Formed in 1984, Dinosaur Jr carved a singular path through the latter half of the 1980s and early 1990s, issuing a number of highly influential albums in the process before finding a home with Sire Records. ‘Where You Been’, their fifth record, emerged in 1993, at the height of enthusiasm for grunge and the alternative American rock scene the band had long been part of.

Produced by a new line-up of the group (longtime drummer Murph and new bassist Mike Johnson completing the three-piece), the album became the band’s most successful up to that point, reaching #50 in the US (where it sold over a quarter of a million copies) and #10 in the UK album charts, and spawning the hit single ‘Start Choppin’.

Released to unanimously positive reviews, and containing many tracks that would become staples and fan favourites, ‘Where You Been’ continued Dinosaur Jr’s global ascent, being issued simultaneously across the US, Europe, Australasia, Asia and South America.

TRACK LISTING

Side A:
1. Out There
2. Start Choppin’
3. What Else Is New
4. On The Way
5. Not The Same
Side B:
1. Get Me
2. Drawerings
3. Hide
4. Goin’ Home
5. I Ain’t Sayin

You've Come a Long Way, Baby is the second album by Fatboy Slim. It was first released on 19 October 1998 in the United Kingdom on Skint Record and a day later in the United States by Astralwerks.

You've Come a Long Way, Baby proved to be Cook's global breakthrough album, peaking at number one on the UK Albums Chart and number 34 on the US Billboard 200. Praised by critics for its sound and style, the album brought international attention to Cook, earning him a Brit Award in 1999, and was later certified four times platinum by the BPI and platinum by the RIAA. Four singles were released from the album: "The Rockafeller Skank", "Gangster Trippin", "Praise You", and "Right Here Right Now", all of which peaked within the top ten on the UK Singles Chart. "Build It Up – Tear It Down" was also released as a promotional single.

The album has now been remastered at half speed into the best available audio quality possible. 

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A
1. Right Here Right Now
2. Rockafeller Skank
3. Fucking In Heaven
SIDE B
1. Gangster Trippin
2. Build It Up Tear It Down
3. Kalifornia
SIDE C
1. Soul Surfing
2. You’re Not From Brighton
3. Praise You
SIDE D
1. Love Island
2. Acid 8000

The second instalment of MAW Lost Tapes for all MAW & Kenlou fans & enthusiasts. "Funky Anane" as classic stuff from Kenny and Louie: thick beats, syncopated snares, lonnnng arrangement with thumpin’ kicks and snaps to compliment the Louie Vega walking bassline and deep organ / clarinet interplay. Fact heads! - apparently the vocal sample is taken from Anane's studio work with the pair in 1996.

"Maw Want You" is a early signature MAW groove which has inspired many house producers to pull from that vibe. Featuring an almost Reece bassline, skitty hats and deep driving synths it's like Detroit meets New Jersey meets New York all in one tidy club hit!

Really nice to see MAW revisiting these classic house jams and getting them out there for a new audience. Essential stuff really. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: House music demigods Kenny and Louie are back on it big time. Digging out lost tapes, reissuing classics and dropping more big fresh new bombs via MAW Records and Kay-Dee. This is new material - and guess what - it kicks hard! From the soulful licks of "Funky Anane" to the sub-tickling Reece bassline of "MAW Want You". It reminds us why their the best in the business!

TRACK LISTING

A. Funky Anané (MAW Jazz Dub)
B. MAW Want You 

The band’s 5th album featuring the singles ‘Tragedy >For You<’, ‘Rhythm of Time and ‘Mixed By Fear’. This is the first time it has been reissued on vinyl since its’ original release in 1991.

TRACK LISTING

1. Sacrifice
2. Rhythm Of Time
3. Moldavia
4. Trigger 2 (Anatomy Of A Shot)
5. Gripped By Fear
6. Tragedy For You
7. The Untold
8. Neurobashing
9. Leitmotiv 136
10. Soul Manager

This top 7 inch 45 contains two versions of 'Traces Of You', written and sung by Nurse Julie Hamper. One side being called a demo, the other not. The last word goes to Mister Childish; 'this 45 will almost certainly be much like the way we do things, and hopefully be in accord with the listeners expectations, (dependent on what it is that they expect)'.

Berliner Robert Dietz lands on the Rotterdam label Nous'klaer Audio with the summery (bit late! - Ed) five-tracker "RIP To My Idea Of You". A record infused with beautiful melodies and bright, energy boosting drums - for the club, home and everything in between. The vinyl comes with a special poster designed by Hendrik Schneider. We're really loving this record - it floats on electric energy, tantalizes with its textures and sounds hi-tech AF. Highly recommended! 

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Sophisticated dance music with a playful disposition and highly advanced synthesis. Some of the sounds on display are mesmerizing and there's plenty of variation across the five tracks.

TRACK LISTING

1 Crop Circle
2 Should I Get A Dog
3 Rip To My Idea Of You
4 Everything You Do Melody Version
5 Picking Grapes

It’s not because one might have worked with people like Jimi Hendrix, John McLaughlin and Rod Stewart throughout their career that Italo disco wouldn’t get the best of your work. A great example of the Italian phenomenon’s infectiously widespread grip is British rock keyboardist Brian Auger’s path, when he found himself in a Milanese recording studio during the mid 80’s and recorded his last known release in that decade. Powerfully fusing decades of rock and jazz education with the synthetic hysteria of the time (and culture), the result is a classic robo-disco / slo-mo Italo number that has found its way into some of our favorite DJ sets for a while now. Vocal and instrumental are featured on the A-side and in addition the B-side offers a new remix where things take somewhat of a catastrophic turn into what sounds like Brian getting on the wrong train to a K-hole, strictly for the freakier end of the night. Meticulously remastered at manmade mastering in Berlin.

STAFF COMMENTS

Mine says: Sound Metaphors are coming through with the big hitters again. One of my all time faves is finally available on big wax again and I'm a very happy camper. Don't snooooze!

TRACK LISTING

1. Night Train To Nowhere (Vocal)
2. Night Train To Nowhere (Instrumental)
3. Night Train To Nowhere (Castro's Disaster To Nowhere)

It’s been four years since Cherry Glazerr released their resplendent third album Stuffed and Ready, but Clementine Creevy has been in no rush. “I’ve spent these years taking a hard look at myself, at my relationships, and writing about it,” she says. “I guess I’m coming to terms with a lot of my bullshit.” Cherry Glazerr has been on the road more often than not since Creevy was still in high school, and when the pandemic hit, she immersed herself in a static existence she’d been deprived of.

Creevy describes Cherry Glazerr’s ambitious new album, I Don’t Want You Anymore, as some of her most personal, raw music to date, a collection of songs that elaborate on this period of self-reckoning. It’s the first she’s produced since Cherry Glazerr’s garage rock debut, Haxel Princess, released nearly a decade ago when Creevy was a teenager.

Creevy describes I Don’t Want You Anymore as a “mature” album, moreso in reference to her personal growth than a reflection of the record, which in true Cherry Glazerr fashion is best described as Extremely Fun. To make it, Creevy linked up with producer Yves Rothman, who’s best known for his work with Yves Tumor.

Lead single “Soft Like a Flower” exemplifies that growth. A murky guitar riff inaugurates the track, before Creevy’s unguarded vocals enter the mix. She sings of a consuming obsession and is joined on the chorus by longtime bandmate Sami Perez. It’s proudly emotive, what Creevy calls an “Evanescence moment.” “It’s a real ‘losing your fucking shit’ kind’ve vibe,” she says. “I wanted this album to be just heart and soul. Completely exposed.”

I Don’t Want You Anymore uses the element of surprise to its advantage; each track is a radical reimagination of what Cherry Glazerr is and can be. “Bad Habit” opens with a spiraling vocal loop that Creevy began recording at home and it expands into a delirious downtempo dance track without ever invoking a guitar. The subsequent track, “Ready for You” is sung in funky staccato and the initially spare bassline on the opening verse is eventually overtaken by a massive, staticky guitar riff that reminds you this is, at its heart, a rock album. These are songs to soundtrack the listener’s life, a score to suit any occasion. The titular track makes a promise to an unnamed other, but the repeating lyrics on the bridge could just as easily serve as a love letter to listeners: “In the end, you’re always holding me.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Gigantic swathes of distorted poppy guitar riffs and shimmering shoegaze progressions. It's a huge thematic progression from her 2019 LP, 'Stuffed & Ready', bringing in myriad influence from pop-punk to driving garage rock and grunge.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A:
1. Addicted To Your Love
2. Bad Habit
3. Ready For You
4. Touched You With My Chaos
5. Soft Like A Flower
6. Sugar

SIDE B:
1. Golden
2. Wild Times
3. Eat You Like A Pill
4. Shattered
5. I Don’t Want You Anymore

This is the first reissue of two outstanding, very rare, and highly collectible tracks by the Ethiopians. They were initially released on two different singles and are put together on a single here for the first time. This is a special limited edition strictly limited to 500 copies - one release only.

TRACK LISTING

Train To Glory
Mek You Go On So

This special 12" features two tracks that will not be on the vinyl version of the forthcoming AC Soul Symphony, Disco opus "Metamorphosis" featuring a 20 piece orchestra alongside a whole host top live players. That makes it an even more vital pick up because both are pure disco fire. 'I Want To See You Dance' has the title's classic refrain repeated over big Salsoul style string licks, funky basslines and soloing piano. 'The Talented Mr Adams' is a tribute to the legendary disco producer Patrick Adams and is a super sweet swooner with golden live strings and brass backing up a loose-limbed rhythm and vamping pianos that get you in the mood for love. These two tracks act as a fine teaser for what's to come on the much-anticipated album from a contemporary version of acts like MFSB and Love Unlimited Orchestra.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
I Want To See You Dance

Side B
The Talented Mr Adams

Croatian Amor returns with “A Part of You in Everything” a companion piece to last year’s “Remember Rainbow Bridge”.

“My younger brother died at birth and I never had a chance to meet him. Growing up he was my ghost friend, someone told me he lived in the stars which I accepted. I had not paid attention to him for many years but when I was making "Remember Rainbow Bridge” and waiting for my son to come into the world he suddenly appeared again. I partly dedicated Remember Rainbow Bridge to him, but I knew that it wasn’t his record, so I thought I should make one just for him and here it is; “A Part of You in Everything”, 8 songs about being human on Earth. I think it’s music which is best listened to at night out under the stars. Thank you to all my friends who helped making it!”

Upon what instrument are we two spanned?
And what musician holds us in his hand?
- Rilke.

If youʼre a fan of Daptone Records, chances are youʼve read or heard the name Victor Axelrod, and even if you havenʼt, youʼve heard music from his hand. As a producer, arranger, recording and mixing engineer, and keyboardist, his creativity has extended across more than two decades of the labelʼs releases, even dating to its prehistory with Desco Records.

If You Ask Me To..., the first LP under his name for the label, is a collection of singles released between 2007-2023 as well as unreleased tracks from Sugar Minott and Binky Griptite. The genesis of which came via an 11th hour request from Daptone for a Sharon Jones remix (2007) that resulted in the reggae version of “How Long Do I Have To Wait For You?” found here.

This opened the door to additional explorations of reggae/soul synergies within the catalog, affirming the musical and cultural link between Daptoneʼs core soul sound and Axelrodʼs passion for Jamaican music. While previous projects like Ticklah Vs. Axelrod and Roots Combination (produced under the alias Ticklah) were inspired by the Jamaica of the 1970s and 80s, this set specifically channels an earlier period in the 1960s when Jamaica was both strikingly original in its continuum of genres but also closely and empathetically attuned to Black American music.

Through Axelrodʼs exceptional taste and the notable contributions of guitarist Tom Brenneck, original tapes from Bob & Gene's MoDo discography, members of The Frightnrs, and others from the NYC reggae community, the legacy of trailblazing Jamaican artists like Alton Ellis, Tony Gregory, and Ken Parker continue to resonate and inspire a whole new generation of reggae and soul enthusiasts.

TRACK LISTING

One Step Ahead - Sugar Minott
If You Ask Me To - Leon Dinero
Whatcha Doing (to Me) - Charles Bradley
Icanbecool - Bob & Gene
Lover Like Me - Binky Griptite
I’d Rather Go Blind - The Frightnrs
I Can’t Stand These Lonely Nights - Bob & Gene
It’s Not What You Know (it’s Who You Know) - Bob & Gene
How Long Do I Have To Wait For You - Sharon Jones
Conscience Is Heavy - The Inversions

Phantasy is proud to present the first ever solo single from celebrated DJ, curator and producer CC:DISCO!, ‘Chez Moi (Waiting For You)’, featuring Confidence Man.

Already a summer anthem in the playlists of DJs including DJ Harvey, Palms Trax, Job Jobse and Shanti Celeste, ‘Chez Moi’ stays true to the roots of house, disco and balearic styles across CC:DISCO’S much-admired record collection. Now arriving on limited-edition red, transparent 12” vinyl and accompanied by the tough but sensual ‘Out Of Your Mind’ on the flip, ‘Chez Moi (Waiting For You)’ is a sublime tribute to the heritage of classic New York dance floors like Sound Factory and Danceteria. It’s waiting for you…

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: It's hard to play down the universal adoration Confidence Man have garnered here at Picc HQ. I think every single member of staff loves them! So its ace to see them featuring on fellow Melbournian CC:DISCO!'s new single. A riot of a 2 track house party that everyone's gonna enjoy.

TRACK LISTING

A. Chez Moi (Waiting For You) Ft. Confidence Man
B. Out Of Your Mind 

A slice of seriously sought after US disco from La She Ba on Heavenly Star Records that has been a firm favourite of master selector Hunee and trades hands for £125+ on the secondhand market, gets a fresh reissue and remaster for a new generation of listeners.

Formed of Catherine Miller on vocals, produced and written by Harvey Miller and arranged by the mighty Patrick Adams, La She Ba – You've Been Hunchin' hits in all the right spots. Exquisite instrumentation with swooning strings, enchanting chords and tight drums laying the foundation for Miller’s celestial vocals to be the star of the show. Heavenly by name, heavenly by nature this is a must have 12 inch for any collection.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Heavenly Star Records bottom out the market resale value of this Harvey Miller & Patrick Adam's indebted masterpiece by offering us an affordable, officially licensed reissue. How commendable.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Vocal
B1. Edit

Having released several solo projects, numerous collaborations and a series of LP's, EP's and singles with his band Ruby Rushton that centred on original compositions, he wanted to take a moment to focus his energy on exploring the classic jazz material that has inspired him over the years.

Players like Jackie McLean, Duke Pearson, Clifford Jordan and Wayne Shorter have all played significant roles in Tenderlonious' life and provide a constant source of inspiration for his development as a musician and composer. 'You Know I Care' is a tribute to those musicians and for this reason a landmark album - his first recording that purely delves into the American jazz songbook. Plus it's a way of encouraging a new generation of jazz listeners to explore some of the most significant contributors, and in some cases unsung heroes, to this ever evolving genre.

This long player clearly follows in the footsteps of Tenderlonious' spiritual jazz hero's, paying particular attention to the original performers of these six masterpieces - Jackie McClean, Clifford Jordan, Wayne Shorter and Duke Pearson. This is also the first time that Tenderlonious has recorded on alto saxophone, a more recent love affair for this talented multi-instrumentalist, and hopefully the first of many.

There is something for everyone on this album, from brooding ballads to full steam ahead modal delights - and an opportunity to enjoy a fresh take on these timeless compositions.

Tenderlonious: alto saxophone, futes
Hamish Balfour: piano
Pete Martin: bass
Tim Carnegie: drums

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: While Tenderlonious' records come in all shades of jazz, 'You Know I Care' for Ed Cawthorne's 22a imprint sees him honour the roots of spiritual jazz in fine fashion, rendering the originals is his own inimitable style and resulting in a beautiful and refreshingly inventive end product. A nicely conceived and perfectly executed tribute.

TRACK LISTING

1. On The Nile
2. Maimoun
3. Infant Eyes
4. Poor Eric
5. John Coltrane
6. You Know I Care

Call Me If You Get Lost: The Estate Sale is a limited edition 3 LP vinyl set, that features Tyler, The Creator’s original critically acclaimed Call Me If You Get Lost album plus 8 additional songs, pressed on Geneva Blue colored vinyl.

The discs are housed in a triple gatefold jacket with embossed cover, and foil detail, and includes a 28-page booklet. 

