The always hard working Emotional Rescue now unveils the electronic disco project Exo Fender, helmed by esteemed New York producer Eric Calvi and featuring the legendary Steve D'Acquisto. The remastered songs 'Big Mood' and 'Music In My Mind' span two new EPs, with updated edited versions by NYC producer Justin Van Der Volgen. Calvi's journey from Paris to New York's music scene in the 1980s when he engineered hits for artists like Cameo and Africa Bambaataa, and laid the groundwork for Exo Fender. Inspired by clubbing friendships, the project's infectious grooves and tongue-in-cheek nature gained club play and collector's acclaim, with Van Der Volgen's remix enhancing their timeless appeal for today's dancefloors.

TRACK LISTING

Big Mood
Big Mood (Justin Van Der Volgen Edit)

The first full album from Toronto’s Tre Mission, “Stigmata” achieves something remarkable. He takes a genre which we think we know and which, in all honesty, he should have no right interfering with. Then he re-shapes it into something entirely new. Coming over as the missing link between Wiley and Outkast, Mission elaborates the connections (via his own roots in the Caribbean) between UK grime and North American rap and makes the whole thing sound as natural, as soulful, as hard and heavy as you like.

From the woozy atmospherics of the title track onward, you know you’re in for something special. Tre hits the beat with his precise, complex flow, managing to express the kind of fragility which distinguishes the very best grime MCs. Wiley - Tre’s earliest supporter and champion in the UK - features on “Real Grind,” while Canadian hip hop legend Saukrates joins him on “Get Doe,” the pair serving to signal the range of his work. Mission trades verses with JME on “Rally,” something like a sequel to “If You Don’t Know.” “On Road” combines an old skool twostep feel with uneasy, bleary tension for one of the stand-outs of the record. “In The Hallway” is epic, widescreen bounce with the added bonus of a verse from Skepta. “Jack Pot” is sparse, harsh, bass-heavy grime, Tre's flow matched by Merky Ace. Another stand-out is “Boy In The Corner,” a story rhyme that also acts as a tribute to Dizzee Rascal and a genre classic. When you allow for the fact that Tre also produced most of “Stigmata,” you know you’re dealing with a serious proposition.

TRACK LISTING

Ntro
Stigmata (ft Thes)
Real Grind (ft Wiley & Andreena)
Jessica (ft K-OS)
Rally (ft JME)
On Road
In The Hallway (ft Skepta)
Money Make (Her) (ft Andreena)
Jack Pot (ft Merky Ace)
Get Doe (ft Saukrates)
Boy In The Corner *
Milly
Cold Summers (Outro)
* = CD Only Track

If one thing is clear from the offset of revelatory fourth album ‘There’s A Big Star Outside...’, it’s that Swim Deep is no longer the same band you’ve always known.

In some ways, Swim Deep’s fourth album – full of acoustic guitars and floral notes courtesy of a Mellotron keyboard (one of the finest musical exports from their native Birmingham) – has no business being as luscious and evolved as it is. But ‘There’s A Big Star Outside...’ could only have surfaced as a result of such testing years. It takes the youthful dreaming of their debut, and the excitable experimentalism of its follow-ups, and leads it to a more assured space, aided hugely by the input of producer Bill Ryder-Jones, who became a mentor throughout the journey. “A lot of the album, Bill’s drawn out of me,” Ozzy nods. “That sense of boldness and not hiding behind the music that he’s instilled in me has really made the album flourish, and be what I want it to be. It’s a cliché to say, but I feel I’ve been writing towards this record my whole life.”

It’s fitting that this is the message Swim Deep have arrived at, because ‘There’s A Big Star Outside...’ genuinely does feel like a golden moment for the band. Across more than a decade in the industry, they’ve revelled in the highs and weathered the lows – but their fourth feels like an album that exists outside of all that. It’s one that’s less about chasing the next rungs of success and more about really nailing their flag to the mast as artists, as adults, and as a group who were always in it for more than just fleeting scenes and early buzz.

TRACK LISTING

1. How Many Love Songs Have Died In Vegas?
2. Very Heaven
3. These Words
4. Robin
5. Don't Make Me A Stranger
6. First Song
7. Big Star
8. It's Just Sun In Your Eyes
9. So Long, So Far (Marble-Bellied Baby)
10. Fire Surrounds

King Hannah crafts a musical tapestry that seamlessly weaves between the serene depths of meditative pop and the expansive, sonorous landscapes brimming with darkness, wit, and wry humor. Merrick’s vocals, a smoky delight, imbue her words with profound weight and potency, complemented by the bluesy canvases Whittle masterfully paints beneath them. Their sound effortlessly transitions from moments of post-rock expansiveness to evoking the sensation of Springsteen straying onto a gritty side-street off his highway to freedom.

In recent times, the duo has graced stages alongside esteemed artists such as Kurt Vile, Thurston Moore, Kevin Morby, and DIIV, captivating audiences at festivals across Europe and North America including End of the Road, Green Man, Primavera Sound, and Fusion, among others. King Hannah’s accolades include being hailed as Stereogum’s Band to Watch, The Guardian’s Ones to Watch, Paste’s Best of What’s Next, and featured in DIY Magazine’s NEU segment, SPIN’s rising artists, and many more.

TRACK LISTING

A1 Big Swimmer
A2 New York, Let's Do Nothing
A3 The Mattress
A4 Milk Boy (I Love You)
A5 Suddenly, Your Hand
B6 Somewhere Near El Paso
B7 Lily Pad
B8 Davey Says
B9 Scully
B10 This Wasn't Intentional
B11 John Prine On The Radio

Yaya Bey unveils her latest studio album Ten Fold via Big Dada, available on standard black LP and translucent red indie LP.

New York-bred R&B vocalist Yaya Bey conjures a comprehensive self-portrait on her new studio album, Ten Fold.

Where her previous works were earnest and mindful, Yaya’s new LP is definitive, harkening back to aspects of her past while examining the future of the world that surrounds her with a stream-of-conscious intentionality.

Over rapturous production from Corey Fonville of jazz group Butcher Brown, Karriem Riggins, Jay Daniel, Exaktly and Boston Chery, Yaya delivers a free-spoken masterpiece that speaks to the intricacies of persevering through a year punctuated by grief and loss, life-altering milestones and everything in between.

TRACK LISTING

1. Crying Through My Teeth
2. The Evidence
3. Chrysanthemums
4. Sir Princess Bad Bitch
5. East Coast Mami
6. Chasing The Bus
7. All Around Los Angeles
8. Slow Dancing In The Kitchen
9. So Fantastic (feat. Grand Daddy I.U.)
10. Eric Adams In The Club (feat. Exaktly)
11. Me And All My Niggas
12. Iloveyoufrankiebeverly
13. Career Day
14. Carl Thomas Sliding Down The Wall
15. Yvette's Cooking Show
16. Let Go

Words are not to be taken for granted. Especially when they’re being bellowed, full blast, by a broad-shouldered poet with the brimstone fire of a preacher and the honesty and wisdom of a layman, over ground-shaking live beats and between anthemic blasts of melody and rousing riffage.

Words matter. History matters. People matter. And BIG SPECIAL matter.

For BIG SPECIAL - Joe Hicklin (vocals) and Callum Moloney (drums) - their sound is one that comes from vital, frustrated young working-class voices that don’t always get heard on the scale they should do. It’s a frustration that comes to the fore through a voice that is at times coarse and raw, but sensitive, desperate and soulful at others. Hicklin's brimstone-fired voice marches from guttural punk barks and serrated spoken word to soaring soul and back again, arriving siphoned from their forebears, crushed under the weight of history, and retooled for a new generation. It’s wrought, raw and angry at a world lacking options, the thinning of the common understanding between the social classes of England, exasperation at repeating cycles, and the feeling that you’re watching your own life unfold from the outside.

These are songs that channel that voice you hear when you look in the mirror and see your true self – fight songs for a world gone wrong.

TRACK LISTING

01. BLACK COUNTRY GOTHIC
02. I MOCK JOGGERS
03. DESPERATE BREAKFAST
04. SHITHOUSE
05. THIS HERE AIN’T WATER
06. MY SHAPE (BLOCKING THE LIGHT)
07. BLACK DOG / WHITE HORSE
08. BROADCAST: TIME AWAY
09. ILL.
10. MONGREL
11. BUTCHER’S BIN
12. DUST OFF / START AGAIN
13. TREES
14. FOR THE BIRDS
15. DiG!

Recorded at Abbey Road Studios with legendary songwriter and producer Nile Rodgers, alongside the band's original producer Ian Broudie. The multi-platinum selling band released three studio albums between 2004 and 2008, scoring 9 UK Top 40 singles including two Top 10s with ‘Why Won’t You Give Me Your Love?’ and the all- conquering ‘Valerie’, the latter a triple-platinum hit for Mark Ronson and Amy Winehouse. Today they return to share the fruits of their extended time away. The Big Decider comes into view as an album of stark significance to the band, completed by Dave McCabe (guitar, lead vocals), Abi Harding (saxophone, vocals) and Sean Payne (drums, vocals). Written against the backdrop of a decade and a half’s worth of lived experience, it is born under the weight of family tragedies, lives lost and created, reality checks, and home truths faced up to and stared down. Wrestled into shape under the kind of steam that only decades-long friendships - with all their messy fall-outs, make-ups, breakdowns and ultimately love - can muster, The Big Decider became the sound of water passing under the bridge, and love for music, love for each other, and love for creating together becoming the most important thing of all.

TRACK LISTING

1. Creeping On The Dancefloor
2. Pauline
3. Water
4. In Your Arms
5. Disappear
6. Company
7. The Big Decider
8. Rise
9. Best Of Me

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

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

From 1995, the 8th studio album by Big Country featuring the original line-up of Stuart Adamson, Bruce Watson, Tony Butler and Mark Brzezicki. Combining new wave and even new romantic elements with Celtic slanted pop-rock, the album features live favourites ëIím Not Ashamedí and ëYou Dreamerí. Only 3,000 copies were pressed initially and it has never been re-pressed. Now available for Record Store Day on limited edition tourquiose vinyl.

Big Crown Records is proud to present Brainstory’s sophomore full-length album Sounds Good.

Based in L.A. but hailing from the Inland Empire's own Rialto, California, two-thirds of Brainstory, Kevin and Tony Martin are brothers by blood, while Eric Hagstrom is a brother through their music and long term friendship. Since they started the band they have constantly faced situations that forced them to rise to the occasion. They got signed to Big Crown Records, they stepped up their game. COVID happened, they learned to record themselves. They started touring a ton sharing the stage with the likes of Lady Wray and they got their live show super tight. All of this time spent grinding and growing has certainly paid off. The path to take their art to the next level is clearer than ever, and once again, they are here for it. If there is one thing that is abundantly clear on Sounds Good, it’s that Brainstory has leveled up.

Part of this evolution is undoubtedly attributed to having access to and working constantly in their own studio in Long Beach. Another major factor is that their brotherhood has expanded. "I've been playing music with my brother all my life and now with Eric for a long time," Tony tells us. "Leon, though, is like another brother I've just met."

Leon Michels, Big Crown's co-owner, produced this record and applied his unmistakable golden touch in crucial ways. The other member of the extended Brainstory brotherhood whose contributions were essential to the album, is studio engineer legend Jens Jungkurth who controls the tones and textures of the music. "That's what you're hearing, our connection, the fun moments, the little details," Kevin describes. "This record isn't half what it is without them—and it made us want to match that effort," and match that effort they did. Album opener "Nobody But You" is an uplifting, dance ­oor burner, that shows off a new side of Brainstory's range. Drummer Eric Hagstrom’s crushing back beat lays the foundation for an inspirational feel good banger that manages to take the uncomfortable truth that “nobody will save you but you” and turn it into pure blissful motivation. "Peach Optimo" is a laid back half time tune that blends the bounce of Down South Hip-Hop with California G funk and Jazz. They once again show off their B said ballad talents with "Gift Of Life" but this time taking the genre to a new place with lyrics about existentialism and a track that is drop dead gorgeous, haunting, and profound all at once. "NyNy" is an homage to Kev and Tony's recently deceased grandfather while "Too Yung" is a show stopping, deeply personal, stripped down number about being introduced to alcohol at a young age. They put another hit on the boards with "Hanging On," a Latin / Psychedelic Soul inspired banger featuring Claire Cottrill on background vocals while "XFaded” addresses the all too common vicious cycle of smoking and drinking too much over a trippy shuf­e.

"It's been four years since our last full length record, and with everything that's happened since, it's like we've been catching up to ourselves." That's one way to describe change: catching up to oneself. Each member of Brainstory has gone through shifts, both personally and musically, and all of that threads through Sounds Good. It's easy to say that the music industry can be short on lasting, genuine relationships. However, for Brainstory, from day one it's been about standing by each other, for each other. Their friendship started the group. 

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A:
Nobody But You
Peach Optimo
Listen
Gift Of Life
NyNy
I Will Be

SIDE B:
Hanging On
XFaded
Too Yung
Stay
Sweet & Lovely
Rialto Winds

A Chaos Of Flowers is the follow on to BIG|BRAVE's 2023 album nature morte. "BIG|BRAVE’s music has been described as massive minimalism. Their fusillades of textural distortion and feedback emphasize their music’s frayed edges as much as its all-encompassing weight. The potency of the trio’s work is their singular artistry combining elements of traditional folk techniques and a modern deconstruction of guitar music. Gain, feedback, and amplitude are essential.

For A Chaos Of Flowers guitarist/vocalist Robin Wattie drew heavily on the poems of artists whom Wattie found kinship in, their words resonant with experiences of those often sidelined by cultural norms. Guitarist Mathieu Ball and drummer Tasy Hudson help Wattie shape poetry into pieces as dense and impenetrable as they are vulnerable.

BIG|BRAVE achieve their colossal sound through minimalist approaches, a deft understanding of dynamics and an inventive employment of percussion and distortion. The trio reconceptualize what it is to be heavy or minimal, challenging perceptions with their illumination of painfully overlooked perspectives. Guest guitarist Marisa Anderson lends earthen, blues-inflected atmospheres to the album, where guitarist Tashi Dorji and saxophonist Patrick Shiroishi amplify the squall. Working closely with frequent collaborator and producer/engineer Seth Manchester, the internal tumult of Wattie’s voice rings out in warbles, haunting echoes, and unearthly harmonies across bold immense walls of distortion."

TRACK LISTING

1. I Felt A Funeral
2. Not Speaking Of The Ways
3. Chanson Pour Mon Ombre
4. Canon : In Canon
5. A Song For Marie Part Iii
6. Theft
7. Quotidian : Solemnity
8. Moonset

Fast-rising Dutch DJ/producer BELLA becomes the first new artist signing to Sally C’s Big Saldo’s Chunkers imprint, with the inspiring ‘Note to Self’ EP – her debut production.

Relationships are key for Sally C. Since the inception of Big Saldo’s Chunkers in 2020, she’s released three carefully chosen EPs, all from her own studio. When she met BELLA while playing a festival in Amsterdam during summer 2022, the click was instantaneous, with the pair going on to play an impromptu b2b that day. Vibing both musically and energetically, they kept in touch, with BELLA sending Sally her maiden productions ‘Note To Self’ and ‘Orchestra Spring’. Sally connected so deeply with the tracks that they’d form the backbone of her debut artist EP on Big Saldo’s Chunkers.

One listen to the final EP and it’s not hard to see why Sally wanted to emboss them as Chunkers. Three fresh originals taking in influence from ‘90s house, acid, electro and prog, all with a unique hard-to-pin-down energy that makes them hit with a special swing.

The title track – also the first production made for the EP - sees BELLA lay down a sonic blueprint – both for her own sound and the full body of work. “This set the vibe and guided me through the creative process. I was really trying to make something that felt my own, that was also unique and not something I’ve heard before,” she shares. ‘Note to Self’ is heavy on attitude and bounce, driven by banging old skool drums, a rapid-fire grime-style vocal and a duo of synth lines – one uplifting, the other mining a slick ‘80s sheen, and the results are memorable. An absolute tune that Sally’s delighted to add to the Chunker catalogue.

‘Orchestra Spring’ is the perky sequel, a wicked one-two punch of kaleidoscopic groovy house with lashings of attitude that loves to scribble outside the lines with lots of retro samples and trippy energy. ‘Odd Symphony’ completes the trio, a blazing late-night cut driven by a gurgling acid underbelly, gritty drums and warm chords, giving the EP a brilliant afterglow.

Olsvangèr – one of Sally’s favourite producers – steps up for remix duties of ‘Odd Symphony’, and delivers a dynamic re-rub that begins in upbeat house territory, before taking an interlude in perkier rave realms.

“I'm over the moon to be releasing this EP on Sally’s label. It’s really special to have someone who I look up to release my music. She has given me tremendous support and guidance over the last two years, always ready to chat or give me some advice. It was a big surprise and honour when she suggested releasing the tracks on her label. It feels like a perfect fit. It’s super sweet to share this journey with her.” – BELLA

"I’m so excited to welcome BELLA to the label for her debut EP. It was time to take this next step and open the Chunkers door to new artists. I couldn’t think of a better one than BELLA to debut her fresh Chunkers on the label. Three banging originals by an extremely talented artist which I’ve been playing ever since she sent me the tracks. Polished with an Olsvangèr remix, it’s a really strong four track EP." – SALLY C

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Sally enlists some outside help for her Chunkers imprint, with Dutch producer Bella perfectly hitting the label's modus operandi.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Note To Self
A2. Orchestra Spring
B1. Odd Symphony
B2. Odd Symphony (Olsvangèr Remix)

Bossa nova was in vogue in 1962 and following the release of the Stan Getz/ Charlie Byrd LP Jazz Samba, jazz record producers were anxious to get their signed artists to jump on the "jazz bossa nova" craze.

As Mercury Records' musical director at that time, Quincy Jones was his own producer and decided to take advantage of the opportunity with his Big Band Bossa Nova, which put together some Antonio Carlos Jobim classics, along with some original compositions, including the international hit single 'Soul Bossa Nova'. All wonderfully arranged by Jones and performed by his incredible all-star big band.

TRACK LISTING

1. Soul Bossa Nova
2. Boogie Bossa Nova
3. Desafinado
4. Manha De Carnaval (Morning Of The Carnival)
5. Se E Tarde, Me Perdoa (Forgive Me If I'm Late)
6. On The Street Where You Live
7. Samba De Uma Nota So (One Note Samba)
8. Lalo Bossa Nova
9. Serenata
10. Chega De Saudade (No More Blues)
11. A Taste Of Honey

Released to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Oasis’ seminal debut single Supersonic – limited-edition pearl coloured, numbered 7”.

STAFF COMMENTS

Liam says: Lovely reissue of the possibly the best debut single of all time! On limited pearl coloured vinyl, these bad boys won't stick around for long! Comes with the amazing and much overlooked 'Take Me Away' on the B-side, top top stuff!

TRACK LISTING

A1. Supersonic
B1. Take Me Away

Big Love guru Seamus Haji commits four of the label’s freshest funk, disco and groove-laden releases to wax for the fifth edition of ‘A Touch Of Love’. Who else to open up the compilation but the label boss himself with ‘Dance With Me’, his funky, feel-good collaboration with prolific dance vocalist and friend Kathy Brown. Glaswegian production duo Illyus & Barrientos bring their genre-crossing disco and house vibes with ‘Wait’, featuring soulful Big Love returnee Phebe Edwards. Up next, a collaboration between two house masters, the multi-faceted Richard Earnshaw and Sole Channel founder Mr. V unite for funky release ‘This House Is Yours’. Closing out this tight and groovy vinyl collection is Rio De Janeiro’s premiere producer DJ Meme with ‘Century’, utilising a classical piece of music from Strauss synonymous with the sound of the future.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Seamus Haji Ft. Kathy Brown - Dance With Me 
A2. Illyus & Barrientos Ft. Phebe Edwards - Wait 
AA1. Richard Earnshaw & Mr. V - This House Is Yours 
AA2. DJ Meme - Century 

Originally released in 1986 on Australian label Voyeur Records.

