THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2019 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON SATURDAY APRIL 13th ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON. IF THERE ARE ANY REMAINING COPIES THEY WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE ONLINE AT 12.01AM SATURDAY APRIL 20th.

2000 only. Gatefold Sleeve, Double LP + Bonus DL tracks. Singles collection. “Television Personalities have been England's great forgotten band for too long.” Melody Maker // A comprehensive remastered collection of all of the Television Personalities’ ground-breaking single releases from the evocative ‘Strangely Beautiful’ EP through to the dark introspective terrain of ‘Far Away And Lost In Joy’. Includes the super rare ‘Favourite Films’ 12-inch (only previously available on12-inch vinyl) plus the exquisite ‘Goodnight Mr Spaceman’ and ‘You, Me And Lou Reed’ EPs. Sequenced in chronological release order including every track and remix, embracing a host of pop culture threads from art, music and writing with all the ironic wit and wisdom of a master tunesmith – a veritable L-shaped room of pop desire. A further celebration of the songwriting of Dan Treacy. Track List Side One 1. Strangely Beautiful (7" mix) 2. Reaching For The Stars 3. Not Even A Maybe 6. The Day The Dolphins Leave The Sea 7. Christ Knows I Have Tried Side Two 8. She's Never Read My Poems (12" mix) 9 - Favourite Films 10 - The Dream Inspires 11 - Happy All The Time (Ten Years Ahead Of Its Time Version) 12. We Will Be Your Gurus (7” mix) 13. An Exhibition By Joan Miro 14. Love Is Better Than War Side Three 15. Goodnight Mr Spaceman (12” mix) 16. If I Was Your Girlfriend 17. She Loves It When He Sings Like Elvis 19. You, Me And Lou Reed.

The free-wheelin’ creativity and infectious vitality of the 80s Bay Area thrash scene is a moment forever locked in time, but its spirit lives on in the galloping guitar picks, soaring harmonies and blistering rhythms of San Francisco quartet Hell Fire. The band’s perfect hybrid of NWOBHM theatrics and American thrash attitude delivers a rousing and genuine expansion on sounds long lost to pointless battles over who can be the most “extreme.”

Mania, Hell Fire’s third album and proper debut on RidingEasy Records (the label also reissued the band’s sophomore album, Free Again for the first time on vinyl in January 2019) warmly condenses elements of influences like Angel Witch, Iron Maiden, Rainbow, Exodus, Metallica, Riot, Virtue and Diamond Head into 10 tracks of headbanging MUYA anthems.
“Thematically, everything on the album comes from personal experiences,” says vocalist/guitarist Jake Nunn. “From the highs of partying together out here in Oakland, or the nostalgia of being a kid learning Zeppelin on a beat up guitar, to the extreme lows of isolation, personal trauma, and mental illness. Sonically we want our records to sound like you're standing in front of the stage at a show. The power of Marshall stacks in front of your face, drums at your ear level, thunder of the bass and feeling the presence of the room.”

Hell Fire achieves just that — and then some — on Mania. The album was recorded in Grass Valley, California at engineer Tim Green’s Louder Studios. Having also recorded their previous album with Green, the sessions proved highly productive for the band since they were already familiar with the setting and able to expand upon ideas they hadn’t been able to explore previously.
“We’re more excited about Mania then anything we’ve ever done,” Nunn says. “We were able to spend a bit more time arranging the songs and writing from a more personal perspective lyrically. We came out of this recording feeling much more accomplished with our performances and couldn't be more happy for this to be our first release with RidingEasy Records.”
Hell Fire began when bass player Herman Bandala moved to San Francisco from Tijuana, Mexico with the hopes of forming a heavy metal band. Herman posted an ad to Craigslist which caught the attention of guitarist Tony Campos. They bonded over a mutual love of 80s thrash and NWOBHM, which was a hard thing to find in the Bay Area scene at the time. The lineup slowly morphed over time, finally solidifying with vocalist Jake Nunn also taking up second guitar duties and drummer Mike Smith joining prior to 2017’s Free Again.

TRACK LISTING

01. Warpath
02. Mania
03. On The Loose
04. Born To Burn
05. Transcending Evil 06. Lashing Out
07. Isolator
08. The Dreamer
09. Knights Of The Holy
10. Masochist

Fountain Fire is Bill MacKay’s second solo album on Drag City. The Chicago-based guitarist’s continued sonic journeys in conversation with himself follow a travel-worn map written in his own hand. Bill has followed the trail from familiar confines to unknown places, catalyzing a style equally enamored with the traditional and the avant-garde to make his most expansive and forceful music to date.

You can hear it in the opening track; as the lava and lakes of “Pre-California” simmer to boiling, Bill assembles a bridge of guitars, layering beams of rumbling acoustic, distorted electric, and arcing slide parts. By leaping boldly from fixed points, he makes synergetic discoveries in mid-air. This is the MacKay writing style in its most evolved state thus far, following serpentine paths within the patterns, lunging in and out of tonality with instinctive flair and a stoic sense of inevitability, forging a sonic mosaic that breathes and grows organically as it fills the space of a song.

Yet there is far more here than straitlaced sonic captures of picker’s prowess and captivating harmonic motivation. Bill’s pieces are informed by meditation and memory, impressionistic as cinematic miniatures, inspired as much by filmic and literary passions as by sure-playing hands, and always rooted with deep soul and steady intention.

As the pieces move in and out of focus in enticingly hallucinogenic fashion, Bill throws another element into play: a pair of stark and emotionally-charged vocal numbers that cause the hair to raise on the listener’s neck, etched as they are with a haunting and eerie beauty. Alongside the ever-shifting flows of instrumental color running through Fountain Fire, these moments shine blindingly, like mirages in the desert. The fire in the album title is a continuity in Bill’s life — part of his genealogy, his living history, his astrology, the scorching effect of the overdriven slide in the penultimate “Arcadia.” It is also a sigil for the chaos around us.

Bill says: “While the record definitely reflects the turbulence and urgency of the times we’re living in, it also takes an autobiographical look back at the upheaval that characterized the nomadic rambles of my formative years. I learned to adapt to this constantly shifting landscape. Grasping the unfamiliar became second-nature, and the impressions made by the unknown rapidly entered my art. The bittersweet sense of fleeting time & place became a hallmark. Now is more of a time than ever to dramatize what matters to us through our art.”

TRACK LISTING

1 Pre-California
2 Birds Of May
3 The Movie House
4 Man & His Panic
5 Welcome
6 Try It On
7 Arcadia
8 Dragon Country

A wandering troubadour in search of treasured happenstance.” Quietus / The 24th solo studio album from Giant Sand mainman Howe Gelb. Following two much-praised jazz-tinged ‘Future Standards’ collections, a wider bet captures Gelb’s discordant phrasings and clever romantic lyricism. Joined by a host of collaborators from all over the world, including M. War, Gabriel Naim Amor, Fernando Vacas, Juan Panki, The Lost Brothers, Anna Karina, JB Meijers, Kira Skov and Gelb’s own daughter Talula.

Focussing on Gelb’s celebrated song-writing style, filled with emotive tunes and heart-warming arrangements invariably offset by gorgeous discordant moments. A chance meeting of the indie/alt country Sinatra annotated by clever wordplay, teased by tongue twisters and an earthy ramble. “Gelb’s long-held fascination with words, particularly the way certain ones rub up against one another or encourage an allusive phrase, usually stretched over an odd meter, is a joy.” Uncut… Previous press coverage from Pitchfork, Mojo, Q, Clash, Uncut, NPR and more. 

TRACK LISTING

1 On The Fence
2 A Thousand Kisses Deep Feat. M. Ward
3 Not The End Of The World Feat Anna Karina
4 Anna
5 Give It Up
6 The Open Road
7 Moon River Feat. Talula Gelb
8 Flyin’ Off The Rails
9 Gathered Feat. Pieta Brown
10 All You Need To Know
11 The Park At Dark
12 My Little World
13 Presumptuous Feat. Kira Skov
14 Storyteller
15 Steadfast (CD And Download Card Only) 

“Still creating some of the most engaging recordings of their lives, and that's truly something to believe in.” AllMusic… New studio album from Michigan’s greatest outsider combo. An inspiration to Kurt Cobain, post grunge deep thinkers and veterans of the “Can’t Play/Will play” fraternity. Pop music for those outside of pop music. Songs for those still bedevilled by one liners and abrasive melodies. Thematically succinct tales of puppet people, vampires and the walking dead juxtaposed with discerning love songs and eternal affection.

“Half-Japanese are a respected institution. They've been making noise since the late '70s.” Pop Matters “Innocent abandon is still at the heart of the band” Pitchfork. An off-kilter classic that shouldn’t sound right but ultimately does, in the best tradition of The Residents, Richman, Johnston, Brain Wilson at his most bamboozled and any number of out there talents. Uncategorizable, joyous, detuned, quizzical, alluring, childlike, charming, innocent, questioning – invincible. New album from Half Japanese, an inspiration on Kurt Cobain. Jad Fair of Half Japanese has previously collaborated with Teenage Fanclub, Moe Tucker (Velvet Underground) and Daniel Johnston. 

TRACK LISTING

1 Swept Away
2 Love Explosion
3 The Puppet People
4 Return Of The Vampire
5 Or Ever Will
6 No More
7 All At Once
8 The Walking Dead
9 Forever In My Heart
10 What Are You Gonna Do?
11 It's Here
12 Invincible
13 No Wonder
14 It Has Me
15 Indestructible

The Lemonheads follow up the critically acclaimed ‘Varshons’ from nearly ten years ago with another eclectic collection of covers.

Produced by director Matthew Cullen and mastered by Howie Weinberg (Beastie Boys, Nirvana, The Ramones), their tenth studio album brims with the slowly-matured vocal of Evan Dando as he lures a host of personal faves to his melodic lair. He really has become one of the great expressive singers of our time.

‘Varshons 2’ is a hokey jukebox filled with unique versions of Yo La Tengo, Nick Cave, The Bevis Frond, NRBQ, The Eagles, Paul Westerberg, The Jayhawks, Lucinda Williams and John Prine.

Like Hank Williams slumped in his car between gigs, strumming and hollering, reasoning and weeping, humming it on over, Evan and his Lemonheads make every tune their own.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Though it's been ten years in the making, the second iteration of their 'Varshons' series sees The Lemonheads covering a host of excellent originals with style and grace. Where else could you get a masterful combo of John Prine and Nick cave on the same LP? Not many places i'd wager. A superb second outing, and yet more proof of the Lemonheads' continuing relevance.

TRACK LISTING

1 – Can’t Forget
2 – Settled Down Like Rain
3 – Old Man Blank
4 – Things
5 – Speed Of The Sound Of Loneliness
6 – Abandoned
7 – Now And Then
8 – Magnet
9 – Round Here
10 – TAQN
11 – Unfamiliar
12 – Straight To You
13 – Take It Easy

New version with updated packaging / digipack format. Spacemen 3’s debut album "Sound Of Confusion", released in 1986, was a blistering affair - establishing their love of the two-chord song and also expressing their admiration for the likes of MC5, The 13th Floor Elevators and The Stooges. Sound of Confusion was 7 tracks of overdriven assault, with a strange bleakness and despair creeping through the hypnotic sprawl. R Hunter Gibson would later say: "It boosts the value of unlit rooms, unpaid debts and unfeigned terror and it would rather tackle the gradients than settle for level best. 

TRACK LISTING

1 Loosing Touch With Your Mind
2 2.35,
3 Little Doll,
4 MaryAnne,
5 Roller Coaster,
6 Hey Man,
7 OD Catastophe.

Formed in recent years in San Francisco, though it may seem more likely that they hatched fresh out of a time travel portal from the mid-80s Bay Area thrash scene, Hell Fire have the classic look and sound of modern metal’s halcyon days. Hell Fire’s sonic assault warmly condenses elements of influences like Angel Witch, Iron Maiden, Rainbow, Exodus, Metallica, Riot, Virtue and Diamond Head into 8 tracks of headbanging MUYA anthems.

The free-wheelin’ creativity and infectious vitality of Bay Area thrash is a moment forever locked in time, but its spirit lives on in Hell Fire’s galloping guitar picks, soaring harmonies and blistering rhythms. The band’s perfect hybrid of NWOBHM theatrics and American thrash attitude delivers a rousing and genuine expansion on sounds long lost to pointless battles over who can be the most “extreme.”

Hell Fire began when bass player Herman Bandala moved to San Francisco from Tijuana, Mexico with the hopes of forming a heavy metal band. Herman posted an ad to Craigslist which caught the attention of guitarist Tony Campos. They bonded over a mutual love of 80s thrash and NWOBHM, which was a hard thing to find in the Bay Area scene at the time. Just before Hell Fire entered the studio to record their debut album Metal Masses, Jake Nunn joined on vocals. The lineup continued to develop over time, finally solidifying with Nunn also taking up second guitar duties and drummer Mike Smith joining prior to recording Free Again.

Hell Fire’s 2017 sophomore album, Free Again is being released for the first time on vinyl and remastered for CD and download in January 2019. it was recorded over 5 days in Grass Valley, California at engineer Tim Green’s Louder Studios (The Fucking Champs, Melvins.) Where Metal Masses showcased aesthetic nods to Metallica’s Kill ‘Em All album (as well as a cover photo brilliantly depicting a blurry hand speedily playing a Flying-V guitar), Free Again finds the band coming into their own with emphasis upon grooves, a beefier sound and tighter songs that expertly shift into new parts at the drop of a hat.

Opener “Free Again” kicks things right off with a galloping riff forming out of a haze of feedback as the tape machine comes up to speed. The anthemic chorus showcases Nunn’s powerful voice as twin guitar harmonies lead into a thundering double-time coda reminiscent of Iron Maiden’s “Aces High.” Elsewhere, a marching snare drum beat and totemic blasts set up dueling guitar leads of “City Ablaze” while dizzying, chugging 16th-note guitars drive the blistering “Live Forever” into oblivion. “Wheels of Fate” and “The Dealer” echo the groove based tunes and harmonies of Rainbow and Gary Moore era Thin Lizzy. Album closer “End of Days” is a chorus effect drenched ballad that builds into a crushing lament over the constant beckoning of depression and the struggle for freedom and clarity. It’s a touching and powerful closing to an album that traverses many moods and packs in more great parts into a single song than most thrash bands do on an entire album. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Free Again
2. City Ablaze
3. Live Forever
4. Wheels Of Fate
5. Beyond Nightmares
6. The Dealer
7. Destroyers
8. End Of Days

The self titled album Bardo Pond is the first new release from Philadelphia's psychedelic rock unit to be released on Fire.

'The first time I saw Bardo Pond, I was, as probably most people are when they first encounter this batch of beatific weirdos, horribly unprepared. To describe the experience as "psychedelic" is an understatement on the order of saying that whacking oneself in the nuts with a ball-peen hammer is "mildly irritating." Needless to say, priorities were rearranged, etc.

Fast-forward 15 yrs, and Bardo Pond have put out many LPs, most of them named after hallucinogens that make you throw up all night and see things - which was kind of them, I always thought. Let ya know what you were in for. All of this recorded output is pretty staggering to me, because, without exception, they seemed able to toss a lasso around some sort of ineffable hoodoo that felt like it was a million yrs old. If Carl Sagan would have 1.) smoked a little more weed and 2.) not croaked, I'm hoping he would have cut a BP track onto that gold LP that they put on the Voyager units. Would've been a way better representation of the best parts of the human spirit than Chuck Berry, I say.

Anyhoo. One night not long ago in the Bardo Compound in Philly, Michael says in a kinda offhanded way, "Hey man, you wanna hear this? ..." And there I was, being bathed in the songs you've got in yr grubby little mitts right now.

I was, once again, unprepared.

This cauldron is a bit of a different brew. It made total sense to me (as it will to you) when he later told me the name of the LP is just "Bardo Pond." Why? It's a distillation. Two decades of playing together have sandblasted away everything unessential and left us with what we have here. It was like no one else before them had ever gotten near the plagal cadence, not Lou Reed or the Stooges or 2,000 yrs of church music. They invented it all over again, independent of any of that, after gawd knows how many yrs of flailing away and burning themselves up.

I fucking love these songs. And while I hate writing almost as much as I hate third-degree burns, I have to say it is a joy to be able to tell you about this record. I feel like Neil Fucking Armstrong.

It took years for them to get here, but this record is the most goddamned beautiful thing they've ever done. Sorry for the superlatives. But really, the only thing left for them to do at this point is explode'. - Fire Records.

John Gibbons: Guitars
Michael Gibbons: Guitars
Isobel Sollenberger: Voice, flute
Clint Takeda: Bass, next-level comedy
Aaron Igler: Electronics
Jason Kourkounis: Drums

with
Jeremiah Misfeldt: Farfisa
Dan Baltzer: Harp

This is the original Arcade Fire demo EP recorded in August 2003 in a barn in Maine, and featuring an earlier line up of the band (Win Butler, Régine Chassagne, Dane Mills, Brendan Reed and Myles Broscoe). It was produced by Richard Reed Parry, Win and Régine, and was originally only available at shows.

The EP features an early version of fan favourite “No Cars Go”.

