Unashamedly literate UK post-punk sophisticates The Monochrome Set, having amassed a formidable catalogue of releases over 5 decades, are ready to release their new opus ’Lotus Bridge’ on Tapete Records - the band's home for the last twelve years and six studio albums. Their instantly recognisable sound and darkly humorous lyrics have always set them apart. Bid's cerebral wit and debonair tones, melded to infectious melodies and deft songcraft of a cinematic and literary quality, have been quietly influential over a diverse set of artists since their inception and throughout different stages of their career. The band are, in essence, a national treasure.

The new album 'Lotus Bridge' is a psychedelic trip into Bid’s rich and fantastical dreamworld. Based on a singular dream that re-presented itself after an eight-month hiatus just when it became time to record
again, Bid recounts in sharp detail the myriad of characters and surroundings that appeared in his dream and inspired this new set of stories to unfold. Bid elucidates, "It seemed to me, as I wrote these lyrics, that this whole story was a metaphor for a crumbling civilization, and whether or not I would leave it behind if I were given the opportunity. The other side of the bridge represents what seems to be an unknown future that I'm being asked to accept without explanation, and the other songs represent a journey back through the past and are a sometimes allegorical re-evaluation of it. I think that I managed to keep to a close narrative thread in the lyrics, and deliberately kept the underlying musical structures in a similar tempo and key. Even old poetry is timeless, if it is about personal experiences".

This new album follows on from Bid's recently released book of selected lyrics - Strange Young Alien - published by Ventil Verlag in November 2025 - a book that gives invaluable insight into his songwriting process and the more you learn about Bid's writing process, the more mysterious and intriguing things become.

'Lotus Bridge' has a subtle but quite different feel to previous TMS albums - the core use of electric piano and acoustic guitar, electric guitars often used in wide stereo, and overall a very focused and almost orchestral feel to it. There are also ambient sounds between many of the songs, so that the whole album feels like a connected whole. Bid is joined in The Monochrome Set for this recording by fellow original Andy Warren on bass, Stephen Gilchrist on drums and Athen Ayren on keyboards and guitar. Alice Healey once again provides backing vocals.

TRACK LISTING

1. Lotus Bridge
2. Diaphanous
3. The Abominations Of Hubert
4. Jenny Greenlocks
5. Arcadia
6. Athanatoi
7. Leander
8. Map Of The Night Sky
9. Polaris Aa
10. Our Sweet Souls

Following the success of his critically acclaimed album 'Remembering Now', which soared into the Top 10 and earned widespread praise, Van Morrison is back with a bold new release.

'Somebody Tried To Sell Me A Bridge' marks a confident return to the sounds and traditions that shaped much of his musical identity. The album pays homage to the legends who defined the blues genre with fresh interpretations of classics made famous by B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Lead Belly and more.

'Somebody Tried To Sell Me A Bridge' delivers a spirited, unfiltered blues experience from an artist whose connection to the genre runs deep. The album blends Morrison's trademark grit and lyricism with the emotional weight of classic blues, resulting in a collection that feels timeless and fiercely alive.

A standout feature of the album is its extraordinary roster of collaborators. Morrison is joined by Taj Mahal, Buddy Guy, Elvin Bishop, John Allair, David Hayes, Bobby Ruggerio, Mitch Woods, Anthony Paule and Larry Vann, whose contributions bring depth, character and authenticity, each adding their own distinctive twist to the record.

TRACK LISTING

1. Kidney Stew Blues
2. King For A Day Blues
3. Snatch It Back And Hold It
4. Deep Blue Sea
5. Ain't That A Shame
6. Madame Butterfly Blues
7. Can't Help Myself
8. Betty And Dupree
9. Delia's Gone
10. On A Monday
11. Monte Carlo Blues
12. When It's Love Time
13. Loving Memories
14. Play The Honky Tonks
15. (Go To The) High Place In Your Mind
16. Social Climbing Scene 
17. Somebody Tried To Sell Me A Bridge
18. You're The One
19. I'm Ready
20. Rock Me Baby

Beloved for their cinematic songwriting and atmospheric blend of folk, rock, and psychedelia, Midlake returns with their sixth studio album, 'A Bridge To Far' - a sweeping, soul-stirring meditation on resilience and hope.

Lead singer Eric Pulido describes the record as a reminder that, regardless of
circumstance, there is a place -- "not made of stone" -- where one can find solace and strength. It's a call to persevere, to "go bravely arm in arm and climb upon," inviting listeners to transcend the darkness through connection and belief. This is Midlake at their most inspired and intentional, weaving together mythic storytelling and emotional clarity with the signature textures that have made them a touchstone in modern independent music.

Recorded in the band's hometown of Denton, TX at The Echo Lab with acclaimed producer and mixer Sam Evian, 'A Bridge To Far' captures the warmth and wildness of the band's earliest recordings while pushing into luminous new territory. The first single, 'The Ghouls', arrives as a haunting and propulsive introduction to the record's themes--equal parts spectral and cathartic.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: An album that's brimming with the sort of bucolic majesty Midlake have become known for, pushing the boundaries of their already well-established folk-rock sound. There are moments of grand, psychedelic majesty and soaring progressive rock, but it is all grounded in their recognisable, folky roots. A constantly evolving sonic whirlwind.

TRACK LISTING

1. Days Gone By
2. A Bridge To Far
3. The Ghouls
4. Guardians
5. Make Haste
6. Eyes Full Of Animal
7. The Calling
8. Lion's Den
9. Within/Without
10. The Valley Of Roseless Thorns

The reinterpreted traditional folk songs that make up Cold Blows The Rain are shaped by the land and the weather. Wrapped in mist and drizzle, the crawling drone of low heavy clouds on flat-top moors. The sound of the dark Calder Valley floor and sun starved hills in West Yorkshire in the North of England.

A must for fans of Karen Dalton, ØXN, Shirley Collins and Lisa O'Neill - it's found a home on local Todmorden label Basin Rock (Jim Ghedi, Myriam Gendron, Michael Chapman, Juni Habel, Trevor Beales).

In Todmorden, the oddly-named market border town in West Yorkshire with a habit for embracing the weird and wonderful, a burst of sunshine is a precious thing. Through the thick of Winter, through every season in fact, the town’s folk are used to the wind and rain, fog and mist. As much a part of the town as the trademark deep valley it sits in, here the lay of the land invites the weather in, just as it does the many musicians, artists, and unique characters that have come to call the place home over the centuries.
Bridget Hayden is one such soul who found a home among these hills. The experimental musician, who invites the ghosts in for the classic folk songs that make up her stunning new album, knows only too well about such weather, how rare and treasured the breaks from it are. Her favourite thing to do in the valley, she says, is “to make the most of every tiny minute of sunshine.”