This is the first time that the single has been released in the UK.

Even As We Speak is an indie band from Sydney, Australia. Formed in the mid 1980s, founding members Matthew Love (guitar, banjo, vocals) and Mary Wyer (vocals, guitar) were later joined by Rob Irwin (bass) Anita Rayner (drums, banjo, mandolin), Julian Knowles (guitar, keyboards, production), and Paul Clarke (guitar, vocals.)

After a series of vinyl releases on Australian independent labels including Phantom Records, and success on the Australian indie scene, they came to the attention of BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel who started to play the band’s ‘Goes So Slow’ Phantom Records release on his show. This brought them to the attention of UK audiences and began a relationship with UK indie label Sarah Records.

The band released several singles and an album on Sarah Records, three of which reached the Top 5 of the Melody Maker and New Musical Express UK independent music charts in 1992 and 1993.

TRACK LISTING

Side 1:
Looking Over Your Shoulder
By The Side Of The Road
Side 2:
I Can Do Without
Falling Down

Les Big Byrd, at this point, one probably has to call them veterans on the Swedish psych- and kraut scene, is back with a new album which sees them delving even deeper into the experimental side of themselves

Long, improvisatory excursions and suggestive soundscapes unfold during some of the album's 6 tracks. Although they never lose touch with their melodic sensibility, offering up a look into a more suggestive and psychedelic side to the band.

TRACK LISTING

Mareld
Curved Light
Lycka Till Pa Farden
Diamonds, Rhinestones And Hard Rain
Ensam I Stan Pa Sommarlovet 
The Night Bus

With their second album, Wham continued their rise to pop stardom. It includes not just some of their biggest hits, but some of the biggest hits of the 80's; Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go, Freedom and Careless Whisper.

Steel Drum covers of Drake, Snoop Dogg & Dr Dre, Claudja Barry, The Game & 50 Cent, A$AP Rocky, Stranger Things Theme, and more.

Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band, the mysterious steel pan outfi­t hailing from Hamburg, Germany have amassed a cult following around the globe. With a slew of classic 7”s and three critically acclaimed full length albums, they set a high bar for themselves, one they clearly intend on pushing even higher with this new offering. On their fourth album BRSB, Bacao are back with more of the same, but more of the same with them is inherently different. Covering songs that span genres and range from mega hits to underground album cuts, they make them their own with their unique approach to the traditional steel pans of Trinidad and Tobago.

While part of the allure of a new Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band album is ­finding out what covers they do it is equally intriguing to see what original tunes they cooked upland this record is foul of stand out originals. The album opener, “In The Crosshairs” is a rough and tough mid tempo head nodder while both “Grilled” & “Treasure Quest” pick up the tempo with heavy African Funk in‑fluences on both. Bacao goes deep with “Hazy Memories”, a bass heavy slow burner that walks a line between hypnotic and hype. All these originals stand as testament that the term “cover band” is a shoe that could never fi­t Bacao.

However, in the tradition of steel pan music, they do a heavy amount of covers. This time around there is a big West Coast Hip Hop influence with covers of Game & 50 Cent’s “How We Do”, Dr Dre & Snoop Dogg’s “Nuthin But A G Thang”, and Tupac’s “Got My Mind Made Up” all of which take on new energy and lend themselves to the BRSB steel treatment. Bacao puts another certifi­ed dance‑floor fil­ler on their resume with their cover of Claudja Barry’s uber Disco classic “Love For The Sake Of Love” which they flip into a dubbed out affair aptly changing even the title to “Love For The Sake Of Dub”. Pulling from the contemporary smash hit section of Hip Hop they cover Drake’s “Hotline Bling” and “Love$ick” by Mura Masa & A$AP Rocky. Then they go very unexpected with “Stranger Things Theme” where they take the synth heavy theme song to the hit show and give it a more hypnotizing tone than the original.

By the time BRSB is through, Bacao has taken the listener on a journey spanning a myriad of energies, tempos, and moods while keeping it all under one umbrella. For all that, these songs are alive, and they will be taken out of the context of this album and sewn into the fabric of DJ sets around the globe for many years to come. Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band continues building their legacy and pushing the boundaries of steel pan music forward with another rock solid musical offering. Enjoy.

TRACK LISTING

1. In The Crosshairs
2. How We Do
3. Hazy Memories
4. Love For The Sake Of Dub
5. Hotline Bling
6. Grilled
7. Love$ick
8. Stranger Things Theme
9. Treasure Quest
10. Nuthin’ But A G Thang
11. Got My Mind Made Up
12. The Champion’s Walk

Big Crown Records is proud to present Zero Grace, Liam Bailey’s sophomore album on the label. Following the success of 2020’s Ekundayo album, the tried and true chemistry of Bailey and producer Leon Michels (El Michels Affair) is on full display again as they take the sound they established and push it further. On Zero Grace they lean more into the bleeding heart singer-songwriter side of Liam. The result, much like Bailey himself, is impulsively honest without reserve.

Born and raised in Nottingham, England, the son of an English mother and 2nd generation Jamaican English father, Liam will admit his early childhood was fairly chaotic and fi­lled with "all the cliche racism that happens when people started mixing up in the '80s in England." Liam got his early influences from his mom’s record collection. Bob Marley and Dillinger, Stevie Wonder and The Supremes, The Beatles and Jimi Hendrix would eventually shape the singer/songwriter we know today. Fast-forward to 2005, Liam is in London performing at every open mic and acoustic night he could, hustling with hopes of landing a record deal. It was through this time that Liam fi­rst teamed up with Michels, musician/producer luminary, and the co-founder of Brooklyn's own Big Crown Records.

Liam flew out to New York and those fi­rst sessions together produced the now classic tunes “When Will They Learn” and “I’m Gonna Miss You” which still gets spins at Reggae spots around the globe and were co-signed by heavy hitters like David Rodigan & Don Letts.That first trip to NYC brought a lot of industry attention to Liam, including being noticed by a just-famous Amy Winehouse who heard one of Liam's apartment-made, lo-­ recordings, and liked what she heard. Regardless of the audio quality, Liam's particular sound shone through—all guitar, warm-rough and genuine soul.

Eventually Liam signed to Polydor and wound up bumping against the typical major label industry obstacles. They already had an idea of the Liam they wanted to make, promote, and push. With the typical large advance enticement, Liam did his best to trust that path. "Maybe I can make it work,' that's what you're thinking," Liam remembers, "but, you quickly fi­nd out that you can't."

Zero Grace is full of freedom and love, in fact, working with Leon Michels and Big Crown Records has encouraged Liam to be himself. On album opener “Holding On '' Bailey speaks to his observations & fears when looking out at the world in front of him and also to the dedication it has taken to get on the other side of his personal trials & tribulations. “Dance With Me" is an instantly infectious two-stepper that nods to those incredible soul records that were coming out of Jamaica during the early Reggae days.

Bailey steps into the dance with hopes of finding a new love and pulls us all out on the dance floor with him. “Disorder Starts At Home” is another close to the chest tune that addresses the dif­culties he struggles with from his early chaotic childhood and his progress in getting past them. "Mercy Tree" is a powerhouse of Reggae Rebel Music. Bailey addresses the racial tensions that plague humanity and encourages everyone to step up and do their part to help foster equality. What starts out as a declaration of injustice turns into a call for action and an inspiration for hope.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A
1 Holding On
2 Dumb
3 Sekkle Down
4 Boy
5 Dance With Me
6 Disorder Starts At Home
SIDE B
7 Mercy Tree
8 Sour Wine
9 Canary In The Coal Mine
10 Winter Is Within Thee
11 I Got No Answers
12 Light Up The Darkness

Congo Natty aka Rebel MC has a career dating back to his early hit with Double Trouble, 'Street Tuff', but is probably most respected as one of the pioneers of Jungle.

'Jungle Revolution' features Benny Page (on the straight up
ragga-jungle of 'UK Allstars'), Vital Elements (the 150bpm anthem 'Jah Warriors' and 'Jungle Is I and I'), Serial Killaz (the pure roots bounce and rinse out of 'Get Ready') and Boyson & Crooks (creeping technoid
paranoia on 'London Dungeons') and was mixed with Adrian Sherwood.

The LP clearly lays out the way in which Congo Natty sees Jungle as a re-boot of roots reggae for a new century. Full of blood and fire, the sternum-buzz of sub-bass, rapid fire drum breaks, sweet hooks, righteous anger and
professions of love, it’s the kind of passionate, committed, raw and spiritual, beautiful record that doesn’t come along that often.

Originally released in June 2013, the 10th anniversary edition comprises 2LP yellow and green vinyl cased in a reflective gold sleeve with the same artwork as the original. Download code included. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: 10 years since its original release and I have to say this is sounding as fresh and fiery as ever. Combining the gamut of Jamaican influences with a jungle-centric aesthetic, its a near perfect example of the ragga-jungle style. A classic!

TRACK LISTING

1. Jungle Souljah
2. UK Allstars
3. Revolution
4. Get Ready
5. Jah Warriors
6. Nu Beginingz
7. Jungle Is I And I
8. London Dungeons
9. Rebel
10. Micro Chip (Say No)

Swedish singer, multi-instrumentalist and composer El Perro Del Mar announces her first album in 8 years "Big Anonymous", out Feb 16th 2024 on City Slang. The musical path taken by this shape-shifter artist encompasses a spectrum: doo-wop redux, mystic ballads, electronic dance, ecstatic love songs, film soundtracks, dance scores, global pop, and more. With this record, she goes places where few dare to venture: dialogues with the dead, musings on her own mortality, and reflections on the inner darkness that she's inherited. It's gothic, crepuscular, moody- and magnificent. And in the end you might just find it uplifting. She does.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: 'Big Anonymous' is a journey to be undertaken in one fell swoop, moving cohesively between grand gothic ambience, choral majesty and imposing fractured glitch. Though there are pieces that sound undeniably impactful alone (In Silence for example is a life-alteringly affecting piece regardless of context), within the album as a whole, every impeccable part has its place and comes together flawlessly.

TRACK LISTING

1. Underworld
2. Suburban Dreams
3. Cold Dark Pond
4. In Silence
5. The Truth The Dead Know
6. Between You And Me Nothing
7. Please Stay
8. One More Time
9. Wipe Me Off This Earth
10. Kiss Of Death 

Following the release of her debut album, Stay Alive (2020) and the At War With The Silverfish EP (2021), Emmy-nominated artist, author, musician, activist and Against Me! founder/songwriter, Laura Jane Grace, returns with Hole In My Head - her beautiful new album featuring eleven tracks that showcase her undeniable power as a songwriter & storyteller. The album features her most personal and emotionally gripping songs of her career - stripped down masterpieces like Dysphoria Hoodie paired with blistering distorted anthems like Hole In My Head and Birds Talk Too, tracks that demand the listener’s attention with an immediacy and urgency unlike anything Grace has written before.

Recorded at Native Sound in St. Louis, Missouri by David Beeman and mastered by Matt Allison (Lawrence Arms, Rise Against), the album is a sonic curio cabinet containing multitudes. Featuring warm 50s-rock-influenced guitar riffs and rock style melody a la Jonathan Richman and Eddie Cochran, saved-for-later lyrics, love letters to St. Louis, dysphoria apparel, and thoughtful reflections on a punk life lived, Grace's forward vocals are backed predominately by her performances on guitar and drums but are bolstered by Drive By Trucker's bassist Matt Patton.

The record's title track Hole in My Head takes off with a driving guitar-heavy approach that will be welcome to long-time fans of Against Me! electric machinations, while first single Dysphoria Hoodie has been a staple in Grace’s setlist, and one which is as personal as it is pertinent in today’s climate.

Choice cuts I’m Not A Cop and Punk Rock In Basements are written through a post-pandemic rose-colored lens, the latter looking back on the formative underground spaces of Grace’s youth. Basement shows for decades were hallmark experiences for anyone involved in their local punk scenes, shaping movements, connections, and culture through the forced, sweaty proximity necessary to pour over raucous punk music.

Hole in My Head is a record which captures the nuances of humanity and experience in a strangely optimistic manner. The lightness of its influence and the journalistic recollection of experience set against a battered and warm folk-punk delivery from beginning to end makes Hole in My Head a fun comfort. It is a welcome embrace of life and just the start of a new chapter in Laura Jane Grace’s raucous journey.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Laura Jane Grace's journey has been a storied one, starting her career in one of the most beloved new wave punk rock bands in the late 90's, and ending up as a prolific and gifted composer, multimedia artist and writer. 'Hole In My Head' is once again a brilliantly balanced, fiery and dynamic solo outing from Grace.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. Hole In My Head
2. I'm Not A Cop
3. Dysphoria Hoodie
4. Birds Talk Too
5. Punk Rock In Basements
Side B
1. Cuffing Season
2. Tacos & Toast
3. Mercenary
4. Keep Your Wheels Straight
5. Hard Feelings
6. Give Up The Ghost

Undisputed UK music icon Dizzee Rascal returns with the electrifying new album “Don’t Take It Personal”, out February 9th via Big Dirte3 Records Ltd. Standing tall against his best work, the record is a potent reminder of how Dizzee’s legendary status came to be, capturing him in incendiary form as he flows effortlessly through a collection of distinctly UK genres with unrivalled ease. Centred by swaggering flows and formidable wordplay, Dizzee’s latest body of work is yet another victory lap on what is one of the defining rap music legacies, and as the bars continue to rain down, just remember - it’s nothing personal.

TRACK LISTING

1. Sugar And Spice Feat. ILL BLU
2. Stay In Your Lane
3. How Did I Get So Calm
4. London Boy Feat. Frisco
5. Roll Wiv Me
6. What You Know About That Ft. JME And D Double E
7. Get Out The Way Feat. BackRoad Gee
8. Here For Now Feat. Not3s
9. You Can Have Dat
10. Switch And Explode
11. Jerk And Jollof
12. Swerve And Pivot
13. POV
14. Tell Me About It
15. Keep That Same Energy Feat. P Money And Backroad Gee
16. How Does It Feel

Big Black was started by Steve Albini in 1982 while he was attending Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. Lungs, the first Big Black release was recorded by Steve on a borrowed 4-track. He played everything on the EP himself - except the sax bleating courtesy of pal John Bohnen and the drums courtesy of Roland. Soon after, Steve recruited Jeff Pezzati (Naked Raygun) on bass, and Santiago Durango (also Naked Raygun) joined them on guitar. In 1983, together with live drummer Pat Byrne, they recorded the Bulldozer EP. By 1984, the band had done some touring and recorded the Racer X EP and the start of the Il Duce 7". After that, Jeff returned to Naked Raygun and was replaced by Dave Riley. In 1985, Big Black recorded their first full-length, Atomizer, as well as finishing the Il Duce 7". Atomizer was released in 1986 along with the release of the Hammer Party compilation CD. In 1987, the Headache EP and Heartbeat 7" were released. That same year, the band recorded and released the 7" of The Model/He's A Whore as well as their second full-length album, Songs About Fucking. They toured extensively (for Big Black). And they broke up.

TRACK LISTING

1. Racer X
2. Shotgun
3. The Ugly American
4. Deep Six
5. Sleep!
6. The Big Payback

Big Sigh brings together the best of Marika’s previous works as an indie musician and adds a new layer of epic sounds and full-bodied production.

Big Sigh is the “hardest record” Marika has ever made. As the title suggest, it is a relief of sorts – of sadness, of stress and lust, but mostly relief.

Co-produced with Sam Petts Davies (Frank Ocean, Radiohead, Red Hot Chilli Peppers) & Charlie Andrew (Alt J, Wolf Alice, London Grammar). Lyrically there’s always romance alongside grief, with elements of vulnerability and feeling trapped.

“This album took a long time to make. It was not easy, and by the time I got to the end of it I was quiet. I wanted to be away from it and let it sit in its own space. Now the dust has settled and I’ve got re-enter the world of Big Sigh, and I’m excited. Stepping into a new world, moving forward, chipping away. Breathe in, breathe out. Big sigh.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: 'Big Sigh' is the perfect illustration of Hackman's inimitable style developing over time, taking her already considerable storytelling skills to the next level while retaining all of the grace and charm that the more stripped-back pieces are swimming in. A bracing, beautiful adventure from start to finish.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Ground
2. No Caffeine
3. Big Sigh
4. Blood
5. Hanging
6. The Lonely House
7. Vitamins
8. Slime
9. Please Don’t Be So Kind
10. The Yellow Mile

Jim Sharp is certainly making waves right now on a number of different imprints – this time Originals are blessed with a couple of Jim Sharp edits - Biggie’s Things done changed gets freshened up with a tidy edit of the sample source on the flip both locked in at 91bpm with the DJs in mind – doubles essential!

TRACK LISTING

A1. The Main Ingredient - Summer Breeze (Jim Sharp Mix)
B1. The Notorious BIG - Things Done Changed (Jim Sharp Mix)

The Big Moon are excited to announce the deluxe edition of their third album Here Is Everything. The album features remixes from Marika Hackman and Art School Girlfriend, brand new tracks ‘Summer Still Comes’ and ‘Round Forever’ (which sees bassist Celia Archer on lead-vocals duty for the first time), as well as some exclusive live versions of album tracks.

Celia Archer on ‘Round Forever’ –
"Round Forever is about all the time and energy we spend trying to understand ourselves and other people so that we can properly communicate and what a gift that can be. It’s also about how sometimes that’s all a total waste of time and you need to stop working and overthinking and let it go!"

Following a storming summer of festivals, including a packed slot at Glastonbury in June, The Big Moon recently announced a run of UK + EU shows for December this year. The tour kicks off in Genk on 5th December, taking in Paris, Glasgow, Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham, Bristol and Oxford, finishing up at London’s Union Chapel for a very special stripped-back performance on 18th December. Tickets are on sale now.

Here is Everything focuses on motherhood, with lead vocalist Jules Jackson giving birth during its inception. The rest of the band doubled-down in the studio, taking Jules’ embryonic song frameworks and stepping forward as one, revelling in an innate, giddy togetherness and with a clutch of genuinely fantastic tunes.

Here Is Everything was mostly self-produced, with the expert guidance and expertise of co-producers CECIL (Self Esteem, Jehnny Beth, PJ Harvey) and the Grammy Award winning producer Ben Allen (Gnarls Barkley, Deer Hunter, and the producer of Walking Like We Do).

TRACK LISTING

1. 2 Lines
2. Wide Eyes
3. Daydreaming
4. This Love
5. Suckerpunch
6. My Very Best
7. Ladye Bay
8. Trouble
9. High And Low
10. Magic
11. Satellites

BONUS TRACKS
1. Summer Still Comes
2. Round Forever
3. 2 Lines (Live At The HAC Bow)
4. This Love (Live At The HAC Bow)
5. Satellites (Live At The HAC Bow)
6. Suckerpunch (Marika Hackman Remix)
7. Trouble (Art School Girlfriend Remix)

Big Crown is proud to present Crown Jewels Vol. 3. As we are approaching seven years as a label these compilations have given us an opportunity to put the different artists on the label together on the same release. These compilations are something of a calling card for the "Big Crown Sound" where we get to put the most well established next to the newest on the roster and through that paint a picture of the overall ethos of the label. It's been extremely satisfying for us when the fans of one Big Crown artist discover another one because they are label mates. We put out these Crown Jewels comps with the hope that it will continue that process. Even though not all BCR artists can be found in the same aisle of the record store, after listening to Crown Jewels Vol. 3, it should be clear how they all fit on the same record label. When we started Big Crown we wanted to have a label that's only boundaries were defined by our taste, not by genre. Seven years later, we can say we have been able to do that. There is a sound, but that sound stretches into a lot of different directions, but that sound is uniquely ours. Thank you to everyone who has supported us thus far and please stay tuned as we continue pushing our sound and putting out tunes we believe in. 

