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SECRETLY CANADIAN

Cover of I Know What Love Isn't by Jens Lekman.

Jens Lekman

I Know What Love Isn't

Secretly Canadian

    Jens Lekman returns with his first full length album in 5 years, and it’s more than worth the wait. A melodic sensibility mixed with personal, insightful lyrics and a sparer palette of instruments, he takes inspiration from a break-up, a sweltering Melbourne summer, time spent in the US, etc.

    Without a doubt his finest collection of songs to date, the album is already picking up incredible attention and is sure to bring him a vast array of new fans. ‘I Know What Love Isn’t’ is the story of the grey areas of love that you have to excavate and explore, using the method of exclusion, to find out what love is.

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    Cover of Dreams by Taken By Trees.

    Taken By Trees

    Dreams

    Secretly Canadian

      ‘Dreams’ is just one of the highlights from Taken By Trees’ ‘Other Worlds’, the forthcoming album that was inspired by chanteuse Victoria Bergsman’s visit to the Hawaiian Islands.

      The touches of dub are gently layered with synths and Victoria's voice, floating along with the bassline.

      The music reflects the natural beauty of the Hawaiian Islands; floating in a perfectly blue pond, a kind breeze coasting off the waves, abundant deep green foliage, sweet slices of pineapple and milky coconut, and the delicate pink of a seashell curled like a baby's ear.

      The ‘Dreams’ 12” also features an extended instrumental and a dubbed out remix by Henning Fürst of The Tough Alliance.

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      Cover of Passage by Exitmusic.

      Exitmusic

      Passage

      Secretly Canadian

        The debut album from NYC’s Exitmusic - Devon Church and Aleksa Palladino - is one of stirring atmospherics and grandiose thoughtful pop.

        Powerful and nuanced, this is a record that has wide appeal and it is a sound that has been painstakingly put together. Aleksa and Devon started writing several years ago in NYC, and continued when the couple moved to Los Angeles as Palladino’s burgeoning acting career continued (she has a major part in Scorsese’s ‘Boardwalk Empire’), finishing with Nicholas Vernhes at the Rare Book Room in Brooklyn.

        Chiming, blurry guitars, heavenly, ethereal sighs, elegant and starkly devastating sparks of light… simply put, this is arena goth.

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        Cover of Beautiful Life / Burn by Jj.

        Jj

        Beautiful Life / Burn

        Secretly Canadian

        This single (single no. 4) features two new songs from the Gothenburg duo.

        “Even when smoked out or slowed down, [the band] still teems with energy and both Kastlander and Benon, chameleons that they are, blend into snippets of song just as well as they shift gears between genres” - Pitchfork

        TRACK LISTING

        Beautiful Life
        Burn

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        Cover of Strange Weekend by Porcelain Raft.

        Porcelain Raft

        Strange Weekend

        Secretly Canadian

          Debut album on Secretly Canadian for widely respected Italian / London artist now relocated to New York.

          Mauro Remiddi's androgynous vapor of a voice weaves like a ghost between Nick Gilder and The Alessi Brothers, Julee Cruise and Judee Sill. In more contemporary terms, Porcelain Raft stands confidently on a high hill between the sounds of M83 and Beach House. Lead track "Drifting In and Out" is loping and anthemic; gauzy and chiming. "Shapeless and Gone" follows with a heavy strum reminiscent of "Cosmic Dancer" -- full of mood and style without all the wearying excesses and feathered boas. Porcelain Raft's thesis statement hits when side B kicks off with "Unless You Speak From Your Heart." Remiddi's androgynous vocals carrying a hook so simple that you might think you sang it first; keys and bass that might make the needle jump off of your turntable; and a sense of raw sincerity that has come to trademark Remiddi's songs is what ultimately resonates.


          STAFF COMMENTS

          Andy says: Heartstring twanging, massive, classic chord changes with yearning vocals drifting around. This is like Puressence, but played by Twin Shadow. That gorgeous, sometimes anthemic quality is offset by bedroom electronics and distortion. Absolutely mega!

          Darryl says: Serene and utterly gorgeous, welcome to the world of Porcelain Raft. An angelic vocal that floats majestically over a delicate and melancholic soundscape, bringing to mind a futuristic Joy Division, M83, and an electro-infused My Bloody Valentine.

