As hip-hop moved into the mainstream in 1988, Harlem duo Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock changed the game with "It Takes Two", one of the undisputed classic singles of the genre. The group's debut album, It Takes Two, which featured the title track as well as the dance hits "Joy and Pain" and "Get On The Dance Floor" has been newly remastered in high definition from the original tapes and pressed on red opaque vinyl--its first appearance on the format since its original release thirty years ago.

Black Peaches follow up their acclaimed 2016 debut with a dazzling display of musicianship on their explosive new album Fire In The Hole.

“Black Peaches existed inside me before I was aware of it,” says the band’s Rob Smoughton, also known as a member of Hot Chip and Scritti Politti. “It’s the culmination and continuation of the music I love. I started to notice how Brazilian rhythm, funk, soul, classic country and pop were all combining in the music I was writing, and I looked for other band members to join me to bring it alive.”

And he found other members to bring that combination alive in Susumu Mukai, Charlie Michael, Nick Roberts and Thomas Greene. Together they released 2016’s acclaimed Get Down You Dirty Rascals and now return with an album that continues to throw genres together with all the seamless grace of a seasoned cocktail maker but free of the postured affectations associated with such moves.

Black Peaches are a place where genres collide and musical eras meld. On their second album the band has absorbed all the tropical sounds, glistening melodies and funk-ridden grooves into a sound that is truly their own. “I wanted the combination and layering of our influences to be organic,” says Smoughton. “To create Black Peaches music. To take the ideas from the first record further into our own place.”

The result is a record that skips with the vibrancy and buoyancy of a band still in love with the idea of bringing their record collection to life, but the band now understand themselves as much as the music that inspires them and have created something new and refined.

Given the eclectic styles rooted in the make-up of the band, to enter into the world of Black Peaches is often to feel like one is flying from country-to-country with each new song. For Smoughton this musical traversing is a key part of the experience of the band. “I find the combination of mythology, history and geography to be romantic and I want our music to elicit the same thrill. I think the album conjures up the adventure of moving from one place to another; from Spain into Northern Africa, where North America tips into the South. Narratively the songs inhabit a place between the conscious and subconscious - between dreams and waking life.”

This globetrotting sonic voyage creates a sense of the unknown in the record, where each track exists as a new and unpredictable path. This is all done under the mission of creating a record that is capable of pure musical transcendence. “I really believe that music has the ability to transcend and move people emotionally and spiritually,” Smoughton says. “Our music is not about the separation between musician and audience but about the space in between.”

Yet the album also works on an intuitive and physical level. On top of its narrative of the world between the conscious and the subconscious, it is also simply a collection of songs to make you dance and move. Whether it’s the Delta blues influenced strut of “Lemonade”, the “slinky and naughty” dance floor pounce of “The Black Peach Boogie” or the Afro-Brazilian skip of “Cuatro Berimbau.”

Perhaps the most emblematic song of all when it comes to capturing the essence, power and groove of the album is the title track “Fire in the Hole”. “It comes from a phrase that miners would shout it to warn others that they had charged an explosive,” Smoughton says. “It’s to tell you something is about to explode. In this case it’s about being unable to resist the urge to dance. About giving over to rhythm and sound.”

TRACK LISTING

1. Cuatro Berimbau
2. Lemonade
3. Fire In The Hole
4. Barracuda
5. The Black Peach Boogie
6. Spice Route
7. Pillars Of Hercules

Bonus Dinked 7”
Side A
Bad Luck
Side B
Dub Peach Boogie

Leeds' casuals (in the horizontal, grooving by the palm trees sense - Andy Pye is NOT a hooligan) Balearic Social signpost the summer with a sumptuous split EP from Bonnie & Klein and BlackBush Orchestra. Slow as Viduka but steady like Nigel Martyn, these three cuts conjure stunning coastlines and the deepest azure - slip the needle into the groove and dive deep (like Harry Kewell?).

Putting aside the football references, (World Cup season init!), we can enjoy the lilting excellence of "Motmot", a beautiful bit of sundowner Balearic courtesy of Greek duo Bonnie & Klein. The time-honoured combo of melancholy pads, bossa beats and a winding double bass bring to mind "My Boss" before the echoing Spanish guitar, delicate pianos and evocative organ come on like Knopfler and Richard Wright jamming at Aptera. Lush as you like and bare Balearic fam. We stick with the cradle of civilisation for A2's "Iris", as B&K bring us an audio embodiment of the rainbow goddess. As befits the west wind's wife, the track is a breesy affair, all limber bass sounds, gentle percussion and sublime melody - the well read out there might even find flavours of Mulatu at play...

In this case the B stands for BlackBush, with the Beauty & The Beat affiliated Orchestra expanding our mind and moving our bodies with a folkloric life changer inspired by Cedric Woo, Jeremy Gilbert and Cyril Cornet's extraordinary party. Suitably psychedelic, the track opens with the gentle clatter of organic percussion, backwards guitar licks and panning rainforest idents. A spheric kick signals a move from the bean bag to the dancefloor, nestling seemlessly into the Brazilian rhythm section like a carnival veteren. Haunting strings and heartwrenching guitar remenisce like childhood friends and suddenly the track's so pretty it hurts. Lysergic bass swells, hallucinatory sound design and an endless supply of soul offer sensory immersion for around fifteen minutes, with the latter stages building into something truly ecstatic.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Bonnie & Klein - Motmot
A2. Bonnie & Klein - Iris
AA1. BlackBush Orchestra - Beauty & The Beat

Emotional ambient, soft focus synthesis and pastoral programming from German duo Cass. & Gianni Brezzo on Hamburg‘s Growing Bin. Hopeless romantic with GSOH seeks open minded audiophile for lifelong companionship.
The style might change, but the quality remains the same in the Growing Bin. For this autumnal edition, the Hamburg label looks South West to Osnabrück and Cologne, home to Cass. and Gianni Brezzo respectively. Sharing an appreciation for emotive tonality and expansive texture, the two musicians make the perfect partnership on 'Masala Kiss‘, Brezzo‘s timeless melodies only serving to intensify the signature sensuality of the Cass. sound. Despite the occasional polyrhythms, you‘re hearing two hearts beat as one...

Insistent and expressive, well travelled opener 'Jaybo‘ joins the ethnic and esoteric with a new age optimism before giving way to the detailed ambience and good nature of 'Umberella‘, a brief pitstop on the road to the meditative 'Imence Sense‘. Alive with layered guitars, this opiated raga dances like hashish smoke in the evening sky, and then its up into the cloud forms of 'Instabubu‘ and 'Autoscooter Love‘, celestial serenades both off and on beat. Cass. and Brezzo set controls for the heart of the sun with the Froesean 'Out Of Mind‘, a cinematic exercise in precision sequencing and frequency control then start the journey home with the dewy bells and delicate waveforms of 'Koli‘. If you‘re in need of a little new age funk for your poolside playtime 'Helge‘ and 'Der Däne‘ are on hand with the chunky bass and languid grooves, while a last minute interlude provides a prenatal comfort and womblike warmth. I always cry at endings, and ‚Paterson‘ provides pure emotional release in utterly Balearic fashion. Pensive guitar and euphoric synths meet on the waterfront as you stare over the ocean with all the people you love.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Jaybo
A2. Umbrella
A3. Imence Sense
A4. Instabubu
A5. Autoscooter Lover
A6. Out Of Mind
B1. Koli
B2. Helge
B3. Der Dane
B4. Interlude
B5. Paterson

Gilles Peterson launches his new imprint Arc Records with a reissue of cult record “Musica Infinita” by Mexican drummer and composer Tino Contreras. A psychedelic, experimental jazz record, originally released in 1978, it marked a daring step forward by the Mexico City-based musician, and is now re-released for a chance to get the widespread dues it deserves. A limited private press, copies of the original are highly sought after, despite the drummer being much overlooked in both his home country as well as abroad, with a career that started in the 1950s, and which has seen him share stages with many of the greats – including Dave Brubeck, Cannonball Adderley and the Duke Ellington Orchestra.

