affect the high-middle frequencies, producing a ‘mushy’ sound particularly noticeable on vocals. Using what Magee has described as ‘surgical EQ,’ problem frequencies were identified and reduced in level to compensate for this.
The last phase of the vinyl mastering process began with the arrival of the first batches of test pressings made from master lacquers that had been sent to the two pressing plant factories. Stringent quality tests identified any noise or click appearing on more than one test pressing in the same place. If this happened, it was clear that the undesired sounds had been introduced either during the cutting or the pressing stage and so the test records were rejected. In the quest to achieve the highest quality possible, the Abbey Road team worked closely with the pressing factories and the manufacturers of the lacquer and cutting styli.
An additional and unusual challenge was to ensure the proper playback of the sounds embedded in the ‘lock-groove’ at the end of side two of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Requiring a combination of good timing and luck, it had always been a lengthy and costly process to make it work properly. In fact, it was so tricky, it had never been attempted for American pressings of the LP. Naturally, Sean Magee and the team perfected this and the garbled message is heard as originally intended on the remastered Sgt. Pepper LP.
Highly-skilled technicians have worked long and hard to make The Beatles on vinyl sound better than ever. All we need to do is listen to the results of their dedicated labour on the remastered LPs. Handle with care. But most of all, enjoy the music.
The titles include The Beatles’ 12 original UK albums, first released between 1963 and 1970, the US-originated Magical Mystery Tour, now part of the group’s core catalogue, and Past Masters, Volumes One & Two, featuring non-album A-sides and B-sides, EP tracks and rarities.
Since it was recorded, The Beatles’ music has been heard on a variety of formats – from chunky reel-to-reel tapes and eight-track cartridges to invisible computer files. But there has never been a more romantic or thrilling medium for music than a long-playing twelve-inch disc. We ‘play’ records. The process of carefully slipping the disc out of the sleeve, cleaning it and lowering the stylus provides a personal involvement in the reproduction of the music.
In September, 2009, The Beatles’ remastered albums on CD graced charts around the world. Seventeen million album sales within seven months was resounding evidence of the timeless relevance of their legacy. Through five decades, the music of The Beatles has captivated generation upon generation.
For producer Rick Rubin, surveying The Beatles’ recorded achievements is akin to witnessing a miracle. “If we look at it by today’s standards, whoever the most popular bands in the world are, they will typically put out an album every four years,” Rubin said in a 2009 radio series interview. “So, let’s say two albums as an eight year cycle. And think of the growth or change between those two albums. The idea that The Beatles made thirteen albums in seven years and went through that arc of change... it can’t be done. Truthfully, I think of it as proof of God, because it’s beyond man’s ability.”
There has always been demand for The Beatles’ albums on vinyl. Indeed, 2011’s best-selling vinyl LP in the United States was Abbey Road. Following the success of The Beatles’ acclaimed, GRAMMY Award-winning 2009 CD remasters, it was decided that the sound experts at EMI’s Abbey Road Studios should create new versions of The Beatles’ vinyl LPs. The project demanded the same meticulous approach taken for the CD releases, and the brief was a simple one: cut the digital remasters to vinyl with an absolute minimum of compromise to the sound. However, the process involved to do that was far from simple.
The first stage in transferring the sound of a master recording to vinyl is the creation of a disc to be used during vinyl manufacture. There were two options to consider. A Direct Metal Master (DMM), developed in the late seventies, allows sound to be cut directly into a stainless steel disc coated with a hard copper alloy. The older, alternative method is to cut the sound into the soft lacquer coating on a nickel disc - the first of several steps leading to the production of a stamper to press the vinyl.
A ‘blind’ listening test was arranged to choose between a ‘lacquer’ or ‘copper’ cut. Using both methods, A Hard Day’s Night was pressed with ten seconds of silence at the beginning and end of each side. This allowed not only the reproduction of the music to be assessed, but also the noise made by the vinyl itself. After much discussion, two factors swung the decision towards using the lacquer process. First, it was judged to create a warmer sound than a DMM. Secondly, there was a practical advantage of having ‘blank’ discs of a consistent quality when cutting lacquers.
The next step was to use the Neumann VMS80 cutting lathe at Abbey Road. Following thorough mechanical and electrical tests to ensure it was operating in peak condition, engineer Sean Magee cut the LPs in chronological release order. He used the original 24-bit remasters rather than the 16-bit versions that were required for CD production. It was also decided to use the remasters that had not undergone ‘limiting’ - a procedure to increase the sound level, which is deemed necessary for most current pop CDs.
Having made initial test cuts, Magee pinpointed any sound problems that can occur during playback of vinyl records. To rectify them, changes were made to the remasters with a Digital Audio Workstation. For example, each vinyl album was listened to for any ‘sibilant episodes’ - vocal distortion that can occur on consonant sounds such as S and T. These were corrected by reducing the level in the very small portion of sound causing the undesired effect. Similarly, any likelihood of ‘inner-groove distortion’ was addressed. As the stylus approaches the centre of the record, it is liable to track the groove less accurately. This can affect the high-middle frequencies, producing a ‘mushy’ sound particularly noticeable on vocals. Using what Magee has described as ‘surgical EQ,’ problem frequencies were identified and reduced in level to compensate for this.
The last phase of the vinyl mastering process began with the arrival of the first batches of test pressings made from master lacquers that had been sent to the two pressing plant factories. Stringent quality tests identified any noise or click appearing on more than one test pressing in the same place. If this happened, it was clear that the undesired sounds had been introduced either during the cutting or the pressing stage and so the test records were rejected. In the quest to achieve the highest quality possible, the Abbey Road team worked closely with the pressing factories and the manufacturers of the lacquer and cutting styli.
An additional and unusual challenge was to ensure the proper playback of the sounds embedded in the ‘lock-groove’ at the end of side two of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Requiring a combination of good timing and luck, it had always been a lengthy and costly process to make it work properly. In fact, it was so tricky, it had never been attempted for American pressings of the LP. Naturally, Sean Magee and the team perfected this and the garbled message is heard as originally intended on the remastered Sgt. Pepper LP.
Highly-skilled technicians have worked long and hard to make The Beatles on vinyl sound better than ever. All we need to do is listen to the results of their dedicated labour on the remastered LPs. Handle with care. But most of all, enjoy the music.
TRACK LISTING
Side 1:
1. I Saw Her Standing There (2009 - Remaster)
2. Misery (2009 - Remaster)
3. Anna (Go To Him) (2009 - Remaster)
4. Chains (2009 - Remaster)
5. Boys (2009 - Remaster)
6. Ask Me Why (2009 - Remaster)
7. Please Please Me (2009 - Remaster)
Side 2:
1. Love Me Do (2009 - Remaster)
2. P.S. I Love You (2009 - Remaster)
3. Baby It's You (2009 - Remaster)
4. Do You Want To Know A Secret (2009 - Remaster)
5. A Taste Of Honey (2009 - Remaster)
6. There's A Place (2009 - Remaster)
7. Twist And Shout (2009 - Remaster)
Turn off your mind, relax and float downstream…
London - September 7, 2022 – Revolver: The Beatles’ 1966 album that changed everything. Spinning popular music off its axis and ushering in a vibrant new era of experimental, avant-garde sonic psychedelia, Revolver brought about a cultural sea change and marked an important turn in The Beatles’ own creative evolution. With Revolver, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr set sail together across a new musical sea.
The Revolver album’s 14 tracks have been newly mixed by producer Giles Martin and engineer Sam Okell in stereo and Dolby Atmos, and the album’s original mono mix is sourced from its 1966 mono master tape. Revolver’s sweeping new Special Edition follows the universally acclaimed remixed and expanded Special Editions of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (2017), The BEATLES (‘White Album’) (2018), Abbey Road (2019), and Let It Be (2021).
All the new Revolver releases feature the album’s new stereo mix, sourced directly from the original four-track master tapes. The audio is brought forth in stunning clarity with the help of cutting edge de-mixing technology developed by the award-winning sound team led by Emile de la Rey at Peter Jackson’s WingNut Films Productions Ltd. The physical and digital Super Deluxe collections also feature the album’s original mono mix, 28 early takes from the sessions and three home demos, and a four-track EP with new stereo mixes and remastered original mono mixes for “Paperback Writer” and “Rain”. The album’s new Dolby Atmos mix will be released digitally.
Revolver Special Edition Super Deluxe 5CD
This Special Edition of The Beatles’ REVOLVER features a new mix by Giles Martin and Sam Okell, plus the original mono mix, a 4-track EP, 31 session takes and home demos, a 100-page book with a foreword by Paul McCartney, an essay by Questlove, detailed track notes, photos and ephemera including handwritten lyrics, tape boxes and extracts from Klaus Voormann’s graphic novel on the making of the cover art. On 5 CDs in a 12.56” x 12.36” slipcase.
Revolver Special Edition Super Deluxe 4LP + 7” Vinyl EP
This Special Edition of The Beatles’ REVOLVER features a new mix by Giles Martin and Sam Okell, the original mono mix, a 4-track EP, 31 session takes and home demos, a 100-page book with a foreword by Paul McCartney, an essay by Questlove, detailed track notes, photos and ephemera including handwritten lyrics, tape boxes and extracts from Klaus Voormann’s graphic novel on the making of the cover art. Half-speed-mastered 180g LPs + 7-inch vinyl EP in a 12.56” x 12.36” slipcase.
Revolver Special Edition Deluxe 2CD
This 2CD Special Edition of The Beatles’ REVOLVER features a new mix by Giles Martin and Sam Okell, plus a disc of highlights from the album sessions that includes early versions of songs that deepen and expand the story of the album, as well as new stereo mixes of the non-album single, “Paperback Writer” and “Rain,” and a 40-page booklet with detailed info and rare photos.
Revolver Special Edition 1CD
From “Taxman” to “Tomorrow Never Knows,” The Beatles’ REVOLVER has been newly mixed by producer Giles Martin and Sam Okell, and sourced directly from the original four-track master tapes with audio brought forth in stunning clarity with the help of cutting-edge technology developed by the award-winning sound team at Peter Jackson’s WingNut Films Productions Ltd.
Revolver Special Edition 1LP Vinyl
From “Taxman” to “Tomorrow Never Knows,” The Beatles’ REVOLVER has been newly mixed by producer Giles Martin and Sam Okell, and sourced directly from the original four-track master tapes with audio brought forth in stunning clarity with the help of cutting-edge technology developed by the award-winning sound team at Peter Jackson’s WingNut Films Productions Ltd. Now available on 180g vinyl.
London - September 7, 2022 – Revolver: The Beatles’ 1966 album that changed everything. Spinning popular music off its axis and ushering in a vibrant new era of experimental, avant-garde sonic psychedelia, Revolver brought about a cultural sea change and marked an important turn in The Beatles’ own creative evolution. With Revolver, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr set sail together across a new musical sea.
The Revolver album’s 14 tracks have been newly mixed by producer Giles Martin and engineer Sam Okell in stereo and Dolby Atmos, and the album’s original mono mix is sourced from its 1966 mono master tape. Revolver’s sweeping new Special Edition follows the universally acclaimed remixed and expanded Special Editions of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (2017), The BEATLES (‘White Album’) (2018), Abbey Road (2019), and Let It Be (2021).
All the new Revolver releases feature the album’s new stereo mix, sourced directly from the original four-track master tapes. The audio is brought forth in stunning clarity with the help of cutting edge de-mixing technology developed by the award-winning sound team led by Emile de la Rey at Peter Jackson’s WingNut Films Productions Ltd. The physical and digital Super Deluxe collections also feature the album’s original mono mix, 28 early takes from the sessions and three home demos, and a four-track EP with new stereo mixes and remastered original mono mixes for “Paperback Writer” and “Rain”. The album’s new Dolby Atmos mix will be released digitally.
Revolver Special Edition Super Deluxe 5CD
This Special Edition of The Beatles’ REVOLVER features a new mix by Giles Martin and Sam Okell, plus the original mono mix, a 4-track EP, 31 session takes and home demos, a 100-page book with a foreword by Paul McCartney, an essay by Questlove, detailed track notes, photos and ephemera including handwritten lyrics, tape boxes and extracts from Klaus Voormann’s graphic novel on the making of the cover art. On 5 CDs in a 12.56” x 12.36” slipcase.
Revolver Special Edition Super Deluxe 4LP + 7” Vinyl EP
This Special Edition of The Beatles’ REVOLVER features a new mix by Giles Martin and Sam Okell, the original mono mix, a 4-track EP, 31 session takes and home demos, a 100-page book with a foreword by Paul McCartney, an essay by Questlove, detailed track notes, photos and ephemera including handwritten lyrics, tape boxes and extracts from Klaus Voormann’s graphic novel on the making of the cover art. Half-speed-mastered 180g LPs + 7-inch vinyl EP in a 12.56” x 12.36” slipcase.
Revolver Special Edition Deluxe 2CD
This 2CD Special Edition of The Beatles’ REVOLVER features a new mix by Giles Martin and Sam Okell, plus a disc of highlights from the album sessions that includes early versions of songs that deepen and expand the story of the album, as well as new stereo mixes of the non-album single, “Paperback Writer” and “Rain,” and a 40-page booklet with detailed info and rare photos.
Revolver Special Edition 1CD
From “Taxman” to “Tomorrow Never Knows,” The Beatles’ REVOLVER has been newly mixed by producer Giles Martin and Sam Okell, and sourced directly from the original four-track master tapes with audio brought forth in stunning clarity with the help of cutting-edge technology developed by the award-winning sound team at Peter Jackson’s WingNut Films Productions Ltd.
Revolver Special Edition 1LP Vinyl
From “Taxman” to “Tomorrow Never Knows,” The Beatles’ REVOLVER has been newly mixed by producer Giles Martin and Sam Okell, and sourced directly from the original four-track master tapes with audio brought forth in stunning clarity with the help of cutting-edge technology developed by the award-winning sound team at Peter Jackson’s WingNut Films Productions Ltd. Now available on 180g vinyl.
STAFF COMMENTS
Andy says: Revolver is the moment where the Beatles turned their back on the hysteria and announced they weren't going to tour anymore, but instead were going to concentrate solely on The Music. Out went boy-meets-girl and any country or rock'n'roll songs, in came psychedelic pop with deep or abstract words and a dizzying array of styles. The influence of drugs can't be ignored when appreciating these new sounds, and what we have is basically a band actually creating the zeitgeist, up in the crow's nest of what was suddenly the great ship Counter Culture, sailing to who knows where. It's their best album.
Manufactured on 180-gram, audiophile quality vinyl with replicated artwork, the 14 albums return to their original glory with details including the poster in The Beatles (The White Album), the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart Club Band’s cut-outs, and special inner bags for some of the titles.
The titles include The Beatles’ 12 original UK albums, first released between 1963 and 1970, the US-originated Magical Mystery Tour, now part of the group’s core catalogue, and Past Masters, Volumes One & Two, featuring non-album A-sides and B-sides, EP tracks and rarities.
Since it was recorded, The Beatles’ music has been heard on a variety of formats – from chunky reel-to-reel tapes and eight-track cartridges to invisible computer files. But there has never been a more romantic or thrilling medium for music than a long-playing twelve-inch disc. We ‘play’ records. The process of carefully slipping the disc out of the sleeve, cleaning it and lowering the stylus provides a personal involvement in the reproduction of the music.
In September, 2009, The Beatles’ remastered albums on CD graced charts around the world. Seventeen million album sales within seven months was resounding evidence of the timeless relevance of their legacy. Through five decades, the music of The Beatles has captivated generation upon generation.
For producer Rick Rubin, surveying The Beatles’ recorded achievements is akin to witnessing a miracle. “If we look at it by today’s standards, whoever the most popular bands in the world are, they will typically put out an album every four years,” Rubin said in a 2009 radio series interview. “So, let’s say two albums as an eight year cycle. And think of the growth or change between those two albums. The idea that The Beatles made thirteen albums in seven years and went through that arc of change... it can’t be done. Truthfully, I think of it as proof of God, because it’s beyond man’s ability.”
There has always been demand for The Beatles’ albums on vinyl. Indeed, 2011’s best-selling vinyl LP in the United States was Abbey Road. Following the success of The Beatles’ acclaimed, GRAMMY Award-winning 2009 CD remasters, it was decided that the sound experts at EMI’s Abbey Road Studios should create new versions of The Beatles’ vinyl LPs. The project demanded the same meticulous approach taken for the CD releases, and the brief was a simple one: cut the digital remasters to vinyl with an absolute minimum of compromise to the sound. However, the process involved to do that was far from simple.
The first stage in transferring the sound of a master recording to vinyl is the creation of a disc to be used during vinyl manufacture. There were two options to consider. A Direct Metal Master (DMM), developed in the late seventies, allows sound to be cut directly into a stainless steel disc coated with a hard copper alloy. The older, alternative method is to cut the sound into the soft lacquer coating on a nickel disc - the first of several steps leading to the production of a stamper to press the vinyl.
A ‘blind’ listening test was arranged to choose between a ‘lacquer’ or ‘copper’ cut. Using both methods, A Hard Day’s Night was pressed with ten seconds of silence at the beginning and end of each side. This allowed not only the reproduction of the music to be assessed, but also the noise made by the vinyl itself. After much discussion, two factors swung the decision towards using the lacquer process. First, it was judged to create a warmer sound than a DMM. Secondly, there was a practical advantage of having ‘blank’ discs of a consistent quality when cutting lacquers.
