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The zenith of David Bowie's flat-pack soul period, 1975's "Young Americans" is an incredible and frequently overlooked record. No other Bowie album had spelled out its market so cleanly and crisply in its title. This was an album to be bought at a time when young Americans, after years of mobilising, now had a little disposable income and were ready to party. It was all, supposedly, about 'emotional drive'. But the album came to represent so much more than that. It is an indirect product of many factors; soul music; politics, both personal and public; sex, drugs and dancing; of downtown New York and uptown Philadelphia.
STAFF COMMENTS
Barry says: What a beginning! 'Young Americans' really sets the scene for the rest of the album, swooning into the Pre-Balearic charms of 'Win' and the horny brilliance of 'Somebody up There Likes Me'. Dynamic, exciting and criminally overlooked, this is one of the greatest Bowie albums there is, and this is the essential version. Music achieved.
Since bursting out of the UK's soulful electronic underground alongside SBTRKT and James Blake back in 2010, Sampha's worked at his craft with a quiet and assured confidence. Though he's steadily released a string of precise and poignant singles over the past few years, the London artist has managed to fly just under the radar, revelling in the creative freedom this lack of attention affords. Still just twenty seven years old, he has lent his vocal, production and songwriting talents to a range of standout releases, from UK contemporaries such as FKA twigs, Jessie Ware and SBTRKT to world-renowned superstars like Drake, Kanye West and, most recently this year, on Frank Ocean’s "Endless" and Solange’s "A Seat At The Table" albums. Now it’s time for Sampha to tell his own story and "Process", produced by Sampha himself and Rodaidh McDonald, is set to be his defining musical statement. To paraphrase the previously mentioned Yeezy, Sampha's kept all the best shit for himself here, topping those critically acclaimed songwriting credits with a set of experimental soul and futurist R&B which explores grief with sincerity and sensitivity. Overwhelmed by the loss of his mother to cancer, the London musician poured his heart into the piano, raising his game to treat us to ten existential, poetic and occasional cryptic studies of the human condition. In turns fragile, tense and terse, but always alive with pure melodic beauty, "Process" is a stunning debut from a future superstar.
TRACK LISTING
Plastic 100°C
Blood On Me
Kora Sings
(No One Knows Me) Like The Piano
Take Me Inside
Reverse Faults
Under
Timmy’s Prayer
Incomplete Kisses
What Shouldn’t I Be?
I See You marks a new era for the London trio of Romy Madley Croft, Oliver Sim and Jamie Smith, both sonically and in terms of process. For while xx and Coexist were both made in relative isolation in London, I See You was recorded between March 2014 and August 2016 in New York, Marfa TX, Reykjavik, Los Angeles and London, and is characterised by a more outward-looking, open and expansive approach. Produced by Jamie Smith and Rodaidh McDonald, I See You is The xx at their boldest yet, performing with more clarity and ambition than ever before.
STAFF COMMENTS
Andy says: After two perfect, and pretty similar albums of clipped, late-night minimalism, The XX ring the changes, tinkering with their template with a record showing some of the dynamism and richness of Jamie's smash-hit solo album of 2 years ago. It still has all their hallmarks intact, just warped and deepened to beautiful effect. Brilliant.TRACK LISTING
1. Dangerous
2. Say Something Loving
3. Lips
4. A Violent Noise
5. Performance
6. Replica
7. Brave For You
8. On Hold
9. I Dare You
10. Test Me
Kings of Leon burst onto the music scene in 2003 and were (bizarrely, from this vantage point) lazily compared to TheStrokes. Something to do with youthful exhuberance, perhaps, but the similarities end there. Here was a preacher raised band of (literal!) brothers, hell bent on bringing Southern, good-time rock'n'roll back onto the radio and into our hearts. They had the bar-band groove, a cool as you like attitude, but most importantly some massive pop songs to help them stake their claim. It was thrilling debut.
STAFF COMMENTS
Andy says: Superb debut which brought country-rockin, Southrn-frazzled booginess right back into the mainstream.TRACK LISTING
Red Morning Light
Happy Alone
Wasted Time
Joe's Head
Trani
California Waiting
Spiral Staircase
Molly's Chamber
Genius
Dusty
Holy Roller Novocaine
Talihina Sky
The beginnings of Young Magic’s new album, Still Life, coincided with singer Melati Malay revisiting her own, in her birthplace of Indonesia. Having lost her father the previous year, she returned to the island of Java to reconnect with her family, dig up stories, and begin work on a new collection of music.
“My father had been somewhat of a mystery to me,” Melati says. “How did a boy from the Midwest end up in the jungles of Borneo during the 60s, trading his watch and a carton of cigarettes for the gravestones of the indigenous headhunters?”
The search led Melati deep into her family history. She rented a small shack by the water for a month, and with just a backpack and microphone, began recording – unraveling a past of superstition, black magic, and ties to the Javanese royal family.
“I’ve always felt torn, like some kind of hybrid existing between two worlds,” Melati says. “Born to a Catholic father and a Muslim mother, growing up bilingual, attending an international school in Jakarta where all my friends were from different countries…in a city of 30 million people where the clash between poverty and affluence is extreme.”
Still Life is a deeply personal and idiosyncratic record, somewhere close to the enchanted electronic pop realms occupied by Björk and Broadcast, yet unique to Young Magic. Found sounds and textures feature prominently across Still Life, including the Javanese gamelan, blossoming into ecstatic bursts during the climax of “Lucien.” Melati grounds the textured sonic world with arrows direct to the heart, like the arresting “How Wonderful” where the singer overflows with regret for “all those things I never said.” This is as deeply personal as the group has ever been.
“In a way, Still Life became a kind of antithesis to a world where people tell you who to pray to, what to buy into, and who your enemies should be. It’s my reaction. Still Life is my way to celebrate music from all corners…my home without borders.”
Upon returning to New York, her home of 10 years, Melati put together a group of musicians and began reimagining these new musical works inspired by her personal metamorphosis. She enlisted NYC-based cellist and composer Kelsey Lu McJunkins, Detroit producer Erin Rioux, Bolivian percussionist Daniel Alejandro Siles Mendoza, and Australian producer/songwriter Isaac Emmanuel, her longtime collaborator.
Young Magic met in New York City in 2010 and began collaborating above a speakeasy in Brooklyn. Alongside original member Michael Italia, the trio signed to Carpark Records (Toro Y Moi, Beach House, Dan Deacon) on the strength of one single (Sparkly/You With Air) and a wave of positive press. Touring in Europe and North America began after a series of limited edition 7" releases in 2011. The following year brought new visibility, acclaim, and artistic achievement with the release of the group’s full-length album debut, Melt, which was followed by sophmore album Breathing Statues.
Still Life inhabits a gorgeous, kaleidoscopic world, as delicate and intricate, as it is expansive and immersive. It walks the line between organic and mechanic, where dusty field recordings weave between warm Moogs and Prophets, where jazz breaks bump next to broken drum machines. It’s meticulously crafted outsider pop, made by obsessives, for obsessives.
“My father had been somewhat of a mystery to me,” Melati says. “How did a boy from the Midwest end up in the jungles of Borneo during the 60s, trading his watch and a carton of cigarettes for the gravestones of the indigenous headhunters?”
The search led Melati deep into her family history. She rented a small shack by the water for a month, and with just a backpack and microphone, began recording – unraveling a past of superstition, black magic, and ties to the Javanese royal family.
“I’ve always felt torn, like some kind of hybrid existing between two worlds,” Melati says. “Born to a Catholic father and a Muslim mother, growing up bilingual, attending an international school in Jakarta where all my friends were from different countries…in a city of 30 million people where the clash between poverty and affluence is extreme.”
Still Life is a deeply personal and idiosyncratic record, somewhere close to the enchanted electronic pop realms occupied by Björk and Broadcast, yet unique to Young Magic. Found sounds and textures feature prominently across Still Life, including the Javanese gamelan, blossoming into ecstatic bursts during the climax of “Lucien.” Melati grounds the textured sonic world with arrows direct to the heart, like the arresting “How Wonderful” where the singer overflows with regret for “all those things I never said.” This is as deeply personal as the group has ever been.
“In a way, Still Life became a kind of antithesis to a world where people tell you who to pray to, what to buy into, and who your enemies should be. It’s my reaction. Still Life is my way to celebrate music from all corners…my home without borders.”
Upon returning to New York, her home of 10 years, Melati put together a group of musicians and began reimagining these new musical works inspired by her personal metamorphosis. She enlisted NYC-based cellist and composer Kelsey Lu McJunkins, Detroit producer Erin Rioux, Bolivian percussionist Daniel Alejandro Siles Mendoza, and Australian producer/songwriter Isaac Emmanuel, her longtime collaborator.
Young Magic met in New York City in 2010 and began collaborating above a speakeasy in Brooklyn. Alongside original member Michael Italia, the trio signed to Carpark Records (Toro Y Moi, Beach House, Dan Deacon) on the strength of one single (Sparkly/You With Air) and a wave of positive press. Touring in Europe and North America began after a series of limited edition 7" releases in 2011. The following year brought new visibility, acclaim, and artistic achievement with the release of the group’s full-length album debut, Melt, which was followed by sophmore album Breathing Statues.
Still Life inhabits a gorgeous, kaleidoscopic world, as delicate and intricate, as it is expansive and immersive. It walks the line between organic and mechanic, where dusty field recordings weave between warm Moogs and Prophets, where jazz breaks bump next to broken drum machines. It’s meticulously crafted outsider pop, made by obsessives, for obsessives.
TRACK LISTING
1. Valhalla
2. Lucien
3. Sleep Now
4. IWY
5. Held
6. Default Memory
7. How Wonderful
8. Homage
9. Sky Interior
10. Valhalla (Reprise)
It was the end of 2013 and Jannis Noya Makrigiannis, the frontman and principal persona behind Choir of Young Believers, was worn out. He’d been touring the band’s last record the haunting Rhine Gold, for the better part of a year and, when it was over, he felt confused, adrift and didn’t feel like playing music. He was doubting the future of the band. The way he coped was to detach. He postponed writing in favor of traveling, deciding that instead of diving back into the creation of another record, he would allow himself to move in whatever direction he desired. His impulses guided his decisions; he wasn’t feeling very inspired by the guitar or the piano, so he started to fiddle around with a small pocket sampler his mother got him for Christmas, using it to make small soundscapes, beats and collages. Those early experiments became the building blocks for Grasque, from the warped, weird choral vocals that open “Serious Lover” to breezey, breathy R&B of “Jeg Ser Dig,” on which he sounds like a Scandinavian Sade.
The record pulls in a host of unlikely influences: smoky jazz on the noirish “The Whirlpool Enigma” twinkling pop on “Gamma Moth” and sun-bathed soul on “Cloud Nine.” It’s not so much a reinvention as a redirection, maintaining all of the group’s essential elements but setting them within a new context. Much of that is because, when Makrigiannis started the project, it wasn’t meant to be a new COYB record. Having been inspired by everything from experimental electronic music to Danish ‘80s and ‘90s pop, to modern hip-hop and R&B to techno and westcoast slow jams, he’d made a new, imaginary band in his head called Grasque to reflect those influences. He quickly recorded both “Græske” and “Face Melting” with Aske Zidore, who had also produced Rhine Gold, and when Choir of Young Believers reconvened to tour with Depeche Mode, he wrote a few guitar-based songs to play live. Gradually, he realized all of his new ideas and music could melt together with Choir of Young Believers. A couple of months later, he and Aske went to a small Swedish farm for a week and came back with more than 10 hours of new music.
The result is an album that is confident and expansive, incorporating an encyclopedia of styles while still maintaining the essential elements of Choir of Young Believers’ DNA. It’s pop music, put through a kaleidoscopic filter. “I must admit, one of the things I worried about was ‘What will people think?’” Makrigiannis says. “With almost all ofthese songs, I had been in doubt. Some, I felt, were too poppy, others too experimental some didn’t even feel like songs, but more like trips, or feelings. Some even had Danish and Greek lyrics. But now, it’s all Choir of Young Believers to me, and it feels great to have pushed the walls around the band, giving it a bit more space. It’s weird for me to think about all that doubt ”Could I do this? Could I do that? I mean, it’s my fucking band. I can do what I want with it. Right?”
The record pulls in a host of unlikely influences: smoky jazz on the noirish “The Whirlpool Enigma” twinkling pop on “Gamma Moth” and sun-bathed soul on “Cloud Nine.” It’s not so much a reinvention as a redirection, maintaining all of the group’s essential elements but setting them within a new context. Much of that is because, when Makrigiannis started the project, it wasn’t meant to be a new COYB record. Having been inspired by everything from experimental electronic music to Danish ‘80s and ‘90s pop, to modern hip-hop and R&B to techno and westcoast slow jams, he’d made a new, imaginary band in his head called Grasque to reflect those influences. He quickly recorded both “Græske” and “Face Melting” with Aske Zidore, who had also produced Rhine Gold, and when Choir of Young Believers reconvened to tour with Depeche Mode, he wrote a few guitar-based songs to play live. Gradually, he realized all of his new ideas and music could melt together with Choir of Young Believers. A couple of months later, he and Aske went to a small Swedish farm for a week and came back with more than 10 hours of new music.