Such aspirations nearly derailed the recording of Cold Blows the Rain, her new eight-song collection released via the Todmorden- based label Basin Rock. Having hired the town’s Oddfellow’s Hall to record these new songs in the late summer of 2022, Hayden says the weather was so good she ended up basking in every second of it, only moving inside to begin recording when the sun was setting, working deep into the night to make up the time.
There’s a good chance, however, that it had to be this way. The songs that make up Cold Blows the Rain are not made for the sunlight. They come, instead, wrapped in mist and coated with drizzle, those elements shaping the album as much as the voice and the instruments held within, as real but ambiguous as the ghosts that linger in the shadows. The sound of the dark valley floor.

Mostly centred around meditative and experimental improvisation, Bridget’s work to-date has seen her spend more than two decades recording and performing on the underground music scene. She’s also toured internationally both as a solo artist and as part of bands such as Schisms and The Telescopes, while working on various side-projects with the likes of Folklore Tapes.

For all of this sonic exploration, so much of her work has been formed around elements of traditional folk aesthetics and, over time, she began to piece together a collection of reinterpreted traditional songs that she absorbed as a child from her mother: through The Dubliners and Muddy Waters, to Bessie Smith and The Leadbelly Songbook. Harvesting her love for Nina Simone, Karen Dalton, Margaret Barry, and more, Bridget takes these traditional songs and transforms them into something uniquely evocative
"It goes back to the womb,” Bridget says of that connection. “I would not call it a memory as it is so deep within my blood and bones. My mum was the source, she sang all the time, as part of life. So it was a very lulling and natural introduction. It seemed common to hear her singing – unbeknownst to her – in time with a raindrop dripping at the window,” Bridget continues. “I’ve always wanted to do a folk record as I love these songs so much. It comes much more naturally to me to sing other people’s words, especially when they’re as beautiful as these old verses.”

Underpinned by waves of analogue reverb, and led by Bridget’s stirring and weather-beaten voice, the songs on Cold Blows the Rain drift and crawl like low heavy clouds on flat-top hills, shaped by the land. The backdrop is equally as arresting, all subtle gloom cast in shadow, a gentle but pronounced swirling of textures, crafted from harmonium and violin courtesy of The Apparitions (Sam Mcloughlin and Dan Bridgewood-Hill).
“The weather speaks the most eloquently about human loss,” Bridget says, articulating such sentiments. “It’s good to feel enveloped by something so much vaster than ourselves. The rain and the tears all become one.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Beautifully affecting folk songs, adorned with gorgeous strings and intense, ethereal vocals from Hayden. Brittle, unhurried compositions that slowly bloom and grow, moving gradually from the dark into blinding, bright light and back again.

TRACK LISTING

1 Factory Girl
2 Are You Going To Leave Me?
3 Blackwater Side
4 She Moved Through The Fayre
5 When I Was In My Prime
6 Lovely On The Water
7 Red Rocking Chair
8 The Unquiet Grave

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2025 EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

“Music is the weed that keeps popping out of the concrete in my life. It just seems to want to come out.” –Jeff Bridges

•All tracks previously unreleased
•20-pg booklet including liner notes by Sam Sweet, new interview with Jeff Bridges, and never-before-seen archival photos
•Featuring Burgess Meredith (Rocky)
•Vinyl pressed on transparent blue wax at RTI

Culled from a single decaying cassette tape labeled “July 1978,” these recordings are a window into the secret musical life of the Dude. Even after becoming one of Hollywood’s biggest stars, Bridges spent all his free time jamming and recording with a trusted circle of musicians composed of childhood friends, artists, and assorted L.A. oddballs.

Imagine The Band playing at CBGB with The Exploding Plastic Inevitable. Or Arthur Russell and the Talking Heads collaborating on a suite of mutant disco. Though Bridges and his friends were brought up around the movie industry, they decided to create their own private musical universe, where they could be as weird as they wanted.

-Previously unreleased music by actor/musician Jeff Bridges, recorded 1977-1978
-Record Store Day Exclusive pressed at RTI on special color vinyl
-Features audio freshly remastered by GRAMMY®-nominated engineer John Baldwin
-Beautifully packaged gatefold LP with 20-page booklet featuring liner notes by Sam Sweet & never-before-seen archival images
-Album artwork by the legendary Lou Beach (Bill Withers, YMO, Blink 182, Weird Al)
-Released with the full support of Jeff Bridges (The Dude himself!)

Every Wednesday night, actor Jeff Bridges & his old pals would gather at their friend’s warehouse. Throughout the 70s-80s, musician/artist Steve Baim would offer up his Culver City digs with only one rule in mind: No Songs Allowed. That meant, whatever would transpire in these Wednesday night jam sessions was meant to be spontaneous… and would be documented. From these late-night Wednesday jams emerged a body of work that Bridges was inspired to record. Booking proper studio time at LA’s famed Village Recorders, Bridges and his collaborative circle of friends, including Lou Beach, Burgess Meredith, and John Lilly, captured quite a collection of tracks. Imagine the sound of CBGBs meets The Band meets The Exploding Plastic Inevitable. Jeff is thrilled for these recordings to finally see the light of day, opening up his musical archive for the first time since these songs were laid to tape.

The Bridge was the first album Sonny Rollins recorded after he returned to the jazz scene in late 1961, following a two-year layoff to practice and reflect during a time of great stylistic upheaval in the music. If the sabbatical added to his instrumental command and his musical understanding, the triumphal return confirmed that this was the same authoritative player of the classic 'Saxophone Colossus', 'Way Out West' and 'Village Vanguard' albums.

'The Bridge' features Rollins in a piano- less quartet, with Jim Hall on guitar, Bob Cranshaw on bass, and Ben Riley on drums.

At the risk of being unable to give Rollins a higher numerical rating when he surpasses this album (and I have every confidence that he will) this set still has to be placed in the superlative class." - ***** Ira Gitler, Down Beat

TRACK LISTING

Without A Song
Where Are You?
John S.
God Bless The Child [Alternative Version]
The Bridge
God Bless The Child
You Do Something To Me
The Bridge [Alternative Version]

Paul Tillman Smith is a significant figure within in the music community of Oakland/Berkeley, California. His connections and collaborations read like a who’s who of famous musicians. As leader of 70s Buddah Records group ‘Vitamin E’ and then onto ‘Bridge’, the subsequent band cut an album in 1981 for the CBS distributed Bang label that never saw the light of day. It was released by First Experience Records as a double LP and CD in 1999 and is recognised as being one of the finest unreleased discovery’s within its genre. IZIPHO SOUL are thrilled to release on a 7” for the first time two gems from this magnificent body of work. CRYING FOR LOVE written by Paul Tillman Smith and Michael Robinson is perfection personified, from the production through to the lyrical content - and of course the sublime vocals of Debravon Lewis (RIP) the tone of her voice will move you to tears. On the flip is LISTEN, penned by Paul Tillman Smith - a tour de force rendition by the late great Freddie Hughes with Sonny Lewis on sax, adding that extra touch of class.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Crying For Love
B1. Listen