The next step was to use the Neumann VMS80 cutting lathe at Abbey Road. Following thorough mechanical and electrical tests to ensure it was operating in peak condition, engineer Sean Magee cut the LPs in chronological release order. He used the original 24-bit remasters rather than the 16-bit versions that were required for CD production. It was also decided to use the remasters that had not undergone ‘limiting’ - a procedure to increase the sound level, which is deemed necessary for most current pop CDs.
Having made initial test cuts, Magee pinpointed any sound problems that can occur during playback of vinyl records. To rectify them, changes were made to the remasters with a Digital Audio Workstation. For example, each vinyl album was listened to for any ‘sibilant episodes’ - vocal distortion that can occur on consonant sounds such as S and T. These were corrected by reducing the level in the very small portion of sound causing the undesired effect. Similarly, any likelihood of ‘inner-groove distortion’ was addressed. As the stylus approaches the centre of the record, it is liable to track the groove less accurately. This can affect the high-middle frequencies, producing a ‘mushy’ sound particularly noticeable on vocals. Using what Magee has described as ‘surgical EQ,’ problem frequencies were identified and reduced in level to compensate for this.
The last phase of the vinyl mastering process began with the arrival of the first batches of test pressings made from master lacquers that had been sent to the two pressing plant factories. Stringent quality tests identified any noise or click appearing on more than one test pressing in the same place. If this happened, it was clear that the undesired sounds had been introduced either during the cutting or the pressing stage and so the test records were rejected. In the quest to achieve the highest quality possible, the Abbey Road team worked closely with the pressing factories and the manufacturers of the lacquer and cutting styli.
An additional and unusual challenge was to ensure the proper playback of the sounds embedded in the ‘lock-groove’ at the end of side two of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Requiring a combination of good timing and luck, it had always been a lengthy and costly process to make it work properly. In fact, it was so tricky, it had never been attempted for American pressings of the LP. Naturally, Sean Magee and the team perfected this and the garbled message is heard as originally intended on the remastered Sgt. Pepper LP.
Highly-skilled technicians have worked long and hard to make The Beatles on vinyl sound better than ever. All we need to do is listen to the results of their dedicated labour on the remastered LPs. Handle with care. But most of all, enjoy the music.
The titles include The Beatles’ 12 original UK albums, first released between 1963 and 1970, the US-originated Magical Mystery Tour, now part of the group’s core catalogue, and Past Masters, Volumes One & Two, featuring non-album A-sides and B-sides, EP tracks and rarities.
Since it was recorded, The Beatles’ music has been heard on a variety of formats – from chunky reel-to-reel tapes and eight-track cartridges to invisible computer files. But there has never been a more romantic or thrilling medium for music than a long-playing twelve-inch disc. We ‘play’ records. The process of carefully slipping the disc out of the sleeve, cleaning it and lowering the stylus provides a personal involvement in the reproduction of the music.
In September, 2009, The Beatles’ remastered albums on CD graced charts around the world. Seventeen million album sales within seven months was resounding evidence of the timeless relevance of their legacy. Through five decades, the music of The Beatles has captivated generation upon generation.
For producer Rick Rubin, surveying The Beatles’ recorded achievements is akin to witnessing a miracle. “If we look at it by today’s standards, whoever the most popular bands in the world are, they will typically put out an album every four years,” Rubin said in a 2009 radio series interview. “So, let’s say two albums as an eight year cycle. And think of the growth or change between those two albums. The idea that The Beatles made thirteen albums in seven years and went through that arc of change... it can’t be done. Truthfully, I think of it as proof of God, because it’s beyond man’s ability.”
There has always been demand for The Beatles’ albums on vinyl. Indeed, 2011’s best-selling vinyl LP in the United States was Abbey Road. Following the success of The Beatles’ acclaimed, GRAMMY Award-winning 2009 CD remasters, it was decided that the sound experts at EMI’s Abbey Road Studios should create new versions of The Beatles’ vinyl LPs. The project demanded the same meticulous approach taken for the CD releases, and the brief was a simple one: cut the digital remasters to vinyl with an absolute minimum of compromise to the sound. However, the process involved to do that was far from simple.
The first stage in transferring the sound of a master recording to vinyl is the creation of a disc to be used during vinyl manufacture. There were two options to consider. A Direct Metal Master (DMM), developed in the late seventies, allows sound to be cut directly into a stainless steel disc coated with a hard copper alloy. The older, alternative method is to cut the sound into the soft lacquer coating on a nickel disc - the first of several steps leading to the production of a stamper to press the vinyl.
A ‘blind’ listening test was arranged to choose between a ‘lacquer’ or ‘copper’ cut. Using both methods, A Hard Day’s Night was pressed with ten seconds of silence at the beginning and end of each side. This allowed not only the reproduction of the music to be assessed, but also the noise made by the vinyl itself. After much discussion, two factors swung the decision towards using the lacquer process. First, it was judged to create a warmer sound than a DMM. Secondly, there was a practical advantage of having ‘blank’ discs of a consistent quality when cutting lacquers.
The next step was to use the Neumann VMS80 cutting lathe at Abbey Road. Following thorough mechanical and electrical tests to ensure it was operating in peak condition, engineer Sean Magee cut the LPs in chronological release order. He used the original 24-bit remasters rather than the 16-bit versions that were required for CD production. It was also decided to use the remasters that had not undergone ‘limiting’ - a procedure to increase the sound level, which is deemed necessary for most current pop CDs.
Having made initial test cuts, Magee pinpointed any sound problems that can occur during playback of vinyl records. To rectify them, changes were made to the remasters with a Digital Audio Workstation. For example, each vinyl album was listened to for any ‘sibilant episodes’ - vocal distortion that can occur on consonant sounds such as S and T. These were corrected by reducing the level in the very small portion of sound causing the undesired effect. Similarly, any likelihood of ‘inner-groove distortion’ was addressed. As the stylus approaches the centre of the record, it is liable to track the groove less accurately. This can affect the high-middle frequencies, producing a ‘mushy’ sound particularly noticeable on vocals. Using what Magee has described as ‘surgical EQ,’ problem frequencies were identified and reduced in level to compensate for this.
The last phase of the vinyl mastering process began with the arrival of the first batches of test pressings made from master lacquers that had been sent to the two pressing plant factories. Stringent quality tests identified any noise or click appearing on more than one test pressing in the same place. If this happened, it was clear that the undesired sounds had been introduced either during the cutting or the pressing stage and so the test records were rejected. In the quest to achieve the highest quality possible, the Abbey Road team worked closely with the pressing factories and the manufacturers of the lacquer and cutting styli.
An additional and unusual challenge was to ensure the proper playback of the sounds embedded in the ‘lock-groove’ at the end of side two of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Requiring a combination of good timing and luck, it had always been a lengthy and costly process to make it work properly. In fact, it was so tricky, it had never been attempted for American pressings of the LP. Naturally, Sean Magee and the team perfected this and the garbled message is heard as originally intended on the remastered Sgt. Pepper LP.
Highly-skilled technicians have worked long and hard to make The Beatles on vinyl sound better than ever. All we need to do is listen to the results of their dedicated labour on the remastered LPs. Handle with care. But most of all, enjoy the music.
TRACK LISTING
Side 1:
1. Drive My Car (2009 - Remaster)
2. Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) (2009 - Remaster)
3. You Won't See Me (2009 - Remaster)
4. Nowhere Man (2009 - Remaster)
5. Think For Yourself (2009 - Remaster)
6. The Word (2009 - Remaster)
7. Michelle (2009 - Remaster)
Side 2:
1. What Goes On (2009 - Remaster)
2. Girl (2009 - Remaster)
3. I'm Looking Through You (2009 - Remaster)
4. In My Life (2009 - Remaster)
5. Wait (2009 - Remaster)
6. If I Needed Someone (2009 - Remaster)
7. Run For Your Life (2009 - Remaster)
Produced by Giles Martin for this year’s universally heralded ‘Sgt. Pepper’ Anniversary Edition releases, the album’s new stereo mix was sourced directly from the original four-track session tapes and guided by the original, Beatles-preferred mono mix produced by Giles’ father, George Martin. Praised by fans and music critics around the world, The Beatles’ ‘Sgt. Pepper’ Anniversary Edition is 2017’s most celebrated historical music release and an ideal gift for Beatle People here, there, and everywhere.
Using the original 1964 mono master, new lacquers have been cut all-analogue by Kevin Reeves at Nashville’s East Iris Studios. By constantly referring to the original first pressing, the album is faithful to the original release while also enabling more musical information to be heard than was possible before. Featuring faithfully replicated artwork and a new four-panel insert with essay by American Beatles historian, Bruce Spizer. 180gram audiophile pressing.
TRACK LISTING
1. I’ll Cry Instead
2. Things We Said Today
3. Any Time At All
4. When I Get Home
5. Slow Down
6. Matchbox
7. Tell Me Why
8. And I Love Her
9. I’m Happy Just To Dance With You
10. If I Fell
1964 was the year that the U.S.A. first fell head-over-heels for The Beatles, with an unprecedented run of albums and singles topping the charts and going on to sell millions of copies. But these albums are not simply replicas of the 1963 and 1964 albums released by Parlophone in the UK and rest of world. Seeing a different opportunity, Capitol Records and United Artists compiled these albums for U.S. release between January 1964 and March 1965.
To celebrate the momentous year when Beatlemania exploded across the U.S., seven Beatles albums are collected for a spectacular new 8LP vinyl box set. 'Meet The Beatles!'; 'The Beatles’ Second Album'; 'A Hard Day’s Night (Original Motion Picture Sound Track)'; 'Something New'; 'The Beatles’ Story' (2LP); 'Beatles ’65'; and 'The Early Beatles' all feature faithfully replicated artwork and new four-panel inserts with essays written by American Beatles historian and author Bruce Spizer. The albums’ new vinyl lacquers were cut by Kevin Reeves at Nashville’s East Iris Studios with constant reference to the original vinyl first pressings to ensure they are faithful to the original release, while also enabling more musical information to be heard than was possible before. 180 gram audiophile pressing. 'The Beatles’ Story' 2LP is exclusive to the box set.
To celebrate the momentous year when Beatlemania exploded across the U.S., seven Beatles albums are collected for a spectacular new 8LP vinyl box set. 'Meet The Beatles!'; 'The Beatles’ Second Album'; 'A Hard Day’s Night (Original Motion Picture Sound Track)'; 'Something New'; 'The Beatles’ Story' (2LP); 'Beatles ’65'; and 'The Early Beatles' all feature faithfully replicated artwork and new four-panel inserts with essays written by American Beatles historian and author Bruce Spizer. The albums’ new vinyl lacquers were cut by Kevin Reeves at Nashville’s East Iris Studios with constant reference to the original vinyl first pressings to ensure they are faithful to the original release, while also enabling more musical information to be heard than was possible before. 180 gram audiophile pressing. 'The Beatles’ Story' 2LP is exclusive to the box set.
TRACK LISTING
LP1 - Meet The Beatles!:
1. I Want To Hold Your Hand
2. I Saw Her Standing There
3. This Boy
4. It Won’t Be Long
5. All I’ve Got To Do
6. All My Loving
7. Don’t Bother Me
8. Little Child
9. Till There Was You
10. Hold Me Tight
11. I Wanna Be Your Man
12. Not A Second Time
LP2 - The Beatles' Second Album:
1. Roll Over Beethoven
2. Thank You Girl
3. You Really Got A Hold On Me
4. Devil In Her Heart
5. Money
6. You Can’t Do That
7. Long Tall Sally
8. I Call Your Name
9. Please Mister Postman
10. I’ll Get You
11. She Loves You
LP3 - A Hard Day’s Night (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack):
1. A Hard Day’s Night
2. Tell Me Why
3. I’ll Cry Instead
4. I Should Have Known Better (Instrumental)
5. I’m Happy Just To Dance With You
6. And I Love Her (Instrumental)
7. I Should Have Known Better
8. If I Fell
9. And I Love Her
10. Ringo’s Theme (This Boy) (Instrumental)
11. Can’t Buy Me Love
12. A Hard Day’s Night (Instrumental)
LP4/5 - The Beatles Story:
1. On Stage With The Beatles
2. How Beatlemania Began
3. Beatlemania In Action
4. Man Behind The Beatles – Brian Epstein
5. John Lennon
6. Who's A Millionaire?
7. Beatles Will Be Beatles
8. Man Behind The Music – George Martin
9. George Harrison
10. A Hard Day's Night – Their First Movie
11. Paul McCartney
12. Sneaky Haircuts And More About Paul
13. The Beatles Look At Life
14. 'Victims' Of Beatlemania
15. Beatle Medley
16. Ringo Starr
17. Liverpool And All The World!
LP6 - Something New:
1. I’ll Cry Instead
2. Things We Said Today
3. Any Time At All
4. When I Get Home
5. Slow Down
6. Matchbox
7. Tell Me Why
8. And I Love Her
9. I’m Happy Just To Dance With You
10. If I Fell
LP7 - Beatles ’65:
1. No Reply
2. I’m A Loser
3. Baby’s In Black
4. Rock And Roll Music
5. I’ll Follow The Sun
6. Mr. Moonlight
7. Honey Don’t
8. I’ll Be Back
9. She’s A Woman
10. I Feel Fine
11. Everybody’s Trying To Be My Baby
LP8 - The Early Beatles:
1. Love Me Do
2. Twist And Shout
3. Anna
4. Chains
5. Boys
6. Ask Me Why
7. Please Please Me
8. PS I Love You
9 .Baby It’s You
10. A Taste Of Honey
11. Do You Want To Know A Secret
Using the original 1964 mono master, new lacquers have been cut all-analogue by Kevin Reeves at Nashville’s East Iris Studios. By constantly referring to the original first pressing, the album is faithful to the original release while also enabling more musical information to be heard than was possible before. Featuring faithfully replicated artwork and a new four-panel insert with essay by American Beatles historian, Bruce Spizer. 180gram audiophile pressing.
TRACK LISTING
1. Roll Over Beethoven
2. Thank You Girl
3. You Really Got A Hold On Me
4. Devil In Her Heart
5. Money
6. You Can’t Do That
7. Long Tall Sally
8. I Call Your Name
9. Please Mister Postman
10. I’ll Get You
11. She Loves You
Using the original 1965 mono master, new lacquers have been cut all-analogue by Kevin Reeves at Nashville’s East Iris Studios. By constantly referring to the original first pressing, the album is faithful to the original release while also enabling more musical information to be heard than was possible before. Featuring faithfully replicated artwork and a new four-panel insert with essay by American Beatles historian, Bruce Spizer. 180gram audiophile pressing.
TRACK LISTING
1. Love Me Do
2. Twist And Shout
3. Anna
4. Chains
5. Boys
6. Ask Me Why
7. Please Please Me
8. PS I Love You
9 .Baby It’s You
10. A Taste Of Honey
11. Do You Want To Know A Secret
In November 1968, millions of double LPs were shipped to record stores worldwide ahead of that tumultuous year’s most anticipated music event: the November 22nd release of The BEATLES (soon to be better known as ‘The White Album’). With their ninth studio album, The Beatles took the world on a whole new trip, side one blasting off with the exhilarating rush of a screaming jet escorting Paul McCartney’s punchy, exuberant vocals on “Back In The U.S.S.R.” “Dear Prudence” came next, John Lennon warmly beckoning his friend and all of us to “look around.” George Harrison imparted timeless wisdom in “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” singing, “With every mistake we must surely be learning.” Ringo Starr’s “Don’t Pass Me By” marked his first solo songwriting credit on a Beatles album. For 50 years, ‘The White Album’ has invited its listeners to venture forth and explore the breadth and ambition of its music, delighting and inspiring each new generation in turn.
For it’s 50th anniversary, The Beatles release a suite of lavishly presented ‘White Album’ packages. The album’s 30 tracks are newly mixed by producer Giles Martin and mix engineer Sam Okell in stereo and 5.1 surround audio, joined by 27 early acoustic demos and 50 session takes, most of which are previously unreleased in any form.
“We had left Sgt. Pepper’s band to play in his sunny Elysian Fields and were now striding out in new directions without a map,” says Paul McCartney in his written introduction for the new ‘White Album’ releases.
This is the first time The BEATLES (‘White Album’) has been remixed and presented with additional demos and session recordings. The album’s sweeping new edition follows 2017’s universally acclaimed Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band Anniversary Edition releases. To create the new stereo and 5.1 surround audio mixes for ‘The White Album,’ Martin and Okell worked with an expert team of engineers and audio restoration specialists at Abbey Road Studios in London. All the new ‘White Album’ releases include Martin’s new stereo album mix, sourced directly from the original four-track and eight-track session tapes. Martin’s new mix is guided by the album’s original stereo mix produced by his father, George Martin.
“In remixing ‘The White Album,’ we’ve tried to bring you as close as possible to The Beatles in the studio,” explains Giles Martin in his written introduction for the new edition. “We’ve peeled back the layers of the ‘Glass Onion’ with the hope of immersing old and new listeners into one of the most diverse and inspiring albums ever made.”
The minimalist artwork for ‘The White Album’ was created by artist Richard Hamilton, one of Britain’s leading figures in the creation and rise of pop art. The top-loading gatefold sleeve’s stark white exterior had ‘The BEATLES’ embossed on the front and printed on the spine with the album’s catalogue number. Early copies of ‘The White Album’ were also individually numbered on the front, which has also been done for the new edition’s Super Deluxe package. The set’s six CDs and Blu-ray disc are housed in a slipsleeved 164-page hardbound book, with pull-out reproductions of the original album’s four glossy color portrait photographs of John, Paul, George, and Ringo, as well as the album’s large fold-out poster with a photo collage on one side and lyrics on the other. The beautiful book is illustrated with rare photographs, reproductions of handwritten and notated lyrics, previously unpublished photos of recording sheets and tape boxes, and reproduced original ‘White Album’ print ads. The book’s comprehensive written pieces include new introductions by Paul McCartney and Giles Martin, and in-depth chapters covering track-by-track details and session notes reflecting The Beatles’ year between the release of ‘Sgt. Pepper’ and recording sessions for ‘The White Album,’ the band’s July 28 1968 “Mad Day Out” photo shoot in locations around London, the album artwork, the lead-up and execution of the album’s blockbuster release, and its far-ranging influence, written by Beatles historian, author and radio producer Kevin Howlett; journalist and author John Harris; and Tate Britain’s Senior Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art Andrew Wilson.