TRACK LISTING

Disc 1 – Side A
1. Sir Baudelaire
2. Corso
3. Lemonhead
4. Wusyaname
5. Lumberjack
Disc 1 – Side B
1. Hot Wind Blows
2. Massa
3. Runitup
4. Manifesto

Disc 2 – Side C
1. Sweet / I Thought You Wanted To Dance
2. Momma Talk
3. Rise!
Disc 2 – Side D
1. Blessed
2. Juggernaut
3. Wilshire
4. Fishtail

Disc 3 – Side E
1. Everything Must Go
2. Stuntman
3. What A Day
4. Wharf Talk
5. Dogtooth
Disc 3 – Side F
1. Heaven To Me
2. Boyfriend, Girlfriend (2020 Demo)
3. Sorry Not Sorry

Celebrating two decades of IF Music's scrupulous curation through its record shop, a thriving website, album reissues and compilations in collaboration with BBE Music, parties and radio shows, “IF Music Presents You Need This: 20 years” is a 9 track, double vinyl LP beautifully put together by Jean-Claude. Coming, as it does, as the 9th release in the “You Need This” series of compilations curated by Jean-Claude, this album features music that ranges from 1980 (Christine Schaller's spectacular “Fidji”) to exclusive tracks from the likes of Emanative & Liz Elensky (‘Fall Into Me’) and Tenderlonious (‘Dennison Point’) which both bring us up to the present day. It is Jean-Claude's remarkable ear for music that, as with all the previous “You Need This” releases, creates a wonderfully coherent journey through the decades across the four sides of this masterpiece of a compilation album. As mentioned earlier “You Need This: 20 Years” will be released as a double LP pressed on 180 gramme heavy vinyl, cut at 45rpm and on digital. Whether this starts, adds or completes your collection of Jean-Claude's “You Need This” series of compilations, “20 Years” is a must-have and indeed, you really do need this!

TRACK LISTING

1. Sunday Sea Improvisation – Tamar Osborn
2. Fidji – Christine Schaller
3. Fall In To Me (Alternate Version) – Emanative, Liz Elensky
4. Turkish Showbiz – Atilla Engin Group
5. Dennison Point – Tenderlonious
6. Adelie (For Lady D.) – Sylvain Kassap
7. We Are Not Invisible – Ola Szmidt
8. Big Kalimba – Greetje Bijma Kwintet
9. At The Speed Of Light – Sarathy Korwar

Reissue of the 2011 album Tao of the Dead by American alternative rock band ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of The Dead. First time available on vinyl since its release year. Features a replica of the original comic book insert. Tao of the Dead is their seventh album. The band stripped down to its core four-piece lineup for the record, deviating from the past two records that featured a filled-out six-piece band. This resulted in a stripped-down record with heavy emphasis on guitar. It’s a two-part record, each side with a specific musical tuning; Part One in D and Part Two in F. The album can be listened to as 16 different movements or two lengthy tracks. Part One: Tao Of The Dead is split into eleven tracks, whereas Part Two: Strange News From Another Planet is five songs combined into one. Lead singer Conrad Keely described the album's composition; "It's the way I listened to albums when I was a kid, seeing as some of my favorite records were Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, Yes' Relayer and Close to the Edge... I always liked listening to records that were just a continuous piece, like an orchestra or a symphony."

TRACK LISTING

1. The Wasteland
2. Know Your Honor
3. Introduction: "Let's Experiment"
4. Spiral Jetty
5. Rule By Being Just
6. Pure Radio Cosplay
7. Weight Of The Sun (Or The Post-Modern Prometheus)
8. The Ship Impossible
9. Summer Of All Dead Souls
10. Strange Epiphany
11. Pure Radio Cosplay (Reprise)
12. Cover The Days Like A Tidal Wave
13. Racing And Hunting
14. Fall Of The Empire
15. Ebb Away
16. The Fairlight Pendant

Hammer (Hammer Hits, Bicep) flexes his Italo muscles..

This music is fully inspired by the 80s home workout. Break from your norm and delve into your deepest desires.This is the outlet.

Hi-NRG Italo!

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Hammer turns his attention to Italo disco with a triptych of releases suitably dressed and containing enough amyl-huffing delights for your next red laser disco.

TRACK LISTING

A. I Wanna Be Like You
B. Wakeup Call

Rhiannon Giddens’ You’re the One is the Grammy- and MacArthur-winning singer, composer, and instrumentalist’s third solo studio album and her first of all original songs; her last solo album was 2017’s critically acclaimed Freedom Highway. This collection of 12 songs written over the course of Giddens’ career bursts with life-affirming energy, drawing from the folk music that she knows so deeply, as well as its pop descendants. The album was produced by Jack Splash (Kendrick Lamar, Solange, Alicia Keys, Valerie June, Tank and the Bangas) and recorded at Criteria Recording Studios in Miami with a band composed of Giddens’s closest musical collaborators from the past decade alongside musicians from Splash’s own Rolodex, topped off with a horn section, making an impressive ten- to twelve-person ensemble.

Giddens made You’re the One with some of her closest musical collaborators from the past decade, including her partner, Italian multi-instrumentalist Francesco Turrisi, plus multi-instrumentalist Dirk Powell, bassist Jason Sypher, and Congolese guitarist Niwel Tsumbu. The album features electric and upright bass, conga, Cajun and Piano accordions, guitars, a Western string section, and Miami horns, among other instruments, capturing the inclusive spirit that channels through all of her work.

"I hope that people just hear American music," Giddens says. "Blues, jazz, Cajun, country, gospel, and rock – it's all there. I like to be where it meets organically. They're fun songs, and I wanted them to have as much of a chance as they could to reach people who might dig them but don't know anything about what I do. If they're introduced to me through this record, they might go listen to other music I've made and make some new discoveries.”

You’re the One opens with ‘Too Little, Too Late, Too Bad’, an R&B blast (complete with background "shoops" and horns) that takes a titan for inspiration. "I listened to a bunch of Aretha Franklin, and then turned to fellow Aretha-nut Dirk Powell and said, ‘Let’s write a song she might have sung!'" Giddens recalls. Her danceable, vivacious tribute to Franklin's sound is a vocal showcase, spotlighting her soaring high notes and nearly-growling low ones. Another highlight, ‘If You Don't Know How Sweet It Is', intentionally puts an edgier spin on the sass of Dolly Parton's early work.

TRACK LISTING

1. Too Little, Too Late, Too Bad
2. You’re The One
3. Yet To Be (feat. Jason Isbell)
4. Wrong Kind Of Right
5. Another Wasted Life
6. You Louisiana Man
7. If You Don’t Know How Sweet It Is
8. Hen In The Foxhouse
9. Who Are You Dreaming Of
10. You Put The Sugar In My Bowl
11. Way Over Yonder
12. Good Ol’ Cider

Keeping Secrets Will Destroy You – an album made as it was meant to be heard, in a room. The sound of people together – a sound we’d so recently feared that we’d lost – playing, communing, strings and wood and keys and voices singing. KSWDY presents simply, and is sung along easily and happily with in time BUT --is it family portrait or fairy tale? How does it think the world was made, and will end?

Keeping Secrets Will Destroy You was recorded in Louisville by Nick Roeder, featuring Sara Louise Callaway on violin, Kendall Carter on keys, Elisabeth Fuchsia on viola and violin, Dave Howard on Mandolin, Drew Miller on saxophone and Dane Waters’ voice. The presence of so many local players and music educators in the band lends not only to a flow of moments so fluidly encompassing of a wide range of musics from classical to Japanese acid folk and elsewhere, but perhaps even more importantly, to the sense of community, heredity and the triumph of inheritance that is the marrow and life blood of this music. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Though 'Keeping secrets...' is undoubtedly one of BPB's quietest outings in terms of its instrumentation, drawing beauty from a reasonably unadorned mixture of guitar strings and vocals, the depth of feeling and scope of the result is astounding. Heartwarming folky balladry abound, all pulled together with Oldham's unmatched sensitivity.

TRACK LISTING

1. Like It Or Not
2. Behold! Be Held!
3. Bananas
4. Blood Of The Wine
5. Sing Them Down Together
6. Kentucky Is Water
7. Willow, Pine And Oak
8. Trees Of Hell
9. Rise And Rule (She Was Born In Honolulu)
10. Queens Of Sorrow
11. Crazy Blue Bells
12. Good Morning, Popocatépetl

It's the latest set from the indie/alt-rock quartet after three acclaimed albums which include their 2017 debut 'Live For The Moment' and last year's 'World I Understand' - both of which hit the Top 10.

Vocalist/Guitarist Kiaran teases, "The new album is honestly full of really good songs with strong choruses. When we were going in to make this album, we went in there with ideas as opposed to fully fledged songs and I believe that's where the magic lies in this record."

Their biggest, brightest and most expansive record to date with production elements and fresh sonic touches that broaden their guitar/bass/drums foundations. It's a collection filled with personal and quintessential Sherlocks lyrical themes that are informed by the passing of time and the realisation that everyone is stepping into different stages in their lives - touching upon nostalgia, ageing, flawed relationships and escaping the rat race on wild, woozy weekends.

TRACK LISTING

Remember All The Girls
Sirens
No Retreat, No Surrender
Going Nowhere
Don't Let It Out
Louder Than Words
People Like Me & You
On Your Mind
Any Old Iron?
Face The Music
Here & Now
Won't Stop
Watson

GAZELLE TWIN - aka composer, producer, singer, and visual artist Elizabeth Bernholz - has scored Sky's brand new TV series "Then You Run".

The score is pressed on white vinyl, and housed in a deluxe spined sleeve with download card.

Created for television by Ben Chanan (The Capture), based on the novel YOU by Zoran Drvenkar, Then You Run follows four rebellious London teenagers on a city getaway to Rotterdam. This contemporary eight-part series boasts an incredible cast of rising stars; Leah McNamara (Normal People) as Tara, Vivian Oparah (Rye Lane) as Stink, Yasmin Monet Prince (Hanna) as Ruth and newcomer Isidora Fairhurst as Nessi.

The four friends embark on what should have been the perfect summer break which soon spirals into a dark and perilous adventure. When their attempt to take on some of the most dangerous people in Europe doesn’t quite go to plan, they find themselves on the run with three kilos of heroin, more questions than answers about Tara’s family, and a gang of deadly criminals tracking their every move.

TRACK LISTING

History (Extended Version)
Then You Run
The Pool
Daydream
Stink's Deal
Uncle Reagan
Teamwork
Stand Off
A Great Artist Knows When To Stop
For Mirko
Herd
Two Minds
Closer
Fingertip
The Hotel
I Know Him
Death Drive
In The Blood
Summer's Not Over

An American soul vocal group that would go on to shape the sound of pop music much farther beyond their imaginations, Numero is proud to present the first official American 45’ repressing of the Ponderosa Twins + 1 original 1971 release of Bound b/w I Remember You.

TRACK LISTING

A. Bound
B. I Remember You

Former Mind & Matter bandmates James “Jimmy Jam” Harris and Michael Dixon teamed up for 1978’s gospel-boogie banger “You’re All I Need” b/w “You’re Everything” on the private Mad label.

TRACK LISTING

A. You’re Everything
B. You’re All I Need

Prince’s debut album, released in April 1978, marked the arrival of a heavyweight talent on the music scene. At just 18 years old, Prince Rogers Nelson wrote, performed, arranged and produced the entire album (with the exception of a co-write on single “Soft And Wet”).

TRACK LISTING

A1 For You (01:06)
A2 In Love (03:38)
A3 Soft And Wet (03:01)
A4 Crazy You (02:17)
A5 Just As Long As We're Together (06:24)
B1 Baby (03:09)
B2 My Love Is Forever (04:09)
B3 So Blue (04:26)
B4 I'm Yours (05:01)

Names You Can Trust continues its years-long revival work with one of Panama's most gifted and legendary soul artists, Ralph Weeks, returning the singer to the studio for another brand new recording that highlights the now 80-year old's still silky vocals and masterful songwriting. Up for the challenge with their own studio savoir-faire is a most fitting and genuine purveyor of modern day soul themselves, Ben Pirani and The Means of Production, whose output on Palmetto Street Recording and Colemine Records has already achieved high praise and collectible status in just a few years. The mission, record two unreleased home studio demos that were penned and tracked in the early 1980's and recently excavated from Ralph's extensive archive of personal songs. These original compositions were faithfully given the full treatment and arrangement they never received, but always deserved. The A-Side, "Nobody Loves Me (Like You Do)", a quintessential Ralph testimonial of love, now shines alive and energized against the backdrop of a funky Latin soul dancer. The B-Side, "Got To Keep On Trying" is one of Ralph's many unpublished monster ballads, a deep and heartfelt tear jerker reminiscent of his classic hits from yesteryear. Now, forty plus years later, both songs can finally be released into the world, and ultimately serve as another testament to Ralph's prolific yet private musical career and legacy.

TRACK LISTING

1. Nobody Loves Me (Like You Do) [feat. Ben Pirani & The Means Of Production]
2. Got To Keep On Trying (feat. Ben Pirani & The Means Of Production)

The insanely rare Georgia rarity 'You Can Tell Me Goodbye' by Bernetia Miller was recorded in Phil Walden's studio (Capricorn Records) in Macon, Georgia. Bernetia remembers a many takes and hard work before they were happy with the record. The Soul Groovers toured extensively, they even had their own little tour bus. The Reissue is taken from the master tapes which Bernetia has held onto for all these years.

TRACK LISTING

1. You Can Tell Me Goodbye
2. I've Gotta Keep On Loving You

• 68 track 3CD box set celebrating the Leeds’ independent scene of the 1980s.

• Featuring Soft Cell, Sisters Of Mercy, Gang Of Four, The Wedding Present, Scritti Politti, The Mission, and many more.

• Including The Mekons, CUD, Delta 5, The Pale Saints, Girls At Our Best, Age Of Chance, The Bridewell Taxis who all stamped their mark on the indie charts and were regulars/favourites on John Peel’s radio show.

Like many Northern cities, Leeds enjoyed an explosion of music triggered by the big bang of punk rock in 1977. Indie labels sprung up to cater for a new wave of bands, who carved their own identity as the 80s dawned. ‘Where Were You’ is the first comprehensive anthology of Leeds’ independent music from that period, through to the end of the 1980s. From punk to goth, indie pop to industrial dancefloor, out-and-out pop to underground psychedelia, the four hours’ worth of recordings here are a celebration of the musical diversity emanating from the city’s studios and clubs.

Co-compiled by Benoit Farvak (Salvation) and Richard Rouska (Rouska Records), ‘Where Were You’ also boasts numerous obscurities which make their debut on CD – including many tracks taken from records now worth a small fortune on the collector’s scene. Overall, this is a fitting tribute to the legacy from one of the UK’s finest northern musical cities.