TRACK LISTING

Side A.
1. El Michels Affair & Black Thought – Grateful
2. Bobby Oroza - The Otherside
3. Surprise Chef – Velodrome
4. Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band - The Healer
5. Synthia Feat. Claire Cottrill - So Low
6. Lady Wray - Joy & Pain (Pete Rock Remix)
Side B.
7. Holy Hive - Ain’t That The Way
8. Les Imprimés - Love & Flowers
9. El Michels Affair - Things Done Changed
10. The Shacks - Trip To Japan
11. Thee Marloes - Beri Cinta Waktu
12. El Michels Affair Meets Liam Bailey - Awkward (Take 2)

Big Thief will release a new edition of their 2016 debut album Masterpiece. For the first time on 4AD, the album containing much-loved songs ‘Paul’, ‘Real Love’ and title track ‘Masterpiece’, will be remastered and reissued on reVinyl pressing from 8 December.

Masterpiece was recorded in July 2015 at an old house that they turned into a studio on Lake Champlain with producer Andrew Sarlo and engineer James Krivchenia (who would go on to become a full-time Big Thief member). The resultant debut Big Thief studio album is filled with characters and visceral narratives, songs that pivot in the space of a few words. Adrianne Lenker's voice and guitar playing speak of rich emotional territory with grace and insight. In her words, the record tracks, "the masterpiece of existence, which is always folding into itself, people attempting to connect, to both shake themselves awake and to shake off the numbness of certain points in their life. The interpretations might be impressionistic or surrealistic, but they're grounded in simple things." It soars on what Big Thief fan Sharon Van Etten called "...a real journey, with intelligent stories and twist-and-turn melodies."

As part of the Suede30 campaign, alongside the newly-remastered editions of the #1 debut album, Demon Records will be issuing Suede’s first four singles as highly collectable 7” picture discs, reproducing the original arresting cover images on the discs.

The third release is another absolute classic, “Animal Nitrate”, originally released on Nude Records on 22nd February 1993, and to this day one of many highlights of a Suede concert. It reached number 7 in the UK charts, making it the highestcharting single from the debut album.

It was aided by the band performing the song live at the Brit Awards on 16th February at Alexandra Palace, to a TV audience of 9 million homes.

B-side “The Big Time” did not appear on the “Suede” album.

Born in Roma in 1959, Guiseppe 'Peps' Cotumaccio arrived in South Africa when he was two years old. He was the mastermind behind the band Sweet Reaction, singing and playing keyboards. In the early 80’s, the group used to back various artists including one of the South African top singer Neville Nash. Both artists were on the same record label: Music Team. Throughout his lengthy career, Peps has collaborated with Johnny Clegg, Ronnie Joyce, Sipho 'Hotstix' Mabuse, P.J. Powers, Mark Alex, Neville Nash, and Mara Louw just to name a few.

The lead singer of the band, Dion Williamson, started performing in Johannesburg’s nightclubs and got quickly very successful, always in demand! People loved his gravel and sensual voice as he used to sing some of Joe Cocker’s popular songs. Unfortunately, during the Apartheid, the South African Government were not allowing black and white audiences, and the band split.

On this "Big 5 Boogie #2", Enoch Ndlela produced 2 modern soul killers. Recorded in 1981, "Take It Easy", where the music is evidently influenced by Willie Hutch, is a rich syrup of deep soul, gravelly vox and gentle smatterings of guitar. It a late night smoocher, red lit and sweaty arond the collar.

On the same side of this 12”, Simbad & Fred Spider enjoy a fat broken beat version of the track. The London based Aroop Roy has become somewhat of a rising star of late, here he retains most of the the flavour of "Take It Easy" and just powers it up a little with some housey drums that take it from the backrooms and to the festivals! 

Side B starts with a superb composition from the band: “African Sunrise” where Dion Williamson is on top form. Slow but highly frenetic jazz funk vibes with rising strings, wriggly Rhodes and wicky-wicky-wicky wah-wah guitar! Soooo funky! To finish off, the well-known Kid Fonque from Johannesburg, who recently moved to London working for the glorious house record label Defected, couldn’t wait to produce a super grooving, deep house refix that shimmers with elation.

Ridiculously strong second record from this label - defo one to watch - recommended.  

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Multi-faceted EP that'll work for purist soul / funk / afro dancers as much as house heads and your clued up Dekmantel crowd. Really nice vinyl pressing on this one two - almost like they had the rotary mixer in mind!

TRACK LISTING

1. Sweet Reaction - Take It Easy
2. Sweet Reaction - Take It Easy (Simbad & Fred Spider Remix)
3. Sweet Reaction - Take It Easy (Aroop Roy Rework)
4. Sweet Reaction - African Sunrise
5. Sweet Reaction - African Sunrise (Kid Fonique Remix)

The Struts have taken the raucous nature of their live shows and transmuted it into an album, fusing their arena-sized energy into their most concentrated and exciting songs to date. “This record showcases each individual member's strengths,” Spiller says of their impending fourth album and first full-length release on Big Machine Records, Pretty Vicious (03/11). “It’s some of my favourite music, hands down, we’ve ever conjured up. It’s the record everyone’s been waiting for.”

TRACK LISTING

1. Too Good At Raising Hell
2. Pretty Vicious
3. I Won’t Run
4. Hands On Me
5. Do What You Want
6. Rockstar
7. Remember The Name
8. Bad Decisions
9. Better Love
10. Gimme Some Blood
11. Somebody Someday

Drift is non-conforming and genre blending. Whilst hard to neatly fit in a box, the record feels like an avant garde blend of Electronic, Hip-Hop, Punk and Grunge music featuring soundscapes recorded from GAIKA's travels abroad. Shapeshifting and cinematic in style, GAIKA draws inspiration from musical greats; Prince, Wu Tang Clan, Massive Attack, and John Coltrane, with his approach akin to the Pink Siifus, A$AP Rockys, and Dean Blunts of this world.

GAIKA’s sound spans from grime, dancehall, R&B, electronic, and beyond, often weaving in political commentary through his lyricism. New album Drift is an ensemble record with GAIKA as the central writer working with collaborators BbyMutha, KIDÄ, Azekel, Charlie Stacey, Chamber 45, Brbko, The Narrator (Amber Joy), SAMANTHA, and more. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Drift On
2. Piñata
3. Gunz
4. First Among Misfits (Ft The Narrator)
5. La Vacanza (Ft Kidä)
6. Sublime
7. Exit To Cisco
8. Lady (Ft Bbymutha)
9. O Vampiro
10. Bonehead Behavior
11. Vicious Chambers
12. Ultra Scuro
13. And There Goes The Challenger
14. Less Burners Bigger Hearts (Ft The Narrator, Azekel)

‘The Masterplan’ is an extraordinary collection of B-sides originally featured on singles from Oasis’ era-defining first three albums, ‘Definitely Maybe’ (1994), ‘(What’s The Story) Morning Glory?’ (1995), and ‘Be Here Now’ (1997). Far from being inferior to the singles they backed, many of the 14 tracks that feature on ‘The Masterplan’ have become as cherished as the band’s biggest singles from that seminal period.

The album includes tracks ‘Acquiesce’, ‘Half The World Away’, ‘Talk Tonight’, Oasis’ iconic live cover of The Beatles’ ‘I Am The Walrus’ and the epic title track. Noel has often described ‘The Masterplan’ as one of the best songs he has ever written.

‘The Masterplan’ charted at No.2 in the UK Official Album Chart UK selling over 122,000 copies in its first week. It went on to be certified triple platinum and has sold over three million copies worldwide.

STAFF COMMENTS

Liam says: When you really think about it, it's ridiculous how incredible this collection is. Featuring some of Oasis' best ever tracks, one of which being their best ever ('Acquiesce'), it's hard to imagine there ever being a band who release such high-calibre of B-sides as this - must have for those who still don't have in their collections!

TRACK LISTING

1. Acquiesce (Remastered)
2. Underneath The Sky (Remastered)
3. Talk Tonight (Remastered)
4. Going Nowhere (Remastered)
5. Fade Away (Remastered)
6. The Swamp Song (Remastered)
7. I Am The Walrus – Live Glasgow Cathouse June ‘94 (Remastered)
8. Listen Up (Remastered)
9. Rockin' Chair (Remastered)
10. Half The World Away (Remastered)
11. (It's Good) To Be Free (Remastered)
12. Stay Young (Remastered)
13. Headshrinker (Remastered)
14. The Masterplan (Remastered) 

Heading back to the band’s studio in London, Bombay Bicycle Club have lovingly crafted album six – My Big Day. It’s a powerful, expansive body of work, replete with an irrepressible dose of joy. My Big Day also found the band’s studio door wedged open for a collaborative experience, inviting the likes of Jay Som, Nilüfer Yanya, and Holly Humberstone and Damon Albarn who all feature. On first listen, Bombay Bicycle Club have opened up the curtains and let this revelatory set of vibrant, joyous compositions bask in the sunshine. It’s an album that means business, sculpted by one of Britain’s best guitar bands.

TRACK LISTING

1. Just A Little More Time
2. I Want To Be Your Only Pet
3. Sleepless (feat. Jay Som)
4. My Big Day
5. Turn The World On
6. Meditate (feat. Nilufer Yanya)
7. Rural Radio Predicts The Rapture
8. Heaven (feat. Damon Albarn)
9. Tekken 2
10. Diving (feat. Holly Humberstone)
11. Onward

Limited, first pressing available on Eco Vinyl, featuring the tracks "Vampire Empire" and "Born for Loving You".

Big Thief present new single, ‘Vampire Empire’, off their forthcoming ‘Vampire Empire’ / ‘Born For Loving You’ 7” out on 20 October. This year, the song took on a life of its own after a performance on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert and has become a live fan favorite.

Recorded and produced by Dom Monks at Guissona, Spain’s Teatre de cal Eril Studio during a recent tour, ‘Vampire Empire’ speaks to the beautiful complexity of gender identity and breaking destructive internal cycles. Of the song, Adrianne Lenker adds, “For me, it’s about getting out of toxic internal patterns – leaving the empire of energy drains that obscure pure essence, learning about what healthy boundaries are, and finding the power to implement them for the possibility of giving and receiving (both inwardly and outwardly) unbroken and infinite Love.”

TRACK LISTING

Vampire Empire
Born For Loving You

The love for Sally C’s sound and burgeoning label shows no sign of slowing down. Last year’s ‘Big Saldo’s Chunkers 002’ was a phenomenon. Led by ‘Downtown’, which became one of the most beloved tracks of the year, it secured over 30 BBC Radio 1 plays and genre-crossing support from Peggy Gou to TSHA and Bradley Zero. Critical acclaim came from Bandcamp, RA and beyond.

Launched in 2020 with ‘Big Saldo’s Chunkers 001’ that’s currently on its fourth repress, the Chunker sound is special to all those who know it. Taking influence from artists including K-Hand and Fast Eddie, Sally draws on the sensibilities of classic US house music, crafting unique dancefloor cuts that don’t compromise on quality.

Active on the release front over the last 12 months with well-received remixes of Obongjayar, LB aka LABAT and a fresh original on Rhythm Section, we witness a noticeable evolution in her sound with BSC003. “I wanted to challenge myself when writing this record. I still haven’t released a full EP on another label, so I wanted to pair straight up Chunkers with something a bit different to shake up the Chunker energy,” she shares.

The four-tracker opens with ‘All Love’, a joyous house banger that swaps out Sally’s trademark Chunker bassline for a sexier groove. When the euphoric piano breakdown kicks in, soon accompanied by the ‘dance’ vocal on repeat, we’re reminded of the exultant power of rave. ‘

Hit It’ follows, a proper Chunker to the core. A hip house-informed jam, it’s packed full of tight drums, stabs, sirens and one of Sally’s monster Chunker b-lines. An absolute tune!

‘Control’ is a low-slung roller, encapsulating her love for simplistic production principles that birth memorable results. A headsy offering ripe for the after-hours.

‘‘Get Up’ is an ice-cool slab born out of a jam on a drum machine that hits at 144bpm. “I wasn’t sure how this would fit on the record being this speed, but it’s exactly what I envisioned when I wanted to challenge myself more. It’s raw and rolling and as soon as I made it, I knew it fitted into the Chunker family,” Sally explains.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Loud and wobbly chunkers from rising star Sally C who fires over the third volume of her cult series. The formula hasn't changed it's just gotten more refined!

TRACK LISTING

A1. All Love
A2. Hit It
B1. Control
B2. Get Up

Australian punks The Chats' album, Get Fucked, is fully loaded with 13, high-velocity punk tracks that rip from start to finish, and lyrically cover panic attacks, junkies, prison breaks, the price of smokes, surf mafia, being drunk in every pub in Brisbane and many more based on personal experiences.

TRACK LISTING

1. 6L GTR
2. Boggo Breakout
3. Struck By Lightning
4. Southport Superman
5. Panic Attack
6. Ticket Inspector
7. The Price Of Smokes
8. Dead On Site
9. Paid Late
10. I've Been Drunk In Every Pub In Brisbane
11. Emperor Of The Beach
12. Out On The Street
13. Getting Better

Holy Hive released two full length albums and one EP in the short span of 3 years and then they decided to disband. In 2019, while recording their debut album world renown harpist Mary Lattimore was in NY. They got together in the studio on a whim and wound up recording their Harping EP in a few days.

They followed that up with their 2020 full length debut Float Back To You which became an instant cult classic and de­ned their unique “Folk Soul” sound. Frontman Paul Spring’s tender falsetto and maverick guitar playing over Homer Steinweiss’ incomparable drumming and production proved to be a match made in heaven and created a sound that piqued the ears and charmed the hearts of all those who heard it. By the time they started recording their sophomore album COVID, commitments, and life started taking their toll on the band.

Spring and Steinweiss took their sound and pushed it way forward on their eponymous 2nd album keeping the anchor of their sound they established while exploring where else they could take it. Unbeknownst to the public by the time that record was released the band was done and had moved on to other things individually. While fans will undoubtedly not like this news, we will all have the timeless music they made while together, and, proli­c they certainly were…

Big Crown Vaults Vol. 3 : Holy Hive digs into the treasure trove of unreleased recordings and pulls some that never saw their way to vinyl and in all honesty, this is not even half of what is in there. These recordings were made during their two album sessions largely, some were recorded before they even signed to Big Crown. The compilation kicks off with the tune that started it all on the label, their smashing cover of The Invincibles “This Is My Story” that was previously only on a 7”. “Love It Is Not Love”, “Middle Of The Night”, “Celeste”, and their cover of “Kingdom Of The Sun” all feature guest vocals by Shanny of The Shacks who had started playing bass with them at their live shows and sitting in on a lot of the recording sessions. “The Shame” features

Robin Pecknold of Fleet Foxes on bass and El Michels Affair on ‑ute, the latter also plays on “A Perfect Space”. At one point in time the would turn the live show over to Paul Spring who would perform the Irish folk tune “Red Is The Rose” in a traditional style with just him singing and playing acoustic guitar and then launch into their rendition of the song that is on Float Back To You.

That stripped down version is featured here on Vaults Vol. 3. The comp finishes poetically with “End Of Time” and it is unlikely that we will ever release the rest of what is sitting in the vault. On behalf of ourselves and all the fans we’d like to take this time to thank Holy Hive for the gorgeous music they made together. We will continue to enjoy it forever. Of course as individuals everyone involved from the core members to the people who lent their talents to certain songs continue to make music. Find them, follow them, enjoy their music.

TRACK LISTING

1. This Is My Story
2. Love It Is Not Love
3. Green Milk
4. Red Is The Rose (Folk Version)
5. The Shame
6. Swimmer
7. Celeste
8. Kingdom Of The Sun
9. Middle Of The Night
10. A Perfect Space
11. Driftless
12. End Of Time

The band’s first hits collection, from 1966, this 14-track hits collection is still one of pop music’s most compelling and potent singles compilations ever released. Reflecting the band’s remarkable run of singles through the early to mid-sixties, it includes six UK number ones!

Kansas City born Hammond B3 organ dynamo Big John Patton made a stellar run of soul jazz albums for Blue Note thru the 1960s but Let ‘Em Roll stands among the finest with Patton adding vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson to a standard organ trio line-up with guitarist Grant Green and drummer Otis Finch.

This stereo Tone Poet Vinyl Edition was produced by Joe Harley, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original analog master tapes, pressed on 180g vinyl at RTI, and packaged in a deluxe gatefold tip-on jacket.

TRACK LISTING

1. Let 'Em Roll (Side A)
2. Latona (Side A)
3. The Shadow Of Your Smile (Side A)
4. The Turnaround (Side B)
5. Jakey (Side B)
6. One Step Ahead (Side B)

Big Crown Records is proud to present the debut full length offering from Les Imprimés, Rêverie. The stirring and ethereal sounds of Les Imprimés have been making fans of anyone who hears them since their first 7” single hit the speakers. Morten Martens is the man behind the band. Born, raised, and working in Kristiansand, Norway, he keeps a low profile while making his heartfelt, highly infectious, and unique music. This album is a long time coming for Martens and it is sure to make him a name to be reckoned with.

The first thing you notice listening to Les Imprimés is the high level of musicianship. Martens plays nearly every instrument on the recordings and handles the production and arranging. He has been making records for decades, winning a Spellemann Award (aka, the Norwegian Grammy) in 2006 for producing a Hip Hop album as well as getting nominations across three other genres. While awards and accolades speak to the level of his talent, this new album really shows who he is as an artist on his own terms.

Moving away from being a hired gun on the touring scene naturally led him to start doing more studio work. Slowly collecting gear and getting more experience behind the boards he built his own studio on the island of Odderøya and was making a living playing with and recording other people's music. As the story goes, after those sessions would end he would work on his own project into the wee hours of the night. From these late night sessions, Les Imprimés was born and Rêverie began to take shape.

However, "it wasn't until COVID, when things locked down, that I was really able to find the time to focus on Les Imprimés" Morten says about creating and leading his own solo project. "It was a scary time. But I knew I had to do something with it." He took the sum of his influences, combined them with his own vibe and got busy writing the music, playing the instruments, and singing the songs. "It's soul music, but I don't exactly have the soul voice," Morten explains humbly. "But I do it my own way, in a way that's mine."

