DJ Koze’s 'Music Can Hear Us' is, according to the artist, a 64-minute trip into space and back.

An album that races like a runaway rollercoaster in a zigzag through a parade of planets, from which magicians like Damon Albarn, Soap&Skin, Ada, Sophia Kennedy, Markus Acher von The Notwist und Marewrew wave. This record is the most potent legal drug currently available on the open market.

A cosmic synapse rodeo with an incredibly high density of wonder, a place you didn’t even know existed.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Universe In A Nutshell
2. Pure Love (feat. Damon Albarn)
3. Der Fall (feat. Sophia Kennedy)
4. Wie Schön Du Bist (feat. Arnim Teutoburg-Weiss & The Düsseldorf Düsterboys)
5. Tu Dime Cuando (feat. Ada & Sofia Kourtesis)
6. The Talented Mr. Tripley
7. What About Us (feat. Markus Acher Of The Notwist)
8. Unbelievable (feat. Ada)
9. A Dónde Vas? (feat. Soap&Skin)
10. Vamos A La Playa (feat. Soap&Skin)
11. Die Gondel (feat. Sophia Kennedy)
12. Brushcutter (feat. Marley Waters)
13. Buschtaxi (Album Version)
14. Aruna
15. Umaoi (feat. Marewrew)

Bonus 7":
1. Pure Love Day (feat. Damon Albarn)
2. Pure Love Night (feat. Damon Albarn)

Ben LaMar Gay’s de facto debut album, Downtown Castles Can Never Block The Sun, was International Anthem's attempt to introduce the legendary Chicago composer / improvisor / renaissance man to the rest of the world with a compilation of tracks from “7 albums he made over 7 years but never made the effort to actually release. ” The material showcases Gay’s penchant for genre-hopping—from Reich-ian soundscape voyages to Don Cherry-esque polyrhythm treks to Jorge Ben-style vocal-and-string earworms—while keeping his singular musical voice in focus.

In the years since its release, this long OOP collection has become a touchstone, foreshadowing the breadth and scope of Ben LaMar Gay’s output since. The songs-between-the-songs warped Soul Americana madness and beauty of Open Arms To Open Us, the unhinged long form freedom of Certain Reveries—each fresh mode would defy expectation if without the context established by Downtown Castles. To quote the OG press release, “to call it ‘eclectic’ would only scratch the surface. This music is everything.”

TRACK LISTING

1. Vitis Labrusca
2. Muhal
3. Music For 18 Hairdressers: Braids & Fractals
4. Jubilee
5. A Seasoning Called Primavera
6. Miss Nealie Burns
7. Me, Jayve & The Big Bee
8. Uvas
9. Galveston
10. Swim Swim
11. Kunni
12. Melhor Que Tem
13. Gator Teeth
14. 7th Stanza
15. Oh No...Not Again!

Annie & The Caldwells are a family that plays a powerful disco soul from West Point, Mississippi, led by Annie Caldwell (who sings) and her husband of the last fifty years Willie Joe Caldwell, Sr. (who plays guitar).

Annie is backed by daughters Deborah Caldwell Moore [Pronounced de-BOR-ah, or BORA, not debra, you white ass] and Anjessica Caldwell and goddaughter Toni Rivers; their eldest son Willie Jr. is on the bass and youngest son Abel Aquirius is on the drums.

'Can’t Lose My (Soul)' is their new album 40 years in the making … and it’s already gotten rave reviews in MOJO and The Guardian even before it’s been announced.

TRACK LISTING

1. Wrong
2. Can’t Lose My Soul
3. I Made It
4. Don’t You Hear Me Calling
5. I’m Going To Rise
6. Dear Lord

Scorching undercover Boogie Lovers number from the legendary Studio One artist Jennifer Lara! Mid-80s UK production from Uptempo, licensed for a well needed first ever repress. For all 80s Reggae fanatics!

TRACK LISTING

A1. We Can Make It Work
B1. We Can Make It Dub

Who doesn't love a bit of sophisticated soul? We certainly do and it's always good to hear some reworks of the soul great's finest cuts for the dancefloor. And that's what we have here on a new 7" that opens with a disco version of 'Cherish the Day' and doesn't go hard, instead building in some gentle drums and lo-fi melodies, swooning vocals and a mystical late night sense of romance. On the flip, we get a lovers rock version of 'Nothing Can Come Between Us' which adds plenty of lovely guitar lines to bring that island vibe while the shuffling drums lock you in gently.

TRACK LISTING

Cherish The Day (Disco Version)
Nothing Can Come Between Us (Lovers Rock Version)

Jamwax Records presents this historic reissue, featuring two timeless tracks from The Wailers’ legendary album "The Best of The Wailers": "Can't You See" and "Back Out". While these songs have long been cherished as classics, this marks the first time they have ever been available on a 7-inch vinyl single. Even though some books about Bob Marley & The Wailers list them as having been released on 7-inch, I have never seen a copy for sale.
Produced by the visionary Leslie Kong with co-producer Warwick Lyn, the album captures The Wailers at their soulful, raw best. These songs predate the group’s later partnership with Lee Perry and Island Records, offering a purer, more unembellished sound. The harmonies are flawless, the arrangements simple yet deeply powerful, and the performances utterly timeless. "Back Out" highlights Bob Marley's unmistakable voice, brimming with the confidence and charisma that would later make him a global icon. Bunny Wailer and Peter Tosh's harmonies add depth to a track that perfectly embodies the spirit of early reggae. "Can't You See" showcases Peter Tosh on lead vocals, supported by the sublime harmonies of Bob Marley and Bunny Wailer.
These recordings, crafted with a four-track setup and featuring some of Jamaica’s finest musicians - including Mickey ‘Boo’ Richards on drums, Jackie Jackson on bass, and Winston Wright on organ - are testament to a moment in time when reggae was still raw, revolutionary, and evolving.

Recorded at Dynamic Sounds Studios (Kingston, Jamaica), from 29th April until 19th May 1970.
Originally released on August 9th of 1971 by Beverley's Records, 135 b Orange Street, Kingston, Jamaica, West Indies.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Coupla rare-as-hen's-teeth Wailers tracks here kindly issued for the first time on vinyl. Full of that charming, ska / rocksteady vibe that just warms your heart.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Back Out
B1. Can't You See

Over 25 years ago DJ Maaco and P Dog aka Detroit In Effect released the mean green "Only Time Can Stop A Dream" EP on their M.A.P. label. Tracks like "313 Frequency" and "Sike Yo Mind", just to name a couple, banged dancefloors from Detroit to Europe! Now with new generations of music lovers almost three decades later catching on to sounds some would now consider vintage, they feel it's only right to pull out some throwbacks and make them available again! So here's to old and new, the reissue of Detroit In Effect - "Only Time Can Stop A Dream". 

TRACK LISTING

01 313 Frequency
02 Laid Back Frequency
03 Sike Yo Mind Live At M A P Pt 3
04 Synths Drums
05 Sike Yo Bonus Kutz

Officially now a duo, Merrill Garbus is joined by long-time collaborator Nate Brenner. Their new album, I can feel you creep into my private life, tackles race, politics, intersectional feminism and environmental prophecies head on. But in the billows of intense subject matter, the album is their most immediate and upbeat yet – this is Tune-Yards’ music to dance to.

The follow-up to 2014’s acclaimed album, Nikki Nack, much of I can feel you creep into my private life was recorded at John Vanderslice’s new Tiny Telephone studio in their hometown of Oakland, CA. To help finish this stunning record, they enlisted mixer Mikaelin “Blue” Bluespruce (Solange, Skepta, Kendrick Lamar) and mastered it in Harlem, NY with Dave Kutch (Jay-Z, Chance the Rapper).

TRACK LISTING

1. Heart Attack
2. Coast To Coast
3. ABC 123
4. Now As Then
5. Honesty
6. Colonizer
7. Look At Your Hands
8. Home
9. Hammer
10. Who Are You
11. Private Life
12. Free

Includes 2 bonus tracks recorded during the Bright Future sessions - ‘Once A Bunch’, formerly released only as a JCD exclusive track and 'Who Can Say' previously unreleased.

TRACK LISTING

1. Once A Bunch
2. Who Can Say

The long-awaited release of a fan favourite, 'Live In Keele 1977', is the latest in Can’s series of live albums, released on Mute and Future Days.

'Live In Keele 1977' is the newest release in a series of live albums that have been unearthed from the Spoon Records vaults and from fan recordings, then painstakingly assembled by founding member Irmin Schmidt and producer and engineer René Tinner.

This album is a dynamic document of late-period Can. Recorded in March 1977, the core line up of Irmin Schmidt, Jaki Liebezeit, Michael Karoli, and Holger Czukay is augmented by the addition of Rosko Gee (Traffic) on bass. Gee’s recent addition to the line-up meant that Holger Czukay was freed up from bass duties to perform “waveform radio and spec. sounds”, manifesting here as otherworldly sounds, samples and what one reviewer of a later show described as “moontalk to a white continental telephone.”

1977 was a difficult period for Can; their recently released eighth studio album, 'Saw Delight', had been badly received and although posterity has been kinder to the album, the reviews on release were savage. Journalist, broadcaster and author Jennifer Lucy Allan’s meticulous research of the time, place and context of the performance on the accompanying sleeve notes led her to declare of the album: “On paper, unremarkable. In practice, a precious hunk of sonic material.” Before going on to remind us that “The heads know – forums and published books alike agree – that ‘76-’77 is the best of the Can live years (Keele included). A couple of the tracks from this show have been included on fan-made “best of” live bootlegs over the years. And wow, are they right”.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Yet another entry in the Can live series, once again showcasing one of the greatest live psychedelic bands of all time. This time sees late-era Can in arguably their best live period, and sounds perfect too. What more could you want.

TRACK LISTING

1. Keele 77 Eins
2. Keele 77 Zwei
3. Keele 77 Drei
4. Keele 77 Vier
5. Keele 77 Fünf

A trio of Kansas City soul sweepers, from the sprawling midwest burg’s storied Cavern, Damon, and Forte concerns. Bump and the Soul Stompers’ 1970 sweet soul double sider 'I Can Remember' was a tail pipe-dragging, low rider classic in the making, had it ever been released. A few years later Jerald “Bump” Scott took his new group to Cavern’s subterranean confines to cut the group harmony masterpiece 'Living In The Past', but remained unissued prior to Numero’s discovery of the Cavern tapes. As disco was cresting at the top of the next decade, Sharon Revoal tracked her James Brown meets James Bond stepper 'Reaching For Our Star' - the last 45 released on Marva Whitney’s peerless Forte label.

TRACK LISTING

1. I Can Remember
2. Standing On The Outside

Introducing New Gaze's latest double single release, featuring the heartfelt "All We Can See" and the haunting "Dystopian Days”. This London-based classic-pop trio - Andrés Alcover, Rollo Ellison, and Julian Bayliss—offers a captivating blend of radiant melodies and poignant lyrics, making these tracks essential additions to any music collection.

TRACK LISTING

A1. All I Can See
B2. Dystopian Days 

A collection of warmly melodic electronic sketches, with tracks alternately drifting beatless on the breeze or underpinned by lo-fi drums, sometimes barely held together with a delicate construction of odd synth patches and ping-pong percussion. Each piece is short and to the point, a record of perfect miniatures. Whilst this description may sound utopian, the album is conceived around themes of late stage capitalist brutality, hyper consumerism, online doom and alogorhithmic apocalypse. Beauty in the face of planetary collapse and 24/7 livestreamed genocide.