The fourth album from Grammy Award-winning recording artist, songwriter, and producer Leon Bridges. With 13 tracks featuring Leon's signature storytelling and a unique blend of organic genre alchemy, 'Leon' is his most poignant, powerful, and personal work to date. He takes fans on a trip through the heart of Ft. Worth he knows best, the things he holds dear, and the people and places that shaped him.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: There are few voices as recognisable as the syrupy soulful swoon of Leon Bridges, and 'Leon' sees him in the finest fettle of his career. Beautifully crisp harmonies, swirling saturated atmospheres and warm Texas heat. Beautiful

Speedboat on Chapel Street is the debut solo album from Chris Bridgett, the first music from Chris since the Cold Water Swimmers album Holiday at the Secret Lake released in 2021. The last decade has seen Chris play guitar in a reformed Dub Sex, his first Manchester band. Chris went on to create and front The G-O-D opening for the Stone Roses at Wembley Stadium in 2017. Chris then went on to form Cold Water Swimmers, the album Holiday at the Secret Lake was a top 10 album by Louder than War in 2021 and then in 2023 Chris went solo, releasing his first solo track, from the album, The Deep End in September of that year.

Speedboat on Chapel Street is a self release on DIY or DIE and was given album of the week on Louder than War on release 

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A lovely selection of grunge-tinged progressions (The Deep End in particular has a lovely Pixies-y guitar line running through it), swooning distorted groove and Bridgett's perfectly apt gravelly vocals.

N u m e r o G r o u p Leon Bridges/Pastor TL Barrett Like A Ship Numero’s second bundle of cover 45s is all things soulful. The Rotterdam-based Another Taste electrifies Maxx Traxx’s 1984 Chicago boogie grail “Don’t Touch It,” which makes its debut on the 7” format here. Colemine Records’ Say She She delivers a glamorous rendition of Jim Spencer’s yacht-disco hit “Wrap Myself Up In Your Love.” Columbia Recording artist Leon Bridges effortlessly transforms Pastor T.L. Barrett’s “Like A Ship,” updating the 50 year old gospel soul classic for the 21st century. All three are housed in a newly imagined Numero custom sleeve, reflecting the many shades of our ongoing Eccentric Soul 45 imprint

TRACK LISTING

A. Leon Bridges W/ Keite Young - Like A Ship

B. Pastor T.L. Barrett & The Youth For Christ Choir - Like A Ship

Under The Bridge 2 is the sequel to the celebrated 2022 compilation album that reunited groups and songwriters who had once recorded for cult label Sarah Records. The new album showcases the continuing creativity of a special group of musicians who have never rested on their laurels.

Bigger and more expansive than the first album, Under the Bridge 2 is a double LP, containing twenty brand new tracks. There is a huge range of material here, from intense, dark chamber pop to dense shoegaze to out-and-out indiepop. Exciting new groups are unveiled: The Gentle Spring (a new project by Michael Hiscock of The Field Mice); Vetchinsky Settings (a collaboration between Mark Tranmer and James Hackett of The Orchids); and Mystic Village (which features new songs by Robert Cooksey of The Sea Urchins).

You will also see familiar starry names like Even As We Speak, The Orchids and Secret Shine - bands whose line-ups have remained mostly unchanged since the 1990s. And there are established bands who didn’t appear on the first album but are now represented – bands like Action Painting! and The Hit Parade.

Most of the tracks are exclusive and unreleased: there’s the first new song from The Catenary Wires since 2021, a brand new fizzbomb from Jetstream Pony, a haunting instrumental from GNAC.

The emphasis of Under The Bridge is on the new. The bands’ shared history means they have a shared aesthetic, even a shared ethos – they all believe that the future is more important than the past. They are as independent and as uncompromising as ever, but they are still uncynical - and still excited about what Pop Music can be.

TRACK LISTING

The Gentle Spring - Dodge The Rain (Previously In The Field Mice)
Action Painting! - Just Who Are The Cockleshell Heroes?
The Catenary Wires - Alone Tonight (Previously In Heavenly)
The Hit Parade - Apple Tree
Jetstream Pony - Look Alive! (Previously In Aberdeen)
Soundwire - Everything Is Real (Previously In The Sweetest Ache)
Leaf Mosaic - The Branch Line (Previously In The Springfields)
Secret Shine - Captivate This Broken Love
Even As We Speak - Beauty, You Will Break Us All
GNAC – Double Ninth (Previously In St Christopher)
Tufthunter – Chemistry (Previously In Heavenly)
Useless Users - In This, The House Of The Solitary Bees (Previously In Action Painting! & Secret Shine)
The Orchids - A Final Love Song
Wandering Summer - Wake The Silver Dancing Waves (Previously In Boyracer)
Mystic Village - Open Your Eyes (Previously In The Sea Urchins)
Boyracer - Unknown Frequencies
Robert Sekula – Pamela (Previously In Fourteen Iced Bears)
Vetchinsky Settings - Laugh While You Can (Previously In The Orchids & St Christopher)
St Christopher - Burnout ’23
Sepiasound - June In Her Eyes (Previously In Blueboy) 

Celebrate the 5th anniversary of Leon Bridges Grammy-winning album Good Thing. The limited-edition title features a custard colour variant, the original track list and a bonus track “Naomi” originally released on the 2018 Japan Edition. Good Thing was nominated for Best R&B Album, and the track “Bet Ain’t Worth The Hand” won Best Traditional R&B Performance at the 2019 Grammy Awards. 

TRACK LISTING

01) Bet Ain't Worth The Hand
02) Bad Bad News
03) Shy
04) Beyond
05) Forgive You
06) Lions
07) If It Feels Good (Then It Must Be)
08) You Don't Know
09) Mrs.
10) Georgia To Texas
11) Naomi (bonus Track)

With the follow-up to the hugely successful Batman soundtrack album, Prince returned with yet another soundtrack album in 1991, this time featuring songs from his self-directed movie Graffiti Bridge. Features the hit Prince single “Thieves In The Temple”, plus the Prince-produced Tevin Campbell single, “Round And Round".

TRACK LISTING

A1 Can't Stop This Feeling I Got (4:24)
A2 New Power Generation (3:39)
A3 Release It (3:54)
A4 The Question Of U (3:59)
B1 Elephants & Flowers (3:54)
B2 Round And Round (3:55)
B3 We Can Funk (5:28)
B4 Joy In Repetition (4:53)
C1 Love Machine (3:34)
C2 Tick, Tick, Bang (3:31)
C3 Shake! (4:01)
C4 Thieves In The Temple (3:19)
D1 The Latest Fashion (4:02)
D2 Melody Cool (3:39)
D3 Still Would Stand All Time (5:23)
D4 Graffiti Bridge (3:51)
D5 New Power Generation (Pt. II) (2:57)

My Back Was A Bridge For You To Cross, ANOHNI’s sixth studio album, expresses a world view by shape-shifting through a broad range of subject matter. Through a personal lens, ANOHNI addresses loss of loved ones, inequality, alienation, acceptance, cruelty, ecocide, devastation wrought by Abrahamic theologies, Future Feminism, and the possibility that we might yet transform our ways of thinking, our spiritual ideas, our societal structures, and our relationships with the rest of nature.