The Deluxe 3CD is presented in an embossed digipak with the fold-out poster and portrait photos, plus a 24-page booklet abridged from the Super Deluxe book. Presented in a lift-top box with a four-page booklet, the limited edition Deluxe 4LP vinyl set presents the 2LP album in a faithful, embossed reproduction of its original gatefold sleeve with the fold-out poster and portrait photos, paired with the 2LP Esher Demos in an embossed gatefold sleeve.
Much of the initial songwriting for ‘The White Album’ was done in Rishikesh, India between February and April 1968, when John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr joined a course at the Maharishi’s Academy of Transcendental Meditation. In a postcard to Ringo, who had returned to England before the others, John wrote, “we’ve got about two L.P.s worth of songs now so get your drums out.”
During the last week of May, The Beatles gathered at George’s house in Esher, Surrey, where they recorded acoustic demos for 27 songs. Known as the Esher Demos, all 27 recordings are included in the new edition’s Deluxe and Super Deluxe packages, sourced from the original four-track tapes. Twenty-one of the demoed songs were recorded during the subsequent studio sessions, and 19 were ultimately finished and included on ‘The White Album.’
The Beatles’ studio sessions for The BEATLES (‘White Album’) began on May 30, 1968 at Abbey Road Studios. In the 20 weeks that followed, The Beatles devoted most of their time to sessions there for the new album, with some recording also done at Trident Studios. The final session for the album took place at Abbey Road on October 16, a 24-hour marathon with producer George Martin to sequence the double album’s four sides and to complete edits and cross-fades between its songs. The Beatles’ approach to recording for ‘The White Album’ was quite different from what they had done for ‘Sgt. Pepper.’ Rather than layering individually overdubbed parts on a multi-track tape, many of the ‘White Album’ session takes were recorded to four-track and eight-track tape as group performances with a live lead vocal. The Beatles often recorded take after take for a song, as evidenced by the Super Deluxe set’s Take 102 for “Not Guilty,” a song that was not included on the album. This live-take recording style resulted in a less intricately structured, more unbridled album that would shift the course of rock music and cut a path for punk and indie rock.
The Beatles’ newly adopted method of recording all through the night was time consuming and exhausting for their producer, George Martin. Martin had other duties, including his management of AIR (Associated Independent Recording), and he had also composed the orchestral score for The Beatles’ animated feature film, Yellow Submarine, released in July 1968. After the first three months of ‘White Album’ sessions, Martin took a three-week holiday from the studio, entrusting the control room to his young assistant Chris Thomas and balance engineer Ken Scott. Scott had taken the place of engineer Geoff Emerick, who left the sessions in mid-July. On August 22, Ringo Starr also left the sessions, returning 11 days later to find his drum kit adorned with flowers from his bandmates. While the sessions’ four and a half months of long hours and many takes did spark occasional friction in the studio, the session recordings reveal the closeness, camaraderie, and collaborative strengths within the band, as well as with George Martin.
The BEATLES (‘White Album’) was the first Beatles album to be released on the group’s own Apple Records label. Issued in both stereo and mono for the U.K. and in stereo for the U.S., the double album was an immediate bestseller, entering the British chart at number one and remaining there for eight of the 22 weeks it was listed. ‘The White Album’ also debuted at number one on the U.S. chart, holding the top spot for nine weeks of its initial 65-week chart run. In his glowing ‘White Album’ review for Rolling Stone, the magazine’s co-founder Jann Wenner declared: “It is the best album they have ever released, and only The Beatles are capable of making a better one.” In the U.S., ‘The White Album’ is 19-times platinum-certified by the RIAA and in 2000, it was inducted into the Recording Academy’s GRAMMY® Hall of Fame, recognizing “recordings of lasting qualitative or historical significance.”
For it’s 50th anniversary, The Beatles release a suite of lavishly presented ‘White Album’ packages. The album’s 30 tracks are newly mixed by producer Giles Martin and mix engineer Sam Okell in stereo and 5.1 surround audio, joined by 27 early acoustic demos and 50 session takes, most of which are previously unreleased in any form.
“We had left Sgt. Pepper’s band to play in his sunny Elysian Fields and were now striding out in new directions without a map,” says Paul McCartney in his written introduction for the new ‘White Album’ releases.
This is the first time The BEATLES (‘White Album’) has been remixed and presented with additional demos and session recordings. The album’s sweeping new edition follows 2017’s universally acclaimed Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band Anniversary Edition releases. To create the new stereo and 5.1 surround audio mixes for ‘The White Album,’ Martin and Okell worked with an expert team of engineers and audio restoration specialists at Abbey Road Studios in London. All the new ‘White Album’ releases include Martin’s new stereo album mix, sourced directly from the original four-track and eight-track session tapes. Martin’s new mix is guided by the album’s original stereo mix produced by his father, George Martin.
“In remixing ‘The White Album,’ we’ve tried to bring you as close as possible to The Beatles in the studio,” explains Giles Martin in his written introduction for the new edition. “We’ve peeled back the layers of the ‘Glass Onion’ with the hope of immersing old and new listeners into one of the most diverse and inspiring albums ever made.”
The minimalist artwork for ‘The White Album’ was created by artist Richard Hamilton, one of Britain’s leading figures in the creation and rise of pop art. The top-loading gatefold sleeve’s stark white exterior had ‘The BEATLES’ embossed on the front and printed on the spine with the album’s catalogue number. Early copies of ‘The White Album’ were also individually numbered on the front, which has also been done for the new edition’s Super Deluxe package. The set’s six CDs and Blu-ray disc are housed in a slipsleeved 164-page hardbound book, with pull-out reproductions of the original album’s four glossy color portrait photographs of John, Paul, George, and Ringo, as well as the album’s large fold-out poster with a photo collage on one side and lyrics on the other. The beautiful book is illustrated with rare photographs, reproductions of handwritten and notated lyrics, previously unpublished photos of recording sheets and tape boxes, and reproduced original ‘White Album’ print ads. The book’s comprehensive written pieces include new introductions by Paul McCartney and Giles Martin, and in-depth chapters covering track-by-track details and session notes reflecting The Beatles’ year between the release of ‘Sgt. Pepper’ and recording sessions for ‘The White Album,’ the band’s July 28 1968 “Mad Day Out” photo shoot in locations around London, the album artwork, the lead-up and execution of the album’s blockbuster release, and its far-ranging influence, written by Beatles historian, author and radio producer Kevin Howlett; journalist and author John Harris; and Tate Britain’s Senior Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art Andrew Wilson.
The Deluxe 3CD is presented in an embossed digipak with the fold-out poster and portrait photos, plus a 24-page booklet abridged from the Super Deluxe book. Presented in a lift-top box with a four-page booklet, the limited edition Deluxe 4LP vinyl set presents the 2LP album in a faithful, embossed reproduction of its original gatefold sleeve with the fold-out poster and portrait photos, paired with the 2LP Esher Demos in an embossed gatefold sleeve.
Much of the initial songwriting for ‘The White Album’ was done in Rishikesh, India between February and April 1968, when John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr joined a course at the Maharishi’s Academy of Transcendental Meditation. In a postcard to Ringo, who had returned to England before the others, John wrote, “we’ve got about two L.P.s worth of songs now so get your drums out.”
During the last week of May, The Beatles gathered at George’s house in Esher, Surrey, where they recorded acoustic demos for 27 songs. Known as the Esher Demos, all 27 recordings are included in the new edition’s Deluxe and Super Deluxe packages, sourced from the original four-track tapes. Twenty-one of the demoed songs were recorded during the subsequent studio sessions, and 19 were ultimately finished and included on ‘The White Album.’
The Beatles’ studio sessions for The BEATLES (‘White Album’) began on May 30, 1968 at Abbey Road Studios. In the 20 weeks that followed, The Beatles devoted most of their time to sessions there for the new album, with some recording also done at Trident Studios. The final session for the album took place at Abbey Road on October 16, a 24-hour marathon with producer George Martin to sequence the double album’s four sides and to complete edits and cross-fades between its songs. The Beatles’ approach to recording for ‘The White Album’ was quite different from what they had done for ‘Sgt. Pepper.’ Rather than layering individually overdubbed parts on a multi-track tape, many of the ‘White Album’ session takes were recorded to four-track and eight-track tape as group performances with a live lead vocal. The Beatles often recorded take after take for a song, as evidenced by the Super Deluxe set’s Take 102 for “Not Guilty,” a song that was not included on the album. This live-take recording style resulted in a less intricately structured, more unbridled album that would shift the course of rock music and cut a path for punk and indie rock.
The Beatles’ newly adopted method of recording all through the night was time consuming and exhausting for their producer, George Martin. Martin had other duties, including his management of AIR (Associated Independent Recording), and he had also composed the orchestral score for The Beatles’ animated feature film, Yellow Submarine, released in July 1968. After the first three months of ‘White Album’ sessions, Martin took a three-week holiday from the studio, entrusting the control room to his young assistant Chris Thomas and balance engineer Ken Scott. Scott had taken the place of engineer Geoff Emerick, who left the sessions in mid-July. On August 22, Ringo Starr also left the sessions, returning 11 days later to find his drum kit adorned with flowers from his bandmates. While the sessions’ four and a half months of long hours and many takes did spark occasional friction in the studio, the session recordings reveal the closeness, camaraderie, and collaborative strengths within the band, as well as with George Martin.
The BEATLES (‘White Album’) was the first Beatles album to be released on the group’s own Apple Records label. Issued in both stereo and mono for the U.K. and in stereo for the U.S., the double album was an immediate bestseller, entering the British chart at number one and remaining there for eight of the 22 weeks it was listed. ‘The White Album’ also debuted at number one on the U.S. chart, holding the top spot for nine weeks of its initial 65-week chart run. In his glowing ‘White Album’ review for Rolling Stone, the magazine’s co-founder Jann Wenner declared: “It is the best album they have ever released, and only The Beatles are capable of making a better one.” In the U.S., ‘The White Album’ is 19-times platinum-certified by the RIAA and in 2000, it was inducted into the Recording Academy’s GRAMMY® Hall of Fame, recognizing “recordings of lasting qualitative or historical significance.”
TRACK LISTING
Super Deluxe [6CD+1Blu-ray Set / Digital Audio Collection]
CD 1: The BEATLES (‘White Album’) 2018 Stereo Mix
Back In The U.S.S.R.
Dear Prudence
Glass Onion
Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
Wild Honey Pie
The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill
While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Happiness Is A Warm Gun
Martha My Dear
I’m So Tired
Blackbird
Piggies
Rocky Raccoon
Don’t Pass Me By
Why Don’t We Do It In The Road?
I Will
Julia
CD 2: The BEATLES (‘White Album’) 2018 Stereo Mix
Birthday
Yer Blues
Mother Nature’s Son
Everybody’s Got Something To Hide
Except Me And My Monkey
Sexy Sadie
Helter Skelter
Long, Long, Long
Revolution I
Honey Pie
Savoy Truffle
Cry Baby Cry
Revolution 9
Good Night
CD 3: Esher Demos
Back In The U.S.S.R.
Dear Prudence
Glass Onion
Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill
While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Happiness Is A Warm Gun
I’m So Tired
Blackbird
Piggies
Rocky Raccoon
Julia
Yer Blues
Mother Nature’s Son
Everybody’s Got Something To Hide
Except Me And My Monkey
Sexy Sadie
Revolution
Honey Pie
Cry Baby Cry
Sour Milk Sea
Junk
Child Of Nature
Circles
Mean Mr. Mustard
Polythene Pam
Not Guilty
What’s The New Mary Jane
CD 4: Sessions
Revolution I (Take 18)
A Beginning (Take 4) / Don’t Pass Me By (Take 7)
Blackbird (Take 28)
Everybody’s Got Something To Hide
Except Me And My Monkey (Unnumbered Rehearsal)
Good Night (Unnumbered Rehearsal)
Good Night (Take 10 With A Guitar Part From Take 5)
Good Night (Take 22)
Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da (Take 3)
Revolution (Unnumbered Rehearsal)
Revolution (Take 14 – Instrumental Backing Track)
Cry Baby Cry (Unnumbered Rehearsal)
Helter Skelter (First Version – Take 2)
CD 5: Sessions
Sexy Sadie (Take 3)
While My Guitar Gently Weeps (Acoustic Version – Take 2)
Hey Jude (Take 1)
St. Louis Blues (Studio Jam)
Not Guilty (Take 102)
Mother Nature’s Son (Take 15)
Yer Blues (Take 5 With Guide Vocal)
What’s The New Mary Jane (Take 1)
Rocky Raccoon (Take 8)
Back In The U.S.S.R. (Take 5 – Instrumental Backing Track)
Dear Prudence (Vocal, Guitar & Drums)
Let It Be (Unnumbered Rehearsal)
While My Guitar Gently Weeps (Third Version – Take 27)
(You’re So Square) Baby, I Don’t Care (Studio Jam)
Helter Skelter (Second Version – Take 17)
Glass Onion (Take 10)
CD 6: Sessions
I Will (Take 13)
Blue Moon (Studio Jam)
I Will (Take 29)
Step Inside Love (Studio Jam)
Los Paranoias (Studio Jam)
Can You Take Me Back? (Take 1)
Birthday (Take 2 – Instrumental Backing Track)
Piggies (Take 12 – Instrumental Backing Track)
Happiness Is A Warm Gun (Take 19)
Honey Pie (Instrumental Backing Track)
Savoy Truffle (Instrumental Backing Track)
Martha My Dear (Without Brass And Strings)
Long, Long, Long (Take 44)
I’m So Tired (Take 7)
I’m So Tired (Take 14)
The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill (Take 2)
Why Don’t We Do It In The Road? (Take 5)
Julia (Two Rehearsals)
The Inner Light (Take 6 – Instrumental Backing Track)
Lady Madonna (Take 2 – Piano And Drums)
Lady Madonna (Backing Vocals From Take 3)
Across The Universe (Take 6)
Blu-ray: The BEATLES (‘White Album’)
Audio Features:
: PCM Stereo (2018 Stereo Mix)
: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (2018)
: Dolby True HD 5.1 (2018)
: Mono (2018 Direct Transfer Of ‘The White Album’ Original Mono Mix)
Deluxe [3CD Digipak / 180-gram 4LP Vinyl Box Set (limited Edition)
The BEATLES (‘White Album’) 2018 Stereo Mix
Esher Demos
Standard 2LP Vinyl [180-gram]
The BEATLES (‘White Album’) 2018 Stereo Mix
Manufactured on 180-gram, audiophile quality vinyl with replicated artwork, the 14 albums return to their original glory with details including the poster in The Beatles (The White Album), the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart Club Band’s cut-outs, and special inner bags for some of the titles.
The titles include The Beatles’ 12 original UK albums, first released between 1963 and 1970, the US-originated Magical Mystery Tour, now part of the group’s core catalogue, and Past Masters, Volumes One & Two, featuring non-album A-sides and B-sides, EP tracks and rarities.
Since it was recorded, The Beatles’ music has been heard on a variety of formats – from chunky reel-to-reel tapes and eight-track cartridges to invisible computer files. But there has never been a more romantic or thrilling medium for music than a long-playing twelve-inch disc. We ‘play’ records. The process of carefully slipping the disc out of the sleeve, cleaning it and lowering the stylus provides a personal involvement in the reproduction of the music.
In September, 2009, The Beatles’ remastered albums on CD graced charts around the world. Seventeen million album sales within seven months was resounding evidence of the timeless relevance of their legacy. Through five decades, the music of The Beatles has captivated generation upon generation.
For producer Rick Rubin, surveying The Beatles’ recorded achievements is akin to witnessing a miracle. “If we look at it by today’s standards, whoever the most popular bands in the world are, they will typically put out an album every four years,” Rubin said in a 2009 radio series interview. “So, let’s say two albums as an eight year cycle. And think of the growth or change between those two albums. The idea that The Beatles made thirteen albums in seven years and went through that arc of change... it can’t be done. Truthfully, I think of it as proof of God, because it’s beyond man’s ability.”
There has always been demand for The Beatles’ albums on vinyl. Indeed, 2011’s best-selling vinyl LP in the United States was Abbey Road. Following the success of The Beatles’ acclaimed, GRAMMY Award-winning 2009 CD remasters, it was decided that the sound experts at EMI’s Abbey Road Studios should create new versions of The Beatles’ vinyl LPs. The project demanded the same meticulous approach taken for the CD releases, and the brief was a simple one: cut the digital remasters to vinyl with an absolute minimum of compromise to the sound. However, the process involved to do that was far from simple.
The first stage in transferring the sound of a master recording to vinyl is the creation of a disc to be used during vinyl manufacture. There were two options to consider. A Direct Metal Master (DMM), developed in the late seventies, allows sound to be cut directly into a stainless steel disc coated with a hard copper alloy. The older, alternative method is to cut the sound into the soft lacquer coating on a nickel disc - the first of several steps leading to the production of a stamper to press the vinyl.