Last year, Amusement Parks On Fire returned with their first release in '8.8 years'. The single 'Our Goal To Realise' saw the Nottingham art-rockers reappear with signature songwriting sophistication and sonic scope. 'All The New Ends' seeks to further cement their insignia whilst eschewing genre-tropes and preconceptions of form. Like the expansive concept-singles surrounding their second album 'Out Of The Angeles', the medium-length format once-again provides the perfect platform to push perceptions and extend expectations.

A highly personalised sociopathic gem delivered as a futuristic rewriting of how music works, a melodious breeze with a tail wind of venomous din. A ten-track album, her tenth studio set.

Enveloping the juxtaposition of the concept of ‘dark sunshine’, a brooding solo record creating with friends to expand her off-kilter sonic vision; a squally, squeaky mix of discordant beauty.

Feedback and phasing gyrate from simply strummed normality, imagine Dinosaur Jr and My Bloody Valentine cranking up a Dylan couplet. Messing with both extremes of the sonic spectrum: atonal and arrhythmic, a unique sound and a glorious return to form for one of alternative rock’s true innovators.

“Sometimes the most subversive thing I can do musically is adhere to standard song structure, sometimes the creepiest chords are the ones we’ve heard before, twisted into different shapes, and sometimes a story is lived a thousand times before we can ride it like a roller coaster. Nothing wholly unfamiliar is gonna make you look twice. When you can describe a record as being “deceptively” anything, you’re hinting at the sociopathic nature of music. Something I love. Imagine truly buying your own sunshine and charm, but also your darkness and violence; the two sides of your psychology showing each other off in relief. Songs can do that...we can’t, really. Darkness we’ve seen.” Kristin Hersh, July 2018.

“She's still as powerful a presence as she ever was.” Pitchfork

“The prodigious output and commitment to quality is pretty staggering, but then Kristin Hersh is a very, very special musician.” The Quietus.

TRACK LISTING

1. LAX
2. No Shade In Shadow
3. Halfway Home
4. Fox Point
5. Lethe
6. Loudmouth
7. Gin
8. Tulum
9. Breathe In
10. Lady Godiva

Hater’s powerful vulnerability and charm has seen them rise quickly through the ranks earning kudos from NPR (Austin 100), Stereogum (Best New Bands Of 2017), The Fader, BBC6 Music, BBC Radio 1 and more. Effortless and assured, the Scandi quartet drift eloquently into well-structured and stunning melodies. Resolute in their sound, ‘Siesta’ is the perfect soundtrack for that summer romance and the inevitable break up. Heartbreak has never sounded so sweet!.

Produced by Joakim Lindberg (Yast and Hey Elbow) at Studio Sickan within old railway sheds outside of Malmö Sweden. Hater tackle their personal experiences of life, love and relationships yet through their shared songwriting there's a togetherness. Synth pop earworm ‘It’s So Easy’ contrasts the slower paced 'I Wish I Gave You More Time Because I Love You' that blends beautiful sweeping sax from Inge Petersson Lindbäck. Hater “boast Marr-esque guitars and vocals reminiscent of fellow Swedes and The Concretes” (Norman Records) whilst having the pop sensibilities of The Chills, Alvvays, Snail Mail and Makthaverskan.

TRACK LISTING

1. From The Bottom Of Your Heart
2. It's So Easy
3. I Wish I Gave You More Time Because I Love You
4. Closer
5. Fall Off
6. I Sure Want To
7. Things To Keep Up With
8. Your Head Your Mind
9. Why It Works Out Fine
10. The Mornings
11. Cut Me Loose
12. All That Your Dreams Taught Me
13. Seems So Hard
14. Weekend

‘A Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing’ (2006) is an unusual album, first because it does things with classical music that aren’t usually done. The songs Josephine Foster sings here are classical pieces, written (the texts are German poems) by some of the greatest German composers of the 19th century, Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms, and Hugo Wolf. “Foster has found perhaps the most appropriate vehicle yet for her singular and affecting talents – 19th century German art-songs, wholly reconstructed here via Foster’s skeletal arrangements of voice and guitar” Pitchfork. Remastered and repackaged with new artwork

TRACK LISTING

1. An Die Musik
2. Der König In Thule
3. Verschwiehene Liebe
4. Die Schwestern
5. Wehmut
6. Auf Einer Burg
7. Nähe Des Geliebten

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2018 EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

‘Closer To God’, as with all TVP albums, is mightily personal. Dan Treacy provides the antidote to the opening of the ill-fated Disneyland Paris and the first McDonald’s in China – it’s a white knuckle ride through his innermost hopes and fears with off stage giggling, half heard dialogue and feedback that sounds like an opera is expiring in an adjoining L-shaped room. ‘Closer To God’ is a spiritual rollercoaster that sounds as poignant and pressing as ever. Remastered double LP on limited edition on marbled black and white vinyl. 1500 copies.

Compilers Miles Cleret (Soundway) and DJ Okapi (Afrosynth Records) present a selection of 18 rare, handpicked 1980s cuts that highlight the period that nestles in between the ‘70s (where American-influenced jazz, funk and soul bumped shoulders with local Mbaqanga) and the ‘90s when Kwaito and eventually house-music ruled the dancefloors of urban South Africa.
In 1980s black South Africa a local form of pop music evolved as the disco boom died down and slowly mutated. It was often ubiquitously described as Bubblegum - usually stripped-down and lo-fi with a predominance of synths, keyboards and drum-machines and overlaid with the kind of deeply soulful trademark vocals and harmonies that South African music is famous for. Alongside French-Caribbean Zouk this kind of music has slowly been making its way into the DJ sets of many of the most open minded selectors around the world. This compilation is in many ways a sister release to the hugely popular compilation of Nigerian boogie and disco that Soundway released in late 2016 : “Doing it In Lagos: Boogie, Pop & Disco in 1980s Nigeria”.
The album takes its name from the band Ashiko’s track of the same name Gumba Fire that features on the compilation. The term is derived from gumba gumba, the term given to the booming speakers of the old spacegram radios that broadcast music into South Africa’s townships and villages. The phrase later evolved into Gumba Fire to refer to a hot party. Put this record on and feel the heat!

STAFF COMMENTS

Patrick says: As we seem to have reached the end of the great Afro disco excavation (I joke, I hear a new banger every two weeks), things jump forward from the disco era to the time of boogie and proto house with this mega collection of bubble gum bangers selected by Soundway and Afrosynth boss DJ Okapi. Everything on here is excellent, but Condry Ziqubu's "She's Impossible" is way in demand, and this is your only chance to get it without breaking the bank.

TRACK LISTING

LP 1:
The Survivals - My Brother
Stimela - Mind Games
Hot Soul Singers - Hlala Nami
Zoom - Wayawaya
Ashiko - Gumba Fire (Madlakadlaka) 
Monwa & Sun - Heartbeat

LP 2:
Ntombi Ndaba - Do You Trust Amajita?
The Black Five - Selallane 
Starlight - Picnicing
Zasha - Hayi Ngodlame
Joshiba - Gloria
Sabela - Africa

LP 3:
Condry Ziqubu - She’s Impossible /
General Peter Maringa - Listen To Me
Zasha - Arrow Dub
Ozila - Wola Wola

CD:
The Survivals - My Brother
Stimela - Mind Games
Hot Soul Singers - Hlala Nami
Zoom - Wayawaya
Ashiko - Gumba Fire (Madlakadlaka) 
Monwa & Sun - Heartbeat
Ntombi Ndaba - Do You Trust Amajita? 
The Black Five - Selallane
Starlight - Picnicing 
Zasha - Hayi Ngodlame
Sabela - Africa
Condry Ziqubu - She’s Impossible
General Peter Maringa - Listen To Me 
Zasha - Arrow Dub
Ozila - Wola Wola

Fire Soundtracks and Lakeshore Records release Jon Brion’s acclaimed score ‘Lady Bird’ for the first time on vinyl on February 23rd 2018. Jon Brion’s previous films include the Grammy nominated ‘Magnolia’, ‘Punch-Drunk Love’, ‘Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind’ and ‘I Heart Huckabees’. Known for his songwriting with The Grays and Jellyfish, Jon Brion has also produced records for Kanye West, Fiona Apple, Rufus Wainwright, Robyn Hitchcock, Sky Ferreira and is a well-known collaborator with Evan Dando and Elliot Smith. Winner of Best Director from the National Board Of Review, actor-turned-director Greta Gerwig’s incredible directorial debut ‘Lady Bird’ is one of this year’s most acclaimed films.

TRACK LISTING

1. Title Credits
2. Sign Up
3. Drive Home
4. LB / Danny
5. Pick Up
6. Lady Bird Kiss
7. Rose Garden
8. LB Steals Math Grade Book
9. Thanksgiving In Sacramento
10. Coffee Shop
11. Hope
12. More Hope
13. Consolation
14. Hope Against Hope
15. Model Homes
16. Maybe
17. Looking Forward
18. Summer In Sacramento
19. Packing Up
20. Leaving
21. Hope?
22. Reconcile
23. Lady Bird

First new material in nearly 9 years from Amusement Parks On Fire, whose debut album was released on Geoff Barrow (of Portishead)'s Invada label, and was described by the New Musical Express as 'hedonistic teenage genius'. The Nottingham band signed to V2 Records in 2005 and released their second studio album Out Of The Angeles, then a series of medium-form 'concept singles'; 'Blackout' in 2005, 'In Flight' in 2006 and 'A Star Is Born' in 2007, with Drowned In Sound dubbing it 'a dizzying mini-epic... a chilly metaphysical beauty'.

Expansion get a stadium-sized thumbs up from the Piccadilly peeps here, following last year's essential Norman Connors reissue with a fresh pressing of one of the all time disco classics, "Keep The Fire Burning" by Gwen McCrae. After a recent second hand price surge in recent years, presumably caused by a) the track's unparalleled brilliance, b) the fact that a whole load of A-listers have introduced it to the Boiler Room kids and c) the only affordable option was the well-snide, poorly pressed and totally dished bootleg from a few years ago. If "Keep The Fire Burning" is new to you, know this; it has never, ever failed to fill a dancefloor. Killer bass, perfect percussion and the finest groove you've ever heard, augmented by irresistible rhythm guitar and Gwen's occasionally spoken, outrageously sung vocal all come together in perfect disco harmony. Appearing here in its full 6:54 format, this is an absolute must have. On the flip, "Funky Sensation", possesses a timeless and universal groove, a song which has cemented itself as a darling of the boogie-scene, while gaining traction from the likes of Dam Funk and Nu Guinea. Bag a copy ASAP!

STAFF COMMENTS

Patrick says: Definitely in the top ten disco records of all time, Gwen's soulful, sassy and stomping "Keep The Fire Burning" has raised the roof consistently for almost forty years now. Available here in its full length as an officially remastered reissue, with rare-groove classic "Funky Sensation" on the flip no less, it's gonna continue to do damage for the next forty years.

Half Japanese have returned to peel further layers from their onion. They have a new album that's a square further on in their unpredictable musical snakes and ladders board. ‘Why Not?’ is a magical thing – it’s Springsteen’s ‘Born To Run’ recorded in a cupboard, it’s an ode to love, it’s a Wire song with two duelling guitarists being Zappa on helium, it’s Parquet Courts in a tantrum, it’s The Crickets contorted into? and The Mysterians, it’s everywhere and nowhere, baby, it’s where it’s at. On ‘Why Not?’ nuances are mused, situations explained, questions asked.

Outside, zombies and demons roam and everyday aliens emerge from spaceships: it’s a technicolor film transcribed by Jad Fair and friends John Sluggett, Gilles-Vincent Rieder, Mick Hobbs and Jason Willett, their faces at the cracked window of their subterranean habitat looking out at the real world. They’re on a high from their last release: “After all these years, his wiry voice still hits every song with a shock that’s equal parts joy buzzer and defibrillator, each barely in-key bleat alternating between laughable and life-affirming,” said Pitchfork of their last opus ‘Hear The Lion Roar’.

To which All Music added that “after nearly 40 years of music-making, they're still creating some of the most engaging recordings of their lives, and that's truly something to believe in.” ‘Why Not?’ goes further. It’s an even more intense concoction, it’s further out there. It contains pieces of fluffy thought-provoking music, a bag of sentiments delivered with a real sense of wonderment at how the normal world revolves; all powered with heart and soul, some crunchy guitars, a cello and reverb set-to-kill infiltrating their storytelling. ‘Why’d They Do It?’ quizzes track 11. Because they can. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Why not indeed?

TRACK LISTING

1. The Future Is Ours
2. The Face
3. Why Not?
4. Amazing
5. Demons Of Doom
6. A Word To The Wise
7. Bring On The Night
8. Zombie Island Massacre
9. Better Days
10. Spaceship To Mars
11. Why'd They Do It?
12. Magic
13. Falling

Featuring Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds and Kylie Minogue and Sophia Loren with Tonis Maroudas Academy award nominated film and winner of the 2015 Cannes Film Festival Jury prize (among many others), ‘The Lobster’ is a dystopian comedy-drama directed by Yorgos Lanthimos (Dogstooth, The Killing Of A Sacred Deer) and co-written by Efthymis Filippou that stars Colin Farrell, Rachel Weisz and Olivia Colman. Love is a crazy thing that’s as perverse as the relationships that come with it, living in the digital age of love-matching and profiling, ‘The Lobster’ tackles humanity’s struggle with love, the fear of loneliness and societal issues.

Forced by the government to find a partner in forty-five days under their watchful eye and extreme training program or you’ll be turned into an animal to survive in the woods. The absurdist sci-fi horror movie sees residents out hunting for ‘Loners’ who once caught are sent off to face their fate in return for extra time to find love that keeps them alive. Out in the woods alongside them are celibate freedom fighters that have joined the resistance, it is here a love story unfolds. Curated by Lanthimos and music supervisor Amy Ashworth, the soundtrack “brings the film’s edgy tension and menace to the fore” (Screen Daily) with orchestral renditions of Beethoven, Stravinsky and Shostakovich alongside Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds with Kylie Minogue on ‘Where The Wild Roses Grow’ and Sophia Loren with Tonis Maroudas on ‘Ti Ein Afto Pou To Lene Agapi’. Fire Soundtracks and Lakeshore Records are set to release ‘The Lobster’ soundtrack for the first time on limited edition vinyl on December 1st. 

TRACK LISTING

1 Juilliard String Quartet - String Quartet In F Major, Op.18, No. 1, Adagio 
2 Danae - Apo Mesa Pethamenos,
3 Borodin Quartet Quintet - For Piano And Strings: In Tempo Di Valse,
4 Benjamin John Tomlin - Million $ (feat. Milla M.),
5 Goldner String Quartet 3 Pieces For String Quartet No. 3,
6 The Tale Quartet - String Quartet No. 2: I Moderato,
7 Johnnie Burn - Hog Shuffle,
8 Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Kylie Minogue - Where The Wild Roses Grow,
9 Takács Quartet - String Quartet No. 1 In D, Op. 25: Andante Sostenuto,
10 Sophia Loren And Tonis Maroudas - Ti Ein Auto Pou To Lene Agapi

When the sleeve of The Bevis Frond’s ‘Son Of Walter’ arrived circa 1996 it was a mystery. The title is scratched on a window overlooking an Islington block of flats, the sunset is distorted. Today it would be the view from a banging grime pirate radio station. Back then, it was one man locked in his bedroom with too many ideas and too many instruments (and a Portastudio). It’s the Frond’s 15th studio album. “The release of this work signals a resurgent appreciation for the noodly psychedelia of which this Brit is the master,” claimed the beautifully named Jennie Ruggles in Addicted To Noise. “Guitar fans will eat this album up,” Calendar, a magazine in the US argued and Pulse! Magazine reckoned: “’Son Of Walter’ offers new recruits a generous and reasonably representative introduction both to Saloman’s deeply ingrained mastery of ‘60s-vintage idioms and to the humanity and tunefulness that sets him apart from less imaginative retro-formalists.” Ah, retro formalists, we love them.

"Don't ask why, but for this album I decided to make the long-awaited(?) return to the style of the first few BF records. So it's back to the home recording facilities, and back to being the only person involved. So it's definitely worse than the recent stuff. (Feel free to disagree)," Frond mainman and, indeed the only Frond left standing on this opus, reasoned on the sleevenotes when it first sneaked out on the super cool Flydaddy label in the US. So, what is it all about? The trademark folk strum with multi-harmonies is there. There’s a slight nod to a country-ish CSN&Y thing, but that’s only for four bars. Who remembers that when there is the colossal ‘Garden Aeroplane Trap’, a proper wig out at 12 minutes 20. Elsewhere we have the kind of timeless psyche pop that people with ears really love, two songs that namecheck Elvis and a song about a dead man on a train. That was London in the late ‘90s. Hey, rock ‘n’ roll. 

TRACK LISTING

1 Plastic Elvis
2. Beautiful Sister
3. Red Hair
4 You Saw Me Coming (But You Won't See Me Go)
5. Barking Or False Point Blues
6. Forgiven
7. All Hope Is Gone With You Away
8 Dead Man Sitting On A Train
9. It's Not Like You
10. Garden Aeroplane Trap
11 Driven Away
12 Raining On TV
13 Requiem
14 Winner's Way
15 Goodnight From The Band

"With its boisterous and dynamic arrangement, catchy chorus, and engaging sentiments, ('Keep the Fire' is) guaranteed to ignite something meaningful within you, too." - PopMatters

"...a sweeping, ambitious album that swells with strings and heart." - CBC Music

"It’s big, and it’s dramatic." - The East

Released on our very own state51 label 'Keep the Fire' is the defiant, poignant mantra around which this sweeping and heart-piercing album is built; a weary warning filled with wisdom, empathy, defiance and pride.

