'Cyan Blue' finds Wilson crafting a smoothly woven cyan tapestry of her eternal influences; thumping gospel piano, warm soul basslines, atmospheric electronics, and penetrating R&B melodies. Yet, it possesses a sense of vastness that rings in a new era for Wilson, one in which she’s embracing collaboration and newfound creative openness tinged with wistfulness and yearning and a reflection on youthful innocence. “I want to look through the unjaded eyes of my younger self again,” Wilson explains of making 'Cyan Blue'. “Before there wasn’t as much baggage, before so much life was lived. But I also wish that my younger self could see where I am now. It would be nice to be able to impart some of the wisdom and clarity that I have now onto her.”

Working with producers like Leon Thomas (SZA, Ariana Grande, Post Malone), and Jack Rochon (H.E.R, Daniel Caesar), 'Cyan Blue' demonstrates Wilson’s sonic expertise while also showcasing the next evolution of her time-bending songwriting. Through 13 hypnotizing tracks, she continues to use music as a vessel for unpacking relationships, which in turn allows her to meet and understand herself in life-spanning, panoramic focus. But, on 'Cyan Blue', she challenged herself to kick her perfectionist tendencies. “Before, I was extremely intentional about creating music with a strong foundation, a bed of artistic integrity,” Wilson reflects. “But that was a bit stifling, like, ‘Let me just make a great piece of art that will stand the test of time, no pressure.’ Now, I think I'm getting out of this frozen state of needing everything to be perfect. I'm more interested in capturing feelings in the moment as they happen and leaving them in that moment.”

While this is only her second album, Wilson’s influence in music has made a major mainstream impact. Wilson broke out in 2016 with her critically acclaimed EP, 'CDW', followed by 2018’s 'Stone Woman' and made her debut studio album an official coming out moment in 2021 with the critically acclaimed, self-released 'Alpha'. Over the past decade, she’s been sampled by Drake, John Mayer, and James Blake, while Patti Smith has recently praised and covered Wilson’s 2016 breakout single “Work.” Additionally, she’s collaborated with artists like Kaytranada, BADBADNOTGOOD, and SG Lewis, demonstrating that there’s no sound Wilson can’t adapt to and sprinkle her cyan-colored magic over.

TRACK LISTING

1. My Way
2. Money
3. Dovetail
4. Forever (ft. Snoh Aalegra)
5. Do U Still
6. New Day
7. Last Call
8. Canopy
9. Over The Rainbow
10. Kiss & Tell
11. I Don't Love You
12. Cyan Blue
13. Walk With Me

The Cool Operator;' gathers together 28 sure shots from Delroy Wilson blending the very best of his all-conquering hit run of forty-fives for Bunny 'Striker' Lee 'longside a handful of crucial cuts produced by Channel One and Federal - The hits featured here like 'Better Must Come'',' I'm Still Waiting', 'It's Shame' are among the defining releases of this golden age of reggae music

Delroy, immortalised by The Clash in their 'White Man In Hammersmith Palais' had a long a successful run of hit recordings with 'Striker' and the best of them are including on this one essential package.

TRACK LISTING

1. Cool Operator
2. Better Must Come
3. I Want To Love You
4. Till I Die
5. Living In The Footsteps Of Another Man
6. Live And Learn
7. I'm Still Waiting
8. It's A Shame
9. Mother Nature
10. Peace And Love
11. My Baby Is Gone
12. Drink Wine
13. Once Upon A Time
14. Dancing Mood
15. Rain From The Skies
16. Movie Star
17. Riding For A Fall
18. Try Again
19. Who Cares
20. This Old Heart Of Mine
21. Get Ready
22. Can't Stop Me
23. Mash Up Illitracy
24. Here Come The Heartaches
25. Trying To Wreck My Life
26. Have Some Mercy
27. Never Will Conquer Me

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.

Harmonic Divergence is the perfect companion piece to Steven Wilsonís highly acclaimed 2023 album The Harmony Codex. On this very limited nine track release, music from the original album has been remixed and reimagined by Wilson, alongside longtime bandmates/collaborators and like-minded bands and producers. The result is a warped mirror image of the original, where oblique electronics are replaced by spidery gothic guitar riffs and cyclical piano tracks are mutated and transformed for the dance floor.

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.

Ewan Pearson turns Steven Wilson's otherworldly 'Inclination' into a cosmic disco odyssey perfectly made for dancing in outer space. Built on top of a precision kick drum, handclaps and cowbell rhythm, Ewan's mix adds swirls of piano, cascading synth lines and a haunting vocal before the whole thing ups and soars off into the cosmos for a dubbed out four minute coda.

The original version of ‘Inclination’ appears on Steven Wilson’s highly acclaimed new album, ‘The Harmony Codex’ which entered the UK album charts at #4. Triumphant reviews herald the album as “Sonically immaculate” (Uncut), “Celestial” (Clash), “a beguiling, melancholic, oblique epic” (Metro), “a sonic journey where you never quite know what's around the corner” (Mojo).

Inclination Ewan Pearson Remix is available as a limited edition 12” featuring vocal and instrumental remixes. 

TRACK LISTING

Side 1
Inclination - Ewan Pearson Remix
Side 2
Inclination - Ewan Pearson Instrumental Remix

THIS IS A BLACK FRIDAY 2023 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON FRIDAY NOVEMBER 24TH 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 8AM ON SATURDAY NOVEMBER 25TH).

Quartet was Ultravox's third album with Midge Ure on vocals, which followed two hugely successful albums, 'Vienna' and Rage In Eden' The previous albums were produced by German producer, Conny Plank, for this they look at George Martin to take the helm. Featuring four UK Top 40 singles, Reap The Wild Wind, We Came To Dance, Visions Inn Blue and the silver awarded Hymn.

This new 2023 Stereo Mix has been undertaken by renowned musician and producer Steven Wilson, along with it an exclusive to this release, his instrumental mixes of the album.

The Harmony Codex - the seventh album by Steven Wilson - takes you on a trip. A genre-spanning collection that opens up like a musical puzzle box, it presents a series of endlessly beautiful vistas that roll out and shift in front of you. Arguably the best album Wilson has made during a career that’s spanned more than three decades both as a band leader and as a solo artist, it represents the apotheosis of a life spent fully absorbed in music.

While The Harmony Codex nods to records from Steven Wilson’s recent past, at times echoing the paranoid rumble of 2008’s Insurgentes, the crystalline electronics of 2021’s The Future Bites and the expansive storytelling of 2013’s The Raven That Refused To Sing (and Other Stories), here he has managed to create something entirely unique, a record that exists outside of the notion of genre. And although The Harmony Codex is a record made with spatial audio in mind, it’s not one that needs an elaborate sound system to lift you out of body - two speakers and an open mind will do just fine.