The result is an album that is confident and expansive, incorporating an encyclopedia of styles while still maintaining the essential elements of Choir of Young Believers’ DNA. It’s pop music, put through a kaleidoscopic filter. “I must admit, one of the things I worried about was ‘What will people think?’” Makrigiannis says. “With almost all ofthese songs, I had been in doubt. Some, I felt, were too poppy, others too experimental some didn’t even feel like songs, but more like trips, or feelings. Some even had Danish and Greek lyrics. But now, it’s all Choir of Young Believers to me, and it feels great to have pushed the walls around the band, giving it a bit more space. It’s weird for me to think about all that doubt ”Could I do this? Could I do that? I mean, it’s my fucking band. I can do what I want with it. Right?”
TRACK LISTING
1. Olimpiyskiy
2. Serious Lover
3. Vaserne
4. Face Melting
5. Græske
6. Jeg Ser Dig
7. Cloud Nine
8. The Whirlpool Enigma
9. Perfect Estocada
10. Salvatore
11. Gamma Moth
12. Does It Look As If I Care
Perhaps fitting for a band Conceived in a monastery in Upper Vienna, Hearts Hearts create beautiful, elegiac songs which live at the intersection of classical and contemporary electronic and pop music.
Coming a generation after their spiritual forebearers like The Notwist and Radiohead, Hearts Hearts do not so much repeat or pay homage to these artists, but instead build upon them and ask how much has changed in the decade since there and then.
Anchored by Österle’s voice and as likely to evoke Sigur Ros as Flying Lotus, their debut album Young is an album about experimentation and observation - literate, sophisticated, but vulnerable and warm.
The songs on Young resemble miniature symphonies in their composition and dynamic scope, where surprising choices create a sense of tension and provocation. Tension that is so evident in the icy, melancholy “AAA” which pairs skittery, propulsive odd-time signature beats with long, legato cello lines to form a sweeping, moving aural landscape, or the racing machine heart of the title track “Young” with its mechanical beats straining against Österle’s yearning vocals. And the R&B-influenced “I Am In” which shows the band in a moment of reflection, sensual and human.
And this sense of tension and release, is reflected in the lyrics and, indeed, the concept for the album as a whole. «Young deals with the familiar patterns we find ourselves in life, the constrictions that come with that, and most of all, the attempt of breaking through, to temporarily stop going through the motions.» says David Österle, lead singer and writer. «Our lives are so over-defined and over-structured (that) we are measuring and weighing and then cutting off what’s undefined. And in reaction to all this, we are seeking spaces of temporary escape.»
Coming a generation after their spiritual forebearers like The Notwist and Radiohead, Hearts Hearts do not so much repeat or pay homage to these artists, but instead build upon them and ask how much has changed in the decade since there and then.
Anchored by Österle’s voice and as likely to evoke Sigur Ros as Flying Lotus, their debut album Young is an album about experimentation and observation - literate, sophisticated, but vulnerable and warm.
The songs on Young resemble miniature symphonies in their composition and dynamic scope, where surprising choices create a sense of tension and provocation. Tension that is so evident in the icy, melancholy “AAA” which pairs skittery, propulsive odd-time signature beats with long, legato cello lines to form a sweeping, moving aural landscape, or the racing machine heart of the title track “Young” with its mechanical beats straining against Österle’s yearning vocals. And the R&B-influenced “I Am In” which shows the band in a moment of reflection, sensual and human.
And this sense of tension and release, is reflected in the lyrics and, indeed, the concept for the album as a whole. «Young deals with the familiar patterns we find ourselves in life, the constrictions that come with that, and most of all, the attempt of breaking through, to temporarily stop going through the motions.» says David Österle, lead singer and writer. «Our lives are so over-defined and over-structured (that) we are measuring and weighing and then cutting off what’s undefined. And in reaction to all this, we are seeking spaces of temporary escape.»
TRACK LISTING
1. The World Was My Oyster
2. Bent Pyramid
3. I Am In
4. AAA
5. Potemkinsche Dörfer
6. Blood Level
7. Young
8. Inner Market Hunter Limits 10.If
Closing out 2015 comes the release of FKA Twigs third EP 'M3LL155X'. The EP features five tracks, four of which “Figure 8”, “I’m Your Doll”, “In Time”, “Glass & Patron” have been accompanied by videos directed by FKA Twigs herself.
The four film pieces come together to form a single continuous FKA Twigs- directed work, cementing who she is as an artist with an aggressive statement conceptualising the process of feeling pregnant with pain, birthing creativity and liberation.
'M3LL155X' is a continuation of the holistic creative process FKA twigs has undertaken on each of her previous EP releases (‘EP1’ and ‘EP2’), with videos forming an integral part of the release. However, 'M3LL155X' is more ambitious than ever and, in terms of concept, scope and execution, is undoubtedly FKA Twigs’ most complete work to date.
The four film pieces come together to form a single continuous FKA Twigs- directed work, cementing who she is as an artist with an aggressive statement conceptualising the process of feeling pregnant with pain, birthing creativity and liberation.
'M3LL155X' is a continuation of the holistic creative process FKA twigs has undertaken on each of her previous EP releases (‘EP1’ and ‘EP2’), with videos forming an integral part of the release. However, 'M3LL155X' is more ambitious than ever and, in terms of concept, scope and execution, is undoubtedly FKA Twigs’ most complete work to date.
The album is the follow-up to the Polaris Music Prize short-listed Ultramarine and their third album produced by Dan Lissvik (Studio, Atelje). Watch the trailer for Falsework here.
The winter of 2014/2015 took Young Galaxy from their studio in Montreal to Gothenburg and back. The band’s brilliant new full length Falsework completes the sound they have been mining on their past two albums Shapeshifting (2011) and Ultramarine (2013) with producer Dan Lissvik. The album is undeniably synth pop without the simplicity and was informed and inspired by 80’s electro, acid house and r&b, music that was well ahead of its time. Falsework was made using machines from the past to sound like music from the future.
The winter of 2014/2015 took Young Galaxy from their studio in Montreal to Gothenburg and back. The band’s brilliant new full length Falsework completes the sound they have been mining on their past two albums Shapeshifting (2011) and Ultramarine (2013) with producer Dan Lissvik. The album is undeniably synth pop without the simplicity and was informed and inspired by 80’s electro, acid house and r&b, music that was well ahead of its time. Falsework was made using machines from the past to sound like music from the future.
TRACK LISTING
1. Wear Out The Ground
2. The Night Wants Us To Be Free
3. Factory Flaws
4. Body
5. Ready To Shine
6. Must Be Love
7. We’re No Good
8. Little Wave
9. Lean Into My Love
10. Pressure
Younghusband first appeared in 2011 and this second LP has been a smoke stack on the road ahead since their 2013 debut ‘Dromes'. While that album defined a scene, this one sets them aside. ‘Dissolver' takes in a wide sweep of guitar music and focuses it into a precisely individual proposition; a sound unto itself that nonetheless garners comparisons with Elliott Smith, The Shoes, and Big Star.
The quartet of Euan Hinshelwood, Joe Chilton, Adam Beach and Pete Baker emerged as one of a crop of so-called neo-psych bands. Under a canopy of reverb and phase, they could be heard hunting for escape routes from the played-out circus of British rock. No easy task in a country so cold, expensive and hostile to change, where bed-bound, infinite scrolls into the past are sometimes the only entertainment you can withstand or afford.
The band have struck well clear of the dying party and markedly expanded their horizons, assiduously refining their sound and pushing themselves beyond their previous work. They could have expected a struggle for orientation but instead circumvented the difficult second album cliché, producing something which feels utterly effortless. Each section of music rolls out of what came before in a shuttle of cause and effect, tension and release that tic-tacks back to the exhilarating opener ‘Waverley Street' and its invitation: "...the offer is open tonight".
Hinshelwood's songs are subtler and more nuanced this time, yet their choruses have been scaled up. They're so discreetly prepared and precisely placed that they seem to come out of nowhere: lily pads hitting an exponential breeding curve, exploding from the crystalline surface of the verses.
The quartet of Euan Hinshelwood, Joe Chilton, Adam Beach and Pete Baker emerged as one of a crop of so-called neo-psych bands. Under a canopy of reverb and phase, they could be heard hunting for escape routes from the played-out circus of British rock. No easy task in a country so cold, expensive and hostile to change, where bed-bound, infinite scrolls into the past are sometimes the only entertainment you can withstand or afford.
The band have struck well clear of the dying party and markedly expanded their horizons, assiduously refining their sound and pushing themselves beyond their previous work. They could have expected a struggle for orientation but instead circumvented the difficult second album cliché, producing something which feels utterly effortless. Each section of music rolls out of what came before in a shuttle of cause and effect, tension and release that tic-tacks back to the exhilarating opener ‘Waverley Street' and its invitation: "...the offer is open tonight".
Hinshelwood's songs are subtler and more nuanced this time, yet their choruses have been scaled up. They're so discreetly prepared and precisely placed that they seem to come out of nowhere: lily pads hitting an exponential breeding curve, exploding from the crystalline surface of the verses.
Neil Young + Promise of the Real have joined forces and will release a new studio album, entitled The Monsanto Years, via Reprise Records. For this guitar-centric, full steam-ahead and highly-charged ecologically / environmentally-focused rock album, Young is joined by Promise of the Real, an LA-based rock band fronted by Lukas Nelson (vocals/guitar), along with Micah Nelson (guitar, vocals), Anthony Logerfo (drums), Corey McCormick (bass) and Tato Melgar (percussion). They have performed with their father, Willie Nelson and Young on previous occasions. For the first time, they have recorded and will now tour together under the banner of the Rebel Content Tour.
TRACK LISTING
1. A New Day For Love
2. Wolf Moon
3. People Want To Hear About Love
4. Big Box
5. A Rock Star Bucks A Coffee Shop
6. Workin' Man
7. Rules Of Change
8. Monsanto Years
9. If I Don't Know
Jamie xx releases his debut album 'In Colour' on Young Turks. The 11 track LP includes previous releases ‘Girl’ and ‘Sleep Sound’ as well as forthcoming single ‘Loud Places’, which features vocals from Romy Madley Croft.
The release of 'In Colour' comes on the back of an incredible six year creative period for Jamie xx, which has seen him alternate effortlessly between his role as founding member and producer of the xx, and creator of more electronic and club orientated music as Jamie xx. A string of acclaimed productions in recent years including debut solo single ‘Far Nearer’, remixes for the likes of Adele, Radiohead and Florence & The Machine, production work for Drake and Alicia Keys plus 'We’re New Here' - Jamie’s reworking of Gil Scott-Heron’s final studio album - hinted at what was to come. With 'In Colour' - a bold, celebratory, emotional record that features collaborations with The xx band mates Romy Madley Croft (‘Seesaw’ and ‘Loud Places’) and Oliver Sim (‘Stranger In A Room’), Young Thug and Popcaan (‘Good Times’) and Four Tet (‘Seesaw’) - Jamie delivers his definitive artistic statement.
The release of 'In Colour' comes on the back of an incredible six year creative period for Jamie xx, which has seen him alternate effortlessly between his role as founding member and producer of the xx, and creator of more electronic and club orientated music as Jamie xx. A string of acclaimed productions in recent years including debut solo single ‘Far Nearer’, remixes for the likes of Adele, Radiohead and Florence & The Machine, production work for Drake and Alicia Keys plus 'We’re New Here' - Jamie’s reworking of Gil Scott-Heron’s final studio album - hinted at what was to come. With 'In Colour' - a bold, celebratory, emotional record that features collaborations with The xx band mates Romy Madley Croft (‘Seesaw’ and ‘Loud Places’) and Oliver Sim (‘Stranger In A Room’), Young Thug and Popcaan (‘Good Times’) and Four Tet (‘Seesaw’) - Jamie delivers his definitive artistic statement.
TRACK LISTING
1. Gosh
2. Sleep Sound
3. SeeSaw (Featuring Romy)
4. Obvs
5. Just Saying
6. Stranger In A Room (featuring Oliver Sim)
7. Hold Tight
8. Loud Places (featuring Romy)
9. I Know There’s Gonna Be (Good Times) (featuring Young Thug & Popcaan)
10. The Rest Is Noise
11. Girl
When everything is post-post-post-post something older and better where do the exceptions go? When the sci-fi 20’s ‘Urban’ might as well be the atomic 50’s ‘Race’, when R&B has no blues and hiphop is a boom bip with a shorty, a hoe, it’s off to the street corner we go… where does a group like Young Fathers, who ‘pick'n'mix from the popular music sweety shop and fly no flags and swear allegiance to no country’ (© - 100 interviews with the group in 2014) - where do they go?
