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

TRACK LISTING

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

Canadian/American poet, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Vera Sola makes timeless, mind-bending sound, evoking comparisons to Nick Cave, Nancy Sinatra, Leonard Cohen and PJ Harvey. Following debut album Shades (2018), written, performed and produced entirely alone.


"Brooding, ethereal indie-folk with subtle Western influences anda sharpsenseofsocial consciousness.... A skilled multi-instrumentalist... and lyrical talent, too, one with an auteur's sense of mood and atmosphere." RollingStone

TRACK LISTING

1. Bad Idea
2. The Line
3. I’m Lying
4. Get Wise
5. Desire Path
6. Waiting
7. Bird House
8. Hands
9. Is That You?
10. Blood Bond
11. Instrument Of War

Sprints' debut album ‘Letter to Self' embodies their substantial evolution over the past 3 years. Transforming pain into truth, passion into purpose and perseverance into strength, the Dublin four-piece have steadily grown in stature, releasing two acclaimed EPs and building a fearsome live reputation.

'Letter to Self' is the sound of Sprints consolidating and levelling up. Exhibiting their most vulnerable moments and imbuing their visceral garage-punk with a palpable sense of catharsis that we can all benefit from.

Inspired by Savages, their sound matured into energetic and abrasive garage-punk, synthesising influences ranging from early Pixies, Bauhaus, Siouxsie Sioux, Idles and LCD Soundsystem.

Singer, guitarist and lead-songwriter Karla Chubb tackles her inner turmoil head-on, and uses her platform to address inequality and issues close to hear heart, like the campaign for 'Repeal The 8th', and women’s ongoing fight for bodily autonomy, struggles with self acceptance, identity, mental health struggles, sexuality and catholic guilt.

For their debut album the band set about transforming so-called “negative energy” into an opportunity for communal catharsis and healing. Karla Chubb explains sums up message that lies at the very heart of the album: “No matter what you're born into, or have experienced, there's a way to emerge from this and be happy within yourself.”

TRACK LISTING

A1 Ticking
A2 Heavy
A3 Cathedral
A4 Shaking Their Hands
A5 Adore Adore Adore
A6 Shadow Of A Doubt
B7 Can’t Get Enough Of It
B8 Literary Mind
B9 A Wreck (A Mess)
B10 Up And Comer
B11 Letter To Self

London based pan-continental female four piece Los Bitchos are undoubtedly one of the breakthrough bands on 2022, and they are ending the year the only way they know how, by celebrating! Having played their retro-futuristic blend of Peruvian chicha, Argentine cumbia, Turkish psych and surf guitars at over 95 shows across 20 countries since their debut album was released on City Slang in February 2022, the band are releasing 2 new festive tracks to mark the end of an incredible year. ‘Los Chrismos’ and ‘Tipp Tapp’ will be released digitally and physically on a flexi disc bundled with a red vinyl re-press of their album ‘Let The Festivities Begin!’. Let the festivities begin continue!

TRACK LISTING

Side A:
1. The Link Is About To Die
2. I Enjoy It
3. Pista (Fresh Start)
4. FFS
5. Tropico

Side B:
6. Las Panteras
7. Good To Go!
8. Change Of Heart
9. Tripping At A Party
10. Try The Circle!
11. Lindsay Goes To Mykonos

Flexi Disc:
A1: Los Chrismos
B1: Tipp Tapp

Chicago-based multi-instrumentalist Sen Morimoto’s third album Diagnosis sees him flip the script. After releasing two albums – 2018 debut Cannonball! and a 2021 self- titled follow-up – via his own Sooper Records, the artist signed to City Slang to co- release his third album alongside Sooper, and it came at a time of fundamental change.

The 12 tracks here, recorded at Chicago’s Friends Of Friends studio with a few close collaborators, skip between funky, bright jazz-pop (‘Bad State’), intricate guitar-based tracks with a Radiohead feel (“What You Say”) and orchestral wonderlands “Forsythia (レンギョウの旋律)". Highlight “Pressure On The Pulse,” meanwhile, is a devastatingly intimate, quiet song that then explodes into an exuberant, animated whirlwind of sax and drums. A chameleonic figure at the album’s core, he can rip out a sax solo, dive deep into intimate singer-songwriter territory and lead massive, roaring alt-pop songs with equal aplomb.

Morimoto describes his musical reference points for the album as “equal parts Funkadelic and Dinosaur Jr.,” and while these touchpoints can be heard all over the record, it doesn’t feel beholden to them, instead using their inspiration before moving beyond it.

TRACK LISTING

1. If The Answer Isn't Love
2. Bad State
3. St. Peter Blind
4. Diagnosis
5. Pressure On The Pulse
6. Naive
7. Feel Change
8. What You Say
9. Surrender
10. Deeper
11. Pain
12. Forsythia (レンギョウの旋律)
13. Reality

For Volker Bertelmann, aka HAUSCHKA, music is not solely about its sound, but also a means to facilitate the exchange of ideas and foster meaningful interactions between individuals, revealing his fascination with human connection and engagement. Despite being known for his distinctive prepared piano sound, the Academy Award-winning composer intentionally named his 15th solo studio album PHILANTHROPY to express his compassion and openness. The album's song titles, such as "Diversity," "Nature," "Loved Ones," and "Altruism," perfectly align with their respective musical compositions. HAUSCHKA's albums often serve as a platform to provoke dialogue on specific themes, and PHILANTHROPY follows this pattern, aiming to offer optimism and energy in response to the challenges of recent years. The album combines upbeat and pensive pieces, featuring moments of joy, introspection, and peaceful interludes. Overall, PHILANTHROPY showcases HAUSCHKA's compositional prowess and serves as a gift that sparks reflection and celebration.

TRACK LISTING

1. Diversity
2. Searching
3. Inventions
4. Detached
5. Limitation Of Lifetime
6. Nature
7. Science
8. Loved Ones
9. Generosity
10. Magnanimity
11. Altruism
12. Noise

McKinley Dixon calls the late Toni Morrison the greatest rapper of all time; and the way he tackles topics like survival, violence, and religion within the expansive landscape of the Black experience, evokes her novels. It is from the title of Morrison‘s Beloved trilogy where he finds the title of his new album with City Slang Records out June 2: Beloved! Paradise! Jazz!? Musically his household was defined by “artists whose first name was Mary,” including Mary J. Blige and gospel duo Mary Mary. Discovering Outkast was formative for Dixon, deepening his love for hip-hop while he also grew curious about the more theatrical rock of groups of the day, bands like My Chemical Romance and Panic! At The Disco that his Maryland friends introduced him to.

“Those groups also helped me with my sense of longing, since their music reflected a sense of longing,” he says. Eventually he channeled these competing influences into a debut EP he released in 2013. With time, his music became his primary means of self-expression, whether discussing Blackness or his own relationship with healing. Across his next releases, his style evolved and his confidence grew, especially when it came to live instrumentation.

His 2021 debut album For My Mama and Anyone Who Look Like Her was a game changer, as Dixon set his sights on heartache and grief. “I was making these really dense and chaotic songs, stuffing whatever thought I had into five and a half minutes,” Dixon says of that project. Beloved! Paradise! Jazz?! is an attempt at channeling different impulses. Sometimes rough and other times delicate, this record is a journey into is a journey into the psyche of McKinley Dixon, with all of the of the attendant peaks and valleys.

TRACK LISTING

1. Hanif Reads Toni (Feat. Hanif)
2. Sun, I Rise (feat. Angélica Garcia)
3. Mezzanine Tippin' (Feat. Teller Bank$, Alfred.)
4. Run, Run, Run
5. Live! From The Kitchen Table (Feat. Ghais Guevara)
6. Tyler, Forever
7. Dedicated To Tar Feather (Feat. Anjimile)
8. The Story So Far (Interlude)
9. The Story So Far (Feat. Seline Haze)
10. Beloved! Paradise! Jazz!? (Feat. Ms. Jaylin Brown)

In early 2003, Calexico released their seminal album ‘Feast of Wire’, the album that truly marked the duo’s critical and commercial breakthrough. Beginning in June, the band will play a series of headline shows across the year performing the landmark ‘Feast of Wire’ in full as well as a slew of beloved songs from the band’s full repertoire. In addition to the headline dates, the band will play a handful of festivals as well across Europe

TRACK LISTING

Feast Of Wire - LP1 (45 RPM):
A01 Sunken Waltz
A02 Quattro (World Drifts In)
A03 Stucco
A04 Black Heart
B05 Pepita
B06 Not Even Stevie Nicks...
B07 Close Behind
B08 Woven Birds

LP2 (45 Rpm):
C09 The Book And The Canal
C10 Attack! El Robot! Attack!
C11 Across The Wire
C12 Dub Latina
C13 Güero Canelo
D14 Alone Again Or (Bonus Track)
D15 Whipping The Horse's Eye
D16 Crumble
D17 No Doze

More Cowboys In Sweden - Live At China Theatre Stockholm, 25.04.2003 - LP3 (33 RPM):
E18 Pepita
E19 Across The Wire
E20 Quattro
E21 Dub Latina
E22 Sunken Waltz
E23 Not Even Stevie Nicks
E24 Woven Birds
E25 Güero Canelo
E26 Black Heart
E27 Alone Again Or

Following the initial success of their single ‘Literary Mind’ (produced by Daniel Fox, Gilla Band), garage-punk sensation Sprints from Dublin, Ireland have signed to City Slang and are re-releasing it b/w a live version recorded at a raucous show at Dublin’s legendary venue Whelan’s. It's a testament to their explosive live show, and further evidence that they are one of the most ferocious and exciting acts to emerge in recent years.

This first release for their new label, City Slang features the original version and live version.

TRACK LISTING

Side A:
1. Literary Mind
Side B:
2. Literary Mind (Live At Whelan's)

Sometimes a band arrives out of nowhere, with a fully formed sound ready to fill a stadium. King Hannah are one of those bands. The Liverpool band led by the creative force of Hannah Merrick and Craig Whittle have arrived with ‘Tell Me Your Mind and I'll Tell You Mine’, an EP that is both soothing in its moods and intoxicating in its rushing soundscapes, containing a sound that is both brand new and completely mature. Their neon guitar lines and intimate torchlight vocals put the everyday on a pedestal, lifted by melodic licks that swell into dense and swirling atmospheric textures.

‘Tell Me Your Mind and I'll Tell You Mine’ sounds like late nights and early mornings, from the beauty and closeness of acoustic guitar in opener "And Then Out of Nowhere, It Rained", to the final immersive thicket of distorted guitars in “Reprise (Moving Day)”. In between, "Meal Deal" is smoky backroom Americana transposed onto the precarity of finding somewhere to live; "Bill Tench" feels like melancholic euphoria of travelling in fast cars at night – drums flash past like lines on the asphalt with angular guitars.

"Crème Brûlée" is a moody fugged-out ballad for the everyday, and "The Sea Has Stretch Marks" conjures a whirling post-rock exploration of cinematic memories. King Hannah lean in to immersive moments in their music.

TRACK LISTING

1. And Then Out Of Nowhere, It Rained
2. Meal Deal
3. Bill Tench
4. Crème Brûlée
5. The Sea Has Stretch Marks
6. Reprise (Moving Day)

Nina Grollman’s moniker, Softee, isn’t just a sardonic nod to the thrifty, soft-serve giant, it’s an earnest - sometimes painfully so - descriptor of the Brooklyn based artist’s approach to love and music. Her work is a kaleidoscopic exploration of wrought emotion, tinged with influences as sundry as Robyn, Janet Jackson, and the pure, unfettered melodrama of 80s pop. But whether she’s wrestling through a heartbreak, or making sense of her sexuality, Softee weaves her anxiety and unrest into urgently joyful, angsty queer pop. Her song “Crush,” featured on the 2022 Queer as Folk reboot, was described by Rolling Stone as “a swooning synth-pop gem that opens up at the bridge with a stream of strings that give the song a vintage disco feel, like glittery teardrops hitting the dance floor,”. Back in the day, the Moorhead, Minnesota born artist remembers Fargo-esque winters in her makeshift bedroom studio: recording Katy Perry covers and uploading them to Youtube, writing songs, and unleashing the emotional rhythm that would eventually lead her to experiment with loop pedals across New York City DIY stages alongside Linda Diaz, Sir Babygirl, Blaketheman1000 and Francesca D’Uva.

TRACK LISTING

Side A:
The Floor
Isn't Enough
Molly
Natural
Come Home
Side B:
Fix It (Feat. Namir Blade & Jordan Webb)
Grief
Real Love
Red Light Green Light
U + Me Forever (WDYT) 

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

Since the release of his highly acclaimed album "Local Valley" in 2021, Jose González has continuously released digital EP's with re-works and remixes by world-renowned electronic artists and producers. The Record Store Day exclusive 12" contains the highlights so far with remixes by DJ Koze, Sofia Kourtesis, Solomun, Roosevelt as well as surprises like the really crazy Dungen remix. The 12" comes as a strictly limited yellow vinyl with seven remixes. There are 1,500 units each for the North American and European Record Store Day.

TRACK LISTING

Side A:
A1. Tjomme (DJ Koze Remix)
A2. El Invento (Sofia Kourtesis Remix)
A3. Visions (Ela Minus Remix)
A4. Visions (Dungen Remix)
Side B:
B1. Swing (Solomun Remix)
B2. Swing (Roosevelt Remix)
B3. Head On (Miss Grit Remix)

At its core, Grandbrothers’ music represents a communion between the old and the new.

On their extraordinary new album Late Reflections, the German-Swiss duo place their art in communion with an institution so old it predates their music by seven centuries: Cologne Cathedral. The iconic monument of Gothic architecture, which is both a UNESCO World Heritage Site and Germany’s most visited landmark, served as an unorthodox recording studio for Grandbrothers’ fourth album, marking the only time the Cathedral has ever permit- ted a recording of this kind. The resulting album pulses with a rare sense of history and archi- tecture, allowing the spatial properties of this magnificent building to shape and deepen the timbre of the duo’s swelling compositions.

Grandbrothers have made a career out of spurning tradition. Formed in Düsseldorf, Germany, more than a decade ago, the piano duo creates richly textured music that straddles the boundaries between ambient, minimalism, and electronica.