Steven Wilson is a singular talent, an artist/producer, his last album - 2021’s The Future Bites - charted at No 4 in the UK and was nominated for 2 Grammys. He is the founding member of Porcupine Tree, whose last album (2022’s Closure/Continuation) charted at No 2. Steven has also received multiple Grammy nominations for his spatial audio work, having recently remixed artists such as Chic, King Crimson, ABC, Roxy Music, A Ha, Suede, Tears for Fears and Guns N’ Roses. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: As a massive fan of Porcupine Tree, it's comforting to still be able to hear the chord progressions and vocal range that Wilson displayed for the band transplanted into his solo work. These pieces eschew the obvious drug-adjacent trips of those early works and to an extent the gothic leaning hints in his early albums, while still retaining his mastery of production and unique sound.

TRACK LISTING

1. Inclination
2. What Life Brings
3. Economies Of Scale
4. Impossible Tightrope
5. Rock Bottom
6. Beautiful Scarecrow
7. The Harmony Codex
8. Time Is Running Out
9. Actual Brutal Facts
10. Staircase

“A lot of this batch of songs is a reaction to the production stuff that I do,” says Jonathan Wilson of his new album Eat the Worm.

“It began to dawn on me: a lot of my friends and people that I really admire, when they get in the studio, they get much more conservative…. Sometimes you’ve got to take chances and resist the urge to dumb things down to the kind of humdrum album we’ve all heard. It’s got to be kind of strange.”

To that end, Wilson gave himself plenty of time to let the songs unfold over the course of the last two years. Having his own Fivestar Studios in Topanga Canyon, California also allowed him to devote as much time as he wanted to fine-tuning the tracks.

“There's a lot of experimentation, and almost none of the songs started as me with a guitar. I really wanted something that sounded fresh and new.”

“Sonically stunning... Like Harry Nilsson, Jack Nitzsche or Todd Rundgren, Wilson plays with tone, time and space, resulting in a lush, brainy record.” Shindig – 5 stars *****

TRACK LISTING

1. Marzipan
2. Bonamossa
3. Ol’ Father Time
4. Hollywood Vape
5. The Village Is Dead
6. Wim Hof
7. Lo And Behold
8. Charlie Parker
9. Hey Love
10. B.F.F.
11. East LA
12. Ridin’ In A Jag

Long Promised Road is a 2021 documentary film about the Beach Boys' co-founder Brian Wilson directed by Brent Wilson. It follows Brian and Rolling Stone editor Jason Fine as they drive around Los Angeles and visit locations from Brian's past, interspersed with footage from recording sessions and comments from musical artists about his influence on the industry. The film was accompanied by the release of a soundtrack album consisting of previously-unreleased recordings by Wilson, several of which dated from his unfinished 1990s collaborations with producer Andy Paley, and one new song, "Right Where I Belong", that Wilson co-wrote with My Morning Jacket frontman Jim James for the film.

TRACK LISTING

01. Right Where I Belong
02. I’m Goin Home
03. It’s Not Easy Being Me
04. Must Be A Miracle
05. Slightly American Music
06. It’s O.K.
07. Rock & Roll Has Got A Hold On Me
08. The Night Was So Young
09. Honeycomb
10. Long Promised Road
11. In My Room Live From The Ryman Auditorium
12. I’m Broke

Nancy Wilson worked and recorded prolifically over five decades, particularly for Capitol Records in the 1960s and 70s. A song from each of those combine here and represent two of her most highly acclaimed and sought after releases. “Sunshine” is taken from the 1979 album “Life, Love & Harmony”, an elegant fusion of soul and jazz regarded as a classic on the rare groove scene. Mint copies of this original on Capitol sell for £60-£100 “The End of Our Love” is described as a ‘northern soul floor packer’ and was recorded in 1968, rare on an original 7” single and always sought after.

TRACK LISTING

1. The End Of Our Love
2. Sunshine

The more I thought about it, the more I realised my career has been unusual. How did I manage to do everything wrong but still end up on the front cover of magazines, headlining world tours and achieving Top 5 albums? How did I attract such obsessive and fanatical fans, many of whom take everything I do or say very personally, which is simultaneously flattering but can also be tremendously frustrating? Even this I somehow cultivated without somehow meaning to. My accidental career.

Limited Edition of One is unlike any other music book you will ever have read. Part the long-awaited memoir of Steven Wilson: whose celebrated band Porcupine Tree began as teenage fiction before unintentionally evolving into a reality that encompassed Grammy-nominated records and sold-out shows around the world, before he set out for an even more successful solo career. Part the story of a twenty-first century artist who achieved chart-topping mainstream success without ever becoming part of the mainstream.

From Abba to Stockhausen, via a collection of conversations and thought pieces on the art of listening, the rules of collaboration, lists of lists, personal stories, professional adventurism (including food, film, TV, modern art), old school rock stardom, how to negotiate an obsessive fanbase and survive on social media, and dream-fever storytelling.

Nearly five years on from their acclaimed debut, Bennett Wilson Poole reveal the follow up. It's been a long time coming, but...

That eponymous first album was only ever intended as a one-off collaborative project — a serendipitous series of events which began with a late evening session where the trio wrote ‘Hate Won't Win’. A response to the murder of MP Jo Cox, it was something of a fresh take on Crosby Stills Nash and Young’s classic protest song ‘Ohio’. The release saw Bennett Wilson Poole embraced by the Americana community, playing live on the Andrew Marr show and crowned as ‘UK Artist of the Year’ at the 2019 UK Americana Awards, in front of a watching crowd including Graham Nash himself.

The new album came together in similar fashion; Robin (Bennett) and Danny (Wilson) started writing new songs late into the night whilst on tour to promote the first record — a tour which unfolded from a three-night residency in a London pub into a year-long odyssey culminating in a headline show in Hall One at King’s Place — and before they knew it, there were enough songs to begin recording an unplanned second album.

Where the first record drank deep from 70s US west coast folk-rock, the second has been heavily spiked with 1960s British psychedelia, even featuring a cover by legendary counterculture artist John Hurford (whose credits include 60s artwork for Oz Magazine and International Times).*

Tony Poole’s meticulous and inspired production has spun Robin and Danny’s fresh batch of songs into a delicate web of musical delight. Fans of the ‘spot the reference’ game Tony started on the first record won’t be disappointed this time either, as there are plenty more to be found here.

