Brighton-based shoegazers Air Formation are set to release their self-titled sixth studio album this spring via Club AC30. Inspired by bands such as Flying Saucer Attack, Spiritual- ized, Explosions In The Sky and The Jesus and Mary Chain, Air Formation's music incorp- orates heavily delayed guitar and feedback, with droning keyboards, and ethereal vocals. Forming in 2000, long before spiritual forbearers Slowdive, Ride and Loop were consid- ered acceptable influences, the five-piece have been a mainstay of the modern shoegaze scene and have gained a devoted following, receiving critical acclaim from tastemakers including Consequence of Sound, Clash, and Louder Than War.

Briefly splitting in April 2011 after the release of their fourth studio album 'Nothing to Wish For (Nothing to Lose)', they reformed in 2014 for a special one-off show to celebrate 10 years of Club AC30. In 2018, the band released the critically acclaimed album 'Near Miss'. "Time goes fast," says guitarist and vocalist Matt Bartram. "We're still figuring it all out. But most importantly, I think Air Formation still feels totally relevant. All the time we enjoy doing it we will keep at it," he adds.

When it came to the writing and recording of the album, the band went back to listening to their favourite artists for influence including Bardo Pond and Mogwai to name a few, but ultimately, the album is influenced by all the Air Formation music that had come before. "How can we do something a bit different, but it still be Air Formation," says Bartram.

From the blissed-out vibes of album opener 'Pressure Drop' to the anthemic guitar crescendos of 'Only So Much Light', Air Formation are masters of noise and effects, constantly exploring the outer limits of guitar texture and volume. On 'Finding Gravity', fuzzed-out guitars explode into beatific distortion, while 'I Don't Want To Talk' and 'Crashing Out' shimmer and swirl. Elsewhere, the deafening waves of noise of 'The Day After Day' and dreamy 'Sparks Dies' reveal a band who find the heart in fuzz, while album closer 'The Final Wave' is a gorgeous, heavily textured expanse.

Air Formation is Matt Bartram (Guitars & Vocals), Ben Pierce (Bass), James Harrison (Drums), Ian Sheridan (Guitar) and Richard Parks (Keyboards).

TRACK LISTING

1. Pressure Drop
2. Only So Much Ligh
3. Finding Gravity
4. I Don't Want To Talk
5. Crashing Out
6. The Day After Day
7. Sparks Die
8. The Final Wave

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.

Originally released in 1998 this was the second single from the much acclaimed Moon Safari album. Released as a Picture Disc for RSD 2024

Random Factor's 'On The Air' EP is a hugely sought-after classic by those who know. It came on Ralph Lawson's ever-reliable 20/20 Vision and now, as it turns 25 years old, he has decided it is the right time to get it remastered and reissued. 'On The Air' is first up on this fine EP from Carl Finlow and it has serene synths that bring to mind Detroit techno soul over pulsing bass and slick drums. 'Lockdown' has a raw vocoder vocal over punchy drums and twitchy synth stabs and 'Undercurrent' is another weapon that has more than withstood the test of time as it bumps along on funky drums and is overlaid with more playful synth patterns. 'Disconnect' is a crunchy and 8-bit closer with pixelated synths and screwy acid lines. Superb.

TRACK LISTING

On The Air
Lockdown
Undercurrent
Disconnect

The union of composers Lawrence English and loscil aka Scott Morgan is seamless, sublime, and long overdue.

Born of a conversation centered on the notion of “rich sources” as a forge for electronic music, Colours Of Air is a collection of recordings of a century old pipe organ housed at the historic Old Museum in Brisbane, Australia, which were then processed, transformed, and elevated into eight majestic electro-acoustic threshold devotionals. The timbre of the instrument and spatial fluctuations of room tone infuse the music with a subdued, sacred feel, like vaulted light in a nave of stained glass. They describe the album as “an iterative project, a reduction and eventual expansion,” sifting the swells and drones of the organ for every shivering shade of radiance.

The tracks are named for the hue each piece suggests – from the gauzy levitational miasma of “Yellow” to the pulsing melancholic mirage of “Violet” to the seething twilit sandstorm of “Magenta.” Morgan and English are both adept at conjuring moods of muted grandeur, like landscapes veiled in dusk, still looming and luminous. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Cyan
2. Aqua
3. Yellow
4. Grey
5. Black
6. Pink
7. Violet
8. Gold
9. Magenta

READ THE AIR is the new full-length record from MARBLED EYE, the four-piece punk band responsible for all of that noise coming out of Oakland for the last couple of years. The opening title track sets the album’s tone immediately, guitars starting and stopping to match a staggered drum beat before guitarist and co-vocalist Chris Natividad’s lyrics act as a mission statement for the album’s recurring theme of self-reflection: “Searching / shaking / life simulating… read the air / count me out” Engineered mostly by the band themselves, Read the Air’s ten songs are both overdriven and ominous. Songs like single “In the Static” offer riffs worthy of a Marquee Moon or Entertainment! comparison, but the band still can’t shake the dread of modern times. The song’s refrain treats time like a threat, with Natividad’s constant shout of “staring at the clock” acting as a haunted refrain. The combined playing of drummer Alex Shen and bass player Ronnie Portugal give songs like “Tonight” and “See It Too” an angular and driving edge. With additional recording from Toro Y Moi’s Chaz Bear and mixing from Grace Coleman (Courtney Barnett, Spiritual Cramp), Marbled Eye have dialed in a record that feels destined to live in the noisy post-punk canon for years to come. Marble Eye’s new album Read the Air arrives this March via Summer Shade Records.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. Read The Air
2. In The Static
3. Tonight
4. Starting Over
5. See It Too
Side B
1. All The Pieces
2. Another Year
3. Motion
4. Wear Me Down
5. Spring Exit

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of their seminal debut, iconic French duo AIR releases a 2CD/1BLU-RAY reedition with rare and even unreleased material of their most legendary album “Moon Safari”.