The music remains confidently rooted in folk strumming and gentle vocal phrasings. But Gabrielle has embraced her pop leanings and pushed them to the forefront. The songs pulse with dramatic strings, keys and evocative percussion that combine for surprising left-turns. It is music you’d expect to find on a playlist between Florence Welch and Thom Yorke; bold without sacrificing emotion.

This art-pop progression comes from the pairing of Papillon’s trusted producer and pop-folk whiz Daniel Ledwel with mixing engineer Corey LeRue, the EDM pop genius behind Neon Dreams. Together, their work lifts Keep the Fire into a new realm adding heft and punch to pretty songs with LeRue’s secret mixing recipes. Their approaches may be disparate, but the result is something thrilling—melodic and catchy, memorable and affecting.

Keep The Fire’s emotional scope and sonic ambition are clear signs of a talented and ambitious artist ready to tackle new markets and build on a dedicated and growing fanbase.

TRACK LISTING

1. Overture For The Fire Keeper
2. Three Years
3. The Damage
4. Deep In The Earth
5. Hold On, I Will
6. When The Heart Attacks
7. Keep The Fire
8. Heart Beat
9. Some Rise Up
10. What To Keep
11. No Paradise

Geoff Barrow and Ben Salisbury return to score Ben Wheatley’s 1970s based epic shoot-out ‘Free Fire’, executively produced by Martin Scorsese.

Compiled by director Ben Wheatley himself, the soundtrack will be released on CD and double LP, featuring the full score by Geoff Barrow and Ben Salisbury, dialogue from the film and licensed tracks (The Real Kids, Creedence Clearwater Revival, John Denver).

‘Free Fire’ sees Barrow and Salisbury take a huge directional curve away from their intense, synth-based Ivor Novello award winning score for ‘Ex Machina’, with the composers curating a prog rock, free jazz, psychedelic journey influenced by bands such as King Crimson, Camel and Magma and tips its hat to the Lalo Schifrin thriller genre scores of that era.

Both the LP and CD will include a digital download card which features the full soundtrack as well as additional unheard bonus material not used in the score.

TRACK LISTING

Where We Going?
Do The Boob (The Real Kids)
I’m I.I.F.M
Sledgehammer Cracks Nut
This Is Ord
Docks Beat
Step Into My Office
Run Through The Jungle (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
Raw Onions
Vern
Come Out
Gorgeous As Ever
Money Count
Nice Teeth
Harlequins Reunion
Steven’s Been Reprimanded
Stevo Apologises
Suck On This
First Shot
Mostly The Suit
Martin Shot
Will Everybody Calm The Fuck Down
Snipers
Good To Go
Free Firing Gunshot Solo
The Phone Rings
Watch And Vern
Crawl Chase
So That’s What A Fucking Brain Looks Like
Lead Lobotomy
Poke Him In The Eye
We Can’t All Be Nice Girls
That’s Why I Appreciate The Arts
Leary
Aiming For The Nose
Oh Fuck
Where Do You Think You’re Going Little Harry
Annie’s Song (John Denver)
A John Denver Story
Justine’s Theme
This Old Guitar (John Denver)

Robert Plant is set to release his eleventh studio album, Carry Fire this October with his band The Sensational Space Shifters. Featuring collaborations with The Pretender’s front woman, Chrissie Hynde on the track ‘Bluebirds Over The Mountain’ and folk sing/songwriter Seth Lakeman, who will also be accompanying Robert on his 15 date UK & Ireland Tour.

The CD packaging is deluxe thick card with a beautiful satin finish and is accompanied with a 12-page booklet featuring lyrics. Lullaby, his last studio album, released in 2014 went straight in at #2 in the UK.

The vinyl packaging is thick card gatefold with a beautiful satin finish and is accompanied with a 4-page booklet featuring lyrics and etching.

TRACK LISTING

1. The May Queen
2. The New World…
3. Season’s Song
4. Dance With You Tonight
5. Carving Up The World Again
6. A Way With Words
7. Carry Fire
8. Bones Of Saints
9. Keep It Hid
10. Bluebirds Over The Mountain
11. Heaven Sent

Ahead of its time, ‘And Don’t The Kids Just Love It’ was Television Personalities’ influential debut album released in 1981 and features ‘I Know Where Syd Barrett Lives’. The legendary lo-fi release sees them produce British inspired 60s pop and post-punk that captured the period and ‘sounds remarkably prescient’ (Pitchfork’s Best 100 albums of the 1980s). With the formidable Daniel Treacy at its core, Television Personalities remain one of new wave’s longest serving and seminal artists with a career spanning over three decades. The indie visionaries directly influenced virtually every major pop uprising of the period including artists as diverse as The Jesus and Mary Chain, Pavement and Creation’s Alan McGee. ‘And Don’t The Kids Just Love It’ is reissued for Record Store Day 2017 on 12” black and white marbled vinyl alongside ‘Mummy Your Not Watching Me’, ‘The Painted Word’ and ‘They Could Have Been Bigger Than The Beatles’. “They provided the inspiration and motivation for me to start the label.” Alan McGee, Creation Records. / “A remarkably influential album that holds up extremely well.” Allmusic. 

TRACK LISTING

A1 This Angry Silence A2 The Glittering Prizes A3 World Of Pauline Lewis A4 A Family Affair A5 Silly Girl A6 Diary Of A Young Man A7 Geoffrey Ingram B1 I Know Where Syd Barrett Lives B2 Jackanory Stories B3 Parties In Chelsea B4 La Grande Illusion B5 A Picture Of Dorian Gray B6 The Crying Room B7 Look Back In Anger

AMC’s hit series ‘Halt And Catch Fire’ captures the rise of the PC-era during the early 80s and the technology revolution. Nominated by Vox as the best show in 2016, it’s “a potent look back at the earliest days of the internet that also glimpsed, through some hazy curtain, the world we live in right now.” Acclaimed for its exceptional soundtrack by former Tangerine Dream musician and award winning composer, Paul Haslinger has created a period-appropriate synth score that admirably sets the mood and tone of the bygone era.

Revisiting his time in the pioneering electronic band during the mid-80s, the Austrian composer writes with a uniquely knowledgeable yet less overtly nostalgic ear that keeps the show’s current audience in mind. Acknowledging the time in which the series itself has been created alongside when the show is set, Haslinger’s bold and innovative scores have seen his Hollywood career escalate over the last two decades. The man behind the music for Blow, Resident Evil and Death Race has become one of the industry’s most sought after composers. 

TRACK LISTING

1 Golden Gate
2 A Wolf In Unix
3 The Scenic Route
4 First Day On The Job
5 It Speaks
6 Reverse Engineering
7 Security Is A Myth
8 The Morning After
9 Rooftop Fireworks
10 I Need A Little Time
11 Western Arrivals
12 The Slingshot
13 10broad36
14 The Way In
15 Run Time
16 Last Nerve
17 Gordon Steals A Cabbage Patch
18 The Cost Of Doing Business
19 Joe's Truth
20 Go Get The Bike
21 The End Of Donna's Day
22 It's Not Right
23 MacMillan Utility 

A Standard LP and CD release will follow later. Now re-issued as a double vinyl package, ‘Vampyr’ is full of “eerie haunted ambience” (©The Guardian), an atmospheric and spaced out 78 minutes that galvanizes Moog, glockenspiel, zither and vibraphonette in a beautiful piece of claustrophobia, a timeless slice of suitably scary sound filled with an unnerving sonic vibe that sticks in the psyche. “The retro leaning Scandi duo fire up their Moogs and mellotrons, sonic archaeologists with a hauntological bent.. there is an alluring sexiness to their avant-Kraut Moog-pop excursions.” 

TRACK LISTING

A1. Vampyr Pt.1
B1. Vampyr Pt.2
C1. Vampyr Pt.3
D1. Vampyr Pt.4
D2. Vampyr Rehearsals

Modern Kosmology sees Jane Weaver's melodic-protagonist channeling new depths of creative cosmic energy within. After the huge critical acclaim of 2012's “Fallen By Watchbird”, followed by 2014's exploratory "Silver Globe" LP winning her unanimous "record of the year accolades" and hefty measures of radio play-listing Jane Weaver's conceptual trajectory has sent her neo-kosmische penchants to the point of no-return. Jane Weaver's unwaning yearning for psychoactive pop energy has just reached a new level of magnetism. As snowclones go, Modern Kosmology is the new Silver. Another Spectrum to add to the tension.

TRACK LISTING

A1 H>A>K
A2 Did You See Butterflies?
A3 Modern Kosmology
A4 Slow Motion
A5 Loops In The Secret Society
B1 The Architect
B2 The Lightning Back
B3 Valley
B4 Ravenspoint
B5 I Wish

'Through the darkness of future past
The magican longs to see
One chance out between two worlds:
Fire walk with me...'

Seeming to emanate directly from the dark heart of the Black Lodge, "Fire Walk With Me" is an altogether more brooding affair than the Twin Peaks series soundtrack. The surreal atmosphere and airbrushed shimmer remain, but the melancholic notes, minor key melodies and sustained bass tones are perfectly in keeping with the unending disquiet and foreboding which David Lynch achieved. Badalamenti won a grammy for the title track of this LP and it’s not hard to see why- it’s dangerous, and bursting with smokey jazz thanks to Jimmy Scott. 

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2017 EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

The Bevis Frond have successfully traversed the ‘traditional’ side of songwriting to produce a prolific and un-comparable body of genuinely beautiful, yet genre baiting songs that are hard to ignore” Louder Than War. Released on 12” purple coloured vinyl for Record Store Day 2017, ‘The Auntie Winnie Album’ will be reissued for Record Store Day alongside ‘Bevis Through The Looking Glass’ and ‘Triptych’ as part of the band’s 30th Anniversary. Initially released in 1988, the companion piece to ‘Bevis Through The Looking Glass’ comprises of unreleased material from the Woronzow archives. The last of his earlier releases that sees the influential multi-instrumentalist Nick Saloman perform solo throughout. A labour of love and fiercely independent, his prolific output has seen as many releases in as many years and an uncompromising vision under his own label Woronzow. Hailed as “a Hendrix devotee every bit as tough and contemporary as the serrated guitar chorales of Sonic Youth and Pixies” by Rolling Stone’s David Fricke, his immense psych-stoner-rock has seen him become a cult figure in his own right. The Bevis Frond’s legion of loyal fans includes Teenage Fanclub, Dinosaur Jr and Mary Lou Lord, who have all covered his music. 

TRACK LISTING

Disc 1 A1 Malvolio's Dream Journey To Pikes A2 Foreign Laugh A3 Down Again A4 Will To Lose A5 Repressor A6 Winter's Blues B1 The Miz-Maze B2 Close B3 Without Mind B4 City Of The Sun C1 Traction C2 Long Day C3 Twice Torn, Once Forgotten C4 Spa Hotel D1 Visions Through Dilated Eyes D2 African Violet D3 Hillview D4 Automatic Bomb Virgins D5 Possession

If you’ve been wondering what’s been keeping Lee Southall busy all this time, you’re about to find out. On Iron In The Fire, the former The Coral guitarist brings the outside world in through quality songmanship – showing that whichever paths our lives may take, our exposure to the elements will remain the same.

Taking an alternative path to each of his Coral cohorts, when the group disbanded in 2012, Lee left behind his native seaside town of Hoylake on the Wirral, and moved 75 miles inland to the ‘tops’ of Hebden Bridge. In search of a fresh start, the dramatic wind-beaten and changeable landscape gave Lee time and space to craft Iron In The Fire but equally, it lingers like the taste of the salty air hanging above the coast. “I’ve lived by the sea and watched weather roll in, but it's the same in Hebden, watching storms roll over the moors,” Lee says. “The place is changing all the time and sometimes looks a bit chocolate box, village of the year, but when the tourists are gone it can feel like the set of a 1970s BBC folk horror - a bit Wicker Man.”

Written in his new hilltop dwellings between spending time with his daughter (‘Spread Your Wings’ and ‘Yesterday Morning’ were inspired by her) Iron In The Fire’s initial demos were home recorded in Lee’s conservatory and the kitchen of good friend John Heron. Emerging from demos where birdsong interrupts the fret-squeaks, the album’s warmth recalls the classically 70s West Coast America sounds of James Taylor and The Byrds, alongside Brit folk outsiders John Martyn, Bert Jansch, and Davey Graham. “Recording in the conservatory was interesting,” Lee recalls. “In some of the demos you can hear the rain battering on the roof. It has a natural quality I love. Some of that is in the album… the sound of fingers on strings. I wanted it to sound human, not too smooth or polished.”

In a sad turn of events, his friend Heron passed away having never heard the final record, but from those initial recordings Iron In The Fire evolved and just like the interchangeable weather of West Yorkshire itself, moves confidently from the beautiful to the mysterious. From the simplistic title-track which introduces a wave of erudite guitar with just a few lines of lyrics, to the heady textures of frenzied ‘In Accordance,’ or ‘Misty Mae’s reference to two worlds, we’re given a full and varied picture of Lee’s musical and personal journey so far.

“When I play the songs live it's fluid; they can and do change. I don't like things too structured. Some are like soundtracks, there's a lot of weird stuff going on around them,” he emphasises. Riding the elements, ‘Under The Weather’ and ‘Above The Storm’ incorporate Lee’s love of films and classic TV series by bringing their own atmospheric tales into the fore whilst ‘Sleep’s pedal steel twang and the cello on ‘Blue Skies’ channels his inner Townes Van Zandt and Gram Parsons.

Self-financed, the album was recorded over just a few days at Manchester’s Airtight studios with Lee’s own league of melody makers; producer Seadna McPhaill, guitarist Ant Davey, and Mark 'Horse' Phillips on pedal steel with Al Lowles from Airtight on mastering duties. However the album is very much the sound of Southall standing alone on his own two feet. “Music's in my blood, it's all I know how to do. The decision to work on my own album felt obvious, natural. Iron In The Fire feels like something I've been waiting for.”

TRACK LISTING

1. Iron In The Fire
2. Misty Mae
3. Shade Of Blue
4. Sleep
5. Under The Weather
6. Blue Skies
7. Nobody Wins
8. Spread Your Wings
9. Yesterday Morning
10. Above The Storm
11. In Accordance

Features Mark Lanegan on vocals on title track.

Christine Owman's music starts from the darkest underground, surfaces the ground into a mesmerizing cloud of mist and continues reaching for the open sky. Empowering, sensual, dark, dreamy and raw all at once.

Wharf Cat Records present the ‘Fire Dance’ 7” by Austin Brown (Parquet Courts), Carson Cox (Merchandise) and Sam York (WALL).

This release features artwork by Wharf Cat founding father Sam Falls.

The ‘Fire Dance’ 7” is producer Carson Cox’s ode to downtown New York City. On ‘Fire Dance’ and ‘Rene’ the three collaborators channel the glitzy sheen of Sam Falls’ shimmering cover artwork on tracks that resonate heat like august concrete in the city.

These tracks are constructed from spliced disco rhythms, modulated synth lines and searing guitars with Sam and Carson’s fevered vocals pulsing from all sides.

Released in 1980, ‘The Art Of Walking’ sees Pere Ubu ‘moving even further from the conventions of rock music - and from their own past - but still moving forward, without a doubt, and losing none of their integrity as a group.’ (Melody Maker, Chris Cutler). The album features in new box set, ‘Architecture Of Language 1979-1982’, released in March. It gathers together ‘New Picnic Time’ with its companion releases, ‘The Art Of Walking’ and ‘Song Of The Bailing Man’ plus LP of extras, ‘Architectural Salvage’. Coed Jail! Live dates mark the release of the box with a set list drawn exclusively from the recordings of 1975-1982. Tom Herman, guitarist from 1975 to 1979 and from 1997 to 2002, rejoins the band for the tour. The line-up is David Thomas, Tom Herman, Robert Wheeler, Michele Temple and Steve Mehlman. Wheeler and Temple have been in Pere Ubu since 1994, Mehlman since 1995. 

TRACK LISTING

01 Go
02 Rhapsody In Pink
03 Arabia 04 Misery Goats
05 Young Miles In The Basement
06 Loop
07 Rounder
08 Birdies
09 Lost In Art
10 Horses
11 Crush This Thorn 

The best act I've ever seen at a festival" Paul Thomson, Franz Ferdinand. Rats On Rafts have joined forces with legendary underground Dutch punk band De Kift - Zaandam punk vs Rotterdam punk! A playful revisioning of each other’s music which began at Metropolis Festival in 2013. The record brings together songs from Rats On Rafts critically acclaimed second album ‘Tape Hiss’ and De Kift’s huge catalogue. The two bands locked themselves up for a month to record a completely analogue album. Together they will play this material live on tour. Instantly recognisable as Rats ‘Last Day On De Zon’ is shot through with brass - enter De Kift. Dark, dub infused ‘Meggy’ sees Rats bringing their explosive and unrelenting rolling crescendos. ‘Sleep Little Links 2 3 4’ is uplifting with the addition of brass whilst folk tinged ‘Dit Schip’ sees them bring further depth to the collaboration. Energetic and raw, the spirit of their festival performances prevails throughout. De Kift have released music for three decades with father Heijne only retiring in 2013, brothers Marco & Ferry Heijne and cousin Pim remain alongside co-founder and drummer Wim. The nine piece brass ensemble have released eleven albums, collaborated in theatre, film and various media projects which has seen them win a number of Dutch awards across film and music. Both formats have unique sleeves made from recycled LP/CD sleeves, with the front and back cover printed and stuck on to the recycled sleeve. The band have assembled and fulfilled each one themselves. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Last Day On De Zon
2. Voorbij
3. Brass Poison Face
4. Dit Schip
5. Powder Monkey
6. Melk En Benzine
7. Moonlight Flit
8. Meggy
9. Swan Song
10. Sleep Little Links 2 3 4 

Gruff Rhys presents the soundtrack to the film Set Fire To The Stars. The album is released on Finders Keepers on September 30th 2016.