On her first full album since 2016’s HOPELESSNESS, she explains the creative process was painstaking, yet also inspired, joyful, and intimate, a renewal and a renaming of her response to the world as she sees it. “Some of these songs respond to global and environmental concerns first voiced in popular music over 50 years ago.”

ANOHNI’s approach since her last record has shifted from someone tasked with challenging global denial, to an artist seeking to support others on the front lines. “I learned with HOPELESSNESS that I can provide a soundtrack that might fortify people in their work, in their activism, in their dreaming and decision-making. I can sing of an awareness that makes others feel less alone, people for whom the frank articulation of these frightening times is not a source of discomfort but a cause for identification and relief.

On “It Must Change,”ANOHNI soulfully describes systems in collapse with a note of compassion for humanity: “The truth is I always thought you were beautiful in your own way // That’s why this is so sad.” ANOHNI’s voice is sensual and smoothed, selectively reaching to the edges of what it can contain. “We’re not getting out of here // No one’s getting out of here // This is our world,” she murmurs.

A portrait of legendary human rights activist Marsha P. Johnson taken by Alvin Baltrop features on the cover, reflecting a 25-year relationship with the memory of Johnson that ANOHNI has held space for in the presentation of her own work.
Elsewhere, the album artwork states ”IT’S TIME TO FEEL WHAT’S REALLY HAPPENING”. In some ways it feels as if she is reaching across her life’s expression, and has found a moment of unique composure, wearing her long exploration of disarming intensity, with the maturity of a painter carefully choosing her colors. “I want the work to be useful, to help others move through these conversations we are now facing, to move with dignity and resilience through this bitter dawning.” 

TRACK LISTING

1. It Must Change
2. Go Ahead
3. Sliver Of Ice
4. Can’t
5. Scapegoat
6. It’s My Fault
7. Rest
8. There Wasn’t Enough
9. Why Am I Alive Now
10. You Be Free

For Fans Of… Charles Bradley, Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, Lee Fields.

Bobby Harden & The Soulful Saints are proud to announce their debut album, “Bridge of Love.” The album’s ten original compositions are presented in sparklingly-clear stereo sound and run the soul gamut, from grits-n-bricks R&B (‘Played a Fool by You’) to throw-back psychedelia (‘One Tribe’), svelte seventies pop (‘One Night of the Week’) and some seriously sophisticated ballads (‘Wounded Hearts’, ‘Bridge of Love’).

Together they document Bobby’s life journey in song. Through youthful self-doubt in the opening track ‘It’s My Time’, to confirmation on the exuberant finale ‘Raise Your Mind’, Bobby proves that faith and hard work can pay dividends. “Life is a joy when you free your soul.”

Throughout the album, Harden’s voice is tailored to perfection by the almost impossibly dexterous Soulful Saints, and further dressed to the nines by an accoutrement of Latin percussion, full-on horns, high-flying backing singers and even a string quartet. This comes as no surprise as The Soulful Saints have performed live and recorded together with acts such as Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, Charles Bradley & His Extraordinaires, Lee Fields & The Expressions, The Budos Band, Mark Ronson, Antibalas, The Impressions, & The Wu-Tang Clan.

TRACK LISTING

1. It’s My Time
2. One Tribe
3. Feels So Good
4. One Night Of The Week
5. Wounded Hearts
6. Played A Fool By You
7. Bridge Of Love
8. Butterfly
9. Runnin’ (To Get To Your Love)
10. Raise Your Mind

Anti-counter culture loner folk from a teenage attic in the heart of rural Northern hippiedom.

Today the valley town of Hebden Bridge in West Yorkshire is world-renowned as something of a bohemian backwater. It wasn’t like this back in the late 1960s and the early 1970s, when a disparate selection of radicals, drop-outs, heads, musicians, artists and writers started to be attracted to the Calder Valley. Local lad and future poet laureate Ted Hughes called the area “the fouled nest of industrialisation”.

Over time, those seeds of radicalism and collectivism ensured Hebden Bridge evolved into a place where people could be themselves and all shades of individual oddness not only tolerated but actively encouraged. But back at the turn of the dreary 1970s it remained a monochrome world defined by its unforgiving surrounding landscapes, where the old gritstone over-dwellings were stained with soot and rain lashed down for weeks.

It was here that Trevor Beales, who was born in 1953, grew up, and from where he drew musical and lyrical inspiration.

Perhaps it was this dual nationality heritage, unusual in the valley’s largely white working class population at the time, that gave the teenager Trevor Beale’s music an outsider’s perspective. The discovery of Bob Dylan, Django Reinhardt, The Byrds and James Taylor at a young age, lead to him picking up a guitar at the age of ten, and he was soon writing his own originals and performing them at local (though often remote) folk clubs and pubs.

Recorded in the attic of the family home at Ivy Bank in Charlestown on the verdant wooded slopes at the edge of Hebden Bridge between 1971 and 1974, these early recordings are collected here for the first time and mark Trevor Beales long-overdue solo debut.

In these songs is a suffer-no-fools sense of realism that is defiantly Northern, yet also expresses a worldliness that belies Beales’ young years, whilst also showcasing an inherent storyteller’s ear for narrative. Here is a postcard from the past at that crucial musical period of transition, when the idealistic exponents of the 1960s emerged into an austere new decade that was to be shaped by strikes, rising unemployment and economic upheaval.

Two aspects of this music make it remarkable: Beales’ natural ability showcases a sophisticated guitar-picking style that was leagues ahead of many of his (older, more recognised) contemporaries. This is music that can confidently hold its own with pioneers such as Davey Graham, Michael Chapman, Dave Evans, Bert Jansch and Jackson C Frank, as influenced by jazz, blues and steel guitar as any of the old songbook classics from ancient Albion.

Secondly, his lyrics are a far cry from either the naïve bedroom scribblings of a teenager who has barely left his upland home, nor do they fall foul of the type of lazy cliches and sub-Tolkien imagery that was still in abundance in the early 1970s. Most remarkably the earliest songs here were laid down less than a year after he left school (an unearthed report written by his headteacher on July 3rd 1970 noted he had “a considerable ability and interest in music”, though his education ended abruptly when he simply walked out of a science lesson one sunny day while at sixth form, never to return).

