WAWBARC is Mathieu Ball (BIG|BRAVE) + Efrim Manuel Menuck (Thee Silver Mt Zion, Godspeed You! Black Emperor) + Jonathan Downs (Ada) + Patch (Ada). On “NO MORE APOCALYPSE FATHER” they present six modal lullabies drenched in seared distortion, slathered across striding electronic pulses.

Ball and Menuck began creating music in and for the bleakest moments of Montréal winters: “We’re honoring that idea of winter, when you come inside and your house is warm, a place that only exists because of how cold it is outside,” says Menuck. They later recruited Downs and Patch to flesh out their initial ideas. Menuck met them in 2015 when recording Ada’s final album at Montréal’s Hotel2Tango — where they reconvened to make this record.

“NO MORE APOCALYPSE FATHER” is an album about witnessing bleakness from a place of safety. Carrying newfound descriptive depth, thanks to the quartet’s open-ended songs freeing him from writing in meter, Menuck likens his lyrics to photorealism. On opener ‘Rats and Roses’ he sings of an unnamed city struck by an unknown cataclysm, but the details are local: specifically, his neighbors inadvertently poisoning birds when tackling a rat infestation. It’s backed by blown out synths and guitars reaching a soaring crescendo. “Seeing things from a distance and not being able to intervene happens a lot on the record,” Menuck explains. “If you’re a feeling and thinking person, that’s just part of the human condition. We watch horror unfolding from afar, unable to do anything concrete to change it.”

A powerless witness, able to describe but not intervene. ‘Dangling Blanket From A Balcony (White Phosphorous)’ references Michael Jackson holding his child over a hotel balcony in 2002 the bizarre media spectacle still lodged in Menuck’s psyche. This and the album’s closing track also elegize white phosphorous, a technology of war designed to light up battlefields but capable of inflicting horrific burns on those it touches. Illumination and horror in one, here underpinning scenes picturesque and terrifying. “The last song ‘(Goodnight)

White Phosphorous’ is deliberately like a lullaby,” says Menuck. “Written from the viewpoint of watching white phosphorous falling outside your window.”

Scorched and tarnished and laden with harrowing imagery, “NO MORE APOCALYPSE FATHER” is also a record bathed in light: the bewilderment of hopeful spirits witnessing despair, watching a blizzard of distress unfold outside from a place of relative shelter and comfort. You could call that emotional ambivalence, maybe numbness. But those words are too passive for the weight of conflicted feeling resonating through the album.

“I never know how I feel on an overcast day when the sun is still bright despite the grayness and the light is very flat. The colours become more saturated, and you see a single flower, say a morning glory, whose colour is so vibrant beneath the gray, I don’t know if that’s a lovely sensation or a terrible sensation. It’s both,” says Menuck.

TRACK LISTING

Rats And Roses
Tremble Pour Light
No More Apocalypse Father
Uncloudy Days
Dangling Blanket From A Balcony (White Phosphorous)
(Goodnight) White Phosphorous

Contains new specially prepared liner notes by Penguin Guide to Jazz 's writer Brian Morton.

In 1960, and after recording the music to be issued on The Avant Garde (with Don Cherry), and the all- time classic My Favorite Things , Coltrane embarked on the making of Coltrane Plays the Blues, a thematic LP consisting of six tunes based on the blues.

'Blues for Bechet', one of the two tracks on which Coltrane plays soprano sax, is an obvious dedication to the man who brought the instrument to jazz, the great Sidney Bechet. Pianist McCoy Tyner sits out on 'Blues to Bechet ' and 'Blues to You', reducing the quartet to a trio on these two tracks.

"A powerful session. As for the phrase 'plays the blues' in the title, that's not an indicator that the tunes are conventional blues (they aren't). It's more indicative of a bluesy sensibility." - AllMusic, 4.5 STARS (Richie Unterberger)

TRACK LISTING

Blues To Elvin
Blues To Bechet
Blues To You
Blues To Elvin
Mr. Day
Mr. Syms
Mr. Knight
Blues To You

Large group session featuring deep spiritual modal jazz and new age ambient synthesizer pads.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: He's not shy of a new album is he, our Greg? Anyway, The Glass Frog partially eschews his more ambient fare for the group ensemble style of flowing jazzy jams and solos akimbo. Lovely stuff, and a further cementing Foat's deserved reputation as one of the eminent musicians of this generation.

TRACK LISTING

1. Sea Of Tranquility
2. The Glass Frog
3. Foals Of Epona
4. Novilunium
5. Clusters
6. My Love Has Green Eyes
7. O Sacrum Convivium!

Blue Day is a compilation album by English shoegaze band Slowdive. It was originally released in 1992 and compiles the first three Slowdive EPs:

TRACK LISTING

1. Slowdive
2. Avalyn 1
3. Morningrise
4. She Calls

SIDE B
1. Losing Today
2. Shine
3. Albatross

Lee Morgan’s magnum opus 'The Sidewinder' - recorded in 1963 and released in 1964 - was both a comeback and a coronation. The prodigious trumpeter had debuted on Blue Note in 1956 at the age of 18, but personal problems in the early-60s forced him off the scene temporarily. His rebound recording turned out to be 'The Sidewinder', an assured and energetic set of 5 indelible Morgan originals featuring tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson, pianist Barry Harris, bassist Bob Cranshaw, and drummer Billy Higgins. The album became his biggest commercial success fueled by the irrepressible title track.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Sidewinder
2. Totem Pole
3. Gary's Notebook
4. Boy, What A Night
5. Hocus Pocus

Working with Paul Weller as producer and co-writer on his 5th studio album, Liverpool troubadour Steve Pilgrim releases the achingly melancholic “Beautiful Blue”. The album features Paul Weller, Steve Craddock and Rachael Jean Harris with string arrangements from Hannah Peel.

“Stevie, I’ve got this idea I thought might be good for you…”

A text from Paul Weller was the only inspiration Steve Pilgrim needed to finish the writing of his much-anticipated sixth album ‘Beautiful Blue’

Acclaimed songwriter Steve Pilgrim, who has played drums and sung with living legend Paul Weller for more than a decade, was in the middle of writing the songs of his life when a modern catalyst arrived. Pilgrim was reaching for humanity, humility and sanity in a fouled and confused pre-pandemic world of cultural unrest and rising extremism when the audio note landed (“Stevie, I’ve got this idea I thought might be good for you…”) and set the scene for Pilgrim’s progress.

“It was pre-pandemic, but still a time of political and cultural unrest in the UK: Brexit, austerity, the rise of extremism in various forms. It felt as a country we were being divided, pulled-apart… atomised. In the midst of this unrest and disquiet - as people, individuals, families, as humans - there was a sense of loss of direction and I felt it was important to break through to the other side with some semblance of positivity and hope. That’s how these songs started: to start making sense of becoming a functioning human in a dysfunctional country.”

That’s how they started, but it was the text from Weller that helped bring them together for critically-acclaimed songsmith Pilgrim. These sketches of songs, melodies and chord progressions became the beginning of a co-writing direction for Pilgrim/Weller and took the material to a new place, tugging and pushing the softly-spoken Scouser in new ways that only Weller could provoke. Tunes such as ‘Test of Faith’, ‘Don’t Let The Mirror Break You’, ‘One With All’, ‘Universe’ and ‘Where Our Love Goes’ have echoes of Pilgrim’s previous work, but add a warmth and classicism found in his co-writer’s celebrated ‘True Meanings’ record.

“By the time the pandemic arrived in 2020 the songs were ready and Paul suggested we start recording the album at his studio in Woking. With the assistance of house engineer and sonic wizard Charles Rees, within three days we had the bulk of the record done. We had ‘Beautiful Blue’ and everything was going to be ok.”

With the aural assistance of string arrangements from the renowned Hannah Peel, ‘Beautiful Blue’ is the work of an artist who finds strength in still life and shouts loudest when whispering. The songs on this album are streamlined, lacking fat and offer intricate acoustic guitar playing weaving in and out of memorable melodies (‘New Sky’), undulating strings (the gorgeous title track) and devastatingly delicate vocal harmonies (‘Everyday’).

“This set of songs took a while to complete as I wanted to impose thematic constraints on my writing. I knew it was important to stay focused and that’s when the message from Paul arrived. What an honour. The songs might now be written, but they couldn’t be realised without listeners… it would be great to see you at a gig.”

TRACK LISTING

1 New Sky
2 Lifeboat
3 Beautiful Blue
4 Test Of Faith
5 Bread And Honey
6 Whistle In The Wind
7 Don’t Let The Mirror Break You
8 One With All
9 Universe
10 Olive
11 Where Our Love Goes
12 Everyday

Needle Mythology, the label founded by music writer, author and broadcaster Pete Paphides, is thrilled to announce the signing of the eagerly anticipated debut album by London singer-songwriter and renowned DJ Iraina Mancini. Iraina’s singular pop vision will be known to regular listeners of 6 Music, where her singles ‘Undo The Blue’, ‘Deep End’, ‘Shotgun’ and ‘Do It (You Stole The Rhythm)’ have all been enthusiastically embraced. Iraina's obsession with music stretches back into her early childhood, much of which was spent absorbing her parents’ collection of old 45s, in particular her dad’s Northern Soul records – an alternative education which meant that, by her early 20s, she was a familiar presence in the DJ booth at many discerning London club nights. Her love of French ye-ye, British freakbeat, Brazilian bossa nova, soul, and Turkish psych will be well-known to regular listeners of her Soho Radio show.

Having always sung from a young age, Iraina embarked on a string of collaborators such as Jagz Kooner (Sabres Of Paradise), Sunglasses For Jaws (Miles Kane) and Simon Dine (Paul Weller, Noonday Underground) which truly saw her find her metier as a songwriter, conjuring melodies that stand shoulder to shoulder alongside her impeccable influences. Iraina describes her first single for Needle Mythology ‘Cannonball’ as “a celebration of that moment when you meet someone you really fall for and it knocks you for six. It can be a bit scary, but you’ve just got to go with what your intuition is telling you.”

Written with Simon Dine, the vertiginous heart-in-mouth abandon of the song perfectly mirrors the circumstances that brought it into being. Iraina cites Jacqueline Taïeb’s 1967 single 7h du Matin as an early inspiration for the song: “There’s such a great energy about that song. Her vocal is amazing and all those stops and starts that grab your attention.”

“This is an artist I absolutely love, one of our rising stars at 6Music.“ Lauren Laverne BBC 6Music.

“Iraina seizes on the best aspects of the past, blurring those impeccable 60s and 70s influences with a touch of modernity.” Clash.

“Full of femme fatale poise and swooning chanteuse flourishes.” The Times.

TRACK LISTING

1. Undo The Blue (Beyond The Wizards Sleeve Re-Animation)
2. Sugar High (Saint Etienne Remix)

“Into The Blue is the clearest portrait of who I am as an artist. It’s me through and through,” says multi-instrumentalist Aaron Frazer. A daring blend of soul, psychedelia, spaghetti western, disco, gospel and hip-hop, Into the Blue represents the impressive range of Frazer’s sonic talents. Frazer maintains the unmistakable falsetto and classic songwriting he’s known for, but plants Into the Blue firmly in the now with a hip-hop mentality at its core, weaving together genres and production techniques to form something new.

Into The Blue was conceived, like so many classic records, out of actual heartbreak. Frazer moved cross-country from Brooklyn to Los Angeles and embarked on a journey that’s reflected in the album’s themes of grief, loneliness, and searching for healing. “Into The Blue really means heading into the unknown. That has been the last year of my life and I’m still in the blue,” Frazer explains. “But there are also songs here that celebrate love and the giddiness of a new relationship and all that. That’s part of a breakup to me, processing the whole thing, remembering the things that were right as much as the things that were wrong.”

Frazer wrote on every track and played several live instruments on the album. The title track, “Into The Blue”, is a haunting, resolute anthem, combining cinematic strings and tough-as-nails breakbeats as Frazer heads west. “Here I go, to a place where the broken heart knows,” he sings. “It’s all I can do. Back into the blue.” “Payback” is an explosive dancefloor heater, featuring shimmering tambourines and driving bass lines. Northern soul drums meet snarling fuzz guitar, hurdling towards its epic conclusion.

The album features moments of towering arrangements, recalling David Axelrod and Ennio Merricone, balanced by rawness, incorporating iPhone recordings and one-take vocals. For Into the Blue, Frazer enlisted Grammy-winner Alex Goose as coproducer, known for his crate-digging samples and collaborations with hip-hop artists like Freddie Gibbs, Madlib and Brockhampton. Frazer also experimented with samples for the first time on a record, drawing from unexpected sources like 90s R&B group Hi-Five. Though Into the Blue is born out of heartbreak, Frazer hopes it leaves listeners with a sense of optimism. “You know, you can still laugh on a day when you’re grieving,” he says, “there’s no peaks without valleys,” he says, but Into The Blue sees Aaron Frazer at new heights.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A beautiful, swinging selection of psychedelic ballads and shimmering poppy numbers. The title track is a particular delight, bringing to mind Morricone as much as it does Morcheeba or Khruangbin. A perfectly produced melting pot.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1) Thinking Of You
2) Into The Blue
3) Fly Away
4) Payback
5) Dime Feat. Cancamusa
6) Perfect Strangers

Side B
7) Time Will Tell
8) I Don’t Wanna Stay
9) Play On
10) Easy To Love
11) The Fool

UK/NL reeds player, composer and producer Finn Peters presents his new 10", Red, Green and Blue; The three track EP of Nu Jazz/Broken Beats is being released on the artist's own Mantella Records imprint and sees a return to solo recording (after a decade hiatus) for the award winning Jazz maverick, beloved of Gilles Peterson and fans of cosmic jazz.

Influences include Compass Point Records, Africa Bambaata, Yusef Lateef and Walter Gibbons. It is heavy sounding with MPC3000 and SP 12 drum breaks, heavy African and Brazilian percussion, ethereal flute choirs and analogue synths a plenty.

TRACK LISTING

1. Red
2. Green
3. Blue

Greg Foat is a London-based keyboardist, composer, bandleader and DJ. He claims his life-long love/hate relationship with the piano began at age 3, when he fell off a piano stool at his aunt's house. He started composing around age 11, and at 15 attended a jazz workshop with Jeff Clyne, Olaf Vas, Trevor Tomkins and Nick Weldon, igniting his obsession with jazz music. He furthered to study jazz at Middlesex University, and then studied for 6 months in Sweden on an Erasmus grant. He played his first professional studio session there at 21, and has been working as a professional musician ever since.

Snake Plant Shuffle and Spider Plant Blues are inspired by the the plants on Gregs bedside tables - which periodically move around the house dependent on his mood. The plants provide a good source of oxygen in the room and create a calm soothing atmosphere for Gregs musical projects. Together the tracks feature live drum kits by Ayo Salawu, Fender Rhodes and a plethora of Vintage Synthesisers.

Snake Plant Shuffle has had radio plays in Gemany, Poland and Canada, as well as being heavily featured in Amazon Music's Jazz playlists, including 'Fresh Jazz', 'Coffee Shop Jazz' and 'Café Jazz'. Both tracks are featured in Apple Music' 'Jazz Scene: UK' and 'New Latitudes' playlists.

TRACK LISTING

1. Spider Plant Blues
2. Snake Plant Shuffle

The complete 1959 Miles Davis album 'Kind of Blue', one of the most influential Jazz albums of all time, presented here as a 2LP set in its original mono and stereo versions.

TRACK LISTING

1. So What
2. Freddie Freeloader
3. Blue In Green
4. All Blues
5. Flamenco Sketches
6. So What
7. Freddie Freeloader
8. Blue In Green
9. All Blues
10. Flamenco Sketches

'Cyan Blue' finds Wilson crafting a smoothly woven cyan tapestry of her eternal influences; thumping gospel piano, warm soul basslines, atmospheric electronics, and penetrating R&B melodies. Yet, it possesses a sense of vastness that rings in a new era for Wilson, one in which she’s embracing collaboration and newfound creative openness tinged with wistfulness and yearning and a reflection on youthful innocence. “I want to look through the unjaded eyes of my younger self again,” Wilson explains of making 'Cyan Blue'. “Before there wasn’t as much baggage, before so much life was lived. But I also wish that my younger self could see where I am now. It would be nice to be able to impart some of the wisdom and clarity that I have now onto her.”

Working with producers like Leon Thomas (SZA, Ariana Grande, Post Malone), and Jack Rochon (H.E.R, Daniel Caesar), 'Cyan Blue' demonstrates Wilson’s sonic expertise while also showcasing the next evolution of her time-bending songwriting. Through 13 hypnotizing tracks, she continues to use music as a vessel for unpacking relationships, which in turn allows her to meet and understand herself in life-spanning, panoramic focus. But, on 'Cyan Blue', she challenged herself to kick her perfectionist tendencies. “Before, I was extremely intentional about creating music with a strong foundation, a bed of artistic integrity,” Wilson reflects. “But that was a bit stifling, like, ‘Let me just make a great piece of art that will stand the test of time, no pressure.’ Now, I think I'm getting out of this frozen state of needing everything to be perfect. I'm more interested in capturing feelings in the moment as they happen and leaving them in that moment.”

While this is only her second album, Wilson’s influence in music has made a major mainstream impact. Wilson broke out in 2016 with her critically acclaimed EP, 'CDW', followed by 2018’s 'Stone Woman' and made her debut studio album an official coming out moment in 2021 with the critically acclaimed, self-released 'Alpha'. Over the past decade, she’s been sampled by Drake, John Mayer, and James Blake, while Patti Smith has recently praised and covered Wilson’s 2016 breakout single “Work.” Additionally, she’s collaborated with artists like Kaytranada, BADBADNOTGOOD, and SG Lewis, demonstrating that there’s no sound Wilson can’t adapt to and sprinkle her cyan-colored magic over.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: There's a strong thread of soul through Charlotte Day Wilson's brilliant 'Cyan Blue', but it smoothly moves between jazzy chord progressions and blazing synthpop lead lines, forging a path entirely of her own. Brilliantly inventive, full of groove and brilliantly produced.

TRACK LISTING

1. My Way
2. Money
3. Dovetail
4. Forever (ft. Snoh Aalegra)
5. Do U Still
6. New Day
7. Last Call
8. Canopy
9. Over The Rainbow
10. Kiss & Tell
11. I Don't Love You
12. Cyan Blue
13. Walk With Me

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2024 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON SATURDAY APRIL 20TH ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

IF THERE ARE ANY REMAINING COPIES THEY WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE ONLINE AT 8PM ON MONDAY APRIL 22ND.

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2024 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON SATURDAY APRIL 20TH ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

IF THERE ARE ANY REMAINING COPIES THEY WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE ONLINE AT 8PM ON MONDAY APRIL 22ND.

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2024 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON SATURDAY APRIL 20TH ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

IF THERE ARE ANY REMAINING COPIES THEY WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE ONLINE AT 8PM ON MONDAY APRIL 22ND.

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2024 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON SATURDAY APRIL 20TH ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

IF THERE ARE ANY REMAINING COPIES THEY WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE ONLINE AT 8PM ON MONDAY APRIL 22ND.

