The final U.S. show, a triumphant and blistering bookend to the storied career of one of the most influential bands in rock music, featuring a unique and expansive eighty-five minute set list that spans Sonic Youth’s nearly three decade catalog. Mixed from multitrack by longtime live engineer Aaron Mullan and mastered and cut by Carl Saff.

On August 12, 2011 Sonic Youth played their final US show on an outdoor stage overlooking the East River at the Williamsburg Waterfront in Brooklyn. Fitting that their storied career would bookend with a panoramic view of New York City where it all began 30 years before, having left in their wake one of one of the most powerfully influential careers in rock music.

Following incredible sets from Kurt Vile and Wild Flag, the band took the stage. As the sun went down over the city, Sonic Youth ripped through a 17 song set that spanned from deep cuts off their first studio album and highlighting many other albums all the way through to their last, like a band with everything to prove. Or as Brooklyn Vegan’s Andrew Sacher said at the time: “While most bands who are thirty years into their career are either fading away or living off of the nostalgia of their older material, Sonic Youth continue to sound and perform as fresh as ever.”

Steve Shelley explains the uniquely career spanning set list of Live in Brooklyn 2011 and how it came to be, as well as the importance of outdoor NYC summer shows in Sonic Youth’s legacy:

“This show was a culmination of a run of really special outdoor summertime shows in New York City for us, starting in ’92 with Summerstage in Central Park when we played with Sun Ra. For the Williamsburg Waterfront show I wrote out the set list to present to the band and it was a lot of material we hadn’t played in a while, a lot of deep cuts, so I wasn’t sure if everybody would feel like doing it. After worrying about which songs the band might say yes or no to, I threw those concerns out the window and I just made a list of songs that I thought would be a great set. We practiced the week of the show at our space in Hoboken and put the set together. First we’d try and make sure we had a guitar in the song’s tuning, then we’d try to remember the arrangement and try and put it together, sometimes re-learning bar by bar. In the end I think the whole song list made it through. Even as early as ’86 and ’87 we stopped playing ‘Death Valley 69’ and ‘Brave Men Run’ with any regularity. We’d just get excited about new material coming into the set and songs would get ‘retired’ and wouldn’t get played again for years. So on this particular night in Brooklyn a lot of those retired songs and deep cuts got dusted off and played for this show. It turned out to be a pretty special event with a really special song list.” The band would go on to fulfill a contracted festival run in South America a few months later but, by then, the group’s center was severed beyond repair and the festival appearances didn’t hold the same kind of weight.

“The stage was facing the East River from the Williamsburg, Brooklyn waterfront, and I recall the sun going down in the west during our set. It was a pretty magical, if kinda weird day. Fitting, somehow, that our ‘last show’ should be in New York City, our home and where it all began…” Lee Ranaldo

The Williamsburg Waterfront show would fondly become referred to as ‘The Last Show’ by fans and band alike, equally for its triumphant high energy performance, its unique and expansive set list and locale.

Newly remixed and remastered, Live in Brooklyn 2011 is presented for the first time on 2xLP, 2Xcd, August 18, 2023.

STAFF COMMENTS

Darryl says: The legendary Sonic Youth played an historic gig on the Williamsburg Waterfront overlooking the East River on August 12th 2011. It would prove to be their final U.S. show, and this double vinyl and double CD on Silver Current Records perfectly captures this raw and expansive 85 minute set.

Heavy on songs from their early years Sonic Youth powered through these tracks like a band full of teenage energy. The fact that this show was their U.S. swansong after around 30 years together makes this blistering set all the more remarkable.

Kicking off with the hypnotic “Brave Men Run (In My Family)”, before exploding into the sensational noise carnage of “Death Valley ‘69”. Sonic Youth continue to rip through the set with 80s classics; “Kotton Krown”, “Kill Yr. Idols”, “Eric’s Trip” and the awesome “Tom Violence” all dispatched with visceral vigour and punky power.

Interspersed with three tracks from their last album ‘The Eternal’ along with a brilliantly brutal “Sugar Kane” they finish off proceedings with an apocalyptic version of “Inhuman” complete with feedback and wailing guitars and then it’s all over with the line “… with the power of love anythin’ is possible”.

TRACK LISTING

1. Brave Men Run (In My Family)
2. Death Valley ’69
3. Kotton Krown
4. Kill Yr Idols
5. Eric’s Trip
6. Sacred Trickster
7. Calming The Snake
8. Starfield Rose
9. I Love Her All The Time
10. Ghost Bitch
11. Tom Violence
12. What We Know
13. Drunken Butterfly
14. Flower
15. Sugar Kane
16. Psychic Hearts
17. Inhuman

Originally released via the legendary Factory Records, Substance compiled all of the band's singles to that point in their 12” versions, and specially new recorded versions of ‘Temptation’ and ‘Confusion’. The album also included the biggest selling 12” single of all time, Blue Monday, alongside other classic singles The Perfect Kiss, Bizarre Love Triangle and the band’s debut single release Ceremony.

The album is the band’s biggest selling to date, with over one million copies sold, going platinum in the UK with a Top 5 hit in True Faith which was accompanied by the seminal video, directed by French choreographer Philippe Decouflé.

TRACK LISTING

Vinyl Tracklisting:
(REMASTERED)
Side 1
Ceremony
Everything’s Gone Green
Temptation 87
Side 2
Blue Monday
Confusion 87
Thieves Like Us
Side 3
The Perfect Kiss
Sub-culture
Shellshock
Side 4
State Of The Nation
Bizarre Love Triangle
True Faith

2CD Tracklisting:
CD1 (REMASTERED)
1. Ceremony
2. Everything’s Gone Green
3. Temptation 87
4. Blue Monday
5. Confusion 87
6. Thieves Like Us
7. The Perfect Kiss
8. Sub-Culture
9. Shellshock
10. State Of The Nation
11. Bizarre Love Triangle
12. True Faith
CD2 (REMASTERED)
1. In A Lonely Place
2. Procession
3. Cries And Whispers
4. Hurt
5. The Beach
6. Confused Instrumental
7. Lonesome Tonight
8. Murder
9. Thieves Like Us Instrumental
10. Kiss Of Death
11. Shame Of The Nation
12. 1963