Rumoured to have been discovered by Aphex Twin sleeping on a park bench in Tokyo, Raczynski first appeared on the scene in 1999 with 3 albums in that year alone. He went on to explore hallucinatory, bassbin-rattling IDM, outsider junglism and traditional Polish folk music amongst other paths, collaborated with Björk, produced a soundtrack for a PlayStation game, and remixed the likes of Autechre, Jonsi, and CLIPPING. In 2019, Disciples began looking after his Rephlex era catalogue, putting together the Rave 'Till You Cry compilation of unreleased gold from the vaults, and reissuing his classic Samurai Math Beats LP. His last studio album, ADDLE, came out on Planet Mu in 2022.

"Bogdan was a massive inspiration for some of my tracks on the Drukqs album, the fact he was doing it all on a shit PC tracker… totally amazing. This was before 99.9 percent of people used the computer for everything. His records are so underrated." - Aphex Twin

TRACK LISTING

1. Gearee
2. Newdiv
3. Fairalign
4. Coughyspns
5. Bangsaft
6. Djstus
7. Hundrecision
8. Zownthram
9. Visionsrevisions
10. Bowgh
11. Fallybli
12. Faq
13. Yewt
14. Shttwobe
15. Sicksicksicks
16. Deweyedair
17. Rew
18. Gauq

Among the many near-mythical figures of the Manchester music scene, he's known as the Nearly Man. You'd expect a drummer to have better timing.

Yes, he parted ways before The Patrol became the Stone Roses. Yes, he turned down The Smiths. Yes, Noel Gallagher asked if he fancied joining his band.

Right place, right time, wrong choices? Timing is everything.

But the beat goes on and while Simon Wolstencroft can see what might have been, cultivating bitterness bears no fruit. And 'Funky Si' has tasted the nectar.

Spending an unlikely 11 years in The Fall and hooking up with his old mate Ian Brown during his solo days, You Can Drum But You Can't Hide reflects on a life driven by a passion for playing.

Taking you from the warehouses of Manchester and the beaches of Rio de Janeiro to the high rises of Tokyo, this book hands you a backstage pass to an evocative age that restored pride to the city of Manchester. With humour and detail, Si's memoir recounts a fascinating tale of drumming and drugs, friendships and fall outs, but, above all, a love of music.

Head over to Strata Books where you can hear Simon reading excerpts & enjoy a soundtrack of some of the less well-known bands featured in the book, including The Patrol and Freak Party.

SSW Mayu, a multi-talented singer who has appeared in musicals and TV dramas, covers the classic songs of yesteryear as a single cut from a compilation album by Cafe Music!

TRACK LISTING

1. You Gotta Be (Slow Night Mix)
2. Eh Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say) [Lovers Reggae Mix]

Brooklyn underground rap heroes Tanya Morgan drop a two-track heatrock of a 7-inch that lights up dancefloors while maintaining their true-school status with clever wordplay and progressive beats.

Since breaking on to the blog-era rap scene in 2006 with their debut LPMoonlightingand solidifying their status in 2009 with the now-legendaryBrooklynati, Tanya Morgan has represented the best of underground hip-hop. Your favorite rapper's favorite group, they combine trademark witty wordplay with tough, headnodding beats that demand rewinds and repeat listens. Bouncing back in recent years withRubber Souland other one-off cuts, the duo of Donwill and Von Pea has teamed with producer 6th Sense and quietly set about building the next chapter of their rock-solid legacy.

"Move It Or Lose It" is the latest manifestation of Tanya Morgan, a cut that is neither throwback nor trend chasing, but does double duty on the dancefloor as well as a headphone banger. Irresistibly funky, with Mathien's guitar and vocal the icing on top, and riding at a perfect tempo to get dancers bubbling, it got immediate attention from DJs when the group teased the digital version online.

The double A-side single continues on the flip with "Don't Look Up," another grown-man rap (as Von Pea asks, "How you want the old me acting brand new?") set to 6th Sense's progressive uptempo beat that recalls Q-Tip's adventurous recent productions, and featuring Mia Jae on vocals driving the chorus. Donwill's commentary on getting older and wiser in the music industry hits home to any of us who've been around the block: "Slow growth while the roots spread / Somebody said rap group's dead / They prolly wrote it as a sponsored ad."

Both cuts are primed to move feet and represent the continued lineage of quality underground hip-hop, proudly coming straight from the heart of Brooklyn as a collab with BK-based indy vinyl masters Names You Can Trust.

TRACK LISTING

1. Move It Or Lose It (feat. Mathien)
2. Don't Look Up (feat. Mia Jae)

Carving an unlikely and elaborate niche in the stoney academic landscape which she once shared with the likes of Phill Niblock, John Cage and Sorel Hayes, the excitable proto-punk poèmes sonores of the linguistic loose cannon known as Beth Anderson first rolled through New York in the mid-1970s (from Kentucky via San Francisco) like a jumbled tumbleweed of lost Letterism, face paint and threadbare drummy funk to astonish gallery floors, lecture theatres and loft apartment stages. One thousand leagues under the radar of the commercial music industry, with a sense of humour that elevated way above her highbrow peer group, the music of Beth Anderson has successfully evaded the pressing plant for most of her creative career, and not unlike fellow New York gallery actionist Suzanne Ciani, it has taken decades to successfully collect and contextualise these early recordings - expanding her elusive discography beyond the rare and mysterious solo single entry in the process.

When uttered amongst the type of vinyl vampires that haplessly gravitate between both art school vintage vanity pressings and family funded plunder funk, there’s an outside chance that the name Beth Anderson might muster some vague recognition on account of her one and only solo wax sojourn into the expansive DIY market. In 1980 the 45rpm single 'I Can’t Stand It' combusted into the consciousness of adventurous participants with its deep rhythmic backbeat (courtesy of future Sonic Youth/Dinosaur Jr producer Wharton Tiers, member of the new wave band Theoretical Girls), climaxing with two colourful and commanding linguistic tantrums before disappearing in a puff of smoke leaving would-be fans dumbstruck without so much as a label name or distribution contact to explain what they had just heard. For those who have spent the subsequent years on the edge of that same seat, it might come as some comfort knowing that somewhere out there (on the OTHER side) there is also a contrasting world of gallery patrons and experimental sound poetry enthusiasts that similarly didn’t know that their regular performance poet Beth Anderson even made the ambitious pop record. For the uninitiated, the enigmatic Beth Anderson has straddled both sides of
the art/rock fence placed between two equally niche pastures. Hopefully this first-ever vinyl compendium will succeed in joining the dots, loops, yelps, squeaks, beats and repeats! Let us follow Beth’s lineage, along her magnetic tape highways crossing multiple boundaries in a hope to bridge unlikely anti-genres like “yoga punk”, “ramble rap”, “combustion pop” and “form room funk”… all of which were officially neatly bracketed under the curious TextSound movement where Beth garnered utmost respect as a key practitioner... 

TRACK LISTING

1. Ocean Motion Mildew Mind
2. Yes Sir Ree
3. I Can’t Stand It
4. Country Time
5. If I Were A Poet
6. Torero Piece
7. Peachy Keen-O

Two great soul vibes from the master of funk, Mr James brown. First up from the 'There It Is' LP is one of favourites "Never can say goodbye" which is just an amazing groove and bass vibe. Killer horn lines - Smokin' stuff. On the flip is another soul class from the man. "You Took My Heart" from the getta up offa that thang LP. It has such a lovely swing to it, loads of movement!!! Essential! 

TRACK LISTING

1. Never Can Say Goodbye
2. You Took My Heart

80s alt country punk outfit, Lone Justice, with Maria McKee, Ryan Hedgecock, Marvin Etzioni and Don Heffington are in full flight with the release of a brand new 7”.

Taken from their forthcoming album, Viva Lone Justice, ‘Teenage Kicks’ is a rambunctious slice of punk angst that sounds like it was recorded in one take. It’s a timeless anthem with a joyous riff that explodes into a hail of feedback. A favour returned as Maria McKee, the songwriter of Feargal Sharkey’s only solo hit ‘A Good Heart’, Lone Justice cover The Undertones’ Peel-approved favourite with the artwork of the single being a nod to the original. “As much as we loved Merle Haggard, George Jones, and many other authentic hard core Country artists, we were also deeply impacted by Punk; from the Velvet Underground (we were playing "Sweet Jane" live as early as 1983) to the MC5 ("Sister Ann" is on the album "Viva Lone Justice").”

Backed with ‘Nothing Can Stop My Loving You’ that’s cut with a wild, squeezebox-powered interpretation of the George Jones and Roger Miller country stomp. “Speaking of George Jones, here's one written by George Jones and Roger Miller. Two of our favorites! We played this song at nearly every show starting in 1983. This ragged and right live recording captures the fire from a sold out show at The Palace in Los Angeles and features Jo-El Sonnier on lead accordion documenting the only time Sonnier played with LJ. "Nothing Can Stop My Loving You" is the only live track on Viva Lone Justice." 

TRACK LISTING

A1 Teenage Kicks
B1 Nothin' Can Stop My Lovin' You 

Can You Hear Me Dreaming? is KUČKA’s second album for LUCKYME®. Her decade-plus of experience in the studio shines through on 12 tracks of laser-cut electronic production and irresistible pop songwriting. Slipping out of autobiographical mode and into other people’s stories, she explores the far reaches of her “cartoon brain”, riffing on a personal moodboard of everything from surreal creatures and rainy cityscapes to tattoos and “cute-ugly” pottery.

KUČKA is the solo project of electronic producer and songwriter Laura Jane Lowther. A Los Angeles transplant from Western Australia, with roots in the northwest of England, KUČKA is a self-powered producer, songwriter and vocalist who has collaborated with artists as varied as Flume, SOPHIE, Kendrick Lamar, A$AP Rocky, Mount Kimbie and Vince Staples since her electrifying debut EP in 2012.

TRACK LISTING

1. Wasting Time (til The End Of The World)
2. Heaven
3. Can’t Help It
4. Cry Cry Cry
5. Heavyweight
6. Communal Reverie Ft PESH
7. Mountain
8. One More Night Ft Flume
9. Wedding
10. Messed Up
11. Gross Body Ft PESH
12. Not There

"We Can Live Together is the first full LP by Earthtones on Wonderwheel. The title is a message, a prayer, and a vision for humanity. It is a reminder that we are in this life together, that love binds us all, and it is only the ideologies and social systems built to prohibit our ability to recognize how close we are that hold us back. We can live, together. The record is based in Folkloric Futurism, a movement that explores the convergence of global folk traditions with technology. Channeling the influence of proto House & Techno pioneers like Mr. Fingers, Kevin Saunderson and Inner City, Earthtones combines analog synthesizers & vintage drum machines with folkloric vocals and instrumentation in a way uniquely his own. It's a celebration of the intersection of past and future, here and there, ancestry and technology. It celebrates themes of spirituality, feminism, love, and most of all, peace. Highlights include "Ọ̀sanyìn", a prayer to the Orisha Ossain, with Maikel Alberto Salazar of rumba super-group Obbatuké on vocals. Recorded in Santiago De Cuba, the track is evocative of Mala's classic "Mala In Cuba" album that broke down barriers between electronic music & traditional music. "La Mujer Serpiente", having seen a sellout 7" last year features Polaris prize winning artist Lido Pimienta-behind the live cumbia rhythms, bass synths, analog keys, 808 drums & guitars, the vision of this track is one of uplifting womxn and femmes everywhere. Ancestral and contemporary Colombian voices are present on the mid-tempo dancefloor track that is the single "Limones" with Semblanzas Del Rio Guapi, Oliwa & the chugging analog rap soundscapes of "Quiero Que Mami" with Verito Asprilla . The album also touches into ambient moments ("Song of the Wind" , Waves") – inspired by friends Carlos Nino, Matthew David, Colloboh and the vibrant West Coast environmental sound movement.