As with the first album, the lyrics don’t shy away from current affairs – by the end of that year of touring, the band were already playing “I Wanna Love You (But I Can’t Right Now)”, reflecting on the state of US politics, yet optimistic that the problems are only temporary.

Many of the tracks on the new album feature live rhythm section Fin Kenny (drums) and Joe Bennett (bass) for the first time on a BWP record.

The title of the album comes from the lyrics of ‘Help Me See My Way’, the first single, a prayer for strength in difficult times, the trippy animated video for which was originally issued during lockdown. The dreamy positivity of the line "I saw a star behind your eyes" is tempered with the plea "don't let it die away", a message which feels as important as ever two years on.

All three collaborators have had critical acclaim in their own right. Danny Wilson’s credentials go back to his days in Grand Drive with brother Julian, and his consistent high calibre output with his Champions of the World led them to sweeping the board at the first UK Americana Awards with Album, Artist and Song of the year awards richly deserved; Tony Poole’s Starry Eyed and Laughing were hailed as “the English Byrds” on the back of their two CBS-released albums in the mid-seventies and he has since built an enviable reputation as producer and engineer; Robin Bennett has been relentlessly turning out timeless songs from his Oxfordshire base in bands from Goldrush to The Dreaming Spires

TRACK LISTING

1) I Saw Love
2) Waiting For The Wave To Break
3) I Wanna Love You (But I Can’t Right Now)
4) Help Me See My Way
5) Cry At The Movies
6) Ready To Serve
7) Yvonne
8) Heart Songs
9) Tie-Dye T-Shirt
10) The Sea And The Shore

THE TIMES & UNCUT MUSIC BOOK OF THE YEARCritically-acclaimed and bestselling author Paul Morley's long-awaited biography of Factory Records co-founder and Manchester icon Tony Wilson. A BOOK OF THE YEARSUNDAY TIMES, NEW STATESMAN, MOJO, LOUDER THAN WAR'Compelling . .

. befitting its extraordinary subject.'BRIAN ENO'Bracing and often surprisingly tender . .

. the perfect monument.'SUNDAY TIMES'Via Morley's magical prose Tony Wilson comes back to life . .

. inspiring.'RICHARD RUSSELLTony Wilson was a man who became synonymous with his beloved city. As the co-founder of the legendary Factory Records and the Hacienda, he appointed himself a custodian of Manchester's legacy of innovation and change, becoming a cultural pioneer for the North.

To Paul Morley, he was this and much more: bullshitting hustler, flashy showman, inventive broadcaster, self-deprecating chancer, publicity seeker, loyal friend. It was Morley to whom Wilson left a daunting final request: to write this book. From Manchester with Love is the biography of a man who changed the world around him through sheerforce of personality.

In the cultural theatre of Manchester, Tony Wilson broke in and took centre stage. 'An immersive experience . .

. very moving indeed.'MIRANDA SAWYER, OBSERVER'Not just a "biog" but the story of a city's history and culture and a unique and disappearing figure.'STUART MACONIE, NEW STATESMAN'Morley's biography is as illuminating on Wilson's strange ability to hold others in his orbit, even after his death, as it is on the story of his life.'THE SPECTATOR'The man/myth Wilson died aged 57 in 2006, but here he burns on fantastically bright.'UNCUT

Having just released a new single 'Our Songbird Has Gone' with Mr. Mellow's Music (28 years since their last record release), The Chesterfields are back with another single, this time a Double-A side featuring 'Mr Wilson Goes To Norway' (a follow up to 1987's 'Oh Mr. Wilson!'), with Simon on vocals, and 'Year On The Turn' on the flip, with Helen on vocal duties. These two tracks have been lifted from their forthcoming album 'New Modern Homes', which will follow in September, via Mr. Mellow's Music

She & Him, the acclaimed twosome of M.Ward and Zooey Deschanel are known for the stylish arrangements, sophisticated interpretations, and sharply drawn originals they have perfected across their exceedingly fruitful six-album, 14-year collaboration. Now, with Melt Away: A Tribute to Brian Wilson, their seventh full-length release (and first for Fantasy), the duo has crafted a love letter to 60’s-era Southern California-inspired pop that stands on its own as a defining musical achievement.

Produced by M.Ward and mixed by Tom Schick (Wilco, Norah Jones, Iron and Wine), Melt Away: A Tribute to Brian Wilson is the pair’s first in six years and features an abundance of smartly chosen Wilson/Beach Boys compositions, some universally beloved and others a little less familiar. All of them though, whether ingrained in your soul or hearing for the first time, share a flair for the dramatic. Ward and Deschanel bring their uncanny communal musical instincts to these pop-noir confections and re-imagine them for these times.

The inviting, twangy album opener, Brian Wilson and Mike Love’s “Darlin’,” (from the Beach Boys 1967 album Wild Honey) sets a high bar that She & Him meets throughout. The duo’s devoted take on “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” is especially revealing. Most wouldn’t consider touching the stone-cold classic, yet they lean into it with unabashed joy. Elsewhere, the band’s sublime version of Wilson’s mournful “Til I Die” is a three-minute and 22 second marvel. Deschanel’s spectacular vocal turn on the criminally overlooked Wilson solo cut “Melt Away” transforms the original’s lush, string-heavy treatment into a post-modern folk-pop gem. Other highlights include the surf-rock throwback “Do It Again,” featuring vocals from Brian Wilson himself (!) and the graceful “Please Let Me Wonder,” a long-treasured Wilson album cut. Finally, the Beach Boy’s timeless “Don’t Worry Baby” might be the album’s centerpiece and most affecting track. M.Ward’s earthy, laconic lead vocal layered over an exquisite arrangement feels organic and completely new – just like this album, a stunner in every way.

Genre: Indie Pop, Classic Rock, Covers, Twee Pop, 60’s Rock

Mood Descriptions: Summer Vibes, Upbeat, Beach, Feel Good, Roadtrip, Cloudgazing

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: She & Him (Zooey Deschanel & M Ward) bring their considerable talents to a beautiful tribute to Brian Wilson, one of the greatest songwriters of our time. Expect those woozy lounge-soul vocals from Deschanel and Ward's distinctive guitar style. A fittingly lovely endeavour.