Blue Note Re:imagined was first released in 2020 featuring fresh takes on music from the illustrious Blue Note Records vaults recorded by a heavyweight line-up of the UK jazz, soul, and R&B sceneís most hotly-tipped rising stars. This incredible compilation includes artists such as Jorja Smith, Jordan Rakai, Ezra Collective, Poppy Ajudha and more. This new version of Blue Note Re:imagined, pressed exclusively for Record Store Day on Smokey Clear & Blue vinyl with new blue cover, includes an exclusive bonus track - Jorja Smith ñ Rose Rouge (Joy Orbison Remix). On itís original release Blue Note Re:imagined topped jazz charts around the globe and infuses the spirit of the new UK jazz generation into the legendary labelís iconic catalog, balancing the genreís tradition with its future and reflecting the melting pot of talent and diversity within the current scene.

TRACK LISTING

Side A: 1. Jorja Smith ñ Rose Rouge2. Ezra Collective ñ Footprints3. Poppy Ajudha - Watermelon Man (Under The Sun)4. JordanRakei ñ Wind Parade Side B:1. Skinny Pelembe - Illusion (Silly Apparition)2. Alfa Mist ñ Galaxy3. Ishmael Ensemble ñ Search For PeaceSide C:1. Nubya Garcia ñ A Shade Of Jade2. Steam Down, Afronaut Zu ñ Etcetera3. Blue Lab Beats ñ Montara 4. Yazmin Lacey - I'll Never Stop Loving You Side D:1. Fieh ñ Armageddon2. Mr Jukes - Maiden Voyage3. Shabaka Hutchings - Prints Tie4. Melt Yourself Down - Caribbean Fire Dance (Lewisham Drop)5. Emma-Jean Thackray - Speak No Evil (Night Dreamer) New Bonus Track: 6. Jorja Smith ñ Rose Rouge (Joy Orbison Remix)

Grammy winning duo Blue Lab Beats one of the fastest-rising production duos in the world right now, announce the release, on April 19th, of their eagerly anticipated fourth studio album, “BLUE ECLIPSE”. “Blue Eclipse” heralds an exciting new era for Blue Lab Beats and the 12 songs reveal the depth and breadth of producer NK-OK, and multi-instrumentalist Mr DM’s musical ambition. Featured guests include Mercury Prize nominated Kojey Radical alongside Daley, on “Take Time”, IDK & Jay Prince on “Say Wow”, Amber & Farah on “Wait A While”, and Poppy Daniels on the title track. “We called this album Blue Eclipse as a nod to Blue Skies, our first EP. We wanted to embrace some themes and sounds that we’ve used throughout our career and make an album that truly represents us. Using sky titles acts as a reminder of people in our lives who inspired us and left a very important mark on us. We wanted to welcome old friends as well new ones onto this project and we are so happy with everyone’s amazing contributions.” Blue Lab Beats.

TRACK LISTING

1.Never Doubt
2.Say Wow (ft. IDK, Jay Prince)
3.Rice & Peas (ft Kyra, Bnny Hunna, Aidan)
4.Cherry Blossom (Ft Ben Jones & Parthenope)
5.Sky Paradise (interlude)
6.Wait A While Ft Farah Audhali, Amber Navran
7.Sunset In LA
8.Nights In Tokyo (feat. Kaidi)
9.Take Time (ft Kojey Radical & Daley)
10.Guava (ft Kaidi Akaninbi, Poppy Daniels, Richi, Camilla Georgia)
11.Blue Eclipse (FT Poppy Daniels)
12.Brother Ft. Natalie Lindi

Recorded 25 years into their career, Giant Sand’s 25th album is a gorgeous and much-celebrated collection of perfectly-crafted, personal songwriting from Howe Gelb. With the exception of one or two wonderfully abrupt and perfectly placed outbursts, it’s a gentle rollercoaster traversing the inner thinking of the why’s and wherefores of whatever, a meditation on time and the ageing process.

Musing on the record, Howe Gelb explains “On this LP I show off an acquired appreciation for the simple lyric. Kinda haiku at times, like flamenco verse, or the blues. I can focus more as it’s obvious there’s only so much time left – that has a production value all its own.”

Highlighting their eclectic and esoteric career, this reissue celebrates the band’s magnificent, long and winding career. This deluxe reissue features restored artwork and newly penned liner notes from MOJO’s Dave Henderson.

Giant Sand have been the primary outlet for the stylistic curveballs and sun-damaged songcraft of singer-songwriter Howe Gelb. In four plus decades he’s managed to reinvent rock, country, blues, punk, garage, lo-fi, jazz, gospel, avant-garde noise and flamenco gypsy music with his impressionistic imagery and expansive observations of the world.

“An album full of heart, soul, and wit, this music confirms that no one does quite what Howe Gelb can do with such remarkably innate grace and feel” AllMusic.

TRACK LISTING

A1 Fields Of Green
A2 Chunk Of Coal
A3 The Last One
A4 Monk's Mountain
A5 Spellbound
A6 Ride The Rail
A7 Lucky Star Love
B1 Thin Line Man
B2 No Tellin'
B3 Brand New Swamp Thing
B4 Erosion
B5 Time Flies
B6 Better Man Than Me
B7 Love A Loser

Legendary trumpeter Miles Davis was still near the start of his storied career when he cut the three sessions that comprise his Blue Note recordings in 1952, 1953, and 1954. Blue Note later compiled the tracks into two 12” LPs as part of the 1500 series. The music presents all the hallmarks of his early style from blazing bebop to beautiful ballads. This Blue Note Classic Vinyl Edition is mono, all-analog, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original masters, and pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. Take Off
2. Weirdo
3. Would'n You
4. I Waited For You
5. Ray's Idea – Alternate Take
6. Donna

Side B
1. Well You Needn't
2. The Leap
3. Lazy Susan
4. Tempus Fugit – Alternate Take
5. It Never Entered My Mind

Ray Charles has been described universally as the "The Genius" and "Father of Soul Music". He made his first recordings in 1947 and over the following years his career was in a continuous state of evolution. Encompassing many different genres, mostly blues, jazz, gospel and soul, Ray Charles developed a unique style, and his personal touch became evident in all the different projects he undertook. This was his first LP and includes such classics as "I Got a Woman", "Drown in My Own Tears" and "Hallelujah, I Love Her So", among others.

TRACK LISTING

Ain't That Love
Drown In My Own Tears
Come Back Baby
Sinner's Prayer
Funny (But I Still Love You)
Losing Hand
Hard Times (No One Knows Better Than I) *
Hit The Road Jack *
A Fool For You
Hallelujah I Love Her So
Mess Around
This Little Girl Of Mine
Mary Ann
Greenbacks
Don't You Know
I Got A Woman
I Believe To My Soul *

Voyager invite Mike Storm to create his own sonic narrative. "The Pale Blue Dot"  is Mike's aural interpretation of the Voyager spacecraft missions. Each track gives its own take on the journey of spacecraft Voyager 1 and Voyager 2, with a story board for each track contained inside this limited edition press.

Netherlands native Mike is no stranger to conceptual sci fi music, with numerous releases and albums on Axis Records, plus EP releases on Warm Up Recordings and Modularz to name but a few. The Axis affiliation is tangilbiel, with the whole LP more than tipping its hat to Jeff Mills' "Something In The Sky" series - proper intergalactic space techno with its own red shifted signature.

Mostly all his tracks are written live in one take, with no recall. This makes his music very unique in the digital DAW age. Recommended! 

TRACK LISTING

A1. Prologue - The Call Of Distant Worlds
A2. Pale Blue Dot - Earths Odyssey
A3. Interstellar Sojourn - Voyagers Departure
A4. Celestial Caravan - Across The Outer Reaches
B1. Echos Of Solitude - Voices From The Abyss
B2. Stardust Serenade - Tales Of The Cosmos
B3. Gravitys Embrace - Dancing Among The Planets
B4. Lullaby For Sol - Nostalgia Of Home
B5. Epilogue - Homecoming Of A Voyager 

The long lost 1968 debut album by singer-songwriter, Scott Fagan, once tipped to be bigger than Elvis, is set for release on 9th February 2024 via Earth Recordings. ‘South Atlantic Blues’ will be reissued for the first time in its original artwork, with an iconic portrait of Fagan by famed rock photographer, Joel Brodsky, following a widely celebrated 2015 release.

Revisiting his mystical, mythical, and deeply soulful masterpiece, this psych-folk gem doffs a Tropicalia hat direct from downtown New York. “His songs embrace a broad sonic fantasia, swirling in ’60s New York R&B and ’40s jazz, as well as the Caribbean rhythms of calypso, meringue and Pachanga.” New York Times

Scott Fagan’s story is worthy of a movie in itself. A swinging hipster who landed in 60s Greenwich folk scene, escaping the abject poverty of his U.S. Virgin Islands upbringing, Fagan found himself mentored by the Brill Building’s Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman, and feted as the next big thing. “Forget Rodriguez, forget Searching for Sugar Man,” says Sharyn Felder, daughter of the late Doc Pomus, the legendary songwriter who signed Fagan to management in 1964. “Scott was so much more. He was cut from a different cloth.”

‘South Atlantic Blues’ is the perfect soundtrack to this tale, an epic song cycle wrapped around an impassioned love story, driven by Fagan’s dense, allusive lyrics, and production by Elmer Jared Gordon (Pearls Before Swine) and rich arrangements by Horace Ott (Nina Simone, Sam Cooke, The Shirelles). The Earth Recordings reissue coincides with a resurgence in activity for Fagan, with a new album in the works – the never-recorded soundtrack to ‘Soon’, the 1971 Broadway rock musical he co-wrote and starred in – and a documentary ‘Soon: the Story of Scott Fagan’ currently filming through Scissor Kick Films, from director Marah Strauch, writer Chris Campion (who rediscovered the singer-songwriter in 2015), and producer Eric Bruggeman.

TRACK LISTING

A1. In My Head
A2. Nickels And Dimes
A3. Crying
A4. The Carnival Is Ended
A5. South Atlantic Blues
B1. Nothing But Love
B2. Tenement Hall
B3. In Your Hands
B4. Crystal Ball
B5. Madam-moiselle

Introducing "COWBOY BEBOP: The Real Folk Blues Legends," a vinyl masterpiece with captivating designs by Toshiaki Uesugi, celebrated for his work for the Cowboy Bebop franchise. This LP, carefully supervised by the legendary Yoko Kanno, compiles tracks from the whole Cowboy Bebop discography including Blue, No Disc and Knocking on Heaven’s Door, featuring the iconic "The Real Folk Blues." This release brings to vinyl for the first-time classics like "Call Me Call Me" and "Blue," delivering to fans a unique sonic experience. Join the legacy of one of the most successful anime series of all time.

This vinyl set features 2x deluxe LP Discs, pressed on 140g dark blue marbled 12" vinyl. It includes an insert print with song track lists, song credits, extensive liner notes and interviews with Yoko Kanno, all housed in a gatefold jacket.

TRACK LISTING

DISC 1 - LP - Side A
1. THE REAL FOLK BLUES
2. COSMIC DARE (PRETTY WITH A PISTOL)
3. ELM
4. Clutch
DISC 1 - LP - Side B
1. CALL ME CALL ME
2. Is It Real?
3. WO QUI NON COIN
4. Forever Broke
5. SPY
6. Time To Know~ Be Waltz
DISC 2 - LP - Side A
1. Gotta Knock A Little Harder
2. Fantaisie Sign
3. The Singing Sea
4. Hamduche
5. BLUE
DISC 2 - LP - Side B
1. Theme From Cowboy Bebop
2. Cats On Mars
3. Waltz In High Socks
4. The Fate Of Three
5. The Adventures Of Losers
6. Piano Solo

The first really revolutionary fracture in The Fall was the departure of guitarist Martin Bramah. Commonly understood as the only viable challenger to Mark E Smith's dominance of the band, Bramah was The Fall's first singer and primary songwriter at the start. His subsequent group, Blue Orchids, was originally a reconstitution of the first recorded line-up of The Fall, without Mark, but with another slightly later Fall member, Eric McGann. After slight revisions in the lineup, Blue Orchids created a singular sound of maniacally aberrant psych on two thrilling singles - "The Flood" and "Work" - before recording one of the most imperfectly perfect debuts in what could no longer really be called 'rock and roll'.

'The Greatest Hit (Money Mountain)' eschews the frenetic energy of those singles to present itself as the greatest 'morning after the trip' albums ever - Martin and Una's wonderful explanations of the experiential backdrop to "Sun Connection" take up nearly as much space as those of all the other songs combined! Without exception, the songs are brilliant, majestic and memorable . . . plus it's possible that more covers of songs from 'The Greatest Hit' have been recorded by bands of credibility and renown than from any single Fall LP (although we're counting!), with near-contemporaneous versions arising from Fish & Roses, Slovenly, Dustdevils and Aztec Camera and many others since.

Never reissued on vinyl since its 1982 release, due to objections from the WB Yeats estate for the album's musical interpretation of the author's "Mad As The Mist And Snow" (now in public domain!), this deluxe edition includes a bonus album with two unreleased pre-album demos, two further demos released only on long out-of-print cassette compilations from more than forty years ago, and scorching live set featuring several of their early songs, extensive liner notes from Martin Bramah and Una Baines, a reproduction of the original lyric fold-over booklet and (with the 2LP version), a download card. The original artwork for the album and booklet have been restored painstakingly, and as Bramah himself says, "It's better than the original." After over four decades, we're proud to make available this classic album again. Tiny Global Production's first release was a companion to this release (it's also available again), containing the band's two 7" singles, the album's follow-up EP 'Agents Of Change', and two unheard demos.

TRACK LISTING

Sun Connection
Dumb Magician
Tighten My Belt
A Year With No Head
Hanging Man
Bad Education
Wait
No Looking Back
Low Profile
Mad As The Mist And Snow
Disney Boys (demo)
The Flood (demo)
Low Profile (C81 Cassette Version)
Thirst (Pleasantly Surprised Cassette Version)
Live In Manchester, 2014: Motorway
Hanging Man
Olympian
Work
A Year With No Head
The Unknown

Martin Bramah, lead guitarist in The Fall, was the final original musician to leave the band and inarguably the most important factor in the band's original sound. What Bramah took with him on departure was a sort of hazy psychedelic vision featured so readily on The Fall's debut, Live At The Witch Trials, and continued through his work with Blue Orchids, even if that lineage was obscured somewhat by The Fall's popularity and consistent stream of releases. For Bramah, the decades after The Fall were fraught. After regrouping as Blue Orchids with fellow Fall castaways Una Baines and Rick Goldstraw), initial releases rose to notoriety with two caustic and intense 7" singles, The Flood and Work, along with the more varied collection of songs featured on their debut LP, The Greatest Hit (Money Mountain), which topped the indie charts and remains a touchstone for many artists. Personal issues within the band made progress difficult. The 12" EP Agents Of Change, introduced changes to their sound (in part due to their work with Nico - yes, that Nico). But after its release, silence followed. Bramah sightings were elusive - a solo on an album by Una's band The Fates, a 12" single with mesmerising songs performed, oddly, in a sort of reggae style. A short second stint in The Fall. You get the picture. Any semblance of a career only began with a series of archival and new releases starting in 2015: a new studio album, followed by another new album nearly every year thereafter. Each sold better than the last, until this year's debut release by HOUSE Of ALL, a 'side project' featuring four other former members of The Fall. It was a hit within days of its announcement, in no small part to its immediacy - recorded in three days - and a healthy dollop of scandal . . . the spectre of retrospective threat to MES's hegemonic rule of The Fall.

TRACK LISTING

The Face Of Time
Dark Dame
Need Woke Her
As My Vision Cleared
High Horse
She Had Practically No Money
Tableau Vivant
Replica Of Me
On Your Honour Then
Rocket To Stardom

South Carolina singer and producer Niecy Blues describes her songwriting process like an undertow: “I feel a strange pull, and let it carry me, following swirling leaves... whole days roll by, forgetting about the body.”

Their full-length debut, Exit Simulation, captures this sense of deep-rooted divination, cycling between simmering ballads, ghosted R&B, downtempo gospel, and looped vocal improvisations – often within the same track. The title is taken from a science fiction novel she read during the purgatory of the pandemic, alluding to a dimensional ideation of departure – “the permission to imagine leaving.”

Recorded in her current home of Charleston, she characterizes the album’s mood in terms both reflective and raw: an exploration of things suppressed, foundations beginning to crack, “talking myself off a ledge.”

The music of Niecy Blues transposes reverie and reckoning into emotive devotionals of keys, guitar, bass, synth, and bewitched voice, steeped in sacred atmospheres gleaned from a youth spent in a religious Oklahoma household: “My first experience with ambient music was church – slow songs of worship, with delay on the guitar... even if you don’t believe, you feel something.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Exit Simulating sings with the sort of rhythmic swing of a 90's R&B record, but swims and ripples with waves of ambient and Balearic influence, resulting in an album that's both wildly adventurous and intensely addictive. Thoroughly stunning work from Niecy Blues.

TRACK LISTING

1. 1111
2. The Nite B4
3. U Care
4. Violently Rooted
5. Exit Simulation
6. Exits
7. Soma
8. Messages From Above
9. Lament
10. Violently Rooted Reprise
11. The Architect
12. Analysis Paralysis
13. Cascade

The classic loops of the original FM3 Buddha Machine evoke instant nostalgia for a slower, more simple world. Born before the iPhone era, this iconic device has weathered two decades of pop culture and fashion trends, yet remains defiantly, heroically unique. Its enduring simplicity cloaks an extraordinary power: the ability to transcend time. It is both a sonic portal to a hands-on analogue past and a bridge to a digital ever-present. This is not just a re-issue; it is a revival and refinement of a sonic manifesto that unfolds softly, gently and organically, resonating with the subtle rhythms of life. The Buddha 1 2023 edition from FM3.

Available now in 5 colours: Red, Orange, Green, Blue and limited-edition Pink. Features upgraded sound quality and user experience. Louder speaker and 2 new individual side buttons make device control more direct and intuitive.

Balmat co-founders Philip Sherburne and Albert Salinas have been fans of Shy Layers’ lilting, Balearic pop for years, so when Shy Layers’ JD Walsh asked them to listen to a set of demos he was working up with fellow Atlanta multi-instrumentalist Jeff Crompton, they jumped at the chance. 

Together, Walsh and Crompton are Anagrams, and their debut album together, 'Blue Voices', might initially seem like a departure from Balmat’s habitually electronic terrain. It’s not ambient music, but it’s also not not ambient music, at least to listeners in the right frame of mind. The two musicians, who met when Walsh moved from Brooklyn to Atlanta in 2016 and began collaborating a few years later, see the music in similarly ambiguous terms. “I like it because it’s not jazz,” jokes Crompton, a veteran and credentialed jazz player. “And JD likes it because it’s jazz.”