It is his sound, his fingerprint, his sensibility, that makes his music hard to categorize. He has crafted an album of songs with different energies that all fit together to make one gorgeous record. The lead single “Falling Away” starts with a raw drum break and turns into a lushly arranged tune that paints the picture of love when it slips away. On “Still Here” he professes his resilience through life’s twists and turns over a thundering track that puts a new spin on the B side ballad genre. Songs like “You” and “Our Love” mix tones from 60s and 70s Soul with arrangement nods to Doo Wop records while Martens’ lyrics and delivery leave you singing the melodies long after they finish. “Love & Flowers” finds Martens in a moment of clarity with a song that fits the niche sub genre of happy break up tunes, the four on the floor track will move the dancefloor while the message will resonate with anyone who put too much effort into the wrong situation in their lives. However, it is songs like “Muse” and “Chess” that really encapsulate the uniqueness of Les Imprimés as they push the boundaries of genre, one a profession of love for music and the other a cover of an electronic record respectively. Martens’ lyrics, emotion, and delivery truly make the whole thing come together and stand out from any of his peers. There’s an infectiousness and a pop sensibility in the writing that is done with the utmost class and taste giving Les Imprimés the rare quality of immediate attraction that only deepens the more you listen.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Les Imprimés are a perfect match for Big Crown records, clearly heavily influenced by soul, but delivered with an unusual instrumental sensitivity and wonderfully realised production aesthetic. Morten Martens is crafting a beautifully singular noise, and it's exciting to see what's next.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A
1. I’ll Never Leave You
2. Falling Away
3. Chess
4. Still Here
5. If I
6. It’s Over
SIDE B
7. Love & Flowers
8. You
9. Our Love
10. Next To Me
11. Thousand Clouds
12. Muse

Available for the first time on vinyl - a 20th anniversary release of The Mystic Chords Of Memory's seminal, unique DIY psych-folk debut. By Beachwood Sparks singer/songwriter Chris Gunst & Aislers Set's Jen Cohen. Mastered at Abbey Road. The seeds of this exquisite album are scattered among the tracks of Make The Cowboy Robots Cry - the LP Beachwood Sparks hung their hats on before a ten year break. A further step forward from west coast country psych towards something with folkier roots but new, mysterious and above all free. Chris and Jen's conjuring of magical, unforced, domestic spirituality. Recorded in a little wood cabin amongst the redwoods overlooking a running creek with a range of collected musical toys. Just give it 5 minutes once you’ve dropped the needle & you’ll be right there. Here’s Amanda Petrussich’s brilliant write up in Pitchfork - “With its soft melodies, sweet vocals, and scratchy DIY production, Mystic Chords of Memory is also an overwhelmingly intimate record, focused and domestic - much closer to Elliott Smith than former-benchmarks the Byrds and Buffalo Springfield…. The duo's wordy moniker was lifted from Abraham Lincoln's first inaugural address, a lecture delivered in the spring of 1861 and boldly eternalised at the base of Mount Rushmore... Appropriately, the band's sound is just as archaic as a truly striking political speech: Gunst and Cohen blend tinkling bells, melodica, harp, keyboards, bits of samples, tinny drums, and strummy guitars, presenting a vaguely contemporary update on the British folk phenomenon of the late 1960s with more blips. Mystic Chords of Memory is a surprisingly coherent re-introduction to Gunst, and his professional coupling with Jen Cohen has proven both a freeing and inspired move.” Two decades later it’s obvious how seminal a record they conjured up. They forged a path that came to define the wave of US indie that followed for a while. In our opinion, the original has a natural, guileless, effortless beauty that trumps them all. Without a whiff of Starbucks. "Mystic chords of memory speech I interpreted the meaning as the underlying psyche fabric we are all creating on this land together. Jen and I thought it would be a great name to inspire our music together. This was really close to post 9/11 times and we were thinking about all of this and also wanting to improve our own contribution to the psychological fabric of the world.” Chis Gunst.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE 1 - 18:55
1. Berry Creek 3:04
2. Soul Through The Bullet Hole 3:03
3. Golden Dome 2:52
4. Sure, Bert 4:34.7
5. Like A Lobster 4:20
SIDE 2 - 20:08
1. Eyes On Sides Of Heads 4:28
2. Open End 4:32
3. Last One 3:59
4. Mongo & Arky 3:37
5. Pi & A Bee 3:30

A repress of Swedish psych quartet Les Big Byrd (featuring members of Caesars, Fireside, Teddybears, etc) long sold out second album Iran Iraq IKEA - a part of the PNKSLM Recordings 10 year anniversary repress series. On the album, which this time is released on pink vinyl with alternate artwork, Les Big Byrd found a middle ground between their pop sensibilities and kraut-y space rock.

TRACK LISTING

Geräusche
I Tried So Hard
A Little More Numb
Pink Freud
I Fucked Up I Was A Child
I've X- Ed Myself From Your World
Eon
Interlude
Mannen
Utanför

Bobby's 2019 tour ended in New York City and he had two days off before flying home to Finland. Leon invited him to the Diamond Mine to record some music. Bobby had been talking about wanting to stretch out lyrically and write about more esoteric subject matter, Leon was game. They recorded "Reasons" in one session which put the chemistry between the two on the world stage and sparked the idea of doing a full length album together. More than halfway through the recording process, they have decided to treat us to another two-sider of the new material.

On the A side, "Whatcha Know" Bobby explores death and the human experience, putting his philosophical ponderings into his music. Michels' production and overall ethos is the perfect complement to Bobby's desire to stretch out his sound. EMA provides a gorgeous backing track that compliments Bobby's style and simultaneously broadens its scope.

The B side "Losing It" is a dramatic and moving number that Bobby sings in Spanish and English. A gorgeous guitar riff is countered with eerie sound effects that crescendo when the drums come in. Bobby professes he's "Losing It" over a love too strong and El Michels Affair's production turns the whole affair into a saga that thunders through speakers.

TRACK LISTING

Whatcha Know
Losing It

Formed in Brighton with a clear aim to write the perfect soundtrack to whatever you do whilst procrastinating at your day job, Public Body pick apart the mundanity of daily life and all its annoyances in irresistible fashion.

TRACK LISTING

1. Break From Life
2. Way, No Way
3. Driven By Data
4. Dysfunction
5. Crisp Wars
6. Overcooked
7. No Constraint
8. Cathode Ray Tubes
9. Mr Cats
10. Age Of Junk

Eric Emm and Jesse Cohen of Tanlines are indie-rock lifers turned reasonable, happy middle-aged fathers of two, figuring out their place in a chaotic culture and industry that can no longer command their full attention.They are emblematic of a particular time and place that doesn’t really exist anymore, yet here they are existing, and thriving, in 2023.

The Big Mess came together when Emm and his family moved from Brooklyn to rural Connecticut, while Cohen launched a marketing career and a successful podcast and stayed in the city. Emm continued writing songs hundreds of them through all the weirdness of the past few years, but he wasn’t exactly sure who he was writing them for. “I spent years figuring out in my mind, ‘What is my musical life going to look like?’” he says. “I just kept writing.”

Cohen gave Emm his blessing to continue Tanlines, even if his own contributions would be limited due to his own non-musical obligations. “I’m like, ‘Whatever you can do to keep this thing going, do it,’” Cohen says. And with that, Tanlines was reborn.

By January 2022 Emm felt he had a body of work that made sense as a Tanlines album. Cohen spent ten days with Emm at his Connecticut studio, along with unofficial third Tanline Patrick Ford (!!!). This was tied together with a sleek final mix from Peter Katis (The National, Interpol) at his famed Tarquin Studios, resulting in a clear vision of what Emm’s musical life was going to look like: The Big Mess.

The first sounds on The Big Mess are the title track’s coiled guitars and thumping drums, building into the kind of outsize, choral rock anthem artists like Tanlines were almost a reaction to. It is warm and nostalgic, and Cohen likens a lot of the prevailing mood to “a sepia filter on a digital photo.” He continues, “we were pretty intentional about making this the first song on the album, underlining the way that this is a new phase of the band.” Cohen says.

The moody, scintillating “Burns Effect” serves as one of the biggest pushes forward for the Tanlines sound, and for Emm as a lyricist. He says that the song is “deep and dark and dangerous, but in a fun way. It’s one of the more personal tracks on the album where this ungrounded part of my personality surfaces, but with an over-the-top machismo, almost an ironic character.”

Other tracks like “New Reality” and closer “The Age of Innocence” are also demonstrably guitar-forward in ways that wouldn’t seem obvious for Tanlines (despite Emm’s pedigree in austere avant-garde math-rock outfits Storm & Stress and Don Caballero), but Emm is less sure The Big Mess is a total departure. “I’m trying to make these absolutely simple things,” he says. “I think of these songs as Rothko paintings: They’re big and they’re bold and they’re seemingly straightforward, but they have a lot of depth and they engage with you and make you feel something.”

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A
1. The Big Mess
2. Outer Banks
3. New Reality
4. Burns Effect
5. Clouds
SIDE B
6. Unreal
7. Arm’s Length Away
8. Endless Love
9. Speed
10. Hold On
11. The Age Of Innocence

Recorded at Ardent Studios and released in 1972, the album has gone on to become one of the most influential and iconic debut albums of all time.

This 50th-anniversary indie exclusive edition is pressed on 180-gram metallic gold with purple smoke vinyl and features all-analogue mastering by Jeff Powell at Take Out Vinyl.

The album has been included in Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, with the song “Thirteen” featured in its 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. Feel
2. The Ballad Of El Goodo
3. In The Street
4. Thirteen
5. Don’t Lie To Me
6. The India Song
Side B
7. When My Baby’s Beside Me
8. My Life Is Right
9. Give Me Another Chance
10. Try Again
11. Watch The Sunrise 

Based in upstate New York, Rahill Jamalifard is a multidisciplinary artist working within numerous overlapping musico-poetic traditions. Her creative practice includes songwriting, as well as portraiture, DJing (both radio and live), and a more private pursuit of literature.

Informed by her upbringing in a diasporic Iranian-American household, as well as her lifelong, genre-spanning musical explorations, Rahill’s forthcoming solo releases constitute, at once, a natural progression of—and departure from—her work with the seminal NYC psych-rock outfit, Habibi, which she co-founded in early twenty-teens.

Rahill’s songs occupy a familiar, contemplative mode - blending jazz, trip-hop / hip-hop and folk traditions spanning East and West.

TRACK LISTING

1. Healing
2. I Smile For E
3. Tell Me
4. From A Sandbox
5. Fables (feat. Beck)
6. Hesitations
7. Gone Astray
8. Bended Light
9. Ode To Dad
10. Rise So I Rose
11. Futbol
12. Nazila
13. Libra Sun
14. Note To Self

Prima Queen's highly anticipated debut EP 'Not The Baby', demonstrates this band's remarkable ability to straddle genres and embrace heartfelt topics, starting with lead single Back Row, a soaring, horns-led pop song about the heartbreak of breaking someone else's heart.

TRACK LISTING

1. Back Row
2. Crow
3. Dylan
4. Hydroplane

Vinyl now remastered By Steve Albini And Bob Weston.

The Players: Dave Riley - Bass, Santiago Durango - Guitar, Vocals, Steve Albini - Vocals, Guitar, Roland Drum Machine - itself.

Big Black was started by Steve Albini in 1982 while he was attending Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. Lungs, the first Big Black release was recorded by Steve on a borrowed 4-track. He played everything on the EP himself - except the sax bleating courtesy of pal John Bohnen and the drums courtesy of Roland. Soon after, Steve recruited Jeff Pezzati (Naked Raygun) on bass, and Santiago Durango (also Naked Raygun) joined them on guitar. In 1983, together with live drummer Pat Byrne, they recorded the Bulldozer EP. By 1984, the band had done some touring and recorded the Racer X EP and the start of the Il Duce 7”. After that, Jeff returned to Naked Raygun and was replaced by Dave Riley. In 1985, Big Black recorded their first full-length, Atomizer, as well as finishing the Il Duce 7”. Atomizer was released in 1986 along with the release of the Hammer Party compilation CD. In 1987, the Headache EP and Heartbeat 7” were released. That same year, the band recorded and released the 7” of The Model/He’s A Whore as well as their second full-length album, Songs About Fucking. They toured extensively (for Big Black). And they broke up. 

TRACK LISTING

Side A:
The Power Of Independent Trucking
The Model
Bad Penny
L. Dopa
Precious Thing
Columbian Necktie
Side B:
Kitty Empire
Ergot
Kasimir S. Pulaski Day
Fish Fry
Pavement Saw
Tiny, King Of The Jews
Bombastic Intro

A gorgeous and gripping portrait of Fenne’s last two years, Big Picture was pieced together in an effort to self-soothe. Tracked live in co-producer Brad Cook’s North Carolina studio, the album delineates the phases of love and becomes a map of comfort vs claustrophobia. Though its creation took place amid personal and global turmoil, the ruminative yet candid Big Picture is Fenne’s most cohesive, resolute work to date, both lyrically and sonically. “This isn’t a sad album — it’s about as uplifting as my way of doing things will allow,” she says. “These songs explore worry and doubt and letting go, but those themes are framed brightly.” With confidence and quiet strength, each track provides an insight into Fenne’s ever-changing view of love and, ultimately, its redefinition — love as a process, not something to be lost and found.

While the album was written alone in Fenne’s Bristol flat – a fact intentionally reflected in its compact sonic quality – Big Picture was transformed from a solitary venture into a unifying collaboration during the recording process when she was joined by her touring band, Melina Dutere of Jay Som (mixing), Christian Lee Hutson (guitar and co production), and Katy Kirby (vocals). Notably, these 10 songs are Fenne’s first and only to have been written over the course of a relationship; 2018’s On Hold and 2020’s Breach both confront the pain of retrospection, saying goodbye to a love that’s gone. Big Picture does the exact opposite — rooted firmly in the present, it traces the narrative of two people trying their hardest not to implode, together. “This album is an observation of the way I think about love, the self[1]examination that comes with closeness and the responsibilities involved in being a big part of someone else’s small(er) world,” summarizes Fenne. “It was written in a place of relative emotional stability – stability that felt unstable because of its newness, but also because of the global context. 2020 was the year of letting go, but we’d all already let go of so much and nothing felt like mine anymore. Writing always did, though, so that’s what I chose to do.”

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A:
1) Map Of Japan
2) Dawncolored Horse
3) Lights Light Up
4) 2+2
5) Superglued
SIDE B:
6) Henry
7) Pick
8) In My Own Time
9) Red Deer Day
10) Half Finished

When Leon Michels and El Michels Affair released their fi­rst record, Sounding Out The City, in 2005, it was hard to guess what was next for Michels and his then-introduced, now-patented “cinematic soul” sound. Now, four EMA studio albums and scores of tribute and remix projects later all while producing for some of the biggest names in the industry Michels has trademarked his sound, with each project taking audiences somewhere new and pushing the boundaries of what he is known for. The man is a river, not a lake and this time he takes his golden touch into the realm of hip-hop laying down a musical bed for one of the greatest to ever rhyme into a microphone: Black Thought of The Roots crew.

Releasing on Big Crown Records, the LP is called Glorious Game and it is a remarkable debut partnership in more ways than one. Michels provides his bottom-heavy, soul-tinged production for Black Thought who gives us some of the more personal and transparent verses we've ever heard from him. Michels and Black Thought have been in each other's orbit for a while now. The two fi­rst met in the 2000s when Thought was fi­rst getting familiar with the contemporary soul scene. "Out of that whole world, Menahan Street Band was probably my favorite," recalling the funk and soul group Michels was a founding member of back in 2007. Fast forward a few years and musicians from that collective Dave Guy on trumpet and Ian Hendrickson-Smith on sax are now full time players with The Roots. This connection eventually led Leon and Thought to doing a few fundraising events around NYC and Philly together. "Before long, Black Thought was coming around the studio and would jam with us from time to time," Michels explains. "Then, fast forward to 2020 and COVID lockdowns, he just hit me up out of the blue, wanting me to send him stuff to write to. We both were looking to stay busy."

Being that Black Thought is the co-founder and emcee for, hands down, the best live-band group in hip-hop. Michels took a decidedly different approach to this project and instead of sending recorded tracks of live compositions, he pulled out the sampler and sampled himself and some records from his collection. "I'm a big fan of soul music," as if Michels has to remind us. "And part of hip-hop's appeal to me has always been the sample-based production".

For Glorious Game, Michels would make wholly composed and recorded soul songs in his studio, sample himself, then chop and/or loop up his sounds and create instrumentals for Black Thought. On some tracks he took a more traditional hip-hop approach, starting from samples of other people’s music but then adding live instrumentation on top. But for the most part, it's him reinterpreting his own compositions into something new.

The result is an organic feel of loop-based tracks that breathe and fluctuate enough for Black Thought to ‑ex on. "What I write about is determined by the equation of the producer's energy and my energy," Black Thought says. "It's about where we meet." So armed with Michels sampled and re-sampled soul cinematics, Black Thought rhymes through personal memories and distinctive.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: With Michels laying down scattered soul-infused hip-hop beats, and the legendary Black Thought on vocal duties, this was always going to be a superb outing, but it's the ease with which these talented producers work together that is really refreshing. Forging an entirely new sound through their respective, distinctive voices, 'Glorous Game' is even more of a triumph than expected. Brilliant.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. Grateful
2. Glorious Game Feat Kirby
3. I’m Still Somehow
4. Hollow Way
5. Protocol (feat. Son Little)
6. The Weather
Side B
7. That Girl
8. I Would Never
9. Alone
10. Miracle
11. Glorious Game (Reprise)
12. Alter Ego (feat. Brainstory)

The latest from The Big Boss aka Manchester based Kiwi Martin Byrne Inner Space takes hypnotic grooves and deep electronic beats, adding sweeping synth melodies and a splash of chopped up vocals to make this an album for true electronic music lover.

Big Black was started by Steve Albini in 1982 while he was attending Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. ‘Lungs’, the first Big Black release, was recorded by Steve on a borrowed 4-track. He played everything on the EP himself, except the sax bleating courtesy of pal John Bohnen and the drums courtesy of Roland. Soon after, Steve recruited Jeff Pezzati (Naked Raygun) on bass and Santiago Durango (also Naked Raygun) joined them on guitar.

In 1983, together with live drummer Pat Byrne, they recorded the ‘Bulldozer’ EP. By 1984, the band had done some touring and recorded the ‘Racer X’ EP and the start of the ‘Il Duce’ 7”. After that, Jeff returned to Naked Raygun and was replaced by Dave Riley.

In 1985, Big Black recorded their first full-length, ‘Atomizer’, as well as finishing the ‘Il Duce’ 7”. ‘Atomizer’ was released in 1986 along with the release of the ‘Hammer Party’ compilation CD.

In 1987, the ‘Headache’ EP and ‘Heartbeat’ 7” were released. That same year, the band recorded and released the 7” of ‘The Model’ / ‘He’s A Whore’ as well as their second full-length album, ‘Songs About Fucking’. They toured extensively (for Big Black) and they broke up.

Available again on vinyl...

TRACK LISTING

1 Jordan, Minnesota
2. Passing Complexion
3. Big Money
4. Kerosene
5. Bad Houses
6. Fists Of Love
7. Stinking Drunk
8. Bazooka Joe
9. Strange Things
10. Cables (Live)

The More I Sleep The Less I Dream marks a new chapter in We Were Promised Jetpacks’ career. It’s about going back to the heart of who they are, a high school band that never stopped. It’s about four people who have grown up together, making a conscious choice to keep writing music and seeing where that takes them. Sometimes you have to go back to basics in order to find yourself again. But once you have, then what? It’s one thing to say you want to take a step forward, it’s a much more daunting prospect actually doing so. The More I Sleep The Less I Dream contains the essence of what the band have grown into, both as artists and as people. They’ve taken their experiences, both from their ten years as a touring band and from the changes in their personal lives, and forged them into an album that represents a new phase for the band.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Swooning shoegazey melodies, throbbing bass guitar and those unmistakeable vox, We Were Promised Jetpacks provide a thrilling and multi-faceted listen, dynamic and exciting but eminently listenable. Brilliant stuff.

TRACK LISTING

1. Impossible
2. In Light
3. Someone Else's Problem
4. Make It Easier
5. Hanging In
6. Improbable
7. When I Know More
8. Not Wanted
9. Repeating Patterns
10. The More I Sleep, The Less I Dream

Musical legends from opposite sides of the world come together on Hell Yeah's next EP as Japan's Calm and Finnish musician Jimi Tenor collaborate on big city takes. It features two new singles as well as remixes from the celebrated tapes and Belfast's best-kept secret, The Vendetta Suite.

This most satisfying of eps came together when the psychedelic space-jazz-funk king and noted musician, composer and producer Jimi Tenor was in tour in Japan. Label head Marco arranged for him to head into Calm's studio in Kawasaki, Tokyo, and real magic happened.

'Big city takes' is gloriously lush, with serene chords, delicate flutes and organic percussion. Tenor's airy vocal brings the soul as an intimate and late-night groove emerges to melt your heart.

Then come two remixes from tapes. The first is powered by dusty old-school drum breaks. They're doused in subtle euphoria with a nimble bassline down low, while the second one is stripped right back to a pulsing rhythm and killer phased bass. Spread chords bring sunrise feelings to this most colourful of grooves.

On the flip side, Calm offers a version of 'Time & Space' that is nearly eight minutes of exquisitely blissed-out downtempo. Chords ripple like waves, flutes flutter like birds and the whole thing is filled with the joys of a new spring day. The remix comes from The Vendetta Suite, a label regular and under-the-radar talent who is defining his native Northern Irish scene with his fresh fusion sounds. His version brings a new age ambiance to post-rave Balearic comedown. It's one that douses you in life-affirming synths as drums gently persuade you to sway along.