TRACK LISTING

DISC ONE
1. THE MEKONS Where Were You
2. ROUGE Have You Seen Gene
3. JERKS Cool
4. RATS AND DELICIOUS No Time
5. AGONY COLUMN (I Had It) All Worked Out
6. THE NEAT Hormones In Action (In My Heart)
7. GANG OF FOUR Damaged Goods (EMI Version)
8. SCRITTI POLITTI Messthetics
9. THE CITY LIMITS MorseCode Messages
10. EXPELAIRES Sympathy (Don't Be Taken In)
11. THE ALWOODLEY JETS Crash ‘N Burn
12. GIRLS AT OUR BEST Getting Nowhere Fast
13. SHAKE APPEAL My Own Way
14. DELTA 5 You
15. KNIFE EDGE Favourite Girl
16. MUSIC FOR PLEASURE The Human Factor
17. THE SQUARES Buddy Holly
18. MIRROR BOYS At Tiffanys
19. DANCE CHAPTER Anonymity
20. THE BOYS Let It Rain
21. SOFT CELL A Man Can Get Lost
22. ABRASIVE WHEELS Army Song
23. ICON A.D. Fight For Peace
24. THE EXPELLED Government Policy
25. THE UNDERDOGS East Of Dachau

DISC TWO 
1. THE SISTERS OF MERCY Temple Of Love
2. THE MARCH VIOLETS Religious As Hell
3. RED LORRY YELLOW LORRY Beating My Head
4. ANABAS Barricades
5. THE THREE JOHNS Do The Square Thing (7” Version)
6. VICIOUS PINK Cccan’t You See
7. TOM FAZZINI 16 Vessels
8. ANNIE HOGAN Executioners Song (Kickabye)
9. DÉJÀ VU Cut The Cross
10. FLOWERS FOR AGATHA Presentation
11. XERO SLINGSBY AND THE WORKS Hurricane Damage In Leeds (Live)
12. THE HOLLOW MEN Late Flowering Lust
13. ROSE OF AVALANCHE Goddess
14. THE CASSANDRA COMPLEX Moscow Idaho
15. SURFIN DAVE AND THE ABSENT LEGENDS Stateside Centre
16. AGE OF CHANCE I Don't Know And I Don't Care
17. THIRD CIRCLE Last Night Was The Best Night Of My Life
18. THE WEDDING PRESENT You Should Always Keep In Touch With Your Friends
19. PINK PEG SLAX Boy From Leeds
20. DUSTDEVILS Seeds In The Spoil
21. THE MISSION Wasteland
22. SALVATION Thunderbird

DISC TTHREE
1. THE RHYTHM SISTERS Saturday Sunday Lazy Leeds Afternoons
2. RITZUN RATZUN ROTZER Noodleman
3. THE SINISTER CLEANERS Longing For Next Year
4. THE PROWLERS Life’s A Mystery
5. SON OF SAM Goodbye Junkie Jim…
6. LEN LIGGINS Life In Leeds City
7. GOOD SHEPHERDS Wallpaper Man
8. WMTID Go Big Red
9. MDMA Evidence
10. DRUG FREE AMERICA DayGlo Pussycat
11. THE VAYNES Lick The Dirt
12. BAZOOKA JOE Hiding From The Rentman
13. CUD I've Had It With Blondes
14. THE SNAPDRAGONS The Things You Want
15. GROOVIN’ WITH LUCY Lenny’s Lament
16. PURPLE ETERNAL Trip#67 (live)
17. BRIDEWELL TAXIS Wild Boar
18. GHOST DANCE Celebrate
19. PALE SAINTS Sight Of You
20. GOLD FRANKINCENSE & DISK DRIVE Character Assassinator
21. THE EDSEL AUCTIONEER Our New Skin

The English-Irish electronic/dance duo Moloko released their first album Do You Like My Tight Sweater? in 1995. It's one of their most experimental records, before moving on to a more mainstream approach. Róisin Murphy is carrying the album with her versatile vocals, both in range and style, while Mark Brydon created the breakbeats, sound effects, and groovy disco lines. This is electronica at its best, danceable and funky. The album includes their hits “Fun for Me" and "Dominoid", besides fan favorites like “Day for Night” and “Where Is the What If the What Is in Why?”. They never slow down in their exciting music and absurd lyrics, but that's exactly what makes this record unforgettable. A pure joy to dance to all night.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. Fun For Me
2. Tight Sweater
3. Day For Night
4. I Can't Help Myself
5. Circus

Side B
1. Lotus Eaters
2. On My Horsey
3. Dominoid

Side C
1. Party Weirdo
2. Tubeliar
3. Ho Humm
4. Butterfly 747
5. Dirty Monkey

Side D
1. Killa Bunnies
2. Boo
3. Where Is The What If The What Is In Why?
4. Who Shot The Go Go Dancer?

The Newport Jazz Festival had always brought the best out in Nina Simone. When she took to that famous stage on July 2, 1966, the audience was treated to the full range of her artistry—from the opener, a breathtaking version of “You’ve Got To Learn” to an electrifying performance of her signature protest anthem “Mississippi Goddam”. Unwilling to let her leave the stage, and after sustained applause, her fans were rewarded with the show-stopping encore, “Music For Lovers”. This previously-unknown and unreleased recording showcasing Nina’s exceptional performance makes it clear why hearing Nina Simone in concert was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Liner notes are by Shana L. Redmond, scholar and author. 

TRACK LISTING

You’ve Got To Learn
I Loves You Porgy
Intro To Blues For Mama
Blues For Mama (hey Lawdy Mama)
Be My Husband
Mississippi Goddamn
Music For Lovers

The band's upcoming debut EP 'Was It What You Thought' will be released on via Blitzcat Records and follows a flurry of exhilarating sold-out headline shows in the capital, support slots with Porridge Radio, Goat Girl, DEADLETTER, Heartworms and THUS LOVE, along with their three 2022 standalone singles "Televised", "Toothrot" and "Alligator".

Swaying from lo-fi bedroom tones to tumultuous blasts of snarling post-punk, headboy's blend of influences, ranging from Radiohead and Sleater-Kinney to Modest Mouse and Grizzly Bear informs the immediacy of their sound, whilst the band also note the impact of post-punk and no wave acts á la Gang Of Four, Orange Juice, Pixies and Television. 'Was It What You Thought' is an examination of knowing and not knowing.

STAFF COMMENTS

Laura says: Great debut EP from this London trio. Melodic guitar pop infused with post-punk energy. Definitely ones to watch I reckon!

TRACK LISTING

1.Reservoir
2.Sheep's Skin
3.Cement 04:08
4.Jackal Lake

No introduction needed here – the French disco maestro, multi million record selling genius Cerrone lands a brand new synthesised and symphonic, signature disco workout ‘A Part Of You’ on his own label Malligator Préférence. A track that sounds as big and beefy as you’d expect from a man that has been making certified hits since the mid ‘70s, with four versions laid out in all their glittering glory, from the ‘Club Mix’ and Original on the A side, to the ‘Club Instrumental’ and Edit Instrumental’ on the B. A genuine must have for any lover of feel-good grooves.

TRACK LISTING

A1. A Part Of You And Me (Club Mix)
A2. A Part Of You And Me (Original Version)
B1. A Part Of You (Club Mix Instrumental)
B2. A Part Of You (Edit Instrumental)

The third album from crooner Pink Shabab, for fans of Avalon era Roxy Music, Bullion, Gary Lucas and other odd pop troubadors.

Strong air play from Charlie Bones of Do!!You!!!Radio

TRACK LISTING

1. Instrumental
2. Goodbye, So Long
3. Do You Remember?
4. Hometown
5. Let Me Be Yours
6. I'm Ready For Your Love
7. Finally Rid Of Your Lies
8. Get Closer
9. America
10. Start Again
11. Love Sails By

A pianist, songwriter, producer, and vocalist from New York he is a mystical figure for record collectors, one of those artists where if you found an old dusty record with Don's name on it, you'd buy it on sight. He is best known for his 1982 magnum-opus, the eponymous album that featured the all-time classics 'Heart's Desire' and 'Holding You, Loving You'. He also collaborated with other greats such as Bernard Wright, Weldon Irvine, Roy Ayers, and Lenny White.

We couldn't believe it when Chicago DJ/ digger/ producer, Marc Davis, told us there was a vault of unreleased Don Blackman material. Marc had reached out to Don's children, Irene and Kyle, in 2019, building a relationship with Kyle with whom he shared a musical affinity. To Marc's delight, Kyle confirmed that there was indeed a treasure trove. As Kyle described it, "In 2013, shortly after my dad's passing, my sister and I collected all of his possessions and put them in a storage unit. I came across forty years' worth of music history. Hundreds of cassettes, CDs, Disks, reel- to- reels, paperwork, photos and VHS tapes. It took about ten years to organise and digitise everything. All of this magic was almost thrown away in the trash, never to be seen, never to be heard forever."

Two tracks were selected, 'Your Love Makes Me Crazy' and 'Say You'll Be Mine'. 'Your Love Makes Me Crazy' is as funky as it gets, with infectiously catchy vocal hooks, and a serious jam, whereas 'Say You'll Be Mine' is a classy, soulful boogie, instrumental number, that shows off Don's masterful piano playing. Both tracks warrant full attention and capture a master at work. He was also a one-man show when it came to production, playing all of the instruments when recording these tunes in his home studio in South Jamaica, Queens.

On first hearing the tracks, Marc knew he wanted to extend the songs and enlisted fellow Chicago legend, Tone B. Nimble, to work on the project with him. Their extension/ edit of the songs was conducted in a way that was respectful and true to how the tracks were originally recorded by Don. They extended and resequenced the groovy parts of the songs organically for the DJs and dancers.

The final words on this release are best coming from Kyle, "We are very excited and thrilled to continue to share all of this unreleased magic with the world. We hope that this music will help, heal, and inspire a new generation of artists to never give up, and to strive for what their hearts desire."

TRACK LISTING

Say You'll Be Mine
Your Love Makes Me Crazy

My Back Was A Bridge For You To Cross, ANOHNI’s sixth studio album, expresses a world view by shape-shifting through a broad range of subject matter. Through a personal lens, ANOHNI addresses loss of loved ones, inequality, alienation, acceptance, cruelty, ecocide, devastation wrought by Abrahamic theologies, Future Feminism, and the possibility that we might yet transform our ways of thinking, our spiritual ideas, our societal structures, and our relationships with the rest of nature.

On her first full album since 2016’s HOPELESSNESS, she explains the creative process was painstaking, yet also inspired, joyful, and intimate, a renewal and a renaming of her response to the world as she sees it. “Some of these songs respond to global and environmental concerns first voiced in popular music over 50 years ago.”

ANOHNI’s approach since her last record has shifted from someone tasked with challenging global denial, to an artist seeking to support others on the front lines. “I learned with HOPELESSNESS that I can provide a soundtrack that might fortify people in their work, in their activism, in their dreaming and decision-making. I can sing of an awareness that makes others feel less alone, people for whom the frank articulation of these frightening times is not a source of discomfort but a cause for identification and relief.

On “It Must Change,”ANOHNI soulfully describes systems in collapse with a note of compassion for humanity: “The truth is I always thought you were beautiful in your own way // That’s why this is so sad.” ANOHNI’s voice is sensual and smoothed, selectively reaching to the edges of what it can contain. “We’re not getting out of here // No one’s getting out of here // This is our world,” she murmurs.

A portrait of legendary human rights activist Marsha P. Johnson taken by Alvin Baltrop features on the cover, reflecting a 25-year relationship with the memory of Johnson that ANOHNI has held space for in the presentation of her own work.
Elsewhere, the album artwork states ”IT’S TIME TO FEEL WHAT’S REALLY HAPPENING”. In some ways it feels as if she is reaching across her life’s expression, and has found a moment of unique composure, wearing her long exploration of disarming intensity, with the maturity of a painter carefully choosing her colors. “I want the work to be useful, to help others move through these conversations we are now facing, to move with dignity and resilience through this bitter dawning.” 

TRACK LISTING

1. It Must Change
2. Go Ahead
3. Sliver Of Ice
4. Can’t
5. Scapegoat
6. It’s My Fault
7. Rest
8. There Wasn’t Enough
9. Why Am I Alive Now
10. You Be Free

Most well known as the Grammy nominated keyboardist/co-producer and co- writer of the celebrated Australian band Haitus Kaiyote, Simon Mavin's had a hand in multiple projects across the spectrum, but has yet to release under his own moniker until now.

The EP, which features two original tracks and two remixes from fellow Aussies Harvey Sutherland and Close Counters starts out was recorded in-between projects at the Grove, a small recording sanctuary in Melbourne. In Simon's studio, he had installed a library of keyboards. 30-40 synthesizers, all of which were painstakingly patched in to be simultaneously accessible and ready to record in an instant. A drum kit in the corner was constantly mic'd up, and everything routed through a multitude of analog mixing desks providing different flavours of tone and texture. The Grove had such appeal that it was chosen as the studio to record the Gilles Peterson compilation 'Sunny Side Up' on Brownswood Recordings.

Things kick off with "Good Hair Day", a track originally blossoming from an infectious piano loop in which fellow collaborators Nick Lam and Henry Hicks added guitar parts and bass parts. What's resulted is a danceable, infectious feel-good dancefloor jam with an ultra funky synth bassline that harkens back to Herbie Hancock's 1970's repertoire. Harvey Sutherland takes the tempo up and takes the track deeper into outer space with deep synth work, four on the floor drums, and a punchy bassline for late night sessions.

On the flip, "Only You & Me" is a lower tempo, slow burning joint with a live drum loop played by Nick Martyn, with an alien bassline, squelching keys, otherworldly oscillating vocodor parts and jazzy keyboard solos. Up and coming trio Close Counters take the song into new territory, stripping things down with a classic Broken Beat vibe, a driving bassline and synth stabs from the original, moving things squarely on the dancefloor – definitely atrack for the breakers in the building.

TRACK LISTING

1. Good Hair Day
2. Good Hair Day (Harvey Sutherland Remix)
3. Only You & Me
4. Only You & Me (Close Counters Remix)

Sweeping Promises’ members Lira Mondal and Caufield Schnug say “Eraser” is “a malevolent creep – an overly ambitious, shadowy force who bears an uncanny resemblance to you. She watches your every move, mirrors your motions, and ultimately uses your voice against you without you ever noticing what she's done. She’s unchecked ambition, a paranoid girl Friday, an overriding impulse to reflect rather than project. She must be stopped at all costs.”

Good Living Is Coming For You was recorded and produced by Mondal and Schnug in their home studio in Lawrence, KS, and follows their 2020 debut, Hunger for a Way Out, and their insistent 2021 single, “Pain Without a Touch.” Coverage for both quickly followed from the likes of Stereogum (Band to Watch), Pitchfork (Selects), and NPR Music, who raved, “Sometimes the best pop songs stick to the basics: no muss, no fuss. With the Sweeping Promises, they add some fuzz. The same way the Pixies wrote pop songs with a nasty sheen, this Boston post-punk band dirties up earworm melodies with a lo-fi charm. You can play spot the influence all over this debut: Young Marble Giants here, Kleenex/LiLiPUT there, some B-52s and Blondie for good measure. Lira Mondal has a voice that leaps and bounds with the enthusiasm of a bedroom performance, hairbrush in hand. But mostly, you can hear a band dream out loud…”

TRACK LISTING

1. Eraser
2. Shadow Me
3. Good Living Is Coming For You
4. Connoisseur Of Salt
5. Walk In Place
6. You Shatter
7. Petit Four
8. Can’t Hide It
9. Throw Of The Dice
10. Ideal No

Well known for his kaleidoscopic approach both in the DJ booth and in the studio, Ruf Dug has touched on genres as diverse as street soul, vaporwave, and acid house over the years. He has released material on labels such as Rhythm Section, Klasse Wrecks, and his own Moodymann approved Ruf Kutz.

For his Pinchy & friends’ debut (there's a 6-song EP in the works as well) the NTS radio host distils some of these aforementioned influences and presents a two-track 12" that explores dub techno, Chicago acid, and atmospheric balearica.

Built around a solid, techy thud, "Thru The Night!" rides seismic bass waves and reverb-laden stabs to more tropical climes, thanks to gusts of echoed flutes and a catchy, 8-bit vocal hook.

On the flip, "I Love You" takes a minor-key synth riff and sends it off to music school for some late-night nasty dance floor bliss.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: People's champion and now esteemed radio jock, Ruf Dug takes some time out from his busy touring schedule to drop a cheeky two tracker of dubbed out acid delight on Pinchy & Friends.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Thru The Night
B1. I Love You

Golden Lion Sounds enlist the talents of no other than Richard Norris for their latest 7". The Grid and Psychic TV star gifts us a driving, Balearic-rock classic - with an almost War On Drugs-like sensibility. Moving, evocative vocals (by Findlay Brown), swirling keyboards, gentle guitar strums and a motoric beat coalescing to form an understated but highly engrossing four minutes of song writing prowess.

Rude Audio is the alias of Mark Ratcliff and collaborators (sometimes including Dan Wainwright with whom he constructed the "Psychedelic Science" release with), and they take care of B-side duties with a galloping analogue synth workout. Slightly wonky and jarring, the concentric arpeggio rotates off-center, making for a slightly discombobulating listen eschewing the smooth and silky for something a bit more raggedy and gritty. It's brilliantly constructed; with just a few simple elements working in tandem to create a dazzling, wide-screen synth scape.

As usual - top draw music from the Yorkshire underground. Limited copies in purple and black vinyl. Check!

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Richard Norris and Rude Audio are the latest converts to the church of the The Golden Lion, with the Todmorden based hub casting its net far and wide to deliver the best from the independent underground.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. Richard Norris - This Song's For You (feat Findlay Brown) 

Side B
1. Rude Audio - The Grinning

On ‘You Of Now, Pt. 2,’ which follows 2022's ‘You of Now, Pt 1, Léa Sen runs through themes as heavy as they are relatable: quarrel with the self, contradictions, feelings of desire, and more. This new batch of deeply complex and resilient tracks showcase Sen’s extensive sonic palette as a guitarist, singer-songwriter, producer and mixer.