Trevor’s music is grounded in reality – his reality. ‘Then I’ll Take You Home’, for example, considers the Guru Marajai, who encouraged his acolytes to give over their worldly possessions, yet who drove a Rolls Royce and lived like a playboy. Unsurprisingly, this latest in a long line of spiritual charlatans found several followers in Hebden Bridge, and Beales casts a disdainful eye over the growing popularity for such false prophets.

With its ancient narratives and propensity for myth-making, folk has certainly produced it’s fair share of cult figures who have enjoyed rediscovery or career resurgence and with this debut compilation of home recordings, rescued from cassette tapes, Trevor Beales might just be the latest addition. Certainly he was the real deal.

Crucially, Beales' music is never jaded or cynical, but instead possesses a poet’s ear, a strong sense of self and some sound critical faculties. And much of it recorded at an age when he could neither vote nor order a pint of heavy.
Trevor Beales died suddenly and unexpectedly on March 29th 1987, aged 33. He left behind Christine and their young child Lydia. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Another wonderful collection of folk from the ever-brilliant Basin Rock here. One of my favourite LP's from earlier this year was the stunning Andrew Tuttle LP, and though this shares similar instrumental leanings, it's from significantly closer to home, focusing on the early 70's in the Calder Valley.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. Marion Belle
2. Tell Me Now
3. Dance Of The Mermaids
4. City Lights
5. The Old Soldier
6. Sunlight On The Table
Side B
7. Metropolis
8. The Prisoner
9. Braziliana
10. Then I'll Take You Home
11. Ocean Of Tears
12. Fireside Story 

A compilation of new songs. An essential purchase for all fans of Sarah Records.

The bands on this compilation were all on Sarah Records, or have key members whose bands were on that label. There are some names you’ll recognise: The Orchids, The Wake, Even As We Speak, where line-ups have remained relatively unchanged. And there are newer groups: Jetstream Pony (ex-Aberdeen), The Catenary Wires (ex-Heavenly), Soundwire (ex-The Sweetest Ache), where different shapes have evolved.

Time has moved on, but the music is as wonderful and as idealistic as ever. All the tracks on Under The Bridge are pop gems. Some are punk rock, some are indiepop, others are dreamy swirls of fuzz. Some are gentle and some are some are full of rage, but all of them are defiantly sensitive, literate and independent. (Some things haven’t changed.) The bands on this compilation are flattered, maybe, that people spend serious money bidding for their old 7” singles. But they are a lot more excited about the music they are creating today.

All the tracks on Under The Bridge are new, and most of them are previously unreleased.

When Amelia Fletcher and Rob Pursey started Skep Wax Records in 2021 they were heavily influenced by the labels they’d worked with in the past: K, Elefant, Fortuna Pop, WIAIWYA. But Sarah Records was the one they admired most: it was ethical, totally independent, and better organised than most majors. When they looked around, they discovered that so many of the bands they once shared a label with were still making fantastic music. Under The Bridge is a celebration of that.

CDs and LPs will include a 16-page colour booklet.

TRACK LISTING

Tracklist (With A Guide To Previous Incarnations)
GROUP/Song Title MEMBERS WERE PREVIOUSLY IN -
1. THE LUXEMBOURG SIGNAL - Travel Through Midnight  - Aberdeen
2. EVEN AS WE SPEAK Begins - Goodbye
3. LEAF MOSAIC - Bullet Train - The Sugargliders
4. THE ORCHIDS - I Don’t Mean To Stare
5. TUFTHUNTER - Monsieur Jadis - Heavenly
6. USELESS USERS - Wish You Well - Secret Shine, Action Painting!
7. ST CHRISTOPHER - Stornaway
8. SECRET SHINE - Lost In The Middle
9. BOYRACER - Larkin
10. JETSTREAM PONY - Strood McD F.C. - Aberdeen
11. SOUNDWIRE - Another Sun - The Sweetest Ache
12. SEPIASOUND - Arcadian - Blueboy
13. THE CATENARY WIRES - Wall Of Sound - Heavenly
14. THE WAKE - Stockport

Thomas Leer and Robert Rental’s The Bridge is re-issued on vinyl for the first time since its original release in 1979 and on CD for the first time since 1992. With Robert unfortunately passing away in 2000, this record, Leer and Rental’s one and only album together, stands alone in capturing the duo’s pioneering capabilities. The Bridge was originally released on Throbbing Gristle’s Industrial Records label in 1979 and is considered to be an early electronic avant-garde synth-pop masterpiece, seeing the likes of John Foxx, Propaganda, Art of Noise and ABC citing the pair as key influences.

TRACK LISTING

1 Attack Decay
2 Monochrome Days
3 Day Breaks, Night Heals
4 Connotations
5 Fade Away
6 Interferon
7 Six A.M.
8 The Hard Way In And The Easy Way Out
9 Perpetual

An extension of the two’s chart-topping four-song Texas Sun journey, Texas Moon is an introspective stroll through the dark. “Without joy, there can be no real perspective on sorrow,” says Khruangbin. “Without sunlight, all this rain keeps things from growing. How can you have the sun without the moon?”

Crediting their mutual home state for inspiration, Texas Moon pensively examines Texas’ musical perception, while paying homage to the marriage of country and R&B that’s become synonymous with the lone star state. Propelled by rolling guitar licks, conga and bongo, lead single “B-Side” meditates on meeting in a dream and frolics across the nearing contemplative nighttime state with its longing’s joy.

Elsewhere on Texas Moon, the artists channel a newly intimate musical scope that’s illustrated most dramatically when the spacy sensuality of the minimalistic “Chocolate Hills” leads into the stark spirituality addressed on “Father Father,” a reminder of both acts’ gospel roots. Over a simple rolling guitar figure, Bridges pleads with the heavens—“Look at the mess that I made/Just a man with unclean hands”—only to be reminded of God’s eternal love.

For Khruangbin, one song in particular was indicative of the trust that Bridges put in them. “The song ‘Doris’ is about his grandmother making the transition from this world to the next realm,” says Johnson. “It’s a very somber, very deep record. And when someone places that kind of work into your hands, the last thing you want to do is junk it up, overproduce it, or do too much. We treated it with the respect it deserved, and treated Doris with the respect she deserves.”

“It’s like a short story...,” Lee says of the music. “And it leaves room to continue having these stories together. It’s not Khruangbin, it’s not Leon, it’s this world we created together.”

Upon its release, Texas Sun soared to the No. 1 slot on Billboard’s Emerging Artists Chart along with landing the No.1 on spot on “Americana/Folk Albums,” No. 2 on “Vinyl Albums,” No. 4 on “Top Rock Albums” and No. 6 on “Top R&B Albums.” Significantly, both parties’ musical directions were deeply affected by their time working together on Texas Sun.

