Notes from the band on the reissue:

When, in 2014, we released TV en Français, it had been four years since our previous record, Barbara. This was, and remains, the longest break W.A.S. has taken between releases, and to say that the time was well used is not to boast, but simply to state a fact. The lengthy recording process, under producer Chris Coady’s scrupulous care, involved an obsession with sonic fidelity that continues to pay dividends for today’s listener. And we made a lot of songs.

Here, collected for the first time, is the entire TV en Français canon — not just the album proper, but variations and additions from preceding EP Business Casual; companion LP TV en Français: Sous la Mer; loose singles like “Something About You,” “Let Me Win,” and, available for the first time on vinyl without a song from a lesser band abutting it, “Distillery.”

If it were possible to overdose on quality music, this package would unquestionably be fatal.

Vinyl discs are enclosed in lavish gatefold packaging, with full-color photo sleeves for each LP.

TRACK LISTING

A1: What You Do Best
A2: Dumb Luck
A3: Make It Easy
A4: Sprinkles
A5: Courage
A6: Overreacting
B1: Return The Favor
B2: Slow Down
B3: Don't Blow It
B4: Take An Arrow
B5: Something About You
B6: Let Me Win
C1: Good Answer
C2: Take My Breath Away
C3: Distillery
C4: Dumb Luck, Under The Sea
C5: Make It Easy, Under The Sea
D1: Sprinkles, Under The Sea
D2: Slow Down, Under The Sea
D3: Overreacting, Under The Sea
D4: Don't Blow It, Under The Sea
D5: Return The Favor, Under The Sea
D6: Take An Arrow, Under The Sea

First new material from UK soul heroes Stone Foundation for over a year. As they head into their 11th studio album due in 2025, this taster of new material shows the band experimenting with new sounds and influences whilst still remaining distinctively Stone Foundation. Mick Talbot (The Style Council, Dexys) joins the band to bring some of his trademark keyboard magic to both tracks. Strictly limited to 500 units worldwide, don't miss out on what is sure to be another future Stone Foundation collectible.

TRACK LISTING

A. Fix You Up
AA. Everything & All I Want

Blue vinyl reissue of OMD's 13th studio album The Punishment of Luxury - back on vinyl for the first time in 7 years.

The follow up to the critically acclaimed ‘English Electric’ (released in 2013) ‘The Punishment Of Luxury’ is a daring collection of stylish synth pop and masterful songwriting which will certainly rank alongside their very best.

Written, recorded, produced and mixed by OMD – Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys – the album is the sound of a band in their prime. ‘On this album we have managed to make beautiful things out of noises and repetitive patterns’, explains Andy. ‘The trouble is, we just cant help but write a catchy melody!’

The album takes its name from an 1891 painting by the Italian Giovani Segantini and contains everything from the Kraftwerkian ‘Isotype’ and ‘Robot Man’ to the blue eyed soul ballads of ‘One More Time’ and ‘The View From Here’ as well as more traditional OMD songs like ‘Kiss Kiss Kiss Bang Bang Bang’ and the synth heavy title track.

TRACK LISTING

A1) The Punishment Of Luxury
A2) Isotype
A3) Robot Man
A4) What Have We Done
A5) Precision & Decay
A6) As We Open, So We Close
B1) Art Eats Art
B2) Kiss Kiss Kiss Bang Bang Bang
B3) One More Time
B4) La Mitrailleuse
B5) Ghost Star
B6) The View From Here

Written, recorded, produced and mixed by OMD – Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys – ‘English Electric’ is a 12-track letter to technology, space, love and a grand return to form for a band whose 1980 hit ‘Enola Gay’ occupied the world’s stage at last year’s Olympics Opening Ceremony.

As percolating synth-pop is pulled along at different speeds and executed with needle-sharp finesse, late night electro ballads collide with big sounding club cuts on a record which also features three interlude tracks, including dystopian missive ‘Please Remain Seated’ and ‘Decimal’, which is accompanied by this suitably mechanical video, directed by German motion and graphic designer Henning M. Lederer.

As Andy McCluskey says of the album; “the overarching feel tends to be a sense of loss, of melancholia, that things haven’t turned out the way you wanted them to, whether it be with technology or personal relationships.” The title itself – taken from a British industrial manufacturing company – has further resonance for the pair as locomotive enthusiasts and self-confessed technology geeks.