Often with little more than a few chords gently placed with atmospheric restraint amongst pulsing synths, Sen communicates the peace that comes with knowing that it's ok to not be perfect. Highlights like “Dragonfly ʚĭɞ” and “Luv Him (about u)” explore experiences that are deeply real, confronting head-on the unsavory parts of life and of her own mind. “On this EP, I was just a bit more honest with myself about who I am, and how flawed I am. But no matter how flawed I am, I still care for myself.” she says.

TRACK LISTING

A1 Dragonfly ʚĭɞ
A2 Again
A3 Luv Him (About U)
B1 (No)
B2 Hellcat

2021’s “Sometimes I Might Be Introvert” catapulted Simz into the big leagues, crashing into the top 5 of the albums charts, collecting Mercury Music Prize, Mobo, Ivor Novello and Brit Award wins and earning her the biggest live audiences yet in the UK and Europe.

“NO THANK YOU” is yet another delicious left field turn for 29-year old Simbiatu Ajikawo. Sleek, succinct and utterly propulsive, it’s Simz’ defiantly punk rock, two fingered salute to conformity and fame, and all the expectations and restrictions that come with. Recorded with her regular collaborator Inflo, this is Simz at her most free, daring and spontaneous. In her own words: 'emotion is energy in motion. honour your truth and feelings. eradicate fear. boundaries are important.’

STAFF COMMENTS

Millie says: Returning strong with big orchestral interludes and quickfire rap from Little Simz in her new album ‘NO THANK YOU’. The album alludes to challenges faced releasing music with a tone of self-reflection but this album feels stronger than ever, with her talent shining through each track on the album despite the obstacles and healing that took place. “Gorilla” was a track that really grew on me, it reminds me of her incredible stage presence during her live performances; of being at ease like she’s always been destined to be there. It feels layered with polished production with that large Simz energy and intangible confidence. Another standout for me has to be “Heart on Fire”, you can feel the atmosphere building like a rising in your chest, it’s evident that this soulful music comes from the heart. Paired alongside the backing choir vocals, it only accentuates her unmissable dynamic sound that Simbi always nails.

TRACK LISTING

1. Angel
2. Gorilla
3. Silhouette
4. No Merci
5. X
6. Heart On Fire
7. Broken
8. Sideways
9. Who Even Cares
10. Control

Another much-needed repress from Surfin In Kansas. This one hanged ten just under three years ago and has since become one bodacious and highly sought after slice of beach grooving joy.

"I Love You" samples The Gap Band's "Big Fun", extending the percussive breaks, doing away with all the smoochy vocal bits and upping the tempo jussst a tad before adding smatterings of extra piano goodness.

On side B, Johnny Bristol 's "Love No Longer Has A Hold On Me" is reduced to a dubbed out vox and hefty raregroove lick; the Strat part chiming away over a foundation shaking b-line and manly horns. A hefty slab of soul which is perfectly snipped and tucked by A Good Christian.

This repress won't hang around long - you have been warned! 

TRACK LISTING

A. I Love You
B. Free To Be Me

French producer Timothee Milton debuts on Local Talk with a killer EP that fuses electronic rhythms and soulful vocals in a way that's typical of the long standing label. Written by Angela Johnson, "Love's Gonna Get you" is a deep but big room, vocal house jam that's got some hints of the 90s Jersey sound about it as well as subtly being a bit of a voguing anthem on the sly.

To give the package an extra edge, deep house connoisseur Hugo LX and boogie-house maestro Art Of Tones are enlisted for remixes. The former strips things back to a more delicate groove; aquaplaning syths and pads all combining with the gently shaking perx to create a more sublime and serene version of the OG. The Art Of Tones remix is equally strong but goes for a more uplifting approach and puts the funk, boogie and soul front & center, with live sounding disco drums and a much more organic palette guiding proceedings. Top stuff as always from the Local Talk mob! 

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Soulful, sun-flecked house music from the unstoppable Local Talk camp. Three different takes on this catchy track ranging from disco, voguey house and a skitty, deep house twist.

TRACK LISTING

A. Love's Gonna Get You (Hugo LX Underwater Mix)
B1. Love's Gonna Get You (Art Of Tones Remix)
B2. Love's Gonna Get You (Main Mix)

Top tier tackle from Heels & Souls Recordings for their fourth reissue as they let loose a much anticipated double header, Gold In The Shade’s 'Over You' backed with 'Shining Through'. Rough, tough, straight-from-the-heart ‘90s street soul, coming courtesy of TSR bossman Robert Roper and the Gold In The Shade ladies Arletta Davis and Sonia Johnson. One of the most sought-after cuts of this scene, it encompasses much of what made street soul special - heavy bass, gritty breaks, emotive chords and off-kilter vocals, marrying together to form a snapshot of a raw DIY scene with optimism at its heart.

The trio’s first single from 1990, ‘Shining Through’ is a no nonsense, bassbin-rattling love song from the underground, seeing long-term friends Sonia and Arletta pulling on the heartstrings from the mic as Robert works his magic behind the studio controls.

Lovingly remastered from the DAT by Cicely Balston, if only ‘Over You’ had been so easy. Two years of endless searching for the tape and subsequently a clean copy of the record, Heels & Souls even went to the lengths of having the multitracks restored so that Robert could attempt to recreate the original mixdown in the studio – but the magic of ‘91, unfortunately, can’t simply be conjured at the drop of a hi-hat.

After all but losing hope, Sean P (by way of Backatcha’s Aiden Leacy), came to the rescue with a mint condition copy of the record that he had from running in the same circles as Robert and Duval back in the day, ripping and restoring it with a precision he’s rightly famed for. And so (finally!) here it is: distorted samples, low-fi hits, speaker rumbling bassweight and all. Raw to the core, but that’s the point – pure, unbridled emotion from the depths of North West London.

Fully licensed from Robert Roper, 20% of profits from Heels & Souls Recordings and Prime Direct Distribution will be donated to Lives Not Knives, a youth-led London-based charity, working to prevent knife crime, serious youth violence and school exclusions.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Over You
A2. Over You (Mix 2)
B1. Shining Through
B2. Shining Through (Dance Mix)

Stix Records, a sub-label of Favorite Recordings, presents this new stunning single release by Mato, this time taking over the famous hit of Bobby Caldwell, and inviting for the occasion newcomer label mate, Ethel Lindsey.

After the recent success of his “Summer Madness / Maiden Voyage” single, quickly followed up by the release of “Jazz-Funk Dub Tribute” LP, Mato and Stix got keen to pursue their journey within the wide and miscellaneous American groove music repertoire. In September 2022, just after the release of this same LP, Pascal Rioux (A&R of Favorite and its sub-labels) submitted to Mato the idea of the Bobby Caldwell’s song and the start of a new “Mellow Reggae Series” focusing more specifically on the so-called AOR and blue-eyed-soul genre.

“What You Won’t Do For Love” by Bobby Caldwell, is one of those instant classics, known and heard at least once by almost everyone on the planet, although its performer still remains quite unknown for most. With this thrilling version, Mato strike opts for a full on cover version - with all new instrumentation which follows the original’s arrangement but adds its own charming reggae lilt. And while it was not an easy task to walk in the footsteps of Caldwell’s vocals, under-the-radar and upcoming singer and composer Ethel Lindsey is a perfect match for the song, giving relaxed and chill vibes, adding his own natural positivity and charisma to this globally adored anthem. Dubbed out to perfection by Mato on the flip!

Starting his reggae production career in 2006, Thomas Blanchot (aka Mato) has released music through various projects on EDR Records, Big Singles or Makasound... In the meantime, he developed a real trademark: taking over classic French, hip-hop, OST, classical or pop songs, into new, roots reggae-dub versions. His 15 years collaboration with Stix Records and label honcho Pascal Rioux gave life to many masterpieces and the story seems far from the end…

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Another impeccable twist from the master of the reggae-dub-mash-up concept - Mato. Taking a piece of classic soul and adding a summery skank and a delicious dub.

TRACK LISTING

What You Won’t Do For Love (Mato Mellow Reggae Mix)
What You Won’t Do For Love (Mato Dub Version)

Musician, writer and Renaissance man Baxter Dury returns with a brand new album, 'I Thought I Was Better Than You,' his seventh studio album.

I Thought I Was Better Than You marks a new era for Baxter, and with this new era comes a new character. “Faux-confrontational,” Baxter calls him. Here, not only is he recounting his childhood, but he’s also reckoning with it. Instead of just swinging at his past blindfolded with a baseball bat, he talks openly about the toxic cocktail of being born into unfortunately fortunate circumstances, with a persuasive surname but no structure or sense of responsibility with which reap the rewards of it. “Really, it’s about being trapped in an awkward place between something you’re actually quite good at, and somebody else’s success.” That ‘somebody else’ being his dad, Ian Dury. As one of the album centrepieces – Shadow – agonisingly puts it: “But no one will get over that you’re someone’s son/Even though you want to be like Frank Ocean/But you don’t sound like him, you sound just like Ian.”

The record also serves as a kind of extension to Baxter’s 2021 book, Chaise Lounge, in which he winningly recounted the story of his unique childhood. Not only does he expand the language of the book, using words to paint disconnected images rather than to string sentences (a kind of cockney hieroglyphics), but he often revisits moments within the book. Characters like ‘Tricksy’ re-appear in ‘Aylesbury Boy’ and ‘Pale White Nissan’, for example, but mainly it’s the abstracted tales of a young Baxter, troubled and in trouble, a victim of circumstance, straddling between a world of ‘Fuck you Leon…/ You stole the sunglasses and I got busted’ and a desire for ‘Porridge in the morning and be normal’.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: I've always had a bit of a soft spot for Baxter Dury, and 'I Thought I Was Better Than You' is a perfect illustration of the off-kilter slam poetry vocals / hazy swimming electronica combo that Dury does so well. Brilliantly inventive and constantly moving forwards, Dury is at the peak of his creativity.

TRACK LISTING

1 So Much Money
2 Aylesbury Boy
3 Celebrate Me
4 Leon
5 Crashes
6 Sincere
7 Pale White Nissan
8 Shadow
9 Crowded Rooms
10 Glows

Lucky For You is Bully’s most close-to-the-bone album yet. It’s an album that’s searing and unmistakably marked by its creator’s experiences, while still retaining the massive sound that Alicia Bognanno has become known for over the last decade. Her fourth album draws from personal pain and the universal struggle that is existing, learning, and moving on—and it’s all soundtracked by Bognanno’s rock-solid melodic sensibilities and a widescreen sound that’s impossible to pin down when it comes to the textures explored.

These ten songs are simply the most irresistible Bognanno’s put to tape yet, making Lucky For You her greatest triumph to date in a career already packed with them. Work on Lucky For You began last year, when Bognanno brought some in-progress demos to producer J.T. Daly in his Nashville studio to see if they could strike creative kismet. “Authenticity is always on my mind, without even knowing it,” she explains while discussing their recording process together. “It was great with J.T., because I could tell he was a genuine fan who wanted to emphasize what’s actually good about my writing instead of changing it. I could tell how much he cared about the project, and it meant alot to me.” The album came together over the course of seven months, the longest gestation process for a Bully record to date, but that time allowed inspiration to emerge in new ways.

The result is a kaleidoscopic rock record spanning punk’s grit, the crunchy bliss of shoegaze, explosive Britpop, and the type of classic anthems Bully has been known for. Lucky For You’s thematic focus zooms in on grief and loss: The record is largely inspired by Bognanno’s dog and best friend Mezzi passing away, at a time when her life already felt as if in metamorphosis. The oceanic first single “Days Move Slow” was written shortly after Mezzi’s passing, reflecting the persistence of Bognanno’s incisive wit in the face of adversity. “There was nothing I could do except sit down and write it, and it felt so good.” And then there’s the passionate opening track “All I Do,” which kicks in the door with huge riffs atop her lyrical reflections on three years of sobriety.

"Once I stopped drinking, I felt like I was still haunted by mistakes and things that had happened when I was drinking, and it’s still taking me a long time to forget about that while existing in this house. How do I shed the skin from a path I’ve moved on from?” In that vein, Lucky For You is a document of perseverance in the face of the big and the small stuff. “I’m so overly emotional and sensitive, it’s a blessing and a curse” she says with a laugh, but there’s no downside to her expressions of vulnerability on this record; it’s the latest bit of evidence that nothing can hold Bognanno back.

TRACK LISTING

1. All I Do
2. Days Move Slow
3. A Wonderful Life
4. Hard To Love
5. Change Your Mind
6. How Will I Know
7. A Love Profound
8. Lose You (feat. Soccer Mommy)
9. Ms. America
10. All This Noise

After branching off from The Royal Jesters in the mid-1960s, Dimas Garza attempted a solo career and reinvented himself as Dimas III. Dimas recorded three singles on the Jesters’ own Clown label, all tracked at Abie Epstein’s studio off General McMullen in San Antonio, TX. The first were ‘So Funny’ and ‘I Won’t Love You Again’, which are almost impossible to find now. Garza never did manage to break beyond the Bexar County limits, but he left a rich legacy of recordings behind for lowrider enthusiasts and obsessed collectors alike. 

Southside sweethearts the Dreamliners first came into the scene as the Royaltones in 1961 when they were students at South San High School in San Antonio, TX. In 1963, label head Abie Epstein signed them to his Cobra & Jox labels, producing four singles. On the way to a studio session, Ana (Ana) Wilburn coined ‘The Best Things In Life’ on the dashboard of her car. Out popped a playful Farfisa and harmony-driven tune reminiscent of the Crystals or Ronettes. Ana also wrote and sang lead on the haunting ballad ‘Just Me and You’. A song about longing and adolescent heartache that’s perfect for any postbreakup session.

Marvin Gaye at his very best! Two classics from Gaye’s esteemed catalogue, ‘I Wanna Be Where You Are’ and ‘I Want You’ with alternative mixes that have never been on 12 inch before. Plucked from the Deluxe Edition of the spellbinding ‘I Want You’ album that was mixed Kevin Reeves & remastered by Ellen Fitton, these two cuts have always called out for loud and proud pressing on either side of a 12.

Up first, ‘I Wanna Be Where You Are’ written by the magical pairing of Leon Ware and Arthur 'T-Boy' Ross with Ware also behind the production controls. An abbreviated cover of Michael Jackson’s hit, it sees Gaye take a brief respite from his usual steamy and sensual swooning to express his love for his family. Jackson would then return the favour, taking influence from Marvin’s 1977 hit ‘Got to Give it Up’ to make ‘Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough’.

Originally a 1:17 minute segue on the album, the Unedited version clocks in at over 6 minutes, turning it from a transitionary passage to a standalone gem. Extending those delectable grooves, building and breaking with a sun-kissed, funk channelling feeling that washes over like a warm wave. With the 7 inch release trading hands for over £75 on Discogs this ain’t one to miss.

On the flip, ‘I Want You’ written by the same duo as the A, with Leon Ware once again on the production and released as part of the same ’76 album. It was an LP that introduced a change in musical styles for Gaye, songs such as this giving him a disco audience thanks to Leon Ware. The Jam-Alternate version leaves Gaye’s vocals till the final section, letting that sweet soaring soundtrack sing to its absolute emotive peak. Sunrise or sunset, this one is not to be used lightly - tears of joy on the dancefloor guaranteed.

TRACK LISTING

A1. I Wanna Be Where You Are (Unedited Mix)
B1. I Want You (Jam - Alternate Mix)

Two more classic tunes from the Deptford Northern Soul Club dancefloor. Remastered for maximum effect. Harold Hutton’s ‘Lucky Boy’ was originally on the Chess sub-label, Checker. Released in 1965, an original goes for around £50 these days. ‘Lucky Boy’ was the B-side of his debut single, ‘It’s A Good Thing’, which launched him on a career that included regular spots on Soul Train during the 1970s. Filled with Motown-esque horn stabs, ‘Lucky Boy’ builds into a bongo-powered frenzy. The super soulful Dells’ flipside from a year later was initially on Cadet, another Chess subsidiary originally called Argo. Another £30-£50 gem, if you can find an original copy. Typical of the band’s close harmony style, ‘Thinkin' About You’ is a mid-tempo groove with an insistent rhythm and some lush strings. All topped with a heart-warming baritone vocal on a classic piece of soul romanticism.

FFO: Metz, Fugazi, Quicksand, Preoccupations, Nirvana, Pissed Jeans, Converge, Unwound, Osees etc etc etc...