TRACK LISTING

1. Daybreak
2. Infinite
3. On Solid Ground
4. Golden Dust
5. North/South
6. Adrift
7. Yokohama Rascals
8. Bloom
9. Vertigo
10. Boy In The Storm

The Something Rain was recorded in bursts over approximately a year, from May 2010 to August 2011 and mixed in September- October 2011. It was a time of experimentation, of searching and honing down a shape and sound. Of the twenty or so ideas they set out with, nine songs became the final album.

The Something Rain was recorded in bursts over approximately a year, from May 2010 to August 2011 and mixed in September- October 2011. It was a time of experimentation, of searching and honing down a shape and sound. Of the twenty or so ideas they set out with, nine songs became the final album. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Chocolate
2. Show Me Everything
3. This Fire Of Autumn
4. A Night So Still
5. Slippin' Shoes
6. Medicine
7. Frozen
8. Come Inside
9. Goodbye Joe

With "Our Love", Dan Snaith made his highly anticipated return to the long player, faced with the unenviable task of following up an undeniable classic, 2010's "Swim". That universally adored album (placed in the Piccadilly Records End Of Year Top 3) saw Snaith complete the journey from the pastoral electronica of his early work as Manitoba, through the woozy hip hop inflected beats of "Milk Of Human Kindness" and "Andorra" to the undisputed champion of leftfield house. "Our Love" sees the producer joining the dots between the synth led euphoria of his dancefloor productions and the polyrhythmic rattle of his Daphni project while offering new take on warm and expansive future soul, while featuring his strongest songwriting to date.

Snaith makes his intentions clear from the off, with album opener "Can't Do Without You" picking up right where "Sun" left off, but with the euphoria turned all the way up to 11 thanks to crescendant synths and heartfelt vocals. Recent single "Our Love" falls into the same camp, pairing emotional vocals and melodies with a skipping garage beat, while organic synths and Owen Pallett's darting strings provide a richly textured backing. The warm analogue sounds of futuristic soul weave themselves deep into the record’s DNA, particularly on "Silver", "Second Chance" (featuring Jesse Lanza's seductive vocals) and "Back Home". These immersive synth ballads form intimate moments of calm between the driving house and garage of "Can't Do Without You" and "Our Love", the Daphni-styled dancefloor diaspora of "Mars" and the raving interludes "Dive" and "Julia Brightly". Snaith's mastery of these diverse styles, and the ease with which he moulds them into his artistic vision is a testament to his mature and accomplished songwriting. Nowehere is this so clear as on the LP finale and crowning moment "Your Love Will Set You Free", which combines the soulful with the driving, the melancholic with the euphoric, bringing the album to a gorgeous bitter sweet conclusion. Ultimately, Snaith has delivered a worthy follow up to "Swim", which is high praise indeed.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Can't Do Without You
A2. Silver
A3. All I Ever Need
A4. Our Love
A5. Dive
B1. Second Chance
B2. Julia Brightly
B3. Mars
B4. Back Home
B5. Your Love Will Set You Free

In November 2022, GOLD PANDA released his long-awaited album "The Work". It includes the two singles "I've Felt Better (Than I Do Now)" & "Plastic Future". These were remixed by Gold Panda's friend and companion Daniel Avery and the one and only Skee Mask respectively

TRACK LISTING

Side A: I’ve Felt Better (Daniel Avery Remix)
Side B: Plastic Future (Skee Mask Remix)

Anna B Savage has always asked questions in her music, but on new album in|FLUX answers are no longer her quest. Vulnerability and curiosity have consistently been operative words to describe her work and on her second album she ruminates on the complexities and variables of humanity, the pain or pleasure of love, loss and earthly connection, capturing it all in devasta- ting, elating and powerful ways. The key difference between this and previous releases: she’s not anxious about what’s on the other side. She’s come to appreciate staying afloat - basking even - in the open ended, uncertainty of the grey area.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: In|Flux is an inventive juxtaposition of near spoken-word ruminations and intricate, jazz influenced rhythms, soaring and mournful in equal measure. Wisps of acoustic instruments (like guitar and chimes) weave themselves into Savage's hypnotic vocals.

TRACK LISTING

A1 The Ghost
A2 I Can Hear The Birds Now A3 Pavlov‘s Dog
A4 Crown Shyness
A5 Say My Name
B1 In|FLUX
B2 Hungry
B3 Feet Of Clay
B4 Touch Me
B5 The Orange

Junip originally formed in Gothenburg, Sweden, in 2000 by José González (guitar, vocals), Elias Araya (drums) and Tobias Winterkorn (organ/moog). Junip have periodically gathered together and recorded when schedules permitted, but this is the first time all the members have focused exclusively on the band. Their sound will be familiar to those who have listened to González’s acclaimed records, but added to the mix on top of his nylon stringed guitar and distinctive voice are organs, analogue synths and drums. The influences are diverse and wide-ranging, from Neu! to Shuggie Otis and John Martyn, while the place to which it takes you is one of pastoral contemplation, hazy summer memories and autumnal grace…

TRACK LISTING

1. In Every Direction
2. Always
3. Rope & Summit
4. Without You
5. It's Alright
6. Howl
7. Sweet & Bitter
8. Don't Let It Pass
9. Off Point
10. To The Grain
11. Tide 

The story of Gold Panda’s journey from an acclaimed debut record to his third full length album, is an entirely circular one. Hailing from Chelmsford Essex in the UK, in the six years since the release of his genre-defining debut album ‘Lucky Shiner’, the electronic artist most comfortable with the moniker Derwin Panda spent the subsequent years splitting the majority of his time between London, Berlin and countless excursions to Japan. As he created his third album "Good Luck And Do Your Best" he ultimately found himself back where he began, in the East of England.

TRACK LISTING

A1 Metal Bird
A2 In My Car
A3 Chiba Nights
A4 Pink And Green
A5 Song For A Dead Friend
B1 I Am Real Punk
B2 Autumn Fall
B3 Halyards
B4 Time Eater
B5 Unthank
B6 Your Good Times Are Just Beginning

It’s not too rare that an artist would be able to timeline their own personal experiences and growth via the records they release, but very few electronic artists have done it as emotively as Gold Panda. Album title The Work is both a literal statement of the record he took six years to make and deliver, and then, digging deeper, a revelation that it reflects just as much to how he arrived in this place now. The result is a rich album that exudes an assured calm and creative wonder with an artist who’s spent so long getting there

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: It's wonderful to see Gold Panda return with 'The Work', brimming with feel good glitched groove and mpc-led hip-hop adjacent instrumentals. Blissful but with off-kilter melodic counterpoint to scuff the edges of the bright synthetic scree. Really beautiful, but tinged with meditative sadness.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Swimmer
A2. The Dream
A3. The Corner
A4. The Want
A5. I've Felt Better (Than I Do Now)
B1. Plastic Future
B2. New Days
B3. I Spiral
B4. Arima
B5. Chrome
B6. Joni's Room

Holes in your collection?! You're in luck!

We're very excited to present limited edition re-presses of two essential albums by Anna von Hausswolff. The 2015 album The Miraculous and the 2018 masterpiece Dead Magic. Both albums are coming back in print on limited edition coloured vinyl!

TRACK LISTING

1. The Truth, The Glow, The Fall
2. The Mysterious Vanishing Of Electra
3. The Marble Eye
4. Ugly And Vengeful
5. Källans återuppståndelse

Kurt Wagner found himself in Minneapolis in the sweltering summer of 2021, in a decommissioned paint factory turned practice space, when everybody was still kind of looking at everybody else as a potential source of disease. He entrusted himself to this piano player, Andrew Broder, and his mad genius of a production partner, Ryan Olson. “Ryan and Andrew, they’re like two sides of my personality,” Wagner says. “And if you put them together as a team, they represent me.” This would be the first time Wagner let somebody else -not to mention somebody else without any sort of a connection to holy, old Nashville - produce a Lambchop record.

It was in that decommissioned paint factory in Minneapolis, watching a bunch of burnout freaks play their instruments, that Wagner found his way to writing The Bible. The sessions reminded him of those long-ago days at the Springwater Supper Club in Nashville, when he first brought the afterparty back to his house. But maybe because he wasn’t the one making the afterparty rules this time, the music on The Bible is more unpredictable than it’s ever been on a Lambchop record. Jazz careening into country, into disco, into funk, and back to country. This is Lambchop’s new album - born in a new place, but out of a process that he first discovered back home in Nashville, the one that helped him find his own voice in the first place. Amen. This is The Bible.

TRACK LISTING

A1. His Song Is Sung
A2. Little Black Boxes
A3. Daisy
B1. Whatever, Mortal
B2. A Major Minor Drag
B3. Police Dog Blues
C1. Dylan At The Mousetrap
C2. Every Child Begins The World Again
C3. So There
C4. That's Music

Side D. Etching (No Music) 

Caribou’s sun-kissed psychedelia album turns 15 this year.

Review from 2007:
Caribou, otherwise known as the composer of euphoric, dazzlingly beautiful electronic psychedelia, Dan Snaith, returns with a rousing album, "Andorra". Since releasing the "The Milk Of Human Kindness", The acclaimed album was an affirmation, after the blow delivered by rock relic Handsome 'Dick' Manitoba (who for reasons best known to himself, sued Snaith in 2003 over the use of his previous musical moniker Manitoba, effecting the name change to Caribou), that Snaith's fanbase had remained loyal and what's more, continued to grow.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. Melody Day
2. Sandy
3. After Hours
4. She's The One
5. Desiree
Side B
6. Eli
7. Sundialing 8. Irene
9. Niobe

MR. M is Lambchop’s eleventh album on City Slang and documents the band at its best, it encapsulates one of the most profound moments in Lambchop history. Kurt Wagner turned away from music and picked up his brushes to paint his way out of a funk that followed the premature death of friend Vic Chesnutt, who the band backed on 1998’s The Salesman and Bernadette. Incidentally the paintings, thickly layered black and white portraits forming a series called Beautillion Millitaire 2000, feature on the album sleeve and throughout the full artwork-

“As I worked, I was approached by Mark Nevers (former full time band member & producer for the likes of Andrew Bird and Will Oldham) with the idea of making another Lambchop record. He had a concept of a sound and a method that worked with the tone of my writing. His idea was a kind of ‘psycha-Sinatra’ sound, one that involved the arranging of strings and other sounds in a more open and yet complex way. It was a studio creation, not a type of recording based on band performance, and this was a radical approach for us. I felt Lambchop had one more good record in us, and this time I was going to do things as directly and true to my desires as possible.”

The resulting album stretches out as sonically as promised. It was recorded at Nevers’s Nashville Beech House studio cum bungalow with the usual core of musicians- Scott Martin (drums), Matt Swanson (bass), Ryan Norris (guitar, organ), Tony Crow (piano), William Tyler (guitar). Guests include original cofounder Jonathan Marx, Cortney Tidwell (who shared vocals on 2010’s KORT project) and fiddler Billy Contreras (who has worked with all from Charlie Louvin to Laura Cantrell) - spectacular string arrangements shared between Peter Stopschinski and Mason Neely.

TRACK LISTING

1. If Not I'll Just Die
2. 2B2
3. Gone Tomorrow
4. Mr. Met
5. Gar
6. Nice Without Mercy
7. Buttons
8. The Good Life (is Wasted)
9. Kind Of
10. Betty's Overture
11. Never My Love

As the band celebrate their thirtieth year, ‘Past Imperfect…’ showcases collected works throughout their rich history, with the addition of one new track. It is in chronological order and split in to 4 sections/2 halves – the first half being the original line up of the band with Al Macaulay (drums), Mark Colwill (bass) and Dickon Hinchliffe (violin, guitar, string arrangements). The second half is the present-day line up with Earl Harvin (drums) and Dan McKinna (Bass, piano, string arrangements). Stuart. A. Staples, Neil Fraser (guitar) and David Boulter (various instruments) are always present.

There are two songs from Claire Denis films – ‘Tiny tears’ from ‘Nanette et Boni’ (’96) and ‘Both Sides of the Blade’ from her latest film ‘Avec amour et acharnament’ (’21). There is also the version of ‘Willow’ sung by Stuart, rather than Robert Pattison who sang the version in ‘High life’ (’19).

'92 - '96 - City Sickness, Her (‘92), Tiny Tears, Travelling Light (duet with Carla Torgerson), My Sister.

'97 - '03 - Rented Rooms, Can We Start Again?, Dying Slowly, Sometimes it Hurts (duet with Lhasa de Sela), My Oblivion.

'08 - '14 - Harmony Around My Table, Show Me Everything, This Fire of Autumn, Medicine, What Are You Fighting For?

'16 - '21 - How He Entered, Were We Once Lovers?, Willow (New), Pinky in the Daylight, Both sides of the blade.

“Nobody was between us and the records that we made,” says Tindersticks frontman Stuart Staples. Mavens of intimate and expansive mood-song, Tindersticks have forged paths of their own unobstructed making over three decades, avidly trend-averse in their dusky and far-reaching explorations of the heart. Released through City Slang on 25th March, Past Imperfect: The Best of Tindersticks ’92-’21 maps the band’s 30-year journey across a peerless 20-track chronology. “Each step a story,” as Staples said on “How He Entered”. And every song a fresh twist in a winding tale. It is the sound of an uncommonly ambitious band always seeking new ways to connect with their songs, rediscovering themselves as a unit at every turn so that everything familiar about their music sounds fresh again. Always, of course, by nobody’s measure but their own.

