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Solex Vs Cristina Martinez & Jon Spencer

Amsterdam Throwdown, King Street Showdown

    First collaboration between DJ-musician-composer, Elisabeth Esselink and the husband and wife team of Jon Spencer (of avant-punksters Pussy Galore, Boss Hog, Heavy Trash and head honcho of Blues Explosion) and Cristina Martinez, Boss Hog frontwoman. They met after Esselink DJ’ed at a gig supporting the Blues Explosion.
    · The trio immediately recorded at Esselink’s studio beneath her indie record shop in Amsterdam, and also in New York and mailed tracks between the two as they added and edited on the way. The resultant album mixes and matches the best of both their approaches, tough, eclectic, explosive, retro and yet also at the cutting edge of 21st century dance music.

    Gemma Ray

    Gemma Ray & The Death Bell Gang

      Gemma Ray takes an unexpected detour from her acclaimed psych-soul and torch song oeuvre with a hard-edged experiment in cinematic electronica.

      Epic despite its underlying simplicity and groove, ‘Gemma Ray & The Death Bell Gang’ blends the funereal and the sinister with tenderness and yearning, with a dash of automaton-pop and a Dada-esque playfulness for good measure. Front and centre are Gemma’s trademark stirring voice and harmonies.

      Released on eco-mix and splatter coloured vinyl formats, with download card and exclusive pull-out poster by British painter Deryk Thomas (Swans, Angels of Light).

      The record was recorded at Tempelhof Flughafen in Berlin and features collaborations from sound designer Ralf Goldkind (Fantastichen Vier, Mona Mur), lap steel player Kristof Hahn (Swans), and syncussion by Andy Zammit (Jon Spencer).

      Accompanying videos for the singles ‘Come Oblivion’, ‘Howling’ and ‘Procession’ by animator Lucy Dyson (Paul McCartney, Beyonce, Courtney Barnett).

      TRACK LISTING

      No Love
      Procession
      Be Still
      Howling
      Come Oblivion
      Tempelhof Desert Inn
      I Am Not Who I Am
      The Point That Tears
      All These Things
      Blowing Up Rocks

      Jon Spencer & The Hitmakers

      Spencer Gets It Lit

        The indelible Jon Spencer (Blues Explosion, Boss Hog, Pussy Galore, Heavy Trash etc) is back with Jon Spencer & the HITmakers. 

        Spencer Gets It Lit delivers friction, excitement, and post-modern depravity in a gonzo retaliation against idiocy that is as good a balm for our collective PTSD as any. Across layers of big beats, fuzz guitar, and fat synths he spits, croons, rhapsodises, and seduces. Spencer Gets It Lit is his most complex, groovy, and fun record in years; a dark and danceable odyssey – both a studied take-down of the early 21st century, and a celebration of the place where electricity meets the mind.

        ‘The Worst Facts’ has the HITmakers chanting “It's called a fact!” over a uniquely Spencer lesson in humility. ‘Strike 3’ has Spencer exchange anxieties with HITmaker (and one half of Quasi) Sam Coomes (Jon: “This world! Make me feel bad!”, Sam: “I'm grindin' my teeth! Grindin' 'em out!” ) before they jointly erupt into the chorus of “Hot dogs! Baseball!...We're gonna die!!". Forthcoming single ‘Worm Town’ (with its gambit “Twinkle twinkle little star, tried to run but didn't get far”) is country-synth-funk that you didn't know you needed til you needed it. In ‘Get It Right Now’, Spencer mixes hitmaking with troublemaking, calling out Zuckerberg, Bezos, and, er, Jagger (“You got nothin' on me!!”). Spencer Gets It Lit is classic Jon Spencer taken to the extremis – electro-boogie, constructivist art pop, a cocktail of industrial sleaze and futurist elegance.

        Says Spencer, "Send out the Hit Signal! This is the most uncompromising album I've ever made!"

        STAFF COMMENTS

        Barry says: Over his time in the business, the inimitable Jon Spencer has crafted a huge number of killer albums across several different projects, but 'Spencer Gets Lit' might go down as one of his greatest. A joyful and clever extension of his notoriously gifted songwriting and wry lyricism. Fuzzed out grooves and jagged garage-funk of the highest order.