4CD Deluxe Tracklisting:
CD1 (REMASTERED)
1. Ceremony
2. Everything’s Gone Green
3. Temptation 87
4. Blue Monday
5. Confusion 87
6. Thieves Like Us
7. The Perfect Kiss
8. Sub-Culture
9. Shellshock
10. State Of The Nation
11. Bizarre Love Triangle
12. True Faith
CD2 (REMASTERED)
1. In A Lonely Place
2. Procession
3. Cries And Whispers
4. Hurt
5. The Beach
6. Confused Instrumental
7. Lonesome Tonight
8. Murder
9. Thieves Like Us Instrumental
10. Kiss Of Death
11. Shame Of The Nation
12. 1963
CD 3
1. Ceremony (Original)
2. Mesh
3. Temptation (12”)
4. Confusion (Original 12”)
5. Dub Vulture
6. Shellcock
7. Bizarre Dub Triangle
8. True Dub
9. Confusion (Dub 87)
10. True Faith (Remix)
CD 4
Live From Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre, California 1987
1. Ceremony
2. Everything’s Gone Green
3. Temptation 87
4. Blue Monday
5. Confusion 87
6. Thieves Like Us
7. The Perfect Kiss
8. Sub-culture
9. Shellshock
10. State Of The Nation
11. Bizarre Love Triangle
12. True Faith

‘Reverberations (Travelling In Time)’ is the debut Primal Scream album that never was: 16 perfectly formed pop nuggets weighing in at just under 35 minutes.

Boasting eleven previously unreleased BBC session recordings plus all five songs from the band’s first two Creation Records singles, ‘Reverberations (Travelling In Time)’ perfectly captures what many believe to be a crucial era for one of the UK’s most important groups as they went on to influence a wave of emerging bands, most notably The Stone Roses. It’s a collection which provides a snapshot of the youthful innocence and uninhibited passion that characterised their early two-minute indie-pop adventures.

Bobby Gillespie says, “This music proves we really had something special going on back then. I'm very proud of this album, I'm glad these sessions are finally being released.”

‘Reverberations (Travelling In Time)’ will be available on limited edition black or clear vinyl, as well as a special gatefold CD edition. Physical formats of the album include a wealth of unseen period photography plus essays by band members Bobby Gillespie and Jim Beattie as well as music historian Bob Stanley. The cover illustration was provided by renowned British illustrator and designer Julie Verhoeven, and each vinyl LP comes in a lavish gatefold sleeve with printed inner sleeve and a large format 8-page booklet.

A recap of the band’s early years provides the context within which the songs on ‘Reverberation’ were written and recorded. Primal Scream were formed in Glasgow during the early 1980s by Bobby Gillespie and Jim Beattie, two music obsessed kids from Mount Florida on the southeastern edges of the city. Initially inspired by punk rock and yet to learn how to play their guitars properly, early Scream home recordings were primitive affairs that often-featured Gillespie shouting into the microphone over droning basslines whilst banging on household objects that came to hand.

By 1983 the band were developing a sound and writing style of their own with Beattie playing an amplified acoustic 12-string on songs inspired by the duo's eclectic music tastes that ranged from PiL through Love, Big Star and The Byrds via the Ramones - beautiful melodies delivered with attitude and intent. The duo became a fully formed band during 1984 with the addition of Robert Young on bass and Tom McGurk on drums, by which time Gillespie had been invited to drum - Mo Tucker style - for East Kilbride pals The Jesus and Mary Chain.

The debut Mary Chain single ‘Upside Down’ - released on Alan McGee’s fledgling Creation Records in November 1984 - caused an overnight sensation upon release and placed Gillespie at the centre of a new and exciting sea change in the UK’s independent scene.

The debut Primal Scream single ‘It Happens’ (backed with ‘All Fall Down’) was hastily recorded at Alaska Studios, London in February 1985 but following its release on Creation in May it caught the attention of John Peel at BBC Radio 1 who invited the band for their first session on his show. Four new songs - heard here for the first time since being initially broadcast - indicated that the band were capable songwriters with a melancholic edge and self assured swagger.

Early Primal Scream shows were special events. The band, now augmented by tambourine player Martin St. John, were one of the most exciting and original prospects in the UK at the time. As Bob Stanley describes in this album’s sleeve notes, “They looked like a gang. More precisely, they looked like a Glaswegian variant of Love, a bunch of hard-nuts playing soft sounds laced with something potentially explosive.”

In May 1986 the NME offered the now legendary ‘C86’ cassette to its readers offering recordings that the magazine felt captured the zeitgeist of the UK indie scene at the time. The opening track - and by far the best thing on the tape - was Primal Scream’s ‘Velocity Girl’, a new recording that featured as a B-side on the group’s second single ‘Crystal Crescent’.

‘Velocity Girl’ sparked an even greater interest in the band including a second John Peel session and four songs recorded for the Janice Long show. Whilst fans eagerly awaited an LP of Primal Scream material, Alan McGee was being courted by major labels who had seen the impact of The Jesus and Mary Chain and were keen to cherry-pick the best candidates from the Creation roster for stardom. The two unlucky groups chosen for McGee’s ill-fated Warner Brothers experiment - Elevation - were Primal Scream and The Weather Prophets. Delays in signing the deal and recording what would become the the band’s October ‘87 debut ‘Sonic Flower Groove’ meant that a crucial part of the Primal Scream story had been overlooked - until now.

Released on Primal Scream’s own Young Tiki label, ‘Reverberations’ is the first in a series of limited edition releases that will explore rare and unreleased archive material. The band’s ‘Sonic Flower Groove’ album - including unreleased recordings and remixed masters - is set for release in 2024.

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: No early Primals, no Stone Roses! Whilst their first album proper was something of a disappointment, their 2 original Creation Records singles (included here) and magical BBC sessions wrote the book on 80's/60's (what would ultimately be called) indie-pop. 1985-1987; just incredible and even after all these years, still, by far, my favourite era of this brilliant band.