TRACK LISTING

Past Imperfect: The Best Of Tindersticks ’92 – ‘21
A1. City Sickness (Taken From The First Tindersticks Album)
A2. Her (’92) (unreleased Version)
A3. Tiny Tears (Taken From The Original Soundtrack “Nénette Et Boni”)
A4. Travelling Light (Single Version)
A5. My Sister (Taken From The Album Tindersticks)
B1. Rented Rooms (Taken From The Album Curtains)
B2. Can We Start Again? (Taken From The Album Simple Pleasure)
B3. Dying Slowly (Taken From The Album Can Our Love)
B4. Sometimes It Hurts (Taken From The Album Waiting For The Moon)
B5. My Oblivion (Taken From The Album Waiting For The Moon)
C1. Harmony Around My Table (Taken From The Album Falling Down A Mountain)
C2. Show Me Everything (Taken From The Album The Something Rain)
C3. This Fire Of Autumn (Taken From The Album The Something Rain)
C4. Medicine (Taken From The Album The Something Rain)
C5. What Are You Fighting For? (Taken From The Album Across Six Leap Years)
D1. How He Entered (Taken From The Album The Waiting Room)
D2. Were We Once Lovers? (Taken From The Album The Waiting Room)
D2. Willow (Unreleased Version)
D3. Pinky In The Daylight (Taken From The Album No Treasure But Hope)
D4. Both Sides Of The Blade (Unreleased Version)

Live At Glasgow City Halls 5th October 2008 (Deluxe CD And LP Box Set Only)
A1. Introduction
A2. Yesterdays Tomorrows
A3. The Flicker Of A Little Girl
A4. Come Feel The Sun
A5. E-type
A6. The Other Side Of The World
B1. The Organist Entertains
B2. Dying Slowly
B3. Say Goodbye To The City
B4. Sleepy Song
B5. He’s Gone
C1. The Hungry Saw
C2. Boobar Come Back To Me
C3. All The Love
C4. The Turns We Took
D1. If You’re Looking For A Way Out
D2. Her
D3. The Not Knowing

Firmly one of today’s essential artists, Venezuelan/Guatemalan-American singer-songwriter KAINA announces her new album titled ‘It Was A Home’ that is slated for release on March 4th via City Slang. In celebration, the beloved artist shares her smoldering new single, “Anybody Can Be In Love”, along with an enchanting companion video. Directed by Weird Life Films, the visual brings to life KAINA’s whimsical world inspired by the quintessential Mr. Rogers TV series. “Anybody Can Be In Love” embodies the sentiment of authentically accepting love in its various forms. ‘It Was A Home’ will showcase KAINA’s stunning new artistic direction, the result of her own personal evolution and newly found sense of self, while maintaining roots in her signature sound. The album will include features from beloved artists such as Sleater-Kinney, Helado Negro and Sen Morimoto.

Born in Chicago to immigrant parents, KAINA creates generational music that surpasses borders and speaks to a far-reaching community of people that grew up in between languages, cultures, regions, and genres. KAINA has been catapulted to the forefront of a new wave of artists transforming the music landscape through deep representation. Her previous projects, the 2016 EP sweet asl. and her debut 2019 album Next To The Sun, cemented KAINA as a critically acclaimed artist and established her cult following. The projects showcased her signature sound that is lined with a sweet-hearted optimism, devastating authenticity and one that she uses as a means to uplift and build community. She has previously collaborated with Saba, The O’My’s, Sen Morimoto, and through multidisciplinary work around Chicago with various organizations.

“’Anybody Can Be in Love’ is about letting go and accepting love when it comes to any sort of relationship, romantic or platonic. I’ve seen myself and my close friends miss out on a really great moment we’ve wished for or a great relationship because we’re so fixated on getting hurt or being fearful. ‘Anybody Can Be in Love’ is a little reminder to keep it simple and enjoy the moments you’ve been waiting for. Sonically, I wanted the track to sound very psychedelic and dreamy. Almost like love is taking over and you’re just losing yourself in a moment. It was a pleasure working on this with first time collaborator Biako along with Sen Morimoto and longtime bandmate Michael Cantella on bass.” - KAINA ON “ANYBODY CAN BE IN LOVE”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Kaina's soulful vocals ride beautifully atop a background of swooning loungey percussion and rich rolling bass. We get 60's psychedelia, eastern influenced grooves and hazy downbeat stagger. It's a beautiful and wonderfully written collection, and a constantly evolving gem.

TRACK LISTING

1. Anybody Can Be In Love
2. It Was A Home
3. Good Feeling Ft. Sen Morimoto
4. Sweetness
5. In My Mind
6. Ultraviolet Ft. Sleater-Kinney
7. Come Back As A Flower
8. Blue Ft. Helado Negro
9. Casita
10. Apple
11. Friend Of Mine
12. Golden Mirror

Liverpool duo Hannah Merrick and Craig Whittle, aka King Hannah release their debut LP I’m Not Sorry, I Was Just Being Me via City Slang.

The first single from the album, All Being Fine, sets the stall perfectly for the rest of I’m Not Sorry, I Was Just Being Me, drenched as it is in cinematic, often immersive and offbeam soundscapes, punctuated by lyrics that are darkly romantic and thrillingly sardonic in equal measures. Written and then recorded with additional musicians Ted White, Jake Lipiec, and Olly Gorman in just eight months, the LP is a bold, memorable, even startling document of a dream shared, an ambition fulfilled and a vision realized. I’m Not Sorry, I Was Just Being Me is a spectacular debut from the duo and a clear indication this is the beginning of a long, fruitful journey for King Hannah.

King Hannah make music that lives somewhere between the gorgeously meditative pop of Yo La Tengo and the beautiful drama of Sharon Van Etten.

STAFF COMMENTS

Laura says: This is just fantastic. Brooding desert blues from the dust-bowl of erm, Liverpool! Hannah Merrick's vocals, which fall somewhere between Mazzy Star's Hope Sandoval and Sharon Van Etten, float over a beautifully narcotic backdrop of intricate guitar melodies and gentle drum rhythms that slowly build to a crescendo on album closer "It's Me And You, Kid".

TRACK LISTING

A1. A Well-Made Woman
A2. So Much Water So Close To Drone
A3. All Being Fine
A4. Big Big Baby
A5. Ants Crawling On An Apple Stork
A6. The Moods That I Get In
B1. Foolius Caesar
B2. Death Of The House Phone
B3. Go-Kart Kid (HELL NO!)
B4. I’m Not Sorry, I Was Just Being Me
B5. Berenson
B6. It’s Me And You, Kid

Panthers prowling through a desert. Cowgirls swaggering into a saloon and kicking up dust. Riding shotgun with a Tarantino heroine. Having the fiesta of your lives under a giant piñata with all your friends. Los Bitchos’ hallucinatory surf-exotica is as evocative as it is playful: the London-based pan-continental group could well be your new favourite party band with their instrumental voyages that are the soundtrack to setting alight to a row of flaming sambucas and losing yourself to the night. They’ve got a bun-tight knack for a groove – and they’ve got the best fringes in rock’n’roll too.

Serra Petale (guitar), Agustina Ruiz (keytar), Josefine Jonsson (bass) and Nic Crawshaw (drums) hail from different parts of the world but met via all-night house parties, or through friends, in London. Their unique sound binds them together, though, taking in a retrofuturistic blend of Peruvian chicha, Argentine cumbia, Turkish psych and surf guitars. They are London’s answer to Khruangbin, if Khruangbin spent all weekend getting slammed on cheap tequila in a Dalston dive bar.

STAFF COMMENTS

Liam says: Even though it was one of the earlier releases of the year, we've still been slamming this one here at Piccadilly. For fans of Khruangbin and psychedelic groovy goodness, Los Bitchos' "Let The Festivities Begin!" is the soundtrack to the coolest party in the world and probably the most fun you'll have with a record this year!

TRACK LISTING

Side A:
1. The Link Is About To Die
2. I Enjoy It
3. Pista (Fresh Start)
4. FFS
5. Tropico

Side B:
6. Las Panteras
7. Good To Go!
8. Change Of Heart
9. Tripping At A Party
10. Try The Circle!
11. Lindsay Goes To Mykonos

Flexi Bonus Disc:
A1: Los Chrismos
B1: Tipp Tapp

For 20 years the Tuareg culture and music has fascinated the world. Their quasi-sacred poetic songs inspire western songwriters like KURT VILE or JOSÉ GONZALEZ, while the virtuosity of their guitar playing fascinates guitar heroes like JIMMY PAGE, and finally the spirituality and meditative hypnotism impresses electronic music producers like FOUR TET.With two albums, IMARHAN has become an emblem of the new Tuareg generation, breathing new life into “Assouf”, the desert blues.

While most of current Tuareg productions are exiled to the United States, the group, led by Sadam, is part of their culture and their city, the capital of the Tuareg people, with an open door to the desert. By building their own studio in Tamanrasset Aboogi, Imarhan become the spokesmen of the young Tuareg lost generation (forgotten by Algerian, Nigerian and Malian governments).With their new album Aboogi, Imarhan manipulate the rights and ancestry of the Tuareg. By inviting the legendary Mohamed AtItlale aka Japonais (who has since, sadly, passed away) and the genius musician Abdallah Ag Alhousseyni, IMARHAN follows the heritage of TINARIWEN, the godfathers of Assouf. When they recorded with GRUFF RHYS of the SUPER FURRY ANIMALS, their brilliant and universal songwriting takes on every sense of the word. Finally, by inviting the Sudanese singer SulafaElyas, we understand that IMARHAN is open to all of Africa, defenders of the Tuaregs but above all spokesperson for the new African generation.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: The equivalent to 'The DJ's choice of DJ'; Imarhan are the band of choice for outer-national music moguls like Gruff Rhys, Jose Gonzales and Four Tet. Assouf music from the Tuareg which you could say, Tinariwen brought to our attention many desert moons ago. This is evocative music that hits your heart and nourishes your soul.

TRACK LISTING

1. Achinkad
2. Derhan
3. Temet
4. Tindjatan
5. Asof
6. Assossam
7. Taghadart
8. Laouni
9. ImaslanN’Assouf
10. Tamiditin
11. Adar Newlan

Back in 1994, when Lambchop first lurched lackadaisically into public view, they seemed to many people freakish, outlandish, destined at best for the pages of photocopied fanzines and the graveyard hours of specialist radio stations. A sprawling collective of Nashville musicians —eleven were credited on the sleeve of I Hope You’re Sitting Down / Jack’s Tulips, one of them apparently responsible for “open-end wrenches” —they’d named themselves after a sock puppet, inexplicably given their album two titles, and stuck a painting on the cover of a small, barefooted child holding a dog whose cock and balls are on proud display. Perhaps to counteract this bold depiction of canine masculinity, the inner sleeve offered a black-and-white shot of what the more refined sometimes call a “lady garden.” The back cover offered a painting detail of a wedding dress. So far, so weird.

Where Lambchop brought us was somewhere so singular and bewilderingly gripping that — to perhaps no one’s greater surprise than the band themselves, whose homeland remained baffled for quite some years to come — the album ended up in British music paper NME’s Top 50 Albums of the Year. In case anyone were to consider this an anomaly, France’s similarly influential Les Inrockuptibles placed it at number 25 on their own list. Not bad for a band who had gathered since the mid-1980s, once a week, purely for pleasure, in that smoky, dimly lit basement. Not bad, either, for a record whose sessions were initially only expected to produce enough material for a handful of 7 -inch singles. Disheveled yet tender, anarchic yet intricate, I Hope You’re Sitting Down / Jack’s Tulips instead provided the springboard for a career — still ongoing, despite repeated reinventions, and still compelled by stubbornly freakish, outlandish intentions — during which Lambchop’s ever-changing line-up has continued to confound expectations. Wagner, meanwhile, remains one of our most cryptic but crucial voices, an authentic poet of the magical banal. Sure, it was weird here, but it was wonderful, too. Over a quarter century later, it still is.

TRACK LISTING

A1 Begin
A2 Betweenus
A3 Soaky In The Pooper
A4 Because You Are The Very Air He Breathes
B5 Under The Same Moon
B6 I Will Drive Slowly
B7 Oh What A Disappointment
B8 Hellmouth
C9 Bon Soir, Bon Soir
C10 Hickey
C11 Breathe Deep
C12 So, I Hear You're Moving
D13 Let's Go Bowling
D14 What Was He Wearing?
D15 Cowboy On The Moon
D16 Or Thousands Of Prizes
D17 The Pack Up Song

Few people have managed to become quite so celebrated worldwide, quite as quietly as José González has. Local Valley, his long awaited fourth album, serves as a relieving reminder that you don’t have to be loud to be heard.

Since his debut single ‘Crosses’ back in 2003, both he and his music have remained dependably quiet and unassuming. Local Valley calmly exhibits his singular ability to communicate with such modesty and power. Beginning with the sun-dappled ‘El Invento’, the first song he’s recorded in Spanish (the native tongue of his Argentinian heritage), and ending with the intimate yet rhapsodic ‘Honey Honey’. Along the way it engages in his signature melodic and metrical hypnotism, showcasing his remarkable fingerpicking skills, while there’s further evidence of his love for music from around the world (he references an inspiring jam session in Gothenburg with Niger artist Bombino) and for the first time, the introduction of a drum machine on a few songs, further widening José´s musical spectrum.

The record, full of his trademark bittersweet pastoralism, includes what González considers “my most accomplished songs to date”. While continuing his tradition of reinterpreting songs by other artists, with ‘Line Of Fire' he picks one written for Junip, the band he formed with friends in 1998. That the original version has now been streamed some 60 million times suggest it, like other songs he’s covered, is now part of the songwriting canon.

Local Valley, González cheerfully acknowledges, “is similar to my other solo albums in sound and spirit, a natural continuation of the styles I’ve been adding through the years both solo and with Junip. I set out to write songs in the same vein: short, melodic and rhythmical, a mixture of classic folk singer songwriting and songs with influences from Latin America and Africa. It’s more outward looking than my earlier works, but no less personal. On the contrary, I feel more comfortable than ever saying that this album reflects me and my thoughts right now.”

TRACK LISTING

A1. El Invento
A2. Visions
A3. The Void
A4. Horizons
A5. Head On
A6. Valle Local
B1. Lasso In
B2. Lilla G
B3. Swing
B4. Tjomme
B5. Line Of Fire
B6. En Stund På Jorden
B7. Honey Honey

Arriving at a time of considerable uncertainty in the world, Son Lux's intimate, electro-soul album 'Tomorrows' is ambitious in scope and intent. Born of an active, intentional approach to shaping sound, the music reminds us of the necessity of questioning assumptions, and of sitting with the tension.