TRACK LISTING

A1.  Big City Takes (Original Mix)
A2.  Big City Takes (Tapes Remix 1)
A3.  Big City Takes (Tapes Remix 5)
B1.  Time & Space (Calm's Version)
B2.  Time & Space (Vendetta Suite Remix)

Black feminist punk band Big Joanie have announced their upcoming second album 'Back Home', set for release on Daydream Library Series in the UK and Kill Rock Stars in the US.

The brand new album 'Back Home' follows on from last month's one-off single 'Happier Still', and the release of their 2020 single ‘Cranes in the Sky’, a cover of Solange Knowles released on Jack White’s Third Man Records. Recorded at Hermitage Works Studios in North London, 'Back Home' was produced and mixed by Margo Broom (Goat Girl, Fat White Family) and features violin courtesy of Charlotte Valentine of the experimental art rock project No Home, who recently collaborated with the LA-based artist SASAMI. 'Back Home' is a dramatic leap forward for the band; the band build on their tightly knit, lo-fi punk formula to bring forth a collage of blazing guitars, down tempo dance punk, and melancholic strings that evoke the full depth of the band’s expansive art punk vision. The album title references a search for a place to call home, whether real or metaphysical. “We were really ruminating on the idea of a home and what it means,” explains Stephanie. “It’s about the different ideas of home, whether that’s here in the UK, back in Africa or the Caribbean, or a place that doesn’t really exist; it’s neither here nor there."

The band worked with multidisciplinary artist Angelica Ellis to design the striking embroidered cover art, which is a depiction of Chardine’s nephew at the barbers. The artwork is a reference to the embroidered wall hangings popular in Caribbean homes post-Windrush that were a callback to the homes they left behind. The album’s strength lies in the band’s bold and varied new sound. Album opener ‘Cactus Tree’ is an eerie, gothic folk tale that tells the story of a woman waiting for her lover while a wall of euphoric harmonies and screaming feedback roll in the background.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Big Joanie are back! This time forging on from their blistering debut, 2018's 'Sistahs' to an ever more ferocious and thematically diverse follow-up. Drawing influence from all over the musical spectrum, 'Back Home' is an accomplished and hugely enjoyable slice of art-rock tinged post-punk.

TRACK LISTING

1. Cactus Tree
2. Taut
3. Confident Man
4. What Are You Waiting For?
5. In My Arms
6. Your Words
7. Count To Ten
8. Happier Still
9. Insecure
10. Today
11. I Will
12. In My Arms (Reprise)
13. Sainted

Formed by ex-Skids guitarist Stuart Adamson in 1981 with old friend Bruce Watson and, from 1982, rhythm section Tony Butler and Mark Brzezicki, Big Country proved a fascinating proposition, adding punk, new wave and even new romantic elements to heavy, meaning-laden pop/rock with a passionate Celtic slant and fierce integrity

Using effects, Adamson and Watson's chiming guitars evoked traditional Scottish instruments. This was unique and proved highly influential. Within a year of their first release, many existing bands began to emulate the group's sound. Nobody achieved it quite like Big Country.Released in July 1983, The Crossing is, for many, the band's greatest album. At once of its time yet completely out of step with what was then happening, its traditional, well-made songs and sounds took it to No. 3 in the UK charts and into the US Top 20. Produced by Steve Lillywhite, it features four of the group's best- known songs, In A Big Country, Fields Of Fire (400 Miles), Harvest Home and Chance.

TRACK LISTING

In A Big Country
Inwards
Chance
1000 Stars
The Storm
Harvest Home
Lost Patrol
Close Action
Fields Of Fire
Porrohman

The melodic tunes of Sweden's Les Big Byrd are laced with relentless motorik beats, dubby tape echo feedback, trippy effects and fuzz guitars. Their new album is called Eternal Light Brigade and according to the band's frontman Joakim took well over three years to finish.

TRACK LISTING

Eyes Like Dead Stars
I Used To Be Lost But Now I'm Just Gone
Katamaran
Sunspots
Feels Like Wasting My Life Is Taking Forever
I Gave It All Up For You
Desolation Raga
Falling And Never Hitting The Bottom 
September Endless

We wrote and recorded Enjoy The View in the first 8 months of the pandemic, initially working separately before joining up in the studio to finish the album. We always felt like this album was a chance for us to try some things out and approach writing music together differently than we had done before. After getting back out on the road again we thought it may be fun to revisit some of those songs and take another new approach. So after our mammoth six-week tour of North America finished in April 2022 we decided to have another crack at some of these songs and see where else we could take them. Our idea for this EP was to go into the studio and just see where we went from there… I think making music is just making hundreds of tiny decisions that ultimately give the final feeling and sound of a song. We have absolutely loved playing music and spending more time with Andy Monaghan and jumped at the chance to head into the studio with him and make some different decisions! We also thought it would be great to see where other people could take some of those songs and are so delighted that we’re lucky enough to have Andy, Manchester Orchestra and Zoe Graham put their own spin them and make them something that we could never have done.

TRACK LISTING

1. If It Happens (Manchester Orchestra Remix)
2. Fat Chance (EP Version)
3. Nothing Ever Changes (Andy Monaghan Remix)
4. If It Happens (EP Version)
5. Fat Chance (Zoe Graham Remix)
6. All That Glittered (EP Version)

An instant connection that was nearly missed. A divide of 4,000 miles and an Atlantic Ocean. An almost-marriage. A tour supporting The Big Moon, Dream Wife and Wet Leg, and six- figure streams. The magic of their ethereal, guitar- driven sound is built not on romantic love, but something immeasurably stronger: female friendship.

TRACK LISTING

Eclipse 
Butter Knife

THEMES: Motherhood, parenthood, birth, lockdown, friendships, love.

The last time you heard them it was welcoming the release of their dazzling second album, Walking Like We Do, back in January 2020, when life was very different to how it is now. That was a coming-of-age record, bold songs for Saturday nights and sad songs for Sunday mornings. So much has changed, continues to change, and promises to change some more. And in this world of constant change, we yearn for the familiarity of a constant. Thankfully, one constant remains the unique, jubilant, unassailable bond that sews this brilliant London band together and what that does for their music, too. Another such constant is their collective ear for melody and knack for writing smart, sharp, and infectious indie-pop knockouts.

Like so many records landing in store and on streaming services right now, Here Is Everything was conceived during the weight and worry of lockdown in a pandemic. Worlds were turned upside down and inside out. Lives became seismically different, whilst every day a carbon copy of the last. So, whilst Covid pulled the duvet tightly up over our heads and sat on it whilst we muffle-screamed that we could not breathe, it was also the unlikely backdrop to welcoming new life. Vocalist Juliette Jackson might have started lockdown teaching fans how to play guitar on Zoom to help pay the rent (including, to her eternal bemusement, one Courtney Love), she ended it as mother to a super little human being.

Here is Everything documents the arrival of that fragile but mighty baby in real time, and the excitement and fear felt by this fragile but mighty mother. Meanwhile, the rest of the band doubled-down in the studio, taking Jules’ embryonic song frameworks and stepping forward as one, revelling in an innate, giddy togetherness and with a clutch of genuinely fantastic tunes.

The record is introduced today by Wide Eyes, a pure, uplifting song of collective jubilance. It sounds like a band in the form of their lives, having the time of their lives, and against all the odds. It sounds instantly like The Big Moon whilst sounding unlike any of the music that’s gone before it.

Here Is Everything was mostly self-produced, with the expert guidance and expertise of Adam Cecil Bartlett (Self Esteem, Jehnny Beth, PJ Harvey) and the Grammy Award winning producer Ben Allen (Gnarls Barkley, Deer Hunter, and the producer of Walking Like We Do).

TRACK LISTING

1. 2 Lines
2. Wide Eyes
3. Daydreaming
4. This Love
5. Sucker Punch
6. My Very Best
7. Ladye Bay
8. Trouble
9. High & Low
10. Magic
11. Satellites

Surprise Chef’s music is based on evoking mood; their vivid arrangements utilize time and space to build soundscapes that invite the listener into their world. The quintet’s distinct sound pulls from 70s film scores, the funkier side of jazz, and the samples that form the foundation of hip-hop. They push the boundaries of instrumental soul and funk with their own approach honed by countless hours in the studio, studying the masters, and perhaps most importantly, the ‘tyranny of distance’ that dictates a unique perspective to their music.

Surprise Chef is Lachlan Stuckey on guitar, Jethro Curtin on keys, Carl Lindeberg on bass, Andrew Congues on drums, and Hudson Whitlock - the latest member who does it all from percussion to composing to producing. Their self proclaimed ‘moody shades of instrumental jazz-funk’ have a bit of everything: punchy drums, infectious keys, rhythm guitar you might hear on a Studio One record, and flute lines that could be from a Blue Note session. But when you step back and take in the entirety of their sound and approach, you'll hear and see a group greater than the sum of its parts.

In many ways Surprise Chef embodies the idiom ‘the benefits of limits.’ They were limited in that there weren't many people making or talking about instrumental jazz/soul/funk in Southeast Australia, let alone putting out records. This left them to develop their sound and approach in a kind of creative isolation where a small circle of friends and like-minded musicians fed off each other. ‘Being in Australia, being so far away, we only get glimpses and glances of this music’s origins,’ Stuckey says. ‘But hearing a label like Big Crown was one of the first times we realized you could make fresh, new soul music that wasn't super retro or just nostalgic.’

This approach is on full display throughout their new album “Education & Recreation”. Tracks like “Velodrome” pair chunky drums with an earworm synth line that has all the making of something you would find on an Ultimate Breaks & Beats compilation while numbers like “Iconoclasts” show their knack for tasteful use of space. From the crushing intro of “Suburban Breeze” to the floaty mellow bop of “Spring’s Theme” Surprise Chef has weaved together an album that takes you through peaks and valleys of emotion and provides a vivid soundtrack that will pull you deeper into your imagination. There is a beauty in the vast space for interpretation of instrumental music and they are adding a modern classic to the canon with this new album. You can imagine hip-hop producers 10, 20 years from now sampling their dusty wares in much the same way as Dorothy Ashby, Arthur Verocai are dug by present day in-the-know beatsmiths are today.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: More languid, head-nodding funk & soul instrumentals from these rising Melbournians. They possess the relaxed, effortless sway of Khruangbin but with the swagger and smokiness you'd perhaps associate with Daptone (or indeed their current stable, Big Crown) signings. Both suited to sun lounging by the sea or downing whiskey at the jazz club; there's an open endedness to their compositions which let's the mind wander and dream.

TRACK LISTING

Side 1
1. Bakery Pledge Of Allegiance
2. Grinners Circle
3. Velodrome
4. Suburban Breeze
5. Conversation Piece
6. Iconoclasts
Side 2
1. Money Music
2. Spring's Theme
3. Together Again
4. Winter’s Theme
5. Ten & Two
6. Goldie’s Lullaby

Amsterdam based, Brazilian-born producer and vocalist LYZZA is Big Dada’s latest signing since re-launching as a label run by Black, POC & Minority Ethnic people for Black, POC & Minority Ethnic artists. Making waves in the contemporary electronic scene since the age of 17, Lyzza is a force to be reckoned with and has been described by Beatport as 'one of electronic music’s most promising young avant-pop producers.'

With three EPs under her belt, her fourth project “Mosquito” strives to show her range of abilities within sound and interdisciplinary art. The 10 track mixtape draws inspiration from mosquitoes and the psychological associations we have with them. Characteristically, mosquitoes are invasive and take up space, and this is something that Lyzza strives to be as an artist of colour.

The mixtape boasts a catalogue of alt-pop tracks that mingle English, Spanish and Portuguese lyrics, and are set to be accompanied by several music videos, a series of vlogs and a short film.

Lyzza's mixtape features trap artist La Zowi from Madrid and Zambian-Canadian rapper Backxwash who were handpicked due to their physical locations and pre-established listeners in order to imitate how mosquitoes spread themselves over territories.

Lyzza has played across Europe, where she has played high-profile festivals such as Sonar, Melt!, Pukkelpop, Montreux Jazz Festival and Primavera Sound, the last performance resulting in Pitchfork recognising her as one of the Best of Primavera Sound 2018.

Most recent live performances include a set at Komedia Studio, The Great Escape Festival in Brighton, UK, Zoom Festival in Frankfurt, Germany. Recommended if you like… Shygirl, LSDXOXO, Rosalia, Arca, Sophie, Mykki Blanco, Grimes, Kali Uchis, Kelela, Tomasa Del Real, Tinashe

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. Blush Me Out!
2. Lucky You
3. For When I Fall Again
4. Deserve It (feat. La Zowi)
5. Cheat Code

Side B
1. Eraser
2. Mind 2 Lips
3. Hold Me
4. Heathens Call (feat.Backxwash)
5. Ressaca

'She Said' is the third album from Los Angeles Rock band, Starcrawler. Fronted by Arrow de Wilde, guitarist Henri Cash, bassist Tim Franco, pedal steel/guitar player Bill Cash and drummer Seth Carolina, Starcrawler have morphed into a modern day take on LA legends X, with a sprinkle of The Go-Go’s, a smattering of The Distillers and some Rolling Stones sleaze thrown in for good measure. Though defiantly not a record obsessed with the pandemic, the constraints of lockdown mean that ‘She Said’ is Starcrawler’s most considered release to date. These are anthems made for blaring out of car speakers on warm summer night drives with the windows down and the volume up.

“We wanted to make songs on this record for everyone,” explains Henri. “For people that weren't just into punk rock.” Starcrawler might have broadened their scope, but they’ve definitely not watered down their sound. Known for his work on action and horror movie soundtracks, including the John Wick films, Dawn of the Dead, 300 and Halloweens I and II, the album was produced by industry titan Tyler Bates. Starcrawer met Tyler when he was drafted in to work with them on Goodtime Girl, a stand-alone single for DC’s Dark Nights: Death Metal soundtrack, which the band appeared on alongside the likes of Idles, Mastodon and Chelsea Wolfe. “It just sounded so big,” says Arrow of the resulting track. “It made me think we should do the whole of the new record like a movie soundtrack.”

TRACK LISTING

1. Roadkill
2. She Said
3. Stranded
4. Thursday
5. Broken Angels
6. Jetblack
7. True
8. Midnight
9. Runaway
10. A Better Place

Taken from Dilla's 2001 BBE debut solo album "Welcome 2 Detroit", "Big Booty Express" gets the remix treatment from German duo Âme and Parisian Pépé Bradock.

Contributing two mixes to the EP, Parisian producer Pépé Bradock AKA Julien Auger needs little introduction to house music fans but hip-hop heads need not doubt his musical credentials. A natural guitarist and turntablist, he's provided solos, riffage, scratches, juggles and chops to numerous rappers and bands before turning his hand to the discipline of house music. Two remixes done in his inimitable style grace the twelve. Slightly skewhiff but deliciously musical, there's no-one quite does it like Pépé!

Also providing a remix of "Big Booty Express" is the German production duo of Frank Wiedemann and Kristian Beyer who work together under the name of Âme. After first meeting in Kristian's record shop in their home town of Karlsruhe and bonding over a shared love of Chicago house and Detroit techno the pair started working together and producing records for Sonar Kollektiv in 2003. Perfectly demonstrating their harmonic discord and big room sound, their remix here is a masterclass of wobbly, peaktime tech-house.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: House remixes of hip-hop legend J Dilla are bound to be divisive. But I'm surprised how well Ame and Bradock have rose to the occasion here - delivering high quality electronic dancefloor hedonism.

TRACK LISTING

1. B.B.E. - Big Booty Express (Âme Remix)
2. B.B.E. - Big Booty Express (Moulin Rouge Remix By Pépé Bradock)
3. B.B.E. - Big Booty Express (Memorex Interlude By Pépé Bradock)
4. B.B.E. - Big Booty Express

Kendrick Lamar releases his first album in 5 years, 'Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers'. The prolific and political rapper has fast become a spokesperson for an entire generation; highlighting injustice, institutional racism, misogyny and a whole lot more whilst also reflecting on his own failures, weaknesses and insecurities - a poignant bard who searches for truth and change with almost every lyric.

Adorned in a diamond crown of thorns, Kendrick's reference to Jesus is supposedly a challenge for us all to live better, more moralistic lives. You could argue Lamar is dangerously idolized; his cult fan base taking every word as (excuse me) Gospel. But you feel, as we traverse an age of discontentment, that his timing and relevance couldn't be greater. They might cut deep, but Kendrick's messages NEED to be heard, more urgently than ever. As much as his scathing political dissections; his self musings on sex addiction, fake feminism, man's exploitation of woman & the exploitation of Black culture are painfully stark and honest.

Numero said that the album is comparable to a Greek tragedy. And by the end of the second disc you'll feel your psyche has certainly been tested. A mental cross country run navigating the failings and entrappings of modern society. Thankfully the rapper's unique drawl / flow and razor sharp production offer enough mellifluous elements as to save it being a chore to listen to. The unease is juxtaposed by some hefty, Jeep-bumpin beats and luxurious musical passages which I have to say, equal Little Simz recent (and as-imperative) album also released this year. A masterpiece. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: The prolific and political rapper has fast become a spokesperson for an entire generation; highlighting injustice, institutional racism, misogyny and a whole lot more whilst also reflecting on his own failures, weaknesses and insecurities - a poignant bard who searches for truth and change with almost every lyric.

TRACK LISTING

Big Steppers
1. United In Grief
2. N95
3. Worldwide Steppers
4. Die Hard Ft. Blxst & Amanda Reifer
5. Father Time Ft. Sampha
6. Rich (Interlude)
7. Rich Spirit
8. We Cry Together Ft. Taylour Paige
9. Purple Hearts Ft. Summer Walker & Ghostface Killah
Mr. Morale
1. Count Me Out
2. Crown
3. Silent Hill Ft. Kodak Black
4. Savior (Interlude)
5. Savior Ft. Baby Keem & Sam Dew
6. Auntie Diaries
7. Mr. Morale Ft. Tanna Leone
8. Mother I Sober Ft. Beth Gibbons Of Portishead
9. Mirror

Sunny Ozuna is a living legend and a man worthy of praise on many levels. In the Texas and Latin Music pantheon, few have been at it longer and are more revered by their fans and peers than Sunny is. He became a star right out of high school in the late ‘50s and hasn’t looked back in the seven decades since. Among countless other honors and notable achievements, Sunny was the ­rst Latino artist to appear on Dick Clark’s “American Bandstand” (in 1963). He penned "Smile Now, Cry Later," a hit for him and The Sunliners, which along with the theater masks that grace the album's cover, became staples in the Chicano Soul and Lowrider Soul cultures. We have been fans of Sunny & The Sunliners' music for a long time. We fi­rst got in touch with Sunny to try to reissue some of his records in 2013 but we didn't sign a deal until 2015.

It took a trip to San Antonio and then two years of steady phone calls before they decided "if you have been chasing us for this long, you must be serious." With Sunny's blessing we started getting everything mastered, scanned, and planned. First we released 2017's Mr Brown Eyed Soul Vol. 1 compilation that put rare 7" sides next to some of his biggest hits and mixed in some choice album cuts for good measure. In the wake of that, we released three of Sunny's full lengths with their original track lists and art: Smile Now, Cry Later, Little Brown Eyed Soul, and The Missing Link all of which were Record Store Day releases that raised money for the victims of 2017's Hurricane Harvey. For the 7" collectors, we reissued ­ve 45s, making some very hard to come by sides widely available again and pressing some tunes on the format for the ­rst time. In 2020, as an homage to Sunny, we released Dear Sunny... a compilation of Big Crown artists covering Sunny & The Sunliners songs.