TRACK LISTING

1. “Darlin’” – (Wilson-Love) - From The Beach Boys 1967 LP Wild Honey
2. “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” – (Wilson-Asher-Love) - From The Beach Boys 1966 LP Pet Sounds
3. “Til I Die” – (Brian Wilson) – From The Beach Boys 1971 LP Surf’s Up
4. “Deidre” – (Johnson-Wilson) – From The Beach Boys 1970 LP Sunflower
5. “Melt Away” – (Brian Wilson) – From Brian Wilson’s 1988 Self-titled Solo LP
6. “Good To My Baby” – (Wilson-Love) – From The 1965 LP The Beach Boys Today!
7. “Don’t Talk (Put Your Head On My Shoulder)” – (Wilson-Asher) - From The 1966 LP Pet Sounds
8. “Don’t Worry Baby” – (Wilson-Christian) – From The Beach Boys 1964 LP Shut Down Volume 2
9. “This Whole World” – (Wilson) – From The Beach Boys 1970 LP Sunflower
10. “Kiss Me, Baby” – (Wilson-Love) – From The 1965 LP The Beach Boys Today!
11. “Do It Again” Featuring Brian Wilson – (Wilson-Love) – From The Beach Boys 1968 LP Friends
12. "Heads You Win, Tails I Lose" – (Wilson-Usher) - From The Beach Boys 1962 LP Surfin’ Safari
13. “Please Let Me Wonder” – (Wilson-Love) - From 1965 LP The Beach Boys Today!
14. “Meant For You” – (Wilson-Love) - From The Beach Boys 1968 LP Friends

Reissue of this amazing Ghanian boogie / highlife record from 1988. Cut loud on 12” and therefore optimized for dancefloor action. In addition we get two remixes from Amsterdam-based DJ Mendel.

Originally privately released in a small run by Wilson himself, ‘Asew Watchman’ and ‘Mabre Agu’ were both recorded in Brixton, London in 1988 after his relocation from Ghana to the UK in search of stardom, following the footsteps of burger highlife stars Pat Thomas, George Darko and Thomas Frempong.

Sadly, however, after pressing one thousand copies of the album, and although the music itself rivalled the very best burger highlife of the time, Wilson was beset by various obstacles both in London and back home. As such, the record was unable to make the headway that it deserved, and the music was soon lost into obscurity.

Nevertheless, with original copies now selling for triple figures on the second-hand market, and after a two-year search to track Wilson down, Kalita felt obliged to repress this lost classic.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Afro-boogie that'll find favour with lovers of Don Laka and Oby Onyioha. I like the two OGs / two remix format very much. You'll get loads of legs outta this!

TRACK LISTING

Side 1
1. Asew Watchman (4:42)
2. Mabre Agu (3:39)
Side 2
1. Asew Watchman (Mendel Extended Mix) (6:35)
2. Mabre Agu (Mendel Midnight Mix) (5:15)

A Paean to Wilson is still arguably Vini Reilly and the Durutti Column's most important and consistent piece of work since the demise of the original and seminal Factory Records in the early 1990's. On this release we have the ‘F4 Heaven Sent’ tracks released on vinyl for the first time. They first appeared in 2005 via Wilson's project F4, as being the fourth version of Factory Records. Originally it was download-only release, Heaven Sent (It Was Called Digital, It Was Heaven Sent). A six track CD of personal dedications by Vini ironically the last piece is titled Anthony. Originally this was commissioned for the MIF (Manchester International Festival) where it was premiered in July 2009. Vin had already composed pieces for Tony to listen to whilst he was ill in hospital and it was from here that the project developed.

This release belatedly coincides with the new Paul Morley Biography ‘Manchester with Love: The Life and Opinions of Tony ...’Ever critical of Vini's voice, but ever a fierce champion of his talent, the late Tony Wilson would surely appreciate this instrumental tribute by The Durutti Column. ‘Near the beginning of the final night of the Durutti Column's 70-minute international festival tribute to Tony Wilson, A Paean to Wilson, guitarist Vini Reilly announced that he wouldn't be singing: "So you won't have to put up with my awful voice and schoolboy lyrics." If Wilson was with us, he would have chuckled. The Granada presenter-turned-Factory Records boss spent years urging his first signing to stop singing, and concentrate on the virtuosity that led Red Hot Chili Pepper John Frusciante to call Reilly "the greatest guitarist in the world". Two years after his death, Wilson got his way, one of many lovely touches in a very personal, emotional and often warmly funny musical tribute. Wilson signed Joy Division and Happy Mondays, yet never gave up on this cult band he adored, working with them even after his legendary label went bankrupt.

A complex man, Wilson was an academic thinker who revelled in Steve Coogan's affectionate, Alan Partridge-style send-up of him. And this tribute was no different. At one point, Reilly known for melancholy launched into something resembling an Irish jig. "Tony loved to laugh," he explained. "He loved absurdities." After the humour came exquisitely mournful music. With Reilly and drummer Bruce Mitchell augmented by bass, keyboard, violin, electric piano, drum machine and trumpet, the band's beautiful pieces reflected Wilson's love of rock and classical. Reilly's plangent guitar work showed grief's emotional spectrum, from sadness to overdriven anger. As in life, Wilson had the last word, his recorded voice expounding thoughts on socialism with an eerie echo. Silence followed as Manchester pondered the loss of one of its truly larger-than-life characters. Then everybody cheered.'

TRACK LISTING

I/Or Are You Just A Technician
II/Chant
III/Quatro Two
IV/Requiem
V/Stuki VI/Along Came Poppy Three
VII/Brother
VIII/Duet With Piano
IX/Darkness Here Four
X/Catos Revisited
XI/The Truth
XII/How Unbelievable Five
XIII/Bruce
XIV/Keir
XV/Neil Six
XVI/Mike
XVII/Alan
XVIII/Anthony

Danny George Wilson (Bennett Wilson Poole, Danny & The Champions Of The World, Grand Drive) unveils a radically surprising new solo album Another Place to a world coming up for air. Celebrating the future returning with a vibrant and diverse collection of startling, impressionistic songs produced in tandem with Sussex-based, studio-wizard Hamish Benjamin and his frequent collaborator Henry Garratt, helped along by pedal steel maestro Iain Sloan (Peter Bruntnell, Wynntown Marshals), and with memorable guest appearances from Emma Swift (Blonde On The Tracks), Gerry Love (Teenage Fanclub), and Jeff Tweedy (Wilco).

TRACK LISTING

1. Lost Future
2. Sincerely Hoping
3. I Wanna Tell You
4. Heaven For Hiding
5. Can You Feel Me?
6. Right Place
7. Giving Away Too Much
8. We've Got A Lot To Learn
9. I Would Be In Love (Anyway)
10. Inbetween The Love

Frank Wilson's Northern Soul gem - "Do I Love You (Indeed I Do)" immortalised in this lovely little music box.

Comes with a certificate of authenticity.

