Simply vocals and acoustic guitar.

Denise Johnson's debut acoustic album 'Where Does It Go' is a very Mancunian affair.

Recorded in Ancoats with Thomas Twemlow on acoustic guitar, she covers iconic songs that mean something to her from Manchester bands including New Order, The Smiths & 10cc as well as her own compositions.

After performing on Primal Scream's 'Screamadelica', A Certain Ratio and New Order's 'Music Complete', this Manchester girl's album is well overdue but not before time.

Where does it go, with Denise's voice that ''does something to you'' has been eagerly awaited.

Latest iteration of John Dwyer’s everchanging, impossible-to-describe band.

Witness the ever-changing, ever-mutating threat that is reality. Perception is under duress; sensibility is bending everyday under the barrage of nonsense. One must make note of whom one is and what one has become: look into the mirror of the planet-killers—psychic cannibals infiltrate and contaminate once familiar and seemingly secure territories… formidable foes indeed! What powers these beasts? What fuels discord and hatred? The behemoth of a “civil” society? What are the weapons at one’s disposal? Generosity is the aegis against greed, empathy is the armor to deflect apathy, love is the club to abate hate…the fog is lifting and humans are opening their eyes.

And so Castle Face offers this field recording, the Osees Protean Threat, from the pits as a quick booster between protein pills and recycled sweat beverage anthems to assist the listener to not worship at the altar of violence and greed, to not offer oneself up for free, to stand up and be vigilant! Truth will not be found in the speeches and photo ops of the overlords— stand strong and together under the gaze of the oppressors. Stand vigilant, united with those who don’t have the same privileges. Demand respect and a peaceful life for all. This recording is at the apogee of scuzz—punk anthem amulets for the ears and heart, a battery for one’s core. Be strong. Be human. Be love.

The time had come, Angel Olsen realized in the fading summer of 2018, to take her new songs out of the house. Olsen's 2016 marvel, My Woman, had been a career breakthrough, but it catalyzed a period of personal tumult, too: a painful breakup, an uneasy recovery, an inadequate reckoning. At home in North Carolina's Blue Ridge Mountains, Olsen penned songs that finally grappled with these troubles, particularly love:"how forever is too much to promise, how relationships can lock us into static versions of ourselves, how you can go through hell just to make someone else happy. These heartsore explorations shape Whole New Mess, Olsen's first solo album since her 2012 debut and an emotional portrait so intimate and vulnerable you can hear her find meaning in these crises in real-time.

At least nine of the eleven songs on Whole New Mess should sound familiar to anyone who has heard All Mirrors, Olsen's grand 2019 masterpiece that earned high honors on prestigious year-end lists and glossy spreads in stylish magazines. "Lark," "Summer," "Chance" - they are all here, at least in some skeletal form and with slightly different titles. But these are not the demos for All Mirrors. Instead, Whole New Mess is its own record with its own immovable mood, with Olsen working through her open wounds and raw nerves with just a few guitars and some microphones, isolated in a century-old church in the Pacific Northwest. If the lavish orchestral arrangements and cinematic scope of All Mirrors are the sound of Olsen preparing her scars for the wider world to see, Whole New Mess is the sound of her first figuring out their shape, making sense for herself of these injuries.

Considered alongside All Mirrors, Whole New Mess is a poignant and pointed reminder that songs are more than mere collections of words, chords, and even melodies. They are webs of moods and moments and ideas, qualities that can change from one month to the next and can say just as much as the perfect progression or an exquisite chord. In that sense, these 11 songs - "solitary, frank, and unflinching examinations of what it's like to love, lose, and survive -" are entirely new. This is the sound of Angel Olsen, sorting through the kind of trouble we've all known, as if just for herself and whoever else needs it.

One only knows one. Two is balanced therefore stagnant. III both active and reactive. Charles Moothart, Ty Segall and Chad Ubovich are Fuzz. Fuzz is three. And III has returned. Songs for all, and music for one. III was recorded and mixed at United Recording under the sonic lordship of Steve Albini.

Keeping the focus on the live sounds of the band, the use of overdubs and studio tricks were kept to a minimum. Albini’s mastery in capturing sound gave the trio the ability to focus entirely on the playing while knowing the natural sounds would land. It takes the essential ingredients of “guitar-based music” and “rock and roll power trio” and puts them right out on the chopping block. It was a much more honest approach for the band—three humans getting primitive, staying primitive. The goal was never to reinvent the wheel. Sometimes it’s just about seeing how long one can hold on before getting thrown off. Three points reflected in three mirrors; a pyramid of sonic destruction and psychic creation. Nothing people feed the roots while the freaks fly free in the treetops—blind to vines, eyes closed, stuck in spit, triumphing the returning of beginnings and ends returning while beginning to see the time collapse. Love is the only way to annihilate hate, and sketchy freaks live to bleed. All shades of color, truth and lies, III is the pillar of unity and singularity. All is nothing, and only nothing can generate everything. Log out, drop thought, turn up.

FORMAT INFORMATION

Coloured LP Info: Indies exclusive coloured vinyl. Very limited!!

A rumble on the horizon. Gritted teeth, nuclear fizz and fissured rock. A dab of pill dust from a linty pocket before it hits: the atom split, pool table overturned, pint glass smashed — valley fever breaking with the clouds as the inertia of small town life is well and truly disrupted. Here to bust out of Doledrum, clad in a t-shirt that screams SOCIALISM and armed with drum machine, synth, pedal and icy stare are Working Men’s Club, and their self-titled debut album.

It’s hard to believe that the three fresh-faced music college kids who bounced out of nowhere and onto the 6 Music playlist with the sweet-but-potent, twangy guitar-led ‘Bad Blood’ (Melodic Records) in 2019 are the same band who clattered back there with maddening techno-cowbellpuncher ‘Teeth’ less than half a year later — and that’s because for the most part, they’re not. Having signed to Heavenly and with the hype around them building, underlying tensions came to a boil a mere five days before the band’s all-important first London headline show, and wunderkind frontman Syd Minsky-Sargeant was left high and dry; guitarist Giulia Bonometti had decided to focus on her blossoming solo career, and drummer Jake Bogacki was against the new electronic direction Minsky-Sargeant saw Working Men’s Club taking. (“I guess WMC started off as a bit more guitar-based, tryna copy stuff in our own way, like the Velvets and stuff like that, but I didn’t want it to be that anymore. It became dancier and dancier as I tried to experiment”, he explains.) All that remained of the outfit was Minsky-Sargeant himself, recently recruited bassist Liam Ogburn, and — given the band’s indebtment to wood panelled, community-run venues for an early leg-up — a rather pertinent name. But with staunch determination burning in his belly, Minsky-Sargeant quickly assembled a lineup consisting of himself, Ogburn, and Mairead O'Connor (The Moonlandingz) and Rob Graham (Drenge, Baba Naga) — both of whom he had met at the Sheffield studio of producer Ross Orton (The Fall, M.I.A., Arctic Monkeys) — replaced the live drums with a drum machine, and rush-rehearsed the new setup before going ahead with the show. “If it wasn’t for Sheffield then we probably wouldn’t have played that gig” he says. “I was shitting myself, because I didn’t know what would work or not.” Luckily, something stuck: “After about three gigs with that lineup it was already way better than what we’d had before.” Two original members lighter and three new ones the richer, Working Men’s Club took on a new hard-edge permutation, their shows becoming ever more sweaty, pulsating and rammed to the rafters; their energy raw; their vigour renewed; their interplay as musicians growing ever-more intuitive and elastic. Their eponymous collection of songs is equal parts Calder Valley restlessness and raw Sheffield steel; guitars locking horns with floor-filling beats, synths masquerading as drums and Minsky-Sargeant’s scratchy, electrifying bedroom demos brought to their full potential by Orton’s blade-sharp yet sensitive production.

It was at home in the town of Todmorden in the Calder Valley, West Yorkshire, feeling hemmed in, that 18-year-old Syd Minsky-Sargeant first began assembling these 10 songs. “There’s not much going on, not much stuff to do as a teenager” he says. “It’s quite isolated. And it can get quite depressing being in a town where in the winter it gets light at nine in the morning and dark at four”. It is this sense of cabin fever, of “thinking that you will never escape a small town in the middle of nowhere” on which the album opens, with the boredom-lamenting and rave-reminiscent ‘Valleys’. In a post-punk talk-sing over an old-skool beat, Minsky-Sargeant begins:

Trapped, inside a town, inside my mind

Stuck with no ideas, I’m running out of time

There’s no quick escape, so many mistakes, I’ll play the long game

This winter is a curse

And the valley is my hearse, when will it take me to the grave?

Fortunately for Syd and a thousand other bored-shitless, dark-dwelling teenagers, the Calder Valley boasts a burgeoning grassroots music scene, chiefly centred around The Golden Lion in Todmorden, and the Trades Club in Hebden Bridge — both of which were instrumental in the early life of the band. “Without those venues we probably wouldn’t have been able to get into playing live music”, Minsky-Sargeant reflects. Working Men’s Club’s first ever gig, at The Golden Lion, was self-booked and self-promoted, landlord Waka having allowed the band to use the 100-capacity room above the pub for free. Even before booking himself onto the stage though, Minsky-Sargeant regularly snuck into the venue to watch the internationally renowned DJs, like Justin Robertson and Luke Unabomber, who passed through its doors. This, combined with the discovery of 808 State, his stepdad’s extensive afrobeat record collection, YouTube videos of Jeff Mills making beats on a Roland TR-909, and a chance festival encounter with Soulwax, provided sustenance and inspiration for Working Men’s Club’s developing sound. Though it is songs almost entirely written and sung by Minsky-Sargeant that appear on the record, he is quick to point out the influence of the other members of his band on the record too; that “everyone that’s been involved in this band, from the old lineup to the new lineup, played on the record, contributed and shaped it in some way, through the phases”, wheedling in and around Minsky-Sargeant’s songs, embellishing them with their own bass, guitar, key or backing vocal parts. And without Orton, “it wouldn’t have been half as good a record.” Working with the producer radically changed MinskySargeant’s songwriting practice — “I tried to replicate what he was doing in his studio in my bedroom, and think more about drum sounds and making them more complicated and messing around with synths and stuff like that. It made me think about more components than just a guitar.”

The songs following ‘Valleys’ come fast and relentless — momentum ever increasing, mission well and truly stated as the frenetic, pew-pewing ‘A.A.A.A’ speeds through to nonchalant existential groove ‘John Cooper Clarke’ — centred around the realisation that yes, even the luckiest guy alive, the Bard of Salford himself, will someday die.

Hard holds hands with soft, and rough with smooth. On washily-vocalled, Orange Juicily-guitared ‘White Rooms and People’, there are simultaneously beautifully blooming flowers and ‘people talking shit about you’, and the hazy, ricocheting ‘Outside’, the gentlest track on the album, flips straight into the tough-as-shit, industrially-geared ‘Be My Guest’, which opens the second half of the record with markedly E. Smithian brio. The opening bars of ‘Cook A Coffee’ are momentarily reminiscent of ‘Bad Blood’, but spiral into direct and uncomfortable eye contact in song-form; a lost Joy Division number from an alternate universe, about taking a dump live on the telly. ‘Tomorrow’ glitches and glimmers, whilst outro track ‘Angel’ moves between psychedelic languidity and hardcore thrash, the album playing itself out on a 12-and-a-half-minute noodle.

It is with war, free-fall, and re-birth already behind them that Working Men’s Club emerge, resilient; inspiration from across breadth of eras, genres and tour-mates merely strata in their very own indie-cum-dance-cum-techno niche in the crag.

Diva Harris, February 2020

FORMAT INFORMATION

Coloured LP Info: Neon yellow vinyl in an embossed sleeve with neon pantone and laminated logo.

Cassette Info: Clear shell + neon yellow slip-case

Astrel K, based in Stockholm, is the solo project of Rhys Edwards of Ulrika Spacek. 

FORMAT INFORMATION

Ltd 7" Info: An edition of 492 copies in a generic card sleeve, with a hand stamped band name plus numbering.

All formats come with a limited edition signed art card, 1 of 2 designs, packed randomly with orders of the new album ACR Loco.

Signed by Jez Kerr, Martin Moscrop and Donald Johnson as well as designer Trevor Johnson.

Back with their first new album in 12 years, a confident and revitalised ACR jumped back into the studio following their most successful tour in over 20 years.

ACR Loco feels like an accumulation of ACR's DNA from point zero in 1977 through to 2020 and sounds like a band who have effortlessly perfected their craft. An album to dance to, cry to, fall in love to and most importantly, to party to.

ACR Loco by the core ACR members Jez Kerr, Martin Moscrop and Donald Johnson, are joined by long term partners Tony Quigley, Denise Johnson and Matt Steele, plus special guests Sink Ya Teeth’s Maria Uzor and Gemma Cullingford, Factory Floor’s Gabe Gurnsey and Manchester luminaries Mike Joyce and Eric Random.

FORMAT INFORMATION

Coloured LP Info: Limited edition coloured vinyl. First pressing available on 1 of 4 colours: White, Blue, Red, Turquoise. Each colour is of varying rarity and will be randomly packed with no external cue as to which colour is available within the package.
White Vinyl – very rare (300 copies pressed)
Blue Vinyl – quite rare (600 copies pressed)
Red Vinyl – fairly rare (900 copies pressed)
Turquoise Vinyl – rare (1200 copies pressed)
Foil blocked sleeve designed by Trevor Johnson + inner sleeve and bo

Just two weeks after revealing their first new music in eleven years, Doves break their silence on new album rumours by announcing that their fifth long player 'The Universal Want', will be released on Fri 11 September 2020 on Virgin EMI. Buoyed by refreshed chemistry, restless studio creativity and public reaction to their return, Doves set free the album’s first single, Prisoners, on Thu 09th / July /2020.

Only the second track and first single proper to be revealed, Prisoners forces attention upon itself, not least with the poignancy of Goodwin’s repeated greeting to ‘old friends’, but as an unstoppable, driving tale of caution in a world of unending desire. Produced by Doves with Dan Austin and recorded at the band’s own Frank Bough Sound III studios in North West England, the high heat of its Northern Soul beat is fanned by wiry guitar breaks and cuts of ethereal noise contorting beneath layers of stacked vocals. A statuesque musical statement, Prisoners guides Doves’ second chapter to a peak now within touching distance, the lyrics contrasting to express unease with modern ills.

FORMAT INFORMATION

Coloured LP Info: Heavyweight white coloured vinyl, gatefold sleeve, printed inners and download card.

LP Info: Heavyweight black vinyl, gatefold sleeve, printed inners, download card.

CD Info: Minpack, 16 page booklet.

Ltd Box Set Info: Lenticular Cover of album artwork on box.
Ex Picture Disc LP
Cassette (limited to box set only)
High quality 12 x 12 prints (art)
Digital Download Code
Numbered Limited Edition
Set of 5 postcard prints using album/single artwork
Remix LP - 12” LP featuring two Doves Remixes (A/B)

FREE SHIPPING This item has FREE UK shipping!

SAULT make a stunning return with the powerful, timely and necessary art piece called...UNTITLED (Black Is). The soundtrack to a revolution, SAULT burst out the gate with blistering intent. An album that is triumphant as much as it is painful, evoking stark emotions highlighting systemic racism, injustice and police brutality.

Once again, as is their trademark SAULT sweep everything up into a masterful cacophony of crashing drums, soul and funk inspirations, gospel, afro influences and golden era hip hop that signals a profound and urgent need for real and overdue change. This is protest music, a call to arms, essential and profound. The bar has been raised, call it what you want but they’ve left it….UNTITLED

'Multi award-winning saxophonist and composer Nubya Garcia is back with her much anticipated debut album, SOURCE. Her first release on Concord Records, under the iconic Concord Jazz imprint. The album follows her 2018 self-released EP, WHEN WE ARE, the title track of which was described as “effervescent” by The New York Times and named one of NPR’s Best Songs of 2018. Her debut EP, NUBYA’s 5IVE, released in 2017, was hailed as “exceptional” by The Vinyl Factory and sold out on vinyl within 24 hours. In 2018, Garcia also featured on five of the nine tracks on WE OUT HERE, the Brownswood compilation project celebrating London’s young and exciting jazz scene.

