Written, performed and produced by Georgia in its entirety and recorded in her own home-studio, ‘Georgia’ is the product of two years of obsessive work, but also a young lifetime of voracious music listening.

Elements of the glacial yet hyper-melodic tone of early 00's grime, sweltering, mid-summer west London dub and ragga, sophisticated pop, first wave post-punk agitation, the formative influence of Missy Elliott and the high-concept, illuminated sound-design work of contemporary artists such as The Knife and Hudson Mohawke run through ‘Georgia’, a record that reveals new layers of intrigue and ingenuity with every listen. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Intro
2. Kombine
3. Be Ache
4. Nothing Solutions
5. Hold It
6. Digits
7. Cab Ride
8. Tell Me About It
9. Move Systems
10. Heart Wrecking Animals
11. GMTL
12. You 

Unfurling out of Los Angeles this July comes St. Catherine, Matt Mondanile’s fifth outing as Ducktails. The new album emerges from the roots of Mondanile's previous work, from the free-form, ambient bedroom experiments of seminal underground release Landscapes (2009), to 2013's eighties pop re-imagination The Flower Lane, but ultimately moves Ducktails on to a more refined, personal and sincere place.

St. Catherine is a finely-honed collection of baroque pop songs that take the blissful, cascading melodic fretwork that Mondanile has made his signature with both Ducktails and his other band, Real Estate, and applies it to songs of considerable new emotional heft and dynamic range.

Mondanile partially wrote and recorded St. Catherine over the course of 2014 and then finished off recording at the start of 2015. The longest time he has ever spent working on a record, it took place in bedrooms and studios predominantly in east LA and Glendale, but venturing as far as Berlin and New York as Mondanile worked on tracks around heavy periods of Real Estate touring.

When Mondanile finally settled back in LA at the start of 2015, it was Rob Schnapf, co-producer of Elliott Smith's classic albums XO and Either/Or, that he turned to in order to help put the finishing touches to St. Catherine. Together, the pair added a new crispness and punch to the record's more upbeat, psychedelic pop tracks (such as James Ferraro-featuring, lolloping lead single "Headbanging In The Mirror", and the soaring "Into The Sky"), that recalls the artful muscularity of Smith's later work, whilst title track, the heavenly "St. Catherine" boasts one of Mondanile's greatest ever lead guitar lines and benefits greatly from Schnapf's warm, rich feel.

Where St. Catherine impresses even moreso, however, is when Mondanile steps out of his comfort zone, as he does frequently and with great success. The Julia Holter-featuring "Church" and "Heaven's Room", tracks which see Mondanile flex his muscles as a composer and arranger, introducing complex, interlocking vocal harmonies, gorgeously sweeping string parts (provided by Chris Votek and Andrew Tholl) and a host of off-kilter electronic elements into his sonic palate - channelling the likes of Broadcast, and Stereolab but with a younger, wide-eyed sensibility.

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: More lush, dreamy sounds and Anglophile jangles from the moonlighting Real Estate man. Gorgeous, as ever.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Disney Afternoon
2. Headbanging In The Mirror
3. Into The Sky
4. Heaven’s Room
5. St. Catherine
6. The Laughing Woman
7. Surreal Exposure
8. Church
9. Medieval
10. Krumme Lanke
11. Reprise 

Comprised of 15 fresh David Pearce solo performances recorded in characteristically lo-fi manner at home, using guitars only on tape and CD-R, Instrumentals 2015 is an album that will appeal both to FSA diehards and those wholly unfamiliar with the outfit’s recorded output.

The 15 tracks on Instrumentals 2015 present an impressionistic narrative which transports the listener through the excoriating dronescapes and rueful introspection of the album’s early pieces to the more redemptive cadences of the its closing half. Given its sense of momentum, maintained through Pearce’s thoughtful sequencing, this is an album that should be experienced in its entirety, the better to appreciate its deliberate emotional arc.

Celebrated director Peter Strickland has shot his first music video for Instrumental 7, after meeting Dave and using the song ‘Seven Seas’ in his recently released film ‘The Duke Of Burgundy.

“My first ever music video for a band that I'm very glad to see the return of.

Within the Great Plains of Hungary, one can almost hear this music resonating far away in the endless expanse. Three of us in the flatfield for three days with Flying Saucer Attack on our headphones and trying to remember how to use light meters whilst observing a world that mankind is gradually departing from. “ – Peter Strickland

The product of a unique collaboration between Franz Ferdinand and Sparks, ‘FFS’ was produced by Grammy Award winner John Congleton (St Vincent, David Byrne, Anna Calvi) and recorded at London’s RAK Studios.

The seed of FFS was sown around the time of Franz’s debut album when word got back to the Maels that the band were big Sparks fans. “We thought ‘Take Me Out’ was very cool, and wouldn’t it be nice to say hello when they came to Los Angeles?” recalls Russell Mael. “We met and decided then it would be great to do something together. We put forward a couple demos, one was ‘Piss Off’. But they got swept up by everything, and it didn’t happen at that time.”

Fast-forward to 2013 when both Sparks and Franz Ferdinand appeared at Coachella. On the day of Sparks’ warm-up show in San Francisco, Kapranos was in the city trying to locate a dentist when he heard a voice behind him: “‘Alex, is that you?’ It was Ron and Russell. They invited us down to see them play that night. We said hello after, and everyone agreed that the 10-year gestation period for this idea was long enough - we should try and make it happen now.”

‘FFS’ was recorded during an intense 15-day period in late 2014. “We approached it the way bands do with their first record,” says Kapranos. “We had the songs first, rehearsed them and then recorded it all together, in a room. So no hanging around or fannying about.”

Very much a ‘new’ project, ‘FFS’ doesn’t truly sound like either band but a striking and fascinating mutation. “The real motivation was to make something new, not ‘Franz featuring Russell Mael’, or ‘Sparks with Franz Ferdinand backing them,” says Alex Kapranos. “You can’t chart what is Sparks and what is Franz Ferdinand,” suggests Ron Mael. “I think each band unconsciously relinquished a little of who they were in order to enter new territory.”

And just like that, with the sleazy sound of a robotic vocal, Hot Chip are back to defend their crown as undisputed electro-pop lotharios. Now onto their sixth album, the oddball outfit are in vintage form, hitting us with this energetic LP, which reflects all that's come before it without simply treading water. Opening track "Huarache Lights" is as well formed a pop song as you're likely to hear all year, combining breakbeats and disco samples with loose white funk, miami freestyle elements and classic Hot Chip shimmer. For those who've been down since day one, the quirky synth-funk of "Love Is The Future" and "Started Right" offer a more mature take on the sounds first heard on "Coming On Strong", while "White Wine And Fried Chicken" and "So Much Further To Go" are classic Hot Chip ballads in the same vein as "In The Privacy Of Our Love". At the top of the B-side, "Dark Night" sees the group heading into new territories, adding sweeping symphonic strings and distorted guitar to a sublime 80s styled pop groove. If you come to the record looking for the dancefloor stylings of "One Life Stand" and "In Our Heads", the synth heavy lilt of "Easy To Get" and the housed up magic of "Need You Now" should do you nicely, softening you up for the big psychedelic finish of "Why Make Sense?". And coming from one of the world's most unconventional pop acts, why indeed? 

Due to a unique and bespoke printing technique which has never been used before, the album will come in one of 501 different colours. Combined with subtle variations of the design, this means that EVERY copy of the album, on both CD and LP, will feature completely unique artwork. Visually and sonically adventurous and innovative, this is a giant leap forward for a band with plenty more to give.

‘Love Songs For Robots’ is the fifth record from Patrick Watson and the follow up to his 2012 release ‘Adventures In Your Own Backyard’, which received widespread critical acclaim.

Consequence Of Sound calls ‘Love Songs For Robots’ “Larger than life,” while Q Magazine describes the album as “Sublime,” and Uncut adds “Confidently ambitious.”

The follow-up to Conor O’Brien’s debut, Becoming a Jackal, and its successor, Awayland - both hugely acclaimed and Mercury-nominated - is a breathtakingly beautiful, intimate album entirely about love and relationships.

Darling Arithmetic was written, recorded, produced and mixed by O’Brien at home - the loft of a converted farmhouse that he shares in the coastal town of Malahide to the north of Dublin - revealing a single-minded artist at the peak of his already considerable songwriting powers. It encompasses the various shades of feeling – desire, obsession, lust, loneliness and confusion, and deeper into philosophical and existential territory, across a cast of lovers, friends, family and even strangers. Backing up his supple and emoting vocal and guitar is the subtlest palate of instrumentation – piano, Mellotron (which accounts for the album’s occasional horn and cello tones) and brushes. O’Brien plays every instrument on these exquisite, melodic songs in a sparse, spacious, acoustic-leaning fashion.

On Darling Arithmetic, O’Brien doesn’t only pare back his use of language but looks deep into his own heart and motives. The opening track and first single, ‘Courage’, concerns the most important kind of love – for yourself: “It took a little time to get where I wanted / It took a little time to get free / It took a little time to be honest / It took a little time to be me.”

TRACK LISTING

1. Courage
2. Everything I Am Is Yours
3. Dawning On Me
4. Hot Scary Summer
5. The Soul Serene
6. Darling Arithmetic
7. Little Bigot
8. No One To Blame
9. So Naïve 

Matthew E. White is a Richmond, Virginia-based singer, songwriter, bandleader and musical polymath.

‘Fresh Blood’ is the follow-up to the “magical” (Pitchfork) debut ‘Big Inner’ and is a bracing, beguiling record and a bold advance for White. It’s a record that feels like the brilliant bloom to ‘Big Inner’s striking bud.

Produced by White and Spacebomb partner Trey Pollard and mixed by Pat Dillett (David Byrne, Nile Rodgers), ‘Fresh Blood’ marks the next chapter of White’s Richmond, VA-based Spacebomb - an analogue studio, record label and production house with in-house strings, horns and a choir at his behest.