Although recorded around the same time as Gruff’s last LP (2014’s hugely acclaimed American Interior), Set Fire To The Stars paints a very different picture to that of the Welsh explorer John Evans. Equal parts cocktail jazz, hazy Americana and Atomic Age bop, it’s a love letter to New York in all its hopeful, post war glory – a gorgeous diversion of a record to add to Gruff’s increasingly brilliant solo catalogue.

Gruff on Set Fire To The Stars:

“This is an album of music written for a film directed by Andy Goddard concerning the poet Dylan Thomas’s first week in the USA in 1950 and his uneven friendship with fellow poet - and agent of sorts - John Malcolm Brinnin. As the film is shot in black and white and set in the Jazz age, I decided not to use any instruments unavailable in that era. I also keep the recordings as live takes. Beyond that - I didn’t try and ape the style of that era in particular apart from the song Atom Bomb which on screen, plays on a jukebox in a cafe and needed to be true to the year sonically and lyrically in some way.
“Playing the guitar, I formed a short lived Agro-Jazz quartet (you got a problem with that?) called Video Loss with Chris Walmsley on drums, Jim Barr on double bass and Osian Gwynedd on piano. I wrote a bunch of songs and instrumentals. Some other bits were improvised to picture by Osian Gwynedd and myself. Chop Shop features Video Loss on max Moon-Ra improvisational setting. Gruff ab Arwel arranged all the strings and Gavin Fitzjohn played and scored the brass. It was recorded and mixed at Toybox, Bristol by the incredible Ali Chant - apart from the strings which were recorded at Metropolis, London.”

Gruff Rhys is currently recording his next proper solo album – it is due for release in 2017

TRACK LISTING

1 John Malcolm Brinnin
2 Set Fire To The Stars
3 After Hours/Panic
4 Tremble (Down)
5 Tremble To The Light
6 Tremble (Up)
7 After Hours/Tension
8 Log Cabin 1
9 Log Cabin 2
10 Log Cabin 3
11 John Adoring At Yale
12 Set Fire To The Strings
13 After Hours/Tender
14 John & The Poem
15 B Chop Shop
16 Atom Bomb
17 After Hours/Contentment
18 Ticking Clock
19 Military Madness
20 Caitlin’s Theme
21 Tremble (Joy)
22 Dylan’s Demons
23 It Was Hot That Summer

The pet project of Texas based programmer John Mark Lapham, - of The Earlies and 4AD band The Late Cord fame - Old Fire joins a world-class roster that includes the likes of Steven Wilson, The Pineapple Thief, Anathema, Nordic Giants and The Anchoress. Taking nearly a decade to make, Songs From The Haunted South has been a labour of love for Lapham.

Born from an album concept for a 4AD project with singer Micah P. Hinson (The Late Cord), the album was originally intended to feature different singers and musicians recording songs that were both covers and originals. After parting ways with Micah, Lapham remained determined to realize his vision for the album and sought voices he considered special or fitted the inspiration.

The first piece of the puzzle fell in to place after meeting the former owner of 4AD, Ivo Watts Russell, who introduced Lapham to singer/songwriter, Tom Rapp - who recorded a string of haunting albums in the late 60s and 70s under the name Pearls Before Swine. The vocals Rapp provided formed the basis of the track Shadows. In the following years, guest vocals were recorded by Sara Lowes (The Earlies), DM Stith, Christopher Barnes (Gem Club), Rebekka Karijord, and Alex Maas (Black Angels).

The project also features a myriad of exceptional musicians including Warren Defever (His Name Is Alive) - Guitar, Thor Harris (Swans) - Drums, Christian Madden - Rhodes piano & Organ and Semay Wu (Cello).

The 13 track album contains a selection of songs that in one way or another are dedications to people, some dead and some still living. Musically, inspirations range from ambient artists such as Brian Eno and Stars of the Lid to Psychedelic Rock, traditional Country and early 4AD.

Sitting alongside the original Old Fire compositions are a selection of intriguing cover versions. Lapham uniquely interprets songs by Psychic TV (The Orchids), Low (Laser Beam), Ian William Craig (A Sight Grip, A Gentle Hold), Jason Molina (It's Easier Now), Camberwell Now (Know How) and Shearwater (Helix).

Songs From The Haunted South' was produced by John Mark Lapham, mixed by JM Lapham and Mark Kuykendall, and was mastered by Ian Hawgood.

The powerful cover art was designed by UK's Grammy Award winning designer Vaughan Oliver, famed for his work with artists such as Mojave 3, Lush, Cocteau Twins, Dead Can Dance, The Breeders, This Mortal Coil, Pixies, Throwing Muses in addition to artists such as David Sylvian and Bush. The cover shot taken in 1958 features Lapham's father during bivouac camping basic training in the foothills of the Ozarks, at Fort Chaffee.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says:

TRACK LISTING

Old Fire 3
Along Came A Sadness
Helix
Know How
It's Easier Now
A Stranger In The Family
Bloodchild
Faust
Shadows
A Slight Grip, A Gentle Hold
Laser Beam
The Orchids
Deadhouse Dream

The first release for the Swedish Psychedelic dream-pop band, their self-titled EP caught the attention of French label ‘Hands In The Dark’. They originally released EP in 2010 on CD an extremely limited edition run of 100 copies. The EP is reissued on blue vinyl to match the cover alongside the ‘From Above’ 7” and their self-titled debut long player.

TRACK LISTING

01 Ghosts In The Machine
02 Godspeed
03 Run Rabbit Run
04 The Colour Of Space
05 Ascend And Descend
06 The Dödens Vaniljsås Theme
07 Between The Circles

Marleen Nilsson and Anders Hansson AKA Death and Vanilla released their first full length self-titled eponymous debut LP in 2012. It radiates sophisticated retro-futuristic psych-pop whilst channeling their passion for hauntology, library, krautrock and radiophonic music. Mastered by Linus Sjölund at RED audio it was initially released on French label ‘Hands In The Dark’ which like their EP sold out on pre-order.

Fire Records now release the album on black/yellow splatter vinyl and CD alongside the ‘From Above’ 7” and their self-titled debut EP. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: Krauty, moog, hushed, library baroque pop that breezes along in a sultry fashion.

TRACK LISTING

01 Rituals
02 Dreams Of Sheep
03 Cul-De-Sac
04 Somnambulists
05 The Unseeing Eye
06 From Elsewhere
07 Library Goblin
08 The Clearing
09 The Unseeing I

Released in 1982, 'Song of the Bailing Man' is an ‘inspired, invigorating, confounding, disturbing... yeah, one hell of a swinging way to go. Still the futility Ubu must have felt making far sighted music in a chronically near-sighted world is pressed hard into these grooves.’ (Melody Maker, David Fricke).

The album features in new LP box set, ‘Architecture Of Language 1979-1982’, released in March. It gathers together ‘New Picnic Time’ with its companion releases, ‘The Art Of Walking’ and ‘Song Of The Bailing Man’ plus LP of extras, ‘Architectural Salvage’. Spring dates mark the release of the box with a set list drawn exclusively from the recordings of 1975-1982. Tom Herman, guitarist from 1975 to 1979 and from 1997 to 2002, rejoins the band for the tour. The line-up is David Thomas, Tom Herman, Robert Wheeler, Michele Temple and Steve Mehlman. Wheeler and Temple have been in Pere Ubu since 1994, Mehlman since 1995. 

TRACK LISTING

01 The Long Walk Home
02 Use Of A Dog
03 Petrified
04 Stormy Weather
05 West Side Story
06 Thoughts That Go By Steam
07 Big Ed’s Used Farms
08 A Day Such As This
09 The Vulgar Boatman Bird
10 My Hat
11 Horns Are A Dilemma

Billie Lindahl, the woman behind the name Promise & The Monster, brings a vivid landscape to life on ‘Feed The Fire’, her first album for Bella Union.

‘Feed The Fire’ was recorded in Stockholm, where Lindahl lives, at Labyrint, a small basement studio run by her friend Love Martinsen who produced the ‘Feed The Fire’ album and shares most of the instrumentation with Lindahl. “We aimed at combining the elegance of old Sixties recordings with something darker and more mechanical,” she recalls. “Like you would play a Lee Hazlewood song on top of Nico’s late Eighties records.”

Duality sits at the core of ‘Feed The Fire’, likewise the name Promise & The Monster. “To feed the fire can be seen as both constructive and destructive,” Lindahl concludes. “You keep the fire burning, the spark alive. But fire can kill you. To see, listen and feel is quite a violent and confusing experience, and I think my lyrics often evolve around that, blurring boundaries between dream and reality, and between sanity and insanity.”

TRACK LISTING

Feed The Fire
Hunter
Time Of The Season
Slow And Quiet
Apartments Song
Julingvallen
Hammering The Nails
The Weight Of It All
Machines
Fine Horseman

Building on the breakthrough of her “Glacial Glow” album, and coming off of tours opening for St. Vincent and The Jesus Lizard (something that only makes equal sense for Noveller), guitarist and filmmaker Sarah Lipstate emerged with what AllMusic called “an incredible and complex statement, and one that clearly stands as a challenge to herself and her audience alike.”

The album. “No Dreams” would continue to elevate her songwriting and soundscaping to new heights, with Pitchfork raving; “Sarah Lipstate creates miniature musical worlds, places that you feel like you’ll never leave as long as the record is playing.” Lipstate, a former member of Parts & Labour and Cold Cave, as well as a collaborator with such luminaries as Lee Renaldo and Jim Thirlwell, along with being a member of both Rhys Chatham’s Guitar Army and Glenn Branca’s 100 Guitar Ensemble, has emerged as one of the most exciting and interesting guitarists of this era. “No Dreams” cements her as a talent on the rise. Originally released as a limited edition on the experimental label Important Records, following the success of her most recent “Fantastic Planet” album, Fire Records is reissuing the album on 180 gram vinyl to a wider audience. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Fighting Sleep
2. Mannahatta
3. No Dreams
4. Purchase
5. Gathering The Elements
6. Rue De Montmorency
7. The Fright
8. Outro 

'Catch A Fire' was the major label debut for Bob Marley and the Wailers, and it was an international success upon its release in 1973. Although Bob Marley may have been the main voice, every member of the Wailers made valuable contributions and they were never more united in their vision and sound. All the songs were originals, and the instrumentation was minimalistic in order to bring out the passionate, often politically charged lyrics. Much of the appeal of the album lies in its sincerity and sense of purpose - these are streetwise yet disarmingly idealistic young men who look around themselves and believe they might help change the world through music. Marley sings about the current state of urban poverty ("Concrete Jungle") and connects the present to past injustices ("Slave Driver"), but he is a not a one-trick pony. He is a versatile songwriter who also excels at singing love songs such as his classic "Stir It Up." Peter Tosh sings the lead vocal on two of his own compositions - his powerful presence and immense talent hint that he would eventually leave for his own successful solo career. More than anything else, however, this marks the emergence of Bob Marley and the international debut of reggae music. Marley would continue to achieve great critical and commercial success during the 1970s, but 'Catch a Fire' is one of the finest reggae albums ever. This album is essential for any music collection.

TRACK LISTING

A1 Concrete Jungle 4:12
A2 Slave Driver 2:53
A3 400 Years 2:45
A4 Stop That Train 3:55
A5 Baby We've Got A Date (Rock It Baby) 3:56
B1 Stir It Up 5:32
B2 Kinky Reggae 3:36
B3 No More Trouble 3:51
B4 Midnight Ravers 5:09

Blank Realm's transformation across the Australian mystic from sprawling spaced out psychotic punk blues, through the startling maverick pop psychedelia of ‘Go Easy’ to the widely acclaimed ‘Grassed Inn’, continues in its unrelenting quest for that quintessential synergy of chiming pop anthems.

Hook-laden throughout they unleash their wild yet tender new album ‘Illegals In Heaven’ which offers up freaked out reflections on life, love and circumstance. As knowing as the Chills or the Pretenders, loner ballads are as gnarled and world weary as Dylan in a cacophony as bruised as Royal Trux yet with the playfulness of Half Japanese.

Recorded and produced with Lawrence English (head of the Room40 label) on a late night at The Plutonium studio in Brisbane, the album sees them on their first foray into a recording studio. While it wasn’t exactly Abbey Road, it truly captures the chaos and majesty of the band’s formidable live shows.
It would be all too easy to say that ‘Illegals In Heaven’ is their finest work to date, but the simple truth is that Blank Realm have been without peers for a trilogy of albums, so it just might be as Sarah huskily intones, "Gold" too.

“Blank Realm are still bent on mixing the diamonds with the rough, and on Grassed Inn that particular swirl is at its most intoxicating.” Pitchfork 8/10

“Balancing the arty with the party to make for a set of danceable, hook-filled songs that bubble and bloom with an almost biological rampancy, shooting out tendrils of strange, snaking melody in every direction like vines enveloping a ruin” Guardian 4*

“A cracking selection of scuzzy, fuzzy psych-rock songs that recall Royal Truax and Sonic Youth” Uncut 8/10

“Blank Realm generate scruffy, VU’s-Sister-Ray-loving grooves, coloured up with blooping synths, and yowling, way-off vocals” Mojo 4* 

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: Catchy but cool as you like jangle'n'fuzz psych pop/rock from down-under. A big hit on the shop stereo.

TRACK LISTING

1. No Views On It
2. River Of Longing
3. Cruel Night
4. Costume Drama
5. Dream Date
6. Flowers In Mind
7. Gold
8. Palace Of Love
9. Too Late Now

Bringing together both of Josephine Foster and the Victor Herrero Band’s Spanish albums in one place, with a previously unreleased track. Anda Jaleo was originally released in 2010. Federico Garcia Lorca's popular folk song collection "Las Canciones Populares Espanolas" was banned under Franco's dictatorship and today the music survives but marginally within the Spanish sub-conscious.

Taking their cue from Lorca and La Argentinita's infectious 1931 recording of the songs, Josephine Foster and her partner Spanish musician Victor Herrero arranged the poetically rich collection for their acoustic band, formed while living in the Grenadine Sierra. Anda Jaleo is the band's live recording of "Las Canciones"; a visceral celebration of the persistence of popular anonymous song.

This new edition includes an additional track not featured on the original release, an interpretation of ‘Sones de Asturias’. La colección de "Canciones Populares Españolas" recopiladas y armonizadas por Federico García Lorca fue censurada en tiempos de Franco, y hoy en día la música sobrevive aunque de una manera vaga en el subconsciente del pueblo español. Inspirados por la contagiosa grabación de las canciones de Lorca y La Argentinita de 1931, Josephine Foster y su compañero el músico español Víctor Herrero han arreglado esta poética y rica colección para su banda acústica , formada mientras vivían en la sierra de Granada. Anda Jaleo es la grabación en directo de su versión de "Las Canciones"; una celebración visceral de la canción popular anónima y su persistencia. Following from Anda Jaleo, Josephine Foster and the Victor Herrero Band created a superb follow-up entitled Perlas (Pearls). It is a jewel of a collection, with songs and poems selected by Josephine herself, gathered from dusty old scores and brought vividly to the present with warm performances full of flesh-and-blood emotion. Made with a variety of stringed instruments and simple percussion, the songs were recorded live in the studio on to analogue tape by Paco Loco in Puerto de Santa Maria, Spain. Foster breathes new life into timeless traditional melodies, drawing from the Spanish-folk traditions of Castile, the Basque, Santander and the Costa Brava.

TRACK LISTING

Anda Jaleo:
1. Los Cuatro Muleros
2. Los Pelegrinitos
3. Las Morillas De Jaen
4. Anda Jaleo
5. Las Tres Hojas
6. Los Mozos De Monleón
7. Sevillanas Del Siglo XVIII
8. Los Reyes De La Baraja
9. El Cafe De Chinitas
10. Zorongo
11. Nana De Sevilla
12. Sones De Asturia……

Perlas :
1. Puerto De Santa Maria
2. Sangre Colorada
3. Cuando Vienes Del Monto
4. Cuatro Pinos
5. Peregrino
6. Dame Esa Flor
7. En Esta Larga Ausencia
8. Abenámar
9. Perlas
10. Brillante Estrella

POW! is re-chromed and ready to soundtrack your dystopian near future. Harsh neon synths battle with zipline guitars for space above a dark and teeming cityscape. Your guide is always in the shadows, you can’t make out his face but you hear his crazed diatribe as he wards off all affronts. Razor-sharp punk at its core, Fight Fire is fleshed out with inventive and catchy synth work—and the floating bits of atmospheric expansion between tracks only heighten the paranoid atmosphere. These tunes have a sci-fi depth, a moody bite, and a startling clarity sharpened to a point by the wizard hand of Chris Woodhouse, who helmed the magnetization. Recommended listening for future-punk teens and grown adults alike.