TRACK LISTING

1. Please Remain Seated
2. Metroland
3. Night Café
4. The Future Will Be Silent
5. Helen Of Troy
6. Our System
7. Kissing The Machine
8. Decimal
9. Stay With Me
10. Dresden
11. Atomic Ranch
12. Final Song

With artwork designed by Peter Saville, History Of Modern was originally  release in 2010, following a 14 year haitus. It was described by Andy McCluskey as their  "best album since Architecture and Morality" - high praise indeed.

TRACK LISTING

1. New Babies: New Toys
2. If You Want It
3. History Of Modern (Part I)
4. History Of Modern (Part II)
5. Sometimes
6. RFWK
7. New Holy Ground
8. The Future, The Past, And Forever After
9. Sister Mary Says
10. Pulse
11. The Night
12. Bondage Of Fate
13. The Right Side?

Live album celebrating the band's triumphant 2023 tour in support of The Feminine Divine, featuring songs from the album plus a selection of Dexys classics. Recorded across the course of the tour.

TRACK LISTING

Side A (Act 1: Getting Honest)
1. The One That Loves You
2. It’s Alright Kevin (Manhood 2023)
3. I’m Going To Get Free
4. Coming Home

Side B (Act 2: Attitude To Women)
1. The Feminine Divine

Side C (Act 3: The Relationship)
1. My Goddess Is
2. Goddess Rules
3. My Submission
4. Dance With Me

Side D (The Concert: Part 1)
1. Soon/Plan B
2. I’ll Show You
3. All In All (This One Last Wild Waltz)

Side E (The Concert: Part 2)
1. Until I Believe In My Soul
2. Free
3. Come On Eileen

Side F (Encore)
1. Geno
2. Jackie Wilson Said (I’m In Heaven When You Smile)
3. Tell Me When My Light Turns Green
4. Carrickfergus

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2024 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON SATURDAY APRIL 20TH ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

IF THERE ARE ANY REMAINING COPIES THEY WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE ONLINE AT 8PM ON MONDAY APRIL 22ND.

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2024 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON SATURDAY APRIL 20TH ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

IF THERE ARE ANY REMAINING COPIES THEY WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE ONLINE AT 8PM ON MONDAY APRIL 22ND.

Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark (OMD) return with their 14th studio album Bauhaus Staircase, over six years after the triumph of their Top 4-charting record The Punishment of Luxury. The album was born from the impetus to kickstart new explorations during lockdown when as Andy McCluskey admits: “I rediscovered the creative power of total boredom.”

The album’s first offering as a single is the title track which serves as a nod both to Andy McCluskey’s love of the Bauhaus era & the power of protest art. “I am a huge lover of visual arts especially mid 20th century movements” Andy comments. “The song is a metaphor for strength and artist passion in the face of criticism and adversity. When times are hard there is a tendency for Governments to look at cutting funding for creativity just at the moment when the arts are most needed to nourish our souls. It seems appropriate that the song and its eponymous album were created during Covid Lockdown.”

Ranging further from the beautiful film noir ballad of ‘Veruschka’ and the dance stylings of ‘Anthropocene’ - a term for the current epoch in Earth’s evolution to the sinister ‘Evolution Of Species’ and the hectic ‘Kleptocracy’ - OMD’s greatest straight-up protest song - the new album is a broad electronic sonic masterpiece that lyrically tackles the topics of the future. The record closes on ‘Healing’ - a moment of reflective calm.

By rights OMD should be in semi-retirement performing classics like Enola Gay and Maid Of Orleans on the nostalgia festival circuit like so many peers. Instead they’ve created a landmark album worthy of their finest work. Bauhaus Staircase remains unmistakably the work of a duo who are still perfectly in sync 45 years after their first gig at legendary Liverpool club Eric’s.

“I’m very happy with what we’ve done on this record" McCluskey summarises. “I’m comfortable if this is OMD’s last statement.”

TRACK LISTING

TRACKLIST: CD / LP / LPC
1. Bauhaus Staircase
2. Anthropocene
3. Look At You Now
4. G.E.M.
5. Where We Started
6. Veruschka
7. Slow Train
8. Don't Go
9. Kleptocracy
10. Aphrodite's Favourite Child
11. Evolution Of Species
12. Healing