TRACK LISTING

1. Deià Dream
2. Osanyìn (feat. Maikel Alberto Salazar)
3. La Mujer Serpiente (feat. Lido Pimienta & Oliwa)
4. Quiero Que Mami (feat. Verito Asprilla)
5. Limones (feat. Oliwa, Numu & Semblanzas Del Rio Guapi)
6. Deià Dream II
7. Selam (Dub) [feat. Etsegenet Mekonnen]
8. Salta La Cuerda (feat. Huaira)
9. Song Of The Wind
10. Selam (feat. Etsegenet Mekonnen)
11. Waves

Fresh underground talent straight out of Liverpool from certified herbalist Sticky Dub.

The MC/Producer cooks up his own special blend of Broken Beat, UKG, Dub and Hip Hop, as styles collide to unique effect. His Northern roots man, rudebwoy energy is processed through an electronic, inner city engine, resulting in some of the most exciting club ready cuts we've heard this side of the Mersey. Melodic dub baselines rub with skipping dancefloor beats, all laced with Sticky's bouncing Scouse drawl, and lyrical insight, on his quest to understand nature and rhythm. And like Sticky says, if you want to keep the spiritual equilibrium of the world in check, then 'never give weapons to a man who can't dance".

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Rootsical, funky, deep and forward facing. Bass buggin' future soul from Liverpool which give South London's finest a run for their money.

TRACK LISTING

1. Step Steady
2. Warrior Chant
3. In Me Drum
4. Trample The Beast
5. Right Direction
6. Free Ur Mind

Maximum vocal power and prime time dramatics by Chrissy and Carrie Wilds. The San Francisco based DJ and producer shows his stylistic versatility and technical capability to work with vocals, melodies and sound sources. Like a facsimile of the late 1980s house/freestyle record that you never owned, "Things Can’t Go On Like This Forever" ticks all the right boxes. Heartfelt vocals (by the great Carrie Wilds): check! Timely social message: check! Melodic euphoria: check! Old school house and true school freestyle flavor: check! Comes in various mixes and with a freestyle bonus beat special.

Additional airtime is given to the now classic Chrissy production "So I Go Dancing". Done in a traditional remix fashion by Gerd Janson it highlights all the features of the original and again Carrie‘s enchanting voice, extends the included hysteria and adds a few snare rolls. Let‘s go dancing to brighten the darkness. Dance music in its purest and maybe most US-American form.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Bit of an anthem for our troubled times, which sounds deliciously retro even though it's brand new. Piano-house heads gonna go nuts when this here this freestyle-tinged arm raiser.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Things Can’t Go On Like This Forever (Main Mix)
A2. Things Can’t Go On Like This Forever (Instrumental)
A3. Things Can’t Go On Like This Forever (Freestyle Mix)
B1. So I Go Dancing (Gerd Janson DJ Remix)
B2. Things Can’t Go On Like This Forever (Freestyle Instrumental)
B3. Things Can’t Go On Like This Forever (Freestyle Beats)

The acclaimed Can live series continues with the release of Live In Aston 1977, available via Mute and Future Days (the new EU label created by Spoon Records).

The series was overseen by founding member Irmin Schmidt and producer/engineer René Tinner, who delicately worked on restoring the archival recordings to the best quality for current modern technology. This record captures the band’s 1977 performance in Aston and features Schmidt (keyboard & synths), Jaki Liebezeit (drums), Michael Karoli (guitars), Holger Czukay (wave receiver & spec.sounds), plus Rosko Gee (bass), who appears for the first time in the series.

This release features sleeve notes by former Sex Pistol, Glen Matlock, sharing his first-hand experience of witnessing CAN's live show.

Live In Aston follows the release of Live In Paris 1973, the first in the series to feature Damo Suzuki’s vocals [“…among the greatest documents of their untouchable alchemy…” – Record Collector 5*]; Live In Brighton 1975 [“Pure dynamite… keep them coming” – MOJO]; Live in Stuttgart 1975, [Uncut’s Reissue of the Year, #2 in MOJO’s Reissues of the Year, #7 in The Wire’s Archive Reissues of the Year plus more]; and Live In Cuxhaven 1976, which again featured heavily in the Reissues of the Year.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: The latest in the lineup of beautifully presented live outings from Can's extensive history. this time sees the cosmic psychedelic overlords take on Aston in Birmingham with great, very psychedelic results.

TRACK LISTING

Vinyl Tracklist
A1 Aston 77 Eins
A2 Aston 77 Zwei
B1 Aston 77 Drei
B2 Aston 77 Vier

CD Tracklist
1 Aston 77 Eins
2 Aston 77 Zwei
3 Aston 77 Drei
4 Aston 77 Vier

GRAMMY award-winning, multi-platinum rock band Kings of Leon are coming back big with their 9th full-length studio album, Can We Please Have Fun. As the title suggests, it’s a document of one of this era’s great rock & roll bands cutting loose, trying new things, and, yes, having some fun. Recorded at Dark Horse studio and produced with new collaborator Kid Harpoon (Harry Styles, Florence + the Machine) the album sees a new side of Kings of Leon. On the new album, the band harkens back to their gritty origins while simultaneously finding new gears. It’s the sound of a band unified in vision and purpose, freed from any expectations, and the album the band says they’ve always wanted to make.

TRACK LISTING

Side A:
1. Ballerina Radio
2. Rainbow Ball
3. Nowhere To Run
4. Mustang
5. Actual Daydream
6. Split Screen
Side B:
1. Don’t Stop The Bleeding
2. Nothing To Do
3. M Television
4. Hesitation Gen
5. Ease Me On
6. Seen

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

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

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2024 EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

Previously unreleased and unheard, this 2LP live concert will be available on limited edition colour vinyl and packaged in a numbered trifold gatefold.

I've Enjoyed As Much Of This As I Can Stand represents a singular moment in the band's history. Recorded on the final night of their '98 tour in support of the eponymous LP, Acetone was in peak form. recorded live on 16 track ADAT, the band pulled from all corners of their catalog in a nearly 80 minute set that veers from serenity to recklessness, culminating in an epic 13-minute medley of "I'm Gone / Miserlou" that should put to eternal rest the notion that this was a "slowcore" band.

TRACK LISTING

Rumble
Cindy
Another Minute
If You Only Knew
Every Kiss
I've Enjoyed As Much Of This As I Can Stand
All The Time
In The Light
All You Know
Waltz
Sunny Side Of Heaven
Barefoot On Sunday
I'm Gone
Miserlou
Come On
Endless Summer

London-born-and-raised DJ and producer Parris has announced his new EP Passionfruit, via his own co-founded label can you feel the sun. Following his stand-out 2021 album Soaked In Indigo Moonlight, described as a “masterful” take on the pop genre (Crack Magazine), Passionfruit continues Parris’ affinity for polyrhythms and bouncing synths, but diving deeper into his love for clubbing and UK soundsystems, the result is a heady house compilation.

Each track on the EP is in contention with the one before it, a counterpoint to a sonic argument; melodic bubbly pop against heavy drum and bass, morning rays of sunlight against dark and swampy rhythms. Where the title track “Passionfruit” was described by Parris as imagining the “early morning of a set with the sunrise coming through the shutters”, the very next track “Slipping, Falling, Crawling” is much like the title suggests: a sludgy, percussion-heavy track which has fun with creating melody from the beat itself, stripped back and raw intent.

“Why Can’t Rabbits Wear Cowboy Boots” and “Underwater Fantasy” are almost alternate universe club classics. “WCRWCB” takes a club-formed structure, and uses it to explore the limits polyrhythms, layering chaotically over eachother, and building through the first half of the track, until it peaks with the introduction of an explosive bassline. “Underwater Fantasy” on the surface is the straightest-sounding track to come from Parris, but the disco-style vocals fight with the beat, pushing and pulling at eachother.

Parris (aka Dwayne Parris-Robinson) has dedicated himself to club culture from an early age, never missing a week at FWD>> (the club night where a generation of bass and techno DJs made their names), and was constantly tuning into Rinse FM. Immersing himself into the distinct sound of London built the foundations of the productions we hear today, with grime and drum & bass bubbling alongside slick pop references.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Tricksy, playful tech-house vibes here from Parris who recalls a bit of Madteo, Sotofett and Julio Bashmore as he injects bucket loads of fun into the dancefloor.

TRACK LISTING

Why Cant Rabbits Wear Cowboy Boots
Underwater Fantasy
Passionfruit
Slipping Falling Crawling

Stix Records, a sub-label of Favorite Recordings, presents the 3rd release from its new Mellow Reggae Series project. Following two stunning covers of Bobby Caldwell and Player alongside label mates Ethel Lindsey, Mato is now taking over the famous hit by Sylvia Striplin, this time inviting his longtime friend and singing partner, Lady Gatica.

Produced by Roy Ayers in the early 80s , “You Can’t Turn Me Away” is one of Sylvia Striplin's sweetest moments of slow, smoochy soul music. So good it had to be covered by Erykah Badu, now we see Lady Gatica take on this mighty record with unbelievably dreamy results.

Almost perfect for a 'mellow reggae' retake, Mato adds lilting guitar, balmy keys and a palm tree elegance that'll have you endlessly rocking in the hammock as the afternoon turns into evening.

Limited copies. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Paul says: Love this mellow reggae twist on the Sylvia Striplin / Erykah Badu jam! Just in time for beer garden season!

TRACK LISTING

A. You Can’t Turn Me Away (Mato Reggae Mix)
B. You Can’t Turn Me Away (Mato Dub Version)

To hear the quintessential synthesized sounds of "El Hombre Orquesta" aka Ricardo Suntaxi is analogous to studying the detailed schematics of your favorite electronic contraption. For the initiated, it's a peek under the proverbial hood, an invitation into the engine of a sound and color that has played a part in powering and defining a treasure trove of modern Latin American sound-system music.

TRACK LISTING

1. Baile De San Juan
2. Que Siga La Farra

I Just Can't Stop It is the debut studio album by British ska band the Beat, released on 23 May 1980 by Go-Feet Records in the United Kingdom. It was released the same year in the United States on Sire Records under the band name "The English Beat". In Australia, it was released on Go-Feet under the band name "The British Beat".

Well received from the start, publications such as Rolling Stone raved that the music was "wild and threatening, sexy and sharp." AllMusic later said it "was a stunning achievement", which has not been diminished by time.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
Mirror In The Bathroom
Hands Off...She's Mine
Two Swords
Twist And Crawl
Rough Rider
Click Click
Side B
Big Shot
Whine & Grine / Stand Down Margaret
Noise In This World
Can’t Get Used To Losing You
Best Friend
Jackpot

RIYL: Estelle, Mamalarkey, Crumb, Men I Trust, Faye Webster, Clairo, Taphari, Childish Major, Samia, McKinley Dixon, Arlo Parks, Anjimile.

"Benét does a great job of using the instrumentals in their music to better capture the feeling they want to convey." - Flood Mag.

