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Craig Armstrong

As If To Nothing - 2023 Reissue

    Award-winning Scottish composer Craig Armstrong’s trailblazing 2002 album ‘As If To Nothing’ receives 20th anniversary first-ever vinyl release on Hydrogen Dukebox.

    Twenty years on from its original release, Craig Armstrong’s ‘As If To Nothing’ - his electronic/orchestral masterpiece featuring musical heavyweights Bono, Mogwai, Evan Dando, King Crimson and others - is being reissued for the first time on vinyl in a super-deluxe, super-limited edition run via Hydrogen Dukebox.

    Remastered at Abbey Road Studios and cut at half-speed to produce a superior sound quality, the release comes completely repackaged with reimagined artwork by award-winning designer Christopher Thomson and there's also a special 'Dinked Archive Edition' version limited to just 500 copies worldwide including a bonus 10" of a newly unearthed track from the original recording sessions.

    ‘As If To Nothing’, Armstrong’s second solo album following 1998’s ‘The Space Between Us’, is a timeless, groundbreaking record that marries stunning string arrangements, atmospheric electronics and contemporary popular music.

    Originally released on renowned UK electronic outfit Massive Attack's label Melankolic, the record captures an enduring mood and sentiment that continues to enchant listeners today, from the stirring opener ‘Ruthless Gravity’ to the euphoric closing of ‘Choral Ending’. Armstrong’s collaborative work with Massive Attack on the 1994 album ‘Protection’ is an influence that can be heard throughout ‘As If To Nothing’:
    “It was a very particular time musically within Britain, and the world”, he says. “To be part of the label, Melankolic, and working with Massive Attack, was a unique moment in time. They gave me real freedom to do what I wanted. The album was ahead of its time, I think - it still sounds pure and contemporary.”
    “A lot of younger acts have contacted me over the years to say how seminal the album has been to them. One of the great things is that people have never stopped listening to the album. To have it reissued and released on this first-ever vinyl package is a very special thing to me.”

    The album features a cast of luminaries including Bono on ‘Stay (Farway, So Close!’), Mogwai on ‘Miracle’ and Lemonheads’ Evan Dando ‘Wake Up In New York’, as well as producer Photek, soul singer David McAlmont, Alpha vocalist Wendy Stubbs, and Antye Greie-Fuchs, and a sample of King Crimson’s ‘Starless’ on ‘Starless II’. Praise for the album at the time of its release included Pitchfork ("Powerfully evocative and serene") and Rolling Stone ("[Armstrong] makes Bono sound like a fallen angel on a majestic remake of "Stay (Faraway, So Close!)".

    Through his orchestral writing, electronic compositions and wide-ranging artistic collaborations in classical and film music, Craig Armstrong’s work has received worldwide acclaim. Armstrong is widely known for composing award winning film music, having scored both Hollywood and independent films, from Peter Mullan’s directorial debut 'The Close Trilogy' to the BAFTA, Ivor Novello and Golden Globe-winning award scores for Baz Luhrmann’s 'Romeo and Juliet', 'Moulin Rouge!' and 'The Great Gatsby'.

    His film scoring has also featured in many other popular films including 'The Quiet American', 'Orphans', 'Love Actually', 'World Trade Centre', 'Elizabeth: The Golden Age', 'Far From The Madding Crowd', and 'Ray!', with the latter awarded a Grammy for Best Original Score. And several collaborations with Oliver Stone, ‘World Trade Center’ and ‘Snowden’.

    The reissue of ‘As If To Nothing’ is a fitting celebration of this exemplary album’s 20th anniversary, and an opportunity to own this key record from Armstrong’s celebrated body of work on vinyl for the first time.


    TRACK LISTING

    Side A
    Ruthless Gravity
    Wake Up In New York
    Miracle
    Amber
    Side B
    Finding Beauty
    Waltz
    Inhaler
    Hymn 2
    Side C
    Snow
    Starless II
    Stay
    Side D
    Niente
    Sea Song
    Let It Be Love
    Choral Ending



    Craig Finn

    A Legacy Of Rentals

      Best known as the singer of the Hold Steady, Craig Finn is a Minnesota-bred singer, songwriter, and guitarist based out of New York City. Combining literary influences like Jack Kerouac and John Berryman with the musical influences of Bruce Springsteen and fellow Minnesotan Paul Westerberg, Finn's highly descriptive lyrical style has a strong focus on narrative, crafting whole worlds for the people in his songs to exist within.

      'A Legacy of Rental's', the 6th solo record from Finn, was produced by Josh Kaufman and recorded by D. James Goodwin at The Clubhouse recording studio. Compared to past solo releases, this new collection was recorded with the help of a 14-piece string section including violins, violas and cellos, instead of the usually horn-heavy sounds that Craig and The Hold Steady are known for. The themes of the record explore memory -- how we remember our loved ones, the places in our lives that have changed, and recent events that are part of our pasts.