Danny George Wilson (Bennett Wilson Poole, Danny & The Champions Of The World, Grand Drive) unveils a radically surprising new solo album Another Place to a world coming up for air. Celebrating the future returning with a vibrant and diverse collection of startling, impressionistic songs produced in tandem with Sussex-based, studio-wizard Hamish Benjamin and his frequent collaborator Henry Garratt, helped along by pedal steel maestro Iain Sloan (Peter Bruntnell, Wynntown Marshals), and with memorable guest appearances from Emma Swift (Blonde On The Tracks), Gerry Love (Teenage Fanclub), and Jeff Tweedy (Wilco).

TRACK LISTING

1. We've Got A Lot To Learn
2. Things Are Looking Up

THE FUTURE BITES explores ways that the human brain has evolved in the internet era. Where 2017’s Top 3 album TO THE BONE confronted the (then) emerging global issues of post truth and fake news, THE FUTURE BITES places the listener in a world of 21st century addictions. It’s a place where on-going, very public experiments with nascent technology on our lives take place constantly; where clicks and Tiks have become more important that human interaction. THE FUTURE BITES is less a bleak vision of an approaching dystopia and more a curious and playful reading of a world made all the more strange and separated by the events of 2020.

Musically, THE FUTURE BITES positively gleams. Across the album, there’s tracks that deal in gorgeous electronics warped by human intervention (KING GHOST) and soaring acoustics that hit the stratosphere (12 THINGS I FORGOT); a ten minute treatise on the joys of oniomania laid out by Elton John over a Moroder-esque whirlwind (PERSONAL SHOPPER) and a relentless bass-driven Motorik groove that dives right into the murk of clickbait and online radicalisation (FOLLOWER). The album’s new recording, COUNT OF UNEASE, is a beautifully plaintive close to the album that floats out on a mix of piano and ambient sound. Together, the nine tracks form Steven’s most consistently brilliant work to date. THE FUTURE BITES was recorded in London and co-produced by David Kosten (Bat For Lashes, Everything Everything) and Steven Wilson. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: As one of the greatest producers on the alternative scene, Steven Wilson was never going to stagnate in the psychedelic waters (Porcupine Tree, whilst brilliant admittedly sound a little dated now), and continues moving forwards with this varied and enduring collection of wry songwriting, clever lyricism and pitch-perfect instrumentation.

THIS IS A BLACK FRIDAY RELEASE AVAILABLE ONLINE ONLY ON FRIDAY NOVEMBER 27TH FROM 6PM.
LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.


Jonathan Wilson follows up his Dixie Blur album, released earlier this year via Bella Union, with a new EP ‘Rare Blur’.

The EP continues where Dixie Blur left off with Wilson recruiting a host of Nashville musicians to deliver 6 songs of beautiful folk music.

Pressed on 180g black vinyl.

Soul legend Jackie Wilson’s 1973 Brunswick single is a smooth, hook-laden, vibe-driven classic that goes for £80 and upwards. In typically fine voice, Jackie’s ‘Because Of You’ is an aching tale of the power of love that’s irresistible. Backed with Dorian Burton and Herman Kelley’s brooding ‘You Don’t Have To Worry’ from 1967; a snip at $400 these days. It was a Brunswick oneoff from the duo that plays off their falsetto and baritone vocals and his been sampled by both Common and 50 Cent among others.

TRACK LISTING

Jackie Wilson - Because Of You
Doris & Kelley - You Don’t Have To Worry

Where do you go after making an album that the Guardian hailed as “a rich, ambitious triumph”, American Songwriter called “a strikingly original, complex and inspired work”, MOJO described as “a record you could lose yourself in for months”, and Billboard as a “most magnificent recording, one that is mandatory listening if you are in search of an immersive album rock experience in the 21st century”? It's a question Jonathan Wilson asked himself after his “maximalist” album Rare Birds was released in 2018 to glowing reviews. Not only did it earn him Album of the Year awards in Rolling Stone, France and Blitz in Portugal, it brought him his first national television appearances in the US, on Conan and CBS Saturday Morning.

Rare Birds had been the culmination of three solo albums in seven years that the singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer released to widespread acclaim. His first, 2011's Gentle Spirit, a beautiful California dream of an album, is a classic by now and won him the admiration and friendship of Graham Nash, David Crosby, Elvis Costello and Jackson Browne. His follow-up, Fanfare, was also well-received with Uncut calling it “a lavish musical epic, the work of a dedicated and stone cold studioholic.” But now Wilson was looking for something completely new.

In 2019 he appeared on the celebratednationally-syndicated live music radio show eTown. “It was sort of bluegrass-based”, Wilson says, “and on this particular show I was playing with Steve Earle. Next thing you know, I'm talking with Steve about recording.” Earle advised Wilson that, if he had a bunch of songs written, he ought to take them to Nashville and make the record blind, since Nashville's crawling with studios and top-notch session players. “And that's how I got into the idea of going to Nashville and tapping into that sound,” says Wilson. “The sound of my home.”

Wilson was born in a small town in North Carolina. As a child he was raised on a mix of Beatles, 60’s and 70’s rock, country, and bluegrass.His uncle played in bluegrass legend Bill Monroe's band. His father had a rock band, but he would often jam with local friends who could “moonlight on banjo and mandolin and do gospel harmonies that would knock you out. I would sit there and strum along,” says Wilson, “There’s this astute southern rhythm and musicality in western NC… Then there’s this crazy three finger banjo style that you have to be really good at it because you’re from the place where Earl Scruggs is from. One of my father’s best pals was the music director at the Caroleean gospel church where my grandfather was a preacher and on the side he could pick the shit out of a mandolin. So, I was exposed to something super-authentic that I was soaking up. In hindsight, it doesn’t get more authentic than that.”

A musical prodigy himself, Wilson wrote his first song at three. He was also a musical polymath, playing drums, horns, woodwind, piano and guitar. He joined an R&B band at 14; left high school to study jazz with some old masters, and joined a rock band, Muscadine. He also became a noted luthier and a record producer. Among the artists he has produced albums for are Father John Misty, American band Dawes, British folk legend Roy Harper and Conor Oberst. In 2017-18 Rogers Waters asked Wilson to join him on his US+THEM tour on guitar and as musical director. Wilson also sang all the David Gilmour vocal parts. On that two-year tour, Wilson would sometimes find himself thinking about his Southern home. “Stuck out there in a hotel in Latvia, it's a long way from anything that feels like home or family. I felt I was subconsciously being led back to my roots.” In the new song '69 Corvette' he sings, I still think of Carolina sometimes. I miss the family. I miss that feeling. I miss home.