2CD
1. Bauhaus Staircase 2.7 Demo. Andy 30th Aug 2020
2. Anthropocene Demo (A Haven For Lost Souls 1.1 Paul’s Track April 2020)
3. Look At You Now Demo (Zimmer Frame For Andy) Paul 28th Feb 2021
4. G.E.M. Demo (Culture War. Andy 6th March 2021)
5. Where We Started Demo (Stadium 6.0) Andy 26th May 2020
6. Veruschka 2 Demo 2nd December 2020
7. Slow Train Demo 1.3 Dec 2020
8. Don’t Go Demo 14th Nov 2018
9. Kleptocracy Demo (When I Was Young) Andy 14th March 2021
10. Aphrodite’s Favourite Child Demo (B Side Choir) Fotonovela 2011
11. Evolution Of Species 2.5 Ruff
12. Healing Demo (Water April 9th 2020)
13. Bauhaus Staircase Demo. Andy 20th July 2020

It's been 11 years since the release of their last album of original music, the acclaimed One Day I'm Going to Soar, and they now return with this stunning new record. As you'd expect it's a dramatic soulful collection that swings from horn filled stomps reminiscent of early Dexy's Midnight Runners, to synth-heavy and (occasionally) doomy pop all delivered with a renewed energy and positivity.

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: There are some enormous pop songs on this new Dexys record, which when coupled with Kevin Rowland's deeply personal, sometimes confessional but ultimately redemptive lyrics make this one of the most arresting albums of his whole career.

TRACK LISTING

1. The One That Loves You
2. It's Alright Kevin (Manhood 2023)
3. I'm Going To Get Free
4. Coming Home
5. The Feminine Divine
6. My Goddess Is
7. Goddess Rules
8. My Submission
9. Dance With Me

UK soul stalwarts Stone Foundation celebrate 25 years and 10 studio albums together with a career retrospective. The tracklist includes their biggest collaborations (Paul Weller, Durand Jones, Graham Parker, Melba Moore, William Bell, Bettye LaVette, Nolan Porter, Mick Talbot and many more) alongside their best known tracks plus 2 brand new songs.

TRACK LISTING

2LP / 2CD Tracklisting
A1 The Limit Of A Man
A2 The Light In Us (Feat. Laville)
A3 Now That You Want Me Back (Feat. Melba Moore)
A4 Deeper Love (Feat. Paul Weller)
A5 Next Time Around
B1 Beverley
B2 Carry The News
B3 Season Of Change (Feat. Bettye LaVette)
B4 Hold On To Love (Feat. Durand Jones)
B5 Your Balloon Is Rising (Feat. Paul Weller)
C1 Summer Feeling
C2 Standing On The Top
C3 Echoes Of Joy
C4 Let The Light
C5 To Find The Spirit
C6 The Night Teller (Feat. Graham Parker)
D1 Strange People (Feat. William Bell)
D2 B What U R (Feat. Shirley Jones)
D3 Pushing Your Love
D4 Tracing Paper (Feat. Nolan Porter)
D5 Outside Looking In (Edit)
D6 Back In The Game (Feat. Paul Weller)

5CD Box Set Tracklisting
CD1
1 The Limit Of A Man
2 The Light In Us Feat. Laville
3 Now That You Want Me Back Feat. Melba Moore
4 Deeper Love Feat. Paul Weller
5 Next Time Around
6 Beverley
7 Carry The News
8 Season Of Change Feat. Bettye Lavette
9 Hold On To Love Feat. Durand Jones
10 Your Balloon Is Rising Feat. Paul Weller
11 Summer Feeling
12 Standing On The Top
13 Echoes Of Joy
14 Let The Light
15 To Find The Spirit
16 The Night Teller Feat. Graham Parker
17 Strange People Feat. William Bell
CD2
1 B What U R Feat. Shirley Jones
2 Pushing Your Love
3 Tracing Paper Feat. Nolan Porter
4 Outside Looking In (Edit)
5 Back In The Game Feat. Paul Weller
6 Changes
7 Only You Can Feat. Hamish Stuart
8 Don't Walk Away Feat. Kathryn Williams
9 Hold On
10 A Love Uprising Feat. Dr Robert
11 When You're In My World Feat. Carleen Anderson
12 Heaven Knows Why Feat. Laville, Sheree Dubois
13 Sweet Forgiveness
14 Bring Back The Happiness
15 Don't Let The Rain
16 Love's Outro Feat. Peter Capaldi
CD3
1 Riches
2 Care Of Heather
3 Brain
4 From The Birth Of Time
5 Deep In The Water
6 The Waiting Game
7 Picked Up The Phone
8 Maybe In A Lifetime
9 Once In A While I Need Some Peace
10 5th October
11 My Love Will Never Be Enough
12 Not Around
13 Are You Really Happy?
14 To Love Somebody
15 Don't Give In Tonight
CD4
1 So Begins The Conversation
2 We'll Be Flying
3 Seven Days
4 Autumn's Child
5 Did My Baby Call Feat. Steve Calloway
6 Our Love Is In The Pocket
7 Eyes Of June
8 No More The Fool
9 Please Tell Me Feat. Joe Harris
10 Can You Keep A Secret (Part 1)
11 Uncomplicated
12 Dogtooth
13 Right Track Feat. Nolan Porter
14 The Last Goodbye
15 Wondrous Place Feat. Pete Williams
16 Crazy Love Feat. Nolan Porter
17 Don't Let The Rain (Dub) Feat. Dennis Bovell
CD5
1 That's The Way I Want To Live My Life
2 These Life Stories (Live)
3 Something In The Light
4 Learning The Hard Way
5 Life Goes On
6 It's Always Been There
7 Simplify The Situation (Live)
8 I'm Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down Feat. Graham Parker
9 Rise Above It
10 Picture A Life
11 Stylin' Feat. Sulene Fleming
12 Deeper Love (Opolopo Remix) Feat. Paul Weller
13 The Light In Us (Soul Weekender Remix) Feat. Laville