Ryan Lott, Rafiq Bhatia, and Ian Chang train their sights on volatile principles: imbalance, disruption, collision, redefinition. But for all of its instability, ‘Tomorrows’ exploration of breaking points and sustained frictional places is ultimately in service of something rewarding and necessary: the act of questioning, challenging, tearing down and actively rebuilding one’s own identity. Resynthesized strings, acoustically manipulated live instruments and vocals and a classically informed approach to arranging has resulted in an album that feels comfortable, intimate & timeless.

The band remains audibly indebted to iconoclastic artists in soul, hip-hop, and experimental improvisation who themselves carved new paths forward. Distilling these varied influences, Son Lux searches for equilibrium of raw emotional intimacy and meticulous electronic constructions.

TRACK LISTING

Tomorrows I
A1. Dissolve
A2. Plans We Made
A3. Bending Shadows
A4. Only
A5. Days Past
A6. Honesty
B7. Into Wind
B8. Last Light
B9. Undertow
B10. Involution

Tomorrows II
C1. Warning
C2. Molecules
C3. Prophecy
C4. Leaves
D5. Out Of Wind
D6. Apart
D7. Bodies
D8. Weight Of Your Air
D9. Live Another Life
D10. Borrowed Eyes

Tomorrows III
E1. Unbind
E2. A Different Kind Of Love
E3. Upend
E4. Plans We Make
E5. Glimmer
E6. Come Recover
F7. Sever
F8. The Hour
F9. Embrace
F10. Vacancy

City Slang is thrilled to welcome Pom Pom Squad into the City Slang family. The way Mia can nod to her influences, be they of the iconic 60’s girl group, characters from a John Waters film, or cutting edge fashion from today, while simultaneously spinning a beautiful and original story in her songs, is absolutely thrilling. This is the kind of record that makes you not only excited to see what you can do with an artist in a post-pandemic future, but also how you can build their career in the present circumstances. We cannot wait for you to hear this record in its entirety!

Produced by Sarah Tudzin of Illuminati Hotties and co-produced by Berrin herself, it’s a record that plays out like an exorcism in front of your bathroom mirror -- confronting the dark we’ve had planted within us and then ripping it out, all while watching every second of it. It’s vulnerable yet triumphant, deliciously irreverent & inviting yet sneering in the faces of those that had once tried to define her. First single “Lux” was unanimously praised by press including Stereogum who called it “a serrated blast of noise in which Berrin takes someone to task with glee” and The Fader who said “come for the scrappy punk reimagining of The Virgin Suicides, stay for Pom Pom Squad's galvanizing treatise on feminine awakening in a world that would rather keep your eyes shut.”

Mia Berrin spent her childhood trying to find where she fit right in the world, looking to the pop culture icons on TV in hopes of finding an image she connected to. She connected with the films of John Waters and David Lynch, loved the dark campiness found in Heathers, was in awe of the power of women like Courtney Love and Kathleen Hanna. Growing up as a female of color who would later in her life unearth and embrace her queerness, discussing and reconciling who she is with the perception of who people think she should be, has become a lifelong mission for Mia.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Soundcheck
A2. Head Cheerleader
A3. Crying
A4. Second That
A5. Cake
A6. Lux
A7. Crimson + Clover
B1. Red With Love
B2. Forever
B3. Shame Reactions
B4. Drunk Voicemail
B5. This Couldn't Happen
B6. Be Good
B7. Thank You And Goodnight

Kurt Wagner's signature brittle baritone is back, but that doesn't mean we're going to get a nostalgic Alt Country album. Showtunes is a continuation of Lambchop's explorations of new sound worlds and opens up another chapter. Each track is an exciting journey with an uncertain destination.

With Showtunes, as he has done so many times throughout his varied and fascinating career, Kurt in late 2019 was experimenting with something new. He took simple guitar tracks and converted them into midi piano tracks. It was a revelation that from those conversions he was able to manipulate each note and add, subtract, arrange the chords and melody into a form that didn't have any of the limitations he had with his previous methods of writing with a guitar.

Removing these limitations led to a surprising new sound, something akin to showtunes but with edges sanded down and viewed through Kurt's own specific lens. it's a genre he was none too fond of with the exceptions of a few Great American Songbook type of stuff or some of the works of artists like Tom Waits, early Randy Newman or even Gershwin or Carmichael. “I’d always wanted to make songs with a similar feel but my skills were limited until now” says Wagner.

“Anyone can be in Lambchop (so long as they behave themselves)” - Kurt Wagner.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Another wonderfully mournful, rich outing from lambchop here, leaning heavily on the slow-country roots of their early work but imbued with a heartbreaking tentative unease. Jazzy horns and slow upright bass licks help to lend a levity to proceedings, but still results in a thoroughly beautiful and unsettling whole.

TRACK LISTING

A1. A Chef's Kiss
A2. Drop C
A3. Papa Was A Rolling Stone Journalist
A4. Fuku
B5. Unknown Man
B6. Blue Leo
B7. Impossible Meatballs
B8. The Last Benedict

Sophia Kennedy’s music sometimes sounds like a soundtrack to a world disintegrating, hanging on by a thread of memories, it combines the glamour and the morbid charm of tin pan alley show tunes from the 1960s or 70s and yet it fully embraces the deconstructed modernism of club music. Her new album Monsters, is full of plot twists, moments of prettiness dashed with paranoia. The title itself, is a self-ironic, comic-like commentary of being an artist trying to tame own creations like “monsters” gone wild but also a nod to a generally threatening tension in the world. Monsters is pop music teetering on the verge of ruin.

Kennedy’s creative approach has always been unusual. Growing up in Germany after her family emigrated from Baltimore, she developed an ear for off-centred songcraft picking through her mum’s record collection: Whitney Houston and Simon & Garfunkel at first, Karen Dalton and the Velvet Underground later. With no equipment to hand, she started recording audio on a camcorder, blurring the lines between music and her other passion, film. Obsessed with the work of John Cassavetes and 70s horror films like Carrie, Kennedy moved to Hamburg to study film and ended up making music for theatre productions. Her involvement in the local creative community led her through the doors of the “Golden Pudel”, a techno nightclub. Immersed in Hamburg’s dance music scene she met Mense Reents, a musician best known for his work with the celebrated house act, Die Vögel. The pair formed a writing and production partnership, and would make Sophia’s eponymously-titled debut record together in 2017 which was released through DJ Koze’s label Pampa.

One step further is where Kennedy has taken her sound on Monsters. It’s full of hints of a former life, abstract melodic turns, instrumentation that shouldn't work, but does, wrongness that’s right. “Seventeen” is acid-washed Americana with creeping sub-bass, closer “Dragged Myself Into The Sun” is a full-on left hook, drones stacked like lasagna and pumped with steroids. There is pop centre pieces like “I Can See You” and the velvet-lined anthem “I’m Looking Up”, dealing with grief and death, recalling the rawest edges of Krautrock and, for Kennedy, nods to Baltimore artists Panda Bear and the strange currencies of Animal Collective.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Animals Will Come
A2. Orange Tic Tac
A3. I Can See You
A4. Francis
A5. Seventeen
A6. Loop
B1. I’m Looking Up
B2. Chestnut Avenue
B3. Do They Know
B4. Cat On My Tongue
B5. Brunswick
B6. Up
B7. Dragged Myself Into The Sun

Casper Clausen, frontman of Efterklang and adjacent project Liima, kicks off a new year with his first ever solo record. Landing via City Slang, ‘Better Way’ was trailed by the juddering, krautrock-tinged, 9-minute opening jam “Used To Think”.

“Used to Think” was one of the first songs I wrote for “Better Way” a couple of years ago” Clausen comments. “I had a run of some small shows around Portugal testing the new songs I was working on at the time, and this one became one of my favourites, I really like the energy of it. It was also the song that made me reach out to the producer Sonic Boom. He ended up mixing / co-producing the entire album. There is some inspiration from his band Spacemen 3 luring around in there and he lives in Sintra, very close to Lisbon where I’ve been the past couple of years, so it all made sense.”

“To me “Used to Think” is like a Kaleidoscope with interchangeable lenses, each section of the song, a different pallet of colours and shapes. Before I stopped thinking I thought, open up, share more and think less.”

Always restless and brimming with creative energy and zeal, on this first solo venture Casper Clausen exhibits a new sense of ingenuity and musical exploration, unrestricted by formats, genres and collective goals. He presents a kaleidoscopic album journeying new terrain, twisting dense textures and swirls of sound into tales of alienation and love.

"It’s a record about finding a better way, loving stronger, falling harder” he says. “It’s about being far away, and it’s about being myself, how I make music by myself. It’s my first album, though I’ve been in bands ever since I started making music in my teens. Most of the songs on this record were written in a similar way; I’d go to my studio every day, turn on some machines and find some sounds that I like and let my mind drift away. I would always leave one song behind every day I went to the studio.”

Through eight tracks of sparkling, light-filled explorations Clausen channels moods and sounds with a sense of unbridled freedom, optimism and inquisitive liberty, touching on elements of krautrock, avant-pop and progressive rock, whilst the delicate, bassy vocal refrains and expansive approach to composition is unmistakably the Casper Clausen fans have come to know. “I was trying to capture an intuition, rather than a fully composed song” he comments. “It was more about the jam, the experiment”.

Deeply rooted in his residency in Lisbon, Portugal, the songs came together through snatched moments between tours when he would use his downtime finding inspiration in the local music scene, in his daily commute across the Tejo to his studio in Almada, and in looking back across the water as he worked, watching cargo ships pass and the cobbled streets, coloured facets and terracotta roofs of the city cascading down the hills opposite. “I wanted something from my time in this city to last” he says. “To make an album seems like a good start.”

The album artwork was created by his long-time Portuguese friend Fatima Moreno, and the songs were mixed in the hills outside the city by Sonic Boom of Spaceman 3. “My very first introduction to him was listening to theSpacemen 3 song "Big City” in Berlin at 8mm bar years ago - there's a little nod to "Big City" on “Used To Think”” he comments, referring to the album’s opening 9+ minute jam. “I went out to meet him and his partner in their house. It’s magical. We decided to mix and produce the album there, in his studio. I was fortunate to co-pilot, while he was warping the sound of the record, I admire his incredible ear-mind. I learned a lot from him."

And so, here it is – the debut solo album from Casper Clausen. Not so much a record to be explained rather than to be experienced; a story in 8 chapters, a celebration of the universe and a call to arms: to dig deeper, reach higher, fall better, stand taller and find a Better Way.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Clausen, of glitchy electronica titans Efterklang brings his newest solo LP, a much more upbeat and melodic affair. With the paddlings arps of 80's synthpop mixed with the psychedelic reverb drenched over huge anthemic choruses, it's an effective combo indeed.

TRACK LISTING

1. Used To Think
2. Feel It Coming
3. Dark Heart
4. Snow White
5. Falling Apart Like You
6. Little Words
7. 8 Bit Human
8. Ocean Wave

In the fall of 2019, Lambchop’s Kurt Wagner had a unique idea: In lieu of going on what would become an economically disastrous tour, he would invite the band to Nashville to make a record as a way to provide them with similar financial support and realize something tangible in the process. Each band member was tasked with choosing one song for the band to cover, and leading the recording session to completion each day. Wagner says, “My idea was to see what might happen if I removed myself from the process and the content as much as possible. In doing so, what surfaced were elements that have always been there but maybe got overshadowed by my songwriting and process.”

Recorded December 2–7, 2019, at Battletapes in Nashville, TN, and produced, engineered, and mixed by Jeremy Ferguson (with the exception of “Reservations” which was co‐mixed by Ferguson and Matthew McCaughan), TRIP sounds like a culmination of the band’s older work and current work. There’s a looseness and freedom that recalls their older sound mixed with a group sophistication and innovation derived through the process of playing together for so long. The title TRIP refers to the circumstances surrounding its creation and the endeavor of “touring” itself. “It also seems to describe a life in music and the situations we created in our life as a band over the years,” Wagner adds. “It’s been a trip…”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Some absolutely classic tracks here, and all presented in Lambchop's trademark moroose melodicism. It's equally haunting and tender, a brilliant illustration of how refined the band's processes have become, and most of all, a great listen.

TRACK LISTING

Side A:
1. Reservations (13:00)
2. Where Grass Won’t Grow (6:24)

Side B
3. Shirley (4:35)
4. Golden Lady (6:42)
5. Love Is Here And Now You’re Gone (3:28)
6. Weather Blues (3:26)

In 2014 Dan Snaith aka Caribou released "Our Love" to overwhelming critical acclaim and massive fan support. Now Caribou returns with his seventh studio album "Suddenly", an album about family and the changes we go though as those relationships evolve. "Suddenly" is the most surprising and unpredictable Caribou album to date. Though it retains the trademark Caribou warmth and technicolour, this album is littered with swerves and left turns, and amazes with its yet unheard nuances, samples and hooks. As Snaith puts it, “these albums are like photo albums for me – when I look back at the old ones, they’re a snapshot of my life at that time, full of people who are close to you”. This is the drive to continue to make Caribou albums. Full bodies of work where Snaith is able to evaluate things, look at those around him and celebrate them. As his passion and joy in music making remains as fresh as ever, "Suddenly" is the purest example of this yet.

STAFF COMMENTS

Patrick says: Exciting times! Dan Snaith is back in the Piccadilly house with a brand new Caribou LP, infusing hook-heavy house jams, hip hop curveballs and sweet synthpoppers with the signature warmth and space of his previous work. I would imagine festival goers of all ages will enjoy losing their proverbials to this in the coming months.

TRACK LISTING

1 Sister
2 You And I
3 Sunny's Time
4 New Jade
5 Home
6 Lime
7 Never Come Back
8 Filtered Grand Piano
9 Like I Loved You
10 Magpie
11 Ravi
12 Cloud Song

Fusing a pop sensibility with dance music’s communal properties, the German duo of Georg Conrad and Marius Bubat present their new album “Voyage Voyage”. Rich in melody and often melancholy, COMA’s repertoire occupies an emotionally driven corner of the electronic music spectrum, where dynamic soundscapes collide with honest lyrics. Across ten pristine tracks, the pair meld piano, guitar, drums, synths and electronic flourishes to futuristic vocal harmonies that amp up the melancholic pop factor and capture life’s fleeting moments, moods and adventures. The album is anchored in an analog-meets-digital universe that’s informed by the idea of memory where musical and personal flotsam floats around the body of the record. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Snurrebassen
2. Spiracles
3. A-Train
4. Dream Sequence
5. Inside Out
6. Bits And Pieces
7. Minor Matters
8. Sparkle
9. Myopic
10. {…}

City Slang are thrilled to announce the debut album of WIVES! The Queens, NY four-piece is the latest fit into a long lineage of New York’s gritty, melodic-meets-punk.