The first album by new band Predeceased, new Post hardcore with jammer parts. Also abit kraut abit PNW indie abit 80s hardcore. It’s loud, different + has riffs. 'What Do You Do?' A Question that's as broad and confusing as it is simple and direct, a question used to find out if you're gonna have something to talk about, something in common, something attractive, something you're against, something you detest, something you don't give two shits about, something you also do... 'What Do You Do?' is 30.23 minutes of big riffs, lighting fast drumming and slamming bass with yelled out but tuneful lyrics about doing this after your 30, learning the perks of meditation & counselling, MF DOOM, Self-care, social status and the pandemic amongst other things. In a couple ways there's a little leftover garage worship from Charlie's MVPs but overall this is a lean and mean post hardcore record cut from the band could be your life cloth.

TRACK LISTING

Fancy Prison
Scene Parole
Fake Laugh
A Song For Doom
Consolation Prides
What Do You Do?
Can't' In The Real C Word
Sunday Scaries
Timing

First released back in 2014 on Greg Wilson’s Super Weird Substance label, as a limited 12'' vinyl run of 500, ‘Don’t You Worry Baby The Best Is Yet to Come’, has subsequently become a much sought after record with modern soul enthusiasts, copies currently selling at well over £100.

It was soul legend, Colin Curtis, who suggested, at last year’s We Out Here festival, that a 7'' pressing may be timely. Colin’s connection with the track goes back to hallowed Northern soul club, the Blackpool Mecca, in ‘70s, where the Bessie Banks original, never issued in the UK, was a cult-classic.

The Reynolds are Merseyside twins, Carmel and Katherine Reynolds, who worked with Greg across various projects on the label. Katherine takes the lead on this track, and handles it like a veteran, her vocal elegantly gliding the groove – Greg working in collaboration with Wolverhampton DJ/musician Peza, who programmed and co-mixed the track.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Part 1
B1. Part 2

Sometimes a band arrives out of nowhere, with a fully formed sound ready to fill a stadium. King Hannah are one of those bands. The Liverpool band led by the creative force of Hannah Merrick and Craig Whittle have arrived with ‘Tell Me Your Mind and I'll Tell You Mine’, an EP that is both soothing in its moods and intoxicating in its rushing soundscapes, containing a sound that is both brand new and completely mature. Their neon guitar lines and intimate torchlight vocals put the everyday on a pedestal, lifted by melodic licks that swell into dense and swirling atmospheric textures.

‘Tell Me Your Mind and I'll Tell You Mine’ sounds like late nights and early mornings, from the beauty and closeness of acoustic guitar in opener "And Then Out of Nowhere, It Rained", to the final immersive thicket of distorted guitars in “Reprise (Moving Day)”. In between, "Meal Deal" is smoky backroom Americana transposed onto the precarity of finding somewhere to live; "Bill Tench" feels like melancholic euphoria of travelling in fast cars at night – drums flash past like lines on the asphalt with angular guitars.

"Crème Brûlée" is a moody fugged-out ballad for the everyday, and "The Sea Has Stretch Marks" conjures a whirling post-rock exploration of cinematic memories. King Hannah lean in to immersive moments in their music.

TRACK LISTING

1. And Then Out Of Nowhere, It Rained
2. Meal Deal
3. Bill Tench
4. Crème Brûlée
5. The Sea Has Stretch Marks
6. Reprise (Moving Day)

Madison’s latest project, I Hope You Can Forgive Me, represents an evolution in her career as she finds ways to improvise and self-produce in the midst of an ever changing global pandemic landscape. I Hope You Can Forgive Me builds upon that next step sonically while exploring themes of love, self preservation, fear, and conjuring. What comes out of this work and Madison’s career thus far is a commitment to leave - leave fear and doubt behind in order to make space for what is next to come, all with a sense of style, fun, and invitation to dance through it

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: McFerrin presents a beautifully manicured selection of new soul ballads, musically edging towards the glimmering guitars and shimmering percussion of Chic but with her stunning athletic vocals bringing things into funky R&B territory.

TRACK LISTING

1. Deep Sea
2. Fleeting Melodies
3. Testify
4. Run
5. God Herself
6. OMW
7. (Pease Don’t) Leave Me Now
8. Stay Away (From Me)
9. Utah
10. Goodnight

Factory Records has become the stuff of legend. The histories of the label have been told from many perspectives, from visual catalogues and memoirs to exhibitions. Yet no in-depth history has ever been told from the perspectives of the women who were integral to Factory's cultural significance.

The untold history of Factory Records is one of women's work at nearly every turn: recording music, playing live gigs, running the label behind the scenes, managing and promoting bands, designing record sleeves, making films and music videos, pioneering sound technology, DJing, and running one of the most chaotic clubs on the planet, The Hacienda. Told entirely in their voices and featuring contributions from Gillian Gilbert, Gina Birch, Cath Carroll, Penny Henry and over fifty more interviewees, I THOUGHT I HEARD YOU SPEAK is an oral history that reveals the true cultural reach of the label and its staying power in the twenty-first century.

The second collaborative album from Laetitia Sadier [Stereolab & solo] and Brazil's Mombojó. Release via Stereolab's Duophonic Super 45s imprint.

Modern Cosmology is a musical ensemble composed of six individuals of the human race, none of which are cosmologists or astronomers, although Felipe S. - who sings and plays the guitar - knows quite a bit about reading astrological charts. He shares his frontperson duties with one Laetitia Sadier who, by virtue of her singer-songwriter career both as a solo artist and as part of the Stereolab ‘groop’, happens to be one of the key figures of her bandmates’ musical formation.

Their paths first crossed when Marcelo - also on guitars - lent his amp for some of Laetitia’s solo concerts in Brazil under the condition that he got to meet his musical idol, and along came his brother Vicente - who plays the drums - and keyboardist Chiquinho. The four lads, plus Missionário José on bass, are collectively called Mombojó, an established band on the Brazilian alternative scene. 

“What will you grow now?” started in late 2016 on a recording session Mombojó did on a motorboat up the Capibaribe river in their Recife hometown. The title track was recorded there and then during this fluvial jam session, and the other backing tracks were recorded about a year later at a recording studio at the local University, after which Laetitia had a bunch of new material to add words and melodies to, from her Brazilian friends and bandmates with love. Life happened, COVID happened, new albums by Laetitia and Mombojó also happened, and between this and that Modern Cosmology managed to get six new tracks ready for release.

In current times we tend to feel so disconnected that a lot is said everywhere about connection, but this album is not about connections per se, or at least not about first connections. As the title teases, this album is about growth, deepening connections and strengthening bonds, about delving into the next chapter, about realising that now that we have drawn attention to a number of important issues, how do we avoid addressing them without falling in the same pits we have before? 

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Saier and Mombojó return for another endlessly inventive selection of Latin-leaning electronic soul and easy-listening pop nuggets. Funky, but while remaining distinctly laid-back, it's a perfectly honed and wonderfully rich sound.

TRACK LISTING

1. Making Something
2. Le Train Ne Passera Pas
3. Consent For Life
4. What Will You Grow Now?
5. Trauma Release Makes Free
6. A Time To Blossom 

Swamp Dogg's 1974 soul classic gets a coloured vinyl reissue. Includes insert with lyrics and photos along with original liner notes and brand new ones.

TRACK LISTING

The Mind Does The Dancing While The Body Pulls The Strings
Dr. M. L. G. (J. A.)
Chewed Up Grass
My Hang-Ups Ain't Hung-Up No More
Did I Come Back Too Soon (Or Stay Away Too Long)
I Wanna Lifetime Of Loving You
When He Was No One
I Wouldn't Leave Here To Go To Heaven
God Ain't Blessing America

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2023 EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

Opaque Pink Coloured LP Vinyl - M.E.B. (formerly Miles Electric Band) led by Vince Wilburn, Jr collects a progressive All-Star ensemble featuring Miles Davis alumni and the players Miles inspired. This brand new, never-released studio recording captures a multi-generational whoís who of acclaimed artists performing new Miles-inspired compositions. Two tracks of the five on the album include unreleased trumpet performances by Miles and the album, produced by Miles' alumni Lenny White and Wilburn, features music legends including Ron Carter, Marcus Miller, Stanley Clarke, Donald Harrison, Darryl Jones, Vernon Reid and John Scofield. This album is dedicated to the memory of Wallace Roney and Bernard Wright and contains some of their final recordings. The cover is an original painting from artist and Milesí associate Mikel Elam. Pressed on hot pink vinyl, this is the exclusive vinyl release.

“Coming To You Love” is a classic and ever popular jazz funk and soul release from 1980. From its original release, the LP and 12” versions have dominated, this 7” version only recently coming to light as a different take on the track with a bonus Charles Earland organ solo. Since the realization of its existence, the previously styrene only US Columbia 7” has exchanged hands for increasingly higher amounts. Charles came from Philadelphia, played sax first with Jimmy McGriff before turning to organ in the late 60s and earning a nickname ‘The Mighty Burner’ During his time at Mercury records he scored a hit song with the disco record “Let The Music Play”, building an audience with a jazz funk and soul crowd which exists to this day through numerous other releases on Mercury and then Columbia through to his passing in 1999.

TRACK LISTING

1. Street Themes
2. Coming To You Live

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2023 EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

14 track album on transparent vinyl, with 16 page 12x12" book of Darren's Lido artwork. Darren Hayman's 2012 classic LP "Lido" gets the deluxe reissue treatment this record store day - an all-new 12" transparent vinyl with a 16 page 12x12" book of Darren's Lido artwork. As was the original, this is a joint release between Clay Pipe and wiaiwya. I was thinking about instrumental music and whether it could truly be about something. I was thinking about how classical, jazz and the avant-garde often group music together under conceptual titles and themes. Isnít a lot of this music about music itself? Isn't instrumental music literally about the unspeakable, the indescribable? My friend Dave says that he see no reason why wordless music should be any less about ësomethingí then lyrics or prose. I think he's right, but I also know that some music that is titled and thematically labelled is nothing more than the beautiful sound of a musician trying to reach out; to evoke; to remember. My name is Darren Hayman and I have made an instrumental album about Britainís open air swimming pools; it's called 'Lido'. If I am known or liked for anything at all in my career then it is for my lyrics. I see words as incisive, accurate tools, when used correctly. I donít want my words to paint vague canvasses; I want them to make detailed, forensic technical drawings. I am interested in specifics; my songs thus far have very much been about stuff. In my own listening, however, I have moved more and more towards instrumental music. I enjoy the heavenly fog of the ECM label. I love following the unpredictability of John Coltrane's reckless career. I adore roots dub reggae - it makes me feel safe and calm. Instrumental music has given me something that has been missing from my listening for a few years. It confuses, frustrates and excites me, and in no way do I feel it a less erudite companion to lyrical music. The opposite is true, in fact: this music can often say more, I just love not being able to define what it is. Cautiously, over the last few years, I started to amass recordings of my instrumental compositions. When I had five that I thought were good, I needed a title that might pull these sunny, open tunes together; I thought of 'Lido'. From that point onwards I tried to think about what it would be to write music with a specific setting in mind. I tried to write the tunes in my head, while visiting the individual pools. I collected field recordings and buried them inside the songs. Some were audible but I wanted to link the music to the place in some way. When it came to writing tunes about closed or destroyed lidos, I thought about absence and nothingness. I thought about disconnected music; tunes without formal structure or time signatures. I have not re-invented the wheel but this was a truly experimental record for me in that I devised routines and procedures that produced music alien to me. I thought hard about Brentwood Lido, in my hometown. It closed in 1976, when I was just five. It is one of those places that have slipped past the internet. I can find only two grey, fuzzy pictures online. Do you have any pictures of it? Iíd love to see them. My own memory of the place is also fuzzy: one of those early childhood memories that seems to be projected onto sunlight. If you think hard or try to grasp it in any way then it just melts. I can see a towel; there is a low wall or steps maybe? My mother is there some other people... It's sunny but then there's nothing there's no focus or clarity to the memory. If instrumental music can be about anything then surely it can be about this feeling; the sensation of fumbling, desperately, in the back of your mind. Looking for something beautiful that you know was there once. I wanted to make music that sounded half remembered but purposeful. I went to the road where the pool used to be. I recorded nothing but the faint rumble of traffic and put in my tune. My album 'Lido' is about open air swimming pools and something else as well. It's just impossible to say what it is exactly. - Darren Hayman February 2012. Track Listing: 1. London Fields 2. Black Rock Baths 3. Brockwell Park 4. Parliament Hill 5. Saltdean 6. The Knap 7. Super Swimming Stadium 8. Brentwood 9. Tinside 10. Stonehaven 11. Kingís Meadow 12. Jubilee Pool 13. Purley Way 14. Tooting Bec

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2023 EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

This is Honey Bane's first vinyl release in 40 years. Music's biggest rebel turned her back on the scene in 1983, after a string of successful punk/new wave singles. Violence Grows is Bane's 1978 debut, which she wrote at just 14 years old. She recorded it under her band, Fatal Microbes. The single has been reissued, with digitally remastered audio and pressed on limited edition, "bruised" black and blue 12 inch vinyl. This is the first ever coloured vinyl in Bane's catalogue of work.

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2023 EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

A brand-new John Massoni LP that was produced by his good friend, Grammy nominated producer, Hunter Lea. This is another John Massoni and Pete Kember, aka Sonic Boom (Spacemen 3, EAR, Spectrum) collaboration. It will have one side completely mixed by Sonic Boom. Featuring the excellent track ìGreat Godís Giftî this will be pressed in heavy weight 180g solid mustard coloured vinyl.

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2023 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON SATURDAY APRIL 22ND 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 24TH).



Peaness' double EP "Are You Sure?", featuring songs from their first ever EP "No Fun" plus previous 7" and cassette releases such as "Oh George" and "Seafoam Islands" which was originally released in 2017. As a firm fan favourite, their 'Petite Pois' as they have so affectionately named their fanbase, will be over the moon that they are finally getting a repressing of this record. Limited one off pressing on Splatter (green and yellow) coloured vinyl.

TRACK LISTING

A1 Oh George
A2 Seafoam Islands
A3 Sam Place
A4 Skin Surfing
A5 Ugly Veg
B1 Summer Song
B2 Fortune Favours The Bold
B3 I'm Not Your Problem
B4 No-One
B5 Breakfast

Chris Clark Ms. Clark is often cited as the Dusty Springfield of Motown, a white soul singer with a black Southern voice. And she is no stranger to the Northern Soul scene with songs like “Love’s Gone Bad”, her version of Frank Wilson’s “Do I Love You” and the unreleased “Something’s Wrong”. But Clark’s Motown legacy continues surprise with the 2018 discovery – “Whenever I’m Without You” – originally recorded in 1968. Finally making its vinyl debut 55 years on!

The Temptations The Temps need no introduction, they were, of course, Motown’s most successul male vocal group scoring 18 No.1 R&B/Hot 100 singles and 3 Grammy’s. “All I Need Is You Love To Me” is another 1968 recording that eluded release at the time and is one their best, how could this slice of Motown magic escape. Finally making its vinyl debut 55 years on!

TRACK LISTING

1. Chris Clark - Whenever I'm Without You
2. The Temptations - All I Need Is You To Love Me

Another two deepfunk/soul tracks from Benjamin Robinson of Coco and Ben fame's tape archive. You might be forgiven for thinking is 45 is unreleased, but there is only enough copies of the original small hole pressing out there to count on one hand.

'Thumping For You' is a hypnotic floaty soulful funk banger with that catchy guitar that reminds you right away of the Coco and Ben connection, and the loose vibe just hits the dancefloor.

Brandon's song keeps the hypnotic loose vibe going for the flip, I can see me late night dancing to this one outside in the hills this summer.

TRACK LISTING

1. Thumping For You
2. Brandon's Song

Let’s face facts here; we’re all a mess. Life in the 2020s thus far has been a litany of crushing indignities at best. Living standards plummet, lies carry the same currency as truth, and rock music - that racket that once served as countercultural force and revolutionary fire - has been neutered and subsumed into nullity.That’s unless you’re listening to The Shits. ‘You’re A Mess’ - the second album from Leeds’ filthiest sons - is a staggering assault of invective fit to reignite your ire, and a sound that constitutes a real and present threat to life and limb. Contained within these eight feral exorcisms is a merciless assault of Stoogian/stygian riffage, gloriously purgatorial abjection and intimidating aggro that takes a garage-rock blueprint and grinds its face in the dirt.If these grimy dirges and salvos of horror have a precedent, it’s in the menacing audial lineage that connects Fun House through the AmRep label, Brainbombs and

Drunk In Hell - the process where relentless negativity is alchemically transformed into profane primal salvation. Yet The Shits worship no heroes, obeying a thanatotic urge that sees no separation between death and glory.Listen to this album and you will believe once again in catharsis by way of heavy amplification. Psych-rock is dead, and The Shits are the executioners. Assume the position.