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: Even better than his first LP and that's really saying something!

TRACK LISTING

1. Take Care My Baby
2. Rock & Roll Is Cold
3. Fruit Trees
4. Holy Moly
5. Circle ‘Round The Sun
6. Feeling Good Is Good
7. Enough
8. Tranquility
9. Golden Robes
10. Vision
11. Love Is Deep

Panda Bear aka Noah Lennox has had a far-from-quiet few years since the release of his fourth solo record, 2011’s ‘Tomboy’. Since the breakout success of 2007’s universally-adored ‘Person Pitch’, each new Panda Bear release is a highly anticipated event and, one high profile Daft Punk collaboration later (‘Doin’ It Right’ from ‘Random Access Memories’), this is more the case than ever.

Old school hip hop textures and production techniques meld with the intuitive, cyclical melodies he has become known for, a sound that is at once both dense and playful.

Recording for the album came together everywhere from El Paso, Texas, to a garage by the beach near his home in Lisbon, Portugal. In a relationship that already proved fruitful on ‘Tomboy’, Noah partnered again with Pete ‘Sonic Boom’ Kember (Spacemen 3, Spectrum), this time in a more top-to-bottom production role.

TRACK LISTING

Sequential Circuits
Mr Noah
Davy Jones’ Locker
Crosswords
Butcher Baker Candlestick Maker
Boys Latin
Come To Your Senses
Tropic Of Cancer
Shadow Of The Colossus
Lonely Wanderer
Principe Real
Selfish Gene
Acid Wash

Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy’s new album ‘Singer’s Grave A Sea Of Tongues’ is released on Domino.

At the locus of five corners, mythos is in the wind; a sea of tongues boils forth, mountains spurting forth from the magma. Bonnie sings for who he was and will be and for all of us, in time.

Bonnie Billy has been quoted as saying that one of the songs on the album is a conceptual track that’s about “one day in 1973 when only two people died in the whole world.”

TRACK LISTING

Night Noises
So Far And Here We Are
There Will Be Spring
Quail And Dumplings
We Are Unhappy
It’s Time To Be Clear
Whipped
Old Match
Mindlessness
Mew Black Rich (Tusks)
Sailor’s Grave A Sea Of Sheep

Composed of eleven stunning and emotive tracks, ‘From Scotland With Love’ was written by King Creosote and produced by music supervisor and guitarist David McAulay, with additional production by Paul Savage, in Chem19 Studios in Glasgow.

The record features King Creosote accompanied by his band - Derek O’Neill (keyboards), Andy Robinson (drums), Pete Mcleod (bass) and Kevin Brolly (clarinet) - as well as an additional string section (arranged by cellist Pete Harvey) and a choir of backing vocalists.

‘From Scotland With Love’ was created in collaboration with director Virginia Heath and producer Grant Keir as an audio-accompaniment to a poetic documentary film of the same name, to be released for the Commonwealth Games this summer. Featuring archive footage but no narration or interview, the film works around themes of love and loss, war, resistance, emigration, work and play and is driven as much by the music as it is the images. For the first time King Creosote found himself being able to write from other people’s perspectives, such as the female characters found in the archive (the ‘fisher lassies’ inspired the moving track ‘Cargill’, for example). The result is ‘From Scotland With Love’, one of King Creosote’s most widescreen cinematic and finest pieces of work to date.

TRACK LISTING

Something To Believe In
Cargill
Largs (Short)
Miserable Strangers
Leaf Piece (Short)
For One Night Only
Bluebell, Cockleshell, 123
One Floor Down
Crystal 8s
Pauper’s Dough
A Prairie Tale

‘Enter The Slasher House’ is the debut album from Avey Tare’s Slasher Flicks, released on Domino.

Comprised of Avey Tare (of Animal Collective), Angel Deradoorian (of Dirty Projectors, Deradoorian), and drummer Jeremy Hyman (of Ponytail, Dan Deacon), Avery Tare’s Slasher Flicks unites Avey Tare’s songwriting abilities with Deradoorian’s melody lines and Hyman’s flexible rhythms.

The band could be described as a monstrous and nightmarish jazz power trio inspired by campy horror movie themes.

Domino are excited to present the self titled debut album from new singing We Are Catchers (real name Peter Jackson).

A beautiful, timeless collection of songs, ‘We Are Catchers’ summons up the spirits of legendary Mersey beasts like Mick and John Head, the Crucial Three, Bill Ryder Jones, Lee Mavers and the Wild Swans whilst chiming gorgeously with dusty echoes of records by Brian Wilson and Arthur Lee.

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: D.I.Y, Spector-inspired indie-pop that tugs at the heartstrings as much as it inspires. With his echoey piano and classic, ringing chords to the fore, Peter Jackson has made an album with all the charm and magic of those early Badly Drawn Boy records. Lovely.

Domino are very excited to present ‘Present Tense’ from Wild Beasts.

This collection of eleven songs will be the Kendal fourpiece’s fourth album, and the first in almost three years since the release of the critically acclaimed ‘Smother’.

Already rightly considered to be one of contemporary Britain’s most innovative and vital bands, the new album sees the group’s ever-restless collective muse lead them to remarkable new heights - boldly embracing new production techniques and songwriting forms whilst retaining the thrilling idiosyncrasies that have made them so beloved over the course of three challenging, beguiling and beautiful albums to date.

TRACK LISTING

Wanderlust
Nature Boy
Mecca
Sweet Spot
Daughters
Pregnant Pause
A Simple Beautiful Truth
A Dog’s Life
Past Perfect
New Life
Palace

New album from ex-Pavement frontman Stephen Malkmus and his band The Jicks.

The album was produced by the band (Stephen Malkmus, Joanna Bolme, Jake Morris and Mike Clark) and Remko Schouten (the Dutch soundman of Pavement fame) in a studio in rural Ardennes with ‘a farmhouse vibe’.

In the words of Stephen Malkmus, "‘Wig Out At Jagbags’ is inspired by Cologne, Germany, Mark Von Schlegel, Rosemarie Trockel, Von Sparr and Jan Lankisch, Can and Gas; Stephen Malkums imagined Weezer/Chili Peppers, SIc Alps, UVA in the late 80's, NYRB, Aroma Charlottenburg, inactivity, Jamming, Indie guys trying to sound Memphis, Flipper, Pete Townsend, Pavement, The Joggers, The NBA and home life in the 2010's..."

STAFF COMMENTS

Ryan says: Malkmus displays his songwriting prowess again, following a similar formula to 'Mirror Traffic', Hazy guitar-rock and clever twists and turns make for an excellent listen.

Dev Hynes has so far given us trashy punk as Test Icicles, intimate confessionals as Lightspeed Champion and synth-heavy 80s pop influenced electro-funk as Blood Orange on previous long player ‘Coastal Grooves’. Sandwiched between that debut and this sophomore however was his production on Solange ‘Sister Of Beyonce’ Knowles smash hit ‘Losing You’. The smooth R&B soul of that track now informs the sound of ‘Cupid Deluxe’. A modern take on 1980s Prince ballads given an outsider pop twist perhaps. Lyrically to the album takes on the outsider theme as well, with tracks like ‘Uncle Ace’ highlighting the plight of Manhattan’s LGBT rough sleepers riding the ACE subway line at night.

Friends frontwoman Samantha Urbani, Adam Bainbridge of Kindness (whose work has a similar teary intimacy), Dirty Projectors' David Longstreth and Chairlift's Caroline Polachek all guest on vocals, Queens' Despot and London's Skepta drop raps and producer Clams Casino contributes light, skittering drums to "No Right Thing".

Dev Hynes takes New York’s LGBT scene out of the ballroom and into the bedroom for some post-Paris Is Burning contemplation.

The second studio album from Mercury-nominated UK artist Anna Calvi.

Following on from her self titled, critically acclaimed, Top 40 debut, ‘One Breath’ is a bold, confident progression in terms of textures and emotion.

Produced by John Congleton at Blackbox Studios, France and mixed in Texas.

Initial quantities include a free CD bonus disc: 'Quasi covers EP'.

Now in their 20th year as a band, two-piece Quasi return with a veritable Quasi songbook featuring 24 shinning examples of shakin’ blues, percussion freak-outs, chiming minor seventh chords and rock & roll.

TRACK LISTING

You Can Stay But You Got To Go
See You On Mars
Blasted
Chrome Duck
Chumps Of Chance
Fat Fanny Land
Nostalgia Kills
R.I.P.
Headshrinker
Bedbug Town
The Goat
Geraldine
Loopy
Double Deuce
Gnot
Dust Of The Sun
Mole City
An Ice Cube In The Sun
One And Done
The Dying Man
Clap Trap
New Western Way
Beyond The Return Of The Sun Of Nowhere

Quasi Covers EP
Don't' Stop Me Now (Queen)
War Pigs (Black Sabbath)
Let's Get It On (Marvin Gaye)
What's So Funny 'Bout Peace Love & Understanding (Elvis Costello And The Attractions)

‘AM’ was produced by James Ford and co-produced by Ross Orton at Sage & Sound Recording, LA and Rancho De La Luna, Joshua Tree. The album was engineered by Ian Shea and mixed by Tchad Blake.

Josh Homme, Pete Thomas and Bill Ryder-Jones all make guest appearances on ‘AM’ – as do the words of John Cooper Clarke, on the track I Wanna Be Yours.

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: The perfect mix of pop and rock. Their best since their debut.

TRACK LISTING

1. Do I Wanna Know?
2. R U Mine?
3. One For The Road
4. Arabella
5. I Want It All
6. No. 1 Party Anthem
7. Mad Sounds
8. Fireside
9. Why’d You Only Call Me When You’re High?
10. Snap Out Of It
11. Knee Socks
12. I Wanna Be Yours

This exuberant, unencumbered record is the first from the Glasgow band since 2009’s Tonight. They seem to have rediscovered the imagination, vitality and fun found on their classic, era-encapsulating debut Franz Ferdinand.