Khruangbin’s most recent studio album, Mordechai, moved their own vocals to the forefront, a change they readily admit was a direct result of working with Bridges. Their sound was also tapped for remix/reinterpretation of a Paul McCartney song for the McCartney III Imagined project. Meanwhile, in addition to his genre-defying Grammy-nominated album Gold-Digger’s Sound, Bridges has put out several other challenging, shared collaborative tracks, including work with John Mayer, Lucky Daye and most recently Jazmine Sullivan. Each of the artists appeared recently on Austin City Limits and will tour throughout the new year.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: The last Khruangbin album with Leon Bridges was a perfect distillation of their respective sounds into a familiar sounding, but entirely new concoction. This latest offering continues that effortless melting pot of downbeat, Balearic and soul but with a woozy, crepuscular groove. You really can't go wrong here.

TRACK LISTING

1. Doris
2. B-Side
3.Chocolate Hills
4. Father Father
5. Mariella

The third album from Grammy award winner Leon Bridges and it's a suitably sunny, soulful and sumptious affiar. With beautifully flowing, organic song writing, complimented by lush and live instrumental tracks; it's got green gardens, sizzling BBQs and long hot sexy nights eminating off practically every single track! The production is sublime - balancing the traditional instrumentation with just a flurry of electronic umph; adding a brand new sheen and energy to what could easily, otherwise, be mistaken for a classic late 70s soul album. 

Opening with a juicy collaboration with Robert Glasper, the album drips effortlessly through its opening quarter, a delicate mix of jazz-informed drumming, picked guitar lines and a liquid gold, syrupy deliver from Bridges. "Steam" arrives, three tracks in with a resplendent chorus and subtle, anthemic qualities.

Opening side B with the title track, garnished with fluffy horns and a slo-mo MPC beat it's an instrumental side akin to some of Madlib's more laid back beats. Thankfully the LP shows little willing to get carried away; sitting beauitfully nestled on a nearly-horizontal plane; sun lounge angle let's say. With soulful droplets woozing languidly off the record, there's little to worry about other than the temperature of your margarita in the sunshine... It's rather something special indeed; intimate, unhurried, as fragile as a flower and simply perfect for timeless and serene afternoon in the garden. Recommended! 

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Beautifully bridging the gap between traditional soul and more modern beat-heavy electronic music, 'Gold-Diggers Sound' brilliantly illustrates Bridges' unparalleled ability as a songwriter and mastery of his wonderfully understated and horizontally cool output. An exciting and fitting follow-up to his excellend collaborative LP with Khruangbin and 2018's wonderful 'Good Thing'.

TRACK LISTING

1.Born Again (feat. Robert Glasper)
2.Motorbike
3.Steam
4.Why Don’t You Touch Me
5.Magnolias
6.Gold-Diggers (Junior’s Fanfare)
7.Details
8.Sho Nuff
9.Sweeter (feat. Terrace Martin)
10.Don’t Worry (feat. Ink)
11.Blue Mesas

Debut record from Morgan Huggins on Lovejoy Records. It stands proud combining careful precision and an unbridled lack of restraint combined with that new founded hedonism which seems to characterize much of the music from Sydney. With an extreme attention to detail, Morgan’s sound fluctuates between delicate and throbbing moments, hi-tek breaks and paradisical dance music.

While Morgan is new to releasing music, he’s no stranger to Australia’s scene. Co-heading events, raves, festivals and gigs under the name of Lovejoy, Morgan’s experience with music has already been a long and personal one. Having supported the likes of Moodymann, Jennifer Loveless, Tom Trago, Andy Garvey & Lou Karsh, he has been patiently waiting for this moment for some time!

Morgan created “Anzac Bridge Filter” over the last two years, as he reconnected the city where he grew up, and where he now lives. It’s named after his favourite bridge, which he’s spent many hours traversing both physically and mentally, matched with the filter on his favourite synthesiser, Moog’s Sub 37.

‘For the most part, this record was finished in various small town libraries up and down the East Coast of Australia as I travelled and camped by myself at the start of 2020. The bushfires were still very much burning, and everywhere you went you could taste the smoke, and see freshly burnt houses, and yet everywhere I went people smiled at each other as they walked down the street.’

As he continues to produce, perform and collaborate, Morgan Huggins is moving into a new phase in 2021. He embraces his exposure to the music culture around him and has crafted a unique sound which is now being showcased to Australia and the world.

‘I would particularly like to thank the librarians who were undoubtedly confused by my presence,’ Morgan said.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Mad hybridz here bass heads! Morgan matches house grooves, bass pressure and precision breaks to create a antipodean template all of his own. Let the dance begin!

TRACK LISTING

A1. Nan & Pop
A2. Wunderbar
B1. Kars Rain
B2. Love Meridian

Copycat Killer is a 12” featuring 4 exclusive new versions of songs from Phoebe Bridgers’ wildly acclaimed Punisher album. Collaborating with arranger Rob Moose (Sufjan Stevens, The National, Bon Iver, Vampire Weekend, Jay-Z), these are brand new orchestral arrangements of the songs Kyoto, Savior Complex, Chinese Satellite and Punisher, all given a luscious revamp that is sure to delight any fans of Phoebe’s album and serve as perfect gateway for new listeners into what makes her one of the most special artists of 2020 and beyond.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A:
1. Kyoto (Copycat Killer Version)
2. Savior Complex (Copycat Killer Version)
SIDE B:
3. Chinese Satellite (Copycat Killer Version)
4. Punisher (Copycat Killer Version)

Bridge over Troubled Water is the fifth and final studio album by American folk rock duo Simon & Garfunkel, an x11 trk album, released in January 1970 on Columbia Records. Following the duo's soundtrack for The Graduate, Art Garfunkel took an acting role in the film Catch-22, while Paul Simon worked on the songs, writing all tracks except Felice and Boudleaux Bryant's "Bye Bye Love" (previously a hit for the Everly Brothers). With the help of producer Roy Halee, the album followed a similar musical pattern as their Bookends LP, partly abandoning their traditional style to incorporate elements of rock, R&B, gospel, jazz, world music, pop and other genres. It was described as their "most effortless record and their most ambitious". 

Animal Collective present the physical release for ‘Bridge To Quiet’, out on Domino.

The band took some of their unreleased improvisations, remixed them, collaged them and built them into fully formed songs, finding their way to ‘Bridge To Quiet’.

Animal Collective consists of musicians Avey Tare (David Portner), Panda Bear (Noah Lennox), Deakin (Josh Dibb) and Geologist (Brian Weitz), who play in various configurations on each album. Their expansive catalogue spans the entirety of the 2000s, including ‘Strawberry Jam’, ‘Feels’ and ‘Sung Tongs’. With the release of ‘Merriweather Post Pavilion’, named after the Baltimore venue, they established themselves as one of the most acclaimed acts of the 21st Century.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Bridge To Quiet shows the Animal Collective in a more expansive, avant-ambient mood, with these stunning shadowy vocals and electronic artifacts mixed with glitched synths and off-kilter snappy percussion.