The story behind Peterson re-releasing the record is serendipitous. Several years ago, he bought a copy before a gig in Japan, and it soon became one of his most cherished discoveries; he was awed by its otherworldly blend of jazz fusion and psychedelia. Years later, booked to play at a festival in Mexico, Peterson was introduced to Carlos Icaza, a record collector and musician, who also had a copy of the record – in fact, he has two – and to whom it was also an extremely special album. To Peterson’s delight, Icaza suggested they meet up with Contreras who, at 95, is still active and based in Mexico City. Soon enough, the three of them were sat down together and agreed upon a plan to re-issue “Musica Infinita”.

The album is the product of a long, varied musical development for Contreras, and of his productive partnership with Estrella Newman, a scholar who championed pre-Columbian culture and Mexico’s experimental traditions, such as the micro-tonalism pioneered by musician and academic Julián Carrillo. On “Musica Infinita”, Contreras filtered these local traditions through an American-influenced jazz lense, his playing and compositions honed through formative experiences seeing the likes of Art Blakey and Shelly Manne, decades of touring internationally, and of being part of a series of orchestras and ensembles central to Mexico’s jazz history.

By the time he recorded “Musica Infinita”, Contreras had been a part of the Luis Arcaraz orchestra, had led a series of outfits to record albums for the Musart label, been part of recordings for the Polydor, Typic and Berta imprints, and had introduced Mexico to the Dominican Republic’s merengue rhythm, through his 1953 recording debut with an orchestra, the ‘Volado por los merengues’ 10”.

The group name adopted for the album, Quinto Sol, reflects the influence of the Aztec Calendar, a concept which Contreras and Newman were inspired to build their shared musical project around. It’s a concept based around an Aztec carved stone structure, known as the Sun Stone, discovered in the late eighteenth century, believed to outline five periods – or suns – which explain the transformations of the earth. Inspired by a nighttime visit to the Pyramid of the Sun, in the ancient city of Teotihuacan, Contreras decided to adopt a group name in reference to the fifth period of the Aztec Calendar. Thus, he picked Quinto Sol – or, “Fifth Sun”.

Re-issued for the first time, it’s a chance to get acquainted with an especially bright moment for an artist whose legacy is surely due for greater attention. Bridging strongly-felt Mexican tradition with a grounding in a primo jazz schooling, “Musica Infinita” channels grand concepts into a visceral musical experience.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Sinfonia Del Quinto Sol
B1. El Hombre Cosmico
B2. Orbita 13

After a string of succesful singles, "Deixa Musica A Tocar", "So Vejo Voce", "E A Felicidade" and the DJ Harvey supported "Te Faz Bem" and "Serei Seu", The Danish / Brazilian quartet constellation Copenema (Copenhagen / Ipanema = Copenema) release their debut album "Deixa Musica a Tocar".

The album mixes European electronica influences with Brazilian songwriting style. The sound becomes unique and some would say Balearic.The albums leading single "Te Faz Bem", a funky downtempo track with live saxophone, flute and rhythm guitars and a bassline to die for has become somewhat a national Ibiza Balearic anthem over the past years and spread worldwide especially due to the massive support from DJs incl from Harvey to DJ Pippi to Pete Tong.

"Serei Seu" the second single is another Ibiza fave is a funky party track that sounds like a modern Jorge Ben. The single “So Vejo Voce” is Stan Getz meets the beach vibes, “Festa De Relaxamento” an Alfredo fave is jazzy Brazilian funk vibes with heavy live drums and a bass line that wants you to move.

"Lullaby For Impanema" is sunset material. The band's first recording the 12 min beautiful jazzy cosmic downtempo Pat Metheny influenced and Leo Mas supported "Some Di Some Day" is pure bliss and a sunset fave amongst the Balearic community.

The album has three added bonus tracks - "Can’t Sleep" and "Nada Mais" both recorded in a Music For Dreams writers camp recently and the 12 minute journey of Serei Seu by Danilo Braca.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Te Faz Bem
A2. Deixa Música Tocar
A3. So Vejo Voce
A4. Nada Mais
B1. Can't Sleep (Album Version)
B2. é Bom Amar (Poema)
B3. Je Ta Falei
B4. Lullabye For Ipanema
C1. Serei Seu
C2. E A Felicidade
C3. Some Di Some Day
D1. Festa De La Relaxamento
D2. Serei Seu (Danilo Braca Revision)

Mikal Cronin releases Seeker, his fourth and finest full-length to date. Recorded live with a crew of close friends and engineer Jason Quever at Palmetto Studios in Los Angeles, it finds Cronin pushing his often devastating power pop into darker territory—from the isolation of “Show Me” to the desperation of “Fire” to the unadorned heartache of “Sold.”

It comes with a backstory that feels like fate. Cronin writes:

I was stuck. I’d had a rough few years. Relationships end, begin, and end again. I had to stay active, tour with other bands, make music through various other avenues—writer’s block is real and it can crush you, scratching at an itch you can’t quite get. I needed to clean up, to stop leaning on external crutches to get through the anxiety. I needed to grow the fuck up.

I needed a change.

I went to the woods, to Idyllwild, a small town in the mountains of southern California. I spent a month in a cabin there, alone with my cat, Ernie. It was so quiet and peaceful. I got weird looks at the store. I got bug bites that didn’t heal for months. I walked around a small lake a few times. I wrote. I took literally something that’s usually a hypothetical, something every artist thinks about doing. It worked: A large majority of Seeker was written and demoed there.

But then I had to go, immediately. An arsonist had sparked a series of fires and the woods exploded. I saw the flames coming up the hill as I packed up all my instruments and recording equipment. Ernie hid under the bed and was the last to go. I got him in the car just as the police came up the street to help with evacuations. I ended up home in LA a few days early; a small blessing because I was losing my mind a bit.

Once I was back, I was ready to make something. I needed help. I found Jason [Quever] and his studio. I collected as many friends as I could and brought them in to record live with me. I needed the energy of a group of people in a room playing together—a simple concept but one that I had never tried with my own songs. Most of the record is backed by Ty Segall’s Freedom Band. I play bass in this band. We had been touring and playing together for a long run over a few years, so it seemed natural to stick together.

I aimed for nature. I wanted organic sounds. I wanted to bring you into the room. Jason and I talked about The Beatles’ White Album a lot when placing mics. I brought a charred pine cone from the woods to the studio, just in case it would help. Fire—specifically its cycle of purging and reseeding the landscape—is a central theme to the record. Death and rebirth.