Hot on the heels of 2021’s Huffy (which reached #1 on the UK indie chart), New York indie rock legends We Are Scientists return with their 8th studio album, Lobes. Largely written at the same time as Huffy and once again self-produced, Lobes stays glued to the indie dance floor but showcases a darker, more electronic pop sound than its rock indebted predecessor. Always present though are the catchy melodies and soaring choruses which have become the band’s calling card over their near 2-decade career. 

TRACK LISTING

1: Operator Error
2: Dispense With Sentiment
3: Human Resources
4: Lucky Just To Be Here
5: Turn It Up
6: Settled Accounts
7: Here Goes
8: Parachute
9: Less From You
10: Miracle Of '22

Drawing as much from the angular guitar-driven sounds of their debut as it does from the finest in modern rock today, first single from the LP, 'Contact High' is raising the bar for the decade ahead. Celebrating the song's potent delivery and unashamed lyrical sentiment, Murray concludes... "it’s just nice to have a song that’s unapologetically sappy, but couched in distorted guitar and metaphors of coincidental intoxication."

Huffy, follows 2018's Megaplex and the enormously successful  "50th anniversary" reissue of With Love And Squalor. The anticipated album is already shaping up to be one of the band’s most hit-tastic albums to date with the inclusion of recently acclaimed bangers 'I Cut My Own Hair' and 'Fault Lines' alongside today's new single 'Contact High'.

Huffy’s fresh music is accompanied by an oh-so-fresh presentation: multi-panelled vinyl and CD packaging offer a blank wall on which listeners can unfold their own unreasonable vision for the Huffy universe. Each includes sticker sheets with over 20 full colour graffiti designed by Keith, Chris, and friends, deployable according to the user’s whim. Tilting reality even further into the hallucinatory gyre, this vinyl comes in a choice of different colours. (The cassette will be manufactured in yellow, and has exclusive content on Side B, giving hard plastic-enthusiasts something to crow about.)

On Huffy’s mosaic form, Chris says, “Usually people bring a vinyl record home, rip it to their iPods, and throw it straight into the fire. Well, not with Huffy. We’re giving our listeners a reason to keep this one around, and even to consider passing it down to future generations, if they’re super-happy with where they put all the stickers.”

TRACK LISTING

1. You’ve Lost Your Shit
2. Contact High
3. Handshake Agreement
4. I Cut My Own Hair
5. Just Education
6. Sentimental Education
7. Fault Lines
8. Pandemonium
9. Bought Myself A Grave
10. Behavior Unbecoming

Following the release of their brand new top 40 album "Is Love Enough?”, Stone Foundation return with their 3rd 7” release of the year. Featuring regular collaborator Paul Weller on lead vocals, Deeper Love boasts a Balearic funk groove and one of Weller’s best ever vocal performances. Limited to 1,000 copies worldwide, certain to sell out quickly. Unmissable!

TRACK LISTING

A1. Deeper Love (feat. Paul Weller)
B1. Love’s Getting Deeper (Good Vibes Mix)

Everybody, Anyone features 11 new songs and as before, there’s a sprinkling of guest musicians who feature on the album including Kathryn Williams, Dr Robert, Mick Talbot, Steve White, & The Average White Band’s Hamish Stuart. And unable to stay away, Paul Weller (who produced and featured on the last album) sneaks back in with a bit of piano, guitar and BVs on a couple of tracks. The Midlands based band’s 5th studio album was recorded at Paul Weller’s Black Barn Studios in Surrey and produced by Stone Foundation founding members Neil Jones and Neil Sheasby and engineered by Charles Rees.