Those feelings were still fresh in his mind during that conversation with Steve Earle. Making his next album live in the studio with a Nashville band, instead of building them alone, piece by piece in his L.A studio, seemed like a good way to go back while simultaneously moving forward. An example of that is Wilson's new take on “Korean Tea”, an old song he had done with his ‘90’s band Muscadine. “That is a song about having a shining musical gift to share with the world. My brother says that’s one of the prettiest melodies I’ve written, so I decided to bring it back into the world”. “Heaven Making Love” is a song Wilson wrote for Rare Birds but abandoned; “I tried but I could never really get it, it had that locomotive polka thing sorta so I guess it was waiting for an album like this to join!”

With Wilson's longtime friend Pat Sansone of Wilco producing, Wilson and the band recorded in Studio A at the Sound Emporium, the late country maverick Cowboy Jack Clement's studio. The musicians included Nashville’s premier session players including bass player Dennis Crouch, Russ Pahl on pedal steel, multi-instrumentalist Jim Hoke, and world renowned Fiddle master Mark O’Connor. “I was thinking about fiddle as being an integral part of the record, and I needed to find the best. In my mind the best of the best was Mark O'Connor. So I decided to reach out to him. I said, ‘Hey man, I'm doing a session, would you like to come down and play fiddle?’ and he's like, ‘Thank you, but I haven't done a session since 1990.’ So, he didn't say no and he didn't say yes! Over time, he eventually said, ‘Maybe, but my only stipulation is it's got to be with the band, no overdubs. That's what drove me out of the session business.’ That was a big deal to all of us. Mark truly elevates the record and he shines as the most brilliant fiddler on Earth, I thank him for his beautiful melodies on this album.”

Working with this Nashville band gave Wilson the same kind of feeling he had as a kid, strumming along with those bluegrass bands. “There's something about this level of musicianship, they've been in so many sessions. It was fun to play some of the more stoner Canyon-ey tunes for this crack session band and watch them write up their special Nashville charts with their numbers, symbols and diamonds… they call it ‘hillbilly arithmetic’ over there…. The album was cut in only six days. “It was so fast it was a blur.” Hence the title, Dixie Blur. “And there really is a magic that occurs when musicians play together in a room and create that one consistent thing in time, something is created by the collective energy that is impossible to recreate otherwise,” says Wilson.

“It feels like another side, you know? Sort of like a personal, unplugged, just got off the road feeling. I think it's the most down to earth and emotional both musically and lyrically that I've ever been.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Jonathan Wilson has had a stellar career as a songwriter and musician, following on from his equally stellar career as a producer and session muso, and 'Dixie Blur' just goes to show exactly why he's so in demand. Gorgeous melodies, flawless songwriting and a good dose of classic rock whimsy and downbeat ballad bliss.

TRACK LISTING

1.  Just For Love
2.  69 Corvette
3.  New Home
4.  So Alive
5.  Heaven Making Love
6.  O' Girl
7.  Pirate
8.  Enemies
9.  Fun For The Masses
10.  Platform
11.  Riding The Blinds
12.  El Camino Real
13.  Golden Apples
14.  Korean Tea

“Larry Jon Wilson? He can break your heart with a voice like a cannonball.” - Kris Kristofferson.

Larry Jon Wilson came to the party late. When he arrived in Nashville, country soul pioneer Tony Joe White had already made six albums. Townes Van Zandt had made seven, Mickey Newbury eight. Kristofferson, the accepted High Priest of the New Nashville, had made five. Larry Jon, by the time he arrived, had spent ten years in corporate America.

He did not start playing guitar until the age of 30, but five years later he released his debut, New Beginnings (1975) and followed it just a year later with Let Me Sing My Song To You, both on Monument Records. A revelation among the hipsters and critics of Nashville, the LPs ensured Larry Jon was immediately embraced as part of the mid-70s “outlaw country movement” that eschewed slick production in favour of a raw, gritty approach. When a film crew came to document this burgeoning sound, they made straight for Larry Jon's door. The legendary Heartworn Highways (1981) featured his mesmerising performance of “Ohoopee River Bottomland”.

He was a singer and writer of intensely private, painfully moving tales of southern life. With his deep, papa-bear voice, funky southern groove, and richly evocative narratives of rural Georgia, Larry Jon was a unique stylist but his gutsy, greasy sound did not translate into sales. Too funky for the country crowd, too heartfelt for pop radio, he fell between the cracks. We hope the long-overdue reissue of his first two albums will go some way to rectifying this. Indeed, both New Beginnings and Let Me Sing My Song to You - so similar they play like two halves of a double album – showcase his unique mix of country, folk, soul and swampy blues.

New Beginnings failed to propel Larry Jon to even the relatively modest cult acclaim enjoyed by his likeminded contemporaries. And some of the frustration this conjured can be heard on 1976′s Let Me Sing My Song To You. Both the title track and the self-deprecating “Drowning in the Mainstream” speak of Wilson’s hope to inch at least a few steps towards the big time without making too many compromises. Any album containing the likes of the heartfelt, deeply beautiful tribute of “Ballad of Handy Mackey” and the superlative country-gothic funk opus ‘Sheldon Churchyard’ – the lead track from the lauded Country Got Soul compilation - must rank as essential listening.

The audio for Let Me Sing My Song To You comes from the original analogue tape transfers and has been remastered for vinyl by Be With regular Simon Francis. We’ve taken the same care with the striking cover art and we were honoured when Larry’s close friend Jeb Loy Nichols kindly agreed to contribute wonderfully unique liner notes, presented beautifully on the printed inner sleeve opposite a gorgeous black and white shot of Larry, mid-performance.

TRACK LISTING

Drowning In The Mainstream
Let Me Sing My Song To You
Sheldon Churchyard
I Remember It Well
The Ballad Of Handy Mackey
Think I Feel A Hitchhike Coming On
Willoughby Grove
Life Of A Good Man
Kindred Spirit

Exactly 40 years ago the original copy of “Do I Love You” arrived on these shores and, for the first time the true identity of its author and performer was revealed. Today “Do I Love You” has transceneded the strange world of Northen Soul and has become enshrined in the wider public’s concsiousness due to mainstream radio play, TV advertising (most recently the ‘Happy Egg Co.’) and in 2017 an appearance on the country’s most popular TV show Strictly Come Dancing. Now you too can own a copy of “Do I Love You”…

THE No.1 Wigan Casino and Northern Soul anthem · THE most valuable record in the world · THE first ever legal reissue, outside of Motown · THE last record ever played at Wigan Casino. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Do I Love You (Indeed I Do)
2. Sweeter As The Days Go By

Danny Wilson (Danny and the Champions of the World, Grand Drive), and Robin Bennett (The Dreaming Spires, Goldrush, Saint Etienne) join forces with Tony Poole (Starry Eyed and Laughing), producer extraordinaire, and king of the electric twelve-string Rickenbacker, their voices, guitars, and songwriting combining to marvellous effect in a collection of songs that began as uplifting acoustic music and grew into something far more wide-ranging and transcendent.

