“The best lyricist working in the US today.” - Jarvis Cocker

Manhattan is Jeffrey Lewis’s seventh studio album for Rough Trade and his first since 2011’s ‘A Turn In The Dream-Songs’. His band is called Los Bolts and includes his regular players Heather Wagner (drums) and bassist Caitlin Gray (Hooray For The Riff-Raff). The album’s artwork features Jeff’s illustrations throughout.

‘Manhattan’ was mixed by John Agnello (Dinosaur Jr., Phosphorescent, War On Drugs) and recorded by Brian Speaker.

The album is both named after and directly inspired by New York City but is no regionalised curio. It’s the very specificity of the details Lewis uses to depict his characters and situations that make his songs so evocative and so emotionally rich. Lewis is both a lifelong resident and a detached observer of his hometown but ultimately it’s a simple treatment of human moments by one of our sharpest songwriting talents.

The track ‘Outta Town’ is a song that Jeff describes as “how empty life feels when you are in a relationship and that person's not there, because you don't remember how to have a relationship with yourself, you broke up with yourself when you started dating the other person. You have to learn how to start dating yourself all over again.”

That Micachu & The Shapes’ return, three years after the release of their last record ‘Never’, is almost an accident: the trio of friends decided to rehearse in an East London studio, and found themselves immersed into an hours-long jam. Drummer Marc Pell had an Edirol field recorder in hand, and unbeknownst to his bandmates, recorded the whole session; Pell, Mica Levi, and Raisa Khan were so enamored of those off-the-cuff audio experiments that they became the underpinnings of a new record.

"For me it's the most free we have been,” Levi explains. Rather than showing up to the studio with songs written out, the trio started with a collaborative improvisation, from which Levi chose sections to develop into songs, writing lyrics to the entire record “non-stop, in one avalanche."

With one listen, it’s easy to hear why they loved the tracks. ‘Good Sad Happy Bad’ maintains the experimental-pop sensibility the band has brought to previous efforts, combining the lightness and bounce of their best singles with the sonic textures of field recordings, industrial effects alongside straightforward instrumentation. Levi’s affected vocals eschew easily readable emotional tone, instead relying on quixotic lyricism, repetition, and immersion into the song’s landscape, to evoke warmly - rather than show - the sentiments underpinning the songs.

The record’s irrepressible energy, across both the upbeat and a handful of sadder songs, seems to be a direct result of the live recording process. “Jams are really quite a healthy release, it’s a way of getting stuff out without consciously thinking about it or making decisions,” says Khan.

Conversely, because the band worked out the final mixes together over a number of months - rather than in a traditional, multi-track studio over a shorter period - Pell found a new degree of creativity. “I think the best drum part I have ever written is the stick-clicking at the beginning of ‘Peach’ - a moment, he explains, that he wouldn’t have been able to notice without the luxury of seeing the recorded tracks as more than simply songs, but as collections of sonic ideas.

“Different things are happening in my life now, so there is no doubt that it will be a very different album.” - Mark Kozelek

‘Universal Themes’ includes ‘The Possum’, a nineminute track featuring Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley about dead possums and hanging out with Godflesh.

Guitars and vocals by Mark Kozelek. Percussion by Steve Shelley.

Recorded in San Francisco, 2014 / 2015. Additional recording in Hoboken, 2015.

TRACK LISTING

The Possum
Birds Of Flims
With A Sort Of Grace I Walked To The Bathroom To Cry
Garden Of Lavender
Cry Me A River 
Williamsburg Sleeve
Tattoo Blues
Ali/Spinks 2
Little Rascals
This Is My First Day And I’m Indian And I Work At A Gas Station

Before We Forgot How to Dream’ is a stunning snapshot of SOAK’s formative years growing up in Northern Ireland, touching variously on the themes of isolation, family and what to do with your future. Already compared with the likes of Laura Marling and Beach House, Bridie has been a rising star in her hometown of Derry since the age of 14, when a chance uploading of the ‘Sea Creatures’ demo to the BBC Introducing playlist saw A&R board the next flight over and park up outside the Monds-Watson’s household. Yet SOAK rushed into nothing, instead splitting her time between studies, the local skate-park and daunting early shows (such as opening Derry’s tenure as City of Culture hours before a GCSE exam). Things moved forward last year, when Bridie teamed up with CHVRCHES for their launch of a singles label, toured with George Ezra and Tegan & Sara, before signing a deal with Rough Trade the same summer most of her friends got their A-Level results. Produced alongside Tommy from Villagers, her debut album traces SOAK’s extraordinary journey to this point, and marks Bridie’s graduation from raw talent to a significant songwriter for the years ahead. It seems also to speak of those more universal joys and fears of adolescence, before we, too, forgot how to dream.