A ‘blind’ listening test was arranged to choose between a ‘lacquer’ or ‘copper’ cut. Using both methods, A Hard Day’s Night was pressed with ten seconds of silence at the beginning and end of each side. This allowed not only the reproduction of the music to be assessed, but also the noise made by the vinyl itself. After much discussion, two factors swung the decision towards using the lacquer process. First, it was judged to create a warmer sound than a DMM. Secondly, there was a practical advantage of having ‘blank’ discs of a consistent quality when cutting lacquers.
The next step was to use the Neumann VMS80 cutting lathe at Abbey Road. Following thorough mechanical and electrical tests to ensure it was operating in peak condition, engineer Sean Magee cut the LPs in chronological release order. He used the original 24-bit remasters rather than the 16-bit versions that were required for CD production. It was also decided to use the remasters that had not undergone ‘limiting’ - a procedure to increase the sound level, which is deemed necessary for most current pop CDs.
Having made initial test cuts, Magee pinpointed any sound problems that can occur during playback of vinyl records. To rectify them, changes were made to the remasters with a Digital Audio Workstation. For example, each vinyl album was listened to for any ‘sibilant episodes’ - vocal distortion that can occur on consonant sounds such as S and T. These were corrected by reducing the level in the very small portion of sound causing the undesired effect. Similarly, any likelihood of ‘inner-groove distortion’ was addressed. As the stylus approaches the centre of the record, it is liable to track the groove less accurately. This can affect the high-middle frequencies, producing a ‘mushy’ sound particularly noticeable on vocals. Using what Magee has described as ‘surgical EQ,’ problem frequencies were identified and reduced in level to compensate for this.
The last phase of the vinyl mastering process began with the arrival of the first batches of test pressings made from master lacquers that had been sent to the two pressing plant factories. Stringent quality tests identified any noise or click appearing on more than one test pressing in the same place. If this happened, it was clear that the undesired sounds had been introduced either during the cutting or the pressing stage and so the test records were rejected. In the quest to achieve the highest quality possible, the Abbey Road team worked closely with the pressing factories and the manufacturers of the lacquer and cutting styli.
An additional and unusual challenge was to ensure the proper playback of the sounds embedded in the ‘lock-groove’ at the end of side two of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Requiring a combination of good timing and luck, it had always been a lengthy and costly process to make it work properly. In fact, it was so tricky, it had never been attempted for American pressings of the LP. Naturally, Sean Magee and the team perfected this and the garbled message is heard as originally intended on the remastered Sgt. Pepper LP.
Highly-skilled technicians have worked long and hard to make The Beatles on vinyl sound better than ever. All we need to do is listen to the results of their dedicated labour on the remastered LPs. Handle with care. But most of all, enjoy the music.
The titles include The Beatles’ 12 original UK albums, first released between 1963 and 1970, the US-originated Magical Mystery Tour, now part of the group’s core catalogue, and Past Masters, Volumes One & Two, featuring non-album A-sides and B-sides, EP tracks and rarities.
Since it was recorded, The Beatles’ music has been heard on a variety of formats – from chunky reel-to-reel tapes and eight-track cartridges to invisible computer files. But there has never been a more romantic or thrilling medium for music than a long-playing twelve-inch disc. We ‘play’ records. The process of carefully slipping the disc out of the sleeve, cleaning it and lowering the stylus provides a personal involvement in the reproduction of the music.
In September, 2009, The Beatles’ remastered albums on CD graced charts around the world. Seventeen million album sales within seven months was resounding evidence of the timeless relevance of their legacy. Through five decades, the music of The Beatles has captivated generation upon generation.
For producer Rick Rubin, surveying The Beatles’ recorded achievements is akin to witnessing a miracle. “If we look at it by today’s standards, whoever the most popular bands in the world are, they will typically put out an album every four years,” Rubin said in a 2009 radio series interview. “So, let’s say two albums as an eight year cycle. And think of the growth or change between those two albums. The idea that The Beatles made thirteen albums in seven years and went through that arc of change... it can’t be done. Truthfully, I think of it as proof of God, because it’s beyond man’s ability.”
There has always been demand for The Beatles’ albums on vinyl. Indeed, 2011’s best-selling vinyl LP in the United States was Abbey Road. Following the success of The Beatles’ acclaimed, GRAMMY Award-winning 2009 CD remasters, it was decided that the sound experts at EMI’s Abbey Road Studios should create new versions of The Beatles’ vinyl LPs. The project demanded the same meticulous approach taken for the CD releases, and the brief was a simple one: cut the digital remasters to vinyl with an absolute minimum of compromise to the sound. However, the process involved to do that was far from simple.
The first stage in transferring the sound of a master recording to vinyl is the creation of a disc to be used during vinyl manufacture. There were two options to consider. A Direct Metal Master (DMM), developed in the late seventies, allows sound to be cut directly into a stainless steel disc coated with a hard copper alloy. The older, alternative method is to cut the sound into the soft lacquer coating on a nickel disc - the first of several steps leading to the production of a stamper to press the vinyl.
A ‘blind’ listening test was arranged to choose between a ‘lacquer’ or ‘copper’ cut. Using both methods, A Hard Day’s Night was pressed with ten seconds of silence at the beginning and end of each side. This allowed not only the reproduction of the music to be assessed, but also the noise made by the vinyl itself. After much discussion, two factors swung the decision towards using the lacquer process. First, it was judged to create a warmer sound than a DMM. Secondly, there was a practical advantage of having ‘blank’ discs of a consistent quality when cutting lacquers.
The next step was to use the Neumann VMS80 cutting lathe at Abbey Road. Following thorough mechanical and electrical tests to ensure it was operating in peak condition, engineer Sean Magee cut the LPs in chronological release order. He used the original 24-bit remasters rather than the 16-bit versions that were required for CD production. It was also decided to use the remasters that had not undergone ‘limiting’ - a procedure to increase the sound level, which is deemed necessary for most current pop CDs.
Having made initial test cuts, Magee pinpointed any sound problems that can occur during playback of vinyl records. To rectify them, changes were made to the remasters with a Digital Audio Workstation. For example, each vinyl album was listened to for any ‘sibilant episodes’ - vocal distortion that can occur on consonant sounds such as S and T. These were corrected by reducing the level in the very small portion of sound causing the undesired effect. Similarly, any likelihood of ‘inner-groove distortion’ was addressed. As the stylus approaches the centre of the record, it is liable to track the groove less accurately. This can affect the high-middle frequencies, producing a ‘mushy’ sound particularly noticeable on vocals. Using what Magee has described as ‘surgical EQ,’ problem frequencies were identified and reduced in level to compensate for this.
The last phase of the vinyl mastering process began with the arrival of the first batches of test pressings made from master lacquers that had been sent to the two pressing plant factories. Stringent quality tests identified any noise or click appearing on more than one test pressing in the same place. If this happened, it was clear that the undesired sounds had been introduced either during the cutting or the pressing stage and so the test records were rejected. In the quest to achieve the highest quality possible, the Abbey Road team worked closely with the pressing factories and the manufacturers of the lacquer and cutting styli.
An additional and unusual challenge was to ensure the proper playback of the sounds embedded in the ‘lock-groove’ at the end of side two of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Requiring a combination of good timing and luck, it had always been a lengthy and costly process to make it work properly. In fact, it was so tricky, it had never been attempted for American pressings of the LP. Naturally, Sean Magee and the team perfected this and the garbled message is heard as originally intended on the remastered Sgt. Pepper LP.
Highly-skilled technicians have worked long and hard to make The Beatles on vinyl sound better than ever. All we need to do is listen to the results of their dedicated labour on the remastered LPs. Handle with care. But most of all, enjoy the music.
TRACK LISTING
Side 1:
1. Yellow Submarine (2009 - Remaster)
2. Only A Northern Song (2009 - Remaster)
3. All Together Now (2009 - Remaster)
4. Hey Bulldog (2009 - Remaster)
5. It's All Too Much (2009 - Remaster)
6. All You Need Is Love (2009 - Remaster)
Side 2:
1. Pepperland (2009 - Remaster)
2. Sea Of Time (2009 - Remaster)
3. Sea Of Holes (2009 - Remaster)
4. Sea Of Monsters (2009 - Remaster)
5. March Of The Meanies (2009 - Remaster)
6. Pepperland Laid Waste (2009 - Remaster)
7. Yellow Submarine In Pepperland (2009 - Remaster)
Forged in a warehouse in Liverpool's Baltic Triangle, Beatowls emerge in 2023 as a genre-defying trio. Darcie Chazen, Tom Roberts and Carl Cook, possess distinct talents, fusing elements of electro, folk, and psychedelia into captivating, dark atmospheric grooves.
The city’s urban-industrial mood inspires their sound, weaving evocative and cinematic tones into their upcoming debut album Marma.
For Fans Of : Dean Blunt and Inga Copeland,The XX, Portishead , Nancy & Lee Badalamenti/Lynch, Broadcast, Warp Records.
Above all, Beatowls embody a journey. Their story starts from a shared passion, extends into this collection of songs and sounds, and hints at a future filled with creative exploration.
From a dream in a Liverpool warehouse to a national platform, Beatowls stand on the cusp of an era promising audio adventures steeped in originality, emotive tales, and sonic diversity.
The city’s urban-industrial mood inspires their sound, weaving evocative and cinematic tones into their upcoming debut album Marma.
For Fans Of : Dean Blunt and Inga Copeland,The XX, Portishead , Nancy & Lee Badalamenti/Lynch, Broadcast, Warp Records.
Above all, Beatowls embody a journey. Their story starts from a shared passion, extends into this collection of songs and sounds, and hints at a future filled with creative exploration.
From a dream in a Liverpool warehouse to a national platform, Beatowls stand on the cusp of an era promising audio adventures steeped in originality, emotive tales, and sonic diversity.
TRACK LISTING
SIDE A
01 Marma
02 I Pray
03 All I See Is Trouble
04 Nobody Knows Me
05 Twilight
SIDE B
01 Cinders
02 (Do You Want To Be) Loved?
03 Please Lie To Me
04 Dreams Of Home Invasion
05 Red Against The Twilight
I Just Can't Stop It is the debut studio album by British ska band the Beat, released on 23 May 1980 by Go-Feet Records in the United Kingdom. It was released the same year in the United States on Sire Records under the band name "The English Beat". In Australia, it was released on Go-Feet under the band name "The British Beat".
Well received from the start, publications such as Rolling Stone raved that the music was "wild and threatening, sexy and sharp." AllMusic later said it "was a stunning achievement", which has not been diminished by time.
Well received from the start, publications such as Rolling Stone raved that the music was "wild and threatening, sexy and sharp." AllMusic later said it "was a stunning achievement", which has not been diminished by time.
TRACK LISTING
Side A
Mirror In The Bathroom
Hands Off...She's Mine
Two Swords
Twist And Crawl
Rough Rider
Click Click
Side B
Big Shot
Whine & Grine / Stand Down Margaret
Noise In This World
Can’t Get Used To Losing You
Best Friend
Jackpot
Ethel Beatty is an artist from New York who primarily worked as an actress in theatre, appearing in Broadway musicals. She appeared in “Dreamgirls”, “Sugar Hills”, “Bubbling Brown Sugar” and (with Gregory Hines) in “Eubie”. Her most significant recording is this double header with writer/producer and master of the vibes Roy Ayers on Uno Melodic Records. While both songs have been reissued on 7” and compilations over the years, it is still the 12” people that people want. Rare original copies have sold for £500. “It’s Your Love” is co-written by another soul jazz icon, Dee Dee Bridgewater, both tracks having that Roy Ayers vibe that makes this record extremely sought after by rare groove fans. Both tracks continue to be endlessly sampled within the hip hop and R&B scenes.
TRACK LISTING
1. It's Your Love
2. I Know You Care
Beauty Sleep have earned a stellar reputation for crafting vibrant synth-driven pop music thanks to previous single releases like ‘Until We See The Sun’ and ‘All In’. Their debut LP Be Kind is released on Quiet Arch records.
The captivating record showcases a young group clearly in love with the process of creating music together. Flush with golden vocal harmonies, dazzling synths and earworm hooks, Be Kind is a huge step in Beauty Sleep’s blossoming career. Beauty Sleep’s music is born of the friendship its three members share. The Belfast natives met first by chance at a mutual friend’s party. While chatting, Cheylene, Ryan and Aimee discovered a powerful shared creative bond. Overcome with the rush of inspiration only the prospect of a new project instils, the group decided to seize the moment and focus their energy into forming a new band. Enter the lush dream-pop Beauty Sleep makes today. Their strong releases have been bolstered by the band’s high energy live performances, which the group view as another avenue for communal celebration of music and dance.
The captivating record showcases a young group clearly in love with the process of creating music together. Flush with golden vocal harmonies, dazzling synths and earworm hooks, Be Kind is a huge step in Beauty Sleep’s blossoming career. Beauty Sleep’s music is born of the friendship its three members share. The Belfast natives met first by chance at a mutual friend’s party. While chatting, Cheylene, Ryan and Aimee discovered a powerful shared creative bond. Overcome with the rush of inspiration only the prospect of a new project instils, the group decided to seize the moment and focus their energy into forming a new band. Enter the lush dream-pop Beauty Sleep makes today. Their strong releases have been bolstered by the band’s high energy live performances, which the group view as another avenue for communal celebration of music and dance.
TRACK LISTING
1 The Dark
2 On Repeat
3 Rainbow Ballroom
4 The Feeling Back
5 Lies
6 Synthetic Debris
7 Woman
8 All We See
9 Nature Will Eat Me
10 Be Kind
DFA hit us up with "Echo", the first album for the label from acclaimed Norwegian avant garde pop vocalist Nils Bech. A busy stage actor and singer already well known in his native Norway for three albums released on Oslo’s Fysisk Format, "Echo" marks a pivotal turning point for Bech and something of a radical sonic departure too. The keys to this change lie with Bech’s new collaborator, the young underground DJ, producer and beat maker Drippin’, known for his work with American rap artists such as LE1F and Cakes Da Killa. As a result, where his previous work was strange, ethereal and otherworldly - completely and utterly unique - ‘Echo’ throbs with a renewed sense of vigour and urgency, without losing any of the idiosyncratic beauty which marked Bech’s work before.
TRACK LISTING
Waiting
Too Little Too Late
Glimpse Of Hope
Please Stay
Drip, Drip
Let Go
Echo
Jealousy
A Sudden Sickness
Beck and Phoenix mark the kick-off of their hotly anticipated Summer Odyssey tour with the physical release of their collaborative sun-splashed banger, “Odyssey."
Their collaborative single hailed by UPROXX as "an empowered, shimmering anthem" and by FLOOD as "a joyful slice of hedonistic disco-pop" is released as a limited edition yellow vinyl 7" single featuring the "Odyssey (Instrumental)" on its B-side.
Their collaborative single hailed by UPROXX as "an empowered, shimmering anthem" and by FLOOD as "a joyful slice of hedonistic disco-pop" is released as a limited edition yellow vinyl 7" single featuring the "Odyssey (Instrumental)" on its B-side.
TRACK LISTING
1. Odyssey
2. Odyssey Instrumental
Debut album from super-project feat. members of Floating Points live band, Zongamin, Vanishing Twin, Lux Prima, JeanGa And George. Parisian cinema composer Jean-Gabriel Becker is best known for idiosyncratic soundscapes, has worked alongside Massive Attack on acclaimed film soundtracks and recorded with John Foxx. Susumu Mukai, originally from Osaka, Japan, is one of London’s most sought after musicians, whose list of collaborators includes Floating Points, Vanishing Twin, Alexis Taylor and Fimber Bravo. Together they’ve created fresh new music that floats effortlessly above traditional genre delineation, with a dubbed-out and experimental melange of modern acid house, post punk, global grooves and clattering beats.
Still not complying to genres,’TimeVery Near’ is their tentacular new album, which gathers sounds and inspiration from an ever-expanding palette of influences, assembled into something amorphously intangible that’s simultaneously refreshing and sharp, meandering and cosmic, futuristic but timelessly vintage.
Still not complying to genres,’TimeVery Near’ is their tentacular new album, which gathers sounds and inspiration from an ever-expanding palette of influences, assembled into something amorphously intangible that’s simultaneously refreshing and sharp, meandering and cosmic, futuristic but timelessly vintage.
TRACK LISTING
Dark Field Of The Republic
Tout Azimuth
Spice War Part One
More Eyes
The Double
Stellar Surf
Phantom Limb
Time Very Near
The mighty Becker & Mukai return with a tidal wave of sonic highways with new album 'Spirit Only', this time travelling outside of their East London studio bunker to Japanese mountains, with pit stops in Mali and Trinidad & Tobago
TRACK LISTING
1. Spirit Only
2. Sunshine Demagogue (feat. Daniella Croston)
3. Wild Away
4. Kinoku No Kioku (feat. Yama Warashi & Fimber Bravo)
5. Moon High
6. Ni Vu Ni Connu
7. Meditative Blip (feat. Alexis Taylor)
8. Toumado (feat. Kadialy Kouyate)
9. Azores Part 2
10. Deja Vu (feat. Alexis Taylor)
First-time vinyl edition of the 2008 album by the much-missed Harry Beckett, a Barbados-born trumpet player who became a key figure in the UK and European jazz scene.
“Beckett's genius is that he is always true to himself, whoever he performs with. His effervescent, tumbling, improvised melodies never fail to lift the spirits. The Modern Sound of Harry Beckett is a magnificent sonic treat.” — The Guardian.
“Sherwood's production style strikes a perfect balance here between sonic creativity and respectful restraint, and Beckett himself is brilliant, creating horn lines that weave and insinuate themselves through the grooves rather than riding on top of them. Established On-U Sound fans will find this to be an enjoyable curiosity; Harry Beckett fans may find it revelatory.” — All Music.