They have to go to the place where Beck makes a sandwich with The Beach Boys and Captain Beefheart, where Faust and The Fall tango. In Rock and Pop you are allowed to pretty much be yourself. If you are a blue and green eyed boy from Brixton with the sallowest of white skin you can become the epitome of crystalised soul, itself. It swings both ways. So… Young Fathers are breaking out of the ghetto. Fuck these constrictive selling boxes.
For the purposes of this mission, this album, this 'White Men Are Black Men Too', is rock and pop. And hip hop, too No, you don’t box in the R&B Hits 2003 generation that easily. This sticker is only for the business. The listeners can decide for themselves.
The sounds are closer on this album, closer to your ears. It sounds as if you are in the room during the recording, possibly experiencing a little existential trauma, but not enough that you don’t notice an earworm hook when you hear one. These hooks, they stay with you. ‘Is that what they mean by pop’? you ask yourself. Could be, Madonna, could be. There are less words than before. Why, for fuck’s sake? Where is the hip hop? It slides in, like a reverse version, a negative, of the hip hop blueprint of eight verses and a sweet, female wail of a hook (while comedy rapper number 6 mutters ‘uh huh, uh huh’, you know, keeping it real). But YFs lob raps into songs that morph into sung verses then back into the tune, with no respect, none! for the law.
These are grown men, battle fit and in their prime. There are no celebrations of dole queue theatre, no fake politics - there’s no need. YFs are right there in the middle of the question: what is your ID? Why claim to speak for a dispossessed white or black class or group or generation? When you can only ever speak for yourself.
When they chant ‘nigger nigger nigger’ the group are singing their enemy’s song (and you can all sing along) - it’s not a war cry, it’s the off switch, the left hand turn in the ignition, the pop-hiss of deflation. No more war, motherfucker. The tension is sexual, tuneful, it’s only fun about to kick off.
They have to go to the place where Beck makes a sandwich with The Beach Boys and Captain Beefheart, where Faust and The Fall tango. In Rock and Pop you are allowed to pretty much be yourself. If you are a blue and green eyed boy from Brixton with the sallowest of white skin you can become the epitome of crystalised soul, itself. It swings both ways. So… Young Fathers are breaking out of the ghetto. Fuck these constrictive selling boxes.
For the purposes of this mission, this album, this 'White Men Are Black Men Too', is rock and pop. And hip hop, too No, you don’t box in the R&B Hits 2003 generation that easily. This sticker is only for the business. The listeners can decide for themselves.
The sounds are closer on this album, closer to your ears. It sounds as if you are in the room during the recording, possibly experiencing a little existential trauma, but not enough that you don’t notice an earworm hook when you hear one. These hooks, they stay with you. ‘Is that what they mean by pop’? you ask yourself. Could be, Madonna, could be. There are less words than before. Why, for fuck’s sake? Where is the hip hop? It slides in, like a reverse version, a negative, of the hip hop blueprint of eight verses and a sweet, female wail of a hook (while comedy rapper number 6 mutters ‘uh huh, uh huh’, you know, keeping it real). But YFs lob raps into songs that morph into sung verses then back into the tune, with no respect, none! for the law.
These are grown men, battle fit and in their prime. There are no celebrations of dole queue theatre, no fake politics - there’s no need. YFs are right there in the middle of the question: what is your ID? Why claim to speak for a dispossessed white or black class or group or generation? When you can only ever speak for yourself.
When they chant ‘nigger nigger nigger’ the group are singing their enemy’s song (and you can all sing along) - it’s not a war cry, it’s the off switch, the left hand turn in the ignition, the pop-hiss of deflation. No more war, motherfucker. The tension is sexual, tuneful, it’s only fun about to kick off.
TRACK LISTING
Still Running
Shame
Feasting
27
Rain Or Shine
Sirens
Old Rock N Roll
Nest
Liberated
John Doe
Dare Me
Get Started
A1. Still Running
A2. Shame
A3. Feasting
A4. 27
A5. Rain Or Shine
A6. Sirens
B1. Old Rock N Roll
B2. Nest
B3. Liberated
B4. John Doe
B5. Dare Me
B6. Get Started
‘Who’s Gonna Stand Up?’ was originally performed at Crazy Horse shows in the UK this summer and more recently, as part of Young’s solo acoustic set at Farm Aid. The track makes a resounding plea to end dependence of fossil fuels in hopes of protecting the Earth’s fragile eco-systems for future generations.
Neil Young took a different approach with this record, first recording the songs on his own in a solo-setting, then creating compelling versions of the songs in a new light with an orchestra and big band, resulting in a deeply-personal emotional listening experience throughout the new record.
Neil Young took a different approach with this record, first recording the songs on his own in a solo-setting, then creating compelling versions of the songs in a new light with an orchestra and big band, resulting in a deeply-personal emotional listening experience throughout the new record.
TRACK LISTING
Side A: Who’s Gonna Stand Up - Solo Version + Orchestra Version
Side B: Who’s Gonna Stand Up - Live Version (feat. Crazy Horse) + Children’s Version
Having gone overground with his self-titled debut long player back in 2011, all went quiet on the SBTRKT release front soon after, leaving us waiting three years for new original material. His recent interim release of three instrumental ‘Transitions’ EPs joined the creative dots between the first and second albums, giving us pointers on what to expect next.
'Wonder Where We Land' traverses the current landscape of electronic post-dubstep / bass music, taking in the upbeat and downbeat, with minimal piano soul, house synth-pop and hip hop used as points of reference along the way. Longtime collaborator Sampha continues his journey as main vocalist here, with Jessie Ware also reappearing alongside a wider spectrum of guests that includes Caroline Polachek (Chairlift), MCs Raury and A$AP Ferg, Vampire Weekend's Ezra Koenig, Koreless and newcomer Denai Moore.
Opening with some experimental Wurlitzer weirdness, the bass drops into the subtle atmospherics of pianotronic ballad 'Wonder Where We Land' featuring Sampha, who also lays his fragility on 'Temporary View' and 'If It Happens'. One of a smattering of instros, 'Lantern' rides the arpeggiated synth-heavy Purple wave. 'Higher' offers a minimal trap groove while Raury speeds through his rap, taking a breath to sing the massive chorus hook. 'Look Away' is a fractured glitch-pop number complete with Autotuned vox by Caroline Polachek. The acoustic piano meets machine music theme continues on 'Problem (Solved)', which has Jessie Ware sounding sublime, and jittery Denai Moore-sung 'The Light'. Coming across like a Chemical Brothers future festival anthem 'New Dorp. New York' has Ezra Koenig icing the cake. The album closes with Ferg from the A$AP Mob freeforming over bombastic synth-fest 'Voices In My Head'.
'Wonder Where We Land' traverses the current landscape of electronic post-dubstep / bass music, taking in the upbeat and downbeat, with minimal piano soul, house synth-pop and hip hop used as points of reference along the way. Longtime collaborator Sampha continues his journey as main vocalist here, with Jessie Ware also reappearing alongside a wider spectrum of guests that includes Caroline Polachek (Chairlift), MCs Raury and A$AP Ferg, Vampire Weekend's Ezra Koenig, Koreless and newcomer Denai Moore.
Opening with some experimental Wurlitzer weirdness, the bass drops into the subtle atmospherics of pianotronic ballad 'Wonder Where We Land' featuring Sampha, who also lays his fragility on 'Temporary View' and 'If It Happens'. One of a smattering of instros, 'Lantern' rides the arpeggiated synth-heavy Purple wave. 'Higher' offers a minimal trap groove while Raury speeds through his rap, taking a breath to sing the massive chorus hook. 'Look Away' is a fractured glitch-pop number complete with Autotuned vox by Caroline Polachek. The acoustic piano meets machine music theme continues on 'Problem (Solved)', which has Jessie Ware sounding sublime, and jittery Denai Moore-sung 'The Light'. Coming across like a Chemical Brothers future festival anthem 'New Dorp. New York' has Ezra Koenig icing the cake. The album closes with Ferg from the A$AP Mob freeforming over bombastic synth-fest 'Voices In My Head'.
Having gone overground with his self-titled debut long player back in 2011, all went quiet on the SBTRKT release front soon after, leaving us waiting three years for new original material. His recent interim release of three instrumental ‘Transitions’ EPs joined the creative dots between the first and second albums, giving us pointers on what to expect next.
'Wonder Where We Land' traverses the current landscape of electronic post-dubstep / bass music, taking in the upbeat and downbeat, with minimal piano soul, house, synth-pop and hip hop used as points of reference along the way. Longtime collaborator Sampha continues his journey as main vocalist here, with Jessie Ware also reappearing alongside a wider spectrum of guests that includes Caroline Polachek (Chairlift), MCs Raury and A$AP Ferg, Vampire Weekend's Ezra Koenig, Koreless and newcomer Denai Moore.
Opening with some experimental Wurlitzer weirdness, the bass drops into the subtle atmospherics of pianotronic ballad 'Wonder Where We Land' featuring Sampha, who also lays his fragility on 'Temporary View' and 'If It Happens'. One of a smattering of instros, 'Lantern' rides the arpeggiated synth-heavy Purple wave. 'Higher' offers a minimal trap groove while Raury speeds through his rap, taking a breath to sing the massive chorus hook. 'Look Away' is a fractured glitch-pop number complete with Autotuned vox by Caroline Polachek. The acoustic piano meets machine music theme continues on 'Problem (Solved)', which has Jessie Ware sounding sublime, and jittery Denai Moore-sung 'The Light'. Coming across like a Chemical Brothers future festival anthem 'New Dorp. New York' has Ezra Koenig icing the cake. The album closes with Ferg from the A$AP Mob freeforming over bombastic synth-fest 'Voices In My Head'.
'Wonder Where We Land' traverses the current landscape of electronic post-dubstep / bass music, taking in the upbeat and downbeat, with minimal piano soul, house, synth-pop and hip hop used as points of reference along the way. Longtime collaborator Sampha continues his journey as main vocalist here, with Jessie Ware also reappearing alongside a wider spectrum of guests that includes Caroline Polachek (Chairlift), MCs Raury and A$AP Ferg, Vampire Weekend's Ezra Koenig, Koreless and newcomer Denai Moore.
Opening with some experimental Wurlitzer weirdness, the bass drops into the subtle atmospherics of pianotronic ballad 'Wonder Where We Land' featuring Sampha, who also lays his fragility on 'Temporary View' and 'If It Happens'. One of a smattering of instros, 'Lantern' rides the arpeggiated synth-heavy Purple wave. 'Higher' offers a minimal trap groove while Raury speeds through his rap, taking a breath to sing the massive chorus hook. 'Look Away' is a fractured glitch-pop number complete with Autotuned vox by Caroline Polachek. The acoustic piano meets machine music theme continues on 'Problem (Solved)', which has Jessie Ware sounding sublime, and jittery Denai Moore-sung 'The Light'. Coming across like a Chemical Brothers future festival anthem 'New Dorp. New York' has Ezra Koenig icing the cake. The album closes with Ferg from the A$AP Mob freeforming over bombastic synth-fest 'Voices In My Head'.
"LP1" arrived on the shop counter off the back of a wave of anticipation, hype and uproarious reviews. As the release date grew closer, the number of customers whispering her name over the counter grew and grew, her reputation buoyed by a spectacular sell out show at the Dancehouse recently, which even garnered the admiration of well known Mancunian curmudgeon Randy Marsh! Well, it's here, and god damn it, the hipsters were right! Wonderfully experimental, defiantly accidental and expertly produced RnB majesty that's destined for a Mercury Music Prize.
Undeniably contemporary, this long player sees Tahliah Barnett reinterpret Prince's slow jams through the skewed gaze of someone living in an Odd Future, swapping the hardware warmth for nuanced software glitch. The ten tracks on show offer a variety of mood and feeling, ranging from the intimate to the euphoric and the melancholic to the anthemic. "Lights On" is gonna soundtrack every student date in the coming academic year, while the eerie choral timbre of "Closer" is this decade's answer to Shakespeare's Sister, in a very good way. Well executed and conceptually bold, this perfect example of post-everything pop music looks set to be a future classic.
Undeniably contemporary, this long player sees Tahliah Barnett reinterpret Prince's slow jams through the skewed gaze of someone living in an Odd Future, swapping the hardware warmth for nuanced software glitch. The ten tracks on show offer a variety of mood and feeling, ranging from the intimate to the euphoric and the melancholic to the anthemic. "Lights On" is gonna soundtrack every student date in the coming academic year, while the eerie choral timbre of "Closer" is this decade's answer to Shakespeare's Sister, in a very good way. Well executed and conceptually bold, this perfect example of post-everything pop music looks set to be a future classic.
TRACK LISTING
1. Preface
2. Lights On
3. Two Weeks
4. Hours
5. Pendulum
6. Video Girl
7. Numbers
8. Closer
9. Give Up
10. Kicks
White Sands, the new single from Young Knives and recent winner of the BBC 6 Music Rebel Playlist, is the second single to be taken from Young Knives’ widely acclaimed fourth studio album Sick Octave.
Released on 7” white vinyl limited to 150 copies, each sleeve will be handmade by the band and feature an individual close-up photo of a grimy nook or cranny of the Young Knives studio. No two sleeves will be the same.