TRACK LISTING

My Brain
B A NoBody
Blud
Wait
Sea Creatures
A Dream To Fly
24 Windowed House
Garden
Shuvels
Hailstones Don’t Hurt
Reckless Behaviour
If Everyone Is Someone - No One Is Everyone
Oh Brother
Blind

Two year’s on from the release of their debut, top 10 UK charting album ‘180’, which NME declared to be ‘the new soundtrack to your life,’ Q Magazine ‘one of the best debut albums of the decade’ and The Quietus ‘fucking brrrilliant,’ Palma Violets have announced the full details of their highly anticipated follow-up ‘Danger In The Club’. The album was produced by John Leckie (Stone Roses, Radiohead, The Fall), recorded at Rockfield Studio in Wales and is released on Rough Trade Records.

Anyone lucky enough to catch Palma Violets road testing the new album at intimate UK venues recently (including Scunthorpe where the local rugby team had to be called in when the venue’s bouncers couldn’t handle the over-excited crowd) can testify that the new material is a giant step up from the band’s debut. ‘Girl, You Couldn’t Do Much Better On The Beach’ and ‘Hollywood (I Got It)’ build on ‘180’s exhilarating, primal rock and roll, whilst the hook-heavy choruses and imaginative lyrics of ‘English Tongue’ and ‘Coming Over To My Place’ demonstrate how much Palma Violets - still all in their early twenties - have developed into first class songwriters and honed their own unique sound.

Speaking about the new album, bassist and singer Chilli Jesson explains:
“We wanted to make a young-sounding record. We listened to a lot of pre-punk while we were making the album. We like its rawness and simplicity. A lot of bands want to over-complicate their second album, we know that we didn’t.”

Two year’s on from the release of their debut, top 10 UK charting album ‘180’, which NME declared to be ‘the new soundtrack to your life,’ Q Magazine ‘one of the best debut albums of the decade’ and The Quietus ‘fucking brrrilliant,’ Palma Violets have announced the full details of their highly anticipated follow-up ‘Danger In The Club’. The album was produced by John Leckie (Stone Roses, Radiohead, The Fall), recorded at Rockfield Studio in Wales and is set for release on 4th May 2015 on Rough Trade Records. 

Anyone lucky enough to catch Palma Violets road testing the new album at intimate UK venues recently (including Scunthorpe where the local rugby team had to be called in when the venue’s bouncers couldn’t handle the over-excited crowd) can testify that the new material is a giant step up from the band’s debut. ‘Girl, You Couldn’t Do Much Better On The Beach’ and ‘Hollywood (I Got It)’ build on ‘180’s exhilarating, primal rock and roll, whilst the hook-heavy choruses and imaginative lyrics of ‘English Tongue’ and ‘Coming Over To My Place’ demonstrate how much Palma Violets – still all in their early twenties – have developed into first class songwriters and honed their own unique sound.

Speaking about the new album, bassist and singer Chilli Jesson explains: 
“We wanted to make a young-sounding record. We listened to a lot of pre-punk while we were making the album. We like its rawness and simplicity. A lot of bands want to over-complicate their second album, we know that we didn’t.”

TRACK LISTING

1. Sweet Violets
2. Hollywood (I Got It)
3. Girl, You Couldn’t Do Much Better On The Beach
4. Danger In The Club
5. Coming Over To My Place
6. Secrets Of America 
7. The Jacket Song 
8. Matador
9. Gout! Gang! Go!
10. Walking Home
11. Peter And The Gun
12. No Money Honey
13. English Tongue

Bonus Tracks:
1. Five Gold Rings
2. The Man Is Asleep
3. In The Rain
4. Scandal

Since the release of the Athens, Alabama group’s critically acclaimed 2012 album ‘Boys & Girls’ which has sold over a million copies worldwide, the band have been nominated for a Brit and Q Award, contributed music to the Oscar-winning films ‘Twelve Years A Slave’, ‘Dallas Buyers Club’ and ‘Silver Linings Playbook’, performed at The White House alongside Mavis Staples and Justin Timberlake for Barack and Michelle Obama, and become one of the most celebrated live acts in the world having delivered unforgettable performances everywhere from Jools Holland to the main stages of festivals including Glastonbury. They have also just been announced as the Friday night headliners of this year’s Great Escape Festival.

‘Sound & Color’ demonstrates the tremendous strides made by a group of twenty-something musicians who had only been playing together for a few months when they recorded their first album. From the gently swaying, chiming title song to the garage-rock freak-out on “The Greatest” to the psychedelic space jam “Gemini,” ‘Sound & Color’ builds on Alabama Shakes’ soulful blues-rock base and maps a surprising, innovative new direction. 