She won the Jazz FM Breakthrough Act of the Year Award and the Sky Arts Breakthrough Act of the Year Award in 2018, and the Jazz FM UK Jazz Act of the Year Award in 2019. A collection of sonic mantras to live by, SOURCE is a deeply personal offering in which Garcia maps cartographies around the coordinate points of her identity, her family histories, grief, afro-diasporic connections and collectivism. SOURCE is fundamentally about getting grounded within yourself, so that you can be present with others. It's about a realization of personal and collective power: the evolution of the saxophonist’s values as she re-connects with herself, her roots and her community. Garcia digs deep to present an album with a global outlook: from London to Bogota, Caura to Georgetown, it's a record drawing inspiration from the many places Garcia calls home. 

FORMAT INFORMATION

Coloured LP Info: Indies only splatter vinyl.

Mammal Hands are pleased to announce the release of their highly anticipated fourth album 'Captured Spirits', released 11thSeptember via Manchester tastemaker record label, Gondwana Records.

Consisting of saxophonist Jordan Smart, pianist Nick Smart and drummer and tabla player Jesse Barrett, the trio have forged a growing reputation for their hypnotic fusion of jazz and electronica and have recieved glowing recommendations from the likes of The Guardian and Gilles Peterson. Drawing on their love of electronic, contemporary classical, world, folk and jazz music, Mammal Hands take in influences including Pharoah Sanders,Gétachèw Mekurya, Terry Riley, Steve Reich and Sirishkumar Manji.

Forming in Norwich in 2012, brothers Nick and Jordan along with Jesse, developed their distinctive and polished sound with their meteoric live shows and release of three critically acclaimed albums: 'Animalia' (2014), 'Floa' (2016) and 'Shadow Work (2017). Landmark live performances have included shows at The Roundhouse London, the main stage at Field Day Festival, La Cigale Paris, Montreal Jazz Festival, Hamburg Elb Jazz, Athens Technopolis and Unit Tokyo.

Teaming up once again with trusted producer George Atkins (Wiley, The Courteeners) at 80 Hertz Studios in Manchester, 'Captured Spirits' explores themes including existence and displacement. "The name has multiple readings but was first inspired by something Jordan was reading about past experiences of ancestors being caught and coded into our DNA and having an effect on who you are today. This ties in with themes that we have touched on before relative to identity and the collective unconscious ('Shadow Work'). It also toys with the idea of feeling contained/trapped and the need to break out of something and also the idea of people being spirits that are "captured" in a body", says Nick.

Opening with the melodic rhythmic patterns of 'Ithaca', the tempo picks up with the mesmerising 'Chaser', as heavy percussion and Nick's frenetic keys draw the listener deep into Mammal Hand's distinctive soundsphere. North Indian influences dictate the meditative 'Versus Shapes' with Jesse's transcendental tabla playing taking centre stage while the dark and moody 'Spiral Stair' relies on a multitude of colliding and intersecting shapes and sounds.

All three members of the band contribute equally to the writing process: one that favours the creation of a powerful group dynamic over individual solos. "I think with this record, there was a strong and renewed sense of collective enjoyment and appreciation for the process and each other's contributions. After a long period of touring and a slow build up to the actual recording sessions we were able to mull over ideas for long periods, build on lessons from the past and pull our playing connection to an even deeper place. Realising each other's visions for the whole and clearly understanding how they intersect", says Jesse.

That vision is also realised by longtime collaborator and artist Daniel Halsall who designed the artwork for 'Captured Spirits'. His strong instinctive feel for the band's visual world is a key component to understanding the music. "Our work with Dan over such a long period of time now has become integral to the bands aesthetic and he always seems to grasp the themes and ideas that we send for each album and distills them into something striking and engaging that really complements the music. This is really important with instrumental music, as we need to be able to convey our ideas without being too literal or definitive and give the listeners space for imagination and to take their own journey when they listen to the music and look at the artwork", says Jordan.

Elsewhere across 'Captured Spirits', 'Riddle' and 'Rhizome' are rich in texture and heavy on groove and both compositions showcase a complex, emotional range and demonstrate three like-minded musicians with a dazzling understanding of jazz, electronica and cinematic rhythms. "Music has the capacity to fill so many spaces in our lives, as I think fundamentally it is a more direct form of communication than even language. In this way it can be refuge, it can be social, it can be revelatory, it can be memory, it can be what we need at a given point in time", says Jordan.

The high intensity of the trio's live shows is recreated with the spiritual jazz-influenced 'Into Sparks' as Jordan's sax exhibits an unrestrained energy and freedom but it's left to 'Little One' to bring down the curtain on arguably their most accomplished album to date, a soothing, breezy gift to Jesse's new daughter.

Gondwana Records is an independent record label founded by Matthew Halsall in 2008. The label has gone on to release music by, Allysha Joy, GoGo Penguin, Hania Rani, Matthew Halsall, Phil France, Portico Quartet and Sunda Arc.

FORMAT INFORMATION

Coloured LP Info: Clear vinyl edition.

Signed LP Info: Limited signed version on clear LP.

The Wytches announce their third album Three Mile Ditch, recorded with Luke Oldfield at Tile House Studios it will be released on their own label Cable Code Records on Friday 2nd October.

“This is the first thing that I've ever been proud of for longer than a week,” says The Wytches frontman Kristian Bell of the band’s latest album Three Mile Ditch. This sense of vigour and enthusiasm coming from Bell about the band’s third album is matched by its contents. The album is an explosive collection of 10 tracks that weaves seamlessly between gut-wobbling monster riffs, swampy rock, slick surf, and finely tuned songcraft. It’s also the result of a band coming back from the brink of collapse.

The band’s early trajectory was a steep and speedy one as they quickly established themselves as one of the country’s most exciting and pulverising new bands. Major festival slots stacked up at places such as Glastonbury, SXSW, Reading and Leeds, and British Summertime with the Strokes. As did the tours across the US with METZ, traversing Europe with Fat White Family and Death Grips. They garnered support from BBC 6 Music, DIY, MOJO, NME and more. However, when the ascent to the stratosphere is moving at such a speed, there’s a risk of burning out and imploding, and the band came close to this.

They were on the rocks for a while, unsure of themselves and if the band should - or even could - go on. “I had it in my head that this kind of thing only really happens once and to try it again might be a big waste of time,” Bell reflects. However, despite the difficulties, the powerful pull of the band was too great to ignore.

“We had an album’s worth of songs that was some of our best material. The mission became to complete a Wytches album rather than get The Wytches back on the touring circuit. This album helped us make the decision to try it again.”

Whilst the album is bursting at the seams with hard rock screamers, with hooks and riffs so infectious they burrow deep into the brain, there’s also other more nuanced elements at play. Bell’s love of classic songwriting from Bob Dylan to Elliott Smith via Big Star’s Alex Chilton can be heard reverberating throughout the record; the result is a blend between his honed and subtle knack for songcraft and crunchy, eruptive bursts of noise.

A leaving member left them feeling they couldn’t face introducing a new drummer and teaching them all the new songs so they simply pounced on their momentum and took on that role themselves, sharing drumming duties. Joining the two, was a familiar face in Mark Breed. “It was the first time Mark was present for most of the recording sessions. Mark was our original bassist before we moved to Brighton. He decided to stay in Peterborough to focus on his own work and a few years later re-joined us on guitar and keyboard. He added a lot of depth to the song arrangements. Also, I think when he saw things were starting to fall apart, he stepped in to help bring back the band dynamic we were missing.”

For Bell, the band has never felt more vital or alive and that’s come with a degree of confidence and assuredness when looking to the future. “Early on a few negative comments would be enough for me to disassociate from my own work. But you grow up and you mature. I never felt like I could stand behind what I was doing all that much but with this album I really can.”

FORMAT INFORMATION

Dinked Edition LP Info: • Exclusive Splatter vinyl.
• Exclusive signed 16 page full-colour fanzine.
• Exclusive Sticker Sheet.
• Numbered Dinked sticker.
• Limited edition of 500.

Coloured LP Info: Solid red coloured vinyl.

Covers have long been an integral part of Whitney's ethos. Ever since the band first formed in a Chicago apartment in 2014, tackling songs by the Everly Brothers, Allen Toussaint, and more played an important part in the songwriting process for their breakthrough 2016 debut Light Upon The Lake. Since then, their takes on NRBQ's "Magnet" and Neil Young's "On the Way Home" have become live staples, an essential and communal part of their sets. Their love for the music that makes up their deepest influences has always been genuine and tangible. Following their acclaimed sophomore 2019 album Forever Turned Around, Whitney have decided to return with a loving tribute to songs that have been formative and lasting to the entire band. Candid is a 10-song collection boasting covers of artists like Kelela, David Byrne, John Denver, SWV , and others but it's also a band challenging themselves to explore more than their musical comfort zone. "This could've been as simple as saying we really love these songs and we love our bandmates and making a covers record just felt right but it truly became an exploration into how we can evolve as a band going forward,” says drummer and singer Julien Ehrlich.

Recorded in January and February of 2020 over multiple sessions at Treehouse Studios in Chicago and Flora Recording and Playback in Portland , Candid finally sees the full touring band in a recording studio together. " This is the first time we really saw what the live iteration of Whitney sounds like in a studio. It was a really celebratory vibe and everyone in the room fed off each other's energy," says guitarist Max Kakacek. It's the band's best reflection so far of their triumphant live show as most of these renditions were recorded live. Featuring keyboardist Malcolm Brown, bassist Josiah Marshall, trumpeter Will Miller, as well as guitarists Print Chouteau and Ziyad Asrar, the entire live unit is firing at all cylinders thanks to its tight-knit and road-tested relationship.

Their chemistry exudes throughout the tracklist but it's especially apparent when they open up the dynamic to their friends, like Katie Crutchfield of Waxahatchee joining John Denver's "Take Me Home, Country Roads." On the cover of the classic, Ehrlich and Crutchfield's voices merge for a joyous harmony over the chorus. Over eight days at Treehouse Studios, the band would show up in the morning, learn a song together, and choose an instrument, leading to a freewheeling and adventurous atmosphere. Their renditions of SWV's '90s R&B heater "Rain" or David Byrne and Brian Eno's 2008 track "Strange Overtones" prove this, as they stretch Whitney into new musical directions. "We love these songs and all have an emotional connection to each one, but we really wanted to see if we could take the skeleton of each track and approach it in a way that felt new. We didn't want to recreate what any of these artists already did," says Kakacek. This is most evident on Candid opener "Bank Head," which tackles the sparse and hypnotic electronic single by Kelela. Ehrlich adds, “ It's something we've never done before and probably a direction that we want to explore in our future albums” he continues, “ We knew we couldn't beat these songwriters at their own game. Instead, we wanted to find songs that were great at their core and could be reimagined.”

At its core, Candid is a celebration of both the songs Whitney has adored throughout its formation and the band's evolving bond through years of relentless touring and an enduring friendship. "One thing we realized is how these songwriters could make amazing songs with so much simplicity. Taking these skeletons and working with this incredible material means we're keeping our chops and staying tight as a band," says Ehrlich. The LP is a sincere snapshot of their evolving and eclectic tastes that's imbued with a wholly inviting charm. It's Whitney at their most unvarnished and inventive but most importantly, it's a heartfelt tribute to the songwriters who've helped them most.

-Josh Terry
May 4, 2020
Chicago, IL

FORMAT INFORMATION

Coloured LP Info: Clear blue vinyl.

“Change is inevitable if you’re lucky,” says guitarist/vocalist Alex Edkins while talking about Atlas Vending, the fourth full-length album by Toronto’s METZ. “Our goal is to remain in flux, to grow in a natural and gradual way. We’ve always been wary to not overthink or intellectualize the music we love but also not satisfied until we’ve accomplished something that pushes us forward.” The music made by Edkins and his compatriots Hayden Menzies (drums) and Chris Slorach (bass) has always been a little difficult to pin down. Their earliest recordings contained nods to the teeming energy of early ‘90s DIY hardcore, the aggravated angularities of This Heat, and the noisy riffing of AmRep’s quintessential guitar manglers, but there was never a moment where METZ sounded like they were paying tribute to the heroes of their youth.

If anything, the sonic trajectory of their albums captured the journey of a band shedding influences and digging deeper into their fundamental core—steady propulsive drums, chest-thumping bass lines, bloody-fingered guitar riffs, the howling angst of our fading innocence. With Atlas Vending, METZ not only continues to push their music into new territories of dynamics, crooked melodies, and sweat-drenched rhythms, they explore the theme of growing up and maturing within a format typically suspended in youth. Covering seemingly disparate themes such as paternity, crushing social anxiety, addiction, isolation, media-induced paranoia, and the restless urge to leave everything behind, each of Atlas Vending’s ten songs offer a snapshot of today's modern condition and together form a musical and narrative whole. The song sequencing follows a cradle-to-grave trajectory, spanning from primitive origins through increasingly nuanced and turbulent peaks and valleys all the way to the climactic closer, “A Boat to Drown In.” The lyrics speak to this arc as well, with the songs addressing life’s struggles all the way through to death, as Edkins snarls “crashed through the pearly gates and opened up my eyes, I can see it now” before the band launches into the album’s cascading outro. 

While past METZ albums thrived on an abrasive relentlessness, the trio embarked on Atlas Vending with the goal to make a more patient and honest record—something that invited repeated listens rather than a few exhilarating bludgeonings. It’s as if the band realized they were in it for the long haul, and their music could serve as a constant as they navigated life’s trials and tribulations. The result is a record that sounds massive, articulate, and earnest. Bolstered by the co-production of Ben Greenberg (Uniform) and the engineering and mixing skills of Seth Manchester (Daughters, Lingua Ignota, The Body) at Machines with Magnets in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, METZ deliver the most dynamic, dimensional, and compelling work of their career. 

FORMAT INFORMATION

Coloured LP Info: Loser Edition - Indies only limited – light rose coloured vinyl

Lana Del Rey reads fourteen select poems from her upcoming debut poetry book Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass accompanied by music from frequent collaborator, Grammy Award-winning musician Jack Antonoff.

FORMAT INFORMATION

Coloured LP Info: Indies exclusive dark green 180 gram vinyl in a gatefold sleeve.

LP Info: 180 gram black vinyl.

CD Info: Standard Clear Jewel Case with 16 page booklet.

Sufjan returns with the long awaited follow up to Carrie & Lowell.

FORMAT INFORMATION

2xColoured LP Info: Limited edition clear vinyl.

Working for only the second time as a solo artist, The Coral’s drummer and occasional co-conspirator in Serpent Power headed out to Berlin in 2019 with a tailwind of creativity guiding him. An easy - going, collaborative atmosphere in the company of producer and guitarist/friend, Paul McKinnell, with Paul Pilot on mixing and recording duties, helped twelve new songs to flow effortlessly to tape in just one, happy week in the German capital.

Calling on the Jokerman to provide help on a day of despair, the single reveals a fissure of vulnerability and reflection on an album otherwise written specifically for the purposes of joy and escape. Written during a period Skelly associates with personal loss, he determinedly set out to craft a breezy, sonic antidote to what he was going through. Hitting on the formula to leave painful realities at the door, songs like Jokerman and the album’s first single, Captain Caveman , offered ample escape through their airy abandon and blurred lyrical outlines.

Skelly says: “To me, pouring your sad heart out on a song is self-indulgent. When I am feeling down, I just put on T-Rex really loud and escape. I couldn’t write any sad songs when I was working on ‘Drifters Skyline’, it just had to be upbeat. Friends and family really liked ‘Jokerman’ from the start, so it seemed a good vibe. Then, when we recorded it, the entire process turned out to be great fun. It felt exciting. What should have been work in the studio turned out to be a jolly.”

The release of Drifters Skyline accompanies more exclusive artwork from Skelly, who, as a prolific artist, has illustrated numerous of his own and The Coral’s album projects, including promotional videos, all featuring his darkly comic, gonzo collage work as well as photography and drawing. In line with the gradual release via digital and streaming sites , Skelly’s social media channels will premiere new artwork, animated by animator and film maker, Dom Foster , every day until the album is available in full.

