In this intimate and open account - nothing like any rock-and-roll memoir you've ever read - Alex Van Halen shares his personal story of family, friendship, music and brotherly love in a remarkable tribute to his beloved brother and band mate. Told with acclaimed New Yorker writer Ariel Levy Brothers is seventy-year-old drummer Alex Van Halen's love letter to his younger brother, Edward, (maybe "Ed," but never "Eddie"), written while still mourning his untimely death.In his rough yet sweet voice, Alex recounts the brothers' childhood, first in the Netherlands and then in working class Pasadena, California, with an itinerant musician father and a very proper Indonesian-born mother - the kind of mum who admonished her boys to "always wear a suit" no matter how famous they became - a woman who was both proud and practical, nonchalant about taking a doggie bag from a star-studded dinner. He also shares tales of musical politics, infighting, and plenty of bad-boy behaviour.

But mostly his is a story of brotherhood, music, and enduring love."I was with him from day one," Alex writes. "We shared the experience of coming to America and figuring out how to fit in. We shared a record player, an 800 square foot house, a mom and dad, and a work ethic.

Later, we shared the back of a tour bus, alcoholism, the experience of becoming famous, of becoming fathers and uncles, and of spending more hours in the studio than I've spent doing anything else in this life. We shared a depth of understanding that most people can only hope to achieve in a lifetime."There has never been an accurate account of them or the band, and Alex wants to set the record straight on Edward's life and death.Brothers includes never-before-seen photos from the author's private archives.

Alex Kassian's extended rendition of E2–E4 promises a 12-minute electronic odyssey, tailor-made for diverse dancefloors from it’s spiritual home Ibiza and beyond. On the flip side, Mad Professor embarks on a club-oriented version excursion, a rare gem in its own right. This reimagining breathes new life into the classic, offering fresh perspectives for music aficionados everywhere. Hot tip for release of the Summer!

TRACK LISTING

A1. E2–E4
B1. E2–E4 (Mad Professor’s Qantas Crazy Remix)

One Tokyo based DJ’s sonic memoir, spanning two decades of life and music in Japan. "Japan Vibrations Vol. 1" will transport listeners in time to energetic nights at Japan’s legendary club venues and delight with a spirited journey of musical discovery and reflection.

Dive into the exhilarating era of Japan’s electronic dance music scene from the mid ’80s to the mid ’90s, hand-picked by DJ and musical storyteller Alex from Tokyo who pays homage to the trailblazers and innovators who shaped the landscape.

11 newly remastered tracks spanning ambient, downtempo, dub, world beats, deep house, new jazz, and techno. Together they showcase the creative ingenuity and energy of a paradisiac era marked by a symbiotic fusion of international sounds with distinctively Japanese influences. Experience the vibrations of pioneers Haruomi Hosono, Ryuichi Sakamoto, and Yasuaki Shimizu. Of culture-shaping forces Hiroshi Fujiwara and Kan Takagi (T.P.O./Major Force), Susumu Yokota (Prism), Silent Poets, Mondo Grosso and Kyoto Jazz Massive. And of new-generation artists CMJK (C.T. Scan), Mind Design, Okihide, and Hiroshi Watanabe (Quadra). The evolution of a scene, a moment, presented with the progression of a DJ set.

Hi-fidelity remastering by sound engineer Isao Kumano (PHONON). License coordination by Ken Hidaka, album artwork by Takehiko Kitahara. Photography by Meisa Fujishiro and Beezer, and from Alex and friends’ personal collections. Pressed by Mother Tongue Records. 

TRACK LISTING

Haruomi Hosono - Ambient Meditation #3
Silent Poets - Meaning In The Tone (’95 Space & Oriental)
Mind Design - Sun
Quadra - Phantom
Yasuaki Shimizu - Tamare-Tamare
Ryuichi Sakamoto - Tibetan Dance (Version)
T.P.O. - Hiroshi’s Dub (Tokyo Club Mix)
Okihide - Biskatta
Mondo Grosso - Vibe PM (Jazzy Mixed Roots) (Remixed By Yoshihiro Okino)
Prism - Velvet Nymph

C.T. Scan - Cold Sleep (The Door Into Summer)

Following releases on Love On The Rocks and Pinchy & Friends (the massive 'Leave Your Life' and 'Strings of Eden' which now goes for big bucks on Discogs) Alex Kassian arrives with the first release on the new label from the Test Pressing team.

Lead track 'Voices' arrives in three mixes that run from an expansive journey, to a pure club version, followed by the ambient excursion 'Lifestream' - an electronic piece focussing on what Alex does best, quality production with amazing sounds and melody. This is the first in a three part series of Alex Kassian releases building to an album next year.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Voices (Jenova Mix)
A2. Voices (Swarm Mix)
B1. Voices (Materia Mix)
B2. Lifestream

This ten-track album showcases Alex Pester's unique and unconventional sound, a blend of folk, baroque pop, psychedelia, and experimentalism, and is set to become a defining moment in his young career.

At just twenty-two years old, Pester has already established himself as a prolific singer-songwriter hailing from Bath, England. He has released three albums to date, each displaying his immense talent as a musician and songwriter. Influenced by the Incredible String Band, The Beatles, Robert Wyatt, Animal Collective, Harry Nilsson, and The Microphones, among others.

TRACK LISTING

1. Dear Friend
2. Big Black Second-Hand Book
3. I See You
4. You Love Me
5. So What?
6. In The Night
7. You're My Kind
8. Restless
9. Are You Gonna Make Her Choose?
10. Bye Bye, Teddy

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2023 EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

Never before released on vinyl, no plans to repress. True RSD exclusive. No digital release until far in the fuutre. This was recorded live in Belgium in 2004 with a pick-up band. colour vinyl. CD is long out of print

Alex Chilton’s Feudalist Tarts (1985) found the Big Star/The Box Tops front man re-making himself as a southern fried hipster offering up original tunes like “Stuff” and sly soulful covers “B-A-B’Y” and “Thank You John” while adding a horn section to his road tested rhythm section. Side Two features a number of rare Chilton tracks including “Rubber Room” and “Wild Kingdom.” Chilton had hit rock bottom in his home town of Memphis after 15 years of substance abuse and hard partying.