The B-side is an exclusive new track called I Only Want Your Love. Lead singer Henry Dartnall says about White Sands “This song highlights our new direction – industrial production, disquieting synth breaks, very loud guitars. It’s also one of our favourite songs on the album. White Sands has a very important message hidden within its seemingly vacuous exterior. When we’ve worked out what it is we will tell you. It’s something about hedonism, the military and the power struggle between Western values and the rest of the world.”
Released on 7” white vinyl limited to 150 copies, each sleeve will be handmade by the band and feature an individual close-up photo of a grimy nook or cranny of the Young Knives studio. No two sleeves will be the same.
The B-side is an exclusive new track called I Only Want Your Love. Lead singer Henry Dartnall says about White Sands “This song highlights our new direction – industrial production, disquieting synth breaks, very loud guitars. It’s also one of our favourite songs on the album. White Sands has a very important message hidden within its seemingly vacuous exterior. When we’ve worked out what it is we will tell you. It’s something about hedonism, the military and the power struggle between Western values and the rest of the world.”
Reigning in the melodic chaos of their previous works, the dystopian beats on Young Magic’s second release were conceived in a new series of experiments. Producer Isaac Emmanuel and vocalist Melati Malay pieced together the album over the past year while on tour – recording in Morocco, France, Czech Republic, Australia, Iceland and their home studio in New York.
As a result, Breathing Statues unfolds in labyrinthine fashion, its surreal lyrics and ghostly harmonies emphasizing the record’s otherworldly intimacy, growing darker as the album progresses from the agile “Fall In” to the lurching chants of “Mythnomer.”
In the spirit of the album’s spontaneity, the band invited a harpist to improvise over their songs, layering celestial fragments over the record’s cavernous beats. The album operates in these extremes, with the airiness of Malay’s vocals set in sharp contrast with the claustrophobic doom of Emmanuel’s warped percussion.
With Breathing Statues, Young Magic’s series of audio experimentations coalesce into a new holographic landscape, showing a band progressing with ambition towards a sound uniquely their own.
Young Magic is the sonic pairing between Indonesian vocalist, Melati Malay and Australian producer, Isaac Emmanuel. Although currently based in New York, the eclectic outfit has recorded music whilst traversing the four corners of the earth.
After debuting a series of 7” releases on Carpark Records in 2011, the band took the stage at Iceland Airwaves and began touring globally, including main support tours with Youth Lagoon and Purity Ring. February 2012 saw the release of their full length, Melt with the likes of NPR, BBC, New York Times, XLR8R and a plethora of other publications and blogs singing the album’s praises. The group’s immersive visual show continued to expand throughout 2012 and 2013 with performances at Berghain, Austin Psych Fest and The Brooklyn Museum.
This year, the duo present a new gift from their explorations in their sophomore release, Breathing Statues. The album navigates through a labyrinth of phantom harmonies and crystalline beats, with cover artwork by longtime collaborator Leif Podhajsky. Breathing Statues is a lush and distinctive collection that colors the world a new soundscape.
As a result, Breathing Statues unfolds in labyrinthine fashion, its surreal lyrics and ghostly harmonies emphasizing the record’s otherworldly intimacy, growing darker as the album progresses from the agile “Fall In” to the lurching chants of “Mythnomer.”
In the spirit of the album’s spontaneity, the band invited a harpist to improvise over their songs, layering celestial fragments over the record’s cavernous beats. The album operates in these extremes, with the airiness of Malay’s vocals set in sharp contrast with the claustrophobic doom of Emmanuel’s warped percussion.
With Breathing Statues, Young Magic’s series of audio experimentations coalesce into a new holographic landscape, showing a band progressing with ambition towards a sound uniquely their own.
Young Magic is the sonic pairing between Indonesian vocalist, Melati Malay and Australian producer, Isaac Emmanuel. Although currently based in New York, the eclectic outfit has recorded music whilst traversing the four corners of the earth.
After debuting a series of 7” releases on Carpark Records in 2011, the band took the stage at Iceland Airwaves and began touring globally, including main support tours with Youth Lagoon and Purity Ring. February 2012 saw the release of their full length, Melt with the likes of NPR, BBC, New York Times, XLR8R and a plethora of other publications and blogs singing the album’s praises. The group’s immersive visual show continued to expand throughout 2012 and 2013 with performances at Berghain, Austin Psych Fest and The Brooklyn Museum.
This year, the duo present a new gift from their explorations in their sophomore release, Breathing Statues. The album navigates through a labyrinth of phantom harmonies and crystalline beats, with cover artwork by longtime collaborator Leif Podhajsky. Breathing Statues is a lush and distinctive collection that colors the world a new soundscape.
TRACK LISTING
1. One
2. Fall In
3. Foxglove
4. Something In The Water
5. Ageless
6. Cobra
7. Holographic
8. Mythnomer
9. Waiting For The Ground To Open
10. Captcha
THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2014 EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.
Factory Benelux presents Reflection (Young Image) b/w Change, the brand new single by Section 25, issued in a special limited edition of just 500 copies pressed in orange vinyl to mark Record Store Day on 19 April 2014
Taken from the forthcoming release From The Hip (30th Anniversary Edition), Reflection is a brand new version of this driving dream-pop anthem from side one of the classic 1984 album, which maybe should have been a single at the time. “On first listening Reflection is a whimsical yet heartfelt expression of true love,” says Beth Cassidy. “But strip this back and we discover an inner core which explores the surreal nature of life itself. Even after 30 years there are layers to this song that conceal its true meaning.”
Flipside 'Change' is exclusive to this 7” single and will not be made available elsewhere. “The lyric is the narrative of a changing relationship wrapped up in the music of a changing band,” explains founder member Vin Cassidy.
The fluorescent artwork and packaging is based on original designs by Peter Saville for SXXV’s classic 1984 club single Looking From A Hilltop.
Section 25 today are Vin Cassidy, Beth Cassidy, Steve Stringer and Jo Cassidy. “Metamorphosing from the glummest, most dour group ever into progenitors of House, Blackpool’s SXXV are, inevitably, one of the groups of this very post-punk moment” (Chris Bohn, The Wire magazine).
Factory Benelux presents Reflection (Young Image) b/w Change, the brand new single by Section 25, issued in a special limited edition of just 500 copies pressed in orange vinyl to mark Record Store Day on 19 April 2014
Taken from the forthcoming release From The Hip (30th Anniversary Edition), Reflection is a brand new version of this driving dream-pop anthem from side one of the classic 1984 album, which maybe should have been a single at the time. “On first listening Reflection is a whimsical yet heartfelt expression of true love,” says Beth Cassidy. “But strip this back and we discover an inner core which explores the surreal nature of life itself. Even after 30 years there are layers to this song that conceal its true meaning.”
Flipside 'Change' is exclusive to this 7” single and will not be made available elsewhere. “The lyric is the narrative of a changing relationship wrapped up in the music of a changing band,” explains founder member Vin Cassidy.
The fluorescent artwork and packaging is based on original designs by Peter Saville for SXXV’s classic 1984 club single Looking From A Hilltop.
Section 25 today are Vin Cassidy, Beth Cassidy, Steve Stringer and Jo Cassidy. “Metamorphosing from the glummest, most dour group ever into progenitors of House, Blackpool’s SXXV are, inevitably, one of the groups of this very post-punk moment” (Chris Bohn, The Wire magazine).
TRACK LISTING
Side A: Reflection (Young Image)
Side B: Change
Reduced
Limited edition Young Galaxy ‘Privileged Poor’ remix 12” featuring Factory Floor, TOY and Dan Lissvik (Studio). Debut release from new label, 586.
Young Galaxy’s ‘Privileged Poor’ is taken from the Polaris Music Prize short-listed album 'Ultramarine'. Factory Floor's remix comes hot on the heels of the band’s acclaimed debut album on DFA, and has similar sound designs. Their mix strips away the vocals, pads and pop touches, leaving us with a taut, driving analogue techno / house number. If you didn't know it was a remix you would think it was one of Factory Floor's own tracks. TOY’s Dom and Ale continue to emerge as world class remixers as they transform 'Privileged Poor' into a hypnotic, motorik psychedelic freak out. While less synthy than the original, Dan Lissvik keeps the pop edges of the original and an extra bump for the dancefloor.
Young Galaxy’s ‘Privileged Poor’ is taken from the Polaris Music Prize short-listed album 'Ultramarine'. Factory Floor's remix comes hot on the heels of the band’s acclaimed debut album on DFA, and has similar sound designs. Their mix strips away the vocals, pads and pop touches, leaving us with a taut, driving analogue techno / house number. If you didn't know it was a remix you would think it was one of Factory Floor's own tracks. TOY’s Dom and Ale continue to emerge as world class remixers as they transform 'Privileged Poor' into a hypnotic, motorik psychedelic freak out. While less synthy than the original, Dan Lissvik keeps the pop edges of the original and an extra bump for the dancefloor.
TRACK LISTING
A1. Privileged Poor (Factory Floor Remix)
AA1. Privileged Poor (TOY Remix)
AA2. Privileged Poor (Dan Lissvik Remix)
"Young Knives are Henry Dartnall (me), The House Of Lords and Oliver Askew. I’m the big cheese in the band. I write a lot of the songs, play guitar and sing. The House Of Lords is my brother, and he plays bass and keys and sings a lot. He has a cool stage name, so fickle people tend to think he is the best in the band. Ollie plays drums and sings.
Our first album Voices of Animals and Men was really popular! We had three singles entering the UK Top 40 and the album was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize in 2007. In 2008 we released Superabundance, we got a couple of Top 40 singles and the album included our most synched track Turn Tail; something to do with the big string section, I reckon. Then we decided very much that we needed to get away from major label pressures as it just didn’t suit our temperament, and although it may have been a naïve move, we decided to start our own label, Gadzöök. In 2011 we released our third album Ornaments from the Silver Arcade, and this felt like the last record in a trilogy. This record has some of our favourite songs to play live, like Vision In Rags and Woman.
Sick Octave has been a new start for us. It has definitely been the most fun record we’ve ever made. We almost didn’t make it a Young Knives record as it feels so different from what went before. But that would be a lie; it is totally a Young Knives record."
Our first album Voices of Animals and Men was really popular! We had three singles entering the UK Top 40 and the album was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize in 2007. In 2008 we released Superabundance, we got a couple of Top 40 singles and the album included our most synched track Turn Tail; something to do with the big string section, I reckon. Then we decided very much that we needed to get away from major label pressures as it just didn’t suit our temperament, and although it may have been a naïve move, we decided to start our own label, Gadzöök. In 2011 we released our third album Ornaments from the Silver Arcade, and this felt like the last record in a trilogy. This record has some of our favourite songs to play live, like Vision In Rags and Woman.
Sick Octave has been a new start for us. It has definitely been the most fun record we’ve ever made. We almost didn’t make it a Young Knives record as it feels so different from what went before. But that would be a lie; it is totally a Young Knives record."
Young Turks announce "YT2013" a series of very limited edition vinyl releases to celebrate the label's artists of 2013.
To showcase the exciting releases Young Turks have had throughout 2013, the label are set to release a series of uniquely artworked limited edition 12"s. Each vinyl will feature two tracks by artists affiliated with the label in 2013.
The second of these will be the release of a rare track by The xx split with a track from Sampha’s ‘Dual’ EP. 200 copies only, UK only release.
The xx - 'Reconsider'. First vinyl release for “Reconsider”, Japanese Bonus track of 'Coexist'.
Sampha - 'Without'. 'Without' is taken from Sampha debut EP ‘Dual’, released on July 29th 2013 on Young Turks.
To showcase the exciting releases Young Turks have had throughout 2013, the label are set to release a series of uniquely artworked limited edition 12"s. Each vinyl will feature two tracks by artists affiliated with the label in 2013.
The second of these will be the release of a rare track by The xx split with a track from Sampha’s ‘Dual’ EP. 200 copies only, UK only release.
The xx - 'Reconsider'. First vinyl release for “Reconsider”, Japanese Bonus track of 'Coexist'.
Sampha - 'Without'. 'Without' is taken from Sampha debut EP ‘Dual’, released on July 29th 2013 on Young Turks.
Finally back in print, the second FKA Twigs EP. Originally released September 2013 on Young Turks and fanning the flames of this. soon-to-be star.
Six years later it's lost none of its stop-you-dead-in-your-tracks, fragile beauty. As if suspended on a tightrope of otherworldly desires, tracks crumble beneath crushing beats as listeners precariously step into the unknown with each and every passage.
The smudged dreaminess flirts with the post-vapourwave fall-out, even skirting into benzo-rap before sticking two fingers up at the opiated, lackluster also-rans as they wallow in self pity whilst FKA rises like an angel from the ashes of a fractured society. Don't miss your chance to cop this second time round....
Six years later it's lost none of its stop-you-dead-in-your-tracks, fragile beauty. As if suspended on a tightrope of otherworldly desires, tracks crumble beneath crushing beats as listeners precariously step into the unknown with each and every passage.