Recorded over the last year at Kapranos’s Scottish studio and McCarthy’s Sausage Studios in London, the LP cements their status as a unique and adventurous British band: emboldened by a decade’s undreamt-of worldwide success, but still daring and defiant. It’s an ecstatic rejection of the drab conventions often accompanying that level of attention and expectation.

When asked for a quote, Kapranos came back with: “The Intellect Vs The Soul, played out by some dumb band.”* God knows what that means, but the lyrics do seem more poetic this time. There were a few interesting collaborations, but more of that later…

The ten songs that make up Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action take what propelled Franz Ferdinand from the incestuous Glasgow Art School world to, well, the entire world - painterly lyrical detail, heavyweight hooks, precise aesthetic vision and that uncanny ability to marry arch artistic sensibility with pop punch – and push it even further. The breadth of influence, musicality and invention on show here is enormous. If this is unmistakably a Franz Ferdinand record, it is as much by virtue of its sonic daring and perfectly patch-worked eclecticism as the timeless songwriting flair that has long been their calling card.

Franz Ferdinand are still Alex Kapranos, Nick McCarthy, Bob Hardy and Paul Thomson. There’s still no one like them.

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: Franz re-connect with what they do best. It's still clever, but loads of fun too. Proper band!

The third studio album from singular artist Julia Holter.

New album of avant-pop experimentation from the LA based singer / composer that blends influence ranging from Joni Mitchell to Arthur Russell and the poetry of Frank O’Hara into a daringly unique work as conceptually strong as it is immediately affecting.

‘Loud City Song’ follows, and progresses brilliantly from ‘Ekstasis’, one of last year’s most critically lauded records.

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: Julia Holter's Domino Records debut fittingly feels like the start of something new, honing as it does, everything that's special about her. Dark and dreamy.

TRACK LISTING

World
Maxim’s I
Horns Surrounding Me
In The Green Wild
Hello Stranger
Maxim’s II
He’s Running Through My Eyes
This Is A True Heart
City Appearing

‘Between The Walls’ is the third album by About Group - Charles Hayward (This Heat, Camberwell Now), John Coxon (Spring Heel Jack, Spiritualized), Pat Thomas (has played with Derek Bailey, Tony Oxley), Alexis Taylor (Hot Chip).

Alexis Taylor: “I think the excitement of making music is what I can hear in this record. John’s guitars on ‘Love Because' make me think of buzzing flies swinging wildly around the musical centre of the situation. That the centre is unstable as no one knows what song I am playing, makes me think of the controlled chaos of ‘Like Flies On Sherbert’ or a Cramps record, but ours sounds like it is playing at half speed.”

‘Olympia’ is an album of transformation. Though it has only been two years since Austra’s 2010 debut ‘Feel It Break’, it presents a quantum evolution in the Toronto-based band’s sound, structure and style.

After three years of non-stop international touring with the likes of The xx, Grimes and The Gossip, when it came time to record ‘Olympia’, Austra had evolved into a complex collaborative effort between its six members.

Although ‘Olympia’ is filled with electronic and synthetic sounds that reference everything from Trax Records classic cuts to Yazoo’s ‘Upstairs At Eric’s’, it’s free of programming and loops. Everything was played live by the band in the studio and all of the percussion - including a wild set up of marimbas and congas - was performed by drummer Maya Postepski.

The album was produced by Austra with additional production by Mike Haliechuk, vocal production by Damian Taylor (Bjork, The Killers), engineered by Bill Skibbe and Leon Taheny and mixed by Tom Elmhirst (Adele, Erasure, Hot Chip).

Jon Hopkins releases ‘Immunity’, his fourth solo album, via Domino.

A powerful, multi-faceted beast, packed with the most aggressively dancefloor-focussed music Hopkins has ever made, ‘Immunity’ is about achieving euphoric states through music.

Inspired by the arc of an epic night out, the album peaks with ‘Collider’, a huge, apocalyptic, techno monster and dissolves with the quiet, heartbreakingly beautiful closer, ‘Immunity’, a track featuring vocals from King Creosote, which could sit comfortably alongside the gems of their
Mercury-nominated collaboration, ‘Diamond Mine’.

Jon Hopkins is also an expert producer, Ivor Novello-nominated composer of film scores, long-term collaborator of Brian Eno and Coldplay, and remixer of artists as diverse as David Lynch, Four Tet, Wild Beasts, Nosaj Thing, and Purity Ring.

TRACK LISTING

1. We Disappear
2. Open Eye Signal
3. Breathe This Air
4. Collider
5. Abandon Window
6. Form By Firelight
7. Sun Harmonics
8. Immunity

The Pastels return after 16 years, their first album proper since 1997s ‘Illuminations’; their collaborative works, ‘The Last Great Wilderness’ soundtrack / theatre commissions and the ‘Two Sunsets’ album with Tenniscoats keeping the band busy since then. ‘Slow Summits’ gathers on all these works but moves off in newer and older ways too, with its flowing montage of autumn instrumentals, pop songs, slowmotion build ups and suddenly optimistic melody lines.

Recorded in Glasgow by John McEntire and Bal Cooke, ‘Slow Summits’ features the core Pastels line-up of Stephen McRobbie, Katrina Mitchell, Tom Crossley, Gerard Love, Alison Mitchell and John Hogarty.

Guests include original member Annabel Wright (Aggi) and Norman Blake, two-thirds of To Rococo Rot (Stefan Schneider and Ronald Lippok), and Tenniscoats. ‘Kicking Leaves’ also features a memorable string arrangement from Glasgow-based composer Craig Armstrong.

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: Thought they'd gone all JAZZ or something?!? Fear not: this is a glorious return from Stephen and co: gentle, considered, warm and melodic. Really lovely stuff.

Long-awaited reissue of Los Angeles based artist Julia Holter’s debut album.

Originally released in November 2011 on Leaving Records in two runs of 500 copies only, this modern masterpiece proved to be the most inspired, captivating and unique debut album of the year, and has been out of print - and much coveted - ever since.

Inspired by Euripides’ ‘Hippolytus’, the sheer scope and scale of ambition evident in ‘Tragedy’s fifty minutes is staggering.

Comprised of voice, synths, drum machines, piano, cello, saxophone, samples, vocoders, ensemble musicians and a chorus, ‘Tragedy’ is a transcendental amalgamation of avant garde and pop conventions, and of organic and electronic compositional forms - an entire universe of a record blessed with its own beautifully peculiar logic.

TRACK LISTING

Introduction
Try To Make Yourself A Work Of Art
The Falling Age
Goddess Eyes
Interlude
Celebration
So Lillies
Finale

A collection of songs performed by Dawn McCarthy & Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy as learnt from The Everly Brothers. As children, the music of The Everly Brothers touched Dawn McCarthy and Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy; it touches Dawn’s children and the little ‘prince’ within Bonnie today, and makes them dance and sing.

‘What The Brothers Sang’ is no mere gesture of nostalgia. These new versions rethink The Everly Brothers for the audience of listeners today; people who naturally might have no previous knowledge or experience of these songs.

Moving, redemptive and powerfully soulful, ‘Big Inner’ is a timeless record told in seven songs that mingle memory with the rawness of any given human moment.

The references - from the lyrics that echo the common conditions of love, death, seeking, and finding, to open tributes to artists like Washington Phillips, Allen Toussaint, Jorge Ben, Jimmy Cliff, and Randy Newman - are their own scavenger hunt through music history and through Matthew E. White’s place in it.

“Country-soul apostle Matthew E. White offers spiritual succour” - Q

“Bottomless columns of ethereal soul… magical” - Pitchfork

“Resplendently somnolent funk” - Rolling Stone

“A dramatic pop-gospel record that hits extremes of the mood spectrum: very easygoing and very obsessive” - NY Times

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: There is nothing like this record around at the moment: ‘70s, Southern, blue-eyed soul; languid, mellow, groovy and heady. Matthew is a big, funky, bearded dude from Virginia, who has taken years to set up his Spacebomb label and gather cool kindred spirits, a house band of sorts, who add lush orchestration, parping horns, and loose, shuffling drums to these subtly uplifting tunes. His voice is a murmur, at times a whisper, but it fits perfectly with the vintage instruments and production; elegant, slowly unfurling songs, bubbling bass-lines, choirs and cosmic vibes. Think Spiritualized, Lambchop, or The Beta Band, then lose yourself in “Big Love”s heavy, pulsing swamp, whilst the words "I am a barracuda, I am a hurricane. Live free!" float up and you just know what he means. And that he means it! This guy is the real deal. Hearing is believing.

TRACK LISTING

1. One Of These Days
2. Big Love
3. Will You Love Me
4. Gone Away
5. Steady Pace
6. Hot Toddies
7. Brazos

Domino are to reissue ‘Ekstasis’, the second album by Julia Holter. The release, the artist's inaugural for the label, will also mark the first time the collection of songs has been widely available domestically since being released to phenomenal critical acclaim in north America earlier this year.

The double gatefold vinyl will be limited to 300 copies and pressed on deluxe heavyweight vinyl.

The album has just been confirmed as one of Mojo’s Top Ten Albums Of The Year.

The most fully-realised glimpse of Holter's steadilydeveloping, beautifully singular vision so far, ‘Ekstasis’ follows on from the playful searching nature of 2007's home-recorded ‘Eating The Stars’ EP and 2011's underground masterpiece ‘Tragedy’.

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: Like an even more esoteric Laura Veirs, this drifts and shifts like fractured lullabies, casting its spell on the way.

TRACK LISTING

Marienba
Our Sorrow
In The Same Room
Boy In The Moon
Für Felix
Goddess Eye II
Moni Mon Amie
Four Garden
Goddess Eyes I
This Is Ekstasis

‘Centipede Hz’ is the tenth full length Animal Collective album, following the widely celebrated ‘Merriweather Post Pavilion’ (2009), and also the first since ‘Strawberry Jam’ (2007) to feature all four original band members: Avey Tare, Panda Bear, Geologist and Deakin.