      TRACK LISTING

      1. Messing With The Settings
      2. The Amarillo Kid
      3. Birthdays
      4. The Year We Fell Behind
      5. Due To Depart
      6. Curtis & Shepard
      7. Never Any Horses
      8. Jessamine
      9. A Break From The Barrage
      10. This Is What It Looks Like

      As a lifelong soul boy - poet, actor, presenter Craig Charles has been adding to his trunk of funk music since his youth, and now after almost 20 years hosting his world renowned BBC6 Music and Radio 2 shows, DJing at clubs and festivals around the globe his reputation as an ambassador for all things soulful & funky is indisputable.

      Craig was overwhelmed with the success of Volume 1 which hit the Official UK Album charts; “It’s been a whole year (and what a weird year) since I unleashed Volume 1 on a music starved world. It clearly hit home with a funk hungry public as it got into the UK charts, nestled between film soundtracks and pop compilations, so I’d like to thank everyone for supporting – especially those who grabbed the double vinyl album – that was an instant sell out!”

      Volume 2 contains all the trademark features his fans have come to love - kicking off with The Allergies – and their 100% exclusive Trunk Of Funk remix of their bombastic Move On Baby. Ranging from Luther Ingrams’ If It’s All The Same To You Babe – a Northern Soul stomper extraordinaire from 1966 – through to 21st century soul champions Joseph Malik and Joel Culpepper, New Orleans born, London based Acantha Lang who Craig describes as an ‘independent artist destined for world domination’, the obscure and bizarre psychedelic 70’s funk of Your Autumn Of Tomorrow by The Crow.

      Volume 2 the only place you’ll ever get to hear Smoove & Turrells’ Exclusive Trunk Of Funk edit of Slow Down. The classic dance floor jazz magic of Mario Biondis’ This Is What You Are still sparkles, and the funk driven soul-jazz of Seattle’s Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio hits sweet and hard - this brand new Trunk Of Funk draws together old and new music from all four corners of the globe into one beautiful collection, or as Craig puts it “I’m confident this second volume of my Trunk Of Funk will tick all your musical boxes, give your ears and feet enough mellifluous musical fodder to last you until Volume 3 – Awooga!”

      TRACK LISTING

      A1/1. The Allergies - Slow Down Baby - Exclusive Trunk Of Funk Remix
      A2/2. Cha Wa - My People
      A3/3. Acantha Lang - He Said / She Said
      A4/4. The Lafayette Afro Rock 22Band - Soul Makossa
      A5/5. STR4TA - Rhythm In Your Mind
      B1/6. The Bamboos - Ride On Time
      B2/7. Jay Nemor & Electrified - Sitting On Top Of The World
      B3/8. Mario Biondi – This Is What You Are
      B4/9. Luther Ingram - If It’s All The Same To You Babe
      B5/10. The Souljazz Orchestra - Sorrow Fly Away
      C1/11 Smoove & Turrell - Slow Down – Smooves Exclusive Trunk Of Funk Edit
      C2/12. Joseph Malik - Mixed Race Combination
      C3/13. The Crow - Your Autumn Of Tomorrow
      C4/14. Ferry Ultra Ft Ashley Slater - Why Did You Do It? – The Reflex Revision (Edit)
      C5/15. The Traffic - Beat It
      D1/16. Lettuce Ft. Big Tony & Jungle Boogie – Checker Wrecker
      D2/17. Joel Culpepper - WAR
      D3/18. Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio - Hole In One
      D4/19. PM Warson - (Don't) Hold Me Down

      Ian William Craig / Kago

      Split Series #24

        The twenty-fourth - and final - issue in FatCat’s long-running and much-loved Split Series arrives on the 25th Anniversary of the Brighton-based label.

        ‘Split Series #24’ features acclaimed Canadian singer / composer Ian William Craig alongside the brilliant but little-known Estonian Kago - two artists each using their voice as a central element of their craft, mediated through technology to conjure startlingly singular soundworlds.

        Neither side here will sound quite like anything you’ve previously heard. Ian William Craig provides a 19-minute-long immersive tape piece, with Kago delivering a warped, acid-tinged slice of Eastern European freak-folk to round off a killer release that fits the free-wheeling aesthetic of the Split Series perfectly.

        Last ever release in FatCat’s long-running and much-hyped Split Series, described by NME as “a virtual academy of the abstract... [where] the shock troops of post-everything music gather” and by The 405 as having “left an indelible mark on the face of modern electronica.”

        Hand-drilled and hand-numbered sleeves with full printed inner sleeve in a one-off vinyl pressing.

