Having released their ‘Dirt Mall’ album during lockdown, which was a pretty grim time to put an album out, the release still eventually opened up some exciting doors for the band and captured Aerial Salad at their most Aerial Salad; loud, brash, silly and emotive. This led swiftly to 2024’s ‘R.O.I.’ album that marked a real evolution in the band’s sound and songwriting.

“R.O.I. is a concept album but rather than being about a band, it’s from the perspective of an individual pushed to the brink of insanity by the ever-present quest from commercial success,” explains singer and guitarist Jamie Munro. “The idea came from my job; I’ve been working in the tech industry in ‘sales’. ‘Return on investment’ was probably my most uttered phrase for a few years, I was sick of it, sick of having no positive impact on the world and sick of the tech bro, double espresso, thirsty thursdays, work hard - play hard bollocks culture that comes with it. ‘R.O.I.’ is me saying ‘know what, you can actually earn a lot of money in life, even without the fallacy of educational infrastructure and financial privilege, however, it comes at the cost of your soul, time and energy. ‘R.O.I.’ is called such because it’s in the opposite pursuit, it’s not about a return on a financial investment, it’s about doing something with your life that’s enjoyable.”

This brings us crashing into 2025, no longer in the same line of spirit destroying work, with some seriously exciting gigs on the horizon, Aerial Salad wanted to kick off the next era of the band with a short, fast and hard EP and have served up 5 absolute bangers that sit somewhere between ‘Dirt Mall’ and ‘R.O.I.’ The EP is called ‘Roi de l’herb’ because of the track ‘King Of The Grass’: “We tour and play a lot in France, we’ve played most of our “best” gigs in France, so out of curiosity I wanted to see if the title would translate well, naturally, when the translation contained both “ROI” and l’herbe” - I though, fuck it, that’s about as spot on a title for this EP as we can possibly muster.”

‘King of The Grass’ is about the band’s bassist Mike Wimbo who works for Rochdale council on the greens team, which means he spends his life in the pouring rain chopping down overgrown hedges and mowing lawns. Elsewhere on the EP, ‘Inject Your Blood’ is another romantic love song inspired by the TV series ‘True Blood’ (“I’d inject your blood, into mine just to feel you close”), ‘Wires’ rages against the world of AI and GPT, whilst the EP’s opening track ‘My Girl’ is a chaotic, high energy catchy punk song, nothing profound, nothing complicated. It’s a punk song as god intended, a few chords and a load of shouting.

“The EP is like the teaser for what’s next,” summarises Jamie. “The overall hook for this EP is one of hope, that by sticking to what you believe in you can do anything.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Snappy, fuzzed-out guitars and roaring grungey progressions and athletic galloping percussives beneath those perfectly pitched but melodically unfussy lyrical barrages. A wonderfully visceral, but enlessly melodic jaunt through garage, punk and indie grooves.

TRACK LISTING

1. King Of The Grass
2. L.A.
3. Inject Your Blood
4. WIRES
5. My Girl

Hailing from Liege in Belgium, David Body has been put on our radar with releases on the fine Endless Music, but this EP for Exploited’s cult collected Black Jukebox series is truly next level house music!

Timed perfectly for that sweet Summer release, "I Bird You" is a seriously charming affair, led by a colourful, sugary-sweet refrain that twinkles and sparkles in cute fashion. A warm deep house groove crafted through swirling Rhodes chords builds the vibe before the flowery melody explodes into life, pushing the track into an altogether more magical direction. Playing this at one of the first festivals of Summer 2022 could be a truly spiritual occassion! There's 'nuff tension from the last two years to warrent a full-on maximum love in; and tracks like this could be the perfect catalyst!

"Jack Me Baby" channels rubbery bass and a galloping house beat, with minor piano chords creating a dramatic feel as a classic vocal sample whoops away in delight. The enormous snare-roll propelled build-up thrusts the track into overdrive, with a delightful, balmy synth line woven in to provide a mystical counterbalance. Another hand-aloft rush of euphoria to sound track the party season. 

"The Talking Mouettes" is a supremely feel-good slab of Balearic-tinged peak time house, with choice piano chords cut up and cascading over a high-energy groove. Big squelchy melodic bass wiggles under the chords and shoulder-popping chime riff, with plenty of power and punch scattered throughout to keep the vibes rolling. Cleverly warped vox the icing on this sweet slice of sonic cake.  

"Endless Love" is an absolute monster to close the EP, a soaring, triumphant electro-disco beauty that overflows with euphoric melody and ecstatic, eyes-closed-and-rolling tingles. It just keeps building and building through layer upon layer of synth mastery to an explosive, epic climax.

Shir Khan's series has always been a big hitter here at Picc HQ but this is one of the biggest 12"s from the firm for some time. Get them orders in quick! 

STAFF COMMENTS

Martin says: It's been an eternity since Shir Khan's had us cantering around the shop. It's with huge delight that I can state, with authority, that David Body's launched us into the party season with this collection of open air festival house anthems.

TRACK LISTING

A1. David Body - I Bird You
A2. David Body - Jack Me Baby
B1. David Body - The Talking Mouettes
B2. David Body - Endless Love

END OF YEAR BONUS DISC EDITION - BOTH FORMATS INCLUDE A 13 TRACK BONUS CD DISC 'A LIGHT AND A SCREAM'.

Third album from Allentown/PA three-piece Catatonic Suns: their self-released sophomore LP “Saudade” from early '22 was a feat of sonic guitar haze and grunged out pop.

The new album is a step forward in sound for the band, it sees them blend the underground psychedelia of the late 80s / early 90s Pacific Northwest with the shimmering shoegazery of Britain from the same time. Heavy and soft guitars, songs that soar, these new recordings verge on the epic.

For fans of Screaming Trees, Nirvana, The Verve (early), Loop, Slowdive, and Ride.

STAFF COMMENTS

Darryl says: Catatonic Suns are a psychedelic three-piece hailing from Pennsylvania, USA. Having released a couple of low-key releases (the mini-album ‘Aphelion’ in 2019 and a full length ‘Suadade’ in 2022) they’ve completely blown our minds with their new self-titled album.

Featuring seven original tracks and a raucous amped-up Original Sins cover, ‘Catatonic Suns’ finds the band honing their sound to perfection. Pitched somewhere between the melodic grunge noise of Nirvana and the blissed-out shoegaze of Ride and Swervedriver, the Catatonic Suns have delivered an astonishing album.

From the psych drenched opener “Deadzone” through to the huge eight minute swirling space-rock of “No Stranger” the band have created an epic wall of sound. Tracks like “Failsafe” and “Be As One” showcase the band's melodic side (either of these wouldn’t be out of place on the Verve’s ‘A Storm In Heaven’) whilst “Fell Off” and the aforementioned Original Sins cover “Inside Out” sees lead singer / guitarist Patrick Shields practically shredding his own vocal chords. Throughout all of this the rhythm section of Caleb Strobl (drums) and Jakob Christman (bass) keep things tight allowing the swirling guitar maelstrom to ride off into the sun.