As the album’s opening bars of drum crashes and radio interference on ‘Moonjock’ immediately make clear, having returned as a four piece, Animal Collective have made their most widescreen and fully realized music to date.

STAFF COMMENTS

Ryan says: They had a tough act to follow with their last release lurking close behind, but it looks like they've done it! Expect a mixing pot of tones from dark dance-pop to even darker krautrock.

TRACK LISTING

1. Moonjock
2. Today's Supernatural
3. Rosie Oh
4. Applesauce
5. Wide Eyed
6. Father Time
7. New Town Burnout
8. Monkey Riches
9. Mercury Man
10. Pulleys
11. Amanita

‘Centipede Hz’ is the tenth full length Animal Collective album, following the widely celebrated ‘Merriweather Post Pavilion’ (2009), and also the first since ‘Strawberry Jam’ (2007) to feature all four original band members: Avey Tare, Panda Bear, Geologist and Deakin.

As the album’s opening bars of drum crashes and radio interference on ‘Moonjock’ immediately make clear, having returned as a four piece, Animal Collective have made their most widescreen and fully realized music to date.

STAFF COMMENTS

Ryan says: They had a tough act to follow with their last release lurking close behind, but it looks like they've done it! Expect a mixing pot of tones from dark dance-pop to even darker krautrock.

TRACK LISTING

1. Moonjock
2. Today's Supernatural
3. Rosie Oh
4. Applesauce
5. Wide Eyed
6. Father Time
7. New Town Burnout
8. Monkey Riches
9. Mercury Man
10. Pulleys
11. Amanita

His first album since 2008’s ‘When The Haar Rolls In’, ‘I Was A Cat From A Book’ finds James Yorkston playing with a new band comprised of members of Lamb and The Cinematic Orchestra, alongside old friends.

The album was produced by James Yorkston and Dave Wrench and mostly recorded live during five wintery days in Bryn Derwen Studios, North Wales.

It’s an album full of energy and great musicianship, and contains James’ strongest and most bewildering set of songs yet.

Since the release of ‘When The Haar Rolls In’, James has published a book (‘It’s Lovely To Be Here’), collaborated with The Big Eyes Family Players on Folk Songs, and seen the ten year anniversary release of ‘Moving Up Country’, his landmark debut album.

TRACK LISTING

Catch
Kath With Rhodes
Border Song
This Line Says
Just As Scared
Sometimes The Act Of Giving Love
The Fire & The Flames
A Short Blues
Spanish Ants
Two
I Can Take All This
Thar She Blows *
Black Horse White *
(* = Vinyl Only Track)

On Dirty Projectors sixth album, 'Swing Lo Magellan', songwriter and leader David Longstreth shows he really doesn't know how to do the same thing twice. Where prior Dirty Projectors albums investigated 20th-century orchestration, West-African guitar music and complex contrapuntal techniques in human voices, 'Swing Lo Magellan' is a leap forward again. It's an album of songs, an album of songwriting. 'Swing Lo Magella'n has both the handmade intimacy of a love letter and the widescreen grandeur of a blockbuster, and if that sounds like a paradox -- it's because it was until now.

STAFF COMMENTS

Ryan says: Long time projectors fans won't be disappointed, Swing Lo Magellan takes off were Bitte Orca left off. David Longstreth employs his usual spectacular song writing skills again to maximum effect.

TRACK LISTING

1. Offspring Are Blank
2. About To Die
3. Gun Has No Trigger
4. Swing Lo Magellan
5. Just From Chevron
6. Dance For You
7. Maybe That Was It
8. Impregnable Question
9. See What She Seeing
10. The Socialites
11. Unto Caesar
12. Irresponsible Tune

On Dirty Projectors sixth album, 'Swing Lo Magellan', songwriter and leader David Longstreth shows he really doesn't know how to do the same thing twice. Where prior Dirty Projectors albums investigated 20th-century orchestration, West-African guitar music and complex contrapuntal techniques in human voices, 'Swing Lo Magellan' is a leap forward again. It's an album of songs, an album of songwriting. 'Swing Lo Magella'n has both the handmade intimacy of a love letter and the widescreen grandeur of a blockbuster, and if that sounds like a paradox -- it's because it was until now.

STAFF COMMENTS

Ryan says: Long time projectors fans won't be disappointed, Swing Lo Magellan takes off were Bitte Orca left off. David Longstreth employs his usual spectacular song writing skills again to maximum effect.

TRACK LISTING

1. Offspring Are Blank
2. About To Die
3. Gun Has No Trigger
4. Swing Lo Magellan
5. Just From Chevron
6. Dance For You
7. Maybe That Was It
8. Impregnable Question
9. See What She Seeing
10. The Socialites
11. Unto Caesar
12. Irresponsible Tune

Landmark recordings of the 21st century British folk renaissance reissued.

This 10th Anniversary Edition of ‘Moving Up Country’ consists of two discs.

CD1 features the original album, now with the legendary hard to find stand alone debut Domino single ‘The Lang Toun’.

CD2 is a collection of ‘Moving Up Country’ demos, including never heard before demos and a Peel Session originally broadcast on January 2003.

For a limited period both formats come with a free 5 postcard set in a printed wallet. Each postcard featuring the artwork of the release.

The mini album 'Hope' was another change in sound, and featured arrangements by Sean O Hagan, then of the High Llamas. Featuring six songs including a cover of Leonard Cohen’s Winter Lady, Oldham’s voice is set in a reflective and soft-hued sound throughout.

The use of piano as a lead instrument suggest a parlour-song atmosphere, something which is enhanced by Oldham’s frequent repetition of lines in the lyrics, which also expand on his own brand of surrealism. On ‘Untitled’ Oldham sings ‘Did you like the cake? some of it was nice’ as though the importance of the cake is of a more far-reaching consequence than the cake and anyone who may be eating it realises.

TRACK LISTING

1. Agnes, Queen Of Sorrow
2. Untitled
3. Winter Lady
4. Christmastime In The Mountains
5. All Gone, All Gone
6. Werner's Last Blues To Blockbuster

For a limited period both formats come with a free 5 postcard set in a printed wallet. Each postcard featuring the artwork of the release.

On 'Viva Last Blues', Oldham ‘went electric’. Recorded by Steve Albini and including Plush’s Liam Hayes and Sebadoh’s Jason Lowenstein in the cast of accompanying players, the album is as dramatic and accessible as any Oldham has released.

During the accompanying tour and in press shots for ‘Viva’ Oldham often wore a cowboy hat. The record has a distinct Western, frontier-town feel, on ‘Work Hard / Play Hard’ Oldham and band rock-out in suitably blue-collar fashion. The lyrics to ‘The Mountain Low’: ‘If I could fuck a mountain, oh lord I would fuck a mountain’ (Oldham insisted the song was released as a single) were the first to feature the denuded eroticism that would be a hallmark of Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy’s song writing.

On ‘New Partner’, one of the album’s most celebrated tracks, Oldham sounds both warm-hearted and unsentimental – an emotional position that colours many of his lyrics. ‘Viva’ was the first time Oldham had been heard in such clarity and the interplay between the band and his voice produces some startling vocal performances.

Oldham also sounds at his most relaxed and loose on many of the songs, hitting the high notes with abandon as the music ebbs and flows around him, or, as he sings in ‘Viva Ultra’ ‘Are you jealous of the show we put on?’

For a limited period both formats come with a free 5 postcard set in a printed wallet. Each postcard featuring the artwork of the release.

'Lost Blues' was the first compilation Oldham released. The collection rounds up many of the Palace singles and B-sides along with some unreleased recordings.

The debut Palace Brothers single: ‘Ohio River Boat Song’ is included as is Oldham’s version of Sally Timms of The Mekons song ‘Horses.’ Although a cover ‘Horses’ is one of the definitive Palace songs. Oldham’s voice wavers with an intensity he saves for more emotional lyrics and an extraordinary guitar solo by David Pajo cuts through the rest of the song with a delightfully unhinged aggression (Oldham had asked Pajo to play a solo that sounded like Slash).

Other highlights of Lost Blues are the songs from the ‘West Palm Beach / Gulf Shores,’ two of the dreamiest tracks Oldham has recorded and a highlight of the Palace canon. The live version of ‘Riding’ is also a revelation. Originally featured on the ‘There Is No One” album, the song was an agnostic foot stomp about brothers and sisters, here it is turned into a three guitar assault. The contrast perfectly illustrates how Oldham refused to be constrained by any signature style, but how everything he did under the Palace name was instantly recognisable as his and his alone.

TRACK LISTING

1. Ohio River Boat Song
2. Riding
3. Valentine's Day
4. Trudy Dies
5. Come In
6. Little Blue Eyes
7. Horses
8. Stable Will
9. Untitled
10. O How I Enjoy The Light
11. Marriage
12. West Palm Beach
13. Gulf Shores
14. (End Of) Traveling
15. Lost Blues

For a limited period both formats come with a free 5 postcard set in a printed wallet. Each postcard featuring the artwork of the release.

The debut Palace Brothers album was released in 1993 when much American music was going through a particularly bombastic period. In contrast ‘There Is No One’ sounded like a field recording, as though a tape of back porch confessionals recorded by Alan Lomax as an example of high Southern Gothic style, had been newly discovered and released.

The sense of other worldly timelessness was enhanced by the song titles, which were rich in biblical imagery and a backwoods sensibility: ‘Idle Hands Are The Devil’s Plaything”, “I Tried To Stay Healthy For You”, “O Lord Are You In Need?” The music on the record was equally arcane and ancient sounding. Banjos and loose snare drums rattle together in accompaniment to Oldham’s guitar and voice as he sings songs of a desperate and broken worldview. That he was just twenty-two at the time led some critics to wonder if Oldham was acting out a role as a Steinbeck character.

