We Are Busy Bodies presents a compilation of new perspectives on The Upsetters final collaborative album, 2021s Lee Scratch Perry's Guide to the Universe by New Age Doom. Remix The Universe features new versions by artists from the post- hardcore, experimental hip hop, indie rock, EDM and ambient spheres. From the overdriven electronic blast by Andy Morin (Death Grips), to the dance floor-ready groove of South Africas BLK JKS, to the head- banging fuzz- dub of Quicksand, and Nick Reinharts experimental exploration, the 12 track album sizzles across 44 minutes of new music.

TRACK LISTING

Conquer The Sin (Raising Of Lazarus Edit) - Daryl Palumbo
Life Is An Experiment (Kismet And Karma Version) - Child Of (Todd Weinstock)
Holy Wings (Righteous Love Mix) - Cola Wars (Gregory MacDonald)
Step In Space (A Big Step For Bass) - Benedicte Pierleoni
Step In Space (The Space Version) - Tuvaband
Fly In The World (Dub Love Version) - Kevvy (Kevin Maher)
Holy Dub (12 Bit Armageddon) - CrookOne
Holy Dub (Hallowed Be Thy Name) - Quicksand Produced By Walter Schreifels And Sergio Vega
Holy Wings (Nico Y Irel's 3 A.m. In Sabaneta Mix) - Nick Hook
Step In Space (BLKJKSSNDSYSTM) - BLK JKS
Conquer The Sin (Hard Repent) - Nick Reinhart
Life Is An Experiment (Cloud Climber Version) - Andy Morin

In contrast to "New Amerykah, Part I: 4th World War", which was digitally produced and political in tone, "New Amerykah Part II" features lush live instrumentation and taps into Badu’s emotional side by thematically focusing on romance and relationships.

New Amerykah Part One is the fourth studio album by American R&B singer-songwriter Erykah Badu. It was released on February 26, 2008, by Universal Motown. Here we have both formats pressed on coloured vinyl!

Serial collaborator and poducer / DJ Regularfantasy rallies long-standing friends Cecile Believe (PC Music) and Priori (NAFF) for a 6-track release on Canada-based imprint Specials. Rich in the producer's big and wobbly aesthetic yet with a deep rooted pop sensibility running throughout; these are tune to soundtrack your power hour gym workout as much as they are driving down the highway on a Friday evening and getting ready for a Big Night Out.

Hooky, with proper melodies and vocal lines; there's still a weight and futuristic shine which lends itself to club play as much as radio broadcast. In short it's a tour de force of modernism, celebrating the diversity of dance music in 2023. With Cecile Believe and D.Tiffany's contributions equally satisfying, there's plenty to love about this superb mini album. Highly recommended! 

TRACK LISTING

1.So Sweet
2. Maybe Nevermind
3. Hot Gossip
4. Not Real
5. So Sweet (Cecile Believe's Pixie Mix)
6. Maybe Nevermind (D.Tiffany's Late Night Mix) 

Over the past 20 years, The New Pornographers have proven themselves one of the most excellent bands in indie rock. The group’s ninth album and first for Merge establishes them alongside modern luminaries like Yo La Tengo and Superchunk when it comes to their ability to evolve while still retaining what made them so special in the first place. A dazzling and intriguing collection of songs, Continue as a Guest finds bandleader A.C. Newman and his compatriots Neko Case, Kathryn Calder, John Collins, Todd Fancey, and Joe Seiders exploring fresh territory and shattering the barriers of their collective comfort zone.

Newman began work on Continue as a Guest after the band had finished touring behind 2019’s In the Morse Code of Brake Lights. Themes of isolation and collapse bleed into this album, as Newman tackles the ambivalence of day-to-day life during the COVID-19 pandemic. But Newman says that Continue as a Guest’s title track also addresses the concerns that come with being in a band for so long. “The idea of continuing as a guest felt apropos to the times,” he explains. “Feeling out of place in culture, in society, being in a band that has been around for so long—not feeling like a part of any zeitgeist, but happy to be separate and living your simple life, your long fade-out. Living in a secluded place in an isolated time, it felt like a positive form of
acceptance: find your own little nowhere, find some space to fall apart, continue as a guest.”

Newman discovered new vocal approaches within his own talent. There are new and rich tones to Newman’s voice throughout Continue as a Guest, from his dusky lower register over “Angelcover” to his slippery slide over the glimmering synths of “Firework in the Falling Snow,” to bold tones he embraces on the soaring “Bottle Episodes.” Another sonic change comes courtesy of saxophonist Zach Djanikian, whose tenor and bass luxuriate all over Continue as a Guest’s alluring chassis, especially on the menacing build of “Pontius Pilate’s Home Movies.”

Along with Newman’s usual collaborators, several songwriters contribute. The bursting opener and first single “Really Really Light” is a co-write with Dan Bejar (Destroyer, the New Pornographers). Then there’s “Firework in the Falling Snow,” a collaboration with Sadie Dupuis of Speedy Ortiz and Sad13. “I was feeling like I wanted some help, so I sent it to Sadie and she sent me back this complete song that had these great lyrics,” Newman says. “She included the line ‘A firework in the falling snow,’ and I was like, ‘Yeah, that’s great.’ Sometimes you need that one thing to center the song, and even though I only used a few lines of hers in the end, I couldn’t have finished it without her.”

Even as Newman embraces a collaborative spirit more than ever, Continue as a Guest is a testament to his ability to discover new artistic sides of himself. “I started out as a songwriter more than as a singer, but at some point, you have to sing your own songs,” he says with a chuckle. “For a long time, I felt like the idea of changing a song because I couldn’t hit a note wasn’t okay—I could just get someone else to sing it. But I’m learning now that my songs can actually be a lot more malleable than I thought.” And it’s in that spirit that Continue as a Guest sounds like a thrilling path forward for The New Pornographers, with songs that generate a contagious feeling of excitement for the future as well.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A
1. Really Really Light
2. Pontius Pilate’s Home Movies
3. Cat And Mouse With The Light
4. Last And Beautiful
5. Continue As A Guest
SIDE B
6. Bottle Episodes
7. Marie And The Undersea
8. Angelcover
9. Firework In The Falling Snow
10. Wish Automatic Suite

Full length double LP from contemporary Irish guitarist Jonny Dillon. Beautifully recorded blues / folk guitar pieces. Essential for fans of John Fahey. TIP!

Jonny Dillon’s debut acoustic LP ‘Songs For A One-String Guitar’ took the listening public by surprise and the critics by storm when it dropped out of the blue on All-City in 2019. It represented a departure for an artist who was renowned for having the Midas touch when it came to coaxing dance floor fire from all manner of hardware. But fortune favours the brave and temporarily setting the machinery aside and following an acoustic path to the waterfall has already reaped rich rewards for Jonny Dillon. He’ll never say it in so many words but here’s a man on a mission: “Fail as I may, I have to go back and try again every time, to wait in hope for a glimpse of the spirit that hovers over the face of the deep, and to keep watch for the Light that shines in the darkness.”

The generosity of spirit which is the linchpin of all great music is something that can neither be cheaply conjured nor ever easily faked, god forbid. It’s the elusive emotional conductor in the spinal cord of sound - a foundational component of that mysterious feeling of connection we as listeners are seeking every time we put the needle on the record or press play on a song. The very essence of the thing we seek, in short. The holy grail. When sweet music hits, it’s the spirit that moves us and it’s both the source of the power within it as well as ultimately the place where it resides inside of us too, once heard. This is how music works. Journeying. Spirit to spirit. From the makers and dreamers of the dream to dreamers in general. The indomitable spirit inherent in the instrumental guitar compositions and distinctive finger picking style of Jonny Dillon is a case in point. This is spiritful music of a rarer kind made by an artist as inherently attuned to the troubling times we are living through as he is to the value of carving out new paths to the waterfall through the medium of sound on our behalf. Boom and there it is. Much needed guidance. A priceless new navigational tool of the imagination to help us all through the maze.

Just like the debut offering, this a path inherently worth following too, every step of the way. This time Jonny’s singular playing style finds true expression in a sound world expertly shaped by a master of the production craft, John ’Spud’ Murphy in Hellfire Studio. Masters at work, times two. Like all dream productions, it quickly assumes three dimensional proportions and becomes a place to go in and of itself, worth returning and retreating to, time
and again. On A New Directive From The Bureau of Compulsory Entertaintment, his mode of expression is as clear and impactful as the immediate impression the sound makes on us. His is a strong game. He rises to the occasion and fulfils a great need on our part in so doing. We have to give thanks where it’s due. Balms for the soul are hardly two-a-penny in these challenging times but this is a timely one and of a lasting kind too. In stripping everything back and breaking his sound down into the bare component parts of reverberating steel strings on resonant wood, he has tapped into a kind of universal music of the spheres. It’s in tune with the times and more. Big picture sound with heart and soul to match. The iridescent sound he conjures from that same deep is a joyous thing to behold imbued as it is with a kind of light that never goes out. A dozen jewels adorn this timeless creation, each one a glimpse of eternity. They will shimmer forever. Man gets tired. Spirit don’t.

Dónal Dineen, January 2023.

TRACK LISTING

Numinous Hedgerows Look See
Hey Who Put These Sunsets Here
Rose Gardens Requiems
Lifes Railway To Heaven
Heaven Knows
After Vastopol
The Corridor Of The Heart
I Used To Just Drink Linden Village But Now I Live There
Day Is Breaking In My Soul Blues
In Christ There Is No East Or West
The Great Big Ship That Came And Floated Everybody Away
Here Comes The Ladder Of Divine Ascent

Vibraphone and keyboard player, master arranger and bandleader, Mulatu Astatke is one of the all-time greats of Ethiopian music and the creator of his own original music form, Ethio jazz. Through the acclaimed Ethiopiques album series and through featuring on the soundtrack to the Jim Jarmusch film Broken Flowers, his music has belatedly reached a global audience and a new, younger generation of fans. In November of last year, he recorded an inspired new album with London psych jazz band The Heliocentrics for Strut’s ‘Inspiration Information’ studio collaboration series. Now, Strut are proud to present, for the first time anywhere, the definitive Mulatu career retrospective covering his landmark ‘60s and ‘70s recordings.

Mulatu is a true pioneer of African music. He was the first Ethiopian musician of his generation to travel extensively and to record abroad – he studied in the UK in Wales and at Trinity College Of Music in London, cutting his teeth on the buoyant London jazz scene of the early ‘60s. He became the first African student to attend Harvard and he lived and recorded in New York, developing a unique sound that fused Western jazz with traditional Ethiopian melodies.

Tracing the progression of his Ethio jazz experiments with full access to all of the labels for whom he recorded, Mulatu Astatke: New York-Addis-London is the essential Mulatu. Covering his first recordings in the UK during 1965, his groundbreaking fusions for the small Worthy label in New York and his key ‘70s recordings back in Addis on Amha, Phillips and Axum, the album features comprehensive sleeve notes by Miles Cleret, boss of the excellent Soundway Records imprint, and rare, previously unseen photos from Mulatu’s personal archive.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Yèkèrmo Sèw
A2. I Faram Gami I Faram
A3. Shagu
A4. Emnete
A5. Mulatu
B1. Yègelé Tezeta
B2. Asiyo Bellema
B3. Ebo Lala
B4. Fikratchin
B5. Yefikir Tizita
C1. Dèwèl
C2. Yèkatit
C3. Girl From Addis Ababa
C4. Mascaram Setaba
C5. Ené Alantchie Alnorem
D1. Nétsanét
D2. Kasalèfkut Hulu
D3. Wubit
D4. Lanchi Biye
D5. Tezeta

Cryptically-named duo JOHN - comprised of John Newton (drums, lead vocals) and Johnny Healey (guitar, backing vocals) - return with their first new music since the release of their acclaimed third album Nocturnal Manoeuvres. It comes in the guise of the blistering 'Theme New Bond Junior', the A-side of a new 7" single, b/w 'Hopper on the Dial'.

Set to undulating guitar riffs and a greater sense of dynamics than ever before, 'Theme New Bond Junior' finds JOHN tackling the questioning feelings that arose as the band returned to the live circuit once venues began to open their doors as they embarked on a rapturous 30-date UK tour in autumn 2021, as well as recent festival slots at Green Man, End of the Road, Latitude, a main stage appearance at Bearded Theory’s Spring Gathering and a memorable return to the mainland at Belgium’s historic ROCK HERK.

“The arts function as a mirror of our wider culture, and it’s been interesting to see how the acceleration of the present affects most aspects of our lives - including the production of art and music," says Newton. "The track was a gestation on the speed of consumption: this includes both the constant update/obsolescence of physical products and their resulting affect on the human attention span.”

“Recently, it’s been concerning to see individuals - who have been pillars of creative action - questioning their ability to continue their jobs (and passions). Especially amongst the, quite frankly ridiculous, calls to ‘retrain’. I felt like the track helped us to keep our own momentum, continuing to stay positive and move forward despite the challenging scenery around us. With this in mind, it felt like the perfect track to act as a call-to-arms, introducing a new chapter as the first glimpse of a barrage of new stuff we’ve been focussing on.”

'Theme New Bond Junior' also marks a change in production personnel: beginning a collaboration between South London recording engineer Tom Hill of The Bookhouse Studio and mixing engineer Seth Manchester (Battles, METZ, The Hotelier) of Machines With Magnets, Rhode Island, USA.

STAFF COMMENTS

Laura says: How good is this?! Piccadilly's favourite noise makers return with this superb two tracker. Theme New Bond Junior is a typically JOHN thundering guitar and drum assault while Hopper On The Dial is a more brooding affair that slowly builds to a crescendo of soaring guitars, rumbling drums and half-spoken vocals.

TRACK LISTING

A1 Theme New Bond Junior
B1 Hopper On The Dial

Death Pill, are an all-female hardcore punk power trio of considerable muscle, combining metalcore, punk rock and (like labelmates ‘Shooting Daggers’) oodles of ‘Riot Grrl’ vibe. It’s significant how many female punk bands are using the stance and attitude of the ‘Riot Grrl’ movement as a touchstone for what they are about, but it doesn’t end there. From the classic punk of Black Flag, The Distillers and Circle Jerks, to modern outfits like Axe Rash and the thrash metal of Nervosa and Exodus, there’s a nod to all of this in Death Pill’s visceral sound. Full on and fully formed on their self-titled debut album. That aside, what makes this release even more pertinent for us, and the fact that it is happening at all, is that Mariana, Anastasiya and Nataliya are from the Ukraine, who’s troubles are well known to all of course, but naturally enough have hit the band very hard. Singer/guitarist Mariana tells the story so far. Just imagine: You are a 20-year-old girl. Society constantly puts pressure on you: you should find a nice husband, have children and at the same time build a successful career. But no one asks what do you really want? What are exactly your interests and ambitions? Because maybe you want to be a punk rock star? Yes, I do and even against it all. I can create a female non-commercial band, play heavy high-quality music, and ignite the crowd. After all, rock is not only about brutal men with curly long hair, right? Nafa (Anastasiya), the drummer, also got sick of this idea. Together we created an all-female punk rock band Death Pill (2017), just like we wanted to! There is a strong and super friendly community of people in Ukraine. It's a big family of true music lovers, people who live by creating the Ukrainian underground scene. This is also how we met Nataliia our bass player. After our first practice with her, we realized that this is a real perfect match. In February fucking Russia started a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. It really changed our plans, dreams, and attitude. Some do it with weapons in their hands, some volunteer and help in any way they can to bring our victory closer. Hard times, but right now we have a real chance to change lives for the better. Victory will be ours; we are sure of it We couldn’t have put it any better. So there is hope for sure, and as this album amply demonstrates, plenty of fighting spirit. It’s a killer debut. However, producing a ‘killer record’ under such extraordinary circumstances was a challenge too. Tracking started during Covid and was completed in late 2021, only three tracks were mixed before the war hit. However the band and their production team were able to somehow continue and finished everything including the artwork in 5 months whilst the Russian invasion rolled on. A testament to their drive and single mindedness. The musicianship and commitment on display is undeniable, plus the tracks on the album have been totally remastered for this release, sounding as fat and full as a raging whirlwind. Although things are uncertain, the band are still strong and still together.

TRACK LISTING

Side 1
1. Dirty Rotten Youth
2. Miss Revolt
3. Die For Vietnam
4. Друг
5. It's A Joke
Side 2
1. Go Your Way
2. Kill The Traitors
3. Расцарапаю Ебало
4. Would You Marry Me

Fresh from their celebrated UK tour, featuring a stand-out performance at London Jazz Festival, Ishmael Ensemble return with ‘Reasons’ the lead single from their forthcoming EP ‘New Era’, a collaborative project with lyricist and MC Rider Shafique.

Ishmael Ensemble’s Pete Cunningham says: “I first came across Rider Shafique about 6 years ago after I heard his piece “I-Dentity” via Bristol’s Young Echo collective & was immediately struck by his powerful way with words. A true master of his craft.This record was an opportunity to lean into the more bass-heavy side of my music taste. I’ve always been a massive fan of dub in all its forms & producers like King Tubby, Adrian Sherwood & Pinch have been a constant source of inspiration over the years. This sound palette coupled with a voice like Rider’s is something I’ve always wanted to make so I’m super happy with what we’ve produced here.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Intro (name Tbc)
A2. Polestar
A3. New Era
B1. Salm
B2. Reasons

Two-time Grammy Award-winning artist Kimbra’s fourth studio album, ‘A Reckoning’, is a reflective record capturing the macro reckonings of our world around the environment, health, race, spirituality and feminism. But at the heart of the record is her war with the micro reckonings that she faces internally.

It’s the most sonically autonomous and confessionally raw she has ever been, finding influence in everything from modern movie soundtracks to electro-industrial pop. The album was first imagined in 2018, during Kimbra’s tour with co-producer Ryan Lott of the band Son Lux, who recently scored A24’s ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’.

Kimbra hopes listeners will find catharsis and connection on ‘A Reckoning’, whether they are contending with change in their own lives or processing shifts in the world around them.

Kimbra’s debut album, ‘Vows’, went Platinum in Australia and New Zealand. Won Best Female Artist two years in a row at the ARIA Music Awards, as well as five New Zealand Tui Awards, including Album Of The Year, plus two Grammy Awards (Record Of The Year and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance) for ‘Somebody That I Used To Know’, her seminal duet with Gotye, that has sold 13 million copies and reached No. 1 on global charts (across 18 countries).

TRACK LISTING

1. Save Me
2. Replay!
3. Gun
4. The Way We Were
5. New Habit
6. GLT
7. La Type
8. Foolish Thinking
9. Personal Space
10. I Don’t Want To

Shellshock was a stand alone single released in March 1986. It was more electronic than 1985's previous LP, Low Life and was actually quite a bit poppier too. Asi it turned out the song was written to be included in that summer's blockbuster teen, coming of age movie Pretty In Pink and as a result was an international hit .

TRACK LISTING

A. Shellshock 9’41
B. Shellcock 7’35

Released in May of 1985, this astonishing track really upped the ante for New Order. Supremely melodic and with a brilliant synth refrain , this 12inch extended verion took the one off the LP and squared it! Coming in at nearly 9 minutes long this is one of New Order's greatest ever songs, and as with nearly all their remixes, this 12 inch extended verion is the  absolute one that you need!

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: The best ever version of one of New Order's greatest all time tracks.

TRACK LISTING

A. The Perfect Kiss – Full Version 8’46
B1. Kiss Of Death 7’02
B2. Perfect Pit 1’24

New Order are delighted to announce the release of the definitive edition of their 1985 studio album Low-Life. The collection includes an LP (180g), x2CDs, x2DVDs, a book and features unreleased rare material across the different formats and new sleeve designs.

CD 2 contains previously unreleased mixes and alternative versions, including Love Vigilantes and Sub-Culture instrumentals, Sooner Than You Think Full Length Unedited. The two DVDs include an unreleased performance from The Manhattan Club, Belgium and rarely seen footage from Rotterdam Arena (Netherlands), International Centre (Toronto, Canada) and a BBC filmed Whistle Test at The Hacienda, 1985.

The 180g vinyl LP will be wrapped in its original ‘heavyweight tracing paper’, designed by Peter Saville. In addition the CD will also be wrapped in the same way for the first time ever. Also included in the set is a beautifully presented hardback book featuring rare photos and a new interview with all band members. 

TRACK LISTING

LP 180g Vinyl
Side One
1. Love Vigilantes
2. The Perfect Kiss
3. This Time Of Night
4. Sunrise
Side Two
1. Elegia
2. Sooner Than You Think
3. Sub-Culture
4. Face Up CD1
1. Love Vigilantes
2. The Perfect Kiss
3. This Time Of Night
4. Sunrise
5. Elegia
6. Sooner Than You Think
7. Sub-Culture
8. Face Up

CD1
1. Love Vigilantes
2. The Perfect Kiss
3. This Time Of Night
4. Sunrise
5. Elegia
6. Sooner Than You Think
7. Sub-Culture
8. Face Up

CD2: Extras
1. Love Vigilantes - TV Pitch Instrumental Edit (mono)
2. The Perfect Kiss - Writing Session Recording
3. Untitled No. 1 - Writing Session Recording
4. Sunrise - Instrumental Rough Mix **
5. Elegia - Full Length Version *
6. Sooner Than You Think – Album Session Unedited Version
7. Sub-Culture - Album Session Early Instrumental Version
8. Face Up - Writing Session Recording
9. Let's Go – Album Session Instrumental
10. Untitled No. 2 - Writing Session Recording
11. Sunrise - Writing Session Recording
12. Love Vigilantes - Writing Session Recording
13. Sooner Than You Think - Writing Session Recording
14. Skullcrusher – Demo

All Tracks Previously Unreleased Except * And ** (previously Unreleased On CD And Digital)

DVD1
Live In Tokyo
The Koseinenkin Hall, Tokyo, Japan 1985
1. Confusion
2. Love Vigilantes
3. We All Stand
4. As It Is When It Was
5. Sub-Culture
6. Face Up
7. Sunrise
8. This Time Of Night
9. Blue Monday

Live In Rotterdam
The Rotterdam Arena, Netherlands 1985
10. As It Is When It Was
11. Everything's Gone Green*
12. Sub-Culture*
13. Ceremony*
14. Let's Go*
15. This Time Of Night*
16. The Village
17. The Perfect Kiss*
18. Age Of Consent*
19. Sunrise
20. Temptation*
21. Face Up*

Live In Manchester
Whistle Test, The Hacienda 1985
22. As It Is When It Was
23. Sunrise
24. Face Up - Restored Version Using Available Footage From The Hacienda Dec ‘85 And July ‘85.