Formed in the mid-70s, and setting the standard for post-punk ever since, Jad and David Fair and Half Japanese return with a new volume that finds us twenty years into their story. The 90s would see them under a new spotlight as Kurt Cobain used his celebrity to tell anyone that would listen about their greatness, and had the band tour with Nirvana. They would respond with three of the most wild and varied albums in their career.

Continuing their Fire deluxe reissues of the entire Half Japanese catalogue, Volume Three: 1990-1995 is the third of four volumes containing three LPs/CDs. This next set of Half Japanese LPs begins with 1990’s explosively, noisy and chaotic (sometimes improvised) ‘We Are They Who Ache With Amorous Love’ featuring their cover of the Them garage rock classic “Gloria” and two tracks “Titanic" and "Hand Without a Body” that were co-written with the like-minded Daniel Johnston. Two years later the notably more delicate and, dare we say, jangly, ‘Fire In The Sky’ (1992) arrived at a pivotal time for the group when they gained notable recognition from the likes of Sonic Youth, Nirvana, Teenage Fanclub and Yo La Tengo (whose Ira Kaplan guests on the record).

This highly anticipated third installation closes the trio with 1995’s ‘Hot’ which became MTVs album of the week on release, with Michael Goldbery writing “Hot, mixes Sonic Youth-style noise, Stooges primitivism and ’60s pop with excellent results. “Lucky Ones” is a simply charming number (“A good thing just got better/ As better as better can be”) reminiscent of Jonathan Richman, while “Drum Straight” is dose of feedback drenched skonk and “Vampire” rocks hard liken the Sonic’s “Bull In The Heather.” Fire’s colossal Half Japanese series began last year with the Record Store Day exclusive of ‘Half Gentleman/Not Beasts’, this set contains the records in their original form with extras that later appeared on CD formats available. It will also include original artwork from Jad Fair and liner notes by Half Japanese hall of famer Mark David Jickling. “Cutting straight to the gut. Jad’s phrasing matches surging sentiments, creating a counterpoint to the spot-on music. When they grind out a groove half-rhythmic/half-blank cadences, the woozy disconnect is oddly compelling” Pitchfork’s Best New Reissue (Volume 2: 1987-1989)

“An impressive and well-assembled study of one of this band's more interesting periods” - All Music.

“This should also lay to rest any questions about the importance of Half Japanese. Without them, we wouldn’t have the primitive pop of Beat Happening nor the id-bearing beauty of Daniel Johnston” - Paste Magazine. 

TRACK LISTING

We Are They Who Ache With Amorous Love:
1 "Every Hour "
2 "Elevator Boy"
3 "Gloria"
4 "Ear "
5 "The Titanic"
6 "Our Eyes"
7 "Spin "
8 "Up And Down"
9 "Run "
10 "All Of Me"
11 "Hand Without A Body"
12 "Going Home"
13 "Three Rings"
14 "How Did You Know? "
15 "Then We Walk"
16 "Secret "
17 "Best "
18 "The House I Live In"
19 "Shanty Town"
20 "Everything Is Right "

Fire In The Sky:
1 "UFO Expert"
2 "Tears Stupid Tears"
3 "Always "
4 "This Could Be The Night"
5 "Possum Head"
6 "Frosty"
7 "Turn Your Life Around"
8 "I Love A Mystery"
9 "12 Houses"
10 "Hangar 18"
11 "Magic Kingdom"
12 "It's No Wonder"
13 "Fire In The Sky"
14 "Good Luck"
15 "Gates Of Glory"
16 "Everyone Knows"
17 "I Heard Her Call My Name"
18 "Eye Of The Hurricane"
19 "It's A Clear Night"

Hot:
1 "Drum Straight"
2 "True Believers"
3 "Well"
4 "Dark Night"
5 "Part Of My Plan"
6 "Vampire"
7 "Lucky Ones"
8 "Vast Continent"
9 "Guess Again"
10 "Black Fruit"
11 "Sleep Talk"
12 "Smile"
13 "Lucky Town"

Fire Records are delighted to announce the addition of Sterling Roswell to the fold. The former Spacemen 3 drummer and multi-instrumentalist self-released and sold out of a limited run of 300 copies of the album earlier in the year to great acclaim, including a rave review in Mojo (as well as a pick by Andrew Weatherall in the same magazine) and it was album of the month in Rough Trade Shops who described the album like this: "Lavishing in pop structures but drawing in myriad influences to the wondrous black hole, The Call Of The Cosmos features some shimmering spaciousness but also sleazy exotica-themes, not unlike a Lee Hazelwood production infected with Joe Meek's ghost.

Roswell's own songwriting and voice recalls a solar-fried Bobby Gillespie, an artist he no doubt originally influenced with the Spacemen 3. Elsewhere, there's truly psychedelic excursions into outsiderdom which come off like The Seeds mutating ever larger into lysergic-dipped monsters." Any attempt to categorize Sterling Roswell, runs the risk of misrepresenting a true radical. Artist, musician, poet and producer, Roswell is all of these and more and over the years he has embraced a myriad of artistic forms to great effect. For the live shows he will be joined by the band The Psychedelic SRB featuring a rotating collective of musicians including the fantastic George Frakes (lead guitar), Syd Kemp (bass) and Tucker Nelson (drums). They not only bring the album The Call Of The Cosmos to the live stage but in the midst have created their own unique space age sound.

Live appearances, both solo and with The Psychedelic SRB, always hold audiences spellbound and is THE act to see in this new age of psychedelia. The Call of the Cosmos features the singles 'Interplanetary Spaceliner','Give Peace Another Chance' and 'a remix of The Girl From Orbit', cementing the elements which have infused Sterling's work since his days with Spacemen 3, his multi instrumental driving force behind The Darkside and his innovative psychedelic soundscapes as a studio engineer and producer. The album stands testament to a new message for Interplanetary Peace and features a truly fitting tribute to the late, great front man of THE SEED, Sky Sunlight Saxon with a cover of the song 'Tripmaker', which was originally featured in the Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda movie The Trip in 1968. "Baudelaire once wrote, 'music excavates heaven'. Listen to this record and you might just have to agree." Andrew Weatherall / Mojo

TRACK LISTING

1. Interplanetary Spaceliner
2. Give Peace Another Chance
3. The Girl From Orbit In Dub
4. Asteroid No. B – 612
5. Island Of Ether
6. Tripmaker
7. Outskirts Of Infinity
8. Counter Clock World
9. Time Is Of The Essence

Robert Pollard, head lunatic of the Guided By Voices' asylum, has a surfeit of original thoughts. (Most people are lucky to have even one, ever). That this even needs to be expressed is evidence enough for its "truth," as only obvious or obviously untrue things can ever hope to be true. Or to approach the truth. Something Pollard does with uncanny regularity, and which is further on display on every track on the gloriously unkempt, roiling-with-ideas More Lies From The Gooseberry Bush, the second record Pollard has released under the nom-de-rock Teenage Guitar.

Here's a song title: "Matthew's Ticker and Shaft a. come to breakfast b. the girl's c. division of swans d. when death has a nice ring." It starts with distorted guitar over a primitive snare-and-bass-drum beat (all instruments on all songs played by Pollard), shifts into an out-of-tune piano clumping along a simple seven-chord progression, lurches into a wall of distorted guitar as two tracks of Pollard wail wide-panned in each speaker, before finally resolving in a pretty harpsichord (or some synthesized version thereof) figure inelegantly trips over itself before trailing off into the next track: "The Instant American," which presents a multi-tracked Pollard vocals chanting over a background of what sounds like a bunch of people at a party drinking. These are not the two strangest tracks on the fifteen-song album, which clocks in at just over thirty minutes.

If there are times when Pollard's musical ambition seems to overwhelm his ability to present his ideas coherently, that's a feature, not a bug. The spazzy machine-generated beat of "A Guaranteed Ratio," the ham-handed church organ of "Good Mary's House," the off-key crooning, the awkwardly plucked possible-banjo on "All You Fought For" the general (but not always) sloppiness, the rumbling toms and slashing power chording of "New Light": it's all of a piece, and that piece adds up to a sense of urgency and what sounds an awful lot like unconstrained joy suffusing every single track on More Lies From The Gooseberry Bush. For those who like their Pollard stately, tuneful, and elegiac – sure, he can do that without effort, but that's not what Teenage Guitar is about. Teenage Guitar is about trying hard without seeming to try hard.

The result is that rare thing: a completely original album. Which is also a true delight, a sky-blue gem, a timeless and untimely cabinet of wonder. And by some few miles the greatest musical artifact your ears will have the pleasure of encountering this year.

TRACK LISTING

CD DISC 1 & LP – More Lies From The Gooseberry Bush:

1. Go Around (The Apartment Dwellers)
2. Spliced At Acme Fair
3. A Guaranteed Ratio
4. Good Mary's House
5. Skin Ride
6. Full Glass Gone
7. All You Fought For
8. Gear OP
9. No Escape
10. Matthew's Ticker And Shaft
       A. Come To Breakfast
       B. The Girls Arrive
       C. Division Of Swans
       D. When Death Has A Nice Ring
11. The Instant American
12. Normalized
13. New Light
14. Birthplace Of The Electric Starter
15. A Year That Could Have Been Worse

DISC 2 – Force Fields At Home:
1. Court Of Lions
2. Come See The Super Moon
3. Current Pressings Colors And Styles
4. Still Down Stairs
5. 8 Bars Of Meaningless Mathilda
6. Harvest Whale
7. Strangers For A Better Society
8. It Takes A Great Promise
9. It Doesn't Mean I'm Underground
10. Baby Apple
11. Peter Pan Can
12. Alice And Eddie (Fabulous Child Actors)
13. Alfred Never
14. Gymnasium Politics
15. Atlantic Cod
16. Suburban Cycle Saccharine
17. Postcard To Pinky
18. Let Me

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2014 EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

180 gram LP (part of a trilogy – complete on RSD 2015). Bardo Pond follow up last year’s RSD release ‘Rise Above It All’ with the second of a trilogy of RSD exclusive releases. Continuing their exploration and interpretation of existing tracks, this time they turn their attention to ‘Ride Into The Sun’ by the Velvet Underground and ‘Here Come The Warm Jets’ by Brian Eno. The results are astounding and in the case of ‘Here Come The Warm Jets’ wonderfully surprising, with Isobel’s voice embellishing a rendition of startling Bardo pop. Loosely formed in 1989 by guitar wielding art student siblings, Michael and John Gibbons, Bardo Pond became a reality in 1991 with the addition of vocalist and flautist, Isobel Sollenberger, bassist, Clint Takeda and drummer, Joe Culver (replaced in 1999 by trainee librarian, Ed Farnsworth). Bardo Pond are the flagship band of Philly's "Psychedelphia" space rock movement, which also included the likes of Aspera, Asteroid No. 4, the Azusa Plane, and tangentially the Lilys. They favour lengthy, deliberate sound explorations filled with all the hallmarks of modern-day space rock: droning guitars, thick distortion, feedback, reverb, and washes of white noise.

TRACK LISTING

1. Ride Into The Sun (The Velvet Underground)
2. Here Come The Warm Jets (Brian Eno)

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2014 EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

In early 2007, David Lynch was the subject of a retrospective art exhibition at Paris' Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain. Evocatively titled The Air is on Fire, it was notable for being the first major comprehensive exhibition of the avant-garde director's paintings, photographs and drawings. It wasn't strictly a visual affair; throughout the entire gallery's two floors and four rooms, a pervasive, interactive soundscape escorted viewers through the work. That soundscape, which shares the name of the exhibition, was composed by Lynch and his collaborator, Dean Hurley, and it's being issued for the first time on vinyl by Sacred Bones Records as a special Record Store Day release.

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2014 EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

The complete collection from Australian band The Moles. The work of songwriter Richard Davies, who moved to the States and went on to join Eric Matthews in Cardinal, the story of the Moles is told through the release of ‘Untune the Sky’ and ‘Instinct’, which is now reissued on vinyl and CD along with a comprehensive CD containing bonus material from various EPs and singles including, the ‘Tendrils And Paracetamol’ EP, ‘The Moles EP’ and the ‘Propeller’ 7inch single, which brings the track “Propeller” to digital format for the first time, and finally ‘Odds and Ends’. Formed in Sydney in the late '80s, The Moles debuted in 1990 with the EP ‘Untune the Sky’, followed a year later by another EP, ‘Tendrils and Paracetamol’. After the 1992 release of their first full-length release -- also titled ‘Untune the Sky’ -- the group relocated to New York, where they released a pair of seven-inch singles (packaged together as the Double Single EP). A move to London followed, and although they garnered great acclaim from the British press, the band nonetheless broke up around the beginning of 1993. In 1994, however, Davies resurrected The Moles again for the album Instinct; a band effort in name only, it essentially marked the beginning of Davies' solo career, although he did not make his formal bow until 1996's ‘There's Never Been a Crowd Like This’.

TRACK LISTING

Vinyl :
Untune The Sky :
Side A
1. Wires
2. Accidental Saint
3. Rich Man
4. Curdle
Side B
1. Surf’s Up
2. Europe By Car
3. Bury Me Happy
4. Nailing Jesus To The Cross…

Instinct :
Side A
1. Minor Royal March
2. Eros Lunch
3. Already In Black
4. Instinct
5. Cars For Kings Cross
Side B
1. Cassie Peek
2. Raymond, Did You See The Red Queen?
3. Treble Metal
4. The Crasher…

CD Track Listing
DISC ONE
1. Wires
2. Accidental Saint
3. Rich Man
4. Curdle
5. Surf’s Up
6. Europe By Car
7. Bury Me Happy
8. Nailing Jesus To The Cross
9. Minor Royal March
10. Eros Lunch
11. Already In Black
12. Instinct
13. Cars For Kings Cross
14. Cassie Peek
15. Raymond, Did You See The Red Queen?
16. Treble Metal
17. The Crasher…

DISC TWO
Tendrils And Paracetamol EP :
18. Tendrils And Paracetamol
19. This Is A Happy Garden
20. Breathe Me In
21. Lonely Hearts Get What They Deserve.
The Moles EP:
22. What’s The New Mary Jane
23. Going Down
24. Saint Jack
25. Let’s Hook Up And Get Some.
Propellor 7”:
26. Propellor
27. With Body Wifes Seven Days. Odds And Ends :
28. The Crown Souls
29. Rebecca
30. Rich Man (original Mix)
31. Drink Talking
32. Bury Me Happy (early Version)
33. Flex
34. We Need An Electric Guitar
35. Mystery Song

The music of Scraps is a unique cosmic universe of emotions, thoughts and bedroom sound. Utilising a minimalist set up of drum machine, keyboard and synth mixed with a life time obsession of the electronic pop music of yesteryear allow Laura Hill's ideas to come alive. These are not cute brainless love songs however. Although love is an inspiration in a lot of the songs, the lyrics and themes mostly deal with the darker painful side of that irrational emotion. Depth comes in the way Hill can effortlessly blend the banal drudgery of everyday living with the abstract and surreal. Meditations on the sadness of a fleeting human existence, strange attractions to machines and the technical world, to the ever present escapist allure of outer space and the dream world. All this set to some of the finest and (I dare say) catchy pop music this side of the 21st century.

Scraps is a distinctly unique artist borne directly out of her environment. Scraps has not gained her small but incredibly loyal and growing cult following through media saturation, blog hype, or a money backed promotional whirlwind. It has been acquired through the independent and uncompromising nature of her spirit, the authentic DIY quality of the music, and her honest approach to songwriting and performing. Strong releases on hometown Brisbane record labels Bedroom Suck and Disembraining Machine have complimented an already dense discography of hand made, self released material. Scraps has performed relentlessly all over Australia and abroad to a wide variety of people alongside an even wider variety of bands and artists. From drunken suburban house parties, inner city generator squat shows, art galleries, cafes and bookstores, museums, drug fuelled nightclubs, rural raves, reputable and disreputable pubs, to some of the biggest venues in town as international support. The fact that Scraps can effortlessly transcend these often starkly contrasting spaces is a testament to the quality of her abilities as a songwriter and performer.

Electric Oceans is a culmination of years spent lost in the independent music wilderness. Experience has been gained through Hill continuously pushing herself as a musician, artist and human. Scraps is not your typically modern spoilt rich kid flash-in-a-pan solo synth songsmith. Tough battles have been fought and either won or lost, both personally and creatively - the results of which are more than evident on this record.

TRACK LISTING

1. Mushroom Gods
2. Lonely Motorbike
3. Saphire Plaza
4. Electric Ocean
5. Asleep
6. Projections
7. Flying
8. Holiday
9. Gone

Many of the superlatives describing Angel Olsen refer to how seemingly little it takes for her to leave an audience speechless, even spellbound. But Olsen has never been as timid as those descriptors imply, and the noisy, fiery hints in her earlier work find a fuller expression on her newest LP, Burn Your Fire for No Witness. Here, Olsen sings with full-throated exultation, admonition, and bold, expressive melody. Also, with the help of producer John Congleton, her music now crackles with a churning, rumbling low end and a brighter energy.