        TRACK LISTING

        1. Junk Man
        2. Get It Right Now
        3. Death Ray
        4. The Worst Facts
        5. Primary Baby
        6. Worm Town
        7. Bruise
        8. Layabout Trap
        9. Push Comes To Shove
        10. My Hit Parade
        11. Rotting Money
        12. Strike 3
        13. Get Up & Do It

        bonus CD Tracks
        14. Germ Vs. Jerk
        15. The Devil’s Ice Age

        Nicole Faux Naiv

        Moon Rally

          Nicole Faux Naiv is a Berlin-based dream-pop artist whose debut album ‘Moon Rally’ is released on British label Bronzerat Records (Gemma Ray, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion).

          After self-releasing two singles, including one in her native Russian tongue, producer Robbie Moore (LA Salami, Little Simz, Florence & The Machine, Anika) invited her to his Impression Studio in Berlin to record the 10 songs that make up the album.

          The result is a playful, poly-sonic expo abundant with dream-pop hooks and grooves, with her voice and synth at its halcyon heart. Born in the German Sauerland in 1995 to parents from the Soviet Union (from the Kyrgyz and Kazak regions to be exact), her upbringing was especially musical, and the trajectory of her influences is apparent on her debut.

          From 60s and 70s Russian movie soundtracks, to Russian post rock such as Agatha Christie and Kino, through to The Cure and French pop such as Air, the result is curious and inherently unique, though her song writing is simple and precise.

          Her music and imagery reflects her background, where she admits she never quite fitted in to the mould, instead finding retreat in nature, her own imagination, and ultimately her songs. Her live band feature Sally Brown (Gurr) on bass, Tobias Humble (Gang of Four/Ghostpoet) on drums, and Francisco Parisi (Minimal Schlager) on guitar.


          Sun Cutter

          Sun Cutter

            The eponymous Sun Cutter debut album, released via Bronzerat Records (Gemma Ray, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, The Still).

            Sun Cutter (real name Kevin Pearce) hails from Colchester in Essex, England. Three years ago, at the age of 33, Kevin suffered a heart attack (on a golf course). As well as having to redress some lifestyle habits, his rehabilitation involved writing and recording the Sun Cutter project. It is an album of driving, harmony-drenched indie-soul folk-pop / rock that looks to the light for reflection.

            Songs of love and protest befit the man, and his politics of empathy, evident in his lyrics, are also demonstrated by his day job as a mental health worker. His tone and delivery sometimes reveal John Lennon, Tim Buckley and Bob Dylan as an influence.

            Co-produced with pal Dean Honer (Moonlandingz, Eccentronic Research Council, Pins).

            TRACK LISTING

            What Can I Do?
            Daylight Star
            Hold Out
            Stand Your Ground
            Kodachrome
            Smile Again
            Quasar Love
            Trick
            Don’t Fail Me Now
            To The Sun
            Superstars

            Gemma Ray

            Lights Out Zoltar! (redux)

              THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2020 RELEASE AVAILABLE ONLINE ONLY AS PART OF THE AUGUST 29TH DROP DAY AT 6PM.
              LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.


              Available on limited edition pink vinyl, with extra previously unreleased tracks included on the download card, this Record Store Day exclusive is a repackaging of a long out-of-print vinyl version of Gemma Ray's sophomore solo album "Lights Out Zoltar!", on its 10th anniversary. Recorded and produced at home in London with Michael J Sheehy (Dream City Film Club, Miraculous Mule), it showcased Gemma as an original and ambitious writer and producer, an independent with a wondrous box of tricks up her sleeve.As such it received rave reviews from the international press (below), whilst "100 mph (in 2nd Gear)" was Single of the Week on BBC Radio 2's Mark Radcliffe show. "By rights she should be a household name.This album is a rare treat indeed" - John Doran (BBC/QUIETUS) "Had Phil Spector forced his girl groups in a more noir-soundtrack direction, this might've been the result.Ray has a truly impressive feel for vintage pop flourishes, layered to lavish effect.And all those details are what you're supposed to be paying attention to, right up until the blade hits your back." SPIN "Three months after I first got the album I'm still marveling at the way Ray has synthesized a whole slew of retro references into a cinematic psychedelic sound.Ray's sound is like one of those Willy Wonka Gobstoppers: it's massive and composed of layer upon layer of aural tastes and colours" - VANITY FAIR "An eerie aural kaleidoscope that conjures up thoughts of what an album by Mary Weiss of the Shangri-Las produced by David Lynch would have sounded like.Though it echoes with references to mid-'60s melodramatic pop, it's of the moment and