The smudged dreaminess flirts with the post-vapourwave fall-out, even skirting into benzo-rap before sticking two fingers up at the opiated, lackluster also-rans as they wallow in self pity whilst FKA rises like an angel from the ashes of a fractured society. Don't miss your chance to cop this second time round....
STAFF COMMENTS
Matt says: Hold my hands up. Slept on this back in 2013 (think I was obsessed with a world of galloping techno and US house...); WHOOPS! Massive fail on my part. Sometimes our fertile soil truly gestates a truly unique musical life form. FKA Twigs is one such species and should be celebrated as a indigenous UK sonic landrace.TRACK LISTING
How’s That
Water Me
Papi Pacify
Ultraviolet
"Having apparently exorcised his demons by releasing the cathartic Tonight's the Night, Neil Young returned to his commercial strengths with Zuma (named after Zuma Beach in Los Angeles, where he now owned a house). Seven of the album's nine songs were recorded with the reunited Crazy Horse, in which rhythm guitarist Frank Sampedro had replaced the late Danny Whitten, but there were also nods to other popular Young styles in "Pardon My Heart," an acoustic song that would have fit on Harvest, his most popular album, and "Through My Sails," retrieved from one of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's abortive recording sessions. Young had abandoned the ragged, first-take approach of his previous three albums, but Crazy Horse would never be a polished act, and the music had a lively sound well-suited to the songs, which were some of the most melodic, pop-oriented tunes Young had crafted in years, though they were played with an electric-guitar-drenched rock intensity. The overall theme concerned romantic conflict, with lyrics that lamented lost love and sometimes longed for a return ("Pardon My Heart" even found Young singing, "I don't believe this song"), though the overall conclusion, notably in such catchy songs as "Don't Cry No Tears" and "Lookin' for a Love," was to move on to the next relationship. But the album's standout track (apparently the only holdover from an early intention to present songs with historical subjects) was the seven-and-a-half-minute epic "Cortez the Killer," a commentary on the Spanish conqueror of Latin America that served as a platform for Young's most extensive guitar soloing since his work on Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere." - AllMusic.
Young Knives return to their noisey DIY roots with new EP - as lead singer and guitarist Henry Dartnall explains “For some reason when you are working with record labels it’s an assumption that you book into a £500 per day studio and a producer tells you what is wrong with your music and makes it better for you. I know it’s a clicheì but after these sessions we have always felt there was no good reason why we couldn’t have done it ourselves like we always used to."
In terms of drastic reinventions, it’s up there with when Dexy’s’ Kevin Rowland started wearing a wedding dress, albeit a rather more appealing one. “We have tried to make a record that will mess with peoples expectations of us,’ Thomas ‘The House Of Lords’ Dartnall says. “We wanted to make something dark and nasty, something industrial, synthetic, crass but with a sprinkling of pretty shit.”
Some of it sounds like Kraftwerk. Some of it sounds like a late 1990s computer games console being forced into a food processor. Some of sounds like experimental Blur. Some of it sounds like The Fall. Some of those riffs do sound a bit like Gang Of Four still, actually. It’s the most intriguing, dark, out there yet still instantly lapel-gripping music the band has ever created. Young Knives under the bed sheets.
In terms of drastic reinventions, it’s up there with when Dexy’s’ Kevin Rowland started wearing a wedding dress, albeit a rather more appealing one. “We have tried to make a record that will mess with peoples expectations of us,’ Thomas ‘The House Of Lords’ Dartnall says. “We wanted to make something dark and nasty, something industrial, synthetic, crass but with a sprinkling of pretty shit.”
Some of it sounds like Kraftwerk. Some of it sounds like a late 1990s computer games console being forced into a food processor. Some of sounds like experimental Blur. Some of it sounds like The Fall. Some of those riffs do sound a bit like Gang Of Four still, actually. It’s the most intriguing, dark, out there yet still instantly lapel-gripping music the band has ever created. Young Knives under the bed sheets.
Like a wildflower of positive energy spreading its seed through song, Bergen collective Young Dreams are coming for the head and the heart. An album of stirring, symphonic wonder, Between Places is Young Dreams’ first cultivation of a rich patch of sonic earth, to be released in February 2013.
Young Dreams is at the core, Matias Tellez - composer, raconteur, dreamer; and Rune Vanderskog – vocalist, harmoniser, eternal optimist. Around these two orbits a team of skilled merry men - Matias’ brother Pablo Tellez – bass guitar and boundless enthusiasm; Marius Erster Bergesen – drums and guns; Njål Strøm Paulsberg – electronic nerdery and fashion; and Chris Holm – guitarist, vocalist, and father.
Beyond this core though, which originally began as all great rock’n’roll stories do, through frequenting the same bar (Bergen dive Vamoose in this case), the Young Dreams act swells to as many as the budget will allow, with a clutch of close friends contributing lyrics, vocals and instrumentation both in the studio and on the road. In a way it’s a very modular act (no pun intended), with each member having at least one other project, and often more than one member playing in another members other projects, and so on and so forth.
The genesis for this project though occurred in 2009, when Tellez decided to go about building a studio, where “ instead of spending our money renting studios we would spend the money on building one and give people without much money the opportunity to record their songs without having to get broke. We bought some equipment with the little money we had left and Erlend Øye (K.O.C/TWBA) donated a mixer and a computer”. With likeminded dreamers regularly stopping by to use the studio, Tellez made the decision to move beyond his up-until-then mostly solo work, and make use of the people that surrounded him to bring his ambitious pop prophecies to life.
I asked Rune if he wanted to sing on a new track I had been working on called "Young 1", later known as "Flight 376". I asked one of the bar owners, a Welsh guy called David, if he wanted to help me out on the lyrics so David, Rune and I sat down and wrote the words. We recorded the vocals and the word got around and people got to hear it. More people got keen on contributing so when I had laid down the music tracks people came by the studio to record their vocal parts. Gradually the foundations of Young Dreams were laid, and the result is Between Places - a vast, deep dive into symphonic pop, borrowing from classical composition as much as classic 60’s pop as much as textural electronic experimentation. Dense, darting arrangements are utilized to convey the most plaintive, honest of emotions, and on the contrary, sparse simplistic melodies carry the weighty feelings of young love and uncertain futures. Overall it’s a joyous uplifting celebration of youthful song, and at the same time as grandiose as debut records tend to get.
“The vision was just to compose and record beautiful and honest music. It was kind of a reaction to all the superficial music with the wrong intentions being played around. It kind of hurt. It's like watching someone being beat and not doing anything about it, that’s just wrong. So I looked back at what I wanted to do when I was a kid, what other people wanted to do when they were kids.”
Songs start in unexpected places, and end up even further off the beaten track. ‘Footprints’ is an invigorating splash of vocal harmony and percussive energy, while ‘Fog Of War’ is the heavenly first single, a burst of sweet strings driven by trance-like synthesizers. On ‘Wounded Hearts’ you find an attempt to literally capture the feeling of a dream in song form, as arranged in the style of Gil Evans’ work with Miles Davis in ‘Wounded Hearts Forever’. There’s a choral introduction based on Mozart’s requiem on ‘Through The Turnstiles’, and a “Steve Reich/John Williams-ish” orchestral house track in album centerpiece ‘The Girl That Taught Me How To Drink And Fight’. It could all very easily come across as overwrought, indie pretentiousness if it weren’t for the abundance of pure unfettered feeling at every trick and turn.
“It's about documenting and capturing the sound of people trying the best they can. And that's maybe one of the most beautiful things in the world.”
When it came time to mix, Matias’ brain was understandably fried, and so UK sound architect Gareth Jones (Grizzly Bear, Mogwai, Liars) took a trip to Bergen to put the beast to bed, bringing 20 odd years of mix experience with him, and finding sweet spots that until then only existed in Matias’ head.
And so we have Between Places, the debut record from Young Dreams. For your enjoyment.
Young Dreams is at the core, Matias Tellez - composer, raconteur, dreamer; and Rune Vanderskog – vocalist, harmoniser, eternal optimist. Around these two orbits a team of skilled merry men - Matias’ brother Pablo Tellez – bass guitar and boundless enthusiasm; Marius Erster Bergesen – drums and guns; Njål Strøm Paulsberg – electronic nerdery and fashion; and Chris Holm – guitarist, vocalist, and father.
Beyond this core though, which originally began as all great rock’n’roll stories do, through frequenting the same bar (Bergen dive Vamoose in this case), the Young Dreams act swells to as many as the budget will allow, with a clutch of close friends contributing lyrics, vocals and instrumentation both in the studio and on the road. In a way it’s a very modular act (no pun intended), with each member having at least one other project, and often more than one member playing in another members other projects, and so on and so forth.
The genesis for this project though occurred in 2009, when Tellez decided to go about building a studio, where “ instead of spending our money renting studios we would spend the money on building one and give people without much money the opportunity to record their songs without having to get broke. We bought some equipment with the little money we had left and Erlend Øye (K.O.C/TWBA) donated a mixer and a computer”. With likeminded dreamers regularly stopping by to use the studio, Tellez made the decision to move beyond his up-until-then mostly solo work, and make use of the people that surrounded him to bring his ambitious pop prophecies to life.
I asked Rune if he wanted to sing on a new track I had been working on called "Young 1", later known as "Flight 376". I asked one of the bar owners, a Welsh guy called David, if he wanted to help me out on the lyrics so David, Rune and I sat down and wrote the words. We recorded the vocals and the word got around and people got to hear it. More people got keen on contributing so when I had laid down the music tracks people came by the studio to record their vocal parts. Gradually the foundations of Young Dreams were laid, and the result is Between Places - a vast, deep dive into symphonic pop, borrowing from classical composition as much as classic 60’s pop as much as textural electronic experimentation. Dense, darting arrangements are utilized to convey the most plaintive, honest of emotions, and on the contrary, sparse simplistic melodies carry the weighty feelings of young love and uncertain futures. Overall it’s a joyous uplifting celebration of youthful song, and at the same time as grandiose as debut records tend to get.
“The vision was just to compose and record beautiful and honest music. It was kind of a reaction to all the superficial music with the wrong intentions being played around. It kind of hurt. It's like watching someone being beat and not doing anything about it, that’s just wrong. So I looked back at what I wanted to do when I was a kid, what other people wanted to do when they were kids.”
Songs start in unexpected places, and end up even further off the beaten track. ‘Footprints’ is an invigorating splash of vocal harmony and percussive energy, while ‘Fog Of War’ is the heavenly first single, a burst of sweet strings driven by trance-like synthesizers. On ‘Wounded Hearts’ you find an attempt to literally capture the feeling of a dream in song form, as arranged in the style of Gil Evans’ work with Miles Davis in ‘Wounded Hearts Forever’. There’s a choral introduction based on Mozart’s requiem on ‘Through The Turnstiles’, and a “Steve Reich/John Williams-ish” orchestral house track in album centerpiece ‘The Girl That Taught Me How To Drink And Fight’. It could all very easily come across as overwrought, indie pretentiousness if it weren’t for the abundance of pure unfettered feeling at every trick and turn.
“It's about documenting and capturing the sound of people trying the best they can. And that's maybe one of the most beautiful things in the world.”
When it came time to mix, Matias’ brain was understandably fried, and so UK sound architect Gareth Jones (Grizzly Bear, Mogwai, Liars) took a trip to Bergen to put the beast to bed, bringing 20 odd years of mix experience with him, and finding sweet spots that until then only existed in Matias’ head.
And so we have Between Places, the debut record from Young Dreams. For your enjoyment.
TRACK LISTING
1. Footprints
2. Wounded Hearts Forever
3. Fog Of War
4. First Days Of Something
5. When Kisses Are Salty
6. Dream Alone, Wake Together
7. The Girl That Taught Me To Drink And Fight
8. Through The Turnstiles
9. Young Dreams
Hailing from North Oakland, California, Squadda B and Mondre MAN of Main Attrakionz have been rapping together for most of their young lives. Early on, a shared love of rap music led them to put school on the backburner and focus on producing music with a talented crew of local artists.
Over the ensuing 7+ years, and with an added assist from the world wide web and social media, Main Attrakionz have cultivated a unique and passionate sound, combining opaque atmospherics and lived-in reality rhymes, that stands as one of the most interesting and refreshing in the crowded and fractured world of today’s rap underground.
Over the ensuing 7+ years, and with an added assist from the world wide web and social media, Main Attrakionz have cultivated a unique and passionate sound, combining opaque atmospherics and lived-in reality rhymes, that stands as one of the most interesting and refreshing in the crowded and fractured world of today’s rap underground.
The long awaited second album from The XX.
Three years on from their Mercury Prize winning debut, Romy Madley Croft, Oliver Sim and Jamie Smith are back with a new album, ‘Coexist’, and a new perspective.
Where ‘XX’ lent in close to whisper in your ear, ‘Coexist’ gazes warmly in your eyes. Much has happened to lead to this point: most pertinently, they’ve grown up.