Crompton is a musician (and former high-school band teacher) with deep roots in Georgia’s improvised and experimental music scenes; his credits include shows with Eugene Chadbourne, a guest appearance with Godspeed You! Black Emperor, and a collaboration with Duet for Theremin and Lap Steel’s 12-hour drone performance at Knoxville’s Big Ears. On 'Blue Voices' he plays alto and tenor saxophone, clarinet, electric piano, and organ. Walsh has been releasing music as Shy Layers since 2015, when he started self-releasing on Bandcamp; the following year, Germany’s Growing Bin packaged his first two EPs as a self-titled album, and in 2018, Tim Sweeney’s Beats in Space label put out Shy Layers’ sophomore album, 'Midnight Marker'. Where those records channeled Walsh’s playful harmonic instincts into wistful songwriting with tropical overtones, on 'Blue Voices' he lets his experimental tendencies take the lead. Playing acoustic and electric guitars, electric lap steel, bass, Moog Matriarch, modular synth, and programmed drums, he concentrates his energies on richly textural layers and abstract assemblages of tone color.

Across the album’s 11 tracks, there are faint echoes of familiar touchstones: the atmospheric twang of Daniel Lanois’ pedal steel on 'Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks'; the mercurial modal runs of Ethio- jazz; the late-summer calm of Fuubutsushi; the versatility of players and composers like Patrick Shiroishi and Sam Gendel, who are asking similar questions about where jazz ends and some other, nameless territory begins. Mostly, though, what 'Blue Voices' captures is the quixotic sound of two restless musical imaginations making it up as they go along, two voices discovering a shared language in a hitherto unexplored shade of blue.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Ridiculously adventurous, totally uncategorizable and an absolute delight on the ears. Shy Layers delivers an impeccable album of intrigue and mystery; articulated through woodwind, toned percussion and a rich tapestry of instrumentation. So good it hurts!

TRACK LISTING

A1. Birds On Clifton
A2. Blue Voices
A3. Hymn No.2
A4. Catch It
A5. Ex Uno Plures
B1. Hidden Hearts
B2. Another Cloud
B3. Song In Six
B4. Interesting Times
B5. Let Us Sing Sad Songs Together
B6. What Is Left Is Music

These landmark compilations have introduced generations of fans to the incredible history of the most storied band in music. For its 50th anniversary, the collections have been expanded: ‘Red’ has 12 additional tracks, including for the first time some of George Harrison’s earliest songs and some classic Beatles versions of R&B and rock ‘n’ roll hits that were so influential on the band. ‘Blue’ has 9 additional tracks including “Blackbird” and “Glass Onion” including the last new Beatles song, “Now And Then” for a total of 21 new additions which are all compiled onto the 3rd disc, effectively creating a ‘new’ LP for each set.

Together the 6LP’s contain 75 tracks, 36 of which have new mixes for 2023. The inserts contains new sleeve notes by journalist and author John Harris. For current fans and future generations alike, the new 1962 – 1966 & 1967 - 1970 collections are a joyous celebration of The Beatles’ timeless musical legacy.

Coltrane's sessions for Atlantic in late October 1960 were prolific, yielding the material for 'My Favorite Things', 'Coltrane Plays the Blues', and 'Coltrane's Sound'. 'My Favorite Things' was destined to be the most remembered and influential of these, and while Coltrane Plays the Blues is not as renowned or daring in material, it is still a powerful session.

As for the phrase "plays the blues" in the title, it's not so much an indicator that the tunes are conventional blues, but more indicative of a bluesy sensibility.

TRACK LISTING

1. Blues To Elvin
2. Blues To Bechet
3. Blues To You
4. Blues To Elvin [Alternative Take]
5. Mr. Day
6. Mr. Syms
7. Mr. Knight
8. Blues To You [Alternative Take]

This landmark compilation has introduced generations of fans to the incredible history of the most storied band in music. For its 50th anniversary, the collection has been expanded with 9 additional tracks added chronologically, including “Blackbird”, “Glass Onion” and the new song, “Now And Then”. The last Beatles song, “Now And Then” completes John Lennon’s 1970s vocal and piano demo recording with parts played by Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, as well as a new arrangement for strings.

The 3LP collection now features 37 tracks, 6 of which have new mixes for 2023. The set’s 9 newly added tracks are collected on its 3rd LP. An insert contains new sleeve notes by journalist and author John Harris. For current fans and future generations alike, the new 1966 – 1970 collection is a joyous celebration of The Beatles’ timeless musical legacy.

The 2CD collection now features 37 tracks, 6 of which have new mixes for 2023. The booklet contains new sleeve notes by journalist and author John Harris. For current fans and future generations alike, the new 1966 – 1970 collection is a joyous celebration of The Beatles’ timeless musical legacy.

Every element of Egyptian Blue’s fierce, uncompromising sound feels like hypnotism fuelled by psychosis. Their grinding riffs achieve a mesmeric power through brute repetition, while their rhythm section produces taut, nervous energy and intense post-punk grooves in equal measure.

Following on from their incendiary debut E. P’s; 2019’s ‘Collateral Damage’ & 2020’s ‘Body Of Itch’, the band garnered a fervent following and had support from key tastemakers across the media including Steve Lamacq, Jack Saunders, Tom Ravenscroft, NME and Fader.

In the intervening time they have been heralded by their peers as one of the best new bands in the country; IDLES frontman Joe Talbot describing them as “fucking sick’’ and picking them as his act of choice for the BBC Introducing stage at Glastonbury 2022. Yannis Philippakis is another avowed super-fan, personally choosing Egyptian Blue as support for Foals’ run of arena shows in the UK & Europe during their Life Is Yours tour run.

With a new clarity of vision fully formed during the extended hiatus of 2-years of pandemic enforced delays, ‘’A Living Commodity’’ represents a dynamic artistic shift from Egyptian Blue and showcases in full the scale and ambition of their songwriting.

The first teaser of new music came in the form of ‘Geisha’; a psyche-tinged punk attack driven by Luke Phelps propulsive bass combined with Isaac Ide’s tight percussion, underpinned by dual frontmen Andy Buss & Leith Ambrose jagged guitar playing adding to the angsty and foreboding lyrics with Buss professing ‘’I live for only you’’ making a magnetising collage of sounds. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Matador
2. Nylon Wire
3. Belgrade Shade
4. Skin
5. In My Condition
6. A Living Commodity
7. Apparent Cause
8. Suit Of Lights
9. To Be Felt
10. Contain It
11. Geisha

On The Inside, the debut album from Gotts Street Park, is more than an album – it’s an invitation. “We want listeners to feel like they’re stepping into a room with us, peering into our process,” say the acclaimed Leeds trio, describing a genre-hopping odyssey that acts as a diary of everything their relationship encompasses, both as collaborators and close friends.

The group was formed in Leeds by Josh Crocker (bass, production), Tom Henry (keys) and Joe Harris (guitar). What began as an outlet for their shared love for sixties Motown, soon became a jewel in the Yorkshire scene’s creative crown, with millions of Spotify streams to their name and some of hip-hop and pop’s most exciting emerging voices requesting collaborations: Celeste, Kali Uchis, Cosima and Rejjje Snow are just a few of the acts the band have individually written/produced for.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Silky smooth basslines and snappy guitar licks, swimming vocal hooks and soaring, modulated Hammond organ make for a decidedly upbeat but super relaxing melting pot of northern soul, funk and jazz.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. Summer Breeze (feat. Rosie Lowe)
2. Tell Me Why (feat. Olive Jones)
3. Shiloh
4. Got To Be Good (feat. Pip Millett)
5. Fuego
6. Mountains (feat. ENNY)
Side B
1. Strawberry Dream
2. Fool For Love (feat. Pip Millett)
3. Purple
4.Are You Still A Friend? (feat. Flikka)
5. Portofino (feat. Parthenope)
6. Walk Away

The album contains 14 tracks sourced from existing duets, songs that previously were not duets, translations from Spanish and a sprinkling of original compositions. Thematically it explores the perennial themes of mortality, love and mankind’s search for meaning as well as an enthused engagement with the enigmatic and mythical. Harvey and Acevedo met several years ago in Mexico City, but it was during 2020/21 that the project burst into life, as ideas were exchanged across the oceans and through the ether. The resulting collection of songs is lush and sweeping in its emotional content and is full of nourishment for the imagination and the senses.

TRACK LISTING

1 Creators Of Rain
2 Indian Summer
3 I Lost Something In The Hills
4 Song To The Siren
5 Milk & Honey
6 Love Is A Battlefield
7 Al Alba
8 The Decadence Of Lust
9 Phantasmagoria In 2
10 The Blue Unicorn
11 She Won’t
12 Trapeze
13 The One & Only (Phantasmagory)
14 You’ve Got Me Singing

Kansas City born Hammond B3 organ dynamo Big John Patton made a stellar run of soul jazz albums for Blue Note thru the 1960s but Let ‘Em Roll stands among the finest with Patton adding vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson to a standard organ trio line-up with guitarist Grant Green and drummer Otis Finch.

This stereo Tone Poet Vinyl Edition was produced by Joe Harley, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original analog master tapes, pressed on 180g vinyl at RTI, and packaged in a deluxe gatefold tip-on jacket.

TRACK LISTING

1. Let 'Em Roll (Side A)
2. Latona (Side A)
3. The Shadow Of Your Smile (Side A)
4. The Turnaround (Side B)
5. Jakey (Side B)
6. One Step Ahead (Side B)

It’s a testament to Jimmy Smith’s volcanic creativity that the Hammond B3 organ firebrand recorded not one but two soul jazz classics—Midnight Special and Back at the Chicken Shack—in a single day when he entered Van Gelder Studio on April 25, 1960 with Stanley Turrentine on tenor saxophone, Kenny Burrell on guitar, and Donald Bailey on drums.

This Blue Note Classic Vinyl Edition is stereo, all-analog, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original master tapes, and pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. Midnight Special
2. A Subtle One
Side B
3. Jumpin' The Blues
4. Why Was I Born
5. One O'Clock Jump

Wayne Shorter’s 1967 album Schizophrenia found the legendary saxophonist at the pinnacle of post-bop with a sextet of like-minded musical explorers including James Spaulding, Curtis Fuller, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter & Joe Chambers performing Shorter originals like ‘Tom Thumb’, ‘Go’, and ‘Miyako’.

This stereo Tone Poet Vinyl Edition was produced by Joe Harley, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original analog master tapes, pressed on 180g vinyl at RTI, and packaged in a deluxe gatefold tip-on jacket.

TRACK LISTING

1. Tom Thumb (Side A)
2. Go (Side A)
3. Schizophrenia (Side A)
4. Kryptonite (Side B)
5. Miyako (Side B)
6. Playground (Side B)

The Horace Silver Quintet of 1959 was a hard bop juggernaut featuring the pianist with trumpeter Blue Mitchell, saxophonist Junior Cook, bassist Gene Taylor & drummer Louis Hayes. Timeless originals like ‘Sister Sadie’, ‘Peace’, and the blustery title track make Blowin’ The Blues Away one of the finest entries in Silver’s formidable discography.

This Blue Note Classic Vinyl Edition is stereo, all-analog, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original master tapes, and pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. Blowin' The Blues Away
2. The St. Vitus Dance
3. Break City
4. Peace
Side B
5. Sister Sadie
6. The Baghdad Blues
7. Melancholy Mood (New Version)

Death nestles like a sweet creature at the heart of Holy Waters, the highly anticipated follow-up to 2021’s In Praise of Shadows. It’s less a morbid study in mortality, more a chronicle of the graciousness within each repeated cycle of life, death and rebirth, arriving eventually at a gentle affirmation to himself, to the listener, at the album’s close, to keep going, “don’t let the dark take you whole”. It’s the hope-tinged bleakness that gets you.

A substantial leap in Jacob’s artistry; extraordinary multitudes of hurt and relief are journeyed in his writing, navigating the spaces between grief and elation, and the strange semblances between solitude and community. Across its eleven tracks, his voice is a gossamer fabric delighting in the brightest language as he retraces every path walked in the harshest years of his life with a startling sincerity, looking each face of grief in the bloodshot eye. For the most part, he accepts it.

Recorded with his live band over the course of two visits to Eastbourne’s Echo Zoo Studios, a joy permeates each sonic corner of Holy Waters, the studio techniques more analogue and experimental than his previous work, but sounding fuller, richer, killing what ego was left in Puma Blue and paying their band-centric debts proudly. Inspired still by luminaries from Jeff Buckley to Björk, more important to Holy Waters was Portishead’s inexplicable marriage of a live band and production, and the improvisational work of Can and Hendrix. This is an album that can be devoured late at night with headphones as much as it can be blasted on the open road.

While Holy Waters might be his darkest work to date – even when compared to the moreish sadness flooding his breakthrough EPs Swum Baby (2017) and Blood Loss (2018) – it seems to find Puma Blue in a better place than ever. It’s as if death being the centrifuge to the album has made the beautiful moments that remain all the more beautiful; after all the sorrow and pain has passed, Holy Waters basks in them.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Stripped back, perfectly poised beauty here from Puma Blue, revealing another layer of faultless craft with each subsequent listen. Rich melodies, jazzy syncopated percussion and glitched bass, soaring harmonies and perfect modern production.

TRACK LISTING

1 Falling Down
2 Pretty
3 O, The Blood!
4 Hounds
5 Too Much, Too Much
6 Epitaph
7 Gates (Wait For Me)
8 Dream Of You
9 Holy Waters
10 Mirage
11 Light Is Gone

Iraina’s singular pop vision will be known to regular listeners of 6 Music, where her singles ‘Undo The Blue’, ‘Deep End’, ‘Shotgun’ and ‘Do It (You Stole The Rhythm)’ have all been enthusiastically embraced. Iraina's obsession with music stretches back into her early childhood, much of which was spent absorbing her parents’ collection of old 45s, in particular her dad’s Northern Soul records – an alternative education which meant that, by her early 20s, she was a familiar presence in the DJ booth at many discerning London club nights. Her love of French ye-ye, British freakbeat, Brazilian bossa nova, soul, and Turkish psych will be well-known to regular listeners of her Soho Radio show. Having always sung from a young age, Iraina embarked on a string of collaborators such as Jagz Kooner (Sabres Of Paradise), Sunglasses For Jaws (Miles Kane) and Simon Dine (Paul Weller, Noonday Underground) which truly saw her find her metier as a songwriter, conjuring melodies that stand shoulder to shoulder alongside her impeccable influences.

Iraina describes her first single for Needle Mythology ‘Cannonball’ as “a celebration of that moment when you meet someone you really fall for and it knocks you for six. It can be a bit scary, but you’ve just got to go with what your intuition is telling you.” Written with Simon Dine, the vertiginous heart-in-mouth abandon of the song perfectly mirrors the circumstances that brought it into being. Iraina cites Jacqueline Taïeb’s 1967 single 7h du Matin as an early inspiration for the song: “There’s such a great energy about that song. Her vocal is amazing and all those stops and starts that grab your attention.”

TRACK LISTING

1. Deep End
2. Cannonball
3. Sugar High
4. Undo The Blue
5. Do It (You Stole The Rhythm)
6. My Umbrella
7. Shotgun
8. What You Doin’ [featuring Miles Kane And Kitty Liv]
9. Need Your Love
10. Take A Bow

Like tributaries feeding a mighty river, the blues encompasses myriad genres and artists – no two alike – but all comprising a powerful current that flows through the rich history of contemporary music itself. Tell Everybody! (21st Century Juke Joint Blues From Easy Eye Sound), a compilation of new recordings from across the blues spectrum, is a payment of respect and admiration for the musicians carrying this American tradition into this century and beyond.

The album features artists all recorded at Dan Auerbach's Easy Eye Sound studio in Nashville and includes new recordings from Auerbach himself, as well as modern titans The Black Keys. From GRAMMY®-nominated blues artists RL Boyce and Jimmy "Duck" Holmes, to lost gems by the departed Leo "Bud" Welch and the storied Ohio guitar legend Glenn Schwartz, to new voices of the blues like Nat Myers, Gabe Carter, and Moonrisers, this compilation is a remarkable journey in 12 songs, a stunning perspective on an artform whose legacy is living and breathing in modern music.

TRACK LISTING

Coal Black Mattie - RL Boyce
Tell Everybody - Robert Finley
Tall Shadow - Moonrisers
Every Chance I Get (I Want You In The Flesh) - Dan Auerbach
Catfish Blues (Mono) - Jimmy "Duck" Holmes
Anything You Need - Gabe Carter
Willow Witchin' - Nat Myers
Don't Let The Devil Ride (Mono) - Leo Bud Welch
No Lovin' - The Black Keys
Daughter Of Zion (Featuring Joe Walsh) - Glenn Schwartz
Buffalo Road - Gabe Carter
Collinwood Fire - Glenn Schwartz 

“When Mum died, five years after Dad, there was this charge hanging in the air, connecting each person in the room,” says Matt. “Time stopped. I felt like I momentarily entered an alternative dimension between life and death. Days and weeks later I’d see my family in every corner of the house – all the reminders, ghosts and memories. Then, gradually, it felt like time for a new start, moving on from the house and my amazing parents.”

While the band’s debut LP Souvenirs captured memories and melancholy from around the death of Matt’s father, This House is its next-door neighbour. The new album was finished in the immediate aftermath of the death of Matt’s mum. As soon as the record was completed, PBE were packing up the contents from their self-built Penquit Mill home studio, financed through endless casual work and a bank loan. The location was a dream – in the middle of nowhere, just south of Dartmoor, midway between Plymouth and Totnes.

The studio was where they spent hours recording and self-producing both records, while supporting Matt’s mum through the decline of a long-term illness. Matt and his bandmate and wife Lucy Board (drums/synth/production) have now returned north, to her native Sheffield, with funk-mad bassist Aubrey Simpson living between Devon and London.

“It’s a more sombre and more ecstatic album, with an urgent desire to remember and enjoy every moment,” says Matt of the record’s life-defining “end of era” moments. “We’ve dealt with loss throughout both albums,” says Matt, “but this time there has been rebuilding – appreciating and relishing the things and people still here.” Pertinently, album tracks ‘Sister’ and ‘More’ celebrate the complexities of relationships between family and friends.

“We wanted to turn a shitty situation into something positive,” says Lucy, “ so we put all our energy into making music that was fun to play live and perhaps open up a way out.” Matt concurs: “The album captures moments of elation and joy alongside the grave mood that eventually engulfed our home. During those tough times we played all over the UK and overseas, buoyed by the thrill of people listening to what we’d been working on… knowing two days later we’d be in a hospice saying our final goodbyes to Mum. The ultimate headfuckery.”

PBE say the new album is a “slightly more worldly-wise sibling” to 2022 debut LP Souvenirs. The latter was roundly acclaimed. “Joyous... propulsive… exhilarating”, said Uncut. Magic of France were impressed: “Ultrapuissante... orgasmique... profondeur infinie.” Line Of Best Fit said, “‘Like all great debuts it’s both a culmination of their beginnings as well as a pointer to the wide open road ahead.”

Mixed and mastered by Moonlandingz’s Dean Honer (Róisín Murphy, The Human League, I Monster), with jam sessions its driving force, This House bounces through analogue tape delays and effects pedals to capture life’s oscillating journey. Celebratory ‘Simmering,’ and ‘Hang Out’ offer peaks, highlighting the importance of pressing the ‘off’ switch. “It’s about enjoying simple moments,” says Matt, “the sun on your face, hanging with friends in the pub, looking at the night sky...”