The package includes a Spatial Atmos audio version of the original album, along with a remarkable selection of previously unreleased track versions, as well as the 1998 documentary film "Eating, Sleeping, Waiting & Playing" by acclaimed director Mike Mills in HD format. This documentary follows band members Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoît Dunckel during their first ever tour stops in New York, London, and Paris. AIR will accompany this release with a huge international tour throughout the whole year sold out in no time, with more than 50 dates in 18 countries across the globe.

TRACK LISTING

CD1

1. La Femme D'argent
2. Sexy Boy
3. All I Need (feat. Beth Hirsch)
4. Kelly Watch The Stars
5. Talisman
6. Remember
7. You Make It Easy (feat. Beth Hirsch)
8. Ce Matin Là
9. New Star In The Sky (Chanson Pour Solal)
10. Le Voyage De Pénélope

CD2
Bonus Disc With Approx. 10 Unreleased Tracks (live/radio Versions)

Blu-Ray
“Moon Safari” Dolby Atmos Album
1. La Femme D'argent
2. Sexy Boy
3. All I Need (feat. Beth Hirsch)
4. Kelly Watch The Stars
5. Talisman
6. Remember
7. You Make It Easy (feat. Beth Hirsch)
8. Ce Matin Là
9. New Star In The Sky (Chanson Pour Solal)
10. Le Voyage De Pénélope

+ Official Video Clips From “Moon Safari” Album + “Eating, Sleeping, Waiting And Playing”: HD Documentary By Acclaimed Director Mike Mills

Hakushi Hasegawa (They/Them pronouns) is a musician, producer and singer-songwriter based in Tokyo, Japan, and the first Japanese artist signed to the Brainfeeder label. Consistent with Brainfeeder’s ethos of seeking out artists operating outside the confines of genre since the label was founded in 2008 by Flying Lotus, Hakushi’s music is tricky to categorize as it straddles a few genres: alternative, electronic, jazz, pop/J-pop. Sometimes it’s pretty, at times it’s very intense and fast-paced. Releasing since 2018, they’ve already made a name for themselves domestically in Japan with a string of wonderfully wild releases and started to build a cult following internationally. Collabs to date have included Kid Fresino, yuigot, TOKYO SKA PARADISE ORCHESTRA, Yukichikasaku/men and Eye from Boredoms. Their debut album “Air Ni Ni” arrived in 2019, cementing their reputation as one of Japan’s most exciting, adventurous artists.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Only You
A2. O(__*)
A3. Scary Point
A4. Desert
A5. Cold Goat
A6. Stamens, Pistils, Parties

B1. Evil Things
B2. Itsukushii Hibi
B3. I Can See Mountains
B4. Neutral

Ultravillage is a collective and burgeoning community of new age music devotees, private press fanatics and underground ambient, minimal and progressive electronic aficionados. Their website at ultravillage.com is fast becoming the go to guide for the most obscure entries in the American new age and minimal music canon – a crucial hub for diggers, archivists and label runners recovering lost sounds from by-gone eras.

Mark Griffey, the man behind Ultravillage, has recently made the venture into releasing albums, with the intention of reissuing forgotten personal masterpieces of 1980s and 90s private press synth culture on new label Mid-Air Museum. MM’s first vinyl record release is a collaboration with Scottish reissue label chOOn!!.

Together, they present 'Accidental Music 1987-1991' by Charles Esposito, a career retrospective of the experimental composer from Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. The cinematic and the sacred swirl around on Accidental Music, which gives new life to intriguing self-released tapes that Esposito put out in the 1980s and 90s. Heard by few on its original release, the music featured on this compilation ranges from Palace of Lights percussive sonics to an almost minimal techno palette, a meeting of pop and twisted electronics with the hypnotic immediacy of ancient ritual.

'Accidental Music 1987-1991' develops a series of resonant harmonic spaces, by adding layers of instruments and played objects. Rather than work as acoustic maps of specific locations, these pieces eddy and gather into positive physical presences. But Esposito’s real strength lies in creating depth of field. The foreground might be dominated by glassy chimes or resonant prayer bowl-like timbres, but beyond it a series of sonic veils seems to recede towards murky imperceptibility. There’s also a kind of surreal decorum at play, passages that sound like an immaculately laid dinner table being shaken by an earth tremor while the tinkling complaints of the silver, glass and muffling linen are scrupulously recorded.

Available for the first time on vinyl, Accidental Music 1987-1991 by Charles Esposito is an exploration into many inner worlds and dreamscapes, an analogue mirage of avant-garde gems. Produced in cooperation with the artist for Mid-Air Museum and chOOn!!.

Mastered for vinyl and digital and featuring liner notes from Mark Griffey.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Nice collection of minimalist new age healing sounds and cosmic rhythms spanning the late 80s and early 90s. You know the drill - nag champa, few herbs and the plant medicine of your choice! Lights off and away you go....

TRACK LISTING

01. Heart Skips A Beat
02. FireWaterWood
03. Hypnotic
04. Hand Dance
05. Piano In Circles
06. Solstice
07. Body On Water
08. In Real Time
09. 11_11 (Make A Wish)
10. Point Of View
11. All-1
12. Three Days In Rain

On The Blackened Air (her second album but first for Touch and Go, originally released in 2002), Nina Nastasia and her band are not content to just support a vocal melody; they pry it apart and look down its throat. The stringed and wind instruments (viola, cello, mandolin, accordion, bowed saw, acoustic and electric guitars) reach up out of the songs into rarefied territory. Little stories of Peeping Toms and the police lights they bring with them, grave- yards and impolite family, epigrams against disaster, depression, simple forgetfulness, all delivered so effortlessly that the precision of the delivery registers long after its substance has left its mark. When she sings “I’m not hiding anything / I’m not trying to fool you at all,” in a song titled “That’s All There Is,” it is all the truth.