TRACK LISTING

Rain In Cups
Piggy Knows
Sux-Bier Passage
Bridge To Quiet

As the final act before their hiatus ñ coming after three critically praised albums in a decade - 'Live at the Trades Club Hebden Bridge' is Cherry Ghost performing an intimate, starkly arranged set at the 2015 Heavenly Weekender.Released now for the first time ñ on double vinyl and download ñ this is perhaps the best realised collection of songs from Cherry Ghost, the alias of the Ivor Novello award-winning songwriter Simon Aldred. The instrumentation ñ Aldred is joined on keyboards and light percussion by Christian Madden and Grenville Harrop ñ brings to the fore Aldred's peerless songwriting, his oak-aged, prematurely wisened baritone.'History' wrote the Quietus in 2014, 'will be kind to Aldred', and this collection proves exactly that ñ with a bit of time and distance, the songs presented here show a highly singular, highly accomplished songwriter, aspiring to the pop classicism of Glen Campbell or Bill Callahan. All of human life is here ñ tracking a drizzly Northern gothic of last bus loneliness, late-night Spars, solitary drinkers, factory floors and Gods that betray.And yet, there's more than meets the eye.There's magnetic renderings of his best known songs - '4AM', 'People Help the People', the soaring 'Mathematics' - but surprises reveal themselves.'All I Want' and 'Herd Runners' candidly examine Aldred's sexuality, whilst the seldom heard b-side 'Bad Crowd' reveals Aldred to be a much funnier songwriter than remembered. What runs right through Aldred's work, however, is a yearning ñ a much tested faith in romance ñ so no wonder that the album ends on its most optimistic notes, at the darkest point of winter nestled in the West Yorkshire valleys, promising clear skies ever closer.

If you collect vintage 70’s soul-jazz vinyl, there is a good chance that you already own a record that features the amazing vocal talents of Dee Dee Bridgewater. Whether it be Roy Ayers, Norman Connors, Billy Parker or Carlos Garnett - Dee Dee is the glue that fuses these artists together.

Although best known for her jazz work, Dee Dee has had a wonderfully rich and varied career encompassing soul, musicals, gospel, and underground disco from the 70’s to the present day. She is still active as a vocalist, composer, and producer and remains one of our favourite vocalists at Mr Bongo HQ. We take things back to the early years of Dee Dee’s career with her debut album ‘Afro Blue’. Recorded in Tokyo in 1974, the album was released exclusively in Japan via two different Japanese labels (Trio Records in 1974 and All Art in 1985 respectively). Each release had unique cover art and we have opted to present the album in its original 1974 form.

‘Afro Blue’ features an exquisite collaboration of American and Japanese musicians, such as Cecil & Ron Bridgewater, Motohiko Hino and producer Takao Ishizuka. The result is a sublime deep soul-jazz masterpiece with timeless versions of ‘People Make The World Go Round’, ‘Love From The Sun’, and ‘Afro Blue’. It is arguably one of the finest albums in its genre. This record has long been a sought-after item for DJs and collectors alike, so we are delighted to finally make this wonderful music from an understated great available to all.

TRACK LISTING

Afro Blue
Love Vibrations
Blues Medley (Everyday I Have The Blues / Stormy Monday Blues)
Little B’s Poem 
Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head
Love From The Sun
People Make The World Go Round

Phoebe Bridgers doesn’t write love songs as much as songs about the impact love can have on our lives, personalities, and priorities.

Punisher, her fourth release and second solo album, is concerned with that subject. To say she writes about heartbreak is to undersell her blue wisdom, to say she writes about pain erases all the strange joy her music emanates. The arrival of Punisher cements Phoebe Bridgers as one of the most clever, tender and prolific songwriters of our era.

Bridgers is the rare artist with enough humour to deconstruct her own meteoric rise. Repeatedly praised by publications like The New Yorker, The New York Times, GQ, Pitchfork, The Fader, The Los Angeles Times and countless others, Bridgers herself is more interested in discussing topics on Twitter, deadpanning meditations on the humiliating process of being a person, she presents a sweetly funny flipside to the strikingly sad songs she writes. Fittingly, Punisher is fascinated with, and driven by, that kind of impossible tension. Whether it’s writing tweets or songs, Bridgers’s singular talent lies in bringing fierce curiosity to slimy and painful things, interrogating them until they yield up answers that are beautiful and absurd, or faithfully reporting the reality that, sometimes, they are neither.

Bridgers pulls together a formidable crew of guests, including the Julien Baker, Lucy Dacus, Christian Lee Hutson and Conor Oberst as well as Nathaniel Walcott (of Bright Eyes), Nick Zinner (of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs), Jenny Lee Lindberg (of Warpaint), Blake Mills and Jim Keltner as well as her longtime bandmates Marshall Vore (drums), Harrison Whitford (guitar), Emily Retsas (bass) and Nick White (keys). The album was mixed by Mike Mogis, who also mixed Stranger In The Alps. On the album’s epic, freewheeling closer, “I Know The End,” Bridgers orchestrates wails and horns, drums and electric guitar into a sumptuous doomsday swirl, culminating in her own final whispered roar.

This is Punisher in a nutshell: devastating elegance punctuated by a moment of deeply campy self-awareness.

Driving anywhere in Texas can cost you half a day, easy. For example, it’ll take you over four hours just to get from R&B singer Leon Bridges’ hometown of Fort Worth down to Houston, where the psychedelic wanderers in Khruangbin hail from. The state is vast, crisscrossed with rugged expanses of road flanked by limestone cliffs and granite mountains, forests of pine and mesquite, miles of desert or acres of sprawling grassland, all depending on what part you’re in. And it’s all baking under the "Texas Sun" that lends its name to Bridges and Khruangbin’s new collaborative EP.

“Big sky country, that’s what they call Texas,” Khruangbin bassist Laura Lee says. “The horizon line goes all the way from one side to another without interruption. There’s something really comforting about that.”

On "Texas Sun", these two members of the state’s musical vanguard meet up somewhere in the middle of that scene, in the mythical nexus of Texas’ past, present, and future - a dreamy badlands where genres blur as seamlessly as the terrain. It calls equally to the cowboys bootscooting at Billy Bob’s in Fort Worth, the chopped-and-screwed hip-hop fans rattling slabs on the southside of Houston, the art-school kids dropping acid in Austin, the cross-cultural progeny who grew up on listening to both mariachi and post-hardcore out on the Mexican borders of El Paso. All of these things, overlapping in a multicolored melange, purple hues as vivid and unpredictable as one of the state’s rightfully celebrated sunsets.