Listening to the record almost twenty years after its release it’s impossible to underestimate “There Is No One’s” influence on what would become known the New Weird America or alt-country, and that any questions about Oldham’s integrity, motives or authenticity are a dead end compared to this dark, unsettlingly brilliant record.

For a limited period both formats come with a free 5 postcard set in a printed wallet. Each postcard featuring the artwork of the release.

The second Palace Brothers album was originally self-titled (or untitled), though the moniker "Days In The Wake" was appended to later pressings. The release is at once a progression from and reduction of the twisted lo-fi country-folk of the debut album. "Days In The Wake" is essentially just Oldham, his cracked tenor and his acoustic guitar. The songs aren't as unremittingly dark as on the previous recording, since Oldham injects a fair amount of stream-of-consciousness humour and light-hearted, elliptical song-poetry. The extreme sparseness amplifies the emotion in Oldham's voice and lyrics though, and on "You Will Miss Me When I Burn" the emotional desolation is harrowing, bringing to mind the best work of Mark Eitzel. The brainy non-sequiturs of the closing "I Am a Cinematographer" are evidence that there's more forethought than savant at work in Oldham's artistic process.

There is a first time for everything. Prior to the recording, 'Wolfroy Goes To Town' was played by the whole band in performance at Chicago's Millennium Park in May, 2011. This is the first time any Bonnie album has been previewed in public before it was made in the studio!

In addition to Bonnie, the players on this record are: Ben Boye (keyboards & extra singing), Van Campbell (drums & percussion), Shahzad Ismaily (percussion, guitar, extra singing), Emmett Kelly (guitars, mandolin, harmony singing), Danny Kiely (basses) & Angel Olson (singing).

STAFF COMMENTS

Darryl says: Stark and hushed instrumentation and typically intimate vocals combine to make another Bonnie Prince Billy masterpiece. Perfect for a mellow night in with a fine whiskey. You need this!

TRACK LISTING

1. No Match
2. New Whaling
3. Time To Be Clear
4. New Tibet
5. Black Captain
6. Cows
7. There Will Be Spring
8. Quail And Dumplings
9. We Are Unhappy
10. Night Noises

'Mirror Traffic' is the new Stephen Malkmus and The Jicks album, recorded at LA’s Sunset Sound Studios and at the home of the album’s producer, Beck.

With the question of a Pavement reunion having been triumphantly answered last year with an Ono-esque “YES”, Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks return with their most energized set to date. These 15 songs range from hard-rocking political commentary (“Senator”), to touching, winsome folk (“No One Is”), to virtuosic but melancholy and contrite kiwi pop (“Stick Figures In Love”). The lyrics are as curious as ever but more meaningful than they have been since 'Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain'. “This record,” concedes Malkmus dryly, “is relatively approachable.”

As the first producer to work with Malkmus since Pavement, Beck has drawn out a set of performances that ring with clarity and inventiveness. Gone are the long guitar workouts and jams that marked the last couple Jicks albums, replaced with a sharply defined focus and more colorful depth of field. With nearly half the tracks clocking in under three minutes, 'Mirror Traffic' flashes by with a lightness of touch; a decision that band and producer found easy to take: “Beck & I were both burned out on the heavy rocking style,” says Malkmus, “and playing to the strengths of a melody felt like the way to go.”

First two responses from bigshot journalists who got early copies were, word for word:
1) “I’m so psyched, this is the most Malk thing in years”
2) “I respect his right to make any record he wants, but this is the album that me and a lot of other people have waited 10 years for.”

For someone who has occasionally enjoyed a reputation for throwing ideas into the air and seeing where they land, 'Mirror Traffic' is a confident, heartfelt, direct record. Ease into the seat and enjoy the ride.

Devonté Hynes has produced a lot of music. Some for himself: Testicicles, Lightspeed Champion and some for others: Basement Jaxx, Florence & The Machine, Theophilus London, Solange Knowles, Cassie, Diana Vickers. Somewhere in between all of this, Blood Orange was created.

Hynes has been living in New York City for the past three years where he has been concentrating on writing and producing for other artists. He simultaneously worked on songs in his bedroom, compiling them onto mixtapes that he would listen to while traveling around the city at night, letting the city’s nocturnal ecosystem seep into the music in his headphones.

Informed by the equally neon atmosphere of Chris Isaak, Billy Idol, 80s Japanese pop such as Yellow magic Orchestra and French singer FR David, Hynes took the songs that form ‘Coastal Grooves’ on a trip to the West Coast where he started turning the ideas into an album with producer Ariel Rechtshaid in LA. Alongside the music he heard playing in after-hours bars, Hynes drew inspiration from the identity blurring work of transgender icons such as Octavia St Laurent and the playful high-gloss nihilsm of Gregg Araki movies. Blood Orange is the music of a seedy yet inspirational New York night time.

Light and airy, filmic but intimate, carefully arranged but deceptively powerful, "Suck It And See" is Arctic Monkeys’ fourth album.

Recorded at Sound City Studios in Los Angeles with long-time producer / collaborator James Ford, it has a Summery pop feel, with the bulk of work completed on the West Coast.

Retaining only a modicum of the heaviness of "Humbug", "Suck It And See" sees Arctic Monkeys in major chord, classic songwriting territory once more.

TRACK LISTING

1. She’s Thunderstorms
2. Black Treacle
3. Brick By Brick
4. The Hellcat Spangled Shalalala
5. Don’t Sit Down ‘Cause I’ve Moved Your Chair
6. Library Pictures
7. All My Own Stunts
8. Reckless Serenade
9. Piledriver Waltz
10. Love Is A Laserquest
11. Suck It And See
12. That’s Where You’re Wrong

On "Feel It Break", Austra co-founder and lead singer Katie Stelmanis, drummer Maya Postepski and bassist Dorian Wolf have crafted a dark, danceable masterpiece suitable for both ritual incantations and clubs; an album hearkening back to the sleazier side of New Wave but still deeply rooted in Stelmanis’ classical and operatic upbringing.

Record Store Day 2011 limited edition orange vinyl.

Cover versions of songs from the Franz "Tonight" album performed by Debbie Harry, LCD Sound System, Peaches, ESG & Stephin Merrit (Magnetic Fields).

TRACK LISTING

01. Debbie Harry & Franz Ferdinand - Live Alone
02. Stephen Merritt - Dream Again
03. LCD Soundsystem - Live Alone
04. ESG - What She Came For
05. Peaches - Turn It On

Wild Beasts return with their third full length, entitled “Smother”. A year and a half after their last album (“Two Dancers”), “Smother” reveals a much more mature band. It’s a deeply personal and immensely affecting record, which maintains the delicate and evocative form of beauty Wild Beasts have made their own.

They've kept their distinct sound intact: oscillating falsetto and baritone vocals, lyrical wit, and a penchant for seedier topics. However, this new album incorporates rich electronic textures and a subtlety of melody not heard in their earlier work. A truly impactful record from a unique and special band, "Smother" sees Wild Beasts continuing to brave their own way, outside the vicissitudes of fashion. Wild Beasts fans will not be disappointed.

TRACK LISTING

1. Lion’s Share
2. Bed Of Nails
3. Deeper
4. Loop The Loop
5. Plaything
6. Invisible
7. Albatross
8. Reach A Bit Further
9. Burning
10. End Come Too Soon

The Kills - Jamie Hince and Alison Mosshart - are back with a new studio album, "Blood Pressures", the highly anticipated follow-up to their critically acclaimed third album, "Midnight Boom".

The 11 tracks find The Kills embracing a fuller sound and becoming more adventurous in the studio, while the lyrics are honest, heartfelt and sometimes just plain heartbreaking.

As one of the most vital, striking bands recording today, The Kills' vividly unique "rock" is at once effortless, edgy and timeless.

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: Superb return to form: song after top song. Mega sound too. Everything you love about The Kills on one album.

David says: How contrary are The Kills? That they've managed to find the time to make an album at all is an achievement, what with Alison Mosshart touring and recording as Dead Weather and Jamie Hince preparing for life in the tabloids as Mr Kate Moss. But that “Blood Pressures”, their fourth and best album to date, should swagger so effortlessly, well...
The band's trademark Delta sleaze, boogie-box blues could never be described as original and, yes, they're certainly walking a road that many have walked before them but, if you're of the opinion that there's never been need for any more than three chords, a pair of skinny jeans and a decent pair of sunglasses, then look no further: this is the album for you.

TRACK LISTING

1. Future Starts Slow
2. Satellite
3. Heart Is A Beating Drum
4. Nail In My Coffin
5. Wild Charms
6. DNA
7. Baby Says
8. The Last Goodbye
9. Damned If She Do
10. You Don't Own The Road
11. Pots And Pans

"Diamond Mine" is a unique and heartrending collaboration between Scottish Fence Collective boss and singer King Creosote and electronic talent and sound sculptor Jon Hopkins.

Described by King Creosote as a 'soundtrack to a romanticised version of a life lived in a Scottish coastal village', the record weaves in field recordings of Fife life, bike wheels, spring tides, tea cups and café chatter to produce a beautiful, unique and timeless album.

The album is already being talked about as King Creosote’s masterpiece, a modern equivalent of Talk Talk’s "Spirit of Eden".

TRACK LISTING

1. First Watch
2. John Taylor’s Month Away
3. Bats In The Attic
4. Running On Fumes
5. Bubble
6. Your Own Spell
7. Your Young Voice

A six track mini album of original songs from the film ‘Submarine’, recorded by Arctic Monkeys’ Alex Turner and released by Domino.

The tracks here are much more stripped down than anything the band have released, and this suits Alex’s wry, poetic songwriting perfectly.

‘Submarine’, the debut film from Richard Ayoade, based on the novel by Joe Dunthorne, will be shown nationwide in cinemas from the 18th of March.

