Electric War marks an electrifying collaboration between British power trio, Little Barrie, composed of Barrie Cadogan and Lewis Wharton and acclaimed producer/drummer,Malcolm Catto, fusing unique talents into a mesmerizing exploration of raw, experimental sound. And they are also the band behind the opening theme to Better Call Saul.

Electric War delivers a blend of sharp guitar lines, thunderous drums, and swirling textures that evoke a post-apocalyptic soundscape teetering between chaos and harmony. Tracks range from pulsating, fuzz-heavy anthems to moody, groove-centric pieces and are underscored by each musician’s seamless interplay. Channeling their shared love for analog warmth and raw, unfiltered sound, the album creates a visceral experience that invites listeners into a world where rock, funk, and psychedelia collide. For fans of boundary-pushing, instrumental-driven music, Electric War is a potent testament to the power of collaboration.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Intricate guitar work and skittering percussion loop around each-other before the soaring, spooky vocal effortlessly rides atop, tempering the frenetic chaos somewhat. It's not all intensely paced though, there are moments of relative calm scattered throughout. A beautifully produced, funky odyssey of an album.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
Electric War
Zero Sun
Spektator
Creaky

Side B
‘Said Soul
Sick 8
My Now
Count Of Four

The story of Ultrasonic Grand Prix is one of two vintage 60s guitars and their owners - multi-instrumentalist / producer Shawn Lee and guitar maestro Barrie Cadogan - of Nottingham freakbeaters Little Barrie.

“We’d been talking for years about making some kind of record. Cadogan explains, “but we were always being pulled in different directions with other commitments. Shawn got the ball rolling for real when lockdown happened, called me up and said, “You know we keep talking about doing a record, well the time is now”. I’m so glad he did.”

And the music that did emerge was weird, startling, and insatiably groovy. With one foot dipped in the organ-warbling garage of 60s psych, and the other vibrating in the mind-expanding fractals of the British Acid House boom, ‘INSTAFUZZ’ plies the earthly quintessence’s of blues, rock, soul and jazz, against the preternatural discomforts of programmed drums and unhinged synthesisers to produce something distinctly and nostalgically futuristic.

It’s a style that pays its debt to this project's launch-pad inspiration, 2012’s ‘Personal Space’ compilation. A collection of underground U.S 45s from the late 70s and early 80s fittingly dubbed ‘Electronic Soul’ - an appropriate descriptor, incidentally for these experiments from Ultrasonic Grand Prix.

With all the graininess of a documentary film compiled from bits and pieces of raw archive footage, INSTAFUZZ mashes various details and cuttings from its choice influences to invariably intriguing effects. The guitar twang-meets-intense synth of emphatic opener ‘Seamoon Rising’ is The Limiñanas at The Haçienda. At another extreme of the spectrum, ‘Green Means Go’ drifts into the neo-psychedelic waters of The Soundcarriers or Vanishing Twin - hauntological, uncanny, cruising into the wonders of egoless delirium, suspicion and atemporal intrigue.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: It's always a great thing when two respected musical minds come together and you can't really hear their individual influence on the end product, rendering a whole new electronic blues palette from their audio coalition. Brilliantly done, and full of passion from both these greats.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
Seamoon Rising
Instafuzz
Triple Denim
Green Means Go
Right Left
96 Tiers

Side B
Slippery When Chet
Tin Wolf
A Guy Called Harold
Pop Eyes
22 Years I Worked For This Guitar
King Condor

Follow up EP to 2022s ‘Barbara’, which was praised by The New York Times, NPR Music, KEXP, KCRW, Stereogum, The Line Of Best Fit, Billboard, Consequence, Under The Radar, Clash and more.

New EP expands on the sound of ‘Barbara’ while taking a fresh approach to songwriting and collaboration.

Brooklyn-based musician and producer Barrie Lindsay, known simply as Barrie, has a passion for creating left-of-center pop music. She spends her days writing songs and tinkering in Logic, stockpiling her creations in a vast archive of folders and hard drives. When it came time to select the songs for her sophomore LP, ‘Barbara,’ she narrowed it down to sixteen tracks. As the record came together, it became clear that there would be two separate projects - the first being ‘Barbara,’ an emotionally charged collection of songs dealing with the loss of a parent, the love of a new partner, and finding one's own identity. The remaining five tracks, which were more light-hearted and o­ the cu­, were compiled into a new project titled ‘5K.’

As an avid runner, Barrie named the EP after the common foot race. The aptly titled lead single, "Races," is a delightful synth-pop track in a unique 12/8 time, built around a bombastic drum kit and giddy key ri­s. "Nocturne Interlude" acts as a segue between ‘Barbara’ and ‘5K,’ showcasing a haunting melody amidst dark brass-like synths. Second half highlight "Ghost World" has a distorted guitar ri­ and classic drum pattern that evokes a forgotten 90's radio b-side. The song was recorded entirely by Barrie herself, serving as her own band on guitar, bass, keys, and drum kit. Even though most people would finish listening to the project front to back

before finishing a 5k run, the short, sweet, and melodically rich EP begs to be replayed over and over. With ‘5K,’ Barrie showcases her versatility as an artist, closing the loop between the sounds found on her debut LP ‘Happy To Be Here’ and her follow-up ‘Barbara’.

TRACK LISTING

A Side:
1. Nocturne Interlude
2. Races
3. Unholy Appetite
B Side:
4. Ghost World
5. Empty

RIYL: Japanese Breakfast, Clairo, Perfume Genius, Sufjan Stevens.