He chose New Orleans as the city where he would re-make himself. One of the benefits was exposure to all the music he would hear down there. He immediately immersed himself in the city’s laid back, stretched out grooves. The covers he chose for this record were songs he heard being played by older musicians around New Orleans

Expanded version includes a side of rare tracks. Out of print on vinyl since 1986. Includes seven original Chilton compositions. Original album release coincided with his most prolific touring schedule since his days in The Box Tops.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A:
01. Tee Ni Nee Ni Noo - Tip On In
02. Stuff
03. B-A-B-Y
04. Thank You John
05. Lost My Job
06. Paradise
SIDE B:
07. No Sex
08. Magnetic Field
09. Rubber Room
10. Wild Kingdom
11. Junkyard

“God” figures in the new album from Philadelphia, PA based Alex Giannascoli's LP’s title, its first song, and multiple of its thirteen tracks thereafter, not as a concrete religious entity but as a sign for a generalized sense of faith (in something, anything) that fortifies Giannascoli, or the characters he voices, amid the songs’ often fraught situations.

Beyond the ambient inspiration of pop, Giannascoli has been drawn in recent years to artists who balance the public and hermetic, the oblique and the intimate, and who present faith more as a shared social language than religious doctrine.

As with his previous records, Giannascoli wrote and demoed these songs by himself, at home; but, for the sake of both new tones and “a routine that was outside of my apartment,” he asked some half-dozen engineers to help him produce the “best” recording quality, whatever that meant. The result is an album more dynamic than ever in its sonic palette.

TRACK LISTING

1. After All
2. Runner
3. Mission
4. S.D.O.S.
5. No Bitterness
6. Ain’t It Easy
7. Cross The Sea
8. Blessing
9. Early Morning Waiting
10. Immunity
11. Headroom Piano
12. Miracles
13. Forgive

‘I’m Not Here’ inhabits the shaggy, world-weary mode of Alex Izenberg’s favorite 1970s artists, folks like Harry Nilsson, John Lennon, Randy Newman, and Lou Reed.

Recorded at Tropico Studios, produced by Izenberg and Greg Hartunian in Los Angeles, CA, the album’s swelling string and woodwind arrangements - courtesy of collaborator Dave Longstreth of Dirty Projectors - bring to mind the technicolour sweep of Van Dyke Parks.

TRACK LISTING

1. Ivory
2. Gemini Underwater
3. Egyptian Cadillac
4. Breathless Darkness
5. Broadway
6. Our Love Remains
7. Ladies Of Rodeo
8. Sorrows Blue Tapestry
9. Juniper & Lamplight
10. Sea Of Wine

Alex Cameron has always been a great storyteller, finding his ways into the depths of the places where not many others are looking, and Oxy Music continues on that trajectory. It’s filled with stories of people who fall outside the system and exist in the grey areas of life. And much like 2017’s Forced Witness, Oxy Music is a work of fiction. In its design - its music, lyrics and tracklist - lies the journey a person can take, if the circumstances present themselves - down the road of heavy drug and alcohol abuse. Initially inspired by Nico Walker’s Cherry, Cameron was spurred into yet another commentary on American Life, this time about the opioid crisis that has taken over the country. Alex says about Oxy Music: “The album is a story, a work of fiction, mostly from the perspective of a man. Starved of meaningful purpose, confused about the state of the world, and in dire need of a reason to live - a person can, and according to the latest statistics, increasingly will, turn to opioids. This is one of those people.”

While Oxy Music could be dark, it’s instead brighter and more buoyant than much of Cameron’s previous work, a shift in mood first seen across 2019’s Miami Memory. It’s told from a place of optimism and through the lens of Cameron, in the way that only he can tell it.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A:
1. Best Life
2. Sara Jo
3. Prescription Refill
4. Hold The Line
5. Breakdown

SIDE B:
6. K Hole
7. Dead Eyes
8. Cancel Culture (feat. Lloyd Vines)
9. Oky Music (feat. Jason Williamson)

As one third of legendary trio Azymuth, Alex Malheiros has pioneered a
unique fusion of space-funk, samba and jazz since the early seventies. His
playing can be heard on the records of Jorge Ben, Milton Nascimento,
Roberto Carlos, Marcos Valle, and Mark Murphy (to name a few), and he's
performed and toured with everyone from Stevie Wonder to Chick Corea.

Written and recorded in Niterói, Brazil, overlooking Guanabara and the beaches, mountains and forests of Rio de Janeiro, Tempos Futuros has deep roots in Brazilian soil. The rhythms of Malheiros' homeland have always permeated his music. But just like the Oscar Niemeyer designed Niterói Contemporary Art Museum which stands spaceship-like over the water, Tempos Futuros – while inspired by terrestrial forms, reaches out, deep into the great unknown.

Produced by acclaimed London-based producer Daniel Maunick, who has
worked with Marcos Valle, Azymuth, Terry Callier, and Ivan Conti, the funk
comes full circle. Daniel's father Jean-Paul "Bluey" Maunick and Alex Malheiros shared a reciprocal stream of influence throughout the 80s, between London and Rio; Azymuth and Incognito; brit-funk and samba-funk. But just as with Azymuth's music, you can also hear the influence of stateside jazz-funk masters like Roy Ayers, Weather Report, Lonnie Liston Smith, Mtume and Pleasure.