Ann Calvi’s debut for Domino is set to be one of the most talked about records of next year.

Brian Eno has championed her as the most visionary female artiste since Patti Smith, Nick Cave has just taken her out around Europe as special guest of Grinderman, and Rob Ellis (PJ Harvey’s right hand studio man) has produced the music.

An inspired guitarist influenced by Django Reinhardt as much as Jimi Hendrix, and with vocals inspired by Nina Simone and Mariah Callas, Anna Calvi’s music is a passionate and incredibly original mix.

The live shows with her permanent three piece band are already wowing audiences across the land.

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: Ridiculously striking, powerful debut, seemingly from nowhere. If you like all the influences mentioned below, and throw in a bit of gothiness (now apparently ok to like and reference!?) and even early rock 'n'roll, then you're going to love this record.

"For The Ghosts Within" is a new collaboration between Robert Wyatt, saxophonist / composer Gilad Atzmon (currently a main player in Ian Dury’s Blockheads) and violinist / composer Ros Stephen. A song cycle featuring jazz standards such as "Lush Life", "In A Sentimental Mood" and "Round Midnight", "For The Ghosts Within" places Wyatt’s voice (and whistling) amid the seductive drama of string quartet and Gilad’s beautiful saxophone playing. The trio also take on Robert’s own song - the classic "Maryan" from his 1997 album "Schleep", plus covers of Chic’s "At Last I Am Free" (previously recorded for Rough Trade in the early 80s) and Louis Armstrong’s "What A Wonderful World" - a possible future Xmas number one!

On "Eureka", Jim O'Rourke's musical career sets of in a whole new direction. An album of near perfect, bright pop songs, including a cover of Bacharch and David's "Something Big".

This is the album that put Jim firmly in the ranks of studio Meisters elite. Up until that point, Jim had used walls of noise / sound to create music, but with 'Bad Timing', he stepped back a little, stripped it all down and the arrangements became paramount.

The mighty Fall release their first album in over two years and it’s their Domino debut. Recorded at various studios in the north of England over the past year, "Your Future Our Clutter" is The Fall at their most rampant, most forward moving, bone shaking best. With nine tracks that rock like raw fury, we see The Fall heading into their next decade with the same intensity with which they started.

STAFF COMMENTS

Darryl says: Album number 28, and Mark E. Smith and the Fall are back at their very best. Think of "Hex Enduction Hour" mixed with "This Nation's Saving Grace", yep that good!!

TRACK LISTING

Vinyl And CD
O.F.Y.C. Showcase
Bury Pts. 1 + 3
Mexico Wax Solvent
Cowboy George
Hot Cake
Y.F.O.C. / Slippy Floor
Chino
Funnel Of Love
Weather Report 2

Extra Tracks - Vinyl Only
Get A Summer Song Goin’
Cowboy George

For this 2010 album of songs, Bonny Billy and The Cairo Gang together have built a bridge forward, assembled with riffs and bits from Emmett Kelly's guitar and the lyricism of Bonny's heart. But mostly, "The Wonder Show Of The World" was, in its making, about trust. It's a record made eye-to-eye in a room, close and careful, by and for a few men who wanted to be together, who wanted to make music that sounds as good to listen to as it did to make, and who in doing so forged something new in space, the wonder of you and of them.

TRACK LISTING

1. Troublesome Houses
2. Teach Me To Bear You
3. With Cornstalks Or Among Them
4. Sounds Are Always Begging, The
5. Go Folks Go
6. That's What Our Love Is
7. Merciless And Great
8. Where Wind Blows
9. Someone Coming Through
10. Kids

Lightspeed Champion has returned with his second album, "Life is Sweet! Nice To Meet You", the follow-up to 2008’s "Falling Off The Lavender Bridge". It's an epic collection of twelve pop songs, two instrumental intermissions and one piano etude.

Lightspeed’s early leaning towards American country dressings is traded here for a palette that draws on classical music and even musical theatre. Producer and mixer Ben Allen (Animal Collective, Gnarls Barkley) assembles the eclectic grab-bag of influences, joltingly 70s guitar and synth sounds, classical piano, Greek choruses shouting reprisals, and at least one ukelele-driven moment.

One of two classic albums by New Jersey alt rockers The Feelies. "Crazy Rhythms" is a masterwork of perfectly honed minimalist rock that leaps and darts into the corners of the listener's consciousness, a true sonic tour de force that Rolling Stone deemed one of the '100 Best Albums of the 1980s'. Fans of the Velvet Underground, Wire and Brian Eno's early solo work will surely appreciate the 'forces at work' (to quote a song title) on this masterpiece.
As the band considers each album to be a discrete aesthetic artifact, the copious bonus material including demos, B-sides, EP tracks and some new live recordings from the re-united group is included on digital download cards.

One of the most important British bands of recent years, the Arctic Monkeys follow up their first two phenomenally successful albums with "Humbug", their first record in over two years. "Humbug", which was produced by Josh Homme in the Mojave desert and by James Ford in Brooklyn, showcases a brooding and majestic new sound for the band. Influenced by Cream and Jimi Hendrix, "Humbug" features some of frontman Alex Turner's most innovative and profound lyrics yet, whilst also maintaining the Arctic's core sound.

Wild Beasts have made a record of earthly pleasures that sounds thrillingly widescreen, open and in awe of life; equally intoxicated and disturbed by the possibilities of pleasure. "Two Dancers" is a streamlined, minimalist and user friendly Wild Beasts, moving as God had designed them to, with equal grace and gusto, equally elegant and ugly.

After abandoning the Palace moniker for a straight-up solo career, Will Oldham seemed to lose his focus a bit, but rechristened as Bonnie Prince Billy, he's regained it in spades. Where his previous solo efforts sounded thrown-together and lacked real songcraft, "I See A Darkness" is probably Oldham's most consistent, rewarding batch of songs since the Palace Brothers 93 debut. For once, the ever-elusive Oldham sounds like he's making a genuine effort to communicate - the relatively straightforward (but still poetic) lyrics, nicely arranged (but still lo-fi) sonic backdrops, and song structures with hummable (!) choruses are all unprecedented and highly agreeable developments. The titular darkness pervades much of the album, but there's an underlying warmth that shines through, making this an emotionally well-balanced effort. A Bonnie Prince Billy classic!!!

Explosive and infectious, and undeniably Franz Ferdinand, but a bigger, brighter beast, the third album from Glasgow-based Franz Ferdinand sees them taking a step back from the post-punk revival sounds that gave them their breakthrough. With "Tonight: Franz Ferdinand", the band are seen to incorporate more disparate influences such as Jamaican dub and elements of electronica. What remains of the old Franz Ferdinand is their knack for locating a danceable rhythm and their gentle, deadpan humour.

Tracklisting
1. Ulysses
2. Turn It On
3. No You Girls
4. Send Him Away
5. Twilight Omens
6. Bite Hard
7. What She Came For
8. Live Alone
9. Can't Stop Feeling
10. Lucid Dreams
11. Dream Again
12. Katherine Kiss Me

"EPs" is a box set containing five separate EP length CDs which document different stages in Robert's career and contain material that never appeared on his original albums. The CD set includes extensive liner notes by Robert Wyatt, the original "Shipbuilding" promo video and a remix EP of tracks from Robert's 1997 album "Shleep". The five EPs are housed in individual slipcases and come with a 16-page booklet all designed by Robert's wife Alfie Benge, the inspiration behind much of his work.

Originally released in 1991, "Dondestan" was remixed, resequenced and reappraised in the studio in 1998 as "Dondestan (Revisited)". Robert Wyatt claimed he 'ran out of words' so by basing half of "Dondestan"'s tracks on her beautifully fragmented lyrics he began a song writing collaboration with wife Alfie Benge that flourishes to this day. It remains a difficult and openly political statement from one of the most honest and committed artists of his generation.

This was Robert Wyatt's first gig after being confined to a wheelchair following a fall from a fourth-storey window. He focuses on selections from his classic Rock Bottom album - a blend of scowling jazz and intimate rapture. An unqualified delight. It's Wyatt's only official live recording of an amazing set from 1974 featuring players such as Mike Oldfield, Julie Tippetts, Fred Frith, Hugh Hopper and Pink Floyd's Nick Mason, as well as having a comedy intro by one John Peel.

Originally conceived as the songs that would form Matching Mole's third studio album, Wyatt was forced to adjust his whole recording / band / personal ethos after the accident which broke his spine in 1973. Featuring a line-up that includes Soft Machine's Hugh Hopper, Laurie Allen from Gong and Mike Oldfield, "Rock Bottom" was issued in 1974 and is a haunting and yet intimate collection, at times painful and emotionally raw, at others elegiac and full of hope and love. A genuine classic.

Robert Wyatt's second release for the Virgin label has lost none of its power and mystery and remains one of the greatest albums of his career. Featuring the cream of the British jazz scene as well as Laurie Allen (Gong), Fred Frith, Brian Eno and Bill MacCormick (who played alongside Wyatt in Matching Mole) it is a perfect musical statement full of originality, musicianship and imagination. Includes the classic "Soup Song".

"Limbo, Panto", the debut album from Leeds based, Kendal born four-piece Wild Beasts, is a collection of ten beautiful, eccentric, very British tales. It is also likely to be the most unique album you will hear this year. Recorded in Malmo, Sweden with producer Tore Johannson (who also worked on Franz Ferdinand's first album), "Limbo, Panto" is a confident record brimming with the band's sense of purpose, showcasing their pop sensibility as well as their humorous side.