I was looking for something: answers, direction, peace. I am the seeker.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Superb new album from Ty Segall's Mikal Cronin, encompassing the shredding psych-rock vibe of his parent band but with a definite sound of his own. Tender moments are cut through with a swathe of distorted guitar and Cronin's gravelly vocals. At points, 'Seeker' veers towards country-rock but with a more edgy, saturated edge. A brilliant development for Cronin, and a thrilling journey for us.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1 Shelter 3:48
2 Show Me 4:50
3 Feel It All 4:58
4 Fire 4:35
5 Sold 3:27
Side B
6 I've Got Reason 3:46
7 Caravan 2:05
8 Guardian Well 5:17
9 Lost A Year 5:07
10 On The Shelf 2:59

Bonus 12" On Dinked Edition:
Side A
Arsonist 17:07
Side B
Tsinosra 17:07

The latest release from D.U.D.S. is a deepening of the sinister sonic territory they have been exploring, in various forms, since they formed. Bass lines and percussion lope through the undergrowth while jagged guitars pierce the ears. Then there’s the brass section, which works less as a means of driving home a song’s point, than as a warning that whatever comes next is unlikely to be anything you expect. Lyrics are still somewhat hard to make out, emerging from the rhythmic chaos at intervals, as though you were listening to the recording of an Old Testament prophet, preaching from the ruins of the twenty first century. I don’t know what kind of band D.U.D.S. are supposed to be. There are labels you could apply to them, terms like ‘wave’ and ‘punk’ with various prefixes designed to qualify the fact that they don’t really sound like anyone else. Immediate makes that fact all the more obvious and all the more compelling.

"Sometimes you catch something unexpected which resets a switch, excites and engages. I caught D.U.D.S. a couple of years ago on a whim, they were visiting Newcastle supporting their debut album. I had never heard them or of them but the moment their perfectly disjointed music hit the room, I was all smiles. Warping brass shapes through the room entwined with guitars played as percussively as they are melodically, the whole sound coalesces into a rolling ball of spiked energy.
Their take on punk rock welds the caustic atonality of The Fall to the coiled funk of Liquid Liquid. Both drenched in negative information and loaded with dance floor impact. Lyrically themes explore the human condition a lurching dread and this dichotomy of no-wave funk and the lyrical creep is the hook the grabs me/you/us and forces a regular return."
- Bish (Opal Tapes).

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: D.U.D.S have had their fair share of mind-blowing arty Indie and are now embracing their more esoteric jazz-fuelled desires with this rhythmic but ever-changing collection of syncopated jams and meandering weirdo funk, think Primus on valium.

TRACK LISTING

01. Type
02. Humour & Friction
03. Not At All
04. Explain
05. Immediate
06. Re-Satisfy
07. Four (Paxton)
08. Semantic Exhaustion
09. Same Device
10. A Different Stage (Part Ll)
11. Nu Nu Nu
12. Delayed Doesn't Mean Deleted

Elbow return with new track 'Dexter & Sinister', released as a limited edition one-sided 10" single and featuring the vocals of Jesca Hoop, with a lyric etching on the b-side.

An exact seven minutes of new music melding ominous, creeping grooves and deity-denying lyrics that burst into a sweeping second phase of lament and redemption. 

Call the riot police! - The Bug and Burial return as Flame 2, on The Bug's Pressure imprint....!

Certain to cause a stampede quicker than Black Friday in Wynthenshaw Aldi, the two tracks here a thick with blackened tar; dripping with sonic ooze and posessed by the haunted spirits of London's desolated late night streets, alleys and tube stations.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: UK bass & garage demigods Burial & The Bug collaborate for a pitch black excursion into 5-D textures, claustrophic atmospheres and paranoid suspension. Hydraulic pistons on one side, solar winds and urban crackle on the other. Magnificent.

TRACK LISTING

A: Dive
B: Rain

Burning deep in Girl Friday's music is an unquenchable will to survive. The LA-based band don't blunt the impact of the themes they work through in their ferocious, knotty rock songs, but they don't let the more harrowing aspects of being alive and young in the 21st century daunt them, either. Dystopian shades of post-punk and noise rock abound alongside abundant optimism on Girl Friday’s arresting debut LP, Androgynous Mary. The world is a hellscape, but the four of them are in it together.

With bold, dramatic guitar lines and tightly wound vocal harmonies, Girl Friday - guitarist Vera Ellen, bassist Libby Hsieh, guitarist Sierra Scott, drummer Virginia Pettis - negotiate the stress and alienation of being sidelined by society. "Does the average man feel like he's on the outside?" goes the beginning of "Public Bodies," a wistful jangle-pop gem that shudders open into a snarling punk coda. Taking cues from boundary-pushers Sonic Youth, Girl Friday favor the rush of jarring turns over the safety of well-defined pop taxonomy. Looking to queer provocateurs like Placebo, they cherish the frisson of incongruous musical elements: "really dark, heavy things mashed up with quite beautiful things, whether that be a distorted guitar line and a sentimental vocal or vice versa," as Ellen puts it. That duality dovetails with the thematic friction running through the album, the alternating despair and hope that intertwine in the fight to survive as disenfranchised people in the US.

Written during a year of personal struggle for all four band members, Androgynous Mary reflects the solace they took in each other -- as a band, but also as a microcommunity and a chosen family. On the record's final song, "I Hope Jason Is Happy," Girl Friday sing in unison: "My head is on your chest / In the end I'll be happy if you do your best / You've got to fight to keep your breath in this world." It's a testament to the power of their bond, and a gesture of solidarity with those listening. Alone, we suffer under the weight of everything designed to keep us down. Together, we stand a fighting chance. Girl Friday place their hope squarely on that chance.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: With all of the vim of punk rock, but with an instrumental sensibility far beyond the typical punk band, Girl Friday come roaring out of the gates with a ripping collection of ballads, both tender and rawkous.

TRACK LISTING

1. This Is Not The Indie Rock I Signed Up For
2. Amber's Knees: A Matter Of Concern
3. Eaten Thing
4. Public Bodies
5. What We Do It For
6. Earthquake
7. Clotting
8. Gold Stars
9. Favorite Friend
10. I Hope Jason Is Happy

GoGo Penguin present Ocean in a Drop (music for film), a 5 track EP drawing from music originally written for their original live score to Godfrey Reggio’s cult film Koyaanisqatsi. Expect music that moves from fragile beauty to powerful themes that offer both a stand-alone snapshot of the trio’s world and echoes of the images that inspired the music.

TRACK LISTING

Time-Lapse City
Control Shift
Four Corners
Ocean In A Drop
Nessus

11 track collection of demos of all songs from the debut studio album Dry by PJ Harvey, available for the first time since 1992, and previously unreleased as a standalone album.

Features brand new artwork with previously unseen photos by Maria Mochnacz.

TRACK LISTING

LP
Side A
Oh My Lover (Demo)
O Stella (Demo)
Dress (Demo)
Victory (Demo)
Happy And Bleeding (Demo)

Side B
Sheela-Na-Gig (Demo)
Hair (Demo)
Joe (Demo)
Plants And Rags (Demo)
Fountain (Demo)
Water (Demo)

Music and dancing is one of the last great unifiers that we have. It doesn’t discriminate, it doesn’t care about race, sexual preferences, religion or what side of the fence you are on politically. Music chooses you and you just have to submit yourself to its peculiar yet tender headlock! ‘Don’t Diss the Disco’ is about that. It references Studio 54, Grace Jones & Bianca Jagger on a White Horse - but it’s mainly about clubs where we and our friends frequent like ‘Homoelectric in Manchester. This is a song for our kind of freaks and miscreants and the incessant snobbery faced by them for liking good pop music, good disco, genre’s that on the surface might not be deemed cool, but actually save souls. Says ITOP founder Adrian Flanagan (The Moonlandingz/ Eccentronic Research Council/ Adult Entertainment).