DVD2
Live In Leuven
The Manhattan Club, Leuven, Belgium 1985
1. Let's Go*
2. The Perfect Kiss*
3. Age Of Consent*
4. State Of The Nation*
5. As It Is When It Was*
6. The Village*
7. Sub-Culture*
8. Atmosphere*
9. Blue Monday*
Bonus Tracks
10. Thieves Like Us*
11. Temptation*
12. Confusion - Restored Version From Damaged Tape With Mixing Desk Audio.*

Live In Toronto
Filmed By Paul Boyd
The International Centre, Toronto, Canada 1985
13. Elegia*
14. Sub-Culture*
15. The Village*
16. Sunrise*
17. We All Stand
18. As It Is When It Was*
19. Love Vigilantes*
20. 586*
21. Age Of Consent
22. Temptation
23. Ceremony*
24. The Perfect Kiss*

The Perfect Film
Rehearsal Room, Cheetham Hill, Manchester 1985
25. The Perfect Kiss
*unreleased

Sub- Culture followed Perfect Kiss as the second single to be taken from the Low Life LP. Coming out in October of 1985 it featured a hugely reworked and quite possibly superior remix by engineer John Robie. Everything here is bigger, bolder and basically more dancefloor friendly, WITHOUT compromising the beautiful song as featured on the original. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: A more aggressive take on one of the standout cuts from 1985's Low Life LP, this mix features souped up electronics and soulful backing vocals. This was massive in Manchester back in the day!

TRACK LISTING

A. Sub-culture 7’26
B. Dub-vulture 7’57

For the first time ever, Love’s original run of singles from 1966 to 1969 are collected and reissued, together along with two exclusive 7”s. The first vinyl box set from one of the all-time great psych-pop bands should thrill and enlighten fans in equal measure.

New Land were granted access to the original analogue master tapes courtesy of Rhino / Warner and all tracks were remastered especially for these singles by Grammy-nominated mastering engineer Bill Inglot.

Presented inside a deluxe box with spot-on gloss finish, the eight 7” singles, each featuring unique and original picture sleeves with Elektra-style New Land labels.

The two bonus singles include the previously promotional only ‘Que Vida’ / ‘Hey Joe’ and the newly created ‘Always See Your Face’ / ‘August’ single.

At the centre of this set is a 62-page booklet featuring track-by-track annotation by original guitarist Johnny Echols and in-depth liner notes from Grammy Award-nominated writer Andrew Sandoval. For this package the label have unearthed never-before-seen photographs of the band and included rare posters, singles, original master tapes and more. Every set also comes with a set of two promotional postcards.

Licensed with the blessing of Elektra Records founder and the man who signed Love, Jac Holzman, this is the first time a release has been put together which focuses on the band’s incredible run of singles through the 1960s.

“The musicians known collectively as Love were a group of five uniquely talented individuals... and though the full story of this fascinating cast of characters has yet to be told, this boxset represents a small sample of the body of work produced by this group and has proven to be timeless.” - Johnny Echols.

A must have for any fan, this is the ultimate collector’s item. The music inside shines brighter than ever.

Authentic original release track listing and artwork, issued for the first time on special transparent amber coloured vinyl.

TRACK LISTING

Side One
1. Wake Up And Make Love With Me
2. Sweet Gene Vincent
3. I’m Partial To Your Abracadabra
4. My Old Man
5. Billericay Dickie
Side Two
1. Clevor Trever
2. If I Was With A Woman
3. Blockheads
4. Plaistow Patricia
5. Blackmail Man

Every single psychonaut worth their salt can remember a moment, midway through some chemically-assisted voyage into the unknown, when someone in the room had the sheer gall to utter the immortal words that strike terror into the heart of everyone present: “Hey, imagine what it’d be like if we stayed this way forever?” Wonder no longer. Existing permanently stranded at the dizzying peak of a nightmarish hallucinatory travelogue, Shit & Shine are here to make that moment a reality. Yet thankfully, as always in this absurdist and electrifying realm, they’re notable for offering a different vision from the third eye whenever they make themselves manifest. What’s more, with New Confusion they’ve usurped their own outré paradigms yet again, resulting in a demented heat-haze panorama of delirious beat-driven abandon and elucidated neural pathways.

As ever the brainchild of Texan king of outlaw brinkmanship Craig Clouse, these nine abject and glorious meditations exist in an alternate dimension whereby a loop-driven exploratory framework is joyridden with alacrity offroad by a moonshine-swigging convict, a zone whereby aural scrap metal is alchemically transformed into gleaming, abstract and intimidating structures and sculptures anew. It may not have occurred to the average head that the sound of Tropicália melting gleefully in the sun (as here essayed on ‘Miami’) might be to their satisfaction, nor that the image of J Dilla trapped in a K-hole with Butthole Surfers would do anything but make them mildly anxious. Similarly, the prospect of Ming The Merciless screaming with rage at his internet service provider (see ‘Robbed’) may not be something that immediately appeals to music listeners around the globe, and nor could most folk imagine an in-the-red floor-filler being quite as pulverising and irresistible as the motorik mangler ‘Annoyed’, which kicks off this album in incendiary style - no less than the sound of ‘Hallogallo’-in-hell. Yet if the parallel universe of Shit & Shine exists for anything, it’s to map out new frontiers of wrong and righteous beyond your wildest expectations. Meet the new end-of-level boss. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Annoyed
2. Cocoa Leaves
3. Miami
4. Shipped
5. Runnin Around
6. Park Road 1-C
7. Riviera
8. Steak Butter
9. Robbed

For Fans Of Temples, Allah-Las, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Khruangbin, David Axelrod. Each song on Ghost Funk Orchestra's 3rd album, A New Kind of Love, due to be released on Colemine Records … 2022, resonates like the soundtrack to a scene from an imaginary movie. The music could score a romantic drama, an action thriller, or a modern twist on a classic film noir. The spare, cascading vocals accentuate the lush instrumental orchestrations composed, performed, arranged and produced by multi-instrumentalist Seth Applebaum, whose latest brainchild was conceived and conceptualized during The Great Pause of 2020, a time of tension, bewilderment and isolation.

Evoking the grooviness of an era which preceded his arrival on earth, Applebaum draws upon sonic devices of mid-century exotica and the succinct but dense arranging style of the leaders of the pop orchestras which dominated the hit parades of the 60s and early 70s. He blends impressions of this bygone era with an expression of his actual experiences as a young filmmaker coming of age in the 21st century, citing influences such as Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings and Antibalas. A New Kind of Love encompasses a reverence for the past without attempting to recreate it. In the tradition of the "production forward" discographies of such record makers as David Axelrod and the Mizell Brothers, it's easy to visualize Applebaum as a "mad doctor" figure, hunkered down in a studio channeling this musical representation of his inner world into the 12 compositions which make up A New Kind of Love.

His writing stretches his psyche to explore a terrain in which to capture emotional notes of love going well, love gone sour, manifesting love songs based in ghostly affairs. While the studio is obviously a wondrous happy place of experimentation and creativity for Applebaum, he's a band guy too (having actually fronted punk outfit The Mad Doctors). Applebaum has the wherewithal to bring his dreamy material to the 10 piece all star Ghost Funk Orchestra, leading them to breathe life into this sophisticated body of work which heralds the celebration of a new era for the group. Ghost Funk Orchestra will be touring in concert this summer and fall to celebrate the release of A New Kind of Love, an album which is sure to stand the test of time.

TRACK LISTING

1. Introduction
2. Your Man's No Good
3. Scatter
4. Prism
5. Quiet Places
6. A New Kind Of Love (pt. 1)
7. Why?
8. Blockhead
9. A Song For Pearl
10. Bluebell
11. Rooted
12. A New Kind Of Love (pt. 2)

The definitive account of the first rise and fall of Boy George and Culture Club, and British pop music in the 1980s. NEW EXPANDED EDITION, WITH A FOREWORD BY NEIL TENNANTFEATURES A BONUS CHAPTER ON DURAN DURAN AND A NEW AFTERWORD'Speaks from the centure of pop's beating heart.' DYLAN JONES'Fascinating.' NEW YORK TIMES'A controversial and honest account.' NME'Music journalism at its best.' THE WORDA story of money, sex, stardom, screaming fans and forgotten ideals, Like Punk Never Happened is Dave Rimmer's witty, authoritative, fast-moving and provocative insider account of the roller-coaster ride that was Boy George & Culture Club and the new '80s pop. 'Rimmer is among the most entertaining writers ever to pen a rock book.'ROCK AND ROLL CONFIDENTIAL'The funniest, smartest book I know about the connections between pop glitter and real-life human passion, the erotics of fandom, or the dirty details.'ROB SHEFFIELD, author of Talking to Girls about Duran Duran'As sharp a study of British pop as we'll get.'SIMON FRITH, CITY LIMITS

1957, a mammoth year for Mingus. He was on fire, recording several seminal titles including The Clown, Mingus Three, Tijuana Moods, East Coasting and A Modern Jazz Symposium Of Music And Poetry. Now, with the support of the Charles Mingus Estate, New Land are proud to present for the first time, the most expansive LP edition of A Modern Jazz Symposium Of Music And Poetry to date. A wonderful set featuring an all star band alternating throughout of Jimmy Knepper (trombone), Shafi Hadi (tenor and alto sax), Bill Hardman and Clarence Shaw (trumpet), Dannie Richmond (drums), Horace Parlan and Bob Hammer (piano), with narration by the fabulous Mel Stewart.

This is the ultimate edition, including all available outtakes and material related to the session, with the recordings having been remastered from the original tape transfers and lacquers cut by Kevin Gray, housed in a gatefold sleeve on reverse-board finish and printed by Pallas. A stunning album which is sometimes overlooked from the vast Mingus catalogue, however it emanates from one of his most creative periods and today stands out as a sublime conceptual recording.

TRACK LISTING

Side A:
Scenes In The City
Nouroog

Side B:
New York Sketchbook
Duke’s Choice
Slippers

Side C:
Slippers (Alternate Version)
Woody ’n’ You

Side D:
Billie’s Bounce
Scenes In The City (Single Edit)

Another unmissable 7” release from Public Possession ; “Up To You” is a celestial yet driving folk rock record with an irresistible groove. One of those perfect crossover moments that accidently skirts into Balearica without sounding forced or cliched.

The B-Side cut “New Tie Bow” is more like deep, spiritual, desert electronica. Tranquil, a rich and well balanced mix comprising of hovering synths and brushed drums; it possess a warming, calm quality that’s hard to place but impossible to ignore. Aiden Ayers is proving to be a diverse and skilled songwriter / instrumentalist, and we’re thrilled to share his musical journey. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Vancouver's Aiden Ayers continues to make splashes in the Balearic ocean. A skilled song writer whose more than a one trick pony, we also glimpse into his more electronic flavoured side on B-side track, "New Tie Bow". One to watch for sure. Manchester debut please!

TRACK LISTING

Up To You 
New Tie Bow 

38 years after taking their first tentative steps into the world of independent pop fame, The Chesterfields are back with a new album and live dates this September. New Modern Homes sees the band reuniting with producer John Parish who produced their debut album Kettle in 1987.

Founder member Simon Barber (bass, vocals) is joined by Andy Strickland (lead guitar, also known for his work with The Loft and The Caretaker Race), who briefly featured with the band in 1987, and more recent additions Helen Stickland (guitar, vocals) and Rob Parry (drums).

Musically the sound is an updated version of the music they made 30 odd years ago.

An 18 track compilation featuring the best of Croydon's punk and post punk scene! Are They Hostile? Is a new documentary film about the Punk, New Wave and Indie scene in Croydon in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. It takes its name from the first single by Croydon band Bad Actors. To coincide with the film’s release Damaged Goods Records are releasing a compilation vinyl LP and CD featuring bands from in the film including Johnny Moped, The Marines, The Daleks, Case, Fanatics and also bands such as The Straps who played Croydon many times usually at The Star Pub in West Croydon. The CD version also features a specially recorded introduction by the legendary ex-Croydon Greyhound DJ Peter Fox. It’s been argued that Croydon was the birthplace of Punk in the UK, largely due to The Damned and Johnny Moped.

But there was a group of other, less well-known bands who were part of that scene, or who came just after, but who didn’t achieve the same success or recognition. The film and album attempt to set the record straight by shining a light on bands such as Bad Actors, Case, The Daleks, The Heroes and Fanatics. the music still fizzes with the energy and enthusiasm of youth and the punk ethos of just doing it. And the participants, if a bit older and slightly less slim than forty years ago, come alive in the current interviews as if connected to the mains.

As the saying goes, “old punks don’t die”, but they do remember. The documentary film takes us through the history of these bands, the people in them, the places they played and, through current interviews with “a bunch of old punks”, what they did next, and how formative and important being in a band was for them growing up. The film is the brainchild of Bad Actor Griff Griffiths and Mark Williams and will premier at the David Lean Cinema in Croydon on 2nd September with a Q & A afterwards by Griff and Mark, and an aftershow party nearby with special celebrity guests TBC. Griff explains: “It’s also a film about being young, being passionate, being part of something.”

TRACK LISTING

1 - Bad Actors - Are The Hostile?
2 - Johnny Moped - Groovy Ruby (Live At The Roxy)
3 - The Marines - Step This Way
4 - Slime - Controversial
5 - Case - Smiling My Life Away
6 - The Daleks - Tiny Town
7 - Fanatics - Total Confusion
8 - The Straps - New Age
9 - The Heroes - Tarzan
10 - Bad Actors - One Of Us
11 - Johnny Moped - Incendiary Device (Live At The Roxy)
12 -The Marines - Pleasure Business
13 - Slime - Loony
14 - Case - I Don't Wanna Kill The Whales
15 - The Daleks - Rejected
16 - Fanatics - When The Sun Goes Down
17 - The Straps - Brixton
18 - The Heroes - Russia

Steve Earle has been creating intimate and personal music for well over four decades now. His songwriting has wound itself along a path from Texas to Tennessee and his education came in the form of learning from the best. 2009"s Grammy-nominated record, Townes was a tribute to his dear friend and mentor, Townes Van Zandt. Ten years later Earle released, Guy. An album concentrated on paying homage to the late Guy Clark and the indelible friendship that they had formed in stories told through song. 2022 welcomes the release of Jerry Jeff. A 10-song collection of songs written by the gypsy songman, Jerry Jeff Walker. Featuring hits like, 'Mr Bojangles' and 'Gettin' By', Earle and The Dukes honor the late Texan by amplifying the concept and sound of each song with a full-band recording.

TRACK LISTING

1. Gettin' By
2. Gypsy Songman
3. Little Bird
4. I Makes Money (Money Don't Make Me)
5. Mr Bojangles
6. Hill Country Rain
7. Charlie Dunn
8. My Old Man
9. Wheel
10. Old Road

The legendary reggae powerhouse is back with a brand new studio album, "New Day," the follow up to their 2018 Grammy nominated effort, "As the World Turns." The album release is the focal point of celebrating "50 Years of Black Uhuru" as 2022 marks 50 years since the band's formation in 1972 in Kingston, Jamaica. Flash forward 50 years from 1972, millions of albums have been sold, 8 Grammy nominations and 1 Grammy Award, and the band finds themselves looking back on the accomplishments and forwards to a "New Day" dawning.

TRACK LISTING

1. Jamaica To Here
2. Helltown
3. I Can See The Light
4. Brand New Day
5. Just Begun
6. Gal Next Door
7. Hold You
8. Nine Star Genera
9. Top Rankin
10. Scorching Day
11. Colour Blind Love Affair

Brand New Heavies’ seminal self-titled debut album sees full reissue on Acid Jazz, pressed on special edition blue vinyl

The record exploded in the summer of 1990, defining the the sound of the summer, while establishing both the band and the Acid Jazz label.

With a fresh take on their influences – ’70s Jazz Funk and Two-Step Soul – combined with a London Warehouse Party vibe, it began the groups journey to international success, with 16 Top 40 hits.

Includes raw funk cuts ‘BNH’ and ‘Sphynx’, as well as ‘Dream Come True’ and ‘Stay This Way’ – both of which would become US R&B and UK Pop hits.

Their legacy lives on with their spirit firmly residing in this classic debut LP.

TRACK LISTING

BNH
Gimmie One Of Those
Dream Come True
Put The Funk Back In It
People Get Ready
Ride In The Sky
Sphynx
Stay This Way
Shake Down

Blacklab are back. The self-proclaimed ‘Doom witch duo from Osaka’ are set to drop their 3rd album ‘In A Bizarre Dream’ this summer. Their debut ‘Under the Strawberry Moon 2.0’ saw them taking Sabbath inspired doom, mashing it with a Japanese sensibility and a fuzzed-up groove. It certainly caused a stir, but only hinted at their potential. Album two ‘Abyss’ added to the mix. A Stooges like squalor to the riffs, dollops of lo-fi hardcore punk and loose riffing, pointing the way towards a signature sound. So what of the ‘difficult’ third album? Not so difficult at all it seems. ‘In A Bizarre Dream’ ups the ante considerably, to let rip and define what Blacklab are about.

The combined talents of Jun Morino on production and Wayne Adams (Big Lad, Green Lung, Pet Brick, John, Cold In Berlin) on the mix have conspired to produce a towering beast of a record. A real step forward for the ‘Doom Witch Duo’. The drums have a humungous ‘Fugazi’ like welly, and the guitars are a boiling maelstrom of fuzz dense riffola and warped psychedelics, with added synth. Yuko’s throat shredding snarls are as mean as a pissed off Satan, and melodious, often within the same song. This is doom meets hardcore punk, hooky melodies, and killer riffs, all cranked up to the max. Japan has always had a special take on ‘noise’ and ‘heavy’ and with ‘In A Bizarre Dream’ Blacklab add their own spin to that tradition. Gone is the lo-fi approach, here is Blacklab in full effect.

‘Cold Rain’ and ‘Abyss Woods’ (debuted at their storming set at London’s Desert Fest and appearing here in its full version) are two nuggets of epic fuzz heavy doom with added screamo and a neat and canny grasp of melody at its core. Very much a Blacklab trademark. ‘Dark Clouds’ is D-beat fuelled hardcore, fierce and ferocious, with Chia’s rolling thunder drumming underpinning the distorted guitar. It’s pretty exhilarating stuff that shifts the mood perfectly. ‘Evil I’ is just that, a riff as evil as it gets, morphing into a chugging punk wig out. Then followed by ‘Evil II’ a breather, almost mellow, melancholy, with layers of dark overdrive threatening to explode beneath a sweet yet menacing vocal.

Then, the mid-point of the album drops a real surprise. Yuko has said before that the band’s name is a combination of her two favourite bands, Black Sabbath and Stereolab. Odd bedfellows to be sure, but if you want to know what that combination might sound like ... here it is. ‘Crows, Sparrows and Cats’ actually features Laetitia Sadier of Stereolab, no less, providing the lead vocal, adding a layer of cool over Blacklab’s Hawkwind meets krautrock sludge. It’s a stoner groove with pop at its heart ...Sludge Pop even, a surprising gem amongst the maelstrom of sound around it. The skewed, sludgecore of ‘Lost’ with its push-pull riffs and rolling thunder drumming, signals that it’s back to business as usual. And after the brief atmospheric instrumental interlude that gives the album its title, comes ‘Monochrome Rainbow’ a huge beast of a track so simple, yet so seductive, from its filtered bass intro to its massive ebb and flow groove and stomping ending.

The vocals are all mystery and melody, and the music is kind of a Groundhogs meets Goatsnake ten-ton fuzz-fest, with a singalong, wave your arms in the air chorus. The new Japanese Doom-blues, and what could be the album’s defining moment. ‘In A Bizarre Dream’ closes with ‘Collapse’ verging on noise rock, complete with throat shredding vocals and a crushing wall of guitars, that switch from a stoner groove to full on punk assault, teetering on mayhem before finally ending with the sound of Yuko switching off her fuzz pedal. Perfect. Blacklab have negotiated that ‘difficult’ third album with aplomb and have created a sound that, despite their many influences, is all their own.

TRACK LISTING

Side A

1. Cold Rain
2. Dark Clouds
3. Evil I
4. Evil II

Side B

1. Crows, Sparrows And Cats (feat Laetitia Sadier)
2. Lost
3. In A Bizarre Dream
4. Monochrome Rainbow
5. Collapse

Two albums in and London’s Grave Lines, purveyors of ‘heavy gloom’ have already carved a unique niche in the myriad spheres of heavy music. Their first album ‘Welcome To Nothing’ set the tone for their distinct take on doom metal, which was broadened even further with album two ‘Fed Into The Nihilist Engine’. An epic feast of hard ‘n’ heavy riffs coupled with brooding sadness interspersed with thoughtful transcendent moments of introspection. Never a band to rely solely on trotting out those ‘doom metal’ tropes, the band began to weave in gothic and experimental elements into their music, to delve deeper into the dark shadows of the psyche.

Now with their third album ‘Communion’ Grave Lines continue their exploration into the ugliness of the human condition, at the same time becoming a band that truly defies any pigeonhole. Continuing to hone and evolve their collective vision and aided by the masterful production of Andy Hawkins at The Nave Studios, 'Communion' sees Grave Lines creep further into the various corners of their sound. In a nutshell ‘Communion’ is a violent descent of bile-soaked intensity spiralling between filth laden swagger, and fragile mournful lament. The album delves into the internal aloneness of existence and the failings of the human connection.

Owing as much to Bauhaus and Killing Joke as it does to Black Sabbath or Neurosis, there are moments of gut wrenching doomed up heaviness and bellowing noise rock, contrasting with ambient gothic passages and a thoughtful melancholy, to a create a powerful new chapter in their ceaseless journey through the gloom. The seven tracks act as distinctly separate representations of the album, each individually mirroring the remoteness of human consciousness. Opening track 'Gordian' doesn't waste any time, a burst of feedback kicks you straight into a filthy low slung punked up stomp before the band switch mood to drop off into a doom abyss, singer Jake raging at the void.

'Argyraphaga' continues the pummelling groove, gradually descending into nihilistic sludge. In direct contrast the sprawling atmosphere of 'Lyceanid' travels through the darkness. Jake’s vocals harnessing the spirits of Scott Walker and Mark Lanegan in equal measure. The rest of the band (on top form throughout) focus the dynamics over eleven enthralling minutes, as the song builds and builds to a towering crescendo before finishing with a plaintive acoustic coda. This is pure Grave Lines’. An immersive blend of darkness and light. 'Tachinid' is a violent palette cleanser, harsh industrial synths astride a hateful droning spoken word sermon. 'Carcini' is soaring melancholic doom, with the band at their most melodic whilst still able to crush the listener. Broodsac, with its circular riffs, is all gothic post punk noise rock meets fuzz fat riffs, and album closer ‘Sinensis’ offers a final delicate, melancholy moment of calm before launching into an industrial charged grind into oblivion.