TRACK LISTING

01. In My Hotel Room
02. Waiting
03. You’re A Mess
04. The Venus (After Hours)
05. Bludgeoned To Death
06. Alone Ii
07. Ugly, Worthless
08. I Regret Nothing (Parts 1 & 2)

"Our next release, “I’ll Show You How” by the Cinnamon Soulettes is by far one of the most beautiful love songs we’ve ever heard. Close to no information is available about it other than it was published and released in the 1970s as a private press through the late legendary Seattle producer Kearney Barton. Unfortunately, most information the estate had was lost in a flood and none of the collectors and music historians from the PNW area we contacted, nor the University of Washington State who inherited a large part of Barton’s tape collection knew anything about the band or its mysterious songwriter “L. Leavy”. We are still searching for the band, anyone who knows anything, give us a shout! Mrs./Mr.Leavy,where are you..?"

TRACK LISTING

I’ll Show You How
Wishing On A Wishing Well

I Was Trying to Describe You to Someone is Wednesday’s second full length album & first as a full band. The Asheville, NC quintet (guitarist/ vocalist Karly Hartzman, lead guitarist Daniel Gorham, pedal steel guitarist Xandy Chelmis, bassist Margo Schultz & drummer Alan Miller) maximizes the dark dissonance of a three guitar attack to highlight the emotionality of Hartzman’s bell-clear vocals & wisps of half-recalled memories & literary references that make up her lyrics.

I Was Trying to Describe You to Someone’s eight songs meld elements of shoegaze, grunge, indie pop & southern American culture into a uniquely personal style of modern rock music that resonates with power & tenderness. The ever-darkening & deepening of Wednesdays’ sound on I Was Trying to Describe You to Someone owes a debt of influence to The Swirlies, Arthur Russell, Red House Painters, Tenniscoats, Ana Roxanne, Acetone, & their continued collaboration with MJ Lenderman (who lends backing vocals to the songs “Billboard” & “November”).

I Was Trying to Describe You to Someone was recorded at Hartzman’s home with engineering assistance from her roommate Colin Miller. The depth & clarity of the recordings balance the distorted volume of Wednesday’s live performances with the intimacy of Hartzman’s voice. Her words hold the center of the chaos, unobscured by the power of the band. Hartzman describes her lyrics as “attempts to access old personal memories & do them justice through prose, with inspiration from the writings of Richard Brautigan, Flannery O’Connor, David Berman & Tom Robbins, & movies like Steel Magnolias.”

TRACK LISTING

1) Fate Is…
2) Billboard
3) Love Has No Pride (Condemned)
4) Underneath
5) November
6) Maura
8) Coyote
9) Revenge Of The Lawn

‘How Many Dreams?’ is the highly anticipated fourth studio album from Australian three-piece DMA’S. Featuring the singles ‘I Don’t Need To Hide’ and ‘Everybody’s Saying Thursday’s The Weekend’, the record is another step forward for a band on a still upwards trajectory. Partly recorded in the UK with Rich Costey (Sigur Ros, Muse, Foster the People) and Stuart Price (Dua Lipa, The Killers, Madonna) before being finished with Konstantin Kersting (Mallrat, The Jungle Giants) back in their hometown of Sydney, ‘How Many Dreams?’ is designed to be ambitious, a sonically vast landscape; there are songs to rave to, and songs to cry to.

There’s a definite sense of celebration and revolution was brewing within the band on this record. DMA’S exploded onto the scene in 2014 with their debut single ‘Delete’. Since then, the band have released three acclaimed records with their last album THE GLOW (released in March 2020) debuting at #4 in the UK, #1 in Scotland, #2 in Australia. DMA’S have sold out worldwide tours including selling out shows at London’s Alexandra Palace and O2 Academy Brixton, and Manchester’s Castlefield Bowl, and graced the stages on festivals like Reading & Leeds, Glastonbury, Coachella, Lollapalooza, Outside Lands, Osheaga, Gov Ball and many more. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: DMA's return for 'How Many Dreams', partially eschewing the melodic britpop-inspired indie we've heard from them up until now in favour of some undeniably melodic but more sprawling, electronic tinged business. Those characteristic vocals are still in situ, but the scope is much larger, drawing influence from all over the musical spectrum.

TRACK LISTING

1. How Many Dreams?
2. Olympia
3. Everybody's Saying Thursday's The Weekend
4. Dear Future
5. I Don't Need To Hide
6. Forever
7. Fading Like A Picture
8. Jai Alai
9. Get Ravey
10. 21 Year Vacancy
11. Something We're Overcoming
12. De Carle

Following up from their smash collaboration with live band Cotonete, Dimitri From Paris and Heartbeat records shop boss Melik Bencheikh, team up once again to launch their new label, Le HeartBeat. In an ongoing mission to champion the live side of dance music, they locked themselves up in a studio, with the ace players of new Parisian combo, Chatobaron. The first outing on Le HeartBeat draws from the cheekiness of London’s punk-funk, meeting with New York’s disco-not-disco. The all acoustic performance invokes the spirits of Ian Dury and Arthur Russell, bouncing on the walls of the Paradise Garage, to enter the soul of Chatobaron’s expert players, each at the top of their game.

Dimitri gets on mixing duties and makes sure the rhythm section keeps the dancefloor busy. In his signature roller coaster style, he provides vocal and dub versions, chock full of breaks and drops. Working with seasoned players, using the best of vintage and modern recording techniques, Le HeartBeat Records aims to bring decades of record digging culture onto todays dance floors. A future collectors piece that both the dancers and DJs are gonna dig. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: As usual with a DFP tweak, there's an air of flamboyancy and celebration that few in the disco scene can replicate with such authority. It's like you're right there at Studio 54 in your best get-up living your best life!

TRACK LISTING

A1. I Like (The Music That You Play) - Club Vocal
B1. I Like (The Music That You Play)- Club Instrumental

Dedicated 21st Century polymath Kay Logan continues to expand her soundworld in every direction at once with her Helena Celle alias. A maximalist internal landscape of broken Jungle patterns, distorted synths and heavily warped instrumentation bent out of cognisance, If You Can’t Handle You At Your Worst, Then I Don’t Deserve Me At My Best is Logan’s most danceable, most fun and most gloriously congealed record to date.

Conceived in part as a response to her 2016 debut release If I Can’t Handle Me At My Best, You Don’t Deserve You At Your Worst, 2023’s update employs similar principles (degrading technology, the joy of chance, an outsider’s gaze onto the dance floor, an embracing of the occult) to delirious effect. If “I Can’t Handle” was lo fi and fragile in its technoid recasting of dance music, here Logan’s confidence allows a frantic playfulness that retains the spontaneity of all her output. It’s the work of a creative spirit revelling in the possibilities of sound, rhythm, texture and pattern. Helena Celle’s music opens up psychic space in front of the listener and invites them in. In this world, sounds and tropes once recognisable are rendered fractal, spectral and continually melting in and out of recognition. Simply put, Helena Celle might be detouring Drum & Bass, Techno and Breakbeat with a prankster’s grin but the result is pure ecstasy crushed into a part of the listener’s consciousness hitherto untroubled.

Opener I Did It My Way pokes fun at Sinatra but the message is clear, Helena Celle has no regrets. Sounding like a Jungle track shorn of a MC and deep fried in greasy acid, it uses cassette compression effects to push the sound far beyond the red. A breakbeat suffers multiple lashings of noise solos, heavily filtered synths and white noise blowing a crazy gale across the stereo pan. Ennobled Reception Of The Excellector (My Face When Mix) approximates French House perhaps or 90s dance chart music as performed by a rotting homunculus gurgling down the phone. It’s really that fun and carefree. Real Time... takes a stab at a kind of Techno EBM Cold Wave with no desire to sound like any of it, with waves of tape hiss rising up from some dark shore to wash over proceedings. Fellow sound artist and musician Jennifer Walton guests on the last track on Side A, an epic, fuzzed out Noise and rhythm excursion into cyber breakdown. Snow-Filled Chalice Of My Magonian Exile (titles of the year so far, right?) builds into a wall of beats, pads, manic, haywire synth patterns and a world-ending, distorted riff that points to an appreciation of Metal. The track posits all of reality as one massive computer game played by gods and this is the track played at the Game Over screen. A pixelated, fantastical club track that would simply eviscerate any club it was played in.

The whole of Side B is given over to a 20 minute epic, Original Besttrack (Abe’s Oddysee Extended Mix). A cohesive summation of the previous 4 tracks but stretched out, it recalls Aphex Twin’s furthest out tracks albeit boiled underwater, every element blown out so that even the ambient passages scramble brains and re-wire expectations. The restless, overwhelming music is glazed with a patina of hiss that renders the whole almost meditative: over the 20 minutes there is so much information to digest your brain starts plugging in directly to the music, settling in and accepting the mania as it comes. At the other end you’re wondering how you coped without it.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Though Helena Celle's musical output is undeniably made for a certain subset of electronic music appreciators, this new project sees Kay Logan's pieces get hefty reworks, morphing the intimidating scattered electronic shards into lo-fi techno, rolling industrial and fractured experimental house.

TRACK LISTING

1. I Did It My Way
2. Ennobled Reception Of The Excellector (My Face When Mix)
3. Real Time (Five Track Pentangle Edgelord Mix)
4. Snow-Filled Chalice Of My Magonian Exile (ft Jennifer Walton)
5. Original Besttrack (Abe's Oddysee Extended Mix)

Departing from the overblown visceral sound of previous Surf Curse records, 2019’s Heaven Surrounds You is a bold step towards HIFI for the Los Angeles DIY scene veterans. The polished orchestral production and driving cinematic moments would feel at home in any of the cult films that inspired the album’s coming-of-age stories.

Lyrically, the record finds the duo returning to themes of love, loss and mystery veiled beneath more symbolism and mysticism creating their most emotionally poignant record to date. One ingredient the band doesn’t change is the earworm guitar melodies and massive hooks that have always fueled their famously raucous live shows.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A
1. Maps To The Stars
2. Labyrinth
3. Disco
4. River’s Edge
5. Midnight Cowboy
6. Hour Of The Wolf
SIDE B
7. Dead Ringers
8. Safe
9. Memory
10. Opera
11. Trust
12. Jamie

PLEASE READ THE BELOW DETAILS BEFORE PLACING YOUR ORDER INCLUDING THE ENTRY REQUIRMENTS MENTIONED

CD Album + 1 Ticket - £23.99 - Limit 4 per person
Event exclusive limited CD with alternative art + 2 bonus tracks + Ticket -£23.99 - Limit 4 per person
Vinyl LP + 1 Ticket - £33.99 - Limit 2 per person
Neon Vinyl LP + 1 Ticket - £37.99 - Limit 2 per person
Event exclusive white vinyl LP + 1 Ticket - £37.99 - Limit 2 per person
1x Ticket only - £20.50 - Limit 1 per person max

We urge you to consider buying an Album bundle rather than Ticket only as they only cost £3.49 more to get a CD bundle, PLUS this way you are helping the artist AND the more albums we sell the more of these exciting Album Launch shows we are able to put on in the future.

To celebrate the release of their new album, DMA'S will come to Manchester for a special show at Gorilla in Manchester on Wednesday 14th June 2023 (Doors 7pm tbc - the show will start soon after so please be prompt )

We have set up special bundles (in the drop down box above) for this release where fans of the band can purchase an album and get a ticket for this exclusive Show

There is a limited capacity for this event so we would expect all the album and ticket bundles to sell out very quickly.

This is a 14+ ages event

If you have an access needs please contact the venue here for more information info@thisisgorilla.com

PLEASE NOTE: WE ARE PRINTING TICKETS FOR THIS EVENT AND THEY WILL BE NEEDED FOR ENTRY TO THE VENUE. ORDER EMAILS ETC WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED ON THE NIGHT OF THE EVENT.

If you select the Pick Up In Store option, tickets MUST be collected between Friday 19th May and Monday 22nd May. If tickets are not collected by this date, you will be refunded the ticket part of the bundle and the tickets put back on sale. If you are unsure whether you will be able to collect them in time, then select the postage option.

If you select the postage option, TICKETS and ALBUMS will ship out TOGETHER on or around the release date of Friday 19th May.

There is NO collect at venue option for this show.


ABOUT THE ALBUM:

‘How Many Dreams?’ is the highly anticipated fourth studio album from Australian three-piece DMA’S. Featuring the singles ‘I Don’t Need To Hide’ and ‘Everybody’s Saying Thursday’s The Weekend’, the record is another step forward for a band on a still upwards trajectory. Partly recorded in the UK with Rich Costey (Sigur Ros, Muse, Foster the People) and Stuart Price (Dua Lipa, The Killers, Madonna) before being finished with Konstantin Kersting (Mallrat, The Jungle Giants) back in their hometown of Sydney, ‘How Many Dreams?’ is designed to be ambitious, a sonically vast landscape; there are songs to rave to, and songs to cry to.

There’s a definite sense of celebration and revolution was brewing within the band on this record. DMA’S exploded onto the scene in 2014 with their debut single ‘Delete’. Since then, the band have released three acclaimed records with their last album THE GLOW (released in March 2020) debuting at #4 in the UK, #1 in Scotland, #2 in Australia. DMA’S have sold out worldwide tours including selling out shows at London’s Alexandra Palace and O2 Academy Brixton, and Manchester’s Castlefield Bowl, and graced the stages on festivals like Reading & Leeds, Glastonbury, Coachella, Lollapalooza, Outside Lands, Osheaga, Gov Ball and many more.

Launching the album pre order and announce with the anthemic and uplifting “‘Everybody’s Saying Thursday’s the weekend’ - Guitarist Jonny Took comments: “‘Everybody’s Saying Thursday’s the weekend’, we’ve all thought it, we’ve all felt it. This song is about letting go of the things that weigh us down and embracing the future with a sense of optimism. Stepping in the ‘Right light in the dark times’.”

TRACK LISTING

1. How Many Dreams?
2. Olympia
3. Everybody's Saying Thursday's The Weekend
4. Dear Future
5. I Don't Need To Hide
6. Forever
7. Fading Like A Picture
8. Jai Alai
9. Get Ravey
10. 21 Year Vacancy
11. Something We're Overcoming
12. De Carle
13. Olympia (Live At Barrowlands) – LTD EVENT CD ONLY
14. Everybody’s Saying Thursday’s The Weekend (Live At Barrowlands) – LTD EVENT CD ONLY

Sometimes You Hurt The Ones You Hate by Damien Jurado is a gorgeous, richly diverse and compact album and his third full-length on his label Maraqopa Records. The eight tracks are heavy with emotion and feature a wide spectrum of Jurado's continuously developing talents as a songwriter.

TRACK LISTING

James Hoskins
Neiman Marcus
A Lover, A Balcony Fire, An Empty Orchestra
Mr. Frank Dell
Match Game 77 (Episode 1097)
In A Way Probably Never
A Buildings Kind Of Building
I Was A Line

Did you know that there's a tunnel under Ocean Blvd is the ninth studio album from acclaimed singer-songwriter Lana Del Rey, comprising 16 tracks and interludes with features including Father John Misty, Tommy Genesis, Jon Batiste, Bleachers and more. It follows the prolific artist's 2021 albums Chemtrails Over The Country Club and Blue Banisters. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Liam says: I've only semi-recently become, as you kids say, a Lana stan after her one-two punch releases of 'Norman Fucking Rockwell!' and 'Chemtrails over the Country Club'. I can safely say, this is another banger in her catalogue. Clocking in at just under 80 minutes, 'Did You Know That There's a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd' is a sprawling opus full of rich storytelling and absolutely spellbinding vocals and instrumentation - perfection!

Two more classic tunes from the Deptford Northern Soul Club Records dancefloor. Remastered for maximum effect.

Shawn Robinson’s ‘My Dear Heart’ was originally released on Minit in 1966. Original copies go for around £250 plus. Filled with positively glowing soul sounds underpinned by gorgeous vibes and a heady beat. Big at Wigan back in the day, a favourite of Richard Searling.

The flipside, from 1967, is from the inimitable Bessie Banks, the hit maker of ‘Go Now’ fame. Originally released on the Verve imprint. Fired up by choppy guitar and a heavy cross mix of vibes and horns, it’s a chugger with some essential breaks for added impact.