TRACK LISTING

1. Imperial
2. Velocity Girl
3. Feverclaw
4. Silent Spring
5. I Love You
6. Tomorrow Ends Today
7. Bewitched And Bewildered
8. Crystal Crescent
9. Subterranean
10. Leaves
11. Aftermath
12. All Fall Down
13. It Happens
14. Crystal Crescent
15. Velocity Girl
16. Spirea X

The classic third (and final) album gets a 30th anniversary makeover.

IN UTERO 30 – 8LP SUPER DELUXE BOX SET:
Celebrating In Utero’s 30th, the 8LP Super Deluxe features 180-gram pressings of the album + 5 b-sides & bonus tracks newly remastered, 2 complete concerts from Los Angeles ’93 & Seattle ‘94 plus 6 bonus live songs from the tour – 72 total tracks – 53 unreleased tracks. Bonus items: an Angel-on-acrylic panel; 48-pg book with unreleased photos; new 20-pg fanzine; LA gig poster litho; 2 ticket stubs; replicas of the promo Angel mobile, 3 gig flyers, all-access tour laminate & 4 backstage passes.

IN UTERO 30 – 5CD SUPER DELUXE BOX SET:
Celebrating In Utero’s 30th, the 5CD Super Deluxe features the album + 5 b-sides & bonus tracks newly remastered, 2 complete concerts from Los Angeles ’93 & Seattle ‘94 plus 6 bonus live songs from the tour – 72 total tracks – 53 unreleased tracks. Bonus items: an angel-on-acrylic panel; 48-pg book with unreleased photos; new 20-pg fanzine; LA gig poster litho; 2 ticket stubs; replicas of the promo angel mobile, 3 gig flyers, all-access tour laminate & 4 backstage passes.

IN UTERO 30 – LIMITED EDITION 1LP + 10-INCH:
Celebrating In Utero’s 30th, the album pressed on 180-gram vinyl plus 5 b-sides & bonus tracks pressed on a 10-inch have been newly remastered from 96kHz 24-bit transfers of the original analog tapes by original album engineer Bob Weston. Original album artwork has been expanded to a premium tip-on gatefold jacket for the first time with new 10-inch jacket art.

IN UTERO 30 – 2-CD DELUXE EDITION:
Celebrating In Utero’s 30th, the 2CD Deluxe Edition features the album newly remastered plus 14 previously unreleased live tracks from the ‘93/’94 In Utero tour. Each song on In Utero is represented with a live performance from Los Angeles, Springfield, Rome, New York & Seattle plus two cover songs widely played throughout the tour: The Vaselines’ “Jesus Doesn’t Want Me For A Sunbeam” & David Bowie’s “The Man Who Sold The World.” Housed in a softpak with newly designed 20-pg booklet.

Deluxe 20th anniversary edition of the classic Mr. Scruff album. 2LP (blue / red vinyl) with iconic artwork by Mr. Scruff & Airside plus infinity peelable trouser sticker on the cover to reveal silver and gold foiled 20th anniversary trousers. 

Our review from 2002
Brilliant and long awaited third LP from the Stockport man. It combines favourite Scruff flavours of quirky breaks ("Come On Grandad", "Champion Nibble"), funky hip hop ("Vibrate" with Braintax), soulful grooves ("Come Alive" with Niko) and sea shanty sillyness ("Ahoy There" is "Shanty Town" continued, even down to the Michael Aspel 'Ribena Sights & Sounds Of The Sea' samples) with added (nu) jazz stylings (loads of these tracks have been played by Gilles Peterson on his 'Worldwide' show). Check "Beyond" with Seaming To, or great intrumentals like "Giffin", "Shelf Wobbler", and "Sweet Smoke". All in all I think it's even better than its predecessor! Essential!

TRACK LISTING

A1. Here We Go
A2. Sweetsmoke
A3. Come Alive (feat. Niko)
A4. Shrimp
B1. Vibrate (feat. Braintax)
B2. Ug
B3. Shelf Wobbler
C1. Valley Of The Sausages (feat. Sneaky & Seaming To)
C2. Champion Nibble
C3. Come On Grandad
D1. Beyond (feat. Seaming To)
D2. Giffin
D3. Ahoy There!

With Pharoah Sanders’ blessing, we present the definitive, remastered version of Pharoah, his seminal record from 1977, in an embossed 2 LP box set. Alongside the original record, we’re including two previously unreleased live performances of his masterpiece, “Harvest Time," and a 24-page booklet with rarely seen photographs and ephemera, which tell the story of this album and this moment in Pharoah’s life in a way that has never been done before—including through interviews with many of the participants and a conversation with Pharoah himself.

For those of you who already know this record, then you know that its origin story is as elusive as Pharoah was about everything Pharoah. It was born out of a misunderstanding between him and the India Navigation producer Bob Cummins, and was recorded when he was at a crossroads in his career with an unlikely crew. Among them was a guitarist who was also a spiritual guru, an organist who would go on to co-write and produce “The Message,” and a classically trained pianist—his wife at the time, Bedria Sanders—who played the harmonium despite never having seen one. At times ambient and serene, at others funky and modal, PHAROAH radically departed from his earlier work. And it became beloved.

Last fall, we were working with Pharoah on this project when he unexpectedly passed away. At first, it was hard to know what to do. We loved him, and the reason you do all of this is not solely for the music, but also for the person who made it. It’s their personality, their humor, and their wishes that drive you forward. So, we decided to go deep into the research. We set out to create something that showed Pharoah and his music in a new light.

Over the next few months, we’re going to share with you all the amazing things we found, from personal photos of Pharoah to newspaper clippings that people saved in their time capsules. (Sign up at the link in our bio to get updates.) And we’re going to share the live versions of “Harvest Time,” which turn the original piece on its head.

For seasoned listeners and new acolytes both, Pharoah will never sound the same.

TRACK LISTING

2LP
Pharoah
A1. Harvest Time
B1. Love Will Find A Way
B2. Memories Of Edith Johnson
Harvest Time Live 1977
C1. Harvest Time Live – Version 1
D1. Harvest Time Live – Version 2

CD1 - Pharoah
1. Harvest Time
2. Love Will Find A Way
3. Memories Of Edith Johnson
CD2 - Harvest Time Live 1977
1. Harvest Time Live – Version 1
2. Harvest Time Live – Version 2

Recorded by the ‘classic’ Breeders line-up of Kim Deal, Kelley Deal, Josephine Wiggs and Jim Macpherson, and featuring the infectiously appealing ‘Cannonball’, Last Splash immediately became an alt-rock classic, achieving platinum status in the UK and US, and is ranked in Pitchfork’s Top 100 Records of the 1990s.