        For fans of Tim Hecker, William Basinski, Ben Frost, The Caretaker, Maarja Nuut, Mari Kalkun.

        TRACK LISTING

        Ian William Craig
        Because It Speaks

        Kago
        Kröösnomi
        Avovang
        Suure Reede Lapsed
        Leontiine Kirotosk
        Tetermats 2
        Käed Lahti On Ulga Kergem
        Sõita
        Uued Vigikad

        Jeff Herriott & S. Craig Zahler

        Bone Tomahawk (Original Soundtrack) (RSD21 EDITION)

          THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2021 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON SATURDAY JUNE 12TH ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

          IF THERE ARE ANY REMAINING COPIES THEY WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE ONLINE AT 6PM ON THE SAME DAY (SATURDAY JUNE 12TH).


          The brooding, string-laden soundtrack to the gory western Bone Tomahawk starring Kurt Russell is available again as an RSD exclusive on ëBlood & Boneí swirl vinyl. The deluxe edition LP comes with a double sided printed insert and digital download card ,housed in a 425g heavyweight sleeve. This cult classic soundtrack was a big seller for its original release in 2016, and has been sold out since. This soundtrack will appeal to soundtrack collectors, and fans of classic composers such as Ennio Morricone and Laylo Shifrin as well as modern score composers Clint Mansell and Brian Reitzell. The film itself was honoured with top awards at the prestigious Sitges Film Festival, including the award for best direction.

          Ian William Craig & Daniel Lentz

          In A Word

            In a Word, the sixteenth installment of the intergenerational collaboration series FRKWYS, brings together composer Daniel Lentz and vocalist and sound artist Ian William Craig for an album that embraces erosion and the potential of its loam left behind. A major figure in American composition, Daniel Lentz has worked at the middle and margins of postminimalism for more than four decades. A pioneer of “live multitrack recording” with the Daniel Lentz Group, he frequently writes for ensembles of similar instruments, from choirs to string orchestras to glass harmonicas. Like his west coast colleagues Harold Budd and Ingram Marshall, Lentz composes music of slow changes, built on fundamental harmonies and rhythms that evoke vast spaces and deep, ancient stone.

            Canadian artist Ian William Craig combines his classically trained voice with precarious technologies: homemade analog synths, altered reel-to-reel machines, and faulty tape decks. His solo albums, including the acclaimed Centres (2016) and, more recently, Red Sun Through Smoke (2020), document a haunted nostalgia. In contrast to Lentz’s (sometimes) radical expansiveness, Craig’s music is fragile and self-consciously created alone, using his customized machination to create warped nocturnes of melody and dissonance. The sessions for In a Word took place in the Santa Barbara home studio of engineer Dick Dunlap. For both musicians the experience was an exploration toward each other. Craig with his rickety tape decks, Lentz sat at a grand piano. Lentz was immediately enchanted by Craig’s voice and equipment: “With the first note he sang, I was hooked. The beauty of his voice and his unique analog looping setup, all compacted into a small suitcase, were both remarkable and always surprising in what they could do. The music emerged spontaneously from simple, even cautious beginnings.

            For Craig, who rarely works with other musicians, the sessions encouraged him to shed selfconsciousness and attune himself to his cocreator. Previously, he had regarded his tape decks and synths as bandmates, providing the creative energy he could get from other people. Recording with Lentz pushed him to find a new, more collaborative perspective. “I tried my best to control what was going on at first, and failed spectacularly. Once I let this aspect go and began to listen to Daniel, to my surroundings, and to the engineers, something finally clicked.” In a Word documents a coming together of two distinct musical personalities, and also a transformation. Lentz’s toiling, echoing piano, recalling his work on 1984’s Point Conception or the 1992 collaboration Music for 3 Pianos with Budd and Ruben Garcia, are churned into lush earth by Craig’s faltering machines. Craig’s folk-like tenor is realigned with Lentz’s crisp, minimalist repetitions; the combination is warm yet deeply layered, like the Californian sunset that would acknowledge the two composers at the end of each session day. Together, Craig and Lentz unearth deep forms of sonic expression from a common ground and newly seeded camaraderie. Lentz’s unmistakable piano sound is clearly relished by Craig’s tape decks, which add ghostly counterpoints of distortion and disintegration to its acoustic resonances. To this hall of haunted mirrors, Craig’s voice adds a yearning, human quality that is sometimes caught up in the same machinery, and is sometimes allowed to spirit above it. 

            An accompanying documentary of the collaboration directed by Eli Welbourne will be released in tandem. A portion of the proceeds from this release will benefit Wolfstone Ranch, a spiritually-based, activist community dedicated to making the rural Midwest a more compassionate place for all the animals who live there.