The band, buoyed & encouraged by the reception to their last album Street Rituals (chart position: 25), have taken a slightly different direction and hit upon a creative formula that clearly works. After a long period of extensive touring, which included headline shows at Shepherds Bush Empire and a storming set at Glastonbury, the band were so stoked that they went straight back to the studio to start work on Everybody Anyone while the creative juices were still flowing.

Everybody, Anyone sees a harder, heavier funk vibe than it’s predecessor but with the great grooves comes great songs. Talking about the album, bassist Neil Sheasby says: “In recent years I’ve heard a lot of records with great grooves but there’s no song, the message & melodies were still key to the records creation. To me it sounds like a very cohesive collection of tunes, a body of work that hangs well as a complete album. The next natural step for Stone Foundation” 

We Are Scientists, the Brooklyn, New York based power pop troupe are set to return with their sixth album. Titled ‘Megaplex’ and released via 100% Records on April 27th, the infamous duo, Keith Murray (guitar/vocals) and Chris Cain (bass), are once again set to dazzle the world with ten brand new splashes of colourful and utterly addictive pop that serve as a welcome distraction to these bleak times we live in.

“In the past we’ve used our music to educate, to enlighten, to awaken people to the depth and complexity of moral concerns. This time, we really wanted to drop a fun-bomb. Something to dance or f*** to,” states Chris and ‘Megaplex’ achieves just that. Recorded at Tim Wheeler from Ash’s Atomic Heart Studios in NYC and once again produced by Max Hart (ex-Katy Perry), the duo set about honing down a sprawling burst of creativity to make the concise pop beast that is ‘Megaplex’.

"At this point in our career, we’ve written so many songs,” explains Keith. “The pool for this record alone was something like 90 songs deep — that we know exactly what we want out of a We Are Scientists record. We want it to be taut, to bang hard, to have a big hook every four seconds or so. We don’t have to be precious about which songs make it onto a record; we can listen to the ones that didn’t make it at home, on our own time. ‘Megaplex’ is just the ten most delicious songs that we have — a stacked-up compound of entertainment."

"It takes a lot of hard work, a lot of honing of craft to make it to six records,” continues Keith. “ I mean, the Velvet Underground never made six albums. The Smiths didn’t. Pavement, Guns N’ Roses, The Stooges — none of them could do it. So, I guess we’re just objectively better than those bands now? It’s just a mathematical fact, right? Van Halen made six with David Lee Roth but only four with Sammy Hagar, so I guess we’re better than Hagar-era Van Halen but only just as good as Roth-era? Which, saying it out loud, makes total sense, yeah."

These are stark facts that cannot be argued when faced with the ten melodious molten nuggets that are simply blinding in their brightness. Yes folks, We Are Scientists are very much back.

“Our brilliant work in pop song writing is unsurpassed,” summarises Keith. “And will probably make the We Are Scientists Name live beyond eternity.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Bright, soaring melodies and bolshy, neon synths thump around the stereo image while the vocals soar over the top. Unashamedly retro but brilliantly modern, and great fun throughout.

TRACK LISTING

CD
1. One In, One Out
2. Notes In A Bottle
3. Heart Is A Weapon
4. Your Light Has Changed
5. KIT
6. No Wait At Five Leaves
7. Not Another Word
8. Now Or Never
9. You Failed
10. Properties Of Perception

LP
A1. One In, One Out
A2. Notes In A Bottle
A3. Heart Is A Weapon
A4. Your Light Has Changed
A5. KIT
B1. No Wait At Five Leaves
B2. Not Another Word
B3. Now Or Never
B4. You Failed
B5. Properties Of Perception

The bands 4th studio album was produced by Paul Weller, who also features on all the tracks (piano, guitar & vocal including lead vocal on ‘Your Balloon Is Rising’). Having been hugely impressed by Stone Foundations previous endeavours, Paul personally contacted the band to propose the idea of working together, initially on one specific track, but having enjoyed the process so much, the resulting ten compositions on ‘Street Rituals’ now all have musical input from Paul. Two songs - ‘The Limit of a Man’ & ‘Colour Of’ - are co-writes with a Jones/Sheasby/Weller credit.