Tempos Futuros features Alex's daughter, a Brazilian star in her own right,
vocalist Sabrina Malheiros, Brazilian percussion master Sidinho Moreira,
London based saxophonist Sean Khan, Marcos Valle's go-to drummer Massa,
and Brazilian keyboard player Dudu Viana. Featuring the late Azymuth
keyboard maestro Jose Roberto Bertami on Fender Rhodes, the title track "Tempos Futuros" was originally recorded as a demo in 1995. On this finished version, Alex Malheiros used Bertami's original keyboard take, explaining the
posthumous release.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Razor's Edge
2. Prece (feat. Sabrina Malheiros)
3. Telegramas Para Arp
4. Retrato (feat. Sean Khan)
5. Requiem For A Storm
6. Alto Verão (feat. Sabrina Malheiros)
7. O Temporal
8. Marcinha
9. Kuarup

Real Estate's Alex Bleeker steps out on his own for a first full solo album, taking his music back to his homespun indie-rock roots. Initially recorded in his bedroom before adding finishing touches in the studio, the tracks have a lo-fi warmth akin to Bleeker's American heroes The Feelies & Yo La Tengo.

I’ve known Alex Bleeker my entire life. Well, okay, maybe not since I was born, but there’s no doubt that I’ve shared a fair bit of memories with him over the years. We’ve acted in high school productions of Shakespeare together, gone on late-night diner runs, argued about which Weezer album is the band’s best, and swapped mutual appreciation for the music of Yo La Tengo on car rides careening around the snaky suburbia of our hometown. Just like his Real Estate bandmates Martin Courtney and Julian Lynch, we attended high school in the New Jersey enclave of Ridgewood, a place where sticky summer days yielded cool nights with a glow so nocturnal that you can practically hear the fireflies buzzing off of this sentence alone.

Indie rock—a type of music that can easily be made or listened to in someone’s garage—often dominates teenage suburban preoccupations, and both Alex and I were no exception. You can hear this legacy of listening on his new album Heaven on the Faultline, which departs from his last full-band outing as Alex Bleeker and the Freaks, 2015’s Country Agenda. Whereas that album had a more full-bodied explicitly folk-y feel, Heaven on the Faultline finds Bleeker getting back to his homespun roots over the course of its 13 songs, from the jangly guitar pop of New Jersey heroes the Feelies and YLT’s hushed, acoustic reveries to the open-hearted folk rock that marks so much of the Grateful Dead’s early catalog.

Written and recorded over the last several years, Heaven on the Faultline’s songs were initially recorded straight to GarageBand in Bleeker’s bedroom before receiving further studio refinement in co-producer Phil Hartunian’s Tropico Beauty space in Los Angeles. With contributions from Confusing Mix of Nations’ Josh Da Costa, Cameron Stallones of Sun Araw, singer-songwriter Kacey Johansing, and Parting Lines’ Tim Ramsey, Heaven on the Faultline achieves a warm and intimate feel that defines Bleeker’s mission for the album: “I wanted to capture the moment in which I fell in love with making music to begin with. This is music for myself—me getting back to music for music’s sake.”

The unsteady times we live in certainly creep into view on Heaven on the Faultline. The deceptively easygoing “D Plus” was written on the day of President Donald Trump’s inauguration with the cursed event in mind, while the anxiety of climate change hovers just above the lovely guitar loops of “Felty Feel.” “The album is very much about dealing with the anxiety of a sense of impending doom,” Bleeker states while discussing the album’s portentous vibes. “When is the hammer going to fall? How do we go forward in the face of such anxiety and experience the complexity of life?” 

TRACK LISTING

1 AB Ripoff
2 D Plus
3 Felty Feel
4 Heaven On The Faultline
5 Heavy Tupper
6 LaLaLa
7 Mashed Potatoes
8 Swang
9 Parking Lot
10 Reach For My Brain
11 Tamalpais
12 Twang
13 Lonesome Call

Musician, composer, producer and visual artist Alex Somers releases his debut album Siblings in tandem with his other debut album Siblings 2 on April 16th 2020. Two double albums housed in a beautiful single sleeves Siblings and Siblings 2 have been a long time coming, being written between 2014-2016.

Siblings and Siblings 2 have 13 hauntingly beautiful, impressionistic tracks apiece, the records draw on the composer’s main musical interests - film composition, ambient, post-classical, post-rock and electronica - combining grandeur and intimacy, broad brushstrokes and subtle detail, minimalism and maximalism.

A known composer Somers has worked on an already prolific amount of film and TV music, such as Captain Fantastic, Honey Boy, Here We Are: Notes For Living On Planet Earth, Audrey, Taylor Swift’s Miss Americana and (with Sigur Rós) the Black Mirror episode Hang The DJ on Netflix. In parallel, Somers built a studio where he recorded the likes of Sigur Rós, Jónsi, Julianna Bardwick, Death Vessel and Damien Rice, and continued with his own recordings. Remarkably, given his vast experience, Siblings and Siblings 2 are the first albums under his own name.

Musician, composer, producer and visual artist Alex Somers releases his debut album Siblings in tandem with his other debut album Siblings 2 on April 16th 2020. Two double albums housed in a beautiful single sleeves Siblings and Siblings 2 have been a long time coming, being written between 2014-2016.

Siblings and Siblings 2 have 13 hauntingly beautiful, impressionistic tracks apiece, the records draw on the composer’s main musical interests - film composition, ambient, post-classical, post-rock and electronica - combining grandeur and intimacy, broad brushstrokes and subtle detail, minimalism and maximalism.

A known composer Somers has worked on an already prolific amount of film and TV music, such as Captain Fantastic, Honey Boy, Here We Are: Notes For Living On Planet Earth, Audrey, Taylor Swift’s Miss Americana and (with Sigur Rós) the Black Mirror episode Hang The DJ on Netflix. In parallel, Somers built a studio where he recorded the likes of Sigur Rós, Jónsi, Julianna Bardwick, Death Vessel and Damien Rice, and continued with his own recordings. Remarkably, given his vast experience, Siblings and Siblings 2 are the first albums under his own name.