Edited for vinyl release by Adrian Sherwood and cut by Frank Merritt at The Carvery. Includes a printed inner sleeve with full liner notes.
“Beckett's genius is that he is always true to himself, whoever he performs with. His effervescent, tumbling, improvised melodies never fail to lift the spirits. The Modern Sound of Harry Beckett is a magnificent sonic treat.” — The Guardian.
“Sherwood's production style strikes a perfect balance here between sonic creativity and respectful restraint, and Beckett himself is brilliant, creating horn lines that weave and insinuate themselves through the grooves rather than riding on top of them. Established On-U Sound fans will find this to be an enjoyable curiosity; Harry Beckett fans may find it revelatory.” — All Music.
Edited for vinyl release by Adrian Sherwood and cut by Frank Merritt at The Carvery. Includes a printed inner sleeve with full liner notes.
TRACK LISTING
1. Something Special
2. Facing It
3. Ultimate Tribute
4. Fantastic Things
5. The Storyteller
6. Rise & Shine (Cry Of Triumph)
7. Out Of The Blue
8. Switch Up!
9. The Forgotten Man
10. Are You Sitting Comfortably?
"Guero" is already being heralded as one of Beck's finest albums and it sees a return to collaboration with producers The Dust Brothers (who last worked with him on "Odelay"). Gone are the melancholic acoustic vibes of "Sea Change", well mostly anyway - there is still some melancholy (and a few guitar twangs!) in amongst the "Odelay" style funky loose grooves, hip hop loops and samples. But don't think that this is by any means a step backwards, the reference points and influences on "Guero" are much wider and more refined than "Odelay" and the whole feel of the album is more cohesive. We love it!
Beck's 14th album feels like an amalgamation of previous albums, given a light dusting of pop sheen, thanks to the production of Pharrell Williams amongst others.
It's largely set at a fairly slow pace, with nods to the folk tinged melancholy of ‘Sea Change’ or ‘Morning Phase’, some lovely slo-mo synth-soaked pop and occasional upbeat moments: "Saw Lightning" harks back to his "Loser" days and is as upbeat and catchy as anything he's ever done.
On ‘Hyperspace’, he's hit the sweet spot between his adventurous, experimental past and the more accessible 'pop' leanings of his recent releases.
It's largely set at a fairly slow pace, with nods to the folk tinged melancholy of ‘Sea Change’ or ‘Morning Phase’, some lovely slo-mo synth-soaked pop and occasional upbeat moments: "Saw Lightning" harks back to his "Loser" days and is as upbeat and catchy as anything he's ever done.
On ‘Hyperspace’, he's hit the sweet spot between his adventurous, experimental past and the more accessible 'pop' leanings of his recent releases.
STAFF COMMENTS
Barry says: As ever, a brilliantly produced and impeccably conceived outing from the ever-reliable Beck. This one has a little more reliance on big rock choruses contrasting to Morning Phase's hazy atmospheres and languid curves. It's as brilliant as anything he's done for a long while, and shows clearly that there's no end to this man's talents, at least not yet!TRACK LISTING
Hyperlife
Uneventful Days
Saw Lightning
Die Waiting
Chemical
See Through
Hyperspace
Stratosphere
Dark Places
Star
Everlasting Nothing
Thea Gustafsson — who kickstarted her musical career as Becky and the Birds in 2016 after taking on production with sheer self-determination and a vision — began laying the groundwork for her upcoming album, 'Only Music Makes Me Cry Now', in 2021. At that time, her creative process was largely informed by a wide array of sources, including: insight from past collaborations with Dijon, Seinabo Sey, and Lapsley; obscure Bandcamp deep-dives; visits to live sets at clubs and dive bars across her two homes at that time, London and her native Stockholm; a variety of media fixations (including Derek Cianfrance’s Blue Valentine, Charlotte Wells’ Aftersun, and Eckhart Tolle’s A New Earth); and the crushing vortex of emotions she had been encountering in the aftermath of a life-altering breakup. During that time, she needed to “let it all out to take it all in,” motivating her to return to the studio as a means to wipe the slate completely clean and fully process everything she was experiencing. The songs she crafted during this period, which later became OMMMCN, therefore allow listeners to follow her through that time of intense healing, with the record’s exploratory, desperate, passionate, romantic, and heart-wrenchingly vulnerable lyrical backbone supported by a varied collection of sampled audio-bites from her everyday life (from old demos and phone recordings to natural city noise).
With 'Only Music Makes Me Cry Now', Gustafsson has returned to her roots, recalling the carefree, experimental mindset she inhabited when she first picked up producing, in addition to utilizing the boundless skills she’s gained since then. With this newest collection of ethereal, erratic, heavy-hitting, and hypnotic tracks, she creates sonic worlds with the intention of staying curious, eager, and above all, brave. In retaining her universal drive to push the boundaries of her production, her innovative and distinct style shines more than ever today. With her new record, she forges forward with some of her best Becky and the Birds material to date.
With 'Only Music Makes Me Cry Now', Gustafsson has returned to her roots, recalling the carefree, experimental mindset she inhabited when she first picked up producing, in addition to utilizing the boundless skills she’s gained since then. With this newest collection of ethereal, erratic, heavy-hitting, and hypnotic tracks, she creates sonic worlds with the intention of staying curious, eager, and above all, brave. In retaining her universal drive to push the boundaries of her production, her innovative and distinct style shines more than ever today. With her new record, she forges forward with some of her best Becky and the Birds material to date.
TRACK LISTING
1. Star
2. Anymore
3. To Trust You
4. I Look At The Choices I Made
5. I Made My Baby Cry
6. When She Holds Me
7. London Is Not The Same
8. Everything
9. Elsa 4-ever
10. Won’t Do That
11. Celebrity // Don’t Leave
12. Only Music Makes Me Cry Now
Look, there isn’t any way to write this without commenting on the name Bed Wettin’ Bad Boys. We’re not gonna bring ourselves to it, but with all measures of certainty, you are. You’re casting aspersions on their name, maybe formulating in your mind what they might sound like, and wondering why Agitated / RIP Society is bringing them to your attention. Have they no shame, you thought. Do they want to sell records and attract fans, you ponder. Thing is, they’ve heard it already. They own it, and they’ve done so since 2009. Save your opinions. It’s time to get that sentiment stricken from the slate, because we’re here to talk about their music, which is bold, passionate, ear-splitting rock & roll, performed with tremendous heart and determination. It’s a barrier of entry for those unable or unwilling to look past the surface.
Rot is the name of the second full-length from Sydney’s Bed Wettin’ Bad Boys. Hang it on regional slang (“My mum used to say, ‘what a load of rot’ instead of ‘what a load of shit,’” mentions guitarist Joe Sukit), or pin it to the way they perceive themselves as veritable dinosaurs of their local scene, set adrift to crumble on their love for classic rock and lack of fashionable ideas. Maybe even put it in the novelty canon of “Rock, Rot & Rule.” Or why not add a fourth R, because this thing rips. Those guitars are hoisted in defiance of cool, and are loud enough to break your concentration and enforce an active listening experience.
Musically, Bed Wettin’ Bad Boys haven’t budged an inch from their debut full length (2013’s Ready for Boredom, released on bassist Nic Warnock’s R.I.P Society label). Nor should they have; they are in the (sporadic) business of writing durable, sentiment-stirring riffs, the kind that lifted the first stirrings of punk in England (see Eddie and the Hot Rods, maybe), or of the direction of power-pop that was more focused on writing worldbeaters than fixing its hair (look at the Replacements, perhaps, or Mission of Burma). Not one drop of power is wasted or lost here; raw emotions push through these tracks in songs about love, about watching the world turn, about casting off distractions and focusing on the need for human connection.
We may not have much time left to say these things, before we begin to rot. This is their chance. Might be your chance as well.
Rot is the name of the second full-length from Sydney’s Bed Wettin’ Bad Boys. Hang it on regional slang (“My mum used to say, ‘what a load of rot’ instead of ‘what a load of shit,’” mentions guitarist Joe Sukit), or pin it to the way they perceive themselves as veritable dinosaurs of their local scene, set adrift to crumble on their love for classic rock and lack of fashionable ideas. Maybe even put it in the novelty canon of “Rock, Rot & Rule.” Or why not add a fourth R, because this thing rips. Those guitars are hoisted in defiance of cool, and are loud enough to break your concentration and enforce an active listening experience.
Musically, Bed Wettin’ Bad Boys haven’t budged an inch from their debut full length (2013’s Ready for Boredom, released on bassist Nic Warnock’s R.I.P Society label). Nor should they have; they are in the (sporadic) business of writing durable, sentiment-stirring riffs, the kind that lifted the first stirrings of punk in England (see Eddie and the Hot Rods, maybe), or of the direction of power-pop that was more focused on writing worldbeaters than fixing its hair (look at the Replacements, perhaps, or Mission of Burma). Not one drop of power is wasted or lost here; raw emotions push through these tracks in songs about love, about watching the world turn, about casting off distractions and focusing on the need for human connection.
We may not have much time left to say these things, before we begin to rot. This is their chance. Might be your chance as well.
TRACK LISTING
Away
Stunned
Plastic Tears
Expanding Horizons
Work Again
Victoria
Thing Called Love
Device
Company
Rot
Turn The Page
Introducing, the experimental violinist and performer Vanessa Bedoret.
The London-based French musician today announces that she’ll be joining, Scenic Route, a label renowned for selecting and nourishing rising stars for the release of her debut album, Eyes, due out on 8th of March 2024. Launching with a taste of what’s to come, today she also shares single “1/2”, a textural track that tells of the dichotomy between those who are selfless and those who are self-centered, and their need to merge as one. This duality is reflected in the industrial metallic echoes under Vanessa’s soaring vocals and the piercing strings of her chosen instrument, the violin.
Treating songwriting as an instinctive process, Bedoret transforms her deeply personal experiences into pure emotion. Not following any set narrative, Eyes takes the listener on a journey via their own experiences, prompting introspection through Bedoret’s hypnotic melodies.
The London-based French musician today announces that she’ll be joining, Scenic Route, a label renowned for selecting and nourishing rising stars for the release of her debut album, Eyes, due out on 8th of March 2024. Launching with a taste of what’s to come, today she also shares single “1/2”, a textural track that tells of the dichotomy between those who are selfless and those who are self-centered, and their need to merge as one. This duality is reflected in the industrial metallic echoes under Vanessa’s soaring vocals and the piercing strings of her chosen instrument, the violin.
Treating songwriting as an instinctive process, Bedoret transforms her deeply personal experiences into pure emotion. Not following any set narrative, Eyes takes the listener on a journey via their own experiences, prompting introspection through Bedoret’s hypnotic melodies.
STAFF COMMENTS
Matt says: New shit from the now-cult label that brought us Nourished By Time's debut album. Super hyped label, really interesting artist - these won't hang around long!TRACK LISTING
01. Choice
02. Ballad
03. 1/2
04. Transition
05. Eyes
06. Pas
07. Eternal
Lapsus Records reissue Bedouin Ascent's long lost UK ambient / intelligent techno classic 'Science, Art And Ritual'. Originally released in 1994 on Rising High, it's a shining example of a golden era of UK electronic music where The Black Dog, Autechre, Stasis, Kirk Degiorgio, B12, 4 Hero and Irdial were on absolute fire!
'Science, Art And Ritual' is a story of process. Growing up in Harrow (a then quiet suburb of London) in the 70’s and 80’s from the age of about 10, Kingsuk Biswas aka Bedouin Ascent's ears opened up to sound as he scanned the airwaves. The undeniable righteousness of 80’s dub via David Rodigan’s Roots Rockers shows was the first prominent influence he received, and with punk roots - and his burgeoning record collection - became exposed to the breathless post punk experimentation that followed in the early 80’s sweeping up free jazz, noise, dub and much more. Throughout though, he maintained his fascination with Indian Classical music which was a mainstay in his parent’s house and spoke with the same infinite space as Joy Division's 'Unknown Pleasures', and King Tubby’s Studio dispatches. Through those teens he assembled and de-assembled, knocking about with fellow travellers - punk bands, garage, space rock, noise. Something was happening. On-U Sound, ECM, Factory Records kept him plugged in and sane.
At that time Kingsuk's core studio setup revolved around his vintage Gretsch, Fender Jazz, Moog, TR-606 and rudimentary FX. He added congas, folk instruments, pipes, hand percussion, gongs, and jammed out shards of funk, noise, jazz fusion, electro and ambience into his hungry Tascam Portastudio. By 1987 these had morphed into what we’d now refer to broadly as techno, but the genre didn't exist beyond the reverberating walls of his bedsit, and he hadn’t yet plugged into the global conversation.
'Science, Art And Ritual' was released in 1994 by Rising High Records and was presented as Bedouin Ascent's debut album, although 'Music for Particles' (released in 1995, again on Rising High) was recorded even before - 'SAR' sessions span from 1992-1993, whereas 'Music for Particles' were earlier from 1989-1992, with some older 4-track references from about 1986 too.
Weaved in throughout the album are subconscious references to music that Kingsuk heard in the past that still remained within sight as companions. The opening track "Ancient Ocean III", referencing the extinct ocean Tethis, unapologetically channels Tackhead, Colourbox, Mantronix and Lee Perry. The style was also deliberately juxtaposed to the prevailing sound in techno at the time, which had locked onto a rigid form of symmetrical kicks and light snare drums. Elsewhere 80’s soul and funk are frozen and captured in fragile glass lattices. Electric pianos resound throughout, such as in "He Is She", probably a half-memory of 70’s MOR radio from childhood sleepy night drives. A duel between kick drums from three generations of Roland drum machines -TR-808, TR-707 and R-8 - is a central theme in "Transition-R", all in conversation, calling and responding. These were not just machines to Bedouin Ascent, but part of an extended family, with heart and soul.
Three decades after seeing the light, Lapsus is proud to present a special 30th anniversary reissue of this left-field techno gem in a repackaged and redesigned edition. All pressed on a deluxe 3LP marbled vinyl and including a limited lithographic insert print of the original album cover. All tracks have been restored and remastered directly from the original DAT tapes, and the album also features previously unreleased tracks such as "In the Clouds" and "Thru Water" - regularly performed live at that time and produced in the same period as the album sessions in 1993.
'Science, Art And Ritual’ may refer to esoteric traditions in Indian philosophy, but equally embodies the collision of the science, the art and the ritual that is at the core of being immersed in a deep musical journey.
'Science, Art And Ritual' is a story of process. Growing up in Harrow (a then quiet suburb of London) in the 70’s and 80’s from the age of about 10, Kingsuk Biswas aka Bedouin Ascent's ears opened up to sound as he scanned the airwaves. The undeniable righteousness of 80’s dub via David Rodigan’s Roots Rockers shows was the first prominent influence he received, and with punk roots - and his burgeoning record collection - became exposed to the breathless post punk experimentation that followed in the early 80’s sweeping up free jazz, noise, dub and much more. Throughout though, he maintained his fascination with Indian Classical music which was a mainstay in his parent’s house and spoke with the same infinite space as Joy Division's 'Unknown Pleasures', and King Tubby’s Studio dispatches. Through those teens he assembled and de-assembled, knocking about with fellow travellers - punk bands, garage, space rock, noise. Something was happening. On-U Sound, ECM, Factory Records kept him plugged in and sane.
At that time Kingsuk's core studio setup revolved around his vintage Gretsch, Fender Jazz, Moog, TR-606 and rudimentary FX. He added congas, folk instruments, pipes, hand percussion, gongs, and jammed out shards of funk, noise, jazz fusion, electro and ambience into his hungry Tascam Portastudio. By 1987 these had morphed into what we’d now refer to broadly as techno, but the genre didn't exist beyond the reverberating walls of his bedsit, and he hadn’t yet plugged into the global conversation.
'Science, Art And Ritual' was released in 1994 by Rising High Records and was presented as Bedouin Ascent's debut album, although 'Music for Particles' (released in 1995, again on Rising High) was recorded even before - 'SAR' sessions span from 1992-1993, whereas 'Music for Particles' were earlier from 1989-1992, with some older 4-track references from about 1986 too.
Weaved in throughout the album are subconscious references to music that Kingsuk heard in the past that still remained within sight as companions. The opening track "Ancient Ocean III", referencing the extinct ocean Tethis, unapologetically channels Tackhead, Colourbox, Mantronix and Lee Perry. The style was also deliberately juxtaposed to the prevailing sound in techno at the time, which had locked onto a rigid form of symmetrical kicks and light snare drums. Elsewhere 80’s soul and funk are frozen and captured in fragile glass lattices. Electric pianos resound throughout, such as in "He Is She", probably a half-memory of 70’s MOR radio from childhood sleepy night drives. A duel between kick drums from three generations of Roland drum machines -TR-808, TR-707 and R-8 - is a central theme in "Transition-R", all in conversation, calling and responding. These were not just machines to Bedouin Ascent, but part of an extended family, with heart and soul.
Three decades after seeing the light, Lapsus is proud to present a special 30th anniversary reissue of this left-field techno gem in a repackaged and redesigned edition. All pressed on a deluxe 3LP marbled vinyl and including a limited lithographic insert print of the original album cover. All tracks have been restored and remastered directly from the original DAT tapes, and the album also features previously unreleased tracks such as "In the Clouds" and "Thru Water" - regularly performed live at that time and produced in the same period as the album sessions in 1993.
'Science, Art And Ritual’ may refer to esoteric traditions in Indian philosophy, but equally embodies the collision of the science, the art and the ritual that is at the core of being immersed in a deep musical journey.