A generation-plus of young troubadours pine for things they never has to lose, as if sadness and depression were inevitable consequences of being alive. Nina Nastasia’s music is an antidote to all of that. The Blackened Air is a darkish record not just in title, but by examining everything without caving in to decadence or solipsism, it is a rejuvenating experience. It is informed, without affect, unique, and succinct. Above all, it is beautiful to hear and a pleasure to have in one’s home.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
Run, All You...
I Go With Him This Is What It Is Oh, My Stars All For You
So Little
Desert Fly
Ugly Face
Side B
In The Graveyard Ocean
Rosemary
The Same Day Been So Long
The Very Next Day Little Angel
That’s All There Is

Mid Air is an album about celebration, sanctuary and salvation on the dance floor. It's an album that deals with love, grief, relationships, identity and sexuality and is a love letter to the queer clubs where Romy found community and connection. It’s a coming-out album in a way, although she came out in her personal life a long time ago, but it’s also a coming-through album – through grief and heartache, towards euphoria.

Mid Air sees Romy working alongside producers Fred again.. and Stuart Price, as well as her bandmate Jamie xx on recent single “Enjoy Your Life”. Also featuring the previous single (and crossover anthem) “Strong”, Mid Air is the perfect encapsulation of a sound Romy describes as “emotional music to dance to”. It’s a sound that’s set to unify dancefloors, distilling Romy’s love of club classics and classic song writing and finding the sweet spot – like much of Romy’s favourite music – between euphoria, escapism, sadness and melancholy.

To celebrate news of the album, Romy today releases her latest single, the Fred again..-produced “Loveher”. It’s a pivotal track for Romy and acts as both the album opener and the first song to be written for the record. Romy and Fred were first paired together to write songs for other people, but their fast friendship and musical connection proved to be a spark for something new. After writing “Loveher”, a declarative pop song about the intimacy of falling in love with a woman, “Fred asked me, who could this be for?” explains Romy “and I tentatively said… ‘maybe me?’”. A proud and positive queer love story, this was the beginning of Mid Air.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Romy of XX fame present a wonderfully evocative set of crystalline dancefloor bangers, high energy synth lines and her instantly recognisable vocals, calling upon Fred Again, Jamie (of aforementioned band) and a lovely bit of sampling of the endlessly talented Beverly Glenn-Copeland on 'Mid Air'.

TRACK LISTING

1. Loveher
2. Weightless
3. The Sea
4. One Last Try
5. DMC
6. Strong Ft. Fred Again..
7. Twice
8. Did I
9. Mid Air Ft. Beverly Glenn-Copeland
10. Enjoy Your Life
11. She’s On My Mind

Double LP reissue of Air Miami’s lost-classic 1995 album, ‘Me. Me. Me.’ Remastered from original 2” tapes and now including 3 extra tracks. This one time pressing comes on coloured vinyl and in a gatefold sleeve.

Made up of UNREST’s Mark Robinson and Bridget Cross, Air Miami formed shortly after the D.C. indie rock mainstay’s demise in 1995, and together with drummer Gabriel Stout and producer Guy Fixsen (The Breeders, My Bloody Valentine, Stereolab), they travelled to their namesake land of Miami to record the entirety of Me. Me. Me. over the month of May at the famed Criteria Studios; a place where James Brown, Aretha Franklin, the Bee Gees, Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, AC/DC and countless more have recorded classic works. The album was then mixed at a studio in London where labelmates Lush were recording their 1996 LP Lovelife at the same time.

Nearly thirty years on, this deluxe reissue sees the 1995 album expanded to include all sixteen tracks from the album sessions, three of which are new to the tracklist: ‘Warm Miami May’ (not on original LP), ‘Pucker’ (previously unreleased), and the full version of ‘See-Through Plastic’ (edited version only previously seen on the EP). The record also features singles ‘I Hate Milk’ and ‘Seabird,’ a track that found new life recently when covered by current 4AD artist Maria Somerville, her first release for the label and part of the label’s 40th anniversary compilation Bills & Aches & Blues.

TRACK LISTING

1. I Hate Milk
2. World Cup Fever
3. Seabird
4. Warm Miami May (not On Original LP)
5. Special Angel
6. Afternoon Train
7. Dolphin Expressway
8. Sweet As A Candy Bar
9. Pucker (previously Unreleased)
10. You Sweet Little Heartbreaker
11. Neely
12. Bubble Shield
13. See-Through Plastic (full Version)
14. The Event Horizon
15. Definitely Beachy
16. Reprise

California singer / songwriter returns with brighter tones and a more orchestral sound, featuring a large cast of friends and collaborators
Produced by Jarvis Taveniere (Purple Mountains, Woods).

“Born of a thousand nights lost in a surrender to stillness and contemplation, In The Air is Anna St. Louis’ second full length album and her most considered work yet.

“It’s an outlook on the world that was formed when her immediate one was small. The intervening years since her last album found St. Louis in a small one-bedroom cabin in the middle of the woods of upstate New York with a new love and time to think of what she wanted to express with her music. For weeks on end, the only trips she took were to and from her job as the front desk clerk at a nearby hotel. The previous years she had spent on tour and performing constantly in the venues of Los Angeles felt like they had occurred in another lifetime.