“We took our time to write this record, and I’m really glad we did,” says lead singer/guitarist Brittany Howard. “We were able to sit down and think about what’s exciting to us. This record is full of genre-bending songs.”

‘Sound & Color’ was recorded at Nashville’s Sound Emporium studio. The band co-produced the album with Blake Mills—a young guitar wizard who has played alongside Lana Del Ray.

“In some ways, this album was four years in the making,” says Colin Meloy, frontman and primary songwriter of the Decemberists. “We were on hiatus, so we had all the time we could want, no schedule or tour, no expectations.”

With the ability to work at their own pace, the resulting record, What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World, is the band’s most varied and dynamic work, both musically and emotionally. Since their earliest recordings more than a decade ago, the Decemberists have always been known for their sense of scope and daring—from “The Tain,” an eighteen-and-a-half minute 2004 single based on an Irish myth to their last two ambitious, thematic albums, The Hazards of Love and The King is Dead. This time, though, Meloy explains that they took a different approach: “Let’s make sure the songs are good, and eventually the record will present itself.”

Without a deadline, the Decemberists were also able to explore every song to completion. “Usually you have to let some songs slide because of time constraints,” Meloy says, “but nothing was relegated to the b-side pile, everything was given a fair shake. Which is a blessing and a curse—we ended up with 18 songs, and each had champions and detractors. There were a multitude of albums you could potentially make—somber, over-the-top pop, folk—and I think every band member would have created a different record.”

Ultimately, What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World found its final form, a distillation of the best things about this remarkable band. A new way of working led to a renewed excitement about the next chapter for the Decemberists. “I’ve never lived with a record for so long,” says Colin Meloy, “documenting my shifts and changes as a songwriter, with a real sense of time passing. And there’s something very freeing about working on music with absolutely no agenda, and just letting the songs become themselves.”

Hype Williams man Dean Blunt preceeds his soon-come 'Black Metal' LP with this super-limited 12". Showcasing more of Blunt's eclecticism, '50 Cent' combines spacious, shimmering, reverb-laden lo-fi shoegaze guitar work and simple kick-snare machine drumming used as a hip hop break. Over this Williams adds a melancholic rap, duetting with a choral female vocal in a call and response style. 'Trident' offers a more straight forward rap, but again over an inventive dark and grimey backing track. It's indie hip hop, but not as you know it.

Benjamin Booker, Rough Trade Records’ exciting new signing, releases his debut, self-titled album.

The album is produced by Andrija Tokic (Alabama Shakes, Hurray For The Riff Raff). Described as “a well-mixed musical cocktail of punk, folk, and New Orleans blues,” Benjamin Booker cites his influences as The Gun Club, Blind Willie Johnson and T. Rex.

The young singer-songwriter plays as a two-piece with drummer Max Norton, both of whom are based in New Orleans.

Having already gained fans including Tame Impala, toured with Hurray For The Riff Raff and played a string of sold out shows in London, Booker and his drummer Max Norton have been hand-picked to open for Jack White on his US July tour, which will be followed by a series of summer US dates with Courtney Barnett.

“Benjamin Booker blasted a raw brand of blues / boogie / soul,” observed the Chicago Tribune’s Greg Kot in his SXSW wrap-up. “He likes to leave the rough edges intact, bringing to mind the houserockin’ records that Hound Dog Taylor once did for Alligator Records in the 70s.”

American Songwriter said “The 22-year-old New Orleans guitarist / songwriter - joined live by drummer / mandolin player Max Norton - took the stage as an unknown and… stepped off the stage a conqueror.”

“It might look like just two people onstage but Benjamin Booker’s voice surely counts as a band member in its own right. Soulful and sandpaper-rough…” noted The Guardian, while NME said “he takes the ripped, raw racket of The Dirtbombs and smothers it in fuzzy, inherently moody-sounding riffs that recall The Gun Club and T Rex in equal measure.”

The year and change since the release of Parquet Courts monumental 'Light Up Gold' is reflected in ways expected and not with 'Sunbathing Animal', its sharper, harder follow up. Following their quietly released 2011 debut 'American Specialties', 'Light Up Gold' caught the ears of everyone paying even a little bit of attention, garnering glowing reviews across the board for its weird colors and raw energy, saturated punk songs that offered crystal clear lyrical snapshots of city life. It was immediately memorable, a vivid portrait of ragged days, listlessness, aimlessness and urgency, broadcast with the intimacy of hearing a stranger’s thoughts as you passed them on the street.