Three years on from their Mercury Prize winning debut, Romy Madley Croft, Oliver Sim and Jamie Smith are back with a new album, ‘Coexist’, and a new perspective.
Where ‘XX’ lent in close to whisper in your ear, ‘Coexist’ gazes warmly in your eyes. Much has happened to lead to this point: most pertinently, they’ve grown up.
STAFF COMMENTS
Ryan says: Even more dazzling than their last! The vocals are intimate & soulful while subtle club rhythms chug along nicely to give it all just the right amount of impact.TRACK LISTING
1. Angels
2. Chained
3. Fiction
4. Try
5. Reunion
6. Sunset
7. Missing
8. Tides
9. Unfold
10. Swept Away
11. Our Song
"The Seer took 30 years to make. It’s the culmination of every previous Swans album as well as any other music I’ve ever made, been involved in, or imagined. But it’s unfinished, like the songs themselves. It’s one frame in a reel. The frames blur, blend and will eventually fade.
The songs began on an acoustic guitar, then were fleshed out with (invaluable) help from my friends, then were further tortured and seduced in rehearsals, live, and in the studio, and now they await further cannibalism and force-feeding as we prepare to perform some of them live, at which point they’ll mutate further, endlessly, or perhaps be discarded for a while.
Despite what you might have heard or presumed, my quest is to spread light and joy through the world. My friends in Swans are all stellar men. Without them I’m a kitten, an infant. Our goal is the same: ecstasy!" - Michael Gira.
“For the last two years, one of the world’s most bellicose bands has paid respect to its legacy largely by leaving it alone and tried to expand it by testing its old limits … this is exactly the kind of forward-pointing roadmark Swans deserve.” —Pitchfork
“The Swans are currently the greatest rock band on the planet....” —The Quietus
“[Gira] is looking for beauty, pure and simple, unfettered by meaning or standard songwriting notions of emotional resonance.” —The Wire
The songs began on an acoustic guitar, then were fleshed out with (invaluable) help from my friends, then were further tortured and seduced in rehearsals, live, and in the studio, and now they await further cannibalism and force-feeding as we prepare to perform some of them live, at which point they’ll mutate further, endlessly, or perhaps be discarded for a while.
Despite what you might have heard or presumed, my quest is to spread light and joy through the world. My friends in Swans are all stellar men. Without them I’m a kitten, an infant. Our goal is the same: ecstasy!" - Michael Gira.
“For the last two years, one of the world’s most bellicose bands has paid respect to its legacy largely by leaving it alone and tried to expand it by testing its old limits … this is exactly the kind of forward-pointing roadmark Swans deserve.” —Pitchfork
“The Swans are currently the greatest rock band on the planet....” —The Quietus
“[Gira] is looking for beauty, pure and simple, unfettered by meaning or standard songwriting notions of emotional resonance.” —The Wire
STAFF COMMENTS
Darryl says: The mighty Swans return with 'The Seer'. From ribcage crushing noise to gentle acoustic passages, this has all the hallmarks of the classic Swans "sound"; intense, powerful and pure.TRACK LISTING
1. Lunacy
2. Mother Of The World
3. The Wolf
4. The Seer
5. The Seer Returns
6. 93 Ave. B Blues
7. The Daughter Brings The Water
8. Song For A Warrior
9. Avatar
10. A Piece Of The Sky
11. The Apostate …
The new album for the US artist Young Man aka Colin Caulfield with guitarist Emmett Conway, bassist Joe Bailey, drummer Dylan Andrews and synth player Jeff Graupner - produced by John McEntire (Tortoise, The Sea And Cake a.o.)
Before he was even finished with the debut Young Man EP Boy, singersongwriter Colin Caulfield already knew what he wanted to do with this one, the 9-track album Vol. 1. First conceived in Caulfield’s college dorm room in 2009, Young Man is a concept project about youth -- about how that fleeting phase when you're emerging into adulthood can feel like reliving two decades of highs and lows in just a couple years. "I wanted all the things to come out in succession," Caulfield says, "because the series documents what happened to me when I was writing them. The whole project more or less portrays the trajectory of a young musician, first starting out, making mistakes, then growing up.
He's growing in leaps and bounds, turning out a more muscular, focused sound on 'Vol.1,' where songs such as "21" and "Fate" bend the dreamy atmospherics Caulfield has been exploring since his first EP into lean, pliable melodies. Vol. 1 is the first Young Man effort to feature a full band. He is supported here by guitarist Emmett Conway, bassist Joe Bailey, drummer Dylan Andrews and synth player Jeff Graupner, most of whom have been playing live with Caulfield for the past couple years on tours with Cold War Kids, Givers, Grouplove and Fanfarlo, among others. "I always envisioned this as a full band project," Caulfield says. "Experimenting with a group of musicians in a way that you can't when you’re alone is much more appealing for me, but I had to teach myself how to record the songs on my own first."
Vol 1 is also Caulfield's first project to be recorded in a studio -- Chicago's Soma Studios, where Young Man spent several weeks last year with producer John McEntire, known for his influential work with Nineties indie rock heavyweights Tortoise and The Sea And Cake, as well as production/engineering credits for Broken Social Scene and Stereolab. "I had a very good idea of what each song should sound like in my head before we went to the studio," Caulfield says. "They came out sounding different than I thought they were going to, but a lot of the album is about being happy with that. We almost called the album Damon & Division, which are the cross streets where Soma is, because the studio itself was such an important instrument on this record."
Beyond any one instrument, Caulfield says the biggest influence on Vol. 1 was his longtime attraction to progressive rock. "It’s such geeky music," he says. "But the musicianship is something I really get behind. Sometimes I find myself using the same chords and rhythmic concepts, but those influences always push me to do something new as much as I'm able - making music technical in clever ways without letting it get too selfindulgent."
Yet Caulfield also notes that the real writing of this record coincided with his beginning to develop a real taste for pop music again, for the first time since his early teens. "I got more interested in songwriting, and I learned to embrace pop music like Kelly Rowland and Nick Drake. I resented that music for so long, for some reason. I don’t think it’s negative anymore to write a good hook and have it repeat. For the longest time I wanted to make music that had parts that moved in and out, that didn’t follow standard pop conventions. I guess I finally realized it’s cool to do both." Prog pop? Yes. Finally.
Before he was even finished with the debut Young Man EP Boy, singersongwriter Colin Caulfield already knew what he wanted to do with this one, the 9-track album Vol. 1. First conceived in Caulfield’s college dorm room in 2009, Young Man is a concept project about youth -- about how that fleeting phase when you're emerging into adulthood can feel like reliving two decades of highs and lows in just a couple years. "I wanted all the things to come out in succession," Caulfield says, "because the series documents what happened to me when I was writing them. The whole project more or less portrays the trajectory of a young musician, first starting out, making mistakes, then growing up.
He's growing in leaps and bounds, turning out a more muscular, focused sound on 'Vol.1,' where songs such as "21" and "Fate" bend the dreamy atmospherics Caulfield has been exploring since his first EP into lean, pliable melodies. Vol. 1 is the first Young Man effort to feature a full band. He is supported here by guitarist Emmett Conway, bassist Joe Bailey, drummer Dylan Andrews and synth player Jeff Graupner, most of whom have been playing live with Caulfield for the past couple years on tours with Cold War Kids, Givers, Grouplove and Fanfarlo, among others. "I always envisioned this as a full band project," Caulfield says. "Experimenting with a group of musicians in a way that you can't when you’re alone is much more appealing for me, but I had to teach myself how to record the songs on my own first."
Vol 1 is also Caulfield's first project to be recorded in a studio -- Chicago's Soma Studios, where Young Man spent several weeks last year with producer John McEntire, known for his influential work with Nineties indie rock heavyweights Tortoise and The Sea And Cake, as well as production/engineering credits for Broken Social Scene and Stereolab. "I had a very good idea of what each song should sound like in my head before we went to the studio," Caulfield says. "They came out sounding different than I thought they were going to, but a lot of the album is about being happy with that. We almost called the album Damon & Division, which are the cross streets where Soma is, because the studio itself was such an important instrument on this record."
Beyond any one instrument, Caulfield says the biggest influence on Vol. 1 was his longtime attraction to progressive rock. "It’s such geeky music," he says. "But the musicianship is something I really get behind. Sometimes I find myself using the same chords and rhythmic concepts, but those influences always push me to do something new as much as I'm able - making music technical in clever ways without letting it get too selfindulgent."
Yet Caulfield also notes that the real writing of this record coincided with his beginning to develop a real taste for pop music again, for the first time since his early teens. "I got more interested in songwriting, and I learned to embrace pop music like Kelly Rowland and Nick Drake. I resented that music for so long, for some reason. I don’t think it’s negative anymore to write a good hook and have it repeat. For the longest time I wanted to make music that had parts that moved in and out, that didn’t follow standard pop conventions. I guess I finally realized it’s cool to do both." Prog pop? Yes. Finally.
TRACK LISTING
1. Heading
2. Thoughts
3. By And By
4. Do
5. Fate
6. Wasted
7. 21
8. Wandering
9. Directions
THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.
The latest signing to The Leaf Label is multi-talented Seattle-based composer/arranger/producer Jherek Bischoff
His first release for the label will be this strictly limited edition 7” single for RECORD STORE DAY
‘Eyes’ is a collaboration with ex-Talking Head and international treasure David Byrne
There will be just 500 of these singles released in Europe by Leaf.
The two songs are a taster for Jherek's forthcoming album Composed, out in late May
‘Young And Lovely’ features the talents of Parenthetical Girls’ Zac Pennington and acclaimed French vocalist Soko
The individually hand-numbered 7” is packaged in a full-colour die-cut sleeve
The songs will ONLY be available in this format until the release of the album
The latest signing to The Leaf Label is multi-talented Seattle-based composer/arranger/producer Jherek Bischoff
His first release for the label will be this strictly limited edition 7” single for RECORD STORE DAY
‘Eyes’ is a collaboration with ex-Talking Head and international treasure David Byrne
There will be just 500 of these singles released in Europe by Leaf.
The two songs are a taster for Jherek's forthcoming album Composed, out in late May
‘Young And Lovely’ features the talents of Parenthetical Girls’ Zac Pennington and acclaimed French vocalist Soko
The individually hand-numbered 7” is packaged in a full-colour die-cut sleeve
The songs will ONLY be available in this format until the release of the album
In Stoke’s All The Young, we find a band for a generation that's lying twitching on the floor, wailing out for a hit of heady, heavy r 'n' r. Formed by the Dooley brothers, All The Young are - frontman Ryan Dooley, bassist Jack Dooley, drummer Will Heaney and guitarist David Cartwright.
"The thing is, I can understand as much as anyone right now why there's been a lull in proper guitar tunes," states Ryan. "People have been waiting for something bigger to come along. When there’s a lull it made me want it more and fuelled the hunger for it." It's with that same faultless drive, determination and ambition that All The Young burst into the world with an album of brick-breaking powerhouse sounds, brought into catastrophic dimensions by none other than rawk royalty GGGarth Richardson, the man responsible for classic albums from Rage Against The Machine, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Biffy Clyro. A fitting collaboration for a band whose whole manifesto chimes with the age-old tale of the lads from a nowhere town, singing about something better than what's outside their door.
All The Young are readying their own day of reckoning, with a genuine moment of perfect anthemia.
"The thing is, I can understand as much as anyone right now why there's been a lull in proper guitar tunes," states Ryan. "People have been waiting for something bigger to come along. When there’s a lull it made me want it more and fuelled the hunger for it." It's with that same faultless drive, determination and ambition that All The Young burst into the world with an album of brick-breaking powerhouse sounds, brought into catastrophic dimensions by none other than rawk royalty GGGarth Richardson, the man responsible for classic albums from Rage Against The Machine, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Biffy Clyro. A fitting collaboration for a band whose whole manifesto chimes with the age-old tale of the lads from a nowhere town, singing about something better than what's outside their door.
All The Young are readying their own day of reckoning, with a genuine moment of perfect anthemia.
TRACK LISTING
1 Another Miracle
2 Today
3 The First Time
4 New Education
5 The Horizon
6 Quiet Night In
7 Chase
8 Here To Stay
9 Arcane
10 Welcome Home
Although now firmly settled in New York City, Young Magic’s three members came together through equal helpings of openness and fortuity. In 2010, singer and producer Isaac Emmanuel had left his home continent of Australia to travel across Europe, over to New York, and down through Mexico, all the while creating and recording music with whatever instruments he found along the way. While in Mexico, Emmanuel kept a tight correspondence with fellow Australian expat Michael Italia, who for months had been similarly traveling across Europe and South America with portable recording gear in tow. They decided to meet up in New York, where their good friend from a few years prior, Indonesian-born vocalist Melati Malay, had been living and making her own recordings. In early 2011 the three friends, who had initially bonded over their broad musical palettes, began recording together and contributing songs to the record, culling influences and finding their own footing among them.