TRACK LISTING

1. Deadzone
2. Slack
3. Failsafe
4. Inside Out (Original Sins Cover)
5. Sublunary
6. Fell Off
7. Be As One
8. No Stranger

Alongside a killer long player from label mainstay Lexx, Phantom Island treat us to a new solo effort by Zurich based Drummer and Multi Instrumentalist Domi Chansorn. He is best known for playing in and producing numerous Swiss bands like Fai Baba or Evelinn Trouble. Everything you hear was written, played, sung, arranged, produced, recorded and mixed by Domi Chansorn. With "Strawberry Moon" he has created a timeless psychedelic Pop-Opus which takes the listener on a trip to another sphere. The aforementioned Lexx pops up on remix duties, dropping a typically Balearic mix combining dub swelter, open hearted melodies and an irresistible day time disco groove.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Strawberry Moon
B1. Strawberry Moon (Instrumental)
B2. Strawberry Moon (Version By Lexx) 

New York City four-piece c*mgirl8 (aka cg8) announce their debut 4AD EP 'Phantasea Pharm'. Made up of Lida Fox (bass), Veronika Vilim (guitar), Chase Lombardo (drums) and Avishag Rodrigues (guitar), phantasea pharm was born out of an obsession with Ella Fitzgerald’s ‘Old McDonald’ ahead of a show in Charlottesville, Virginia. The band decided to pay homage. Vilim dressed up in a cow leotard with pig accessories, Lombardo in a g-string and apron that read ‘The Grillfather,’ Rodrigues became a lawn mower, and Fox took on the role of a sexy rooster. “We went on stage that night and told everyone we were a ‘Fantasy Farm.’” They knew then that would become the basis of their new EP.

Last month’s single ‘cicciolina’ was a perfect introduction, a tribute to the Hungarian-Italian pornstar turned politician Ilona Staller, aka Cicciolina. The new single ‘gothgirl1’ opens another chapter. Written with Nick Launay (Kate Bush, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Slits), during the band’s stay at Barbizon, “a magical artist hotel nestled on the edge of a mushroom forest,” the result is a four-minute cut of hypnotizing eroticism that perfectly captures the dark mysticism of its genesis.

phantasea pharm follows last year’s standalone single ‘dumb bitch’ and EP’s c*mgirl8 (2020) and RIPc*mgirl8 (2021), and arrives in the midst of their headlining EU/UK tour and festival run that has seen them play Primavera, The Great Escape, London Calling, and more. c*mgirl8 will then make their return to UK later this Summer joining the line-up for Greenman and Core Festival after having opened for Le Tigre in North America.

TRACK LISTING

1. Cicciolina
2. Dead Pixels
3. Cursed Angel
4. Picture Party Ft. Christeene
5. Gothgirl1
6. Pritney Llc

As the world burns Dog of Man release their second full length album - Everything is Easy. This is exactly what you need right now.

This is music to lose your shit to, a ritual of intense catharsis. For those seeking a way out, Everything is Easy could well be your party record.

Despite the ironic title, Everything is Easy delves into neuroses, madness and breakdown, delivered with punchy grooves, spidery guitar lines and gloriously distorted accordion. Recorded live to two-inch tape at Brixton Hill Studios and mixed on the tape down to a single stereo track, then mastered on another tape. Dog of Man ditched the editing software, instead chasing a raw, tight and breathless vibe that captures the frantic energy of the live shows.

‘Small Time Monsters’, the second full-length album from The Dream Machine, is set to be released this April on Run On Records/ Modern Sky.

If 2022’s critically-acclaimed debut album ‘Thank God! It’s The Dream Machine…’ was their first and most wild child, then ‘Small Time Monsters’ is its refined younger sibling. The psychedelia, euphoric choruses, flashes of surf guitar and B-movie references are all there, amongst the familiar reflections of life in their beloved and faded seaside town of New Brighton, but this time the wilder elements are controlled, the songs packed into three-minute pocket symphonies.

Lead single Frankenstein is an anthem for the sugar-rush generation, an infectious, rattling earworm that recalls everything from haunted rockabilly to the sun-drenched melodies of Blossoms. Elsewhere on the album, the pulsating surf-stomp of ‘Cindy’s Eyes’, a small-town story of unrequited love, has a chorus to fill the most cavernous arena.

Produced by The Coral’s James Skelly, the album was partially recorded at The Dream Machine’s rehearsal space, then stitched together in Skelly’s
Kempston Street Studios. There’s a refined, more literary quality to singer and primary songwriter Zak McDonnell’s lyrics; explorations of everyday life, teenage doom, B-movie monsters, family turmoil, and coming-of-age tales in the familiar backdrop of life in modern Britain. ‘Small Time Monsters’ is the sound of a band breaking free from the small town into the big world.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Bold, inventive psychedelic indie that clearly draws influence from the North West's rich musical heritage, and displays that influence without ever sounding like a pastiche. Crisp, full of warmly familiar melodies and brilliantly conceived harmonies.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. Frankenstein
2. Cindy’s Eyes
3. My Father’s Son
4. Holding On
5. Cathedral
Side B
6. Tonight, I’ve Got Heaven In My Arms
7. Posters Of You
8. Wind-Up Bird
9. The Horse
10. Wolfman
11. Bring Back The Wonder

Field Music announce ‘Limits of Language’, their first album of new music for almost four years. Back in 2022, the touring cycle for the ‘Flat White Moon’ album ended with a sense of finality. For the first time since the Mercury-nominated ‘Plumb’ ten years earlier, Peter and David had no plan for what, if anything, would come next. However, after six years of continuation, they were clear that if Field Music was to carry on then it would have to be different, in both sound and scope.

Solo projects followed with 2023 seeing the arrival of David’s quietly-jazzy ‘Soft Struggles’, the playful of electronica of Peter’s ‘Blowdry Colossus’ alongside a limited-issue brass collaboration LP ‘Binding Time’ and the vault-raiding ‘John Monroe EP’, made with original Field Music keyboard player Andrew Moore.

It was these albums that provided fresh impetus for what was to become the new Field Music record. Whilst Peter amassed the instrumental compositions which become ‘Blowdry Colossus’, he was also tinkering with a batch of songs which would form the basis of ‘Limits of Language’, songs which mixed synthesised textures with off-the-cuff flickers of guitar and layers of disorientating found-sound percussion.

These fleshed-out demos included ‘The Waitress of St Louis’, an ode to the now-closed Sunderland café ’Louis’, which featured on the cover of their 2007 album ‘Tones of Town’, and to the Maggiore family who ran this cherished institution.

David’s songs came from a different angle but leant into the same sonic palette and shared the same sense of a past becoming granulated. Album opener, ‘Six Weeks, Nine Wells’ pits the hazy ecstasies of school summer holidays against the fear and foreboding of a child peeking through into an adult world.

‘Limits of Language’ sees Field Music continue with their astonishing, bloody-minded run of releases. A run which equates to an impressive twenty-one “Field Music Productions” in nineteen years as a band. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Field Music return with a hugely anticipated, and tremendously ambitious new album that is reminiscent of their earlier albums but with a renewed vigour, and bold sonic outlook. There are bright swathes of guitar and pummeling percussion, chugging industrial bass riffs and jagged 80's synthpop strokes. A hugely welcome, wonderfully conceived return.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. Six Weeks, Nine Wells
2. The Guardian Of Sleep
3. The Limits Of Language
4. Sounds About Right
5. Absolutely Negative

Side B
1. Curfew In The Square
2. Turn The Hours Away
3. On The Other Side
4. The Waitress Of St Louis’
5. I Might Have Been Wrong
6. Between The Bridges

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: One of my favourite recording artists and producers, is yer man Four Tet. I've only seen him play once, but it was SUPERB and i've kept a good eye on his live shows since then, so am obviously incredibly excited that this one from last year is getting the full LP treatment. Glitchy, downbeat beauty mixed with KH's classic propulsive momentum.