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          Cover of From Silence by Exitmusic.

          Exitmusic

          From Silence

          Secretly Canadian

            The debut EP from New York City’s Exitmusic (Aleksa Palladino and Devon Church).

            Both chillingly beautiful and melodic, whilst creepily sparse and disembodied. Ethereal dark pop similar to Beach House, Sigur Ros and Portishead.

            This EP will be released exclusively to independent stores only in advance of a full release in November.

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            Cover of An Argument With Myself by Jens Lekman.

            Jens Lekman

            An Argument With Myself

            Secretly Canadian

              Jens Lekman returns with his first new music in almost four years, with the mini-album ‘An Argument With Myself’.

              Witty, literal, and location-specific, the songs are all heading somewhere as a means to either go crazy or keep from doing so.

              From the title track’s inner battle about moving to Melbourne, or the manic roadmap of directions to any place but here (and any time but now) of ‘New Directions’.

              Jens has a devoted hardcore following desperate for new Jens music and he’ll be returning for shows in the UK in October shortly after this release, including an already sold-out show at London’s Heaven.

              This is a collection of five of the most impeccably crafted songs you will hear in 2011.

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              Cover of Slave Ambient by The War On Drugs.

              The War On Drugs

              Slave Ambient

              Secretly Canadian

              Philadelphia’s The War On Drugs are the vehicle of Adam Granduciel, frontman, rambler, shaman, pied piper guitarist and apparent arranger.

              ‘Slave Ambient’, their second album proper, is a brilliant 47-minute sprawl of rock ‘n’ roll, conceptualized with a sense of adventure and captured with seasons of bravado.

              Recorded over the last four years, the album puts the weirdest influences in just the right places. Tom Petty and Spacemen 3, ‘Neu! '75’ and ‘Blood On The Tracks’, Flying Saucer Attack and Bruce Springsteen, New Order and No Wave, The Byrds, Bread and Burt Bacharach. How is a music fan supposed to reconcile all of this?

              Synthesizers fall where you might expect electric guitars (and vice versa); country rock sidles up to the warped extravagance of '80s pop. Instant classic ‘Baby Missiles’ is part Springsteen fever dream, part motorik anthem. ‘Original Slave’ might sound like a hillbilly power drone, but ‘City Reprise #12’ suggests Phil Collins un-retiring in order to back Harmonia.


              STAFF COMMENTS

              Andy says: This is a beautiful, hazy, rock'n'roll record, which, sure enough shimmers and thrums and is actually semi-ambient. Check all the tasty influences listed below, but if I told you that Kurt Vile is a sometime member of this band and that this was like a mysterious cousin to Vile's "Smoke Rings..", then you'd get the feel of this album right away. Cool.

              TRACK LISTING

              1. Best Night
              2. Brothers
              3. I Was There
              4. Your Love Is Calling My Name
              5. The Animator
              6. Come To The City
              7. Come For It
              8. It's Your Destiny
              9. City Reprise #12
              10. Baby Missiles
              11. Original Slave
              12. Black Water Falls

              ‘Future Weather’ (Bonus Disc With Ltd CD Version Only)
              Come To The City
              Baby Missiles
              Comin' Through
              A Pile Of Tires
              Comin' Around
              Brothers
              Missiles Reprise
              The History Of Plastic

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              Cover of The January EP by Here We Go Magic.

              Here We Go Magic

              The January EP

              Secretly Canadian

                "The January EP"s six songs complete the songwriting cycle that Here We Go Magic began in an upstate New York farm house upon the commencement of their critically-acclaimed sophomore album "Pigeons".

                The band's signature mix of swirling guitars, Krautrock grooves, pulsing synths, and hushed chants provide a foundation for these otherworldly songs.

                "Hands In The Sky" is a ghostly number that showcases vocalist Luke Temple's lyrical pedigree.

                At the centre of the mini album lies a dichotomy between eerie folk sounds and driving art rock. The jangly back-and-forth between the guitars of Michael Bloch and Temple form the backbone to "Song In Three", the yin to "Pigeon"s standout "Collector"s yang.

                "The January EP" was produced by Jen Turner and recorded live to analog tape in a band-built living room studio.