Stone Foundation’s Neil Jones commented: "Paul contacted us at the start of 2016 after hearing our last record. He wanted to know if we'd like to get involved with a demo he'd been working on and we obviously grasped the opportunity with both hands. ‘The Limit of a Man’ was born out of those early exchanges and from that point onwards we never looked back". Neil Sheasby added “Paul pretty much joined the band for the recording sessions, playing guitar, piano and adding vocals to several songs as well as overseeing the production of the record.”

Elsewhere on the album there are stunning contributions from legendary soul singers William Bell, who lends his voice to ‘Strange People’, and the unmistakable tones of Bettye Lavette, providing the lead on ‘Season of Change’. The collaboration between Stone Foundation and these internationally celebrated artists cements the bands incredible reputation as one of the finest British Soul bands in existence.

With an extraordinary history of constant surprises and success against the odds, ‘Street Rituals’ feels like the culmination of years of hard work paying off for Stone Foundation as they continue to develop their unique style of soul on a much broader scale. Subtle horn & string arrangements add glorious swathes of colour and light to a new collection of songs that are unquestionably the groups strongest to date. Co-writers and founding members Neil Jones and Neil Sheasby have consciously delivered thought provoking lyrics that reflect current issues of uncertainty and division, but smartly balance that with a prevailing sense of hope and optimism within their musical delivery.

"These are dark, dark times so I was glad to hear a positive voice and vibrations in the words and a joy in the music...what a pleasure and a privilege it was to work with these fellas". “It’s their best songwriting to date, and I just hope people get to hear it because there are some great tunes and I like the message on the record. I like the social comment, because you have so little of that these days.” - Paul Weller on the band and record

TRACK LISTING

CD
1) Back In The Game (feat. Paul Weller)
2) Open Your Heart To The World
3) Love Rediscovered
4) The Limit Of A Man
5) The Colour Of...
6) Street Rituals (feat. Paul Weller)
7) Strange People (feat. William Bell)
8) Your Balloon Is Rising (feat. Paul Weller)
9) Season Of Change (feat. Bettye LaVette)
10) Simplify The Situation

CD+DVD
CD Same As Above
DVD
1) The Making Of Street Rituals
2) Back In The Game [In-studio Performance]
3) Your Balloon Is Rising [in-studio Performance]
4) Strange People [In-studio Performance]

LP
Side A
1) Back In The Game (feat. Paul Weller)
2) Open Your Heart To The World
3) Love Rediscovered
4) The Limit Of A Man
5) The Colour Of...

Side B
6) Street Rituals (feat. Paul Weller)
7) Strange People (feat. William Bell)
8) Your Balloon Is Rising (feat. Paul Weller)
9) Season Of Change (feat. Bettye LaVette)
10) Simplify The Situation

We Are Scientists, the Brooklyn, New York based power pop troupe are set to return this coming April 22nd with their fifth album. Titled ‘Helter Seltzer’ and released via 100% Records, it is preceded by the single release of ‘Buckle’, the album’s opening track, available today for stream and download.



For this album We Are Scientists asked their ex-keyboard player Max Hart to produce. Max had just finished a three-year stint as the keyboardist for international super-mega-person Katy Perry, choosing as his final gig Ms. Perry’s performance at the 2015 Super Bowl. After a number of small producing projects squeezed in between tours, he was ready to roll up his sleeves and dive in.



Max rented a studio space in Brooklyn’s DUMBO neighbourhood, outfitting it with gear he had accumulated over a decade of obsessive internet shopping. In early March, the team got to work. At their disposal was a trove of new We Are Scientists demos as well as Max’s inside-out familiarity with hits like ‘Teenage Dream’ and ‘Firework’ and ‘Dark Horse.’ Sifting through the options, a direction emerged: they would use the tones and trickery of radio pop to add a sweet sheen to the new crop of distinctively We Are Scientists songs. Months of toil and trial and error finally brought the right balance, and the finished recordings were shipped to mixer Chris Coady at Sunset Sound in L.A. Coady has quietly emerged in recent years as one of the finest mixers of glossy indie pop, with credits that include Future Islands, Beach House, and !!!.



In ‘Helter Seltzer’ he knew he had an album that should shimmer but also bang, and he applied all of the magic and sauce at his disposal to insure it did exactly that. Finally, the music was passed through the deluxe mastering machine that are the ears of Greg Calbi (Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Noel Gallagher, Perfume Genius) to add a coat of heft and sparkle, and in January of 2016, nearly a year after construction began, the album was pronounced complete.