TRACK LISTING

Vinyl Tracklisting:
Side 1: School Green Romantics (24:43)
Side 2: 4T Two Thousand (11:15)
Side 3: Baby Plastic Salad (24:53)
Side 4: Angel Feedback Mango (18:59)
Side 5: Lush FM Trance Fingers (22:21)
Side 6: Three Birdsong (15:16)

CD Tracklisting:
CD1:
1. School Green Romantics 24:43
2. 4T Two Thousand 11:15
3. Baby Plastic Salad Angel 31:22
CD2:
1. Feedback Mango 12:01
2. Lush FM Trance Fingers 22:21
3. Three Birdsong 15:16

Grammy nominated DJ and production mastermind Paul Woolford steps up to deliver a timeless house reworking of Gabriels 'Angels & Queens'.

The title track from the trio's debut album (part 1) that took 2022 by storm. Endeared by the masses and critically acclaimed Gabriels set out a refreshing new take on soul that the world was subconsciously crying out for - an antidote to over produced pop - providing a deeper, more meaningful and heartfelt cause at its centre.

Tantalising from the outset, Woolford steps up to the plate with a hard-hitting remix that drives in straight to your centre. Punchy TR-909 drums combine with thundering bass tones and his archetypal, rising piano hooks. A combination that brings Jacob Lusk's inimitable vocals to new heights.

After a feverish reception to Paul's Instagram tease of the track, we've been itching to release this remix into the wild. It's a big one, don't miss it!

'Three supremely talented artists simply excelling at what they do' - Paul Woolford

Gerd Janson - 'Gabriels!!! - Total madness at Panorama Bar. Like it was made for the room'

TRACK LISTING

A1. Paul Woolford's Special Request Mix
B1. Original Version
B2. Paul Woolford's Special Request Radio Edit

On his new album Wasteland, Jim Ghedi has created something huge. Intense, brooding, bold, at times apocalyptic, and remarkably vast. A profoundly bold sonic statement that is some of the most rich, far-reaching and ambitious work that Ghedi has created to date - pushing the boundaries of what folk music can be in 2025.

Wasteland is a record that is unafraid to plunge into the darkness of the modern world and embrace the weirder, edgier and more unnerving moments that come from doing so. It is an album that captures all the enormity of life from the micro to the macro, zooming in on the personal as well reflecting on broader societal issues.

“Wasteland is about the idea of a place once known or familiar that is now broken down and unrecognisable,” says Ghedi. “It’s about exploring the process of watching someone’s surroundings and environment collapse.” And within that you have a lot going on. “It also explores death, personal loss, grief, mental health and how the natural world provides solace and meaning for that loss and how these worlds blur into one another.”

Ghedi has always been an artist that in many ways perfectly encompasses folk music in its purest form but he is also someone that frequently pushes the boundaries of that label and no more so is that apparent than on this record. As like previous albums, such as 2018’s A Hymn for Ancient Land and 2021’s In the Furrows of Common Place, Ghedi uses traditional folk songs as a means to explore contemporary issues via modern and experimentally-leaning music. “With the traditional material on this album I wanted to find songs with content that resonated with me,” says Ghedi. “But also that were based roughly around the north of England.” This is a central underlying theme to the album for Ghedi. The feelings of loss, erosion, and degradation are often most pronounced in working class communities and this was something he wanted to weave in. “It was important to voice and choose material that represented or expressed issues that correlated with things going on around me.”

However, as remarkable as some of the traditional material is, some of the most arresting work on the album is Ghedi’s entirely original compositions. Lead single ‘Wasteland’ is a stunning piece of work that while rooted in an environment being corrupted and broken – “there’s violence on these hills” Ghedi sorrowfully sings, before claiming this is no longer somewhere that can be called home – it is also a stirringly beautiful composition that soars and glides as it opens up, as sweeping strings swoop and in and out of Ghedi’s twangy electric guitar.

The decision to incorporate more fuller sounds, such as electric guitar and huge drums, results in a notable shift and evolution in tone for Ghedi. “The lyrical content needed something more band-driven and loud to deliver them,” he explains. “Incorporating the electric guitar in my songwriting was also a big part of opening the sound up, using drop tunings pushed me to use my voice in a wider range, which forced me to use falsetto a lot which I haven’t previously done before. That then opened the sound up and gave me creative ideas for bigger arrangements and to sonically really push things.”
Recorded over 2 years at Tesla Studios in Sheffield, with David Glover engineering and producing, it also features a wide cast of musicians such as David Grubb (fiddle), Daniel Bridgwood-Hill (fiddle), Neal Heppleston (bass), Joe Danks (drums), Dean Honer from I Monster (synths), Cormac MacDiarmada from Lankum (vocals), Ruth Clinton from Landless (vocals) and Amelia Baker from Cinder Well (vocals).

What Ghedi has done in creating his masterpiece is construct a remarkable space where deeply intimate and personal feelings coexist with reflections on environment, place and society, while also interweaving historical context via traditional songs. Wasteland is as much of a world to explore and exist in as much as it is an album, with Ghedi carving out his distinctly unique sonic language and voice to explore that singular environment.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A beautifully evocative, bucolic album that's as grand as it is intricate. Wisps of melody and slow building crescendos break into barely audible water droplets or a toppling, powerful waterfall. Constantly surprising, endlessly enthralling and unsurprisingly beautiful.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. Old Stones
2. What Will Become Of England
3. Newtondale / Blue John
4. Wasteland
5. Just A Note

Side B
1. Sheaf & Feld
2. Hester
3. The Seasons
4. Wishing Tree
5. Trafford Road Ballad

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2025 EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

The past year has been one of evolution for Goat. 2024’s eponymous album found the band refining their fuzz, dipping deeper into ‘70s psych-funk, and reconnecting with the sonic sear that’s long been their guiding light. Always consummate collaborators, they capped off 2024 eyeing the future with a 7” single that paired their heat with hip-hop, working with acclaimed Ugandan artist MC Yallah. The bands often used the short format as a springboard for collaboration and experimentation and after singles with Yallah, Al Lover, and Bonnacons of Doom, Goat cues up a double-A doozy that reconnects them with longtime Gothenburg friends Graveyard.

For a new Record Store Day single the bands blend their sounds into a twin toke of sweat and singe. Born out of a history of house jams at Goat HQ, the single unwinds Graveyard’s more meticulous nature. “Ship of Fools” unleashes a tsunami of sound, guitars barreling down on the listener with ill intent. The wave crests and quenches, though, leaning into the soul-soaked direction of Graveyard’s latest album, “6”. Head to head the bands dig towards a stadium sound that’s still slicked with the swagger of the ‘70s, but rolled in more of Graveyard’s grandeur than Goat’s eclectic grit.

The flip side lights up the speakers, less dense than anything either band has hooked into for some time. The jammy approach that inspired the session pays off throughout “Light as a Feather,” soaking up prime-period Stones if they’d aimed for the heart of the sun with Father Yod in the driver’s seat. Sloughing off the shackles of verse/chorus/verse structure, the song picks up mid-ecstatic peak, the listener already in thrall to the groove, simmering in the sway-along harmonies before an acid-butter burner of a solo sends the whole thing rippling out into the cosmos

Following the release of her debut album, Stay Alive (2020) and the At War With The Silverfish EP (2021), Emmy-nominated artist, author, musician, activist and Against Me! founder/songwriter, Laura Jane Grace, returns with Hole In My Head - her beautiful new album featuring eleven tracks that showcase her undeniable power as a songwriter & storyteller. The album features her most personal and emotionally gripping songs of her career - stripped down masterpieces like Dysphoria Hoodie paired with blistering distorted anthems like Hole In My Head and Birds Talk Too, tracks that demand the listener’s attention with an immediacy and urgency unlike anything Grace has written before.