“St. Louis describes the writing period as one of a slow harvest; a fertile time but one that required a newfound patience. Instead of documenting her first thoughts, she spent more time with each song, going deeper with the themes and ideas she wanted to express.

“This slower approach also guided the sonic textures of the album. Working with producer Jarvis Taveniere (Purple Mountains, Woods) in two extended recording sessions in Los Angeles in 2021, St. Louis used the studio in a previously unexplored way, opening up her songs to more experimentation featuring brighter tones and a more orchestral sound to accompany her new perspective. To that end, she was aided by a cast of friends and collaborators including Jess Williamson, Kacey Johansing, Oliver Hill (Kevin Morby, Vagabon) on strings, Alex Fischel (Spoon) on piano, Josh Adams on drums (Bedouine, Tim Heidecker) and Keven Lareau (Cut Worms, Hand Habits).” — Justin Sullivan.

TRACK LISTING

1. Trace
2. Morning
3. Better Days
4. Sad Eyes
5. Rest
6. Phone
7. Even
8. Patrollers
9. Soft Cities
10. Into The Deep
11. Sea Glass

'The World in Air Quotes' is a genre-shifting style-melting kaleidoscope of art-rock, jazz, techno, folk & industrial. The God In Hackney sound like very little else from the early 2020's and whilst 'The World In Air Quotes' innovative progenitors are manifold - Eno, Coil, Robert Wyatt, The Durutti Column, 1980s ECM jazz to name a few - it sounds beholden to none of them.

The God In Hackney's first album 'Cave Moderne' was Andrew Weatherall's album of the year for NTS Radio.

The God In Hackney's second LP, 'Small Country Eclipse', was album of 2020 for critic Sukhdev Sandhu of The Colloquium for Unpopular Culture: "Mordant music: stuttering, dread, black humour. A record that felt truly independent, beholden to no genre, out of step with all centres and signposted nodes."

"The most enthralling melange of art-rock & new wave in the last decade" Hi-Fi Choice Magazine May 2023

"Left-field art-pop with leanings to 80's pop experimentalists like Peter Gabriel or Magazine...Peter Gabriel fronting Talking Heads?" Peter Hollo / Utility Fog, April 2023

Getting right to the point, "In This Room" by The God in Hackney is definitely one of the best songs I've heard so far in 2023, and almost certainly in all of the 2020s (the 2010s are being looked into as we speak). (Larry Dolman / Blastitude! April 10 2023)

'The World In Air Quotes' is The God In Hackney's 3rd album and their most musically emotive and lyrically inventive to date. It's an album that resonates with feelings about climate change, isolation, extinction, the social impact of technology, the flattening of history—and illuminates the darkness with imaginative rhythm, melody, noise & poetry. Songs range from widescreen, anthemic rock, to strange intricately arranged jazz-influenced songs, to abstract, textural electronic pieces. There's a strain of dark and surreal comedy too that runs through the lyrics and some of the choices the band makes in their sounds and arrangements.

The core God in Hackney quartet of Andy Cooke, Dan Fox, Ashley Marlowe and Nathaniel Mellors has expanded to include American multi-instrumentalists and composers Eve Essex (Eve Essex & The Fabulous Truth, Das Audit, Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra, Peter Zummo, Liturgy) and Kelly Pratt (Father John Misty, David Byrne/St Vincent, Beirut, and Lonnie Holley among many others), signalling a new and ambitious direction for the band.

The album cover features original artwork by Iranian-American artist Tala Madani, recently the subject of a career survey exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.

TRACK LISTING

1. In The Face Of A New Science
2. Heaven & Black Water
3. Bardo!
4. In This Room
5. Red Star
6. Philip
7. Interstate 5
8. Broken Pets
9. American Email
10. A Frozen Western
11. Non-Zero Number

Air Formation formed in 2000, long before spiritual forbearers Slowdive and Loop were considered acceptable influences. Since signing to Club AC30 back in 2005, a long time bastion of the modern shoegaze sound, the band have gained a devoted following and received critical acclaim, with Drowned In Sound describing the band as "one of the nation's most consistent outfits" and their incendiary live shows have seen them share stages with the likes of Swervedriver, Chapterhouse and The House of Love.

Originally released in February 2007 on CD, 'Daylight Storms' quickly became a classic album in the genre. Glowing reviews followed in the likes of Drowned In Sound, NME and Brooklyn Vegan, alongside radio play from 6Music's Steve Lamacq and Gideon Coe.

Air Formation in 2007 are: Matt Bartram (Guitars & Vocals), Ben Pierce (Bass), James Harrison(Drums), Phil Macy (Guitar) and Richard Parks (Keyboards).

TRACK LISTING

1. Cold Morning
2. Tidal
3. Daylight Storms
4. I Can't Remember Waking Up
5. Into View
6. Formation 1
7. You Have To Go Somewhere
8. Adrift
9. The Dark Has Fallen
10. Before We Forget

Born in the bleak isolation of the secluded prairie city of Edmonton, Canada, Homeshake’s Peter Sagar worked with friends in a number of local bands be-fore picking up and moving to Montreal in 2011 to begin recording under the Homeshake moniker. Following two self- released cassettes (The Homeshake Tapes and Dynamic Meditation) and two acclaimed full lengths (In The Shower and Midnight Snack), Sagar cracks a window open with his third album for Sinderlyn – Fresh Air.

Started immediately following the recording of Midnight Snack, Fresh Air continues Sagar’s exploration of dreamy, downtempo bedroom R&B and draws inspiration from such disparate artists like Sade, The Band, Broadcast, Prince, and Angelo Badalamenti. As the title Fresh Air suggests, Sagar’s songs were created to clear his listeners’ minds of negativity. Full of smokey, laid back love songs and airy productions, Sagar’s decidedly stoned sound is a breath of fresh air.