TRACK LISTING
A1. Ancient Ocean III
A2. Transition-R
A3. Polarity Healing
B1. He Is She
B2. Lost In Glass
C1. August Light
C2. Ancient Ocean II
D1. Beyond The 7th Gate
E1. In The Clouds
E2. Mammon
F1. Thru Water
F2. Composition C For Neutral Space
F3. CirroLude
F4. In The Clouds (reprise)
Nearly a decade since their last record, Jay Malinowski and Eon Sinclair better known as duo Bedouin Soundclash, return with their fifth studio album "Mass". While pulling from their old catalogue of eclectic post-punk world-beat tendencies, the band journeys further into New Orleans jazz, afro-pop, electronic and gospel on their latest offering, reflecting a creative rebirth influenced by the cities and musicians that surrounded them. Co-produced by Bedouin Soundclash and legendary Philadelphia House DJ King Britt, along with musical direction from Ben Jaffe of Preservation Hall, "Mass" spans two communities, recorded at Marigny Studio’s in New Orleans with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, and in Vancouver at St. James Church with the children of the St. James Music Academy. Mirroring the magnetic energy of New Orleans, "MASS" is a dense sonic journey that incorporates an impressive array of musical influences including Big Band swing to New Orleans jazz, pop, electronica, and more. From the post-punksoca of album opener "Salt Water", the jangling Big Band swing-pop of recent single "Clockwork", to the Talking Heads-channeling "When We’re Gone", and the dubbing afro-pop gospel of "Holy" that features Mike Dillon distorting his marimbas into another sonic dimension, "Mass" is jam-packed with infectious melodies and summery feel-good vibes.
STAFF COMMENTS
Matt says: Pulling your heartstrings in all manner of directions, this bouquet of soulful flavours and varied styles has one coherant theme running throughout - a total grasp of what modern, tastefull pop music should entail and incite. Flawless.TRACK LISTING
Salt Water
Born Into Bad Times
Clock Work
When We’re Gone
Holy
They Gutted This City
Drive
St Jude Of The Floors
All Tomorrows
Inversion Weather
Full Bloom
Better Days
Edges Of The Night
Just Like You
As this album represents a spiritual return to a foundational past, sonically this record is likewise about going back to our fundamentals and our roots; when Eon and I were two kids with guitars in a bedroom figuring out some songs. Our last album, Mass, featured so many parts. We recorded it in New Orleans at Preservation Hall with a thirteen-piece horn section, percussionists, strings, etc. For the most part, it’s tough to find any guitar on the record. So we decided to simplify and reconnect with what inspired us. We kept the ingredients limited, the palate simple. We went back to our beginnings and rediscovered the joy of just playing on an acoustic, and a bass through a small amp, with a vocal. We spent our days like we used to when we were younger. We hung out and talked about music. If it was sunny we went to the beach. We played some tennis. Then in the afternoon we might play through some ideas. If it sounded good in the front room of the house, we took it to the studio.
TRACK LISTING
1. We Will Meet In A Hurricane
2. Walk Through Fire (feat. Amiee Interrupter Of The Interrupters)
3. Longer Days In Shorter Years
4. Birds Of A Feather (feat. Ashleigh Ball)
5. Beyond Four Walls
6. Man From Cascades
7. Something Lost + Something Found
8. Shine On (feat. Marcia From The Skints)
9. A Torn Jacket With Silver Lining
10. Margie, Do Your Best
11. Hard Road
12. Into The Black…
Tompkins Square reissue the self-released mega-rare (only 200 copies) private press LP Gallivantin' from 1971. Recorded in San Antonio, Gallivantin' shows Beeley's heartfelt, folky side - a wistful set of original tunes, plus a cover of Bob Dylan's "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere" and a spaced-out, 10 minute+ Eastern-influenced psych take on Buffy Sainte-Marie's "Little Wheel Spin & Spin / Co'Dine".
Now a truck driver living in New Mexico, Will Beeley recently recorded his first new album since 1979's Passing Dream. Produced by Jerry David DeCicca of The Black Swans (who also produced Larry Jon Wilson's final album), the new one features Michael Guerra (The Mavericks), and is mixed by Stuart Sikes (Loretta Lynn's Van Lear Rose, Cat Power's The Greatest). The album is slated for release on Tompkins Square sometime in 2018.
Now a truck driver living in New Mexico, Will Beeley recently recorded his first new album since 1979's Passing Dream. Produced by Jerry David DeCicca of The Black Swans (who also produced Larry Jon Wilson's final album), the new one features Michael Guerra (The Mavericks), and is mixed by Stuart Sikes (Loretta Lynn's Van Lear Rose, Cat Power's The Greatest). The album is slated for release on Tompkins Square sometime in 2018.
Scream from New York, NY, the first album by Been Stellar captures an image of ‘20s New York that’s unrelenting and harsh, where tenderness is a finite resource burned up by the machinery of the city and human connection is a luxury product. Released via Dirty Hit, their debut album embodies the spirit of a city that makes and breaks its inhabitants on a daily basis.
TRACK LISTING
1. Start Again
2. Passing Judgment
3.Pumpkin
4. Scream From New York, NY
5. Sweet
6. Can’t Look Away
7. Shimmer
8. Takedown
9. All In One
10. I Have The Answer
Composer, producer, multi-instrumentalist and co-founder of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Robert Levon Been, announces his forthcoming album, ‘Original Songs From The Card Counter’. Levon Been composed several original songs as well as a majority of the score for writer and director Paul Schrader’s new film, ‘The Card Counter’, starring Oscar Isaac, Tiffany Haddish, Tye Sheridan, Willem Dafoe and executive produced by Martin Scorsese. “Ironically this entire project began by working the last scene of the film first,” says Levon Been. “Paul had reached out asking if I would write an original song for a very intimate final scene he had been struggling with. As tempting as the concept was, I must admit that kind of composing is also my biggest fear - to write directly to picture with such precision that it takes over the narrative in a substantial way, which I knew Paul never shies away from. It also turned me into a nervous wreck because I know just how easy it is to quickly ruin a movie with merely a single lyric at the wrong time. Thankfully for ‘Mercy Of Man’, I had S.G. Goodman there in NY singing with me to help experiment with how to create a fairly unconventional duet of sorts that is intended to evoke the emotions of the two characters in that final scene.”
‘The Card Counter’ marks the fifth collaboration between Schrader and Scorsese, who previously worked together on ‘Taxi Driver’, ‘Raging Bull’, ‘The Last Temptation of Christ’ and ‘Bringing Out the Dead’. Robert Levon Been is a producer, composer, singer songwriter and founding member of the band, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, with whom he has released eight albums and toured the world with since 2001. With a dedicated following across Europe, the US, Australia and Asia, their record ‘Howl’ has ranked many top album lists. In 2013, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club were featured in Dave Grohl’s Grammy-winning documentary, ‘Sound City’. 2021 marks the 20th anniversary of the release of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club’s self-titled first album. Robert is currently producing and writing for multiple projects, dividing his time between Los Angeles and Vienna.
‘The Card Counter’ marks the fifth collaboration between Schrader and Scorsese, who previously worked together on ‘Taxi Driver’, ‘Raging Bull’, ‘The Last Temptation of Christ’ and ‘Bringing Out the Dead’. Robert Levon Been is a producer, composer, singer songwriter and founding member of the band, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, with whom he has released eight albums and toured the world with since 2001. With a dedicated following across Europe, the US, Australia and Asia, their record ‘Howl’ has ranked many top album lists. In 2013, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club were featured in Dave Grohl’s Grammy-winning documentary, ‘Sound City’. 2021 marks the 20th anniversary of the release of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club’s self-titled first album. Robert is currently producing and writing for multiple projects, dividing his time between Los Angeles and Vienna.
TRACK LISTING
1. Rapture
2. Murder Hum
3. Mercy Rev
4. Arise Sun
5. S.E.R.E.
6. Adore
7. Casino Floor 1 (Beta
8. Testing)
9. Casino Floor 2 (Stable)
10. Smoke Ring
11. Erutpar
12. Determined Events
13. OPM
14. Mercy Of Man (featuring S.G. Goodman)
Reduced
“Don’t tell me this is wrong to enjoy all these feelings”, Freya purrs with a lip-smacking sense of relish. A song all about the conflicting feelings that can shadow a sense of empowerment, “Beast” finds Freya stepping into the shoes of Lady Justice and taking the scales into her own hands. Laden with the typically evocative imagery we have come to expect from the London songwriter, its lyrics toy with our notions of lust and love, guilt and the truth, the milk of human kindness and the poison of power; to create something exhilarating and asphyxiating in equal measures. Produced by Peter Hobbs (The Boy Least Likely To), it’s a track of unrelenting intensity that locks the listener with clenched jaws from the outset. As its spiralling arrangements hypnotise and Owain Hanford’s prowling percussives paralyse, its Freya who delivers the deathly sting in the tail with puncturing guitar barbs that will spare no-one in their path.
The latest in a string of captivating singles, “Beast” follows previous cuts “Siren” and “Calm Before The Storm”; each paving the way for one of 2021’s most anticipated new releases from one of its most defiantly uncompromising new talents. Freya Beer has earned a reputation for music that mixes poetic lyrics inspired by Charles Bukowski or Anne Sexton, with the distinctive gothic stylings of Nick Cave, Johnny Cash, or David Lynch. Highly literate in her reference points both musical and written, they shine no greater than on the obsidian sheen of her bewitching debut album: ‘Beast’. Unphased by the isolating impositions of the previous year, Freya used the period’s foreboding limitations as a means to feed her art and blossom as an artist. Using her time away from the live stage to connect with her creative impulses on a deeper level, she began to nurture and raise the debut album she had always wanted to make. Delving into the aspirations of the dreaming to the lucid nightmares of the living, the songs of ‘Beast’ find Freya blurring fiction and reality with a disorienting daze. Scouring the silver screen for nuanced narratives, many of the songs of ‘Beast’ glean initial inspiration from characters seen in classic cinema. Distorting their stories and injecting traits of her own volition, their journeys soon become very different prospects
The latest in a string of captivating singles, “Beast” follows previous cuts “Siren” and “Calm Before The Storm”; each paving the way for one of 2021’s most anticipated new releases from one of its most defiantly uncompromising new talents. Freya Beer has earned a reputation for music that mixes poetic lyrics inspired by Charles Bukowski or Anne Sexton, with the distinctive gothic stylings of Nick Cave, Johnny Cash, or David Lynch. Highly literate in her reference points both musical and written, they shine no greater than on the obsidian sheen of her bewitching debut album: ‘Beast’. Unphased by the isolating impositions of the previous year, Freya used the period’s foreboding limitations as a means to feed her art and blossom as an artist. Using her time away from the live stage to connect with her creative impulses on a deeper level, she began to nurture and raise the debut album she had always wanted to make. Delving into the aspirations of the dreaming to the lucid nightmares of the living, the songs of ‘Beast’ find Freya blurring fiction and reality with a disorienting daze. Scouring the silver screen for nuanced narratives, many of the songs of ‘Beast’ glean initial inspiration from characters seen in classic cinema. Distorting their stories and injecting traits of her own volition, their journeys soon become very different prospects
TRACK LISTING
1. Beast
2. The Calm Before The Storm
3. Forget It
4. Secret Garden
5. Arms Open Wide
6. Dear Sweet Rosie
7. Siren
8. To The Heavens And All Their Work
9. Pure
10. Beauty
11. Put It To The Test
Reduced
“Don’t tell me this is wrong to enjoy all these feelings”, Freya purrs with a lip-smacking sense of relish. A song all about the conflicting feelings that can shadow a sense of empowerment, “Beast” finds Freya stepping into the shoes of Lady Justice and taking the scales into her own hands. Laden with the typically evocative imagery we have come to expect from the London songwriter, its lyrics toy with our notions of lust and love, guilt and the truth, the milk of human kindness and the poison of power; to create something exhilarating and asphyxiating in equal measures. Produced by Peter Hobbs (The Boy Least Likely To), it’s a track of unrelenting intensity that locks the listener with clenched jaws from the outset. As its spiralling arrangements hypnotise and Owain Hanford’s prowling percussives paralyse, its Freya who delivers the deathly sting in the tail with puncturing guitar barbs that will spare no-one in their path.
The latest in a string of captivating singles, “Beast” follows previous cuts “Siren” and “Calm Before The Storm”; each paving the way for one of 2021’s most anticipated new releases from one of its most defiantly uncompromising new talents. Freya Beer has earned a reputation for music that mixes poetic lyrics inspired by Charles Bukowski or Anne Sexton, with the distinctive gothic stylings of Nick Cave, Johnny Cash, or David Lynch. Highly literate in her reference points both musical and written, they shine no greater than on the obsidian sheen of her bewitching debut album: ‘Beast’. Unphased by the isolating impositions of the previous year, Freya used the period’s foreboding limitations as a means to feed her art and blossom as an artist. Using her time away from the live stage to connect with her creative impulses on a deeper level, she began to nurture and raise the debut album she had always wanted to make. Delving into the aspirations of the dreaming to the lucid nightmares of the living, the songs of ‘Beast’ find Freya blurring fiction and reality with a disorienting daze. Scouring the silver screen for nuanced narratives, many of the songs of ‘Beast’ glean initial inspiration from characters seen in classic cinema. Distorting their stories and injecting traits of her own volition, their journeys soon become very different prospects
The latest in a string of captivating singles, “Beast” follows previous cuts “Siren” and “Calm Before The Storm”; each paving the way for one of 2021’s most anticipated new releases from one of its most defiantly uncompromising new talents. Freya Beer has earned a reputation for music that mixes poetic lyrics inspired by Charles Bukowski or Anne Sexton, with the distinctive gothic stylings of Nick Cave, Johnny Cash, or David Lynch. Highly literate in her reference points both musical and written, they shine no greater than on the obsidian sheen of her bewitching debut album: ‘Beast’. Unphased by the isolating impositions of the previous year, Freya used the period’s foreboding limitations as a means to feed her art and blossom as an artist. Using her time away from the live stage to connect with her creative impulses on a deeper level, she began to nurture and raise the debut album she had always wanted to make. Delving into the aspirations of the dreaming to the lucid nightmares of the living, the songs of ‘Beast’ find Freya blurring fiction and reality with a disorienting daze. Scouring the silver screen for nuanced narratives, many of the songs of ‘Beast’ glean initial inspiration from characters seen in classic cinema. Distorting their stories and injecting traits of her own volition, their journeys soon become very different prospects
TRACK LISTING
1. Beast
2. The Calm Before The Storm
3. Forget It
4. Secret Garden
5. Arms Open Wide
6. Dear Sweet Rosie
7. Siren
8. To The Heavens And All Their Work
9. Pure
10. Beauty
11. Put It To The Test
Released originally by Wall of Sound sublabel We Love You in 2002, ‘Sunshine Hit Me’ was recorded and produced by founding members Paul Butler and Aaron Fletcher in a home garden studio - aka The Shed - on the Isle of Wight, and went on to receive a nomination for the Mercury Music Prize, 2003.
Singles from the album include “No Trophy”, “Punchbag”, and a cover of Os Mutantes’ “A Minha Menina”.
Singles from the album include “No Trophy”, “Punchbag”, and a cover of Os Mutantes’ “A Minha Menina”.
TRACK LISTING
Punchbag
Angryman
No Trophy
Binnel Bay
Sunshine
A Minha Menina
This Town
Sweet Like A Champion
Lying In The Snow
Zia
Sky Holds The Sun
CD Bonus Tracks
Seeds
You Got To Leave
Elain
Whistle Chop
Jackel Head
Out For The Count
The Sheffield duo have always explored feminist issues through the telling of personal stories – fusing their classical knowledge and rich arrangements with raw expression. Their debut album is no exception to this, exploring themes that will resonate with many women in their 30s who are experiencing the shift in perspectives that this decade can bring. On new single ‘Wreck’ singer Gina Walters mourns the abrupt end of a relationship and a vanishing future that she once counted on. “I thought that relationship was it: we were going to have babies, and when that ended it wasn’t really about losing my partner. It was about losing this whole future I thought lay ahead of me, this whole family I would lose, my house, my cat… it was an absolute bombshell, and it still gets me over a year later.”
On ‘Stand’, the most direct and plain-speaking track on the album, Gina sings, “A house or a heavy womb,” agonising over the idea of having to choose either financial security or motherhood. Speaking with her trademark brutal honesty, Gina says, “As a teenager, I genuinely thought that I would be married with two kids by now. We’ve been conditioned to think that’s what we should be achieving by a certain number. I turned thirty-two a few weeks ago, and I’m dating furiously because I want a baby and I only have a certain amount of years left before it starts to get really really hard.”
Before Breakfast released their debut EP ‘Open Ears’ in 2019. It is a spell-binding collection of songs knitting together Lucy Revis’ intricate cello with Gina’s expressively haunting vocals. “Our music has always been very beautiful with this discomfort,” Gina says, “which I view as very feminine.” Stand-alone single ‘Buddleia’ would become Before Breakfast’s signature, and best known song to date – opening the door to where they would go next. “When Gina played it to me I remember being in love with it immediately,” Lucy recalls. The band soon caught the ears of BBC Introducing, as well as C Duncan. That year, they supported the Mercury-nominated Scottish composer and musician on tour, which, Lucy says, was, “an absolute dream”.