The music of Alex Maas has always mesmerised. Now, on his soul-baring solo debut Luca, the Texan and Black Angel's singer journey is taking an equally hypnotic detour along the wild trails of his indigenous homestead. Driven by the force of nature, each phase of life is celebrated through songs of love, hope, human connection whilst navigating perils of modern society and tentatively facing the darkness. 

TRACK LISTING

1 Slip Into
2 The Light That Will End Us
3 Special
4 Been Struggling
5 500 Dreams
6 What Would I Tell Your Mother
7 All Day
8 Shines Like The Sun (Madeline's Melody)
9 American Conquest
10 The City

Following a four-year silence, enigmatic LAoutsider Alex Izenberg presents his sophomore album ‘Caravan Château’ via Weird World / Domino.

Recorded largely at Tropico Beauty with Greg Hartunian (Young Jesus) and Derek Korat, and with the help of a handful of collaborators including Chris Taylor (Grizzly Bear), Jonathan Rado (Foxygen, Whitney, Lemon Twigs), Ari Balouzian (Tobias Jesso Jr) and others, Izenberg creates songs that are easy to adore but hard to define. Izenberg’s sharp songs are the bait that first brings you into ‘Caravan Château’ but that deliberate ambiguity is what brings you back repeatedly, hoping to tease out the riddles of being inside these stunning tunes.

TRACK LISTING

Requiem
Sister Jade
Anne In Strange Furs
Disraeli Woman
Saffron Glimpse
Dancing Through The
Turquoise
Bouquets Falling In The
Rain
December 30th
Lady
Revolution Girls
Caravan Château

Love Record Stores Edition available from 9am on Saturday June 20th.
Limited to one per person.

Swiss DJ Alex Attias returns to BBE with a second helping of uptempo cuts, perfectly encapsulating his LillyGood Party! sound. Founder of the recently revived Visions imprint, a long-time collector and a revered selector, Alex Attias is, before everything, a refined producer whose musical craft has seen him travel the globe, most notably with an extended stint in the birthplace of the bruk sound, London. The tracks you’ll find on this compilation are all current favourites, or proven classics that have never left Alex's record box at the LillyGood Parties, a gathering Alex and his brother Stephane run in their hometown of Lausanne, Switzerland. LillyGood Party! Vol.2 is another testament to Attias’ unswerving taste for smooth yet intricate, subtly layered yet deeply rooted dance compositions; some subtly edited for maximum dance-floor effect. Featuring instantly recognisable names such as Louie Vega's Elements Of Life, Peven Everett and even Pharoah Sanders, LillyGood Party 2 also sheds light on some lesser-known artists, digging out some gems, buried deep across the jazz, disco and electronic musical strata. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Sil says: More jazzy than my usual preferences; this great compilation has got me shacking my arse in ways not previously known! Someone put me on a dancefloor!

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A
1. How Bad I Want Ya (GU Peak True Time Mix) – Stacy Kidd Feat. Peven Everett
SIDE B
1. Children Of The World (Ben Brophy Edit) – The Elements Of Life Feat. Josh Milan
SIDE C
1. Gwotet (Alex Attias Edit) – David Murray & The Gwo-Ka Masters Feat. Pharoah Sanders
2. Freedom Flight – Mausiki Scales (Alex Attias LillyGood Party Edit)
SIDE D
1. Open Up Your Mind (Honeycomb Vocal Mix) – Universal Tongues Feat. Elle
2. Star Child Going Home – MJ Lallo

Honey Boy OST by Alex Somers. Beautiful and transcendent soundtrack to accompany the Shia LaBeouf written and Alma Har'el directed Honey Boy.

TRACK LISTING

Side A

1. Honey Boy (Feat. Zach Shields) / 2. Apologize / 3. A Good Day / 4. Where You Come From / 5. Blood Family / 6. Treehouse / 7. Without A Net / 8. Play The Tape Out / 9. Blackout

Side B

1. A Mirror Behind You / 2. Save Yourself / 3. Fair / 4. Mother Fell Out Of A Window (Feat. Zach Shields) / 5. Real World / 6. None OfIt's Real / 7. Trust Me Honey Boy / 8. I Want You To Be Here (Feat. Zach Shields) / 9. You're A Fucking Star (Feat. Zach Shields) / 10. A Violent Act / 11. All I Ever Wanted

Alex Cameron’s newest and most musically expansive LP, the glistening Miami Memory, takes a surprising turn. Cameron’s flair for narrative and character are still on full display; yet Miami Memory’s most frequent narrator is, for the first time, Cameron himself—singing with stunning candor of his three-year relationship with his girlfriend.

“When you listen to these songs, and you’re waiting for the twist, or the joke, or any kind of discomfort, I can assure you none of those things were there when I wrote them,” says Cameron. “These are true stories, of actual events. Specific but never esoteric. And graphic but never offensive. Miami Memory is the story of a couple balancing sex with contemporary family values...It’s my gift to my girlfriend, a symbol to hoist on the totem of love.”

Though remnants of his synth-driven earlier work sneak in to unsettle the tone, the bulk of Miami Memory, produced by Jonathan Rado (Weyes Blood, Father John Misty) and recorded and mixed by Marta Salogni (Björk, Kelela), revels in the emotional overdrive of classic dad rock, its warm, anthemic songs driven by bass, guitar, sax, and layers of Vegas wedding chapel-ish organ.