A journey through homesick reminiscences, backseat romances, and late-night contemplations, the kind of record made for listening with the windows down and the road humming softly beneath you. Like the highways that inspired it, "Texas Sun" is guaranteed to get you where you’re going -especially if you’re in no particular hurry to get there.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A mild departure for Khruangbin here, enlisting soulful maestro Leon Bridges on vox duties, adding a silky overtone to their nigh-horizontal grooves. A superb, hazy dream of an album.

TRACK LISTING

1. Texas Sun
2. Midnight
3. C-Side
4. Conversion

For Fans Of… Menahan Street Band, The Budos Band, Antibalas, El Michels Affair.

Build Bridges combines stellar musicianship with unlimited drive and lag proof swing-ability. You can hear the maturity of their sound, which inadvertently allows you to appreciate their previous recordings even more. They're all in the same ballpark yet seem to be on a completely different playing field. Tim Felten's lineup not only shows his keen ability to pick top choice artists, but also shows his sense of direction and investment to high quality musicians. The Sure Fire Soul Ensemble is a staple of the west coast soul / jazz / funk scene and with their third LP, they solidify their position. Heavy grooves and drums, with top tier musicianship and writing. Build Bridges is just as sophisticated as it is soulful and funky! 

TRACK LISTING

1. Aragon
2. El Nino
3. Sucker Punch
4. Campus Life
5. Costa Blues
6. Build Bridges
7. Roxy Funk
8. Gloria’s Anthem
9. Backyard Boogie
10. Step Up

Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers, and Lucy Dacus formed boygenius after booking a tour together, but the trio had subconsciously been in the works for longer than that. Through a series of tours and performances together, and chance encounters that led to friendships – including Bridgers’ and Dacus’ first in-person meeting backstage at a Philadelphia festival, greenroom hangouts that felt instantly comfortable and compatible, a couple of long email chains and even a secret handshake between Baker and Dacus – the lyrically and musically arresting singer-songwriters and kindred spirits got to know each other on their own terms.

STAFF COMMENTS

Darryl says: A wonderful folky flecked EP from the amazing combined talents of Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus.

TRACK LISTING

Bite The Hand
Me & My Dog
Souvenir
Stay Down
Salt In The Wound
Ketchum, ID

Phoebe Bridgers wrote her first song at age 11, spent her adolescence at open mic nights and busked through her teenage years at farmers markets in her native Los Angeles. By age 20, she’d caught the ear of Ryan Adams, who listened to her perform her song ‘Killer’ in his LA studio, inviting her to come back and record it there the next day. The session blossomed into the three song ‘Killer’ EP, released to much acclaim on Adams’s Pax-Am label in 2015. In the two short years since, Bridgers has toured or played with Conor Oberst, Julien Baker, City And Colour, Violent Femmes, Mitski, Television and Blake Babies among others.

Now Phoebe Bridgers releases her debut full-length, ‘Stranger In The Alps’. From the weeping strings and ‘Twin Peaks’ twangs of opening track ‘Smoke Signals’, to the simple heartbreak of ‘Funeral’ and melancholic crescendo of ‘Scott Street’, ‘Stranger In The Alps’ is a swooningly beautiful record with a gothic heart.

‘Stranger In The Alps’ features guest vocals by Conor Oberst and John Doe.

TRACK LISTING

1 Smoke Signals
2 Motion Sickeness
3 Funeral
4 Demi Moore
5 Scott Street
6 Killer
7 Goergia
8 Chelsea
9 Would You Rather
10 You Missed My Heart

First release on Dead Oceans from former Woods man Kevin Morby, whose Jonathan Richman-esque vignettes are an understated treat.

Texan soul singer Leon Bridges releases his debut album 'Coming Home' on Columbia Records. Produced by Austin Jenkins and Josh Block of White Denim, the album features the previously released tracks 'Better Man', 'Coming Home' and 'Lisa Sawyer'. Inspired by 60s soul sounds, and specifically the legendary Sam Cooke, Bridges pays homage to the the classic era of soul. One for fans of Truth & Soul, Daptone, Amy Winehouse, Aloe Blacc etc.

TRACK LISTING

01. Coming Home
02. Better Man
03. Brown Skin Girl
04. Smooth Sailin
05. Shine
06. Lisa Sawyer
07. Flowers
08. Pull Away
09. Twistin' & Groovin
10. River"

Led by Robbie Stern (guitar) and Stephanie Davin (vocals), the debut EP from Post Louis was mastered at the famed Abbey Road Studios and comes brimming with promise.

Stern built a name for himself early, playing guitar in Cajun Dance Party, but with Post Louis he has traded rollicking, rough edges for a more classic indie rock sound. Sweeping solos and blazing riffs are joined by Davin’s magnificent vocals, which manage to be both devastatingly fragile and calmly tranquil; her lyrics are thoughtful and act as a gorgeous counter to the subtle electronic elements and swirls of feedback that surround the EP’s four tracks.

“Post Louis is, in many ways, a completely fresh project. Taking a more classic sound in new directions, the duo fuse traditional songwriting with subtle glimpses of electronica” - Clash

“Post Louis have succeeded in creating a thrilling revivalism of their own” - Fake DIY

“A debut EP that makes for essential listening” - The Quietus

“‘This Could Be A Bridge’ is a slack rock epic, building to buzzy crescendos with rubbery riffs… melodramatic lyrics, and quick flashes of guitar god soloing from Stern” - Pitchfork

"Falling Off The Lavender Bridge" was recorded in Omaha, Nebraska with producer Mike Mogis (Saddle Creek) and features special guest appearances from the likes of Emmy The Great, members of Cursive, The Faint and Tilly And The Wall.

This CDEP features two great hardcore bands from their own respective sides of the US. Death Threat are a hardcore band from Connecticut who have toured with Agnostic Front, Hatebreed and others. Over My Dead Body are a straight edge hardcore band from San Diego California. A cover version and two new originals of totally in yer face hardcore.

From the ashes of Buried Alive and Carry On comes Terror. Holy shit!!! This lot have to be one of the best hardcore bands going into 2003 totally up yer arse mayhem.

Does this band really need any introduction? Slapshot put Boston Hardcore back on the map in 1985, and are continuing to do so today. This 22 song enhanced CD has all the classics re-recorded, plus two new original songs. Songs like "Hang Up Your Boots", "Day My Thoughts", "Step On It" and "Back On The Map" are now available on one disc, and are just as hard as when they were originally recorded.

Recorded while pregnant with her second child, Dee Dee's "Just Family" features a stellar line up of musicians - Stanley Clarke, George Duke, Chick Corea and Alphonso Johnson amongst them.

One of the biggest selling albums of all time and their 1970 studio swansong as a duo, it was a stylistically diverse release that was a fitting finale to the most successful rock duo ever. Now remastered with a superb demo version of the title song as one of the bonus tracks, this is a timeless and essential classic.

Pumping 70's soul jazz disco on the remastered Atlantic series. This has all the cliches, wah wah guitar, soulful ballads, disco beats and a huge brass section.