Any threat of troughs are lifted by motorik rhythms from their Moog Little Phatty and Prophet 12 – thanks to Lucy’s fascination for South Yorkshire synth innovation. The dissertation for her music degree was titled “An Investigation into Sheffield's Alternative Music Scene Between 1973 and 1978, with Particular Reference to Cabaret Voltaire.”

With This House, Lucy’s hometown sounds blend with Aubrey’s evangelical interest in Motown and various funk titans. These diverse touchstones comes through in the PBE album’s blend of pop hooks and psych-rock sophistication. ‘Heating’s On’ is a driving anthem, glistening with ’80s guitar and a trumpet part care of Lucy. ‘Sister’ mixes goth-rock guitar with DIY choral grandeur, a tasty mix of The Cult and Joe Meek. ‘Millions Times Over’ takes feelings of hopelessness and then creates a lovely bittersweet feel via shimmering synths and wistful vocals. The album concludes with the widescreen expanse of ‘Underwater’, a moving, meditative set-piece.

“Mum always said she loved hearing the sounds of the recording process as people would come and go from the studio,” Matt remembers.

Making music as a means to go on, Pale Blue Eyes’ two albums bookend other significant moments, such as soundtracking the Atmos arts-and-housing project in Totnes (featuring a sound-and-light installation by Brian Eno). There was also the time PBE’s beloved old Citroën blew up between gigs, reinforcing a valuable lesson. “You have to embrace the Berlingo!” says Lucy, rolling out the band’s new motto.

“Change is inevitable,” Matt adds. “You have to embrace it all, the good and bad, and the horribly ugly.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: With rich grooving guitars, snappy percussion and Matt Board's gorgeous psychedelic vocal stylings, Pale Blue Eyes' formula might not sound like the most complex, but it results in the huge, warm sound bath we hear on 'This House'. Beautifully written melodies and stuck-in-your-head riffs abound, Pale Blue Eyes have smashed out an incomparable debut.

Ahead of his upcoming North American and European live A/V tour, Rival Consoles reissues his fan favourite ‘Night Melody’ on limited edition blue vinyl, coinciding with its 7th anniversary this month.

'Night Melody' was born out of and shaped by long hours working into the night. It retains a nocturnal sound, capturing the mystery often associated with the late hours. As Rival Consoles describes it, "I found myself, in a silent home, with the days getting dark very early. I’ve never before in my life been affected by the lack of light so much. I just remember it always being night time. I would either make music into the night, go out drinking with friends, or go to parties and dance into the early hours, every day, week after week, month after month, until eventually the days became brighter again."

The opening statement ‘Pattern of the North’ starts off with a collage of spliced synth melodies, inspired by anxiety that accompanies going home for Christmas. It’s followed by ‘Johannesburg’, an early sketch gradually filled out during his tour in South Africa. “After playing it around some of the cities, I got a lot of inspiration to bring it to life and push it into something that really moves me. I think this is one of my most colourful pieces of music, with its driving rhythm and almost a homage to Terry Riley’s ‘In C’ towards the end, with a build of very simple, hypnotic parts. I especially love that for over five minutes the piece is tied to just one note. This makes the ending very dramatic, because all of a sudden there is this harmonic change.”

‘Lone’ started life around the time Ryan was working on his ‘Sonne’ EP in 2014. It’s the result of constant adjustments to find the perfect balance of fragility and assurance. As everything on the album, it’s a carefully considered, emotionally mature piece. “I think, as I get older, I need music to represent something and not just sound interesting, though of course the two are connected.” The closing statement ‘What Sorrow’ is a fitting end to the album, building from gentle melancholia to a joyous crescendo. It’s a sensibility that’s central to the record; joy and sorrow both find their counterpoints.

“This record is very personal to me and I hope it offers something for other people, as it helped me to make it and to listen to it. Almost every synth line was recorded intuitively, without perfection but with a lot of intention and expression. I’m not interested in making something sad or making something happy. I want music to be bittersweet, to be more complex, like life – containing moments of vibrant colour and hope, as much as darkness and sadness.

Ryan is set to embark on an exciting tour this Autumn/Winter, across North America and Europe. The tour kicks off in notable cities such as New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Montreal, and Mexico City. The journey culminates in an unforgettable finale at the enchanting Wonderfruit Festival in Thailand.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Pattern Of The North
A2. Johannesburg
A3. Slow Song
B1. Lone
B2. Night Melody
B3. What Sorrow

In 2010, the French edition of Rolling Stone magazine named this album the 28th greatest French rock album...considered as "the other" masterpiece of Serge Gainsbourg's discography, alongside “Histoire de Melody Nelson”, “L'Homme à tête de chou” – a concept album about a man in his forties falling in love with a rather free-minded shampoo girl - had not yet revealed all its secrets – until now! Almost 45 years after its release, the rediscovery of the multitrack tapes recorded in London in the summer of 1976 confirms that behind Gainsbourg's virtuoso talk-over was an extraordinary musical edifice. The new mix for this 2023 release rebalances the vocal and instrumental parts while retaining its original intent. 

TRACK LISTING

mix 2023
L’homme à La Tête De Chou
Chez Max Coiffeur Pour Hommes
Marilou Reggae
Transit à Marilou
Flash Forward
Aéroplanes
Ma Lou Marilou
Premiers Symptômes
Variations Sur Marilou
Meurtre à L’extincteur
Marilou Sous La Neige
Lunatic Asylum

instrumental Versions (only On Double Lp Edition)
L’homme à La Tête De Chou
Chez Max Coiffeur Pour Hommes
Marilou Reggae
Transit à Marilou
Flash Forward
Aéroplanes
Ma Lou Marilou
Premiers Symptômes
Variations Sur Marilou
Meurtre à L’extincteur
Marilou Sous La Neige
Lunatic Asylum
Transit à Marilou = Alternative
Ma Lou Marilou Alternative
Meurtre à L’extincteur -alternative
Lunatic Asylum -alternative
Variations Sur Marilou - Alternative

Blue Lake is the musical moniker of American born, Copenhagen based multidisciplinary artist and musician Jason Dungan, who signs to the Tonal Union imprint for the release of his new longform album ‘Sun Arcs’. It follows 2022’s release ‘Stikling’, earning a nomination for ‘Album of the Year’ at the Danish Music Awards plus warm praise from The Hum blog and musicians and DJs alike including Jack Rollo (Time is Away/NTS) and Carla dal Forno. A self taught player, Dungan began freely experimenting with self-built multi-string instruments, preferring to build his own hybrid 48-string zither and working in the realms of left-field ambient music, off kilter folk and improvised acoustic minimalism.

The starting point of ‘Sun Arcs’ saw Jason travel for a week alone to Andersabo, a cabin set in the idyllic Swedish woods just outside of Unnaryd, known also as the music project, festival and residency space which has been run by Dungan since 2016, hosting artists like Sofie Birch, Johan Carøe and Ellen Arkbro. Whilst writing 1-2 pieces per day, a conscious decision was made to leave behind everyday distractions and shut out the outside world to instead focus on the natural passage of time as Dungan recalls: “My only sense of time came from these daily walks out in the woods with my dog, and an awareness of the sun’s path as it moved across the sky each day.”

The album’s immersive world unfolds with the opener ‘Dallas’, an ode to his home state and a musical synthesis of these two disparate spaces (Texas and Denmark), the touchstones of Dungan’s life. A folk-esque single acoustic builds to a flowing arrangement of clarinets, organ and cello drones coupled with percussion. ‘Green-Yellow Field’ chimes in as the first of two solo oriented zither recordings twinned with the dreamlike title track ‘Sun Arcs’, both densely rich as cascading and overlapping harmonic tones resound. ‘Bloom’ emerges with a krautrock psyche before an eruption of cello drones, slide guitar and free-ranging zither playing, ushering in the anticipation of spring. With half of the recordings conceived in Andersabo, Jason returned to Copenhagen to form the album's centre piece ‘Rain Cycle’ which features a tempered Roland drum machine alongside shifting zither improvisations. ‘Writing’ explores the shimmering harp-like qualities of sweeping playing figurations with Dungan mapping out adjusted tuning “zones” on the zither for unconventional but creatively liberating effects. ‘Fur’ captures the feeling of openness and the momentum of time, seeing Dungan perform waves of solo clarinet, often in one takes and embellished with textural drones, a zither solo, and layers of guitar. ‘Wavelength’ the album's closer is fondly inspired by the film works of Michael Snow and Don Cherry’s seminal live album ‘Blue Lake’ (1974), as it builds out from a drone-generated zither chord and features an alto recorder solo. Dungan found a deep connection to Cherry’s stripped back performance ethos, focusing on the core beauty of minimal instrumentation creating a genre-less meeting between folk and jazz. A dialogue is formed between the solo and the bandlike performances, interlinked in a geographical duality with all finding a sense of commonplace as musical sketches of visited landscapes. The bountiful instrumentation ebbs and flows as further layers emerge with Dungan constructing his material much like an artist would, recording and reviewing, adding and subtracting.

Musically it portrays a form of double life led by an American-identifying person living in Scandinavia, and a new found presence in Denmark, seeking out underdeveloped marshlands and barren stretches of beach adrift from other rhythms and distractions. Highlighting their individual and potent importance Dungan concludes: “Both places feel like “me”, I think on some level the music is always some kind of self-portrait.” ‘Sun Arcs’ depicts the intricate balance of nature’s cycles and the paths outlined by the seasons, from a winter dormancy to a warm sun drenched scene. The album scales new glorying heights and further defines Dungan’s musical narrative, inhabiting a unique space in left-field, improvised and experimental music, borning his most accomplished compositions to date. A singular and visionary expression, drawing on an array of instruments and sound worlds with a renewed sense of joy and discovery.

STAFF COMMENTS

Laura says: A gorgeous meditative mix of off kilter folk, ambient and improvised acoustic minimalism. Perfect Summer listening.

TRACK LISTING

A1: Dallas
A2: Green-Yellow Field
A3: Bloom
A4: Rain Cycle
B1: Writing
B2: Fur
B3: Sun Arcs
B4: Wavelength

'A masterpiece, as fresh and shocking as if it were written yesterday' Craig Brown"I've been told that no one sings the word 'hunger' like I do. Or the word 'love'."Lady Sings the Blues is the inimitable autobiography of one of the greatest icons of the twentieth century. Born to a single mother in 1915 Baltimore, Billie Holiday had her first run-in with the law at aged 13.

But Billie Holiday is no victim. Her memoir tells the story of her life spent in jazz, smoky Harlem clubs and packed-out concert halls, her love affairs, her wildly creative friends, her struggles with addiction and her adventures in love. Billie Holiday is a wise and aphoristic guide to the story of her unforgettable life.

Electronic duo Pale Blue returns to Crosstown Rebels with their long-awaited sophomore album ‘Maria’, revealing a spellbinding eight-track trip across electronic spheres.

After forming their critically acclaimed Pale Blue project with their debut album ‘The Past We Leave Behind’ in 2015, Mike Simonetti (Italians Do It Better) and Elizabeth Wight (Silver Hands) have only furthered intrigue and interest in the years since, uniting for a series of expansive EPs on Simonetti’s own 2MR imprint exploring dancefloor-focused acid through to gripping electronica. Having already offered a first look and preview into their long-awaited album return via three singles on the label, with remixes provided by DJ Tennis, Kölsch, Fort Romeau and Perel, mid-May sees Simonetti, and Wight finally reveal their sophomore album ‘Maria’ on Damian Lazarus’ Crosstown Rebels - offering a uniquely raw yet seamlessly polished trip into their idiosyncratic world.

“‘Maria’ is an album of love songs - the good, the bad, and the ugly… The album is written entirely in Elizabeth’s voice. These are all her words - her thoughts, based on her personal experience. When writing this record I took inspiration from classic rock LP sequencing, and tried to dial in on a coherent concept, a natural flow. Although these are clearly techno tracks, one would argue they have more in common with rock music than dance music. I wanted to try make something a little different, verse/chorus/verse tracks but still heavy enough for the club, full of melody and emotion… poppy but not THAT kind of poppy. Pale Blue has been known to take on political subject matter in the past, but the politics of love is something we can all relate to.” - Mike Simonetti.

Opening with the slow-blooming and beautifully crafted dreamlike melodies of the aptly titled ‘Spells’, the eight-track long-player navigates and traverses the broader realms of electronica through to lighter pop-influenced touches and sonics for an absorbing and compelling dive. ‘Dive’, the first single from the project, provides a hazy but resonant web of polyrhythms and textures guided by Wight’s captivating vocals, while ‘Laura’ reaches for sparkling leads synths amongst sweeping tones and moments of bliss. Offering up change to the aesthetic ‘Ice Is Falling’ is a stripped-back and haunting production as Wight’s vocals carry eerie tones and pockets of space for a hair-raising effort.

The second half of the project welcomes second and third singles ‘No Words’ and ‘Together Alone’, with the playful tones of the former complementing the wistful and floaty soundscapes of the latter for two tracks to keep listeners in a trance. Closing out the package, ‘The New Year’ is a delightfully worked pop-leaning gem built on electronic foundations with a slinking acid-tinged bassline snaking through the mix, before shaping things up with the anthemic and rosy glow of final track ‘The Last Song’.

Further emphasising Simonetti and Wight’s innate connection and bond when creating and crafting music, ‘Maria’ is an exemplary display of the two at their best across a collection of eight productions straddling the electronic-pop border with poise and aplomb.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Spells 
A2. Dive 
B1. Laura 
B2. Ice Is Falling 
C1. No Words 
C2. The New Year
D1. Together Alone 
D2. The Last Song 

Robert Glasper’s 2005 Blue Note debut Canvas signaled the arrival of a singular new voice in jazz and his 2007 follow-up In My Element solidified his status as a rising star who was taking the music someplace new. Featuring bassist Vicente Archer & drummer Damion Reid, the album expanded the possibilities of where a modern jazz piano trio might go by delving further into his hip-hop & gospel roots.

This 2-LP Blue Note Classic Vinyl Edition was mastered by Kevin Gray and pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal.

The sound of Blue Note had been embedded in hip-hop thru sampling & remixes since its early days but Madlib raised the bar when the DJ, producer, rapper & multi-instrumentalist invaded the Blue Note vaults for his 2003 masterpiece Shades of Blue, a visionary album featuring remixes & reimaginations of classics by Donald Byrd, Bobbi Humphrey, Ronnie Foster, Bobby Hutcherson, Wayne Shorter & more.

This 2-LP Blue Note Classic Vinyl Edition was mastered by Kevin Gray and pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal

Joy’All, the fifth solo album from Jenny Lewis and follow up to 2019’s critically acclaimed On The Line (Warner Records) finds the singer-songwriter embarking on a new era in a new town—and on a new label, as she joins the iconic roster of Blue Note/Capitol Records.

“I started writing some of these songs on the road, pre-pandemic... and then put them aside as the world shut down, and then from my home in Nashville in early 2021, I joined a week-long virtual songwriting workshop with a handful of amazing artists, hosted by Beck. The challenge was to write one song every day for seven days, with guidelines from Beck. The guidelines would be prompts like ‘write a song with 1-4-5 chord progression,’ ‘write a song with only cliches,’ or ‘write in free form style.’ The first song I submitted to the group was ‘Puppy and a Truck.’” As the days progressed, the assignments kept coming in and Jenny ended up writing a good portion of Joy’All.

While Joy’All pulls from a bounty of sonic inspiration–from soul to 90’s R&B, as well as country and classic singer-songwriter records the album’s rich and intimate, live sound is the hallmark of eight-time Grammy winning producer Dave Cobb (John Prine, Brandi Carlile, Chris Stapleton, Jason Isbell), whom Jenny met by chance while visiting Lucius at the Historic RCA Studio A in Nashville. A natural kinship developed between the two, and with her arsenal of songs that she had demoed on her iPhone ready to roll, Jenny texted Dave and asked him to produce her new album.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Swooning country guitars, rolling basslines and Lewis' unmistakeable vocals are ever present on her latest LP, Joy'All'. The real lift here comes from the bright joy of proceedings, dealing with some sadness but with a levity and wit that's refreshing, providing a buffer to Lewis' famously deep vocal musings.

Over the course of two EPs, two singles and a stripped-back live album, Puma Blue has established himself as one of the UK’s most vital new talents, quietly amassing over 50 million streams in the process and selling out shows from London to LA and Paris to Tokyo. Now he’s set to build upon his growing underground acclaim by releasing his long awaited debut album ‘In Praise of Shadows’ on January 29th via Blue Flowers.

‘In Praise of Shadows’ is a delirious dreamland of soulful vocals, D’Angelo-ish guitars and muted electronic beats. Its fourteen tracks are a contemplation on “the balance of light and dark, the painful things you have to heal from or accept, that bring you through to a better place” says the 25-year-old Puma Blue, real name Jacob Allen “It’s about finding light in darkness - and realising that it’s what got me here today.”

Puma Blue’s nocturnal, soul-searching sound was born from a decade in which the 25-year-old was plagued with insomnia, “for literally a decade, I just couldn’t sleep,” says the cult-acclaimed London songwriter/producer. That certainly helps to explain the hazy, late-night “voicemail ballads” of the early EP releases that propelled him to prominence, 2017’s ‘Swum Baby’ and 2018’s ‘Blood Loss’ earning him a reputation as affecting chronicler of unrequited love and inner turmoil.

It’s an intimacy still present across ‘In Praise With Shadows’ but there’s also a new maturity and lucidity to the way in which Allen deals with his demons and celebrates beauty across his debut album, influenced no doubt by his journey over the last two years in which a blossoming romance has finally helped him to sleep whilst a burgeoning career forced the previously bedroom-bound songwriter out into the open, driving him to find new perspectives on loss, love and everything in-between.

The result is an album astonishing in its openness, from bittersweet reflections on past relationships - “I never learnt to cherish her” Jacob laments on ‘Cherish (furs)’ - to pure love-laden soliloquies such as ‘Already Falling’ or ‘Sheets’, one of the albums most personal moments, which borrows a sample from the score of Michel Gondry’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and repurposes it as a lilting love-song that Allen describes as “like a really personal note that you’d leave in the house to be found when you’ve got to head out early.”

TRACK LISTING

1 Sweet Dreams
2 Cherish (furs)
3 Velvet Leaves
4 Snowflower
5 Already Falling
6 Sheets
7 Olive / Letter To ATL
8 Oil Slick
9 Silk Print
10 Is It Because
11 Opiate
12 Sleeping
13 Bath House
14 Super Soft

Released on the Cadet label in 1970, this album’s wondrous mix of spiritual and funky jazz and unique instrumentation defy categorization. Harpist Ashby adds the koto, a 13-stringed Japanese instrument to her arsenal, and her long-time arranger Richard Evans blends flutes, vibraphone, oboe, kalimba and Ashby’s own vocals into a singular and soul-affirming set.

This Verve By Request title is pressed on 180-gram vinyl at Third Man in Detroit. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Myself When Young (Side A)
2. For Some We Loved (Side A)
3. Wax And Wane (Side A)
4. Drink (Side A)
5. Wine (Side A)
6. Dust (Side B)
7. Joyful Grass And Grape (Side B)
8. Shadow Shapes (Side B)
9. Heaven And Hell (Side B)
10. The Moving Finger (Side B)

The legendary Bluebells return with In The 21st Century, the first album from the trio in over two decades.