Recorded at Native Sound in St. Louis, Missouri by David Beeman and mastered by Matt Allison (Lawrence Arms, Rise Against), the album is a sonic curio cabinet containing multitudes. Featuring warm 50s-rock-influenced guitar riffs and rock style melody a la Jonathan Richman and Eddie Cochran, saved-for-later lyrics, love letters to St. Louis, dysphoria apparel, and thoughtful reflections on a punk life lived, Grace's forward vocals are backed predominately by her performances on guitar and drums but are bolstered by Drive By Trucker's bassist Matt Patton.

The record's title track Hole in My Head takes off with a driving guitar-heavy approach that will be welcome to long-time fans of Against Me! electric machinations, while first single Dysphoria Hoodie has been a staple in Grace’s setlist, and one which is as personal as it is pertinent in today’s climate.

Choice cuts I’m Not A Cop and Punk Rock In Basements are written through a post-pandemic rose-colored lens, the latter looking back on the formative underground spaces of Grace’s youth. Basement shows for decades were hallmark experiences for anyone involved in their local punk scenes, shaping movements, connections, and culture through the forced, sweaty proximity necessary to pour over raucous punk music.

Hole in My Head is a record which captures the nuances of humanity and experience in a strangely optimistic manner. The lightness of its influence and the journalistic recollection of experience set against a battered and warm folk-punk delivery from beginning to end makes Hole in My Head a fun comfort. It is a welcome embrace of life and just the start of a new chapter in Laura Jane Grace’s raucous journey.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Laura Jane Grace's journey has been a storied one, starting her career in one of the most beloved new wave punk rock bands in the late 90's, and ending up as a prolific and gifted composer, multimedia artist and writer. 'Hole In My Head' is once again a brilliantly balanced, fiery and dynamic solo outing from Grace.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. Hole In My Head
2. I'm Not A Cop
3. Dysphoria Hoodie
4. Birds Talk Too
5. Punk Rock In Basements
Side B
1. Cuffing Season
2. Tacos & Toast
3. Mercenary
4. Keep Your Wheels Straight
5. Hard Feelings
6. Give Up The Ghost

More from the Relaxin Records axis! 

'"Light Decline" is mostly built from manipulated samples. The lyrics are inspired by and addressed to those who have pissed me off. Bass is the only played instrument.

The songs sound sad, even though ‘sad’ has no real existence - it’s just a sensation produced by atoms ricocheting off each other mechanistically in an otherwise empty void. However this record has a natural tendency towards sad, and it’s worth recognising the significance of that.'

Great Area are currently supporting the amazing Mark William Lewis on his UK tour. Essential for fans of Bar Italia, Dean Blunt / Hype Williams and the World Music label, early Peaking Lights and The XX. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: More excitable melancholy from the indelible Relaxin stable. Great Area look set to win the hearts of taste makers and cool kids alike this year with their gloriously sad songs and sincere, honest story telling.

TRACK LISTING

1.light Decline 
2.pest 
3.hazards 
4.fun 
5.the Laws Of Physics 
6.100% Enthusiastic
7.if You Stop Moving You Don't Exist, If You Fall Behind You're Dead 

Beneath Strawberry Moons, is the third album from Gulp and this time around the combined inspirations of Lindsey Leven and Guto Pryce are supplemented by the musicianship of Andrew Wasylyk as the stomach -butterflies of optimism flutter around and the lapping foams of the band’s ethereal, folkish psych-pop.

Musician and multi-media artist, Leven rejoins Pryce, who traces faintly around the simmering offbeat sounds of his life as a Super Furry Animal (as well as part of Das Koolies and The Pictish Trail), and supporting bandmates, Gid Goundrey (guitar) and Stuart Kidd (drums), for Gulp’s third album. The nine-track Beneath Strawberry Moons, released via ELK Records, follows their 2014 debut, Season Sun, released with Sonic Cathedral and the acclaimed All Good Wishes, which arrived four years later. Extending the gestation of a complete, new collection of work to seven years, accounting for the pair’s relocation from Pryce’s native Cardiff, Beneath Strawberry Moons emerges as a minimal-carbon-footprint, hyperlocal album, created amongst friends with no deadlines between Piggery Studio and the duo’s garden cabin in North East Fife.

Describing their surrounds as ‘idyllic’ and responding artistically to the significant life change, that has brought energy and release, Leven describes the album as “in the most part a love letter to this new way of life”, celebrating space, love, connection and time, cut with an underlying awareness of the fragility of this beauty. Having leaked new material, the cinematic showdown of Always So Far, back in May, the choice of Hope Shines Through The Haar as Gulp’s first single since 2018 links the pair’s delicately charged sense of abundant possibility, Scotland’s heritage and their bracing proximity to the sea.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: It's no secret that I love Andrew Wasylyk, he's talented musician and a very nice man so it was with some excitement I heard he'd teamed up with Leven and Pryce for their latest outing of dreamy tropical pop music. There are few artists that have the same grasp of pace and melody that Gulp do but their sound is very much in the rein of AW's drifting folk for Clay Pipe records, so this collaboration is bang on for me. 10/10 would listen again.

TRACK LISTING

1. Sea Bear
2. Always So Far
3. Salt Years
4. Hope Shines Through The Haar
5. The Way We Live
6. Wildflower
7. Summer Storm
8. Someday In A City
9. Ultramarine Blue

The band's upcoming debut EP 'Was It What You Thought' will be released on via Blitzcat Records and follows a flurry of exhilarating sold-out headline shows in the capital, support slots with Porridge Radio, Goat Girl, DEADLETTER, Heartworms and THUS LOVE, along with their three 2022 standalone singles "Televised", "Toothrot" and "Alligator".

Swaying from lo-fi bedroom tones to tumultuous blasts of snarling post-punk, headboy's blend of influences, ranging from Radiohead and Sleater-Kinney to Modest Mouse and Grizzly Bear informs the immediacy of their sound, whilst the band also note the impact of post-punk and no wave acts á la Gang Of Four, Orange Juice, Pixies and Television. 'Was It What You Thought' is an examination of knowing and not knowing.

STAFF COMMENTS

Laura says: Great debut EP from this London trio. Melodic guitar pop infused with post-punk energy. Definitely ones to watch I reckon!

TRACK LISTING

1.Reservoir
2.Sheep's Skin
3.Cement 04:08
4.Jackal Lake

Wren Hinds brought fresh thematic cogency to his third album, recorded in early 2020. The linking matter is his unerring ability to apply himself to each new situation, in this case a longing for connection - to humanity, nature - in a world tilted towards digital disconnection. While the lockdowns intensified the album's dystopian fears, the beauty and artistry in Wren's song craft counterpoint the shadows eloquently. The title-track laments "digital modification" over gamelan-ish flutters across six delicate minutes. All spectral voices and pining, 'Sign of Life' yearns for "some act of human kindness" to a wind-caressed cowboy lollop. 'The Pearl' longs for blissful quietude, while 'Wrenbird' evokes Sam Beam at his dreamiest. River's Song' adds soft, sure layers of accordion and guitar, before 'The Path' marshals misty harmonies and finger-picked guitar for a gentle declaration of resistance. "Bang your freedom drum," sings Wren, mapping out a singular path with understated assurance.