TRACK LISTING

1 Hello Welcome
2 Call Me Up
3 Not U
4 Every Single Thing
5 Wrapping Up
6 Getting Down, Pt. II (He's Cooling Down)
7 Timing
8 TV Volume
9 Khmlwugh
10 Fresh Air
11 Serious
12 So She
13 This Way
14 Signing Off

Heady with hooks and unforgettable melodies, gliding on deeply danceable grooves, always with Air Waves’ innate compassion, concision and uncanny pop sense shining throughout. A masterpiece that’s beautifully simple, instantly accessible and entirely addictive. Featuring Cass Mccombs, Skyler Skjelset (Fleet Foxes, Beach House), Luke Temple, Brian Betancourt (Hospitality, Sam Evian), Rina Mushonga, Frankie Cosmos, Lispector, David Christian, Ethan Sass, and Ben Florencio.

‘The Dance’ has waited three years to see the light of day and it comes to us now, blinking, smiling in the widening light of 2022 feeling more needed and necessary but also more joyous than ever before. It’s both a snapshot of these songs as they were recorded but crucially, in the intervening time those songs have had additional arrangements crafted by Nicole, created remotely and virtually, with a few like-minded collaborators. The result is simultaneously Air Waves freshest, most spontaneous yet finessed album yet.

Nicole Schneit released their first independent album in 2009 under the Air Waves moniker, a name inspired by a Guided By Voices song - subsequent albums like 2010’s ‘Dungeon Dots’ (which featured a guest vocal from fellow Brooklynite Sharon Van Etten), 2015’s ‘Parting Glances’ and 2017’s stunning ‘Warrior’ crystallised Schneit’s vision of loose-but-focused, convivial but startling pop. ‘The Dance’ continues that trajectory but finds Schneit opening up their music to a more fluid sense of space and movement, while keeping their lyrical eye between the personal and the political, from the specific to the universal with a haiku-like directness and suggestion.

You won’t find a better soundtrack for the solidarity, strength, romance and movement we all need right now than ‘The Dance’ - Air Waves’ best album yet.

TRACK LISTING

A1. The Roof (feat. Luke Temple & Rina Mushonga)
A2. The Dance
A3. Star Earring (feat. Lispector)
A4. Alien (feat. Cass McCombs)
B1. Black Metal Demon (feat. Frankie Cosmos & Merce Lemon)
B2. Treehouse
B3. Wait
B4. The Light
B5. Peer Peer

The mysteriously intriguing group, no; veiled cult-adored collective Sault return with album number six. Although we know now that the band are headed by Dean Cover aka Inflo, and count Cleo Sol, Michael Kiwanuka and Little Simz as collaborators / infrequent members; there's still very little info on the rest of the band.

We don't care though, and delving into "Air" we find the longer, double LP format as captivating as ever. Beginning with choral and orchestral interludes, it's a majestic introduction for a group that have already captured our hearts across the previous five excursions and are unhurried to deliver their latest message. Said pieces unravel into a sumptuous decadence, occupying much of side A before the first utterances of vocal slowly draw in. It's a luxurious and relaxed opening side which hints at the confidence possessed by all involved. There's no need to just jump right in with a opening radio single - we're of course gonna listen from start to finish!

But the mystery does, indeed, continue. The orchestral instrumental and choral work continues throughout - "Air" is a divine piece of enchanted garden ambience and ambrosial relaxation. There's no lyrics, no guitars, no drums. It's as if Inflo told the rest of the band to have a break whilst he enlists a full orchestra for the project.

I'm not complaining, and talk about keeping us on our toes. It's a heavenly piece of music, make no mistake; but if you were expecting them to continue their political musings, heart-worn love songs and incendiary punk-funk fun; then you'll have to resort to previous albums I'm afraid. Instead, we get strings aplenty (including some phenomenal harp work), female vocal choir and smatterings of romantic brass.

Will the public dig it? I hope so. It's adventurous, almost to the point of giving-no-fucks. But thankfully, as I keep reiterating; the music (I'd call it more of a score actually), is nothing short of breathtaking. Is Inflo looking to switch career and become a film score composer? Maybe he has been all along... Like I say, the mystery continues... 

TRACK LISTING

1 - Reality
2 - Air
3 - Heart
4 - Solar
5 - Time Is Precious
6 - June 55
7 - Luos Higher

New project/debut album with Dominic Appleton from Breathless/This Mortal Coil. 10 songs of dubby, off-kilter electronic pop showcasing Matteo Uggeri's production and Appleton's instantly-recognizable voice. - RIYL: David Sylvian, Holger Czukay, Bjork, Tricky, Jon Hassell, Massive Attack, David Bowie, Breathless, Virginia Astley, Tarwater, Lali Puna, Lucio Dalla, Franco Battiato, Alice, 23 Skidoo "Hearing Dominic Appleton take his voice in quieter, more intimate directions, exploring new textures and strengths, in combination with Matteo Uggeri’s flowing production, makes for a striking experience. Interesting and unexpected."

TRACK LISTING

1. Afternoon Update
2. Empty City
3. Cold Sun
4. Long Goodbye
5. Still Air
6. There Is No Crisis To Come
7. Looking For Clues
8. Look What We've Wasted
9. Bloodlines
10. Ghost Update 

UK South coasters, relocating from West to East: Katja Rackin and Sam Stacpoole have been grafting and honing alone, away from the expertise of music producers and other governors since 2016. The result is unadulterated and unclean, unabashed and un-compromised. Through their love of artists such as The Kinks, Alex Chilton and The Nerves or any other artist who spends less time with the polishing cloth and more time with the power shower, Holiday Ghosts make music with a lean and primitive rock n roll spirit. Drums are stripped naked to the point of metronome status and no stomp boxes, nor cahons or didgeridoos are found to obscure the energy of guitars at their rawest.