'Can I go again?', the debut full-length album by Richmond, VA-based singer-songwriter Benét (Benét Nutall) is a diverse collection of contemplative, tightly-crafted indie-pop, rock, and soul tracks as emotionally resonant as they are immediate and infectious. These tracks are equally worthy of processing heart break, gaming with your friends, or finding strength in solitude growth in time requires an embrace of seriousness as well as unbridled, shameless joy.

Benét’s debut EP, 'Game Over' (2021), was an honest effort at self-reflection through electronic dance and disco atmospheres the titular question of their debut album serves as a reset on the arcade game with more knowledge, maturity, and assurance as Benét moves into more organic instrumental accompaniment and refined songwriting. The ebullient and sharp guitar riffs and driving bassline of “Insensitive” lift Benét’s vocals as they sing about feelings of nervousness, desire, and ultimately overcoming both with assuredness. Benét gets to flaunt satisfying personal growth in “Overpowering” over a smooth bassline and strutting beat. “No Alarm” offers another look at Benét’s lyrical vulnerability, moving back and forth between self-consciousness in the verses and a shimmering string emphasized certainty in the chorus.

Benét’s music has always been influenced by the environments around them and the people who they choose to create with. The album is a result of roughly three years of writing and recording at various times with different groups of friends and musical partners in Richmond, VA with Jacob Grissom, Christian Lewis, Neal Perrine, and John Trainum, in Philadelphia with Kyle Pulley and Danny Murillo, and in New York with Carlos Truly.

'Can I go again?' is about taking and recognizing time, growing deliberately, and expressing delight and nervousness with confidence. Benét uses Can I go again? To work through their own place amidst inspiring, confusing, difficult, and beautiful human connectivity and present these unforgettable, catchy, emotional songs with the hope the audience can listen and do the same.

TRACK LISTING

1 The Real Me
2 Missn’ Out
3 Overpowering
4 No Alarm
5 Things Change
6 Insensitive
7 Facts
8 If It Happens Again
9 Lose U
10 Try (Alt Version)

Following on from the Primal Scream frontman’s brilliantly-received previous release for Ace, ‘Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down’, Bobby Gillespie brings us another slice of the music that soundtracks his life. And in this case, it’s his touring life. Drawing on the experience of ‘the way that the noise and clamour of the road can tire you out, wear you down and frazzle your nerves to shattered fragments of jangled exhaustion’, these are the records Bobby turns to for solace, for comfort, for empathy and for resourcefulness.

The compilation features an introduction from the man himself, talking us through his personal choices as though he’s sitting cross-legged on the carpet going through records with you in his lounge. Also long-time cohort of the band, Kris Needs has written extensive liner-notes, serving up an intensive track by track insight and analysis.

Titled after and kicking off with the Willie Nelson track of the same name, ‘I Still Can’t Believe You’re Gone’ leads us through a darker and deeper exploration than its predecessor, featuring Nick Cave’s funereal version of ‘By The Time I Get To Phoenix’ and Ry Cooder’s sparse and beautiful reworking of ‘Dark End Of The Street’. And we get there via such greats as Bob Dylan, JJ Cale, Donnie Fritts, Crazy Horse, Lee Hazlewood, Al Green, Thin Lizzy and so many more.

In Bobby’s own words: ‘These songs are soul savers to soothe frayed and battered nerves and to ease and settle the heart. They work on me like medicine every time. I would like to share this wonderful music that has given me strength, joy and inspiration over the years with you the listener, so that you too might get the same feelings of protection and inspiration that I do whenever I listen to these songs. We're all travellers on some kind of road through this life, and we all need respite from time-to-time - the music on this compilation is soul food of the highest order - I hope you enjoy it.’. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: Read any interview with Primal Scream's Bobby Gillespie over the years, and you can't fail to notice what a ridiculously knowledgeable fan of musical history he is. It's there in the multitude of styles his band have always explored, and it's there in his previous compilation for Ace, ‘Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down’. Guess what? This second outing is even better!

TRACK LISTING

Vinyl Tracklisting
Side One
1. I Still Can't Believe You're Gone – Willie Nelson
2. Love Sick - Bob Dylan
3. We Had It All - Donnie Fritts
4. Magnolia - J.J. Cale
5. In The Rain - The Dramatics *
Side Two
1. By The Time I Get To Phoenix – Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
2. I Don't Want To Talk About It - Crazy Horse
3. Dark End Of The Street - Ry Cooder
4. Kind Woman - Percy Sledge
5. Wait And See - Lee Hazlewood
Side Three
1. Strong As Death (Sweet As Love) - Al Green
2. Shades Of A Blue Orphanage - Thin Lizzy
3. Heart Like A Wheel - Kate & Anna Mcgarrigle
4. When My Mind's Gone - Mott The Hoople
Side Four
1. I'll Be Long Gone - Boz Scaggs
2. The Coldest Days Of My Life Pt 1 – The Chi-Lites
3. Roll Um Easy - Little Feat
4. Brokedown Palace - Grateful Dead
5. I Feel Like Going Home - Charlie Rich

* Exclusive Vinyl Track
 

Barry Can’t Swim’s highly anticipated debut album is finally here. Those who have liked Barry’s output to date will love this full length. It showcases both sides of his artistry - his ability to write dancefloor-ready party bangers and also his more downtempo, piano-led pieces. These two sides will also come to life throughout 2023 and beyond on stage, with a stacked diary of both traditional DJ shows and his very first full band live shows. Every album track was written and crafted with it’s position within the full length piece of work in mind - it’s an album designed as such, rather than a collection of songs thrown together.

Silky, airy, uplifting production which is sure to give you tingles and rushes of rose tinted nostalgia. The upfront production is paired with pop-like sensibilities and bucket loads of sentiment; delving into the vast tropes of electronic music that have preceded it whilst offering the listener something that is undeniably brand new and looking forwards. Incredible! 

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: A gloriously fresh and fun new album that should appeal to fans of Real Lies, Avalanches, DJ Seinfeld, Ross From Friends and Anthony Szmierek. Album highlight for me, "Some Deadbeat Gospel" is an incredible piece - a epochal ode to night club culture from Somedeadbeat paired, skewed and twisted into BCS's bouncy synthetic house soundbed.

TRACK LISTING

1. When Will We Land?
2. Some Deadbeat Gospel (feat. Somedeadbeat)
3. Sonder
4. How It Feels
5. Sunsleeper
6. Woman
7. I Won’t Let You Down (feat Falle Nioke, Blackboxx)
8. Always Get Through To You
9. Tell Me What You Need (feat. Just Lil)
10. Dance Of The Crab
11. Define Dancing

The Wytches need very little introduction, but it is with no little excitement that we welcome back Brighton’s purveyors of melody for album number four – all raucous and unruly, yet glistening with jagged edged poetic wistfulness and undeniable emotional clout.

The former Transgressive/ Heavenly Records act return with their fourth studio album in September on Alcopop! Records this year - and it's definitely their best yet, all raw-throat punk, stoner/doom psych, riffing swagger, and perhaps just the tiniest hint of delicious folk twinkling... Just get it in your ears. It’s glorious.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: The Wytches 4th outing is awash with the sort of grotty lo-fi rock we've come to know from the Brighton outfit, but imbued with a gothic intensity and grunge-leaning heft that we've not heard before. Clattering semi-rhythmic noises burst into huge choral passages and tearing surfy guitar lines.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
Zep Step
Maria
Sloped Old Tower
Bats
Unsure
Side B
Spark
Something To Fall Back On
Our Guest Can't Be Named
Bill Blood
Fool

Names You Can Trust continues its years-long revival work with one of Panama's most gifted and legendary soul artists, Ralph Weeks, returning the singer to the studio for another brand new recording that highlights the now 80-year old's still silky vocals and masterful songwriting. Up for the challenge with their own studio savoir-faire is a most fitting and genuine purveyor of modern day soul themselves, Ben Pirani and The Means of Production, whose output on Palmetto Street Recording and Colemine Records has already achieved high praise and collectible status in just a few years. The mission, record two unreleased home studio demos that were penned and tracked in the early 1980's and recently excavated from Ralph's extensive archive of personal songs. These original compositions were faithfully given the full treatment and arrangement they never received, but always deserved. The A-Side, "Nobody Loves Me (Like You Do)", a quintessential Ralph testimonial of love, now shines alive and energized against the backdrop of a funky Latin soul dancer. The B-Side, "Got To Keep On Trying" is one of Ralph's many unpublished monster ballads, a deep and heartfelt tear jerker reminiscent of his classic hits from yesteryear. Now, forty plus years later, both songs can finally be released into the world, and ultimately serve as another testament to Ralph's prolific yet private musical career and legacy.

TRACK LISTING

1. Nobody Loves Me (Like You Do) [feat. Ben Pirani & The Means Of Production]
2. Got To Keep On Trying (feat. Ben Pirani & The Means Of Production)

Fronted by former South London lovers rock vocal harmony group, Alpha (sisters Jackie & Jean Heron and Marlene Richardson), Take Three was the brain-child of writer/producer trio "S.H.E." - Steve Sinclair, Peter Hinds & Kevin Ellis.

Meeting each other at The Factory community centre in Paddington (now known as the Yaa Asantewa centre and in the last few years, The Yaa Centre) Steve & Kevin began a partnership writing and directing their own theatre productions as part of The Black Theatre Co-Op, which called the centre home at the time. When a song they had written together for one of their productions received praise and plaudits, the path toward writing and producing records began, bringing in more seasoned hand Peter Hinds - formerly a member of key brit funk groups Light of the World and Beggar & Co, and player with Incognito, Imagination & Loose Ends - to complete the circle.

Following on from Freestyle's reissue of the group's first single around this time last year, in the form of 1983's Tonight's the Night, we decided to drop another killer 12" from the Take Three vaults - this time it's their last single released as Take Three in 1985. Can't Get Enough (of Your Love) was originally licensed out to, and released by Andy Sojka's seminal Elite label. It features two super extended mixes - the A side's "Soul mix" showcases the girls's harmonies pinned down by a big & heavy synth bass groove before moving into boogie-dub territory, while the B side "Reggae mix" introduces an ofbeat skank heightening the vocal stylings' lovers-esque tendancies.

TRACK LISTING

1. Can't Get Enough (Of Your Love) [Soul Mix]
2. Can't Get Enough (Of Your Love) [Reggae Mix]

‘Can We Do Tomorrow Another Day?’ is the debut project from Paul Simonon (The Clash, Gorillaz and The Good, The Bad and The Queen); and Galen Ayers (singer-songwriter who amongst other artistic projects released the rightly acclaimed solo album ‘Monument’).

The roots of the album began in lockdown as Simonon relocated to a remote Mallorcan fishing village, where he spent his time, painting, and writing songs. Over an 18-month period he worked with local musicians, playing and busking in the streets of Palma with his friend Ayers.

What emerged is a collection of ten uplifting songs which collectively present a snapshot of pan-European music culture - and an album that journeys across the continent, influenced by French chansons, Spanish pop and English sea shanties; evoking scenes stretching from Edgware Road to Hydra Island; and painting pictures of everything from elegant Parisian cafes to drunken tourists in Magaluf to the ghosttown chill of an out-of-season holiday destination.

‘Can We Do Tomorrow Another Day?’ features an array of top tier talent. Produced by the legendary Tony Visconti (David Bowie, T-Rex, Sparks) with a band made up of Simon Tong (The Verve, The Good, The Bad and The Queen), Sebastian Rochford (Polar Bear, David Byrne, Patti Smith), Dan Donovan (Big Audio Dynamite), and Damon Albarn (Blur, Gorillaz…) playing melodica.