Angel Olsen began singing as a young girl in St. Louis, where she explored the remarkable range of her voice and the places it could take her songwriting. Her self-released debut EP, Strange Cacti, belied both that early period of discovery and her Midwestern roots. Cautious and homespun on the one hand, the EP transported us to a mystical, unrecognizable world on the other, and it garnered extensive praise for its enigmatic beauty. Olsen then went further on Half Way Home, her first full-length album (released on Bathetic Records), which mined essential themes while showcasing a more developed voice. Olsen dared to be more personal.

After extensive touring, Olsen eventually settled for a time in Chicago's Logan Square neighborhood, where she created "a collection of songs grown in a year of heartbreak, travel, and transformation." The new songs go on to tell us to leave, or to high-five a lover who is lacking, or to dance our way up and out of sorrow. Many of them also remain essentially unchanged from their bare beginnings. In leaving them so intact, a more self-assured Olsen is opening up to us, allowing us to be in the room with her at the very genesis of these songs, when the thread of creation is most vulnerable and least filtered. Our reward for entering this room are many head-turning moments and the powerful, unsettling recognition of ourselves in the weave of her songs.

This act of meaning-making recurs as a theme throughout the album, as the sublimating response to the power of negativity. In the song, "Stars", for example, Olsen wishes to "have the voice of everything" and in a moment of hatefulness and hurt realizes that the strength of fury results in the power she had been seeking all along. Thankfully for us, Olsen has decided to channel a lot of this newfound power into the ethereal, hypnotic performances of her new and revealing songs, sharing with us the full grace and beauty of her transformative moments.

TRACK LISTING

1. Unfucktheworld
2. Forgiven/Forgotten
3. Hi-Five
4. White Fire
5. High & Wild
6. Lights Out
7. Stars
8. Iota
9. Dance Slow Decades
10. Enemy
11. Windows

The first thing you might notice about Hospitality's second album Trouble is what you don't hear. The process of completing Trouble was, for the band, one of learning to accept silence, to let that empty space exist no matter what it might awaken or evoke. You could catch glimpses of these dark and unexplored places in the margins of Hospitality's 2012 self-titled debut, but they are at the very heart of Trouble. If you listen closely, you can hear a band pushing against their own boundaries and limitations until they find the very air around them subtly but perceptibly changed. The trio of Amber Papini (guitar, vocals), Brian Betancourt (bass), and Nathan Michel (drums) approach Trouble with the force and unity of a well-rehearsed touring rock band. They supplement their performances with strategically placed strings, synthesizers, and drum machines. But silence is an inescapable force on Trouble, an invisible fourth player that draws you into the unexplored corners of familiar sounds: the full, ghostly decay of a reverb tail, the round pluck of a bass string, the exact syllables where a doubled vocal line diverges. In its lyrics and its musical construction, Trouble is an album that wonders about the mysteries that lurk just beyond our field of vision. Slyly and sympathetically, Papini ponders a Saturday afternoon fishing trip as a wrenching interplay of life and death, the perfect blue sky at an air show as a setting for a soured romance.

Papini elaborates: "Most of the songs are about everyday environments that arouse anxiety or unease. The ocean isn't meant for people; we aren't supposed to be there, and some of the animals that live there are much bigger and faster than we are in the water. I think a lot of the songs deal with this 'out of place' kind of theme, feelings of unease and the questions of what is under you or what surrounds you." Trouble creates a space where conflicting sentiments and experiences are given room to coexist, where small and seemingly mundane observations pose big questions that hang in the air, unanswered and unanswerable. With a title referencing the artist's endless struggle in the battle between creativity and outside forces, Trouble also explores the universal themes of loss, love, and loneliness with Papini's trademark wit. Lines like "And if I'm lost and low / And need you / I'll disconnect the line" from "Inauguration" somehow make the ultimate kiss-off seem charming, while nature makes clear the loneliness felt when leaving someone you love behind in these lines from "I Miss Your Bones": "And all the stars will / Twinkle in the midst of a sea / Of black and lonely /An everlasting loss lack abyss." It's fitting that the album was hashed out in band practices that blurred the boundaries between work and leisure, darkness and light, creative collaboration and friendship.

Foregoing the usual night-time hours kept by musicians, the band chose to work on these songs during daily morning rehearsals that proved in many ways more demanding than characteristically relaxed night-time gatherings. Through these sessions, the band sought to take their music as far as they possibly could as a three-piece, to make sure that every small gesture fell into place and played a vital role in constructing the shape and feel of the songs. The band carried this daylight-infused clearheadedness with them into the studio with chief arranger Nathan Michel and engineer Matt Boynton acting as co-producers. Nathan describes the process: "We really wanted to avoid the ornamental, but I always like to add more sounds. Matt was helpful in keeping the arrangements as simple and direct as possible. We all wanted the record to have a warm and open sound." When put to tape, some of the songs for Trouble worked better than expected as fierce and focused trio performances, while others called for more substantial re-imaginings. "I Miss Your Bones" emerged almost entirely from a live performance, while "Inauguration" found the band ripping apart their live arrangement and reconstructing the song with drum machines and synthesizers. The album unfolds like a walk on the beach or a journey to a place you didn't know you were going. Perhaps a darker sound overall, but Trouble begins with the trademark Hospitality pop then unfurls to reward the listener with the more expansive stripped-down instrumentation of side B. And here, again, is that distinctively present silence, creating a space where an undulating synthesizer feels as alive and mysterious as a single voice in a room.

TRACK LISTING

1. Nightingale
2. Going Out
3. I Miss Your Bones
4. Inauguration
5. Rockets And Jets
6. Sullivan
7. It's Not Serious
8. Last Words
9. Sunship
10. Call Me After

Body Parts mobilizes a singularly elegant experimental pop idiom to explore the contours of modern devotion and doctrines of self-improvement alongside the immoderate reverberations of remembrance. Fire Dream delivers a delightful mix of brightly ominous and sensitively textured, biomechanical dance tracks and more earthly, emotive ballads. Trying to resist the tidal pull of Fire Dream's peculiarly beautiful world would be like trying to beat fate. Weaving together influences as varied as the rationalist prescriptions of the self-made seeker-healer- Scientology mastermind L. Ron Hubbard, the sensual guitar-scapes of Prince, and the haunting vocals and surrealist melodrama of Kate Bush, Ryder Bach and Alina Cutrono form the group’s core.

TRACK LISTING

1. Desperation
2. Past Is Coming
3. Be A God
4. Interlude A
5. Unavoidable Things
6. Helpless Child
7. People
8. Interlude B
9. You Inside My Head
10. Reprise, Prelude
11. Wash Over Me

Sleep Dreamt a Brother is the new album from musician and artist Mathew Sawyer, due for release on Fire Records in October. Mournful, lush arrangements that sound almost medieval at times with stark strings, classical guitar and piano overlaid by Sawyer's bare, distinctive vocals and creepy foley sound effects. The record is a place. Not the representation of a place, but something inhabitable. With a clearer vision than his other records, the album is very notably about death. Sawyer wrote and recorded the majority of the album following the loss of three friends a few months apart in 2011 and completed it two weeks before his son was born. As Mathew explains: "When I talk about death or loss I want it to be the feeling itself, not just a representation of that feeling."

Mathew Sawyer is a renowned painter and artist and has a Masters from The Royal College of Art. He has exhibited all over the world (he was The Guardian's artist of the Week and his exhibition at the Rokeby Gallery was previewed in Time Out). He created a painting as cover art for Sleep Dreamt a Brother, which features a man raising his arms with death mirroring this action. They're a reflection of each other. They're brothers. In Greek mythology, Hypnos and Thanatos are brothers. They are Sleep and Death. The title Sleep Dreamt A Brother imagines Sleep dreaming his brother into being. The record views life and death as just a memory or a dream of the other, and tries to reconcile the gap between them. It considers the dream world to be just as valid an experience as the waking world, and that death is like a dream we'll have. Mathew says; "When I die, I'd like to die in the night time as dreaming in sleep is not of this world anyway. Lost in a dream is nothing to be afraid of." The album was recorded and produced by Sawyer at his home. "I like recording to be hand in hand with everyday living. The sound of cars come through the windows, the phone rings, floorboards creak. These sounds all played an important role in making this record. Studios are quiet and lifeless." Although this record is under his own name, previously he has gone by the name of Mathew Sawyer and The Ghosts, and before that just The Ghosts.

TRACK LISTING

1. New Bird To Be
2. Feeeeling
3. Don't Tell The Others What We Were Singing
4. The Forgetting Head
5. October All The Time
6. Sleep Dreamt A Brother
7. Death Is Like A Dream We'll Have
8. Another World
9. The Golden Heart
10. How To Work

Fire Records will be reissuing the first 3 albums by the Lemonheads, Hate Your Friends (1987), Creator (1988) and Lick (1989), featuring copious bonus tracks and many never-before released rarities and live recordings. Together, these seminal albums showcase the band's early punk rock roots and trace the Lemonheads’ transformation towards becoming one of the most successful and influential bands in indie rock. Before the 90s. Before the internet. Before Nevermind. Back when something called “independent music” first began reaching a wider audience, through college radio, word-of-mouth, and that small “underground” record store you seem to find in every town…there was a band from Boston called Lemonheads.

High school friends Ben Deily and Evan Dando, Lemonheads’ primary songwriters, co-guitarists and co-vocalists, first recorded together on 4-track cassette in the spring of 1985; by the end of the decade they—together with bass player Jesse Peretz, sometimes-guitarist Corey Brennan, and successive drummers Doug Trachten and John P. Strohm—had created a body of recordings which would see them on MTV’s fledgling “120 Minutes,” beating out the Grateful Dead on college radio charts, and entering the consciousness of a generation of music fans. Cited as influences by artists as varied as Billie Joe Armstrong and Ryan Adams, these fledgling Lemonheads recordings—part rock, part pop, part unique hybrid of the 80s punk styles beloved by the band members—mark the start of the trajectory that would eventually lead to “mainstream” success and stardom for a later version of the band. But they also represent a distinct, never-repeated phase of the band’s history: one that is finally receiving the attention it deserves.

Lick is the third full-length album by the Lemonheads, and the last to feature founding member Ben Deily. It was the group's last independent label-released album before signing to major label Atlantic. An odd mixture of brand-new, and considerably older, sounds, 1989’s Lick brings together the output of several distinct recording sources: six brand new songs recorded with Minneapolis-based band friend and producer Terry Katzman, and a collection of older, B-side and never-released material originally overseen by producer and engineer Tom Hamilton. The difficulties of writing and creating a new full-length album every year (Hate Your Friends and Creator were released in 1987 and 1988, respectively) are clearly in evidence on Lick. While the newest material (“Mallo Cup,” “A Circle of One,” “7 Powers,” “Anyway”) hints at promising new song writing directions for both Deily and Dando, there’s an almost valedictory sense of the past in the inclusion of versions of “Glad I Don’t Know” and “I Am a Rabbit” (from the band’s first-ever, self-released EP), and the now-classic track “Ever,” a previously-unreleased tune from the original 1986 Hate Your Friends sessions.

At moments, Lick almost sounds like an elegy for itself—or an elegy for a band that has reached the end of the beginning. Also audible in the heterogeneous songs are the tensions of line-up changes—and inchoate, growing frustrations. After various band break-ups or threatened break ups (such as Dando’s brief departure to play bass for Boston band the Blake Babies), the Lemonheads convened to record new material for Lick now featured Dando on drums, Peretz on bass, Deily on guitar (and “piano,” according to the album credits) along with the addition of long-time band friend—and former member of TAANG! labelmates Bullet LaVolta—Corey Loog Brennan on lead guitar. And yet the frenzied, quasi-ironic hammer-ons of Corey’s axe provide some of Lick’s most entertaining moments—like the unaccountably-translated-into-Italian paen to 70s detective Ironside, “Cazzo Di Ferro.” (The song’s music was originally composed by Brennan for his Italian punk band, Superfetazione.) After the album’s completion, Deily opted out of the subsequent European tour, before leaving the band permanently. Jesse Peretz stayed on to record their Atlantic records debut Lovey, but left after the supporting tour in '91. Since then, Dando has been the Lemonheads' sole permanent member.

BONUS TRACKS: Features bonus tracks including several never-before-released live tracks from a 1987 radio session, live tracks and an interview from the 1989 European tour, and the 4 tracks of the Lemonheads self-released debut EP, Laughing all the way to the cleaners.

TRACK LISTING

1. Mallo Cup
2. Glad I Don't Know
3. 7 Powers
4. A Circle Of One
5. Cazzo Di Ferro
6. Anyway
7. Luka
8. Come Back D.A.
9. I Am A Rabbit
10. Sad Girl
11. Ever
12. Strange
13. Mad
14. Sad Girl (1987, Live On WERS)
15. Nothing True / Glad I Don't Know (1987, Live On WERS)
16. Luka (Live On VPRO 1989)
17. Interview With Lemonheads (Holland 1989)
18. Mallo Cup (Live On VPRO 1989)
19. Glad I Don't Know (Original EP Version)
20. I Like To (Original EP Version)
21. I Am A Rabbit (Original EP Version)
22. So I Fucked Up (Original EP Version)

Creator is the second album by legendary Boston band The Lemonheads. Still featuring the full original line-up of Evan Dando, Ben Deily, and Jesse Peretz, the album also includes John P. Strohm (of the Blake Babies, Antenna, and Velo-Deluxe) on drums. From the oddly surreal album cover image (a snapshot of friend and high school classmate Ivan Kreilkamp, originator of the name “Lemonheads,” clutching a box of Cheerios) to the themes of death, dreams, obsession, and mayhem that haunt the material, Creator is weird, ambitious, and markedly moodier than its predecessor—without having lost the band’s irreverent sense of humour. Also evident in this sophomore effort is a newfound attention to idiosyncratic detail—from the precisely timed inter-song pauses and sound clips, to the carefully-crafted song order of the album’s original 13 tracks.

Creator finds Ben Deily once again slipping in quotations from Emily Dickinson (“Burying Ground”) and references to Matthew Arnold (“Come to the Window”), while Dando breaks new ground in song writing complexity (the rich sonic tapestry of “Out”) as well as arrangement, ushering in the band’s first-ever acoustic recording (his cover of Charles Manson’s “Your Home Is Where You’re Happy”). At the same time, the band still fires off blistering punk rock (“Clang Bang Clang,” “Die Right Now,” “Take Her Down”) and finds time to lovingly trash Kiss’ 1977 classic “Plaster Caster.” Recorded in one coherent series of sessions—unlike its predecessor, Hate Your Friends, and its follow-up Lick—Creator is, for all its musical schizophrenia, arguably the most coherent of the Lemonheads’ TAANG-era recordings.

BONUS TRACKS: This Fire Records re-issue features bonus tracks including never-before-released live tracks from a 1988 radio session (featuring a never-before-heard configuration of the band, including guitarist Ben Deily on bass and vocals); also includes an original song (“Cease to Exist”) never released on any album, and a performance by Juliana Hatfield.

TRACK LISTING

1. Burying Ground
2. Sunday
3. Clang Bang Clang
4. Out
5. Your Home Is Where You're Happy
6. Falling
7. Die Right Now
8. Two Weeks In Another Town
9. Plaster Caster
10. Come To The Window
11. Take Her Down
12. Postcard
13. Live Without
14. Sunday (1987, Live On WERS)
15. Cease To Exist (1988, Live On WERS)
16. Burying Ground (1988, Live On WERS)
17. If Only You Were Dead (Early Mallo Cup) (1988, Live On WERS)
18. Out (1988, Live On WERS)
19. N.I.B. (1988, Live On WERS)
20. Clang Bang Clang (1988, Live On WERS)
21. Take Her Down (1988, Live On WERS)
22. Falling (1988, Live On WERS)
23. Instrumental (1988, Live On WERS)
24. From Here To Burma (With Juliana Hatfield) (1988, Live On WERS)

Hate Your Friends is the 1987 debut album by the Lemonheads, one of only three full-length releases to feature the original band line- up of Evan Dando, Ben Deily, and Jesse Peretz. The album showcases a hardcore-punk-to-pop-rock sound and sensibility as playfully fierce as it is surprising…especially to listeners who know the band only from their better-known major label recordings of the 1990s.

The roots of Hate Your Friends begin with the genesis of the band itself: when high school friends Ben Deily and Evan Dando—inspired by a shared love of the 70’s absurdist comedy troupe the Firesign Theatre, literature, and punk rock—began playing their own songs together in 1985. Dando and Deily first started out as a two-piece ensemble: swapping back and forth between a shared Guild guitar (and a crappy amp) and vocal mic, and pounding a drum kit “borrowed” from the high school jazz band. With the addition of classmate and friend Jesse Peretz on bass, the two-man outfit quickly became a power trio. With a handful of original songs, a passionate love for their favourite bands—from Husker-Du, the Replacements, Black Flag and the Germs, to the Saints, Wire and ‘77 UK punk—and a tiny recording budget, the Lemonheads set about their first studio session within days of their high school graduation in June of 1986.

During that summer, a significant amount of what would become the band’s debut album was recorded in Brookline, Massachusetts, with Deily and Dando sharing vocal, guitar and drumming duties. Above and beyond bass, Jesse proved pivotal as the band’s manager, booker and tireless promoter—helping arrange for the Lemonheads self-released debut EP, Laughing all the way to the cleaners, later that summer, and shortly thereafter helping establish the relationship with Curtis Casella of TAANG! records that paved the way to full-length LP Hate Your Friends. Finally, with the addition of full-time (and fairly short-lived) drummer Doug Trachten, the last songs of Hate Your Friends were recorded in the winter of 1986-7.