In stories of landlords, steady jobs, wrong turns, short straws, sunny moods and city life, Kat and Sam share lead vocals alongside returning band-mate and song writer, Charlie Murphy, and a host of other musicians from Falmouth, Cornwall where the band began. Two albums in with Punk Slime Records and a casual Bandcamp EP, Holiday Ghosts are back with their 3rd full length - North Street Air on FatCat Records - 12 songs of love, hate and everything in between.

TRACK LISTING

1. Mr. Herandi
2. Off Grid
3. Blood Orange
4. North Street Air
5. Bathing Suit
6. 3rd Dream
7. Makin A Fool
8. Total Crisis
9. Leaving Today
10. Told My Baby
11. Glue
12. Wallpaper

Starting with the following year’s Under Wires And Searchlights, they’ve created an explorative body of instrumental work that’s shifted between electronica, dub, minimalism, avant-jazz and ambient music. Along the way they’ve collaborated with the likes of Jah Wobble, remixed Max Richter and Vök and provided soundtracks for art installations and other visual media. They’ve also had their own music remixed by Biosphere and Japan’s Steve Jansen, among others. The new album offers ample evidence of a band in its prime. Marconi Union still sound vital and original, enthused by the possibilities that music has to offer. “We’ve never wanted to repeat ourselves,” states Talbot. “We’ve made ten albums and have been going for 17 years, but it still feels fresh. That’s been so important for us all the way through. We’re looking to do new things all the time” co-founder Richard Talbot says.

Indeed, the exquisite Dead Air bears only a passing resemblance to its 2016 forerunner, Ghost Stations. The trio have dispensed with beats, brass and guest musicians this time around, opting instead for a more intimate and textural approach, a constantly evolving soundworld of tones and sensory impressions. Dead Air also bears little resemblance to the trio’s initial vision for it. “The album we set out to make had far more of a rhythmic element,” explains Talbot, “ but fairly late in the process, we decided to completely change direction.” This is entirely in keeping with Marconi Union’s guiding methodology. Ideas remain fluid throughout the writing process, until Talbot and bandmates Jamie Crossley and Duncan Meadows ultimately settle on what feels right to them.  As such, Dead Air is a sublime testament to their collective instinct.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Marconi Union have been a constant source of pleasure for me here, with their wonderful capability to imbue any sound with all sorts of majestic overtones and euphoric, airy ambience while still retaining a momentum and sense of progression. Lovely stuff.

TRACK LISTING

A.M.I.D.
Mossfield 
Imbalance
Permafrost
Fractured
Dead Air
Burned

South east London songwriter and visual artist Jerkcurb's hotly-anticipated debut album Air Con Eden is set for release via Handsome Dad Records. The culmination of several years of intense creative focus, Air Con Eden reflects on Jerkcurb instigator Jacob Read’s recent real life events, losses and tragedies as well as more cryptic, fictitious perspectives and surreal adopted personalities. The record’s euphoric lead single ‘Timelapse Tulip’ arrives alongside today’s news - accompanied by a stunning, intricate 3D animated video courtesy of a collaboration between Read, director Gilbert Bannerman and production designer Theo Boswell. Read will tour the U.K. in October to celebrate the album's release with a hometown headline at Chat's Palace included on the run.

Having fully emerged in 2016 with the flourishing ‘Night On Earth’ - a streaming hit with 2,700,000 spins to date - and subsequent tracks ‘Voodoo Saloon’ and ‘Little Boring Thing’, there’s been a growing sense of an artist climbing into maturity with each succeeding release, video and gig laying the foundations for Jerkcurb’s burgeoning cult status. Radio and press took to Jerkcurb instantly with BBC Radio 6 Music inviting him in for a live session on Tom Ravenscroft’s show, also making an appearance as a guest on Steve Lamacq’s Thursday Round Table, while esteemed publications like Dazed, Vice, Noisey and Wonderland have all thrown their weight behind his music and art. Indeed, Read has been heavily immersed in his art and animation all the while, exhibiting at the Tate Britain and also being commissioned by them to create a promo for their installation Aftermath: Art in the Wake of World War One and drawing praise from It’s Nice That along the way.

There’s a near impossible richness to Read’s songwriting form on Air Con Eden, with its as-yet-unheard title track offering perhaps the clearest distillation of the record’s predominant theme: time at its malleable and fraught. Inspired by Victor Gruen - the pioneering designer of shopping malls in the United States - Read unpacks the idea of being trapped in an eternity that feels like an endless present tense, the passing of the seasons reduced to a standstill in a pristine shopping mall; a symbol of both stasis and comfort; an Eden without the possibility of an ending.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: it's clear that there's something special brewing in Jerkcurb, with swaying melodies and reverbed loungey keys shimmering quietly beneath the emotive and affecting vocal style of Jacob Read. It's a beguiling and enchanting journey, and a sign of what there is to come. Lovely stuff.

TRACK LISTING

1) Shadowshow
2) Somerton Beach
3) Timelapse Tulip
4) Wishbones
5) Air Con Eden
6) Midnight Snack
7) Morpheus’ Arms
8) Water
9) Aquarena Springs
10) Voodoo Saloon
11) Devil’s Catflap
12) Night On Earth

Short Answer: A seldom heard band existing at the end of the 80’s comprising founder members of Stock, Hausen & Walkman and the drum/bass rhythm section from Nico's backing band and The Blue Orchids and a maverick vocalist. All in turn under the influence of Allen Ravenstine, David Moss, Gareth Sager, James Blood Ulmer, Bootsy Collins, Herbie Flowers, John 'Drumbo' French, Robert Wyatt, Ronald Shannon Jackson, Don Van Vliet, Gabi Delgado etc, they attempted to meld the noisier end of free improvisation with a slightly more oblique and accomplished Funk than the Manchester 'baggy' sound of that era. An album release cobbled together from Studio Demo, Rehearsal Room and Live recordings.