To celebrate this anniversary, the album has been remastered from the original analog tapes – previously thought to be lost – a process which also brought to light two unreleased tracks, a discovery that will delight fans.

Entitled Last Splash (the 30th Anniversary Original Analog Edition), this special edition will span two 12” 45rpm vinyl discs, plus an exclusive, one-sided etched 12” disc containing two forgotten tracks from the original Last Splash sessions: ‘Go Man Go’, a track that Kim co-wrote with Black Francis, and ‘Divine Mascis’, a version of ‘Divine Hammer’ with lead vocals provided courtesy of Dinosaur Jr.’s J Mascis.

For this special edition, the original, iconic sleeve art by the late visionary designer Vaughan Oliver has been gloriously reimagined by his long-time design partner Chris Bigg.

TRACK LISTING

1. New Year
2. Cannonball
3. Invisible Man
4. No Aloha
5. Roi
6. Do You Love Me Now?
7. Flipside
8. I Just Wanna Get Along
9. Mad Lucas
10. Divine Hammer
11. S.O.S
12. Hag
13. Saints
14. Drivin’ On 9
15. Roi (Reprise)

12” Included With LP's
1. Go Man Go
2. Divine Mascis

2023 marks the 10th anniversary of Daft Punk multi Grammy winning hit record Random Access Memories including Get Lucky, Instant Crush, Lose Yourself To Dance and featuring Pharell Willams, Nile Rodgers, Julien Casablancas, Paul Williams, Panda Bear and Todd Edwards.

To celebrate this milestone a special expanded edition will be released including 35 minutes of unreleased music (Demo and Studio Outtakes).

TRACK LISTING

CD Tracklisting:
CD 1:
1. Give Life Back To Music
2. The Game Of Love
3. Giorgio By Moroder
4. Within
5. Instant Crush
6. Lose Yourself To Dance
7. Touch
8. Get Lucky
9. Beyond
10. Motherboard
11. Fragments Of Time
12. Doin’ It Right
13. Contact
Bonus CD
1. Horizon Ouverture
2. Horizon (Japan Cd)
3. Glbtm (Studio Outtakes)
4. Infinity Repeating (2013 Demo)
5. Gl (Early Take)
6. Prime (2012 Unfinished)
7. Lytd (Vocoder Tests)
8. The Writing Of Fragments Of Time 8:17
9. Touch (2021 Epilogue) 3:00

Vinyl Tracklisting:
Side 1
1. Give Life Back To Music
2. The Game Of Love
3. Giorgio By Moroder
Side 2
1. Within
2. Instant Crush
3. Lose Yourself To Dance
Side 3
1. Touch
2. Get Lucky
3. Beyond
Side 4
1. Motherboard
2. Fragments Of Time
3. Doin’ It Right
4. Contact
Side 5
1. Horizon Ouverture
2. Horizon (Japan CD)
3. GLBTM (Studio Outtakes)
4. Infinity Repeating (2013 Demo)
5. GL (Early Take)
Side 6
1. Prime (2012 Unfinished)
2. LYTD (Vocoder Tests)
3. The Writing Of Fragments Of Time
4. Touch (2021 Epilogue)

There's something intangible about ‘Celeste’, The Soundcarriers’ second album, originally released in 2010. It has a light, lucid quality, almost like driving exhausted through a strange city at night. Freeflowing yet tethered, dreamy yet attacking, the band continue the fight to reconcile competing impulses. Various threads just about keep the shimmering tapestry from tearing. Haunting folk melodies underpinned by rhythmic static and the physicality of the totally analogue recording and mixing, baroque keyboard counterpoints and sweeping arrangements.

The opener “Last Broadcast” seems to encapsulate this but it's almost as if the album gets the angst out of its system with this track and is free to explore the quieter, less crowded back streets. After the smoke of “Last Broadcast” has cleared, the twisting road takes in the soft introspection of “Hideaway” and “Morning Haze”, both tracks morphing into heavy psyche grooves or the eastern tinged psyche funk of “Signals” and “Rise And Fall”. Or takes another turn with the tightly arranged opening segment of “Long Highway”. Somehow it still manages to fit in ‘60s pop gems like “There Only Once”.

An album to really lose yourself in, yet more concise than the sprawling Harmonium and more relaxed and free-flowing than the nervy rush of Entropicalia, Celeste could be arguably their most indispensable album and not to damn it with faint praise, their most listenable.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. Last Broadcast
2. Step Outside
3. Morning Haze
4. Broken Sleep
Side B
1. Long Highway
2. Rolling On
3. There Only Once
4. Out Of Place
Side C
1. Signals
2. Rise And Fall
3. Hideaway
4. Celeste
Side D
1. Long Highway (Inst.)
2. Out Of Place (Inst.)
3. There Only Once (Inst.)
4. Last Broadcast (Alt. Mix)
5. Celeste (Alt.mix)

Richard Hawley is widely recognized as both one of the UK’s greatest songwriters and one of its most respected. Alongside two Mercury Music Prize Nominations, a BRIT award nomination and 4 UK Top 10 Albums, the Sheffield native songwriter has collaborated with the likes of Pulp, Arctic Monkeys, Lisa Marie Presley, Paul Weller and Elbow.

Following the success of Standing At The Sky’s Edge, which won Best New Musical and handed Hawley Best Original Score at the 2023 Olivier Awards, BMG announce the first ever Richard Hawley collection; Now Then: The Very Best of Richard Hawley.

Curated by Hawley and long-term collaborator Colin Elliot, Now Then spans his twenty plus year career, exhibiting all facets of his song writing mastery; marrying his most cinematic moments with his most tender, his best loved work and a host of hidden gems from his early work, to create a collection for both his hardcore fanbase and the perfect entry point for his newest fans. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A much-needed best-of from the brilliant Richard Hawley, spanning a full 20 years in the business and including a whole host of quintessentially Hawley offerings including 'Coles Corner' and 'Standing At The Sky's Edge'. Brilliant.