Singer Leonore Wheatley adds.
We wanted to capture that sweaty, hazy, manic, exciting mess in a song, that captures those halcyon days of Clubbing in Sheffield & Manchester, that moment the adrenaline kicks in and everyone in the room is your brother or sister.”

Talking about the album, Adrian said:
We recorded it all and produced it all ourselves at Dean’s Bowling green studio in Sheffield, it’s the best thing we’ve done since the last thing we did, which I know sounds unbelievable, but it really is! We also included Katie Mason on this record who sings live with us as a double pronged two headed front person with Leonore - and their voices together work like a harmonious dream. Katie & Leonore have been friends since primary school so you can’t fake that dynamic, it’s unbreakable) .

Leonore adds:
We decided to go deeper into the club realm. We wanted the record and live shows to go hand in hand, bringing the spectators more into becoming part of the performance. Dean Honer who mixed the album and who has worked with everyone from Jarvis Cocker to Britney Spears said:
I like that we have a disco song about fillicide commited by the Queen. (The Tower) I wonder if Meghan and Harry heard our early demo?

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: ITOP return with their newest LP of thumping basslines, sparkling arpeggios and stone-cold groove. It's a heady combination that really captured our attention on the self-titled debut but goes even further this time. Neon grooves, huge monophonic basslines and all of the heart of the debut. Incredible record.

TRACK LISTING

1. Don’t Diss The Disco
2. Gaslight
3. I Stole Yer Plimoles (feat. Jason Williamson)
4. Flood Club
5. A Change
6. Prince (The Final Wheelie) (Introducing Katie-Mason)
7. The Red Dots (Dirty Mind)
8. Beats Working For A Living (For Martin)
9. Ein Weiterer Stein In Der Wand (End Of Days Mix)
10. Femenergy
11. The Tower

Brand new studio full length from Bristol based sike-o-nauts, orbiting in the Heads’ realm and led by Heads’ Simon Price.

For fans of: Popul Vuh, Parson Sound, Amon Duul, Neu!, The Heads, Spacemen 3, Harmonia, Moon Duo, Carlton Melton, Fripp & Eno.
k3 continues the trajectory of outer space excursions found on previous kandodo releases.

Recorded over the past three years and aided by fellow Heads types H O Morgan and Wayne Maskell, this album was recorded in Bristol and on Price’s 4 track.. Mastered once again at Optimum by Shawn Joseph.
Out of focus, relaxed and expansive vibes fuse together into serpentine rivers of minimalist rhythms and echoed tones, drawing the listener into tunnels of sound and scorched sonic landscapes.

It's one for the headphones at 30,000 feet or late night deserted drives.
k3 finds three heads taking time out to dive into the dronal repetitions of deep space, 3 psychonauts killing time in the only way they know how; head-nodding drumfuzz layered with creamed strings. Guest guitar from fellow sike-head John McBain on the final half of the 40 minute trip which makes up sides 3 and 4.

k3 takes the autobahn, veering left past the sun and heading on till morning. There are no black holes 'cos we're in it: just do the half. The colours will come back with the dawn.

Settle in for the long haul and ….

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Hazy sun-dappled ambient psychedelia doesn't come any more satisfying than this, with slow-mo Earth-like progressions and weighty clean guitar plucks meander over a satisfyingly hypnotic undercurrent of staggered distorted bass and whirling sine waves. Properly hypnotic stuff here, perfect for phasing out in the sunshine.

TRACK LISTING

King Vulture
Lapwinger
Everything - Green's - Gone
Holy Debut
The Gaping Maw
Lounge Core
High On Planes/Drifter

"Kindness returns with their third full length album titled “Something Like A War”. The album is a culmination of years spent collaborating with the likes of Robyn, Jazmine Sullivan, Seinabo Sey and Cosima among many others. Produced entirely by Bainbridge, the record is a collection of works representing a period of reflection and transformation over the course of 4 years following their second record “Otherness.” Now based in London, the album was recorded in several locations, while Kindness was primarily based in New York during the writing and recording of the album. "

Kindness, who uses they/them pronouns, has remained busy since Otherness, working across several projects: they co-produced five tracks on Solange’s album A Seat at the Table, and contributed production, writing, and vocals to Blood Orange’s Freetown Sound and Negro Swan albums in addition to production on Robyn's latest album Honey. A sought-after DJ, radio host, writer, collaborator, and lecturer on everything from musical craft and heritage to queerness and history, they’ve spent the last several years performing as a DJ at venues across the world, from Palais de Tokyo to the Guggenheim Museum, hosted their own radio show on Red Bull Radio in 2016 and 2017, lectured at the Boiler Room in New Delhi and moderated Robyn’s Red Bull Music Academy lecture at MOMA in New York. They were recently featured in Solange’s Calvin Klein advertisement, shot by Willy Vanderperre, alongside friends Dev Hynes, Kelela and Caroline Polachek.

STAFF COMMENTS

Patrick says: Adam Bainbridge continues to hone their sensitive, sensual and subtle blend of synth, soul, house and disco-not-disco on this ace third LP, which features collaborations with the likes of Sampha and Robyn. Post modern pop with plenty of heart.

TRACK LISTING

1. Sibambaneni
2. Raise Up
3. Lost Without (ft. Seinabo Sey)
4. Softness As A Weapon
5. Hard To Believe (Feat Jazmine Sullivan & Sampha)
6. Who You Give Your Heart To (feat Alexandria)
7. Samthing’s Interlude
8. Dreams Fall
9. The Warning (feat Robyn)
10. Cry Everything
11. No New Lies (feat Cosmia)
12. Something Like A War (feat. Bahamadia)
13. Call It Down (feat, Cosima & Nadia Nair)

After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. There, he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light.”(Matthew 17:2).

Based out of Toronto, Little Kid’s Kenny Boothby finds himself inspired by this idea of transfiguration - a complete change of form or appearance into a more beautiful or spiritual state. Far-ranging in both its sonic palette and its subject matter, the band’s forthcoming album, Transfiguration Highway is a record of unusual depth and clarity from a songwriter who has spent the better part of a decade honing his craft and a lifetime building the perspective his songs so deftly express. These are personal songs that look outward, that seek to tie together the bigness of the world and the smallness of the everyday with both subtlety and humility. For years Boothby and Little Kid have been quietly building a devoted following, but their Solitaire debut is a beautifully formed introduction to the wider world for an artist who will undoubtedly be recognized as a uniquely gifted songwriting voice.

Operating since 2011, and now joined by Megan Lunn (banjo, keys, vocals), Paul Vroom (bass & vocals), Liam Cole (drums) and Brodie Germain (drums, guitar, percussion), Little Kid has built a cult audience with a series of idiosyncratic home recordings, self-released in short cassette runs that range from more traditional albums and EPs, to 2019’s Botched Restorations - on which Boothby sold out a run of one-of-a-kind 60 minute cassettes that each contained 10 songs from his discography, chosen by the purchaser and recorded live to tape in his bedroom.