              Candy Bomber

              Volume 1

                The Candy Bomber sessions were spearheaded by Paul Lemp, co-owner of the studio of the same name, theatre, film and dance composer, and impassioned bass player. The sessions were his dream project of free-spirited experimentation into which he injected his boundless energy, teaming up with Thomas Wydler (drummer and longest serving member of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds) and studio partner Ingo Krauss (Conny Plank's studio engineer between 1987 and 2001) to form a core triumvirate that spiralled outwards to bring in a who's who of talented friends and studio visitors. In this volume these include Kid Congo Powers, Swiss jazz pianist Stefan Rusconi, Jochen Arbeit (Einstürzende Neubauten/Automat), Gemma Ray, Toby Dammit (Iggy Pop/Nick Cave), André Vida, Toni Kater, Charly Birkenhauer, Paul Kuchenbuch and Matthew Styles .  

                Built during the Nazi era, the building which houses Candy Bomber was once the largest in the world. (A Julian Montague impression of the building’s facade adorns the album cover). In 1948/49 it served as the hub for the Berlin airlift when the allied forces flew over 200,000 flights supplying the Western part of the city with daily necessities. The airlift also provided the name for the studio, which set up shop in rooms that previously hosted a computing centre for the CIA. The studio is now legendary in Berlin, not least for its enviable collection of vintage valve gear. With this at their disposal, Lemp, Krauss and Wydler established an environment for sessions that were organic, pressure-free and, more or less, agenda-less. The end result is sonic art unimpeded - a wild cocktail of originality, intensity, beauty, sincerity, and stunning freeform musicianship - underscored by a Dada-ist playfulness and motivating force. But this is not a work of chin-stroking abstraction. Here you will hear some of the coolest jams, ones that will peel your face off.  

                Tragically, Paul Lemp died prematurely and unexpectedly in summer 2015, before the Candy Bomber sessions were finished. Krauss and Wydler finished the record shortly after, and despite his passing (and as the Vol. 1 of the title suggests) - intend to continue them in his honour.

                TRACK LISTING

                1 Cut!
                2 Butterfist
                3 Slow Blow
                4 Blue Melon
                5 Black Molly
                6 Switcher
                7 Hello Stomach
                8 Lokohomo
                9 North

                United Sounds Of Joy are a new collaboration between Michael J Sheehy and former Dream City Film Club bandmate Alex Vald. Their self-titled debut album is released on Bronze Rat Records on CD / LP / digital download.

                “Don’t call it a reunion,” spits Michael J Sheehy, “we’re not even a band in the traditional fashion.” Dream City Film Club were signed to Beggars Banquet within a year of forming in 1995, releasing an album and recording two Peel sessions before Vald was unceremoniously kicked out. “Alex was dismissed because he was the only decent human being in the band,” says Sheehy. “We were intent on dismantling the band from the off. Everyone was pulling in different directions, each with his own very particular variety of personality disorder, drug abuse or mental illness. And if all that stuff hadn’t got us then I’m sure we would have buckled beneath the weight of our own very lofty pretensions.”

                Almost two decades removed from each other’s musical energies, Vald and Sheehy have reunited to craft some heartrending, mind-bending music. Coming on like Joe Meek and Goldfrapp entangled in some ancient machinery, the first-listen track ‘The Sun That Hides A Darker Star’ is a magnificent, shimmering sound. Amongst others, Lauren Laverne picked up on the track, with regular spins, describing it thusly; “if David Cronenberg directed a spaghetti western, we reckon it would feel a little like this.”

                Featuring contributions from Fiona Brice and Gemma Ray, the album is full of alluring, devious pop noir, the songs immersed in an eerie, crepuscular pool of fuzzy, warmly welcoming psychedelics. United Sounds Of Joy traverse a road to a new and rewarding gothic chanson.

                The beautiful cover is by Russian artist Aleksandra Laika.