Cameron’s dad rock funhouse of an album ultimately twists and subverts the genre: it recalls classics the white male ego has historically visited for its regular adrenaline injection, and morphs them into a singular “stepdad” rock that largely turns its lens away from the dads, celebrating the demise of old norms of gender and power. In his depiction of his relationship, Cameron reveals a striking honesty about love and sex in a time where a palpable fleetingness hangs over everything from relationships to human life on this planet—but also where constricting mores have deteriorated enough to let “family life,” in all its morphing forms, exist outside of social obligation. With arresting straightforwardness, Cameron now sings as himself, paying tribute

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Huge stadium-rock choruses and growling synths provide a glitzy and sturdy backdrop for Cameron's soaring vocals and robust 80's-tinged pomp. Huge, overblown, and great fun all round.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A:
1. Stepdad
2. Miami Memory
3. Far From Born Again
4. Gaslight
5. Bad For The Boy

SIDE B:
6. End Is Nigh
7. PC With Me
8. Divorce
9. Other Ladies
10. Too Far

(Sandy) Alex G, aka singer, songwriter and musician Alex Giannascoli, announces new album ‘House of Sugar’. The album is the Philadelphian’s ninth overall and third for Domino.

Giannascoli worked closely with Jacob Portrait, who mixed both ‘Rocket’ and 2015’s ‘Beach Music’ and helped to balance each of ‘House of Sugar’s dense, multi-faceted tracks. As the product of extended focus and planning, ‘House of Sugar’ emerges as Giannascoli’s most meticulous, cohesive album yet: a statement of artistic purpose, showing off his ear for both persistent earworms and shifting textures and the out-there sonic adventurism that’s made previous (Sandy) Alex G records so singular.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: From twisted, Beck-y ballads to euphoric synth-led stormers, Alex G has always had an uncanny knack for writing a tune and these richly orchestrated, beautifully constructed off-piste tunes show more and more ability in every passing album. This stuff is properly gorgeous ; heartfelt, soaring and emotive works of genius. Spellbinding from the outset.

TRACK LISTING

Walk Away
Hope
Southern Sky
Gretel
Taking
Near
Project 2
Bad Man
Sugar
In My Arms
Cow
Crime
SugarHouse (Live)

Alex Jann returns to Censor for the label’s second excursion into the unknown with three direct communications and a mix of the title track from Rotterdam’s Animistic Beliefs.

The EP’s title track "Computoid.Transmission.X" is a pulsating drum workout laced with dystopian pads, laser-cut leads, anxious bass lines and an evocative mutant vocal from an A.I. system gaining consciousness.

Animistic Beliefs create a darker texture on their 'Electric Eye Mix' of the title track, sending the vocal and lead sound straight through the stratosphere via complex bass and arp phrases that filter and stalk around the lead bringing a deeper and more contrasting A2.

"Firewall Culture" comes as an intoxicating trip on the B1 with off-world FX, feral acid lines and a spacetime-defying style of vocal that haunt Alex’s work.

"Jupiter Storms" on the B2 ascends the EP to a higher plane with deep washes created from evolving pads adding space and movement to the final track of the release, all accented with glacial micro drops, syncopated beats and tight trickling synth sections. The release was mastered by Keith Tenniswood at Curve Pusher.

Look, I know you're totally barraged with nu-electro vibrations at the moment, but you can rely on us to sort the wheat from the chaff. And this is wholegrain goodness for all the 'fam! Keith Tenniswood's even involved for Christ's sake - it may as well have Her Majesty's seal of approval!

TRACK LISTING

A1. Computoid.Transmission.X
A2. Computoid.Transmission.X (Animistic Beliefs Electric Eye Mix)
B1. Firewall Culture
B2. Jupiter Storms

On her sophomore LP, The Best of Luck Club, 26-year-old Melbourne, Australia native Alex Lahey navigates the pangs of generational ennui with the pint half-full and a spot cleared on the bar stool next to her. Self-doubt, burn out, break-ups, mental health, moving in with her girlfriend, vibrators: The Best of Luck Club showcases the universal language of Lahey’s sharp songwriting, her propensity for taking the minute details of the personal and flipping it public through anthemic pop-punk. Lahey’s 2017 debut I Love You Like a Brother encases Lahey’s knack for writing a killer hook and her acute sense of humor delivered via a slacker-rock package and, in a way, The Best of Luck Club picks up where that record left off.

Lahey co-produced the album alongside acclaimed engineer and producer Catherine Marks (Local Natives, Wolf Alice, Manchester Orchestra), and dives headfirst into a broader spectrum of both emotion and sound through polished, arena pop-punk in the vein of Paramore with the introspective sheen of Alvvays or Tegan & Sara. Here, Lahey documents the highest highs and the lowest lows of her life to date. After a whirlwind of global touring in support of breakout debut I Love You Like a Brother, Lahey wrote the bulk of her follow-up in Nashville during 12-hour days of songwriting. There, she found the inspiration for The Best of Luck Clubís concept: the dive bar scene and its genuine energy.”Whether you’ve had the best day of your life or the worst day of your life, you can just sit up at the bar and turn to the person next to you - who has no idea who you are - and have a chat. And the response that you generally get at the end of the conversation is, "Best of luck", so The Best Of Luck Club is that place.

TRACK LISTING

1. I Don’t Get Invited To Parties Anymore
2. Am I Doing It Right
3. Interior Demeanour
4. Don’t Be So Hard On Yourself
5. Unspoken History
6. Misery Guts
7. Isabella
8. I Need To Move On
9. Black RM’s
10. I Want To Live With You