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                Cover of The Golden Record by Little Scream.

                Little Scream

                The Golden Record

                Secretly Canadian

                  Born in Iowa and raised along the Mississippi River in an ‘Addams Family meets 700 Club’ home, Little Scream, aka Laurel Sprengelmeyer, learned violin and piano as a child. 'When my parents divorced, all my mom got out of the deal was a green Chevy pick-up truck. When that truck was dented up in an accident, my mom used the insurance money to bring home a Washburn banjo and the black Fender La Brae I still sometimes play at shows. I spent the following months locked away in our root cellar learning guitar tablature'.

                  Co-produced with Richard Reed Parry (Arcade Fire, Bell Orchestre), ‘The Golden Record’ features Little Scream on guitar, vocals, violin, and keyboard.

                  In typical Montreal fashion, the album showcases a cast of local talent including Richard Parry, Mike Fuerstack (Snailhouse), Becky Foon (Silver Mt. Zion), Patty McGee (Stars), and Sarah Neufeld (Arcade Fire, Bell Orchestre). The National’s Aaron Dessner also contributed to "The Heron And The Fox".

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                  Cover of Forget The Mantra by Nightlands.

                  Nightlands

                  Forget The Mantra

                  Secretly Canadian

                    As Nightlands, Philadelphia multi-instrumentalist David Hartley makes enormous, warm and thunderous music. Hartley has been a prolific member of many Philadelphia groups, most notably The War On Drugs.

                    The music he creates in his bedroom is itself a bed of delicate, chiming strings and bubbling synths beneath a blanket of choral arrangements. It's dreamy in the literal sense - the seeds for the album were sown when Hartley began archiving musical ideas that occurred in his sleep with a simple bedside tape recorder. As a result ‘Forget the Mantra’ is, in essence, a field recording of Hartley's dreams.

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                    Cover of JJ No 2 by JJ.

                    JJ

                    JJ No 2

                    Secretly Canadian

                      In Summer of 2009, Gothenburg, Sweden’s jj quietly released one of the year's most critically acclaimed albums. This album, "JJ Nº 2", was the group’s debut full-length ("JJ Nº 1" was their first single).

                      jj create pop, R&B and Balearic dub from the ghosts of lost lovers. Their music is both carefree without carelessness, and self-aware without being self-conscious. With it, they build an ice bridge arching from Gothenburg into the heart of the UK music world, and everywhere in between.

                      'A gorgeous ode to chemically-assisted euphoria, or an effective, shimmering simulation for those who keep their intoxications on the legal side' - Pitchfork.

                      TRACK LISTING

                      1. Things Will Never Be The Same Again
                      2. From Africa To Malaga
                      3. Ecstasy
                      4. Are You Still In Vallda
                      5. My Love
                      6. Intermezzo
                      7. My Hopes And Dreams
                      8. Masterplan
                      9. Me & Dean

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                      Cover of Against Love by Windsor For The Derby.

                      Windsor For The Derby

                      Against Love

                      Secretly Canadian

                        One of Secretly Canadian’s longest serving artists, Windsor For The Derby return with a record of infinite loops and drones conceived in backrooms of clubs and venues during the past two years of touring.


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                        Cover of Saint Bartlett by Damien Jurado.

                        Damien Jurado

                        Saint Bartlett

                        Secretly Canadian

                          "Saint Bartlett" opens up with a grandiosity yet unheard on a Damien Jurado album. It strips away the many layers of paint from the house down the street where we know Jurado has occupied for the last decade. The new coat is exhilarating. It makes the whole neighbourhood shine. It's a modest grandiosity; still homegrown. The mellotron swells, heavenly handclaps ring in stereo and big drums create a sky for the songs to fly in. And the words. Words spring forth from within the volcano of Jurado, full of hope. There's so much hope, in fact, that album opener "Cloudy Shoes" turns into a call-and-response with himself, as though it were a dialogue between two halves of himself.

                          'I wish that I could float up from the ground / I will never know what that's like'

                          Heavy stuff. Richard Swift's Spector-esque production is spot-on. He ferries Jurado across the river, where the metamorphosis occurs. He then ferries him back, and it is through Swift's lens that we see Jurado not as a folk singer, but as a mystic - somewhere between Van Morrison, Scott Walker and Wayne Coyne. "Saint Bartlett" was made entirely at Swift's National Freedom studio in Oregon, in just under a week with only Jurado and Swift as the performers.