Through all of this we were able to do what we set out to do: get Sunny's music to a new audience of people and make it all accessible and available again to his existing fanbase. Sunny still keeps a busy schedule and loves performing as much as he did as a teenager. His music and the music that it directly in‑uenced are seeing a resurgence in popularity in the last few years.

With any luck at all, our efforts played some small part in that, and on that note, we present Mr Brown Eyed Soul Vol. 2 – another compilation curated by us, where we dig a little deeper into Sunny's catalog and pull some lesser known gems that hold court with his hits. Hats off again to Mr Brown Eyed Soul himself, San Antonio's own, Sunny Ozuna, we are sure you will enjoy the music

TRACK LISTING

1 I Can Remember
2 Sitting In The Park
3 Give Me Time
4 Should I Take You Home (Keyloc Version)
5 If I Could See You Now
6 Come Back Baby
7 Viva Mi Triestesa 
8 Runaway
9 Sharing You
10 I’ve Never Found A Girl
11 Together
12 I’m No Stranger
13 Best Of Both Worlds
14 Baby, I Apologize

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2022 EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

Before her critically acclaimed album The Return (Ninja Tune), equal parts songwriter, poet, singer and lyricist Sampa The Great made her mixtape debut on Big Dada with Birds And The BEE9. The mixtape won the Australian equivalent of The Mercury Prize (The Australian Music Prize) and features production from Slowthai producer Kwes Darko and Silentjay (who produced the lionís share of The Return).

5 years on it's been repressed on yellow and orange splatter vinyl and a liner note from Sampa The Great.

Yaya Bey is one of R&B’s most exciting storytellers. Using a combination of ancestral forces and her own self-actualization, the singer/songwriter seamlessly navigates life’s hardships and joyful moments through music. Bey’s new album, ‘Remember Your North Star’ (out June 17), captures this emotional rollercoaster with a fusion of soul, jazz, reggae, afrobeat and hip-hop that feeds the soul. The artist’s knack for storytelling is best displayed in the album’s lead single, “keisha”. It’s an anthemic embodiment of fed-up women everywhere who have given their all in a relationship, yet their physical body nor spiritual mind could never be enough.

Bey’s ability to tap into the emotionally kaleidoscopic nature of women, specifically Black women, is the essence of the entire album. With themes of misogynoir, unpacking generational trauma, carefree romance, parental relationships, women empowerment and self-love, Remember Your North Star proves that the road to healing isn’t a linear one – there are many lessons to gather along the journey.

“I saw a tweet that said, ‘Black women have never seen healthy love or have been loved in a healthy way.’ That's a deep wound for us. Then I started to think about our responses to that as Black women,” Bey says of ‘Remember Your North Star’s title inspiration, an entirely self-written project featuring key production from Bey herself, with assists from Phony Ppl’s Aja Grant and DJ Nativesun. “So this album is kind of my thesis. Even though we need to be all these different types of women, ultimately we do want love: love of self and love from our community. The album is a reminder of that goal.”

The artist’s raw, unfiltered approach threads ‘Remember Your North Star’. “big daddy ya” finds the artist tapping into her inner rapper, channeling the too-cool and confident factor that artists like Megan Thee Stallion and City Girls are well-known for. “reprise” captures women’s exhaustion everywhere, with its lyrical tug-of-war of bettering oneself while trying to cut yourself off from toxic relationships. There’s also “alright” (co-produced by Aja Grant), a soothing, jazz-inspired ditty that showcases Bey’s love for the genre’s icons like Billie Holiday, while the carefree “pour up” highlights the artist’s friendship with DJ Nativesun (the song’s producer) and will immediately rush hips to the dancefloor.

There is no fakeness when it comes to Bey’s music, and her authenticity can be partly attributed to her upbringing in Jamaica, Queens. Early childhood memories included watching her father (pioneering ‘90s rapper Grand Daddy I.U) record in his studio – which also doubled as Bey’s bedroom – and listening to records by soul legends Donny Hathaway and Ohio Players around the house. Beginning at age nine, the artist’s father would leave space for her to write hooks to his beats, using her favorite artists like Mary J. Blige and JAY-Z as inspirations.

Bey quickly grew out of New York City and moved to D.C. at age 18. Calling it her second home, the city further ignited the artist’s creativity as she worked at museums and libraries, as well as tapping into poetry and attending protests. Her first release ‘The Many Alter - Egos of Trill’eta Brown’ in 2016 that incorporated a digital collage and a book, was praised by Solange’s Saint Heron agency, FADER, Essence, and many more. Bey followed up with fellow critically acclaimed projects like 2020’s ‘Madison Tapes’ album and 2021’s ‘The Things I Can’t Take With Me’ EP – the first release on Big Dada’s relaunch as a label run by Black, POC and minority ethnic people for Black, POC and minority ethnic artists – that received support from Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, NPR, Harper’s Bazaar, FADER, HotNewHipHop, Dazed, Clash, FACT, Crack Magazine, The Line of Best Fit and Mixmag.

In 2021, Bey was also profiled by Rolling Stone for their print magazine, contributed to the publication’s The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list, and curated a playlist for Document Journal. The artist’s “september 13th (DJ Nativesun Remix)” and “made this on the spot” singles received strong radio support from BBC Radio 6 Music and BBC 1 Xtra’s Jamz Supernova. Last May, Bey was interviewed on BBC 1Xtra and performed three tracks for Jamz Supernova’s “Festival Jamz” including The Things I Can’t Take With Me’s “fxck it then” and “september 13th” that December.

Bey is also a critically acclaimed multidisciplinary artist and art curator, creating the artwork for her music through collages of intimate photos and self-portraits. In 2019, her work was featured in the District of Columbia Arts Center’s “Reparations Realized” exhibit and Brooklyn’s Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (MoCADA)’s “Let the Circle Be Unbroken” exhibit. She also completed multiple fine art residencies with MoCADA, curating programs that reflect the same theme that drives her music: the Black woman's experience.

‘Remember Your North Star’ continues Bey’s personal and artistic evolution as she strives to be a soundboard for Black women everywhere. “I feel empowered in music because I can transform anything that happens to me into something that is valuable. Music helps me to see the value in what's going on in my life,” she explains. “There’s a spirit in music. It’s a culture and I'm in that community, contributing my story which keeps us connected.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Seriously, get on this! Landing somewhere between Green Tea Peng, Amy Winehouse and Erykah Badu (!!) with that adoration for retroistic jazz and soul influences showered in sunshine and delivered with her own highly individualistic, localized vocal flow. She's also provocative, stylish and outspoken, making her a perfect star for 2022. Gonna blow up!

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. Intro
2. Libation
3. Big Daddy Ya
4. Keisha
5. Nobody Knows
6. Alright
7. Meet Me In Brooklyn
8. It Was Just A Dance
9. Pour Up (feat. DJ
Nativesun)
10. Uh Uh Nxgga

 Side B
1. Reprise
2. Rolling Stoner
3. Don't Fucking Call Me
4. I'm Certain She's There
5. Street Fighter Blues
6. Mama Loves Her Son
7. Either Way
8. Blessings

Taylor Swift's 2nd Album was released in October 2008 and has sold over 10 Million albums in the USA alone. The album features the hit singles- ''Fifteen'', ''Love Story'', ''You Belong To Me'', ''Fearless'', and ''White Horse''.

Having crested the west coast modular-ambient wave in just a few releases including 2018’s Sharing Waves on the influential LA experimental imprint Leaving Records-- Sean Hellfritsch has swapped the mossy analog synth improvisations of his prior output for refined melodic arrangements dressed in sprightly dawn-of-digital textures. Big Earth Energy plumbs the depths of Hellfritsch’s multimedia mind and naturalist heart, spinning an impressionistic narrative world off of cultural touchstones like the PC game MYST, and the work of Studio Ghibli composer Joe Hisaishi.

Inspired by the aforementioned, and guided by Hellfritsch’s experience as an animator and filmmaker, Big Earth Energy is the soundtrack to a hypothetical video game with a pointedly ecological premise, and a twist of psychedelic charm. In Hellfritsch’s imagined virtual journey, the player assumes the perspective of a treefrog sixty-five-million years ago, hopping epochs with each new level, forming a comprehensive picture of the massive changes the planet has gone through over the eons. The ultimate goal of the game is not to amass resources, defeat enemies, or gain power, but to fully witness the unfolding of one of the biggest systems of energy imaginable-- or as the album’s creator puts it-- “to explore the incomprehensibly vast energetic expression and mystery that is Earth.”

Big Earth Energy is steeped in exploratory RPG intrigue, possibility, and contemplation, lovingly overlaid with Miyazaki-an sentiments and aesthetics. The through-composed, organic, meandering synthesis heard on previous Cool Maritime albums has been fully replaced by meticulous polygonal arrangements that recall the computerized sheen of late 80s work by composers like Hiroshi Yoshimura, and Yoichiro Yoshikawa using true-to-period gear no less.

Even given its referentiality, Big Earth Energy comes off as forward-facing where so much reminiscent music remains fixed to a bygone moment in pop culture. Hellfritsch has created a musical world where the endless verdancy of the biosphere finds its parallel in the golden age of early 1990s video games, and late 80s Japanese environmental music, all while pointing to a hopeful planetary and artistic future that vindicates the motives of all of these muses.

TRACK LISTING

01 Big Earth Energy 6:18
02 Amphibia 6:24
03 Temporal Dryft 6:46
04 Soft Fascination 5:08
05 Avian Glide 4:23
06 Secret Of The Megafauna 5:47
07 Apex 4:32

Bobby Oroza puts his desire for the profound on wax with his sophomore album Get On The Otherside. Musically, he has updated the formula we were introduced to on the first record. But lyrically, songs are bravely rooted in the more complicated, ubiquitous inner tangles of life like self-examination and coming to terms with the vastness of the human experience. With Coronavirus bringing the world to a halt, Bobby—a father and husband—had to do something. No tours to play or studio time to fill, Bobby found himself back in the construction yard, doing blue-collar work to provide for his family. "I was super grateful for the work—a lot of my colleagues didn't have an option like that," Bobby admits. More than a few personal hardships forced him to acknowledge and work through some brutal truths. And what came of it?

Well, for one, this new record Get On The Otherside which pretty well describes what Bobby's been through: He had to demolish his ego, his old ways of thinking, and his tried approaches to anchor into a refreshed perspective with new understandings. As Bobby tells it, "I had to do some real self-searching, come to terms with what was wrong, and how much of it I was responsible for." So how does this translate to the new album? Moments of clarity as to where the real value in life lies on "I Got Love," encouraging numbers like the title track "The Otherside", and declarations of self actualization on "My Place, My Time." Even the more straightforward love songs are outside the box lyrically like "Sweet Agony" and "Loving Body." If you have never had the pleasure of catching one of Bobby's live shows you may have no idea that he is a maverick on the guitar.

He lets us in on a little of that on "Passing Things" with a solo that possesses the same restrained and space that his lyrics do. As we'd expect, the songwriting still has that raw, direct edge to it. But an evolution has taken place. There are new points of view on familiar territory which in Bobby's words "For me to love, I needed to take a bigger view of love. One with less ego and more empathy" really hold true. The result is a record with Bobby's new found humility on full display and a message of encouragement to anyone who is struggling and can't see a way out. It still may be hard to nail down and define Bobby and his sound. He's no one thing more than the other. But what he's showing us now, on Get On The Otherside, is that we can also label him a soulful, philosophical optimist. Someone who can say a lot with a little, and who wants us all to know that it's us that has to do the hard lifting to truly live a life in love—both with the world and with yourself

TRACK LISTING

Side A:

I Got Love
Loving Body
Bobby’s New Mood
The Otherside
Soon Everyone Will Know
Blinding Light

Side B:

My Place My Time
Sweet Agony
Passing Thing
Make Me Believe
Real Connection
Through These Tears

Fresh grief, like fresh love, has a way of sharpening our vision and bringing on painful clarifications. No matter how temporary we know these states to be, the vulnerability and transformation they demand can overpower the strongest among us. Then there are the rare, fertile moments when both occur, when mourning and limerence heighten, complicate and explain each other; the songs that comprise Angel Olsen’s Big Time were forged in such a whiplash.

Big Time is an album about the expansive power of new love, but this brightness and optimism is tempered by a profound and layered sense of loss. During Olsen’s process of coming to terms with her queerness and confronting the traumas that had been keeping her from fully accepting herself, she felt it was time to come out to her parents, a hurdle she’d been avoiding for some time. “Finally, at the ripe age of 34, I was free to be me,” she said. Three days later, her father died and shortly after her mother passed away.

The shards of this grief—the shortening of her chance to finally be seen more fully by her parents— are scattered throughout the album. Three weeks after her mother’s funeral she was in the studio, recording this incredibly wise and tender new album. Loss has long been a subject of Olsen’s elegiac songs, but few can write elegies with quite the reckless energy as she.

If that bursting-at-the-seams, running downhill energy has come to seem intractable to her work, this album proves Olsen is now writing from a more rooted place of clarity. She’s working with an elastic, expansive mastery of her voice—both sonically and artistically. These are songs not just about transformational mourning, but of finding freedom and joy in the privations as they come.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Angel Olsen has always had a unique skill in writing melodies, but it's here on the heartbreaking 'Big Time' that her command of melody and atmosphere come together into the perfect whole. It's beautiful and sombre in parts, and downright jubilant in others. Beautifully balanced and achingly affectionate and tender.

TRACK LISTING

1. All The Good Times
2. Big Time
3. Dream Thing
4. Ghost On
5. All The Flowers
6. Right Now
7. This Is How It Works
8. Go Home
9. Through The Fires
10. Chasing The Sun

While Bobby Oroza puts the finishing touches on his next album, he treats us to this killer two-sider to end out 2021 and hold us over until the new record is finished. Bobby's debut album "This Love" made big waves around the world and amassed him a cult following from the US to Japan and everywhere in between.

He found big love in the sweet soul scene early, but has since made fans in a myriad of circles and subcultures globally. It has by now become clear that his music is not just one thing, analog soul textured for sure, but also with an array of influences that span far beyond the soul ballad world. It is that inability to really nail down his sound that has become the biggest charm, an esoteric and profound passion permeate the lyrics and vibe of everything about Mr. Oroza.

This new 7" shows off two sides of Bobby's song writing, an upbeat number on the "plug" side and a heavy duty ballad on the flip. The A side "The Otherside" is an optimistic tune that Bobby humbly shares his story about the troubles we can create for ourselves and the possibility of having a change of mind that frees us from them.

The track is equally encouraging with its sunny energy that carries an important message from Bobby to anyone who is struggling and can't see a way out. The B side "Make Me Believe" is another instant classic for the slowie enthusiasts. A moody, soul bearing, cry for help that comes off with a sweet- ness. The vulnerability makes it romantic while the heavy backing track brings it that unique energy that classic B sides have where they are heart- breaking and gorgeous at the same time.

TRACK LISTING

Make Me Believe
The Otherside

Crazy good bootlegs from the genius that is Big Mac. Previously boppin on Nas, Jay-Z and Ol' Dirty Bastard, the esteemed sonic surgeon turns his attention to early 90s rap crew - Masta Ace Incorporated. A loose and breezy Brooklyn jam, "The INC Ride" gets populated with some fresh samples whilst Mac retains the most tasteful elements of this street-hop OG.

Side B sees "Saturday Night Live" tweaked into focus via the Bobbi Humphrey and Melvin Bliss groove contained within. This is a fiery, Wu-Tang inspired track and Big Mac manages to grasp the energy of the original perfectly.

Two exquistively ripped bootlegs that bang hard - don't sleep!

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Streetwise raps from early 90s group Masta Ace Incorporated, who get jigged up nicely from tweakmaster Big Mac.

TRACK LISTING

Side 1
1. INC (Big Mac Edit)
Side 2
1. SNL (Big Mac Edit) 

Big Crown is proud to present the next volume of Crown Jewels, our various artists compilation series that highlights some of the most popular tunes next to some of the more obscure.

Every artist on Big Crown stands on their own two feet with ease, but together, something else becomes apparent. If you discover one artist on the roster and it brings you to the label, it's very likely you will ­nd more that you enjoy. The Crown Jewels comps are just that, a chance to get a listen to the whole roster in one place.

Even though not all BC artists can be found in the same aisle of the record store, after listening to Crown Jewels Vol. 2, it should be clear how they all ­t on the same record label. When we started Big Crown we wanted to have a label that’s only boundaries were de­ned by our taste, not by genre. We think that this is a perfect example of that. Thank you to everyone who has supported us thus far and please stay tuned as we have a lot more music on deck.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A:
1. Piece Of Me - Lady Wray
2. Follow Me - The Shacks
3. Xxplosive - Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band
4. Murkit Gem - El Michels Affair Feat. Piya Malik
5. Float Back To You - Holy Hive
6. Grow Forever - Lizette & Quevin

SIDE B:
1. Enfant - El Michels Affair Feat. The Shacks
2. Fight - Liam Bailey
3. Tonight You Might - Synthia Feat. Lady Wray
4. Reasons - El Michels Affair Feat. Bobby Oroza
5. Then We’ll Wave - Paul & The Tall Trees
6. Bye Bye - Brainstory

Featuring musical contributions from Mary Lattimore, Robin Pecknold (Fleet Foxes), Anant Pradhan, Nick Movshon, Leon Michels (El Michels Affair), Shannon Wise (The Shacks), Dave Guy (The Roots), and Elliot Skinner.

In 2020 Brooklyn's Holy Hive introduced us all to something we didn't know we needed. Homer Steinweiss' thickly pocketed drumming paired with Paul Spring's ­oaty falsetto vocal produces a sound that's like a salve. It's been dubbed Folk Soul and Holy Hive not only expertly overlay the more apparent musical aspects of folk and soul but they also draw from the more profound: being able to pull traditions from the past and make them their own. When Homer wasn't playing drums for Lady Gaga or Adele or Bruno Mars, he'd produce Paul's solo folk records. Along with original bassist and frequent collaborator Joe Harrison, these sessions proved to be Holy Hive's foundation. And their ‑rst record, Float Back to You, expertly combined what each musician does best: Paul's heady, re­ective approach to folk with Homer's universal classic soul sound.

With their new record released on Big Crown, Holy Hive's beautifully simple-and-sparse Folk Soul sound is back but updated. With new in­uences and the challenge of creating and capturing music during a global pandemic, this new self-titled album, is more personal, more re­ective.

The first single off of Holy Hive, "I Don't Envy Yesterdays," picks up right where Homer and Paul left off. The song weighs the question of time and the human condition a deeply thoughtful and typically tricky subject but in a light, almost easy-breezy way. Homer's drumming provides the song a space, a kind of breathing room. Written in the Yucca Valley desert before the world broke in 2020, it's no wonder Paul's voice drifts and darts on top of it all like a heat shimmer.

They describe three distinct phases when piecing together Holy Hive: this first stage was pre-pandemic in California while traveling as a group, then like the rest of us they were separated, creating together but apart, and lastly an explosion of output once they reunited in New York.

There is a natural but subtle evolution for Holy Hive on this record. Homer and Paul drew from new and maybe more obscure-yet-honest in­uences. It's still very much Folk Soul how could it not be. But, like all artists, they've taken in what they've made and how they've made it, only to push it into new places.

We know of Holy Hive's ability to lyrically convey the abstract and complex in poetic and palatable ways. But where the ‑rst record was soulfully silver-tongued with chill songs about love and affection, Holy Hive widens the lens with these novel in­uences, re­ecting the points both Homer and Paul are in their own lives. "We put the utmost importance on having lyrics that mean something to us," Homer explains. "A lot of the songs on the ‑rst record were fun, but could be kind of surface. On this record, we wanted to be more personal—we wanted to write more about life."