The new LP features 12 brand new songs including upcoming singles "Gone Tomorrow", "Blue Train" & "Ballad of the Bells", housed in a beautiful gatefold sleeve designed by Robert Hodgens and Jim Lambie, with photography from Brian Sweeney.\r\n

TRACK LISTING

She Rises 
Disneyland And Rock 'N' Roll 
Living Out Loud 
Blue Train 
The Ballad Of The Bells 
Anyone Could Be A Buzzcock 
Beautiful Mess 
The Boy Who Slipped Away 
Stonehouse Violets 
Orienteering 
Gone Tomorrow 
Daddy Was An Engineer

'My 21st Century Blues' is Raye part two - it's Raye on her own terms - it's the Raye of old, but reloaded.

These are songs made by Raye, for Raye, but within that they're for everyone who has faced and overcome adversity. they're also anthems for other women in the industry, or stuck in a cycle of misogyny.

TRACK LISTING

1 Introduction
2 Oscar Winning Tears
3 Hard Out Here
4 Black Mascara
5 Escapism
6 Mary Jane
7 The Thrill Is Gone
8 Ice Cream Man
9 Flip A Switch
10 Body Dysmorphia
11 Environmental Anxiety
12 Five Star Hotels. (feat. Mahalia)
13 Worth It
14 Buss It Down
15 Fin

Behold! Yes, Blue Butterfly, one of the absolute stunners on the revered Selected Sound label is finally available for all the beat-heads. Heavyweight library funk with a psychedelic touch, the super in-demand Blue Butterfly from *deep breath* Hardy's Jet Band, Orchestra Klaus Wuesthoff, Jan Troysen Band and Orchestra Gary Pacific - was originally released in 1971. Incredibly ahead of its time, it's been rare and sought-after for decades.

For many aficionados, this is the best Selected Sound release. Loaded with fuzzy wah-wah guitar, deep flute-lines atop soulful psych-rock breakbeats and huge organ action, its uncompromising funk will blow you away. Sampled for many hip hop beats and dropped by well known rare groove DJs around the world, one jewel in particular from this glorious German vault needs little introduction. The intro to Orchestra Gary Pacific's mesmeric "Soft Wind" rides the illest, crispest drum break you've perhaps never heard - like, the drum break to end them all - alongside a smooth, deep bass line from the heavens. It featured notoriously on the beloved Dusty Fingers comps of the 90s and was brilliantly sampled by Pacewon for his eternal "Sunroof Top". Just listen and be dazzled.

Beyond this mini-masterpiece, the other killer tracks offer brilliance in abundance. Hardy's Jet Band take control of the full A side, and it's full of dynamic psych-funk bombs. Hard, "big city" industrial groovers. In particular, the initial one-two of "Sorry, Doc!" and "Wind It Up" provide thrilling funky-blues rock instrumentals showcasing relentless guitars, flutes, sax and organ, the latter containing gorgeous, hypnotic breakdowns; these tracks just slay. The title track, "Blue Butterfly" is a real deep strut of a track with fantastic soloing from guitar and flute over crisp drums whilst the highway banger "What You Call To Be Free" certainly sounds a lot like unbridled, rhythmical liberty.

On the flip, the ghost-riding "Lady In Space" is a string-drenched acid-western foxtrot. Yep. “Pop Happening” by Jan Troysen Band is a heavy, druggy psych-fuzz organ groover whilst their slow beat-organ-flute gem "A Blue Message" is a gorgeous psych floater conjuring deeply strange frontier lands. Preceding their monster "Soft Wind", the soulful, uptempo groover “Ghetto Gap” by Orchestra Gary Pacific contains solo piano and flute whilst closing out the set is the free-and-easy samba beat of "So Far".

Founded in the late 60s by German composer and musician Klaus Netzle (who recorded under the alias Claude Larson for Sonoton) Selected Sound began as a production music company specialising in jazz, orchestral and electronic recordings. You can’t miss those early LPs in their iconic glossy metallic copper sleeves with minimal German typography. Serious, classy stuff.

The audio for Blue Butterfly has been remastered for vinyl by Be With regular Simon Francis whilst Richard Robinson has handled reproducing the glossy metallic (iconic) original Selected Sound sleeve. Essential.

TRACK LISTING

A1 Hardy's Jet Band – Sorry, Doc! (3:12)
A2 Hardy's Jet Band – Wind It Up (2:52)
A3 Hardy's Jet Band – Safari Track (2:58)
A4 Hardy's Jet Band – Look At Me (2:27)
A5 Hardy's Jet Band – Blue Butterfly (2:44)
A6 Hardy's Jet Band – What You Call To Be Free (3:03)
B1 Orchestra Klaus Wuesthoff – Lady In Space (2:26)
B2 Orchestra Klaus Wuesthoff – Big Beat (2:45)
B3 Jan Troysen Band – A Blue Message (3:31)
B4 Jan Troysen Band – Pop Happening (2:29)
B5 Orchestra Gary Pacific – Ghetto Gap (2:43)
B6 Orchestra Gary Pacific – Soft Wind (2:07)
B7 Orchestra Gary Pacific – So Far (1:38)

4-time GRAMMY-winning producer Larry Klein, who produced Herbie Hancock’s GRAMMY Album of the Year winning release River: The Joni Letters, has assembled another extraordinary star-studded project with Here It Is: A Tribute to Leonard Cohen. This heartfelt tribute to Klein’s dear friend, the legendary singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen, presents stunning renditions of his profound songs by an impressive and eclectic line-up of guest vocalists including James Taylor, Iggy Pop, Mavis Staples, Norah Jones, Gregory Porter, Peter Gabriel, Nathaniel Rateliff, David Gray, Sarah McLachlan, and Luciana Souza. The backing band is no less impressive featuring a remarkable quintet of modern jazz talent including guitarist Bill Frisell, saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins, pianist Kevin Hays, bassist Scott Colley, and drummer Nate Smith.

TRACK LISTING

1. Steer Your Way - Norah Jones
2. Here It Is - Peter Gabriel
3. Suzanne - Gregory Porter
4. Hallelujah - Sarah McLachlan
5. Avalanche - Immanuel Wilkins
6. Hey, That's No Way To Say Goodbye - Luciana Souza
7. Coming Back To You - James Taylor
8. You Want It Darker - Iggy Pop
9. If It Be Your Will - Mavis Staples
10. Seems So Long Ago, Nancy - David Gray
11. Famous Blue Raincoat - Nathaniel Rateliff
12. Bird On The Wire - Bill Frisell

Eyes of Others - have been described as making ‘post-pub couldn’t get in the club music’. Really though, you’ll recognise it as the sound of the small hours.

It’s The Blue Nile lost on the dancefloor at an Optimo night; John Martyn working magic with drum loops and Logic; a copy of the first Suicide LP washed up on the shores of Portobello Beach. It’s drawn curtains and an overheating stereo in your friend’s living room after the rest of town has called it a night, it’s hours spent watching the windows before sunrise in a slumbering city.

Bewitched by the Flames is a very limited vinyl only EP of home recordings. The songs are intimate, compelling and strange - electronic yet completely human, stories of everyday life set to woozy, lolloping rhythm tracks.

STAFF COMMENTS

Laura says: Dreamy hypnotic grooves - like a slow-mo Beta Band or early Panda Bear - perfect late night / early hours listening. We really love this here at Piccadilly!

TRACK LISTING

1. Once, Twice, Thrice
2. Escalation
3. Well-thumbed Letters
4. Jargon Jones And Jones
5. Granny
6. Mother Father

The first thing that strikes you about Kenny Burrell’s second Blue Note album, Kenny Burrell, is the cover, which features an illustration by Andy Warhol. The second is the striking music, which is drawn from four different sessions recorded in 1956 with the guitarist featured in a variety of settings.

This mono Tone Poet Vinyl Edition was produced by Joe Harley, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original analogue master tapes, pressed on 180g vinyl at RTI, and packaged in a deluxe gatefold tip-on jacket.

Grant Green was Feelin’ The Spirit on this deeply soulful 1962 date that found the great guitarist interpreting a set of spirituals with a state-of-the-art modern jazz line-up featuring Herbie Hancock on piano, Butch Warren on bass, Billy Higgins on drums plus Garvin Masseaux on tambourine.

This stereo Tone Poet Vinyl Edition was produced by Joe Harley, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original analogue master tapes, pressed on 180g vinyl at RTI, and packaged in a deluxe gatefold tip-on jacket.

Alvvays never intended to take five years to finish their third album, the nervy joyride that is the compulsively lovable Blue Rev. In fact, the band began writing and cutting its first bits soon after releasing 2017’s Antisocialites, that stunning sophomore record that confirmed the Toronto quintet’s status atop a new generation of winning and whip-smart indie rock.

Global lockdowns notwithstanding, circumstances both ordinary and entirely unpredictable stunted those sessions. Alvvays toured more than expected, a surefire interruption for a band that doesn’t write on the road. A watchful thief then broke into singer Molly Rankin’s apartment and swiped a recorder full of demos, one day before a basement flood nearly ruined all the band’s gear. They subsequently lost a rhythm section and, due to border closures, couldn’t rehearse for months with their masterful new one, drummer Sheridan Riley and bassist Abbey Blackwell.

At least the five-year wait was worthwhile: Blue Rev doesn’t simply reassert what’s always been great about Alvvays but instead reimagines it. They have, in part and sum, never been better. There are 14 songs on Blue Rev, making it not only the longest Alvvays album but also the most harmonically rich and lyrically provocative.

There are newly aggressive moments here—the gleeful and snarling guitar solo at the heart of opener “Pharmacist,” or the explosive cacophony near the middle of “Many Mirrors.” And there are some purely beautiful spans, too—the church- organ fantasia of “Fourth Figure,” or the blue-skies bridge of “Belinda Says.” But the power and magic of Blue Rev stems from Alvvays’ ability to bridge ostensible binaries, to fuse elements that seem antithetical in single songs—cynicism and empathy, anger and play, clatter and melody, the soft and the steely. The luminous poser kiss-off of “Velveteen,” the lovelorn confusion of “Tile by Tile,” the panicked but somehow reassuring rush of “After the Earthquake”.

The songs of Blue Rev thrive on immediacy and intricacy, so good on first listen that the subsequent spins where you hear all the details are an inevitability.

This perfectly dovetailed sound stems from an unorthodox—and, for Alvvays, wholly surprising—recording process, unlike anything they’ve ever done. Alvvays are fans of fastidious demos, making maps of new tunes so complete they might as well have topographical contour lines.

But in October 2021, when they arrived at a Los Angeles studio with fellow Canadian Shawn Everett, he urged them to forget the careful planning they’d done and just play the stuff, straight to tape. On the second day, they ripped through Blue Rev front-to-back twice, pausing only 15 seconds between songs and only 30 minutes between full album takes. And then, as Everett has done on recent albums by The War on Drugs and Kacey Musgraves, he spent an obsessive amount of time alongside Alvvays filling in the cracks, roughing up the surfaces, and mixing the results. This hybridized approach allowed the band to harness each song’s absolute core, then grace it with texture and depth. Notice the way, for instance, that “Tom Verlaine” bursts into a jittery jangle; then marvel at the drums and drum machines ricocheting off one another, the harmonies that crisscross, and the stacks of guitar that rise between riff and hiss, subtle but essential layers that reveal themselves in time.

Every element of Alvvays leveled up in the long interim between albums: Riley is a classic dynamo of a drummer, with the power of a rock deity and the finesse of a jazz pedigree. Their roommate, in-demand bassist Blackwell, finds the center of a song and entrenches it. Keyboardist Kerri MacLellan joined Rankin and guitarist Alec O’Hanley to write more this time, reinforcing the band’s collective quest to break patterns heard on their first two albums.

The results are beyond question: Blue Rev has more twists and surprises than Alvvays’ cumulative past, and the band seems to revel in these taken chances. This record is fun and often funny, from the hilarious reply-guy bash of “Very Online Guy” to the parodic grind of “Pomeranian Spinster.”

Alvvays’ self-titled debut, released when much of the band was still in its early 20s, offered speculation about a distant future—marriage, professionalism, interplanetary citizenship. Antisocialites wrestled with the woes of the now, especially the anxieties of inching toward adulthood. Named for the sugary alcoholic beverage Rankin and MacLellan used to drink as teens on rural Cape Breton, Blue Rev looks both back at that country past and forward at an uncertain world, reckoning with what we lose whenever we make a choice about what we want to become.

The spinster with her Pomeranians or Belinda with her babies? The kid fleeing Bristol by train or the loyalist stunned to see old friends return? “How do I gauge whether this is stasis or change?” Rankin sings during the first verse of the plangent and infectious “Easy on Your Own?” In that moment, she pulls the ties tight between past, present, and future to ask hard questions about who we’re going to become, and how. Sure, it arrives a few years later than expected, but the answer for Alvvays is actually simple: They’ve changed gradually, growing on Blue Rev into one of their generation’s most complete and riveting rock bands.

STAFF COMMENTS

Liam says: Isn't it good to have Alvvays back ey? Fourteen tracks of dreamy shoegaze-infused jangle-pop goodness, Alvvays' 'Blue Rev' further cements the Canadian outfit as modern indie darlings and deservedly so!

TRACK LISTING

1 Pharmacist (2:04)
2 Easy On Your Own? (2:55)
3 After The Earthquake (3:05)
4 Tom Verlaine (3:26)
5 Pressed (2:10)
6 Many Mirrors (2:59)
7 Very Online Guy (2:22)
8 Velveteen (3:10)
9 Tile By Tile (2:58)
10 Pomeranian Spinster (3:25)
11 Belinda Says (2:45)
12 Bored In Bristol (3:00)
13 Lottery Noises (3:18)
14 Fourth Figure (1:20)

Danger Mouse heads down a completely different musical path to his brilliant “Cheat Codes” LP, on this latest collaboration with The Shins’ James Mercer. Broken Bells combines the pair's greatest strengths. Mercer's gift for indelible, slightly spooky melodies and Burton's atmospheric productions complement each other perfectly.

The album opener and title track “Into The Blue” is a slow burner full of swirling psychedelic keys. On “We’re Not In Orbit Yet” Mercer’s vocals glide gently over a melodic, string infused backdrop. “Invisible Exit” is a more stripped back affair with Mercers vocals and acoustic guitar to the fore. “Love On The Run” has a lush horn infused Yacht Rock vibe, that dissolves into a proggy guitar workout / fadeout.

There’s a mood change at the start of side B with the 80s synth pop of “One Night”, before the chugging pop of “Saturdays”. With it’s soaring chorus it’s the most ‘Broken Bells’ track on the LP and an obvious single. “Forgotten Boy” is an understated gem and “The Chase” manages to combine melancholy and drama beautifully before drifting into album closer “Fade Away”.

STAFF COMMENTS

Laura says: The meandering instrumentation has all the Danger Mouse hallmarks: stuttering drum beats, string swells and lush keys. At times proggy, at others cinematic, there’s a kind of majestic feel throughout that provides the perfect backdrop for Mercer’s melodic, melancholic vocals.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A
1. Into The Blue
2. We're Not In Orbit Yet…
3. Invisible Exit
4. Love On The Run

SIDE B
1. One Night
2. Saturdays
3. Forgotten Boy
4. The Chase
5. Fade Away

Legendary labels Decca Records and Blue Note have joined forces for Blue Note Re:imagined; a brand-new collection of classic Blue Note tracks, reworked and newly recorded by a selection of the UK scene’s most exciting young talents.

Blue Note Re:imagined returns this year with a new 16-track compilation featuring fresh takes on music from the illustrious Blue Note vaults recorded by a heavyweight line-up of the UK jazz, soul and R&B scene’s most hotly-tipped rising stars. Arriving off the back of the widespread international success of the first volume, which topped jazz charts around the globe, Blue Note Re:imagined II once again infuses the spirit of the new UK jazz generation into the legendary label’s iconic catalogue, balancing the genre’s tradition with its future and reflecting the melting pot of talent and diversity within the current scene.

“For more than eight decades the artists of Blue Note Records have continually pushed the envelope of contemporary music, and Blue Note Re:imagined II once again honours that legacy by letting the UK’s most creative young artists reinvent the treasures of the Blue Note catalogue through their own lens.” – Blue Note President, Don Was.

TRACK LISTING

1. Yazz Ahmed - It (Chick Correa)
2. Conor Albert - You Make Me Feel So Good (Bobbi Humphrey)
3. Parthenope - Don’t Know Why (Norah Jones)
4. Swindle - Miss Kane (Donald Byrd)
5. Nubiyan Twist - Through The Noise (Chant No.2) (Donald Byrd)
6. Ego Ella May - Morning Side Of Love (Chico Hamilton)
7. Oscar Jerome - Green With Envy (Grant Green)
8. Daniel Casimir Ft. Rita Moran - Lost (Wayne Shorter)
9. Theon Cross - Epistrophy (Thelonious Monk)
10. Maya Delilah - Harvest Moon (Cassandra Wilson)
11. Kay Young - Feel Like Making Love (Marlena Shaw)
12. Venna & Marco - Where Are We Going (Donald Byrd)
13. Reuben James - Infant Eyes (Wayne Shorter)
14. Binker Golding - Fort Worth (Joe Lovano)
15. Cherise - Sunrise (Norah Jones)
16. Franc Moody - Cristo Redentor (Donald Byrd)

To mark the 65th anniversary of the album’s recording, Blue Train will be released in two special editions on September 16 as part of Blue Note’s acclaimed Tone Poet Audiophile Vinyl Reissue Series.

A 1-LP mono pressing of the original album will be presented in a deluxe gatefold tip-on jacket, while the 2-LP stereo collection Blue Train: The Complete Masters will include a second disc featuring seven alternate and incomplete takes, none of which have been released previously on vinyl, and four of which have never been released before on any format. The Complete Masters comes with a booklet featuring never-before-seen session photos by Francis Wolff and an essay by Coltrane expert Ashley Kahn. Both Tone Poet Vinyl Editions were produced by Joe Harley, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original analog master tapes, and pressed on 180g vinyl at RTI.

Blue Train: The Complete Masters will also be released as a 2-CD set and digital collection.

“Few studio experiences I’ve had can compare with the thrill of listening to the original master tapes—mono, stereo and alternate takes—of Blue Train,” says Harley. “I consider these two new versions the definitive editions of this masterpiece performance by John Coltrane.”

TRACK LISTING

2CD
Blue Train
Moment’s Notice
Locomotion
I’m Old Fashioned
Lazy Bird
Blue Train (false Start)
Blue Train (take 7)
Moment’s Notice (alternate Take 4)
Lazy Bird (take 1)
Blue Train (alternate Take)
Moment’s Notice (incomplete Alternate Take 5A)
Lazy Bird (alternate Take)

1LP
LP 1 | Blue Train | Original Album | Studio
Side A
Blue Train
Moment’s Notice
Side B
Locomotion
I’m Old Fashioned
Lazy Bird

2LP
LP 1 | Blue Train | Original Album | Studio
Side A
Blue Train
Moment’s Notice
Side B
Locomotion
I’m Old Fashioned
Lazy Bird
LP 2 | Blue Train | Alternate And Incomplete Takes
Side A
Blue Train (false Start)
Blue Train (take 7)
Moment’s Notice (alternate Take 4)
Lazy Bird (take 1)
Side B
Blue Train (alternate Take)
Moment’s Notice (incomplete Alternate Take 5A)
Lazy Bird (alternate Take)

The PBE album is called Souvenirs because, as Lucy explains, “The songs encapsulate a few years’ worth of memories and experiences – times of change and personal sadness. The songs were an outlet for us and they now serve as souvenirs of all those times”.