TRACK LISTING

1. I Thought That You'd Been Raptured
2. What's In A Name
3. Transfiguration Highway
4. Thief On The Cross
5. All Night (Golden Ring)
6. Candle Out
7. Made For Each Other
8. Close Enough To Kill
9. Losing
10. Gill
11. Pry

Minds expanded and bodies soothed by Krakatau’s deep spiritual eruptions, Growing Bin take us back to the beginning with three impressionistic jazz landscapes from the magical Merge. Inspired by childhood memories of an Iranian oasis, Jo Lienen let his fingers breeze over the keys like a warm shamal, leading him back through dusty streets and covered markets to his long forgotten Kashan. As the needle nestles into the well pressed groove we gaze through Lienen‘s eyes upon an ancient beauty, the sapphire skies and tan sands which surround the endless domes and lush gardens of his childhood home. Focusing on the bustling market in the morning sun, ‚Part I‘ races down the narrow alleys to a bright bossa rhythm, weaving past the crowds with a swaying bassline and lithe guitar. The soothing air carries the faint heat of spice and the voices of the bazaar, while the delicate piano falls like a warm desert rain. As afternoon prayer leads the crowds to mosque, ‚Part II‘ strolls through the empty streets, following mystical melodies to a moment of trascendent beauty. Hissing snare rolls leap above subtle percussion, carrying the earthy bass and airy piano as emotive guitar drifts through the city like smoke in the wind. A dervish solo erupts with spiritual fervour and the crowds flood back through the streets bringing Kashan back to life once again.
‚Part III‘ finds us at sunset, drinking spiced tea with red dust underfoot. Taking a slower, more sedate pace, this bass led beauty rolls on restrained but rhythmic percussion, flooding the senses with synth harp and dreamy guitar. The music might stop and the mirage may disappear, but thanks to Growing Bin we can visit any time we want.

STAFF COMMENTS

Patrick says: Basso rounds off a spectacular year of Growing Bin goodness with some brand new material from German jazz troupe Merge. Swapping coastal breeze for the heat of Iran, the desert jazz of 'Kashan' is as warm, refreshing and intoxicating as an afternoon aperitif.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Kashan I
A2. Kashan II
B1. Kashan III

‘Michael Nau & The Mighty Thread’ is the follow-up to last year’s critically acclaimed album ‘Some Twist’ and its extension ‘The Load’ EP (feat. Natalie Prass).

The sprawling new album was recorded in guitarist Benny Yurco’s one-bedroom apartment in downtown Burlington, Vermont. Nau and his collaborators had a cool little set up going in Yurco’s spot — drums and bass took over the bedroom, the guitar amp in the bathroom, Nau’s vocals and piano in the living room, and a vibraphone in the kitchen. It’s the first time one of Nau’s records happened all in one place, and “it feels most like a band record than ever before”. Nau and this particular group of musicians held it down together as a true team, which is why Nau named the record in their honour. The songs on this layered record sound sunny and familiar, like sharing stories and worries with a close friend on a late summer day. In a gorgeous and natural way, he contemplates his own process, those feelings of uncertainty. “Making it too hard just comes easier,” Nau croons on ‘Funny In Real Life,’ an exquisite meditation on creation and self. “Truth is such a beautiful force/And every time we find the chorus/There’s no second-guessing the real/I don’t ever know how I feel.” 

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: The Richard Hawley of Americana returns with another swoonsome collection of mellow classics-in-waiting. Superb, as ever.

TRACK LISTING

1. Less Than Positive
2. Shadow On
3. When
4. What's A Loon
5. Far The Far
6. No Faraway Star
7. Funny In Real Life
8. On Ice
9. Funny Wind
10. Can't Take One
11. Smudge

New Order ‘Be a Rebel’ is the first brand new music from the band since the release of the critically acclaimed album ‘Music Complete’ In 2015. ‘Music Complete’ was the band’s highest charting album since Republic in 2003 and was included in NME and The Guardian’s Albums of the Year.

Vinyl features additional remixes from the band’s own Bernard Sumner and Stephen Morris.

TRACK LISTING

A1 Be A Rebel
A2 Be A Rebel (Bernard’s Renegade Mix)
B1 Be A Rebel (Stephen’s T34 Mix)
B2 Be A Rebel (Bernard’s Renegade Instrumental Mix)

Our Girl ‘Live At St Pancras Old Church’ showcases tracks from the bands acclaimed debut album like you’ve never heard before. Recorded in London on 19th March 2018 during the snow storms and some of the coldest weather England had seen in decades, Our Girl returned from an overnight flight from the US to play the legendary St Pancras Old Church. The bands specially re-arranged set captivated the capacity crowd and reinforced their standing as one of the most diverse and brilliant new acts in the U.K.

Michael Price, one of the UK’s most sought after composers (Unforgotten, Sherlock, Dracula), releases the original soundtrack from director Craig Roberts’ (Submarine, Just Jim) latest feature Eternal Beauty, starring Sally Hawkins.

The Eternal Beauty soundtrack will be released on vinyl as the 73rd Dinked Edition, exclusive to the Dinked network of the UK’s best independent record shops.

The 16 track Première edition LP - exclusive to the Dinked network - is a limited edition on blue vinyl with multi-colour splatter and includes a signed and numbered print.

It becomes available to pre-order from October 2nd, coinciding with the cinema release and on demand première of the film. It will also be available exclusively on Bandcamp from the same date, before arriving on all other digital platforms in November.

Recorded and mixed by Andrew Dudman at Abbey Road Studios and The Control Room.
Mastered by Oli Morgan at Abbey Road Mastering.

Price’s score, as his so often do, serves as a narrator, a character helping to guide us through the true highs and lows of Jane’s (Sally Hawkins) rarely uneventful life. Price’s signature sweeping strings, underpinned by piano and a beautifully restrained use of sound design ensures that whilst the score drives the story forwards it never distracts from that which is unfolding before our eyes.

“A soundtrack that provides the rocket fuel for a story that unzips our understanding of ’normal’ " Adrian Bates, Eternal Beauty Producer

When Jane (Sally Hawkins) is dumped at the altar she has a breakdown and spirals into a chaotic world, where love (both real and imagined) and family relationships collide with touching and humorous consequences.

The reality we see through Jane’s eyes is vividly different, heightened in the film by the stylized palette, camera work and intoxicating score - a reality that the film celebrates and treats with dignity, humour and affection.

On writing the music, Michael Price explains:

"Finding a musical voice for Jane was a little daunting at first. Craig Roberts' kaleidoscopic writing, and Sally Hawkins' blazing performance seemed to fill so much of the air around me, that the first few notes to emerge were tiny and bird-like. In fact, there is literally bird-song, an Irish nightingale, that stayed in the score, early in the film when Jane sits and feeds the pigeons in the park. That became a key to unlocking Jane's interior world, as did using snippets of her vocalisations, which became percussion instruments and stretched into more ambient pads. Once I had opened the door to her world, though, the music came tumbling out - rich, romantic, delicate and tender, and sometimes terrifying. All of it brought into life by the writing and performance, and the opportunity to celebrate Jane's "superpower", as Craig described it.”