A founder member of The Coral, releasing eight studio albums since their self - titled debut album in 2002, Skelly released his first solo album, Cut From A Star in 2012. Together with former Zutons guitarist, now a full - time member of The Coral, Paul Molloy, Skelly has released two, critically acclaimed albums as Serpent Power , including 2017’s Electric Looneyland .

FORMAT INFORMATION

Ltd LP Info: 12" Heavyweight Vinyl.

Multiple GRAMMY Award®-winning American Legends The Flaming Lips are pleased to announce the release of their 21st studio album, AMERICAN HEAD set for release on September 11th via Bella Union. The album is comprised of thirteen new cinematic tracks, produced by longtime collaborator Dave Fridmann and The Lips. Among them, “God and the Policeman” featuring backing vocals from country superstar Kasey Musgraves. AMERICAN HEAD takes on a welcome temporal shift that occupies a similar space to that of THE SOFT BULLETIN or YOSHIMI BATTLES THE PINK ROBOTS and just may be their most beautiful and consistent work to date

AMERICAN HEAD finds The Flaming Lips basking in more reflective lyrical places as Wayne Coyne explains in a longer form story titled “We’re An American Band.” Excerpt below:
“The Flaming Lips are from Oklahoma. We never thought of ourselves as an AMERICAN band. I know growing up (when I was like 6 or 7 years old) in Oklahoma I was never influenced by, or was very aware of any musicians from Oklahoma. We mostly listened to the Beatles and my mother loved Tom Jones (this is in the 60’s)... it wasn’t till I was about 10 or 11 that my older brothers would know a few of the local musician dudes.

So... for most of our musical life (as The Flaming Lips starting in 1983) we’ve kind of thought of ourselves as coming from ‘Earth’... not really caring WHERE we were actually from. So for the first time in our musical life we began to think of ourselves as ‘AN AMERICAN BAND’… telling ourselves that it would be our identity for our next creative adventure. We had become a 7-piece ensemble and were beginning to feel more and more of a kinship with groups that have a lot of members in them. We started to think of classic American bands like The Grateful Dead and Parliament-Funkadelic and how maybe we could embrace this new vibe.

The music and songs that make up the AMERICAN HEAD album are based in a feeling. A feeling that, I think, can only be expressed through music and songs. We were, while creating it, trying to NOT hear it as sounds... but to feel it. Mother’s sacrifice, Father’s intensity, Brother’s insanity, Sister’s rebellion...I can’t quite put it into words.

Something switches and others (your brothers and sisters and mother and father...your pets) start to become more important to you…in the beginning there is only you... and your desires are all that you can care about...but... something switches.. I think all of these songs are about this little switch.”

FORMAT INFORMATION

2xColoured LP Info: 2 x 180g Heavyweight Tri-Colour Vinyl.

2xColoured LP includes MP3 Download Code.

Cardinal Fuzz / Rooster are pleased to bring to you the latest volume in the Reverberations series – 'The Heads – Reverberations Volume 2'. This time we dive into The Heads archives for the Reverberations Series to bring you The Heads recorded live at the Thekla (6th December 2001) as part of the ‘The Gnostic Bash: A Tribute to Kenneth Anger'. This was part of a tribute programme (which included a performance of John Zorn and others playing to Anger’s ‘Magick Lantern Cycle at the Anthology Film Archives in New York) to help raise money for Anger’s long- cherished ambition to make a film of Aleister Crowley's Gnostic Mass, and documentary film-maker Jon Ausbrooks' then work in progress documentary about Anger, ‘Inside the Eye of Scorpio Rising’.

Sean Cook was tasked with putting a bill of artists together in which bands played to a partial recreation of Anger’s ‘Equinox of the Gods’ a live film of The Magick Powerhouse Of Oz band who featured Bobby Beausoleil (later imprisoned for life for the Manson Family-related murder of Gary Hinman). The energy captured within these grooves here is extraordinary; for over 40 minutes (with no breaks to catch your breath and get your head together) you are treated to primo Heads in full flight.

This two track performance starts with an utterly mind destroying version of k.r.t that lasts for near on 30 minutes. Playing to a back drop of Anger screenings and a barrage of strobes and smoke The Heads create an effect akin to your head been sucked through time and space and turned inside out – and that is before we even get to the grande finale of ‘Spliff Riff’ – a relentless onslaught that has you picking your head off the floor only for it to be sucked straight back down again. Take a deep breath, dive in and grin.

Emma-Jean Thackray, an outstanding figure in the UK jazz scene, releases Um Yang, her long-dreamed project dedicated to the Taoist philosophy of duality and harmony. A highly ambitious and personal record that sees Thackray leading a septet featuring Soweto Kinch and Steam Down’s Wonky Logic, recorded straight to vinyl.

An accomplished trumpeter, beat-maker, singer, composer and DJ, Thackray draws on far wider influences than jazz. Her sound is distinctive; in the words of The Guardian like “Bitches Brew era Miles entering the dub chamber with a New Orleans marching band – in a good way”. Since debuting in 2016, Thackray has directed the London Symphony Orchestra, performed at the NY Winter Jazz Fest, played Glastonbury five times in 2019 alone, and launched her own record label, Movementt (in association with Warp).

Raised in Yorkshire, Thackray inherited a grounding in Taoism from her father, and approaches her music with the same pursuit of harmony between Um & Yang (the Korean Ying & Yang), balancing melody and rhythm, groove and free improvisation, cerebral and physical. For this one-off recording, Thackray has applied this ideology in every sense, even down to the ensemble itself featuring not one but two percussionists. Um commences with ethereal interplay between keys, percussion, and Thackray’s trumpet, recalling the spiritual jazz of Alice Coltrane’s classic records. As the piece builds, an earthy groove emerges. On both trumpet and vocals, Thackray leads the ensemble further out until the piece peaks with an epic breakdown. On the flip, Yang starts on the same cacophonous note but progresses to a joyful groove before returning to a peaceful state again, balance restored.

When Night Dreamer Records invited Emma to record Um Yang straight-to-disc at Artone’s vintage recording studio in Haarlem, Holland, Emma was excited by the idea of capturing this specific project in one-take, without overdubs or edits. “Recording in (Artone) was such a dream” Thackray recalls. “It had all the fantasy analogue equipment you daydream about one day being able to use. The desk looked like something Uhura would use. All the instruments were natural, woods and metals, no plastic in sight, and everything was to be hit or blown, all analogue. I really needed everything to be natural and real, because the music is about the universe, about the energy of all things, and what is more real than that.” Honest sound to match truly honest music. With Um Yang, Emma-Jean Thackray has created her most personal and defining work to date.

PERSONNEL:
Emma-Jean Thackray - Trumpet, Voice, Percussion
Soweto Kinch - Saxophones
Lyle Barton - Rhodes
Ben Kelly - Sousaphone
Dwayne Kilvington - Percussion
Crispin Robinson - Congas
Dougal Taylor - Drums

Pre-order the record and be in with a chance of winning a test pressing and lyric sheet handwritten by Kate herself.
(this is a no purchase necessary offer).

Since 2008’s debut album Krülle Bol, This Is The Kit (lead by Kate Stables) have unpicked emotional knots and woven remarkable stories, but even by their high standards, Off Off On is a beautifully clear distillation of Stables’ song-writing gifts.

By the end of 2018, the band had finished touring their last album, the talismanic Moonshine Freeze – leading to Kate’s Ivor Novello nomination, but when it came to Stables’ natural impulse to start the next record, her efforts were diverted by an invitation to join The National on the road for multiple tours and TV appearances – a continuation of the role she took on their album I Am Easy To Find. “It was so brilliant when I was writing to be away from my songs and the responsibility of being in charge of a band or a project – I think it really helped my writing and my getting through whatever I needed to get through.”

Richly illuminating and acutely sensitive to the pulses and currents of life, Off Off On shows This Is The Kit overflowing with ideas. In difficult times, it’s a record that feels like a lifeline, moving against the tide, standing against the storm. Keep going.

FORMAT INFORMATION

Coloured LP Info: Indies exclusive red vinyl.

Following Brutalism (2017) and Joy as an Act of Resistance (2018), two releases that garnered global critical acclaim, IDLES return with their highly anticipated third album – Ultra Mono. Sonically constructed to capture the feeling of a hip-hop record (including production contribution from Kenny Beats), the album doubles down on the vitriolic sneer and blunt social commentary of their past work. Not far beneath the surface of their self-admitted sloganeering lies a deeply complex and brutally relevant album that chews up clichés and spits them out as high art for the masses. This is momentary acceptance of the self. This is Ultra Mono.

FORMAT INFORMATION

Coloured LP Info: Limited edition Vortex vinyl.

Deluxe LP Info: Black vinyl in deluxe gatefold packaging with 28 page debossed Ultra Mono catalogue.

“76 In The Shade” follows in the footsteps of Bob Stanley’s hugely successful comps for Ace, including “English Weather” and “The Tears Of Technology”. It suggests bright yellow sunshine, hot plastic car seats, cats lolloping on the lawn. A few tracks (Smokey Robinson, Cliff Richard, David Ruffin, Carmen McRae) act as necessary splashes of cooling water; most of them sound like it’s just too hot to move. Luckily, you don’t need to.

The months without rain and airless days and nights might not have been something out of the ordinary in the Algarve or the south of France, but it was without precedent in Britain. The Summer of 1976 has remained a benchmark for long, hot summers – there may have been scorchers since, but none have seemed quite as relentless or enervating. The country melted into a collective puddle. “76 In The Shade” probably wasn’t anyone’s real life soundtrack of the year – that could have included Bowie’s “Station To Station” and Abba’s “Greatest Hits”. Instead, Saint Etienne’s Bob Stanley has put a compilation together that sonically evokes the summer of 1976 itself, its sweet heat and almost narcotic lethargy.

Getting out of the sun, you might have sat inside with the radio on, and heard the dreamy wooziness of Liverpool Express’s ‘You Are My Love’, 10cc’s ‘I’m Mandy Fly Me’, or the Emotions’ ‘Flowers’. Or maybe you flopped out in front of the telly, where you heard an alternative summer soundtrack – the music libraries that provided the bulk of the testcard’s music gave us Simon Park’s minimal ‘Stoned Out’ and John Cameron’s deeply immersive ‘Liquid Sunshine’; the Californian jazzer Spike Janson provided the wordless vocal harmonies of ‘Walking So Free’.

“76 In The Shade” follows in the footsteps of Bob Stanley’s hugely successful comps for Ace, including “English Weather” and “The Tears Of Technology”. It suggests bright yellow sunshine, hot plastic car seats, cats lolloping on the lawn. A few tracks (Smokey Robinson, Cliff Richard, David Ruffin, Carmen McRae) act as necessary splashes of cooling water; most of them sound like it’s just too hot to move. Luckily, you don’t need to.

FORMAT INFORMATION

2xLtd LP Info: 180g pressing, with deluxe heavy-duty gatefold sleeve, that features a bonus track!

Biffy Clyro can announce that their eagerly anticipated new album ‘A Celebration of Endings’ will be released on 15 May. It follows the band’s previous two studio albums – ‘Ellipsis’ (2016) and ‘Opposites’ (2013) – both of which went straight to #1.

The band’s approach to opus eight was simple. Keep things fresh and maintain the wide-eyed wonder of what they do. Surprise themselves and each other. Push things to their furthest extremes. Their first building block in embracing the new was to turn to an old friend. In came Rich Costey, producer of ‘Ellipsis’.

“This is a very forward-looking album from a personal perspective and a societal perspective,” explains frontman Simon Neil. “The title is about seeing the joy in things changing, rather than the sadness. Change means progression and evolution. You can retain everything you loved before, but let’s lose the bad shit. It’s about trying to take back control.”

That idea manifests itself in various ways. On a personal level that might be a relationship which has reached a point where it’s in both parties’ interest to separate. And on a wider scale, it’s about standing up for what you believe in.

Sonically, Biffy Clyro playfully push the outer reaches of their sound to the extreme – often in the case of the same song. Opening track ‘North of No South’ hits hard before finding the space for the Johnston brothers to unleash some soaring Queen-style vocal harmonies, before ‘The Champ’ throws piano, cinematic strings (conducted by Bruce Springsteen collaborator Rob Mathes at Abbey Road) and Biffy’s prototyped jagged rhythms into the mix without ever losing any of its sleekness.

Other songs are far more direct. ‘Tiny Indoor Fireworks’ is the best direct rock anthem they’ve ever written, somehow snappy, melodic and light on its feet while feeling so natural you could imagine it was conceived in minutes. Meanwhile, ‘Space’ is a natural successor from previous lighters-in-the-air highlights ‘Many of Horror’ and ‘Rearrange’. It’s a sincere message of reconciliation for someone you love, and Biffy’s most tender, unguarded moment from the sweet spot of their catalogue.

How can you conclude an album of such esoteric diversity? Biffy launch headfirst into ‘Cop Syrup’. There’s the rush of ‘The Vertigo of Bliss’, a detour into Sub Pop-style grunge and manic shrieks which wouldn’t sound out of place on a Liturgy record. But then it contorts again, first into ethereal orchestration and then with a final burst of violence. It’s an ending to celebrate.

In Your Dreams is Tim’s most straightforward and accessible release to date, and an exciting addition to his body of solo work, which hitherto can broadly be described as experimental noise. The poignant song collection tackles core themes of life’s calamities, broken love, and transitory relationships, yet counterbalances its essential melancholy with a whimsical, upbeat, and playful spirit throughout. While not strictly autobiographical, the songs draw from Tim’s recent personal experiences during his two-year isolation from friends and family, and create a compelling narrative of alienation, loss, and love.

Tim wrote In Your Dreams in Amsterdam, L.A., and London in-between his time touring with Ariel Pink, and subsequently recorded the songs at home in Amsterdam while recovering from a near-fatal 2018 accident. The recurring hospitalizations that Tim has endured in recent years subtly find their way into the album through phone recordings from Tim’s actual hospital stints, underscoring the album’s themes on this highly personal work. In Your Dreams deftly juxtaposes lush, densely layered sounds with stark simplicity through a series of quick turnarounds, creating the captivating feeling of tension and release that characterizes this remarkable song collection.

Guest musicians on In Your Dreams include Chris Cohen on guitar, and drum help from Jay Watson (Tame Impala, Gum) and Josh da Costa (CMON). Adding to the family feel of the album, longtime Ariel Pink and Tim Koh collaborator Jorge Elbrecht performed mixing duties along with mastering by Heba Kadry.

FORMAT INFORMATION

Dinked Edition LP Info: • Exclusive Mulberry Coloured Vinyl *
• Exclusive 7” - 2 bonus tracks *
• Artworked inner jacket
• Signed & Numbered Print *
• Exclusive Tote Bag *
• Dinked info sticker *
• 350 copies only.
* Dinked Exclusive

Coloured LP Info: Vapour coloured vinyl.

Pre-order the album and you will automatically gain entry to a free, exclusive virtual in-store, set to premiere on release day, August 21.

A lone pair of footsteps meanders down a street in omaha, into the neighborhood bar and then into a near-imperceptible tangle of conversations – about wars, sleepless nights – a surrealist din pushing against the sound of ragtime. Then, as the background quiets, a line rings out clearly: “i think about how much people need – what they need right now is to feel like there’s something to look forward to. We have to hold on. We have to hold on.”

Thus we enter the fitting, cacophonic introduction to bright eyes’ tenth studio album and first release since 2011. Down in the weeds, where the world once was is an enormous record caught in the profound in-between of grief and clarity – one arm wrestling its demons, the other gripping the hand of love, in spite of it.

The end of bright eyes’ unofficial hiatus came naturally. Conor oberst pitched the idea of getting the band back together during a 2017 christmas party at bright eyes bandmate nathaniel walcott’s los angeles home. The two huddled in the bathroom and called mike mogis, who was christmas shopping at an omaha mall. Mogis immediately said yes. There was no specific catalyst for the trio, aside from finding comfort amidst a decade of brutal change. Sure, why now? Is the question, but for a project whose friendship is at the core, it was simply why not?