Grave Lines’ fusion of elements makes them one of the most powerful and mesmerising bands inhabiting the heavy music world at the moment, and with ‘Communion’ they have crafted an album that encapsulates their distinctive dynamic perfectly. ‘COMMUNION’ will be released in deluxe black and white smoke effect vinyl, housed in a full colour single sleeve with download included, CD and all digital platforms. 

TRACK LISTING

Side A

1. Gordian
2. Argyraphaga
3. Lycaenid.

Side B

1. Tachinid
2. Carcini
3. Broodsac
4. Sinensis

Produced by Edwyn Collins and featuring 4 top 40 singles such as 'Hey Scenesters!' and 'Mirror Kissers', this album proved to the likes of the NME that The Cribs had what it took to become not only a standout indie act but "the pop band of the year”. It would later be recognised as one of Q magazine’s 'Albums of the Century’.

TRACK LISTING

LP/CASSETTE TRACKLIST:
Side A
1 Hey Scenesters!
2 I'm Alright Me
3 Martell
4 Mirror Kissers
5 We Can No Longer Cheat You
6 It Was Only Love
Side B
7 The New Fellas
8 Hello? Oh...
9 The Wrong Way To Be
10 Haunted
11 Things Aren't Gonna Change
12 You’re Gonna Lose Us

CD TRACKLIST:
Disc 1:
1 Hey Scenesters!
2 I'm Alright Me
3 Martell
4 Mirror Kissers
5 We Can No Longer Cheat You
6 It Was Only Love
7 The New Fellas
8 Hello? Oh...
9 The Wrong Way To Be
10 Haunted
11 Things Aren't Gonna Change
Disc 2:
1 In The Room
2 Lost In The Crowd
3 You’re Gonna Lose Us
4 To Jackson
5 North Of England
6 It Happened So Fast
7 Happy’s Just A State Of Mind And A State Of Mind Is Just Electrical Impulses
8 Saturday Night Facts Of Life
9 I’m Still Blaming You
10 Advice From A Roving Artist
11 I Was Her Man But I Done Her Wrong
12 Modern Way
13 I’m Alright Me (Greenmount Demo)
14 Things Aren’t Gonna Change (Greenmount Demo)
15 Martell (Demo)
16 We Can No Longer Cheat You (Demo)
17 It Was Only Love (Demo)
18 The New Fellas (Demo)
19 Hello? Oh…(Demo)
20 The Wrong Way To Be (Demo)
21 Things Aren’t Gonna Change (Demo)
22 You’re Gonna Lose Us (Demo)

Arp, a.k.a. Alexis Georgopoulos, makes his anticipated return to Mexican Summer with the second chapter in his ZEBRA trilogy. New Pleasures advances the narrative begun with 2018’s acclaimed ZEBRA; pastoral in mood, expansive in style, the record acted as a dawn on a nascent, Edenic landscape, reminiscent of a beautiful, long-lost Fourth World album. In this world, the music approximated the patient cadence of geological time – the way time suspends when you watch a river in motion. There was, nonetheless, the presence of something alien on the horizon. Now, Arp drops us deep into the grid of the city. (Or is it a complex lattice of microchips?) New Pleasures fast-forwards a few centuries, locating listeners in a post-industrial Sprawl (to borrow an expression from William Gibson’s Neuromancer) of concrete and glass, imbuing the album with the flinty glow of commerce, the sleek rhythms of industrialization, and the cool finesse of brutalism. The result is a collection of futuristic pop interiors with glinted exteriors; a prismatic inquiry into machine sentience, the economy of desire, and myriad forms of possession – a dystopian response to ZEBRA’s idyllic naturalism. Canny and time-bending, Georgopoulos sculpts angularities into fresh, alluring shapes, expanding and contracting song form into brain-teasing sound design. The sensation the music offers is almost rubbery; it makes you feel as if you could flex, bend and squeeze your body inside out – a vivid, deconstructed take on high-definition pop, avant-garde, and dance music forms.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Peripheral
2. Plaza
3. New Pleasures
4. Le Palace
5. Traitor (Dub)
6. Preset Gloss
7. Sponge (for Miyake)
8. Embassy Disco
9. Eniko
10. Cloud Storage
11. I: /o

The third in this selection of superb low-priced collections from masters of the game Wagram see them turning their keen compilation eye towards the fruitful fields of soul. We get the legendary De La Soul teaming up with young upstart and customer favourite Tom Misch, some classic soul grooves from Dublex as well as a host of other smooth soul groovers. A great week for Wagram, and a good week for the wallet too. 

TRACK LISTING

A1. Cookin' On 3 Burners Feat. Kylie Auldist - This Girl
A2. Leisure - Slipping Away
A3. (Re:jazz) Feat. Alice Russell - Gabrielle
A4. Beady Belle Feat. India Arie - Self-Fulfilling
A5. Da Break - Give Your Love
B1. Tom Misch Feat. De La Soul - It Runs Through Me
B2. Terry Callier & Paul Weller - Brother To Brother
B3. Dublex Inc. Feat. Sandhy Sandoro - Shine
B4. Normanton Street - Take A Walk With Me
B5. Aloe Blacc & King Most - With My Friends

“Behold! I Make All Things New “ is all instrumental and consists of sparse works for lute and electronics. There are no vocals this time. It is more a return to the minimal neo-classical style of his early work. It was written and recorded in lockdown in Warsaw and Rotterdam between 2019 and 2021. Van Wissem lived in Brooklyn since the early nineties. He left New York because of Trumps Immigration Policies. There was no need for singing.Bio Jozef van Wissem is an avant-garde composer and lutenist playing his all black, one-of-a-kind custom-made baroque lute all around the world. The titles and the nature of his works often have a Christian-mystical appeal and the music he creates is simply timeless. In 2013 van Wissem won the Cannes Soundtrack Award at the Cannes Film Festival for Jim Jarmusch’s “Only Lovers Left Alive “. In December 2017 Jozef van Wissem was invited to perform the madrigal depicted in Caravaggio’s painting The Lute Player (1596) at the Hermitage museum of Saint Petersburg.

An autodidactic author, a Renaissance talent in the cruelty of the 21st century, who switched the intense lifestyle of a new wave artist and bar owner from Groningen to a modern-age thinker who studied lute in New York, and later became one of the most influential contemporary songwriters, known for his solo and cinematic works.

Van Wissem has earned much critical acclaim for his work, the ‘ liberation of the lute’ as he calls it. According to the New York times “Van Wissem is ‘both an avant-garde composer and a baroque lutenist, and thus no stranger to dichotomy”.

According to The Quietus “Van Wissem is possibly the best know lute player in the western world. To get into van Jozef Van Wissem’s world is to surrender to the inevitability – and timelessness – of a strange music created at its own pace, in a manner wholly of its creator’s making. He sets the listener into a private world, looking out through a glass darkly, such is the intense quality of the music. Brevity, simplicity, directness is the key. (The Quietus) His completely unique musical world can be easily verified by his collaborations, especially that these relationships are also strengthening his own musical character. He worked together with Zola Jesus, Tilda Swinton, Jarboe as well as with his long-time collaborative partner, also his friend, Jim Jarmusch.

The timeless value of his work can be described by one of his previous interviews: “… the lute goes against all technology and against all computers and against all the shit you don’t need.” While, at the same time, no matter if we’re talking about his cinematic works, remarkable collaborations or his own full-lengths, the honest, pure, yet frightfully peccable sound of Jozef van Wissem can always remind us to our true selves, and also our deepest fears. “Jozef van Wissem starts his set in the magnificent baroque interior of the medieval Budolfi church. His pizzicato looks so effortless that the ancient lute with three pegboxes at first seems to be a prop. Occasionally giving a piercing look towards the audience, the musician skillfully steers the course between the past and now. One of the time-travel themes is You Know That I Love You, a 16th century madrigal by the Renaissance composer Jacques Arcadelt. Three years ago van Wissem was commissioned to perform this piece at St Petersburg’s Hermitage museum which displays Caravaggio’s The Lute Player which also depicts a young man reading the notes of the same madrigal… The further this lute player travels, the more intense these shamanic charms are. Having performed a few minimalist instrumentals, van Wissem starts singing. The effect of these enchanting loops is enhanced by the mantra-sounding lines “Do you feel like you want to? Do you ever feel like you want to?”. Later, for the encore, he plays another piece including all-the-more hypnotising lyrics “Love destroys all Evil and frees us” multiplied and intensified.” – Louderthanwar at Northern Winter Beat Festival 2020, Aalborg (DK)

TRACK LISTING

1. The Cool Shade Of Eternity
2. What Hearts Must Bleed, What Tears Must Fall
3. All Become One One Become All
4. A New Earth
5. Your Flesh Will Rise In Glory On The Day Of The Future Resurrection
6. Enter Into The Joy Of Our Lord
7. The Adornment (CD Bonus Track)

Wren Hinds brought fresh thematic cogency to his third album, recorded in early 2020. The linking matter is his unerring ability to apply himself to each new situation, in this case a longing for connection - to humanity, nature - in a world tilted towards digital disconnection. While the lockdowns intensified the album's dystopian fears, the beauty and artistry in Wren's song craft counterpoint the shadows eloquently. The title-track laments "digital modification" over gamelan-ish flutters across six delicate minutes. All spectral voices and pining, 'Sign of Life' yearns for "some act of human kindness" to a wind-caressed cowboy lollop. 'The Pearl' longs for blissful quietude, while 'Wrenbird' evokes Sam Beam at his dreamiest. River's Song' adds soft, sure layers of accordion and guitar, before 'The Path' marshals misty harmonies and finger-picked guitar for a gentle declaration of resistance. "Bang your freedom drum," sings Wren, mapping out a singular path with understated assurance.

“Absolutely thrilled to be putting out ‘A Child’s Chant for the New Millennium’ with Bella Union! At the end of 2019 through early 2020 I buried myself amongst instruments, wires, synths, guitars and whatever I could get my hands on, I lost myself in the layering of textures, sounds and vocal overtones, armed with the scribbles of a couple new songs, ‘A Child’s Chant’ was born”.

TRACK LISTING

1. A Child's Chant For The New Millennium 06:01
2. Sign Of Life 05:28
3. The Pearl 05:44
4. Wrenbird 04:29
5. River's Song 04:04
6. The Path 02:37
7. Conclusion 00:19

To arrive at this album, the acclaimed artist and songwriter has come a long way – both experientially, musically and philosophically. Musician, composer and producer, Nick’s work pushes boundaries in songwriting and sound, music both traditional and experimental, acoustic and electronic. A founding member of the award-winning British collective Portico Quartet, he left in 2011 to concentrate on his own material. Once solo, he released the Mercury Prize nominated debut album First Mind in 2014, and 2017’s celebrated Wake Up Now, along with a number of EPs. On New Mythology, our shared humanity becomes common sense and this humanity and the natural world are enmeshed. The possibility of flourishing futures becomes real. The album explores the vulnerability of the everyday human experience; becoming a father, sickness and death, navigating the pandemic, but also Nick’s journey to compute the scope and scale of his feelings: an attempt to embody the personal all the way to the planetary – and grasp their true inseparability. ‘Star Nation’, and ‘Begin Again’ - released during the pandemic - both sow the seeds of this interconnected space.

New Mythology was recorded during the pandemic in Paris with renowned producer Renaud Letang [Manu Chao, Feist, Connan Mockasin] at Studio Ferber – which miraculously remained open whilst the city was in lockdown. Nick also credits his friends and family, teachers past and present who’ve helped him arrive at this point – from mentors like the Polynesian ambassador and elder Aunty Ivy, the life’s work of Thich Nhat Hanh, Thomas Berry’s collection of essays evening thoughts and Mac Macartney’s book The Children’s Fire. Further inspiration Nick credits to his beloved homeland of Britain, his ever deepening kinship to the land, ancestors and the living world. Now, Mulvey finds himself at the precipice of change and is ready to share his raw musings with the world.

TRACK LISTING

1. A Prayer Of My Own
2. Star Nation
3. Mecca
4. Brother To You
5. Shores Of Mona
6. The Gift
7. Sea Inside (Third Way)
8. Causes
9. Another Way To Be
10. Mona
11. Interbeing Part 1
12. Begin Again (Love You Just The Same)

The two halves of Tampa rap duo They Hate Change - Dre (he/him) and Vonne (they/them) - first came together in front of the apartment complex where they both lived as teens. Dre had just moved down from Rochester, NY; Vonne was trying to sell him bad weed. It was clear from the start that the two listen to music differently from most people - they’re sonic omnivores, obsessive deep-divers, lovers of rare and radical sounds.

Starting as kids trawling the internet for tracks, they’ve been collecting music from around the world and across the decades, amassing a shared sonic knowledge so deep that ‘encyclopedic’ barely begins to cover it - not just the East Coast hip-hop that Dre grew up on, or the hyper local bass-music variants like jook (the Gulf Coast’s twerkably raunchy answer to house) and crank (think ‘Miami bass meets NOLA bounce’), but also drum &bass, Chicago footwork, post-punk, prog (they’re, like, seriously into prog), grime, krautrock, emo, and basically any genre on the map.

Once they graduated to DJs on the Tampa DIY scene - which includes everything from punk rock house parties to the black ‘teen nights’ that pop up in rec centres and ballrooms - they figured out how to pull all these disparate sounds together into a cohesive style. More importantly, they figured out how to make it something people will actually move to. When they made the transition to rapping and making beats, they brought that pleasure-seeking approach to sonic experimentation with them.

TRACK LISTING

1. Stuntro
2. Breathing
3. Who Next?
4. Reversible Keys (ft. Vritra)
5. Blatant Localism
6. Coded Language
7. (Interlude)
8. 1000 Horses (ft. SARGE)
9. Little Brother
10. Some Days I Hate My
11. Voice
12. CERTI
13. Perm
14. X-Ray Spex
15. From The Floor (ft. DJ GAYZ)

Robert Lloyd is unique in 'punk' as someone who began his career at the start of the era, never fell prey to cliché or temptations of mass stardom, actually still works and now, in 2022, stands at his artistic and commercial peak . . . not that Robert's saying any of that, but does it matter? His status is due to a number of factors: a gambler's luck, backing by the finest version of Nightingales yet assembled, his faultless wry humour and wit, a difficult but unimpeachably excellent body of work, and the fortuitous timing of 2021's Robert Lloyd documentary, King Rocker. The release of film seems cunningly planned, with its roll-out brilliantly plotted, although it was actually the Covid epidemic which caused the cancellation of this film's scheduled theatrical screenings.

Rather than postpone, Fire Films' James Nicholls made the unusual choice of making a deal to release the film through Sky TV, where it was an immediate success and has been shown many times since. The audience, captive at home by way of the epidemic, was far larger than hoped, and as a result, The Nightingales have emerged as one of this era's most brilliant, unorthodox and genuine bands of the post-punk. Three planned tours for the band's last album, were Covid-cancelled before a fourth attempt succeeded. With bassist Andi Schmid stuck in Germany and unable to record, the band asked three of their fans to remix tracks from Four Against Fate.

The titles - let alone the radically alterations hereon - give no clue to which tracks were remixed. Contributing their massive talents are DJ Surgeon, whose stint as an opener for Lady Gaga push the band ever closer to the charts (err, not likely, but the tune is brilliant!), The Go! Team's Ian Parton, who'd posted of his affection for the band and remains a figure of fascination, being a good dollop more talented than other young upstarts, and Randy Kuntz, whose devilish musical skills have added serious sizzle to the last few Nightingales records. As Nightingales toil on new projects, initial plans for The New Nonsense could not be realised. Worldwide vinyl pressing delays made delivery before last year's tour impossible. The project seemed destined for collector status from the start - we pressed too few copies, Robert though it would be 'novel' to set the back sleeve ninety degrees off from the front sleeve, Four Against Fate is now nearly two years old, and the creative efforts of the band did not slow during lockdown

This is the second 12" EP featuring reinterpretations of tracks taken from the brilliant Nicola Conte & Gianluca Petrella's jazz dance album "People Need People" released in 2021. The song "Inner Light" gets here a further interpretation by the great Anthony Nicholson, one of the most respected producers and key characters in the tribal / afrocentric house scene, while DJ Spinna has put his artistry on "New World Shuffle" for an uplifting result: Bridgette Amofah's original vocals shine over a sunny house groove full of keys and moog lushy layers, in a distinctive 'Spinna feel'. Coming next: new versions of "People Need People" songs made by Tall Black Guy, Andrés and Fred P.! Stay tuned!!!

STAFF COMMENTS

Millie says: The second instalment of remixes from People Need People and this doesn't disappoint, high energy electronica nu-jazz with a housey vibe. Very very into this.

TRACK LISTING

1. New World Shuffle (DJ Spinna Galactic Soul Remix) [feat. Bridgette Amofah]
2. Inner Light (Anthony Nicholson Miquifaye Remix) [feat. Raashan Ahmad]

New Heavy Sounds is very proud to bring you Moongazer, the 2nd album by the 4 piece stoner rock powerhouse from Italy, TENEBRA. The band had already made waves on the scene with their debut album ‘Gen Nero’ before delivering ‘What We Do is Sacred’ their debut EP for New Heavy Sounds last year, 3 killer tracks that were but a taster of things to come. Moongazer takes the story a stage further with 9 slabs of crushing fuzzed up grooves, fuelled by 70’s proto metal, hard rock, punk, psych-blues and noise, loaded with great riffs and melody and topped off by gutsy soulful vocals.

Musically, you could say that TENEBRA occupy similar musical terrain to bands such as Graveyard, Witchcraft, Kadaver and other bands of that ilk, but TENEBRA are very much their own beast. They have all the chops of course, but are musically less slavish, often adding a twist that keeps the songs fresh and now. There’s also very little reliance on Sabbath-isms (apart from one cheeky nod) and though occult rock is also part of the vibe, the music steers well clear of the cliches.

In fact the band bring a clutch of left field influences into their melting pot as well, from June of 44 and Love Battery to the Misfits and the psych grunge of Screaming Trees. Of the 4 members, Claudio (bass), Emilio (guitar) and Mesca (drums) came from the hardcore and post-hardcore squat scene that gathered around Bologna, whereas their formidable vocalist Silvia (the youngest of the crew) is immersed in the underground rock of the '60s and' 70s. When you hear her sing you’ll know where she’s coming from as she has one helluva rock voice, laced with whiskey, smoke, grit, late

TRACK LISTING

1. Heavy Crusher
2. Cracked Path
3. Black Lace
4. Carry My Load
5. Winds Of Change.
6. Stranded
7. Space Child
8. Dark And Distant Sky
9. Moon Maiden

Zero 7’s 4th album Yeah Ghost from 2009, spans everything from dance pop to acoustic folk and everything in between it's an idea-splattered work of genius that even includes a quartet of instrumental tracks derived from their experimental side projects and sampled, overdubbed and rebuilt from scratch. From the evocative intro 'Count Me Out' to the album's shuffling, twitchy closer 'All Of Us' - via the haunting 'Solastalgia' and 'Ghost sYMbOL' avant-garde electronic and distorted vocals - it's Zero 7 as you've never heard them before. 'Destiny' this aint. One thing that remains consistent though is the roll call of up-and-coming talent on vocal duties, including singer ESKA Mtungwazi. The Londoner, whose collaboration credits include Matthew Herbert and Bugs In The Attic, appears on 'Mr McGee', 'Medicine Man', 'Sleeper' and 'The Road' & folk singer songwriter/ painter / filmmaker Martha Tilson for Pop Art Blue.

TRACK LISTING

LP Tracks:
Disc 1
1. Count Me Out
2. Mr McGee
3. Swing
1. Everything Up (Zizou)
2. Pop Art Blue
3. Medicine Man

Disc 2
1. Ghost SYMbOL
2. Sleeper
3. Solastalgia
1. The Road
2. All Of Us

CD Tracks:
1. Count Me Out
2. Mr McGee
3. Swing
4. Everything Up [Zizou]
5. Pop Art Blue
6. Medicine Man
7. Ghost SYMbOL
8. Sleeper
9. Solastalgia
10. The Road
11. All Of Us
12. E Sgwers (demo Version)
13. Methods
14. Ghost SYMbOL (Klang Version)

The New York City duo of Jasmine Golestaneh and Eddie Cooper aka Tempers specialize in a sleek strain of low-lit poetic synth-pop, the latest statement of which feels like the peak fruition of their elusive alchemy. With New Meaning, Tempers present an album about navigating the unknown, coping mechanisms and exploring the nature of choice. Its ten songs reflect on the creation of meaning as an access to freedom and purpose in times of transition and loss. Speculating on the transformative potential that exists alongside the grief of living in a world that is in an ongoing state of crisis.

This is distinctly nocturnal music, elegantly introspective and quietly intense, born of “living in a society that is still a dream of itself.” Tracks like “Unfamiliar,” “Here Nor There,” and “Song Behind A Wall” distill the Tempers template to icy pop perfection, drum machinery framed in shivering reverb, Golestaneh’s voice both ethereal and towering, simultaneously within and above. On other cuts, Golestaneh and Cooper’s production skews more evocatively greyscale, from new wave shadowplay (“Carried Away”) to depressive disco (“In And Out Of Hand”) to an elegy of hopeful resignation (“Secrets And Lies”). Cooper speaks of production ideas regarding “human architecture,” breathing life into the precision of electronics, and of melodic intervals “on the exact edge between major and minor, severe and sweet.”

New Meaning is a document of forking paths and fleeting transcendence, the liberation of instability and impermanence, of embracing “a constant state of becoming.” Ten anthems for a derailed age, fugitive and sympathetic, nightwalking through an “anguished city” towards a nameless future, poised for rebirth: transcendent state, as if having finally glimpsed beyond the pale: “When I have / when I have no name / my joy is blinding.”

TRACK LISTING

A1. Nightwalking
A2. Unfamiliar
A3. Multitudes
A4. In And Out Of Hand
A5. It Falls Into You
B1. Secrets And Lies
B2. Here Nor There
B3. Song Behind A Wall
B4. Carried Away
B5. Sightseeing

New Heavy Sounds is proud to present the new album by Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard. now known simply as MWWB. There has been some speculation amongst fan circles that the final part of the trilogy of albums that preceded this, marked the end of Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard’s five-year mission. Not so. We can categorically confirm that having officially slimmed their name down to the acronym, MWWB are continuing their voyage through the far reaches of the galaxy.