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                          Cover of Molina & Johnson by Molina & Johnson.

                          Molina & Johnson

                          Molina & Johnson

                          Secretly Canadian

                            Consider the collective catalogs of these two prolific masters of the new American folk songcraft: Magnolia Electric Co., Centro-matic, Songs: Ohia, South San Gabriel. Now, let's just be honest. A little bit of artistic ego and one-upmanship can serve a greater purpose. In this collaboration between Jason Molina and Will Johnson, each seem to hold the other's talents to the fire and elevate both performance and creativity. In the friendly sharing of ideas, Molina and Johnson become two poets' poets in a workshop to craft a singular, searing elegy. Each artist's familiar aesthetics and production styles find a new, intriguing middle ground on Molina and Johnson. Molina's documentarian, record-the-room-as-it-is ethos finds a home in Johnson's subtle atmospherics and production tweaks; and Molina's powerful tenor croon finds a fitting dance partner in Johnson's equally moving soft-gravel vox. While the individual performances from each are stunning in their own right, the musical mind meld that was captured is absolutely the occasion it should be. It was magic and, thankfully, captured for all of us to relive and enjoy.

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                            Early Day Miners

                            The Treatment

                            Secretly Canadian

                              The Early Day Miners new album, "The Treatment", speaks to the powers of reinvention in more than one way. After years of building gorgeous and sprawling guitar rock epics, Early Day Miners have trimmed their sound into shorter, tighter songs with a decidedly pop edge to them. They have also slimmed their line up down from as many as eight members to the lean four-piece outfit of Dan Burton (guitar, vocals, keys), John Dawson (guitar), Marty Sprowles (drums) and Johnny 'Yuma' Richardson (bass). Even in the album's lyrics, the yearning allure of reinvention is ever present.

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                              Throw Me The Statue

                              Creaturesque

                              Secretly Canadian

                                Originally the one-man project of multifaceted musician and songwriter Scott Reitherman, Throw Me The Statue (TMTS) has since expanded to a quartet with drummer Jarred Grimes, and multi-instrumentalists Aaron Goldman and Charlie Smith. This album is produced by TMTS and Phil Ek (The Shins, Built To Spill, Band Of Horses), and while the band retains much of the lo-fi bliss found on their critically acclaimed debut "Moonbeams", Phil Ek's mixing of "Creaturesque" brings the band's maximalist pop sensibilities to new heights. Perhaps more sonically upbeat than its predecessor, its details are at times painted in both optimistic and sobering tones. Reitherman's scattershot poetics touch on an array of ideas, it's oppressive American machisimo and suburbanite sexuality. It's soft drugs and convertible cars. It's the struggle for higher expectations within the mess of modern life, and when wrapped up in the structures of TMTS' sure-handed tunes it's an all too delicious combination.

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                                Magnolia Electric Co.

                                Josephine

                                Secretly Canadian

                                  About halfway through Magnolia Electric Co.'s latest long player, "Josephine", there is a noticeable shift in weight. It's a release of some sort - the kind that comes when you give up holding back the tears. It's a heavy kind of freedom coming to the forefront, an empowering sadness. And when chief Electrician Jason Molina delivers the line 'an hour glass... filled with tears and twilight from a friend's dying day', the mood becomes clear. The band is back on its heels, yes, but they are going to fight back in the only way they know how. Molina's concept album is an honest-to-God effort on the part of Magnolia Electric Co. to pay tribute to the life and spirit of fallen bassist Evan Farrell (R.I.P. December 2007), as the ideas for "Josephine" were being pieced together. Molina said each tune is a good faith attempt to make real Evan's hopes for the record. And in doing so, Evan's spirit becomes part of the concept. The loss of "Josephine" becomes the loss of Evan. Molina's familiar lyrical allegories are still in tact. But here, in what is no doubt the strongest set of songs Molina has written since the inception of Magnolia Electric Co., those classic themes take on new meanings. Molina has approached the universal loneliness before, but never in such a focused, directed manner as found on "Josephine". Molina, Magnolia Electric Co. and legendary recording engineer Steve Albini have put it all to heart. Evan Farrell, Jason Molina and the band are on different journeys now - but maybe somehow, somewhere parallel. This is heartbreak at ten paces, to be sure.