“Absolutely thrilled to be putting out ‘A Child’s Chant for the New Millennium’ with Bella Union! At the end of 2019 through early 2020 I buried myself amongst instruments, wires, synths, guitars and whatever I could get my hands on, I lost myself in the layering of textures, sounds and vocal overtones, armed with the scribbles of a couple new songs, ‘A Child’s Chant’ was born”.

TRACK LISTING

1. A Child's Chant For The New Millennium 06:01
2. Sign Of Life 05:28
3. The Pearl 05:44
4. Wrenbird 04:29
5. River's Song 04:04
6. The Path 02:37
7. Conclusion 00:19

Supported by PRS Foundation, their new album ‘Pl(^)nted’ was produced at The Cottage, a remote 18th Century residential studio in the Scottish Highlands (The Twilight Sad and GoGo Penguin) and mastered at London's prestigious Metropolis Studios (Lana Del Rey, The Big Moon, HMLTD). The 12” vinyl eco-friendly run uses up leftover coloured pellets from previous vinyl runs, producing a randomised ‘lucky-dip’ colour vinyl.

Based in Birmingham, Hoopla Blue have shared the stage with the likes of Mac DeMarco, The Flaming Lips, Algiers, Public Service Broadcasting, Let's Eat Grandma, Lowly, Mothers, Blaenavon and Wolf Alice. The band have previously collaborated with BBC Two's Springwatch to soundtrack a segment and in 2019 their remix 'Mauveine C' premiered at Flatpack Film Festival and was released via Static Caravan Records (Tuung, Hannah Peel).

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Encompassing aspects of math-rock shoegaze and post-rock while remaining firmly outside all of them, beautifully produced and written arty rock like this is a tonic for the soul. Lovely stuff.

TRACK LISTING

1. Walking In Tongue 03:54
2. Scour 03:35
3. Swoon 04:48
4. Houseplant 04:08
5. Fire Alarm 04:43
6. Mischievous Gallery 04:17
7. Wildflower 04:45
8. W.A.S.P 04:12
9. Sa(sea)lt 02:46
10. Powerplant 05:35
11. A Gnome 05:48

At the tail end of 2022, Glasgow's Humour put out their debut EP ‘Pure Misery’, a six-track fever dream that established the band as one of the most exciting new bands on the circuit, a record they called themselves "a montage of miserable things... a bit desperate and a bit grim, but also a bit ridiculous". Already known for the strength and raw unpredictability of their shows, 2023 saw more touring, their inclusion in the NME100 and the group taking further strides with A Small Crowd Gathered To Watch Me, a second collection of songs that showed a further progression towards capturing the powerful sound that emanates from their live stage - "something unique: vocals that veer wildly between extremes, sometimes a manic gibbering mess, others an emotive swagger, the instrumentals tightly wound and hard-hitting." (NME)

Humour live together in Glasgow and formed across the lockdowns, writing and recording their material at home, with the music intended as a backdrop to Andreas' narrative-driven and often surreal lyrics. Sometimes they’re about letting people down, sometimes they’re about pets dying, sometimes they’re about trying to say something when you don’t have anything worth saying.

The imagery of the lyrics is reflected in the illustrative designs Andreas makes for the single and album artworks, making drawings to go along with each of their songs, and the visuals behind the lyric videos for previous singles.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Snappy, soaring punk that's instantly reminiscent of the post-hardcore boom of the 00's but with a distinctly modern outlook on cross-genre pollination, sounding at times like a wonky Pavement, and at others like a wrong-speed Green Day record. A uniquely melodic, scathing blast of wild Glaswegian rock.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. Neighbours
2. Memorial
3. Plagiarist
4. Learning Greek
5. Dirty Bread
6. Die Rich

Side B
1. Knew We’d Talk About It One Day
2. Aphid
3. I Only Have Eyes (feat. Theo Bleak)
4. In The Paddies
5. It Happened In The Sun

This is Northumberland songwriter, poet, raconteur and old friend of Piccadilly Records, Peter Alexander Jobson's debut solo album and it's an absolute treat.

Recorded at his home studio and produced by Ben Christophers, the album is an extraordinary collection that blends genres as diverse as country-flavoured psychedelia and cocktail jazz with the spirit of the Northern variety circuit. His vocals answer the question: what if Serge Gainsbourg had been born in the North East of England? Inspirations include Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits and Scott Walker, blues and country legends like Robert Johnson and Hank Williams, and Northern entertainers of days past like Les Dawson and the great Jake Thackray.

Jobson made his name as bass guitarist and keyboard player in I Am Kloot. After six albums and 16 successful years together the cult trio of Jobson, drummer Andy Hargreaves and singer/guitarist John Bramwell broke up after a final triumphant performance at the Royal Festival Hall as part of the 2016 Meltdown Festival on London's South Bank. I Am Kloot were noted for their distinctive sound, the jazzy swing of Jobson and built a fervent following both in the UK and across Europe, culminating in a Mercury Music Prize nomination for their lavish fifth album, 'Sky At Night' - produced by Elbow's Guy Garvey and Craig Potter in 2010.

Heavily autobiographical in inspiration, the songs on 'Burn The Ration Books Of Love' are deeply rooted in Jobson's lived experience, and in his geographical roots in Northumberland, with its wild, windswept coastline, rugged hills and moors, and extensive agricultural farmland where his family have worked the land for generations.

TRACK LISTING

Holiday (Live)
Mountain
The Night Of The Fire
Taxi Supplies
Go Go
Foolish Boy
Please Please Please
Home
Kesta
Just 'Cause I'm Dead
Burn The Ration Books Of Love

Peter Alexander Jobson: Musician, Composer, Performer. Ex member of Mercury nominated I Am Kloot. On occasion guitar player for Guy Garvey. On occasion bass player for Nadine Shah.

Ahead of the release of his debut album in 2022, adopted Mancunian Peter Alexander Jobson brings us this rather wonderful four track EP.

"I have been writing and recording my debut album for 50 years. It is now complete."

“When men do great things everyone knows it takes them a very long time”.

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: Imagine the plaintive beauty of Bill Fay, but with a wicked sense of humour. Or Richard Hawley's classicist vibes but topped with a barstool storyteller. Then you'll get some idea of the sound of PAJ. There's a real poise and deep sense of bruised beauty on display here. It's magnificent.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. Holiday (Live)
2. Just ‘Cause I'm Dead
3. Please Please Please

Side B
1. Kesta

Lost Under Heaven is the creative collaboration between Dutch Artist Ebony Hoorn & Ellery James Roberts, a poet songwriter and former front man of the infamous WU LYF. Described as “Fearless, Life-Affirming & without Compromise” the project fuses spirit-stirring songwriting, cinematic production and visceral storytelling to explore the evolutionary journey of soul making.

Across two boldly maximalist albums – the Mute-released Spiritual Songs For Lovers To Sing and follow-up Love Hates What You Become – Hoorn/Roberts partnership has seen them work with Grammy winning producer’s John Congleton (Angel Olson, St Vincent) and the Haxan Cloak (Bjork, Father John Misty, Midsommar Soundtrack) whilst pushing at the cathartic precipice of their own emotions.

Back with their prescient third album, Something Is Announced By Your Life! , this time on their own independent imprint LUH*international, the couple’s drive is still unrelenting; their sonic world is a phantasmagoria of triumphant crescendos, soaring strings and anthemic vocals that call out to the heavens. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Liam says: New one from WU LYF frontman Ellery James Roberts and Ebony Hoorn, 'Something Is Announced By Your Life!' is the spiritual tonic we need right now. Full of anthemic and grand orchestral vistas, Lost Under Heaven's life-affirming and cinematic scope also delves into desert-psych (Dark Days) and rousing post-rock (Get Spooky) - essential listening!!!