As Pale Blue Eyes worked toward the album, Matt’s father died – the album is dedicated to the late Danny Board. Matt has endless fond memories of his father, including “when I’d wake up on a summer’s morning to the sound of dad playing a Cocteau Twins album – really loud with all the windows and doors open”. PBE built their studio adjacent to Matt’s old family home – so they could be there to help Matt’s mum through long-term illness. The album includes reflection on death and despondent times, as on the former single TV Flicker, which, perhaps surprisingly given the subject matter, became a playlisted radio smash. But Pale Blue Eyes accentuate the positive – reacting to difficult times by making an album that pulses with exhilaration, beauty and joy.

The album brims with a kind of elective positivity, as made clear when Matt lists the album’s themes: “Embracing good times, escapism, losing yourself in a moment of bliss when the world around you is going to shit… Processing and understanding loss and grief and using our music as a vehicle to move on… Fighting against the mundane and not giving up on dreams… The pure joy of a good night out or a moment of being moved by a band or a piece of artwork or a great film… Making the most of the time you have…” The tracks Little Gem and Globe, in particular, beam with positivity – alighting on optimism, gardening and hedonistic days in a shared student house.

TRACK LISTING

1. Globe
2. TV Flicker
3. Little Gem
4. Dr Pong
5. Honeybear
6. Star Vehicle
7. Champagne
8. Sing It Like We Used To
9. Under Northern Sky
10. Chelsea

Puma Blue won widespread critical acclaim with the release of his debut LP ‘In Praise of Shadows’ earlier this year. Described by NME as “a brief moment of relief for those lost in the darkness” the album found his storytelling at its most honest and vulnerable to date whilst his production reached new heights, retaining its characteristic bedroom intimacy.

Yet for all the intimacy of his ‘voicemail-ballads’ on record, his songs carry a different resonance in a live setting; a mix of improvisation, in-the-moment escapism and the collective power of an audience taking his music to new heights. It’s something the producer & vocalist, real name Jacob Allen, has had a lot of time to reflect on in the last year, the absence of touring, combined with a move to Atlanta GA, giving him the time and distance to fully appreciate the importance of the record vs. live dichotomy to the way his work is perceived, experienced and felt.

Jacob says, “As beautiful as I could make something on my own, it could never compare to what these beautiful boys bring to it. Not just because they’re incredible musicians who are really connected to the spirit of music, but it’s more that live music is such an untameable thing. It’s such a deeper spectrum.”

TRACK LISTING

1 Postcard From Tokyo
2 All I Need
3 Velvet Leaves (Live)
4 Snowflower (Live)
5 Already Falling (Live)
6 Sheets (Live)
7 Oil Slick (Live)
8 Opiate (Live)
9 Bath House (Live)
10 Super Soft (Live)

Blue Luminaire is a new project from British composer Nick Martin, currently based in Copenhagen. Their father was a classical pianist, and Martin found themselves shunning the mainstream pop that filled the airwaves, and instead gravitated towards obscure 19th Century Russian composers and Brian Eno LPs. This early obsession formed much of Martin’s musical language, and soon they started crafting their own original compositions and experimenting with their vocal range. With interrogation came revelation, and Martin began drifting from the confines of traditional classical music to create something entirely their own. Hovering between worlds, and embracing their love of alternative rock, funk, fusion and jazz, Blue Luminaire is the sound of the in-between.

TRACK LISTING

1. Our
2. Let Go
3. Closeness Sighs
4. Tangled
5. Worlds
6. Learn To Trust
7. Your Skin Against Mine
8. Held
9. Falling

Orange was the 4th studio album from The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, and features the aforementioned single “Flavor” along with “Bellbottoms.”

Bellbottoms was used prominently in the opening sequence of hit film "Baby Driver" (2017).

“1994’s Orange finds the Blues Explosion at the exact moment they left behind the pompadour- and-sideburns Crypt Records trash-can garage-rock universe and sidled their way into the Beastie Boys/Beck/Cibo Matto downtown genre-fucking cosmpolitan party. Beck actually shows up on Orange, literally phoning in a guest verse on “Flavor”, and they toured with the Beasties soon after. It’s easy to hear what those guys liked in the band’s assault. The Blues Explosion were honest, organic experimenters– fusing tons of different styles into their musical assault without compromising their ferocity or making any of it sound forced. These influences are fully internalized, rather than self-consciously stapled on.” – Pitchfork.

"Orange is the most commercially successful set JBSE ever turned in, but that's beside the point. In the 21st century, it sounds every bit as messed up, necessary, and frenzied as it did in 1993" All Music Guide.

TRACK LISTING

1. Bellbottoms
2. Ditch
3. Dang
4. Very Rare
5. Sweat
6. Cowboy
7. Orange
8. Brenda
9. Dissect
10. Blues X Man
11. Full Grown
12. Flavor
13. Greyhound

Blue Orchids created a singular sound of intellectualised psychedelia on their first 7" singles, The Flood and Work, and despite their historically infrequent outings - the band has released more new music in the last six years than in the whole of the thirty-five years prior to it - the subtle originality of their sound permeates each of their releases, down primarily to original member Martin Bramah's singular vision. Yet each new release presents subtly directed changes to their work.

Once at the brink of possible pop stardom that Bramah tossed aside by refusing to move down south to London - which he did a few months later anyhow! - his music has always had a rather perverse commerciality. Relative to the size of their respective catalogues, Bramah's songs have been covered by credible artists roughly as often as those by his first band, The Fall. The hazy oddness and off-kilter sound of Blue Orchids' debut LP, The Greatest Hit (Money Mountain), did not offset its popularity of the cognoscenti. It sold over 15,000 copies and saw its songs covered by the likes of Aztec Camera and pioneering American indie bands such as Slovenly, Dustdevils and Fish & Roses, and it's still a cult classic today - soon to be released as a double album, with unheard songs.

The album recalls Blue Orchids' classic debut more than any other chapter of Bramah's catalogue - just take a look at the song titles! The lyrics were written in a freer verse than typical song lyrics allow, the music written later. John Paul Moran - Bramah's longest-serving musical partner - evokes the same eerie atmosphere from his keyboards as Una Baines did from her’s years before, with new member Tansy McNally (ukulele) and rhythm section Vincent Hunt (bass) and Howard Jones (drums) holding it all together. Angus Tempus Memoir is Bramah's most beguiling work in decades and will be supported by numerous UK dates throughout the year, in tandem with a host of special projects. Forty years on, Martin Bramah's Blue Orchids revisit the darker side of The Money Mountain in their most captivating work since their 1982 debut album. 

TRACK LISTING

1 Perturbation
2 What Thing Is Man
3 Long And Loud Was The Applause
4 The Adventure Thus Embarked Upon
5 No Ghosts No Answers
6 The Young Generation Is Our Hope
7 O Joyous City
8 My Sympathies Are Entirely With The Stranger
9 They Believe We Ought To Live In Solitude
10 It Was In This Scene Of Strife
11 For The Death
12 Perturbation

Blue Note Re:imagined returns this year with a new 16-track compilation featuring fresh takes on music from the illustrious Blue Note vaults recorded by a heavyweight line-up of the UK jazz, soul and R&B scene’s most hotly-tipped rising stars. This 7” single features two covers from the upcoming album, from Ego Ella May and Theon Cross. Arriving off the back of the widespread international success of the first volume, which topped jazz charts around the globe, Blue Note Re:imagined II once again infuses the spirit of the new UK jazz generation into the legendary label’s iconic catalogue, balancing the genre’s tradition with its future and reflecting the melting pot of talent and diversity within the current scene.

Upon arrival during the fraught summer of 2020, Flower of Devotion felt like Dehd’s necessary prescription for us all. That was, of course, a moment of unprecedented anxiety and uncertainty, when just contemplating the future could seem overly optimistic. But Dehd captured and shared the precarious balance between real life and real hope, a feat mirrored by instant pop melodies and infectious punk energy. The Chicago trio had the audacity to look ahead when many of us didn’t, to imagine improvement through mere existence. It was an album we needed. We need its follow-up, the triumphant Blue Skies, even more.

Dehd’s fourth album (and first for Fat Possum) is also the band’s second consecutive breakthrough, loaded with the most compelling, compulsive, and expansive songs of their career. Blue Skies offers another jolt of timely hope, only with twice the power. These 13 hits feel like flashlights in the dark, acknowledging how difficult everything from love and sex to living and dying can be while supplying the inspiration of their own experiences.

The writing is sharper and smarter on Blue Skies. The harmonies and rhythms are more sophisticated and considered. The moods are deeper, the swings between them more inspiring. But this is still Dehd, just more wild and wonderful than ever before. “This is all we get,” Emily shouts with relish on the record’s last lines, during a song about the ways geologic deep time should free us all to live more. “Best to take the risk.” Heard, loud and clear.

TRACK LISTING

1. Control
2. Bad Love
3. Bop
4. Clear
5. Hold
6. Memories
7. Window
8. Palomino
9. Waterfall
10. Dream On
11. Empty In My Mind
12. Stars
13. No Difference 

“Georgia Blue is a labor of love. On election day 2020, when I saw that there was a good chance the state of Georgia might go blue, I came up with an idea: to record an album of Georgia- related songs as a thank you to the state and donate the money to a Georgia based non-profit organization. I will admit my motivations were a bit selfish. For years, I’ve been looking for an excuse to record these songs with my band and some friends. The songs on this album are some of my favorite Georgia-related songs, but the tracklist is not meant to be comprehensive. I would love to cover Outkast and 2 Chainz, but I don’t think the finished product would be very good. We’re a rock band, so we covered rock songs. We have roots in blues and R&B, so we enlisted some brilliant artists to help us pull off songs by Precious Bryant, James Brown, and Gladys Knight. My favorite part of the Georgia Blue recording process was having the opportunity to work with these very special artists, and I thank them: Amanda Shires, Brittney Spencer, Adia Victoria, Brandi Carlile, Julien Baker, Bèla Fleck, Chris Thile, Steve Gorman, Peter Levin, and John Paul White. I hope you enjoy listening to these recordings as much as we enjoyed making them. Keep listening to good music and fighting the good fight.” - Jason Isbell

TRACK LISTING

1. Nightswimming Feat. Bela Fleck And Chris Thile
2. Honeysuckle Blue Feat. Sadler Vaden
3. It's A Man's Man's World Feat. Brittney Spencer
4. Cross Bones Style Feat. Amanda Shires
5. The Truth Feat. Adia Victoria
6. I've Been Loving You Too Long
7. Sometimes Salvation Feat. Steve Gorman
8. Kid Fears Feat. Julien Baker And Brandi Carlile
9. Reverse
10. Midnight Train To Georgia Feat. Brittney Spencer And John Paul White
11. In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed Feat. Peter Levin
12. I'm Through
13. Driver 8 Feat. John Paul White

Blue Hours sees the much-loved folk-rock duo – made up of Andrew Davie and Kevin Jones – once again team up with producer Ian Grimble on what is one of their most personal records to date.

Speaking about the new album, Davie says: “Blue Hours is a kind of imaginary space you get into at night, a place where you process difficult things or where you try to figure everything out.”

Themes on the album include both self-reflection and mental health after both struggled with the latter in recent years. “It’s the main over-arching theme with this record,” Davie explains. The group, who have worked with mental health charity CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably) previously added: “It probably speaks to our struggles and hopefully many other people’s too. Men are not very good at talking. We’re not really taught how to – men have no idea how to talk about this stuff, certainly to each other.”

The pair describe the conceptual blue hours headspace that gives the new album its title as being “somewhere between a hotel, a mental health hospital, a bar that stays open later than anywhere else, a paradise, a dream, a nightmare and an endless sea of corridors and staircases leading you to rooms that represent memories – good, bad, happy or difficult.”

Despite the album’s challenging themes, it’s an album drenched in hope too. “We wanted this to be a celebration of music,” Jones continues. “I think that informed some of the bolder decision making on this record. At a time when music was so distant, it felt important to make an album that sounded hopeful, celebratory, ambitious and beautiful in spite of the heavy subject matter in some of the songs.” Jones adds: “It was almost like we needed to shout louder than before because we felt that there were more barriers between the audience and us. We needed something to transcend that.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: This is another beautiful outing from Bear's Den, both orchestral and tender in equal measure. These are grand, bold pieces with a brittle and fragile core, both cathartic and touching.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
New Ways
Blue Hours
Frightened Whispers
Gratitude
Shadows
Side B
All That You Are
Spiders
Selective Memories
On Your Side
All The Wrong Places

The band’s ninth record, Let it Be Blue, takes that feeling of constant, radical transformation to new, untapped zones. It’s a record of sparse dance music. The kind of stuff you want to put on loud, let loose, go to the bar to get a drink only to abandon your plans because the song that just came on was too good not to dance to. Let it Be Blue is a computer record, but it doesn’t feel like it. Featuring production from Patrick Ford, Let it Be Blue is the product of file sharing, trading stems, song particles, little ideas on their way to being fully realized dance tracks. It was conceived during the past two years, with dreams of future dancefloors very much on the brain. The resulting 11 songs are some of the band’s most production focused offerings to date. They’re crystalline, full of sub-bass and drums. It evokes visions of clubs where a concoction of Dembow and acid house play at volumes so loud your ears hurt and you forget what day of the week it is. In other words, it’s a !!! album. It makes you freak out a little bit.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: The distance-working scenario here has clearly helped !!! hone their sound down into perfectly produced micro-segments of rhythm and melody, with their ninth album being easily their most clearly-defined and beautifully realised dancefloor statement. It's bold and full of swagger, as they always are but this feels like the work of a band determined to only get better, and to keep pushing things forards while retaining the sound that made them so distinctive in the first place.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Normal People
A2. A Little Bit (More)
A3. Storm Around The World (feat. Maria Uzor)
A4. Un Puente (feat. Angelica Garcia)
A5. Here's What I Need To Know
A6. Panama Canal (feat. Meah Pace)
B1. Man On The Moon (feat. Meah Pace)
B2. Let It Be Blue
B3. It's Grey, It's Grey (It's Grey)
B4. Crazy Talk
B5. This Is Pop 2

Included in Craig Charles’ Funk and Soul ‘Ones to Watch 2022’ list. From London via Lagos, charismatic chanteuse Sister Cookie will take you on an eclectic excursion into the roots & fruits of black music. Old sounds, new tricks. Sensuous, seductive and moody. As well as possessing a distinctive voice that's tender and sweet when it needs to be, she’s a composer and self-taught pianist who writes honest and raw songs about pain, heartbreak, suffering - all that bad (meaning-good) stuff. 

Craig Charles is a big supporter on BBC 6 Music and has played current single ‘Ain’t No Good (But It’s Good Enough For Me)’ several times. Steve Lamacq and Lauren Laverne have also given the track multiple plays. The track has also been playlisted at Jazz FM. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Can’t Get It When You Want It
2. (You’re Never More Than) Seven Feet Away
3. Crucify
4. Nothing Left To Do But Cry
5. Night After Night
6. It Don’t Come Cheap Side Two
7. You Know I Do
8. Ain’t No Good (But It’s Good Enough For Me)
9. You’re Bad For Me (But I’m Worse For You)
10. Long Time No See
11. The Sins Of The Father

Neil Young is set to deliver more rare live recordings from his extensive archives with the Neil Young Official Bootleg Series (OBS) which began last autumn with the release of Carnegie Hall 1970 (OBS1).

On May 6th Young will release the next three installments in the bootleg series as follows: Royce Hall, 1971 was recorded January 30 on the UCLA campus, a solo acoustic gig. Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 1971 – also solo acoustic -- is the last US show of Young’s 1971 solo tour. Citizen Kane Jr. Blues (Live at The Bottom Line), from New York City 1974 is a surprise set. Where analog tape exists in Young’s archive, these concerts have been mixed properly, providing much higher quality recordings than have previously existed – Royce Hall 1971 and Dorothy Chandler Pavilion 1971 are from the original analog masters. If no tape exists, the original bootleg has been restored and remastered to bring listeners the best audio experience possible - Citizen Kane Jr. Blues (Live at The Bottom Line), from New York City 1974.

The original bootleg artwork has also been replicated wherever possible, lending each release that treasured collector’s vibe and conjuring the era they were first created in. 

TRACK LISTING

01 Pushed It Over The End
02 Long May You Run
03 Greensleeves
04 Ambulance Blues
05 Helpless
06 Revolution Blues
07 On The Beach
08 Roll Another Number (For The Road)
09 Motion Pictures
10 Pardon My Heart
11 Dance Dance Dance

“One of the best debut albums of all time” – Rolling Stone

Come Away With Me, released in 2002 by a young, unknown singer on a traditionally un-pop label, was a unique blend of jazz, blues, country, folk and pop – and lifted off beyond imagination. To date, the album has sold nearly 30 million times, and has garnered multiple awards, including no less than eight Grammys®. This coming February marks this landmark album’s 20th anniversary and, to celebrate, Blue Note/UMe has worked with the artist and her team on a special collection that will reveal for the first time the full story of the making of this now-classic album.