The immediately fruitful collaboration brought forth singles “Sparkly”, “You With Air” and “Night In The Ocean”, all of which were fitting indicators of the band’s chameleonic sound, heavily informed by West African rhythms, Brainfeeder hip-hop, UK bass, and 60s psychedelic soul. Young Magic’s full-length debut, "Melt", comprises both of these tracks - as well as their B-sides - and expands on their varied aesthetic, at once electronically sequenced and completely organic. Containing recordings from 10 different countries, the album flaunts new facets at each turn, letting - as on “Watch For Our Lights” - rough samples from distant lands coalesce with drum machines and distorted synths. “Night In The Ocean” and “Jam Karet” put soaring synth pads around the higher frequencies while deep kicks keep the songs grounded, allowing Isaac and Melati’s vocals to float in synchronicity between. And with its shifting rhythm, open structure, and layers of echoed vocals, closer and highlight, “Drawing Down The Moon”, hints at crystalline take on UK garage: a last dance from a collection of short stories from around the world.
With a sonic mélange of vibes on a debut that remains cohesive and distinctly their own, it will be exciting to see where the trio’s tastes will guide them next.
The immediately fruitful collaboration brought forth singles “Sparkly”, “You With Air” and “Night In The Ocean”, all of which were fitting indicators of the band’s chameleonic sound, heavily informed by West African rhythms, Brainfeeder hip-hop, UK bass, and 60s psychedelic soul. Young Magic’s full-length debut, "Melt", comprises both of these tracks - as well as their B-sides - and expands on their varied aesthetic, at once electronically sequenced and completely organic. Containing recordings from 10 different countries, the album flaunts new facets at each turn, letting - as on “Watch For Our Lights” - rough samples from distant lands coalesce with drum machines and distorted synths. “Night In The Ocean” and “Jam Karet” put soaring synth pads around the higher frequencies while deep kicks keep the songs grounded, allowing Isaac and Melati’s vocals to float in synchronicity between. And with its shifting rhythm, open structure, and layers of echoed vocals, closer and highlight, “Drawing Down The Moon”, hints at crystalline take on UK garage: a last dance from a collection of short stories from around the world.
With a sonic mélange of vibes on a debut that remains cohesive and distinctly their own, it will be exciting to see where the trio’s tastes will guide them next.
TRACK LISTING
1. Sparkly
2. Slip Time
3. You With Air
4. Yalam
5. Jam Karet
6. Night In The Ocean
7. Watch For Our Lights
8. The Dancer
9. Cavalry
10. Sanctuary
11. Drawing Down The Moon
Their widely praised debut Cape Dory was released earlier this year.
For this album guitarist Patrick Riley, vocalist Aliana Moore and drummer James Barone headed to Nashville to work with The Black Keys' Patrick Carney.
After the success of their first album and touring for the better part of a year that included shows as far away as Moscow, Riley and Moore returned home and realized what was initially a bedroom-recording project had quickly evolved into a band. The challenge of a second record was upon them, but songwriting came quickly and in three months the duo had most of the material for their new album. The goal this time was to mature and vary their sound. Riley describes the new direction as "Stevie Nicks going through a Motown phase."
By the time they hooked up with Carney, they had fleshed out most of the songs that would comprise Young and Old. With their friend and mentor at the producer helm, the recording progressed naturally and within 3 weeks the album was done. While their debut was written with a third touring member in mind, the new album is written and recorded with the addition of a fourth. Over the last few months, Tennis has also released a series of covers as free downloads including "Is It True" by Brenda Lee and their take of "Tell Her No" by The Zombies.
For this album guitarist Patrick Riley, vocalist Aliana Moore and drummer James Barone headed to Nashville to work with The Black Keys' Patrick Carney.
After the success of their first album and touring for the better part of a year that included shows as far away as Moscow, Riley and Moore returned home and realized what was initially a bedroom-recording project had quickly evolved into a band. The challenge of a second record was upon them, but songwriting came quickly and in three months the duo had most of the material for their new album. The goal this time was to mature and vary their sound. Riley describes the new direction as "Stevie Nicks going through a Motown phase."
By the time they hooked up with Carney, they had fleshed out most of the songs that would comprise Young and Old. With their friend and mentor at the producer helm, the recording progressed naturally and within 3 weeks the album was done. While their debut was written with a third touring member in mind, the new album is written and recorded with the addition of a fourth. Over the last few months, Tennis has also released a series of covers as free downloads including "Is It True" by Brenda Lee and their take of "Tell Her No" by The Zombies.
‘Young Lovers Go Pop!’, the new single from This Many Boyfriends, is a classic scruffy pop single in the vein of ‘Hey Scenesters!’, ‘Blue Boy’, or ‘Caught By The Fuzz’, with wry smiles, knowing lyrics, and endlessly catchy shoutalong choruses.
This Many Boyfriends are a fun pop band that like to play loud with the odd quiet moment thrown in, embodying the most euphoric pints-aloft moments at the indie disco.
Attacking their infectious songs with as much vigour as is humanly possible, the band describe their sound as “What happens in a child’s mind when it’s had a lot of sugar.”
The band draw influence from the likes of Pavement, The Pastels and Orange Juice as well as The Vaselines and The Clean.
This Many Boyfriends are a fun pop band that like to play loud with the odd quiet moment thrown in, embodying the most euphoric pints-aloft moments at the indie disco.
Attacking their infectious songs with as much vigour as is humanly possible, the band describe their sound as “What happens in a child’s mind when it’s had a lot of sugar.”
The band draw influence from the likes of Pavement, The Pastels and Orange Juice as well as The Vaselines and The Clean.
Colin Caulfield, aka Young Man may already be familiar to some of you for his reworkings of his favourite song, including a cover of Deerhunter's "Rainwater Cassette Exchange" which Bradford Cox described as "fantastically superior to the original". An accolade indeed!
Now Young Man brings us his debut UK single "Up So Fast" which is a lovely uplifting dream-pop number. Kicking off with simple stripped back guitar strums and vocals, the drum rhythm - a series of mini drum rolls, gradually builds to create a shimmering pop haze before it changes direction once again as it winds down to a finale.
Fans of Altas Sound, Deerhunter, Animal Collective, Panda Bear etc should take note.
Pitchfork: "acoustic guitars that give off the whiff of sunscreen, sun-baked loops, easygoing percussion, vocals blanched in reverb, and lyrics that take an 'aw shucks' wistfulness to growing up."
Now Young Man brings us his debut UK single "Up So Fast" which is a lovely uplifting dream-pop number. Kicking off with simple stripped back guitar strums and vocals, the drum rhythm - a series of mini drum rolls, gradually builds to create a shimmering pop haze before it changes direction once again as it winds down to a finale.
Fans of Altas Sound, Deerhunter, Animal Collective, Panda Bear etc should take note.
Pitchfork: "acoustic guitars that give off the whiff of sunscreen, sun-baked loops, easygoing percussion, vocals blanched in reverb, and lyrics that take an 'aw shucks' wistfulness to growing up."
If opposites really do attract, it makes perfect sense that Holy Fuck would chose a barn in rural Ontario to record a series of dynamic electro-noise pop that compose their latest full length release, titled "Latin".
Where Holy Fuck in the past were a rotating cast of musicians, "Latin" showcases for the first time their consistent touring line up. Drummer Matt Schulz and bass player Matt McQuaid provide a complex rhythm foundation that at times feels like an invisible hand leading you through a dark hedge maze. Perhaps an excessive feat for most, but this provides the ideal underpinning as Brian Borcherdt and Graham Walsh merge a twin effects / feedback tangle that is equal parts entrancing and inspiring.
With high praise from peers, critics, big name endorsements and ascension on festival bills, Holy Fuck have the divine right to be profane. And with respected music luminaries Thom Yorke and Lou Reed passing on kind words about studio recordings and live performances, it’s no wonder Holy Fuck have become sought after.
Where Holy Fuck in the past were a rotating cast of musicians, "Latin" showcases for the first time their consistent touring line up. Drummer Matt Schulz and bass player Matt McQuaid provide a complex rhythm foundation that at times feels like an invisible hand leading you through a dark hedge maze. Perhaps an excessive feat for most, but this provides the ideal underpinning as Brian Borcherdt and Graham Walsh merge a twin effects / feedback tangle that is equal parts entrancing and inspiring.
With high praise from peers, critics, big name endorsements and ascension on festival bills, Holy Fuck have the divine right to be profane. And with respected music luminaries Thom Yorke and Lou Reed passing on kind words about studio recordings and live performances, it’s no wonder Holy Fuck have become sought after.
Forget everything you thought you knew about New Young Pony Club because on their second album it's all changed. If 2007's critically acclaimed, Mercury Music Prize nominated "Fantastic Playroom" was the culmination of the hybrid disco sound they pioneered, "The Optimist" heralds the beginning of a brave new future for the band. Self-produced and more importantly self-funded and self-released, "The Optimist" is the sound of a band taking full control of their present and future, circumnavigating their own way. With no four to the floor, no cowbell (!) and no monotone sexy talk, the creative freedom enjoyed by the band has opened up a new 'indie' side, as shown by the psychedelic dub balladry of "Stone" and the atmospheric, cracked beauty of "Architect Of Love", and the singles "Lost A Girl", "Chaos" and soon-to-be-huge "We Want To". It's an assured, deliciously adventurous next step for New Young Pony Club, open your ears and have a listen.
Andy says: Still groovy, still dead melodic, but now with a heavier, almost Gothic flavour. There's more depth but no less FUN. It's the perfect blend.
STAFF COMMENTS
Philippa says: A current shop stereo favourite!Andy says: Still groovy, still dead melodic, but now with a heavier, almost Gothic flavour. There's more depth but no less FUN. It's the perfect blend.
Having released an album on Nude Records back in 2008, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Konstantin Gropper returns with "Angry Young Man", taken from the forthcoming album "Vexations".
Gropper is also a composer of film scores; his latest being for Wim Wenders’ (Paris, Texas / Buena Vista Social Club) film Palermo Shooting (nominated at the Cannes Film Festival 2008).
The B-Side of this limited 7” "Your Teenage FBI" is taken from a film score of a 2010 released film by German cult regiesseur Detlev Buck.
"Might" EP is the debut release from Oh Minnows, the new band formed from the ashes of Semifinalists. Opening track "Might" is a lovely slice of melodic pop built around a super-slow beat. It has an 80s feel to it, without being too clichéd, and a very familiar sound, although I can't actually pinpoint who or what it reminds me of. "Second Version" on the flip ups the tempo, but only a fraction, starting with whispered vocals it then soars and swoops along nicely. Short and sweet. And finally we have the swaying slow burner "High Or Low" which rounds of the EP nicely.
Listening to “XX” is an uncomfortable, obtrusive experience, akin to eavesdropping on two lovers while they whisper and caress. So intimate are the songs contained within that at the very least, you feel you should turn away your face to hide your shame. In fact, it’s impossible to talk about The XX without talking about sex. Like so many bed sheets strewn across the floor, Romy and Oliver’s duets are littered with sexual anxiety, claustrophobia and desire and their take on romance is a particularly urban one, more council high rise and public transport than the Crystal and Gucci version favoured by the R&B they love so much. “XX” is a debut album that’s old beyond its tender years but such is its fragility, it’s only when the final note of “Stars”, the albums closing track has dissolved that we can breathe again, relieved that we’ve made it to the end, safe and in each other’s arms.
STAFF COMMENTS
Darryl says: An intimate listen, and one that makes it perfect for the winter months. Sparse to the point to the point of fragility their debut album is moody, menacing and downright brilliant.TRACK LISTING
1. Intro
2. VCR
3. Crystalised
4. Islands
5. Heart Skipped A Beat
6. Fantasy
7. Shelter
8. Basic Space
9. Infinity
10. Night Time
11. Stars
Recognised as one of Young's (and hence one of rock & roll's) finest albums, "Harvest" put the singer on the mainstream map with the mega-hit "Heart of Gold", which defined a soft folk-rock style frequently revisited by lesser artists throughout the 1970s. It also features some of his darker compositions, like the entropy-obsessed "Old Man" and the junkie eulogy, "The Needle and the Damage Done", one of Young's most haunting and compelling songs. Deceptively laid-back-sounding country-rock plaints like "Out On The Weekend" and the title cut caress the ear unassumingly, pulling you into the more ominous subtext that is present even in the rollicking "Are You Ready For The Country". As always, Young has an ear for contrasts, laying down heavy rock ("Alabama") beside his balladry, and even employing the London Symphony Orchestra on the excellent confessional "A Man Needs A Maid". Due to back troubles, Young recorded much of this material while wearing a brace, a fact that seems audible in the tension and unease that underlies the friendly, acoustic surface of this superb release.