The resulting bright eyes album came together unlike any other of its predecessors. Down in the weeds is bright eyes’ most collaborative, stemming from only one demo and written in stints in omaha and in bits and pieces in walcott’s los angeles home. Radically altering a writing process 25 years into a project seems daunting, but oberst said there was no trepidation: “our history and our friendship, and my trust level with them, is so complete and deep. And i wanted it to feel as much like a three-headed monster as possible.”

As a title, as a thesis, down in the weeds, where the world once was functions on a global, apocalyptic level of anxiety that looms throughout the record. But on a personal level, it speaks to rooting around in the dirt of one’s memories, trying to find the preciousness that’s overgrown and unrecognizable. For oberst, coming back to bright eyes was a bit of that. A symbol of simpler times, vaguely nostalgic. And even though it wasn’t actually possible to go back to the way things were, even though there wasn’t an easy happy ending, there was a new reality left to work with.

And here, there is a bleary-eyed hopefulness – earnest, emotive recommitments to love appear on “dance and sing” and “just once in the world.” And throughout, down in the weeds features snippets of oberst’s loved ones speaking, in late-night conversations. The fleeting loveliness of intimate moments punctuates the bleakness of the record’s existential crisis, crackling like lightning bugs illuminating the long night.

Down in the weeds is a distillation of a prolific, enduring canon. It’s immediate and urgent, the product of its creators’ growth across a decade apart, as well as the need to make a record together to find solace from loss. Through deliberate, fearless experimentation in process, the trio made the truest bright eyes sound: the sound of a deep bond, of a band coming home, but also a seamless continuation, like bright eyes never went away. It’s the impossible, sprawling mess of human experience that bright eyes has always sought to put to tape, since the beginning – the sound of holding on. Why now? Why not?

FORMAT INFORMATION

2xColoured LP Info: Transparent red / transparent orange vinyl. 2xLP in die cut sleeve with phenakistoscope etching on side D.

2xIndies Exclusive LP Info: Transparent blue / transparent red vinyl. 2xLP in die cut sleeve with phenakistoscope etching on side D.

Delmer Darion is the West Midlands-born and North London-based experimental electronic/ IDM project of Tom Lenton and Oliver Jack, taking its name from the deep-sea diver found at the top of a charred tree after a forest fire in Paul Thomas Anderson’s cult film ‘Magnolia’. “There’s no reason behind it,” they say, “we just liked the absurdity of seeing a scuba diver in full gear at the top of a really tall tree.”

Their debut album ‘Morning Pageants’ has been five-years in the making: a sprawling, industrial ten-track account of the death of the devil as a tragedy for the imagination, inspired by a line in the Wallace Stevens poem ‘Esthétique du Mal’, due for release this October on Practise Music (Squid, Shards, William Doyle).

Archival accounts and true stories patter against Delmer Darion’s simulated journey in and out of hell. A monk is tasked to write down all the world’s knowledge in one night; a woman feigns her own demonic possession to cash in from a roadshow, exposed as a fraud only when unknowingly made to drink holy water, gagged by a piece of the True Cross; a violinist is refused a Catholic burial, suspected to be in leagues with the devil; a writer pretends to be possessed by the spirit of a poet, and produces volumes of work at her command.

A vast aural landscape is covered from the opening melodies coded in the constructed language of Solresol. Dissolved folk songs curtail the lo-fi edge of Gareth Williams & Mary Currie’s ‘Flaming Tunes’. At times it’s Yves Tumor being hit around the head with a disco ball, at others there’s an ambient and sinister warmth like the crackle of a burning piano. Decentered rhythmic assemblies of analogue drum machines play through a series of guitar pedals and thunderous bass swells from a self-oscillating filter feedback patch. Sequenced together, they’re shrouded in the same intricate noise of self-sampling and tape degradation.

Collaborations with Guest Singer (Heist or Hit) and Private Agenda (Lo Recordings) play against vocal features from quiet bastions of London’s underground alt-folk scene. Scottish songwriter Genevieve Dawson’s vocals on closing track ‘Television’ end the album’s tragic narrative with the comical and pathetic image of the devil curled up inside a TV set, trying to spread occultist tales through Saturday morning cartoons.

The artwork for ‘Morning Pageants’ is a photograph of a print made by Oliver, based on a series of 16th Century works called ‘The Dance of Death’ by Hans Holbein, depicting different people being led away by Death. Recreating one of the prints, they replaced the figure being led away with an original drawing of Satan. The final artwork is printed on Nepalese Lokta paper, a waxy yellow paper that has been used for lots of sacred texts.

Mastered in Minneapolis by Huntley Miller (Low, Bon Iver).

FORMAT INFORMATION

Deluxe LP Info: Limited edition black vinyl LP housed in a Deluxe Gatefold Sleeve.
Includes a 24-page chapbook and a numbered double-sided art prints signed by the band.

Gondwana Records are delighted to announce parts 3 and 4 of the '7" Series', our first ever 7" vinyl collection series. Featuring bespoke artwork from Gondwana Records designer Daniel Halsall, cut at Calyx in Berlin, and manufactured at Optimal, each 7" is limited to strictly 300 copies and housed in a reverse board printed sleeve with classic 'dinked' centre holes.

Taken from 2013's v2.0, the Manchester trio's Mercury Prize nominated breakthrough album, this double A-side banger represents GoGo Penguin at their unmistakable best. Both tracks are classics and still feature in the band's live sets to this day. Unmissable.

Side A Garden Dog Barbecue features a stonking piano riff over a frenzied, relentless breakbeat.

Side B Hopopono features the bands most blissed out groove.

Gondwana Records are delighted to announce parts 3 and 4 of the '7" Series', our first ever 7" vinyl collection series. Featuring bespoke artwork from Gondwana Records designer Daniel Halsall, cut at Calyx in Berlin, and manufactured at Optimal, each 7" is limited to strictly 300 copies and housed in a reverse board printed sleeve with classic 'dinked' centre holes.

The return of Portico Quartet was one of the musical stories of 2017 and Endless was one of the tunes of the year. It's one of the band's biggest tunes and on the flip here is the ethereal groover Undercurrent.

Side A Endless A catchy earworm, with a hypnotic groove that announced the band's return to their signature sound and marked their first new music in five years

Side B Undercurrent cut at the same session, and making it's vinyl debut after previously only being available as a Japanese bonus track.

Washed Out is Atlanta-based producer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Ernest Greene. Over three enchanting, critically-lauded albums and an EP, his music has proved both transportive and visual, each release inviting listeners into immersive, self-contained universes. With Purple Noon, his fourth album, and his return to Sub Pop, he delivers the most accessible Washed Out creation to date.

Life of Leisure, Washed Out’s 2009 debut EP, set the bar for the Chillwave era, shimmering in a warm haze of off-the-cuff Polaroids and pre-IG filters. Within and Without, his 2011 full-length debut on Sub Pop, morphed into nocturnal, icy synth-pop and embraced provocative imagery. 2013’s Paracosm was Greene’s take on psychedelia, with a full live band and kaleidoscopic light show, and saw him playing to the largest audiences of his career. The sample-heavy Mister Mellow (2017, Stone’s Throw) delivered a 360 audio/visual experience, with cut-n-paste and hand-drawn animation to match the hip-hop influences throughout the album. With each release, Greene has approached his evolving project with meticulous detail and a steadfast vision.

For Purple Noon, Greene again wrote, recorded, and produced the entirety of the album, with mixing handled by frequent collaborator Ben H. Allen (Paracosm, Within and Without). Production of the album followed a brief stint of writing for other artists (most notably Sudan Archives) which enabled Greene to explore genres like R&B and modern pop. These brighter, more robust sounds made their way into the songs of Purple Noon and mark a new chapter for Greene as a producer and songwriter. The vocals are front and center, tempos are slower, beats bolder, and there’s a more comprehensive depth of dynamics. One can hear the luxuriousness of Sade, the sonic bombast of Phil Collins, and the lush atmosphere of the great Balearic beat classics. Mediterranean coastlines inspired Purple Noon, and Greene pays tribute to the region’s distinct island culture - all rugged elegance and old-world charm - and uses it as a backdrop to tell stories of passion, love, and loss (Purple Noon’s title comes from the 1960 film directed by Rene Clement and based on the novel The Talented Mister Ripley by Patricia Highsmith). Much like romantic Hollywood epics, the melodrama throughout is strong: a serendipitous first meeting in “Too Late”; a passionate love affair in “Paralyzed”; disintegration of a relationship in “Time to Walk Away”; a reunion with a lost love in “Game of Chance.” Purple Noon adds a layer of emotional intensity to the escapism of Washed Out’s oeuvre, taking the music to dazzling new heights.

FORMAT INFORMATION

Coloured LP Info: Loser Edition purple coloured vinyl available to independent retailers.

Overflowing with musical ideas and topical lyrics that sound just as relevant today as they did when they were initially released, Prince’s iconic double album Sign O’ The Times captured the artist in a period of complete reinvention. The final 16-track album included just some of the countless songs Prince recorded in the prolific period of 1985-1987, which saw the dissolution of his band The Revolution, the construction of his innovative recording complex, Paisley Park, and the creation (and ultimate abandonment) of the albums Dream Factory, Camille, and Crystal Ball.

This September 25, The Prince Estate, in partnership with Warner Records/Rhino UK, will reissue Sign O’ The Times. This 3CD and 4LP Deluxe Editions will feature the classic album remastered for the very first time by Prince’s original mastering engineer Bernie Grundman, along with single mixes and edits released in the period the album was released.

Overflowing with musical ideas and topical lyrics that sound just as relevant today as they did when they were initially released, Prince’s iconic double album Sign O’ The Times captured the artist in a period of complete reinvention. The final 16-track album included just some of the countless songs Prince recorded in the prolific period of 1985-1987, which saw the dissolution of his band The Revolution, the construction of his innovative recording complex, Paisley Park, and the creation (and ultimate abandonment) of the albums Dream Factory, Camille, and Crystal Ball.

This September 25, The Prince Estate, in partnership with Warner Records/Rhino UK, will reissue Sign O’ The Times. This limited edition 2LP peach vinyl set and 2CD set will feature the classic album remastered for the very first time by Prince’s original mastering engineer Bernie Grundman.

FORMAT INFORMATION

2xColoured LP Info: 2xLP 180g Peach Coloured Vinyl on the initial run only.

The much sought after debut album from Manchester's Liam Frost & The Slowdown Family is back by popular demand.

• Includes the singles "The Mourners of St Paul's" and "The City Is At Standstill“
• Pressed on 180g translucent blue vinyl.
• Signed by Liam Frost
• Recently featured on Tim Burgess’s Twitter Listening Party
• Released originally in 2006, Liam Frost is described by Guy Garvey as "the UK’s answer to Bright Eyes".
• "Young, fun and riotously talented, Liam Frost And The Slowdown Family are a free-wheeling 21st century folk carnival" -- NME

FORMAT INFORMATION

Coloured LP Info: Translucent blue LP.

Another Sky are a London-based band fronted by Catrin Vincent, guitarist Jack Gilbert, bassist Naomi Le Dune and drummer Max Doohan. Their searing, cinematic songs have something vital to say; they touch on austerity, mental health and toxic masculinity, with an impressive deftness of touch, thereby establishing themselves as a vital voice on the UK’s alternative-rock scene.

They have already graced ‘Later… with Jools Holland’ and earned fans from the likes of Biffy Clyro, Snow Patrol, Elbow and BBC Radio 1’s Greg James.

Catrin wryly credits their early success to the fact her distinctive vocals are frequently mistaken for those of a male singer. “People say I sound like a man. Maybe that means they’ll listen.”

FORMAT INFORMATION

Coloured LP Info: 12” Heavyweight Dark Green Vinyl.

This is Thurston Moore’s seventh solo album, and features musicians Deb Googe (My Bloody Valentine) on bass and backing vocals, Jon Leidecker aka ‘Wobbly’ (of Negativland) on electronics, James Sedwards on guitar, and Sonic Youth’s Steve Shelley, as well as Jem Doulton, alternating on drums. ‘Hashish’ is the first single from the album to be released and is described by Moore as “an ode to the narcotic of love in our shared responsibility to each other during isolation." The song includes a video with footage from The Thurston Moore Group’s tour in early 2020 in Europe, as well as footage of Thurston quarantined in his home during the past few months “with respect to the sacred healing truth of nature.”

Prior to isolation during the COVID pandemic, Thurston worked in recording studios in North London until the third week of March 2020 to complete this album for release on September 5, 2020. While the musicians may not immediately tour, Thurston was adamant to release BY THE FIRE in 2020, and with Daydream Library, has released this quote: ​BY THE FIRE is music in flames.

2020 is our time for radical change and collective awareness and Thurston Moore has written nine songs of enlightenment, released to a world on fire. Taking a cue from Albert Ayler's "music is the healing force of the universe", this recording offers songs as flames of rainbow energy, where the power of love becomes our call. These are love songs in a time where creativity is our dignity, our demonstration against the forces of oppression. BY THE FIRE is a gathering, a party of peace—songs in the heat of the moment.

Some of the songs feature all of the musicians whist a few are solo guitar and vocals. Thurston is working on the final cover and sleeve art with London-based artist Radieux Radio who also scribed lyrics for a few of the tracks. BY THE FIRE will come out on The Daydream Library Series record label which was founded in 2018 especially to release London Afro-punk feminist trio Big Joanie’s debut album ‘Sistahs’.

FORMAT INFORMATION

2xColoured LP Info: Indies exclusive transparent orange vinyl.

2xLP Info: 180 gram audiophile black vinyl.

Reissue on vinyl of the third PJ Harvey studio album To Bring You My Love. Produced by PJ Harvey with Flood and John Parish, and originally released in February 1995, To Bring You My Love features the singles ‘Down By The Water’, ‘C’mon Billy’ and ‘Send His Love To Me’. The album – which celebrates its 25th Anniversary this year – received wide critical acclaim on release, with nominations for Grammy Awards and the Mercury Music Prize.

Reissue is faithful to the original recording and package, cutting by Jason Mitchell at Loud Mastering under the guidance of longtime PJ Harvey collaborator John Parish.

FORMAT INFORMATION

Ltd LP Info: 1LP, 180 gram black vinyl.
Full colour outer sleeve, with printed inner sleeve.
Download card.

10 track collection of previously unreleased demos of all songs from the third studio album by PJ Harvey – To Bring You My Love – from 1995. Includes demo versions of the singles ‘Down By The Water’, ‘C’mon Billy’ and ‘Send His Love To Me’. Audio has been mastered by Jason Mitchell at Loud Mastering under the guidance of longtime PJ Harvey collaborator John Parish. Features brand new artwork with previously unseen photos by Maria Mochnacz.

FORMAT INFORMATION

Ltd LP Info: 1LP, 180 gram black vinyl.
Full colour outer sleeve, with printed inner sleeve.
Artwork includes previously unseen photos.
Download card.

CD Info: Mini-gatefold outer sleeve.
Printed inner sleeve.

Reissue on vinyl of the first PJ Harvey studio album in the Island Records catalogue, and her second studio album.

Produced by Steve Albini and originally released in May 1993, Rid Of Me features the singles ‘50ft Queenie’ and ‘Man-Size’. The album charted at number 3 in the UK.

Reissue is faithful to the original recording and package, cutting by Bob Weston at Chicago Mastering under the guidance of Steve Albini.

FORMAT INFORMATION

LP Info: 180 gram black vinyl.

LP includes MP3 Download Code.

Vinyl reissue of 1993 collection of demos written and recorded at Polly Harvey’s home in 1991-1992.

It includes eight demos of songs from the album, Rid of Me, released earlier in that year along with six demos of additional songs.

Reissue is faithful to the original package, with vinyl cutting by Jason Mitchell at Loud Mastering.

FORMAT INFORMATION

Ltd LP Info: 180 gram black vinyl.

Ltd LP includes MP3 Download Code.

2020 marks the 30th Anniversary of Bossanova, the third studio album by Pixies.

The band continued to work with Gil Norton after collaborating to such success on their platinum-selling second album Doolittle; this time choosing to record in Los Angeles over their native Boston (the track ‘Blown Away’, however, was recorded at the Hansa Tonstudio in Berlin during a European tour in 1989).

Their third album in as many years, 1990 was a particularly fertile time for the band with Kim Deal also having success with The Breeders, who released their debut album Pod just a few months prior.