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A:
1. Color It Easy
2. Story Of My Life
3. Golden Crown
4. Aint That The Way
5. Runaways
6. Deadly Valentine
7. I Don’t Envy Yesterdays

SIDE B:
1. A Wind Rose
2. All I’d Be Is Where You Are
3. Great Chains
4. Cynthia’s Meditation
5. Brooklyn Ferry
6. Circling The Surface
7. Starless
8. Star Crossed

Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You is a sprawling double-LP exploring the deepest elements and possibilities of Big Thief. To truly dig into all that the music of Adrianne Lenker, Max Oleartchik, Buck Meek, and James Krivchenia desired in 2020, the band decided to write and record a rambling account of growth as individuals, musicians, and chosen family over 4 distinct recording sessions. In Upstate New York, Topanga Canyon, The Rocky Mountains, and Tucson, Arizona, Big Thief spent 5 months in creation and came out with 45 completed songs. The most resonant of this material was edited down into the 20 tracks that make up DNWMIBIY, a fluid and adventurous listen. The album was produced by drummer James Krivchenia who initially pitched the recording concept for DNWMIBIY back in late 2019 with the goal of encapsulating the many different aspects of Adrianne’s songwriting and the band onto a single record.

TRACK LISTING

Change
Time Escaping
Spud Infinity
Certainty
Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You
Sparrow
Little Things
Heavy Bend
Flower Of Blood
Blurred View
Red Moon
Dried Roses
No Reason
Wake Me Up To Drive
Promise Is A Pendulum
12,000 Lines
Simulation Swarm
Love Love Love
The Only Place
Blue Lightning

Big Crown Records is proud to present Piece of Me, the sophomore full length offering from Lady Wray. This is something of a homecoming for Nicole. Where her 2016 solo debut Queen Alone leaned more towards Soul and R&B with tinges of hip-hop, this record changes the mixture. It's still R&B with the textures of analog Soul, but there is a heavy Hip Hop infl­uence that brings the sum of Nicole's career together in a new sound that will de‑ne her future.

Boom-bap drums and chunky bass lines are front-and-center creating a perfect head-nodding backdrop for Lady Wray to take on the good, the bad, the difficult, and the joyful on her most personal collection of songs to date. The title track, "Piece of Me," which has already become a classic since it's 2019 release is about the people in your life who need more than you are willing to give. This tune and the B side of the 7” “Come On In” were the first songs put to tape for this album and they were recorded with Nicole sitting in a chair 8 months pregnant with her daughter. Her voice is so powerful, so raw, so thorough on these initial songs—it's wild to think that they were recorded this way. And even wilder to know that she knocked them all out in one take. Long time collaborator and producer Leon Michels keeps the musical backing restrained and expertly executed, setting up Lady Wray for the full spotlight and setting the tone for the rest of the album.

While the upbeat energies of “Under The Sun” and “Through It All” are sure to become hits that reconnect Lady Wray with her 90s R&B fanbase, “Where Were You” offers a behind the scenes look at what those days of stardom in her youth were really like. Nicole takes on the racial tension in America with her poetic and powerful “Beauty In The Fire” and leans heavy into her faith and church upbringing on the showstopper, “Thank You”. She gushes about the profound love she’s come to know for her daughter on “Melody” and celebrates life’s ups and downs on “Joy & Pain”. In 2021 it is rare to hear a varied yet cohesive album with no “skippers”, but that is what you have here in spades. The tried and true chemistry between Lady Wray and Leon Michels has undeniably found a higher level and this album stands as a testament to conviction and dedication for all of us to enjoy and be inspired by.

With this in mind, when talking about this record, for Lady Wray, it's about a larger purpose. "My goal is always to help and to heal people with singing," she explains. "Part of that is to try and bring back real music, real singing, so people can feel something again." Now, she's not dissing anyone here, to be clear. It's just that Lady Wray cannot sing without tapping into something deeper, searching for that shared compassion between all of us. Perhaps it comes from her church upbringing, or maybe from her years of trials and tribulations in the music industry. Either way, Lady Wray is looking to bring that "Good Sound" back and the good feelings that come with it. She calls it "those inner hands," and she always means to stir them up, grabbing your attention from within.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A:
1. I Do
2. Through It All
3. Piece Of Me
4. Come On In
5. Under The Sun
6. Where Were You

SIDE B:
1. Beauty In The Fire
2. Games People Play
3. Melody
4. Thank You
5. Joy & Pain
6. Storms

"The Sour Grapes Compilation" is a collection of 12 songs by bands that have performed at one of the deranged Squeeze nights at Big Hands Bar. One side is a heavy dose of quick paced punk and blues where the other is a slow slope into psychedelia and local garage rock. Compiled over the UK lockdown months, this long awaited record is a tribute to the European toilet circuit, with a % of all sales going to help out Big Hands' recovery. 

If you want a taste of Manchester's beer stained, dirty denimed underbelly, here's twelve (count 'em!) bands that you might not necessarily know yet but are busy making a mad racket week in week out across our rainy city. 

Pressed on red vinyl and seriously limited in number. A brilliant snapshot of the live scene at one of Manchester's most infamous music spots. Who remembers The Libertine's afterparty there?!  

TRACK LISTING

1. Thee MVPS - A Song For Coumcillor
2. The Cosmics - Cundy Get Down
3. Teeff - Captain Vere
4. Shredd - In My Head
5. Bones Shake - Unwell
6. Gardenback - Word Of Mouth

7. Slift - Altitude Lake
8. Farfisa - Seven Suns
9. Sioux Poppy Seeds
10. The Big Peach - Rock N Roll
11. Freez - Waiting For 
12. The Slaughter House Band - I Hate TV But...

This year marks 25 years since Oasis’ two iconic record breaking live concerts at Knebworth Park in Hertfordshire on the 10th and 11th August 1996. The shows were both the pinnacle of the band’s success and a landmark gathering for a generation of young people.

Released alongside the cinema debut of the feature length documentary film of the event, ‘Oasis Knebworth 1996’ is the definitive live recording featuring a setlist packed with stone cold classics album taken from across both nights of the concert, from the opening salvoes of ‘Columbia’ and ‘Acquiesce’, to ‘Champagne Supernova’, ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger’, ‘Live Forever’, an orchestra backed ‘I Am The Walrus’, and ‘Wonderwall’ the first song from the 1990’s to reach over one billion streams on Spotify and universally loved anthem.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: As one of the most legendary indie gigs of all time (or series of gigs, rather), Knebworth will go down in history, so this document of the live show is something to be treasured. A wonderfully important and undeniably gigantic piece of musical history.

The Body and BIG|BRAVE are both bands possessed with an unequalled ability to convey overwhelming weight with simplicity, repetition and detailed sonic atmospheres; artists who continue to alter the definition of what it means to be a heavy band.

The Body are consistently prolific while increasingly ambitious as untethered producers and collaborators. BIG|BRAVE shape sound with dense waves of guitar and feedback, minimalist and hypnotic crashes and emotionally exacting vocal melodies. In collaboration, The Body and BIG|BRAVE shift the gravity of their compositions to woven layers of percussion and unspooling guitars that sprawl through stark frameworks of earthy folk.

Their debut collaborative album, ‘Leaving None But Small Birds’ distils the two ensembles’ pioneering approach to heavy music into psalms for the forgotten, threnodies of lost love and odes to vengeance.

Recorded, mixed and produced by Seth Manchester at Machines With Magnets (Liturgy, Battles, Mdou Moctar) and mastered by Heba Kadry (Björk, David Bowie).

“Emotionally coherent but tricky to categorize. BIG|BRAVE are the sound of the raw unconscious, turned up loud.” - Pitchfork

“The Body have become one of the most interesting and difficult to pin down groups in extreme music.” - Rolling Stone

TRACK LISTING

Blackest Crow
Oh Sinner
Hard Times
Once I Had A Sweetheart
Black Is The Colour
Polly Gosford
Babes In The Woods

Following nearly two years of global touring in support of their adventurous and acclaimed album, The Wilderness (2016), Explosions In The Sky paused on the future to reflect on the past. Celebrating their 20th year as a band with a pair of remastered reissues of early beloved classics – How Strange, Innocence (2000) and The Rescue (2005) – they embarked on a memorable series of anniversary concerts in 2019. It was around then that Explosions In The Sky was approached to craft the score to a new documentary about a place with which, as native Texans, they were very familiar: Big Bend National Park.

That documentary, Big Bend: The Wild Frontier of Texas, premiered on PBS in the United States as well as on a variety of networks in other countries in early 2021. The hour-long film intimately follows the lives of native animals amid expansive aerial views of the iconic desert landscape that makes up one of the grandest natural wonders in the world. The band set these sights to an inspired, melodic, and meaningful blend of acoustic guitar, slide guitar, strings, piano, bells, and drums that feels as alive and diverse--and vast and lonely--as the place it depicts.

Big Bend (An Original Soundtrack for Public Television) takes that mesmerizing score and recontextualizes it as a standalone album. Those brief cues have been expanded and transformed into a thoughtful, gorgeous full-length album that recalls some of the band’s most magical and memorable moments from their storied history.

Big Bend: The Wild Frontier of Texas is a film that explores the past and present of the vast, complicated landscape that still holds countless mysteries yet to be uncovered. In Big Bend (An Original Soundtrack for Public Television), Explosions In The Sky pursue a similar approach to their own past and present, and find inspiration in all that has yet to be discovered.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: I'm a BIG EITS fan, and one of my favourite soundtracks of all time was their Prince Avalanche OST, so it's with no small joy I get to add this one to the collection. It's a beautifully majestic and uplifting set of acoustic / post-rock vignettes, rich in texture and wonderfully brought together.

TRACK LISTING

1. Chisos (4:11)
2. Climbing Bear (3:19)
3. Woodpecker (2:05)
4. Spring (2:38)
5. Flying (3:03)
6. Camouflage (2:29)
7. Swimming (1:05)
8. Stories In Stone (2:36)
9. Summer (3:14)
10. Nightfall (2:22)
11. Owl Hunting (2:15)
12. Sunrise (3:30)
13. Big Horns (2:11)
14. Autumn (2:41)
15. Cubs (1:54)
16. Pallid Bats (2:56)
17. Rains Legacy (2:28)
18. Bird Family (2:10)
19. Winter (3:17)
20. Human History (6:08)

Amyl and the Sniffers are a punk band possessed by the spirit of seventies Australian rock. Amy Taylor (vocals), Bryce Wilson (drums), Dec Martens (guitar) are former housemates who formed the band, wrote a handful of tunes and released their debut EP, Giddy Up, all in a span of twelve hours. Completing their line up with Gus Romer on bass, the band take their cues from a diverse bunch of legends including AC/DC, Cosmic Psychos, Dolly Parton and Die Antwoord, setting out to have as much fun as possible.

Their 2nd EP, Big Attraction, was released in February 2017, kicking off a stellar year for these young punks. Growing buzz around their blistering live show made the band a hot tip at Bigsound in Brisbane, while the band was added to festival lineups including Meredith and CherryRock17. The band and were invited to join the Cosmic Psychos on their forthcoming November/December tour and capped off the year with a sellout NYE show at the legendary Tote in their home town of Melbourne.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Amyl And The Sniffers have been a force to be reckoned with on the Australian punk scene (and indeed over here), and this early document of their first two EP's are an absolutely essential purchase. Every bit as incendiary and uncompromising as their LP's, an essential purchase.

TRACK LISTING

1 I'm Not A Loser
2 Blowjobs
3 Mole (Sniff Sniff)
4 Balaclava Lover Boogie
5 Westgate
6 70's Street Munchies
7 Pleasure Forever
8 Caltex Cowgirl
9 Mandalay
10 Stole My Pushbike

Hamburg-based Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band offer up another 7” double header on the amazing Big Crown label. On side A they take on J Dilla’s “Raise It Up”, earnestly reconstructing the track with live brass, guitars & glockenspiels and hitting the MAXIMUM NOD setting on the drummer’s program set. Not only is this a great twist on the Dilla instrumental for creative rappers to freestyle over; it’s a head-turning alt version to populate your next mixtape or club session with.

On side B Galt MacDermot’s “Space” gets reworked by the band. Made famous by the Busta Rhymes track “Woohah Got You All In Check” it’s another instant crowd pleaser with nice, chilled, laid back mood that’ll surely be the staple in countless DJ sets over the next few months. TIP! 

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A: Raise It Up
SIDE B: Space

Since releasing 2018’s ‘The More I Sleep The Less I Dream’, We Were Promised Jetpacks’ Adam Thompson, Sean Smith and Darren Lackie have embraced change head-on. Amicably parting ways with guitarist Michael Palmer marked a transitory moment in the band’s acclaimed career, one that would be cemented by events to come. Entering 2020 as a trio with a handful of songs written and a small tour under their belts, the world around them came to a sudden halt. Yet despite the unquestionable hardship that the lockdown brought with it, for a band looking to rebuild following a dramatic change, it also proved to be a blessing in disguise. “I guess it ended up being a lot more collaborative between the three of us,” Sean notes of their fifth studio record, ‘Enjoy The View’.

As well as providing the space to think more broadly about their own roles in the band, isolation also allowed them to approach their collective sound in new ways. “If you’re trying to write a part when two other people are smashing their instruments it’s not the easiest thing,” Adam laughs. “Writing remotely, you could mute parts and work on things in your head. It just gave us a bit more creative freedom to try different things.” With the space to focus on the structure of the songs over what is immediately possible in a practice room, the band shifted gears. “We’ve always considered ourselves a live band more than a studio band,” Darren notes, explaining how the past twelve months have forced a change. “This was more about focussing on making a really great album rather than thinking about how we play it live.”

Fifteen years into their career, the trio are more focussed than ever. “We are doing this for ourselves and the people who like our music and get something out of it,” Adam gleams, “I’m really excited about being able to show them the new record.” “We’re all very appreciative of the people who are still listening to us,” Darren adds, “it pushes us to keep getting better”.

TRACK LISTING

1. Not Me Anymore
2. Fat Chance
3. All That Glittered
4. Don't Hold Your Breath For Too Long
5. What I Know Now
6. If It Happens
7. I Wish You Well
8. Blood, Sweat, Tears
9. Nothing Ever Changes
10. Just Don't Think About It

Ever since childhood, learning to play various instruments in a suburban Cincinnati basement alongside his brother Bryce, Aaron Dessner has consistently sought an emotional outlet and deep human connection through music — be it as a primary songwriter in The National, a founder and architect of beloved collaboration-driven music festivals, or collaborator on two critically acclaimed and chart-topping Taylor Swift albums recorded in complete pandemic-era isolation at his Long Pond Studio in upstate New York, among many other projects. Through it all, Dessner has brought together an unlikely community of musicians that share his impulse to connect, celebrate and, most of all, process emotion and experience through music. This generous spirit and desire to push music forward has never been more deeply felt than on Big Red Machine’s “How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last?,” the second album from Dessner’s evermorphing project with Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon. In 2008, while assembling material for the charity compilation “Dark Was the Night,” Dessner sent Vernon a song sketch titled “big red machine”. Vernon interpreted “big red machine” as a beating heart and finished the song accordingly — a metaphor Dessner says “still sticks with me today.

This project goes to many places and is always on some level about experimentation, but it shines a light on why I make music in the first place, which is an emotional need. It’s one of my therapies and one of the ways I interrogate the past.” Released in 2018, Big Red Machine’s self-titled debut album evolved from improvisation and what Dessner calls “structured experimentalism,” with an ear toward building tracks that would work well in a live setting alongside visual elements. When Dessner and Vernon started the Eaux Claires Music Festival in 2015, they staged the original “Big Red Machine” as an improvisation-based performance piece. They later took that show to the PEOPLE collective’s Berlin residency and festival, and to Dessner’s Haven Festival in Copenhagen. “Big Red Machine started as this thing we would do for fun, and we fell in love with the feeling of it,” says Dessner.” Vernon agrees: “I remember it feeling really easy, but we never knew what would happen. It was exciting. As time went on, we just kept doing things together. And our friendship has grown strong, alongside all the collaborative stuff.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: It won't be a gigantic surprise i'm sure, to hear that Big Red Machine's newest LP is as stunningly accomplished and wonderfully listenable as it's long list of collaborators would suggest. Brimming with beautiful folk charm and uncompromising melodic direction, there's very few people who wouldn't find something to enjoy here.

TRACK LISTING

1. Latter Days (feat. Anaïs Mitchell)
2. Reese
3. Phoenix (feat. Fleet Foxes And Anaïs Mitchell)
4. Birch (feat. Taylor Swift
5. Renegade (feat. Taylor Swift)
6. The Ghost Of Cincinnati
7. Hoping Then
8. Mimi (feat. Ilsey)
9. Easy To Sabotage (feat. Naeem)
10. Hutch (feat. Sharon Van Etten, Lisa Hannigan And SharaNova [My Brightest Diamond])
11. 8:22am (feat. La Force)
12. Magnolia
13. June’s A River (feat. Ben Howard And This Is The Kit
14. Brycie
15. New Auburn (feat. Anaïs Mitchell)

There has always been a Reggae in­uence in the music of El Michels Affair. From their cover of “Hung Up On My Baby” done in a Reggae style, to the general sound and approach that permeates Leon’s production style. While recording Bailey’s 2020 Ekundayo album, they did some straight forward reggae tunes inspired by different eras alongside some modern R&B tracks that would sit more comfortably next to Frank Ocean than Jacob Miller. It is this same notion that old and new can live so comfortably together that birthed the idea of Ekundayo Inversions.

Traditional dub came out of reggae in the late 60s and early 70s when pioneers like King Tubby and Lee Perry started taking the multi track recordings of songs and running them back through the board adding effects and additional instrumentation. These recordings are called “dubs” or “versions” and are typically instrumentals with ­ourishes of vocals from the original tracks.

El Michels decided to use the blueprints left behind and make something using the in­uences of today. He wound up straying so far from the traditional format that it didn’t seem right to use the word ‘Dub’, hence Ekundayo Inversions. All the songs are tied together by WhatsApp messages between Leon and Liam that perfectly narrate the story of this record and their working relationship.

One of the highlights on Ekundayo Inversions is a guest appearance from the legendary Lee “Scratch” Perry on the “Ugly Truth” version. L$P switches between singing and talking, proclaiming his powers one minute and playing with the track’s title the next. On “Awkward take. 2” Leon takes one of the most experimental songs from Ekundayo and actually straightens it out. A track that once seemed to be ­oating in space has now been anchored by the addition of drums and bass. “Faded”, a version of “Paper Tiger”, is given the full EMA treatment with the addition of emotive horns over an uncomfortably sparse rhythm track peppered with Liam’s voice drenched in delay and echo.

“Champions” features a verse from Black Thought of The Roots and halfway through, El Michels sends the rhythm section 50 years back. At the end of the day, Ekundayo Inversions is a testament to how strong the original songs are. Whether they’re in a R&B style, reggae style, stripped down to their bare bones, or loaded with production, the songs will move you.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: What a truly stunning set of songs this is, swimming in dubby atmospherics while still retaining the groove and soul of the originals. Some of the pieces are a little bit more in the downbeat realm, before we get the smooth as silk R&B and dubby cuts that bring things back to the (decidedly relaxed) dancefloor. A superb selection of versions, perfectly at home with the orignals, while remaining resolutely distinct from them.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A:
1. Conquer & Divide
Feat. Black Thought
2. Amazing Woman
3. Angel Face
4. Walk With Me
5. No One Else
6. King

SIDE B:
1. Ugly Truths Feat. Lee Scratch Perry
2. I Love NY
3. Superstar
4. Awkward (Take 2)
5. Lucky Man
6. Faded

Steel Drum Covers of Grace Jones, Galt MacDermot, Slum Village, Minnie Riperton, Jay Z, Ike Turner, and more.

Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band, the mysterious steel pan out­t hailing from Hamburg, Germany have amassed a cult following around the globe. With a slew of classic 7”s and two critically acclaimed full length albums, they set a high bar for themselves, one they clearly intend on pushing even higher with this new offering. On their third album, aptly titled Expansions, BRSB are back with more of the same, but more of the same with them is inherently different. Covering songs that span genres and range from mega hits to album cuts, they make them their own with their unique approach to the traditional steel pans of Trinidad and Tobago.