WIVES as a band came together by happenstance — a random realization amidst friends busy with other musical projects. Jay met Adam Sachs, WIVES’ drummer, while interning at a New York recording studio where Adam worked as an assistant. The two became fast friends, their constant hanging out growing to include guitarist Andrew Bailey (DIIV) and bassist Gabe Wax, who’d eventually be replaced by another friend, Alex Crawford. All were embedded in New York’s DIY music scene through their respective projects, with years of playing house shows and booking their own tours under their belts. It wasn’t until a random day of extra studio time booked for another project that the four of them actually played together.

So Removed is grungy dark-wave, tethered to daily anxiety without resorting to cynicism. The noisy dissonance of Sonic Youth, the edgy hooks of early Pixies, and the clever, cerebral sneering of The Fall simmer as touchstones within the album, sharp and prodding at the details, pulsing with urgency. So Removed plunges into the void of unknown, a tangle of contemporary dread and optimism, mapping the gray areas of alienation.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Wives present a perfect mix between anthemic grunge, clashing post-punk and NY experimental, with a cohesive progression from snarling noise to chunky, blissfull riffage and sleazy vocal perfection.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Waving Past Nirvana
A2. The 20 Teens
A3. Servants
A4. Hit Me Up
A5. Whatevr
A6. Even The Dead Side
B1. Why Is Life
B2. Sold Out Seatz
B3. Workin’
B4. Hideaway
B5. The Future Is A Drag

Sinkane is an artist with a real stake in our current cultural and political climate. Born in London to Sudanese parents, raised in Ohio, and now calling New York City home, Ahmed Gallab refines his sound and message to peak form on his new studio album, ‘Dépaysé’.

“Sinkane is an American band comprised of people from all over the world,” says Gallab in his bio letter for ‘Dépaysé’. “Our collective experience as children of the diaspora helped bring the music to life in the most honest way possible.” He adds, “Dépaysé is the story of an immigrant’s journey of self-discovery in the Trump era. The music is loud and raw, and it's bursting with an energy unlike anything I’ve ever done before.”

‘Dépaysé’ is Sinkane’s seventh full-length and the follow-up to Sinkane's acclaimed 2017 album ‘Life & Livin' It’. The band features Gallab, Elenna Canlas (keys and vocals), Jonny Lam (guitar), Ish Montgomery (bass), and Chris St Hilaire (drums).

Accompanying statement from Ahmed Gallab: -

It’s easy to be angry in moments like now. And that’s OK. But it takes courage to turn that anger into productive energy. The previous Sinkane album, 2017's Life and Livin' It, was released at a very crazy time: things like the Muslim ban, police shooting unarmed people of color, massive corruption in my native Sudan, fake news, Donald Trump, Brexit and so many other calamities all really forced me to think about my place in the world as a musician. I began to think about how I could use my music in a constructive way — not only to help myself but to help others who feel frustrated and powerless.

I’ve made a lot of music out of my life story but I’ve always kept things vague enough that anyone listening to my music could relate to it on their own terms. And yet I have to admit that I never truly felt satisfied with that. I eventually realized that, in order to truly connect with other people, I first needed to connect with myself on a deeper level than before.

Throughout the making of MY NEW ALBUM I kept asking myself the same question: “As an immigrant to America, where do I belong?” So, during the writing process, I worked mainly by myself so that I could ensure the most honest and personal answers to that question.

At some point, I discovered the French word dépaysé, which basically means “to be removed from one’s habitual surroundings.” By extension, it means to be disoriented, homeless. That's a feeling I relate to very much in these times — and I’m not the only one who feels this way. That word gave me clarity and made the journey inward that much more exciting.

So here we are. Dépaysé is the story of an immigrant’s journey of self-discovery in the Trump era. The music is loud and raw, and it's bursting with an energy unlike anything I’ve ever done before. The album starts with “Everybody,” an anthem of inclusion. Every day we wake up to another horror story about racism, and it’s left many of us angry, confused and frustrated. But we can change the news for the better. We can show people that a multicolored world is a beautiful one. Celebrating our differences yields beauty in life. And that takes... everybody. On “Everyone” I continue that line of thought to its logical conclusion: love is the key to helping us understand one another.

I confront my insecurities with identity on songs like “Ya Sudan,” “Dépaysé” and “The Searching.” Truly understanding one's duality means seeing beyond where you came from: let go of any definition that others put on you and then you can truly see the beauty of your life experience. This, along with the rest of Dépaysé, has given me peace. I’m no longer confused about the duality of my Sudanese and American identities. Now I accept it.

I want Sudanese kids to see a person like them as a positive role model in the arts. And to everyone, I want to make it clear that the world is a better place because of our differences. We’re all strangers in this ever-stranger land of America. We are all the American Dream.

Best,

Ahmed Gallab

TRACK LISTING

A1. Everybody
A2. Everyone
A3. On Being
A4. Dépaysé
B1. Ya Sudan
B2. Stranger
B3. Be Here Now
B4. The Searching
B5. Mango

Wide-eyed and hyper-aware, Wives' sound pulses with urgency. The quartet are the latest fit in a long lineage of New York's gritty, melodic-tinged punk-hook-driven, grungy dark-wave that's tethered to daily anxiety without resorting to cynicism. Both the noisy dissonance of Sonic Youth and the clever, cerebral sneering of The Fall simmer as touchstones within the band's music.

'Waving Past Nirvana' trudges forward, a sort of thesis for Wives' sound. It delves unabashedly into feeling removed, its narrator rejecting spiritual enlightenment, literally 'waving past nirvana'. The swaggering cut pulls from the swaying beat of '80s rap, while the chorus jumps forward a decade into a grunge-tinged, anthemic roar.

The band's vocalist, guitarist and primary songwriter, Jay Beach offers: "'Waving Past Nirvana' is a literal interpretation of the bodhisattva—one who has achieved the release, the awakened eye, and yet wants to trade it back for the painful life of desire because she/he/they predominantly feels compassion. This "entering back into the world" to fight a fool's battle is the essence of 'Waving Past Nirvana', and the video depicts one young woman's journey along these lines."

Said video comes directed by Milah Libin (Beach Fossils, Princess Nokia), who adds, "When I listened to 'Waving Past Nirvana' it evoked the beauty and the mundane in a never-ending routine. The closeness to finding some sort of fulfillment, or "nirvana," that keeps bringing one back. It happens to all types of people, but particularly in New York where the beat is so fast and so many come here searching. It's not quite sad; there's something admirable in that search – a sort of dedication.”

TRACK LISTING

A1. Waving Past Nirvana
B1. Kinda Like You

'High Life' was written and directed by Denis and stars Robert Pattinson and Juliette Binoche in the lead roles. It focuses on a group of criminals who are tricked into believing they will be freed if they participate in a mission to travel on a spaceship towards a black hole to find an alternate energy source while being sexually experimented on by the scientists on board. The soundtrack to the film was created by Stuart A. Staples of Tindersticks.

TRACK LISTING

A1. The Garden
A2. Willow Lullaby
A3. System Report
A4. High Life Main Title
A5. River Flashback
A6. Fluids
A7. The Fuck Box
A8. Bad Genes / Revolution
A9. Radiation
A10. Rape Of Boyse
A11. Insemination
A12. Grow Baby, Grow
B13. Boyse's Death
B14. The Dog Ship
B15. Monte And Willow
B16. The Yellow Light
B17. Willow
B18. The Black Hole (excerpt)

Istanbul synthpop vanguards Jakuzi turned heads in 2017 with the release of their unique and exciting debut album 'FanteziMüzik’ which showcased modern Turkish underground music to the world. Two years later their new album, “HataPayı” (meaning literally ‘’a part of the mistake”), brings a more refined and darker sound to their arsenal, exploring the depths of relationships and the human condition.

When Jakuzi released their debut FanteziMüzik as a cassette in 2016, no one expected that this would leave its circle in Istanbul. But the record was rereleased with new tracks in early 2017 via City Slang and immediately became a favorite amongst critics and music fans alike. The band embraced a manifold of musical elements, layering pop fragments with slabs of Low-Fi, New Wave and Post Punk. They effortlessly created one of the most unique sounding albums of the year and gained attraction internationally.

The album is less heterogeneous than the debut but yet, the unique sounds stay intact. The first single “Süphe” (translates to “Doubt") is the saddest track you can cry dance to since A Flock Of Seagulls “Wishing“. Then there’s “Yangın” (“Fire") which writes synthpop history with its mad genius half-time / crescendo, or “GördüğümRüya“ ("The Dream I See") that starts with a very familiar guitar riff just to morph into an epic dreamwave anthem. “Toz” (“Dust") recalls the lively experiments of a young Martin Gore, and it doesn’t’ stop there. HataPayı is full of ideas and energy, the songs take well nuanced twists and turns and prove that even in the darkest hours, Jakuzi never shy away from glorious pop moments.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Sana Göre Bir Şey Yok
A2. Şüphe
A3. Yangın
A4. GördüğümRüya
A5. KalbimKöprüGibi
B1. HâlâBerbat
B2. KendineRağmen
B3. İstemezdim
B4. Toz
B5. Bir ŞeyOlur
B6. Ne Teselli Ne Avuntu

Each song on Bayonne’s Drastic Measures is orchestral in texture, unfolding in countless layers and kaleidoscopic tones. With great intensity of detail, the Austin-based artist otherwise known as Roger Sellers deepens that sonic complexity by weaving in elegantly warped samples of the field recordings he’s gathered for over a decade. But in its powerful melodies and pristine arrangements, Drastic Measures ultimately bears a pure pop lucidity even in its most grandiose moments.

Roger Sellers is a lot of things. He’s a minimalist composer with a knack for making hypnotic, enveloping songs from a few repeated musical phrases. He’s a gifted musician who is mostly self-taught, having abandoned formal study because it was draining the life from his work. He’s a self-described disciple of Phil Collins. What he is not, however -- despite multiple press reports to the contrary - is a DJ.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Swimming in reverb, soaring melodies are twisted together delicately below echoed vocals, rich percussion and slowly developing melodic counterpoint. It's a well balanced and beautifully accomplished suite of dreamers.

TRACK LISTING

A1. QA
A2. Drastic Measures
A3. Same
A4. Gift
A5. Enders
B1. I Know (Album-Version)
B2. Kind
B3. Uncertainly Deranged
B4. Abillia
B5. Bothering

To celebrate its 20th anniversary, Lambchop’s 1998 album ’What Another Man Spills’ has been pressed to vinyl for the first time after it’s original release 20 years ago! Remastered from the original DAT and featuring refreshed artwork.

What Another Man Spills (1998) represents a milestone in Lambchop’s career, but not in the modern sense of a ‘landmark’ release. Building on foundations that had once sounded almost literally creaky, it expands upon the tentative manoeuvres they’d undertaken with the previous year’s Thriller (1997) and gestures confidently towards its brassy successor, Nixon, which would arrive in 2000 to wild acclaim and previously unimaginable commercial success.

Liner notes by Kurt Wagner himself.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Interrupted
A2. The Saturday Option
A3. Shucks
B1. Give Me Your Love (Love Song)
B2. Life #2
B3. Scamper
C1. It’s Not Alright
C2. N.o.
C3. I’ve Been Lonely For So Long

Stuart A. Staples releases his first solo album in thirteen years. Arrhythmia is immersive and experimental, both recognisably the work of the Tindersticks’ frontman and simultaneously a stand-alone, unique piece of work. It's a provocative album where electronic experimentations and rare multi-instrumentations interweave, wrapping themselves around unconventional but utterly spellbinding song structures.

Written in what Stuart A. Staples describes as “a lost year”, Arrhythmia began on Christmas day 2016 when he was drawn to the studio to record the beginnings of A new real, the album’s hypnotic opener of glitchy electronic loops with a sly nod to disco. A year later the entire album was complete, a process which involved Staples struggling between his own free sense of timing and more mechanical rhythms and what he describes as “a growing need for each song to take a turn, to lead them into strange places, keeping the feeling or effect of the song, but only as a memory.”

The second track Memories of love is indicative of Arrhythmia’s time-less experimentation and musical exploration. A stark and delicate melancholy opens up to rich and increasingly vivid chiming bells. There’s a feeling that the song has two diversely distinct parts unexpectedly, yet perfectly, married. Closing side 1, Step into the grey offers a dark romanticism reminiscent of early Tindersticks with a crescendo of freestyle percussion and strings.

Side 2 of the album consists of a 30 minute instrumental track Music for ‘A year in small paintings’. The piece began its evolution back in 2012 when filmmaker, and long-time Staples collaborator, Claire Denis first saw the serial of works by the painter (and Staples’ partner) Suzanne Osborne and wanted to turn these 365 oil paintings of the sky into a film. As friends and musicians passed through Staples’ studio he asked them to watch and react to the paintings. As Staples explains “From these recordings, I chipped away at its form, guiding and editing. Each time there was an exhibition of the work there was a newly evolved version of the music to accompany it.” Eventually the creative process came full circle when Claire Denis’ film Un beau soliel interieur (transl. Let the Sunshine In), featured the paintings, and their music became inextricably linked to the film’s soundtrack. Improvisations of the themes from Music for ‘A year in small paintings’ were also contributed by The Julian Siegel Quartet.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Evocative of the new movement of outsider synth artists of the 70's and early 80's, Arrhythmia builds tension through the gradual addition of instrumental layers to the seemingly minimal beginnings, before things grow into a beautiful and many-faceted blanket of euphoric polyrhythms and his instantly recognisable tender vocals.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Real New
A2. Memories Of Love
A3. Step Into The Grey
B1. Music For ‘A Year In Small Paintings’ (30.52 Minutes)

When Imarhan released their self-titled debut album in 2016, they stepped into a genre already flooded with talent and exposure, but still managed to rise to the top and be heralded as the 'new wave Of Tuareg music'. It is with much anticipation that the band from Tamanrasset, Algeria have announced the details of their second album Temet, due out February 26 on City Slang.