TRACK LISTING
1. Out On The Weekend
2. Harvest
3. A Man Needs A Maid
4. Heart Of Gold
5. Are You Ready For The Country?
6. Old Man
7. There's A World
8. Alabama
9. The Needle And The Damage Done
10. Words (Between The Lines Of Age)
Neil Young's second album yielded several of his most enduring hits (including the title tune, "Cowgirl In The Sand," "Cinnamon Girl," and "Down By The River") and firmly established him as a solo artist of the first rank. Though it's impossible to narrow the catalogue of Young and Crazy Horse down to one representative document, this is about as close as you're likely to get. This was Young's first collaboration with the Horse, and it's still one of that group's defining recorded moments. As in much of Young's subsequent work, the feeling of despair moves unabated through the album, which runs the emotional gamut from laconically desperate to psychotically desperate. Despite the gloom, the heavy electric riffing on "Cinnamon Girl" and "Cowgirl In the Sand" -two surrealistic odes to an idealized muse - is cathartic and invigorating, easily as riveting as the guitar onslaught of anyone from the Stooges to the Velvet Underground. Young's rootsy, acoustic side comes to the fore on "Round & Round" and "Running Dry". The homespun quality of these songs doesn't leaven the consuming sense of dread that permeates this album, though. Strangely, this expression of angst and emotional disorder became one of Young's most lastingly popular albums, and "Down By The River", "Cinnamon Girl" and "Cowgirl In The Sand" quickly turned into FM staples.
Tracklisting
1. Cinnamon Girl
2. Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
3. Round & Round (It Won't Be Long)
4. Down By The River
5. The Losing End (When You're On)
6. Running Dry (Requiem For The Rockets)
7. Cowgirl In The Sand
Tracklisting
1. Cinnamon Girl
2. Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
3. Round & Round (It Won't Be Long)
4. Down By The River
5. The Losing End (When You're On)
6. Running Dry (Requiem For The Rockets)
7. Cowgirl In The Sand
Two years on from a debut album awash with punk spirit and scorching blues-rock, London trio Noisettes make their return with "Wild Young Hearts", a set of sleek pop songs steeped in soul, dizzy on disco and harking back to the days of blues and jazz greats. From the galloping funk grooves of forthcoming, first single "Don't Upset The Rhythm", to the joyous, jazzy title track, the stomping electro-rock of "Saturday Night", the glorious 60s-tinged soul of "Never Forget You" and the sultry, shimmering pop of "24 Hours", in "Wild Young Hearts", Noisettes have made what is set to be one of 2009's most adventurous albums. Never fond of a formula, the trio always intended a radical musical detour from their acclaimed debut, "What's The Time Mr Wolf?", an album that spawned five singles and took them on tour for over a year, sharing arena stages with Muse and criss-crossing the States with TV On The Radio and Bloc Party. If you can imagine a hybrid of Blondie, Ting Tings and Rihanna, you'll begin to get an idea of how special this new record is. Vocalist Shingai Shoniwa, meanwhile, is fast becoming a style icon with the makings of a modern-day Deborah Harry.
"Fork In The Road" is the raw, unpolished studio follow-up to Neil Young's eclectic 2007 release "Chrome Dreams II". Here the Canadian folk-rock pioneer returns to the production values of 2006's "Living With War" - this time presenting a batch of car themed songs that often allude to the state of the economy. While much of the material here is delivered at a relentless pace, the pedal-steel fuelled ballad "Light A Candle" is one of the album's finer moments.
Their debut single "Bergman Movies" is produced by Charlie Fink (of Noah and the Whale) who also plays drums on the record, alongside Anna Knowles from The Middle Ones on backing vocals. It merges the sensitive indie pop of Belle And Sebastian with the shambolic lo-fi of Beat Happening and a smattering of Moldy Peaches style anti-folk.
Recorded over two nights in November 1968 at The Canterbury House in Ann Arbor, Michigan, the "Sugar Mountain" album documents the launch of Neil Young's career as a solo artist following his departure from Buffalo Springfield just six months earlier. Captured on a TEAC two track tape recorder, the album offers a glimpse into the development of a legendary artist. The album includes songs that were written during his Buffalo Springfield tenure as well as newly written material that would appear on future solo albums. Included in the performance are several moments of witty, engaging banter that are highlighted in this album release. The Canterbury House shows were considered an experiment to see how Neil Young's solo performances would be received by an audience who knew him as part of the Buffalo Springfield band dynamic. The experience erased all doubts and set the stage from which his solo career was launched.
Following on from their critically acclaimed debut album, "Voices Of Animals And Men", Young Knives release their hotly anticipated follow up. A muscular clatter of pulsing guitars, head-spinning percussive thuds and harmonic, brotherly vocals provide the backbone to a rich throng of giddy, excited ideas and ageless, wry lyrical themes.
Originally released on the Noize label after the Ponies had left Tirk and before they joined Modular, "Get Lucky" is another brilliant piece of NYPC pop music. Featuring a typically post-punk inspired backing (choppy guitars, jerky dancefloor rhythms etc) and another strong vocal performance from singer Tahita Bulmer, the song has a real B52s feel to it (albeit at a much slower tempo). On this CD single there are also exclusive reworks by MSTRKRFT and Whomadewho, both rather tasty.
Taking the unprecedented step of making Young Marble Giants' first ever release a long player certainly paid off. Released in 1980 "Colossal Youth" became a parallel soundtrack to the unsteady stabs of the post punk early eighties, and quickly became one of (the then nascent) Rough Trade Records best sellers. Becalmed, resigned and a little tense, it created a new vocabulary for song. "Colossal Youth" was followed by a couple of EPs, and then the group split up, to everyone's surprise and dismay.
Combining sparse, home made drum machine rhythms, electric organ lines, funky bass and taut guitar chords, along with Alison Statton's clear, true vocal makes for one of the most evocative and atmospheric albums of the post-punk era.
Combining sparse, home made drum machine rhythms, electric organ lines, funky bass and taut guitar chords, along with Alison Statton's clear, true vocal makes for one of the most evocative and atmospheric albums of the post-punk era.
TRACK LISTING
1 Searching For Mr Right 3:00
2 Include Me Out 1:56
3 The Taxi 2:07
4 Eating Noddemix 2:04
5 Constantly Changing 2:04
6 N.I.T.A. 3:31
7 Colossal Youth 1:54
8 Music For Evenings 3:02
9 The Man Amplifier 3:15
10 Choci Loni 2:37
11 Wurlitzer Jukebox 2:45
12 Salad Days 2:01
13 Credit In The Straight World 2:29
14 Brand - New - Life 2:54
15 Wind In The Rigging 2:25
Live favourite, New Young Pony Club anthem and Intel advert soundtrack "Ice Cream", gets re-released! The track is a sparsely minimal punk funk jerkout that sounds like a distaff version excursion on disco-era Rolling Stones fronted by the Slits' Ari Up and produced by David Byrne and Brian Eno. This CD single also includes and extended version plus video, AND remixes by Herve and Metal On Metal, both more for peak-time club play.
The latest limited edition 7" from Young And Lost Club comes in the shape of this rather suave 50s-crooner- meets-indie number from Friends Of The Bride. They combine Rat Pack style with a touch of British Invasion rock'n'roll and indie nous, add to that witty, clever songwriting and you have a quite unique combo. Being tipped all over the place as 'ones to watch'.
The 1971 Concert is the second album in the performance series. On January 19, 1971, Neil Young performed at Massey Hall in Toronto, Canada. In many ways, this was a major homecoming event. He had left Canada in 1966, soon becoming a member of Buffalo Springfield in Los Angeles, then recording his self-titled debut solo album in 1968. That was followed by "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere" with Crazy Horse, then Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's "Déjà vu" in 1970 and his best-selling album "After The Gold Rush." By the time Young came back to Canada for the Massey Hall concert, he had become one of the most exciting and successful singer-songwriters in rock. Neil Young was performing solo that evening in Toronto, playing many of his well-known songs like "Down by the River," "Ohio" and "I Am a Child." But he also included several new originals that would be featured on his next new album, "Harvest," which had not been released yet, like "Old Man," "The Needle And The Damage Done" and "Heart of Gold". 'This is the album that should have come out between "After The Gold Rush" and "Harvest",' Young says now. 'David Briggs, my producer, was adamant that this should be the record, but I was very excited about the takes we got on "Harvest" and wanted "Harvest" out. David disagreed. As I listen to this today, I can see why'.
The first release from Neil Young's long awaited Archive Performance series is here with "Live At The Fillmore East". In 2006, Neil Young delivered another hit album, "Living With War", and toured with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Thirty-six years earlier, in 1970, Young toured with CSN&Y and released his platinum album "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere", after which he performed a series of shows at New York City's then-new Fillmore East with his band Crazy Horse. That concert finally makes its official debut in the annals of rock history with "Live At The Fillmore East", and the circle is unbroken for one of rock's greatest singer-songwriters.
West Coast psychedelic folkie Nick Castro is currently making some of most dynamic and truly original sounds to emerge from the much-ballyhooed new folk movement. As 'freak-folk' and assorted hairy-fairy type labels grab the headlines in the underground, Castro strives for a solemn, serene sort of beauty, summoning utterly melodic incantations in song and sound. Gracefully immersing 60s / 70s British Isles acid balladry with Middle-Eastern traditional music and heady, pan-cultural communal jams, Castro succeeds in reaching otherworldly vistas and ocean-spanning folk transcendence. Following up 2005's lauded "Further From Grace", Castro unfurls his sprawling third album "Come Into Our House", easily his most far-reaching and deeply molecular outing yet. Previously backed by The Poison Tree, which included Josephine Foster and members of Espers, Nick Castro has assembled a new band of players under the moniker The Young Elders - a truly stellar cast of musicians whose combined resumes include folk and avant rock ensembles Current 93, In Gowan Ring, Damo Suzuki's Network and Cul de Sac. Effortlessly mating Bert Jansch-style folk song ("Winding Tree"), psychedelic folk rock ("One I Love"), Middle Eastern traditional music ("Attar") and Bay Area acid-raga ("Lay Down Your Arms") to a kind of organic studio Musique Concrete that Can forged on albums like "Tago Mago". The results are astonishing, challenging and utterly psychedelic. By reaching for the sky Castro achieves the heavens, and "Come Into Our House" is the evidence. A modern acid-folk masterwork.
A gifted lyricist and powerful singer, Germano is also a talented multi-instrumentalist, playing the violin, piano, and guitar with equal aplomb. This new album features some of her best work to date. For fans of PJ Harvey, Marianne Faithful, Cat Power and Bjork, she's had previous albums on 4AD. Other projects over the years included OP8, a collaboration with Giant Sand and Calexico.
New Moscow is the solo project from David Fransson, guitarist with hugely underrated Swedish band Division Of Laura Lee. He rented a room in his hometown of Trollhättan and borrowed some equipment. He spent six months there and at the end of it had enough material for his forthcoming album, "Verse Chorus Worse". This single is the first taster from the album and it's a great little pop song, less raucous and punky than his Division Of Laura Lee stuff, but still with his distinctive guitar sound.
From the lable that brought you Larrikin Love, Good Shoes and Vincent Vincent And The Villians, comes this storming debut from Action Plan! "Stendhal" is the perfect combination: melodic, emotive and energetic with a pounding rhythm, chunky guitars and great raw vocals. "Beauty Scars" on the flip is equally as good: a slower, more brooding affair it starts off somewhere between Sonic Youth and indie jangle but then bursts into a frantic chorus before reverting back to mellowness, a pattern that it follows through it's entire four minutes, with each chorus getting more and more abrasive. Great stuff!
Mi and L'au recently put the finishing touches to their beautiful new album in Brooklyn, NY. The music on their self-titled debut is austere yet simultaneously warm, expressing the passion they possess both as human beings and as songwriters. Think of a glacier with a red ember glowing in its centre. Mi was working as a model in paris when he met L'au, then involved in the french music industry. The two intensely focused individuals immediately fell in love, and after apartment-hopping around the city for a time, gave up everything and moved to the woods of Mi's native Finland to spend time discovering each other and their music. They now live in a small cabin in complete isolation with the barest of essentials, spending virtually all their time making music together in solitude. They are pure and gentle souls (indeed, Devendra Banhart's song "Gentle Soul" was written for L'au with whom he'd collaborated in Paris). Their music is bare and delicate, with simple instrumentation and sparse orchestrations.
Already hailed as on a par with legendary albums such as "Harvest" and "Harvest Moon", "Prairie Wind" features contributions from keyboardist Spooner Oldham, pedal-steel guitarist Ben Keith, drummer Chad Cromwell, percussionist Karl Himmel, bassist Rick Rosas and vocalist Emmylou Harris, along with the Fisk University Jubilee Singers and other guests.
The two Simon's (of the Verve, Tong and Jones that is) third single trails their imminent debut LP. And it's a belter. It's straight, big rock, but hey! Lovely plaintive verses, nice bridge, absolutely huge, heavy chorus. Two fingers flicked at fashion, these lot are cool in their own right. You've got to admire their musical audacity.
It's the brand new Fat Wreck sampler! This time there is a difference--all the tracks are brand spanking new and unreleased and they're from some of the best bands in the business: NOFX, Less Than Jake, Lagwagon, Sick Of It All, No Use For A Name, Anti Flag, Snuff, Good Riddance, Mad Caddies, Me First And The Gimme Gimmes and loads more! Slight price hike but still cheap.