Part of the allure of a new record from Bacao is ­nding out what covers they chose. However, die hard fans are also waiting to hear the original numbers like the stellar album opener “Tough Victory”. Its airtight rhythm section, brass arrangements, and layers of steel pan melodies make the term “cover band” a shoe that could never ­t Bacao. Within the next three songs they go from Jazz (Galt MacDermot), to Hip Hop (Slum Village / J Dilla), to a dance ‑oor classic (Grace Jones) taking them all on with their signature style, expanding on the originals. An easy crowd favorite is their gritty, gully, and neck snapping cover of the Timbaland produced Jay-Z club hit “Dirt Off Your Shoulder”. The infamous crushing Bacao drums start the show and the moment they start playing the top line on the pans, all bets are off. Sure to become a dance ‑oor ­ller is their bottom heavy, four on the ‑oor version of Sylvester’s classic “I Need Somebody To Love Tonight”. They venture into some gutbucket funk with Ike Turner’s “Getting Nasty” and bring the steel pans to Minnie Riperton’s Jazz classic “Les Fleurs”. Digging deeper in the modern canon and paying tribute to a tribute, they cover Erykah Badu’s homage to the late great J Dilla, “The Healer”. This is the type of thing to make Spice Adams jump on his kitchen counter and scream. From the second the beat drops they give the original Madlib production a run for its money, shaking subwoofers with the eerie tremolo bass while the pans play E. Badu’s vocal melodies.

By the time the album is through Bacao has taken the listener on a journey that spans a myriad of energies, tempos, and moods while somehow managing to keep it all under one umbrella. For all that, these songs are alive, and they will be taken out of the context of this album and sewn into the fabric of DJ sets around the globe for many years to come. Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band is breathing renewed life into the originals and continuing to push the boundaries of steel pan music, or, as the title suggests, expanding on it.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A:
1. Tough Victory
2. Space
3. Raise It Up
4. My Jamaican Dub
5. I Need Somebody To Love Tonight
6. Dirt Off Your Shoulder

SIDE B:
1. Getting Nasty
2. Blow Your Cover
3. Represent
4. The Healer
5. Les Fleur
6. Squaring The Circles

CD Has Three Bonus Tracks:
Juicy
Look Out Baby (Here I Come)
Kaiser Noir

Recorded during the thick of the Covid lockdown, Kevin, Tony, & Eric hunkered down in their studio and turned their energy inward. With all live shows and future tours canceled, Brainstory had no other outlet besides their rehearsal space which had been converted into a makeshift studio. Stepping up to the obstacles of the moment, they recorded and produced an EP of brand new music. They were already highly skilled musicians two years ago, but time in the studio with Leon Michels producing Buck and playing alongside bands like Holy Hive and Chicano Batman had a profound effect on them. Their ears have developed, their ethos and their drive has matured, their musicianship is full-blown; hence the name of the EP, Ripe. Ripe is a seven song journey into who Brainstory are as people and as a band. They are lighthearted and fun but never anything less than dead serious about their artistry. In choosing to record a mostly instrumental record, they have departed from their 2019 debut Buck and are showing more of their Jazz roots.

Ripe pulls from Jazz, Hip Hop, 70s Funk, 60s Soul, and life in Southern California in the year 2021. Kev’s intro to the EP is a testament to their thing, his goofy and charming “let’s go baby….less go baby” is welcoming and fun and then “Scissors” drops--serious as can be. The first vocal number we hear is “Seasons”, a song about maintaining through the challenges of 2020 that would make Roy Ayers proud. “Long Day” and “Rogers” are drenched in reefer and psychedelia and promise a moment away from reality if listened to in headphones. “Bye Bye” is another stone cold ballad from the group that is destined to be a staple in sweet soul sets around the globe. Ripe is a welcome ray of sunshine as we all shake off the darkness of 2020 and will hold fans over while they finish recording their full length sophomore album due out in 2022

TRACK LISTING

A.

1. Scissors
2. Seasons
3. Long Day.

B.

1. Rogers
2. Bye Bye
3. Long Day (Reprise)
4. Vortex

Big Crown Records is proud to present Dear Sunny... a compilation of Sunny & The Sunliners covers by Big Crown artists. Since the first time we heard "Should I Take You Home" by Sunny & The Sunliners, we have been avid fans. That record, which we were introduced to on MF Classy Chris' now legendary mixtape, The Time Is Right, set a lot of things in motion. It started of course with tracking down copies and collecting all of Sunny's records for our personal collections.

That quickly turned into the desire to reissue some of his vast catalog on our label for the rest of the world to hear. We got in touch with Sunny and his son David and brought the idea to them. After getting to know each other well enough Dave said, "You have been calling us non-stop for more than three years, you MUST mean what you are saying" and with that, we signed a deal to do a reissue project on Big Crown. We then flew out to San Antonio again, this time with a scanner and a videographer. We sat down with Sunny to interview him, went through his vast collection of photos, and talked about his life and career. Sunny was even kind enough to let us film him performing acoustic versions of a few songs.

We used all of that material for our 2017 compilation, Mr Brown Eyed Soul. That release is our highlight reel of Sunny's Soul tunes. We also made his rarest records readily available to collectors at a price that wouldn't empty their pockets. The concept for Dear Sunn came to us right after we signed the deal. We wanted our artists to cover his music as a tribute to him. Three years later we released the digital album on Sept 4th to coincide with Sunny's 77th birthday. The response has been nothing but love and now we are ready to press this up on vinyl with the addition of Liam Bailey's scorching cover of "Give Me Time". Everyone here stepped up to fill very big shoes doing these covers. Bobby Oroza teamed up with Cold Diamond & Mink and made a smashing version of "Should I Take You Home". The Shacks took on the anthemic "Smile Now, Cry Later" while Holy Hive covers "If I Could See You Now" building off the uptempo dance floor energy of the original. Paul & The Tall Trees bring a crooning vibe to "Rain Makes Me Blue" and Brainstory turned "Runaway" into a haunting ballad reminiscent of early Lee Hazelwood productions.

Some of these turn out to be covers of covers. Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band takes on the funk collector's holy grail from Sunny, his cover of War's "Get Down" while 79.5 take Sunny's version of "My Dream" and change the vibe from a floating love song to theme music for the brokenhearted. Mr. Lee Fields does "The One Who's Hurting Is You" and the latest addition to the Big Crown Roster, Lizette and Quevin, do a rendition of the song that brought Sunny to Dick Clark's American Bandstand in 1963 and catapulted him to fame; his cover of Little Willie John's "Talk To Me". So as the letter begins, "Dear Sunny.." we hope that you enjoy this homage Sir. Thank you for all the music you have given all of us, it has been a pleasure to work with you and to get a chance to know you and your family. We hope everyone enjoys this homage to the living legend, San Antonio's finest, Mr. Brown Eyed Soul, Sunny Ozuna as much as we do

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A

1. Smile Now, Cry Later - The Shacks
2. Should I Take You Home - Bobby Oroza
3. My Dream - 79.5
4. If I Could See You Now - Holy Hive
5. Get Down - Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band.

SIDE B

1. Give Me Time - Liam Bailey
2. The One Who’s Hurting Is You - Lee Fields & The Expressions
3. Talk To Me - Lizette & Quevin
4. Rain Makes Me Blue - Paul & The Tall Trees
5. Runaway – Brainstory

Laurie Anderson’s 1982 debut album, Big Science, will return to vinyl for the first time in 30 years with a new red vinyl edition on Nonesuch Records. The release includes the re-mastered original album first released on CD for the 25th anniversary in 2007.

In the early 1980s, Laurie Anderson was already respected as a conceptual artist and composer, adept at employing gear both high-tech and homemade in her often violin-based pieces, and she was a familiar figure in the cross-pollinating, Lower Manhattan music-visual art-performance circles from which Philip Glass and David Byrne also emerged. While working on her now-legendary seven-hour performance art/theater piece United States, Part I–IV, she cut the spare ‘O Superman (For Massenet)’, an electronic-age update of 19th century French operatic composer Jules Massenet’s aria ‘O Souverain’, for the tiny New York City indie label 110 Records. In the UK, DJ John Peel picked up a copy of this very limited-edition 33⅓ RPM 7” and spun the eight-minute-plus track on BBC Radio 1. The exposure resulted in an unlikely #2 hit, lots of attention in the press, and a worldwide deal with Warner Bros. Records.

’Cause when love is gone, there's always justice.
And when justice is gone, there's always force.
And when force is gone, there's always Mom. Hi Mom!

At the time of its original release, the NME wrote of Big Science, ‘There’s a dream-like, subconscious quality about her songs which helps them work at deeper, secret levels of the psyche.’ With instrumentation ranging from tape loops to found sounds to bag pipes, Big Science anticipated the tech-savvy beats, anything-goes instrumentation and sample-based nature of much contemporary electronic and dance music. On the album’s 25th anniversary, Uncut noted, ‘The broader themes of alienation and disconnection still resonate, while Anderson’s use of loops and traditional/synthesized instrumentation is prescient.’

“In the ’70s I traveled a lot,” Anderson recounts. “I worked on a tobacco farm in Kentucky, hitchhiked to the North Pole, lived in a yurt in Chiapas, and worked on a media commune. I had my own romantic vision of the road. My plan was to make a portrait of the country. Big Science, the first part of the puzzle, eventually became part two of United States I–IV (Transportation, Politics, Money, Love). My goal was to be not just the narrator but also the outsider, the stranger. Although I was fascinated by the United States, this portrait was also about how the country looked from a distance. I was performing a lot in Europe, where American culture was simultaneously booed and cheered. But the portrait was also a picture of a culture inventing a digital world and learning to live in it. Big Science was about technology, size, industrialization, shifting attitudes toward authority, and individuality. It was sometimes alarmist, picturing the country as a burning building, a plane crash. Alongside the techno was the apocalyptic. The absurd. The everyday. It was also a series of short stories about odd characters – hatcheck clerks and pilots, preachers, drifters and strangers. There was something about Massenet’s aria ‘O Souverain’ – which inspired ‘O Superman’ – that almost stopped my heart. The pauses, the melody. “O souverain, ô juge, ô père” (O Lord, o judge, o father). A prayer about empire, ambition, and loss.”

Laurie Anderson is one of America's most renowned – and daring – creative pioneers. Her work, which encompasses music, visual art, poetry, film, and photography, has challenged and delighted audiences around the world for over 40 years. Anderson released her first album with Nonesuch Records in 2001, the critically lauded Life on a String. Her subsequent releases on the label include Live in New York (2002), Homeland (2010), the soundtrack to Anderson’s acclaimed film Heart of a Dog (2015), and her Grammy-winning collaboration with Kronos Quartet, Landfall (2018). Additionally, Anderson’s virtual-reality film La Camera Insabbiata, with Hsin-Chien Huang, won the 2017 Venice Film Festival Award for Best VR Experience, and, in 2018, Skira Rizzoli published her book All the Things I Lost in the Flood: Essays on Pictures, Language and Code, the most comprehensive collection of her artwork to date.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. From The Air
2. Big Science
3. Sweaters
4. Walking And Falling
5. Born, Never Asked

Side B
1. O Superman (for Massenet)
2. Example #22
3. Let X=X/It Tango

Fresh off of their 2020 offering Adult Themes, El Michels Affair is back with a new full-length release. Titled Yeti Season, this newest album has everything we've come to expect from EMA’s patented cinematic style of instrumental soul music. Where Adult Themes inspired a soundtrack to an imaginary film, Yeti Season brings us to a different place in time with new inspirations. Taken with Turkish-styled funk and an almost Mumbai-esque take on soul, El Michels Affair offers us a different kind of drama and imagination with Yeti Season. If you've been following along, this shouldn't be viewed as too far a departure for El Michels Affair.

The first single off of Yeti Season showed their hand back in 2018. A double-sided banger, that release brought the musical textures to the fore that dominate this record. The first song, titled "Unathi," is fully realized with the beautifully haunting-yet-hopeful vocals of Piya Malik, formally of 79.5 another Big Crown artist. Singing in Hindi, Piya's ethereal voice is telling us to work and strive together toward progress.

Even if you don't understand her language, you can still hear the urgency of purpose, creating a lasting vibe that sits on top of it all. Leon Michels explains that Piya had a vital influence on this record: "When Piya started singing in Hindi, she had a different voice, a different tone. I knew we had to do something together." And so Piya appears on three other songs on Yeti Season: "Zaharila," "Murkit Gem," and "Dhuaan." Each providing particular signatures to the album. "Zaharila" is a building and changing love song punctuated by blaring trumpets, driving drums, and Piya's pleading lyrics. While the more upbeat "Murkit Gem" opens with a fuzzed out, Wu-Tang-esque baseline that buoys Piya's stylings. The psychedelic guitar and Piya's changing tones and textures singing about an all-consuming love are what pushed "Dhuaan" on to the second single from Yeti Season.

There is also a vocal appearance from Shannon Wise of The Shacks, yet another Big Crown artist. Her song called "Sha Na Na," lies more in the familiar EMA vein: melodic, hypnotic, soulfully visual. But between Shannon's airy singing, the jumpy baseline, moody vibes, the active drum lines, it sounds like a pensive walk home after a strangely dramatic night. So what is Yeti Season? It could be more of a feeling than an actual place or time of year. It's a heavy album as evidenced by the signature musicianship and dramatic vocal expressions. But it's also a hopeful record, with phrasings, textures, and chord changes that hint at something better or fuller coming our way. You hear it in songs like "Ala Vida," with its stabby, pulsing chords laying a bedrock for EMA's bright, atmospheric horn lines. Or even in "Fazed Out," which leaves you with a feeling of determination, a striving for resolution even though the driving, march-like song structure should accompany some conquering army.

This persistence has to come from the fact that Leon Michels and company finished this record during the lockdown. It was a tough and troublesome time. But look at what has come of it: Yeti Season a record of high and heavy drama, but also one of hope and promise. It may take a year like 2020 behind us to find hope in a winter big footed creature like a Yeti, but that's where we are.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Another brilliantly rich and beautifully soulful suite from El Michels Affair here, flitting between eastern psychedelia and filmic grooves into more beat-driven downbeat territory. It's all wonderfully produced (as is the way with EMA) and presents a hypnotic and alluring repeat listen.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Unathi
A2. Sha Na Na
A3. Ala Vida
A4. Fazed Out
A5. Murkit Gem
B1. Lesson Learned
B2. Dhuaan
B3. Perfect Harmony
B4. Silver Lining
B5. Zaharila
B6. Last Blast

King Geedorah aka MF DOOM is perhaps the most legendary and revered living figure in underground hip hop today. On the conceptual classic ‘Take Me To Your Leader’ he takes the form of a giant three-headed lizard from outer space to give you “Geedorah’s alien perspective on humans.” 13 tracks all produced, written, recorded, arranged, mixed and mastered by the Metal Fingered Villain himself, MF DOOM. A generation of musicians have grown up in awe of DOOM - he’s influenced and worked with Flying Lotus, Earl Sweatshirt, Madlib, Clams Casino, Danger Mouse, RZA, Ghostface Killah, De La Soul and more. Originally released in 2003 - a year before Madvillain ‘Madvillainy’, the collaborative opus with Madlib (Stones Throw / Jaylib / Quasimoto) - ‘Take Me To Your Leader’ was a critical success. Alongside the classic ‘Operation: Doomsday (Fondle ‘Em)’, ‘Take Me To Your Leader’ is a criminally rare full length studio production project from MF DOOM - off-centre beats that owe much to his love of jazz, fantastically skilled, charismatic MCing and ideas galore. Features a variety of vocal guests (some under alias) including MF DOOM, Kurious, MF GRIMM (as Jet Jaguar) and other members of NYC’s Monsta Island Czars. For fans of MF DOOM, Madvillain, Earl Sweatshirt, Run The Jewels, J Dilla, Ghostface Killah.

TRACK LISTING

Fazers
Fastlane Ft Biolante
Krazy World Ft Gigan
The Final Hour Ft MF DOOM
Monster Zero
Next Levels Ft Lil’ Sci, ID 4 Winds & Stahhr
No Snakes Alive Ft JetJaguar & Rodan
Anti-Matter Ft MF DOOM & Mr Fantastik
Take Me To Your Leader
Lockjaw Ft Trunks
I Wonder Ft Hassan Chop
One Smart Nigger
The Fine Print

NYC’s 75 Dollar Bill began its prolific career in 2012, after percussionist Rick Brown – a veteran of the indie underground (Fish & Roses, Run On, V-Effect) – and noise scene guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Che Chen – connected via MySpace. Since that initial jam session, when Brown began experimenting with his signature plywood crate drum rhythms, they have released 3 LPs and a clutch of self-released cassette and digital releases. Last year’s 2xLP I Was Real received serious critical acclaim – The Wire calling it 2019’s Album of the Year.

On their first live album, Live at Tubby’s, 75 Dollar Bill assembled a unique “little big band” [Sue Garner on bass, Cheryl Kingan on sax, Steve Maing on guitar, Jim Pugliese on percussion and Karen Waltuch on viola] for the small Kingston, NY club show. Recorded on the last day of their spring tour, the record puts a new perspective on themes from their body of work: a little more intimacy, a little more freedom, a little more controlled chaos. Brown’s idiosyncratic rhythms are all the more hypnotizing in Tubby’s cozy setting, and Chen’s furious guitar work cuts and hums with sounds seemingly only attainable on stage. It's an album both challenging and immediate. The expanded 75 Dollar Bill's affinity for improvisation and the avant-garde even leads to a rousing take on the Ornette Coleman classic, 'Friends and Neighbors' that feels right at home in their own repertoire. The listener can't help but feel present and part of the communal joy and catharsis being shared here in this room. This performance at Tubby’s turned out not only to be the last show of their tour, but the last show possible as the pandemic hit. Originally offered as a digital-only release on 75 Dollar Bill’s Bandcamp, Live at Tubby’s now documents a highlight and closure of sorts; this kind of musical improvisation and community interaction being on hold for the foreseeable future. The double LP on Grapefruit will have to tide us over until it can all happen again.

From Rick Brown:
75 Dollar Bill has always been a duo of Che Chen and myself, but many of our most satisfying and just plain fun experiences have involved some (or almost all) of our great crew of friend musicians who've worked with us for years and who play on our studio recordings, like 2019's I Was Real (Thin Wrist/Glitterbeat). Live at Tubby's presents a couple of sets recorded just as Spring and the coronavirus were arriving on the scene. We didn't plan for this as a “Little Big Band” concert, but we took advantage of timing and geography - as well as the fact that “everybody knows how to play WZN #3” - and sent out a call for any who could make it to come to Kingston, NY for the night's blowout, the last gig of a short tour we'd done as a duo. The material comes from I Was Real and its predecessor Wood, Metal, Plastic, Pattern, Rhythm, Rock plus a cover of the great and inspiring Ornette Coleman's song “Friends and Neighbors.” Hopefully, you'll agree it turned out pretty good – at the very least, it should be obvious that we had a good time! We sure do miss playing music with our friends and for our neighbors.

TRACK LISTING

A1 Beni Said
A2 I'm Not Trying To Wake Up
B1 Like Like Laundry
C1 Friends & Neighbors
C2 Every Last Coffee Or Tea
D1 WZN#3 / Verso

Big Joanie - This is the first demo version of Cut Your Hair we recorded. At this time we were thinking about potentially recording an album but weren't sure what to do. Thanks to Chris for giving us the time and space to consider our music in preparation for recording our debut album. Charmpit - Our bassist attended one workshop and then helped record Bad Attitude xoxo Without people looking at their individual and collective resources, and then inviting others to share in them, CHARMPIT would not have existed and thrived. Viva anarchism & solidarity forever, folx!

TRACK LISTING

1. Cut Your Hair (Kluster Rooms Sessions)
2. Bad Attitude (Kluster Rooms Sessions)