"Lie Down In The Light" is the ninth Bonnie 'Prince' Billy album, and his first proper album release since 2006's "The Letting Go". It is the brightest album to date from the Bonnie 'Prince'. Brisk tempos skip among his signature slower numbers and ballads. Bonnie's vocals are among his most expressive: carefully nuanced, singing all up and down his range, showing him at a judiciously dynamic and tuneful apex. The album features Bonnie repeat players Paul Oldham and Emmett Kelly and also benefits from the multi-instrumental presence of Shahzad Izmaily, who works percussion, piano, guitar, banjo and the mysterious, sensual 'row of wrenches'. New (duet) partner Ashley Webber forges her own presence next to Bonnie in a pair of fantastic turns. Additionally, some of Nashville's finest appear in between the band's strings and harrows, adding light (and yeah, we see a little darkness too) wherever they appear.

The debut album from The Last Shadow Puppets who are Alex Turner (from Arctic Monkeys) and Miles Kane (from The Rascals) who've been firm friends ever since Arctic Monkeys toured with Kane's previous group, The Little Flames. The pair were so inspired by listening to the likes of Scott Walker, early Bowie and David Axelrod, that they hatched a plan: They recorded the songs at Black Box studios near Nantes, France in two weeks during the summer of 2007, with producer and drummer James Ford (Simian Mobile Disco). The band then approached Owen Pallett (Final Fantasy) to arrange and conduct the orchestration of the tracks, which were recorded by the 22 piece London Metropolitan Orchestra at British Grove studios in London over Christmas. "The Age Of The Understatement", is an album of 12 full-blooded songs, bold and brassy, full of drama, wit and melody, that source the past but avoid falling into pastiche. Both Miles and Alex are 22, and this is a youthful record, full of life and the sheer pleasure of music making.

The eagerly anticipated "Midnight Boom" sees The Kills offering their most stunning album yet. The production on this album, featuring beats and studio smarts from Spank Rock's producer Alex Epton aka Armani XXXchange, combined with Alison's confidently teasing vocals, creates a truly forward thinking, fresh new sound for the band. Taking inspiration from Pizza Pizza Daddio, a Sixties documentary about kids in inner-city schools in the USA, The Kills' Jamie Hince and Alison Mosshart started building rhythms influenced by the children's dark playground songs, on an old school hand-punched MPC-60 hip hop drum sequencer. The results are shown in some of the hypnotic original tracks on the album, like "Cheap And Cheerful".

After three albums, critical recognition of the post-Pavement career of Stephen Malkmus has suffered; such was that bands legacy on alternative rock music. Of late, a vocal appearance on the "I'm Not There" soundtrack album has helped underline his unique lyrical style and bring his ever boyish vocal to a fresh audience. Refining the scattergun approach to acid rock, folk, prog and bubblegum that characterized the Pavement sound and subsequent three as Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks, "Real Emotional Trash" ranks alongside "Wowee Zowee" and "Terror Twilight" as a wonky, woozy 'heads' record. "Hopscotch Willy" and "Baltimore" touch musically and lyrically on the 60s folk-rock tradition. Over ten minutes, the title track jumps from Fairport Convention, Television and Grateful Dead. No doubt taking a cue from Tony McPhee of the Groundhogs, Malkmus indulges his penchant for guitars of all description; electric, acoustic, delayed, distorted, doubled, detuned and often wailing simultaneously in all directions. As much as the songs are undoubtedly from the pen of Malkmus, this is definitely a proper band effort. The bottom end crunch supplied by Janet Weiss (formerly Sleater Kinney) and bassist Joanna Bolme provide ballast and direction, ensuring the album will rock you to the soles of your battered Converse.

"This Gift" is a whirlwind of tarnished sixties glamour and post-millennial celebrity culture, cult-films and literary classics. Executed in contrasting honeyed and caustic tones, with the arresting songwriting and fervent performance that is Sons & Daughters. This is the product of the band's own characteristic intensity and the combative challenge set by the albums famously uncompromising producer Bernard Butler. The album races from the rasping "Gilt Complex", through the souring "Split Lips" (featuring Robbie Stern of Cajun Dance Party on violin), to the Edwyn Collins strut of "The Nest", hitting driving garage rock on "Rebel With The Ghost" via 60s girl-group stomps "Darling" and "Flags", all along hinting at the band's ability to conjure up atmospheres of disturbing unease, most notably on "Iodine" and the desert rock meets Gaelic war cry of the title track. Deluxe heavyweight vinyl in a lovely mirror-board sleeve.

"Falling Off The Lavender Bridge" was recorded in Omaha, Nebraska with producer Mike Mogis (Saddle Creek) and features special guest appearances from the likes of Emmy The Great, members of Cursive, The Faint and Tilly And The Wall.

After a devastating string of full-lengths in the early 2000s culminating in the one-two punch of 2005's collaboration with Matt Sweeney, "Superwolf", and 2006's wrenching "The Letting Go", Will Oldham seemed to be in a state of letting go himself. He re-energized his acting career with Old Joy and a goofy appearance in a Kanye West video; wrote "His Hands", the title track to soul singer Candi Staton's comeback record; and backed up Tortoise on an odd album that featured - among other throwaways - a cover of Springsteen's "Thunder Road". "Ask Forgiveness", a mini-album of his own covers, finds Oldham back in fine form even as it chips away at his hard-earned gravitas. Recorded on a lark in Philadelphia with members of the homegrown folkie outfit Espers, "Ask Forgiveness" finds Oldham lending his trademark warble to a diverse array of numbers. While Phil Ochs, Bjork, Thom Yorke, and Danzig are all given the Palace brother's spacious and shambolic indie-folk makeover here, the collection's stand-out is R. Kelly's "World's Greatest", within which Oldham discovers an earnest heart.

Robert Wyatt's first release for Domino is a modern classic, a widescreen vision of love songs, political statement and beautiful haunting melody. More light and live sounding than its predecessors, "Comicopera" is the sound of a group of musicians and friends (Anja Garbarek, Paul Weller, Brian Eno, Annie Whitehead, Seaming To, Monica Vasconcelos etc) playing in the room together. Wyatt is openly a fan of 'tunes', and the deep influence of songs such as "Raining In My Heart", covered on his last record, has perhaps had an impact on the melodies and compressed structures of these new performances: "Comicopera" feels like Wyatt's pop album. But the depth of the journey here, from start to finish, is magnificent, stopping off along the way for the sublime steel pan and sax battle of "On The Town Square", or for "Out Of The Blue", the frantic song of bomber versus bombed, featuring Brian Eno's sampled voice replayed by Wyatt on synthesizer, seems only to be expected in an album as enjoyable and ambitious as this.

Initial work for "Strawberry Jam" started in September 2005 as Animal Collective prepared to tour Europe for the release of the band's 2005 album, "Feels". The process immediately became a very intense and emotional one and they all agreed on a desire to preserve the rawness of the songs that was happening during the initial writing sessions. Animal Collective was very attached to these songs in a live setting and to preserve the live stage energy was a mission. Though the melodies and lyrics for "Strawberry Jam" were written by Panda Bear and Avey Tare in various places such as Paris, New York, Lisbon and Baltimore, there were also three intense full-band writing sessions with Geologist and Deacon. These production sessions occurred in both Lisbon and in NYC. So, while the songs might seem to come from all over the map emotionally, it was important to match that geographical variation sonically. It's an amazing record, which should finally mark some sort of crossover for them. It bears all of their unique and charming hallmarks but with vocals and melody much more to the foreground.

Taking the unprecedented step of making Young Marble Giants' first ever release a long player certainly paid off. Released in 1980 "Colossal Youth" became a parallel soundtrack to the unsteady stabs of the post punk early eighties, and quickly became one of (the then nascent) Rough Trade Records best sellers. Becalmed, resigned and a little tense, it created a new vocabulary for song. "Colossal Youth" was followed by a couple of EPs, and then the group split up, to everyone's surprise and dismay. 

Combining sparse, home made drum machine rhythms, electric organ lines, funky bass and taut guitar chords, along with Alison Statton's clear, true vocal makes for one of the most evocative and atmospheric albums of the post-punk era.  

TRACK LISTING

1 Searching For Mr Right 3:00
2 Include Me Out 1:56
3 The Taxi 2:07
4 Eating Noddemix 2:04
5 Constantly Changing 2:04
6 N.I.T.A. 3:31
7 Colossal Youth 1:54
8 Music For Evenings 3:02
9 The Man Amplifier 3:15
10 Choci Loni 2:37
11 Wurlitzer Jukebox 2:45
12 Salad Days 2:01
13 Credit In The Straight World 2:29
14 Brand - New - Life 2:54
15 Wind In The Rigging 2:25

This collection is a welcome rattle bag of laments, cover versions and traditionals that reveal the side of Yorkston that would happily sit in on a high-spirited ceilidh, or woozily join on the harmonies at one of the Fence Collective's legendary homegames. It also demonstrates James Yorkston's blood deep understanding of the dynamics of folk music, storytelling, and singing your life even as it unfurls around you. On tracks such as "Sleep Is The Jewel", "The Hills & The Heath" and "The Lang Toun", the instinctive dynamic understanding Yorkston shares with his band The Athletes, especially drummer Faisal, can be heard in full flow. Carrying everything is Yorkston's rich voice and wry lyric, which always manages to sound hopeful and pessimistic at the same time. Yorkston's ruminations on love / lust / longing / liquor share a more eternal, resigned, Celtic feel with the battered reflections of Jacques Brel, Shane McGowan and Bert Jansch than any of his contemporaries. The album compiles unreleased or vinyl-only tracks over the years.

The much anticipated follow up to Arctic Monkeys' record-breaking debut. Haunting melodies and worst favourite dream characters are trademarks of the comeback album. All the tracks on the album were produced by duo James Ford (The Klaxons, Mystery Jets) and Mike Crossey (Echo & The Bunnymen, The Coral) and also mainly mixed by Alan Moulder (My Bloody Valentine, Smashing Pumpkins, Yeah Yeah Yeahs) and what they bring is a newfound muscularity, a bassier, punchier sound. This is as much in the playing as the knob-twiddling, actually: the rhythm section rules here. One minute lithe and funky, next all staccato post-punky; the songs are packed with all sorts of nifty diversions so it's not just lyrically that Arctic Monkeys show their intelligence. This is a busy, confident, nicely varied, exciting record, that's definitely a step on from their debut.