Appeals to? Enthusiastic listeners of: The Contortions, Boredoms, The Pop Group, 1st GoldenPalaminos LP, P-Funk, Pere Ubu, Clock DVA, Captain Beefheart, Defunkt, A Certain Ratio, Liquid Liquid, ESG, Material, The Birthday Party, DNA, Stock Hausen & Walkman, Chakk, Butthole Surfers, John Zorn's Locus Solus, 23 Skidoo, Rip Rig & Panic, Mr Bungle, Cameo, the Wee Papa Girl Rappers and everything in the next 3 decades that milked those influences to curdling point! 

Ahead of their UK and European tour dates, we are excited to announce the release date of ‘Feels Like Air’, the debut album from ISLAND, out via Frenchkiss. The band will also play a very special headline show at London’s iconic KOKO venue on 23rd May. Following two acclaimed EPs and a busy 12 months establishing themselves as ones-to-catch on live circuits across the UK and Europe, the band have built a reputation as one of 2017’s most important break out acts. 

Drawing on influences from their shared love of artists like Fleetwood Mac, Kings of Leon, War On Drugs and Grizzly Bear, ‘Feels like air’, with its hook-filled anthemic choruses and inventive drumming, is a body of work two years in the making. This is a band that has spent time carefully honing their craft, so as to capture the sound and energy of their live performances.

TRACK LISTING

1. Ride
2. Try
3. The Day I Die
4. Something Perfect
5. Interlude
6. Horizon
7. Moth
8. We Can Go Anywhere
9. God Forgive
10. Feels Like Air
11. Lilyflower

The Rolling Stones are set to release a new album, ‘On Air’, a selection of BBC recordings from the 60’s. The track-listing will comprise of original Stones tracks along with some covers. The audio has gone through an extensive process called ‘Audio Source Separation’ at Abbey Road. In short, it means a de-mix process ahead of a traditional multi track remix and master.

With this release Matt Wand has put together something that simultaneously celebrates a little heard of record shop from an obscure suburb of manchester, its links with the late 70's / early 80's manchester music scene, some of the unsung characters that frequented that far-flung outpost of cultural delinquency and their doomed plots to bring down the musical establishment.

The music itself runs the gamut of minimal synth anthems, d.i.y. jazz punk, grey industrial sci-fi and new wave disco crossovers. All are linked by an outsider sensibility and also a determination that any skill deficiencies could be overcome by sticking to the new born mantra of the times " Minimalist Music for the Masses " Matt escaped his post punk cassette culture past in the later eighties by forming the cartoon-improvising, electronic sampling beast known as Stock, Hausen & Walkman. Often accused of "Making music ABOUT music!" I'm not sure that's a bad thing considering how much music we find ourselves wading through these days.

Fans of his records include, Mike D ( beastie boys ), autechre, Jarvis Cocker, Lady Miss Kier ( deee-lite ), Harry Hosono (Yellow Magic Orchestra), Matt Groening, John Peel R.I.P., Thurston Moore and probably a few others? but there is no guarantee any of those people share YOUR taste or ineffable sense of style.

TRACK LISTING

1.The Anti-Mann - Angry Zen 
2.SCHÜTZENGRABENVERNICHTUNGSPANZERKRAFTWAGEN - Autonom-unterwasserfahrzeuge 
3.The Un-Normalized - Airship Graveyards 
4.The Baby Snatchers - White Gorilla
5.Tooters, Tweeters, Strings & Beaters - Crazy Paint Beneral Headache Mix 
6.The Flying Eyes - The Drawbridge 
7.Diskette - Joystick Jerk 
8.KleinStein - Vorgehen 
9.W2F - DESIRE [frozen] 
10.MUSCLE - You Know The Drill
11.WETFINGER! - We Had To Stop It Somewhere 
12.Technicezna Nizkotopliwa - Death Is Here 
13.Miracle Fat Destroyer - I Smell Burnt Ear Hair
14.Arthur Appliance & The Warm Suds - Cheese Thieves 
15.Gilbert Rubêc - Tunnel Sickness
16.W2F - Twirling Technique
17.Low Odour - I Blew Mandy
18.Erec-Troniq - Oui, Non, Peut-être?
19.The Alkaloids - Strychnine Vs Morphine
20.infomaniac - Kalte Insel

Received a 7.7 rating from Pitchfork. Less than a year after COLD BEAT's debut LP, Over Me, the band is set to release Into The Air on bassist, vocalist, and primary songwriter HANNAH LEW's label Crime On The Moon. Moving past the themes of grief and loss prevalent on Over Me, Into the Air explores ideas both earthly and celestial. Some songs are attempts at describing complex emotional landscapes, while others playfully wonder about physics and astronomy, often delving off into deep fantasy. But it doesn’t stop with the personal or metaphysical.

With the exodus of artists and musicians leaving San Francisco due to increased rent prices and overall cultural changes, Cold Beat has persevered through the city’s metamorphosis into a place less and less hospitable to artists. One can pick up on a sense of discontent in the face of a rapidly growing techie millionaire culture on Into The Air. There is a sense of fighting to survive. One can almost hear the struggle represented on the record as guitars face off against increasingly prevalent synths. 