The first phase of that journey is their new album ‘The Harvest’. ‘The Harvest’ is the band’s fourth album, and of course it is a record shot through with the trademark heavy MWWB sound, and their unique blend of metal and shoegaze. However it also sees the band adding more experimentation, a progressive approach, and going a bit more left field conceptually. To some extent, it shares similarities with Pink Floyd’s ‘Dark Side Of The Moon’. Not only by having the mix of experimentation and melodicism as that seminal record, but also in the way that it has been engineered and constructed as a seamless piece. Nine tracks flowing into one another. Space age riff monsters segueing into shorter musical interludes, where John Carpenter, rubs shoulders with Pink Floyd and a maelstrom of moog and mellotron.

There are surprises, and of course a bucketload of heavy shit. With ‘The Harvest’ MWWB have refined and honed their sound, it’s a carefully crafted distillation of ideas, written, conceived and sequenced to be listened to in its entirety (preferably in one sitting). MWWB have always loved film scores and this new album is in many ways, the soundtrack to a film. MWWB provides the musical narrative (the song titles also provide a pointer) and the listener's imagination does the rest. ‘Oblok Magellana’ and its spooky atmospherics set the scene. before things really kick in with the riffs of title track ‘The Harvest’.

A grooving Sabbathian chug intro’s Jessica Ball, who at the top of her game throughout. Her voice simultaneously sweet yet dark; almost neofolk; which when put against those riffs, is always a startling juxtaposition, nevertheless it perfectly crystallises MWWB’s distinctive dynamic. ‘Interstellar Wrecking’ is a succinctly crafted nugget of John Carpenter-esque drama, you can imagine the thundering mothership forging its way through the universe on some nameless quest before encountering ‘Logic Bomb’ and its fat fuzzed-up ride through light and shade guitar/vocal interplay. Ball’s voice soaring and shimmering throughout. ‘Betrayal’ gives a nod to Pink Floyd’s ‘On The Run’ but with its freaky spoken word and four on the floor kick it’s almost a dance track, yet there’s no incongruity here. ‘Altamira’ is epic MWWB, adding large doses of psych into a melodic concoction of dreampop and metal.

Ball’s vocals here are many layered and textured effortlessly gliding through the weight of the backing. ‘Let’s Send The Bastards Whence They Came’ is another little gem. A plaintive repeating synth figure that builds with bass, drums, mellotrons and synths into ‘Strontium’ which rounds off the album’s ‘heavy’ numbers, a blend of monster grooves, and Ball’s swooning vocals. Finally, and outstandingly, Jessica strips things back to a distorted guitar and voice on ‘Moonrise’. Shorn of the layers of fuzz, it is a simple, beautiful and fitting catharsis to an epic voyage. MWWB are a thrilling proposition. They demonstrate that you can seamlessly mix crushing power, experimentation and delicate vulnerability into something that transcends any genre. MWWB are Jessica Ball, vocals and synths. Paul Michael Davies, guitar and synths. Stuart Sinclair, bass and Dom McCready, drums. 

TRACK LISTING

SideA

1. Oblok Magellana
2. The Harvest
3. Interstellar Wrecking
4. Logic Bomb
5. Betrayal…

Side B

1. Altamira
2. Let's Send These Bastards Whence They Came
3. Strontium
4. Moon Rise

Having exploded onto the scene with 9 self-released albums between 2017 and 2019, UK-based outfit Ill Considered are breaking new ground with their first fully produced studio album and an interactive audio/visual performance residency at Southbank Centre’s Purcell Room, this autumn. Capturing a moment of transformation for the group, Liminal Space not only features a new core line-up of Idris Rahman (saxophone), Liran Donin (bass) and Emre Ramazanoglu (drums), but also sees Ill Considered bounce their live-wire style off a range of collaborators such as Collocutor’s Tamar Osborn, Steam Down saxophonist Ahnanse, tuba player Theon Cross and percussionist Sarathy Korwar.

TRACK LISTING

1. First Light
2. Sandstorm
3. Loosed
4. Dust
5. Dervish
6. Pearls
7. Light Trailed
8. Knuckles
9. The Lurch
10. Prayer

RIYL: Explosions in the Sky, This Will Destroy You, Do Make Say Think, Mogwai.

Defying expectations is standard operating procedure for El Ten Eleven. Seriously, who would expect two instrumentalists to create such a large and complex sound? But thanks to inventive arrangements and a masterful use of looping, Kristian Dunn (bass/guitar) and Tim Fogarty (drums) developed a pulsating sound full of atmospheric intensity. They’ve also crafted an incredibly durable career, and the duo credit the ongoing interest in their debut album as the foundation for that success. The music of El Ten Eleven has been embraced by fans of many genres - from math rock, to jazz, to lo-fi hip-hop. The duo's sound is sharply evocative in mood and feeling, yet simultaneously abstract and meditative.

The combination of these qualities has stimulated the imagination of the group's fans, and gives space for listeners to assign their own value and meaning to the sounds. "I'm aiming for emotional impact when I come up with songs," Dunn explained. "Does it move me? Does it make me feel something? Sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes it's technically interesting but it doesn't make me feel anything. But I don't want music that's interesting. I want music that's emotionally resonate." 

TRACK LISTING

1. New Year’s Eve
2. Meta Metta
3. The Time Knife
4. Isn’t Everything Enough?
5. Sixteen Circles
6. A Reflection Of A Reflection

Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You is a sprawling double-LP exploring the deepest elements and possibilities of Big Thief. To truly dig into all that the music of Adrianne Lenker, Max Oleartchik, Buck Meek, and James Krivchenia desired in 2020, the band decided to write and record a rambling account of growth as individuals, musicians, and chosen family over 4 distinct recording sessions. In Upstate New York, Topanga Canyon, The Rocky Mountains, and Tucson, Arizona, Big Thief spent 5 months in creation and came out with 45 completed songs. The most resonant of this material was edited down into the 20 tracks that make up DNWMIBIY, a fluid and adventurous listen. The album was produced by drummer James Krivchenia who initially pitched the recording concept for DNWMIBIY back in late 2019 with the goal of encapsulating the many different aspects of Adrianne’s songwriting and the band onto a single record.

TRACK LISTING

Change
Time Escaping
Spud Infinity
Certainty
Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You
Sparrow
Little Things
Heavy Bend
Flower Of Blood
Blurred View
Red Moon
Dried Roses
No Reason
Wake Me Up To Drive
Promise Is A Pendulum
12,000 Lines
Simulation Swarm
Love Love Love
The Only Place
Blue Lightning

Elvis Presley was rock & roll's first real star and one of the most important cultural forces in history - a hip-shaking symbol of liberation for the staid America of the 1950s. Included on this set are Elvis' greatest hits from the period 1955-62, among them all his King singles that reached number one on the U.S. pop charts between 1956 and 1962. Among other smash hits, this release includes both sides of the single "Hound Dog"/"Don't Be Cruel", "I Want You", " I Need You, I Love You", "Heartbreak Hotel", "All Shook Up", "Don't", "Are You Lonesome Tonight?", "It's Now or Never", and "Surrender". Without a doubt, these are the songs upon which the Elvis Presley legend was built.

TRACK LISTING

1. Mystery Train 
2. Heartbreak Hotel 
3. I  Want You, I Need You, I Love You 
4. Hound Dog 
5. Don't Be Cruel 
6. Blue Suede Shoes 
7. Love Me Tender 
8. Too Much 
9. All Shook Up 
10. (Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear 
11. Don't 
12. Jailhouse Rock 
13. Hard Headed Woman 
14. Big Hunk O'love 
15. Stuck On You 
16. It's Now Or Never 
17. Are You Lonesome Tonight? 
18. Surrender 
19. Can't Help Falling In Love 
20. Good Luck Charm 
21. Return To Sender

Following on almost exactly a year to the day from the release of their acclaimed debut “For the first time”, the band have harnessed the momentum from that record and run full pelt into their second, with “Ants From Up There” managing to strike a skilful balance between feeling like a bold stylistic overhaul of what came before, as well as a natural progression.

Their debut “For the first time” is a certain 2021 Album of the Year, having received ecstatic reviews from critics and fans alike as well as being shortlisted for the prestigious Mercury Music Prize. Released in February to extensive, global, critical support - perhaps best summed up by The Times who wrote in their 5/5 review that they were "the most exciting band of 2021" and The Observer who called their record "one of the best albums of the year" - the album made a significant dent on the UK Albums Chart where it landed at #4 in its first week, a remarkable achievement for a largely experimental debut record. The album also reached #1 on Any Decent Music, #2 at Album Of The Year and sat at #1 on Rate Your Music for several weeks, remaining the record to generate the most fan reviews and site discussion there this year. Black Country, New Road were also declared Artist Of The Week and Album Of The Week by The Observer, The Line Of Best Fit and Stereogum, and saw features, including covers and reviews, from the likes of Mojo, NPR, CRACK, Uncut, The Quietus, Pitchfork, The FADER, Loud & Quiet, The Face, Paste, The Needle Drop, DIY, NME, CLASH, So Young, Dork and more.

With “For the first time” the band melded klezmer, post-rock, indie and an often intense spoken word delivery. On “Ants From Up There” they have expanded on this unique concoction to create a singular sonic middle ground that traverses classical minimalism, indie-folk, pop, alt rock and a distinct tone that is already unique to the band.

Recorded at Chale Abbey Studios, Isle Of Wight, across the summer with the band’s long-term live engineer Sergio Maschetzko, it’s also an album that comes loaded with a deep-rooted conviction in the end result. “We were just so hyped the whole time,” says Hyde. “It was such a pleasure to make. I've kind of accepted that this might be the best thing that I'm ever part of for the rest of my life. And that's fine.”

TRACK LISTING

LP
Side A
A1. Intro
A2. Chaos Space Marine
A3. Concorde
A4. Bread Song
Side B
B1. Good Will Hunting
B2. Haldern
B3. Mark’s Theme
Side C
C1. The Place Where He Inserted The Blade
C2. Snow Globes
Side D
D1. Basketball Shoes

CD 
Intro
Chaos Space Marine
Concorde
Bread Song
Good Will Hunting
Haldern
Mark’s Theme
The Place Where He Inserted The Blade
Snow Globes
Basketball Shoes

4LP Box Set / Deluxe CD
Ants From Up There
Side A
A1. Intro
A2. Chaos Space Marine
A3. Concorde
A4. Bread Song
Side B
B1. Good Will Hunting
B2. Haldern
B3. Mark’s Theme
Side C
C1. The Place Where He Inserted The Blade
C2. Snow Globes
Side D
D1. Basketball Shoes

Live From The Queen Elizabeth Hall 
Side A
A1. Mark’s Theme (Live From The Queen Elizabeth Hall)
A2. Instrumental (Live From The Queen Elizabeth Hall)
A3. Athens France (Live From The Queen Elizabeth Hall)
Side B
B1. Science Fair (Live From The Queen Elizabeth Hall)
B2. Sunglasses (Live From The Queen Elizabeth Hall)
Side C
C1. Track X (Live From The Queen Elizabeth Hall)
C2. Opus (Live From The Queen Elizabeth Hall)
C3. Bread Song (Live From The Queen Elizabeth Hall)
Side D
D1. Basketball Shoes (Live From The Queen Elizabeth Hall) 

In December 2021, Matador Records will celebrate the 21st anniversary of The New Pornographers’ debut record and breakout, Mass Romantic (2000), with a limited-edition LP reissue. The album – clocking three singers and twelve effervescent and undeniable power-pop gems – will return to us on red vinyl and will include a bonus 7”, “Letter From An Occupant”, which includes two rare B-sides, “The End of Medicine” and “When I Was a Baby.” 

TRACK LISTING

Mass Romantic
The Fake Headlines
The Slow Descent Into Alcoholism
Mystery Hours
Jackie
Letter From An Occupant
To Wild Homes
The Body Says No
Execution Day
Centre For Holy Wars
The Mary Martin Show
Breakin’ The Law

Letter From An Occupant (7”)
The End Of Medicine (7”)
When I Was A Baby (7”)

Old Friends New Friends was pieced together during the pandemic as Frahm used the time to arrange his archives, conscious of the sheer number of recordings he’d accumulated. Having selected his favourites, he realised how, when he listened to them together, they offered “a different spectrum of freedom for me. I forgot that some tracks are ten years old, some two, and they’re all played on different pianos. Instead I remembered how, as a fan, I love albums like this. With a lot of my records there’s a point where you feel, ‘This is the centrepiece,’ but here I wasn’t really worrying about that. It still feels like my universe, though, and I’m proud that all these things which I never found a way to unite before now work together. It’s like I tossed flowers indiscriminately into a vase and then realised it looked exactly right.”

One can only guess how difficult it may initially have been to narrow down candidates for public consumption from the wealth of choices, because even selecting highlights from Old Friends New Friends is a challenge. Nonetheless, among its almost 80 minutes of music are the fluid ‘Rain Take’, in which his instrument’s glistening ripples are married with the distant sound of a deluge outside; ‘Wedding Walzer’, a Satie-esque piece so intimate Frahm’s pedal-work threatens to overshadow its delicate melody; the unexpectedly touching ‘Then Patterns’, the exquisitely graceful ‘Acting’, and the redemptive, radiant ‘The Chords Broken Down’. Clearly, these are much more than outtakes, something Frahm has no trouble explaining. “Often tracks that don’t make it onto an album are the ones with the most boldness and bravery.”

Frahm has other reasons to release this record, too, among them a craving to protect his legacy in an era where ‘bonus material’ is in constant demand. “The nature of the mind – and a hard drive – is that you forget a lot of stuff,” he says, “and I hate the idea that somebody might browse through my things trying to find something I’d forgotten. I’ll probably burn everything before I go, but these are pieces I wanted to put out. So this is an original ‘Nils Frahm’, so to speak, not somebody curating a leftover meal.”

Furthermore, Frahm felt an urge to clean the slate before making his next move. His debut, Streichelfisch, was released 16 years ago, and not only has his solo output since then been prolific but he’s also engaged in large amounts of collaborative work with friends like Ólafur Arnalds, Peter Broderick, F.S. Blumm, Library Tapes and Anne Müller. “My intuition,” he says, “is that it’s easier for me to start over if the body of work from the last ten years or so is organised enough that I never need worry about it again. It’s time to forget about the past, but in order to never think about it again I have to address it first.”

Whether or not it’s prudent to add to the significant amount of music he’s released in recent years, Frahm’s unconcerned. “History tells us people sometimes pick up on records years later and still like them, so hopefully my music isn’t bound to any specific date. If people hear this for the first time in, say, 20 years, they won’t worry about when it came out, or whether something else also came out the same year. And anyway: who knows? Maybe at some point down the line I won’t release any albums for five years!”

As for how he feels letting the music loose into the world, Frahm simply chuckles. “It’s like if your kids finally move out when they’re 23, and you realise, ‘Shit, this could have happened years ago!’”

TRACK LISTING

1. 4:33 (a Tribute To John Cage)
2. Late
3. Berduxe
4. Rain Take
5. Todo Nada
6. Weddinger Walzer
7. In The Making
8. Further In The Making
9. All Numbers End
10. The Idea Machine
11. Then Patterns
12. Corn
13. New Friend
14. Nils Has A New Piano
15. Acting
16. As A Reminder
17. Iced Wood
18. Strickleiter
19. The Chords
20. The Chords Broken Down
21. Forgetmenot
22. Restive
23. Old Friend

In the late 1960s, the American trumpet player and free jazz pioneer Don Cherry (1936–1995) and the Swedish visual artist and designer Moki Cherry (1943–2009) began a collaboration that imagined an alternative space for creative music, most succinctly expressed in Moki’s aphorism “the stage is home and home is a stage.” By 1972, they had given name to a concept that united Don’s music, Moki’s art, and their family life in rural Tagårp, Sweden into one holistic entity: Organic Music Theatre. Captured here is the historic first Organic Music Theatre performance from the 1972 Festival de jazz de Chateauvallon in the South of France, mastered from tapes recorded during its original live broadcast on public TV. A life-affirming, multicultural patchwork of borrowed tunes suffused with the hallowed aura of Don’s extensive global travels, the performance documents the moment he publicly jettisoned his identity as a jazz musician and represents the start of his communal “mystical” period, later crystallized in recordings such as Organic Music Society, Relativity Suite, Brown Rice, and the soundtrack for Alejandro Jodorowsky’s The Holy Mountain.

The musicians in Don Cherry’s New Researches, hailing from Brazil, Sweden, France, and the US, converged on Chateauvallon from all over Europe. The five-person band—Don and Moki Cherry, Christer Bothén, Gérard “Doudou” Gouirand, and Naná Vasconcelos— performed in an outdoor amphitheater and were joined onstage by a dozen adults and children, including Swedish friends who tagged along for the trip and Det Lilla Circus (The Little Circus), a Danish puppet troupe based in Christiania, Copenhagen. The platform was lined with Moki’s carpets and her handmade, brightly colored tapestries, depicting Indian scales and bearing the words Organic Music Theatre, dressed the stage. As the musicians played, members of Det Lilla, led by Annie Hedvard, danced, sang, and mounted an improvised puppet show on poles high up in the air. The music in the Chateauvallon concert aspired to a universal language that would bring people together through song. In a fairly unprecedented move, Don abandoned his signature pocket trumpet for the piano and harmonium, thereby liberating his voice as an instrument for shamanic guidance. The show opens with him beckoning the audience to clap their hands and sing the Indian theta “Dha Dhin Na, Dha Tin Na,” and the set cycles through uplifting and sacred tunes of Malian, South African, Brazilian, and Native American provenance—including pieces that would later appear on Don’s albums Organic Music Society and Home Boy (Sister Out)—all punctuated by outbursts of possessed glossolalia from the puppeteers. “Relativity Suite, Part 1” notably spotlights Bothén on donso ngoni, a Malian hunter’s guitar, prior to Vasconcelos taking an extended solo on berimbau.

A vortex of wah-like microtonal rattling, Vasconcelos’s masterful demonstration of this single-stringed Brazilian instrument is a harbinger of his work to come as a member, with Don, of the acclaimed group Codona. The sounds of children playing on the ensemble’s achingly tender rendition of Jim Pepper’s oft-covered beacon of spiritual optimism, “Witchi Tai To,” lends the proceedings an especially intimate, domestic glow. Given the context of the star-studded international jazz festival, the concert’s laid back, communal vibe feels like an attempt by the Cherrys to show Don’s jazz audience that he was moving on. At the same time, however, Don was extending a warmhearted invitation for them to come along for the ride. With liner notes by Magnus Nygren. Released as part of Organic Music Societies, a Blank Forms project that also includes a book, art exhibition, and performance series devoted to Don & Moki Cherry's collaborative practice

TRACK LISTING

1. Intro: Dha Dhin Na, Dha Tin Na
2. Butterfly Friend
3. Elixir
4. Amazwe
5. Interlude With Puppets
6. Ganesh
7. Elixir Reprise / Witchi Tai To
8. Resa
9. Relativity Suite, Part 1
10. Berimbau Solo
11. Interlude / North Brazilian Ceremonial Hymn
12. Elixir Reprise / Ganesh
13. Ntsikana's Bell / Traditional Melody

Fine Place is a new duo comprising Frankie Rose (Vivian Girls, Crystal Stilts, Dum Dum Girls) and Matthew Hord (Running, Pop. 1280, Brandy). Based in Brooklyn, NYC together they’ve crafted a crystalline full length of nocturnal, electronic pop music that charts a way out the post-global, cyberpunk dystopian environment it was crafted in. Their debut album This New Heaven drenches minimalist song structures in post-industrial washes of sixstring delay and gothic post-punk synths. Presiding over it is the most evocative, emotive vocal performance Frankie Rose has committed to tape to date.

Following Hord’s relocation from Chicago, the pair wanted to explore new avenues apart from their respective bands or solo projects. “The sound we were going for was an attempt to capture the dystopian feel of New York during a period of desertion by the wealthy. It was produced in a time-frame saturated in both uncertainty and serenity, and the soundscapes we created felt fitting and almost organic as a response to our surroundings. The title also reflects this in an arguably literal, maybe even satirical way.” Sonically, Fine Place references the pioneering mid-to-late 80s pioneers of icy melodrama The Cure and Cocteau Twins, while reflecting both the individuals’; music trajectories thus far. Modular synthesis triggers rhythm boxes and fluttery arps chirp around clanging 808-patterning as Rose’s reverb-laden vocal layering envelops the remaining headroom. The result is massive; a towering, shadowy music that embraces darkness while offering Rose’s bright vocal as chinks of light in the cracks; the production filling the head space of the beholder with preternatural imagery and emotional resonances that are real but not quite defined.

The title song propels forth out of the fog, scintillating with delayed guitar before the reverb-immersed vocal injects the human drama. The chorus constantly teases a big release but holds back creating a taut, dynamic tension. Cover Blind’s slow march makes full use of Rose’s layered vocal sinking and emerging from Hord’s bank of synths. Stand out It’s Your House is pure honey pouring from the speaker on a bank of of arps and near-hymnal vocal layering, a syrupy light offering in the mist. It’s an emotive highlight that only increases as the album progresses; Impressions Of Me is the Lynchian ballad that glides onward into the sunset. The album finishes on a choice re-interpretation of the 1989 track The Party Is Over by Belgian group Adult Fantasies, one of the great over-looked ballads of the era given an almost ecclesiastical makeover by Matthew Hord and Frankie Rose in 2021.

Says Hord: “This record was an incredibly challenging endeavor to make, as I had just come home from a European tour with another music project and wanted to invest into and focus on this collaboration with Frankie. I essentially reimagined how to approach writing basic sequences with the synthesizers I had been rehearsing and performing with for months prior to make something more accessible and pop- like for Frankie to build upon. Frankie is an unsung hero when it comes to mixing, and she was constantly mixing down and processing elements of the tracks to create different atmospheres as we forged forward with every song.”

This New Heaven is an ecstasy of sorts, a half-dream in the border between sleep and daylight.

TRACK LISTING

1. I Can’t Shake It
2. This New Heaven
3. Cover Blind
4. Tending To Twenty
5. It’s Your House
6. Impressions Of Me
7. Tell Me A Second Time
8. The Party Is Over

25th-anniversary edition of R.E.M.’s tenth studio album, New Adventures in Hi-Fi. First released in 1996, the album was R.E.M.’s last studio recording with founding member Bill Berry who left amicably the following year. As the band’s fifth collaboration with long-time producer Scott Litt (Green, Out of Time, Automatic for the People and Monster), the album experiments with new sonic textures, filled with cinematic imagery, dissonant notes and haunting effects. The platinum-selling title includes the singles “Electrolite,” “E-Bow the Letter” (featuring Patti Smith) and “Bittersweet Me,” and represents R.E.M.’s longest studio release with a total run time of 65 minutes. New Adventures in Hi-Fi grew to cult status years after its release, with several press retrospectives—and band members themselves—ranking it among the top albums in R.E.M.’s recorded catalogue.