Pulling on influences from the 60s pop of The Byrds, The Beatles and The Beach Boys, through to the harmonies of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, with dashes of Petty and Springsteen thrown in for good measure, perhaps the most remarkable thing is that what shines through all of this is the quality and originality of the songwriting. The songs deal with wide-ranging issues and personal truths, from the aptly titled opener ‘Soon Enough’ through the biographical tale of Danny’s family in ‘Wilson General Store’ and the politically-charged rallying cry of ‘Hate Won’t Win’ to the social commentary of epic album-closer ‘Lifeboat (Take a Picture of Yourself)’.

All three collaborators have had critical acclaim in their own right. Danny Wilson’s credentials go back to his days in Grand Drive with brother Julian, and his consistent high calibre output with his Champions of the World led them to sweeping the board at the first UK Americana Awards with Album, Artist and Song of the year awards richly deserved; Tony Poole’s Starry Eyed and Laughing were hailed as “the English Byrds” on the back of their two CBS-released albums in the mid-seventies and he has since built an enviable reputation as producer and engineer; Robin Bennett has been relentlessly turning out timeless songs from his Oxfordshire base in bands from Goldrush to The Dreaming Spires, alongside founding two award winning festivals (Truck and Wood) and lending his multi-instrumental skills to Saint Etienne.

But in Bennett Wilson Poole, the trio seem to have stumbled upon that rarity of the whole being greater than the sum of the parts. 

TRACK LISTING

1 Soon Enough
2 Ask Me Anything
3 Funny Guys
4 Hide Behind A Smile
5 Wilson General Store
6 Hate Won't Win
7 The Other Side Of The Sky
8 That Thing That You Called Love
9 Not Forgetting (Just Not Remembering)
10 Find Your Own Truth
11 Lifeboat (Take A Picture Of Yourself) 

Jonathan Wilson had a busy 2017, producing Father John Misty's grammy nominated Pure Comedy and touring arenas around the globe as a guitarist and vocalist for Pink Floyd legend Roger Waters (for whom he also contributed to the lauded Is This The Life We Really Want? album.) Wilson also saw widespread acclaim heaped on Karen Elson’s sophomore LP Double Roses, which he recorded with her in Los Angeles in 2016.

But it's not looking like Wilson is going to get much of a rest in 2018 either, as he'll be continuing on with the worldwide Waters tour and is set to release his own new solo album Rare Birds in the spring. The highly anticipated long player - which features backing vocals from Lana Del Rey, Josh Tillman, fellow Roger Waters bandmates Lucius and an extraordinary musical gift from otherworldly Brian Eno collaborator Laraaji - will be released through Bella Union worldwide.

Although much of the album is comprised lyrically of meditations on a failed relationship and its aftermath, Wilson insists that Rare Birds is not really a concept album. "It's meant more as a healing affair, a rejuvenation, a reconciliation, for others, and for me. I wanted to balance personal narrative with the need I feel for calming healing music. I think we need journeys in sound, psychedelic gossamer-winged music that includes elements consciously and purposefully to incite hope, positivity, longing, reckless abandon and regret. It's all in there."

And, for this one, music critics will need to retire the comparisons to heritage rockers and Laurel Canyon troubadours as they’re hardly useful anymore. Wilson's new sound takes a synthetic/acoustic, best-of-both-worlds analog/digital hybrid approach to achieve the complexity, sonic density and glossy hi-fi coating of Rare Birds. Heard for the first time on a Jonathan Wilson album are the sounds of synthesizers and drum machines.

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: Jonathan has eschewed the obvious Laurel Canyon trappings this time out, and the result is his best record yet. Still blissed-out, otherworldly, multi-layered and lonnnnng, but the sound is beautifully streamlined with even synths and drum machines gliding by. A headphone masterpiece.

After 40 years as one-third of the creative core of the B-52s, Cindy Wilson steps out with her own solo album, Change.

A collaboration between Wilson and friends and Athens musicians Ryan Monahan, Lemuel Hayes, Suny Lyons, and Marie Davon, Change marks a signifi cant departure from Wilsons other band. With echoes of Air, Bjork, Tame Impala, and Gary Numan, the band refers to its infecti ons brand of new-wave electro-pop as Turbo Chill. Rather than shouti ng in a rock voice, on “Change” Wilson gets to experiment with more emoti onal, subtle vocalizati ons, crooning and whispering over swirls of subtle psychedelia, Quincy Jones-era strings, and pulsing synths.

TRACK LISTING

People Are Asking
Stand Back Time
Mystic
No One Can Tell You
Change
Things I’d Like To Say
Sunrise
On The Inside
Brother
Memory

Cubical frontman Dan Wilson finally releases his first solo album. It’s a major musical departure from his previous work, with a more introspective and lyrically orientated sound in the classic alt folk tradition of Leonard Cohen, Johnny Cash, Nick Cave & Nick Lowe. Drawing on the musical talents of producers Kal Ross and long-time Cubical producer Keith Thompson, All Love is Blind walks the fine line between the raw and the refined. This mixture of genres that blend folk, old blues and country along with a little rock n roll, all serve as wonderful settings for Wilson’s debut . The album utilises the evocative and purifying sound of cello and violin to create a perfect backdrop in which Wilson’s voice and lyrical prowess can feature.

Title track “All Love is Blind” is a rich absorbing ode to the futility of love in which the fine production work of Kal Ross comes to the fore, with an intricate use of backing vocals and percussion that work in unison with the strings and Wilson’s vocal to tug at the heart strings. “The Waves” on the other hand is a rumbling whirl of intense brooding and rhythmic convulsion that speaks of a dark world of judgment and is hurried along by the frenetic violin of Rod Leung and the primordial percussion of Cubical rhythmical stalwart Mark Percy. Add to this the backing vocals of Laura Campbell (Mulu/Legends of Flight) and the fine production work of Keith Thompson and what results is a cacophonous track of raw and spellbinding power.

“Lonely Drunk” is a boozy country folk ballad well versed in the tradition of late night crooning and tears in one’s beer. The double bass and then trombone solo of musical genius and theatre composer Andy Frizzell (Wizards of Twiddly) is worth the fee alone and works wonders with Randy Newman and Nick Lowe –esque lyrical introspection that verges on the ridiculous. “5 Nights Long” is raw Wilson, in Cubical mode, beset with jealousy and growling. This rough and ready blues stomp is driven by the wonderful slide playing of Cubical lead guitarist Alex Gavaghan. The penultimate track on the album “Where Did All The Love Go?” is a lullaby best enjoyed with a late night whisky, a gentle and tender piece that mixes the fragile vocal and acoustic guitar of Wilson with the luscious and sorrowful tones of Siofra Ward’s cello. A wonderful way to end such an absorbing journey. More than simply a break up album this is more like a get back together and then break up again album. Try saying that after you’ve had a few.