“Here we have the final entry into our Live In San Francisco series: an intimate evening with Alex [Cameron] and his indispensable sax man, Roy Molloy (beard in briefcase) performing at the Swedish American Hall in San Francisco, a very classy and lovingly maintained venue originally built in 1907 on Market Street, just a pube or two into the Castro District. “I was first introduced to Alex Cameron by Adam Beris, a real swell fellow who’s been drawing Castle Faces for us for years. He asked if I had heard of this “Suicide meets sad Springsteen” act and showed me the mysterious Geocities-style website (complete with shady porn ads). I was immediately hooked on the skeletal throb, the stark portraits of hard luck losers, the ego-maniacal squares, and the swagger on this prosthetically wrinkled Australian song and dance man. On a paid website, as he reminds us. Both sharp-witted and steeped in thespian courage, this is exactly what the world needed in this hungry, hungry time we live in. We got in touch, things led to other things, and when Alex was opening for Oh Sees at the Chapel in San Francisco we hatched a plan to make a live record, over white wine spritzers (as all the best deals are inked). “Al and Roy are the real deal, folks…and this wasn’t to be just any old show. I was determined to do something a little special, and I got the idea from working on John’s book of poster art (Exploded Globes) to bill it as a semi-formal, encourage people to ‘get dressed up and messed up’ as John puts it, and do it in a classy sort of hall, make it muy romantico. We got flowers from the Mission De Flores (who have sadly joined the ghost ranks of SF small businesses past), one of which made it to the cover, the champagne and fine wines flowed, and I like to think we helped San Francisco get a little luckier that night. There’s flower petals all over the mix here; Roy’s sax slinks sultrily, Al is in fine form, adding the occasional barb on the stem, sounding well oiled and comfortably bantering between tunes, and Justin Nijssen hangs back and window-dresses the whole thing with some well placed guitar and a few backups. These are professionals, need I remind you, hard workin’ road dogs with deep thoughts that inspire deep respect, and they put some dancing sweat on all the hits from Jumping The Shark as well as “Candy May” from Forced Witness, which at the time wasn’t yet out. We couldn’t be prouder of our final Live In SF disc, and it’s out on Castle Face Records in partnership with Secretly Canadian.” – Matt Jones.

Third album from Liverpool born singer-songwriter Alex Highton. Rather than the acoustic bucolic musings of "Woodditton Wives Club" ("a masterpiece," according to Heaven Magazine in Holland, "World class," said the Guardian) or his disconcerting take on existence that was "Nobody Knows Anything" ("Sufjan Stevens like audacity....4 Stars" Mojo Magazine"), his new album expands his sound into a something much more complex and sonically adventurous.

As a kid his time was split between his native Liverpool and Florence, Italy, after his parents' divorce. Liverpool has a musical heritage that is impossible to escape but it was during the summers, whilst devouring his Dad's amazingly eclectic record collection , that his musical education began, taking in everything from Talking Heads & Penguin Cafe Orchestra to David Ackles & Bowie. He lost his twenties to bad decisions and then struggling through some kind of breakdown, he started to take songwriting seriously. The songs he wrote (part therapy / part love letter his new life) formed the basis of his debut album, a record replete with tales of rural S&M, mental, emotional and economic collapse, and ultimately salvation through love and family. For the new album Alex locked himself away in the studio with producer/multi instrumentalist Jonathan Czerwik, and started putting together the songs that would fill "Welcome To Happiness".

In their downtime they discussed artists they loved and would inform the new album - Can, The Flaming Lips, Beck, Prince, Steely Dan, Bon Iver, Serge Gainsbourg, Here We Go Magic, The Beach Boys, Bowie, Neu, tons more..."We threw all this stuff into the pot and just said 'let's see what happens'. Witness "Benny Is A Heartbreaker" reminiscent of Hot Chip & Talking Heads with it's electro beats and slick grooves and "Love Is Enough", referencing David Ackles & Luis Bunuel but sounding like something cooked up by Luke Temple and ELO. 

A landmark in cinematic wildlife fi lmmaking, Earth: One Amazing Day dramati cally brings to life the crucial role the sun plays in shaping the destinies of life-forms on the planet, including ourselves. It’s a spectacular vision of the rhythms of day and night and how a relati onship with the sun binds every species together.

The score is produced by Alex Heffes, one of fi lm world’s most exciting composers, with credits such as Touching The Void, The Last King Of Scotland and Queen Of Katwe.

This vinyl edition is packaged as a gatefold double LP on blue and green translucent heavyweight vinyl. The artwork contains numerous photos from the
film itself.

TRACK LISTING

LP 1:
Earth
Sunrise
Serval
Iguanas Vs. Snakes
Waltz Of The Flowers
Baby Panda
Cloud Building
Zebra River Crossing
Narwhales
Brown Bears
Sleepy Lions
Giraffe Battle
Sand Dunes
Sperm Whales

LP 2:
Sloth Story
Penguin Colony
Penguin Raiders Return
Penguins Reunited
Racket Tailed Hummingbird
Field Mouse
Mayflies
Zebra Survives Another Day
White Headed Langurs
Creatures Of The Night
Click Beetle
Bioluminescence
Night Sky
Fireflies
Another Ordinary Day
End Credits

The first thing that hits you is the voice. Alex Lipinski’s caressing sympathy, full-throated resentment, and the raw rockabilly excitement of earliest Elvis have grabbed unwary listeners from the West Country to Krakow, Berlin and New York, since he first left Somerset to become a crucial habitué of Soho’s legendary, lost 12-Bar Club. He has followed in the footsteps of his hero Dylan to write in the Chelsea Hotel, and sung Elvis songs in the home of an admiring Liam Gallagher, who responded with a roaring “Acquiesce”. With older brother and fellow musician Adam Lipinski by his side at Newcombe’s residential studio in Berlin, ‘Alex’ basically took six hours. “Anton put a lot of time and energy in.

I recorded with an old guitar, because he wanted to capture the effortless, timeless ‘60s records that he had in his mind. We had initially planned to be in the studio for three or four nights. The first evening we rattled though the songs, a take or two of each and in those six hours everything clicked. By midnight we were done. We ended the evening by going to a great bar called 8mm. Anton set up a gig there the following night and played old folk records, then we played a live set. We added small overdubs on the record later. But the album captures the character of the songs live with no frills. The slight imperfections add to the feel. Anton taught me about perfect mistakes.”

TRACK LISTING

1) Going Nowhere Fast ,
2). Dandylion Blues ,
3). Carolyn ,
4). Hurricane ,
5). Come On People ,
6). Sophie’s Song
7). The Devil You Know ,
8). Lonely Kid ,
9). Another Travellin’ Song ,
10). This Girl

I Love You Like A Brother is the highly anticipated album from Melbourne’s Alex Lahey. An infectious debut that shines with a rare confidence, I Love You Like A Brother is a riotous record, packed with relatable fuzzpop gems. 