The renowned avant-garde artist Phew has returned to Mute for her forthcoming album New Decade. Working with voice and electronics, New Decade’s six new tracks define her as a master of her craft. Described by pitchfork as ‘a Japanese underground legend’, she was a founding member of Osaka punk band Aunt Sally, who broke up in 1980. Since then she has worked solo and collaborated with musical luminaries including as Ryuichi Sakamoto, Jim O’Rourke, Ana da Silva (The Raincoats), Seiichi Yamamoto (Boredoms) and Holger Czukay (Can). Her 1992 album for Mute, Our Likeness, features Alexander Hacke (Hackedepicciotto, Einstruzende Neubauten), Jaki Liebezeit (Can) and Chrislo Haas (Crime & the City Solution, DAF, Liaisons Dangereuses). New Decade will be released on CD and Limited Edition ‘Total Clear’ Vinyl. 

TRACK LISTING

LP Tracklist:
A1. Snow And Pollen
A2. Days Nights
A3. Into The Stream
B1. Feedback Tuning
B2. Flashforward
B3. Doing Nothing

CD Tracklist:
1. Snow And Pollen
2. Days Nights
3. Into The Stream
4. Feedback Tuning
5. Flashforward
6. Doing Nothing

The latest chapter in Columbia/Legacy's highly acclaimed Bob Dylan Bootleg Series revisits an often-forgotten, rich vein in Dylan’s vast and complex catalog, shining fresh light on the provocative new musical directions Dylan was taking as a songwriter and a recording artist from 1980 through 1985. In the early 1980s, while the music industry was grappling with the arrival of new trends and technology, from MTV to compact discs to digital recording, Bob Dylan was writing and recording new songs for a new decade, creating an essential new chapter in his studio catalog. Bob Dylan - Springtime In New York (1980-1985) celebrates the rich creative period surrounding Dylan's albums Shot Of Love, Infidels, and Empire Burlesque with previously unreleased outtakes, alternate takes, rehearsal recordings, live performances and more. 

The anticipation is there in Elizabeth Stokes’ solo guitar riff under the opening lines of “I’m Not Getting Excited”: a frenetic, driving force daring a packed Auckland Town Hall to do exactly the opposite of what the track title suggests.

As the opener of The Beths’ Auckland, New Zealand, 2020 expands to include the full band, the crowd screeches and bellows. It’s a collective exhalation, in one of the few countries where live music is still possible.

The album title, and film of the same name, deliberately include the date and location, lead guitarist Jonathan Pearce says. “That’s the sensational part of what we actually did.” In a mid-pandemic world, playing to a heaving, enraptured home crowd feels miraculous.

In March 2020, everything seemed on track for another huge year for The Beths. Home after an 18-month northern hemisphere tour, they had just finished recording sophomore album Jump Rope Gazers and were primed for more extensive touring. But within days, New Zealand’s lockdown split the band between three separate houses. All touring was cancelled.

“It was existentially bad,” Stokes says. As well as worrying about economic survival, they lost something crucial to the band’s identity: live performance. “It's a huge part of how we see ourselves... What does it mean, if we can't play live?”

The band found an outlet through live-streaming, returning to the do-it-yourself mentality of their early days to connect with a global audience. The album and film have their genesis in that urge to share the now-rare experience of a live show, as widely as possible.

The fuzzy-round-the-edges live-streams pointed the way aesthetically. Native birds, wonkily crafted by the band from tissue paper and wire, festoon the venue’s cavernous ceiling while house plants soften and disguise the imposing pipes of an organ. The presence of the film crew isn’t disguised: much of the camerawork is handheld; full of fast zooms and pans.

With much of the material still fresh, the band was less focused on re-invention than playing “a good, fast rock show”, Pearce says. The tempo is up on crowd favourites “Whatever” and “Future Me Hates Me” (released as a live single on its third anniversary) as both band and audience feed off the mutual energy in the room.

Certain songs have taken on special resonance post-Covid. Pearce has found “Out Of Sight”, a tender rumination on long-distance relationships, hits particularly hard with live audiences.

Album closer “River Run” visibly brings Stokes to tears as a mix of achievement and relief kicks in. “You can finally relax at that point … You play the last note, breathe out a sigh and look up - and you’re in a giant room full of people happy and smiling.”

TRACK LISTING

1. I'm Not Getting Excited - LIve
2. Great No One - Live
3. Whatever - Live
4. Mars, The God Of War - Live
5. Future Me Hates Me - Live
6. Introduction
7. Jump Rope Gazers - Live
8. Uptown Girl - Live
9. Bird Talk
10. Happy Unhappy - Live
11. Out Of Sight - Live
12. Thank You
13. Don't Go Away - Live
14. Little Death - Live
15. Dying To Believe - Live
16. River Run - Live

If one were asked to pick an album that represented the best of British jazz in the 1960s, Le Déjeuner Sur l’Herbe by the New Jazz Orchestra would be a serious contender. Recorded in September 1968, it draws together many of the key streams that had developed in British jazz in the preceding years, and also presages much of what was to come. Notwithstanding the line-up, which includes some of the very best British jazz musicians directed by an inventive and ingenious leader in Neil Ardley, the session features pieces written by the most distinctive jazz composers active in Britain at that time alongside idiosyncratic interpretations of works by John Coltrane and Miles Davis. And it’s all captured beautifully by engineer Howard Barrow and producer Tony Reeves and it features a stella cast of some of the greatest musicians, not just from that era or genre but beyond; Jack Bruce, who would become one of the founding members of Cream, Barbara Thompson, Ian Carr, Michael Gibbs, Dave Gelly, Dick Heckstall-Smith and Jon Hiseman, who went on to form one of the greatest jazz/progressive/rock bands – Colosseum. 

‘Be a Rebel Remixed’ collects all the official versions of this track on physical formats for the first time and includes brand new remixes from Arthur Baker, JakoJako, Mark Reeder and Melawati. Also includes mixes from the band’s own Bernard Sumner and Stephen Morris plus club mixes from Maceo Plex and Paul Woolford.

New Order’s single ‘Be a Rebel’ was the first brand new music from the band since the release of the critically acclaimed album ‘Music Complete’ In 2015. ‘Be a Rebel Remixed’ is available on double clear vinyl and on CD. 

TRACK LISTING

VINYL TRACKLIST
Be A Rebel (Paul Woolford Remix New Order Edit)
Be A Rebel (JakoJako Remix)
Be A Rebel (Maceo Plex Remix)
Be A Rebel (Melawati Remix)
Be A Rebel (Bernard's Outlaw Mix)
Be A Rebel (Renegade Spezial Edit)
Be A Rebel (Arthur Baker Remix)
Be A Rebel (Mark Reeder's Dirty Devil Remix)

CD TRACKLIST
Be A Rebel
Be A Rebel (Bernard’s Renegade Mix)
Be A Rebel (Stephen’s T34 Mix)
Be A Rebel (Bernard’s Renegade Instrumental Mix)
Be A Rebel (Paul Woolford Remix New Order Edit)
Be A Rebel (JakoJako Remix)
Be A Rebel (Maceo Plex Remix)
Be A Rebel (Melawati Remix)
Be A Rebel (Bernard's Outlaw Mix)
Be A Rebel (Arthur Baker Remix)
Be A Rebel (Mark Reeder's Dirty Devil Remix)
Be A Rebel (Edit)
Be A Rebel (Renegade Spezial Edit)

“It was before Covid, I had this big free empty studio in the hills, I was supposed to be painting, that was my initial plan, and I just began making songs on an old guitar, songs about being alone, songs about failed men, some dark tales of longing. I was reading some old western paperbacks, and I would go on these walks in the hills, come inside and write these kind of lonesome country songs. Then the pandemic began, and everyone was alone now, and it felt like it had been strangely prescient to write about being alone,” speaks Sonny Smith about the birth of his new record. It sounds like it’s part of a genre that should have happened: a sixties teen country music that merged with sixties pop.

New Day With New Possibilities, the latest “country” offering by Sonny And The Sunsets, is clearly a companion piece to the cult loved third Sunsets release Longtime Companion, the laid back country record which marked the beginning of the Sunsets as an explorative project and not just locked into one sound. New Day With New Possibilities joins with a kind of Michael Hurley homegrown sound but also leaning into Chelsea Girls baroque strings sound as on “Driftin” and “The Lonely Men”. Pedal steel maestro Joe Goldmark lifts the record into Doug Sahm and Buck Owens territory.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Lonely Men
2. Earl & His Girl
3. Ring My Bell
4. Driftin
5. Ride The Dark Trail
6. Love Obsession
7. Just Hangin Out By Myself
8. Keep Talkin Bout You
9. Palm Reader
10. I'm A Leaker
11. I'm A Dog
12. The Letter

NewDad emerged from Galway at the beginning of last year, self-releasing their first string of songs. The ‘Waves’ EP is their debut EP and features the BBC 6Music A-list singles “I Don’t Recognise You” and “Blue”. The six track EP is available on limited edition clear vinyl on Fair Youth.

STAFF COMMENTS

Laura says: There's been some great music coming out of Ireland lately and now this Galway quartet bring us some pristine 80's tinged pop. For fans of Belly, Breeders, Pixies, The Cure and the like. We love this!

TRACK LISTING

A1. Drown
A2. I Don't Recognise You
A3. Slowly
B1. Blue
B2. Hide
B3. Waves

New Tradition is the debut Solo Album by Ben Edge, who's past musical projects include Thee Spivs and Ben Edge and the Electric Pencils. Releasing on Vinyl to coincide with the exhibition of Ben Edge's paintings in June at the Crypt Gallery at the St Pancras New Church in London, in collaboration with the Museum of British Folklore.Ben who is a painter and visual artist, has undertaken a project over the past four years in which he has obsessively been visiting, filming and painting the folk customs, rituals and ceremonies of the British Isles and this group of songs was inspired by the sights, sounds and folkloric world in which Edge has immersed himself.

The cover art is one of Edge’s paintings and depicts the Garland king of Castleton, Derbyshire. The album was produced by Matthew Shaw (Shirley Collins, Tex La Homa, Spectral and the Pop Group) The coming year will be a busy one for Ben Edge with the Launch of his documentary film and series of Paintings 'Frontline Folklore' that will be exhibited in collaboration with the Museum of British Folklore and of course when the world permits playing live and performing the songs of 'New Tradition'.

TRACK LISTING

1. New Tradition
2. Centre Point
3. Who Knows Where I Will Be
3. Cowboys And Indians
4. Tell Me Anyway
5. Righteous Blues
6. Bedlam
7. Mutilated Land
8. Blue Moon
9. Reason For Living
10. Burryman's Place
11. Burn Your Boats And Bridges

Gruff Rhys is releasing his new album “Seeking New Gods” through Rough Trade Records on 21st May. This will be Gruff’s seventh solo album. “Seeking New Gods” was recorded following a US tour with his band and mixed in LA with superstar producer Mario C (Beastie Boys).

The album concept was originally driven to be the biography of a mountain, Mount Paektu (an East Asian active volcano). However, as Gruff’s writing began to reflect on the inhuman timescale of a peak’s existence and the intimate features that bring it to mythological life, both the songs and the mountain became more and more personal.

“The album is about people and the civilisations, and the spaces people inhabit over periods of time. How people come and go but the geology sticks around and changes more slowly. I think it’s about memory and time,” he suggests of Seeking New Gods’ meaning. “It’s still a biography of a mountain, but now it’s a Mount Paektu of the mind. You won’t learn much about the real mountain from listening to this record but you will feel something, hopefully.” - Gruff Rhys.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Gruff returns for yet another faultless slab of widescreen cinematic pop, full of his warmingly familiar but endlessly inventive chord progressions and swoon-inducing vocal drawl. Optimistic but filled with more introspective moments among the otherwise bombastic stomp. It's as dizzying and perfect as anything he's ever done. Peak Gruff.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. Mausoleum Of My Former Self
2. Can’t Carry On
3. Loan Your Loneliness
4. Seeking New Gods
5. Hiking In Lightning
Side B
1. Holiest Of The Holy Of The Holy Men
2. The Keep
3. Everlasting Joy
4. Distant Snowy Peaks

Dinked Edition Flexi Disc
Tropical Messiah

Recorded live on 9th November 2018 (their only UK show of 2018), ‘education entertainment recreation’ is a brand new live album from London’s Alexandra Palace.

Sonically spectacular, spanning 2 hours 20 minutes, the show joyously mixed New Order classics, their latest acclaimed album ‘Music Complete’ and Joy Division’s finest.

Opening with ‘Singularity’ from ‘Music Complete’, they eased back in time to 1993’s ‘Regret’, to ‘Love Vigilantes’ from 1985’s ‘Low-Life’ to ‘Ultraviolence from 1983 debut ‘Power, Corruption and Lies’.

Later, their power over the dance floor was proven by sublime performances in the manner of the celebrated extended 12 inch remixes they are synonymous with - on ‘True Faith’, ‘Blue Monday’ and ‘Temptation’ before a Joy Division mini set to end.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: This superb set from Alexandra Palace sees New Order in peak form, and perfectly captures the raw energy and unbelievable musicianship of this legendary band. A perfect mix of older material and new, with all the hits being perfectly placed throughout. Presented in gorgeous triple LP, double CD and even one format with a blue ray of the show! Essential.

TRACK LISTING

2CD Set
CD 1:
1. Introduction
2. Singularity
3. Regret
4. Love Vigilantes
5. Ultraviolence
6. Disorder
7. Crystal
8. Academic
9. Your Silent Face
10. Subculture
CD 2:
1. BLT
2. Vanishing Point
3. Waiting For The Sirens Call
4. Plastic
5. Perfect Kiss
6. True Faith
7. Blue Monday
8. Temptation
9. Atmosphere
10. Decades
11. Love Will Tear Us Apart

2CD/ BluRay
2CD Tracklisting As Above
BluRay (Film)
1. Introduction
2. Singularity
3. Regret
4. Love Vigilantes
5. Ultraviolence
6. Disorder
7. Crystal
8. Academic
9. Your Silent Face
10. Tutti Fruitti
11. Subculture
12. BLT
13. Vanishing Point
14. Waiting For The Sirens Call
15. Plastic
16. Perfect Kiss
17. True Faith
18. Blue Monday
19. Temptation
20. Atmosphere
21. Decades
22. Love Will Tear Us Apart

3LP Set
LP 1 / Side 1
Introduction
Singularity
Regret
Love Vigilantes
Ultraviolence
LP 1 / Side 2
Disorder
Crystal
Academic
Your Silent Face
LP 2 / Side 1
Sub Culture
BLT
Vanishing Point
LP 2 / Side 2
Waiting For The Sirens’ Call
Plastic
Perfect Kiss
LP 3 / Side 1
True Faith
Blue Monday
Temptation
LP 3 / Side 2
Atmosphere
Decades
Love Will Tear Us Apart

Musically, Dry Cleaning have been compared to the likes of The Fall and Sonic Youth as well as their contemporaries Squid, Shame and Yard Act, who are only some of the bands that have been riding the waves of the recent post punk resurgence. The London band combines repetitive bass lines with moody yet catchy guitar riffs and lecturer and visual artist Florence Shaw’s dry, monotone Sprechgesang.

Seemingly samey at first listen, it’s a record that keeps revealing more with each play. No matter how often you think you have shelved it, it will always make itself known again. Dry Cleaning’s lyrics are a combination of Shaw’s own writing and snippets of other people’s reflections she has come across - be it via real life conversations or on the internet, e.g. in the Youtube comment wormhole. Like a stream of consciousness they make for an interesting read / listen, with highlights aplenty. “I think of myself as a hardy banana with that waxy surface and the small delicate flowers / A woman in aviators firing a bazooka” reads one line. Complete absurdity or the mundanity of everyday life? Tongue in cheek or absolutely serious?

Whichever you think it is, you can’t help but be charmed by her deadpan attitude. One thing I can’t get on board with, however, are her outrageous nutritional opinions. “That seems like a lot of garlic” she muses in ‘Strong Feelings’. There’s never enough garlic.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Dry cleaning's wry humour and impeccable grasp of rhythm and mood permeates the entirety of their newest outing, 'New Long Leg'. Driven bassy groove and melodic guitar licks perfectly accentuate the sultry spoken word vocals, resulting in an impactful and dynamic whole.

TRACK LISTING

1. Scratchcard Lanyard
2. Unsmart Lady
3. Strong Feelings
4. Leafy
5. Her Hippo
6. New Long Leg
7. John Wick
8. More Big Birds
9. A.L.C
10. Every Day Carry

Seven years and a handful of lifetimes ago, New Bums came out of nowhere with their debut album, ‘Voices In a Rented Room’ - a record the New York Times described as “feeling like it’s falling apart.” New Bums took this as a compliment and, thus emboldened, they toured relentlessly in support of the release: criss-crossing the USA in the spring of 2014, with a European run that summer. Then, silence descended, as the Bums withdrew to the place from which they’d mysteriously emerged.

Now, the Bums are back. 2021 finds them with a new album in hand. Following a West Coast US tour in late 2019 it’s clear that the duo of Donovan Quinn (Skygreen Leopards) and Ben Chasny (Six Organs of Admittance, Rangda, etc) are fully reanimated, as evidenced by the songs and sounds of ‘Last Time I Saw Grace’.

Retaining the drunk-dog-locomotion of their debut, New Bums sprinkle a bit of fresh fancy into their signature twin guitarsand- vocals sound, with cleaner recording techniques, further developments in harmonies and a new appreciation for a song with more than two parts, making ‘Last Time I Saw Grace’ nothing less than the perfect progression from the purposefully murky mixes of their debut.

Continuing to embrace an acoustic rock ’n’ roll sound, inspired by artists such as Jacobites, Robyn Hitchcock, Johnny Thunders, Replacements and such, New Bums push the words and the stories to the front of the line, crafting tales with satiric glee on ‘Last Time I Saw Grace’. However, this world of empty perfume bottles, bodies tied to masts and moving onward to devastation (after the bottle on the table pulls out a gun) feels much more Gombrowiczian dreamscape than drunken night on the town. Yes, everything is wasted but this is an existential wasteland rather than a substance-laden one. This combination of arch Californian post-aristocratic melodrama with torn and frayed acoustic guitars opens up a new genre entirely, one those at Drag City are tempted to call Rent Control Romantic.

TRACK LISTING

Billy, God Damn
Obliteration Time
Marlene Left California
Onward To Devastation
Wild Dogs
Cover Band
Tuned To Graffiti
Street Of Spies
Hermitage Song
So Long, Kus
Follow Them Up The Slope

The quickfire follow-up to the New Age Stepper’s self-titled debut, this set was also issued in 1981. A perhaps more melodic and accessible record than its predecessor, the bulk of the album is versions of tunes sourced from reggae imports of the period, featuring radical interpretations of songs by Bim Sherman, Horace Andy and B.B. Seaton.

Ari Up of the Slits takes more of a frontwoman role here, singing lead on most tracks, and bringing a lot of her own indomitable personality to bear on the material, even breaking briefly into German for her take on “Problems”! It also features the vocal debut of a very young Neneh Cherry on “My Love”. The rhythms are rock solid, laid down by the crack team of Eskimo Fox, Crucial Tony and George Oban, having honed their skills on sides by Creation Rebel and Aswad, with everything expertly dubbed through the mixing desk of Adrian Sherwood.

First time available on vinyl for 40 years, includes download card and printed inner featuring new sleevenotes and interviews by Oli Warwick. 

TRACK LISTING

A1. My Whole World
A2. Observe Life
A3. Got To Get Away
A4. My Love

B1. Problems
B2. Nuclear Zulu
B3. Guiding Star

The third New Age Steppers arrived in 1983 and marked a sea change in approach, a warmer sounding record than the two thrilling-but-abrasive LPs that had preceded it.

Part of this was down to frontwoman Ari Up moving to Jamaica and instigating proceedings with a session at the legendary Channel One with Style Scott and a JA horn section, before bringing the tapes back to London for Adrian Sherwood to work on. The other big factor was bringing in Bim Sherman to step up to the mic on several tracks, after interpreting some of his material on the previous albums. His distinctive croon works as the perfect foil to Ari’s own vocal takes, and the resulting album is perhaps the closest the collective got to laying down an album that is identifiably roots reggae, albeit still breaking tradition with colourful synth tones and a post-punk production sensibility.

First time available on vinyl since original release, includes download card and printed inner featuring new sleevenotes and interviews by Oli Warwick.

TRACK LISTING

A1 Some Love
A2 Memories
A3 5 Dog Race
A4 Misplaced Love

B1 Dreamers
B2 Stabilizer
B3 Stormy Weather
B4 Vice Of My Enemies
B5 Mandarin

The landmark first album on the On-U Sound label, this self-titled debut announced a gathering of the tribes: producer Adrian Sherwood bringing together members of the Slits, the Pop Group, the Flying Lizards and the Raincoats and getting them to collaborate with the likes of the Roots Radics’ Style Scott, Creation Rebel’s Crucial Tony, and Aswad’s George Oban to form a potent post-punk/dub fusion.

The albums two highest peaks are brilliantly realised interpretations of Jamaican classics - Junior Byles’ “Fade Away” and Bim Sherman’s “Love Forever”, Ari Up’s vocal transporting the dread warning and lovers rock vibes to the icy hallways of early-80s London squatland. Elsewhere Mark Stewart marshalls an early version of his “Crazy Dreams and High Ideals” (later re-versioned with the Maffia), music journalist Vivien Goldman voices caustic album closer “Private Armies” (originally a b-side to her Launderette single), and all sorts of strange noises and rhythmic murk bridge the gaps, the instrumentals falling somewhere between a late night studio session at Channel One and the kinds of experimental soundscapes being explored at the time by Industrial Records.

A certified classic of the era back on wax for the first time in 40 years and an essential addition to any post-punk record collection. Includes download card and printed inner with new sleevenotes and interviews by Oli Warwick.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Fade Away
A2. Radial Drill
A3. State Assembly
A4. Crazy Dreams And High Ideals


B1. Abderhamane’s Demise
B2. Animal Space
B3. Love Forever
B4. Private Armies

Rare dubs, version excursions and unreleased tracks from the vault 1980 - 1983.

In the tradition of archival On-U Sound compilations of recent years such as the Return Of The Crocodile and Churchical Chant Of The Iyabinghi sets for African Head Charge; and the Displaced Masters LP of early Dub Synidcate rarities, we’ve gone through the tape vaults to put together this special record of unreleased versions and rarities from the white hot early days of the New Age Steppers, the group that launched the On-U Sound label by appearing on both the first single and album.