TRACK LISTING

Vinyl Tracklisting:
Side A
Open Up Your Door
Midnight Train
Tonight The Streets Are Ours
Coles Corner
Ballad Of A Thin Man
Baby, You're My Light
Side B
Not The Only Road*
My Little Treasures
Standing At The Sky's Edge
Heart Of Oak
The Ocean
Side C
Seek It
Off My Mind
Coming Home
I Still Want You
Just Like The Rain
Run For Me
Side D
Alone
For Your Lover Give Some Time
Serious
Don't Stare At The Sun
There's A Storm A'Comin
*previously Unreleased/exclusive

CD Tracklisting:
CD1
1. Open Up Your Door
2. Midnight Train
3. Tonight The Streets Are Ours
4. Coles Corner
5. Ballad Of A Thin Man
6. Baby, You're My Light
7. She Brings The Sunlight
8. Not The Only Road*
9. Which Way
10. My Little Treasures
11. Naked In Pitsmoor
12. Standing At The Sky's Edge
13. Long Black Train
14. Heart Of Oak
15. You Don't Miss Your Water
16. The Ocean
CD2
1. Don't Stare At The Sun
2. I Still Want You
3. Off My Mind
4. For Your Lover Give Some Time
5. Hotel Room
6. I’m On Nights
7. Seek It
8. Serious
9. Precious Sight
10. Remorse Code
11. Alone
12. Born Under A Bad Sign (Single Version)
13. Our Darkness
14. Run For Me
15. Kelham Island
16. There's A Storm A'Comin'
*previously Unreleased/exclusive

Recorded at the Hollywood Palladium, Los Angeles in 2018, ‘Sunset 666’ is a new live album from The Jesus and Mary Chain, due out August 4th 2023 on Fuzz Club. In 1990, a young American band, full of a precise kind of noise and darkness, were special guests on the US tour being undertaken by a group who had noise and darkness, poise and catharsis of their own. The young band: Nine Inch Nails. Those headliners: The Jesus and Mary Chain. Almost thirty years later, an invitation was extended. Would the Reid brothers care to reverse the roles and open for Nine Inch Nails on their own North American tour? Trent Reznor had been a fan of the Mary Chain, and influenced by them since hearing 'Psychocandy', so it felt a good fit and the Reid brothers accepted.

The resulting tour ended with a run of six shows at LA’s Hollywood Palladium and the seventeen tracks captured on the ‘Sunset 666’ double album were recorded from the desk on two of those nights. Sides A, B and C are from the final show, December 15. Those twelve songs were the full set that night, in sequence, meaning the show began with the here-wef* cking-go drums of ‘Just Like Honey’ and ended with the ferocious euphoria of an eightand- a-half minute ‘Reverence’. Side D of the vinyl record is taken from the December 11 show and serves almost as a mini-showcase of the ‘Automatic’ album, featuring versions of ‘Blues From A Gun’, ‘Between Planets’ and ‘Halfway To Crazy’.

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: This is a brilliant record, classily packaged and a far stronger artistic statement than the Mary Chain's previous live outing (a warts'n'all document of their Psychocandy anniversary tour). The sound is great, for starters (Jim's vocals in particular) and the song selection spot on. For me this is the band's first proper live LP and therefore it is fabulous!

TRACK LISTING

1. Just Like Honey
2. Sometimes Always (feat. Isobel Campbell)
3. Black And Blues (feat. Isobel Campbell)
4. Amputation
5. All Things Pass
6. Some Candy Talking
7. Head On
8. The Living End
9. Cracking Up
10. Teenage Lust
11. I Hate Rock 'N' Roll
12. Reverence
13. Blues From A Gun
14. Far Gone And Out
15. Between Planets
16. Half Way To Crazy
17. In A Hole

A hugely in demand repress (the original vinyl pressing on North Country changes hands for hundreds of pounds..) now released on Shack’s newly created own label Shack Songs.

The Shack story is one of music’s greatest legends. It incorporates hardship, bereavement and chaotic misadventure, but above all it tells the tale of beautiful music triumphing over trouble and tragedy.

‘Here’s Tom with The Weather’ boasts a majestic and fresh form. These are magical songs, psychedelic folk songs of the finest Head vintage. Sleepy-eyed, wistful and mystical, yet crafted with a cunning and acute dexterity beyond just about anybody you can think of.

The two profoundly Liverpudlian brothers Mick and John Head have made several brilliant albums together , but none as quickly as ‘Here’s Tom…’ which was completed in seven weeks at Brynderwen Studios in North Wales along with drummer Iain Templeton (RIP) , bassist Guy Rigby and producer Jay Reynolds in 2003.

In the 80’s , the two brothers from the notorious Kensington estate in north Liverpool were singer and guitarist with The Pale Fountains , an effervescent pop group which imploded under the weight of two albums in 1986. The Heads returned in ‘88 as Shack and a debut album Zilch. In 1991 , Shack made ‘Waterpistol’ , an inspirational guitar jewel that would have proved just as influential as any British album in that era had the studio not burned down, taking the master tapes with it. Four more years passed , but by the time it was finally released on Marina it had developed ‘lost classic’ status.

The Heads battled on. They toured as their hero Arthur Lee (RIP) of Love’s backing band. In ‘97 , they created a new group called The Strands and recorded the delicate, dreamy masterpiece ‘The Magical World Of The Strands’ . They spent a long time making another classic ‘HMS Fable’ , and then decided that next time they wouldn’t take quite as long recording. Enter ‘Here’s Tom With The Weather’.

Showcasing John’s slow , shy emergence as a songwriter to challenge his brother (on the sparkling, heartbreaking ‘Miles Apart’ and ‘Carousel’ , and the spun-out ‘Kilburn High Road’ ) , toasting Mick’s newest confirmation as the most unrecognised genius of his or any other generation (the ode to his bro, ‘Byrds Turn To Stone’ , the mariachi horns that break open the slow folk fog of ‘Meant To Be’ , the two lullaby bookends ..and on , and on) .