Lucy wrote the lyrics and made her lyrical debut on former single ‘Brush My Hair’ after that very tour while coming down from a giddy three-week crush on a bassist. “It was like I was sixteen years old again,” she remembers. “We had this weird little friendship and the song is just about him: it’s lovely and special and I hold him in the highest regard.” For Gina, the themes that inform the debut as a whole also tie into trying to break out as a new band while holding weighty questions of security and stability versus pursuing your dreams. It’s pretty shocking, yet sadly not at all surprising, that in 2021 she feels the need to say, “I really get caught up in the idea that the industry doesn’t want women in their thirties coming through.” Lucy agrees, adding, “There have been so many barriers for us to even do this by our age. I have exclusively played for men since I was 15 years old. I can count the number of female artists I’ve worked for on one hand.”
Outside of the band, Gina is a singing teacher, and Lucy runs a music school. Over the last eighteen months, the group have been juggling their day-jobs with gradually recording their debut album: a reality they feel it’s important to speak out about. “We couldn’t just go away to a studio for three weeks,” says Gina, “we don’t have the money or time. It was here, there and everywhere.” Whenever they got a chance, the band would lay down parts with their producer Chris Wilkinson – who began his career working in Nashville with Vance Powell (Jack White, Arctic Monkeys) before relocating to his hometown – at Sheffield’s Fox Den studios. “We’d say: Chris, can we come in for a few hours this afternoon to do the vocals? It was a bit haphazard, and a long process.”
Before Breakfast are telling their story on their own terms, and backed by two new live band members as gig venues gradually open up again, the Sheffield band are going for it, with a debut that speaks to the stagnation, malaise, and static of the last “wasted” year. And as the world opens up again, ‘I Could Be Asleep If It Weren't For You’ is a fitting soundtrack. “We’ve got the momentum” says Gina, “and we just want to do it.”
On ‘Stand’, the most direct and plain-speaking track on the album, Gina sings, “A house or a heavy womb,” agonising over the idea of having to choose either financial security or motherhood. Speaking with her trademark brutal honesty, Gina says, “As a teenager, I genuinely thought that I would be married with two kids by now. We’ve been conditioned to think that’s what we should be achieving by a certain number. I turned thirty-two a few weeks ago, and I’m dating furiously because I want a baby and I only have a certain amount of years left before it starts to get really really hard.”
Before Breakfast released their debut EP ‘Open Ears’ in 2019. It is a spell-binding collection of songs knitting together Lucy Revis’ intricate cello with Gina’s expressively haunting vocals. “Our music has always been very beautiful with this discomfort,” Gina says, “which I view as very feminine.” Stand-alone single ‘Buddleia’ would become Before Breakfast’s signature, and best known song to date – opening the door to where they would go next. “When Gina played it to me I remember being in love with it immediately,” Lucy recalls. The band soon caught the ears of BBC Introducing, as well as C Duncan. That year, they supported the Mercury-nominated Scottish composer and musician on tour, which, Lucy says, was, “an absolute dream”.
Lucy wrote the lyrics and made her lyrical debut on former single ‘Brush My Hair’ after that very tour while coming down from a giddy three-week crush on a bassist. “It was like I was sixteen years old again,” she remembers. “We had this weird little friendship and the song is just about him: it’s lovely and special and I hold him in the highest regard.” For Gina, the themes that inform the debut as a whole also tie into trying to break out as a new band while holding weighty questions of security and stability versus pursuing your dreams. It’s pretty shocking, yet sadly not at all surprising, that in 2021 she feels the need to say, “I really get caught up in the idea that the industry doesn’t want women in their thirties coming through.” Lucy agrees, adding, “There have been so many barriers for us to even do this by our age. I have exclusively played for men since I was 15 years old. I can count the number of female artists I’ve worked for on one hand.”
Outside of the band, Gina is a singing teacher, and Lucy runs a music school. Over the last eighteen months, the group have been juggling their day-jobs with gradually recording their debut album: a reality they feel it’s important to speak out about. “We couldn’t just go away to a studio for three weeks,” says Gina, “we don’t have the money or time. It was here, there and everywhere.” Whenever they got a chance, the band would lay down parts with their producer Chris Wilkinson – who began his career working in Nashville with Vance Powell (Jack White, Arctic Monkeys) before relocating to his hometown – at Sheffield’s Fox Den studios. “We’d say: Chris, can we come in for a few hours this afternoon to do the vocals? It was a bit haphazard, and a long process.”
Before Breakfast are telling their story on their own terms, and backed by two new live band members as gig venues gradually open up again, the Sheffield band are going for it, with a debut that speaks to the stagnation, malaise, and static of the last “wasted” year. And as the world opens up again, ‘I Could Be Asleep If It Weren't For You’ is a fitting soundtrack. “We’ve got the momentum” says Gina, “and we just want to do it.”
TRACK LISTING
1. Inner Wisdom
2. Wreck
3. Brush My Hair (And Tell Me That You Love Me)
4. Stand
5. I
6. She
7. Voices
8. Sticky Sweet
9. I'm A Good Friend
10. Ii (feat. The Howl & The Hum)
11. Journey
‘Free World’ is the first full-length issue from an ongoing collaboration between Behavior (Bedros Yeretzian, Evan Burrows, Justin Tenney, Robbie Cody) and Mayako XO (Sara Gernsbacher). It was tracked between 2019 and 2020 and assembled over the course of the last year in Los Angeles.
The album reflects its creation under open-ended yet intent circumstances. What’s recorded is a tangled pas de deux between discredited and demonstrative characters, singing through shifting voices over a living, melancholic music rendered legible by surveillance.
Mastered by Sarah Register.
For fans of Sonic Youth, Velvet Underground, Dead C, Blonde Redhead.
The album reflects its creation under open-ended yet intent circumstances. What’s recorded is a tangled pas de deux between discredited and demonstrative characters, singing through shifting voices over a living, melancholic music rendered legible by surveillance.
Mastered by Sarah Register.
For fans of Sonic Youth, Velvet Underground, Dead C, Blonde Redhead.
TRACK LISTING
I Love Music
Keeling Curve
So I Know
Waiting Song
Loud As Hell
1997
Trouble
Open Claim
For A Mood
Turnkey Smile
One Time Goodbye
Recommended if you like: Deerhoof, The Beets, Devo, Pixies, Cindy Lee, B-52s.
Being Dead knows how to make an entrance, within the first several seconds of EELS, the duo’s new record, the bright, hard-strummed guitar line on “Godzilla Rises” conjures cinematic immediacy, a creature emerging from the depths of the ocean in campy, freaky stop motion, fittingly so. Being Dead’s records are mosaics, technicolor incantations, each song its own self-contained little universe. And while the dreamlike EELS probes further into the depths of the duo Being Dead’s psyche, it is, most importantly, in the year of our lord 2024, a 16-track record that is genuinely unpredictable from one track to the next: a joyous and unexpected trip helmed by two true-blue freak bitch besties holed up in a lil’ house in the heart of Austin, Texas.
They decamped to Los Angeles for two weeks to record with GRAMMY-winning producer John Congleton, writing songs for the record until days before they left. The radical shift in process was welcome - a good balance and a challenge, Congleton helping them find new ways to work and helping peel back the layers on the core of their songwriting. Being Dead has grown from a duo to a trio live, including bassist Ricky Motto (who is immortalized finally on record here, particularly in the giggles on “Rock n’ Roll Hurts”)
The resulting EELS is a darker record, tapped more into the devilishness within, but it’s also a more raucous, rougher ride sonically. There’s heartbreak, excitement, enchantment, dancing we move through it all at a high-octane pace. Falcon Bitch and Smoofy never want to do the same thing twice on any song, and they don’t. From the pummeling garage rock distortion of “Firefighters” to “Dragons II,” which appears in its demo form taped on a hand recorder, it’s unexpected but intuitive, and, most importantly, singularly Being Dead.
Like its animal namesake suggests, the songs on EELS are malleable, the record like slithering through murky waters or strange half dreams, mysterious and beautiful in how it moves, reflective in a wavering sheen. Dipping into each song feels like uncovering a new cavern, plunging into depths unknown but fully open to what will be revealed. On the album artwork, an illustration by the artist Julia Soboleva, there are some weird disparate spectral creatures, a stark glimmer against a cloudy darkness. It’s a fitting encapsulation of Being
Dead, exuding a welcoming, playful energy even if something foreboding lurks just beyond the pale more out of frame that’s left to uncover, no path unexplored, strange and beautiful in the light.
Being Dead knows how to make an entrance, within the first several seconds of EELS, the duo’s new record, the bright, hard-strummed guitar line on “Godzilla Rises” conjures cinematic immediacy, a creature emerging from the depths of the ocean in campy, freaky stop motion, fittingly so. Being Dead’s records are mosaics, technicolor incantations, each song its own self-contained little universe. And while the dreamlike EELS probes further into the depths of the duo Being Dead’s psyche, it is, most importantly, in the year of our lord 2024, a 16-track record that is genuinely unpredictable from one track to the next: a joyous and unexpected trip helmed by two true-blue freak bitch besties holed up in a lil’ house in the heart of Austin, Texas.
They decamped to Los Angeles for two weeks to record with GRAMMY-winning producer John Congleton, writing songs for the record until days before they left. The radical shift in process was welcome - a good balance and a challenge, Congleton helping them find new ways to work and helping peel back the layers on the core of their songwriting. Being Dead has grown from a duo to a trio live, including bassist Ricky Motto (who is immortalized finally on record here, particularly in the giggles on “Rock n’ Roll Hurts”)
The resulting EELS is a darker record, tapped more into the devilishness within, but it’s also a more raucous, rougher ride sonically. There’s heartbreak, excitement, enchantment, dancing we move through it all at a high-octane pace. Falcon Bitch and Smoofy never want to do the same thing twice on any song, and they don’t. From the pummeling garage rock distortion of “Firefighters” to “Dragons II,” which appears in its demo form taped on a hand recorder, it’s unexpected but intuitive, and, most importantly, singularly Being Dead.
Like its animal namesake suggests, the songs on EELS are malleable, the record like slithering through murky waters or strange half dreams, mysterious and beautiful in how it moves, reflective in a wavering sheen. Dipping into each song feels like uncovering a new cavern, plunging into depths unknown but fully open to what will be revealed. On the album artwork, an illustration by the artist Julia Soboleva, there are some weird disparate spectral creatures, a stark glimmer against a cloudy darkness. It’s a fitting encapsulation of Being
Dead, exuding a welcoming, playful energy even if something foreboding lurks just beyond the pale more out of frame that’s left to uncover, no path unexplored, strange and beautiful in the light.
TRACK LISTING
1. Godzilla Rises
2. Van Goes
3. Blanket Of My Bone
4. Problems
5. Firefighters
6. Dragons II
7. Nightvison
8. Gazing At Footwear
9. Big Bovine
10. Storybook Bay
11. Ballerina
12. Rock N' Roll Hurts
13. Love Machine
14. I Was A Tunnel
15. Goodnight
16. Lilypad Lane
Beings are... Zoh Amba, Steve Gunn, Shazad Ismaily & Jim White.
On Beings’ There Is A Garden, shapeshifting melodies highlight each players’ voice. In one second, the album may sound hectic, teeming with craggy, unpredictable melodies, but by the time the next track rolls around, it’ll transform into a psychedelic reverie or blossom into a sprawling drone. For Beings, the NYC-based supergroup quartet of Zoh Amba, Steve Gunn, Shahzad Ismaily, and Jim White, the music flows naturally: It’s an ever-transforming organism built on the quartet’s openness and willingness to explore, together.
On Beings’ There Is A Garden, shapeshifting melodies highlight each players’ voice. In one second, the album may sound hectic, teeming with craggy, unpredictable melodies, but by the time the next track rolls around, it’ll transform into a psychedelic reverie or blossom into a sprawling drone. For Beings, the NYC-based supergroup quartet of Zoh Amba, Steve Gunn, Shahzad Ismaily, and Jim White, the music flows naturally: It’s an ever-transforming organism built on the quartet’s openness and willingness to explore, together.
TRACK LISTING
1. Small Vows
2. Flowers That Talk
3. God Dances In Your Eyes
4. In The Garden
5. Face Of Silence
6. Sun Greeted
7. Happy To Be
8. Morning Star
9. Do Come Again
Artifacts began humbly as a means of compiling a few early Beirut EPs for a proper physical release. However, as Zach Condon explains in album’s excellent liner notes, reconnecting with old recordings through fresh ears turned a simple re-issue project into something much more expansive. “When the decision came to re-release this collection, I found myself digging through hard drives looking for something extra to add to the compilation. What started as a few extra unreleased tracks from my formative recording years quickly grew into an entire extra records-worth of music from my past, and a larger project of remixing and remastering everything I found for good measure.”
Artifacts is a phylogenetic tree. A double-LP’s worth music that traces the evolution of Beirut from a 14-year old Condon’s first attempts at bringing the music he heard in his mind to life, to the fully formed Beirut we know today.
Artifacts is a phylogenetic tree. A double-LP’s worth music that traces the evolution of Beirut from a 14-year old Condon’s first attempts at bringing the music he heard in his mind to life, to the fully formed Beirut we know today.
STAFF COMMENTS
Barry says: An essential collection of early Beirut bits and pieces, lovingly reworked and remastered by condon, and brought out with a lovely booklet explaining the pieces. Including possibly my favourite Beirut work, The Lon Gisland EP. AceTRACK LISTING
SIDE A
01. Elephant Gun
02. My Family's Role In The World Revolution
03. Scenic World
04. The Long Island Sound
05. Carousels
06. Transatantique
07. O Leãozinho
SIDE B
08. Autumn Tall Tales
09. Fyodor Dormant
10. Poisoning Claude
11. Bercy
12. Your Sails
13. Irrlichter
SIDE C
14. Sicily
15. Now I'm Gone
16. Napoleon On The Bellerophon
17. Interior Of A Dutch House
18. Fountains And Tramways
19. Hot Air Balloon
SIDE D
20. Fisher Island Sound
21. So Slowly
22. Die Treue Zum Ursprung
23. The Crossing
24. Zagora
25. Le Phare Du Cap Bon
26. Babylon
'A Study Of Losses' is the seventh studio album from Beirut, the musical project of Zach Condon. The project originated in spring 2023, when Viktoria Dalborg, director at the Swedish circus Kompani Giraff, reached out to Condon, asking if he would be interested to provide the music for their next project, a show based on an adaptation of a novel by German author Judith Schalansky. The main themes in Schalansky's book and in the adaptation for the circus show deal with the concept of loss and the impermanence of everything known to us: from extinct animal species, lost architectural and literary treasures to more abstract concepts of loss through the process of aging. In close collaboration, 'A Study Of Losses', turned into a rather unexpected piece of music-at 18 songs and nearly an hour long, it is by far the largest album Beirut has ever done, and amongst some of their most beautiful work to date
STAFF COMMENTS
Barry says: Another superb suite of thoughtful, wandering melodies and swooning harmonies from Condon here, this time commissioned for a contemporary Swedish circus. Though Beirut's albums are usually quick bursts of emphatic, mournful melodicism, 'A Study Of Losses' is a decidedly more expansive operation. Lovely stuff.TRACK LISTING
1. Disappearances And Losses
2. Forest Encyclopedia
3. Oceanus Procellarum
4. Villa Sacchetti
5. Mare Crisium
6. Garbo's Face
7. Mare Imbrium
8. Tuanaki Atoll
9. Mare Serenitatis
10. Guericke's Unicorn
11. Mare Humorum
12. Sappho's Poems
13. Ghost Train
14. Caspian Tiger
15. Mani's 7 Books
16. Moon Voyager
17. Mare Nectaris
18. Mare Tranquillitatis
Gallipoli, Beirut’s fifth album, started life when Zach Condon returned to his old Farfisa organ, the same one he used to write his first two albums, Gulag Orkestar (2006) and The Flying Club Cup (2007). After stints writing and recording in both New York and Berlin, with time for Zach to recover from a broken arm factored in, band plus producer Gabe Wax (Speedy Ortiz, Soccer Mommy, Adrianne Lenker / Big Thief) headed to Puglia in Italy to finish the album.
With the remote rural setting “the right amount of isolated”, an intense month of 12 to 16-hour days in the studio with day trips around the coastline followed. Inspired by the surroundings, Gallipoli is unintentionally more visceral than Beirut’s more recent albums, alive with an energy that is further enhanced by every creak and groan of their instruments, every detuned note, and all amp buzz and technical malfunction being left in the cracks of the songs.
With the remote rural setting “the right amount of isolated”, an intense month of 12 to 16-hour days in the studio with day trips around the coastline followed. Inspired by the surroundings, Gallipoli is unintentionally more visceral than Beirut’s more recent albums, alive with an energy that is further enhanced by every creak and groan of their instruments, every detuned note, and all amp buzz and technical malfunction being left in the cracks of the songs.
STAFF COMMENTS
Barry says: There's always been something mesmerising about Beirut, their exotic choice of rhythms and instrumentation coalescing with their minimal songwriting style and almost ethereal vocal projection. You'll be delighted to know that this one is every bit the excellent follow-up to 2015's 'No No No', and (thankfully) a little longer. Superb stuff.TRACK LISTING
When I Die
Gallipoli
Varieties Of Exile
On Mainau Island
I Giardini
Gauze Für Zah
Corfu
Landslide
Family Curse
Light In The Atoll
We Never Lived Here
Fin
Hadsel is the first new full-length record since Beirut’s 2019 release, “Gallipoli,” and the first on Zach Condon’s own label, Pompeii Records. Recorded in the Norwegian island of Hadsel shortly after a physical and mental break forced Condon to cancel is 2019 tour, Condon was looking for a place to recover after being left in a state of shock and self-doubt.