TRACK LISTING

1. I Surrender
2. Shadowboxing
3. Dark Days
4. Winters Truth
5. The Return
6. Lullaby For A New Earth
7. Towards The One
8. Keepers Of The Flame
9. Get Spooky

Manchester five-piece band Marouli, led by musician and composer Graham McCusker unveil their debut album "Tall Tales From A Distant Uncle". A determined and heart felt record, it was recorded after McCusker successful beat lukemia and, with a unique and quirky turn, pays homage to Billy Connolly's storytelling tradition. 

It features Alex Hill on keys, saxophonist Josh Poole (Bill Laurance, The Beautiful South), bass player Nick Waldock and former drummer Xavier Winton (G4). The band, which now features Matt Brown on drums, has a sound that is inspired by jazz and pop artists like Steely Dan and Gregory Porter, as well as those from Graham’s classical roots, like J.S. Bach. It has a vintage sound which is hard to date, like a good tweed jacket. McCusker's vocal shines through like beautifully polished oak, rich and syrupy; whilst the muscians involved are deceptively locked into each others groove; natural yet complex arrangements flowing from the backline like luxurious carpet. There's a warmth like a good camp fire or freshly baked bread that's hard to articulate but instantly felt throughout the duration of the LP. Drawing elements from blues, rock and throwback pop "Tall Tales From A Distant Uncle" creates a cinematic sound that is classic yet fresh.

Songwriter Graham and keyboard player Alex Hill met when they were students in 2018 and with the addition of three college friends, the lineup was complete and Marouli was born. The album was recorded at Angelic Studios near Banbury and at Hope Mill Studios in Manchester. Artwork is by Paul Hemmingfield.


*** ALBUM LAUNCH PARTY plus special guests:

Friday 28th October - The Eagle Inn - 7:30pm. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: McCusker's tales sink deep into the psyche; a collection of songs that reflect the overcoming of adversity that the band leader has endured. It's a triumph - unshakingly sincere, with skilled and sophisticated song writing and arrangements that feel warm, friendly and inviting. One of those albums that feels like a long lost friend returning time and time again.

TRACK LISTING

1. Let Her Go
2. Shane
3. Thoughts On A Thursday
4. Where Do They Go
5. I'll Keep On Running
6. When You're Afraid
7. The Boy With The Stone In His Shoe
8. Fumblin'
9. Strange But True
10. Can't I Dream?

Following on from 2020's debut album 'Are You Happy Now?', Manchester's Nile Marr returns with Self Care, the first track off his sophomore LP 'Lonely Hearts Killers'.

"I wanted to this one to feel different to my previous album. Songs came out quickerand I mostly recorded it at night in the Mill, I just tried to go with the late night vibe" says Marr.

"I got back into listening to all the bands that made me want to write songs in the first place, like the Lilys and Neil Finn. I guess the whole album was trying to focus on song writing, and because I couldn’t play live during lockdown, I focussed more on song writing rather than ‘I know this works at our live shows', so I feel like this one differs in every wayfrom my previous album".

For fans of Broken Social Scene, Big Star and Elliott Smith

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Nile Marr is back! This time sees him partially eschew the soaring britpop indebted groove of 2020's 'Are You Happy Now?' in favour of a more distinguished and broad palette of sounds, veering towards west-coast sunshine pop and jangling, grand stadium rock.

TRACK LISTING

A1 Lonely Hearts Killers
A2 The Rush
A3 Self Care
A4 You Pull Me In
A5 Birdsong
B1 Eyes Like Deer
B2 Skin
B3 Late Night Champion
B4 Two Words
B5 The Easiest Game
B6 Run The Last Mile

Growing Bin switches back into reissue mode with an off-kilter obscurity from Austrian eccentrics Molto Brutto. Equal parts amateur funk, indie jangle, art rock and idiot pop, "2" is a real weird bastard with a whole lot of charm. As the Bin continues to grow in all directions, there's plenty of space for new sounds to take root. Alongside patches of Ambient, Balearic, Kosmische and Jazz, Hamburg's audio allotment now stretches to accommodate the strange waves of Molto Brutto.

Basso dug their first LP a decade back in Stuttgart's Second Hand Records, embracing their abrasive style of sandpaper sonics and experimental urges. Interest piqued, he made the journey through their DIY catalogue, capturing excellent collaborations under the Ganslinger alias before bumping into the second of their two LPs. Originally released on their Golfdish imprint in 1988, "2" walks into the pub with an air of accessibility, but quickly unravels into glorious chaos - pissing in the corner and passing out on the bar. Pop structures are suggested then subverted.

Pints of Paisley slosh out of a broken Glass, tape loops spool onto shabby Material, and indie janglers are just a couple of stamps short of a Postcard.

Turning you tipsy, this loveable rogue starts to tell you his life story, but you're going to have to fill in some blanks. They miss 'Blackie', but who is he - a dog? What happened on the 'Deadly Vacation'? Is that song really about a 'Goldfish', or did they find out the name of America's horse? Words repeat until they lose all meaning, awkward poetry masks a lost laureate and a drunken Wurlitzer sends the room into a spin.

The pubs are shut, so get happy drunk with Molto Brutto.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Chant
A2. Sadman
A3. Blacky
A4. Deadly Vacation
A5. Smalltalk
B1. Time
B2. Secret Life
B3. No Monkey No Work
B4. Go Ahead Goldfish
B5. Psychobilly

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2025 EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

British electronic/trip hop pioneers Morcheeba return with their first ever 7” single release 30 years into their career, exclusively for Record Store Day.

This double A-side is presented on transparent orange vinyl, and is the only physical single release of the band’s new tracks We Live And Die and Peace Of Me (featuring upcoming Tottenham rapper Oscar #Worldpeace), both of which will appear on their forthcoming 11th studio album

TRACK LISTING

A1: We Live And Die
B1: Peace Of Me (feat. Oscar #Worldpeace)

My Soft Machine is a deeply personal body of work; a narration of Parks’ experiences as she navigates her 20’s and the growth intertwined. Explained ever-articulately in her own words below...

“The world/our view of it is peppered by the biggest things we experience - our traumas, upbringing, vulnerabilities almost like visual snow. This record is life through my lens, through my body - the mid 20s anxiety, the substance abuse of friends around me, the viscera of being in love for the first time, navigating PTSD and grief and self sabotage and joy, moving through worlds with wonder and sensitivity - what it’s like to be trapped in this particular body. There is a quote from a Joanna Hogg film called the Souvenir, it’s an A24 semi-autobiographical film with Tilda Swinton - it recounts a young film student falling in love with an older, charismatic man as a young film student then being drawn into his addiction - in an early scene he’s explaining why people watch films - “we don’t want to see life as it is played out we want to see life as it is experienced in this soft machine.” So there we have it, the record is called....My Soft Machine.” - Arlo Parks

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: The superb Arlo Parks returns following her 2021 Mercury prize win, with a hugely personal and beautifully evocative selection of downbeat synth gems and woozy, wistful R&B. Parks has proved once again that both her songwriting and production talents are endless.

TRACK LISTING

Bruiseless
Impurities
Devotion
Blades
Purple Phase
Weightless
Pegasus Ft. Phoebe Bridgers
Dog Rose
Puppy
I'm Sorry
Room (red Wings)
Ghost

THIS IS A BLACK FRIDAY 2025 EXCLUSIVE.