Highlights include a restored track from their infamous and long-lost 1983 John Peel session (an ebullient cover of Atlantic Starr’s “Send For Me” featuring a beautifully spirited vocal performance from the much-missed Ari Up), the Jah Woosh deejay cut of “Love Forever”, some rare dubs previously only available on Japanese import CDs, all bookended by two very different takes on Chaka Khan’s “Some Love”. An essential set for collectors of post-punk, dub and other outernational sounds. 

TRACK LISTING

A1 Aggro Dub Version
A2 Send For Me
A3 Izalize
A4 Unclear

B1 Singing Love
B2 I Scream (Rimshot)
B3 Avante Gardening
B4 Wide World Version
B5 Some Dub

1991 was a momentous year for The Brand New Heavies. They started it without a singer second on the bill to The James Taylor Quartet and by the end they had a Top 3 US hit and were about to embark on a run of 16 Top 40 hits in the UK. N’Dea Davenport was by this point fronting the group as their guest singer and the brilliant string of singles from their debut album were becoming locked in the minds of an ever-growing fanbase.

Live they were a revelation. The only group from the UK scene who could do tight and slick, without slipping into ‘lift music’ blandness. The core membership of Andrew Levy, Simon Bartholomew and Jan Kincaid had been playing together since college and each knew where the other was going. Their ability to write classic soul songs lifted them above their contemporaries.

‘Shibuya 357’ is the quintessential (and only live) document of an era that quickly passed. The hits - ‘Never Stop’, ‘Dream Come True’, ‘Stay This Way’ and ‘Don’t Let It Go To Your Head’ are all here - as are some compelling funk jams. This recording captures the ecstatic rush of joy; when you go from youthful dream to accomplishment in such a short period.

The album was only ever released in Japan in the late 90s and then only for a very short time. Acid Jazz are pleased to release this new version remastered from the source tape and the album appears on vinyl for the very first time.

TRACK LISTING

Gimme One Of Those
BNH
Ride In The Sky
Got To Give
People Get Ready
Don’t Let It Go To Your Head
Mr. Tanaka
Never Stop
Stay This Way
Doin’ It To Death
Dream Come True
Shakedown

Ståle Storløkken – Rhodes piano, Hammond organ, grand piano, Eminent 310, Mellotron, Continuum Nikolai Hængsle – Electric bass, electric and acoustic guitars Torstein Lofthus – Drums, percussion. After a solid run of five studio albums and 2019´s two double live albums, Psychedelic Backfire I and II, Elephant9 had taken their groovy mix of high energy rock and power jazz as far as they could. In this respect Arrival Of The New Elders comes as a welcome and most timely addition to their recorded output. More varied, mature and reflective, don´t let the self-ironic (?) title mislead you, they are as groovy as ever, but more structured and less jam oriented, with the longest track clocking in around the seven minute mark. Rather short, by their standards.

Having built a solid live reputation even before their brilliant 2008 debut Dodovoodoo, the trio boasts what is probably the strongest rhythm section in Norway, complemented with keyboard magician extraordinaire, the one and only Ståle Storløkken. And boy, does he excel himself on this album, notably with more focus on the Rhodes than before. That said, this is nothing if not another strong group effort from what has been a very tight unit straight from the outset. Seven brand new compositions from Storløkken and one from Hængsle make way for what we consider to be their finest and most cohesive album to date. Arrival Of The New Elders was recorded by trusted stalwart Christian Engfelt, with early Dungen producer Mattias Glavå handling the mixing duties.Ståle started his musical journey in Veslefrekk with Jarle Vespestad and Arve Henriksen in the 90s, soon morphing into Supersilent with Helge Sten on board. He´s also a member of Møster! and Humcrush, and have collaborated with a number of artists, most notably Motorpsycho. Nikolai is also a member of Bigbang, Needlepoint and Band Of Gold and have appeared on a couple of hundred records. The same goes for Torstein, an associate member of numerous bands ranging from pop and soul to free jazz. But Elephant9 has always been their special baby.

Preorder the album to be in with a chance of winning a test pressing of the album.

Dipped In Gold Recordings are proud to announce “Another New Thing” The latest project from Sheffield’s number one purveyor of synth pop Dean Honer.

Take three self professed toerags , one in Sheffield UK, one in Preston UK and one in Pennsylvania USA, quarantine them in their houses for 6 months for their own safety, tell them to make an album.

In 2015 Honer, Nagle and Himlin met on a Sonic Weekend in Wales. An annual event which was organised by Ann Shenton of Add N to X. People from all over the world gather in a remote farmhouse surrounded by sheep, to get hammered and make and record noise. Honer (ITOP, Moonlandingz, All Seeing I, I Monster) plays the role of producer for the weekend. Himlin said to Nagle “One day we should make some music together”

2020 Lockdown – Nagle sends Himlin some of his extended modular synthesizer workouts. Himlin writes songs over them and also adds guitar and bass.

Nagle said to Himlin “These aren't too shit, we should send these to Honer to do some mixes and production” And so the the game of audio “exquisite corpse” began. The tunes were passed from person to person via the transatlantic telegraph cable (Wetransfer) to add to or subtract from, until lockdown was eased and they were deemed complete. Himlin casually dubbed the project “Another New Thing,” “because that's what it is!”.

Nagle dubbed the album XYZZY after a magic password key he had discovered playing text based adventure games on his computer in the 70s, the unknown pronunciation being a bonus in his mind.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: The flawless Dipped In Gold bring us this delightfully off-piste collection of deeply groovy, oftentimes angular melodies and neon synth refrains. Though it was a remote collaboration, there is an inherent connectedness and symbiotic understanding that shows in the most satisfying of ways, resulting in a perfect mix of minds, and a damn good listen. Superb.

TRACK LISTING

1. A Message
2. The Action Membrane
3. Do Not Fail
4. Don’t Follow Your Shadow
5. Movie Music
6. The Ever Never Mind
7. Hammers And Anvils
8. Edge Of The Hollow
9. No One Cares What You’re Thinking’ Bout
10. Memory Alarm
11. Home

Born from the Brixton Windmill scene that has seen the likes of black midi, Squid, Fat White Family and Shame rise to prominence, Black Country, New Road now take up the mantle and release their debut album.
The seven piece kick off proceedings with the aptly titled “Instrumental”, a maelstrom of sounds and influences including the post-rock mastery of Slint, the Klezmer style folk of Beirut and dapples of free-jazz improvisation.
Throughout the album’s six tracks those themes continue along with a simmering sense of drama and intensity. The best example of this occurs on the monolithic last track “Opus”, clocking in at just over 8 minutes it locks the listener in with a sprawling sonic soundscape of plateaus and troughs that recalls the mighty Godspeed You! Black Emperor.
For The First Time is an ambitious and intelligent album that stands out as one of the best debut releases of 2021.

TRACK LISTING

1. Instrumental
2. Athens, France
3. Science Fair
4. Sunglasses
5. Track X
6. Opus

Originally conceived as a quarantine EP collecting material recorded in Memphis during sessions for ‘The Unraveling’, the project quickly grew to include provocative new songs written and recorded over what Drive-By Truckers co-founder Patterson Hood calls “this endless summer of protests, riots, political shenanigans and pandemic horrors.”

Tracks such as Hood’s ‘Watching The Orange Clouds’ - inspired by the protests which followed George Floyd’s murder by Minneapolis police - and a fiery cover of The Ramones’ classic ‘The KKK Took My Baby Away’ (vocals by bassist Matt Patton) were exchanged between Hood, cofounding singer / songwriter / guitarist Mike Cooley, bassist Patton, keyboardist / multiinstrumentalist Jay Gonzalez and drummer Brad Morgan and then mixed by long-time Drive-By Truckers producer David Barbe.

TRACK LISTING

The New OK
Tough To Let Go
The Unraveling
The Perilous Night
Sarah’s Flame
Sea Island Lonely
The Distance
Watching The Orange
Clouds
The KKK Took My Baby Away

As the These New Puritans canon has grown through the years, Hidden has always stood as the great indicator of the group's detail, precision and ambition. Originally released in 2010, when both Jack and George Barnett were just 22 years old, Hidden was the second album the twins released as These New Puritans.

The album itself was produced by TNP's Jack Barnett and Graham Sutton (Bark Psychosis, Boymerang) and mixed by Dave Cooley (J Dilla, MF DOOM), it draws on both the rhythmic lexicons of dancehall and 20th century post-minimalism, the recording features 6ft Japanese Taiko drums, a thirteen piece brass and woodwind ensemble, sub-heavy beats, prepared piano & a children's choir. The result is equal parts brutal and melancholy, standing the test of time, sounding as pioneering and bold a decade on.

Hidden is a record that crushes together menace and beauty: after the prelude of woodwind that is “Time Xone”, “We Want War” remains one of the most startling tracks to be released as a single in this millennium - a sound like swarms of invading, metallic wasps, robotic voices intoning, the martial rattle of layers of drums, Jack Barnett’s vocals an incantation. The militant funk of “Three Thousand”, strange skittish jazz in “Hologram”, and “Drum Courts - Where Corals Lie” feels like an ancient, elegiac folk song carried forth on a storm. A record of intense variety, soul and depth, Hidden is remarkable by anyone’s standards, let alone one made by a group of people barely out of their teens.

Through the extremes of recording, These New Puritans had a critical hit. It was rightly lauded for its singularity and adventure at the time and found the group a legion of loyal fans and was given NME’s prestigious Album of the Year 2010 accolade. Further to the record, it spawned the Hidden Live tour, featuring a large ensemble, conductor Andre De Ridder, and a kids choir. 

TRACK LISTING

Disc 1
1. Time Xone
2. We Want War
3. Three Thousand
4. Hologram
5. Attack Music
6. Fire–Power
7. Orion
8. Canticle
9. Drum Courts–Where Corals Lie
10. White Chords
11. 5

Disc 2
12. Hologram Pianos
13. We Want War Brass & Woodwind
14. 5 Mallets
15. Hologram Chamber Mix
16. Drum Courts Hidden Live Paris
17. Irreversible¬¬–En Papier Hidden Live Berlin

New Heavy Sounds are extremely stoked to announce that our newest signings Mountain Caller are ready to engage hyper-drive and launch their debut album into the riff time continuum. Mountain Caller are El, Claire and Max and hail from London. They describe themselves as a heavy progressive instrumental three-piece, who are driven to tell stories with music and want listeners to conjure up cinematic scenes in their minds. And that they do … in spades. If one needs a sonic ballpark, think the infectious jamming of Elder and the dynamic cinema-scapes of Mogwai, underpinned by the mantric riffs of Sleep.

A rich amalgam of Progressive Rock, Post Metal and Doom. Nevertheless, Mountain Caller do succeed in weaving their own unique spell. The band are already buzzing, pricking up the ears of those in the know, and now after two years honing their chops with a clutch of immersive live performances under their belts (including a slot at Desertfest) Mountain Caller are ready to bring you their debut album. Chronicle I: The Truthseeker. Recorded in January of 2020 at No Studio in Manchester by producer Joe Clayton of Pijn, and mastered by Magnus Lindberg of ‘Cult Of Luna’. For the band, it’s a labour of love; the fruit of three years of jamming, crafting, and conceptualising; a collaborative piece, where each instrument takes centre stage, within a heady mix of chasmic riffs and panoramic, reflective soundscapes.


Chronicle I: The Truthseeker is a feminist allegory created in tandem with the music. As the band describe it … In The Truthseeker, we join The Protagonist at the edge of the Twilight Desert, compelled by an indefinable but urgent need to set forth on an Odyssean journey to rediscover her memory and her voice. Over the course of 42 minutes, we travel from barren wastelands to mysterious cities, encountering trials of both body and spirit. It is indeed a 6 track instrumental journey. Full of winding roads, brooding valleys and strange encounters, all vividly evoked by a canny grasp of dynamics, melody and heavy, but hooky riffs, executed with peerless playing. 'Journey Through The Twilight Desert' opens the album in soundtrack mode, and develops in weight and riff (as if Goblin have taken up the baton) and closes in a full wide screen Mogwai trip .... and that's just the opening track. Elsewhere Mountain Caller pushes to noisier, heavier groovier places. Whether it’s the chiming guitars on the Krautrock/post-rock groove of 'I remember Everything' or 'Trial by Combat' and its doom meets Deftones vibe. To album closer 'Dreamspirals' with its melodic hooks and huge earworm riffs, it’s an album that more than stands up to listening on repeat as there plenty to discover. 

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. Journey Through The Twilight Desert
2. Feast At Half Light City
3. I Remember Everything

Side B
1. Trial By Combat
2. A Clamour Of Limbs
3. Dreamspirals

The band’s sixth single and their first collaboration with DJ Arthur Baker. Originally released in August 1983, this new reissue remastered from the original master tapes at Abbey Road Studios.

TRACK LISTING

A-Side: Confusion, Confused Beats
B-Side: Confusion Instrumental, Confusion (Rough Mix)

Released in May 1984, ‘Murder’ was originally recorded in Winter 1982 during the sessions for the Power, Corruption & Lies album. Peter Saville's cover art is a "night-time" version of the "Thieves Like Us" sleeve. 

TRACK LISTING

A-Side: Murder
B-Side: Thieves Like Us Instrumental

Following last year’s inaugural box set, Power Corruption & Lies is the next Definitive Edition to chronical the history of one of the UK’s most enduring and influential groups.

The box which includes an LP, two CDs, two DVDs and a book, features the album remastered for the first time from the original analogue tape masters on LP, and CD. The Extras CD contains previously unreleased writing sessions from New Order’s Manchester rehearsal rooms and the 1982 John Peel Session for the BBC. The DVDs capture New Order live during 1982 & 83 at The Hacienda and Kilkenny, the 1984 Play at Home Channel 4 TV documentary and other rare live & TV performances. Finally a beautiful 48 page hardback book of rare photos and brand new essay from Dave Simpson completes the Peter Saville designed box.

Power, Corruption & Lies was recorded in 1982 at Britannia Row Studios, Islington and produced by New Order.

STAFF COMMENTS

Darryl says: One of New Order’s finest albums gets the Definitive Edition treatment. Following on from last year’s ‘Movement - Definitive Edition’, Rhino present a stunning Peter Saville designed box set including an LP and CD of the original album remastered for the first time from the original analogue tape masters, an extras CD containing previously unreleased sessions, two DVDs featuring live and TV performances and a sumptuous hardback book of rare photos and a brand new essay from Dave Simpson.

TRACK LISTING

Power Corruption And Lies (for CD And LP) (2020 Remaster)
Age Of Consent
We All Stand
The Village
5 8 6
Your Silent Face
Ultraviolence
Ecstasy
Leave Me Alone

Power Corruption And Lies - Extras (CD)
Writing Session Recordings
Age Of Consent *
The Village *
5 8 6 *
Your Silent Face *
Ecstasy *
Leave Me Alone *
John Peel Session
Turn The Heater On
We All Stand
Too Late
5 8 6
John Peel Session Outtake
Too Late (instrumental Rough Mix) *
New York Demo #1
Thieves Like Us*
Writing Session Recordings
Thieves Like Us *
Murder *
Blue Monday *
Blue Monday *
Album Session Recording
Blue Monday (Instrumental Outtake)
*Previously Unreleased

New Order - Power Corruption And Lies DVD
DVD 1
Live Shows
The Hacienda, Manchester, 1982
In A Lonely Place
Ultraviolence
Denial
The Village
We All Stand
Senses
Chosen Time
5 8 6
Temptation
Everything's Gone Green
Rosehill Hotel, Kilkenny, Ireland 1983
We All Stand
Leave Me Alone
Denial
The Village
Temptation
Confusion
Age Of Consent
Blue Monday
Everything's Gone Green
Ceremony
TV Sessions
Blue Monday (BBC Top Of The Pops, London, 1983)
Confusion (Countdown – 1983)
Age Of Consent (Switch – 1983)
Blue Monday (Switch – 1983)
Thieves Like Us (BBC Top Of The Pops, London, 1984 )
Extras
Your Silent Face (The Hacienda, Manchester, 1983)
5 8 6 (The Hacienda, Manchester, 1983)
We All Stand (Recreation Centre, Tolworth, 1983)
Leave Me Alone (Recreation Centre, Tolworth, 1983)
Love Will Tear Us Apart (Tower Ballroom, Birmingham, 1983)
Ultraviolence (First Avenue, Minneapolis, 1983)
The Village (Uni-Mensa, Dusseldorf, 1984)
Thieves Like Us (Alabamahalle, Munich, 1984)
Blue Monday (Alabamahalle, Munich, 1984)
Lonesome Tonight (Metropol, Berlin, 1984)
Confusion (Metropol, Berlin, 1984)

DVD 2
Play At Home
Channel 4, 1984 Documentary Made By New Order
Live Show
The Hacienda, Manchester, 1983
Blue Monday
Age Of Consent
Lonesome Tonight
Your Silent Face
Leave Me Alone
5 8 6
Denial
Confusion
Temptation
Thieves Like Us
In A Lonely Place
Everything's Gone Green

The biggest selling 12” single of all time in the UK, reissued and remastered from the original master tapes at Abbey Road Studios. Originally released on Factory Records in March 1983, the single has become the band’s most recognisable track

TRACK LISTING

A-Side: Blue Monday
B-Side: The Beach

Originally released on Factory in April 1984, the title is taken from the Robert Altman movie "Thieves Like Us". The cover design by Peter Saville is based on a painting by Giorgio de Chirico.

TRACK LISTING

A-Side: Thieves Like Us
B-Side: Lonesome Tonight

Unearthed by The Mighty Zaf for BBE Music, Into A New Journey by Ambiance is an impossibly rare and sought-after private label spiritual jazz masterpiece from 1982 with Latin, Brazilian and Afro overtones. Ambiance was the ‘nom de guerre’ of an ever-shifting jazz collective headed up by Nigeria-born, LA-tutored multi- instrumentalist, arranger, producer and photographer Daoud Abubakar Balewa. Balewa studied composition and jazz improvisation at the feet of innovators such as Frank Mitchell (Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers), Jackie McLean (Blue Note) and other masters from the golden Blue Note era. Although he favoured alto, soprano and tenor, he was equally happy on flute, keyboards, and Latin and Brazilian percussion. What’s more, he had the knack of using musicians who were bold enough to welcome being part of such multi-faceted sessions: guitarist Jim Lum’s flexibility suits the theme of this album perfectly, as does prolific Japanese soul-jazz drummer Danny Yamamoto; the stunning Hawaiian pianist Kino Cornwell (Yamamoto’s colleague from funk-fusion supergroup Hiroshima); and the wonderful Jean Carn-like tones of Daoud’s wife, jazz vocalist Monife Balewa. From the band’s reading of Joe Henderson’s modal masterpiece Black Narcissus, through the deep multicultural percussive jazz-dance workout that is the title track, and on to the three-octave vocal embellishments of Monife, on her own composition Something Better as well as on the Chick Correa fusion classic 500 Miles High, nothing here is generic, nothing taken for granted, nothing comfortable or predictable. All of the half-dozen or so albums recorded and released by Daoud and Ambiance during just six years of frantic creativity between 1979 and 1986 are well worth seeking out, but in BBE Music’s opinion Into A New Journey is the pinnacle: spiritual jazz worthy of the very best practitioners of the genre, by an obscure group of ludicrously talented artists on a tiny, self-financed indie label with an equally tiny promo budget: that’s what great jazz is all about.

STAFF COMMENTS

Patrick says: All my spiritual jazz customers went crazy when High Jazz reissued 'Gida Gida' and 'Ebun' over the last few years, and with good reason - the soulful and dynamic fusion sounds of Ambiance are practically unrivalled. This time it's Zaf whose handled the digging, encouraging BBE to give the group's fourth LP a lavish reissue. Higher listening folks.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Arrival
2. The Black Narcissus
3. Something Better
4. Into A New Journey
5. Eastwind
6. 500 Miles High
7. Windows

Widely regarded as one of the foremost songwriters of her generation, Suzanne Vega emerged as a leading figure of the folk-music revival of the early 1980s. Since the release of her self-titled, critically acclaimed 1985 debut album, she has written and recorded numerous songs that have become part of the contemporary music vernacular, including “Luka”, certainly the only hit song ever written from the perspective of an abused boy, “Marlene on the Wall”, a surprise hit in the UK and “Tom’s Diner”, a strange little a cappella piece that was remixed by U.K. electronic dance duo “DNA” and became a major club hit. Her albums, including her self-titled debut, the follow up, Solitude Standing and 99.9F have sold millions of copies. WHAT IS THIS ALBUM ? Produced by Gerry Leonard (Guitar player with David Bowie, played with Roger Waters, Laurie Anderson) mixed by Grammy Award-winning engineer Kevin Killen and mastered by Grammy Award winner, Bob Ludwig. On An Evening of New York Songs and Stories, Vega revisits some of her most New York-centric repertoire in a stunning live recording on which she is backed by longtime guitarist, Gerry Leonard, bassist Jeff Allen and keyboardist Jamie Edwards. Recorded at New York City’s famed Café Carlyle in early 2019, the album includes both familiar songs like “Luka” and “Tom’s Diner” and deep cuts from her catalog like “Frank and Ava” and “Ludlow Street”. The mix of repertoire also features “New York Is My Destination” from Lover, Beloved: Songs from an Evening with Carson McCullers, Vega’s one-woman play about the Southern gothic novelist Carson McCullers, and a cover of her late friend Lou Reed’s “Walk on the Wild Side.

TRACK LISTING

1. Marlene On The Wall
2. Luka
3. 'So How Many People Are Here From Out Of Town?'
4. New York Is A Woman
5. 'This Next Song Takes Place On 59th Street...'
6. Frank And Eva
7. 'So I Myself Came To New York City When I Was 2 ½ Years Old'
8. Gypsy
9. Freeze Tag
10. Pornographer's Dream
11. 'This Next Song Is Called New York Is My Destination'
12. New York Is My Destination
13. 'The First Time I Saw Lou Reed...'
14. Walk On The Wild Side
15. Ludlow Street
16. Cracking
17. 'And Now We've Got A Song About Those Times...'
18. Some Journey
19. 'I'm Gonna Close With This Song...'
20. Tom's Diner
21. 'Would You Like Another One?'
22. Anniversary
23. Tombstone
24. Thin Man

The time had come, Angel Olsen realized in the fading summer of 2018, to take her new songs out of the house. Olsen's 2016 marvel, My Woman, had been a career breakthrough, but it catalyzed a period of personal tumult, too: a painful breakup, an uneasy recovery, an inadequate reckoning. At home in North Carolina's Blue Ridge Mountains, Olsen penned songs that finally grappled with these troubles, particularly love:"how forever is too much to promise, how relationships can lock us into static versions of ourselves, how you can go through hell just to make someone else happy. These heartsore explorations shape Whole New Mess, Olsen's first solo album since her 2012 debut and an emotional portrait so intimate and vulnerable you can hear her find meaning in these crises in real-time.