                                  TRACK LISTING

                                  1. O! Grace
                                  2. The Rock Of Ages
                                  3. Josephine
                                  4. Shenandoah
                                  5. Whip Poor Will
                                  6. Song For Willie
                                  7. Hope Dies Last
                                  8. The Handing Down
                                  9. Map Of The Falling Sky
                                  10. Little Sad Eyes
                                  11. Heartbreak At Ten Paces
                                  12. Knoxville Girl
                                  13. Shiloh
                                  14. An Arrow In The Gale

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                                  Cover of Person To Person by Foreign Born.

                                  Foreign Born

                                  Person To Person

                                  Secretly Canadian

                                    A band willing to keep their pallet open to almost any influence – Hi-Life guitars, countered with New Wave wash, from U2 to The Feelies. It could be Phil Spector's mid-70s lost recordings inspired by the depth of second-line drum bands from New Orleans; an album filled with anthems.

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                                    Zero Boys

                                    History Of

                                    Secretly Canadian

                                      From 79 through to 83 The Zero Boys ruled the Mid-West hardcore scene. "History Of" is the first release of their 'Lost' second album. Whilst contemporaries concentrated on aggression and turbo-charged ferocity, The Zero Boys pointed a way to a scene which could include melodicism, intelligence and rock 'n' roll suss. Craig Finn of The Hold Steady has written a feature about this band (as one of his primary influences) for The Guardian. Re-mastered from the original tapes, with liner notes by Jack Rabid.

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                                      Danielson

                                      Trying Hartz

                                      Secretly Canadian

                                        Danielson can move from the 'proto minimalist eccentric gospel', to 'prog metal dread' to 'music hall choir' to 'indie rock one man band' in one fell swoop. The vision in his music and recordings is astounding. This two CD set covers the best of the first 10 Years Of Danielson, The Danielson Family and Br. Danielson from 1994 to 2004. It contains rare live and session recordings as well as studio performances from across the years, all within a beautiful 2CD package.

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                                        Richard Swift

                                        Richard Swift As Onassis

                                        Secretly Canadian

                                          Richard Swift is one of the most critically acclaimed artists of the last few years. On this new double album he turns his hand to a completely different genre and mood: a 20 song exploration into Richard Swift's alter ego; delivering acid garage rock classics. This was recorded on down time between tours – a chance for Richard to delve into his hugely varied musical collection. Drawing on Link Wray, Howlin' Wolf, Little Richard and others, this is an album drenched in classic reverb and knee-high boogie blues.

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                                          June Panic

                                          Songs From Purgatory

                                          Secretly Canadian

                                            June Panic spent six years during the early 1990s crafting 14 lyrically disturbed and sonically self-mutilated albums that would make him the closest thing to an underground rock songwriting celebrity that the Dakotas would bear during this era otherwise obsessed with grunge. While scratching an itch for Dylan that could not be alleviated, June willed his bedroom songs into musical nuggets that find tonal residence between the hazy fog of Ween and Sebadoh, the great white isolationism of Eric's Trip, and the everything-and-the-kitchen-sink production style of 80s-era Prince. The material embodied on "Songs From Purgatory" was recorded in vans, dank basements and tiny apartments using crappy microphones on an even crappier 4-track machine. This body of work showcases a songwriting and producing talent that perhaps was only commercially held back by its medium - one which he initially embraced as a matter of necessity, but eventually grew to deliberately embrace with the zeal of a lo-fi revolutionary. Originally released as cassette-only albums on his own label 3 Out Of 4 Records, June's master tapes were almost destroyed in the Great Flood of 1997 that consumed Grand Forks. Over 200 master tapes sat submerged under the murky Red River water for several days in his parents' basement until saved through a painstaking cleansing process that is hilariously documented in the liner notes to this collection.