“The journey we’ve had together has been beautifully turbulent”, laughs John. “But there’s times when we glide and we’re gliding forward now”

Mick agrees. “Making this album has been frantic, chaos, carnage, intense : the normal way with us. But it doesn’t sound like that. That’s all that matters. The story is what it is. But so are the songs and so are the records. Because we’re good.”

Nobody could disagree with that.

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: Michael and John Head have such a storied career together as Pale Fountains and of course, Shack. It seems that "success" proving elusive, was ironically the catalyst for them to produce such differing work of immense high quality. Here's Tom is no exception. It's fresh. These are concise, taught, acoustic based story- telling pop songs. It's uncluttered and upfront; song after majestic song. That Mick's brother John weighed in with his first full Classic was also a joy to behold. Timely and much in demand re-issue!

TRACK LISTING

SIDE ONE:
1. As Long As I’ve Got You
2. Soldier Man
3. Byrds Turn To Stone
4. The Girl With The Long Brown Hair
5. On The Terrace
6. Miles Apart
SIDE TWO:
1. Meant To Be
2. Carousel
3. On The Streets Tonight
4. Chinatown
5. Kilburn High Road
6. Happy Ever After

Originally Released June 13 1994. Featuring the singles “Desire Lines” and “Hypocrite,” Split is the second full studio album by Lush. Produced by Mike Hedges - famed for his work on The Cure’s Seventeen Seconds & Siouxsie and the Banshees’s A Kiss in the Dreamhouse – and mixed by Alan Moulder, Split sees the band hit a more direct sound whilst retaining their almost pitch-black feel.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Light From A Dead Star
A2. Kiss Chase
A3. Blackout
A4. Hypocrite
A5. Lovelife
A6. Desire Lines
A7. The Invisible Man
B1. Undertow
B2. Never-Never
B3. Lit Up
B4. Starlust
B5. When I Die

The White Stripes are celebrating the 20th anniversary of their RIAA Platinum-certified 2003 fourth studio album, Elephant, with a limited edition 2xLP version of the original Elephant album released on Red Smoke (1st LP) & Clear with Red & Black Smoke (2nd LP) colored vinyl.

Released on April 1, 2003, Elephant swiftly proved to be a critically acclaimed, award-winning phenomenon, as well as garnering worldwide popularity, peaking at #6 on the Billboard 200 while also topping the UK’s Official Albums Chart. Largely recorded over two weeks in April 2002 at London’s analogue Toe Rag Studios, Elephant includes such now-classic singles as the GRAMMY® Award-winning “Seven Nation Army,” “I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself,” “The Hardest Button To Button,” and “There’s No Home For You Here,” all of which prompted Rolling Stone’s David Fricke to hail the album as quite simply, “a work of pulverizing perfection.”Elephant went on to win the 2004 GRAMMY® Award for “Best Alternative Album” and was an “Album of the Year” nominee. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Seven Nation Army
2. Black Math
3. There’s No Home For You Here
4. I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself
5. In The Cold, Cold Night
6. I Want To Be The Boy To Warm Your Mother’s Heart
7. You’ve Got Her In Your Pocket
8. Ball And Biscuit
9. The Hardest Button To Button
10. Little Acorns
11. Hypnotize
12. The Air Near My Fingers
13. Girl, You Have No Faith In Medicine
14. It’s True That We Love One Another

The Boo Radleys reveal a vinyl reissue to celebrate the 30th anniversary of their nineties genre-hopping masterpiece “Giant Steps”.

NME’s 1993 Album Of The Year, named in the Top 20 of Pitchfork’s The 50 Best Shoegaze Albums of All Time and lauded as one of 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, The Boo Radleys’ classic album, Giant Steps is reissued, on special remastered vinyl almost 30 years to the day since its original release. The band’s genre-ambiguous and widely-acclaimed masterpiece will become available to fans old and new.

Only the second of their five albums to be released on the legendary Creation Records, at a time when label mates including Slowdive, Teenage Fanclub and Ride were also casting long shadows across the indie landscape, pre-the Oasis hurricane making landfall at the label, Giant Steps broke into the canon of great, experimental rock albums soon after its release. It’s first single, Lazarus, issued as a standalone release in November 1992, its blend of brass and guitar-squall and acutely introspective lyrics, gave a hint of what was to come and remains lodged in the band’s most-loved and best-known songs. For the 2023 reissue, Lazarus’ 12” version appears on the all-formats track listing for the first time.

Recorded at London’s Protocol Studios, where Carr and Brown took on self-production duties with support from engineer, Andy Wilkinson, The Boo Radleys set about responding to their shared sense of dissatisfaction with their 1992 album, Everything’s Alright Forever. Free to do as they please, they set about making a record of complete artistic freedom, bringing in reggae (Upon 9th And Fairchild), dance (Rodney King) and irresistible, warped indie pop (Barney And Me) influences into the studio and, without limitation, weaved them into the satisfyingly complex fabric of Giant Steps. Snapshot incidentals, intermissions and between-radio-station static intro/outros added to the sense of unrestrained exploration.

Writing about the album, drummer, Cieka reflected on Giant Steps, stating: “Creation loved it, people's reactions seemed really positive. I do listen to it from time to time and still find great moments I’d forgotten about. I think it stands up pretty well today. I'm always left feeling happy to have been a part of the record.”

"Wow, now THIS is what music can be!" – The Quietus on Giant Steps.
“It deserved the accolades and praise heaped on its shoulders.” – The Line of Best Fit.
“A masterwork...” – Pitchfork.

TRACK LISTING

A1 I Hang Suspended
A2 Upon 9th & Fairchild
A3 Wish I Was Skinny
A4 Leaves And Sand
B1 Butterfly McQueen
B2 Rodney King (Song For Lenny Bruce)
B3 Thinking Of Ways
B4 Barney (…and Me)
C1 Spun Around
C2 If You Want It, Take It
C3 Best Lose The Fear
C4 Take The Time Around
C5 Lazurus
D1 One Is For
D2 Run My Way Runway
D3 I’ve Lost The Reason
D4 The White Noise Revisited

CD BONUS TRACKS
18 Lazarus (Saint Etienne Remix)
19 Rodney King (Saint Etienne Remix)
20 Peachy Keen

Mad Professor, also known as Neil Fraser to his friends is renowned worldwide for his groundbreaking dub recordings, captivating live sets showcasing the creativity of dub sound engineers, and his collaborations with both reggae and non-reggae artists alike such as Lee Scratch Perry, Jah Shaka, Sade, The Orb, Massive Attack, Grace Jones and many more. Above all, he is celebrated for his prolific output in the genres of Dub, Lovers Rock, Reggae and more through his own Ariwa label and south London recording studio boasting an impressive catalog of over 300 releases, among other notable achievements. 