"We've always made overtures toward being a pop band, but we've generally had the inclination to obscure those pop leanings in grit and chaos — to screw them up with fuzzed-out tones and raucous performances," says guitarist and vocalist Keith Murray. "It's made us really think about what our musical genre is. We're not punk — we're too interested in making our songs as pretty as possible. We're not straight-up rock — our tastes our too left-of-centre. We're not indie-rock — our heads aren't far enough up our own butts. So finally, after putting as much time into thinking about it as we're apt to — about ten minutes, over beers — we decided that our genre is 'Helter Seltzer.'"



"Declaring a new genre is obviously douchey as hell, though, and impossible to deliver with a straight face," adds bassist Chris Cain, "so we did the noble thing and just made ‘Helter Seltzer’ the album title. It's especially apt for us these days, though. The songs here are more effervescent than we've ever managed to deliver, but they've still maintained a measure of that ‘Helter Skelter’ element — no matter how fizzy and refreshing the tunes are, they've always got a bit of that seamy, scuzzy, 'cult on Spahn Ranch' vibe."



"Incidentally, the album title represents a secondary bonus of proselytizing to the world about seltzer, which is woefully under-recognized outside the United States. We've polled foreign friends and associates about their awareness of seltzer, and found out that most of them thought it related either to a hangover cure or to that fusty comedic "squirt in the face" gag from classic cinema. Almost none recognized the fine pleasure of sipping on a nice, refreshing seltzer water, available everywhere in bottles and cans throughout the U.S. We therefore consider this album, as a vessel of both sweet pop tunes and seltzer outreach, to be a work of undisguised philanthropy on our part."

TRACK LISTING

1. Buckle
2. In My Head
3. Too Late
4. Hold On
5. We Need A Word
6. Want For Nothing
7. Classic Love
8. Waiting For You
9. Headlights
10. Forgiveness

After three thick years of performances, passport abuse, and pumping, pleasure-principle EPs, Damon Palermo, AKA classic house torchbearer Magic Touch, presents his pinnacle statement to date: 'Palermo House Gang'. Joining forces with a vast cast of collaborators sourced from his intercontinental travels - Octo Octa, Newbody, Benny Badge, The Horses, Sarah Bates, Sorcerer, Ash Williams - Palermo swings and sweats through funky new wave club mixes, freestyle R&B, mesh-top house, freeform hardware workouts and decadent disco for a sprawling celebration of communal motion and dancefloor idealism.

Sustained heavy touring often grizzles musicians into cynical survivalists but it seems to have had the opposite effect on Palermo - these are his most generous, playful and sensual tracks to date. Let go, lighten up, join the Gang.

The new long player was recorded in New York City over the last year with producer Chris Coady (Smith Westerns, Beach House, Gang Gang Dance, Blonde Redhead), and lands in the middle of the band’s 5 month tour of Europe, America & Australia. A summer of festivals will follow.

Asked to comment on the unusual title, bassist Chris Cain explains, “It’s in French, I think. At least some of the words.”

Singer and guitarist Keith Murray elaborates: “We wanted to get at the seemingly inevitable parallax that happens between two people in a relationship, that sense that you get the gist of what the other person needs and wants and how they feel about you, but only the gist — you’re relying on these broad cues a lot of the time to tell you what the hell’s going on.”

We Are Scientists exploded onto the U.K. scene with one of 2005’s iconic indie dance rock records, ‘With Love & Squalor’. Years of touring followed, as did a second album, ‘Brain Thrust Mastery’, that spawned now-classic nightlife anthem ‘After Hours’ (a #11 charting single). Main stage slots at Reading & Leeds, Glastonbury, T In The Park, and festivals all over Europe, as well as appearances on Later with Jools Holland, and their own series of comedic MTV shorts (‘Steve Wants His Money’), followed by third album ‘Barbara’… all served to cement and increase their legacy.

Now, after releasing a 7-inch and a 5-song EP in 2013, the band prepare to share their finest collection of songs to date.

According to Cain, “The guy who was producing everything looked different from the one who did those other three records.”

Murray further enthuses, “Yeah, working for the first time with Chris Coady as producer had a huge effect — he has such a distinct and well-developed sense of what’s cool and what sounds good, but he’s also emphatic about keeping the rawness of the performances in there.”

Drummer Andy Burrows, who also recorded ‘Barbara’ with W.A.S., relocated to New York for a year to work on the new album, and lends his world-class efforts behind the kit and elsewhere.