Shot in and around writer/director Craig Robert’s native South Wales, the inspiration for the character of Jane at the heart of Eternal Beauty came from people Craig was close to when growing up. He explains “The character came fully formed. I just kind of knew those people, to be honest.

On the recording, Michael Price recalls:

When we finally recorded the orchestra at Abbey Road Studios, I was touched to see that Craig had brought some of his family down to listen too. I think this is an incredibly personal film for him, and there was something about hearing the orchestra sounding majestic and noble, which seemed as if we had done musical justice to both the characters, and the people who had inspired their creation."

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: There's something inherently soundtracky about Michael Price's work for the decidedly soundtracky Erased Tapes records, so it's no giant surprise that this soundtrack of his for Craig Roberts' 'Eternal Beauty'. It's the perfect score, and displays wonderfully how talented a composer Price is.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. A Walk And A Wedding
2. Eternal Beauty
3. Different Dose
4. Where Have You Been
5. Cannibals
6. Beauty Pageant
7. Marry Me

Side B
8. Pot Plant
9. Unpacking
10. Making You Better
11. The Other Side
12. Towards The Light
13. Time To Go
14. More Friends Than You
15. Nice Or Really Nice?
16. The End

The Rhythm Method were recently described by The Guardian as 'a Balearic vision of romance as imagined from a parochial nightclub dancefloor'. Formed half a decade ago in a Thameside squat protection scheme intended for professionals but inhabited by the barely-employed, the duo of lyricist/vocalist Joey Bradbury and top-liner/singer-songwriter Rowan Martin turned a summer of FIFA tournaments, cosmic breakdowns and 4pm beers into a series of bizarre, outsider-music iPhone demos that became a Soundcloud, then a band, then a live show and now an album.

"How Would You Know I Was Lonely?" is a journey through the present - a descent into late 20's, late-capitalist mind-funk; 12 stories of near-romances, yellow label dinners, chemical catatonia and lack-of-identity politics. Its influences are strange and diverse, not always entirely credible or tangible; Scritti Politti, Aswad, Irish Pub karaoke, ITV4, YouTube freestyles, Celtic standards, Golborne Road radios and more than a dose of Rod Stewart.

Pocket symphonies such as "Sex and The Suburbs", "Local, Girl" and "Cruel" sound like the Saturday night playlist from a Quantum Leap FM Radio station – ostensibly pop songs, but ones in possession of a rare intelligence, frankness and deep weirdness. The references may be initially esoteric, but the themes are palpably universal. Opener "Salad Cream", referring to a mid 90’s Heinz campaign, is about creating social demand for yourself via scarcity. "Cruel" is pub-karaoke paean to the spectre of addiction. "Single Life" explores the dark, bleak desperation of romantic dejection, set to sleazy noir funk and muted trumpets. Joey Bradbury's verses could be a man on the verge of a nervous breakdown recording the voice notes of his crack-up, whilst Rowan Martin's choruses ask questions you never thought you'd hear in such hummable form.

Fans and supporters have ranged from spiritual forbearers such Mike Skinner (who produced "Cruel", which also features London electronic pop artist Zoee), Squeeze frontman Chris Difford (who lends a knowing baritone to the chorus of Zone 2 opus "Wandsworth Plain"), Elton John and Suggs; contemporaries including The 1975’s Matty Healy (who is responsible for half of the band’s YouTube views), Wolf Alice and Shame; actress and poet Michaela Coel and Denise Welch; highlighting the varied magnetism of the lyrical insight, classic songcraft and inquisitive spirit at the heart of these off-kilter pop tunes.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Not my usual cup of tea, quirky indie, but the lol'ing genius of some of these lyrics combined with the tongue-in-cheek approach throughout has won me over. Comedy genius + catchy tunes = massive hit for boring afternoons!

TRACK LISTING

A1. Salad Cream
A2. Ode 2 Joey
A3. Tomato
A4. Something For The Weekend
A4. Single Life
A5. Magic Hour
B1. Local, Girl
B2. Continental Breakfast
B3. Anonymous
B4. Cruel Ft. Zoee
B5. Sex And The Suburbs
B6. Wandsworth Plain Ft. Chris Difford

Whether you’re floating free to antipodean ambience or toasting the sunset with a Baltic beauty, you can always count on Growing Bin to take you someplace new for a while. Swapping bucolic Poland for the buzz of the Big Apple, the Hamburg imprint reaches a magnificent seven in the company of synth-pop dreamer Shy Layers (JD Walsh to his mum) and his sublime self titled debut.

Over the course of ten emotional pop serenades, the New York musician recalls lost days sofa surfing to the lounge electronica of Air, Mellow and early Phoenix or the swooning lo-fi psychedelia of a pre-MD Simian. Shy Layers welcomes us aboard with the shimmering pads and soothing soft synths of ‘Black & White’, a drifting soundtrack to a John Hughes-directed episode of ‘In The Night Garden’. From there we swerve into the wistful synth-pop of ‘Famous Faces’, locking into the rattling Tears For Fears groove while the West Coast guitar licks and vocoder vocals float off into the distance. ‘You Won’t Find Me’ shuffles through afro-tronic keyboard lines, Beta Band breakbeats and loose funk guitar before the sweltering ‘Stabilized Waves’ dips a toe in the Med, swaying gently to the fluid bass, acoustic strumming and cascading electric guitar. Swapping continents to close the A-side, ‘Too Far Out’ finds Walsh working highlife guitars and fuzzy sanza sequences into a piece of perfect off-kilter pop. The B-side begins in glitchy fashion with the flying hats and seesaw synths of ‘Holding It Back’, before ‘Playing The Game’ offers sprinklers over summer lawns, dub fx, jangling guitars and cooing vocals. The afrobeat influence shines through once again on the rhythmic ‘Bees & Bamboo’ before ‘SEG’ sees Shy Layers don Mario’s Red Wing cap for a chip-set safari through the bright blue sky. Playing us out with the same cinematic splendour with which we began, Walsh conjures a woozy, sun-dappled mood for the sumptuous ‘1977’.

Free your mind and float away, you’re now entering the mode of the Growing Bin. Hamburg’s centre for audio enlightenment is back with another sublime sensory experience, this time from the land of the rising sun.

Keen to get another stamp on his passport, Basso reached out to Japanese duo Singu, two open minded cats who just love to jam. Marrying Kiyo’s free drumming with Keta Ra’s melodic mastery of keyboard and guitar, the two-piece fuse free jazz, post-rock, kosmische and ambient into immersive and esoteric improvisations. Free from any compositional concerns, the Hiroshima outfit trade in energy, emotion and expression.

The frenetic percussion and ephemeral melodies of opener ‘Aurora Gate’ instantly transport you to the breathless churn of a Tokyo crossroads, where thousands of people rush by but you stand still in the eye of the storm. Though they may be explosive, the drums sit back in the mix, offering a soft intensity behind the shimmering wall of melody. A nimble and nuanced affair, ‘Bop’ brings rapid fire rhythm, slick syncopation and hypnotic piano refrains. Cool bass rolls along like KDJ’s ‘Rectify’, as Singu update the acid jazz template like Toshio Matsuura covering Carl Craig. Singu journey from far out to Furthur on Aside closer ‘Nagebu’, strapping in for psychedelic synth wig out which is heavy on the resonance and free on the filter.