A triumphant anthem. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Shawn Robinson - ‘My Dear Heart’
2. Bessie Banks - 'I Can’t Make It (Without You Baby)'

David Tattersall, the Wave Pictures guitarist and frontman releases a solo album of interpretations of John Fahey tunes, recorded live in the studio. "I have been a fan of John Fahey's music since I was very young; it has always been with me and I can't remember a time when I wasn't affected by it. It is weird music, and very good. Of course, Fahey is an important cult figure in the history of music: as the first man to find a language for steel string guitar that can stand proudly alongside the established tradition of nylon string classical guitar; as one of many men who rediscovered obscure old blues musicians and recorded them for a new generation in the 1960s; as one uniquely able to reconcile 20th century avant-garde music with folk tradition; as an early indie-label DIY pioneer. For me personally, Fahey went beyond technique, and to some extent beyond historical or intellectual justifications for his work. He explored his emotions through his instrument of choice, and in so doing made the case for the guitar as the ultimate conduit for emotional expression. While there are many imitators who try to play ''like Fahey'', I avoided using his fingerpicking style or sense of rhythm, and tried instead to use his music to explore my own emotions, my own dreams and memories. I was more interested in the lyrical and expressive aspects of Fahey's music than in the techniques of it. I tried to find myself within his compositions and without composing anything I feel that I have managed to make a David Tattersall record that says as much about me as any of the many albums that I have written. John Fahey's beautiful discography shows that the guitar can carry as much mystery and soul as the human voice, and simply put, I wanted in on a little of this action. This is my second all-instrumental solo acoustic album, and where this differs from my first attempt, Little Martha, is that here I improvised freely. I used Fahey's originals only as guides. I'm not sure what I was looking for, perhaps something beyond explanation, but I tried to be as free as possible, and I am delighted by the spontaneous results. Hopefully, they will make the listener feel happy and dreamy, just like the effect that Fahey's many albums have on me. One of the most important things that Fahey ever said was his advice to guitarists to try to feel the emotions that each chord they play on a guitar brings forth. He is telling guitarists to not only play the guitar, but to let the guitar play them. I did my best to follow this advice.

I think Fahey was a genius of the kind that creates a whole genre single-handedly. There could be thousands, millions, of reinterpretations of his compositions. In fact, there probably already are. And long may this continue. All tracks were recorded live with no tampering." David Tattersall. 

TRACK LISTING

01. On The Sunny Side Of The Ocean
02. Special Rider Blues
03. St Louis Blues
04. How Green Was My Valley
05. (Poor Boy) Long Way From Home
06. The Death Of The Claptop Peacock
07. Spanish Two Step
08. In Christ There Is No East Or West
09. Steam Boat Gwine Round The Bend
10. Sligo River Blues
11. Poor Boy
12. When The Springtime Comes Again
13. On The Sunny Side Of The Ocean 

You Can Can is an echoed affirmation, an album which traces song forms around silence, field recordings, and degraded analog memories. This is folk music transmogrified and mutated, as if recorded and reconstructed in Pierre Schaffer’s GRM studio.

Not your typical Mariposa folk duo, the group is comprised of Toronto avant-music scene stalwarts, vocalist Felicity Williams (Bernice, Bahamas) and bricolage artist and synthesist Andrew Zukerman (Fleshtone Aura, Badge Epoch). The album feels like a somnambulant conversation, fragmented and half-remembered with Williams’ vocals traveling through a landscape of field recordings and Zukerman’s saturated concrète topographies. It is an electro-acoustic assemblage, both analog and digital, comprised of air, electricity, minerals, wood, and water. Although the album nods towards traditional forms of folk and musique concrète (if at this point it can be called a traditional form), it is outwardly and inwardly contemporary; non-linear, citational, opaque, and sui generis. In a way it feels like a sonic index of the narrative experiments found on the infamous Language school-related publisher The Figures, in the work of Lyn Hejinian, Clark Coolidge, and Lydia Davis. In the musical continuum, the album picks up where Linda Perhacs left off in the early 70’s—explored by Gastr Del Sol in the ‘90s—a convergence of rural acoustic idioms and urban avant-electronics. This is country music for the discerning cosmopolitan citizen of the 21st Century.

RIYL: Luc Ferrari, Brannten Schnüre, William Basinski, Oval, Eric Chenaux, Emmanuelle Parrenin.

About "Everything In Time and Failure Figures", Felicity Williams says:

'Everything In Time is indebted to the language of Brazilian author Clarice Lispector (as translated by Alison Entrekin). Drawing on insights from psychoanalysis, we trace the roots of melancholy to render them available to consciousness; words from the ghostly realm of the transpersonal filter through dreams and shine a beam of light onto a lone trillium in a forest at night. Other influences include the experience of not knowing, of being subject to a gestation outside of one’s control. This is an ode to the power of naming to obliterate, to set free.

Failure Figures is a meditation on the radical contingency of reality and the vicissitudes of the will. With Slavoj Zizek as my guide (think: “Hegel for dummies” - I’m the dummy in this scenario), I wander through the valley of the shadow of death, and take heart. The last verse refers to an experience I had recording at a studio in Brussels. I was singing in French, with which I have some fluency, and the producer was complaining to the artist whose song it was that my delivery was not convincing. Thinking I was out of ear shot, he said in French, “c’est comme elle n'est pas là”; I was pronouncing the words correctly, but I failed to express anything. So what or whom is responsible for conveying meaning, if not the form of the word itself? And if the connection between meaning and form is broken, how do we fix it?

Gratitude to Thom Gill (guitar) and Daniel Fortin (bass) who joined us on the recording of Failure Figures. Thanks as well to my old roommate Christopher Willes, who unwittingly left behind his hand bells deep in the hall closet. We unearthed them by accident, and the bells became an important sound element. Thanks to other past roomies Robin Dann and Claire Harvie, whose childhood piano and guitar respectively still reside with us, and were used in the recording. Field recordings were made in Toronto, Canada and Celestún, Mexico in 2020.'

TRACK LISTING

Everything In Time
Lustrous Swarm
Can Can
Big Trouble
Papyri Papaver
Strobe Streusel
Failure Figures
Favorite Umbellifers
Infinity Of Loose Ends

"Now You Say We're Through" is an outstanding garage rocker with a stinging fuzz guitar and a rousing Bo Diddley-fied groove that was included in the “Back From The Grave” series becoming a DJ favourite.

In late 1996, after two years of persistent touring, Chisel was eager to document its quickly evolving sound. Decamping from their native D.C. to Brooklyn’s Rare Book Room, the power trio of Ted Leo, Chris Norborg, and John Dugan teamed with engineer Nicolas Vernhes and came away with Set You Free, a remarkable, but largely overlooked, classic of the era. Originally issued on the venerable Gern Blandsten imprint in April 1997, Set You Free presaged the turn of the century 60s rock revival, providing a counterpoint to second-wave emo. This deluxe 25th anniversary edition has remastered and expanded the original’s 17-song track list with five period alternates and rarities, plus a booklet of lyrics, photos, and an essay by Jes Skolnik. Get ready for the invasion.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A
1 On Warmer Music
2 All My Kin
3 It’s Alright, You’re O.K.
4 The Mutable Mercury
5 The Town Crusher
6 The Unthinkable Is True

SIDE B
7 River High
8 Every Is A Good Trip
9 Do Go On
10 Privileged & Impotent
11 Oh Dear Friends

SIDE C
12 An Amateur Thief
13 In Our Time
14 Morley Timmons
15 The O.T.S.
16 Rip Off The Gift
17 The Last Good Time

SIDE D
18 The Guns Of Meridian Hill
19 The Town Crusher (live)
20 Morley Timmons (early Version)
21 Every Is A Good Trip (extended)
22 The O.T.S. (early Version)

Described as the 'missing link between the Beatles and Blur', it was rare to have four talented writers, singers and multi-instrumentalists all under one roof; but in Eric Stewart, Graham Gouldman, Lol Creme and Kevin Godley, 10cc had just that. They released some of the most inventive and elaborate pop music ever to emerge from Britain. 1976's How Dare You! was the fnal album to feature Kevin Godley and Lol Creme and brims with melody and invention: I'm Mandy Fly Me is one of the group's most beautiful, complex ballads, and Art For Art's Sake offered a swipe at their critics. There's Python- esque tomfoolery on I Wanna Rule The World, and the straightforward soft-rock of Lazy Ways.

TRACK LISTING

A1. How Dare You
A2. Lazy Ways
A3. I Wanna Rule The World
A4. I'm Mandy Fly Me
A5. Iceberg
B1. Art For Arts Sake
B2. Rock 'N' Roll Lullaby
B3. Head Room
B4. Don't Hang Up

Silver biplanes are Tim Vass (one half of Razorcuts - the Creation-signed indie pop darlings) and Vanessa Vass (singer of Radcliffe jangle pop favourites the Melons). "A Moment In The Sun” is the debut long player by silver biplanes, a melodic indie band based in Bedfordshire, England. The band features wife-and-husband team Vanessa Vass and Tim Vass alongside drummer Rob Scott and the album is the pinnacle of a musical career which has previously seen Vanessa and Tim release songs on no fewer than 30 different labels between them! The band are lifelong fans of the highways and bi-ways of music and the album draws upon a wide range of influences. It’s a heady mix of choruses, hooks and catchy tunes in which you’ll hear traces of psychedelia, post-punk, krautrock and more. Tim was bassist and lyricist in cult indie band Razorcuts, co-writing all of their songs. Razorcuts releases regularly featured in the higher reaches of the independent charts throughout the late 80s and included two top five albums recorded for the famous Creation label. Both albums were reissued in sellout deluxe vinyl editions in 2020. Razorcuts continue to appear on numerous compilations and their influence is often cited in books and internet articles. Tim has also played in Red Chair Fadeaway, Dandelion Wine and the Forever People. Vanessa was the singer in 90’s indie band The Melons who are probably best remembered for their two legendary live sessions on Mark Radcliffe’s Radio 1 show. The Melons released 6 singles and were regularly featured in the British music press.

TRACK LISTING

01. Parallel World
02. Breaking The Grey
03. Searching For Your Name
04. Songs That Don't Exist
05. The Stars Align
06. UAS 29396
07. No Better And No Worse
08. All Fools' Day
09. Fairground Rocket Ride
10. Deliver The Dawn
11. Think Again
12. There's A Party

Comes in a sleeve that is recreated to be as close as possible to the original 1984 release on Rough Trade. Housed in an outer plastic jacket We Hate You South African Bastards! was the second album by the Irish band Microdisney (Cathal Coughlan and Sean O'Hagan), originally released by Rough Trade in 1984. The album consists of their early recordings before they moved from Cork to London, including songs that became favorites of Radio 1 DJ John Peel. The cover art was designed by the Welsh musician and artist Jon Langford, a founding member of The Mekons and The Three Johns.

TRACK LISTING

1. Helicopter Of The Holy Ghost
2. Michael Murphy
3. Love Your Enemies
4. Fiction Land
5. Pink Skinned Man
6. Patrick Moore Says You Can’t Sleep Here
7. Hello Rascals
8. Pretoria Quickstep

Fantasy takes a more abstract approach to sampling than his previous work, bringing his own instrumentation and vocals to the fore, while folding elements from 1970s fantasy cinema into his distinctive strain of rhythmic, off-centre electronica and kinetic club music.

As Romare, Archie Fairhurst’s working practice is rooted in collage, building vivid new forms out of existing material. Playful and immediate, but also deeply researched and compelling, his albums and performances reaching back to 2012 unfurl as a patchwork of inspirations and obsessive lines of enquiry made up of a global panoply of source material.

He explains: “The inspiration of Fantasy came from long walks and fantasy films during lockdown. I used to draw monsters and mythical creatures as a child and that interest was reignited in isolation. The album is dedicated to my dad, so I’ve combined photos he took as a young man with my own from recent walks, to build a fantasy land and sea. The sun or moon is a drawing from when I was 4 or 5 years old and the beast is a collage of animals and birds from secondhand books I’ve picked up along the way.

The samples come more from film on this record, and the influence of Medieval music can be heard in some of the songs. I enjoyed listening to the band Gryphon at one point while making the album and was inspired by the 'otherworldly' instruments they used in their recordings. There is something spooky about combining film samples with sounds of popular instruments from the past.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Not only should it be applauded for championing new, eco-friendly methods of vinyl production; but "Fantasy" finds Romare exuding a level of coolness and poise even more refined than on previous works. From the BOC-indebted opener of "Quiet Corners..." onwards, we're guided by a playful and highly textured hand which is uniquely Romare's.

TRACK LISTING

A1 Quiet Corners Of My Mind
A2 Priestess
B1 Walking In The Rain
B2 Dungeon
C1 Seventh Seal
C2 Arthur
D1 Sunset
D2 The Fool

Teno Afrika's 2020 debut "Amapiano Selections" drew an international wave of support sparked by the producer's deftly minimal take on the emergent style. Amapiano combines the South African predilection for deep house alongside a melange of endemic influences like kwaito, jazz and gqom. The 20-year-old's new crop of songs "Where You Are" expands on his rhythmic subtlety hooded in warm bass adorned by amapiano's telltale shakers, hi-hats and mid-tempo shuffle. Lutendo Raduvha hails from Pretoria, South Africa, where he produces music incessantly and DJ's parties around Gauteng province. He hangs with a crowd of musical friends, many of whom join him on "Where You Are." For his second album Teno Afrika brings more vocalists into the sonic picture, unlocking an emotive and timbral escalation to his rapidly mushrooming catalog of work. Singers Leyla and Kaycee feature on the title track and "Fall In Love," respectively. Regular cohort Diego Don joins for two driving, pad-propelled works of significant vibrancy, "SK Love" and "AK Love." The album's dramatic closer "Duma ICU" features another returning collaborator, Stylo Musiq, who helps bring an icy, almost cinematic conclusion to a slice of the sound Teno Afrika is pushing at the moment. There's a palpable feeling of not knowing where the young producer might go next. 

TRACK LISTING

1 Teno Afrika Ft Leyla “Where You Are”
2. Teno Afrika & Diego Don “SK Love”
3. Teno Afrika “Bells”
4. Teno Afrika Ft KayCee “Fall In Love”
5. Teno Afrika “Gomora Groove”
6. Teno Afrika “Halaal Flavour”
7. Teno Afrika & Diego Don “AK Love”
8. Teno Afrika Ft Stylo MusiQ “Duma ICU” 

RIYL: Sleater-Kinney, Bartees Strange,Liars, Shellac, Blonde Redhead, Protomartyr, Iceage, A Place To Bury Strangers, Throwing Muses, Omni, Shopping, Bikini Kill.

In the era of Ganser’s Just Look At That Sky delightfully descended on the world in July of 2020, I do admit that I mostly did find myself looking skyward, though that looking was often colored by an ever-present anxiety. My city was coming apart and maybe your city was coming apart too. Maybe atop the buildings of your downtowns there were guns, and men in fatigues. Maybe in front of the libraries, there were tanks, maybe in front of the food banks, there were army patrols. And yet, maybe you found an album or some tunes that reflected the times, which means both everything and nothing at all now, as time fractures into small, elastic shapes, some jagged, some joyful. An album of a moment must require malleability – songs that hold several songs within them.

Ganser is back with a couple of tunes that will anchor spring through fall, a project called Nothing You Do Matters (produced by Liars' Angus Andrew) and the songs are full, biting, sweet and relentlessly tongue-in-cheek. What propels Ganser as a band, for me, is what shines here: their performance of joyful apathy so often has many other moving parts underneath that suggest that they are a band of deep caring, simply unsatisfied

with the hands they’ve been dealt by the world. The dark humor seeped into the apathy is the central and most visual part of the magic trick, but it isn’t the trick itself. It is the disappearing bird or rabbit, that which returns safely to the open palm in order to distract an audience from everything else unfolding during its

disappearance. “People Watching” is almost a mini-suite of a jam, which first kicks in your door and then lulls you with what feels like comfort, before tearing your place apart on the way out. It’s a thrasher of a tune that is more deliberate than breathless, picking its spots to twist the lyrical knife of talk until the words lose meaning, which circle the drain of the song repeatedly, until it has evicted you, or you have evicted it.

“What Me Worry?” fills the space of breathlessness, a sneering romp where each line of lyric feels engaged in a mighty tug-ofwar for what comes before and after, simmering with the kind of tension that Ganser has gotten great at – a tension that pushes a listener to the edge before dragging them back to firm ground.