After finishing school, Lahey initially went to university to study jazz saxophone, but unimpressed with “learning music in such a regimented way” she switched to an arts degree. While studying, Alex cut her teeth as a member of cult party collective Animaux, which allowed her restlessly rebellious streak to flourish. Alex began to form the blueprint for her own solo material by writing songs inspired by the two people she considers the greatest songwriters of all time, Dolly Parton and Bruce Springsteen, whilst retaining the punk spirit of her first musical outing. These songs found themselves on her first solo EP, the acclaimed B-Grade University.

The EP included the single. ‘You Don’t Think You Like People Like Me’; a mainstay on Australian radio, landing on triple j’s prestigious Hottest 100 of 2016. The song’s universal tale of rejection took Lahey global - its message, she says, is the flipside of the usual break-up scenario: “Yeah, you’re right. It’s not me. It IS you”. This no-shit-taken attitude forms the backbone of I Love You Like A Brother as evidenced by the uproarious opening track ‘Every Day’s The Weekend’.

Throughout the records’ ten songs, Alex’s lyrics deftly move between wry, often hilarious witticism to heartbreaking poignancy. For every uplifting anthem, such as ‘I Love You Like A Brother’ and the unruly ‘Perth Traumatic Stress Disorder’, there’s painfully relatable tracks like ‘Backpack’ and ‘Awkward Exchange’. Despite the instant pop chops of I Love You Like A Brother, there’s introspection, self-doubt and sense of working out the complexities of growing up in this limbo period between youth and adulthood.

The themes of Alex Lahey’s album might be universal, but it’s the unique approach she takes unpacking them that’s earned her millions of Spotify streams, buzz-worthy showcases at SXSW and festival sets alongside the likes of Flume, The Kills, At The Drive-In and James Blake as well as guesting on tours with Tegan & Sara and Blondie.

TRACK LISTING

1 Every Day's The Weekend
2 I Love You Like A Brother
3 Perth Traumatic Stress Disorder
4 I Haven't Been Taking Care Of Myself
5 Backpack
6 Awkward Exchange
7 I Want U
8 Lotto In Reverse
9 Let's Call It A Day
10 There's No Money

“Up until 2014 I was an investigator’s assistant in a public law office. I can’t tell you exactly what my job was on account of I signed a shut your mouth agreement around the time I quit for stress related reasons. But what I can say is that I dealt with corruption and badness perpetrated at the highest levels of authority, daily. I clocked all these leads and I made a file. Because these aren’t things you keep in the dark. You shine a light on the badness and you strive to understand it.

“From a dossier on all things delicate and beautiful and sadly human. Crimes of passion and victims of love. All contained in 10 hot songs. Who’s the culprit? I’ve got my inklings and you can get your own. But first you need to listen to the thing, take it all in, stick photos to your walls and connect them with string, measure footprints in the yard, wear a suit made of reeds, track the migration patterns of birds, intercept whispered transmissions, learn to eat spiders with a hunting knife, sleep in air ducts, make the case.

“Here it is, my album: ‘Forced Witness’.” - Alex Cameron

Album features guest appearances by Brandon Flowers (The Killers), Angel Olsen and Weyes Blood.

TRACK LISTING

Candy May
Country Figs
Runnin’ Outta Luck
Stranger’s Kiss (duet With Angel Olsen)
True Lies
Studmuffin96
The Chihuahua
The Hacienda
Marlon Brando
Politics Of Love

Rocket is (Sandy) Alex G’s eighth full-length release—an assured statement that follows a slate of humble masterpieces, many of them self-recorded and self-released, stretching from 2010’s RACE to his 2015 Domino debut, Beach Music.

Rocket’s sessions began shortly after Beach Music’s ended, with Alex tracking songs at home, by himself and with friends, in the gaps between a hectic 2015 and 2016 touring schedule (including working with Frank Ocean on Blonde).

Rocket was mixed by Jacob Portrait (Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Bass Drum of Death), who also lent his hand to Beach Music, giving the album a fine-tuning that retains the homespun personality of earlier efforts.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Uplifting folky plucking, heart-wrenching fiddle work and those heart-melting vocals. It's not all smooth sailing though, with pieces like 'Brick' coming way out of leftfield, you have to hear it to believe it, but the range of talents on display here is mindblowing. Well worth your time.

TRACK LISTING

Poison Root
Proud
County
Bobby
Witch
Horse
Brick
Sportstar
Judge
Rocket
Powerful Man
Alina
Big Fish
Guilty 

Weird World introduce Los Angeles’ Alex Izenberg and his debut album, ‘Harlequin’.

‘Harlequin’ may be Izenberg’s debut album proper but it also marks the culmination of over five years of highly prolific writing and recording under a variety of pseudonyms.

‘Harlequin’ is almost a study in distraction - a restless, feverish dream sequence which variously invokes Scott Walker’s obtuse, off kilter worlds of sound, Simon and Garfunkel’s psychedelic yet practical string arrangements, the vaudevillian pomp and preening of Wild Beasts’ early material and Grizzly Bear’s pastoral early steps. All this is cut through with moments of total silence, patches of noise, found sound and countless dynamic leftturns and moments of non-sequitur.

TRACK LISTING

The Farm
Grace
Libra
Archer
Hot Is The Fire
Changes
To Move On
A Bird Came Down
The Moon
Waltz Of The Roots
People

'My name is Alex Cameron and I won't waste your time. When you're talking about me and my business partner, Roy Molloy, you're talking about the online cowboys in the wild-west days of the World Wide Web. And if you want to know what we're really about just look at all the things you wish you'd done differently. All the things you stopped yourself from doing on account of the fear of failure, or rejection. Weigh that up against your ambitions. Think about your work ethic. We're reclaiming failure as an act of progress. An act of learning. Something to celebrate.