Featuring the singles ‘Allison’ (a tribute to jazz and blues pianist Mose Allison), ‘Dig For Fire’ and ‘Velouria’, plus the first cover to feature on one of their albums ‘Cecilia Ann’ (originally by The Surftones), Bossanova showed a less primal side to the band, with surf and space rock rising to the fore. Lyrically, Black Francis is even more cryptic with a recurring sci-fi theme running throughout, which in turn influenced Vaughan Oliver’s classic planet design for the sleeve.

To celebrate Bossanova hitting its third decade, 4AD are releasing a limited red vinyl edition with the original 16-page booklet being reinserted, having previously only been available with the initial UK LP pressing.

Kelly Lee Owens' masterful second album Inner Song finds the convention-blurring techno producer and singer/songwriter diving deep into her own psyche—excoriating the struggles she's faced over the last several years and exploring personal pain while embracing the beauty of the natural world. It's a leap in artistry from a musician who burst forth on the scene with a confident, rich sound, and Inner Song is endlessly enticing when it comes to what Owens is capable of.

Inner Song follows the star-making debut of her 2017 self-titled album, a quixotic blend of body-moving beats and introspective songwriting that garnered numerous accolades from the music press. Owens has indeed come a long way from her background as a nurse, since then she has remixed Bjørk & St Vincent, released an indelibly clubby two-tracker, 2019's "Let It Go" b/w "Omen," and teamed up with likeminded auteur Jon Hopkins on the one-off "Luminous Spaces."

Her latest album also comes off of what Owens describes as "the hardest three years of my life," an emotionally fraught time that, in her words, "Definitely impacted my creative life and everything I'd worked for up to that point. I wasn't sure if I could make anything anymore, and it took quite a lot of courage to get to a point where I could make something again." So while the lovely cover of Radiohead's "Arpeggi" might strike some as an unconventional way to open a sophomore effort, to Owens the winding take on the classic tune—recorded a year before work on Inner Song properly kicked off—represents the sort of sonic rebirth that's so essential to Inner Song's aura.

Inner Song was largely written and recorded over a month last winter. As with her debut, Owens holed up in the studio with co-producer and collaborator James Greenwood —and letting loose in the studio and being open to whatever sonic whims emerge was essential to Owens' craftwork. The evocative title of the album is borrowed from free-jazz maestro Alan Silva's 1972 opus, which was gifted to Owens Smalltown Supersound's Joakim Haugland for her 30th birthday: "I'm so grateful for him and his perspectives—he's always thinking outside of the box. Those two words really reflect what it felt like to make this record. I did a lot of inner work in the past few years, and this is a true reflection of that." The hair-raising bass and tickling textures of Inner Song drive home that, more so than ever, Owens is locked in to delivering maximal sonic pleasure—as evidenced by the decision to make the album's vinyl release a sesqui album, or triple-sided album: "I'm still obsessed with frequencies that don't do well on vinyl if they don't have the space."

"The power of conceptualizing who you are has really informed this album," Owens states about Inner Song's essence, and her second album is truly a discovery of self— the latest statement from a fascinating artist who continues to surprise, gesturing towards a rich and varied career to come.

FORMAT INFORMATION

2xDinked Edition LP Info: 2LP Exclusive Clear Vinyl.
Bonus Exclusive ‘Hidden’ track Side C.
Etching on Side D.
Signed and Numbered Exclusive 12” Art Print (Design exclusive to Dinked).

2xColoured LP Info: White vinyl edition.

With Plum, the songwriting partnership rooted in the creative rapport between bandleader Molly Hamilton and guitarist Robert Earl Thomas continues to expand on shared visions, delving deeper into what was always there: dusty guitars, ear-worm melodies, warm expansive arrangements. Each entry to their catalog has marked a subtle reimagining of Widowspeak’s sound, though perennial points of reference remain the same: 90's dream pop, 60's psych rock, a certain unshakeable Pacific-Northwestness. Speaking to the timeless feeling of each, the albums continue to be discovered well beyond their respective PR cycles, made beloved by new listeners through word of mouth.

The band’s fifth album feels comfortable and lived-in: humble in structure, heavy on mood. Perhaps that came taking time off from the touring grind, instead working full-time jobs and settling into the rhythm of daily life in a small upstate New York town. Plum was recorded over a handful of weekends last winter by Sam Evian (Cass McCombs, Kazu Makino, Hannah Cohen) at his Flying Cloud studio in the Catskills, and was mixed by Ali Chant (PJ Harvey, Aldous Harding, Perfume Genius). In addition to Hamilton (vocals, guitar) and Thomas (guitars, bass, synth), it features instrumental contributions by Andy Weaver (drums), Michael Hess (piano), and Sam himself (bass, synth). Plum nestles into the band’s canon like it was always there, but with new textures coming to the fore, like the polyrhythmic pulse of "Amy" and "The Good Ones", or the watery, Terry Riley-influenced track "Jeanie".

Plum navigates the spaces between the lesser emotions of modern life. Hamilton’s lyrics speak to the unique turmoil of anyone who creates as their work, who must somehow survive off such "fruits of their labor." Yet, Widowspeak have always made a bitter pill much easier to swallow. The majestic "Breadwinner", the luminous "Even True Love" – these songs here were made to be listened to, enjoyed. "Money" is particularly hypnotic, built around a repeating, cyclical motif that serves as both skeleton and body. "Will you get back what you put in?" Hamilton asks over an insistent guitar riff. The line is delivered with a knowingness that transcends its surface critiques of late-stage capitalism, asking both herself and the listener whether this is, in fact, the world we want to live in. Through Plum, Widowspeak have brought something into the world that seems to know its own worth, even as it wonders aloud about what is to come. What value and meaning do we assign ourselves, our time, and how do we spend it?

FORMAT INFORMATION

Dinked Edition LP Info: • Exclusive Green LP.
• 2 x exclusive art prints 2 by illustrator Nick Dahler.
• Signed & numbered.
• Limited pressing of 400.

Coloured LP Info: Limited Edition White Vinyl.

We're super excited to be able to get our hands on some of these limited edition versions of this fantastic book. 

We fell in love with Saint Etienne from the off here at Piccadilly, when they released their Kiss And Make Up single back in 1990. This was the year we took over the shop and their debut album Fox Base Alpha was a firm favourite back in our old Brown Street base. 

This exclusive edition includes a 7" single: Spring b/w Spring (instrumental). 
Spring is taken from Saint Etienne’s debut LP, Foxbase Alpha. It is the first time it has been released as a single. The instrumental on the flip side is previously unreleased.

Heavenly was already a state of mind. Seemed like the right time to make it something really special. We were all deeply immersed in music that we loved. None of us could believe our fucking luck, really. (Jeff Barrett)

It was thirty years ago today - or thereabouts - that Heavenly came to be. In celebration of this big ol’ birthday comes Believe in Magic - a chronicle not only of Foxbase Alpha, Working Men’s Club and 28 of the releases in between that got the label to where it is today, but also of the haircuts, nights down the pub, pencil-eraser-carvings, cheese toasties, acid houses, Sunday Socials and lost Weekenders - Yorkshire and otherwise - that are as much a part of its story.

As Jeff Barrett puts it at the beginning of the book, if there’s a continuous theme that runs through all of this, I think it’s that everything comes down to conversations with people about music. It might seem like it all starts with someone on one side of the counter who is selling you something, or someone writing excitedly in a magazine telling you about a band you need to hear, but I don’t think I’ve ever really seen things as one-way transactions. It’s more an ongoing dialogue, one that never really stops and helps to build up this growing soundtrack to our lives, something that’s passed from one person to another. That’s really the ever-present thread. That’s why we still believe in magic.

Though we are three decades distant from The World According to Sly and Lovechild, lineup changes, ups, downs, and a good few office cleanups under the label’s belt, the Heavenly firm continue not to believe their fucking luck; at still being here, keepin’ on keepin’ on doing what they love, and at being able to pass all of this - then, now, and next week - on to you.

Believe in Magic is a fully illustrated history of one of the most colourful and exciting independent British record labels; a label responsible for creating satellite communities of fans around the country and at all the major festivals.
After several years working at Factory and Creation, Heavenly Recordings was set up by Jeff Barrett in 1990 as the acid house revolution was in full swing; early releases set the tone and tempo for the mood of the decade to come - their first release was by perhaps the most revered acid house DJ of them all, Andrew Weatherall; and this was quickly followed by singles from St Etienne and Manic Street Preachers.

Heavenly was always different to other labels; more of a 'club' with a defiant spirit of inclusiveness, and in 1994 they set up The Heavenly Social, which alongside the Hacienda, became perhaps the most famous club in recent British history, where the Chemical Brothers made their name.

Over nearly 200 releases in thirty years Heavenly have consistently produced some of the most exciting music across all genres - dance, acid house, singer-songwriter, psych-garage - and this book collects rare photographs, ephemera, artwork into a celebration of a label that is, alongside Rough Trade and Factory, one of the most beloved institutions on the independent landscape. Running though the book are thirty stories, mostly told in the form of oral history by artists like James Dean Bradfield, Flowered Up, Beth Orton, Doves and Don Letts, which capture the presiding personality of the label, its bands and the people associated with its success.

We're super excited to be able to get our hands on some of these limited edition version of this fantastic book. 

This edition features an exclusive 7" single - Angel (part 1) b/w Angel (part 2) - from Piccadilly favourites Working Men’s Club. They blew us away with their live shows last year and we can't wait for their debut album. 

You may have heard Angel in all its 12 minute glory in WMC’s legendary live sets. Here’s the studio version, produced by Ross Orton, split over both sides of a 7”.

Heavenly was already a state of mind. Seemed like the right time to make it something really special. We were all deeply immersed in music that we loved. None of us could believe our fucking luck, really. (Jeff Barrett) 

It was thirty years ago today - or thereabouts - that Heavenly came to be. In celebration of this big ol’ birthday comes Believe in Magic - a chronicle not only of Foxbase Alpha, Working Men’s Club and 28 of the releases in between that got the label to where it is today, but also of the haircuts, nights down the pub, pencil-eraser-carvings, cheese toasties, acid houses, Sunday Socials and lost Weekenders - Yorkshire and otherwise - that are as much a part of its story. 

As Jeff Barrett puts it at the beginning of the book, if there’s a continuous theme that runs through all of this, I think it’s that everything comes down to conversations with people about music. It might seem like it all starts with someone on one side of the counter who is selling you something, or someone writing excitedly in a magazine telling you about a band you need to hear, but I don’t think I’ve ever really seen things as one-way transactions. It’s more an ongoing dialogue, one that never really stops and helps to build up this growing soundtrack to our lives, something that’s passed from one person to another. That’s really the ever-present thread. That’s why we still believe in magic. 

Though we are three decades distant from The World According to Sly and Lovechild, lineup changes, ups, downs, and a good few office cleanups under the label’s belt, the Heavenly firm continue not to believe their fucking luck; at still being here, keepin’ on keepin’ on doing what they love, and at being able to pass all of this - then, now, and next week - on to you. 

Believe in Magic is a fully illustrated history of one of the most colourful and exciting independent British record labels; a label responsible for creating satellite communities of fans around the country and at all the major festivals.
After several years working at Factory and Creation, Heavenly Recordings was set up by Jeff Barrett in 1990 as the acid house revolution was in full swing; early releases set the tone and tempo for the mood of the decade to come - their first release was by perhaps the most revered acid house DJ of them all, Andrew Weatherall; and this was quickly followed by singles from St Etienne and Manic Street Preachers. 

Heavenly was always different to other labels; more of a 'club' with a defiant spirit of inclusiveness, and in 1994 they set up The Heavenly Social, which alongside the Hacienda, became perhaps the most famous club in recent British history, where the Chemical Brothers made their name. 

Over nearly 200 releases in thirty years Heavenly have consistently produced some of the most exciting music across all genres - dance, acid house, singer-songwriter, psych-garage - and this book collects rare photographs, ephemera, artwork into a celebration of a label that is, alongside Rough Trade and Factory, one of the most beloved institutions on the independent landscape. Running though the book are thirty stories, mostly told in the form of oral history by artists like James Dean Bradfield, Flowered Up, Beth Orton, Doves and Don Letts, which capture the presiding personality of the label, its bands and the people associated with its success. 

Los Angeles-based harpist Mary Lattimore returns with Silver Ladders, the full-length follow-up to acclaimed album Hundreds of Days. Since 2018, Lattimore has toured internationally, released collaborative albums with artists such as Meg Baird and Mac McCaughan, and shared a friends-based remix album featuring artists such as Jónsi and Julianna Barwick. At one of her festival appearances, Lattimore met Slowdive’s Neil Halstead: “A friend introduced us because she knew how big of a fan I was and Neil and I had a little chat... The next day, I just thought maybe he’d be into producing my next record.” He was. Lattimore traditionally records her albums holed up by herself, so the addition of Halstead’s touches as a producer and collaborator leave a profound trace. “I flew on a little plane to Newquay in Cornwall where he lives with his lovely partner Ingrid and their baby. I didn’t know what his studio was like, he’d never recorded a harp, but somehow it really worked.”

Recorded over nine days at Halstead’s studio stationed on an old airfield, Silver Ladders finds Lattimore exercising command and restraint. Her signature style is refined, the sprawling layers of harp reigned in and accented by flourishes of low end synth and Halstead’s guitar. The music can feel ominous but not by compromising vivid wonder, like oceanic overtones that shift with the tides. This material is colored by specific memories for Lattimore; “Neil has this poster of a surfer in his studio and I’d look at it each day, looking at the sunlight glinting on the dark wave. In these songs I like the contrast between the dark lows and the glittering highs. The gloom and the glimmer, the opposites, a lively surfing town in the winter turned kinda rainy and empty and quiet.”

Lattimore and Halstead reformed three existing demos and improvised the remaining four songs. Among the batch she brought with her, the title track recalls a trip she took to Stari Grad, Croatia on the island of Hvar. “I spent some days there just swimming in the bay, silver ladders right into the sea.” The image stuck with her when she found herself performing at a cliffside wedding overlooking the Pacific. “Before anyone showed up, I had time to set up and play and this song came to me, ‘Silver Ladders (to the sea)’, so I made a little recording on my phone to remember it.” This sketch expanded; a delicately glittering harp melody comes over the horizon, swelling and rolling towards the shore on ebbs of synth and refractory delay.

These songs are clearly tales, and yet Silver Ladders is open to interpretation. Her memories — “the Cornish landscape, the hotel from the movie The Witches, the cream tea, winning the pub quiz, the Sunday Roast, the ghosts of all of the surfers who had died in the wild waves, the night walks to the top of the hill to see the moon shining on the water…” — shine through these works without defining them. In a way, much like the sea, or the sky, they belong to everyone. Such is the beauty of her craft, which stands here in unprecedented company and clarity, the confidence of an artist in full.

FORMAT INFORMATION

Dinked Edition LP Info: • Exclusive transparent sand coloured vinyl.
• Exclusive sheet music for title track ‘Silver Ladders’.
• Numbered edition.
• 400 pressing.

Dinked Edition LP includes MP3 Download Code.

Coloured LP Info: Silver star coloured vinyl.

Coloured LP includes MP3 Download Code.

LP includes MP3 Download Code.

Narratively, H.C. McEntire’s Eno Axis is about finding direction in the natural world, and following love.

Sonically, it’s an album shaped enormously by the atmosphere it was recorded in - the crew’s synergy and positivity, the proximity and presence of a band in a room playing with intention.

Structurally, it’s a group of songs inspired by the colors and tones of open tunings, by the sacrality of space and instinct.

Stylistically, it’s folk-rock leaning into its curious experimental side and moved by the spiritual rawness of classic soul and the simplicity of earnest pop.

Eno Axis feels like a confident and mature step forward from her debut album LIONHEART - in tone, arrangement, production, and spirit.

FORMAT INFORMATION

Dinked Edition LP Info: • Exclusive iridescent blue vinyl.
• 12” x 12” screen-printed, two-colour print.
• Signed & numbered.
• Numbered edition of 300.

Dinked Edition LP includes MP3 Download Code.