Madison’s latest project, I Hope You Can Forgive Me, represents an evolution in her career as she finds ways to improvise and self-produce in the midst of an ever changing global pandemic landscape. I Hope You Can Forgive Me builds upon that next step sonically while exploring themes of love, self preservation, fear, and conjuring. What comes out of this work and Madison’s career thus far is a commitment to leave - leave fear and doubt behind in order to make space for what is next to come, all with a sense of style, fun, and invitation to dance through it

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: McFerrin presents a beautifully manicured selection of new soul ballads, musically edging towards the glimmering guitars and shimmering percussion of Chic but with her stunning athletic vocals bringing things into funky R&B territory.

TRACK LISTING

1. Deep Sea
2. Fleeting Melodies
3. Testify
4. Run
5. God Herself
6. OMW
7. (Pease Don’t) Leave Me Now
8. Stay Away (From Me)
9. Utah
10. Goodnight

Dedicated 21st Century polymath Kay Logan continues to expand her soundworld in every direction at once with her Helena Celle alias. A maximalist internal landscape of broken Jungle patterns, distorted synths and heavily warped instrumentation bent out of cognisance, If You Can’t Handle You At Your Worst, Then I Don’t Deserve Me At My Best is Logan’s most danceable, most fun and most gloriously congealed record to date.

Conceived in part as a response to her 2016 debut release If I Can’t Handle Me At My Best, You Don’t Deserve You At Your Worst, 2023’s update employs similar principles (degrading technology, the joy of chance, an outsider’s gaze onto the dance floor, an embracing of the occult) to delirious effect. If “I Can’t Handle” was lo fi and fragile in its technoid recasting of dance music, here Logan’s confidence allows a frantic playfulness that retains the spontaneity of all her output. It’s the work of a creative spirit revelling in the possibilities of sound, rhythm, texture and pattern. Helena Celle’s music opens up psychic space in front of the listener and invites them in. In this world, sounds and tropes once recognisable are rendered fractal, spectral and continually melting in and out of recognition. Simply put, Helena Celle might be detouring Drum & Bass, Techno and Breakbeat with a prankster’s grin but the result is pure ecstasy crushed into a part of the listener’s consciousness hitherto untroubled.

Opener I Did It My Way pokes fun at Sinatra but the message is clear, Helena Celle has no regrets. Sounding like a Jungle track shorn of a MC and deep fried in greasy acid, it uses cassette compression effects to push the sound far beyond the red. A breakbeat suffers multiple lashings of noise solos, heavily filtered synths and white noise blowing a crazy gale across the stereo pan. Ennobled Reception Of The Excellector (My Face When Mix) approximates French House perhaps or 90s dance chart music as performed by a rotting homunculus gurgling down the phone. It’s really that fun and carefree. Real Time... takes a stab at a kind of Techno EBM Cold Wave with no desire to sound like any of it, with waves of tape hiss rising up from some dark shore to wash over proceedings. Fellow sound artist and musician Jennifer Walton guests on the last track on Side A, an epic, fuzzed out Noise and rhythm excursion into cyber breakdown. Snow-Filled Chalice Of My Magonian Exile (titles of the year so far, right?) builds into a wall of beats, pads, manic, haywire synth patterns and a world-ending, distorted riff that points to an appreciation of Metal. The track posits all of reality as one massive computer game played by gods and this is the track played at the Game Over screen. A pixelated, fantastical club track that would simply eviscerate any club it was played in.

The whole of Side B is given over to a 20 minute epic, Original Besttrack (Abe’s Oddysee Extended Mix). A cohesive summation of the previous 4 tracks but stretched out, it recalls Aphex Twin’s furthest out tracks albeit boiled underwater, every element blown out so that even the ambient passages scramble brains and re-wire expectations. The restless, overwhelming music is glazed with a patina of hiss that renders the whole almost meditative: over the 20 minutes there is so much information to digest your brain starts plugging in directly to the music, settling in and accepting the mania as it comes. At the other end you’re wondering how you coped without it.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Though Helena Celle's musical output is undeniably made for a certain subset of electronic music appreciators, this new project sees Kay Logan's pieces get hefty reworks, morphing the intimidating scattered electronic shards into lo-fi techno, rolling industrial and fractured experimental house.

TRACK LISTING

1. I Did It My Way
2. Ennobled Reception Of The Excellector (My Face When Mix)
3. Real Time (Five Track Pentangle Edgelord Mix)
4. Snow-Filled Chalice Of My Magonian Exile (ft Jennifer Walton)
5. Original Besttrack (Abe's Oddysee Extended Mix)

Two more classic tunes from the Deptford Northern Soul Club Records dancefloor. Remastered for maximum effect.

Shawn Robinson’s ‘My Dear Heart’ was originally released on Minit in 1966. Original copies go for around £250 plus. Filled with positively glowing soul sounds underpinned by gorgeous vibes and a heady beat. Big at Wigan back in the day, a favourite of Richard Searling.

The flipside, from 1967, is from the inimitable Bessie Banks, the hit maker of ‘Go Now’ fame. Originally released on the Verve imprint. Fired up by choppy guitar and a heavy cross mix of vibes and horns, it’s a chugger with some essential breaks for added impact.

A triumphant anthem. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Shawn Robinson - ‘My Dear Heart’
2. Bessie Banks - 'I Can’t Make It (Without You Baby)'

Willie Williams’ seminal ’No One Can Stop UsNow’ is a cover of Ashford and Simpson’s soul /disco classic ‘Ain’t No Stopping Us Now’, and is simply one of the greatest, most soulful reggae / disco cuts ever made. This is the latest in the series of special edition 12”s of all-time classic Studio One party bombs available on super loud 12”. First released on Studio One in 1979, this party anthem features the sublime keyboards of Jackie Mittoo alongside the awesome studio group, The Brentford All Stars (here working under the name The Brentford Disco Set). 100% essential monster Studio One tunes that rock any dancefloor

TRACK LISTING

No One Can Stop Us Now
No One Can Stop Us Now (Version)

Mute and Spoon Records present 'Live In Cuxhaven 1976', the third album of the curated Can live concert series. Available in full for the first time on blue vinyl, CD and digitally.

Originally recorded on tape, this carefully restored live album comprises the 1976 show in the format of a story with a beginning, middle and end, bringing CAN’s performance to life. The series was overseen by founding member Irmin Schmidt and producer/engineer René Tinner, who delicately worked on restoring the archival recordings to the best quality for current modern technology.

These albums have been released alongside a succession of interviews discussing the band’s live shows. The YouTube series comprise interviews with journalist/author Pascal Bussy, Mute’s Daniel Miller, music critic Nick Kent, Primal Scream’s Bobby Gillespie, and Andy Hall and René Tinner who were both involved with recording Can’s live shows.

TRACK LISTING

1. Cuxhaven 76 Eins
2. Cuxhaven 76 Zwei
3. Cuxhaven 76 Drei
4. Cuxhaven 76 Vier

Two major soul sides, one from the Twinight catalogue, one from Capsoul. Velma Perkins is the sister of guitarist, songwriter and producer Al Perkins (whose Atco 45, ‘Nothing Is Impossible’, was a big Northern sound). A successful songwriter in her own right under her married name Vee Allen, ‘Yes, My Goodness, Yes’ was the flipside of her only Twinight single, her 1970 debut 45 ,‘I’ll Always Love You’.

With more than a touch of Diana-era Supremes, it’s a gorgeous uptempo groove with typical Twinight horns and a funky guitar that could well be Al himself lending a hand. It’s a super rare 45 that never seems to come up for sale these days. Cut with Johnson, Hawkins, Tatum and Durr’s debut single for Capsoul, ‘You Can’t Blame Me’.

Signed to the label by DJ and singer Bill Moss (his ‘Sock It To ‘Em Soul Brother’ on Pama is a corker) as The Revelations, the band changed name and cut two 45s before disappearing. A super soulful funky mid-tempo tune that lets all five (even though there are just four names in their chosen name) vocalists lay down a super plush soundtrack. Punctuated with strings, it’s a magnificent full-on sound that goes for over £30 on seven inch.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Velma Perkins - Yes, My Goodness Yes
B1. Hawkins Johnson, Tatum & Durr - You Can't Blame Me

A 50th anniversary release of the classic 1970 LP from Van Der Graaf Generator. Newly remastered from the original first-generation master tapes. Includes rare poster.

'The Least We Can Do Is Wave To Each Other', is technically the second Van Der Graaf Generator album, but is the first with the full band. Recorded in late 1969 at the cutting edge Trident Studios, 'The Least We Can Do Is Wave To Each Other' was listed at #15 on Q & Mojo's "Top 40 Cosmic Rock Albums". An absolute classic of British progressive space rock.

Following the release of the first two parts of CAN’s live series, Mute and Spoon Records reissue a limited edition run of Monster Movie on blue vinyl.

With the sounds of Jimi Hendrix, Captain Beefheart and The Velvet Underground ringing in their ears, Holger Czukay and Irmin Schmidt left behind their careers in academia to form the influential group in the late 60s. Together with Michael Karoli, Jaki Liebezeit and American singer Malcolm Mooney, they recorded their debut album Monster Movie in a castle near Cologne in 1968. The record was then remastered in 2004 from the original master tape for a CD release. It was overseen by Holger, Irmin and Jono Podmore to refine it to how it was always intended to be heard.

“Monster Movie is an amazing debut” Pitchfork

“Monster Movie, sounds like nothing else released in 1969 - and still acts as a template for the future” Sound Affects

“Had Can’s debut album, Monster Movie, been their only one, it would have assured their place in the history of German music and of rock as a whole” Shindig Magazine

TRACK LISTING

A1 Father Cannot Yell
A2 Mary, Mary So Contrary
A3 Outside My Door
B1 You Doo Right

Following the release of the first two parts of CAN's live series, Mute and Spoon Records reissue a limited edition run of Soundtracks on clear purple vinyl.

Soundtracks, a compilation of songs Can had composed for different movies, was released in 1970 before the band started work on their second album. This record said goodbye to the band's original vocalist Malcolm Mooney, who features on ‘Soul Desert’ and ‘She Brings The Rain’, to be replaced by Japanese singer Damo Suzuki. Bridging the gap between the improvisatory rock jams of their earlier recordings, Monster Movie and Delay 1968, Soundtracks also laid the foundations for their more electronic and experimental sounding work, such as Tago Mago and Ege Bamyasi.

“Intricate and subtle” All Music

“Often overlooked… A good sampling of their more straightforward experiments” Pitchfork

TRACK LISTING

A1 Deadlock
A2 Tango Whiskyman
A3 Deadlock
A4 Don't Turn The Light On, Leave Me Alone
A5 Soul Desert
B1 Mother Sky
B2 She Brings The Rain

Dashboard Confessional's ninth studio album, All The Truth That I Can Tell, is both a remarkable renewal and fortunate step forward for the band's songwriter, front man, and founder, Chris Carrabba.

All The Truth That I Can Tell stands among Carrabba's finest – a strikingly potent musical look at himself through a rediscovered keyhole, both an achievement of vision and a vital burst of artistic clarity; less like reading someone's diary and more like reading their eyes.

TRACK LISTING

Burning Heart
Everyone Else Is Just Noise
Here's To Moving On
The Better Of Me
Southbound And Sinking
Sleep In / Me And Mine
Sunshine State
Pain Free In Three Chords
Young
All The Truth That I Can Tell

Brand new 7” from Leeds' finest! A taster from their next full-length LP due out later in the year Ever been interrogated by the punk rock police? Are you manufactured by a company? Is your band real or plastic? Have you ever paid a thousand quid for a poster? Can the kids be trusted with rock n roll? Answers on side A.