Working in isolation, Condon explains, “I was lost in a trance, stumbling blindly through my own mental collapse that I had been pushing aside since I was a teenager. It came and rang me like a bell. I was left agonising many things past and present while the beauty of the nature, the northern lights and fearsome storms played an awesome show around me. The few hours of light would expose the unfathomable beauty of the mountains and the fjords, and the hours- long twilights would fill me with subdued excitement. I’d like to believe that scenery is somehow present in the music.
The resulting is collection of songs beautifully reflect that vulnerability, sense of self-determination and belief that after collapse, one can learn to manage on their own again.
Working in isolation, Condon explains, “I was lost in a trance, stumbling blindly through my own mental collapse that I had been pushing aside since I was a teenager. It came and rang me like a bell. I was left agonising many things past and present while the beauty of the nature, the northern lights and fearsome storms played an awesome show around me. The few hours of light would expose the unfathomable beauty of the mountains and the fjords, and the hours- long twilights would fill me with subdued excitement. I’d like to believe that scenery is somehow present in the music.
The resulting is collection of songs beautifully reflect that vulnerability, sense of self-determination and belief that after collapse, one can learn to manage on their own again.
STAFF COMMENTS
Barry says: Hadsel takes the foundation so perfectly laid by Beirut's extensive discography and moves the whole kit and/or caboodle into the icy climes of Norway. It's not dampened any of the warmth in Condon's music, but it lends a certain crystalline beauty and swimming, airy sparsity. Evocative and beautiful throughout.TRACK LISTING
SIDE A
1. Hadsel
2. Arctic Forest
3. Baion
4. So Many Plans
5. Melbu
6. Stokmarknes
SIDE B
7. Island Life
8. Spillhaugen
9. January 18th
10. Süddeutsches Ton-Bild
11. The Tern
12. Regulatory
It’s December 2013, and Zach Condon is in an Australian hospital. He’s at the tail end of a 3-year non-stop world tour, suffering from health problems brought on by severe exhaustion, fighting through a messy divorce, and is trying in vain to escape the reality that’s dismantling around him and within him. From the hospital, he makes the difficult decision to cancel the rest of the tour. “I had completely broken down and my body was making me pay for it,” Condon recalls from his east Williamsburg home. Ironically, the artist so widely recognised for breaking geographical boundaries was being undone halfway around the world. Pensively, Condon concludes, “For the first time in my life, I was facing extreme self doubt. I had hit rock bottom.”
Met with enormous success at age 19, Condon’s career up to that point had been relatively smooth sailing. But now post Australia he finds himself back at home in Brooklyn and unable to write songs. It was 2014, and at age 28 he found himself completely lost. “I couldn’t fathom how one day I was capable of it and one day I wasn’t,” Condon remarks. The darkness clouding his physical and mental health had fully infected his creative and artistic abilities.
But this darkness contained a spark of light: he had fallen in love with a woman who inspired him to turn it around. Condon recalls, “having a positive presence like her both provides a healthy guiding force and shines a light on all the negative things in your life. I definitely wouldn’t be where I am now without her.” The two retreated to Turkey Summer of 2014, which proved to be the ultimate keystone in his personal renewal. It has since become their second home, providing perspective in both geographical and political landscapes. He was taken in and cared for by her family there for months (she is Turkish), and given a home base to build around, all during the summer of the Gezi Park riots.
Upon returning, still not fully himself, Condon would find himself uncertain, this time in the studio. “I would turn my phone off and be holed up in my rehearsal space alone for days at a time,” says Condon, “and come out with nothing.” He would compose and discard entire albums’ worth of material. For Condon, the songs needed to be born from melody, and if the melodies weren’t coming, the songs would never transpire.
So, with his back against the proverbial wall, Condon began a new approach, starting from scratch in Fall 2014 with nothing but an open mind and the musical camaraderie of bandmates Paul Collins (bass) and Nick Petree (drums). For two full months they hammered away daily, creating the foundations for what would evolve into No No No (as well as countless songs that would carpet the cutting room floor).
With winter approaching, he booked two weeks at a studio that, by sheer chance and unbeknownst to him, was located a few blocks from his home. This proximity would prove crucial, as the two weeks of recording turned out to overlap with some of the worst winter weather in NYC history – it was one of the coldest and snowiest on record – a fitting climax to the events of the past four years.
With his band by his side, No No No suddenly began to take shape, creating an exponentially productive excitement. Those two weeks in the studio, with blizzard after blizzard raging outside, resulted in Condon’s most vibrant and spirited record to date. On past records, Condon composed mostly on his own, electronically, building on sounds and arrangements with ProTools. This time around, the songs were constructed live, in the moment, by the band, and are more concert-ready than ever as a result. The band was significantly stripped down: guitar, piano, bass, and drums formed the bulk of the arrangements as opposed to the more obscure instruments for which he was initially known. No No No opens with a sort of tribal drum beat, quickly giving way to a more western/modern snare sound and drum machine – a subtle wink at Beirut’s own musical transformation.
There’s a caffeinated exuberance throughout the entirety of the record. The opening songs are particularly upbeat and awake, reflective of Condon’s newfound clarity, so much so in fact, that the fifth song, the instrumental breather ‘As Needed’ is exactly that – a necessary intermission. The second half picks up where it left off, with effervescent percussion across pop songs, often led by bubbly piano lines that showcase Condon’s development as a pianist.
If the darkest hour is right before the dawn, Condon’s dawn is the brightest point in his still-young career. He’s found his true artistic identity as a songwriter – one that greatly abandons many of the formulas for which he was first known. The songwriter within Condon has always been there, albeit sonically veiled on past records. It’s never been presented so prominently, and finds Beirut on its most stable and convincing footing yet.
Met with enormous success at age 19, Condon’s career up to that point had been relatively smooth sailing. But now post Australia he finds himself back at home in Brooklyn and unable to write songs. It was 2014, and at age 28 he found himself completely lost. “I couldn’t fathom how one day I was capable of it and one day I wasn’t,” Condon remarks. The darkness clouding his physical and mental health had fully infected his creative and artistic abilities.
But this darkness contained a spark of light: he had fallen in love with a woman who inspired him to turn it around. Condon recalls, “having a positive presence like her both provides a healthy guiding force and shines a light on all the negative things in your life. I definitely wouldn’t be where I am now without her.” The two retreated to Turkey Summer of 2014, which proved to be the ultimate keystone in his personal renewal. It has since become their second home, providing perspective in both geographical and political landscapes. He was taken in and cared for by her family there for months (she is Turkish), and given a home base to build around, all during the summer of the Gezi Park riots.
Upon returning, still not fully himself, Condon would find himself uncertain, this time in the studio. “I would turn my phone off and be holed up in my rehearsal space alone for days at a time,” says Condon, “and come out with nothing.” He would compose and discard entire albums’ worth of material. For Condon, the songs needed to be born from melody, and if the melodies weren’t coming, the songs would never transpire.
So, with his back against the proverbial wall, Condon began a new approach, starting from scratch in Fall 2014 with nothing but an open mind and the musical camaraderie of bandmates Paul Collins (bass) and Nick Petree (drums). For two full months they hammered away daily, creating the foundations for what would evolve into No No No (as well as countless songs that would carpet the cutting room floor).
With winter approaching, he booked two weeks at a studio that, by sheer chance and unbeknownst to him, was located a few blocks from his home. This proximity would prove crucial, as the two weeks of recording turned out to overlap with some of the worst winter weather in NYC history – it was one of the coldest and snowiest on record – a fitting climax to the events of the past four years.
With his band by his side, No No No suddenly began to take shape, creating an exponentially productive excitement. Those two weeks in the studio, with blizzard after blizzard raging outside, resulted in Condon’s most vibrant and spirited record to date. On past records, Condon composed mostly on his own, electronically, building on sounds and arrangements with ProTools. This time around, the songs were constructed live, in the moment, by the band, and are more concert-ready than ever as a result. The band was significantly stripped down: guitar, piano, bass, and drums formed the bulk of the arrangements as opposed to the more obscure instruments for which he was initially known. No No No opens with a sort of tribal drum beat, quickly giving way to a more western/modern snare sound and drum machine – a subtle wink at Beirut’s own musical transformation.
There’s a caffeinated exuberance throughout the entirety of the record. The opening songs are particularly upbeat and awake, reflective of Condon’s newfound clarity, so much so in fact, that the fifth song, the instrumental breather ‘As Needed’ is exactly that – a necessary intermission. The second half picks up where it left off, with effervescent percussion across pop songs, often led by bubbly piano lines that showcase Condon’s development as a pianist.
If the darkest hour is right before the dawn, Condon’s dawn is the brightest point in his still-young career. He’s found his true artistic identity as a songwriter – one that greatly abandons many of the formulas for which he was first known. The songwriter within Condon has always been there, albeit sonically veiled on past records. It’s never been presented so prominently, and finds Beirut on its most stable and convincing footing yet.
TRACK LISTING
01. Gibraltar
02. No No No
03. At Once
04. August Holland
05. As Needed
06. Perth
07. Pacheco
08. Fener
09. So Allowed
Following 2006's astonishing debut "Gulag Orkestar", Zach Condon AKA Beirut returned in 2007 with "Flying Club Cup". In between the two albums, he had been living in Paris immersing himself in France's culture, fashion, history and music, in much the same way as he absorbed Balkan culture for his debut album. Condon's musical gaze now looked to the likes of Jacques Brel and Francois Hardy for inspiration, and "Flying Club Cup" is another sweeping and triumphant European folk album that combines these new ideas with elements of his previous work too. Where as "Gulag Orkestar" was mainly a solo effort, for this album Condon acted as a band leader putting together a core group of eight musicians and together they've managed to recreate his cultural borderless vision with this expansive and enthralling album.
TRACK LISTING
1. "A Call To Arms" 0:18
2. "Nantes" 3:50
3. "A Sunday Smile" 3:35
4. "Guyamas Sonora" 3:31
5. "La Banlieue" 1:57
6. "Cliquot" 3:51
7. "The Penalty" 2:22
8. "Forks And Knives (La Fête)" 3:33
9. "In The Mausoleum" 3:10
10. "Un Dernier Verre (Pour La Route)" 2:51
11. "Cherbourg" 3:33
12. "St. Apollonia" 2:58
13. "The Flying Club Cup" 3:05
Reduced
Slow-motion-piano-punk with open stitches from Munich-based female duo akin to CocoRosie / Scout Niblett / Moldy Peaches
One third piano, one third converted drums, one third singing sewing machines, talking skirts, buzzing laser guns und clacking typewriters. The Munich-based Duo beißpony reveal what it sounds like when a singer-songwriter and textile artist with roots in the riot-grrrl and feminist d.i.y-movement join forces. Laura hails from the singer-songwriter and antifolk-scene.
They used the facilities to record the first couple of songs for their debut album “Brush Your Teeth" in a one- week kamikaze-recording session with a lot of ice cream. The final part of the album was recorded with the Zork Free Arts Lab in an abandoned police training building. Over the years, beißpony have played live shows in Italy , Austria and Germany, at festivals and in art galleries. They combine their shows with imaginative fashion und art performances and surprise their audience time and again.
Fabian Zweck and Stefan Dorner produced the album; Florian Andreas Betz and Klaus Erich Dietl are also part of the bustling collective, doing artwork and occasionally joining in with the performances.
Features cover of 'Diane' by Husker Du.
One third piano, one third converted drums, one third singing sewing machines, talking skirts, buzzing laser guns und clacking typewriters. The Munich-based Duo beißpony reveal what it sounds like when a singer-songwriter and textile artist with roots in the riot-grrrl and feminist d.i.y-movement join forces. Laura hails from the singer-songwriter and antifolk-scene.
They used the facilities to record the first couple of songs for their debut album “Brush Your Teeth" in a one- week kamikaze-recording session with a lot of ice cream. The final part of the album was recorded with the Zork Free Arts Lab in an abandoned police training building. Over the years, beißpony have played live shows in Italy , Austria and Germany, at festivals and in art galleries. They combine their shows with imaginative fashion und art performances and surprise their audience time and again.
Fabian Zweck and Stefan Dorner produced the album; Florian Andreas Betz and Klaus Erich Dietl are also part of the bustling collective, doing artwork and occasionally joining in with the performances.
Features cover of 'Diane' by Husker Du.
Long out-of-print release available digitally for the first time. Extensive notes by a local writer in English and French. Previously unpublished family photos. Urbanized traditional music at a dance-floor-friendly tempo. The very definition of an "Awesome Tape From Africa". Roger Bekono made a deep mark in the contemporary history of Cameroonian music through the four-on-the-floor, ribald intensity of bikutsi. The Ewondo-language dance-pop style that forms an undulating tapestry of interlocking triplet rhythmic interplay came to international prominence in the European "world music" scene as the 90s began. But the relentless sound of bikutsi developed in Yaoundé at the hands of Bekono and many others, as it developed from a village-based singing style performed mostly by women into a cosmopolitan music force that rivaled the popularity of established musics like Congolese rhumba, merengue and makossa. With his unique—some say suave—voice, Bekono contributed much over a period of more than 10 years as part of the evolution of this traditional rhythm-turned-urban dance movement. Bekono worked with legendary producer Mystic Jim, who had built a prolific home studio along with a crack team of musicians. They joined as part of the production of his self-titled album, which became known locally as "Jolie Poupée," the name of the album's lead single and most popular song. For "Jolie Poupée" Mystic Jim programmed the kick or bass drum, adding effects to have a heavier bass. Overall the album represented a new level of finesse and professionalism for his second release. In the middle of 1989, Jolie Poupée was released by the label Inter Diffusion System and aggressively hit the radio, discos and national television. The music video for the title track was on loop on TV. It felt like everyone was talking about it, even artists in adjacent music scenes like makossa. The album came out on vinyl and cassette and remains Bekono's best-selling recording to this day. With Jolie Poupée Bekono finally made an impact outside Cameroon as the record captured listeners in some Central African countries like Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Republic of Congo and Sao Tome & Principe. In these countries, we find the Fang or Mfan people (also known as Ekang), Bantu-speaking ethnic groups that are also found in Cameroon. This umbrella language group includes the language in which bikutsi is mainly sung. Most of Bekono's songs are in French, Ewondo (of which Beti is a dialect) and Pidgin. The four songs on Jolie Poupée are all considered bikutsi classics. On September 15, 2016, Bekono died of a long illness at the age of 62. In the wake of his passing the media published a wave of tributes, thanking him for what he did for Cameroonian music. He was an admired musician, songwriter and guitarist, and some of his old colleagues and some of the new generation of performers showered Bekono with vibrant tributes via social media, many of which noting something to the effect of: "The artist dies but his works remain."
TRACK LISTING
1. Jolie Poupée (7:26)
2. Etam Mot (7:29)
3. Enying Moni (7:29)
4. Ye Wo Kombel (7:52)
Third Man Records are proud to announce the worldwide signing of Australian four-piece The Belair Lip Bombs and to reissue their 2023 breakthrough album, 'Lush Life'. The debut from the Naarm/Melbourne indie group, arrived as ten tracks of evocative exploration; stories that run a gamut of longing, seeking new horizons and discovering new paths to satisfaction and self-fulfilment.
The record captures widescreen indie songwriting, helmed by Maisie Everett (guitar, keys, vox) and fleshed out by a talented trio of musicians in Mike Bradvica (guitars), Liam De Bruin (drums) and Jimmy Droughton (bass). Featuring previous singles "Stay Or Go", "Gimme Gimme” and "Say My Name", Lush Life is a perfect album for first-time listeners to immerse themselves in, and signals the arrival of The Belair Lip Bombs.
The album was recorded between Naarm/Melbourne spaces Head Gap and Singing Bird studios, and saw The Belair Lip Bombs work with engineer Nao Anzai (Floodlights, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever) on mixing and mastering.
RIYL The Strokes, The B-52s, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever
The record captures widescreen indie songwriting, helmed by Maisie Everett (guitar, keys, vox) and fleshed out by a talented trio of musicians in Mike Bradvica (guitars), Liam De Bruin (drums) and Jimmy Droughton (bass). Featuring previous singles "Stay Or Go", "Gimme Gimme” and "Say My Name", Lush Life is a perfect album for first-time listeners to immerse themselves in, and signals the arrival of The Belair Lip Bombs.
The album was recorded between Naarm/Melbourne spaces Head Gap and Singing Bird studios, and saw The Belair Lip Bombs work with engineer Nao Anzai (Floodlights, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever) on mixing and mastering.
RIYL The Strokes, The B-52s, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever
TRACK LISTING
1. Say My Name
2. Gimme Gimme
3. World Is The One
4. Stay Or Go
5. Easy On The Heart
6. Look The Part
7. Walking Away
8. Things That You Did
9. Lucky Nine
10. Suck It In
Vocalist-multi-instrumentalist Areski and singer Brigitte Fontaine are a legendary French musical couple that rose to prominence in the ‘60s, making a series of albums that showcased a boldly unorthodox approach to the art of song. While their defiantly esoteric style, which could veer from North African folk to Brazilian samba to subversive takes on French chanson, was striking their lyrics were no less provocative, broaching anything from mental health to social injustice. “This re-mastered version of a timeless work is a must-hear for open minds and open ears ...” Kevin Le Gendre, 2022
TRACK LISTING
1. Le 6 Septembre
2. Ragilia
3. Il Pleut Sur La Gare
4. Déclaration De Sinistre
5. Les Murailles
6. L’engourdie
7. Nous Avons Tant Parlé
8. Les Borgias
9. Les Petites Madones
10. L’abeille
11. Après La Guerre
12. La Tête Bandée
13. Le Chant Des Chants
14. Ça Va Faire Un Hit
15. Quand Les Ghettos Brûleront
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