At least nine of the eleven songs on Whole New Mess should sound familiar to anyone who has heard All Mirrors, Olsen's grand 2019 masterpiece that earned high honors on prestigious year-end lists and glossy spreads in stylish magazines. "Lark," "Summer," "Chance" - they are all here, at least in some skeletal form and with slightly different titles. But these are not the demos for All Mirrors. Instead, Whole New Mess is its own record with its own immovable mood, with Olsen working through her open wounds and raw nerves with just a few guitars and some microphones, isolated in a century-old church in the Pacific Northwest. If the lavish orchestral arrangements and cinematic scope of All Mirrors are the sound of Olsen preparing her scars for the wider world to see, Whole New Mess is the sound of her first figuring out their shape, making sense for herself of these injuries.

Considered alongside All Mirrors, Whole New Mess is a poignant and pointed reminder that songs are more than mere collections of words, chords, and even melodies. They are webs of moods and moments and ideas, qualities that can change from one month to the next and can say just as much as the perfect progression or an exquisite chord. In that sense, these 11 songs - "solitary, frank, and unflinching examinations of what it's like to love, lose, and survive -" are entirely new. This is the sound of Angel Olsen, sorting through the kind of trouble we've all known, as if just for herself and whoever else needs it.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: 'Whole New Mess' isn't as much different versions of the same songs as it is a retelling of the entire context they were given in. Beautifully raw at times, and even more poignant than the already mindblowing 'All Mirrors', if that was the story, this is the equal and opposite other side of the story. An absolutely necessary listen.

TRACK LISTING

Whole New Mess
Too Easy (bigger Than Us)
(new Love) Cassette
(we Are All Mirrors)
(summer Song)
Waiving, Smiling
Tonight (without You)
Lark Song
Impasse (workin’ For The Name)
Chance (forever Love)
What It Is (what It Is)

Happiness was recorded from late 1988 to summer 1989, influenced by the band's immersion in the nascent UK Acid House scene. Originally a four-piece guitar/synth band, The Beloved MK1 parted ways late 1987 and founder members Jon Marsh and Steve Waddington were newly liberated by their electronic, machine-driven rhythm section. The perfect synchronicity of the Balearic stylings of the underground clubs and exposure to early Chicago House corresponded with a burst in songwriting and sonic adventure. The result: Happiness!

Recorded mostly with producer Martyn Phillips (who subsequently worked with Erasure, Jesus Jones, & Londonbeat) the band created a hybrid of British electronic pop music, US club beats, euphoric mood and consistently optimistic and uplifting lyrics. 

'Happiness' has been remastered from the original analogue studio masters (by John Davis at Metropolis Studios) and has a significantly louder and clearer audio than the original release. The reissue includes new sleeve notes written by the band themselves.

TRACK LISTING

LP / CD (songs 11-25 With * Are CD (special Edition) Only):
Hello
Your Love Takes Me Higher
Time After Time
Don’t You Worry
Scarlet Beautiful
The Sun Rising
I Love You More
Wake Up Soon
Up Up & Away
Found
I Love You More [demo]*
Jackie (Won't You Please Come Home?)*
Sally* / My Heart’s Desire*
Your Love Takes Me Higher [demo]*
Your Love Takes Me Higher [piano/303 Demo]*
Wake Up Soon [demo]*
Acid Love (7" Mix)*
Acid Love (Acid Dream)*
Paradise (My Darling, My Angel)*
Time After Time [demo]*
Time After Time [extended Demo Dub]*
Jennifer Smiles*/ Pablo (7 Inch Mix)*
The Sun Rising (Evening Session Remix)*

Soul Jazz Records’ new album ‘Kaleidoscope – New Spirits Known and Unknown’ brings together many of the groundbreaking artists involved in the new jazz scene that has developed in the UK over the last few years.

Featured artists include Matthew Halsall, Yazmin Lacey, Ill Considered, Tenderlonious, Theon Cross, Emma-Jean Thackray and many, many more in this ground-breaking release.

As well as sharing a pioneering spirit in these new artists’ approach to frontier-crossing musical boundaries, a further theme of this album is that many also share a determination to independent practices – and most of these artists’ recordings featured here are either self-published or released on independent labels. While the attention of this new wave of jazz artists up until now has been London-based, this album shows how this movement is spread across the whole of Britain (and indeed beyond).

‘Kaleidoscope – New Spirits Known and Unknown’ shows that while there is commonality in these artists’ approach to music, there is a wide variety of styles – from deep spiritual jazz, electronic experimentalisation, punk-edged funk, uplifting modal righteousness, deep soulful vocals and much more.

STAFF COMMENTS

Emily says: It’s been a breathless few years for British jazz, with essential new artists appearing by the day on a plethora of labels up and down the country. Thankfully Soul Jazz are here to help us keep track, taking stock of the scene on this bumper triple vinyl collection.

TRACK LISTING

A
1. Matthew Halsall & The Gondwana Orchestra - When The World Was One (7.38)
2. Yazmin Lacey - 90 Degrees (4.16)
3. Hector Plimmer - Communication Control (3.04)

B
1. Ill Considered - Long Way Home (Live At The Crypt) (8.03)
2. The Expansions - Mosaic (6.58)
3. Chip Wickham - Red Planet (5.44)

C
1. Levitation Orchestra - Odyssey (9.26)
2. Emma-Jean Thackray’s WALRUS - Walrus (2.47)
3. Tenderlonious And The 22a Arkestra - The Shakedown (6.18)

D
1. Joe Armon-Jones & Maxwell Owin Featuring Nubya Garcia - Tanner's Tango (4.48)
2. Collocutor - Gozo (6.02)
3. Makaya McCraven - Untitled (3.14)

E
1. Nat Birchall - Ancient World (9.50)
2. Ruby Rushton - Moonlight Woman (9.05)

F
1. Ebi Soda - Dimmsdale (3.11)
2. The Cromagnon Band - Thunder Perfect (5.12)
3. SEED Ensemble - Mirrors (7.38)

BONUS 7" SINGLE (With Indies Exclusive Vinyl Only)
A. Vels Trio - Yellow Ochre (Part 1) (3.04)
AA. Ishmael Ensemble - Kito's Theme (4.15)

Within the genre of heavy metal there can be an abundance of variation, color, texture and tone. There are many different shades and many different categories within that catch-all phrase. It’s not all about throat ripping vocals or Neanderthal riffage. As many who are not drawn metal’s immediate charms may perceive. Heavy music can encompass a whole panoply of sounds, moods and ambition. It can surround you with emotional elegance and distressing chaos. There can be subtleness, thoughtfulness and deep introspection even when things get exceptionally heavy. This is why NHS is thrilled to unveil our latest signing. We have partnered with 4 musically kindred spirits from Birmingham, Alabama, collectively known as EMBR.

EMBR tick all the boxes & beyond. EMBR already have 3 mighty EP’s under their belt. All 3 got them on the heavy underground radar.

“punishingly heavy with sedated slowness on a level different that most doom out there.” Metal Temple
“a heavy mixture of grunge, doom and stoner rock with a twinge of gothic style delivery” Outlaws Of The Sun

EMBR spent most of 2019 writing 7 new songs for ‘1823’. The album was recorded by Matt Washburn at Ledbelly Sound Studio (Mastodon, Royal Thunder) in Dawsonville Ga. The title ‘1823’ has special significance. It’s not just a numerical title, it has substance. Eric Bigelow (drummer) has been on the list for a kidney for around 4 years. Eric received a kidney transplant in May of 2019. This happened right in the middle of writing the album. The kidney was from a deceased donor and all Eric and Crystal Bigelow (singer and Eric’s wife) know about the donor is that it was a young woman between the ages of 18-23. The album is dedicated to the donor and the surgeons at Vanderbilt hospital in Nashville TN. And what a fine tribute it is. Musically ‘1823’ could be categorized as ‘Doom’. However, on this debut it’s obvious that EMBR have range, drive and a desire to add to the genre, to broaden it whilst staying true to its core fundamentals. Rest assured, the band have all the nuts and bolts in place. Mark Buchanan (guitar), Alan Light (bass) and Eric Bigelow (drums) keep everything tight and weighty.

Massive drop-tuned guitars, chest rattling low end, pounding drums, fuzzy distortion, it’s all there. But they also add in synths, a bit of grunge and alt rock flavors. The vocal talents of Crystal absolutely soar and strengthen the music. Her range, patterns and harmonies transport the band’s music skyward. Crystal adds soul and an air of melancholia to the musical creations. If a pointer were needed, think Mastodon meets Witch Mountain with epic sweeps and a shade of gothic drama. Tracks like ‘Prurient’ and ‘Where I’ve Been’ combine thick heavy riffs with Crystal weaving through, powerful and epic, yet soulful and intimate.

Musically, the bands core vibe is keep it slow and low’ but EMBR aren’t afraid to mix it up a bit. ‘Stranger’ takes it down, allowing Crystal’s voice to float over the softer elements and riffs in an almost folk-like manner. ‘Powder’ channels throat ripping growls and soaring clean vocals in one loping relentless journey. ‘Eyes Like Knives’ , ‘Your Burden’ and ‘Vines’ are epic doom fests, drenched in gothic veils and dripping with thick distortion. The lyrics are deep and are usually written collectively by Crystal and Eric with one of them sometimes taking the reins on certain songs that they identify with. For instance, Powder is a song Eric wrote about past struggles and trying to power through them with relentless determination and positivity. Prurient was written by Crystal and initially was based on the 2016 movie THE BOY but also was inspired by her past experiences with a haunting figure in her life. 

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. Prurient
2. Where I've Been
3. Stranger
4. Powder

Side B
1. Eyes Like Knives
2. Your Burden
3. Vines

Albert Ayler’s 1969 album New Grass has been misunderstood from the day of its release.

The album finds Ayler experimenting with soul music and digging back into his R&B roots (he started his career playing saxophone with Chicago bluesman Little Walter), fusing it with the avant-garde free jazz (the one element of the record which garnered consistent praise) and adding the vocals of Rose Marie McCoy, The Soul Singers and Ayler himself. As if predicting the divisiveness of the record to follow, Ayler speaks directly to the listener and explains that New Grass is nothing like his albums before — that it is of “a different dimension of his life” — in the album opener “Message from Albert.”

New Grass deserves reconsideration, if not for the heavy grooves and surprising arrangements, then for its bravery in challenging norms of the time; by the ‘60s, jazz was well-accepted as a uniquely American art form, while soul as a genre was very much still seen as primitive. Ayler melds them together and creates something novel, adventurous, and completely his own. At the time of its release, despite its divisive reception, New Grass helped break down the unnecessary walls dividing genres and revealed music’s potential freedoms. The album has gone on to influence generations of Jazz, R&B, Funk, Hip Hop, Post Punk, No Wave and unshrinking artists like Pharaoh Sanders, Alice Coltrane, Funkadelic, Jungle Brothers, Red Krayola, Sonic Youth and Mark E. Smith.

Third Man Records can’t recommend this record highly enough. We are confi dent that it won’t take but one listen for you to understand New Grass is an undeniable healing force

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A
1. Message From Albert / New Grass
2. New Generation
3. Sun Watcher

SIDE B
1. New Ghosts
2. Heart Love
3. Everybody?s Movin
4. Free At Last

After years spent looking out at landscapes and loved ones and an increasingly unstable world, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever have turned their gaze inward, to their individual pasts and the places that inform them, on their second full-length, Sideways to New Italy.

Led by singer-songwriter-guitarists Tom Russo, Joe White and Fran Keaney, the guitar-pop five-piece returned home to Australia after the relentless touring schedule that came following their critically regarded 2018 debut Hope Downs. Feeling the literal and metaphorical ground under their feet had shifted, the band began grasping for something reliable. For Keaney, that translated into writing "pure romantic fiction" and consciously avoiding the temptation of angsty break-up songs, while Russo looked north to a "bizarre place" that captured the feeling of manufacturing a sense of home when his own had disappeared.

The New Italy of the new album’s title is a village near New South Wales’ Northern Rivers – the area drummer Marcel Tussie is from. A blink-and-you'll-miss-it pit-stop of a place with fewer than 200 residents, it was founded by Venetian immigrants in the late-1800s and now serves as something of a living monument to Italians' contribution to Australia, with replica Roman statues dotted like alien souvenirs on the otherwise rural landscape. The parallels to the way the band attempted to maintain connections and create familiarity during their disorienting time on the road was apparent to Russo. "These are the expressions of people trying to find a home somewhere alien: trying to create a utopia in a turbulent and imperfect world."

The record's geographic identity emerged from the band losing their grip on their own, whether that was through the pressure of touring, the dissolution of relationships, a frustrating distance from their daily lives – or some combination of all three – that came from being slingshotted all over the world, playing sold-out headline tours and festivals including Coachella, Governors Ball, Primavera Sound, All Points East, and Pitchfork Music Festival.

The notion of crafting, in Russo’s words, “a utopia of where your heart’s from,” permeates Sideways to New Italy, in which early attempts at writing big, high-concept songs about The State of the World were abandoned in favor of love songs, and familiar voices and characters filter in and out, grounding the band's stories in their personal histories. There’s something comforting, too, in knowing the next time they’re buffeted from stage to stage around the world, they’ll be taking the voices of their loved ones with them, building a new totem of home no matter where they end up.

STAFF COMMENTS

Darryl says: It’s been well documented that we love the sunshine rich sound of The Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever here at Piccadilly; two EOY Top 10 entries with 2018’s ‘Hope Downs’ and 2017’s mini-album ‘The French Press’ speaks for itself. And now the Australian quintet have returned with ‘Sideways To New Italy’, a superbly crafted and exceptionally well produced album that’s easily on par with their previous releases.

Kicking off the album with the timeless “The Second Of The First” it’s clear that they’ve lost none of their songwriting wizardry, all the key RBCF elements are here; interlocking jangling guitars, pristine melodies, a driving rhythm section and hooks that’ll earworm their way around your head for months on end.

Track after track of effortless sunkissed indie-pop follow including the standout “Cars In Space” where the intertwining triple guitars really hit their peak, layers upon layers of blissful golden soundz over an infectious motorik beat. This is RBCF at their best, where all five members click into a groove that you’ll never want to end.

‘Sideways To New Italy’ is the sound of a band that’s happy to be back in the confines of their studio again having spent around 18 months touring the world; finding warmth in the familiarity of their setting, but wiser for the adventures and tribulations that they’ve encountered so far. Here’s hoping the next album is just as good!

TRACK LISTING

The Second Of The First
Falling Thunder
She's There
Beautiful Steven
The Only One
Cars In Space
Cameo
Not Tonight
Sunglasses At The Wedding
The Cool Change

BlackLab ‘the dark witch doom duo from Osaka, Japan’ are poised to return with their new long playing record ‘ABYSS’. BlackLab’s first lp emerged to reviews a plenty. “BlackLab’s relentlessly bleak, feedbackdrenched and fuzz-laden take on doom/noise is as dark and mysterious as a black hole, and every bit as absorbing” CLASSIC ROCK.

“Blacklab are awesome. Fall under their hex immediately” KERRANG

“Raw, noisy and groove laden, an extreme, arcane force” METAL HAMMER

The first album was a remixed collection of the band’s early tracks, a melting pot of influences as they set out to inhabit their own space. Now with ‘ABYSS’ the band are very much defining what that space is.

Once again, the album was produced by Jun Morino in Osaka, and mixed in London by Wayne Adams (Pet Brick, Green Lung, Cold In Berlin) and is an uncompromising beast of a record. Recorded under a full moon over 3 intense days, the album has the ‘off the leash’ abandon of ‘Fun House’ era ‘Stooges’ and is marked by a fat dose of doom meets slowed down hardcore punk; filled with loud, ultra distorted guitar, and yet, a surprising amount of melody as well. In fact, Yuko has said that the band’s name is a combination of Black Sabbath and Stereolab, well here on ‘Abyss’ is where that strange mix begins to make musical sense. The band haven’t lost their love of lo-fi or ‘Riot Grrrl’ attitude. The guitars are loud and heavily gnarled to the point of chaos.

Vocals go from shoegaze melodic to hardcore screams (in fact rarely has a vocalist in this genre screamed so musically as Yuko does) and underneath all this, Chia batters the skins, all rolling and tumbling thunder amidst the riffs. Yes there is a smattering of ‘Sabbathy Wizarding’ of course, but submerged within dark, deep fuzz and punk rock crank and grind. In truth the vibe is closer to both the arty heaviness of early Boris, and the sweet savagery of My Bloody Valentine, than any kind of ‘doom’ tropes. It’s a sound that is undoubtedly BlackLab’s own. So over 8 tracks, clocking in at around 42 mins, you get the current Blacklab world view. ‘Insanity’ creeps in with a sound familiar to doom lovers. Then over the course of eight minutes manages to motor into its own riff time continuum, fuelled by heavy fuzz, pounding drums, and vocals that run the gamut from surly, to sweet, to full on throat- shred.

‘Fade and Melt’ is quirky, odd even, but heavy too, marrying a sweet Japanese melody to a dense, rolling barrage of distortion. ‘Weed Dream’ is driven by chugging, barely under control guitar and grunge punk swagger, and it’s here that Yuko most obviously channels her inner Stereolab. ‘Amusement Park Of Terror’. The title sounds like some cheapo 60’s bug movie, or a grade B slasher flick from the 80’s. Well to be honest this short instrumental interlude would be the perfect soundtrack to either. Both ‘Forked Road’ and ‘Chained’ are cut from the same cloth, a mash up of ‘Stooges’ meets ‘Comets On Fire’ mayhem and loping Sleep - esque riffs. ‘Sleepless Night’ is all throbbing distortion and understated threat, albeit with a curiously catchy chorus and coda. Then you have ‘Sun’ an underscore to any number of nihilistic apocalypses. It crashes in with a guitar tone so huge it’ll threaten to demolish your speakers. Abyss is an album that is as raw and alive as it gets. It’s refreshingly free of artifice, and it doesn’t arse around. Say hello to the Osaka underground.

TRACK LISTING

1. Insanity
2. Fade And Melt
3. Weed Dream
4. Amusement Park Of Terror Side 
5. Forked Road
6. Chained
7. Sleepless Night
8. Sun

How inspiring it is to hear Tim Burgess conjuring up exciting and life-affirming sounds as he, almost inconceivably, enters his fifth decade on public duty. Frontman, singer, label boss, DJ and author, he’s been instrumental in so many great records over the years, always bringing enthusiasm, positivity and diversity of influence, which altogether light the way for those who hold him dear.

While in The Charlatans, Tim’s indefatigable energy has been a consistent fuel for the band across thirteen high-charting albums, his solo adventure has been no less extraordinary, scaling new heights in 2020 with his fifth solo release to date: ‘I Love The New Sky’. Released on Bella Union, it features wonderfully connective songs of everyday minutiae and universal experience, of love and anger, of loss and belonging, all united by elaborate yet natural arrangements and an effortless but deceptively expert way with melody.

‘I Love The New Sky’ differs from its predecessors in that all twelve tracks were self-penned. “In the past, I've written collaboratively,” says a characteristically, but rightfully excited Burgess. “(2012's) ‘Oh No I Love You’ was written with Lambchop’s Kurt Wagner in Nashville, and then ‘Same Language, Different Worlds’ was a collaboration with Peter Gordon who had worked extensively with Arthur Russell.”

The spark for ‘I Love The New Sky’ came after a year of touring another album, ‘As I Was Now’, which he’d made in 2008 but had a belated release ten years later. “That one was made in three days, just friends getting together”, he says – the amigos included Josh Hayward from The Horrors, Primal Scream Keyboard player Martin Duffy, Ladyhawke and My Bloody Valentine's Debbie Googe.

“I didn’t realise the album hadn't actually come out as I had a copy of it on my ipod so I figured that maybe everybody did. So, all those years later I thought it would make an interesting release for Record Store Day. It did really well, so I was approached to tour it for Independent Venue Week and after that a load of festivals asked us to play too. Average Sex were the support band that then became my band so it was a brilliant little tour. After that, I was really energized, and I thought, Right, I'm going to do another album, but really concentrate on making it a solo record, where I write everything on my own and all the songs are the very best I can make them.”

“I’d been listening to a lot of Isaac Hayes, Olivia Tremor Control, Carole King, Todd Rundgren, John Maus, Weyes Blood and Kevin Ayres - I’m not sure how much they have influenced the album but they were the impetus and inspiration.”

The twelve tunes of ‘I Love The New Sky’ were authored, he says, “in Norfolk, in the middle of the countryside, with the nearest shop eight miles away. There are no distractions, and I guess that way things happen. I wrote everything on acoustic guitar, and the chords were really considered. The guitar lines would lead the melody, and the melody would inform the lyrics – just dreaming away with music.”

So far, so Laurel Canyon, though ‘I Love The New Sky’ would end up sounding anything but hippie/folkie, thanks to a connection Tim made while living in a warehouse space in gritty Seven Sisters in North London, before heading to Norfolk.

“The Quietus had their office there,” he recalls. “I used to know pretty much all the stuff they were writing about, but then their album of the year for 2013 was ‘Glynnaestra’ by Grumbling Fur, and I really fell in love with it. I started talking to the band about working together. To cut a long story short I recorded a song with Grumbling Fur, they remixed two Charlatans tracks and a couple of Daniel O'Sullivan's solo albums came out on my label.”

As well as bass and drum duties on I Love The New Sky, O’Sullivan plays piano on much of the album, from the bouncing chamber-pop chords of ‘Sweetheart Mercury’ and the punchy chorus of ‘Empathy For The Devil’, through to ‘Comme D’Habitude’’s juxtaposition of blissfully rolling West Coast singer-songwriting and a complex Sparks-y Broadway-esque bridge, to the Velvets-y ramalama moves on ‘Warhol Me’ and ‘Undertow’’s sombre balladry.

The album was arranged and recorded quickly but not rushed: “Ideas happen fast, don’t they?” Tim reasons. The first sessions at Eve Studios in Stockport were with long-serving Charlatans engineer Jim Spencer. Tim, Daniel and Nik Void cut three tracks in two days, with Nik layering up modular synths in line with her previous day job in Factory Floor.