The Twilight Sad’s third full-length, No One Can Ever Know, marks a sonic shift for the band. Freshly inspired by a listening diet of Cabaret Voltaire, Can, Liars, Magazine, Autechre, and Public Image Limited, the band turn to a dark, synth-heavy sound for No One Can Ever Know; the resulting LP shares thematic and sonic space with the most innovative offerings from Depeche Mode, The Cure, or even Nine Inch Nails. “We wanted to be a lot more spontaneous, get outside our comfort zone - not to fall back into repeating what we’ve done previously,” explains guitarist Andy MacFarlane. “So we moved to London for a month to record at The Pool and got Andrew Weatherall involved to bounce ideas off and to generally reassure us of the direction we were already progressing in – toward a sparser sound, with a colder, slightly militant feel.”

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. Alphabet
2. Dead City
Side B
3. Sick
4. Don’t Move
Side C
5. Nil
6. Don’t Look At Me
7. Not Sleeping
Side D
8. Another Bed
9. Kill It In The Morning

“Live In Brighton 1975” is the second album of a curated series of CAN live concerts. Available in full for the first time on triple vinyl, double CD and digitally. Originally recorded on tape, this carefully restored live album comprises the entirety of the show in the format of a story with a beginning, middle and end, bringing CAN’s performance to life. Limited edition triple Gold vinyl in triple gatefold sleeve plus a 2CD edition in card pack with 16 page booklet, both with extensive sleeve notes.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: There's not much I can tell you here that you won't already know.. this is the second wonderfully pressed collection from Can of live performances following 'Live In Stuttgart' that was released in May. There are very few musicians that could pull off this level of out-there musicianship, and this is a wonderful and accurate document of their live legacy. Essential.

TRACK LISTING

A1 Brighton 75 Eins
A2 Brighton 75 Zwei
A3 Brighton 75 Drei
B1 Brighton 75 Vier
B2 Brighton 75 Fünf
C1 Brighton 75 Sechs
C2 Brighton 75 Sieben

AVAILABLE ONLINE ON SATURDAY NOVEMBER 27TH FROM 8AM.

LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

A crazy 22-track collection containing some of the biggest dance craze hits from the Philadelphia label that got the world dancing in the early 1960sIncludes tracks by Cameo Parkway’s biggest stars: Chubby Checker, Bobby Rydell, Dee Dee Sharp, The Orlons and The Dovells as well as R&B greats Don Covay and The Turbans. Twelve Top 40 hits including three number 1 chart toppers!Chubby Checker’s original hit version of “The Twist,” which has the distinction of being the only single of the rock era to reach number 1 twice in two consecutive years, is included. Features an essay by acclaimed rock & roll and R&B historian John Broven. Mastered from the original master tapes from ABKCO’s Cameo Parkway archive
Bespoke printed inner bags including extensive liner notes and period photos.

Quantrells’ only single release from 1972 goes for two to three hundred pounds if you can find a copy on the Chicago-based Yambo label. A deep soul smoocher with a glorious vocal with enormous brass stabs, it’s like a roughed up version of The Jackson 5. Backed with Promise’s ‘I’m Not Ready For Love’; one of two singles from the mid ‘70s by this all-girl teenage four piece on the New Directions label. Built with a driving bass and the girls’ gorgeous vocals dropping into party mode over a funky guitar break midway through, it’s a classic ice breaker. Copies go for around £100.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Deptford Northern Soul Club continue to attack the market value of this elite scene by repressing some of the most memorable and must-have records at an everyman's price. I've always championed such behaviour and I'll be honest, it was one of the things that always left a sour taste in my mouth about the Northern scene. It's nice to hear these tracks on vinyl without having to worry about auctioning off your liver.

TRACK LISTING

Quantrells - Can’t Let You Break My Heart
Promise - I’m Not Ready For Love

How Beautiful Life Can Be, recorded at Parr Street Studios, Liverpool. In the company of producers, James Skelly and Chris Taylor, pushes The Lathums’ remarkable story into the next, even more exciting phase. The Great Escape, having been previously self-released by the young band, emerges from the album sessions in sparkling, new form, whilst retaining the melodic stardust that caused the first rumblings of the social-media led stampede to their early gigs.

Kick-started by growing pains and life’s unlucky twists, fuelled by the simple salvation of six guitar strings and supercharged by the fans that found them slogging their gear into the north of England’s pubs and small venues, The Lathums story may turn out to be the perfect not-all-nice-guys-finish-last tale.

It was only in the summer 2019 that the band’s fuse was lit by Tim Burgess, who offering them a late slot at Kendal Calling where, inside 24 hours, social media chatter caused their audience to spill into the field beyond their tent. A year later they had achieved their first UK Album Chart Top 20 for vinyl-only EP compilation, The Memories We Make, recorded their debut appearance for Later… With Jools Holland and joined the BBC Sound Poll 2021 list of tipped acts at the end of a year that skidded on the black ice of a global pandemic but, somehow, left the band on their feet.

For a band whose singing songwriter had never been to a gig before playing his own, yet incomprehensibly carried a trunk load of sensitively-crafted, empathetic, sing-a-long anthems straight into their first rehearsal, The Lathums have flown at nosebleed speed to where they are now.

Hailing from Wigan on the overlooked fringes of Greater Manchester, The Lathums are Alex Moore, casting a new outline of the modern frontman, singing alongside student of the Marr-esque jangle guitar, Scott Concepcion, rapid-fire, wise-cracking bassist, Jonny Cunliffe (aka: Bass Mon Jon) and the steady, rhythmic, wise head, Ryan Durrans on drums. Pithily described by those closest as ‘like The Inbetweeners in a Shane Meadows film’, they are four bright, wild flowers growing between grey paving stones. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: This new LP is sure to continue the meteoric upwards trajectory of The Lathums, swimming with influences from The Smiths, The Coral and 90's Britpop into a wonderfully upbeat and undeniably melodic full-length. This Wigan quartet are definitely going places.

TRACK LISTING

1. Circles Of Faith
2. I’ll Get By
3. Fight On
4. How Beautiful Life Can Be
5. The Great Escape
6. I Won't Lie Side B
7. I See Your Ghost
8. Oh My Love
9. I’ll Never Forget The Time I Spent With You
10. I Know That Much
11. Artificial Screens
12. The Redemption Of Sonic Beauty

Geoffrey O'Connor, one time frontman for euphoric guitar pop band Crayon Fields, returns with his first solo album in seven years - but is it really a solo album? For As Long As I Can Remember is a suite of duets with some of Australia's most iconic modern singers, including Jonnine (HTRK), Sarah Mary Chadwick, Laura Jean, Sui Zhen and more. The album explores late night tales of unsublimated desire, a synth-pop cocoon world where obsessions drift slowly into the rear view mirror and exert an unsteadying backwards pull. Geoffrey's duet partners do not proffer easy love or solace, rather they challenge him, gently put him down, or glance back at a history of faded passion.

Other guests include Nicole Thibault of Chapter artists Thibault, Jess Ribeiro, June Jones, Summer Flake's Steph Crase, Sienna Thornton (Cyanide Thornton) and Mystery Guest's Caitlyn Lesiuk. Sydney funk sophisticate Donny Benet appears on bass on two tracks. Since his previous solo album, 2014 critic favourite Fan Fiction (written up by Pitchfork, Spin, All Music and elsewhere), Geoffrey has released Crayon Fields comeback album No One Deserves You (2015) and an expanded reissue of 2009 classic All the Pleasures Of the World. He has also produced albums for Sarah Mary Chadwick, June Jones, Summer Flake and others. Geoffrey has appeared on records by The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart and Donny Benet, been remixed by Chet Faker, and was a member of Melbourne psych pop band Montero

TRACK LISTING

1. For As Long As I Can (with Jonnine)
2. Foolish Enough (with Laura Jean)
3. What A Scene (with Sui Zhen)
4. Renee (with Sienna Thornton)
5. Strange Feeling (with Sarah Mary Chadwick)
6. Precious Memories (with Remember Sarah Mary Chadwick)
7. Catwalk (with Caitlyn Lesiuk)
8. Tired Of Winning (with June Jones)
9. Shelley Duvall (with Nicole Thibault)
10. Tunnel Of Love (with Jess Ribeiro)
11. Love Is Your Best Friend (with Stephanie Crase)

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2021 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON SATURDAY JULY 17TH ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

IF THERE ARE ANY REMAINING COPIES THEY WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE ONLINE AT 6PM ON THE SAME DAY (SATURDAY JULY 17TH).

Unreleased track(s)

Live in Stuttgart 1975 is the first of a curated series of Can live concerts available in full for the first time on vinyl, CD and digitally. Originally recorded on tape, these carefully restored live albums will comprise the entirety of each show in the format of a story with a beginning, middle and end, with Can’s performances taking on a life of their own.
Available on triple vinyl and double CD. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: There's really not much that can be said about live Can material that you wouldn't already know, but it's safe to say that this sounds superb and is the perfect recreation of a perfectly sculpted live Can show from the comfort of your own home. An intoxicating and transportive collection, and an essential document of one of the greatest Krautrock pioneers in the biz.

TRACK LISTING

A1 Stuttgart 75 Eins
A2 Stuttgart 75 Zwei
B1 Stuttgart 75 Drei (Part 1)
B2 Stuttgart 75 Drei (Part 2)
C1 Stuttgart 75 Drei (Part 3)
C2 Stuttgart 75 Vier
C3 Stuttgart 75 Fünf

CD TRACKLIST
1 Stuttgart 75 Eins
2 Stuttgart 75 Zwei
3 Stuttgart 75 Drei
4 Stuttgart 75 Vier
5 Stuttgart 75 Fünf

A classic Vee-Jay side from 1965 that originally sneaked out on the Bay Area Wee label. The original goes for around £100, the second Wee press for £75, while the Vee-Jay version is 50 quid a throw. That said, copies are few and far between these days.

Featuring an upbeat, brass-powered Temptationslike harmony with a call and response, a deep sax wail and a piano motif pushing it forward towards a glorious middle eight that breaks into a Gospel roll out.

Powered by Ric-Tic-like drum rolls; a euphoric soulful classic split into two essential parts.

The Ballads were a four-piece from Oakland, across the bridge from San Francisco, featuring Freddie Hughes, who would later sign to Wand. The band themselves almost made it, charting in 1968 with the Willie Hutch-produced ‘God Bless Our Love’ but this earlier recording is the business.

Both sides remastered from the original sound source.

TRACK LISTING

I Can’t See Your Love (For The Tears In My Eyes) Pt.1
I Can’t See Your Love (For The Tears In My Eyes) Pt.2

Can was founded in 1968 by Irmin Schmidt, Holger Czukay, Michael Karoli and Jaki Liebezeit who formed a group which would utilise and transcend all boundaries of ethnic, electronic experimental and modern classical music.

This classic album of tracks recorded at the beginning of Can’s life, and features original vocalist Malcolm Mooney.

Thief is now a rejuvenated Can classic having been covered by Radiohead and since then discovered by a new generation of fans.

Can’s powerful influence has never diminished, and their indelible mark is apparent in the bands who freely acknowledge their importance - from Portishead, James Murphy, New Order, Factory Floor, Public Image Ltd, Mogwai, Kanye West and Radiohead - as well as across other disciplines such as visual art and literature.