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                                            David Fischoff

                                            The Crawl

                                            Secretly Canadian

                                              Armed with a rather large arsenal of obscure samples culled from his life as well as the entire Chicago Public Library sound collection, Dave Fischoff went to work. Alone in a near downtown basement apartment (sometimes in his bedroom closet), his mind took a very long trip, delving into the under-explored territory where electronic music, hip hop, and orchestral pop meet. Taking cues from The Beach Boys and Burt Bacharach to The Postal Service and Public Enemy, Dave Fischoff has conceived, collected, cut and pasted, orchestrated and created a piece of work that is large and complex yet utterly personal and easily accessible.

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                                              Windsor For The Derby

                                              Minnie Greuzfeldt

                                              Secretly Canadian

                                                Veering away from their debut, "Minnie Greutzfeldt", Windsor For The Derby's sophomore album is a study in nothingness. Engineered by Adam Wiltzie the album came hot on the heels of a Kramer-induced world of rolling basslines and oceanic reverb. The record is paired with the long lost "Metropolitan Then Poland EP", a collection of home experiments with synths, scissors and drum machines.

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                                                The Impossible Shapes

                                                Tum

                                                Secretly Canadian

                                                  The Impossible Shapes from Indiana have electrically projected what stands as a direct and feverish summoning on the late 60s sugar-sandoz-lick of the pop-folk format. Formed in 1998 The Impossible Shapes have kept a profoundly articulate sense of classic song / dream structure whether they are billowing in drenched multi-tacked gauze like Indianapolis forefathers Zerfas or snarled in amp-buzz annihilation of power-quartet stage performances. On the flip, Barth can pixie dance from guitar play / vocal slay in a quaint yet sexually sly role of piper against Deer's counterpoint-heavy arrangements of tape-spliced antics. Like meat-pulp quicksand, they pull you deep in. "Tum" is buoyed by these three streams from the opening Bram Martin-like invocation through the scratch orchestral vision of "Twisted Sol Epoch" toward the shimmering gallop heavy "Florida Silver Springs".

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                                                  Cover of What Comes After The Blues by Magnolia Electric Co.

                                                  Magnolia Electric Co

                                                  What Comes After The Blues

                                                  Secretly Canadian

                                                    THE PICCADILLY RECORDS ALBUM OF THE YEAR 2005

                                                    On the heels of Magnolia Electric Co's recent live album on Secretly Canadian, the raw and incendiary "Trials and Errors", comes what is perhaps Jason Molina's most fully realised studio project yet. Recorded live-in-the-studio by Steve Albini, it captures the simpatico chemistry of Molina's touring band, crackling with connective electricity that can only be generated by the mutual experience of the road. On the writing end of the equation, the song cycle is a conscious step forward for Molina in songwriting approach and intent. Most of the songs were written and arranged on the band's recent relentless touring of Europe and North America. The eight songs that make up "What Comes After the Blues" are all of a piece that should be heard in one sitting, in sequence. As with other Molina projects, a spectral lyrical theme lurks in the shadows of the songs. All the songs are loosely based on the Hank Williams song "I Saw the Light".

                                                    STAFF COMMENTS

                                                    Darryl says: A previous Piccadilly Records album of the year back in 2005. Recorded live in the studio by Steve Albini giving a raw edge to Jason Molina's hearbreaking country-rock sound that drips in winter melancholy.

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                                                    Damien Jurado

                                                    On My Way To Absence

                                                    Secretly Canadian

                                                      Damien Jurado is a man with a hand in the baskets of all the right fringe genres. He can be the storyteller who produced the alt folk masterpiece "Rehearsals For Departure" - one of Uncut and NME's Albums Of The Year - and the sonic pioneer responsible for "Postcards And Audio Letters", a music free album of telephone conversations, answering machine messages and boom-box Christmas recordings. As a result he's won a reputation as one of America's most adventurous artists and is regarded by his musical peers as a songwriter of immense capabilities. "On My Way To Absence" is the result of Jurado and long-time collaborator Eric Fisher locking themselves away for four months of musical polarity. Described by Damien as 'a tribute to jealousy', it's a collection of songs that sound as if they've been stoked in the fires of time - and captures, in a similar manner to the best of Nick Cave and Gillian Welch, a particular primal essence in the way a tale is spun. This is his great strength as a writer - the ability to find the quick truth, the good stuff, and then to sing it from his gut.