The raw, thunderous power of Charley Patton resounds once again in this essential second volume of Father of the Delta Blues: Selections from Paramount Recordings. These tracks capture Patton at his most urgent and unfiltered, delivering fierce slide guitar, hollered vocals, and lyrics steeped in mystery, defiance, and deep Mississippi soul. This volume continues the excavation of Patton’s singular legacy: part preacher, part trickster, part storyteller. Lovingly restored and remastered by Dave Gardner, Volume Two is not just a document of early blues—it's a glimpse into the roots of American music itself, where rhythm met rebellion and history was etched into shellac. Pressed on color vinyl exclusively for Record Store Day Black Friday 2025.

TRACK LISTING

1. Mississippi Boweavil Blues
2. Going To Move To Alabama
3. When Your Ways Get Dark
4. Screamin' And Hollerin' The Blues
5. High Water Everywhere, Pt. 1
6. Green River Blues
7. Devil Sent The Rain Blues
8. Moon Going Down
9. It Won't Be Long
10. Pea Vine Blues
11. You're Gonna Need Somebody When You Die
12. Bird Nest Bound

After the heaviest of years, it should be time to take a little weight off with the playful sounds of The Person. Mapping its own Bermuda Triangle between dub-pop, sugary synthwave and Balearic boogie, 'Tide Life' transports Compass Point to Soggy Bottom, providing maximum fun, sun and bitmap escapism.

The eagle-eared may recognise The Person from the aspirational Italo-rockers Steaming Jeans, whose chalet-ready romp on Bordello A Parigi scored a Winter Olympic gold back in early 2020. Now left to her own devices, Minna Wight swaps the slopes for a jet ski and takes a Wave Race from Summer Bay to Monkey Island across 11 cuts of vintage oddball pop.

Whether she's borrowing Brenda's Beach Balls for the dubby daydream of 'Snail Cafe' and 'The Place', serving lost library cues to SNES club scenes on 'Barry R Reef' and 'Elastic Shoes' or spinning high school slow jams into synth soul ballads like 'Nice Feeling', Minna disguises serious musicianship behind a naive aesthetic. Disarmed by charm, we're powerless to resist her tidal pull.

TRACK LISTING

1. Snail Cafe
2. The Place
3. Nice Feeling
4. Tide Life
5. Barry R Reef
6. Planet Beach
7. Elastic Shoes
8. Current Affair
9. Tigereye
10. Rock Concert
11. Moonee Puddles

It’s two years since CONNECTIVITY (2021) smashed into the top 40 and debuted at #1 in the UK download chart, propelling the fiercely independent voice of GRACE PETRIE from critics’ choice to the main stages of major festivals across The UK and Ireland, Australia and Canada.

For a seasoned road dog who spent almost 15 years clocking up tours with the likes of Billy Bragg, Frank Turner and Hannah Gadsby, the COVID lockdowns were like a cage for Petrie and when restrictions lifted, she hit the road harder than ever, armed with her most searing and successful record to date, and determined to make up for lost time. Sell-out headline tours across the UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand followed, with audiences from Melbourne to Toronto mesmerised by the ferocity of her socially urgent lyricism and the barnstorming power of her live show. But travelling the globe hasn’t diminished her laser focus on the political issues plaguing the UK, with two more Prime Ministers, endless blunders and evermore division seen since she last swapped microphone for pen and paper.

Now the songwriter is back - stronger, older and a whole lot angrier than ever before. As right wing ideologues trade in suspicion and cynicism, tearing communities apart against a backdrop of crumbling public services, the ordinary folk of Britain continue to suffer the consequences of corruption and individualism.

From within this maelstrom of despair comes BUILD SOMETHING BETTER - the new, uncontainable album from Grace Petrie.

Recorded raw and unflinchingly with folk-punk legend Frank Turner in the producer’s seat, BUILD SOMETHING BETTER is a return to blistering protest form for Britain’s most relevant political songwriter, a decade after being hailed as “a powerful new voice”, (The Guardian) and “a millennial’s Billy Bragg” (Huffington Post). In a world that seems to make less sense than ever, these are songs made to both holler along to from the crowd barrier and to tear up with on a lonely latet night train. A record for everyone whose broken heart beats for, and whose boots stomp in time with, the hope a brighter tomorrow.

“An effervescent charm-bomb of a performer” - The New Yorker.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Best Country In The World
2. The House Always Wins
3. King And Country
4. Meanwhile In Texas
5. Next Episode Starts
6. Start Again
7. Earthwire
8. Cynicism Free
9. If I Were To Outlive You
10. English Culture
11. Fixer Upper

Poor Creature is comprised of Ruth Clinton, Cormac MacDiarmada and John Dermody, all three are members of other bands (Landless and Lankum respectively) who have built a large following on re-interpreting songs from the past. Songs that have existed for centuries can seem immutable and anchored to time. A new generation of Irish musicians are keen to acknowledge that musical legacy, while reimagining the songs within a contemporary context.

Poor Creature’s sound – particularly in the context of contemporary Irish folk – offers something unique. There’s the gauzy, underwater, almost psychedelic seams of ‘Bury Me Not’ and ‘Adieu Lovely Erin’. ‘All Smiles Tonight’ and ‘Hicks’ Farewell’ nod to the influence of American folk/bluegrass acts like Doc Watson and the Louvin Brothers. These shifting sounds are made possible by producer John ‘Spud’ Murphy, who has produced all of Lankum’s albums, and worked with Junior Brother, ØXN, Pretty Happy, Ye Vagabonds as as well as the final two albums by The Jimmy Cake, with whom John has played for over 20 years.

“There’s something about the everyday and the fantastical, being entangled, which I think Irish music does so well.” This also sums up All Smiles Tonight, moving through stories and loss and history to create an otherworldly and timeless album for the ages.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Members of Landless and Lankum, bringers of the biggest wave of folk appreciation i've known for some time come together for 'Poor Creature', a beautiful mix of the traditional with hints of ambient and drone peeking through in the more meditative parts. A beautiful mix of influences, and a beautiful counterfoil to the purely melodic instrumentation of trad. folk. Ace.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
Adieu Lovely Erin
Bury Me Not
The Whole Town Knows
Lorene

Side B
An Draighneán Donn
All Smiles Tonight
Hicks’ Farewell
Willie-o

There’s a palpable flurry of momentum surrounding SPRINTS. The Dublin band have enjoyed a whirlwind year, marked by back-to-back wins and rapid ascent. They unveiled their Top 20 debut album “Letter to Self” in January 2024, picked up two RTÉ Choice Award nominations for Best Irish Album and Breakthrough Irish Artist, opened for IDLES and Pixies, and delivered feverishly talked- about sets at Glastonbury, End of the Road, and All Together Now.

Since the album’s release in 2024 – met with 5-star reviews from NME, DIY, and Dork, and acclaim from Pitchfork and Brooklyn Vegan – the four-piece have taken their visceral live show across the globe. Along the way, they’ve become an essential new name in contemporary rock, known for urgent, compassionate songwriting shaped by personal tales of trauma and resilience.

Now, SPRINTS are turning that relentless energy into new material. Later this year the quartet will unleash brand-new music and pack an even busier schedule, with a major slot at Glastonbury, appearances at Pinkpop, Dour and Latitude, plus a run of German arena dates supporting Fontaines D.C.

SPRINTS about the new album:
“While the world is literally burning down around us there are voices that seem hell bent on pointing the finger at anyone but those responsible. There’s no need to dream-up dystopia, we’re living in it.