"Can are impossible to classify and its impossible to ignore their seismic influence on so many diverse musical paths" Richard Hawley
"Can are the most revolutionary band ever" Stephen Morris (New Order)

TRACK LISTING

A1 Butterfly
A2 Pnoom
A3 Nineteen Century Man
A4 Thief
B1 Man Named Joe
B2 Uphill
B3 Little Star Of Bethlehem

'Happening Right Now' feature in Shindig (March 2021) Legendary New York author and musician joins Andalusian troubadours for a startling record of gospel, rhythm and futuristic punk folk blues. A powerful statement of love and protest Get ready for an adult dose of Old Testament gospel, smoldering songs of freedom, salvation, and lots of love - hollering and deep country crooning, twisted blues, plantation tunings, African percussion, and outer-space spirituals - this is a new breed of rhythm and roots music, a sonic manifesto for these crazy times!

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A brilliantly energetic and varied coalition of clashing folk-punk, frenetic distorted 12-bar and galloping Americana. It's an intoxicating and rich juxtaposition of chaos and beauty, and a must-listen for anyone who likes the more esoteric ends of any of the above.

Countdown Records (via Acid Jazz) are proud to announce the release of the label’s first 7” single in over 30 years. And what could be more apt than the single that never was by label favourites Makin’ Time?

Produced by The Truth and 9 Below Zero’s Dennis Greaves and Mick Lister, this was to have been the West Midland group’s debut single for Countdown.

Featuring the group’s original members, it remained unreleased when that line-up changed and Countdown’s parent label Stiff decided in a change of direction, aiming the group at the pop charts.

Featuring two highlights of their early live set - the Fay Hallam composed ‘Honey’ and ‘Take What You Can Get’, written by Martin Blunt.

The 7” comes in an exclusive Countdown sleeve so make sure to get your copy now.

TRACK LISTING

Honey (Original Version)
Take What You Can Get (Original Version)

Previously Unreleased Disco-Soul-Funk Album With Mixes By Kenny Dope. The Gatefold LP Includes Extensive Liner Notes And A Download Card to WAV Files Of The Full Album. CD Contains Instrumentals And Kenny Dope Extended Remixes. Tucked in the back corner of a linen closet in Macon, Georgia since 1979 sat a box that very few people knew existed. Lost and presumed forgotten, this box contained reel-to-reel tapes of the lost album by the band that issued the lauded Black Gold as The Mighty Chevelles in 1977. By 1979, while transitioning to the name Music Makers Band, the band entered Capricorn Studios and recorded this previously-unreleased disco funk opus, finally issued as You Can Be as part of the Now-Again Reserve series. Nearly all songs have been remixed from the original multi-track masters by Kenny “Dope” Gonzalez. Georgia funk and soul historian Brian Poust details the band and album’s story in detailed liner notes in an oversized booklet.

TRACK LISTING

A1. That Look In Your Eyes
A2. You Can Be
A3. Lady In My Dream
A4. Let Me Start Lovin’ You

B1. That’s The Way
B2. Shake Your Booty
B3. That True Love Of Mine
B4. We’re The Band…. 

The album is accompanied by a selection of some of the band’s favourite demo recordings made between 1988 and 1994.

The long awaited and eagerly anticipated new album by BOB captures the band at their peak and includes some of their best material ever committed to vinyl and CD. A 12-track vinyl record is available in coloured and black vinyl and includes digital download of all 28 tracks contained on the double CD version. ‘You Can Stop That For A Start’ is an exclusive album of previously unheard material written and recorded by BOB over a five day period in 1992. The almost legendary archive of unreleased professional and demo recordings by BOB is a rich one, and this release showcases some of the band’s best work.

All the recordings in the set have been newly mixed by songwriters Simon Armstrong and Richard Blackborow, and come packaged in artwork conceived by the band and accompanied by period images and new sleeve notes. 

Potted BOB History:
BOB’s initial line-up was Richard Blackborow (vocals, keyboards, guitar), Simon Armstrong (guitar, vocals).
Jem Morris (bass guitar), joined the duo in 1986 and, augmented with a drum machine, they recorded the band’s first release, a flexi disc, released in 1986 on their own House Of Teeth label, and containing three short songs: “Prune (Your Tree)”, “Groove” and “Brian Wilson’s Bed”. The band gave a copy to John Peel in a fortuitous encounter in the Rough Trade record shop, and he played it many times.
The drum machine was replaced by drummer Gary Connors in 1987, and this line-up recorded 1987’s What a Performance single and the first of three John Peel sessions. The band were now able to take to the UK’s motorway network in their newly acquired ‘vintage’ Transit van, and begin a series of tours that eventually saw them play hundreds of gigs the length of the country and beyond.

Early in 1988, Gary Connors was replaced by former Jamie Wednesday drummer Dean Leggett, and the band recorded their second single, Kirsty, a session for BBC Radio One’s Simon Mayo, and their second John Peel session. Both singles received heavy play by John Peel. The two singles were brought together with the earlier flexi disc as the compilation LP Swag Sack, which was their final release on the Sombrero label. All later records were on their own House Of Teeth label.

In 1989, the band released a single Convenience, which charted well in the NME and Melody Maker indie charts and, more importantly, reached no.31 in John Peel’s Festive Fifty at the end of the year. This was followed by a limited edition/fan club release containing three songs: “Esmerelda Brooklyn”, “I Don’t Know” and “Sink”. After their third and final John Peel session, Morris was replaced by ex-Caretaker Race bassist Stephen ‘Henry’ Hersom, and this final line-up recorded the Stride Up EP in 1990, an LP Leave The Straight Life Behind, the single Tired in 1991, and one last 12”, the Nothing For Something EP in 1992.
BOB became one of the victims of the demise of Rough Trade’s distribution arm, which limited sales of the album and forced the band to tour for an extended period to recoup the album’s costs. A feeling of disillusionment with the ‘business’ side of the music caused a drop in morale, and despite having produced a large body of unreleased work, they disbanded early in 1995.

In February 2014, “Leave the Straight Life Behind” was re-released by British independent label 3 Loop Music as a 2CD expanded edition which included the remastered album plus a bonus CD of all the John Peel and BBC sessions, as well as extra tracks.

In 2015, “The Singles and EPs” was released by 3 Loop Music as a 2CD compilation of remastered tracks from Swag Sack and all vinyl Sombrero and House of Teeth releases.

In 2019, the band announced six final concerts in England and Germany featuring Blackborow, Armstrong, and Leggett with newly recruited old friend Arthur Tapp on bass. A limited edition 7” of Convenience with an unreleased B-side from 1992 was released on Optic Nerve. The single reached number 18 on the official UK vinyl sales chart.

BOB on the new album You Can Stop That For A Start:
“The tracks that make up You Can Stop That For A Start were recorded over a five day period in our final years, as the hectic touring schedule that had kept us financially viable began to tail off. What funds the band could glean from occasional publishing deals were spent on studio time, with the hope of creating work that would eventually attract more substantial financial investment. As this never materialised, the songs have largely remained unheard since the early nineties. 

TRACK LISTING

TRACKLIST LP
SIDE ONE
01 Telepathy
02 Say You’re Alone
03 That’s What Tomorrow Brings
04 Round
05 Now
06 Sundown

SIDE TWO
01 Plastic
02 She’s Something Like Me
03 Green Pepper Feast
04 Queen Of Sheba
05 Plastered In Paris
06 Don’t Kid

TRACKLIST 2CD
CD1
01 Telepathy
02 Say You’re Alone
03 That’s What Tomorrow Brings
04 Round
05 Now
06 Sundown
07 Plastic
08 She’s Something Like Me
09 Green Pepper Feast
10 Queen Of Sheba
11 Plastered In Paris
12 Don’t Kid
13 I Must Need Some Sleep

CD2
01 Long May We Increase
02 Too Far Down
03 STP
04 When The Saints
05 Helvetia
06 On Your Side
07 Buy Me A Barstool
08 There She Was
09 Shoot
10 207
11 Jehovah
12 Hanging On
13 Thunderfeet
14 Turn That Racket Down
15 Before A Fall

“I felt totally unrestrained making this album” says Lindstrøm about his 6th solo album On A Clear Day I Can See You Forever (a title inspired by the 1970’s musical On A Clear Day You Can See Forever starring Barbra Streisand). “I’ve listened to Robert Wyatt’s solo albums and his Matching Mole’s debutalbum a lot lately. It so effortless, fearless and free. And not insisting. I was very inspired by this”

In the autumn of 2018, Lindstrøm composed a commissioned piece for Norway’s premiere art centre Henie Onstad Kunstsenter. Sketches from the three sold-out performances became the foundation for the new tracks. “I decided to keep some of the initial ideas and develop them further. All the songs are based on long one-take recordings”, says Lindstrøm “Also I’ve been very conscious about the music on the album not exceeding the length of the physical limitations of the vinyl-format, finding that 2 long tracks on each side were the perfect balance for this album”

This is also the first time ever Lindstrøm has made an album entirely with hardware instead of computer-plugins. He utilised thirty plus synthesizers and drum-machines during his performance at Henie Onstad Kunstsenter. The experience inspired him to embrace a similar set-up when making the album. “The joy of making music on actual physical objects and devices makes a lot of sense to me now. After working on a computer for over 15 years, I don’t think I’ll ever look back” he says with an almost childlike excitement.

It was the accessibility to his enviable collection of music gear – largely consisting of sought after synthesizers – that allowed Lindstrøm to experiment so freely with ideas and soundscapes. “The title track is a 10-minutes improvisation on the Moog Memorymoog. I liked the loose feel so I decided to keep everything unedited. The other tracks were written and arranged prior to the recordings. I then set up the instruments needed for my sessions, then recorded more or less everything in a single take. I’m really happy with the way this album came together.”

Lindstrøm has cited classical music as an inspiration the last couple of years “I used to study classical music at school. Back then I was listening to a lot of Opera, orchestral music and solo music on the piano. Listening to classical music again has been a revisit to my childhood days, just like I did when I embraced the 80s in the early 2000s”. Once embracing the freedom and the joy of making music without inhibitions, immersing himself in to the physical realm of making music with hardware, Lindstrøm learned something new not only about music – but about himself. “I guess I've been trying to re-educate myself”.

TRACK LISTING

A1. On A Day Like This I Can See You Forever
A2. Really Deep Snow
B1. Swing Low Sweet LFO
B2. As If NoOne Is Here

A hugely ambitious, widescreen and epic record that recalls everything from the far away electronics of Basic Channel and Carl Craig, through the skewed songwriting of Postal Service, Flaming Lips and Grandaddy to the euphoric sound-scapes of Sigur Ros and My Bloody Valentine, We Can Create is a work of heart stopping extremes.

The album was recorded without computers, preferring the painstaking process of splicing sounds together on MAPS’ battered 16 track recorder in his Northamptonshire bedroom, the results were subsequently co-produced by Valgeir Sigurdsson (Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Bjork) and mixed by Ken Thomas (Sigur Ros, Hope Of The States). The critically acclaimed album was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize in 2007.

Maps has remixed Depeche Mode, Public Service Broadcasting, Susanne Sundfør, Moby, C Duncan, M83 and more.