4-LP & 3-CD DELUXE EDITIONS INCLUDE:
New remastering of Norah’s legendary debut album
22 unreleased tracks: demos, session outtakes, alternate versions & mixes
Norah’s earliest demos—the tracks that got Blue Note’s attention, and the demos she recorded for the label—some of which were released on the promo-only EP First Sessions
The full previously-unreleased original version of the album—including 11 unreleased cuts—produced by Craig Street and now newly-mixed by Tony Maserati, with alternate versions of well-known tracks and unheard performances
Premium packaging with an extensive booklet featuring new liner notes by Norah, rare session photos and detailed track annotations

ALSO AVAILABLE:
Newly remastered standalone 1-LP includes original gatefold packaging and brief liner notes from Norah, exclusive to this release
Newly remastered 1-CD jewelcase with liner notes from Norah
Dolby Atmos release of The Demos, First Sessions EP, and the Allaire Sessions

TRACK LISTING

Standard Tracklisting
1. Don’t Know Why (Side A)
2. Seven Years (Side A)
3. Cold Cold Heart (Side A)
4. Feellin’ The Same Way (Side A)
5. Come Away With Me (Side A)
6. Shoot The Moon (Side A)
7. Turn Me On (Side A)
8. Lonestar (Side B)
9. I’ve Got To See You Again (Side B)
10. Painter Song (Side B)
11. One Flight Down (Side B)
12. Nightingale (Side B)
13. The Long Day Is Over (Side B)
14. The Nearness Of You (Side B)

Deluxe CD Tracklist
CD 1 | Come Away With Me - 20th Anniversary Remaster
1. Don’t Know Why
2. Seven Years
3. Cold Cold Heart
4. Feelin’ The Same Way
5. Come Away With Me
6. Shoot The Moon
7. Turn Me On
8. Lonestar
9. I’ve Got To See You Again
10. Painter Song
11. One Flight Down
12. Nightingale
13. The Long Day Is Over
14. The Nearness Of You
CD 2 | The Demos / First Sessions Outtakes / First Sessions EP
1. Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most
2. Walkin’ My Baby Back Home
3. World Of Trouble
4. The Only Time
5. I Didn’t Know About You
6. Something Is Calling You Tabla Version
7. Just Like A Dream Today
8. When Sunny Gets Blue
9. What Am I To You
10. Hallelujah I Love Him So
11. Daydream
12. Don’t Know Why
13. Come Away With Me
14. Something Is Calling You
15. Turn Me On
16. Lonestar
17. Peace
Tracks 1-11 Previously Unreleased
Tracks 12-17 Previously Released As The Promo-only First Sessions EP
CD 3 | The Allaire Sessions
1. I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight
2. I’ve Got To See You Again *
3. What Would I Do
4. Come Away With Me*
5. Picture In A Frame**
6. Nightingale*
7. Peace*
8. What Am I To You*
9. Painter Song*
10. Turn Me On*
11. A Little At A Time
12. One Flight Down*
13. Fragile
* Alternate Version
** Alternate Mix
All Tracks Previously Unreleased Except “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight” And “Picture In A Frame”
Original Recordings Produced By Jesse Harris, Todd Horton, Norah Jones, Jay Newland, Arif Mardin, & Craig Street
20th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition: Produced By Eli Wolf

Super Deluxe 4LP Tracklisting:
LP 1 | Come Away With Me - 20th Anniversary Remaster
Side A
Don’t Know Why
Seven Years
Cold Cold Heart
Feelin’ The Same Way
Come Away With Me
Shoot The Moon
Turn Me On
Side B
Lonestar
I’ve Got To See You Again
Painter Song
One Flight Down
Nightingale
The Long Day Is Over
The Nearness Of You

LP 2 | The Demos
Side A
Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most
Walkin’ My Baby Back Home
World Of Trouble
The Only Time
I Didn’t Know About You
Side B
Something Is Calling You Tabla Version
Just Like A Dream Today
When Sunny Gets Blue
What Am I To You
Hallelujah I Love Him So
Daydream

LP 3 | First Sessions EP
Side A
Don’t Know Why
Come Away With Me
Something Is Calling You
Side B
Turn Me On
Lonestar
Peace
Previously Released As A Promo-only CD

LP4 | The Allaire Sessions
Side A
I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight
I’ve Got To See You Again *
What Would I Do
Come Away With Me *
Picture In A Frame **
Nightingale *
Side B
Peace *
What Am I To You *
Painter Song *
Turn Me On *
A Little At A Time
One Flight Down *
Fragile
* Alternate Version
** Alternate Mix
All Tracks Previously Unreleased Except “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight” And “Picture In A Frame”

Original Recordings Produced By Jesse Harris, Todd Horton, Norah Jones, Jay Newland, Arif Mardin, & Craig Street

20th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition: Produced By Eli Wolf

Blue States returns with his sixth album named after the day each year on which UFO society International Flying Saucer Bureau tries to contact alien lifeforms. World Contact Day arrives six years after the previous Blue States album, written and recorded partly at Dragazis' Lightwell Recordings studio in Hackney featuring a combination of instrumental soundscapes and vocal songs that draw from influences as diverse as world as Morricone, Vangelis, Beak, Broadcast and The Carpenters. Songs on the new record feature guest vocals from the likes of Giampaolo Speziale and Federica Caiozzo of the Italian band, Malihini, English folk-musician, Rachael Dadd and Miami-based Allison May-Brice (The 18th Day Of May, Lake Ruth).

TRACK LISTING

1. Plain Sight
2. Trust In Wires
3. Tides Confusion
4. Warning Signs
5. Tiers
6. Serial Recall
7. The Sun Rose Twice
8. Alarms
9. Resting Heart
10. Science Or Fiction?

“Sunlight to blue … Blue to blackness” - This was one of the more upbeat title suggestions for the very bare, back to basics, reflective album from The Durutti Column. Originally released in June 2008, Sunlight to Blue… was a conscious response to the previous two polished and ‘studio-based’ releases. Here he created some sparse, simply beautiful 'sketches' as he once called them, more reminiscent of his work from the early eighties. Many of the pieces are instrumentals played on his Juan Montero flamenco guitar, and he returns to 'Without Mercy' for the last track 'Grief' whilst reinventing 'Never Known' from LC. Now, for the first time, the LP is available remastered and re-packaged as a gatefold double 12” 180gram vinyl release.

This album also saw the debut of the then talented young pianist and singer, Poppy Morgan, who co-wrote the melancholy Ananda as a duet with what Reilly dryly called 'intrusive guitar'. For the uninitiated, Vini was the first artist signed to Manchester’s influential Factory Records, co-wrote and played on Morrissey’s first solo album ‘Viva Hate’, and was heavily featured in the Manchester music culture film, ’24 Hour Party People’. Vini Reilly has recorded under the name The Durutti Column since 1978 and has a rich portfolio of work, releasing over twenty albums in this time. Ever critical of Vini’s voice, but ever a fierce champion of his talent, the late Tony Wilson would surely appreciate this return of The Durutti Column.

TRACK LISTING

1. Glimpse
2. Contact
3. Messages
4. Ged
5. Ananda
6. Never Known Version
7. So Many Crumbs And Monkeys!
8. Head Glue
9. Demo For Gathering Dust
10. Cup A Soup Romance
11. Grief

iconoclastic saxophonist and composer ornette coleman shook the jazz world when he arrived at the five spot café in new york city in 1959 and began his run of seminal albums on atlantic that laid the foundation for the free jazz movement to come.

after a period of disillusionment during which he withdrew from public music making, coleman re-emerged on blue note in 1966 and began writing an intriguing new chapter of his legendary career. the boxset round trip: ornette coleman on blue note presents all-analog 180g tone poet vinyl editions of all six albums featuring coleman that were recorded for blue note records, including his five albums as a leader—the two-volume at the ‘golden circle’ stockholm (1965), the empty foxhole (1966), new york is now! (1968), and love call (1968)—as well as his lone sideman appearance on new and old gospel (1967) by fellow saxophonist jackie mclean. the boxset includes a booklet featuring rare photos and an enlightening essay by critic thomas conrad. the tone poet audiophile vinyl reissue series is produced by joe harley and features all-analog, mastered-from-the-original-master-tape 180g audiophile vinyl reissues packaged in deluxe stoughton printing “old style” gatefold tip-on jackets. mastering is by kevin gray (cohearent audio), and vinyl is manufactured at record technology incorporated (rti).

Silent Night was recorded in 2018 for the Holiday Short Film, “The Letter” by Eric Paschal Johnson and received a Vimeo Staff Pick Award.

Van Etten’s cover of the holiday classic “Blue Christmas,” was originally recorded for a benefit album called Do You EAR what I Ear in 2009 for the Association to Benefit Children, an outstanding New York-based service dedicated to permanently breaking the cycles of abuse, neglect, sickness and homelessness among disadvantaged children and their families.

Both of these tracks are now available on vinyl for the first time.                                 

TRACK LISTING

Silent Night
Blue Christmas

THIS IS A BLACK FRIDAY RELEASE AVAILABLE INSTORE OVER THE COUNTER FROM 10AM ON NOVEMBER 26TH.

ANY REMAINING ITEMS WILL BE AVAILABLE ONLINE ON SATURDAY NOVEMBER 27TH FROM 8AM.

LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

“Georgia Blue is a labor of love. On election day 2020, when I saw that there was a good chance the state of Georgia might go blue, I came up with an idea: to record an album of Georgia- related songs as a thank you to the state and donate the money to a Georgia based non-profit organization. I will admit my motivations were a bit selfish. For years, I’ve been looking for an excuse to record these songs with my band and some friends. The songs on this album are some of my favorite Georgia-related songs, but the tracklist is not meant to be comprehensive. I would love to cover Outkast and 2 Chainz, but I don’t think the finished product would be very good. We’re a rock band, so we covered rock songs. We have roots in blues and R&B, so we enlisted some brilliant artists to help us pull off songs by Precious Bryant, James Brown, and Gladys Knight. My favorite part of the Georgia Blue recording process was having the opportunity to work with these very special artists, and I thank them: Amanda Shires, Brittney Spencer, Adia Victoria, Brandi Carlile, Julien Baker, Bèla Fleck, Chris Thile, Steve Gorman, Peter Levin, and John Paul White. I hope you enjoy listening to these recordings as much as we enjoyed making them. Keep listening to good music and fighting the good fight.” - Jason Isbell

TRACK LISTING

1 Nightswimming Feat. Bela Fleck And Chris Thile
2 Honeysuckle Blue Feat. Sadler Vaden
3 It's A Man's Man's World Feat. Brittney Spencer
4 Cross Bones Style Feat. Amanda Shires
5 The Truth Feat. Adia Victoria
6 I've Been Loving You Too Long
7 Sometimes Salvation Feat. Steve Gorman
8 Kid Fears Feat. Julien Baker And Brandi Carlile
9 Reverse
10 Midnight Train To Georgia Feat. Brittney Spencer And John Paul White
11 In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed Feat. Peter Levin
12 I'm Through
13 Driver 8 Feat. John Paul White

Almost 45 years have passed since the death of 'Lady Day'. About 50 years ago she could be seen and heard in just a few rare concerts outside the USA. Alcohol, drugs, affairs and racial discrimination in the USA had all left their mark on her and only her voice served as a reminder of her great successes. It is thanks to Norman Granz that Billie Holiday signed a new, lucrative contract with Verve / Clef in the early Fifties. He drew the very best musicians into the studio and paid for excellent arrangers so that Billie had an opportunity to sing her old songs once again and record them for posterity in the very best sound quality. Recorded between 1954 and 1956, "Lady Sings The Blues" features some of her best-loved jazz-blues numbers, including a never-bettered version of "Strange Fruit", "Good Morning Heartache", "Trav'lin' Light", "I Must Have That Man", "God Bless the Child" and the fantastic title track of course. Holiday is at her heart-rending best here, her voice cracking with emotion and pain at times, which only adds to the brilliance of this set, and the amazing remastering means we get to hear every drum brush stroke and every horn note as well. Wonderful.

TRACK LISTING

Trav'lin' Light
I Must Have That Man!
Some Other Spring
Lady Sings The Blues
Strange Fruit
God Bless The Child
Good Morning, Heartache
No Good Man
Love Me Or Leave Me
Too Marvelous For Words
Willow Weep For Me
I Thought About You
P.S. I Love You

Lana Del Rey’s highly anticipated eighth studio album, Blue Banisters, features the previously released songs 'Blue Banisters,' 'Wildflower Wildfire' and 'Text Book.'

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: It's always a welcome arrival when Lana Del Rey brings out a new LP, and Blue Banisters has everything you'd expect. Gorgeous downplayed melodies and minimalistic instrumentation, topped with her instantly recognisable athletic country-tinged vocal style. It's hard to imagine anyone else pulling off this sound, classic Lana.

TRACK LISTING

1. Text Book
2. Blue Banisters
3. Arcadia
4. Interlude - The Trio
5. Black Bathing Suit
6. If You Lie Down With Me
7. Beautiful
8. Violets For Roses
9. Dealer
10. Thunder
11. Wildflower Wildfire
12. Nectar Of The Gods
13. Living Legend
14. Cherry Blossom
15. Sweet Carolina

Proper new mastering from original files for this classic album that was released 25 years ago.

TRACK LISTING

Cheek To Cheek (2021 Master)
Stormy Monday (2021 Master)
Bridge Over Troubled Water (2021 Master)
Fine And Mellow (2021 Master)
People Get Ready (2021 Master)
Blue Skies (2021 Master)
Tall Trees In Georgia (2021 Master)
Fields Of Gold (2021 Master)
Autumn Leaves (2021 Master)
Honeysuckle Rose (2021 Master)
Take Me To The River (2021 Master)
What A Wonderful World (2021 Master)
Oh, Had I A Golden Thread (2021 Master)

AM Jazz was the moment we all became truly acquainted with Alan Roberts; the melodic maestro beneath Jim Noir’s dandy exterior, whose hypnotic minimalist symphonies waltzed their way to Piccadilly Records’ #2 Best Album of 2020. Not to mention a whole host of great reviews….

No less than 12 months later arrives ‘Deep Blue View’ – not so much of a follow-up, as a mini-flipside moving the Jazz from AM to PM, between city and sea.

“I originally had AM Jazz down as walking around some New York backstreet at 4am, smoking in a fedora, looking for crimes to solve but it now ends as night begins,” reveals Al, of his latest tale’s gradual evolution. “Deep Blue View is the night-time album now… like losing yourself deeper in the fog, or disappearing in the sea… would someone, or some 'thing' come to save you or would they , or it , come along for the ride?”

Usually by now, Daveyhulme’s own could-be John Barry would have left distractions of success for suburban side-projects and writing with his fellow Mancunian musicians, but AM Jazz left unfinished business - and, with 50 or so session recordings leaving a litter of sonic debris strewn about the cutting room floor, one major clean-up. Deep Blue View is 6 brand new tracks crafted from its reconstructed and revived remnants, unfurling like Sinatra’s Wee Small Hours to reinforce the strangely beautiful atmosphere of Al’s now revered repertoire.

“I had the urge to create something new and started playing around with different EPs and pseudonyms but when I sequenced these tracks, I was really happy how smoothly they flowed; it just needed an opener. I quickly wrote ‘Deep Blue View’ and it fell into place. It’s great, so I carried on, knowing it was time to save the best stuff for myself,” Al grins.

Just as AM Jazz was created in the spirit of his earlier working style on debut album Tower of Love, Deep Blue View fuses Al’s love of finding the ‘right’ in the odd, weird, back-to-front and everything in between, with the hi-fi meets lo-fi sounds of his crate-digging curiosity and empathy for TV themes and movie soundtracks. Guided by melody, his home-based sorcery of working with analog, tape and field recordings opposed to the lure of studio mechanics allowed his inner subconscious to tap at the door and reveal itself in new musical forms. “In the studio it’s tempting to turn everything up loud but I’ve got bad tinnitus and don’t want to write anything else in a Beatles style. I have done all that now… at home I have a computer, a microphone and just go crazy and lose myself staring at the screen. Then suddenly loads of music is written.”

Setting his inner autopilot to flight mode, ‘Peppergone’ adds to the tracks’ nocturnal narrative and appears reborn after a last-minute culling from AM Jazz’s initial tracklist. Like a beautifully romantic ode to Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata, it is a fitting tribute to dearly departed best friend 'Batfinks', written in the middle of a tough night. “I have no idea why or how the song came about because I was so upset to do anything, let alone record any music. But there you go. Somehow I did and it’s a really special thing. I know he would have dug me using his chords; growing up we’d both try to create the perfect chord sequence. This is his idea of that. I hope he doesn’t think it’s shit,” Al jests.

Also revived from AM Jazz’s archive is the simmering groove of ‘Night Talk Late Street’ and instrumental ‘Star Six Seven’, whilst ‘Have Another Cigar’ weaves its own semi-autobiographical fairy-tale with lyrics written and sung by long-time pal and former housemate Aidan Smith. Transformed from backing track into a cool morsel of story pop, it recalls the drunken joy of when the pair would make recordings together between singing the Everly Brothers at full volume. “I’m sure it’s about not wanting the musical party to stop and having to get on with real life,” Al says.

‘String Beat’ meanwhile, soars like a beautiful Bond theme with the shimmer of Lee Hazlewood holidaying in Palm Springs, alongside perhaps, the waltzing string-like synthonies of some long-lost rhythm and blues orchestra of Davyhulme (whose real-life origins reside with the Berlin Symphony Orchestra), introduced to him by Super Furry Animals’ Cian Ciaran. “I’ve never created anything this moody before and have always threatened to do something John Barry-esque with some slightly dark and spooky musical changes.”

First may not be worst, but as AM Jazz has proven, second can be best and as a master of suspense Jim’s Deep Blue View arranges the day to night pieces of another puzzle that makes a whole lot of sense.

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: Another absolutely beautiful record. Gonna be one of my favourites of the year, I can tell already.

Barry says: Where 'A.M Jazz' wasn't particularly true to its name, 'Deep Blue View' plunges much more readily into smooth jazz waters, with swimming melodies and progressions perfectly befitting Roberts' hazy dreamlike vocal lines. A brilliantly cohesive and fitting follow-up to A.M Jazz, showing the rapid upwards trajectory of this local gem. Brilliant.

In 2020, 4AD turned 40. Never one to be on time for a party, the label is commemorating that landmark this year with the release of Bills & Aches & Blues.

The compilation features 18 of its current artists covering a song of their choosing from 4AD’s past: a creative experiment rooted in the spirit of collaboration and a snapshot of 4AD, 41 years after its inception.

Bills & Aches & Blues will be released on double LP and double CD on 23rd July. The first 12 months’ profits from Bills & Aches & Blues will be donated to The Harmony Project, a Los Angeles-based after-school programme for children from communities and schools that lack equitable access to studying the arts or music.

Bills & Aches & Blues’ 18 recordings contain fascinating connections between artist and track. The earliest song chosen (by U.S. Girls) is The Birthday Party’s ‘Junkyard’, from 1981; the most recent are the two Grimes covers (‘Genesis’ and ‘Oblivion’, respectively by Spencer. and Dry Cleaning) from 2012. Suitably, for the one band that bridges 4AD past and present, The Breeders are all over Bills And Aches And Blues. They’re covered three times – ‘Cannonball’ by Tune-Yards, ‘Mountain Battles’ by Bradford Cox of Deerhunter and ‘Off You’ by Big Thief, whilst The Breeders cover ‘The Dirt Eaters’ by their ‘90s contemporaries His Name Is Alive.

Landmark songs such as ‘Cannonball’, ‘Song To The Siren’ and Pixies’ ‘Where is My Mind?’, will feel comfortable to casual fans, however by contrast, much joy can be found in the album’s surprise choices, such as Air Miami’s ‘Seabird’ and the Lush B-side ‘Sunbathing’, covered respectively by new signings Maria Somerville and Jenny Hval.

Bills & Aches & Blues is named, arguably (as Elizabeth Fraser never published the lyrics) after the opening line of Cocteau Twins ‘Cherry-Coloured Funk’. Perhaps too unique and uncoverable in their own right, their legendary take on Tim Buckley’s ‘Song To The Siren’, under the name This Mortal Coil (along with Buckley’s pre-Starsailor acoustic version) informs SOHN’s cover.

Some tracks unearth hitherto hidden shared DNA, such as Future Islands’ and Colourbox’s ‘The Moon Is Blue’; other tracks are more akin to reinvention. Aldous Harding distils the melodic essence of Deerhunter’s ‘Revival’ and recasts it in her own uncanny image. U.S. Girls’ future-disco ‘Junkyard’ and Bing & Ruth’s neo-classical instrumental ‘Gigantic’ are even more radical interpretations. Leading off the album, Tkay Maidza brings both her Art Rap and R&B game, but also an unexpected ‘80s synth pop template, to Pixies’ ‘Where Is My Mind?’, a perfect title for these chaotic times.