LP includes MP3 Download Code.

From their early days hosting parties in Oxford through to the huge success of their two-part ‘Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost’ album, Foals have consistently explored their interest in dance and electronica. Now the band chart the most essential remixes from their career so far as they share the new remix package ‘Collected Reworks Vol 1’.

The tracks featured on ‘Collected Reworks’, are a compilation from an eclectic range of artists who have uncovered new angles to Foals’ discography. It includes one of their earliest remixes, from Ewan Pearson who blends Balearic bliss into ‘Olympic Airways’, as well as Solumun’s huge version of ‘Late Night’, which has been viewed over 50 million times at YouTube. Another standout moment is Hot Chip’s inventive interpretation of ‘My Number’.

‘Collected Reworks Vol. 1’ has been launched with Hot Since 82’s brand new remix of ‘Into The Surf’. The tech house producer / DJ behind ‘Buggin’’ and ‘Restless’ subverts the track from its original desolate beauty into something fresh and invigorating. The relentless driving beat maximises its energy throughout its eight minute duration, while its progressive leanings are given some unexpected throwback flavour with ‘80s style sax. 

FORMAT INFORMATION

3xColoured LP Info: 140g – Mint Green, Yellow, Pink Vinyl.

Love + Light arrives unexpectedly, following Avery’s recent collaborations with Alessandro Cortini on the critically acclaimed Illusion of Time LP (“a record that suggests Godspeed You! Black Emperor in drone mode, reimagining Music For Airports as if the runways were covered in gravel and air traffic control was on strike,” said Loud & Quiet, while Q hailed it “lush mood music to get lost in”) and alongside Roman Flügel under the alias of Noun. Avery’s previous solo album Song For Alpha was released in 2018 to similar acclaim.

Avery shares, “This record has been a real positive force of energy in my life, to the point where it almost formed itself in front of me. In that same spirit, I wanted to share it with you now, as soon as it was finished. As I started to collect the pieces together, it was apparent that the album would be split into two distinct halves but halves that were inexorably tied together. One could not have existed without the other. Music has always been a source of personal strength for me yet I remain fascinated by the power it can possess of its own volition. Releasing the record in this way, just a couple of weeks after the final note had fallen, felt like a decision made by an outside force yet one I agreed with entirely. Stay safe, friends and I’ll see you on the other side soon. DA xxx”

FORMAT INFORMATION

Coloured LP Info: Milky Clear Vinyl.
Heavyweight 180g.

2xCD Info: Initial CD format contains “Falling Light” bonus CD.

The more hopeful ‘sunrise’ to 2018’s critically acclaimed Slow Sundown, Horse finds Tallinn, Estonia’s Holy Motors acknowledging the Americana and rockabilly strands of their musical DNA without sacrificing any of the otherworldly mystique that keeps them from neatly conforming to the shoegaze and dreampop labels often applied to their music. From the album’s opening moments, songs like “Country Church,” with its major key and classic rhythm and blues guitarline, and “Midnight Cowboy,” which sounds like a lost Buddy Holly 45 played at 33 rpm, make it clear that Horse — even if it may not accomplish the impossible task of demystifying this band of ex-Soviet cowboys — will at least show you that there’s more to them than the near-impenetrable darkness of their work to date may suggest.

While tracks like “Trouble” and “Endless Night” gravitate towards the ethereal production and existential subject matter of prior releases, repeat listens will reveal the same complex compositions and humanity that are much more a hallmark of Horse’s eight songs. As a whole, Horse stands as a warmer, more human counterpoint to 2018’s celestial Slow Sundown. As to which of the two entries better approximates Holy Motors’ natural set point, only time will tell.

FORMAT INFORMATION

Coloured LP Info: Indies exclusive metallic gold LP.

Pre-order the album to be in with a chance of winning a limited edition test pressing.

Freud’s process of therapy was famously labelled the ‘Talking Cure’ - through the act of conversation participants received cathartic relief. Positive Mental Health Music (PMHM), the debut album from South East London band Tiña, stems from this idea. Lead singer/songwriter Josh Loftin explains that he used the songs to “work through a mental breakdown”, and that for him “writing is like solving a mystery”.

The 11 track LP provides an honest and intimate portrait into this process of self-examination, covering themes of anxiety, depression, love, sex, isolation, fear and failure. Yet, PMHM is anything but a difficult listen: the tracks are catchy, lively - even danceable at times. Loftin’s cooing vocals, his lyrics poetic yet slightly self-mocking, sit atop a blend of psych-pop keys, drums and guitars, all guided by the shepherding hand of producer Dan Carey.

After singles ‘I Feel Fine’ and ‘Dip’, Positive Mental Health Music is the first ever LP to be released on Carey’s Speedy Wunderground label.

FORMAT INFORMATION

Coloured LP Info: Transparent pink vinyl.

Tricky announces his 14th studio album, Fall To Pieces, out September 4th on his own label False Idols.

Fall To Pieces was recorded in Tricky’s Berlin studio in late 2019. Tricky is keen to point out that the tracks on the record can be deceptive; often short, ending abruptly and moving on to the next without warning. Although instrumentation varies from bursts of tense synths, distorted dial tones, and samples, the song’s lyrics can be dark and dense. Tricky’s music has always enlisted female vocalists to carry his ideas: the majority of tracks on Fall To Pieces, including ‘Fall Please’ rely on Marta Zlakowska, the singer he discovered during a european tour when he was left without a vocalist on the opening night. She saved the tour from disaster. “I can tell when someone is humble and down to earth,” says Tricky. “Marta doesn't care about being famous, she just wants to sing.” 

FORMAT INFORMATION

Dinked Edition LP Info: • Exclusive Blue Marbled Vinyl.
• Exclusive Bonus 20,20 7” EP.
• Exclusive Numbered Art Print Insert.
• Dinked Sticker.

Coloured LP Info: Indies exclusive red coloured vinyl.

Hoops had to self-destruct in order survive.

These three friends from central Indiana, each one a distinctive singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, had reached a point where years of hard work and creativity were just starting to pay off. They were hailed as one of the most inventive young bands around, with comparisons to Guided by Voices, My Bloody Valentine, and the Radio Dept., and that’s exactly when they broke up the band.

With Hoops on the shelf, the three friends went back home and got on with their lives.

Freed from the weight of Hoops, they kept writing what they thought sounded like Hoops songs, demos of which they sent back and forth to each other. There was no pressure to make anything of them, though, and that revived some of the excitement they felt when they made their first cassettes.

Just a few months later, they met up in Bloomington, Indiana, to record Halo at Russian Recording, the studio that had been home to L’il Bub (RIP). They invited their friend Ben Lumsdaine to produce. In addition to mixing and producing records for locals Amy O and Steve Marino, he had worked on Krauter’s solo albums and toured with him, and he immediately settled in as the fourth Hoop.

One thing they wanted to avoid was falling right back into their old routines. Instead, they took on new roles that allowed them more room to breathe, more space to create. They even wrote a few songs together—a first the band’s history. Hoops take obvious joy in playing these songs and playing around with them, often nodding to their favorite bands but always putting those familiar sounds in new contexts.

An album defined by musical exuberance, full of gratitude and generosity to counteract and compliment the deep undercurrents of melancholy coursing through every hook and riff, Halo sounds like a lively conversation among close friends, each song a high five, as they look for some stability in their lives and figure out what they owe themselves, each other, and everyone around them.

"Hoops know the power of dream-pop" - Pitchfork. 

"Sprightly lo-fi constructed with an attention to production and atmosphere that you'd expect from someone with a background in noise music." - The FADER. 

"There are legit flashes of brilliance to be found in the tapes’ collective" - Gorilla Vs. Bear.

“Propelled by ample grooving keys and guitar, 'Rules' is a two minute jaunt into the past when synths and subdued vocals were king.” - Stereogum.

“Simply put, this is the best dream/jangle-pop debut since the aforementioned Oshin and an absolute must for fans of this genre...absolutely terrific and addictive debut full-length album.” - Under The Radar.

"The Bloomington, Ind. outfit blends shimmering guitars, woozy keyboards, and clacking drum tracks for their sun-flecked brand of indie-rock, which evokes peers like Real Estate and DIIV." - Entertainment Weekly.
 
RIYL: Barrie, The Marias, Beach Fossils, Men I Trust, Blood Orange, Part Time, Real Estate, Crumb, Ariel Pink, The Clientele, Clairo, No Vacation, Video Age, Kevin Krauter, Golden Days, Hovvdy

Cardinal Fuzz (in conjunction with Centripetal Force for North America) presents the seventh full length album from veteran psychonauts White Manna. Long recognized as one of the leaders of the modern psychedelic movement, White Manna's ARC builds upon an already impressive discography and further develops the band's always evolving approach to sound and songwriting.

This nine song journey sees the band exploring new directions that are more meditative in nature, a welcome development in light of the current state of world affairs. The song "Mythic Salon" certainly demonstrates such intent, as well as growth. ARC, the band’s first release since last year's Ape on Sunday, was recorded at guitarist Anthony Taibi's 3D Light Studios in Humboldt County, California. The songwriting this time around took on more of an inward process, both musically and thematically.This shift allowed for more spontaneity and improvisation than their previous efforts.

This was especially true when it came to translating musical passages that had already become part of the band's live repertoire. ARC is not a concept album per se, but its focus on such an omnipresent icon certainly leaves the listener a variety of avenues for interpretation, making this the most daring and unique album in the White Manna discography.

To celebrate the tenth anniversary of Moon Duo’s long-out-of-print debut LP Escape, Sacred Bones is proud to present a new deluxe version of the album. The new reissue will include the original album in its entirety, plus three additional rare tracks taken from Moon Duo’s wild early days. Reflecting on the album in March 2020, the band shared the following statement:

“We made this record in a rehearsal space in San Francisco in late 2009. It was kind of a classic band space, shared by a rangy assortment of musicians over months and years, behind one of several similar doors in a dark red hall. A windowless room lit by string lights and an odd assortment of lamps, the walls a palimpsest of posters and gig fliers. There was a grimy, burn-pocked rug, cluttered gear in various stages of use and abandonment, and the air seemed to hang in a permanent film of smoke residue and stale beer. We recorded to a 4-track tape machine over the course of a few nights - we’d just start the beats, hit ‘record’ and let fly. We had a vague sense of coalescence, or fomentation, like a glimpse of a thing in outline which you can’t yet see, but neither of us knew at the time that this was the record that would mark the beginning of our life as a touring band and would initiate our connections to so many (now long-time) friends, familiars and collaborators. Ten years feels like both a lifetime and the blink of an eye - measurable but impossible to quantify. These four tracks, and the others that join them here, are a snapshot of our earliest incarnation: flying blind, but high on the freedom of experimentation and filled with hope for things to come.”

FORMAT INFORMATION

Coloured LP Info: Pink vinyl edition.

In the winter of 2019, Bob Mould bucked the era’s despair with his most melodic, upbeat album in ages, Sunshine Rock.

Cut to spring of 2020, and he has this to say: “We’re really in deep shit now.”

That sentiment informs the new full-length album, Blue Hearts (Merge, September 25), the raging-but-catchy yin to Sunshine Rock’s yang.

To be sure, we were in some shit back in 2018, when Mould recorded Sunshine Rock with longtime colleagues Jon Wurster (drums), Jason Narducy (bass), and Beau Sorenson (engineer). Back then, he had a song called “American Crisis” that didn’t fit the album.

“That song is the seed for what we’re talking about now,” Mould says from his home in San Francisco during the COVID-19 lockdown. “At the time, it just seemed too heavy. Today it seems fucking quaint.”

“American Crisis” is the third song in a walloping first half of an album that spits plainspoken fire at the people who fomented this crisis. “This is the catchiest batch of protest songs I’ve ever written in one sitting,” he says.

Through some of the most direct, confrontational lyrics of his four-decade career, Mould makes his POV clear: “I never thought I’d see this bullshit again / To come of age in the ’80s was bad enough / We were marginalized and demonized / I watched a lot of my generation die / Welcome back to American crisis.”

Why “welcome back”? Because Mould experienced deja vu writing Blue Hearts in the fall of 2019. “Where it started to go in my head is back to a spot that I’ve been in before,” he says. “And that was the fall of 1983.”

Back then, Mould was a self-described “22-year-old closeted gay man” touring with the legendary Hüsker Dü and seeing an epidemic consume his community. Leaders, including the one in the White House, were content to let AIDS kill a generation. Mould later realized why his mind wandered back there for Blue Hearts.

“We have a charismatic, telegenic, say-anything leader being propped up by evangelicals,” he says. “These fuckers tried to kill me once. They didn’t do it. They scared me. I didn’t do enough. Guess what? I’m back, and we’re back here again. And I’m not going to sit quietly this time and worry about alienating anyone.”

Recorded at the famed Electrical Audio in Chicago with Sorenson engineering and Mould producing, Blue Hearts nods to Mould’s past while remaining firmly planted in the issues of the day. Acoustic opener “Heart on My Sleeve” catalogues the ravages of climate change. “Next Generation” worries for who comes next. “American Crisis” references “Evangelical ISIS” and features this dagger of a line: “Pro-life, pro-life until you make it in someone else’s wife.”

“There are songs that have no room,” Mould says, laughing. “The other songs, there’s room. There is room for imagination on the second half of the record.”

That’s where the songs turn personal in a different way. Tracks like “When You Left,” “Siberian Butterfly,” and “Everyth!ng to You” are grounded in personal relationships. “Racing to the End” captures the economic disparity of Mould’s neighborhood, and “Leather Dreams”… well, maybe Jon Wurster put it best.

“Jon turns to Jason and asks, ‘Is this the dirtiest song you’ve ever played on?’” Mould recalls with a chuckle. “I clearly did not put the edit tool to that one. Those are all pretty true bits. What kind of person could possibly have a life like that?” He laughs again. “Says the author.”

“Leather Dreams,” “Password to My Soul,” and “The Ocean” were composed during a writing binge before a January 2020 Solo Electric tour, when Mould stayed up for three straight days. “Songs just kept coming out,” he says. “‘Leather Dreams’ and ‘The Ocean’ both appeared within hours. I barely remember writing them.”

That feels right for an explosive, hook-laden album like Blue Hearts. Only there’s nothing forgettable about it.

FORMAT INFORMATION

Coloured LP Info: Indies exclusive vinyl, limited edition three-color LP.

Run The Jewels, the lauded duo of El-P and Killer Mike, have shared the long-awaited details of their feverishly anticipated new album, Run The Jewels 4. Set for a June 5 release via Jewel Runners / RBC Records / BMG, this eleven song, 40 minute powerhouse is their most ferocious and focused effort to date, and sports a lineup of all-star guests including Pharrell Williams, Mavis Staples, 2 Chainz, Zack de la Rocha, Josh Homme, DJ Premier, and Greg Nice. Recorded primarily at Rick Rubin’s Shangri-La Studios and the iconic Electric Lady Studios in NYC, RTJ4 represents two years of intensive writing, recording, distilling, and amplifying the most potent elements of their music. The result is a collection of wall-to-wall bangers illuminating the group's unique ability to straddle the worlds of pointed social commentary and raw, boisterous fun.



The new album is preceded by two singles, both of which arrived to rapturous reception. The first, “yankee and the brave (ep.4),” dropped during an impromptu Instagram Live session the duo held as shelter in place orders were starting to take hold. Days later, the second single “ooh la la (feat. DJ Premier & Greg Nice)” made a surprise debut in the season finale of the hit Netflix series Ozark, and became the #5 most Shazam’d song in the country. This was soon followed by the song’s glorious new music video, directed by Brian & Vanessa Beletic, which quickly shot to the #7 trending position on YouTube, surpassing 1.5 million views in its first week, and brilliantly setting the stage for the arrival of RTJ4.