Survival is hard-won. For many folks, it has always been, for many more folks it feels especially hard-won now. Ganser has adjusted to the times. Yes, the lyrics are darker, seem more exhausted with the realities of having to make it to whatever is next. But there’s also real bursts of playfulness and gratitude wrestling underneath these songs. Gratitude for what winning another inch of survival, perhaps. I needed these songs, and you might, too. It’s good to feel, for a moment, that all is not lost. And even if it is, at least we can laugh our way to somemeaningless demise. - written by Hanif Abdurraqib

TRACK LISTING

01. People Watching
02. What Me Worry
03. People Watching (Liars Remix)

Born into a strict fundamentalist Christian household in sinful Memphis and growing up in evangelist Abilene in Texas, Micah P Hinson has experimented with music and narcotics, suffered the seduction and the abandon of a femme fatale, served a brief stint in the local jail, known failure, bankruptcy, drug addiction and rehab - all before the age of 20

His debut was recorded in the winter of 2003 with assistance from Texas chamber pop collective The Earlies, followed by three albums of original material and one all-covers album. In 2011, a near-fatal car crash paralyzed his arms for months. He spent his recovery time listening to some demos he'd made before the crash. The material eventually culminated in the darkest and most intensely personal collection of songs from him thus far and garnered widespread critical acclaim. (Micah P. Hinson & The Nothing).

Since then, each record is a final confrontation with himself, each song shakes with danger. I Lie To You, the new Micah P. Hinson album, comes from five days and five nights of recording in Irpinia, South Italy, with production by Alessandro Asso Stefana (PJ Harvey, Mike Patton, Vinicio Capossela). Accompanying Micah and Asso are Raffaele Tiseo's celestial strings, Zeno De Rossi metaphysic drumming and the double bass gentleman Greg Cohen. On this new album he sings, with his weathered, husky, prophet-like voice, eleven tales of love, loss and regret, which once again reveal his heart as an artist laid bare.

TRACK LISTING

Ignore The Days
Carelessly
People
Find Your Way Out
Please Daddy, Don't Get Drunk This Christmas
What Does It Matter Now ?
Walking On Eggshells
The Days Of My Youth
Wasted Days And Wasted Nights
500 Miles

Initially released in 2012, I Will Set You Free amalgamated elements of Barry’s previous work, resulting in an album that is unmistakably Barry Adamson. Like many of Adamson’s records, the album is a genre odyssey that jumps from garage rock rock, to blues, to new-wave pop, with the adventurous brass section injecting an acid jazz touch. His overwhelming desire to examine cultural shifts and embrace them within the quest to improve oneself that often centres in Adamson’s art is clearly present in I Will Set You Free. This subsequently makes it a quintessential Barry Adamson record that fits right in with the back catalogue. 

TRACK LISTING

A1 Get Your Mind Right
A2 Black Holes In My Brain
A3 Turnaround
A4 The Power Of Suggestion
A5 Destination
B1 The Trigger City Blues
B2 Looking To Love Somebody
B3 The Sun And The Sea
B4 If You Love Her
B5 Stand In

Berlin electronic duo Donna Regina recorded two songs for the 10th edition of the Snowflakes Christmas Singles Club. In ‘Weihnachten Woanders’ (‘Christmas Somewhere Else’), singer Regina Janssen reflects on how it feels to spend Christmas away from home. Somewhere else, in a strange town where nobody knows your name and no one is waiting for you. You miss the familiar sounds of Christmas, like the child that sings ‘Stille Nacht’ and you dream of being home again. It’s a feeling many people can relate to. Especially this year, a year in which so many people were forced to flee from their homes. Günter Janssen, the other half of Donna Regina and Regina’s husband, lays down a minimalistic tapestry of synths and drum rolls. A loop of street sounds, a sample taken from sound artist Paula Schopf’s 2021 album ‘Especios En Soledad’, forces its way into the song, and in the end overpowers voice and other instruments. ‘Weihnachten Woanders’ very much captures the year 2022 and the worrying times we are living in, in both lyrics and music.

‘Christmas With You’, the B-side of the single, was originally written and recorded by Polish indie band Old Time Radio for their 2009 Christmas album 'Sketches For Another Christmas Songbook'. Donna Regina again goes for a minimalistic electronic sound, but also adds a certain melancholy to the song. Partly due to the synths that in places resemble the sound of an organ, an instrument that appeared on so many Christmas recordings from the 1950s and early 1960s. The love-hate relationship many people have with

Christmas is perfectly laid down in the lyrics: “We watch the cartoons / We sing out of tune / Kiss by the fireplace / Listen to those horrible songs / Do we know / It’s Christmas time at all?”.

Regina and Donna Janssen debuted as Donna Regina in 1990 with the single 'Avec Le Temps' and released their debut album 'Lazing Away' in 1992 on Our Choice, a German sublabel of Rough Trade. In 1999, after four albums on Strange Ways Records, they signed to their current label Karaoke Kalk. Since then, they have released eight albums for the label. In 2015, Karaoke Kalk also released 'Dis Cover', a compilation of Donna Regina songs recorded by other artists like Dean & Britta, Bernard Burgalat, Mouse On Mars and many others. Donna Regina’s songs have been featured on compilations of labels like Rough Trade, Sonar Kollektiv, Klant Elektronik, Milan and Rolling Stone. Donna Regina was not Günther’s first band. In the early 1980s he was part of a Neue Deutsche Welle act with a very Christmas-related name: Heilige 3 Köninge ('Holy 3 Kings'). Their sole album, 1982's 'Zum Teufel Met Dem Kamel' has become very collectable. Günther was also featured as songwriter and musician on German singer Romie Singh's 1986 CBS album 'Masters' and later ventured into writing music for television and film. Regina Janssen also recorded as a vocalist with French musician Bertrand Burgalat, and sang several songs on his 2005 album ‘Portrait-Robot”.

Shooting, space-synth sounds ripple and vibrate, incessant grooves keep the tracks in motion and Nkono Teles production, a producer often overlooked for his hand in the Nigerian boogie sound, sets the LP into orbit. An album that was largely overlooked on release in 1984, the track list includes the latter day hit Only You and Things Fall Apart, the melody of which was lifted for Young Franco’s 2020 single Fallin’ Apart.

TRACK LISTING

1. Only You
2. I Had A Dream
3. Things Fall Apart (Disco Jam)
4. Welcome My Love
5. Only You (Disco Jam)
6. Things Fall Apart (Vocal)

Castles In Space are delighted to welcome Kayla Painter to the fold and she brings with her a brilliant new extended EP, ‘Infinite You’.

Following a few false-start early releases with other labels, Kayla has been building her own head of steam via her Bandcamp page since 2017 or so, self-releasing a slew of fine offerings. Chief among are the attention-grabbing ‘In The Witch Elm’ single which found her working with sounds from the Delia Derbyshire archive, the ‘Cannibals At Sea’ cassette EP on which she explores her fascinating mixed Fijian/British heritage, and the recent pink cassettes of ‘Planet 9’, a journey to the outer reaches of our solar system.

A self-confessed space freak, she’s a big fan of the ‘Alien’ films, oh and ‘Arrival’, with a taste for sci-fi aesthetics… which all very neatly tees us up for that debut Castles In Space offering. So what’s ‘The Infinite You’ all about?

“We measure time and our experience on earth in a particular way,” says Kayla. “But in space none of those rules apply. At the edge of a black hole space, time and the laws of physics no longer apply. That's amazing. If you take away these parameters, these ways of measuring our understanding, what are you left with? It completely blows my mind.

“We live by these measurements so rigidly, We think this is what time is, and this is what a day is... and we take that as absolute truth, but none of that is real, it's all just constructed, which I find exciting. We like to think we understand our existence, but when you start to look into space, you realise we don't really understand much at all. ‘Infinite you’ explores multiple possibilities of existence, it's about looking to the universe and questioning everything we thought we knew.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A superb outing for Kayla Painter for electronic powerhouse Castles In Space. There are as many moments of crystalline beauty as there are terse atmospheric swathes of drone and glitched electronics. It's both warmly reminiscent of something *just* on the edge of your memory and entirely new. A beautiful, exciting journey.

TRACK LISTING

1. Quantum Superposition
2. Broadcast From The Collapse
3. Infinite You
4. I'm Out Here
5. Burning Through The Atmosphere
6. Mountains Of Death
7. I'm By You
8. Echoes Of Pluto

Symposium, the pop-punk band heralded as ‘the best live band in Britain’ by Melody Maker in the 90’s, release their first Best Of compilation: ‘Do You Remember How It Was?’ A compilation that gathers together their finest moments in one place and provides a fully rounded view of what made them so intoxicating in the first place.

Symposium’s achievements in just six years of being a band read like a 90’s rock‘n’roll-call; supported by the likes of John Peel, Jo Whiley, and Steve Lamacq on BBC Radio 1, heralded by music mags such as Melody Maker, Kerrang! and NME, and performing on TV shows such as TFI Friday and Top of the Pops.

During their appearance on Top of the Pops in 1997 performing ‘Fairweather Friend’ completely live, frontman Ross became the only singer in the show’s history to stage dive, and the band received only the third ever stage invasion from the audience after Nirvana and Oasis. This set contains the hit singles ‘Farewell To Twilight’, ‘Fairweather Friend’, ‘Drink The Sunshine’, and the previously unreleased track ‘Bleach’

TRACK LISTING

1. Drink The Sunshine
2. Farewell To Twilight
3. Puddles
4. The Answer To Why I Hate You
5. Bury You
6. Fairweather Friend
7. Blue
8. Fizzy
9. Average Man
10. Killing Position
11. Bleach
12. Disappear

From the hypnotic, elegiac pulse of “Tiger Trap” to the meditative tone poem of “Godsend,” the quiet maturity and melodic confidence of You Turn Me On makes it a bittersweet swansong for Beat Happening, but what a way to go out.

TRACK LISTING

1. Tiger Trap
2. Noise
3. Pinebox Derby
4. Teenage Caveman
5. Sleepy Head
6. You Turn Me On
7. Godsend
8. Hey Day
9. Bury The Hammer

When Darren Hayman made his debut in 1997 with the acclaimed indie band Hefner his lyrical remit was the broken hearted. His early songs told the story of the lonesome and lost, and broken dreams of love on the back streets of London. After Hefner, Hayman’s palette grew to include a unique take on place and memory. In the early 2000s he wrote a trilogy of albums around the history of Essex. In 2012 he made an instrumental album describing the tranquillity of Lidos. In 2016 Darren was awarded ‘Hardest Working Musician’ by the Association of Independent Music for his epic project on Thankful Villages, the 55 villages that survived the Great War with no casualties. His most recent record, 12 Astronauts, tells the personal story of the only men to have walked on the Moon. Darren is continually obsessed with the idea of what songs can be, and the stories they can tell.

As he explains, “With projects like Thankful Villages, I became interested in what a record could be, using field recordings, interviews and songs to make sound collages. I wanted to return to the stricter art of song writing and try and make the twelve best compositions I could. I wanted to make useful songs, words that could be comfort, not just thoughts that would depress.”

TRACK LISTING

A1) How It Could Be
A2) You Were My Map
A3) Don’t Haunt Me
A4) A Real Human Being
A5) Let’s Drift
A6) Love Is Through
B1) Otium
B2) A Room Within A Room
B3) No Lime For The Gin
B4) The Safest Way
B5) Turn My Grey Tick Blue
B6) Feel Like This Every Night
C1) Girls Who Look Like You
C2) Here’s The Stillness
C3) Loser Run
C4) Say You Want To Be Alone
C5) We Are Repaired
C6) Easter Gold
D1) Actually I Still Really, Really Miss You
D2) Holiday Eyes
D3) Where Were You
D4) Adverse Camber
D5) I Am Owned
D6) You Were Always Here 

Miles Away Records are proud to present our latest release Keep Holding On / You're The Best by Savoir-Flair.

Dallas, Texas in 1982, during the hot summer months Roger Boykin, John Miller and Cassandra Wright were working as session musicians at Precision Audio studios. They were put together to create soundtracks, jingles and idents for US TV commercials and, in what spare studio time the three of them had, would experiment with the studio equipment at their disposal - writing and developing what would become the Savoir-Flair sound.

In these secret, after-hours sessions the three would create a staggeringly good private press 80s modern soul album. A flawless collection of tracks with every one of them hitting hard. It would be released on Roger's own label SoulTex Records with the group touring locally. Alas though, this was to be their only album as Savoir-Flair disbanded a year later. The impact this album had however can still be felt today with the 45 and LP becoming highly sought after amongst modern soul collectors around the world.

TRACK LISTING

1. Keep Holding On
2. You're The Best

"This is a delightful Christmas jazz issue featuring Ella Fitzgerald in prime form. Fitzgerald clearly had a fun time recording such songs. These concise performances (all under four minutes) are charming, making this one of the better Christmas jazz sets." - ***** Scott Yanow, AllMusic

TRACK LISTING

Jingle Bells
Santa Claus Is Coming To Town
Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?
Sleigh Ride
The Christmas Song
Medley: We Three Kings Of Orient Are/O Little Town Of Bethlehem
White Christmas
Frosty The Snowman
Good Morning Blues
Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!
Winter Wonderland
Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer
Christmas Island
The Secret Of Christmas
Santa Claus Got Stuck In My Chimney
I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm

Library Music: Volume One is a sixteen track double LP collecting the North London drone pop band’s 7” singles, one-offs and compilation tracks spanning the first 14 years of the group’s existence. It includes synth pop, indie fuzz and moody motorik workouts, alongside pastoral folk sketches, dubby electronics and the occasional drone experiment. More immediate than their stretched out and slow-burning recent album tracks, the music here is taken from limited vinyl releases, album bonus tracks and music for compilations on labels as diverse as Bezirk Tapes, Second Language, Modern Aviation, and Concrete Tapes as well as the band’s current home, Where It’s At Is Where You Are.

The compilation is a happily cohesive document of an inventive band that rarely stand still for long. The band says, “We wanted to gather all our early, scattered work before we move on to our next album, to remind ourselves (and others) of some of the poppier and less characteristic things we’ve done. We’ve always felt a lot more relaxed and freer making one off things for people – it’s a chance to try things that might otherwise be daunting on a full record”.

Always a prolific group this is by no means an exhaustive collection, the title giving a clue to how much more they have left to share. “We have been introduced to loads of bands that we love initially through non-album compilations – Broadcast, The Chills, Stereolab, Piano Magic, Flying Saucer Attack amongst others – we wanted to add our own to that (admittedly slightly daunting) lineage.” The Leaf Library are formed around the core group of singer Kate Gibson, former Saloon and Singing Adams guitarist Matt Ashton, guitarist SJ Nelson, drummer Lewis Young and bass player Gareth Jones. They have released three studio albums (Daylight Versions, About Minerals and The World Is A Bell) as well a number of electronic and experimental albums and EPs, remix compilations and long form tracks. They have also released five Monument CDRs; an on-going series of experimental solo and side projects on their Objects Forever imprint. The band have collaborated with musicians as diverse as Alasdair MacLean of The Clientele, singer Ed Dowie, noise group Far Rainbow and string collective Iskra Strings, and have provided music for a number of exhibitions, films and performances. A collaborative album with Japanese artist Teruyuki Kurihara is due in late 2022 on the Mille Plateaux label. 

TRACK LISTING

01 Agnes In The Square
02 Goodbye Four Walls
03 City In Reverse
04 Walking Backwards
05 Soundings
06 Diagram Loop
07 The Greater Good
08 Losing Places (ISAN Remix)
09 A Stone In Water
10 Architect Of The Moon
11 Tired Ghost
12 The Still Point
13 Wave Of Translation
14 Badminton House
15 Tranquility Bass
16 A Gap In The Trees 

Together with Universal Music, Yello is now looking back on their complete works and releasing the first six studio albums as exclusive 2LP bundles consisting of the original albums as black vinyl re-issues, each combined with a coloured vinyl bonus LP with rare bonus versions of their most famous songs, from the original albums.

In an elaborate state-of-the art process, the old original tapes were remastered in the highest possible resolution to reproduce the sound as authentically as never before. In addition to the cult debut "Solid Pleasure" (1980) with the hit "Bostich", the albums "Claro Que Si" (1981), "You Gotta Say Yes To Another Excess" (1983), the Top 1 breakthrough "Stella" (1985), including the mega hit "Oh Yeah", the legendary follow-up "One Second" (1987), from which the single "The Rhythm Divine" emerged, as well as the electro-pop milestone "Flag" from 1988, including the pop anthem "The Race" in a completely new sound shine.