A word's meaning can change depending on who utters the thing; and so we present characters - shapes are morphed and stories are delivered. This is a collection of 4-minute tales written to provide you with insight into the inner workings of failed ambitions and self-destruction. Unedited, uncensored, and without inhibition. I've learned to reveal what I want to unlearn. I cast a light on the darkness and in doing so understand love and compassion. Fear is to be confronted, and to learn strictly requires failure - over and over. Celebrate failure with Jumping The Shark.'

TRACK LISTING

1 Happy Ending
2 Gone South
3 Real Bad Lookin
4 The Comeback
5 She's Mine
6 Internet
7 Mongrel
8 Take Care Of Business

Philadelphia’s Alex Giannascoli aka Alex G releases ‘Beach Music’, his forthcoming new album and his first for Domino.

The album, his seventh full-length, follows on from previous beloved albums ‘DSU’ (Orchid Tapes), ‘Trick’ and’ Rules’, all which have led to a fervent cult fanbase and a number of Artist To Watch designations from publications such as Fader and Rolling Stone.

The album was mixed by Jacob Portrait of Unknown Mortal Orchestra.

TRACK LISTING

‘Beach Music’
Intro
Bug
Thorns
Kicker
Salt
Look Out
Brite Boy
In Love
Walk
Mud
Ready
Station
Snot

Alex G Live At The Headroom
(Bonus LP - With Deluxe Vinyl Edition Only)
Look Out
Black Hair
Bug
Kicker
Wicked Boy
Mary
Ice Head
Boy
Snot
Rules
Soak
Mis
After Ur Gone

“New Jersey-born Alex Bleeker is an old soul. For his sophomore album, How Far Away, he lets that come into play fully. Over eleven tracks, he deals with the autumnal phase of lost love, the point after the grieving subsides and you start figuring out what you’re supposed to do next. As with his last album, Bleeker cobbles together a ragtag collection of ‘freaks,’ including Mountain Man’s Amelia Meath, who provides gorgeously weighty backing vocals on four tracks, Woods’ Jarvis Tanviere, Real Estate’s Jackson Pollis, Big Troubles’ Sam Franklin, among plenty other like-minded musicians who lend sparkling instrumental flourishes and a full-bodied backbone to Bleeker’s pained yowl.

“Album opener ‘Don’t Look Down’ feels like a mission statement for the rest of the record. Over upbeat guitar jangle and smooth organ runs, Bleeker’s voice cracks and lilts: ‘Don’t look back on the way we met / Don’t look back at me now / Don’t retract all the things you’ve said / Don’t back out on me.’ In the hands of plenty other songwriters, this would come off as self-pitying, but Bleeker just seems wise.

“The key to How Far Away isn’t just Bleeker’s lyrics, which [are] both universal and intensely specific, but also the relaxed dynamics of the players. Bleeker is a jam band fanatic, and he takes the core ethos of The Grateful Dead—let things unfold naturally—and distills it into concise pop songs: tracks like ‘All My Songs’ and ‘Rhythm Shakers’ are brief, but they shift from crystalline guitar to weighty bass effortlessly, with Bleeker working as a heartbroken bandleader, keeping things moving organically. Nothing is hurried, but nothing overstays its welcome either. Though How Far Away is packed with singles, the album works best as a narrative about the dissolution of a relationship. You could call it a breakup record, but that wouldn’t quite be giving it enough credit. Instead, it’s about growing older and figuring out what you need to do to keep moving. It’s never overly sad or angry or obsessed with itself, it’s just true.” —Sam Hockley-Smith

STAFF COMMENTS

Darryl says: Sophomore album from Real Estate's bassist Alex Bleeker. Whilst recalling the sun-dappled jangle of Real Estate, 'How Far Away' brings us an offbeat selection of songs ranging from delicious heartbroken Americana to ramshackle psychedelia with plenty of concise outright indie-pop inbetween.

TRACK LISTING

1. Don’t Look Down
2. See You On Sunday
3. Leave On The Light
4. Home I Love
5. Time Cloud
6. Who Are You Seeing?
7. Rhythm Shakers
8. All My Songs
9. Steve’s Theme
10. Step Right Up (Pour Yourself Some Wine)
11. Love Fadeaway

A strong love for classic 60s/70s guitar pop (Beach Boys, Beatles) as well as soft spots for Prince and Hall & Oates display his self proclaimed 'fascination with pop music'. While his influences certainly shape his work, it is his natural ear for melody and movement which make Calder's work both fluid and engaging.

His knack and ambition both in his song writing and production provide a solid foundation for Calder's music to drift in an out of psychy realms. There are no over drenched chorus or walls of sound, instead leaving space for melody and texture to beneatly co-existent. Alex has found the sweet spot between slacker-pop jangle and snug rhymtic production to create reassurance his songs are going somewhere. Intimate handclaps and shakers make it easy for one to visualize the living from which it came as Calder's questions what to do with his time both literally and existentially.

TRACK LISTING

1. Sukie And Me
2. Light Leave Your Eyes
3. Location
4. Time
5. Captivate
6. Fatal Delay
7. Lethargic

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

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

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

The remarkable career of Scotland's Alex Harvey is one laced with tragedy and wild creativity. His brother Les, guitarist with Stone The Crows, died on stage in the early 70s and the accident seemed to galvanise Alex into a burst of creative energy, forming a new band, one that cemented his own legend as leader of the Sensational Alex Harvey Band. His career began in the early 60s, (he won a competition as Scotland's answer to Tommy Steele), through a stint in "Hair" and then the SAHB's always fighting the bottle and fate. This comprehensive double is a perfect overview of the career of one of rock's true characters.

A kettle drum roller with enuff lush sweeping synth washes to satisfy. Flip for "Brainwash" and "Northwest".