The time between albums has been a very busy one for the duo, including scoring their first gold-certified record for “Legend Has It” from RTJ3; receiving their first Grammy nomination for the song “Chase Me,” a collaboration with Danger Mouse for the hit film Baby Driver; embarking on a full US arena tour with Lorde; contributing an exclusive song for the Marvel blockbuster Venom; and landing a major sync in a global Cadillac ad, which premiered during the 2020 Academy Awards. Additionally, Killer Mike debuted his acclaimed Netflix show, Trigger Warning with Killer Mike, continued his advocacy for Bernie Sanders, and lent his political muscle to the successful election of Atlanta’s first female black mayor, Keisha Lance Bottoms. He’ll also be making his Hollywood debut in a soon to be announced feature film. Meanwhile, his partner in rhyme and RTJ producer El-P stayed busy in the studio making the music for RTJ4, contributing a song to the soundtrack for the Oscar-winning film Roma, scoring the biopic Capone starring Tom Hardy (which makes its digital debut today), and began a major reissue campaign for his celebrated solo recording catalog. He also made a surprise cameo in the new season of Mr. Robot with Remi Malek.

FORMAT INFORMATION

2xColoured LP Info: Neon Magenta coloured vinyl.

4xDeluxe LP Info: Deluxe 4LP, Neon Magenta & Gold coloured vinyl.

When Mildlife’s debut album, Phase, was released in 2018 it didn’t so much explode on to the scene as ooze. Their mellifluous mix of jazz, krautrock and, perhaps more pertinently, demon grooves, was the word of mouth sensation of that year among open-minded DJs and diggers searching for the perfect beat.

Their emergence was backed up by European tours that demonstrated a riotously loose-limbed ap-proach to performance that was every bit as thrilling as Phase’s tantalising promise. What was more impressive was how lightly they wore influences that took in Can, Patrick Adams and Jan Hammer Group, while primarily sounding precisely like Mildlife.

By the end of 2018 they’d been nominees for Best Album at the Worldwide FM Awards (World-wide’s Gilles Peterson was a notable champion) and won Best Electronic Act at The Age Music Victoria Awards back home in Melbourne. Their progress post-Phase was cemented with a UK deal with Jeff Barrett’s Heavenly, who released How Long Does It Take? replete with Cosmic doyen Baldelli and Dionigi remixes, while last year they were officially anointed by DJ Harvey when he included The Magnificent Moon on his Pikes compilation Mercury Rising Vol II.

With Automatic, the band have made a step-change from their debut. It’s more disciplined, direc-tional and arguably more danceable. As on Phase, they are unafraid to let a track luxuriate in length without ever succumbing to self-indulgence. The arrangements, tightly structured thanks to Tom Shanahan (bass) and Jim Rindfleish’s fatback drumming, permit space for the others to add spice to the stew, topped off with Kevin McDowell’s ethereal vocals as Mildlife effortlessly glide between live performance and studio songwriting. “The recorded songs kind of become the new reference point for playing the songs live,’ says Kevin. “They both have different outcomes and we make our decisions for each based on that, but they’re symbiotic and they both influence each other. It’s usually a fairly natural flow from live to recorded back to live.”

With the current climate as it is, opportunities to take this album out into the live arena where the band truly come alive, might well be scant, but they are working on ways around this. “We were hoping to visit new places with this album but that’s required a bit of rethink. We have a lot more videos planned for this year and we’ll be doing shows in Australia when things re-open but it’s still all just wait and see for now.” One thing’s for sure, post-lockdown will be one hell of a party.

The centrepiece of Automatic is the title track where the band sound like Kraftwerk and Herbie Hancock on quarantined lockdown in Bob Moog’s Trumansburg workshop. It’s both a departure and quintessentially Mildlife. This is music you can dance to rather than ‘dance music’ and it’s all the better for it.

- Bill Brewster

FORMAT INFORMATION

LP Info: Black heavyweight vinyl with locked groove.

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

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

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

FORMAT INFORMATION

Dinked Edition LP Info: • Exclusive Pink/White marble vinyl.
• Hand-numbered edition of 350.
• Exclusive Obi Strip.
• Signed band photo.

Dinked Edition LP includes MP3 Download Code.

Coloured LP Info: Dark green coloured vinyl.

Sometime in 2006 or 2007, Jason Molina moved from the midwest to London. Separated from his bandmates and friends and never one for idleness, Molina explored his new home with fervor. Sometimes he’d head out on foot, often with no destination in mind. Other times, he’d pick a random tube stop and find his way back home. He’d pick up on arcane trivia about London’s rich history, and if the historical factoids weren’t available — or weren’t quite to his liking — Molina was quite comfortable conjuring his own history. His adoration of The Great American Tall Tales like John Henry and Paul Bunyan’s blue ox Babe stretched across the Atlantic, where he created his own personal Tall Tales. And when he learned of the London Wall’s seven gates (itself a misconception), Molina went ahead and called it eight, carving out a gate just for himself. The eighth gate was Molina’s way into London, a gate only passable in the mind.

Fast forward to 2008, Molina set off on an experimental solo tour through Europe. While in Northern Italy, Molina claimed to have been bitten by a rare, poisonous spider. A debilitating bout of illness ensued. “I was in the hospital here in London,” Molina wrote in a letter. “Saw six doctors and a Dr. House-type guy. They are all mystified by it, but I am allowed to be at home, where I am taking a dozen scary Hantavirus type pills a day that are all to supposedly help — but they make me feel like shit.” There is no record of a single doctor visit, not any prescription record for these medications. It is entirely plausible there was no spider and that whatever was keeping him indoors during this time was entirely self-induced. While at home, he of course wrote songs.

Molina also claimed that during this time, he fed several bright green parrots that would gather in his yard. While often associated with a greyscale sensibility, Molina was oft-clad in a Hawaiian shirt and had, at least in part, selected the name Songs: Ohia for his first project as a nod to Hawaii’s ‘Ohi’a lehua flower. Which is all to say, the tropical element the parakeets brought to those sick days delighted Molina. He made short, crude field recordings of them with his trusty four-track. Only once Molina was officially on the mend and re-exploring the streets of London would he learn that those parrots had their own fabled tale. Back in the 60s, Jimi Hendrix — in a moment of psychedelic clarity — released his pair of lime green ring-necked parakeets from their cage, setting them free into the London sky. Now, their decendents are spotted regularly around certain parts of the city. Or so we’re told.

Eight Gates is the last collection of solo studio recordings Molina made before he passed from complications related to alcoholism in 2013. Recorded in London around the time of the supposed spider bite and Jimi’s supposed parakeets, some of the songs (“Whispered Away,” “Thistle Blue”) are fully-realized — dark, moody textures that call to mind his earlier work on The Lioness. Knowing what we know about those parakeets and their peppered presence on the recordings, one can’t help but think of that colorful tree of birds on Talk Talk’s classic Laughing Stock, certainly a spiritual guide for much of the set. Other songs (“She Says,” “The Crossroads and The Emptiness”) lay in a more unfinished states, acoustic takes that call to mind Molina’s Let Me Go Let Me Go Let Me Go, and still tethered to Molina’s humorous studio banter. You remember how young Molina was, and how weighty this art was for such a young man. On the closer, “The Crossroads and The Emptiness,” Molina snaps at the engineer before tearing into a song in which he sings of his birthday (December 30), a palm reading and the great emptiness with which he always wrestled. It is a perfect closer and, in many ways, the eighth gate incarnate: mythical, passable only in the mind, built for himself and partway imaginary but shared, thankfully, with us.

FORMAT INFORMATION

Coloured LP Info: Indies exclusive 'Shortcake Splash' coloured vinyl!

Martin Jenkins, more commonly known as the artist Pye Corner Audio, epitomizes Lapsus' commitment to cutting edge sound experimentation. In 2017, he beguiled the electronic music community by releasing the 'Where Things Are Hollow' EP, on Lapsus Records. The Barcelona label is delighted to announce the release of ‘Where Things Are Hollow 2’, consisting of three brand new original cuts and a remix from none other than John Talabot.

'Where Things Are Hollow 2' explores a spectral and hypnagogic terrain, establishing an electronic sound that at times invokes Jenkins’ more dance friendly facet -'Self Synchronize', 'Weather The Storm'– while also offering his familiar iridescent dreamlike ambient textures –'Phase B'– that featured prominently on his first EP. This second EP also includes a remix from John Talabot, unquestionably one of Spain’s most internationally recognised names over the last decade, who exquisitely reimagines 'Resist' -a song from the first EP-, transforming it into a cross between EBM and hypnotic techno. From a graphic design perspective, renowned artists Alex Trochut and Basora have once again collaborated on this project, repeating the formula that made the artwork for "Where Things Are Hollow" such a collector's item.

Recently uncovered high quality soundboard recording of the Stooges' famous final show with their original lineup and with bassist Dave Alexander, playing Fun House in full just before release. An unearthed gem in Stooges history.

The apocryphal tale of the Stooges performance at the Goose Lake festival has been told countless times over the past five decades. Bassist Dave Alexander, due to nerves or overindulgence or what ever you choose to fill in the blank, absolutely spaces in front of 200,000 attendees. He does not play a single note on stage. He is summarily fired by Iggy Pop immediately following the gig. Here starts the beginning of the end of the Stooges.

But what if that simply...wasn't the case? What if you could prove otherwise? Well, it'd be the proto-punk equivalent of having an immediate, on-the-scene, man on the street report of all those folkies booing Dylan's electric set at Newport in '65. Irrefutable evidence of what ACTUALLY went down.

Found buried in the basement of a Michigan farmhouse amongst other tasty analog artifacts of the same era, the 1/4" stereo two-track tape of the Stooges complete performance at Goose Lake on August 8th, 1970 is the Rosetta Stone for fans of this seminal band.

Not only is this the last ever performance of the original godhead Stooges line-up, but it is the ONLY known soundboard recording of said line-up. Playing the entirety of their canonical 1970 masterpiece Fun House, the sound, the performance, everything about this record is revelatory.

Would you believe that...Alexander actually DID play bass on this occasion? Or that, despite a handful of flubs, he manages to hold his own? Especially on the bass-led songs "Dirt" and "Fun House"? Does Iggy provoke the crowd to tear down festival barriers? Did the powers that be pull the plug on the Stooges? So many questions are answered only to have more arise.

Released to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the performance, Live at Goose Lake: August 8th 1970, is the rare release that literally rewrites the history of these Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees.

Where L.A. Witch's self-titled album oozed with vibe and atmosphere, with the whole mix draped in reverb, sonically placing the band in some distant realm, broadcast across some unknown chasm of time, Play With Fire comes crashing out of the gate with a bold, brash, in-your-face rocker “Fire Starter.” The authoritative opener is a deliberate mission statement.

“Play With Fire is a suggestion to make things happen,” says Sanchez. “Don’t fear mistakes or the future. Take a chance. Say and do what you really feel, even if nobody agrees with your ideas. These are feelings that have stopped me in the past. I want to inspire others to be freethinkers even if it causes a little burn.” And by that line of reasoning, “Fire Starter” becomes a call to action, an anthem against apathy. From there, the album segues into the similarly bodacious rocker “Motorcycle Boy” a feisty love song inspired by classic cinema outlaws like Mickey Rourke, Marlon Brando, and Steve McQueen. At track three, we hear L.A. Witch expand into new territories as “Dark Horse” unfurls a mixture of dustbowl folk, psychedelic breakdowns, and fire-and-brimstone organ lines. And from there, the band only gets more adventurous.

Play With Fire is a bold new journey that retains L.A. Witch’s siren-song mystique, nostalgic spirit, and contemporary cool. Despite the stylistic breadth of the record, there is a unifying timbre across the album’s nine tracks, as if the trio of young musicians is bound together as a collective of old souls tapping into the sounds of their previous youth.

FORMAT INFORMATION

Coloured LP Info: First LP pressing limited to 1,000 copies on translucent yellow vinyl, comes with double sided insert + DL coupon.

( ) - Sigur Rós’s celebrated third album, and for many people - especially in US where it remains their biggest selling work - the most quintessentially “Sigur Rós” record of their career to date. It is the only album where Jónsi sings entirely in the wordless lyrics of Hopelandic. A desire to elide meaning and allow the listener to bring their own interpretation to the music, extends to the eight songs, all of which are nameless. The music is broadly divided into two halves, divided by a critical 36 seconds of silence. The first half of the album being lighter and more optimistic, and the second half bleaker and more melancholic, culminating in the thundering climax of Untitled #8, the closing song of every Sigur Rós show since the song was written in 2000.

( ) was recorded at the band’s own studio Sundlaugin, in Mosfellsbær outside Reykjavik, in 2002, co-produced by the band with Ken Thomas, who also helmed their break through second album, Agætis Byrjun. Completely out of print, the vinyl album now comes in its full Grammy-nominated artwork, including die-cut sleeve and spot UV varnish inner bags. 

FORMAT INFORMATION

2xLtd LP Info: 2 x vinyl double LP.
2 x printed inner sleeves.

Freeze, Melt, the sixth album from the Grammy-nominated Australian electronic/synth-pop band Cut Copy. Lead single 'Love Is All We Share' earned praise from Rolling Stone ["meditative and immersive"], Stereogum ["hypnotic"], Consequence Of Sound ["a fitting mood for the current state of the world"], Pitchfork, The Line Of Best Fit, and numerous other outlets. Their 2011 album Zonoscope won two ARIA Awards, earned a Grammy nomination for Best Dance/Electronica Album, and reached #2 on Billboard's Dance/Electronic Albums chart, #3 on Australia's ARIA Albums chart, and #8 on the UK's Independent Albums chart. Their most recent album Haiku From Zero [2017] earned praise from NPR ["their finest album in years"], Stereogum [“a rush of infectious grooves and melodies"], Exclaim! ["another strong effort by a band that continue to celebrate the power of dance music"], and DIY. If Haiku From Zero was the party, Freeze, Melt is the Sunday morning comedown. Released independently via their own label imprint, Cutters Records.

Sigur Rós front man Jón Þór "Jónsi" Birgisson released his debut album ‘Go’ in 2010. Jónsi initially though he would be making a low-key, acoustic album until, as he says, "somewhere along the line, it just sort of exploded." that explosion resulted in sheer aural fireworks, not a straight ahead pop record, nor rock, folk, ambient or electronic, it encompasses all of these to create an expansive musical palette that’s been brought to life by Jónsi alongside a number of free-spirited collaborators including the Philip Glass protégé Nico Muhly and the percussive genius of Samuli Kosminen.

Met with great critical acclaim Go is out of print and will be repressed on exclusive transparent red vinyl and released on Sigur Rós own record label, Krunk.

FORMAT INFORMATION

Coloured LP Info: Exclusive transparent red vinyl

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

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

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

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

FORMAT INFORMATION

Coloured LP Info: Indies exclusive bubblegum pink vinyl, limited to 500 copies worldwide.

“Music knows what she wants,” says Moscow-based artist, Kate NV. On Room for the Moon, the lyrical follow up to the buoyant minimalism of 2018’s для FOR, NV follows this muse in fluid expression, harmonizing her lunar lullabies with a starry compositional choreography. NV says, “I always let music express herself without pressure, and with or without voice.”

NV began sketching the music of Moon sometime before для FOR, but the album did not take its full shape until the artist entered a new physiological phase. After trying to make a Buchla synthesizer mirror human imperfections, she was compelled to look past the patch bay and reconnect with her own voice. “I spent almost a year and half sitting, at best, or bending over the table. In the end it, my body rebelled, on some kind of physical level.” No longer concerned with demonstrating a traditional composer’s craft of для FOR, the return to vocal forms first found on her debut album Binasu was liberating and (gasp!) gleeful.

On Moon, NV’s vocals contour through screens of tulle or jars of glitter, the entire collection composed and produced by NV at home and studio spaces throughout Moscow. “I finished this record during the loneliest period of my life,” confides NV, with hints of melancholy, or fabled life lessons, adding even more depth to songs of cheery disposition. Her songs, sung in Russian, French and English, each carry unique features, like ten personas or ten scenes in a play where each character has its own keynote. Room for the Moon was conjured from unlived memories of 70s and 80s Russian and Japanese pop music and film, a 20th century fairy tale suspended in time like a moon torn from a paper sky.

NV is accompanied by long-time music collaborators on Moon: Jenya Gorbunov on bass guitar, Vladimir Luchanskiy on saxophone, and Quinn Oulton on both instruments. Musician Nami Sato’s gentle words lift and lilt over synth for one piece, too. These friendly contributions are in service of NV’s singular vision; the album is personal and particular in its construction. Filled with warm and sweet memories of her own invention, NV says, “these songs are now my closest friends.”