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                                                      Jens Lekman

                                                      When I Said I Wanted To Be Your Dog

                                                      Secretly Canadian

                                                        Lekman is a young pop crooner from Göteborg, Sweden. Eyes bright, heart wide open, he's become an overnight sensation with his home recorded magic and fantastic lyrics. It's hard to believe that he is only 23. His timeless elegance makes the big, beautiful suburban pop songs sound like they're already classics. With an angelic voice and golden ears he seems to be drinking from the same hard waters as the Carpenters, Harry Nilsson, the Magnetic Fields, "Runt"-era Todd Rundgren, Smog, the Modern Lovers, Rufus Wainwright, and Belle & Sebastian.

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                                                        The Impossible Shapes

                                                        We Like It Wild

                                                        Secretly Canadian

                                                          For "We Like It Wild", their fourth proper full-length, the band ventured to the wooded Indiana hills of Monroe County. With alternating lead guitars, the band recalls the urban paranoia of Television and the forlorn southern gothic of Derek & The Dominoes with Barth's fey Donovan-esque voice sounding as though it's coming from across the Atlantic. All the while they maintain the urgent bounce of early REM.

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                                                          Danielson Famile

                                                          A Prayer For Every Hour

                                                          Secretly Canadian

                                                            Reissue of the debut album from these New Jersey oddballs. Deeply rooted in American folk and gospel music, the Famile offers a twisted hybrid of early Talking Heads, Carter Family, Half Japanese and the Shaggs.

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                                                            Racebannon

                                                            Satan's Kickin Yr Dick In

                                                            Secretly Canadian

                                                              Racebannon craft a sordid tale of woe, depression, excitement, accolade, fear, rise, fall, alpha and omega through a five part aural aria of the pleasures and pain of the rock'n'roll lifestyle. Tracks often go from a funeral dirge to defiant and pompous to a spaced out overdose. One for fans of The Melvins, Icarus Line and Jesus Lizard.

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                                                              Swearing At Motorists

                                                              Along The Inclined Plane

                                                              Secretly Canadian

                                                                Fantastic mellow mini album from this band who've been compared with Buffalo Springfield through to Richard Hell, Alex Chilton and The Replacements.

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                                                                Songs: Ohia

                                                                Ghost Tropic

                                                                Secretly Canadian

                                                                  The sound movement on GHOST TROPIC will seem sudden to some; without warning. To others, it’ll seem a very logical step in a very foreign direction. On its fifth proper full-length, Songs: Ohia has stepped outside the box and has delivered its most subtle record of fantastic depth to date. Indeed this is the most cohesive and “album-like” Songs: Ohia has ever been. The eight songs on the record sprawl out into one another, telling one long sonic tale, allowing very little room for chapter breaks or piss stops. In this regard, Lou Reed’s moody classic BERLIN comes to mind as a worthy fore-bearer. But it’s the strange ethnic flavor in which GHOST TROPIC is steeped that makes it stand apart from its predecessors, albums which were all received as crossing guards for the Great American lost highway. Surely this album will leave those expecting such fare scratching their heads. Blending the electro-acoustic minimalism of the David Bowie and Brian Eno Trilogy with the percussive worldliness of Tom Waits’ SWORDFISHTROMBONES, the group seems to hop the globe from a British Isles folk rock influence to an Ennio Morricone-like Spaghetti Western feel to the faintest echoes of the Chinese Classical ringing like a death murmur in the distance. And the songs, they build in a slow, unconscious manner, pulsing with an intensity, but never betraying their most simple core with too much instrumentation or calculated progression. Yea! GHOST TROPIC is the first album which reveals Songs: Ohia’s own Tropicalia Blues in full bloom.

                                                                  But what has brought Songs: Ohia to this critical juncture? Perhaps it is purely circumstance — that four men were brought together to play as bedfellows for a week on the great plains of Nebraska. Acted out and recorded at the Dead Space Recording Studio in the state’s capital of Lincoln, GHOST TROPIC was performed by principle Songs: Ohia songwriter, singer and guitarist Jason Molina; Appendix Out principle and Ohia alumnus (having played on THE LIONESS) Alasdair Roberts of Glasgow, Scotland; Lullaby For The Working Class drummer and new Ohia recruit Shane Aspegren; and engineer Mike Mogis of Lullaby For The Working Class and Bright Eyes.

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