            TRACK LISTING

            A1. Tasteful Gloss
            A2. Joyce
            A3. Aphrodite
            A4. Erebus
            A5. Up Up Up Stay
            B1. A Pair Of Pears
            B2. Fragrance
            B3. Stöltzle
            B4. Poire

            Ian William Craig

            Red Sun Through Smoke

              Vancouver-based singer/composer Ian William Craig returns with a brilliant and powerfully emotive new album. His first for a long while to be centred around the piano - and also one of his most pared back - the record was made through an intense period of personal loss and environmental catastrophe.

              ‘Red Sun Through Smoke’ was recorded over two cataclysmic weeks in August 2018 in Kelowna, whilst the city was encircled by the forest fires which, under a warming climate, now regularly rage through British Columbia in summertime. With smoke engulfing the landscape, it was recorded from start to finish in the living room of a small house owned by his grandfather, who was moved into palliative care and tragically died halfway through the recording, his lungs filled with fluid as a result of the smoke.

              Forged in trauma and an intense, bewildering slew of mixed emotions, Ian William Craig has created an album of incredible beauty, sadness and depth. ‘Red Sun Through Smoke’ is a profoundly moving album, a standout record in a prolific body of work that shows no sign of faltering.

              TRACK LISTING

              Random
              The Smokefallen
              Weight
              Comma
              Condx QRN
              Mountains Astray
              Take
              Last Of The Lantern Oil
              Supper
              Far And Then Farther
              Open Like A Loss
              Stories

              Craig Finn

              I Need A New War

                Craig Finn is best known as the frontman of The Hold Steady but he is also a skilled songwriter in his own right. ‘I Need A New War’ is the third album in a trilogy (following 2015’s ‘Faith In The Future’ and 2017’s ‘We All Want The Same Things’). The album focuses on regular people trying to respond to extraordinary times, attempting to find connection while wondering how to keep pace with a world moving faster than they are. It solidifies Craig as one of today’s most important storytellers, among the ranks of Leonard Cohen and Tom Waits.

                TRACK LISTING

                Blankets
                Magic Marker
                A Bathtub In The Kitchen
                Indications
                Grant At Galena
                Something To Hope For
                Carmen Isn’t Coming In
                Today
                Holyoke
                Her With The Blues
                Anne Marie & Shane

                Craig Brown Band

                Big City Small Town

                  The Craig Brown Band is back with a dizzying new garage-country 7”, their first songs since the release of debut album The Lucky Ones Forget. Much has happened for the group since the album’s release, from touring with Dwight Yoakam (based solely on Dwight’s observance of the magnetism of their powerful live show) to opening for Jack White at the huge Little Caesars Arena concert in Detroit. And now, this new single will be accompanying Craig and the band on their first trip overseas to Europe, featuring new bassist and longtime Liquor Store co-conspirator Derek “Block” Warren.

                  “Big City Small Town” is a little country rock groover that depicts a very familiar scene for anyone who’s lived in a midsize city; word travels quickly, so own who you are and what you do 100%. “Tell Me” is a charmingly concise and heartfelt appeal for a little fulfillment, from answering life’s big questions to enjoying a good song with someone who cares.

                  Craig Finn

                  Faith In The Future

                    Craig Finn (of The Hold Steady) will release his new solo album 'Faith in the Future' through Partisan Records on 11th September. Josh Kaufman produced the record in the cosy, rustic confines of Woodstock's The Isokon recording studio and helped Finn stretch the boundaries of his songwriting with confidence, invention and ambition to realise what will be a defining moment in his career.

                    At times stark and spare, at other times vibrant and dynamic, 'Faith in the Future' is Finn's most compelling collection thus far, each song a powerfully alluring and subtly nuanced composition wedded to his distinctive short story narratives.

                    TRACK LISTING

                    Maggie I’ve Been Searching For Our Son
                    Roman Guitars
                    Newmyer’s Roof
                    Sarah, Calling From A Hotel
                    Going To A Show
                    Sandra From Scranton
                    Saint Peter Upside Down
                    Trapper Avenue
                    Christine
                    I Was Doing Fine (Then A Few People Died)

                    System 7

                    PositiveNoise - Inc. Carl Craig Remix

                      "PositiveNoise" is collaboration between System 7 and British house music legend A Guy Called Gerald who now lives in Berlin, and is one of two tracks on the new System 7 "UP" album that they worked on together. The original club mix’s exuberant sounds and crisp beats exude an infectious feel-good quality and a bright techno confidence inspired by Berlin’s leaner sounds - already gaining plaudits and plays for its modern club feel. The Carl Craig remix strips down the original, and twists and turns for the dancefloor with dubby deep techno in Carl’s own legendary style. A.Mochi’s remix is a darker interpretation, with a long dropdown featuring shimmering S7 trademark sounds and a breakbeat build-up.


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