As it goes with these things, the band went on tour for a short eternity, spending most of 2013 on the road, their sound growing more direct in the process and their observations expanding beyond life at home. Constant touring was broken up by three recording sessions that would make up the new album, and the time spent in transit comes through in repeated lyrical themes of displacement, doubt and situational captivity. To be sure, Sunbathing Animal isn’t a record about hopelessness, as any sort of incarceration implies an understanding of freedom and peace of mind. Fleeting moments of bliss are also captured in its grooves, and extended at length as if to preserve them. Pointed articulations of these ideas are heard as schizoid blues rants, shrill guitar leads, purposefully lengthy repetition and controlled explosions, reaching their peak on the blistering title track. A propulsive projection of how people might play the blues 300 years from now, “Sunbathing Animal” is a roller coaster you can’t get off, moving far too fast and looping into eternity.

Much as Light Up Gold and the subsequent EP Tally All The Things That You Broke offered a uniquely tattered perspective on everyday city life, Sunbathing Animal applies the same layered thoughts and sprawling noise to more cerebral, inward-looking themes. While heightened in its heaviness and mania, the album also represents a huge leap forward in terms of songwriting and vision. Still rooted firmly in the unshackled exploration and bombastic playing of their earlier work, everything here is amplified in its lucidity and intent. The songs wander through threads of blurry brilliance, exhaustion and fury at the hilt of every note. Parquet Courts remain, Austin Brown, A. Savage, Sean Yeaton, and M. Savage.

TRACK LISTING

1. Bodies
2. Black And White
3. Dear Ramona
4. What Color Is Blood
5. Vienna II
6. Always Back In Town
7. She’s Rollin
8. Sunbathing Animal
9. Up All Night
10. Instant Disassembly
11. Duckin And Dodgin
12. Raw Milk
13. Into The Garden

This is their debut mini-album originally released on Manimal Records, now reissued in the UK on Rough Trade.

Los Angeles' mystical Warpaint weave majestic, haiku-like guitars, hypnotic vocals, and driving post-punk rhythms into gorgeous, sprawling songs that skirt the line between the soundscapes of psychedelia / shoegaze, the haunting intimacy of folk, and rock's primal heaviness. At the core of the band are childhood friends Emily Kokal and Theresa Wayman who both met bassist Jenny Lee Lindberg at a commercial casting audition in LA. The trio quickly traded in their headshots for guitars and the fertile, diverse LA music scene has been much better for it since. Expertly mixed by John Frusciante, the album successfully captures the band's sonic textures and playful dynamism Warpaint is notorious for creating live. Onstage, Warpaint's disarmingly authentic package can shake a room into a dance frenzy—while simultaneously holding it in a trance-like dreamworld.

British Sea Power’s widely-praised soundtrack for the film ‘From The Sea To The Land Beyond’ is to be released on CD and double vinyl (plus digital download coupon) accompanied by a DVD copy of the film through Rough Trade Records.

The album features a bonus track not available on the original soundtrack. · The soundtrack consists of re-workings of previous British Sea Power songs and was recorded in Brighton and mixed by Ken Thomas (Sigur Ros, Daughter, M83, Cocteau Twins, Moby).

In January 2013 when the film, directed by Penny Woolcock, was first shown on BBC4 as part of the ‘Storyville’ series the viewing figure nudged 500,000 - over twice the usual audience size.

The film features a fantastic array of footage of the British coastline from the BFI’s National Archive. Travelling from 1901, through both World Wars, into peacetime and the modern age, ‘From The Sea To The Land Beyond’ shows our coast as a place of leisure, industry and wild nature: A woman scaling a sheer cliff face to collect eggs, dancers on the Sussex shoreline, émigrés from the Caribbean and India, a big British Rail hovercraft... For all this, the British Sea Power soundtrack is a fitting, moving audio counterpart.

‘Tookah’ is Emiliana Torrini’s fourth album and follows 2008’s fantastically received ‘Me And Armini’.

The album sees Emiliana back in the studio with her longterm producer / collaborator Dan Carey. As well as Emiliana’s three previous albums the pair co-wrote and produced Kylie Minogue’s Grammy award-nominated track ‘Slow’ which went straight to Number 1 upon release. ‘Jungle Drum’ from Emiliana’s last album ‘Me And Armini’ also charted at number 1 in several countries including Germany where it stayed for 9 weeks.

Of the album Emiliana says: “For me the first album was learning to write songs, the second was working on my own melodies and lyrics and the last album ‘Me and Armini’ was about learning to let go. With this record, it’s much more about the exploration of sonics and visual landscaping in order to find my own sound. I am a craftswoman and for me this record has been about Dan (Carey) and I evolving and going on a sound journey.

“‘Tookah’ is a made up name or word, which I connected with in a very deep and blissful way. It is the core of you, the you when you were born before life decorated you like a Christmas tree with all your baggage. It is what connects us with everyone and everything. It is what the Sufis spin for. It is the sudden thankfulness you feel when doing nothing in particular, where everything is gently perfect for a moment. Some call it god. I call mine ‘Tookah’.”