A few years back, we stumbled upon this outstanding Lovers Rock and Dub album which had a very unique raw sound and felt like a whole experience when listened to from start to finish. Alternate versions of the same tracks with different performers in varying styles, tape rewinds, it had us all wonder why it hadn’t gained wider recognition amongst Mad Professor's other releases. 

When we finally had the pleasure of meeting Neil at his recording studio, he revealed that this album was one of his earliest works. It was born out of a birthday gift from his wife—a four-track recorder that inspired him to venture into music-making after years of repairing and building electronics and audio equipment. When we asked him if he would be making music if not for that gift, he confessed that it was highly unlikely (!) 

Mad Professor further explained that this album, originally released in 1984, is a compilation of tracks recorded between 1979 and 1981, representing the nascent stages of his recording and production career, when the idea of establishing a studio and the Ariwa label were just beginning to take shape. He set up all his gear, including his first homemade four-track mixing desk, in the front room of his house in South London. With no prior studio experience, he positioned microphones where he thought they should fit and invited local musicians to collaborate. Errol Sly, Ranking Ann, Sergeant Pepper, Deborah Glasgow, Victor Cross, Sister Audrey, his backing band the Sane Inmates and a host of other talented local artists, some of whom would go on to become stalwarts in their respective genres, all contributed to this album, capturing the raw essence of Mad Professor and Ariwa's early sound. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Second-wave dub legend Mad Professor drops a raw lovers / dub project that harks back to the original sound of Ariwa. The bass weight alone is astonishing, but the songs crafted here are also killer and timeless. A future classic!

TRACK LISTING

1. Errol Sly - Love In Your Heart
2. Ranking Ann - Moonlight Lover
3. Sergeant Pepper - It's You
4. Deborah Glasgow - My Thing 04:03
5. Victor Cross - Make Up
6. Sergeant Pepper - Special Brew
7. Rock A Way & Sister Audrey - It's A Shame
8. Mad Professor & Sane Inmates - Sitting Room Dub 

Originally released in 1992, Hei Vidal! is the third album by revolutionary DIY Cymraeg pop band Ffa Coffi Pawb. Formed in Bethesda in 1986 by sixteen year old friends Gruff Rhys and Rhodri Puw (later joined by Gruff’s Super Furry Animals’ bandmate Dafydd Ieuan and Dewi Emlyn).

Made by a bunch of 21 and 22 year olds, Hei Vidal! is an album that distills the band’s obsessions with early ’70s power-pop (all the B’s from Bowie, Bolan and Big Star) as well as Neu! and My Bloody Valentine into a sound that predates the fuzzed out return to glam heralded by Oasis a few years later. It merges motorik grooves over saturated shoe gazing fuzz with impressionistic studio manipulation, orchestral synthesiser arrangements and brutal yet surreal imagery and word play in the Welsh language.

Having signed their songs over to a local publisher who eventually disappeared off the face of the Earth, Ffa Coffi Pawb’s music has been out of print for decades (with the exception of the 2004 compilation album Am Byth, released on the SFA associated Placid Casual label). After untangling a complicated web of time, Hei Vidal! is available on vinyl for the first time having only been on cassette and very few CD copies on its original release on Ankst in 1992. The reissue marks the 30th anniversary of the band’s final show at Builth Wells Memorial Hall in August 1993 (supported by a young Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci).

Gruff Rhys on Hei Vidal! “We made the record in our early 20s and it was a dream-pop distillation of our early 1970’s Glam, power-pop & Motorik obsessions - combined no doubt by our devotion to shoe gazing contemporaries from the Creation label, American college rock and our heroes of the Welsh language underground like Datblygu, John Cale and Y Cyrff. The nonsensical album title is a quote from the song Colli’r Goriad and the Vidal in question perhaps a hallucinated amalgamation of Gore Vidal and Vidal Sassoon; both of which were omnipresent personalities on early 90’s TV, one as a pundit the other a seemingly rolling TV shampoo advert.”

TRACK LISTING

1. Clymhalio
2. Ffarout
3. Profion Moddion
4. Wyneb I Waered
5. Dilyn Fy Nhrwyn
6. Colli'r Goriad
7. Arwynebol Melyn
8. Sega Segur
9. Helo Traeth
10. Pelydr Secs
11. Ofn:Cwn
12. Lluchia Dy Fflachlwch Drosda I

Formed in Manchester in 2007 after Jonathan Higgs and Jeremy Pritchard met at Salford University; they were joined by Higgs's Northumberland school friends Michael Spearman and Alex Niven - High concept coursed through Everything Everything from the off: they unwittingly named themselves after a Radiohead song (in the manner that that band named themselves after a Talking Heads song); soon there was a great deal of record company interest in their work - Niven left the group to take his doctorate at Oxford and was replaced by Alex Robertshaw – this line up remains intact today

Working with Bat For Lashes producer David Kosten (aka Faultline), the recording of Man Alive was completed mainly in a chapel in North Wales. The album sounded unique. Nothing dates like the future, yet Man Alive sounds dateless, placeless, and as a result, stands up perfectly many years later.

Man Alive was only the beginning of the group's adventures in – to use their words – 'Mismatched styles of music mashed together.' The result is often exhilarating; there are Brazilian drums and a prog guitar breakdown in Schoolin', classical influences, as well. Its subject matter is often way outside the realms of conventional songwriting; MY KZ, UR BF explored the different Americas: the cosy self-centred domesticity of programmes such as Friends versus a foreign policy based on killing

The album's artwork was striking – a photograph of a fox by Swiss photographer, Laurent Geslin, reflecting the track Tin (The Manhole) which deals with the theme of depression, through, as the band said in 2010, "the story of an urban fox that ingests all our pollution and grows massively in a sort of dream sequence. We chose photos of an urban fox for this reason, but we partly attacked the code of the digital image to create a glitch distortion . . . a reference to digital manipulation and chaos as well as our modern lives online".