Rediscover The Triffids' most opulent and ambitious album. "Calenture" is the third release from Domino's The Triffids reissue campaign. The "Calenture" 24-page high gloss booklet will include previously unused photos by Lawrence Watson as well as original handwritten notes / sketches from Dave McComb's notebooks and liner notes from Niall Lucy and Sally Collins. Disc one is a 24 bit re-master of the original album, along with five bonus B-side tracks. Disc two tells the story of the 'mystical' "Calenture" through a series of rehearsal and studio recordings.

American troubadour Benjy Ferree kickstarts the new year with an album full of wit and wonder, recorded by Fugazi's Brendan Canty. The album is a combination of acoustic Americana mixed with hints of retro pop (a cross between Bob Dylan, The Beatles and Ray Davies), topped up by an intense rock hit in "Dogkillers".

Like 2003's "Master And Everyone", "The Letting Go" is a quiet, introspective record that examines the human heart, but the songs here equal or better those on its excellent predecessor. Oldham's insight into the politics of self and relationships is unflinching, and his wordplay, which balances surreal poetry with heartbreaking confessionals, is at its peak. Sonically, "The Letting Go" is expansive, adding strings, subtle percussion, and ambient effects that enhance but never crowd the songs. Harmony vocalist Dawn McCarthy contributes gorgeous textures to the mix of blues, country, folk, and minstrel-like elements, and all of it makes a persuasive case that Oldham has grown into an artist of striking vision and emotional power.

The million-selling album opener "The View From The Afternoon" kicks off this new EP; also featured are four brand new Arctic Monkeys tunes. These exclusive new B-sides have only just been recorded and are the first traces of where the band's direction will go next: Still dead sharp with the lyrics, but musically a little less spikey, even a bit melancholic at times... and still a million times better than most of the 'competition'.

For his second album after splitting indie-gods Pavement, Stephen Malkmus sets his controls for the heart of the seventies! Eschewing conventional flabby white boy blues rock cliches for a tighter sound more reminiscent of the Groundhogs (long time Piccadilly faves) and Captain Beefheart, Malkmus adds a dash of folk-rock and some ace krautrock synth sounds to his inimitable skewed pop aesthetic. Initially less accessible than his debut, repeated listens reveal "Pig Lib" to be just as rewarding as those more 'musical' later Pavement offerings.

Well it's here at last, the most hotly anticipated debut album since, ooooh I dunno! And don't let the hype put you off, it certainly doesn't disappoint! Clever, cocky lyrics; wry commentary on modern life that Jarvis'd be proud of (must be a Sheff thing!). Add to that loads of hooks and killer tunes and you've got one of the most exciting debut albums in ages! Like The Libertines could've been, if only they'd been Northern!

"You Could Have It So Much Better" is the hugely anticipated second album from Franz Ferdinand. After setting the world alight with their self titled debut album the boys didn't hang around too long before getting started on the follow up. Recorded in Scotland and New York the band's style has matured and developed. The sound is still unmistakably Franz Ferdinand but they've tapped into something deeper and more resonant from the moving epic "Walk Away" to the stomp of first single "Do You Want To".

"Codex Teenage Premonition" features fifteen exclusive tracks that capture perfectly the raw teenage energy of one the most influential and unique British bands of the last twenty five years. The album features tracks recorded at their very first show at Leith Town Hall in 1980 together with unreleased studio versions of tracks that would later appear on their debut single "Get Up And Use Me" and album "Lubricate Your Living Room". Although very different in style, Fire Engines were still very much part of a thriving Scottish post punk scene that featured Orange Juice, Josef K, Aztec Camera and The Associates.

The first full-length collaboration between two of indie rock's most ubiquitous figures, "Superwolf" finds wandering troubadour Bonnie Prince Billy and guitarist Matt Sweeney (formerly of Chavez and Zwan) hitting yet another musical plateau. While the terrain explored on "Superwolf" is in keeping with past Bonnie Prince Billy releases (most directly 1998's somber, haunting "I See A Darkness" and 2003's hushed, tender "Master And Everyone"), it's surprising to learn that Sweeney is credited as the sole writer of the album's music (with Oldham handling the lyrics). From soft acoustic ballads ("Only Someone Running") to plaintive sing-alongs ("Lift Us Up") to epic tales of heartbreak ("Blood Embrace"), "Superwolf" is technically a stripped-down affair, yet its impact is far-reaching and expansive. Album opener "My Home Is the Sea" perfectly captures the spirit of the project, beginning softly, but building to an electrifying climax of sloppy guitar virtuosity. With "Superwolf", Oldham and Sweeney have made an album that plays to both artists' strengths.

On "No Wow" The Kills' vision, showcased on their highly acclaimed debut, remains undimmed. The band, whose objective has been to marry all areas of art and life, have pushed the parameters with "No Wow", a record that sees them reduce rock'n'roll to its barest components, making the space in between the notes just as important as music itself.

Currently selling for silly money on eBay, Domino have unearthed a limited quantity of this much sought-after collection of Robert Wyatt’s greatest moments. Previously released only in Japan as a limited edition, this 17 track album is the perfect introduction to the music of Robert Wyatt. This is the first real definitive collection featuring 17 of Robert's greatest all-time solo material recordings to date and includes the much sought after and requested "Shipbuilding" which has never previously been on an album and has only been available as part of the EPs box set. Also includes his only other hit single from 1974 - "I'm A Believer".

Following on from his masterpiece, "Master & Everyone", Bonnie Prince Billy (aka Palace aka Palace Brothers aka Will Oldham) returns with "Greatest Palace Music", which is a Nashville recorded, technicolor re-rendering of the fans' favourite Palace songs. Moving away from the sparseness of previous releases, the playful attention to melody here will entice a whole new audience, without (fans will be pleased to know) compromising the emotion and honesty at the core of Will Oldham's work.

A clutch of rare tracks, B-sides and a previously unreleased song from David Pajo aka Aerial M, Papa M or indeed sometimes just 'M'! Influential guitar innovator David Pajo (Slint, Tortoise, Stereolab, Palace Music) presents this collection of rare, hard to find and out of print singles. The very first M 7" single is here: "Safeless" / "Napolean", so is the first M 7" split single side "Vol De Nuit". The Aerial M CD Singles of 97 and 98 "M is…" and "October" are also in evidence. So is the Papa M 1999 Tour Single. An old Christmas card from 2000 is included, a sixteen minute version of The Byrds' "Turn Turn Turn", and a previously unreleased Christmas song, to boot. Plus another fifteen or so minutes of the timeless, eternal sounds of M!

Wow. One of the best debut albums ever, people! Don't be misled by their deliberately geeky, mischievous flamboyance. And don't be put off by the hype: this is seriously good music. It's fun-filled, daft, mad and cheeky, for sure; but there's 11 songs here and they're all brilliant. No filler. This laughs in the face of the serious classicist / revisionists because whilst this does look back (Gang Of Four, Joseph K, late 70s reggae, XTC, Television, Magazine) the music is somehow uniquely their own, vitally now and urgently alive. Every song has some special, clever detail that just lifts it right up and every one also skanks, swings, rocks or bops. The boys' got rhythm! OK, so it's knock-kneed, undernourished, white-boy funk like New York's Rapture or Radio 4, but this lot aren't impersonating anybody. The Strokes must've been their catalyst (they opened the treasure-box dated '79-'81) and like The Strokes, Franz Ferdinand sound like no-one but themselves. Only the best bands manage this. One tune, "Auf Asche" fits about three songs in one, all seamlessly segued over a Blondie-ish disco bounce and Chic-punky scratchy guitars. Elsewhere there's surfy twangs, camp, wonky disco, spoof spooky dub and dead catchy new-wave nuggets. Deliberately non-mainstream but defiantly POP, crammed full of charisma and happy twists / irreverent turns.

After six years away, Robert Wyatt finally returns with a new album. Eclectic and superb as ever, Wyatt is joined by amongst others Paul Weller, Dave Gilmour, Brian Eno and Phil Manzanera. "Cuckooland" is a subtle, eclectic, evocative record of beauty and true originality, deriving its inspiration from jazz, diverse music and cultures from around the world, politics, human relations, hopes and fears. Wyatt's originals nestle comfortably next to a few cover versions across these 16 wonderful tracks.

"Shleep" is almost a resume for Robert Wyatt's entire solo career. This 1997 release has tracks that would nestle snugly on his early solo albums like "Rock Bottom" and "Ruth Is Stranger Than Richard" or on Eno / Matching Mole / Henry Cow albums of the 80s. "Shleep" is one of his most satisfying releases on so many levels; the variety, the production, the musicianship and above all Wyatt's vocals recorded to perfection.

TRACK LISTING

Heaps Of Sheeps 4:56
The Duchess 4:18
Maryan 6:11
Was A Friend 6:09
Free Will And Testament 4:13
September The Ninth 6:41
Alien 6:47
Out Of Season 2:32
A Sunday In Madrid 4:41
Blues In Bob Minor 5:46
The Whole Point Of No Return 1:25

Originally released in 1982, "Nothing Can Stop Us" compiles the first four singles Robert Wyatt issued for Rough Trade. The A-sides were all cover versions, ranging from Chic's "At Last I'm Free" to his version of the unofficial Cuban anthem "Caimanera" ("Guantanamera") and a haunting version of "Strange Fruit" depicting the lynching of three young black men in the US in the 1930s and made famous by Billie Holiday. The other tracks include Wyatt's most political recordings including the spine-tingling "Born Again Cretin" or "The Red Flag" and shows him at his uncompromising best.

Originally released on vinyl-only on the Sonig label in Europe, This LP finally gets a proper UK issue on Domino. It sees MOM at their most melodic (in an abstract electronic kinda way!).