British Sea Power’s new, fifth album ‘Machineries Of Joy’ will be released on Rough Trade Records. The album release will be accompanied by a full UK tour.

‘Machineries Of Joy’ was written in the Berwyn mountains in north Wales and recorded in Brighton with Dan Smith and mixer Ken Thomas (David Bowie, Sigur Ros).

“We’d like to think the album is warm and restorative,” says singer Yan. “Various things are touched on in the words - Franciscan monks, ketamine, French female bodybuilders turned erotic movie stars. The world often seems a mad, hysterical place at the moment. You can’t really be oblivious to that, but we’d like the record to be an antidote - a nice game of cards in pleasant company.”

One of the most highly anticipated debut albums of the year, comes in the shape of the Palma Violets '180' via Rough Trade Records. They kicked things off with last years 7" debut 'Best Friend' - a burst of raw hook-filled energy which sets a general template for the entire album. The tempo fluctuates throughout, but there's always that energy bubbling away. I've read a couple of reviews that have said it sounds a little rough around the edges, but I don't think it's any worse for it. It has an urgency and exhuberance that goes some way to matching that of their live performances.

‘180’ is also the number of the Lambeth house that the four-piece have become known for regularly throwing parties and impromptu gigs for friends and fans in. The album artwork features the band stood outside the building.

'180' was recorded in London at RAK Studios (produced by Steve Mackey), and also at The Lightship (produced by Rory Attwell).

TRACK LISTING

1. Best Of Friends
2. Step Up For The Cool Cats
3. All The Garden Birds
4. Rattlesnake Highway
5. Chicken Dippers
6. Last Of The Summer Wine
7. Tom The Drum
8. Johnny Bagga' Donuts
9. I Found Love
10. Three Stars
11. 14

Over the course of three albums - and as an in-demand remixer of artists ranging from Animal Collective to, most recently, Philip Glass - the Berlin-based musician and producer Pantha Du Prince (Hendrik Weber) has been celebrated for pushing the envelope of electronic music.

His newest effort, ‘Elements Of Light’, a collaborative project with The Bell Laboratory, is doubtless his most ambitious to date: The work is a symphony for electronics, percussion and bell carillon, a three-tonne instrument comprising 50 bronze bells.

The genesis of the project began in Oslo in the summer of 2010, when Weber was having lunch with local curators Mattis With and Håkon Vinnogg and heard, in the distance, one of the concerts played multiple times daily on a bell carillon inside the city hall. Weber was struck by how the frequencies and overtones unfolded unpredictably, influenced one another, and resonated, more or less, throughout the Norwegian capital.

With and Vinnogg suggested he compose for the carillon, which was developed in China 3,500 years ago, during the Shang Dynasty, and made its way to Europe during the Middle Ages. Weber began collaborating with the Norwegian Lars Petter Hagen, who served as arranger and conductor. For the recording, a bell carillon was shipped from Denmark to Germany, where Vegar Sandholt, the same carillonist that Weber had heard during his stay in Oslo, played it.

A separate session, in Oslo, brought together a variety of percussionists, including Weber; Martin Horntveth of Jaga Jazzist, Killl and The National Bank; Erland Dahlen of Nils Petter Molvaer Trio, Susanne Sundfør, Madrugada, Xploding Plastix, and Kaada; the researcher and performer Håkon Stene, who teaches at the Norwegian Academy Of Music; and Heming Valebjørg, of the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra. They contributed numerous tubular bells, marimba, xylophone, cymbals, chimes, handclaps, finger snaps and other percussion.

The album is a single continuous work, although it has been broken down into five tracks named for elements of light: ‘Wave’, ‘Particle’, ‘Photon’, ‘Spectral Split’ and ‘Quantum’. Sonically, the work is a fusion of electronic music and classical composition, and draws on house and minimalism, jazz and new music, Gamelan and Western sacred music. Influences include John Cage, Iannis Xenakis, Steve Reich, LaMonte Young and Moondog.

‘Elements Of Light’ is a natural next step in the Pantha Du Prince oeuvre. Bells figured prominently on his last album, the highly acclaimed ‘Black Noise’, which Rough Trade released in 2010. In a Best New Music review of ‘Black Noise’, Pitchfork said “each track is its own micro sound world with enough rich detail to draw you back for deeper investigation.”

Rough Trade are excited to announce Micachu & The Shapes’ second studio album, ‘Never’.

‘Never’ was self-produced by the band, recorded at band member Marc Pell’s studio in Stratford and mixed by Dillip Harris and the band. It is the follow-up to their critically acclaimed debut ‘Jewellery’ (2009).