                TRACK LISTING

                Seams Of Sorrow
                The Sun That Hides A Darker Star
                Dust Veil
                Wounded Moon
                She Sets The Stars In Motion
                I Hear Her Call My Name
                Queen Of Seven Dials
                Free To Fall

                Joe Gideon

                Versa Vicei

                  ‘Versa Vice’ is the debut solo record by Joe Gideon, one half of the acclaimed sibling duo Joe Gideon & The Shark. After Joe Gideon & The Shark called it a day in 2013, Gideon called on the assistance of friend, neighbour and drummer Jim Sclavunos (Grinderman / Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds) to try out an arsenal of songs and to see if Gideon could even play the guitar again, after a wrist injury put him out of action for the best part of a year. (Jim and Gideon became friends after Joe Gideon & The Shark toured with The Bad Seeds on their ‘Dig Lazarus Dig’ tour back in 2008.)

                  Together they laid down the foundations of ‘Versa Vice’, recorded by Rich Matthews and finished by Gideon at home, after further assistance by friends Ed Harcourt (piano / organ) and Duke Garwood (horns) on a handful of tracks. The album was mixed by Head (PJ Harvey, Smoke Fairies).

                  ‘Versa Vice’ is a rollicking storytelling romp through themes of love (see ‘The Lady With The Metallic Voice’) and madness (see ‘Eugene Went Crazy’, inspired by photographer W Eugene Smith, or his cover of Porter Wagoner’s ‘Rubber Room’), executed sharply with a post-punk / new wave bent (‘Naked Eye’, ‘Heart Attack Girl’) or with meditative tenderness (‘The Past Is Never Over’).

                  Opener ‘Eve’s Rib’ is a heralding cry of intent, pierced through with Sclavunos’ fierce drums which drag you out of your chair.

                  Fans of Joe Gideon & The Shark will no doubt recognise and appreciate the same spirit of his previous output, with his genuinely eccentric and character-driven tales of falling apart at the seams but ‘Versa Vice’ is more than just Joe Gideon sans Shark. Let off the leash, instead of losing himself to feral abandon, Gideon’s music has become more succinct, the music more immediate, the voice louder and clearer.

                  Monk Parker

                  How The Spark Loves The Tinder

                  Monk Parker releases his debut solo record ‘How The Spark Loves The Tinder’ on Bronze Rat Records. Featuring over 30 musicians including members of The Polyphonic Spree and Okkervil River, it was recorded over a two-year period of dislocation following the breakup of his previous band The Low- Lows and Parker’s subsequent move to Austin TX.

                  Parker serves up a funereal but majestic alt-Americana that is altogether reflective and intimate. It may well lay you down gently but soon enough its horn-led orchestration will lift your tingling spine to upright. Stately, dreamlike waltzes build to explosive, gospeltinged climaxes and a woozy country narcosis akin to Skygreen Leopards or The Low Anthem alternates with Velvets-style feedback drones and buried noise melodies.

                  All in all Parker has a sculpted a sound that charts a dreamy path for his damning tales of carnality and affection (“Sadly yes I know just where to go / Sadly yes we can all three see the bright writing on the marquee”, goes the first line on the record, from a song about a love triangle gone inexplicably right).

                  TRACK LISTING

                  Sadly Yes
                  I Am A Gun
                  The Happy Hours
                  Wanna Be Forgotten
                  Idle In Idlewild
                  Black Bees
                  Raining In Eva
                  The Great Fires

                  Heavy Trash

                  Noir

                    This vinyl-only special edition record from Jon Spencer’s alter-ego Heavy Trash is an album of previously unreleased wig outs, instrumentals, outtakes and other unhinged gems recorded throughout the band’s lifetime.

                    Jon Spencer and Matt Verta-Ray, the men known as Heavy Trash, never thought that anyone could be watching or listening, let alone recording, when they perpetrated these middle-of-the-night flip-outs, improvisations, instrumentals and dangerous experiments in unchecked soul exposition and naked desire. Had they known the tape was rolling we would never have this demented document of darkness and decay. However, their demons have come to light and you are now invited to dance through the dusky shadows of a musical group on the edge.