TRACK LISTING

Side 1:
01 Tkay Maidza - Where Is My Mind? (Pixies)
02 U.S. Girls - Junkyard (The Birthday Party)
03 Aldous Harding - Revival (Deerhunter)
04 The Breeders - Dirt Eaters (His Name Is Alive)
05 Maria Somerville - Seabird (Air Miami)

Side 2:
06 Tune-Yards - Cannonball (The Breeders)
07 Spencer - Genesis (Grimes)
08 Helado Negro - Futurism (Deerhunter)
09 Efterklang - Postal (Piano Magic)
10 Bing And Ruth - Gigantic (Pixies)

Side 3:
11 Future Islands - The Moon Is Blue (Colourbox)
12 Jenny Hval - Sunbathing (Lush)
13 Dry Cleaning - Oblivion (Grimes)
14 Bradford Cox - Mountain Battles (Breeders)

Side 4:
15 SOHN - Song To The Siren (Tim Buckley)
16 Becky And The Birds - The Wolves Act I And II (Bon Iver)
17 Ex:Re - Misery Is A Butterfly (Blonde Redhead)
18 Big Thief - Off You (The Breeders)

The Line of Best Fit once said, "Jodi has left us broken, bereft but in awe of a talent that can take a couple of seconds and make it your whole world." Jodi is the project of New Jersey-raised, Chicago-based multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Nick Levine, whose soft-spoken songs deliver a series of intimate world building moments capable of shattering a listener's temporal and emotional boundaries. It is a type of gentle yet deeply powerful songwriting for fans of artists like Jason Molina, Mount Eerie, Karen Dalton, Julie Doiron, and Duster. For Levine, Jodi is tentatively described as an alter-ego, a lens in which they can ask questions, push boundaries and step outside of their inner world.

Debut full length Blue Heron captures Levine's continued search for meaning; a search where a couple of chance encounters with a bird “a great blue heron” taught them to embrace the fortuity of creative expression and surrender to its symbolism as a metaphor for understanding their own work. Levine encountered the blue heron first while writing the project, and a second time while recording it. In the first encounter, "It pulled me out of a spiral," they say.

"Maybe you're not in the amount of control that you think and that's actually a good thing. There's so much life happening outside of your head and that's really grounding to remember." It was this initial chance encounter that urged Levine to get outside of their own head and breathe the bigger picture more deeply into their writing. Later, during their final days of recording those songs, Levine was visited by a second blue heron. For them, it was a sure sign.

Committing fully to the symbolism, Levine had a large blue heron tattooed on their back and submerged themself in a freezing Chicago pond as a means to forever memorialize the Blue Heron as both the album cover and title. Marking the dedication to their art "with wings wide open, ready to take flight" it also signifies the power of music, nature and friendship. While Blue Heron claws at the strands of meaning, and tries to make sense of the world, it's a work that ultimately only finds closure in the complete surrender to forces greater than oneself. It embraces chance, coincidence, and fate with a sublime curiosity, ultimately finding meaning in the randomness of it all.

TRACK LISTING

Side A:

1. Power
2. Go Slowly
3. Get Back
4. Hawks
5. Slug Night

Side B:

6. Buddy
7. Softy
8. Water
9. River Rocks
10. Blue Heron

Tim Burgess of The Charlatans hosts Tim's Twitter Listening Party on Saturday evenings, where he chooses an album in advance and the show's followers simultaneously click 'play', listening in tandem while sharing anecdotes, impressions and criticisms of that week's choice. It's not uncommon for the artists themselves to pop up and interact with fans, a welcome diversion while we're all bottled up at home. Tim's recent choice of Blue Orchids' The Greatest Hit (Money Mountain) was no random one - the album's influence on The Charlatans is palpable, though the album remains one of rock's greatest obscurities. So one week after Susanna Hoffs turned up to talk about The Bangles, it was no surprise to see Blue Orchids founder Martin Bramah arrive and announce himself, only to mysteriously disappear in seconds, for the duration of the show. And thus it has been with Blue Orchids.

Tantalising, brilliant songs appearing out of nowhere, an album arriving, only for Martin to take unannounced leave for years, without explanation. So it's a miraculous turn of good fortune that Blue Orchids have released as much new material in the last five years than in the thirty-six (!) years before that, even if you include Blue Orchids-buy-any-other-name combos like Thirst and Factory Star into that equation. The sterling quality and wit of those releases remains undimmed since the beginnings of the band back in 1980. Speed The Day retains the classic line-up from the last two albums' line-up and adds electric ukulele player Tansy McNally, hailing from Australia and adding a different psychedelic lacquer to an impassioned set of nine new songs, pls an oddly paranoid cover of Chicago's 25 Or 6 To 4, which slyly mutates lyrics about late-night songwriting into a paean to speed. (Although your interpretation may vary!) An far darker and more energetic album than The Magical Record Of Blue Orchids, their album of obscure garage covers, Speed The Day is a sterling addition to the the canon of Martin Bramah masterpieces

TRACK LISTING

1. Deeper Than Sin 
2. Lucky Speaks 
3. Classy Fella 
4. 25 Or 6 To 4 
5. Street Of Flowers 
6. What Lies Beneath 
7. Like A Clockwork Orange 
8. The Pebble 
9. Meet The Maker 
10. 22nd Century

Three songs taken from Chip Wickham's spiritual jazz album Blue to Red get reshaped by Photay, Medlar, and Chip Wickham himself. The result is a lush ep, every bit as good as the combination of a wonderful original track and an uber-talented remixer could be.

Photay has deconstructed the peaceful Blue to Red to turn it into a bomb—a storming dance track that keeps the spiritual vibe intact. The extra beatless version soothes your ear while creating a certain sense of anticipation.

The original version of Interstellar blends fusion jazz with the sound of West London's seminal broken beat scene. Medlar has plucked the track apart, then rebuilt it by adding some extra perc and synth sounds to the bass-driven beats. The result is some deep and heavy and funky business.

And finally, Chip recovered a take of wonderful astral slow jam The Cosmos that didn't make it onto the album, one with no drums, and cooked up a roomy cosmic dub, full-on Space Echo.

It will be out in a limited transparent vinyl 12"

TRACK LISTING

1. Blue To Red Photay Remix
2. Blue To Red Photay No Drums Mix
3. The Cosmos Chip Dub
4. Blue To Red Medlar Remix

Back in 2018 the Brighton-based three piece were on the crest of a wave. As well as regular plays on daytime Radio 1 and a Rockest Record from the Radio 1 Rock Show, years of near non-stop touring had seen them sell out The Scala and play a triumphant hometown show at The Concorde 2. On their last EP, Evolve Or Die, they’d pushed the live-wired sound of their 2016 debut, Abstract Figures In The Dark, massively broadening their sonic palette and delivering Tigercub’s pile-driving guitar gut-punch within an intense digital static.

It seemed like a good place to put things on pause for a bit and in the downtime the band's lead songwriter and frontman Jamie Hall started tinkering with his own brand of gonzoid psych-pop under the name Nancy. Intended only as a DIY experiment, the project massively took off. Nancy was Hype Machine’s most blogged artist, Hall bagged two record deals and played a string of dates around the world. Not bad for something he’d done in his bedroom chiefly to keep his songwriting chops up. In addition, Tigercub had started up their own label, Blame Records. Enough to keep you busy you’d think, but Hall was itching to get back to the day job, determined to use all he'd learned from the solo project to further Tigercub on their return.

And what a return it is.

TRACK LISTING

1. As Blue As Indigo
2. Sleepwalker
3. Blue Mist In My Head
4. Stop Beating On My Heart (Like A Bass Drum)
5. Funeral
6. Built To Fail
7. Shame
8. As Long As You're Next To Me
9. Beauty
10. In The Autumn Of My Years

Recorded in 1961, but not released until 1967, The Witch Doctor features one of Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers’ all-time great line-ups: Wayne Shorter on tenor saxophone, Lee Morgan on trumpet, Bobby Timmons on piano, and Jymie Merritt on bass. Shorter and Morgan each contribute two tunes, with Timmons penning one.

Highlights include Morgan’s spectacular 6/8 modal piece “Afrique” and Shorter’s minor masterpiece “Those Who Sit And Wait.” Bobby Timmons brings the deep soul goods on his composition “A Little Busy,” and the album closes with a fleet-footed romp through Clifford Jordan’s tune “Lost and Found.”

Blue Note Records’ Tone Poet Audiophile Vinyl Reissue Series is produced by Joe Harley and features all-analog, mastered-from-the-original-master-tapes, 180g audiophile vinyl reissues in deluxe gatefold packaging. Mastering is by Kevin Gray (Cohearent Audio) and vinyl is manufactured at Record Technology Incorporated (RTI).

TRACK LISTING

1. The Witch Doctor (Side A)
2. Afrique (Side A)
3. Those Who Sit And Wait (Side A)
4. A Little Busy (Side B)
5. Joelle (Side B)
6. Lost And Found (Side B)

"Devil's Workshop" is an instrumental album that sees DJ Format going in a slightly different direction to what you might have expected. Continuing the blueprint laid down in DJ Shadow's groundbreaking early work that made it possible for a hip hop producer to create genre-defying new compositions from old records, everything you hear is painstakingly pieced together from 100% samples to give the illusion you're listening to a band assembled by David Axelrod. There's no time for stagnant, repetitive loops that leave you wondering when a rapper is going to appear, instead each song keeps building in mood and intensity by the clever use of layer upon layer of carefully chosen samples. A rich tapestry of musical instruments from keyboards, horns & guitars through to vibes, bamboo flutes & sitars paint an exciting soundscape throughout the album and make it very difficult to pigeon-hole. While it is primarily an instrumental album, Format utilises a variety of vocal samples from sources as wide ranging as '60s spoken word, '70s religious records, right up to '80s & '90s rap records, all used out of their original context to tell a new story. "Devil's Workshop" is far from a typical DJ Format record or a typical hip hop record and should be listened to with an open mind. Everyone may have different ideas as to the meaning of certain songs but as long as they make you think....and feel something...that's all that really matters.
DJ Format says:"I wanted to make an instrumental album that perfectly reflects my musical tastes in 2021. Although hip hop was my first love and definitely shaped my whole relationship with music, nowadays I mostly listen to '60s jazz, psychedelic rock and everything in between. I've travelled half way around the world in search of old records that excite & inspired me to make music of my own and I truly believe that Devil's Workshop is my best work so far, it's the culmination of everything I've learnt over a lifetime of consuming & studying music".

TRACK LISTING

1. Time To Listen
2. The Light
3. Brainstorm
4. Warm Dust
5. Peace
6. Disaster Time
7. The Curse
8. Blind Man
9. Mountains Of Madness
10. Strange Sensations

Pioneers of the British music scene, ‘Blackest Blue’ will be the band's 10th studio album in a discography that spans three decades. 2020 saw Morcheeba unable to tour or perform live, which gave Skye Edwards & Ross Godfrey “time to write songs and really get to hone them,” as Godfrey puts it. “There weren’t so many pressures so we could really take our time getting the songs right,” adds Edwards.

The result of this time is a refined 10 track album that fuses previous incarnations and sound of the band - such as downbeat, chill, electro-pop & soul - into one cohesive record that dives deep into the soul of the band’s genre-mashing musical heritage. As usual, the band didn’t approach the album with any pre-conceptions, and instead created an organic journey that represents everything great about Morcheeba.

Edwards’ lyrics are primarily focused on positivity and overcoming personal adversity that lies within. ‘Sounds Of Blue’, is a stunning cut that puts Skye Edward's sultry vocals to the forefront, floating high above an ethereal backdrop.

The album includes features with Duke Garwood (known for his work with Mark Lanegan, amongst others) and Brad Barr (The Slip, The Barr Brothers). 

TRACK LISTING

LP Tracklisting:
1. Cut My Heart Out
2. Killed Our Love
3. Sounds Of Blue
4. Say It’s Over
5. Sulphur Soul
6. Oh Oh Yeah
7. Namaste
8. The Moon
9. Falling Skies
10. The Edge Of The World

Bonus 7” (Indies Exclusive Version Only)
A. Slow Rippling Surges
B. Falling Sky (Merther Hum Dub Remix)

In his tenth year with Acid Jazz, the ever-prolific Matt Berry has crafted a psych masterpiece. Once again proving his artistic progression and ambition knows no bounds

Recorded during the summer of 2020, ‘Blue Elephant’ is testament to Matt’s exceptional musicianship, production skills and songwriting prowess with every instrument played by Matt including, guitars, bass, a variety of keyboards and synthesizers (piano, Wurlitzer, mellotron, Moog, Hammond, Vox and Farfisa organs), with the exception of drums – supplied by Craig Blundell, on arguably his best album to date. 

This music soundtracks an album that explores themes surrounding today’s close scrutiny in all its bewildering, objectifying and unnerving experiences. Very much a conceptual and, therefore, continuous long-player, the album’s infectious grooves come to the fore on standout tracks ‘Summer Sun’, heavy-psych instrumental ‘Invisible’, the three-part ‘Blues Inside Me’, which encompasses a psych journey through a late ‘60s and early glam filter mixed with the propulsive ‘Like Stone’.

TRACK LISTING

1. Aboard
2. Summer Sun
3. Safe Passage
4. Now Disappear
5. Alone
6. Invisible
7. Blues Inside Me
8. I Cannot Speak
9. The Blue Elephant
10. Life Unknown
11. Safer Passage
12. Like Stone
13. Story Told
14. Forget Me
15. Now Disappear (Again)

Kind of Blue is a studio album by American jazz trumpeter Miles Davis. It was recorded on March 2 and April 22, 1959, at Columbia's 30th Street Studio in New York City, and released on August 17 of that year by Columbia Records. The album features Davis's ensemble sextet consisting of saxophonists John Coltrane and Julian "Cannonball" Adderley, pianist Bill Evans, bassist Paul Chambers, and drummer Jimmy Cobb, with new band pianist Wynton Kelly appearing on one track in place of Evans. Kind of Blue has been regarded by many critics as the greatest jazz record, Davis's masterpiece, and one of the best albums of all time. Its influence on music, including jazz, rock, and classical genres, has led writers to also deem it one of the most influential albums ever recorded. 

TRACK LISTING

So What 
Freddie Freeloader 
Blue In Green 
Flamenco Sketches 
All Blues

More than any other album in the canon of Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers, 1958’s Moanin’ — featuring the great drummer with trumpeter Lee Morgan, tenor saxophonist Benny Golson, pianist Bobby Timmons, and bassist Jymie Merritt —was the perfect crystallization of the band’s bluesy, soulful sound, and it still stands today as perhaps the most quintessential hard bop recording of all-time.

Originally self-titled, the album was later renamed Moanin’ due to the popularity of Timmons’ unforgettable opening track. The album also introduced several indelible Golson compositions that would become standards of the jazz songbook including “Along Came Betty” and “Blues March.”

This Blue Note Classic Vinyl Edition is all-analog, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original master tapes, and pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal.

TRACK LISTING

1. Moanin’
2. Are You Real
3. Along Came Betty
4. The Drum Thunder Suite
5. Blues March
6. Come Rain Or Come Shine

Abstinence Blues (Original Mix) was written, recorded and released during lockdown as the opening track of the Black Metal Music EP. The band loved the driving frustration of the track and felt it would really work as dance track ready for when the clubs open up again. The band approached their label bosses and artists in their own right, Laima and Iggor of Delayed Records/Mixhell, as they loved the remix they produced last year of Meatraffle on the Moon. They had a listen and were up for the challenge. The remix came back and the band loved it, so much that the live version of Abstinence Blues is now split of the original mix and the remix.

TRACK LISTING

A1: Abstinence Blues Mixhell Extended
A2: Abstinence Blues Mixhell Edit
B1: Abstinence Blues Mixhell Instrumental
B2: Abstinence Blues Original Mix

Kind of Blue is a studio album by American jazz trumpeter Miles Davis. It was recorded on March 2 and April 22, 1959, at Columbia's 30th Street Studio in New York City, and released on August 17 of that year by Columbia Records. The album features Davis's ensemble sextet consisting of saxophonists John Coltrane and Julian "Cannonball" Adderley, pianist Bill Evans, bassist Paul Chambers, and drummer Jimmy Cobb, with new band pianist Wynton Kelly appearing on one track in place of Evans. Kind of Blue has been regarded by many critics as the greatest jazz record, Davis's masterpiece, and one of the best albums of all time. Its influence on music, including jazz, rock, and classical genres, has led writers to also deem it one of the most influential albums ever recorded. 

TRACK LISTING

So What 
Freddie Freeloader 
Blue In Green 
Flamenco Sketches 
All Blues

The Bug aka Kevin Martin, and producer/vocalist Dis Fig aka Felicia Chen, refer to their style on ‘In Blue’ as “Tunnel Sound”; a foggy, melancholic meltdown of narco-dancehall-soul and dread-drenched, electronic dub. The 2018 prototype rhythms for this album were a continuation of Martin’s ongoing quest for a futuristic dancehall mutation, but more sci-fi, aquatic and smokey than before. An obsessive search for the right sultry 2AM voice to ride his syncopated walls of sub, fuzzed out white noise and infinite echoes eventually led him to Dis Fig’s torched soul-jazz glow, and 20 months of subsequent lab exchanges have resulted in the deeply sensual pulsations and lyrical long shadows of ‘In Blue’ - an album that shares shades of King Midas Sound’s wrecked lovers rock, alongside the bass immersion that The Bug has become infamously known for. Just as Martin took a stylistic swerve on ‘In Blue’, so did Chen. Previously known for experimental noise onslaughts and emotional exorcisms, she opts here for threatening intimacy and hushed confessionals, concentrating on bittersweet vocals and seductive surprises that are all the more potent for their inferred narratives and delicate delivery. Mixed during lockdown, the sense of claustrofear, escapism and tension throughout is palpable. With the bewitching croon of Dis Fig directing the flow, carnality and violence merge under the turbulent, cinematic surface of an hypnotically addictive album.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Around Me
A2.Come
A3.Destroy Me
B1.Blood
B2.In 2 U
B3.Levitating

C1.Forever
C2.Blue To Black
C3.Take
D1.No Return
D2.You
D3.End In Blue

Bombay Bicycle Club are very pleased to announce details of their new live album, ‘I Had The Blues But I Shook Them Loose - Live At Brixton’. The album was recorded on 8th November 2019 at the band’s sold out Brixton Academy show, celebrating the 10th anniversary of their debut album. 

The live album follows the release of the band’s fifth studio album, ‘Everything Else Has Gone Wrong’ earlier this year. The album peaked at #4 on the UK album chart and garnered widespread acclaim from fans and critics alike. Its release was due to be followed by an extensive European and North American headline tour and numerous festival headline appearances. The new live album acts as a timely gift to their fans and a fine celebration of the power and togetherness of live music.
 

TRACK LISTING

Emergency Contraception Blues – Live At Brixton
Lamplight – Live At Brixton
Evening / Morning – Live At Brixton
Dust On The Ground – Live At Brixton
Ghost – Live At Brixton
Always Like This – Live At Brixton
Magnet – Live At Brixton
Cancel On Me – Live At Brixton
Autumn – Live At Brixton
The Hill – Live At Brixton
What If – Live At Brixton
The Giantess – Live At Brixton