‘POP ETC’ was recorded by the band over the course of 2011 at both Headphone Cave and Pull Studios in New York City, as well as in Los Angeles at SoundEQ Studios.

Though largely produced by the band, the album also features contributions from Danger Mouse and Andrew Dawson (Kanye West, Lil' Wayne).

Bright synths, high-octane pop melodies, and watery R&B reconfigurations.

Until very recently the band were known as The Morning Benders.

TRACK LISTING

1. New Life
2. Back To Your Heart
3. Halfway To Heaven
4. Keep It For Your Own
5. Live It Up
6. Everything Is Gone
7. R.Y.B.
8. Whyd You Do It Honey
9. I Wanna Be Your Man
10.C-O-M-M-U-N-I-C-A-T-E
11. YoYo

The album was recorded in Austin, Texas and Streatham, London and was co-produced by Mystery Jets and Dan Carey (Hot Chip, Franz Ferdinand, Emiliana Torrini).

Mystery Jets are Blaine Harrison, Will Rees, Kai Fish and Kapil Trivedi. On the making of the album ‘Radlands’, Blaine explains: “We’ve always wanted to make a record in America and after touring ‘Serotonin’ the time felt perfect to go and do it. Our first three albums were entirely conceived and recorded in London so going out to Austin felt like the furthest place from everything we knew. We arrived with a handful of songs, but one in particular felt like it captured the spirit of why we had come there. It was called ‘Radlands’ (a fusion of the 1970s Terrence Malick film ‘Badlands’ and Redlands, Keith Richard’s Sussex estate), which is also what we named our studio; a big old wooden house on the banks of the Colorado River. All we brought on the plane were the guitars on our backs, so we ended up borrowing all this amazing valve gear from an old guy called jack who ran a little studio up in the hills, which is why the songs sound the way they do. In the daytime we wrote lyrics on the porch and in the evenings a family of deer would gather in the back yard to hear us play. Some nights we drove into town to drink and bring people back to play on the songs. When we arrived home, it was hard to believe any of it even happened. It somehow all felt like a strange dream. But when Dan Carey heard it and invited us down to his studio we listened back to everything and it was all there, it was real. All we were missing were some gospel singers, which he found in the Streatham Community Ladies Choir... Twelve months on, and we are gearing up to take ‘Radlands’ on the road.”

Alabama Shakes – comprising vocalist/guitarist Brittany Howard, guitarist Heath Fogg, drummer Steve Johnson and bassist Zac Cockrell – began playing together when they were in high school. Ben Tanner assists on keyboards. 'Boys & Girls' was recorded at The Bomb Shelter in Nashville, TN. Produced and mixed by the band members, the album is a vibrant fusion of swampy dirty South rock, blues and soul delivered with punk rock fervour.

STAFF COMMENTS

Darryl says: The debut album and a real biggie!! Don't be put off the massive hype surrounding this band, this is top notch soul rock bringing to mind the likes of Afghan Whigs, early Kings of Leon and Muscle Shoals period Rolling Stones.

Micachu & The Shapes have collaborated with London Sinfonietta, one of the world’s leading contemporary orchestras, to create "Chopped & Screwed". Recorded live in front of an audience at Kings Place, London in May 2010.

The Sinfonietta invited Mica Levi, Micachu & The Shapes’ frontwoman, to compose a series of pieces that would reflect her interests and influences, whilst giving the Sinfonietta an opportunity to develop a relationship with a young and exciting composer. She then presented the ideas of Shapes Raisa, Marc, alongside her own, to the Sinfonietta’s players, who then helped the trio to expand and enhance their ideas during a series of workshops prior to the concert.

The concept behind the album was inspired by the popular ‘chopping and screwing’ technique in American hip hop which was developed in Houston in the 1990s. The technique involves halving tempo, skipping beats and affecting portions of the original music. The approach was thought to have been developed by DJ Screw and largely influenced by Purple Drank, a codeine-based cough syrup which creates the effect of slowing down the brain, giving mellow music its appeal. For this exciting, innovative project Mica Levi and David Sylvester handmade the instruments played by Micachu & The Shapes.

Accompanying both formats of the album will be a download code for a mixtape featuring the artist Brother May, repeats and extends the concept further by chopping and screwing the original album into grime tracks.

Los Angeles all-girl four-piece Warpaint release their debut album proper, "The Fool" on Rough Trade, following last year's "Exquisite Corpse" mini-album.

Warpaint weave intricate guitar lines, hypnotic vocals and driving post punk rhythms into gorgeous, sprawling songs that skirt the line between psychedelia and intimacy. Both live and on record, Warpaint sound like they're channelling something truly otherworldly, mystical.