Two songs on the album feature vocals by Jana Hunter of Lower Dens. The album features members of Woods, Crystal Stilts, Ava Luna, and Hospitality.

In 2010 Nicole Schneit aka Air Waves released Dungeon Dots, an album Aquarius Records called "...pretty much perfect pop music." For her new album Parting Glances, Schneit enlisted friends from Brooklyn's music community to contribute to the record, including members of Woods, Crystal Stilts, Ava Luna, and Hospitality. Additionally, Jana Hunter of Lower Dens contributes vocals to two songs. The album's title comes from the 1986 film Parting Glances in which Steve Buscemi portrays a gay man navigating the difficulties of being in a relationship in Reagan-era New York. More than just identifying with the story, Schneit is interested in the in the lasting effect of the parting glances we share with strangers in our everyday encounters. She explains "You see all sorts of physical and emotional traits on the train. From people puking, making out, screaming, crying, laughing, dancing, grooming, etc. We encounter each other in the thick of our complex lives by simply looking at each other all the time. These glances are mundane and fleeting but also powerfully intimate." The lingering impact of those brief moments seeps into the details and imagery she delivers with energizing hooks and a disarming lack of pretense on Parting Glances. 

TRACK LISTING

01. Horse Race
02. Calm
03. Lines
04. Fantasy
05. Frank
06. Milky Way
07. Touch Of Light
08. Thunder
09. Sweet Talk
10. Older
11. 1000 Degrees
12. Tik Tok 

Air's Nicolas Godin and Jean Benoit Dunckel were a couple of cerebral keyboard geeks from Versailles, France, where they obviously don't get out of the studio much. Their space-pop debut, "Moon Safari", was a truly obsessive hommage to easy listening, a sublime Eurocheese omelet. They built their music out of classic 60s French schlock: bongos, castanets, vintage electric piano, dream-weaver synths and shag-carpet organ straight from the soundtracks of movies like Un Homme et Une Femme. The music is full of hidden jokes, as when "Remember" replicates the distorted drum intro from the Beach Boys hit "Do It Again"; Air's Brian Wilson allusion isn't some "Smile"-era obscurity - it's a beach-party blowout. Loads of American bands tried to emulate the fab tackiness of 1960s French pop. But Moon Safari proves that the French really do it better themselves.

To coincide with the deluxe reissue of “The Virgin Suicides”, Warner / Parlophone will also release remastered versions of Air’s five album discography on 180-gram vinyl with original artwork – their first EP 'Premiers Symptômes' (1997), 'Moon Safari' (1998), '10,000 Hz Legend' (2001), 'Talkie Walkie' (2004), and 'Pocket Symphony' (2007). 

Following on from the critically acclaimed "A Perfect World", the new album boasts production credits from Jacknife Lee, Jim Elliott & Steve Harris.

This deluxe digipack edition features 4 additional tracks.

TRACK LISTING

1. Honest
2. The One
3. Autopilot
4. Human Again
5. Unclear
6. Coming Alive
7. Lost
8. Ready
9. Better
10. Everything Works Out In The End
11. Play The Game
12. Love Will Set You Free
13. Caught In The Middle
14. War
15. Moving On
16. Honest

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

Brighton-based duo Max Wheeler (producer) and Victoria Port (singer/songwriter) are a classic British concoction of jazz-inflected heady dance floor thrills. While Victoria’s melodies bring the sweetness, the tracks have the low-end weight to please DJ mavens like Karizma and Brackles on Rinse and Moxie and Annie Mac on Radio 1.

The results could be described as a UK Funky Lorde. The ‘Distorted Air’ EP forthcoming on Gilles Peterson’s Brownswood Recordings, is full of Victoria’s songwriting on fractious romance, ever the well-spring of transcendent pop with sweet female attitude. There’s relationship breakdown on ‘Broken Circuit’ or the claustrophobia of ‘World In A Room’. All of which brings to mind 1998 Talkin’ Loud signing MJ Cole and his bedroom produced classic ‘Sincere’ which traded on a similar brew of jazz, musicality, connection with the living dance floor and the pull and push of love.

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

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

For these songs, only the piano proved delicate and flexible enough to hold Azita as she sang of unsaid moments, testing the words she heard that no one else dared to say. Even with a minimal palette, these performances are a brooding, commanding lot.

The music and lyrics are rich and wild at times, a mere whisper at others. Frequent Azita collaborator Brian Torrey Scott notes, “We are presented with a somewhat emotionally apocalyptic reality, in which someone struggles to make sense of things, but cannot. The very heart of this work finds its articulation in an inability to define.”

There is calm here - a tenuous calm. The moment before the storm when all is quiet yet menace rings in the air, echoed in the moment afterward when all is still but no less devastated. ‘Disturbing The Air’ looks at the end as it approaches and sits at the site of the end, the abyss that cannot be seen but has nonetheless taken and changed lives.

"Song in the Air" is a reflective, emotionally intense release for Elliot's 'difficult' third album. A collection of songs that adds a mature insight into their lives and the breadth and depth of the album is evidence of the band taking chances, getting messed up, really sad, worked up, pissed off but essentially... alive. Recorded in July 2001 "Song In The Air" deserves to be the one that gets Elliot to the wider audience this music merits. Awesome.

Jon Rauhouse brings back the glory and artistry of the instrumental LP with this collection of pedal steel guitar and Haiwaiian guitar gems. You may know him from his recent collaborations. His playing has been a fundamental part of recent recordings by Neko Case, The Waco Bros and Calexico. The arrangements and the musicianship on this album will put to shame any and all dillettante rockers, and with the backing talents of Calexico, and for those who just need the sound of a human voice, guest vocalists Neko Case, Sally Timms and Kelly Hogan - what more could you need?