A third keyboard maestro entered the picture when Thighpaulsandra, a maverick musician and producer, came into the frame, best known for his work for Julian Cope, Coil Spiritualized and Elizabeth Fraser. I found out that he was based at ‘Rockfield’ [legendary residential facility near Monmouth, South Wales]. So I said, ‘Okay, that’s where we’re going to record the rest of it’.” As well as enlisting his know-how as an engineer, the cosmically-inclined Welshman also applied vintage synths and what Tim hazily calls “wizardry”.

For Burgess himself, the return to Rockfield was meaningful: “I hadn’t been there since we recorded ‘Tellin' Stories’” he says. “It was a matter of ending this long period of not going there, because after Rob died we couldn’t face it again. So nearly 25 years later, we returned and the positive feelings came back. Mark Collins [Charlatans guitarist] came down to play on ‘Empathy For The Devil’ and ‘Sweetheart Mercury’, and he actually had the same room as he had in 1996. It was like no time had passed at all.”

“I was in search of a certain sound there,” Tim adds, of his overriding motivation for returning. “I couldn’t exactly put my finger on what it was I was searching for, but I knew if it was there that I’d be able to find it”.

The results are nothing short of astounding. ‘I Love The New Sky’ has landed somewhere between Paul McCartney's ‘RAM’ and Brian Eno's ‘Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy)' and certainly that recipe covers both the all-pervasive tunefulness and high quality. Stylistically, though, it runs the widest gamut, from 'Empathy For The Devil's gospel style rockabilly skip, through to the sophisticated song-craft of ‘Sweetheart Mercury’ and the Nilsson-esque ‘Sweet Old Sorry Me’, with the angst-y gravitas of ‘Undertow’, which Tim describes as “a mood-changer, influenced by 10cc.”

Lyrically, this might almost be a defining collection from Burgess after thirty years honing his craft. There’s plenty of typical lightness of touch of ‘Only Took A Year’s joking reference to the album’s twelve-month gestation period, and the quip, “what’s your favourite Cure LP? I like ‘Pornography! But it could be any one of three.”

Equally amusing in its self-referencing is ‘Warhol Me’ set to a soundtrack of New York bubblegum pop. ‘Sweet Old Sorry Me’ finds Burgess reminiscing on his former life in Los Angeles, but drolly updating the Steely Dan vernacular for the social-media era with the line, “I had to unsubscribe from that particular tribe”. ‘Lucky Creatures’, meanwhile, follows Tim on his day back in LA on tour, as he enjoys “tacos on the underground”, revisiting his old everyday haunts in Hollywood.

‘The Mall’, too, revels in its everyday setting: “it’s an ordinary feature of everyday life. I’m pretty sure that the ‘escalating drama on a moving staircase’ bit happened at Boots in Piccadilly Circus. Maybe they'll put a blue plaque there one day. I love it round there, it’s like the whole world is happening – but it’s taking a small idea and trying to make it into something more universal.”

‘I Got This’ has the line “the future is friendly”. Says Tim: “Everyone’s been going through a lot of tough times. And the future is uncertain. But you have to have that optimistic outlook – like, waking up in the morning and feeling that it’s gonna be a good day.”

There is a sense of community within this solo venture, which is emphasised when Tim and Nik’s six year old son joins in on ‘Comme D’Habitude’, and with the assembly of what Tim calls a “gang chorus”, in the spirit of Dexy’s Midnight Runners’ ‘Plan B’, for the closing chant of the album title on ‘Laurie’. This song is particularly heartfelt, as Tim mistily reveals, written for “someone I love who I never met”. The end section happened spontaneously at Rockfield: “Everybody that came into the studio, I asked them to sing, so there are about 20 people doing that vocal – Mark Collins, Daniel, our friend Ally, Nik, Thighpaulsandra – everybody singing it, and for this spirit that is loved.”

The final stages of the album’s year-long narrative arc were enacted at Jet Studio in Brussels, with the Echo Collective string section. Burgess looked on “mesmerised at what was happening to the songs, taking an even more magical turn.”

With that icing on the cake, Tim is in no doubt that he has his finest solo record under his belt. On this occasion, it’s coming out on time, and he’ll be touring it with a live ensemble featuring Daniel O’Sullivan, Thighpaulsandra, another O Genesis artiste called Keel Her, and renowned avant-jazz violinist Peter Broderick, who plays on ‘’Empathy…’ and will recreate the Echo Collective parts, too. So, the community will grow. Just like Tim says, “the future is friendly.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: Tim’s fifth solo album is his best by a mile and what’s even sweeter is that he wrote every song totally by himself. It’s the quintessential Tim experience; warm, open-hearted, playful and experimental, but absolutely always with a catchy pop hook at the centre of everything. There’s a sense of wonder and a carefree spirit at play, but don’t be fooled; these twelve ditties have sophisticated arrangements and are expertly embellished with sax, strings and piano, the latter provided by Grumbling Fur’s Daniel O’Sullivan. You could call this soft psyche or indie easy listening except Tim always throws a spanner in the works, a mad detour or delightful quirk. It’s a record full of surprises. Having warmed the hearts of a nation with his wonderful listening parties this summer, Tim has made the kind of album we’ll all be pouring over ourselves for many years to come.

TRACK LISTING

1. Empathy For The Devil
2. Sweetheart Mercury
3. Comme D'Habitude
4. Sweet Old Sorry Me
5. The Warhol Me
6. Lucky Creatures
7. The Mall
8. Timothy
9. Only Took A Year
10. I Got This
11. Undertow
12. Laurie

What’s New, Tomboy? is an album that seeks respite in bare minimums and barren revelations: sometimes frail, sometimes affirming, sometimes wry, and usually a threadbare mix of all those sentiments. It could be considered Damien Jurado’s finest collection of music to date, with songs exuding the inviting warmth of a lone porch light gleaming amidst the disorienting darkness. Though more stripped and grounded in their execution, songs like “Sandra”, “Ochoa” and “Alice Hyatt” are generous and candid in their vocabulary, eschewing the sometimes abstruse imagery of Jurado’s previous releases. “There is no hiding on these tracks.” Though What’s New, Tomboy? is the first Damien Jurado record that ends with a question mark, he has never sounded more assured and content in giving up his ghosts: “I’m only living sentences // That were long before I got here.”

TRACK LISTING

1. Birds Tricked Into The Trees
2. Ochoa
3. Alice Hyatt
4. Arthur Aware
5. Francine
6. Fool Maria
7. When You Were Few
8. Sandra
9. The End Of The Road
10. Frankie

Sixth studio album by the American indie rock band. The artwork features the 1981 painting 'Bird On Money' by American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. The album contains the singles 'At the Door' and 'Bad Decisions'.

TRACK LISTING

The Adults Are Talking
Selfless
Brooklyn Bridge To Chorus
Bad Decisions
Eternal Summer
At The Door
Why Are Sundays So Depressing
Not The Same Anymore
Ode To The Mets

The Garden is another timelessly classic album from a seminal electronic band and an essential soundtrack to any laidback listening.  Zero 7 were formed in 1997 by producers Henry Binns and Sam Hardaker. In 2001 their debut album Simple Things was released selling over a million copies to date and was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize. They released their third album The Garden in 2006 it also peak at no 4 UK album chart spending 7 weeks in total there. It has sold over 125k copies. In the USA, it entered the Billboard Dance/Electronic chart at #2 and stayed in the Top 20 of that chart for 5 weeks. Singles taken from the album include Futures featuring Jose Gonzalez, Throw It All Away and You’re My Flame both featuring Sia

TRACK LISTING

CD1:
Futures
Throw It All Away
Seeing Things
The Pageant Of The Bizarre
You’re My Flame
Left Behind
Today
This Fine Social Scene
Your Place
If I Can’t Have You
Crosses
Waiting To Die

CD2:
Dreaming
Thistles
Carolina
Futures (Acoustic Version)
Seeing Things (Extended 12” Version)
Left Behind (Live Session)
Today (Live Session)
Dreaming (Live Session)
You’re My Flame (Live Session)
Crosses (Live Session)
The Pageant Of The Bizarre (Live Session)

LP1:
Futures
Throw It All Away
Seeing Things
The Pageant Of The Bizarre
You’re My Flame
Left Behind

LP2:
Today
This Fine Social Scene
Your Place
If I Can’t Have You
Crosses
Waiting
To Die

Little Dragon—the pioneering Swedish four-piece fronted by enigmatic vocalist Yukimi Nagano, with multi-instrumentalists Håkan Wirenstarnd and Fredrik Wallin on keyboards and bass respectively and Erik Bodin on drums and percussion—return with their sixth studio album, “New Me, Same Us”.

For a band who are proudly left-of-centre and fiercely protective of doing things on their own terms, they have achieved no shortage of mainstream recognition. Grammy nominated for 2014’s “Nabuma Rubberband”, Little Dragon have long been seen as one of the most sought-after groups to work with. Chalking up an enviable list of collaborators throughout the years, working with equally groundbreaking artists like BADBADNOTGOOD, Gorillaz, SBTRKT, Flying Lotus, Flume, Kaytranada, Big Boi (who was first put on to the band via fellow Outkast member André 3000), De La Soul, DJ Shadow, Tinashe, Mac Miller, Future, Raphael Saadiq, Faith Evans and more. Their hugely popular and highly regarded live performances have spawned a decade-spanning career which has seen them recently co-headline a show with Flying Lotus at Los Angeles’ Hollywood Bowl and perform at some of the world’s most revered festivals such as Coachella, Glastonbury, Bestival, Lollapalooza, Melt, Dour, Sonar and Tyler, The Creator’s ‘Camp Flog Gnaw’.

Having played together since their school days in Gothenburg—where they’d meet up after class to jam and listen to records by artists like A Tribe Called Quest and Alice Coltrane —“New Me, Same Us” is the sound of a band going back to basics and falling back in love with their instruments: drums, bass, keyboards, harp, guitar and voice, to produce some of their most focussed and inarguably best music to date. “This album has been the most collaborative for us yet.” they explain, “which might sound weird considering we’ve been making music together for all these years, but we worked hard at being honest, finding the courage to let go of our egos and be pieces of something bigger.”

Entirely self-produced and recorded at their long-term home-built studio in Gothenburg, “New Me, Same Us” represents another chapter in the continuing evolution of Little Dragon, finding new direction in their unique style of unhurried, off-kilter r’n’b, pop and electronics, they sound as rejuvenated and energised as ever. The record also finds them in a reflective mood, Yukimi’s distinctive vocals musing on transitions, longing, and saying goodbye. “We are all on our own personal journeys,” they say, “full of change, yet still we stand united with stories we believe in, that make us who we are.” Lead single ‘Hold On’ is a message about breaking away and moving on, ‘Rush’ is about yearning for a love now lost, ‘Another Lover’ is described as a daydream of heartache, “I can’t understand what I'm doing / don't understand where we going” Yukimi laments in the opening lines. The aptly named ‘Sadness’ speaks to “how you might think you know someone but then time shows you a new face” say the band. ‘Where You Belong’ is a lullaby of fear of loss and death. There is room for optimism too, though. ‘New Fiction’ seeks that space in which to create new narratives and forge your own path and ‘Are You Feeling Sad’ is a reminder to take a step back and not worry too much: “you gonna be alright / don’t worry don’t worry / things gonna turn out fine”. 

TRACK LISTING

Hold On
Rush
Another Lover
Kids
Every Rain
New Fiction
Sadness
Are You Feeling Sad?
Where You Belong
Stay Right Here
Water

Included is a free 'Faithless Rituals' board game, 16 unique tarot cards, 4 Sky Valley tokens a game spinner and full instructions all housed in its own separate inner sleeve. Full download included as well.

Main CD package is a 4 panel digipack, with a 4 page booklet.

Sky Valley Mistress are 4 young upstarts from Blackburn, Lancashire, full of spit and vinegar who have delivered a ferocious, two fingered hello to rest of the world with their debut album 'Faithless Rituals'. Eight tracks of fierce passion and spirit, blistering stoner rock 'n' roll with huge riffs, buckets of fuzz and hooks guaranteed to nail you to the wall from the get go. Couple that with inciendiary playing one of the best female vocalists around ... you have one helluva debut album. In fact, SVM could easily hold their own against the likes of Jim Jones, Rival Sons, Royal Blood, BRMC or any other rockers greasy or otherwise.

Still only in their mid 20’s, you can only assume, on listening to their debut, that these young turks made that journey to those legendary crossroads and did the dirty deed with the dark one himself, such is the level of musicianship and vocal prowess on show here. The album was recorded at the legendary Rancho De La Luna, Joshua Tree, California, and co produced by, and featuring Dave Catching (Queens Of The Stone Age, Eagles Of Death Metal and Mojave Lords amongst others) and like all great rock 'n' roll it has vibe and attitude in spades. “I just wanna tell you guys a little somethin’ about this record. Somethin’ that you really need to know. I want this to perforate your eardrums, have a fight inside your head and leave a slow burnin’ fire in the darkest part of your mind. That will never let you forget what will be embedded inside you forever”

These are the words of Dave Catching (Mojave Lord, Eagles Of Death Metal, QOTSA), co-producer along with the band of the album. Dave’s intro opens ‘Faithless Rituals’, the debut album from Sky Valley Mistress. 8 tracks of full on hard, and heavy stoner rock, that is guaranteed to nail your ass to the wall from the get - go. 8 tracks of fierce passion and spirit. As Dave says … “Let it puncture your heart, bleed through your body and electrify your soul. Because this … THIS IS ROCK ‘N’ ROLL” Sky Valley Mistress are: Kayley “Hell Kitten” Davies (vocals), Sean “Starsky’ Berry (Guitar), Russell “Russell” Russell (Bass), Maxwell Harvey William Newsome III (Drums/Percussion) 

TRACK LISTING

Side A:

1. A Faithless Ritual
2. You Got Nothin'
3. Lost In Shock
4. Punk Song
5.It Won't Stop.

Side B:

1.Skull & Pistons
2. She Is So
3. Blue Desert
4. Electric Church

The Cut is a sister release to their critically-acclaimed 2019 album, Inside The Rose, and is a vast collection of new music, orchestral interludes and reworkings, and remixes by friends and collaborators including the likes of Ossian Brown (Clyclobe, Coil), Andrew Liles (Current 93, Nurse With Wound), and Scintii (Taiwanese singer-producer, featured on Inside The Rose). Marking the finite end of the Inside The Rose era, The Cut is available  in limited edition CD format, featuring hand-cut slit fabric artwork.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Mirage
2. Infinity Vibraphones Orchestral Mirror
3. Beyond Black Suns (Scintii Remix)
4. If I Were You (Love At The End Of The Human Age)
5. Infinity Vibraphones Postlude
6. Angels Come Down
7. Anti-Gravity Piano Mirror
8. A-R-P Piano Mirror
9. Beyond Black Suns (Andrew Liles Ambient Mix)
10. New Fire
11. Sphinx In Pieces
12. Inside The Rose Orchestral Mirror
13. Where The Trees Are On Fire (Maenad Veyl Remix)
14. Inside The Rose #MeToo Mix (Andrew Liles)
15. Angels Brass Canon
16. Where The Trees Are On Fire (Phone Note)
17. Into The Trees (Ossian Brown Recomposition)
18. Intro Tape, Pt. I
19. Intro Tape, Pt. II

Schatzimusik saunter onto our shelves for the first time with a big inaugural release, a super neccessary reissue of Trimolo's masterful debut LP, a gorgeous fusion of organic and esoteric jazz, new age moods and European exoticism.

Though they came into being in '84, Trimolo's career kicked off in 1987 when the fourpiece moved out of their basement and onto the stage, winning a band contest which took them into the studio for the first time. From there, the outfit lent two expressive tracks to the "Rock Feierwerk 1987 Sampler", before blessing the world with their exceptional debut LP. 

A sublime combination of infectious rhythms, dexterous guitar playing, evocative synths and playful flute, Trimolo's music breezes through the forest, relaxes by the stream and soaks up the sun, embodying the carefree syncronicity of its creators. The detailed melodies, woozy aesthetic and utter joie de vivre of the LP has put this platter in high demand over the years, and the keen eared will have spotted "Tempo 100" on Basso's "Proper Sunburn" compilation (Piccadilly #1 comp of 2019!). Now you get to luxuriate in the glory of this mellow killer, expanded with the inclusion of the two "Rock Feierwerk Sieger 87" versions. Thank you Schatzimusik!

TRACK LISTING

A1. Neues Aus U
A2. Inflagranti 
A3. Beduine Im Sandsturm
A4. Handelschreck
A5. Gotterspeise
A6. Schwein Gehabt (Rock Feierwerk Sieger 87 Version)
B1. Tempo 100
B2. Aus Alt Mach Neu
B3. Hinterm Haus Vorm Garten
B4. In Der U Bahn
B5. 5 Nach 12
B6. Tempo 100 (Rock Feierwerk Sieger 87 Version)

In February 2010, the late, legendary musician, poet and author Gil Scott-Heron released his thirteenth, and last, studio album. First conceptualised in 2005, and ultimately produced by XL Recordings head Richard Russell during New York recording sessions that commenced in January 2008, "I’m New Here" was Scott-Heron’s first album in thirteen years and found him sounding as vital, boundary-pushing and insightful as ever before.

In addition to the original album, this 'I'm New Here' 10th Anniversary Edition features two unreleased tracks - a cover of Richie Havens’ 'Handsome Johnny’ and a previously unheard Scott-Heron song 'King Henry IV’ - as well as a selection of other recordings from the original I’m New Here sessions that were only previously available on a rare, vinyl only deluxe version of the LP.

"Ten years ago I was in the midst of recording “I’m New Here” with Gil. There was a lot more to the experience than it was possible to process at the time, and there was some great material that never made it onto the album. Our cover of “Handsome Jonny” was the last recording Gil and I made on the last day of the last session for “I’m New Here”, at Clinton Studio in Hell’s Kitchen, NY, on September 19, 2009. Gil had introduced me to the original version of the song, explaining how Richie Havens had performed it in his opening set at Woodstock some forty years earlier, and we added it to a list of material we were considering for the album. In the end we recorded some of these songs, like Bobby Blue Bland’s “I’ll Take Care Of You”, Bill Callahan’s “I’m New Here” and Robert Johnson’s “Me and the Devil”, and didn’t get round to some others, including Joy Divison’s “Disorder”." - producer Richard Russell

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A Piccadilly Records Album Of The Year back in 2010. There's little that can be said about this legendary outing from XL head Richard Russell and the great GSH that hasn't already been said, it's an absolutely essential listen, and this expanded edition makes it even more so. A wildly groundbreaking and influential recording.

TRACK LISTING

On Coming From A Broken Home (Pt. 1)
Me And The Devil
I'm New Here
Your Soul And Mine
Parents (Interlude)
I'll Take Care Of You
Being Blessed (Interlude)
Where Did The Night Go
I Was Guided (Interlude)
New York Is Killing Me
Certain Things (Interlude)
Running
The Crutch
I've Been Me (Interlude)
On Coming From A Broken Home (Pt. 2)
Handsome Johnny
King Henry IV
Piano Player (Intro)
Home Is Where The Hatred Is
Winter In America
Winter In America
Jazz (Interlude)
Is That Jazz
A Place To Go (Interlude)
My Cloud

To mark the tenth anniversary of the release of "I’m New Here", the thirteenth - and last - studio album from the legendary US musician, poet and author Gil Scott-Heron, XL Recordings release a unique reinterpretation of the album by acclaimed US jazz musician Makaya McCraven. Titled "We’re New Again", the album's release comes exactly a decade after the release of Scott-Heron’s original Richard Russell-produced recording. Following in the footsteps of Jamie xx’s highly acclaimed 2011 remix album "We’re New Here", this is McCraven’s first release of 2020, following the huge global acclaim heaped upon his 2018 album "Universal Beings". One of the most vital new voices in modern jazz, McCraven is described by the New York Times as a "Chicago-based drummer, producer and beat maker, [who] has quietly become one of the best arguments for jazz’s vitality".

TRACK LISTING

Special Tribute (Broken Home Pt. 1)
I'm New Here
Running
Blessed Parents
New York Is Killing Me
The Patch (Broken Home Pt. 2)
People Of The Light
Being Blessed
Where Did The Night Go
Lily Scott (Broken Home Pt. 3)
I'll Take Care Of You
I've Been Me
This Can't Be Real
Piano Player
The Crutch
Guided (Broken Home Pt. 4)
Certain Bad Things
Me And The Devil

Revolution (Live Disco Show In New York City) is the fourth and final BBE reissue of Sidiku Buari’s unique and sought-after body of African Disco albums. Side 1 is (possibly!) ‘live’ throughout, from a 1979 show at the (possibly mythical!) La Cheer Nightclub, NYC, but very well recorded for a ‘live’ album with clean, bright top notes, sharp percussion and heavy bass-lines. Keep The Rhythm Going segues into Ofey Karambani reminiscent of the Kongos’ massive Loft Club floorfiller Anikana-O, whilst This Is Music and Disco Soccer keep up the 120-140bpm pace to complete a side that rocks enough for the lazier DJ to play from start to finish without lifting the needle! Side 2 consists of four very varied tracks all recorded at Aire L.A.Studios, the two openers Revolution and Together We Can Rebuild It (Ghana Motherland) being polemics against government and army corruption, and a battle-cry for Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings, who ruled the country for a brief period in 1979 when this recording was made, later serving as Ghana’s President from 1981 to 2001. Then there’s a perennial crowd-pleaser Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, Side 2 rounding off with the super-heavy Afrobeat-Disco groover, Happy Birthday. Originally a national athlete, winning silver and gold medals in the Senegal All Africa Games and West African Games in 1963 and a bronze in the All African in Congo Brazzaville in 1965, Sidiku Buari then moved to America on a music scholarship at The York Institute, obtained as a result of his athletic achievements. When one of York’s music teachers, Irvin Mechanic, heard him singing in the Ga language- he suggested putting a rhythm section behind the songs, recording them, and seeing what the American record buying public thought of them. Four classic albums followed in quick succession, after which Buari’s solo output abruptly ceased. But it was an ending that held within it the seeds of greater musical achievements to come. In 1990 he was appointed to the board of the Musicians’ Union of Ghana, later becoming its President from 1999 until 2007. In 2019, he was honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Pan-African Republic Honorary Award Society for ‘meritorious contribution to the development of music and movie industries in Ghana’.

TRACK LISTING

1. Keep The Rhythm Going
2. Ofey Karambani
3. This Is Music
4. Disco Soccer
5. Revolution
6. Together We Can Rebuild It (Ghana Motherland)
7. Merry Christmas And Happy New Year
8. Happy Birthday