Moon could be made from chiffon ripples, night sky transmissions and long shadows. With each song we enter another chamber of illusion, NV’s vocals tiptoe through one track, toy with riddles on another and try to save time in a polka-dotted pocket. On “Plans,” NV, through some sort of sorcery, created a sax solo using only samples from the Found Sound Nation’s “Broken Orchestra” sample pack. A laugh slips from the sheets of music in “Ça Commence Par” like a misplaced photo. Mallet and marimba converse over mushroom tea on “Du Na.” “Tea” herself borrows melody from Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1, and “Telefon” teases us that “there’s nowhere to hide from the song.” But that’s ok, we’re all invited to the party.

Moon’s cast might make friends with other electric, eclectic, and visionary works of Lizzy Mercier Descloux, Akiko Yano, and Ann Steel. You know the feeling of instant affinity? It’s how you may respond to Room for the Moon. You’ll recognize something strangely familiar and inexplicably attractive, an afterglow of times spent in happy company, imagined or otherwise.

FORMAT INFORMATION

Dinked Edition LP Info: Exclusive Swirled clear, blue and yellow vinyl.
Kiss-Cut Sticker Sheet (a series of stickers based on Kate's illustrations and the album design).
Numbered sleeve.
Limited 300 pressing.

Ryan Lee West aka Rival Consoles announces details of his highly anticipated new album Articulation, released on Erased Tapes on 31 July 2020.

‘Articulation’, the lead track and album centrepiece, links the record back to the analogue fluidity and colour of 2016’s Night Melody. The division of varying time signatures, intertwined with a complex structure of notes, creates an expression of a moving structure and conjures a dreamy motorik energy. Ryan Lee West explains, "The title track is about articulation and playfulness with shape and time. Its structure is very machine-like, but I was really interested in how melody and sense of story could develop out of this, and it became an exploration of mathematical structures - patterns and shapes having a conversation. I love that something on paper can appear rigid and calculated, but then take on new meaning based on the context that surrounds it, or how it changes over time."

Articulation (which follows 2018’s Persona) was conceived with a very visual way of thinking, unusual for the London musician and producer. During the writing process Ryan drew structures, shapes and patterns by hand to try and find new ways of thinking about music, giving himself a way to problem-solve away from the computer. The album title references a piece by the avant-garde contemporary composer Györgi Ligeti, though not for its music, but for the non-traditional graphic score that accompanied it.

“I find electronic music is often battling to say something with integrity because technology and production can easily get in the way. I think the goal of a lot of electronic composers is to find a balance between the vision of the idea and the power of possibilities on the computer. With a pen and paper sketch you can compose and rethink ideas without technology getting in the way, so for me it acts as a very helpful tool to refresh the process.” - Ryan Lee West

The idea of using analogue drawings and tools to bolster digital creations can be heard in the structure of the pieces that make up Articulation from the broody techno opener ‘Vibrations on a String’ all the way to the album’s boundless closer ‘Sudden Awareness of Now’. While the anthemic rise and fall of ‘Still Here’ and the beatless ambient meditation ‘Melodica’ evoke a certain nostalgia, ‘Forwardism’ achieves the very opposite by burying its melody within the fast-paced rhythm of its pulsating synths.

Rising out of birdsong heard from his studio window, ‘Sudden Awareness of Now’ has a particular urgency about it and seems to perfectly capture a longing for escape. Built around a simple and repetitive melodic theme, expanding and retracting over the course of its seven-minute odyssey, Lee West explains; “I like the fact that if you say something over and over again in music, then over time it can become something else, something reflective.”

Since the release of Persona, Ryan Lee West has taken his captivating live A/V set to all corners of the world. Last seen live on stage with 17 players of the London Contemporary Orchestra for a sold-out orchestral performance at Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall in January 2020.

Meanwhile Lee West has kept busy. After contributing an exclusive track titled ‘Them Is Us’ to Adult Swim’s coveted Singles series, he recently shared the beautifully textured solo piano piece Winter’s Lament on this year’s Piano Day. He has also been in high demand as a composer, scoring Charlie Brooker’s much talked about Black Mirror episode Striking Vipers, composing original music for Secret Cinema presents Stranger Things as well as renowned choreographer Alexander’s Whitley’s groundbreaking new work Overflow which was set to premiere at London’s Sadler’s Wells Theatre this spring.

Articulation will be available worldwide on 31 July, with live activities to be announced as soon as the situation allows safe event planning.

FORMAT INFORMATION

Coloured LP Info: Clear vinyl in screen printed pvc sleeve.
First 500 come with signed postcard.

Two years ago, the Liverpool-reared singer-songwriter had reached rock’s “stupid club” age (27) and found himself at a crossroads. This graduate of the Macca-founded Liverpool Institute of the Performing Arts had released two albums – Sweet Disarray (2014) on a major, Emerging Adulthood (2017) on Communion (launchpad for Michael Kiwanuka, Catfish and The Bottlemen and Bear’s Den) – and had enjoyed solid success. And yet, and yet…

There was good radio support, a couple of banging syncs (Compliment Your Soul made it onto FIFA 14, From Nowhere was on Grand Theft Auto V), a busy international gigging schedule.

“Suddenly I was making a living from music.” But almost without noticing, “I’d gone into the pop world, making very produced, layered tracks, all clocking in at three-minute-30 on the dot… I was a little bit burnt out. It felt like it wasn’t really me.

So time for action. Decisively, impulsively, Dan Croll bought a one-way ticket to Los Angeles. It was far away, it was sunny, and it was the source of so many of the classic records he loved. He only knew one person there, a musician/podcaster called Danny who’d once interviewed him and said that if he ever fancied coming to LA…. This new album tells the chronological story of Dan's move to LA, finding his feet.

Starting in February 2018, over the next 12 months Croll turned his experiences into 20-odd songs, eventually whittling them down to a solid dozen chapters. Then, in spring 2019, he spent a month with the estimable Matthew E. White in Virginia. Every day the artist, the producer and his crack local players would meet at midday, have lunch and a laugh, then get to it, bringing to life Dan Croll’s songs in the inimitable Spacebomb country-psych-soul style.

With his previous 2 albums he’d needed a full band to perform live his multi-layered indie-pop compositions but for album 3, Dan felt it was time to reconnect with his inner singer-songwriter and with the music that first inspired him - James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, Burt Bacharach and more.

Each song tells a story, in narrative order. To pinch a title from one of those great albums he loves, think of this as his greetings from LA. To also pinch the title of a great LA/Hollywood memoir, think of these as postcards from the edge.

So this is Dan Croll’s bold and brilliant, evocative and inventive third album. A record he had to make, a diary of something he hoped would be a new beginning (but that could equally have been a dead end). A dozen songs he knew he wanted to sound stripped back but, at the same time, feel rich and evocative. A lovingly recorded and produced project offering a modern take on older sounds. A third album that, finally, felt like him.

Berlin-based, Swiss singer, multi-instrumentalist and film composer Sophie Hunger will release her seventh studio album - her first in two years - ‘Halluzinationen’ on August 28, 2020 via Caroline International. The album - recorded at Abbey Road Studios in live continuous takes - is produced by MPG UK Producer Of The Year, Speedy Wunderground’s Dan Carey (Kate Tempest, Fontaines DC), also at the helm for 2018’s ‘Molecules’ which featured 6Music play-listed single ‘I Opened A Bar’.

‘Halluzinationen’ arrives bearing an emphatic German title, as Hunger - still resident in Berlin’s Kreuzberg neighbourhood - picks at the creative dependency between loneliness and the imagination. Electing this time around to decamp from Carey’s Speedy Wunderground studio in South London to the august surrounds of Abbey Road’s Studio 2, ‘Halluzinationen’ is suffused with the nervous energy of its continuous live recording technique, with the album captured in sequence just six times over the course of two days. It’s an approach Hunger succinctly identifies as ‘Full risk’.

Sophie Hunger’s six solo albums to date have accrued over a quarter of a million sales, drawing her comparisons to contemporaries including Sharon Van Etten and PJ Harvey, with fans as wide-ranging as Lauren Laverne (who says of Sophie ‘I love this woman’), Steven Wilson (who tapped Hunger to guest on his UK Top 3 album ‘To The Bone’) and unlikely enough, footballing legend Eric Cantona (a long-standing fan of Sophie’s who guested to intone in French on ‘Supermoon’). Sophie made her debut at Glastonbury in 2010 as the first Swiss artist to ever play the festival (since selling out 1,000 capacity venues with ease on the continent), and 2016 saw Hunger also make her - very successful - first outing in film scoring, with her soundtrack for the Oscar & Golden Globe-nominated Ma Vie de Courgette earning her a Cesar nomination to boot.

FORMAT INFORMATION

Coloured LP Info: 12” Heavyweight Transparent ‘Smokey’ Vinyl.
60x60 poster.

LP Info: 12” Heavyweight Black Vinyl.

‘A Day in a Yellow Beat’ is Yellow Days’ sophomore record and his first for Columbia. George is a self-taught multi-instrumentalist and self-medicated auteur who has never quite fitted into one style or space. As he readies his new album, his sound continues to warp funky, while his words dig deeper into modern malaise and mental health. It is, as he says, "Upbeat existential millennial crisis music."

On his current musical direction, George explains "I'm trying to brand my own version of ironic dance music full of depressing truths about feeling distant from your friends, or a sense that nothing is worth anything," In particular he's been diving into the '70s: fusion-era works of Herbie Hancock and Quincy Jones, the funkier phases of Marvin Gaye and Curtis Mayfield, and the keyboard wizardry of Don Blackman and Weldon Irvine. He's been staying up until 5 a.m. watching Soul Train on YouTube, and testing his falsetto. ‘A Day in a Yellow Beat’ is a real-time culmination of ideas, however wild they may be.

Having previously released music produced out of his garden shed in surrey, Yellow Days has spent a lot of time writing and recording this current wave of music in LA with a whole host of incredible artists and musicians – many of whom have / still play for the likes of Raphael Saadiq, Frank Ocean, Weldon Irvine, Kanye West. In doing so, George has taken it back to a more traditional way of making music – from hand-picking the collaborators, selecting the perfect studio setting to recording everything on analogue, vintage gear; all of which has vastly enhanced the sound Yellow Days is now capable of creating. By overseeing the production process, George is more in charge of his own fuzzed-out, technicolor vision than ever. "This is really my first record where I can let it fucking all out," he says.

Yellow Days remains at its heart, a project about youth. His career trajectory, which began at a very young age, has been a musical outlet for his teenage years and the complexities of transitioning into adulthood. ‘A Day in a Yellow Beat’ is the culmination of this process to date; a coming of age moment as he commits a wealth of emotions into a vision that projects well beyond his garden shed and onto the global stage. Ever-evolving creatively, George is always thinking of the next steps and where his journey will go, ‘When I become a bit older, maybe I'm not Yellow Days anymore' At which point, he'll most likely find himself leading the house band in a quantum disco at the edge of the universe. But until then, ‘A Day in A Yellow Beat’ is coming, so settle in for the ride.

"If you’re going to deconstruct the modern psyche," says Liela Moss, "you might as well dance to it." On her second solo album, ‘Who The Power’, Moss fulfils that remit with all the power its title calls for. After 2018’s deeply personal ‘My Name Is Safe in Your Mouth’ - a debut solo album at times serene, at others stormy, on every front sumptuous - Moss entered a period of profound creative and personal self-reflection. When she emerged, she forged an album of questioning intensity and synth-loaded drama, with the expressive force in her voice refuelled by the urgent desire to interrogate the role of selfhood in fraught times. And, crucially, backed by the urgent grooves needed for the job.

As Moss says of her feelings during the build-up to the album: “To make music for the sake can sometimes feel like a narcissistic thing to do, and very reflective of our times. So much of being a musician and live performer is about projecting energy outward, which can be a beautiful and powerful thing. I experienced a good round of that over previous years, and now wanted to explore my fears of tipping the scales the other way: why should I continue to reenact the narcissistic habits of our generation, desperate for validation, desperate for space, for ‘a platform’?”

Album opener ‘Turn Your Back Around’ is a yearning eco-lament set to banked synths over a propulsive beat. Or, as Moss puts it: “One filthy, upbeat, downhearted, close-your-eyes-anddance-by-yourself pop song, offered as a parting gift to Mother Earth.” ‘Watching The Wolf’ is another forthright song for today, its brooding, near-gothic swagger framing a righteous modern-day folk tale about wolves converging to unseat a toxic political pundit. A controlled rage shows in Moss’s voice, which grows more liberated still amid the simmering darkwave throb of ‘Atoms At Me’, where Moss issues a call to free the senses from the call to consume.

That sense of freedom further shows in the album’s dynamic focus and passion. The nearceremonial ‘Always Sliding’ draws power from the idea of impermanence, from the call to “keep searching.” ‘The Individual’ sets a Paradise Lost-ish narrative to a sulphurous bassline and lunging synths, while the graceful synths and infectious melody of ‘White Feather’ frame lyrics with teeth. “‘White Feather’ is a lament for the earth, sung with fingers crossed behind my back,” explains Moss. “Humanity is losing connection with something vital, and willingly letting itself slip into an abyss. This isn’t as simple as my reaction to the distressing reality of environmental damage; it is my thoughts on our lousy behaviour to one another.”

Elsewhere, the moody elegance of ‘Battlefield’ and bruised plea of ‘Nummah’ rank among Moss’s finest vocal performances. ‘Suako’ offers pulsing synth-rock impetus to risk starting anew, while the blissful ‘Stolen Careful’ ends the album on a palpable note of revitalisation, all risks rewarded as Moss emerges refreshed in her hunger to explore new, meaningful ways to engage with the world.

As with the widely acclaimed ‘My Name Is Safe in Your Mouth’, that engagement took place close to home. Working again with partner / producer Toby Butler, Moss wrote and recorded the album in their studio in Somerset, where they live with their child. The difference this time, she explains, was a desire “to create something more urgent,” which captured a sense of renewal while conveying a strong sense of despair at modern culture. “Perhaps that oscillating energy is best expressed musically via machines. We spent much of our time playing with vintage synths and drum machines, building a more visceral palette. I wanted the album to convey a depth of field, to be multi-layered yet feel simple, and to groove.”

Widescreen ambitions fulfilled, the result is another bold leap forward for one of alt-rock’s most magnetic, exploratory voices. Over 14 years, Moss’s work with the Duke Spirit (on pause) ranged from brawling riff-rock to more cinematic ventures. Other gigs have included synth-rock recordings with Butler under the name Roman Remains and various collaborative ventures – with UNKLE, Nick Cave, Giorgio Moroder and Lost Horizons, as well as serving as muse for fashion icons Alexander McQueen and Phillip Lim, among others.

FORMAT INFORMATION

Coloured LP Info: LP pressed on yellow 180g vinyl with digital download code.

‘Sun Racket’ is the brand new album from legendary Boston trio Throwing Muses, consisting of Kristin Hersh, David Narcizo and Bernard Georges. The follow up to 2013’s ‘Purgatory/Paradise’ is an outpouring of modal guitars, reverbed shapes, echoey drums and driving bass set behind Kristen Hersh’s well-thumbed notebook of storylines. A ten-song opus of suitably wrought tales set against a wall of sound that’s at once calm and ethereal before building into glorious cacophonous crescendos. When Throwing Muses wrote their last album, they were shattered. Pieces were coming and going, elements repeating and charging the whole. “It sounded beautiful jumping around like that”.

Two-minute songs reappearing as twisted instrumentals or another song’s bridge. They mimicked the effect live which kept them on their toes. Whatever was happening was already over in other words. ‘Sun Racket’ is the opposite. It refused to do anything but sit still. It says, “sit here and deal”. “All it asked of us was to comingle two completely disparate sonic vocabularies: one heavy noise, the other delicate music box. Turns out we didn’t have to do much. Sun Racket knew what it was doing and pushed us aside, which is always best. After thirty years of playing together, we trust each other implicitly but we trust the music more” - Kristin Hersh And so, they continue. Business unusual.

FORMAT INFORMATION

Coloured LP Info: Limited edition violet vinyl.