And somehow, while the world has never seemed uglier, our life has never been more beautiful. We have clawed ourselves out of the depths of imposter syndrome, anxiety and struggle to come together, stronger than ever, in the pursuit of that which we love most, music.
All That Is Over feels like a second chance at a first album. Gone are the shackles of insecurity, and we have confidently stepped into what we feel is our best work yet. Its loud, emotive, boisterous and a lot of fucking fun.

This is an album about love, lust, art and passion. It is a rejection of the narratives they will try to spin to force those already marginalised to suffer more. It is the repelling of criticism, critique and the combat of the modern world. This is renaissance and rebellion because within the disillusionment with the world, the fatigue, there is still hope. There is still love, music and art and a chance to start again and that’s where you’ll find us. In between hope and a hard place. Welcome to our cowboy gothic.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A raucous, distorted distillation of garage rock and post-punk, with a breadth of sound you don't necessarily expect from a second album. 'To The Bone' is a particularly brilliant non-sequitur that shows how flexible the band are.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. Abandon
2. To The Bone
3. Descartes
4. Need
5. Beg
6. Rage

Side B
7. Something’s Gonna Happen
8. Pieces
9. Better
10. Coming Alive
11. Desire

It was in December 2022 that The Staves celebrated the 10th anniversary of their debut album Dead & Born & Grown – a strange and beautiful period in the lives of sisters and band members Jessica, Camilla and Emily Staveley-Taylor, making their fourth album All Now with the same organic vulnerability as that first record: except now everything was different, and they kind of were too.

All Now emerges, bold and bright, from a period of quiet, which followed a period of chaos, for the band. When Good Woman was released in 2021, to positive reviews, it felt like “an echoing silence” to share such a cathartic album with a world shut down. So The Staves had to retreat, again, and actually wrestle with everything they had been through.

The result? An album as rich and honest as all the most profound music by The Staves scattered across albums for the last decade, calcified here into something special.

But the most thrilling part of this album, is that the hardest pills to swallow, here, almost have a sweeter taste. Once you’ve survived the climb to the top, learned from the journey, you may as well enjoy the view. “When you sing about hesitation and fear, there’s a lot of power in not making it sound fearful and being quite steadfast instead,” says Camilla. “It feels like an act of taking control.” With All Now, there’s no letting go. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Though it's the vocal interplay between Jessica and Camilla Stavely-Taylor and the relative instrumental minimalism that first comes to mind when you think of The Staves, their formula works just as well when transplanted onto a hefty backdrop of soaring synths and throbbing basses, and 'All Now' is the perfect display of a more hi-nrg version of their trademark sound.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
All Now
I Don’t Say It, But I Feel It
Fundamental Memory
Make A Decision
The Echo
Side B
I’ll Never Leave You Alone
After School
Great Wave
Recognise
So Gracefully
The Important One
You Held It All

Next full length up on Feral Child sees a welcome reunion for both label and artist; having teamed up lots in the past, JAMES TOTH and label head Dom, join forces for another beauty.

This time round, 11 previously (and mostly- certainly in these forms) unreleased home recordings and demos from a 10 year period between 2012 and 2022. Titled “Demon Stations”, it’s a beautifully seamless collection, mercifully saved from the relative oblivion of bandcamp / digital only demos and released on vinyl.

Many of course know James best from his Wooden Wand moniker, alongside his work with the likes of Michael Gira and Thurston Moore etc, then one would hope last years’ “Birthday Blues” 33 artist tribute / comp covering songs from various points of James’ career (feat Meg Baird, Lee Ranaldo, Six Organs of Admittance amongst others) will only have raised his star further….

On this collection, James says ““Demon Stations” is a compilation of songs from five different digital-only demo collections I released on Bandcamp between 2021 and 2023. I relied on the ears and judgment of my old friend Dom to curate this comp, allowing him to choose his favorites from over 60 songs. While I might have chosen an entirely different batch of tunes, I was happy to defer to Dom, as I’ve never had much perspective when it comes to assessing my own material.

All of the songs were recorded at home, mostly on the same day they were written. Most are first takes, intended to provide a template for a theoretical band to follow if and when the songs were to be re-recorded “properly” at a later date. A few have since been re-recorded for studio records, and a few others remain in contention for future studio records.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: An evocative, beautifully performed selection of minimal acoustic guitar and vocals, reminiscent of traditional country music, but lightened with Toth's wry lyrical direction and light touch on the guitar. It's as ever, another brilliant release from Dom PY / Feral Child and further shows his dedication to the musical cause.

Jessica Winter’s debut ‘My First Album’ is a fully realised bold, questioning album, full of personality sitting somewhere on the spectrum between therapy and the dancefloor. Musically there are shades of Kylie Minogue and the glitter of 80s Madonna, there’s the flamboyance of Prince and Queen, the energy and occasional snarl of punk and the dreamy arched eyebrow of psychedelia. In a world where maximalist pop is back and therapy memes rule supreme, My First Album is the perfect soundtrack.

Jessica Winter is a British singer, songwriter, and producer known for her experimental pop music that blends elements from various genres, including pop, industrial, and indie. To date, Jessica has released a series of EPs, including Limerence (2023), More Sad Music (2021), and Sad Music (2020), each showcasing her ability to infuse unconventional themes and introspective lyrics into pop song structures.

In addition to her solo project, Winter has an extensive list of credits as a co-writer and producer, having collaborated with artists like The Horrors, The Big Moon, Jazmin Bean, Phoebe Green, Lauren Auder, Pre Goblin, Sundara Karma, Walt Disco, and Brodka.


“a pure pop confection” – The New York Times.
“Jessica Winter is a pop-music obsessive whose sound and lyrics are high-concept experimentations that test how far she can take the genre” - Rolling Stone US
“The UK’s most exciting alt-pop oddball” - NME
“Moreish pop music that’ll be spinning around your head for days” - GQ
“Gothic, pop-centric cabaret” - The Guardian
“Weird, moreish pop music” - Dazed
“Rebellious alt-pop that feels both classic and utterly new” - CLASH
“The new face of outsider pop” - The Line Of Best Fit
“Vibrant, paradoxical, and all-in-all exuberant” - DIY
“Jessica Winter is an artist with an astounding talent” - So Young

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Bright, bold synth pop that sounds as influenced by modern synthesis and production techniques as it is the classic synth era, and shows a songwriter who is unafraid to embrace pop sensibilities while taking things a little outside the comfort zone. Hefty in parts, sugary sweet in others and wonderfully written throughout.

TRACK LISTING

1. Nirvana
2. L.O.V.E.
3. Feels Good (For Tonight)
4. Aftersun
5. Big Star
6. Worst Person In The World
7. I See The Robin
8. All I Ever Really Wanted
9. Wannabe
10. Just Like That
11. Got Something Good
12. Only Lonely
13. To Know Her

After soaring with Social Politics and Pretty Face, the five piece all girl band Yassassin (featuring ex members of The History Of Apple Pie, Lust, Bonfire Nights, and Loaded) release their debut EP Vitamin Y via Babelogue. Produced by Dave Allen (The Cure, Neneh Cherry) and mixed by Mike Moore (Liam Gallagher), Vitamin Y is released on a limited edition transparent blue 12" vinyl. Lead track Cherry Pie is dark, sleazy and psychy which hints of The Big Moon, Veruca Salt, Dream Wife and the Breeders.

TRACK LISTING

Cherry Pie
Mermaidistic Personality Disorder
Seasoned Like A Chicken
Pretty Face