Recorded in a gym in LA, "The Fool" was produced and mixed by Tom Biller (Karen O – "Where The Wild Things Are" and "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" soundtracks), with further mixes from Andrew Weatherall (New Order, Primal Scream, Bjork) and Adam Samuels (Pearl Jam, Willie Nelson).

While "I Am a Bird Now" is compelling in its vulnerability and "The Crying Light" is a masterpiece of austerity, "Swanlights" may be Antony’s most wide-rangingly emotional work to date. It is a record that is at moments heartbreakingly tender, and at other times has a joyful gleam to its teeth.

Unlike previous work, which was often quite sparsely voiced, on "Swanlights" the vines in the garden are overgrown and the sound palette has become more exotic; strange percussive elements, John Cale-esque string drones, heavily distorted guitars and symphonic winds and strings thread the song cycle together.

The album includes the song "Flétta", a duet with Björk.

TRACK LISTING

1. Everything Is New
2. The Great White Ocean
3. Ghost
4. I’m In Love
5. Violetta
6. Swanlights
7. The Spirit Was Gone
8. Thank You For Your Love
9. Flétta
10. Salt Silver Oxygen
11. Christina’s Farm

Adam Green's sixth's studio album, recorded with long time producer / friend Noah Georgeson. Co-founder of influential anti-folk group The Moldy Peaches, Adam Green's unique vocal style has never been especially commercial. However, while "Minor Love" isn't exactly a 'Top40' style record, it is more accessible than his previous work. Green recorded almost all of the instruments himself, and the songs have simple arrangements, which highlight Green's vocals. "Minor Love" showcases a side of Green that is not often obvious in his public profile.  

Victoria Bergsman wanted to travel to record in a mysterious, relatively uncharted area, avoiding the usual clinical studio experience which she has always disliked and found to be an uncreative environment. She chose Pakistan. The rhythm, drums and flutes of Pakistani music had long captivated Victoria and this, coupled with a deep admiration for singers Abida Parveen and the legendary Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, helped her choose Pakistan as the place to record her new album. Another attractive factor was her interest in Sufi musicians who play in order to enter a trance like state, using music to transport themselves to another time and place. Victoria is one of very few Western women, if not the only one, to record in this region, and the bureaucracy, cultural differences and prejudices she had to overcome to see this project through almost beggar belief. It's therefore little short of a miracle that this album turned out the way it did. Victoria, previously best known for her work with The Concretes and Peter Bjorn & John's worldwide smash hit single "Young Folks", now works under the nom de plume Taken By Trees. This new offering follows in the footsteps of Taken By Tree's debut album "Open Field" (2007). The album also includes a cover of Animal Collective's "My Girls", which Victoria has re-interpreted as "My Boys". She has been a long standing fan of band member Noah Lennox' voice and upon hearing their new album "Merriweather Post Pavilion" was so struck by the song she felt compelled to record a version for her album. Consequently, Noah was also invited to sing vocals on another track on the album, "Anna".

A new album from Sheffield's finest is always greeted with a great deal of excitement here at Piccadilly, and even more so this time around, as he teams up with the legendary Steve Albini for this new album. "Further Complications" is rockier than his earlier solo work and his work with Pulp, which is maybe explained by Albini's presence, although the record also contains a few soul numbers such as "Leftovers".

The Welsh psychedelic pop legends return with "Dark Days/Light Years", their ninth studio album, a glorious technicolour journey into the mind of Super Furry Animals, jam packed into 59 minutes of acidic pop genius. Where previous albums have seen the band experiment with extra instrumentation, this release is full of songs based on grooves rather than ensemble composition. The band's impish sense of humour remains, though, with track titles such as "The Very Best Of Neil Diamond" and "Moped Eyes" standing out. Also notable is Franz Ferdinand guitarist Nick McCarthy's guest appearance on the Kraftwerk-inspired "Inaugural Trams", performing a German-language rap. In keeping with more recent albums, the band also share lead vocal duties between several members.

Tracklisting
1. Crazy Naked Girls
2. MT.
3. Moped Eyes
4. Inaugural Trams
5. Inconveniance
6. Cardiff In The Sun
7. The Very Best Of Neil Diamond
8. Helium Hearts
9. White Socks/Flip Flops
10. Where Do You Wanna Go
11. Lliwaiau Llachar
12. Prijk