BONUS TRACKS: This Fire Records re-issue features bonus tracks including 12 never-before-released live tracks from a 1987 radio session, rare tracks from the early compilation Crawling From Within, and additional tracks not included on the original release of Hate Your Friends (“Buried Alive” and “Gotta Stop”).

TRACK LISTING

1. I Don't Wanna
2. 394
3. Nothing True
4. Second Chance
5. Sneakyville
6. Amazing Grace
7. Belt
8. Hate Your Friends
9. Don't Tell Yourself It's OK
10. Uhhh
11. Fed Up
12. Rat Velvet
13. Fucked Up
14. Mod Lang (From 'Crawling From Within' Compilation)
15. Buried Alive
16. Gotta Stop
17. Sad Girl (From 'Crawling From Within' Compilation)
18. Belt (1987, Live On WERS)
19. 394 (1987, Live On WERS)
20. Falling (1987, Live On WERS)
21. Don’t Tell Yourself (1987, Live On WERS)
22. Uhhh (1987, Live On WERS)
23. Amazing Grace (1987, Live On WERS)
24. Rat Velvet (1987, Live On WERS)
25. Second Chance (1987, Live On WERS)
26. Sneakyville (1987, Live On WERS)
27. I Like To (1987, Live On WERS)
28. So I Fucked Up (1987, Live On WERS)
29. Sick Of You (1987, Live On WERS)
30. Hate Your Friends (1987, Live On WERS)

The impeccably named Scott & Charlene’s Wedding are back with not so much a brand new album, as a generation's glimpse of love, home-sickness, basketball, alienation, rock and roll and all things that matter to an expatriate Aussie stranded in New York. Any Port In A Storm is fated to become your essential backdrop to the summer of 2013.

The brainchild of the amiable and unashamedly charismatic Craig Dermody, Scott & Charlene’s Wedding offer a sonically charged take on the Lemonheads’ ramshackle melodicism and Pavement’s lo-fi drawl. Following the success of Critical Heights' recent reissues of the band’s debut album Para Vista Social Club and the follow-up EP Two Weeks, the new album sees their first new recordings for over two years capturing Dermody at a pivotal time in his life. He has further developed his gloriously ragged anthems to reach new heights of nonchalant perfection.

Having uprooted from Melbourne, Australia to New York, New York, the Big Apple has replaced Melbourne as inspiration his latest trials and tribulations. His heart-on-sleeve lyrics reveal tales of everyday Dermody life, somehow more absurdly unhinged, humorous and poignant than the lives of his peers. All coming from a man with a clear mission to update the rock’n’roll template beyond his inspirations and influences as Scott & Charlene's Wedding effortlessly sprawl across the generations, linking the vintage swagger of the Velvets to the off-kilter pop perfection of the Only Ones by way of the Stooges and Television. The eleven electrifying tracks taking us on an intimate journey with Craig Dermody and his daily struggles, like a peak in to his personal diary.

He documents his move from Melbourne to New York to follow a girl. ‘Fakin NYC’ sees him adjusting to life in a new city, having to find a new job and feeling out of place as a security guard for a trendy bar. ‘Lesbian Wife’ sees him being caught in the middle of the biggest storm ever to have hit NYC and feeling homesick for Australia.

"... the execution for his frustration is point perfect-- his sleepily conversational vocals fold into his sunny, jangling guitars seamlessly" Pitchfork.

TRACK LISTING

1. Junk Shop
2. Lesbian Wife
3. 1993
4. Fakin' NYC
5. Clock Out And Leave
6. Jackie Boy
7. Downtown
8. Spring St
9. Gammy Leg
10. Charlie's In The Gutter
11. Wild Heart

Spacemen 3’s debut album "Sound Of Confusion", released in 1986, was a blistering affair - establishing their love of the two-chord song and also expressing their admiration for the likes of MC5, The 13th Floor Elevators and The Stooges. Sound of Confusion was 7 tracks of overdriven assault, with a strange bleakness and despair creeping through the hypnotic sprawl. R Hunter Gibson would later say: "It boosts the value of unlit rooms, unpaid debts and unfeigned terror and it would rather tackle the gradients than settle for level best.

TRACK LISTING

1. Loosing Touch With Your Mind
2. 2.35
3. Little Doll
4. MaryAnne
5. Roller Coaster
6. Hey Man
7. OD Catastophe

With two top 10 albums already under their belt, Oxford five-piece Foals return with their third and most exhilarating album yet.

‘Holy Fire’ has been recorded by prestigious production duo Flood & Moulder at Assault and Battery studios in London. Their previous work includes Smashing Pumpkins, PJ Harvey, Nine Inch Nails, and The Killers.

The first track to be showcased is ‘Inhaler’ - an electrifying, shamanistic tune set to purge the soul and raise the dead. Heavier than anything Foals have written before it nevertheless shines with their inimitable groove and funk.

Foals were nominated for a Mercury nomination with ‘Total Life Forever’. At the 2011 NME awards in they won ‘Best Single’ for ‘Spanish Sahara’ and were nominated for four other awards. They were also nominated for ‘Best Song’ for ‘Spanish Sahara’ at the 2011 Ivor Novello awards.

TRACK LISTING

1 Prelude
2 Inhaler
3 My Number
4 Bad Habit
5 Everytime
6 Late Night
7 Out Of The Woods
8 Milk & Black Spiders
9 Providence
10 Stepson
11 Moon

The fourth studio album from Sweden’s El Perro Del Mar, released on Memphis Industries.

The chiming cymbals, bewitching vocals and downtempo disco vibe of ‘Walk On By’ promise an album of spellbinding intro- and extrospection. Airy, translucent synths meld with languid, otherworldly sounds, making this album soft and hazy, but never forgettable.

From her early DIY releases on the Gothenburg scene - including collaborations with Jens Lekman - through to 2009’s ‘Love Is Not Pop’ album, and recent work with Lykke Li, Gruff Rhys and Chad Valley, El Perro Del Mar aka Sarah Assbring has woven sophisticated late night tales of love and loss. With Assbring returning to the producer’s chair, ‘Pale Fire’ is her most seductive work yet.

Triple deluxe 7” pack on 3 different coloured vinyl.

After eight years fronting New Zealand's acclaimed "trouble gum art punks" The Mint Chicks, Kody Nielson unveils a new project Opossom with the captivating album Electric Hawaii. Following a June release in Australia and New Zealand on Create/Control, the album will be released in the rest of the world via Fire Records in August.

The Mint Chicks chapter in Kody's career closed with the band splitting time between their American base in Portland OR and hometown Auckland. Brother Ruban formed a new band, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, and Kody began producing diverse projects including Bic Runga's recent album and Auckland punk up-and-comers, The DHDFD's.

Electric Hawaii presented a new challenge, an album written and performed with just a little help from others - Bic Runga lending a vocal while Kody's father Chris Nielson (a regular Mint Chicks collaborator) plays trumpet. The rest comes directly from the brain, hands and heart of Kody. Home-written, recorded and mixed by himself with just the final mastering courtesy of Howie Weinberg, Electric Hawaii is a unique beast - it is not the singer-songwriter solo album of a former punk rock band singer. It's a further exploration of Kody's musical journey into a lively, engaging world of carefully layered sonic layers of light and dark. It's an album about love, DIY, drugs and freedom. And why end up Opossom? The mental escape from daily life during the creation of "Electric Hawaii" produced Kody's nocturnal instinctive animal... feisty, vicious and enigmatically cute.

The new direction and new sounds incorporate what Kody terms as an overt attempt to add some of his personal Polynesian background to his blend of beatnik psychedelica made from out of context genres, surf rock to the Velvet Underground, modern and ancient electronica and jazz.

TRACK LISTING

1. Girl
2. Fly
3. Blue Meanies
4. Getaway Tonight
5. Watchful Eye
6. Why Why
7. Cola Elixir
8. Electric Hawaii
9. Outer Space
10. Inhaler Song

More than 18 years since he left the public spotlight, mysterious mad-genius David Baker, legendary frontman of the original incarnation of Mercury Rev, is back with new band Variety Lights. The masterful new album 'Central Flow', due for release in May, is a collaboration between Baker and fellow vintage synth addict Will MacLean and demonstrates that Baker has lost none of his flair for the extraordinary, the experimental and the exceptional. As co-founder and vocalist of Mercury Rev, Baker helped to forge their revolutionary sound with their first two (and most critically acclaimed) albums; 'Yerself Is Steam' (1991) and 'Boces' (1993).

The band were highly innovative and weren't afraid to experiment but above all they were loud, fun and hugely influential. In the UK, the critics embraced enthusiastically, as Chris Roberts in Melody Maker said (in his review of 'Yerself Is Steam'): "At last, one of those rare records that revolve along once in a blooming moon and have something new to struggle to say... A daring, brazen, and demented juxtaposition of voice and guitars and timpani flings Mercury Rev, lemming like at your more responsive caches of fear."

Having left the band in 1993, Baker went on to release a solo album 'World' under the moniker Shady, which featured members of the Boo Radleys, Rollerskate Skinny, Swervedriver and Th' Faith Healers. At times soaringly catchy and lightheartedly loony, 'World' is a sonic adventure which Vox described as "... awash with fragments of dense noise, stumbling, narcotic-laced tempos and lyrics from outer space... that mutate into spiky, bittersweet pop." Although there has been much speculation about his life during his time away from the public eye, Baker has continued to make recordings and is an avid music fan, working as a producer for various artists.

Now he is back, morphed and transmogrified into Variety Lights (a name lifted from Fellini's first film). When he met Will MacLean, Baker found a songwriting partner who shared a passion for analogue synths and electronic psychedelia. Initial experimentation together live to tape – to see how big and crazy just the two of them could sound – started to reveal melodies and Variety Lights was born. Much of Variety Lights’ debut was recorded by Baker at his own Over the Trees studio. The sound was created using a mixture of chained around-the-room 80's era midi expanders as well as the duo's collection of vintage keyboards and combining them with an array of drum machines and effected guitars. In creating 'Central Flow's sound, Baker says that "personal adventure is and always has been the most important thing". Baker and MacLean found themselves using references to colours, pictures and describing film scenes to help them communicate about their music. As in his early work, Baker took a richly layered approach, using multiple vocals in a search to find emotion in noises and sounds.

TRACK LISTING

1. Starlit
2. Establishment
3. Sea Faraway
4. Invisible Forest
5. Silent Too Long
6. Oh Setting Sun
7. Sell Your Soul
8. You Are So Famous
9. Crystal Cove
10. Feeling All Alone
11. Infinity Room

Musician, misfit, culture warrior and bullshitter: Robert "Bobby" Conn. Recorded with his new band The Burglars, this album is the first since 2007’s King for a Day, and his first new release on Fire Records. Bobby has equally delighted and annoyed hipsters since first appearing on the Chicago music scene in the mid '90s. Blending aggressive showmanship with an omnivorous love of musical genres, from Suicide to Streisand or from The Sweet to Stravinsky, Bobby has often irritated and provoked audiences, but never bored them. Bobby Conn's lyrics document the continuing absurdities of contemporary Western culture, illustrating and celebrating the convenient hypocrisies that allow us to sleep soundly every night.

He developed "The Continuous Ca$h Flow System" in 1995 as a critic of the magical thinking that Americans employ concerning their debt fuelled lifestyles. 15 years later, Bobby's "Continuous Ca$h Flow" is revealed as the operating principle of the entire financial system. He has accurately described the Armageddon based world view of America's Christian right since 1996, and tracked its evolution from fringe fanaticism to its current place in the heart of America's political mainstream.

But despite the relevance and prescience of his songwriting, his devotion to total entertainment in glitter and heels has confused as many as he has enlightened. He continues to collaborate with his wife and musical partner, Monica Boubou. Fully his equal as an entertainer herself (and more than his equal in stature), her electrified violin defines the epic melodic reach of their music. In between bouts of touring, Bobby and his band, The Burglars, headed to the studio to create this collection of new tunes, titled "Macaroni". Macaroni is Bobby Conn’s first album in 5 years (and first for Fire Records) will be released on CD/LP in March - followed swiftly by a re-issue of his landmark debut "Bobby Conn".

Macaroni is a contrast between "this is what you want" (the packaged predictable blandness of a Macaroni dinner) but this what you get (the violent mess of reality). Macaroni will be supported by a 7" Single "More Than You Need" backed with a cover version of the Walker Brothers "Fat Mama Kick.

TRACK LISTING

1. Cant Stop The War
2. GREEED
3. Underground Vktm
4. The Truth
5. Afterschool
6. Macaroni
7. Govt
8. Face Blind
9. Walker's Game
10. More Than You Need

Pulp’s debut and one of their most honest recordings - capturing a band at the beginning of their startling career. ‘It’ is a gentle, mainly acoustic album that hints at the musical directions Pulp would later pursue. The album touches on the majestic, theatrical ballads of Scott Walker, as well as the stark, folky song poems of Leonard Cohen. Certainly an album by a young band trying to pinpoint their direction, and absorbing many an influence from all around, ‘It’ has aged beautifully into a charming collection.

Fire are to reissue Pulp’s 1983 debut album ‘It’ as part of the Fire Embers reissue series with bonus material. Re-mastered and repackaged. New liner notes by Everett True. Featuring 4 Bonus tracks including single version of ‘My Lighthouse’ and alternative mix of ‘Blue Girls’, the previously unreleased ‘Sink Or Swim’ and ‘Please Don’t Worry’ from Pulp’s John Peel session in 1981.

Fire are to reissue Pulp's 1987 album 'Freaks' as part of the Fire Embers reissue series with a special 2 disc release, with the second bonus disc packed with singles and b-sides from the Freaks era. Pulp had changed significantly since their debut 'It'. By this time every member bar Jarvis had moved on but the addition of Russell Senior proved to be a pivotal turning point for the band. No longer did Pulp sound pastoral, easy-natured; now they were darkly romantic, brooding, noisy and a little bit Gothic, in the way young folk who brush their hair a certain way are always a little bit Gothic. Pulp were out-of-tune with the times: but the times didn't satisfy Pulp. The album is quite marvellous. Most of these songs stand the distance of time: it was here, possibly even more than 1992's Separations, that Pulp started coming into their own as a band with a fully-realised aesthetic.

The first disc is the original album, unaltered and in its entirety. The second is a bonus disc comprising of tracks from the two big non-album singles from the same era, 'Little Girl (With Blue Eyes)' and 'Dogs are Everywhere'. Two further b-sides 'Tunnel' and 'Manon' complete the second disc for the definitive 'Freaks' period release. Pulp's 'It' and 'Separations' will be reissued at the same time for the complete Pulp on Fire collection.

Forest Fire’s electrifying new full-length with a focus on mature singer-songwriter pop writing and instant-classic hooks.

Recommended for fans of The Velvet Underground, Television, Pink Floyd as well as contemporaries The Walkmen and Phosphorescent.

This is the band’s second album, after 2008’s Survival, which garnered some great critical responses and made several top 10 lists.

“A general air of beat-poet cool and a careless articulacy to the lyrics that heightens the impression of the band as quintessential SoHo bohos” - The Guardian.

“These are songs of the most universal of human themes… the battle between the darker side of human instinct and angelic purity” - Drowned In Sound.

Having shunned the advances of the hottest record labels and media over the last year, WU LYF – one of the most talked about bands from the UK in the last decade - release their debut album ‘Go Tell Fire To The Mountain’ on their own label L Y F Recordings.

The album was recorded live in a disused church in Manchester and mastered in Glasgow by Paul Savage (Mogwai), the result of which is 10 tracks of huge uncompromising Heavy Pop.

Dean Fertita is a workhorse; a mainstay of the Detroit underground scene since the early 90s. From his years of relentless touring as front-man of the criminally under appreciated Waxwings, to his able-bodied accompaniment to friend/cohort Brendan Benson, Fertita has been laying the groundwork for his current prominence. And as if that isn't enough, Fertita was also the invaluable utility-man (keys, guitar, harmonies) on the worldwide touring for the Raconteurs debut album of 2006. Such flexibility and skill made him the first choice for the same position in Queens of the Stone Age in 2007 and led to him being welcomed by Josh Homme into the band as a permanent member. Now, Fertita appears at the forefront of the Dead Weather, the dark rock and roll super-group with Jack White. A lesser soul would blanch at the task of playing guitar in a band with that guy, but Fertita's work on "Horehound" shows he can hold his own, thank you very much. With that, Dean Fertita's first dedicated solo album, "Hello=Fire" is a remarkable example of what the man can do when in full-charge of the ship. Moving from the darkly devil rock "Horehound" to the spacey melodic vein of "Hello=Fire" is part of Fertita's signature versatility, both as a writer and player. With song-writing collaboration from Brendan Benson on half the disc's tracks, the songs brim with insightful lyrics, cunning arrangements and powerful production. That being said, "Hello=Fire" is a rock record through and through.

Having recently garnered much acclaim for their spate of exhilarating shows at this year's SXSW in Texas, San Francisco's LoveLikeFire unleash their next introductory bow to British audiences. Following quickly from debut single "William", "Stand In Your Shoes" is another song of layered, dramatic indie rock, fiercely capped by vocalist and songwriter Ann Yu's distinctively lush vocal. Yu grew up in Las Vegas and was forbidden from listening to contemporary music by her strict parents. She trained as a classical violinist yet yearned to hear something fresh and exciting that spoke to her on different levels. It was ultimately her imagination that first formed the early phases of LoveLikeFire, and "Stand In Your Shoes" is another intriguing taster of how those dreams have become reality.