"Temet" is a huge leap forward in production, as well as creatively for Imarhan. Whereas their debut was anchored in the meditative Desert Blues tradition, "Temet" eclipses such notions, finding bounce and drive by stirring their sound with funk, fuzz, disco and rock. This is not a novel concept to the band, as anyone who has seen them play will attest. Imarhan's experience as a touring band has reinforced the focus and meaning behind their music.

With "Temet", Imarhan have firmly established themselves as a band to reckon with. Rather than being distracted by meddling around with big producers or famous guests, they’ve focused this release on their inherent strength of songwriting, using the eternal bonds in their community, families and friendships as a blueprint not only for an amazing standalone album, but as a reference for generations to come. 'We hope that Imarhan will allow the younger generation to become aware of the fundamental importance of friendship. As long as someone is by your side supporting you, asking for your friendship, what more could you want out of life? You will want for nothing.'

TRACK LISTING

A1. Azzaman
A2. Tamudre
A3. Ehad Wa Dagh
A4. Alwa
A5. Imuhagh
B6. Tumast
B7. Tarha Nam
B8. Tochal
B9. Zinizjumegh
B10. Ma S-Abok

Son Lux reemerge with their forthcoming fifth full-length LP, Brighter Wounds, finding the trio in command of a daring, multidirectional sound, expressing naturally the proclivity for surprise and contrast that characterize the project's output. The new release explores the violence of love, the beauty of sacrifice, and the specter of impermanence.

Anchored by its cinematic heart, “All Directions,” the album ranges from the thunderous charge of “Dream State” to the sputtering, soulful lilt of “Slowly.” Ryan Lott’s devastating vocal on "Aquatic," guitarist Rafiq Bhatia’s blooming flower melismas on "Labor," and drummer Ian Chang’s nearly inhuman rhythmic calculus on "The Fool You Need" illuminate a curious and delicate balance of precision and pain.

Since 2015’s Bones, the band's profile has grown in the worlds of music, dance, and film. Each member now charts their respective solo paths, and their individual adventures find a home within the purview of Son Lux. On Brighter Wounds, collaborators range from longtime cohorts Rob Moose (Y Music, Bon Iver, The National) and DM Stith (Sufjan Stevens), to new friends trumpeter Dave Douglas and reedist/instrument builder Arrington de Dionyso.

Son Lux has made invention its hallmark through continued exploration and experimentation. With Brighter Wounds, the triad NPR proclaimed “the world’s most lethal band" now grips exhilaration and heartache in full embrace. In the words of the album's closing refrain, "is this what the resurrection feels like?"

TRACK LISTING

A1. Forty Screams
A2. Dream State
A3. Labor
A4. Slowly
A5. The Fool You Need
B1. All Directions
B2. Aquatic
B3. Surrounded
B4. Young
B5. Resurrection

Grandbrothers are the sum of unique parts: Progressive Swiss engineer/mechanic/software designer Lukas Vogel and German-Turkish pianist Erol Sarp. Their second album ‘Open' twins Sarp’s piano skills with Vogel’s talent for both building the formidably intricate mechanics with which he exploits his partner’s instrument and also designing its software. Sarp works at his ivory keyboard while, from behind his own computer keys, Vogel live-samples his partner’s notes, triggering further effects with the aid of a homemade apparatus that physically manipulate the piano’s strings and body. They have essentially built an analogue drum machine out of a grand piano. Nerd out! Creating a new shade, a new dimension, a new generation of atmospheric krautrock with the piano at its core.

Their ambitious second album ‘Open' explores dimensions at which their debut ‘Dilation' only hinted. The greatest revelation for anyone hearing them the first time remains the element constant to everything they’ve recorded: every individual sound that Grandbrothers make stems from one single instrument, a piano. No wonder their music was once memorably described as “open heart surgery on a grand.”

“What makes things work,” Vogel concludes, “is that we are such different personalities, with different skills, which fit together so well.” Sarp concurs: “Our music comes from a mixture of really intense analysis and simply doing things. I can calm him down, and he can incite me. He’s not just a colleague, but one of my closest friends.” Such synergy – born of an innate understanding and intuition, personally and musically – can be heard throughout Grandbrothers’ technically innovative, thrillingly distinctive work: two ingenious minds, perfectly in tune, relentlessly exploring new ideas. Keep your mind Open.

TRACK LISTING

A1. 1202
A2. Bloodflow
B1. From A Distance
B2. Long Forgotten Future
B3. Honey
C1. Alice
C2. White Nights
C3. Circonflexe
D1. Sonic Records
D2. London Bridges

After the success of 2011’s ‘Past Life Martyred Saints’ and 2014’s prophetic ‘The Future’s Void’, EMA retreated to a basement in Portland, Oregon – a generic apartment complex in a non-trendy neighbourhood, with beige carpeting and cheap slat blinds. Now, she returns, with a portrait of The Outer Ring: A pitch-black world of dark night highways, American flags hung over basement windows, jails and revival meetings and casinos and rage. In a year dominated by white working-class alienation and anger, EMA – a Midwesterner who never lost her thousand-yard stare -- has delivered an album that renders Middle American poverty and resentment with frightening realism and deep empathy.

“I want to explain to outsiders that the people where I come from aren’t beyond hope and reason”, says EMA, “I want this record to bridge a divide.”

The album, co-produced with Jacob Portrait of Unknown Mortal Orchestra, is a return to EMA’s roots in the noise-folk outfit Gowns, whose 2007 album Red State prefigured many of Exile’s core themes, along with its mix of stripped-back folk (“Always Bleeds,” originally a Gowns song), spoken word (“Where the Darkness Began”) and noise epics (“Breathalyzer”).

The album is unique in its mingling of gender politics with American working-class anxiety. The voices we hear in these songs — druggy, surly societal outcasts; Byronic nihilists bringing down fire — speak to a kind of rebellion that’s typically reserved for men, and the archetype of the “dirtbag teenage boy” dominates the album. Yet EMA claims some of that same dirtbag alienation for women — “a woman who swallowed a scumbag teen boy whole,” as EMA puts it – and uses it to interrogate both her own vulnerability and how male violence shapes the world, as on the anthemic “Aryan Nation.”

The result is a deeply personal, confrontational, but ultimately redemptive album from a quintessentially American artist at the peak of her form.

TRACK LISTING

A1 – 7 Years
A2 - Breathalyzer
A3 – I Wanna Destroy
A4 – Blood And Chalk
A5 – Down And Out
B1 – Fire Water Air LSD
B2 – Aryan Nation
B3 – 33 Nihilistic And Female
B4 – Receive Love
B5 – Always Bleeds
B6 – Where The Darkness Began

On its fourth record – Sincerely, Future Pollution – Timber Timbre coats the stark, sensual sound of 2014’s Hot Dreams in an oil-black rainbow of municipal grime. It is the cinema of a dizzying dystopia, rattled by the science fiction of this bluntly nonfictional time.

Sincerely, Future Pollution stands out in Timber Timbre’s catalogue of imagistic records, with Taylor Kirk and band-mates Mathieu Charbonneau and Simon Trottier taking a unique approach to Timber Timbre’s process of sonic invention. Kirk wrote the songs in late 2015/early 2016, then arranged the music over a “very focused” Montreal winter with the veteran Timber Timbre members.

If each Timber Timbre record is framed in genre play, on Sincerely, Future Pollution, the components are the most askew: the glam of Roxy Music; the plaintive pop of Talk Talk; the disquiet of Suicide; the invincibility of Talking Heads; the haunting This Mortal Coil. All (and more) unlikely references are present, tethering Timber Timbre’s experimentation to points of familiarity. The range is an acute angle from New Age to Popular French Disco Revival like Daft Punk and Air, filtered through Timber Timbre’s painterly imagination. Freshly exhumed, Sincerely, Future Pollution is a portent from the bygone year 2016.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Sleazy glam basslines, euphoric digital pads and funked out guitars sway and swarm into the visceral vocal stylings of Taylor Kirk. A meticulously crafted, and brilliantly emotive outpouring from beginning to end.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Velvet Gloves & Spit
A2. Grifting
A3. Skin Tone
A4. Moment
B5. Sewer Blues
B6. Western Questions
B7. Sincerely, Future Pollution
B8. Bleu Nuit
B9. Floating Cathedral

South African via Berlin Indie Pop darlings Dear Reader return with Day Fever, their fourth album on City Slang and the first, in four years. It was recorded in John Vanderslice’s San Francisco studio, Tiny Telephone. Well-known as a producer for acts like Spoon and The Mountain Goats, and a musician in his own right, Vanderslice has made a name for himself in analog recording, something Dear Reader hadn’t explored prior to the decision to record at his studio.

Already far from home in Berlin, the South African musician’s trek to San Francisco meant a huge adjustment in terms of her recording style. Recording on tape helped Dear Reader mastermind, Cherilyn MacNeil, commit to the performance and narrative act of making an album, and to break, in her words, the habit of “editing the life out of things.” In Day Fever, those old habits have died, and hard. The raw, melodious, at times discordant record has most certainly retained its life, left fresh and untrampled by infinite do-overs. In fact, each song on the album is the result of just one, or a maximum of two, studio performances.

Day Fever sounds more minimal, more vanguard than Dear Reader’s previous albums, bending to match the album’s thematic pitch: if Rivonia (2013) pulled us back into the MacNeil’s (and South Africa’s) history, Day Fever slingshots us into the present to confront life in real time.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1 Oh, The Sky!
2 Tie Me To The Ground
3 So Pretty So Pathetic
4 Mean Well
5 Wake Him
6 Placate Her

Side B
7 If Only Is
8 I Know You Can Hear It
9 Nothing Melodious
10 Then, Not Now
11 The Run

Lambchop are back! Their new album, For Love Often Turns Us Still (in short FLOTUS … yes FLOTUS), arrives just in time for the bands' 30th Anniversary and in time for one of the most tumultuous years in history; not least in American history. Kurt Wagner is still painting musical miniatures as well as dramatic landscapes like no-one else right now. Though this year something is different, the fragile songs are as much about the tiny details of living in a struggling neighborhood in Nashville, which faces new challenges, as it is about the grand scheme of things without naming them.

Musically, the devil is in the details. The stylistic sound of Lambchop is thriving but it’s made out of pieces unheard of before. 2016 is a new chapter for a lot of people and a lot of bands and is certainly a new chapter for Lambchop, returning with their most ambitious and important record to date. Be surprised and be carried away by this quiet and beautiful masterpiece where it’s intensity rings louder than sirens.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A slightly more electronic sound on this newest one from Lambchop, while retaining the same languid vibes and hazy-day melodies. Vocoders and smooth synths nuzzle up next to drifting ambience, silky drums and echoing guitar plucks. While their delivery has changed a little, this is all still clearly the Lambchop we know and love. Turn it up and get the (winter) barbecue out.

TRACK LISTING

1. In Care Of 8675309
2. Directions To The Can
3. Flotus
4. JFK
5. Howe
6. Old Masters
7. Relatives #2
8. Harbour Country
9. Writer
10. NIV
11. The Hustle

Tindersticks release their new album ‘The Waiting Room,’ a milestone not just numerically, but musically and creatively. Their first studio album since 2012’s critically acclaimed ‘The Something Rain' (9/10 DiS, 8.1 pitchfork, 8/10 the Quietus, 8/10 DIY, 4/5 Guardian, 4/5 Independent on Sunday, 4/5 Uncut, 4/5 Q, 4/5 Observer) is the most ambitious, diverse and elaborate album you’ll have heard from Tindersticks in recent years. 2 decades into their musical voyage Tindersticks, established masters of restraint and poetic human emotion, are a band now confidently making the best songs of their career.

‘The Waiting Room' breathes gravity and features guest appearances by Jehnny Beth of Savages and a particularly poignant duet with long time friend of Stuart Staples, Lhasa De Sela. Not just an album but also an elaborate collaborative artistic project, each track is accompanied by a short film, each one a visual interpretation by it's own director. Christoph Girardet, Pierre Vinour, Claire Denis, Rosie Pedlow and Joe King, Gregorio Graziosi, Richard Dumas and Gabriel Sanna.

STAFF COMMENTS

Millie says: Hazy and harrowing, The Waiting Room is an intimate album with soft lyrics which are told in a story-like manner holding incredible depth. It has remnants of Celtic folk influence from the percussion, orchestral choruses and tinkering sounds of loveliness!

TRACK LISTING

1 Follow Me
2 Second Chance Man
3 Were We Once Lovers?
4 Help Youself
5 Hey Lucinda
6 This Fear Of Emptiness
7 How He Entered
8 The Waiting Room
9 Planting Holes
10 We Are Dreamers!
11 Like Only Lovers Can

DVD  
1 Follow Me (Video)
2 Second Chance Man (Video)
3 Were We Once Lovers? (Video)
4 Help Youself (Video)
5 Hey Lucinda (Video)
6 This Fear Of Emptiness (Video)
7 How He Entered (Video)
8 The Waiting Room (Video)
9 Planting Holes (Video)
10 We Are Dreamers! (Video)
11 Like Only Lovers Can (Video)

Naytronix is the alter ego of multi instrumentalist Nate Brenner who spent much of the past four years touring the world as bassist for the mighty tUnE-yArDs. Consider Naytronix’s second full-length, ’Mister Divine’ (2015, City Slang), his treatise on the subject, which sees him turning from the disjointedly funky party dance anthems of his debut Dirty Glow (2012, Plug Research) to a surrealist stream of consciousness poignancy.

Conceived in tour busses, hotel suites, and basement studios initially as fodder for DJ sets, Mister Divine is the feeling of déjà vu between delirious post-show fevers and the road-torn sleep through the night on the way to the next city, driving the circumference of the Earth in nine weeks, dreams of Pangaea, of forever ago and infinity from now.