Blooming out of the darkness on the B1, Basso favourite ‘Fazaria’ soothes and moves you with its twinkling keys, nebulous wave forms and delicate guitar, leaving you wide eyed in wonder as the drum fills burst like fireworks across a star-filled sky. ‘828’ sweeps into abstraction as Kiyo and Keta Ra combine snapping glitches and aquatic electronics with fractal guitar tones and woozy bass, pushing through a portal to see what’s beyond. An a-grade wall melter, this trip makes great use of tension as the crisp machine drums stand in sharp contrast to the whirring, blurring guitars. Finally ’44’ carries you home on a downbeat drift, a flawless fusion of buzzing electronics, misty pads and relentless percussion played with perfect poise. Turn on, tune in and trip out, Singu bring you music from the moment that you’ll love for a lifetime.

STAFF COMMENTS

Patrick says: Japanese duo Singu perfectly capture the calm in the storm, a moment of presence amid the buzz of a busy city streets; headphones in, eyes down, the crowd a blur before you. Sit back and treat your ears as post rock, jazz, kosmische and Balearic collide into "Siki".

TRACK LISTING

A1. Aurora Gate
A2. Bop2B
A3. Nabegu
B1. Fazaria
B2. 882
B3. 44 

The Center Won’t Hold is the tenth studio album by Sleater-Kinney. It addresses transformation as it relates to the corrosion and decomposition of forms. Fractured and frayed by age or by loss, by internecine politics, by trauma or depression, these eleven songs ask what remains of a body, a human spirit, a relationship, a city, a country. The narrators herein sing from the brink of madness, corruption, loss, or grief. And though they speak to us from the narrow, near desperate strands to which they are consigned by others, or upon which they’ve self-exiled—feeling small, fearing obsolescence—they ask to be heard on the most sprawling of canvasses. By couching these personal stories in a sonic palette that unabashedly takes up space, what remains is a tale of survival: a treatise on female friendship, inner strength, resilience, and community.

If The Center Won’t Hold forces a reconsideration of a band people thought they knew, it’s due to the methodologies employed in the writing and making of the album. The tools upon which Sleater-Kinney had relied proved inadequate, both metaphorically and literally, so they sought new ones. They used the geographical distance between them, along with the larger uncertainty and brokenness swirling around them, as a means of inducing and exploring sonic change. Most concretely, they worked with producer Annie Clark (St. Vincent), who treated each song as its own world, letting them find a specific vernacular through careful construction and deliberation.

The most succinct thing to say about The Center Won’t Hold is that Sleater-Kinney continue to challenge the idea of what three women sound like when they create music together over the course of twenty-five years.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Sleater-Kinney have been one of the most interesting outfits to have come out of the 90's post-grunge indie boom, and have remained a fierce musical force since then. Through a myriad of splits / reformations and stylistic turns they have returned with their beautifully crafted powerhouse, 'The Centre Won't Hold'. Huge stadium choruses and anthemic turns are infused with snapping percussion and echoing distorted guitar, all topped with those unmistakable vocals.

TRACK LISTING

CD
1. The Center Won’t Hold
2. Hurry On Home
3. Reach Out
4. Can I Go On
5. Restless
6. Ruins
7. LOVE
8. Bad Dance
9. The Future Is Here
10. The Dog / The Body
11. Broken

DELUXE VINYL
Disc 1 (LP)
SIDE A
1. The Center Won’t Hold
2. Hurry On Home
3. Reach Out
4. Can I Go On
5. Restless
SIDE B
1. Ruins
2. LOVE
3. Bad Dance
4. The Future Is Here
5. The Dog / The Body
6. Broken
Disc 2 (7” Vinyl)
1. Hurry On Home

Shark Tank - the unreleased bonus track from Snarky Puppy's last album, "Culcha Vulcha". This has not been released and only played live at shows. This is the secret track for Snarky Puppy fans, and they've always asked for it and when it would be released.

Bristol’s loudest band Spectres return with the brand new six-track ‘WTF’ EP.

With recording on their third album almost complete, the band have decided it’s time for one final look back at last year’s album ‘Condition’, which was acclaimed at the time of release, but largely forgotten about by the end of a year which saw some major changes in the band, with frontman Joe Hatt relocating to Berlin and long-time producer Dominic Mitchison joining on bass.

The EP pairs one of the highlights of ‘Condition’ – ‘Welcoming The Flowers’ (the video for which was premiered on The Line Of Best Fit recently) – with remixes of other album tracks by the likes of Metrist, who melts ‘Dissolve’ in an acid bath of broken techno; Elvin Brandhi (aka one half of Yeah You) and Mun Sing (aka one half of Giant Swan) who turn ‘End Waltz’ into, respectively, a glitchy explosion of sound and a tribal industrial monster (which was premiered last week on Mixmag); finally French Margot and Silver Waves place a noose of ethereal beauty and bloody-minded sonic terrorism around ‘Neck’.

It’s not just the music that comes as a shock to the senses: the packaging of the limited-edition 12” (250 copies only) is, quite literally, a car crash in a bag. It’s pressed on what we’re calling “windscreen coloured” vinyl and comes wrapped in a sleeve covered with tyre marks; inside, alongside the familiar digital download card, you will find an air freshener and a lyric sheet in a child’s handwriting, as you might find near the scene of an accident.

TRACK LISTING

1. Dissolve (Metrist Remix) 03:26
2. Welcoming The Flowers (WTF Version) 04:28
3. Neck (French Margot Remix) 05:08
4. End Waltz (Elvin Brandhi Remix) 07:04
5. Neck (Silver Waves Remix) 03:34
6. End Waltz (Mun Sing Remix) 03:41

The Pyroclasts album is the result of a daily practice which was regularly performed each morning, or evening during the two week Life Metal sessions at Electrical Audio during July 2018, when all of the days musical participants would gather and work through a 12 minute improvised modal drone at the start and or end of the day’s work. The piece performed was timed with a stopwatch and tracked to two inch tape, it was an exercise and a chance to dig into a deep opening or closing of the days session in a deep musical way with all of the participants. To connect/reconnect, liberate the creative mind a bit and greet each other and the space through the practice of sound immersion. The players across the four pieces of Pyroclasts are Tim Midyett, T.O.S., Hildur Guðnadóttir, and as always Stephen O’Malley & Greg Anderson.

The music on Pyroclasts is inextricably woven to Life Metal. It exists on the very same tape reels, was explicitly recorded by Steve Albini. The brightness and vividity of that glorious session glares through these four tracks, the precision and radiance, prismatic lustrousness of the saturation, the elemental sculptural shapes, the abstract renderings. It is a sister, or perhaps a shadow album. Or perhaps the now apparent miasma or aether. But it also exists in a form of a pause, a time space which exist in between and around the compositional structures of Sunn O)))’s titanic works.

For the listener or recipient/participant there are deep rewards within the patience of pulling down the walls and letting the music feel, and feel the music. To be immersed will reveal great detail and colour, clarify image, encourage a depth of focus and stillness which may lead to a quite profound experience. Sitting inside the space of time. A deep form of elementalism, even atomism, and connection with presence moment, time and reality.

Sunn O))) would invite their audience to consider these points of perception when experiencing and listening to Pyroclasts. Sunn O))) would also invite and encourage the audience to use Pyroclasts as a lens to review and reexperience the complexity of the Life Metal album, and even to interrupt its sequence with Pyroclasts. This elaboration can bring the astute listener both abyssal, hallowed rewards.