"The Crying Light" is the third studio album by New York group Anthony and The Johnsons. Fronted by Anthony Hegarty, this record draws upon the themes of landscape and future. An intimate and moving record, this sees Anthony reach new artistic heights which will please fans and newcomers alike. Includes the tracks "Her Eyes Beneath The Ground" and "Another World". "The Crying Light" looks set for critical acclaim, following the reactions to the heart stoppingly beautiful "Another World EP" and breathtaking sold out Barbican performances with the LSO, that led The Guardian to exclaim that 'his legend is now assured'.Tracklisting1. Her Eyes Are Underneath The Ground2. Epilepsy Is Dancing3. One Dove4. Kiss My Name5. Crying Light6. Another World7. Daylight And The Sun8. Aeon9. Dust And Water10. Everglade

Given that this album was produced by Howard Bilerman (drummer on Arcade Fire's "Funeral Album"), Efrim Menuck (Godspeed You! Black Emperor) and Graham Sutton (Bark Psychosis), it's epic grandeur is really no surprise. With its layers of soaring guitar, thundering drums and chanting vocals comparisons to Arcade Fire are inevitable, particularly on tracks like "Waving Flags" and album opener "All In It". There is much more to this album though: although the big surging sound is pretty much full on, there's some lovely intricate instrumentation, lots of clever pace changes to keep you on your toes, and unlike pretty much every indie band around lately, they actually have a story to tell too. With "Do You Like Rock Music?", they've finally fulfilled the promise shown on their previous albums. Already an album of the year contender!

"Candylion" is the new solo album from Gruff Rhys. It follows the single of the same name and is a mesmerising musical journey with one of our most talented singers and songwriters. It seems fitting therefore that insight into the workings behind the album come straight from the man himself. '"Candylion" took form in the spring of 2006 over a fragmented two week period at Gorwel Owen's Ofn studio in Llanfaelog, Wales. My ears were happily ringing from a few months touring with the Super Furry Animals and I had a batch of mellower acoustic songs I wanted to record quickly and get out of the way before the next speaker-blowing SFA record. Once in the studio however I got carried away and found myself in a nostalgic mood, pining for some of the music I grew up listening to.'

Following a triumphant and eventful UK tour Rough Trade are proud to announce the release of the most anticipated album of the year: Babyshambles' debut album "Down In Albion". It includes the band's top five hit "Fuck Forever" and a new recording of their first "Killamangiro". The sixteen-track album was produced by Mick Jones and mixed by Mick Jones and Bill Price. There is a vinyl due for release later in the year - it's going to be a strictly limited double with the fourth side etched!

Returning with a band that includes Spiritualized members Mike Mooney and Damon Reece, Baxter Dury proves that his fantastic debut "Len Parrots Memorial Review" wasn't a fluke. Guitars float like ectoplasm, Wurlitzer's spin beneath mirror balls, summoning the presence of spectral beings, swaying to luxurious, narcotic music that predates trip hop by a good sixty years.

Their first album did really well, as a word-of-mouth thing, and back then BSP stood alone in the old-school indie quirky art-pop stakes. They were a refreshing leftward turn. Now everyone's at it, but the good news is that this second album is a huge step on from their debut. It has a controlled, powerful splendour which recalls the dark, melodic wonder of Joy Division and features less of the jerky wackiness of old. This is a beautiful record and whilst the words 'epic' and 'soaring' aren't usually associated with leftfield pop, BSP manage to be both those things. But they do it cleverly, with grace and good taste. This will be a contender for Album Of The Year.

"I Am A Bird Now" is the second full-length from this extraordinary New York artist Antony and his cohorts the Johnsons. The album features contributions from both Antony's peers (Rufus Wainwright, Devendra Banhart) and heroes (Lou Reed, Boy George). Their involvement reflects both their admiration for Antony, and his unique place in the contemporary arts community.

I'd normally say 'ignore the hype, just listen to the music' but with this band you simply can't. Their story is everywhere. And it informs nearly every lyric, every slash of guitar, on this, their excellent second album. God knows who plays bass and drums on Libertines' records because this is the Pete And Carl Show, through and through. Love, betrayal, spirit, dreams and passion are set to their usual musical blend of The Jam and The Clash. Mick Jones produces again but this time the songs are better, the sound much bigger than on their debut. And that's all you need to know; that's where we came in; accept the hype, enjoy the music. It's great.

Chancers? They'd take it as a compliment. But you don't get the Clash's Mick Jones to produce you if that's all you are. There's a real heart beating here. A rough energetic garage band fronted by two proper characters. A bit like the Strokes but mostly like the Jam. They've got the spirit of the new wave (that's 1979 mate!) and in "Time For Heroes" and "Up The Bracket" the tunes to match.

Following on from last years memorable single, comes the debut album from Ian Dury's son Baxter. A fantastic piece of drowsy laidback pychedelia which takes its cue from the Velvet's "Loaded" album and maybe bands such as Spiritualized and Mercury Rev. A reassuring and confident debut and a perfect accompaniment to balmy summer evenings and those late night sessions.