On Barbara, the sophomore album from Brooklyn-based songwriter and producer Barrie, she battles the loss of a parent, the start of a new relationship, and the impulse to separate herself from her music. This result is a beautifully peculiar, and quietly ambitious collection of synth-pop, art-pop, indie rock and folk songs that reflect a new willing- ness to let listeners into her world.

Two events redefined Barrie Lindsay’s life and shaped the direction of Barbara. In the summer of 2019, she met her now-wife, the musician Gabby Smith. Simultaneously, Lindsay’s father learned that his lung cancer had worsened. In January of 2020, she moved home to Ipswich to spend time with family and begin work on her album. Three months became nine, thanks to the pandemic. Lindsay wrote Barbara while quarantining with Smith in Maine, while her father was dying, and while she was falling in love.

Lindsay finds catharsis from the ambivalent desperation of losing a parent on the album’s centerpiece, “Dig.” You can hear her newfound boldness as she wails the song’s central refrain, giving herself over to emotion: “I can’t get enough of you / Where did you come from?” Despite the grief, personal and collective on Lindsay’s mind while making Barbara, she often pauses to embrace joy. “Jenny,” is a simple, acoustic guitar ode to meeting Smith. Similarly, her fantasy of a roman- tic but bloodied afternoon, “Quarry,” sounds eerie and aque- ous, before erupting into a euphoric geyser of synth and drums.

“Barbara isn’t an album specifically about grief or love. It’s just an album where I let myself actually feel my emotions,” Lind- say says. “That was something I’d never done before in music.”

TRACK LISTING

A Side
01. Jersey
02. Frankie
03. Jenny
04. Concrete
05. Dig
06. Bully
B Side
07. Harp 2 Interlude
08. Harp 2
09. Quarry
10. Basketball
11. Bloodline

RIYL: Perfume Genius, Clairo, Japanese Breakfast, Men I Trust.

Barrie Lindsay is a soft spoken, obsessive producer and songwriter who grew up tinkering with instruments in Ipswich, Massachusetts. After graduating from Wesleyan in 2012 with a degree in music, Lindsay formed her first band with her brother, a 5-piece group called Grammar. She spent her 20’s quietly making music in Boston and working at a sculpture studio until she was discovered on Soundcloud by a manager who encouraged her to move to Brooklyn and pursue a career in music by forming a band. Lindsay obliged and soon Barrie, the 5-piece band, was born. After a number of successful singles, Barrie released their debut in 2019, Happy To Be Here, earning buzzy press, TV syncs, and new fans around the globe. A month after Happy To Be Here came out, the band parted ways and Lindsay reintroduced Barrie as a solo project.

In the two years since then, the 32-year old suffered the loss of a parent, and married her wife, Gabby. While Lindsay has maintained a separation between her personal feelings and lyricism in previous works, she allowed herself to find catharsis in song amidst the intense love and grief she was experiencing. One night during a moment of grief, Lindsay couldn’t bring herself to set up the mic properly in her studio. Instead, she opted to shout across the room in a true “fuck-it” moment. Liking the effect this produced, she decided to stick with it, yielding “Dig,” a self-produced single featuring an impressionistic slew of slide guitar, dulcimer, and mandolin. You can hear her newfound sense of boldness, as she wails the song’s central refrain, giving herself over to emotion: “I can’t get enough of you / Where did you come from?”

Whereas “Dig” floats in a seeming free-time, the B-side, “Frankie,” is locked into a driving, propulsive rhythm. Its bass synth, which remains constant throughout, is meditative and hypnotic. Among skittering arpeggios and melodic hooks, the song’s message asks listeners to consider capitalism. Political pop can be awkward, but Lindsay’s is subtle and poignant, reflecting on Glen Campbell’s classic “Wichita Lineman,” and Americans’ attitudes towards labor. The catchy composition balances out the lyrical themes with a compelling soundscape that accentuates Lindsay’s dynamic songwriting and production abilities.

Inclusivity is at the heart of Barrie, the Brooklyn five-piece made of Barrie Lindsay, Dominic Apa, Spurge Carter, Sabine Holler and Noah Prebish. And on their debut LP Happy To Be Here, their multidimensional take on classic pop sounds awake and present, like a group that’s daydreaming but firmly there with one another. Lindsay largely wrote these songs late into the night, alone in her apartment, and her voice feels appropriately full of possibility throughout. Barrie, the band, is primarily her project; on the record, which she co-produced with Jake Aron (Snail Mail, Solange, Grizzly Bear), Lindsay plays guitar, piano, synth and bass. But still, Barrie is distinctly not a solo project, and Happy To Be Here is very much a full band record. Dominic’s drums fill the entire album, while Noah added synths and Spurge sang on nearly every track; the three also contributed production. And Sabine, though stuck in Germany with visa issues, remotely recorded vocals. Engineered and mixed by Aron at his Brooklyn studio in August 2018, the album is a softly explosive document of Barrie’s collective vision: “a well-crafted pop song that’s a little bit fucked up,” they explain. The album’s singles speak to its scope: the analog synths that burst from piano pointillism on “Clovers”, the lush electric guitar grooves on opener “Darjeeling”, the minimal arrangement and modular programmed drums of “Saturated”. The album’s energetic but unhurried movement is a testament to the wide-ranging backgrounds of Barrie’s membership: Spurge and Noah met at the Lot Radio through a shared love of house and techno, Dom plays and tours with the electronic rock band Is Tropical, Sabine is a performance artist and solo musician. 

TRACK LISTING

1 Darjeeling
2 Dark Tropical
3 Clovers
4 Habits
5 Saturated
6 Chinatown
7 Teenager
8 Geology
9 Casino Run
10 Hutch