                    ‘Noir!’ is not for the weak, the uninitiated, dabblers or dilettantes. Seriés Aph?nos has gone to special pains to ensure that this record will never be a hit. You cannot give the people what they want, nor can you give this record back.

                    This is the 7th instalment of Seriés Aph?nos - a leftof- centre vinyl library concentrating on instrumentals, soundtracks and strange treasures from hidden corners. Previous instalments include the first vinyl release of Krzysztof Komeda’s soundtrack to Roman Polanski’s ‘Dance Of The Vampires’, Zarelli’s ‘Soft Rains’ (a sci-fi musical featuring Leonard Nimoy narrating a Ray Bradbury tale), and Cremator’s synthfest ‘Clear Air Turbulence’, amongst others.

                    Miraculous Mule

                    Deep Fried

                      Rock ‘n’ roll-infused spirituals and dangerous blues. From London.

                      London trio Miraculous Mule deliver a slick and seemingly effortless rock ‘n’ roll, but it’s knife-edge stuff. The slick and effortless part comes from the fact that these boys have been cutting their teeth and earning their stripes over the years with a devout immersion in Gothic American roots music, before that particular bandwagon arrived in town again, and again after it left.

                      Brothers Michael and Pat were born into a rock ‘n’ roll home, with Elvis and Tammy as surrogate parents. Michael J Sheehy has fronted Dream City Film Club, Michael J Sheehy And The Hired Mourners and Saint Silas Intercession, with his brother Pat at his side for the most part. Witnesses to these outings of theirs will know that the soul and the confrontation they sweated was, and is, real.

                      The edge that they skirt likely comes in part from their school of hard knocks upbringing, with all three from the same central London estate, all three lifelong companions. Michael is a welltraversed talent but he can’t remember much of it, even if his well-earned following can. His recent moment of salvation came when he was rescued from his burning flat, asleep and alone, a midnight fry-up gone wrong. Having spent years in a boozy London wilderness, there is now a cool and steady focus here which brings their nihilistic history in line with a resolute future.

                      Live and on record, Miraculous Mule do indeed kick like their namesake. Music for dancing, praying, loving and fighting.

                      TRACK LISTING

                      Run On
                      Satisfied
                      Dangerous Blues
                      Evil On My Mind
                      I Just Can’t Keep From Crying
                      Early In The Mornin’
                      Bal' Headed Woman
                      Country Circuit Preacher
                      I’m A Soldier
                      Prettiest Train

                      Heavy Trash

                      Midnight Soul Serenade

                        Jon Spencer and Matt Verta-Ray continue to ransack 50s, 60s, and 70s, punk, blues and rock'n'roll on this their third album, "Midnight Soul Serenade", which is already being cited as Jon Spencer's best work since "Orange". With Heavy Trash, the full throttle rollercoaster ride of Spencer\'s Blues Explosion, has slowed a little, but there\'s still plenty of the swagger and charm that hooked us all in from the start. The album sees Spencer croon and holler his way through a collection of blues, rockabilly and punk-rock\'n\'roll, with Verta-Ray\'s guitar licks, organ and rattling snare providing the backdrop. There\'s even a spoken word track too: Although it doesn\'t quite fit with the rest of the album somehow, the dark, surreal "The Pill" is Spencer at his storytelling best and one of my favourite tracks on the album. The Blues man is still No 1!!!

                        Joe Gideon & The Shark

                        Harum Scarum

                          Debut album from stunning new brother and sister indie rock power duo, formerly of Bikini Atoll and currently one of Nick Cave's favourite bands. Joe Gideon provides guitar and unique, half-spoken lead vocals, telling darkly hilarious tales of his trips around the world (he once judged a Miss Bolivia contest!), while sister Viva provides backing on drums, keyboards and 8-track. She used to be a 'rhythmic gymnast', competing at the Barcelona Olympics and winning a bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games.

                          Congregation

                          Congregation

                            Debut album from London new-blues duo discovered by Duke Spirit and Bronzerat (discoverers of Seasick Steve). Taking roots music and injecting it with modern class and soul. This is their first album, and already excitement abounds. It features the fantastic voice of Victoria Yeulet, whose fans include Leila Moss and Holly Golightly. Ben Prosser, the other one, is the critically acclaimed frontman of The Tap Collective. Highly recommended!!!!!


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