TRACK LISTING

1: What You Do Best
2: Dumb Luck
3: Make It Easy
4: Sprinkles
5: Courage
6: Overreacting
7: Return The Favor
8: Slow Down
9: Don't Blow It
10: Take An Arrow

Scotland-born Parisian Paradise 100 (aka DJ Africa, aka Graham Peel) has been percolating stripped-back, bouncy-castle house constructs onto the web for a few years but never locked them in wax until now. High time. Following his minimalist dictum “more than three tracks on a song is just indulgence,” his debut EP’s four cuts share a sleek, spare design, jigsawing slinky bass, classic keys, lean drum programming and flashes of synth mirage into fluid, aerodynamic patterns. Touches of melodic acid and crossover new wave color the mood an exotic, hedonistic hue (further evinced by titles like “The Loin King” and “French Kissing in the House of Love”). His own vision of the project is appropriately fantastical: “The image in my mind is of tropical forests at night, torchlight, distant sounds of tribal ritual dance and ghosts.” Regal music for pleasure domes.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Loin King
2. Pneus
3. French Kissing In The House Of Love
4. Incroyablement Prop

Like the satisfying first sip of soda water spritz, Roland Tings’s debut EP 'Milky Way' bubbles, barms and beads through your body. Roland Tings is Rohan Newman, a Melbourne producer who, like recent rubies Holy Balm, Forces and Canyons, proves there’s just more and more greatness behind the great and powerful Oz. Melodic acid trips soak in swish-ticky booms, like a rubber ball in space with endless bump and bounce. Sweet off his Japanese jaunt, speeding things down with Sapphire Slows shows, Newman’s taste is pure effervescence and buoyancy. But he’s got a percussive stickiness as well, a vim / vigor that raps and rips through Trax touchups and echo-plexes. Not the nineties but the “none-ties” - no glimmer glam, sampladelic vocal vacations or happy house heartbeats. He ends the creamy Milky Way with a brilliantly wonky theme that springs like a wind-up toy gone loose. Roland Tings, Dings and Zings.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Milky Way
A2. Loose Jaw
B1. Polo Sport
B2. Roland's Beats

Octo Octa adds the melancholy to LA Vampires infinite fadness on "Freedom 2K", their reachin’ / preachin’ 50/50 collaboration on 100% Silk. Here La Vamps has traded her cheap'n’chic booty-budget grooves for sleek'n’chic haunted house. With lyrical references to Minnie Riperton, Arthur Russell, and Evelyn 'Champagne' King, vocalist Amanda Brown reappropriates realms of romance, skewing them into fresh sonic moods. Her wash'n'rinse sing / speak is backed by Nick Malkin’s keys-like-skippin’-stones, Britt Brown’s Tex-Mix dub-bumps, and Brian Foote’s sense and sexpertise, which are all just spit and shine for Octo Octa’s moonlit piano naïve melodies. Gloss and glow design by aesthetic-elevator Bobby Houlihan, with silver and pink toned drop-of-androgeny photography by Ashley Anthony, will push your candy buttons. "Freedom 2K" provides dance-or-be-danced-on anthems for the 21st Century, with a diagonal devotion to our generation’s gay nineties. 'We were living in a fantasy' - George Michael, "Freedom 90".

TRACK LISTING

A1. His Love
A2. Wherever, Boy
A3. Found You
B1. Freedom 2K
B2. Unity
B3. Freedom 2K (Malvoeaux Mix)

Catwalk calls from a Creole Camelot; Sir Stephen’s more Boy London than Boy Bayou. Like the well-lit fitting room of a United Colors of Benetton store in Milan, “By Design” is consumer-cool counter culture, if the counter’s a denim bar that only takes gold Amex. Like the pool on the roof of a luxury hotel in Tokyo, “By Design” is Starck-er than stark, wetter than wild, and deeper in the shallow end. Like a Kuwakuba runway during Paris fall fashion week, “By Design” is baggy on Agynes, mixxy on Moss, jammin’ on Gemma. It’s so down it’s beat, so after-hours its early afternoon, so oversized there’s room for two. Made by design with the finest materials - rayon and on, cashmere and cream, and 100% silky Silk. Yeah, boy. Well, that's what 100% Silk say, we think this sounds like a quartet of Inner City Detroit house B-side dubs. Kevin Saunderson gon' get paid.

Local band, taking influences from the likes of Mars Volta.

Manchester's This Product are described as theatrical rockers, and two of these tracks are taken from their forthcoming album, "Magic Bull".