Imagine: impossibly, and without the recollection of flying, you’re in Europe maniacally driving through the pre-dawn to catch the first ferry to Belgium, to Spain, to Sweden. There is Dur Dur on the stereo, William Onyeabor, Khaira Arby, and Dizzy K, compilations and mixtapes of unknown origin and content. This too is a dream, and tomorrow you’re starting over, another opportunity to bask in the irrelevance of the present moment, “all we have,” while keeping one eye on the future and one on the past.

Brenner has digested a lot in the three years since introducing this world to Naytronix. tUnE-yArDs has turned into something of a perpetual motion machine, taking him to far corners of the Earth, as well as Carnegie Hall and the TV sets of Jimmy Fallon, Conan O’Brien, Jools Holland, and Austin City Limits. He did some recording and performing with music royalty Yoko Ono and Sean Lennon, got to collaborate and learn from Cibo Matto’s Yuka Honda, and even found some time to take the Naytronix band around the US and across the Atlantic, from London to Istanbul. His music as Naytronix keeps its characteristic reflection of the ‘70s of Onyeabor and Bootsy Collins, there is too a new face of the sincerity and vulnerability of the ‘70s of Arthur Russell he shows here amid the psychedelia, as if wishing to land the Naytronix Mothership down to stay with us for a bit.

STAFF COMMENTS

Patrick says: The product of a unique songwriter spending too many nights under the stars in Arthur Russell's Sleeping Bag, "Mister Divine" is the best off kilter pop album I've heard in years.

TRACK LISTING

1. Mister Divine
2. Starting Over
3. Dream
4. Back In Time
5. The Wall
6. I Don't Remember
7. Future
8. Living In A Magazine
9. Shadow

Cristobal and the Sea are a proper European union of a band, if ever there was one. The quartet hail from four corners of our diverse continent. They are: Alejandro Romero from Spain (bass/vox), João Seixas from Portugal (guitar/vox), Leïla Seguin from Corsica/France (flute/vox) and Josh Oldershaw from old Blighty (drums).

After signing to City Slang (Sinkane, Caribou, Junip, Lambchop) and releasing their debut EP ‘Peach Bells’ last year, the band spent the duration of February locked in Namouche studios in Lisbon (Portugal) working on their forthcoming debut album with producer Rusty Santos (Animal Collective, Owen Pallett, DJ Rashad, Ariel Pink). Entitled ‘Sugar Now’, the record is set for release later this year, with this new single ‘Sunset Of Our Troubles’ displaying the band’s mystical, dreamy & enticing sounds wonderfully, offering a little glimpse of what to expect from the forthcoming debut.

Young, enormously gifted, very charismatic and incredibly laid back, Cristobal And The Sea are devouring life as only the young and carefree know how.

TRACK LISTING

1. Counting Smiles
2. Sunset Of Our Troubles
3. Fish Eye
4. Bear Paws
5. Happy Living Things
6. Legs Gone Feathers
7. Out
8. New Carlton House
9. Mary Ann
10. Miasma

For the better part of two decades, the acclaimed band Calexico has crossed musical barriers, embracing a multitude of styles, variety in instrumentation, and well-cultivated signature sounds. With 'Edge of the Sun' they take inspiration from a trip to a place surprisingly unexplored by the band before in Mexico City, and with the benefit of many friends and comrades to help guide the way.

Encouraged by the experience, the guest list grew to include Ben Bridwell (Band of Horses), Nick Urata (Devotchka), Carla Morrison, Gaby Moreno, Amparo Sanchez, multi-instrumentalists from the Greek band Takim, and Neko Case. Burnsʼ brother John Burns lent a hand to some lyrics and songwriting, and the bandʼs keyboardist, Sergio Mendoza, stepped up to co-write and arrange certain songs, ultimately co-producing the album along with Burns, John Convertino, and longtime associate Craig Schumacher.

STAFF COMMENTS

Laura says: Calexico have been honing their Latin-American infused dusty desert blues for the best part of 20 years, and here, they've got it bang on.

TRACK LISTING

1. Falling From The Sky With Ben Bridwell (Band Of Horses) 
2. Bullets & Rocks With Sam Beam (Iron & Wine) 
3. When The Angels Played With Pieta Brown & Greg Leisz 
4. Tapping On The Line With Neko Case 
5. Cumbia De Donde With Amparo Sanchez 
6. Miles From The Sea With Gaby Moreno 
7. Coyoacán 
8. Beneath The City Of Dreams With Gaby Moreno 
9. Woodshed Waltz With Greg Leisz 
10. Moon Never Rises With Carla Morrison 
11. World Undone With Takim 
12. Follow The River With Nick Urata (Devotchka)

Dan Snaith makes his highly anticipated return to the long player, faced with the unenviable task of following up an undeniable classic, 2010's "Swim". That universally adored album (placed in the Piccadilly Records End Of Year Top 3) saw Snaith complete the journey from the pastoral electronica of his early work as Manitoba, through the woozy hip hop inflected beats of "Milk Of Human Kindness" and "Andorra" to the undisputed champion of leftfield house. "Our Love" sees the producer joining the dots between the synth led euphoria of his dancefloor productions and the polyrhythmic rattle of his Daphni project while offering new take on warm and expansive future soul, while featuring his strongest songwriting to date.

Snaith makes his intentions clear from the off, with album opener "Can't Do Without You" picking up right where "Sun" left off, but with the euphoria turned all the way up to 11 thanks to crescendant synths and heartfelt vocals. Recent single "Our Love" falls into the same camp, pairing emotional vocals and melodies with a skipping garage beat, while organic synths and Owen Pallett's darting strings provide a richly textured backing. The warm analogue sounds of futuristic soul weave themselves deep into the record’s DNA, particularly on "Silver", "Second Chance" (featuring Jesse Lanza's seductive vocals) and "Back Home". These immersive synth ballads form intimate moments of calm between the driving house and garage of "Can't Do Without You" and "Our Love", the Daphni-styled dancefloor diaspora of "Mars" and the raving interludes "Dive" and "Julia Brightly". Snaith's mastery of these diverse styles, and the ease with which he moulds them into his artistic vision is a testament to his mature and accomplished songwriting. Nowehere is this so clear as on the LP finale and crowning moment "Your Love Will Set You Free", which combines the soulful with the driving, the melancholic with the euphoric, bringing the album to a gorgeous bitter sweet conclusion. Ultimately, Snaith has delivered a worthy follow up to "Swim", which is high praise indeed.

TRACK LISTING

01. Can't Do Without You
02. Silver
03. All I Ever Need
04. Our Love
05. Dive
06. Second Chance
07. Julia Brightly
08. Mars
09. Back Home
10. Your Love Will Set You Free

To Rococo Rot have carved an identifiable niche for themselves, and one which has crossed a variety of styles; neither wholly in the realms of ambient or pure electronics. The late 1990s albums of Veiculo and The Amateur View brought their fundamental and innovative landscapes of sound to the fore, whilst 2001’s collaboration with I-Sound, Music is a Hungry Ghost, showed their ability to blend disparate influences into something wonderfully cohesive. Remixed by Four Tet and Daniel Miller and heralded by the likes of Modeselektor, their influence extends as far as their unique approach deserves.

Returning to City Slang in 2014 for their first full-length since 2010’s Speculation (released on Domino) and their eighth album in total, Instrument is a landmark record for the electronic trio from Berlin. The serenely soft melodies of No Wave pioneer Arto Lindsay adorn three tracks (‘Many Descriptions’, ‘Classify’ and ‘The Longest Escalator in the World’), offering up a new perspective. As much a progression as a refresher course for older material, it is arguably their most refined record so far.

Lindsay’s laid-back and unhurried words lend themselves perfectly to the aesthetic of To Rococo Rot whilst pulling them through to an unfamiliar and occasionally pop-based space. Though melodies have always been a big part of their sound, the inclusion of a human voice is a distinctive modification. It sits perfectly within the warm timbres created by Lippok, Lippok and Schneider.

TRACK LISTING

1 Many Descriptions (featuring Arto Lindsay)
2 Besides
3 Down In The Traffic
4 Classify (featuring Arto Lindsay)
5 Baritone
6 Spreading The Strings Out
7 Pro Model 8 Sunrise
9 Gitter
10 Longest Escalator In The World (featuring Arto Lindsay)

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2014 EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

The Notwist release 12" single 'Run Run Run' from the critically acclaimed new album 'Close To The Glass' featuring two remixes and an exclusive B-side called "Magnificent Fall";

"The perfect blend of electronic trickery and broken hearts" 8/10 NME
“a wonderful reminder that nobody makes music quite like the Notwist” 4/5 The Skinny
“Sensitively poised and technically perfect” 8/10 Uncut
“will have you skipping back and hitting play again” 8/10 Clash
“brilliantly snaps together everything from digitalised tabla rhythms to surging power pop” 4/5 Q
"this is music of craft and accomplishment" Mojo
"a continuation of what The Notwist have always been best at" DIY
"The bonkers German kraut-prog-pop experimentalists are back" The Times
"Ecstatic" Independent on Sunday.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Run Run Run (Album Version)
A1. Run Run Run (Ada Remix)
B1. Magnificent Fall
B2. Into Another Tune (Nuel Remix)

City Slang is excited to announce the new album from EMA, "The Future's Void". The follow-up to her acclaimed 2011 LP, "Past Life Martyred Saints," “The Future’s Void” was written by Erika M. Anderson, recorded in Portland, Oregon, and produced by Erika and Leif Shackelford.

EMA recently told NME that the album was influenced by, among other things, NiN demos, the heavier side of early K Records, and William Gibson’s Neuromancer, and that the album looks at the digital commodification of our online lives. She says, “I gravitate toward hooks and melodies, and in some ways the structure of these songs are my poppiest yet,” while noting that the jarring production includes a lot of first takes and spontaneously-recorded ambient sounds “to keep the songs from sounding like advertisements".

Last month the first single "Satellites" was released to raves, garnering "Best New Track” from Pitchfork, who said, "It’s discontent composed to Carl Sagan proportion, and it’s easily the most bracing thing yet from an artist already more bracing than most.“ Spin said, “it’s a rumbling mammoth that feeds off canned, clapping percussion and waves of static feedback,” while Stereogum noted, “anxiety this ferocious is a timeless thing.”

TRACK LISTING

1. Satellites
2. So Blonde
3. 3Jane
4. Cthulu
5. Smoulder
6. Neuromancer
7. When She Comes
8. 100 Years
9. Solace
10. Dead Celebrity

In recent years songwriters have experimented more widely than ever with beats and bass, but only a few have succeeded in producing results worthy of mention. The underlying problem is that club music, when it comes to the punch, to put it crudely, needs to function on the dance floor. This can make life pretty difficult for the classic songwriter, and the resulting music can often sound a little over-thought and self-conscious. On the other hand, a functional fixation on dance floor compatibility can take over, and what is designed to work in the club can often, in album format, fall a little flat. Thus, one continues to put together brilliant, functional tracks and the other remains firmly in the domain of the song writing. Those artists who manage successfully to straddle both worlds can be counted on the fingers of one hand.

Canadian musician and producer Brad Weber, with his project Pick A Piper, joins the ranks of this charmed few. Pick A Piper was conceived in 2008 along with band mates Angus Fraser and Dan Roberts, and following two EPs, the band is set to release their debut self-titled debut album. The album is made up of eight very different songs, all with one thing in common: each is built upon the foundation of its own ingenious rhythm structure, with musical layers meticulously applied, up until the vocals, which are added right at the very end, if at all. Song writing done back-to-front, which is also fitting in this case because: Brad Weber? Isn’t that...? Yes indeed! Brad is also the drummer for Caribou. To give the whole the perfect finish and to avoid falling into the "functionality trap" (it exists!), Brad enlisted many of his friends as guest singers on these recordings. Amongst others, he asked Andy Lloyd of Born Ruffians, as well as members of the Ruby Suns and John Schmersal of Enon, Brainiac and Caribou. Brad sent them demos, allowing space for a very important and often underestimated element of the musical process, without which it would be about as exciting as a bank statement: chance. He couldn’t be sure exactly what the respective collaborators would contribute to the corresponding ideas, but that was the concept, and thus the resulting album sounds even less like a classic producer album, and more like a soundtrack to a movie - different topics but a common thread. A record that could not please us more, full of complexly layered yet catchy songs that display a very keen sense of rhythm, song writing and musical finesse. Attention to detail, but with the bigger picture in mind.

TRACK LISTING

01 Lucid In Fjords
02 All Her Colours
03 Cinders And Dust
04 Once Were Leaves
05 South To Polynesia
06 Zenaida
07 Hour Hands
08 Dinghy In A Quiet Cove

The ever-modest Lambchop boss presented ‘Is A Woman’ to Cityslang with these words: "Here's my new album. I hope you'll like it. It's a bunch of samey, downtempo stuff that doesn't really seem to go anywhere." Little did he know. Is A Woman broke Lambchop to the same place on the European continent where Nixon had previously taken the band in the UK. It was instantly recognized as a modern classic and described by one famous German critic as "one of the best albums ever made". We couldn't agree more.

PRESS: quotes from original release:

‘Another mature masterpiece from America's finest.’ AOTM 5/5 – Uncut

‘It's a brave and curious record that, as on 'Bugs', occasionally resembles Willie Nelson fronting Labradford.’ 8/10 – NME

‘A strange delight of a record.’ 8/10 – Popmatters

‘A record that urges you to lean closer to the speakers in order to fully hear everything that is being played and sung.’ – The Wire

‘These gradual pleasures fly in the face of today's pop/rock hardsell, for sure, but inexorably you are drawn into Kurt's world.’ 4/5 - Mojo

TRACK LISTING

1. The Daily Growl
2. The New Cob Web Summer
3. My Blue Wave
4. I Can Hardly Spell My Name
5. Autumn's Vicar
6. Flick
7. Caterpillar
8. D Scott Parsley
9. Bugs
10. The Old Matchbook Trick
11. Is A Woman

In 2000 the Tucson band released their second album proper and further refined their desert noir soundscapes. On this album Calexico opted for a more intimate form of expression, for a stylish, sombre, bleak ballad style that is often drenched in psychedelic reverbs and accented by jazz instruments.