Pyroclasts was recorded and mixed by Steve Albini at Electrical Audio on two inch tape July 2018, and mastered by Matt Colton through all analogue AAA process at Metropolis July 2019.

Stephen & Greg would like to dedicate this album to the memories of Ron Guardipee, Kerstin Daley & Scott Walker.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: There's nothing that Sunn can't do as far as i'm concerned. Though their music takes a little while to acclimatise to (like being in the middle of a blizzard or walking a tightrope during an earthquake might), but once it clicks, there's nothing more primal and satisfying than a nice drone. Pyroclasts is every bit the Life Metal sidekick, just as powerful but with different abilities. Mindblowing stuff.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A:
Frost (C)
Kingdoms (G)

SIDE B: 
Ampliphædies (E)
Ascension (A)

12" clear vinyl single featuring 2 previously unreleased recordings by UK legends reinterpreting classics by Gene Clark and The Supremes

Since 2010, Toy have earned a reputation as a band of integrity, virtuosity and taste, with Tom, Maxim, Dominic, Charlie and (joining in 2015) Max creating a sound that is embedded in the underground tradition, yet distinctly their own. Now here comes a two-track twelve-inch on Tough Love, a foretaste of a forthcoming album in January 2019, which marks a new dawn for this most singular of bands.

‘The Willo’ is a dreamlike, seven-minute glide, redolent of a forest at sunset and just as pretty, but not without hints of malevolence. Maxim's fingerpicking acoustic melds with electric twang from Dominic, and a whirling organ from Max Oscarnold gives this elegant creation an extra layer of disorientation and depth. “People appear to have seen Will-o’-the-wisp, a mysterious green-blue light, over the centuries. It generally means something ominous is about to happen", says Tom.

Then there is ‘Energy’, which lives up to its name with thunderously metronomic drums from Charlie Salvidge and a ferocious guitar from Dominic O’Dair. The lyrics, culled from a story written by Max about a nighttime ritual, are obscured by the barrage-like forward momentum of the music.

The twelve-inch, recorded and mixed by the band between Oscarnold’s Stoke Newington flat and a south London studio, is the first release for Toy on their new label Tough Love, representing the latest stage in the evolution of the band. Since their inception, they have released the acclaimed albums Toy (2012), Join The Dots (2013) and Clear Shot (2016), and toured everywhere from Serbia to China, while holding onto that youthful, magical moment of discovering strange new worlds of innocence and experience.

STAFF COMMENTS

Mine says: Welcome to the weird and wonderful world of TOY. The band return with "The Willo", a dreamy, innocent sounding song that quickly develops into the soundtrack to a ride through a magical forest, and "Energy", which with its pounding drums, driving bass and post punk-y, occasionally chaotic guitars could hardly sound more different. Two interesting songs that leave us excited for the new album!

TRACK LISTING

A. ‘The Willo’ - 07:09
AA. ‘Energy’ - 04:07

Ty Segall and Brian Chippendale (Lightning Bolt) are Wasted Shirt. Their debut, collaborative album, Fungus II, is out February 28th on Famous Class Records.

Read below for Henry Rollins’ words on the project.

“Ty's 2019 album, First Taste, and the new Lighting Bolt album, Sonic Citadel, are easily some of the best material either entity has ever released so if these two happened to find themselves in the same recording studio, a fan just might entertain elevated expectation levels. In fact, some might actually show signs of enthusiasm, even excitement at the fact that from July 5 -13, 2018, in the air-conditioning free environs of Ty's home studio, the duo, eventually calling themselves Wasted Shirt, wrecked the joint as thoroughly as you hoped they would.

The album is exploding euphoria from start to finish. The more you play it, the better it kabongs you upside your head. Hectic doesn't even begin to describe it. Brian and Ty, two mere particles in the grand scheme, collide at high speed, the technicians dive for cover, the reaction is recorded. Mutation is achieved. This is Freedom Rock. Turn up the volume. Hasten your emancipation. Sonic joy awaits.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: We all know what Ty Segall sound like, and i'm pretty sure we know what Lightning Bolt sound like but this, 'Wasted Shirt' is the perfect example of the outcome sometimes being more than the sum of it's already considerable parts. Heavy af, brilliantly produced and absolutely ram-packed with groove, 'Fungus II' will be blowing minds for some time to come.

TRACK LISTING

1. All Is Lost
2. Zeppelin 5
3. Fist Is My Ward
4. Harsho
5. Double The Dream
6. The Purple One
7. Fungus 2
8. Eagle Slaughters Graduation
9. Four Strangers Enter The Cement At Dusk

Romanticism is back and headed in a new direction with Loren Oden’s debut album, “My Heart, My Love”. Pure, with lyrical transparency and vulnerability, reminiscent of classic black soul and progressive R&B. Produced and orchestrated by multi-instrumentalist Adrian Younge, this is one of the most meticulously crafted albums ever to be released on Linear Labs. Being born into a musical family in Compton, Ca., Oden grew up in the church, studying gospel as well as secular greats like Marvin Gaye and Sam Cooke.

Throughout the years, his affinity with lyricism and vocal arranging grew, catching the ear of his long-time friend, Younge. With this connection, Oden became the mellifluous bedrock of Younge’s psychedelic sound: Oden sings lead on most of Adrian Younge’s expansive musical catalog, including but not limited, to Black Dynamite, Something About April, and Marvel’s Luke Cage. Oden is one of the premiere vocalists on The Midnight Hour alongside icons like CeeLo Green, Raphael Saadiq, and Marsha Ambrosius. With the world-renowned success of The Midnight Hour, touring for the last six years, and being musically featured on Ava Duvernay’s When They See Us, it was only a matter of time before Oden finally released his own body of work. Loren’s undeniable connection to Marvin Gaye’s poetic susceptibility paired with the genius of Younge’s soothing orchestral creations, comparable to Quincy Jones, this is the collaboration you always wanted, but could never get. “My Heart, My Love” is a cultivated body of work, for the sophisticated lover, going deep into the guarded emotions we all try to avoid. The inspiration has always come from timeless music, and Oden and Younge have created an aural treasure that is sure to live on.

TRACK LISTING

1. My Heart, My Love
2. Galaxies
3. Is There A Way
4. Words To Say
5. Addicted
6. Queen
7. Don’t Be
8. All Roads
9. Waiting For
10. Matters Of The Heart
11. A Somber Sonnet
12. The Moment
13. Timeless Answers
14. Frequency 

To celebrate Cardinal Fuzz hosting the Cardinal Fuzz Sonic Attack stage at this year’s Liverpool International Festival of Psychedelia, the good Cardinal is releasing STAY HOLY to showcase some of the finest acts to have graced the LPF stage.

On this opus, we have the titanic Black Bombaim’s Alexandria, the mighty White Manna’s Slow Dust, the incredible Carlton Melton’s Bloody Mary Jane, the incandescent Dead Sea Apes’ Coronal and tumultuous Kandodo3’s (captured by The Cardinal himself in vintage lofi Kornyfone fidelity) Laud The Hyena. 

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. Black Bombaim - Alexandria
2. White Manna - Slow Dust
Side B
1. Dead Sea Apes - Coronal
2. Carlton Melton - Bloody Mary
Jane (Studio Version)
3. Kandodo3 –laud The Hyena (Live ATP)