Broken Sound bring us this double A-side single from Brooklyn's finest lo-fi alternative rock / folk act; Forest Fire. Taken from the band's forthcoming album "Survival", this 7" single is a perfect collectable precedent to the album's release and includes two of the finest and most instantly recognisable tracks from the set. This release will not be available digitally, it is strictly vinyl-only.

After the critically acclaimed release of Pumajaw's "Curiosity Box" comes a retrospective of the first four albums by Pinkie Maclure and John Wills (Pumajaw). These 14 gems that make up "Favourites" have been hand-picked by Pumajaw, highlighting their incredibly productive and creative collaboration for the past 10 years, from the self produced albums. "From Memorial Crossing" (2000) was recorded in an abandoned school in Tottenham, London and features versions of songs by Tom Waits, Artie Shaw and David Lynch. "This Day and Age" (2002) uses samples from 1920s cabaret records, field recordings from the Outer Hebrides and John's hypnotic rhythms as a foil for Pinkie's most expressive vocal explorations. "Cat's Cradle" (2004) is a blend of folk melodies and soulful electronica, featuring concertina and psychedelic guitar. "Becoming Pumajaw" (2006) throws some French chanson into the mix (Jacques Brel's La Chanson des Vieux Amants), along with an untraditional versions of traditional folk songs, psychedelic guitar wig-outs, concertina and darkly humorous laments Pumajaw are a duo that weave, multi-octave voice with looped guitar, mandolin, samples, concertina and hypnotic rhythms, they have their own seductive sound that defies categorization and stretches from psychedelic pop through sultry folk songs to eerie, cacophonous, trance-inducing laments.

Jangling indiepop tussling with rip-roaring rock'n'roll, ornate REM-esque melodies squaring up to exuberant dancefloor smashes. Imagine growing up in Finland anything other than a hard rock fan. From the glammed up rock of Hanoi Rocks to the globe-conquering metal of HIM and The Rasmus, Finland's contribution to music has tended to be loud, brash and rocking. It's safe to say that Cats On Fire singer Mattias Bjorkas isn't a heavy metal fan. Just look at him: with cheekbones you could hang a Rembrandt on and a perfect, almost arrogantly-styled quiff, this cravat-wearing hybrid of the young David Bowie and James Dean seems a world apart from scuffed denim and greasy hair. And his band's music inhabits a different universe as well – jangling indie pop tussling with rip-roaring rock'n'roll, ornate REM-esque melodies squaring up to exuberant indie dancefloor smashes. The foursome released their debut album, "The Province Complains", in 2007, to widespread acclaim. "Our Temperance Movement" is the band's first domestic release in the UK. Kicking off with the infectious, hand-clapping, energy rush of the single "Tears In Your Cup", the album showcases Mattias' singular style and worldview – he's sardonic, poetic, funny, political, eccentric, and a true star in the old-fashioned sense, a flamboyant misfit to rank alongside Edwyn Collins and John Lydon. You can't imagine how he grew up in Finland. And we can't wait to see what happens now he's finally turned his attention to the UK.

"Night Is On Fire" is the incendiary follow up to the sell out single "Damage Is Done", and the first single to be taken from the forthcoming debut album.

Representing four different countries, including Canada, Hong Kong, Italy and UK, Sunny Day Sets Fire make soaring, wistful music that reflects their wide ranging backgrounds and influences. Based in London, SDSF were originally a trio, but Mauro (vocals/acoustic guitar), Onyee (vocals/synths/drums) and Max (guitar/baritone guitar) eventually enlisted Ed (bass/synth) and Matthew (drums/keys) to complete and create the band's trademark rich and textural sound. Sunny Day Sets Fire (the name taken from a band name generator off the internet) are a very hardworking band. Since 2007, the band have released singles and EPs across Europe, US and Australia, been remixed by the likes of CSS, Diplo and The Cool Kids, had one of their tracks, "Lack of View", added to the soundtrack of US film "American Teen" and have toured the globe relentlessly. "Summer Palace" is a beautifully crafted collection of quirky songs that range from the euphoric-pop of "Adrenaline" and "Wilderness" to the dark romanticism of "Mandarins". And although the band cite Love and The Velvet Underground as musical influences, it is difficult to pinpoint another band that sounds just like them. Their varied backgrounds help make "Summer Palace" a truly unique tapestry of enduring pop gems.

Tracklisting
1. Wilderness
2. Stranger
3. Teenagers Talking
4. End of the Road
5. All Our Songs
6. Smallest Heart on Earth
7. Mandarins
8. Siamese
9. I Dream Along
10. Adrenaline
11. Hollywood
12. Brainless
13. Map of the World
14. Lack of View

The Whitsundays, a young band from Alberta, Canada, make no qualms about their anachronistic Anglophilia. Though the main force behind the band, Paul Arnusch, has a history of performing with post-rock, post-punk bands like Faunts and The Floor, from the start it's obvious his new project's primarily interested in creating timeless pop music. And this 60s AM radio pop can be utterly charming. If the Whitsundays never quite reach the level of Camera Obscura, it's difficult to post blame. It could just as easily be 1967. But no matter the year, Edmonton, Alberta's the Whitsundays certainly have a knack for writing yellowed, reverb-wrapped pop music, borrowing from the grand tradition of English psychedelia, garage, and vintage organ rock. With reverent nods to the flower-picking whimsy of the Zombies, the red-faced bluster of the Animals, and the delightful inanity of Syd Barrett, the Whitsundays' self-titled debut is a vintage gem, and a charming hodgepodge of 60s musical ephemera.

Overdue reissue of Heads on Fire, the out of print second album by New Yorks White Hills. Since this release their first for Rocket the band have gone to release several very highly regarded albums for Thrill Jockey. Ever changing and always striving to push the envelope, White Hills album Heads on Fire finds the band playing a heavier style of spacerock. Relentless and punishing, the album kicks off with the spacey swirl of the song ‘Radiate’ and ends with the speedladen blast of the track ‘Eternity’. Along the way, a mesmerising blend of growlling fuzz / wah guitar, pounding bass, sprawling synth, and chaotic drumming doses one’s head three sheets to the wind.

Whether it be the mere one minute track ‘Return of Speed Toilet’ or the 26 plus minute ‘Don’t Be Afraid’, the listener will be taken on ride through a world that is all encompassing from beginning to end. The band started in New York as a solo project by Dave W. Since then it has turned into a trio, with Ego Sensation (bass) plus various drummers which has included Kid Millions of Oneida fame. Like Oneida, White Hills also share a love for a hard rock stripped of its bombast, their heavier, dirtier, earthier influences contend with airier atmospheres while combining steadiness with spacious soaring guitars, these heads are always on fire!

TRACK LISTING

01. Radiate
02. Oceans Of Sound
03. Return Of Speed Toilet
04. Visions Of The Past, Present And Future
05. Don’t Be Afraid
06. Eternity

Elk City's Renée LoBue (singer/songwriter) and Ray Ketchem (drummer/producer) have teamed with influential ex-Luna guitarist Sean Eden and ex-Lovelies bassist Barbara Endes on "New Believers", the band's finest work to date. When recording began for "New Believers" back in 2004, neither member of the NYC-based Elk City knew what would become of it. Singer/Songwriter Renee LoBue had penned a notebook full of confessional, imaginative songs following the tumultuous departure of guitarist/vocalist Peter Langland-Hassan. Upon hearing LoBue's newly inspired voice, drummer/producer Ray Ketchem's mission was clear: the band would merge the soul of Dusty Springfield, the power of Patti Smith, the big sound of Phil Spector and the warped-pop sensibilities of The Breeders on an album that brought LoBue to the front. This new Elk City calls upon a wide palette of influences: Brill Building pop, 1960s psychedelic bands such as Love, classic Motown, 1970s proto-punk heroes John Cale and Television, and 1980s alternative rock such as The Smiths and The Pixies. Never fearful of experimentation, these musicians are pushing new boundaries with their work, weaving Ketchem's ace production and LoBue's striking voice with the lyrical guitar of Eden atop Endes' solid foundation. "New Believers" closes with the promise 'be set for more'.

Fight Fire With Water – intense math-rock inspired off-kilter riffery with the gentle textural guitars of post-rock. The four piece perform insanely energetic and intelligent instrumental songs that hurt their heads to write. Score One For Safety - their experimental sound almost works as they build to a dense soundscapes punctuated by acappella singing before dissolving into screams. They unleash a barrage of screams, pounding drums and more sonic guitars but if you close your eyes and let the sound envelope you it's almost like being underwater.

"On Fire, With Love" is the second album by Nottingham sextet Seachange, a warmer, more personal record than 2004's "Lay of the Land". An over-ambitious attempt to make a double album stretched resources beyond breaking point. Dropped by their old label Matador, the band retreated to their Nottingham hideout, completed the record, condensed it to a single album, and tried in vain to find a UK label to release it. Enter Glitterhouse records. Knowing a good thing when they see it, the German label released the album to massive critical acclaim on the European mainland. ('Album of the year? If not it's damn close .. The saviours of alternative rock' - Spex. 'Feel-good indie hit of the summer, after this it's impossible to ignore Seachange' - Visions). All this has made the record the most successful Glitterhouse have released since Mudhoney over a decade ago. Spurred on by this success, the band release "On Fire, With Love" in the UK on their own A Is For Artist imprint.

After 2004's critically acclaimed "Blue Cathedral", one might have expected Comets on Fire to blast off into the cosmos in an infinite flurry of lysergic spasmodicism. Surprising, then, that they should turn in an earthy, more accessible and downright beautiful album as their follow-up. Then again, it is a completely logical progression, but in reverse, sort of. On "Avatar", their astonishing new album, Comets display development in every direction: as musicians, as songwriters, as arrangers and as singers (?!), without sacrificing one ounce of the intensity that is expected from our heroes. As on "Blue Cathedral", the diversity of the material is staggering. "Avatar" veers from swinging, bluesy explorations to piano-laced, progressive power balladry, to pure tribalism, evoking everyone from the Allmans, to Quicksilver, to Procol Harum, to some insane Fela/Sun Ra/Crazy Horse hybrid, yet remains wholly Comets on Fire. Though they play cleaner and clearer, their firepower is evident and abundant. They have shifted gears and opened themselves up completely.

TRACK LISTING

Dogwood Rust
Jaybird
Lucifer’s Memory
The Swallow’s Eye
Holy Teeth
Sour Smoke
Hatched Upon The Age

"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.

Our Review from 2004 - Get ready for a splendid new band, everybody. Their sound is a mixture of Canadian folk, new-wave disco beats, quirky David Byrne-ish vocals, Pixies' agression, Mercury Rev's sense of magic, big band drama, organic chamber pop and just an all round multi-instrumental sense of anything's possible, that you'll be setting up your own toy orchestra and playing along. Though talented players, and loads play on this record, it's this sense of fun and cookiness that pervades; this lot are clever but well beyond cool. It's music ripe with the joys of music-making. And the songs are really catchy. that always helps. Maybe chuck a bit of Sugarcubes and a bit of New Order even, into their melting pot, stir in with crashing operatic crescendos and tiny, sweet lullabies and you'll be a little bit nearer to the sound of this band. They're making a splash Stateside. It's obvious why.

New drummer, new album, new single, new tour, Mclusky are back and primed to release the follow-up album to 2002's excellent "Mclusky Do Dallas". Life between these two records has seen a world outside of Cardiff fully embrace them. Amongst other things, they've toured virtually everywhere, broken many a guitar, survived a near fatal tour bus smash and seen their original drummer depart the band on their way. Not known for being slouches, they also released two interim EP's last year, from which, only the track "1956 And All That" has made it on to this album. Like its predecessor, this was recorded by Steve Albini in his studio outside Chicago but this time Bob Weston of Shellac fame has got in on the action (playing trumpet on "Forget About Him I'm Mint").

Reissue of the legendary and unbeatable first Gun Club LP, originally released on Ruby Records in 1981.

Jeffrey Lee Pierce - reggae enthusiast, heroin addict, and former president of the Blondie fan club - suffered a lonely, depressing death on March 31st, 1996 of a brain hemorrhage, after untold years of drug use and alcoholism. Why this event mattered much to anyone lay in a fantastic record by his band. The Gun Club recorded 16 years earlier, the masterful "Fire Of Love". A visionary and fierce moment in time when The Gun Club took the raw, dripping meat of shopworn delta blues and infused it with the energy and fire of the LA punk rock scene.

Inspired by bands like X, Television, the Cramps, he met Kid Congo Powers (who will later play with Nick Cave and Cramps) and they formed the Creeping Ritual in 1979, soon to be renamed The Gun Club. Pierce was already a notorious drunk, exhibitionist, poet and fanboy. The Gun Club were quickly a dangerous new spoke on the spinning wheel of dynamic LA alt-culture. By 1980, Jeffrey Lee had moved into a deep reverence for Mississippi delta blues. The Gun Club paid more than passing homage: they wholeheartedly swiped complete riffs, words and attitude from the masters. Pierce participated in the great blues singer tradition by cobbling together distinct lines from other people's songs to create new ones. Snatches of Blind Willie Johnson, Blind Lemon Jefferson and Robert Johnson can be heard throughout this debut LP –released in 1981 on Slash’s Ruby Records.

What makes "Fire Of Love" such a brilliant listen long after its time is that this blatant homage to the blues was amplified, energized and kicked into overdrive - in a new style that combined the ghostliness of the original model with a FAST, unwound and supremely energetic beat. The engineering feats of Pat Burnette contributed to that sound: he wielded his Quad-Teck studios like a weapon, and mastered some of the greatest sides in LA music history (such as Germs’ “GI”). Pure fullness of sound and the raw hot throb of records that were made to stand the test of time.

From the immensely dark and aggressive sexuality of "Sex Beat", Gun Club's most recognizable number, to the fetishistic salute to fellow traveler Poison Ivy of The Cramps in “For The Love Of Ivy”, including the hellfire classic “She’s Like Heroin To Me”, a 2:33 masterpiece in which everything comes together; “Fire Of Love” is pure perfection. They would never reach this level again. No one would, either. "Fire of Love " stands among the greatest classics of Rock history, and shows the genius of the great Jeffrey, whose haunted singing has never been replaced. It proved out to be one of
the most influential records of the 80’s, with countless musicians declaring their love for the Club. Can’t be recomended enough, this album is a real classic that has been criminally underrated. The beginning of a legend. Let's give the devil his due for this one, and ask him to take real good care of Jeffrey.

Photographer and musician Zak Riles (Norfolk & Western, Operacycle) creates a cinematic ambient and arid soundtrack to stand by the photographs of open space and empty environment. Using acoustic guitars, banjo, violin, piano, drums and only a small bit of vocals, "Not Yet Fire" accompanies the photography and film of a movie that will never be made. Constant, delicate, careful and beautiful. For fans of Papa M, and Palace.

Brooklyn's hardest band, NYC-based hardcore with guttural vocals for fans of Sick Of It All, Bane, Strife, Shai Hulud. Friendly Fire has become the staple of the NYC DIY scene, sharing stages with Converge, Hope Conspiracy, Strife, Most Precious Blood, Shutdown, Bigwig and Voodoo Glow Skulls.

Nathan Gray leads the line on the best Boy Sets Fire album to date, "Tomorrow Came Today". Guitarists Josh Latshaw and Chad Istvan are on top form too and the rock solid bass and drums of Rob Avery and Matt Krupanski never let up. They've remained one of the most musical, but still intense, hardcore bands on the scene. This, their debut album for a major label, has all the light and shade, subtle touches and strong political content that their fans know and love. "After The Eulogy" was harder and brasher but this has the potential to really make a wider impact.

The follow-up to last year's debut "Drag Queens And Limousines" continues Gauthier's exploration of the seedy side of life on the American underbelly. The female equivilant of Johnny Dowd she peoples her songs with losers on the edge, every day dramas and the universal themes of love and loneliness.

Trial By Fire play uncomplicated, no frills hardcore of a calibre that is without equal in today's too often stagnant and unimaginative scene. Another classy Jade Tree release.

"Suckerpunch Training" is a passionate three track CD single which includes a cover of "Rocket Man" and a powerful spoken word track which showcases the band's unique and compelling personality as well as their powerful songwriting capabilities. A true exercise in devout social awareness, ripping political anger and breathtaking art and emotion from one of the best bands around.

The debut full-length from hardcore's most passionate and explosive band. Emotionally charged, heartfelt and honest, Boy Sets Fire mix aggression and thought provoking ideas into a positive blend of melody and abrasive music. There are plenty of bands out there that never tell us why they're so pissed off. Boy Sets Fire lets us know exactly what they're angry about, point by point. Find out where the hardcore band of the moment all started. Raging stuff from the definitive hardcore band.

Ten new songs from Denver, Colorado's kings of emo rock. Following on from the massive selling "Knife In The Marathon", these new tracks prove the band are back with a vengeance and the fact that it's released on No Idea begs the question are there any decent bands left on Deep Elm?

New album from ex Number One Cup fellas Seth and Michael. Orchestral strings, radio static, tape loops and other strange sounds battle with Gang of Four / Wire style guitars.