Then again it does contain their first forays into the semi pop song with The Ballad Of Cable Hogue and eventually it was reissued with a version of "Crystal Frontier" that had quickly become a live favourite and went on to become their first pan European radio hit and calling card.

Sometime in the spring of 2012 the musicians that would go on to form the Chicago & Minneapolis based trio ON AN ON found themselves at a tipping point. The three of them—Nate Eiesland, Alissa Ricci, and Ryne Estwing—had played music with one another in various capacities for the better part of a decade. Most recently, they had shared the stage and studio as three fifths of the indie-pop outfit Scattered Trees, which had seen its fair share of success. But with the band’s studio time only a few weeks away and the other members now spread out across the country pursuing other endeavors, they would chart their own course and come out stronger for it. What emerged was ON AN ON.

For ON AN ON, the precariousness of breaking new ground only three weeks before recording with accomplished producer Dave Newfeld (Broken Social Scene, Super Furry Animals, Los Campesinos!) provided a jolt of creative energy. The musicians had become disenchanted with their past approach to songwriting and recording, finding the process of striving for polished pop both tiresome and constrained. Newfeld proved the perfect counterpart to their initial vision for the record, encouraging them to push boundaries and go with their instincts.

According to Eiesland, the sessions were something of an exorcism: “We really wanted to get away from the sterility of our previous approach to recording.” Eieseland, Ricci, and Estwing embraced musical risks that in the past it might have shied away from. In the studio, the band members explored a natural chemistry and honed their sound; synthesizers, scattershot electro beats and ambient ear candy gave guitars, bass and drums a ghostly sheen.

While the melodies might clue one in to the trio's evolved sonic palate, it's through the album's themes that the group member’s respective evolution becomes most apparent. Eiesland wrote the majority of the lyrics, in the process coming to terms with death and the traps that life springs upon us. Whether letting his intuition guide him on "I Wanted To Say More” ("You are a saint and you’re the devil/Every word I spoke to you, I thought that they were wings/ But they were only feathers”) or owning up to life's inevitability on "All The Horses" ("A family tree will split in two halfway through its life"), there's a tempered calm to the thought-provoking imagery he espouses through his words. Estwing offered up his own lyrical séance on his lead vocal track "Cops," although the bassist says his message—that the police can be surprisingly corrupt—is more direct. After smashing everything they knew to pieces, they pulled themselves together around Give In, ON AN ON’s ten-track debut album – a dream-washed textural journey armed with a biting perspective on life, love, and the commonality of loss. It is an affair that sizzles with electricity and calls one in with its unnerved openness.

TRACK LISTING

1. Ghosts
2. Every Song In The World
3. American Dream
4. The Hunter
5. All The Horses
6. Bad Mythology
7. War Is Gone
8. Cops
9. Panic
10. I Wanted To Say More

'Get Well Soon are one of Germany’s most prolific bands of the decade and certainly the most extravagant!

We would even go further and claim, that Konstantin Gropper is the Caspar David Friedrich of his generation; strictly musically speaking, of course. In case you don’t know, Friedrich was the most important romantic painter of the 19th century. Similarly, Konstantin’s musical vehicle, Get Well Soon is best known for its hugely romantic, allegorical songs, full of drama, morning mist and night skies. No gothic ruins though.

Their new album ‘The Scarlet Beast O'Seven Heads’ is one of the most sophisticated pop albums of the year. The album features 13 new, wildly imaginative and of course opulently arranged songs. It is, in certain moments, a colourful and beautiful nod to the genre we know as ‘Cinema Italiano’ (think Nino Rota or Argento), though these masters of the strange, wild and adventurous are just one of the 3,227 inspirations that went into the making of this new ornate Get Well Soon masterpiece.'

TRACK LISTING

1. Prologue
2. Let Me Check My Mayan Calendar
3. The Last Days Of Rome
4. The Kids Today
5. Roland, I Feel You
6. Disney
7. A Gallows
8. Oh My! Good Heart
9. Just Like Henry Darger
10. Dear Wendy
11. Courage, Tiger
12. The World’s Worst Shrink
13. You Cannot Cast Out The Demons, You Might As Well Dance

CD Disc 2: ITZTLACOLIUHQUI (Comes As Downloads With The Vinyl)
Lesson 1: You Are Welcome!
Lesson 2: Soon!
Lesson 3: Take Shelter!
Lesson 4: Absolution And Eternal Refuge
Lesson 5: Break The Cycle! Break Your Chains!

Portland’s Tu Fawning return this May with their sophomore release titled 'A Monument'. A mere nine songs short, but enough time to confirm the suspicion raised by the band's debut album 'Hearts On Hold: Can it be that this band sets itself apart from everything else out there right now? Yes, this is proof.

A Monument is in fact a very different record, all the more reason for us to appreciate this band and their artistic merits. Live Tu Fawning deliver a dense, romantic, highly energetic live show, much more powerful than their debut album would have led you to imagine. And on A Monument this sparkles through on every track.

A Monument offers exactly nine very different pieces to that beautiful and unusual Tu Fawning style. Tracks like 'Blood Stains' have moved Tu Fawning south, more the Down Under type of south, with the warped R’n’B styles of a Birthday Party or early Bad Seeds. Less the atonality and surely sans the testosterone. And likewise 'Wager' lifts some moment of orchestral nausea out of a Crime And The City Solution track, converting it into a real song. Not all gothic, but certainly all dark. Weird, eccentric, timeless are user-friendly adjectives for the simple minded when trying to describe a band such as this. And lets not forget dramatic! Does it get anymore dramatic than 'Build A Great Cliff'? Take a rollercoaster ride with the epic seven and a half minute album closer that is 'Bones'. The latter showing that there is indeed also a sense of playfulness here.

Above and beyond the usual guitar, bass, keys, drums, the record feautures instrumentation such as a ragini, a tuned down marching band drum, old 80’s synths, actually lots of synths, those samples of South American chants turned into chords. Not to mention the degenerated Four Track recorders, dying guitar pedals, but most importantly: "turning your back to the microphone and yelling...“. Monumental indeed!

TRACK LISTING

1. Anchor
2. Blood Stains
3. Wager
4. A Pose For No One
5. Build A Great Cliff
6. Skin And Bone
7. In The Centre Of Powder White
8. To Break Into
9. Bones

With the help of producer Billy Pavone (The Fall, Asobi Seksu, White Rabbits), the latest O’Death opus, Outside, is their subtlest work by far, but also the most impressive of the band's career. This is a record that lives up to its name with spacious and cinematic arrangements, layers of subtle percussion, and at times an impenetrable wall of found sound.

O'Death recorded the album over a two-month period, easily the longest they've ever spent on a production. The extended recording time allowed the band to write in studio, as well as cultivate the organic noise for the record in an intimate setting. As Pavone observed, "Creating the album in the recording, and not in the mix, was a leap of faith for me. It was challenging to let go and allow the album to breathe a bit, and be its own creation– unique and very different from some of the sounds we hear so often in the world of digital manipulation.

The result is a record that is both the most subtle and massive accomplishment of the band's career, a darkly triumphant and free-flowing album that represents exactly where the songwriters have found themselves in this moment. As Pycior notes, "I love the dynamic disparity in the album: the fragile parts of ‘Bugs,’ ‘Ourselves,’ and ‘Don't Come Back...,’ the huge endings in ‘Alamar,’ ‘Look at the Sun,’ and ‘Pushing Out.’ I know we have the right sequence this time around… and I love ending on a different and demented tone with ‘The Lake Departed.’”

TRACK LISTING

1. Bugs
2. Ghost Head
3. Alamar
4. Black Dress
5 . Ourselves
6. Look At The Sun
7. Howling Through
8. Don’t Come Back
9. Pushing Out
10. Back Of The Garden
11. The Lake Departed

In the midst of the music industry crisis art student Norman Palm had an idea: Why not visualize the rough recordings he had made between Paris and Berlin, produce a 200-page artbook with a cd and throw it on the collapsing market via his own DIY-record label? Sometimes it seems one has to ignore all golden rules to make something work: Norman Palm's book did not only sell pretty well, soon he was also invited to play live shows all over Europe such as the renowned Austrian art festival Steirischer Herbst and Haldern festival where he played along with bands such as Fleet Foxes and Yeasayer. He played at countless art events, sang next to Jane Birkin in a Parisian radio studio, was hyped by music magazines such as Stereogum, got filmed by french Blogotheque and eventually even found himself featured on the world's most visited blog run by Hollywood gossip boy Perez Hilton. Norman Palm got around.

Norman Palm also gets around because he decided not to live his life at one place only. Taking the adventures of a long-distance relationship to a not always easy level he practically commutes between Berlin and Mexico City. Enough exercise for body and soul to make contacts, get inspired and write new songs.

While Norman Palm's DIY-debut was a loose collection of songs, "Shore to Shore" is a homogenic piece and a musical quantum leap! Palm gets rid of his singer-songwriter image, irony and shyness of his debut have vanished. "Shore to Shore" is pop and love-long-distance set to music. Start/Stop, the album's overture brings together what is later split up into its parts: Ukulele, electronic beats, crazy choirs, African vs. technoid vibes, warm vs. synthetic. Above all floats Palm's distinctive voice. In Smile Palm sets foot into the american indie-terrain normally conquered by the likes of Wilco, he designs a 2.0 version of Paul Simon's Graceland with Images, flirts with Beck and the Beta Band in Landslide and spins out of $20 with an extensive Krautrock steelpan synth loop. Easy, virtually the title track of the album and a lyrical centrepiece ("Let's all be friends with the telephone calls / Let's all be friends with the departure halls") layers voices, basslines and synthesizers thus providing a perfect soundtrack for an early morning after clubbing. It's almost like listening to the radio, only that radio stations of such quality are hard to find!

Norman sings about love and how it interferes with life. About distance and closeness, about intimacy and strangeness, about missing and losing, love in a digitalized and globalized design of life. Doing that he avoids kitsch and cliché, writes poetry without being corny, makes himself clear, honestly and humble, never awkward, never bigger-than-life. Palm throws his very personal and his musical influences into a pot, cooks his own soup and puts it right on the table of international contemporary pop culture.

TRACK LISTING

01. Start/Stop
02. Smile
03. Images
04. Landslide
05. $ 20
06. WDYD?
07. Easy
08. Sleeper
09. Phantom Lover
10. Go To Sleep

If you think you know Caribou, think again. Dan Snaith’s new album, "Swim" is the sound of the musical glass ceiling being blown away. Dan’s latest recording sees him getting busy in the basement with some expertly constructed, rave-tinged sounds that sing with soul. But that’s not all. As a songwriter of considerable standing, Dan has not subsumed his uniquely recognisable touch in an orgy of technical bliss – although, there is plenty of euphoria in the musical alchemy on offer. From Dan’s perspective, he says, 'The most important thing for me with this record was finding my own sonic vocabulary. That’s why I’m proud of this record.'

"Swim" is full of brightly textured, rapturous gems that gleam with astonishing production – and then wrenches at your heart with soulful, thoughtful reveries on the passing of time, family history and the breakdown of relationships. 'There are songs about growing old in a relationship, about divorce and loneliness in old age but the lyrics are generally pretty abstract sketches of what’s going on in the situation in my head', says Snaith. If there is a link to previous album "Andorra", it would be in the ravishing explosions of sound pulsing through album closer "Niobe". A continuum of sorts leads us to 2010, but that finale gives mere hints as to the future Caribou. From the opening effervescent gambol of "Odessa" to the glorious odyssey of "Jamelia", it’s crystal clear that Caribou has made a massive leap forwards, upwards and sideways.

Having released an album on Nude Records back in 2008, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Konstantin Gropper returns with "Angry Young Man", taken from the forthcoming album "Vexations".
Gropper is also a composer of film scores; his latest being for Wim Wenders’ (Paris, Texas / Buena Vista Social Club) film Palermo Shooting (nominated at the Cannes Film Festival 2008).
The B-Side of this limited 7” "Your Teenage FBI" is taken from a film score of a 2010 released film by German cult regiesseur Detlev Buck.

"My Will Is Good" is taken from the band's second album "Threadbare". It's a rousing if slightly melancholic track and is backed by non-album trakc "Lost In A Crowd".

Nashville based Cortney Tidwell releases the follow up to her critically acclaimed 2006 album "Don't Let The Stars Keep Us Tangled Up". Recorded in Cortney's home and her friends' homes and co-produced by Cortney, her husband Todd Tidwell and Ryan Norris, "Boys" is, like its predecessor, an astonishingly eclectic and genre-defying mix of the many musical forms that have inspired her. It owes as much to Depeche Mode and Joy Division as it does to Loretta Lynn and Johnny Cash, and as much, if not more, to Great Britain as to The Grand Ole Opry. It's all held together by Cortney's extraordinary voice: athletic and graceful, as capable of immaculate innocence as banshee wails, and equipped with an irrefutable ability to strike right to the heart.

New York quintet O'Death's third album, "Broken Hymns, Limbs And Skin", feels like a giddy junkyard hoedown, from the panicked fiddle screeches of opener "Lowtide" to the celebratory gallop of closer "Lean-To". At times it sounds morose or contemplative, but underneath the melancholy is a gospel fervour — bashed from paint buckets, banjos, guitars and anything else in kicking distance — that defines their sound. Since 2007's "Head Home", the band have evolved the possessed Americana-meets-gypsy-punk of recent years into a more urgent, unrelenting celebration of life, death and everything in between. They've grown up a little, but haven't lost the underlying longing or the unruly jubilation in their songs.

This sophomore effort by Montreal's Malajube is the best francophone indie-rock release in recent memory. Catchy, heavy, light, playful and exhilarating - it rocks non-stop, and in a multitude of ways. The underlying theme of sickness runs through the disc like death did on the Arcade Fire's "Funeral". But it's filtered through textured, sweeping and frequently beautiful songwriting. Guests include rappers Loco Locass, singer Pierre Lapointe and Dears members Martin Pelland and Valerie Jodoin-Keaton. This is a big record, a great record, by what could very well be your new favourite Montreal band.