“Wilson makes Waits sound like Tiny Tim." - THE GUARDIAN. 

TRACK LISTING

All Love Is Blind
Five Nights Long
The Waves
Love Was Calling Me
Lonely Drunk
Deny You This Kiss
Loved But One Woman
The Rain
So Long My Sweet World
Where Did All The Love Go?
I Tried To Reach You.

With 2011’s critically-lauded ‘Gentle Spirit’, audiences worldwide were introduced to the prodigious talents of singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and unrivalled guitar hero Jonathan Wilson.

The eagerly-awaited follow-up, ‘Fanfare’, is an even more ambitious production that instantly conjures thoughts of Dennis Wilson’s ‘Pacific Ocean Blue’.

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: Even better than his last one, Jonathan brings early to mid seventies West Coast vibes right back to life, this time adding Denis Wilson and Pink Floyd flavours to his heady, cosmic broth. Incredible.

Much is made of his older brother Brian's tortured genius, but Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson had his own deeply artistic statement to make - one he made with moody, heartrending beauty and fathomless, soulful introspection on his 1977 masterpiece, "Pacific Ocean Blue". Besides being the first solo album by a member of the Beach Boys, "Pacific Ocean Blue" is a lost classic of 70s West Coast rock, a richly orchestrated opus that swaths the singer-songwriter's delicate and profoundly personal observations in epic, wide-screen arrangements that easily match the drama of the celluloid blockbusters made in his Hollywood back yard. Awash in studio strings and layered, breathy melodies, the piano-sprinkled balladry of tracks like "Thoughts of You" and "End Of The Show" offer glimpses of a more tender, wounded, and never-before-seen side of this most famously free-spirited Beach Boys member; while such ecology-themed meditations as "River Song" (which boasts flashes of hard rock) and the title cut reflect other topics close to the drummer's heart. But despite the album's more serious subject matter, the Beach Boys' good-time pop is still firmly on deck with the horn-pumping R&B of "What's Wrong" and the sunshine lilt of "Rainbows". No wonder Brian Wilson himself is one of "Pacific Ocean Blue"'s biggest fans.

TRACK LISTING

A1. River Song (3:44)
A2. What's Wrong (2:23)
A3. Moonshine (2:27)
A4. Friday Night (3:10)
A5. Dreamer (4:23)
A6. Thoughts Of You (3:04)

B1. Time (3:32)
B2. You And I (3:25)
B3. Pacific Ocean Blues (2:37)
B4. Farewell My Friend (2:26)
B5. Rainbows (2:48)
B6. End Of The Show (2:57)

'Gentle Spirit' is not simply the name of the debut solo album by songwriter / musician / producer Jonathan Wilson, it represents the ethos of the artist himself. Warm, supple melodies etched in layers of stringed instruments and willowy organ motifs accompany his earnest, North Carolinian drawl as he tells tales of humane values lost and found.

Wilson’s music is steeped equally in the woodsy contours of his Blue Ridge experiences and the atmospheric guitar reveries of Neil Young and Quicksilver Messenger Service. In fact, 'Gentle Spirit' is remarkably evocative of that golden late ‘60s, early ‘70s period when rural and urban sensibilities colluded in producing some of rock’s most imperishable recordings.

Wilson, a native of Forest City, North Carolina, has been quietly earning a reputation as a musical jack-of-all-trades. He is adept behind the recording console, possesses a luthier’s knowledge of all things strummed, and maintains the innate ability to conceptualize an instrument essential to providing the right colour to a track in need of a defining detail. Whether working with promising new acts like the band Dawes, celebrated contemporary artists such as Erykah Badu and Elvis Costello, or Rock and Roll Hall of Famers such as Jackson Browne and Robbie Robertson, Wilson provides direction and support as tasty and soulful as anyone in the business today.

It should then come as no surprise that Wilson, so resolutely committed to “old school” musical values, began recording 'Gentle Spirit' in Los Angeles’s fabled Laurel Canyon. As a long-time student of “Canyon culture,” his ideas echo many of an earlier generation as the album embraces a unique blend of folk, country, rock and roll and pop elements, which enduringly create a sense of time and place. After leaving Laurel Canyon, Wilson relocated to the Echo Park section of L.A, home to his new recording studio, to finish tracking and mixing 'Gentle Spirit'. “I recorded everything to analog tape which I’ve always done; it’s not something I’m trying to do as a boutique kind of hip thing. Analog simply captures things better and it takes the edges off. It creates a beauty much like film.” The album was mixed by Wilson and Thom Monahan, who has worked with many artists, including Vashti Bunyan, Devendra Banhart and Vetiver.

TRACK LISTING

1. Gentle Spirit
2. Can We Really Party Today?
3. Desert Raven
4. Canyon In The Rain
5. Natural Rhapsody
6. Ballad Of The Pines
7. The Way I Feel
8. Don’t Give Your Heart To A Rambler
9. Woe Is Me
10. Waters Down
11. Rolling Universe
12. Magic Everywhere
13. Valley Of The Silver Moon

Much is made of his older brother Brian's tortured genius, but Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson had his own deeply artistic statement to make - one he made with moody, heartrending beauty and fathomless, soulful introspection on his 1977 masterpiece, "Pacific Ocean Blue". Besides being the first solo album by a member of the Beach Boys, "Pacific Ocean Blue" is a lost classic of 70s West Coast rock, a richly orchestrated opus that swaths the singer-songwriter's delicate and profoundly personal observations in epic, wide-screen arrangements that easily match the drama of the celluloid blockbusters made in his Hollywood back yard. Awash in studio strings and layered, breathy melodies, the piano-sprinkled balladry of tracks like "Thoughts of You" and "End Of The Show" offer glimpses of a more tender, wounded, and never-before-seen side of this most famously free-spirited Beach Boys member; while such ecology-themed meditations as "River Song" (which boasts flashes of hard rock) and the title cut reflect other topics close to the drummer's heart. But despite the album's more serious subject matter, the Beach Boys' good-time pop is still firmly on deck with the horn-pumping R&B of "What's Wrong" and the sunshine lilt of "Rainbows". No wonder Brian Wilson himself is one of "Pacific Ocean Blue"'s biggest fans.