TRACK LISTING

Standard LP Tracklisting
MY KZ, UR BF
Qwerty Finger
Schoolin'
Leave The Engine Room
Final Form / Photoshop Handsome
Two For Nero
Suffragette Suffragette
Come Alive Diana
NASA Is On Your Side
Tin (The Manhole)
Weights

Deluxe LP Tracklisting
MY KZ, UR BF
Qwerty Finger
Schoolin'
Leave The Engine Room
Final Form / Photoshop Handsome
Two For Nero
Suffragette Suffragette
Come Alive Diana
NASA Is On Your Side
Tin (The Manhole)
Weights
Luddites & Lambs
Suffragette Suffragette (2008 Single Version)
Crisis Over (Demo)
Come Alive Diana (Demo)
Hey Jude Law (Demo)
The Kids Are Obese (Demo)
Riot On The Ward
DNA Dump
Photoshop Handsome (2009 Single Version)
Even The Dogs / Hiawatha Doomed
Schoolin’ (Acoustic)
Wizard Talk

Betty Davis was a musical maverick with vision. Image, substance, sex, and grit combined with a badass band that could deliver the funk bed backbone to the sultry music between the sheets. After cutting two notorious discs for the Just Sunshine label (Betty Davis and They Say I’m Different), and Nasty Gal for Island Records, Davis went to work on her most personal and expressive record yet. After capturing 10 hard-hitting tracks in 1976 at the remote Studio In The Country (Louisiana), a creative difference with her then label caused the platter to be unexpectedly shelved. Davis would cut one final album and soon retreat from the music business, completely disappearing from the public eye.

Is It Love Or Desire is a little-known gem in the Davis catalog. Mastered from the original tapes, and untouched for over 30 years, this release features detailed liner notes, the originally intended artwork housed in a lavishly packaged digipak, rare photos, archival material, and recent interviews with Davis and her skin-tight band Funk House.

Never bootlegged, never released, never heard until now, the secret story of this lost album will finally enter the history books and cement this bold soul sisters contributions to music and popular culture. Its time to get down…

TRACK LISTING

Is It Love Or Desire
Whorey Angel
It's So Good
Crashin' From Passion
When Romance Says Goodbye
Bottom Of The Barrel
Stars Starve
You Know
Let's Get Personal
Bar Hoppin'
For My Man

After fronting popular Jamaican vocal trio the Paragons on a succession of best-selling rock steady singles during the late Sixties, John Holt went on to become one of Jamaica’s most popular solo performers, scoring a series of reggae hits for many of the island’s leading record producers.

His international breakthrough came in 1974 with the hugely popular ‘1000 Volts of Holt’ album, which fused raw reggae rhythms with sophisticated orchestral arrangements.

The highlight of the long-player was a reworking of Kris Kristoffersson’s country hit, ‘Help Me Make It Through The Night’, which the following year became a global hit, with the single, peaking at Number 6 in the UK charts. Over the years that followed, Holt remained a giant of the reggae scene with further best sellers and numerous sell-out shows around the world.

The very best of his solo work has been brought together on this ‘Essential Artist’ compilation, the latest release in Trojan Records’ newly launched range that showcases the work of Jamaica’s best-loved ‘foundation’ artists.

Available as a 28-track double vinyl LP and a comprehensive 2CD compilation, the collection superbly illustrates the talent that made John Holt one of the reggae music’s most popular and enduring singers. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: A nice catch-all / best of from one of reggae music's most popular and enduring singers. Mainly dealing with issues of love and longing, it's a light-hearted alternative to some of the more political and riotous music also being at the time. Lover's rock heads are certainly gonna dig this.

TRACK LISTING

Vinyl Tracklisting:
Side A
1. Help Me Make It Through The Night
2. Pledging My Love
3. Stealing Stealing
4. My Heart Is Gone
5. Looking Back
6. I'll Be Lonely
7. I Wanna Dance
Side B
1. Ali Baba
2. Stick By Me
3. Strange Things
4. Tonight
5. The Further You Look
6. Wild Fire
7. Sweetie Come Brush Me
Side C
1. Sister Big Stuff
2. My Desire
3. I'll Take A Melody
4. Time And The River
5. Let's Get It While It's Hot
6. Ghetto Queen
7. Reggae From The Ghetto
Side D
1. You Baby
2. You Will Never Find Another Love Like Mine
3. I See Your Face
4. The Tide Is High
5. Let's Build Our Dreams
6. Before The Next Teardrop
7. Just The Way You Are

CD Tracklisting:
CD 1
1. Help Me Make It Through The Night
2. Pledging My Love
3. Stealing Stealing
4. My Heart Is Gone
5. Looking Back
6. I'll Be Lonely
7. I Wanna Dance
8. Anymore
9. I Want You Closer
10. Morning Of My Life
11. Sometimes
12. What You Gonna Do Now
13. I’d Love You To Want Me
14. Ungrateful Lady
15. Keep It Up
16. My Eyes
17. In The Springtime
18. Tell Me Why
19. Ali Baba
20. Stick By Me
21. Strange Things
22. Tonight
23. The Further You Look
24. Wildfire
25. Sweetie Come Brush Me
26. Just The Way You Are
CD 2
1. Sister Big Stuff
2. My Desire
3. I'll Take A Melody
4. Time And The River
5. Let's Get It While It's Hot
6. Ghetto Queen
7. Reggae From The Ghetto
8. Riding For A Fall
9. All My Life
10. Love So Right
11. Winter World Of Love
12. Memories By The Score
13. Have You Ever Been To Heaven
14. Wasted Days And Wasted Nights
15. Try A Thing
16. The Treasure Of Love
17. I’m The One To Be Blamed
18. A Love Like Yours
19. You Baby
20. You Will Never Find Another Love Like Mine
21. I See Your Face
22. The Tide Is High
23. Let’s Build Our Dream
24. Before The Next Teardrop Falls