TRACK LISTING

A1 So Low, So High
A2 You Don’t Know Her Name
A3 Elouise
A4 It Will Find You
B1 Glory Verse
B2 Liquid Sugar
B3 To The Sky
B4 Back + Forth
C1 Lost My Soul
C2 Don’t Fear
C3 When You Leave

Night Moves’ new album, ‘Can You Really Find Me’, pulsates and glows with the same sublime energy that radiated from breakout single ‘Carl Sagan’ in 2016, however in the intervening years, John Pelant and Micky Alfano have grown up.

The songwriting, while still steeped in super-catchy, velvety riffs and pure pop glaze, feels more sophisticated and modern. Since the pair met in high school, awestruck by such ear-candy wizards as Brian Wilson, Todd Rundgren, Stevie Nicks and Lindsay Buckingham, they set off to craft their version of what sophisticated, emotional modern pop music can and should sound like.

2016’s ‘Pennied Days’ was a breakthrough and set a new bar for the members of Night Moves. After spending the subsequent two years on ‘Can You Really Find Me’, they’ve scaled new heights, where the sounds are still just as sweet but now smarter, more evocative and perfectly designed for a summer release.

‘Can You Really Find Me’ was produced by Jim Eno (founding member and drummer of Spoon) out of Public Hi-Fi Studios in Austin, TX and recorded with live band members Mark Hanson and Chuck Murlowski.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Night Moves expertly craft a brilliantly emotive and drippingly filmic selection of 80's inspired ballads and rhythmically fluid disco-tinged pop anthems on 'Can You Really Find Me'. Any of these pieces could easily be a slow-motion montage soundtrack, dynamic but with a hint of latent morosity, these are modern and eminently enjoyable anthems, and another reason to pay attention to Night Moves.

TRACK LISTING

Mexico
Recollections
Keep Me In Mind
Strands Align
Waiting For The
Symphony
Ribboned Skies
Coconut Grove
Saving The Dark
Angelina
Can You Really Find Me

"Juan Pablo: The Philosopher" has been one of our favourite releases here at Piccadilly in recent years, so we were utterly buzzing to hear word of a new LP from the mighty Ezra Collective. Soon enough the London five-piece furnished us with a promo CD, and it's been on the Piccadilly player ever since. Continuing the genre-bending journey they began on "Juan Pablo", "You Can't Steal My Joy" sees the ensemble apply their incredible musicianship to elements of Afrobeat, hip-hop, grime and dub, wrapping their diverse influences into their fearless, fun and contemporary take on jazz. If you needed any further evidence of their top tier credentials, they recently broke off from a sold out, mosh-pit-filled UK tour to play at Quincy Jones' birthday party - nuff respect. This is the jazz sound of 2019 folks - get joyful.

STAFF COMMENTS

Millie says: Contemporary Jazz 5-piece Ezra Collective have encapsulated joy in record form, and you can feel the happiness radiating through the tracks here, especially “Chris And Jane” and “Quest For Coin”. My record of the year by far, Afro-beat meets Jazz meets Hip Hop makes for a glorious combination to put you in an upbeat mood.

TRACK LISTING

DISC 1
SIDE A
1. Space Is The Place (Reprise)
2. Why You Mad?
3. Red Whine
4. Quest For Coin

SIDE B
1. Reason In Disguise Feat. Jorja Smith
2. What Am I To Do? Feat. Loyle Carner
3. Chris And Jane

DISC 2
SIDE C
1. People Saved
2. Philosopher II

SIDE D
1. São Paulo
2. King Of The Jungle
3. You Can't Steal My Joy
4. Shakara Feat. KOKOROKO

• Soul Asylum’s debut album.
• Produced by Bob Mould (Hüsker Dü).
• First time on vinyl since original pressing
• Reissue co-produced by Twin/Tone co-founder Peter Jesperson and Grammy®-winning producer Cheryl Pawelski. Soul Asylum first hit the Minneapolis music scene in early 1981.

Originally produced by Bob Mould, this reissue is co-produced by Twin/Tone Records co-founder and Replacements manager, Peter Jesperson and Grammy®-winner and Omnivore Recordings, Cheryl Pawelski. This fresh vinyl pressing of Soul Asylum’s debut, Say What You Will . . . Everything Can Happen is the first since it’s original 1984 Twin/Tone release and has been restored and mastered by Grammy®-award winning engineer, Michael Graves at Osiris Studio and cut by Chris Muth at Taloowa.

In 1978, Nova performed for Obama. Well, kind of: Nova was the band for the Punahou School prom in Honolulu, Hawaii, and a young student named Barack (known then as “Barry”) was in attendance.
Backtrack to 1976, and Nova was the opening band for Donald Byrd at the nearby Blaisdell Arena. The day was Sunday, June 27. The following day, Isaac Hayes would perform on island for the admission price of $1.
Nova, led by singer Checo Tohomaso, was one of several go-to party bands during the golden era of Hawaii funk and soul music in the mid-1970s through early 1980s.
The band’s infectious gospel-funk-disco can be heard on their sole release, a self-titled 1980 LP that feels like one big party recorded live in the studio. (Check out the Marvin Gaye-inspired “I Feel Like Getting Down” on the 2016 ‘Aloha Got Soul’ compilation on Strut Records).
The story is all too familiar, however: funk band releases LP, the music goes dormant in years to follow, and today original copies sell for hundreds online.
Not long after the album’s 1980 release, Checo met Marvin Gaye, who was living on Maui (where George Benson also resided). Shortly after, Marvin invited Checo and his counterparts to join his multi-city tour across Europe. Videos of Checo rocking keyboards, percussion and singing background vocals for Marvin Gaye’s last European tour can be found online.
Checo, born in Florida yet raised in lush Manoa Valley as well as Okinawa, Japan, now resides in Vancouver, Canada, where he leads the VOC Sweet Soul Gospel Choir and continues to deliver his signature sound: high energy, positive, “sweet soul” music.
AGS-7010 features two non-stop groovers with a 7” edit by Roger Bong on the A-side. LP reissue in the works!"

TRACK LISTING

01. Can We Do It Good
02. I Like It, The Way You Dance

Oakland band Rays return with their second album, You Can Get There From Here, their first release since their eponymous Trouble In Mind debut in 2016. You Can Get There From Here represents a turning point for the band, angling their scrappy, post-punk fury into a more refined & melodic pop sensibility, drawing inspiration from UK DIY pop & punk like Dolly Mixture, Cleaners From Venus & Television Personalities. Songs like "Fallen Stars" & "The Garden" temper their sonic crunch ever so slightly, relying more on the harmonic wallop of a solid hook than the sheer volume of guitars.

This is urgent, chiming guitar pop that clangs with a sonorous melancholy & a ramshackle grace. Rays can still lay it down with the rest of 'em; tunes like "Subway" & "Work of Art" shuffle & stumble forward, skirting chaos in a flurry of strums, recalling antipodean groups like UV Race or Dick Diver who cull inspiration from idiosyncratic UK greats like Mark E. Smith or Robyn Hitchcock. The new album finds the core group of Stanley Martinez, Eva Hannan, Troy Hewitt & Alexa Pantalone augmented by new member & keyboardist Britta Leijonflycht, whose synth flourishes add melodic embellishments, sonic heft or psychedelic swirl where needed. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Fallen Stars
2. The Garden
3. The Big One
4. To The Fire
5. Veterans
6. Yesterday’s Faces
7. Around The Town
8. Anti-Hand Man
9. Subway
10. Work Of Art
11. Ray Johnson
12. Before Sunrise 

Super limited, super illicit, mega heavy dub-wise soundsystem weapon here from DJ Madd. Landing slap bang in the middle of halt-time d'n'b and future dub, "Can't Test You" is the kinda secret bomb that'll send carnival crowds into uproar. Hoover subs ensure the subs are given an adequate workout while the tight flurries of hyper breaks tease ever-closer to erupting into jump up without ever breaking the seal.

Highly recommended!

TRACK LISTING

A. Can't Test You

Formed in the mid 80s wreckage of American punk and hardcore, Laughing Hyenas were comprised of staples of the Detroit punk scene, including John Brannon (Negative Approach) and Larissa Strickland (L Seven) along with the locked-in rhythm section of Kevin Strickland and Jim Kimball. Groundbreaking, game-changing and some of the scariest records to come out of Detroit...or anywhere.

Taking the name from a Mark Twain line, the Laughing Hyenas went back into Smart Studios with Butch Vig to record their debut full-length You Can’t Pray A Lie. The Hyenas further elaborated on the template that Merry Go Round set. Kevin, Jim and Larissa lay down deceptively simple hillbilly voodoo blues that at the same time is so rhythmically complex you’re never quite sure what’s going on. Brannon’s vocals are as frenzied and intense as ever. With the balance and everything just right on YCPAL, our dear Hyenas recorded and released one of the milestone/cornerstone albums of the 1980s American underground music scene.

TRACK LISTING

1. Love’s My Only Crime
2. Seven Come Eleven
3. Black Eyed Susan
4. Lullaby And Goodnight
5. Sister
6. Desolate Son
7. Dedications To The One I Love
8. New Gospel

Recorded between the chaos and bustle of a New York cinema on Bedford Avenue, Brooklyn and the windswept loneliness on the south-side of the Isle of Wight in the spring of 2017, I Can't Stand The Sound is the second album from Berlin based English/Irish songwriter Ryan O'Reilly. Produced by David Granshaw and in collaboration with Canadian, Tyler Kyte the album is an exploration in searching for meaning, the meaning in a fatal car accident, the beauty and darkness on the streets of Berlin, comprehending the American landscape at the end of 2016 and trying to filter out the noise of relentless opinions on 24 hour news TV and online.

Littered with snapshots from myriad conversations; A Grandmother's warning that ghosts are never as dangerous as humans, talking to a loved one after a terror attack, a fall from a horse, with a hangover whilst reading in the bath and the faceless people who blithely tell you to 'live your dreams' the characters and conversations restlessly change locations and perspectives.

I Can't Stand The Sound began life on the journey between New York and Tennessee in the aftermath of the American election in 2016, the long conversations, the search for conclusions and reasoning in a void of reason. Written on municipal Frisbee-golf course in East Nashville, a front porch in Hamilton, Ontario and along side the beautiful, dirty Spree in Ryan's adopted hometown of Berlin each place finds it's way into the heart of the album. In May 2017 Ryan, Tyler and Dave travelled back to New York. Joined by members of Toronto's Dwayne Gretzky and Ryan's European touring partners The O'Pears to begin recording of I Can't Stand The Sound in the Cinema/bar where the journey towards the album began six months earlier. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Don’t You Know That
2. Make It Holy
3. Never Be Afraid Of Ghosts
4. I Can’t Stand The Sound
5. People Tell You
6. The Modern World
7. Flesh & Blood
8. Conversation
9. Somethings Really Wrong
10. Till It Ends

After the release of 2016's 'When Shall This Bright Day Begin', Jozef Van Wissem returns to Consouling Sounds for the follow-up album 'Nobody Living Can Ever Make Me Turn Back'. The album is inspired by a Vanitas painting by the Belgian artist Cindy Wright, which is also the cover of the album. This inspiration is beautifully reflected in the music of the album: Jozef Van Wissem's lute arrangements sound fragile, his sparse vocals delicate, as if the vanity, the temporality and senselessness of everything has been rendered audible. 

The album title seems to refer to the contrast between what our elders tell us and the perspectives we form out of our own experiences. There's a vacillation between idealism and realism, and it expresses itself musically in the hairpin turns from gentle folk into brazen experimental flourishes, like on “Funeral Potatoes.” The track opens with lilting, somber, Satie-esque piano, but at the halfway point, typical choices of song structure and transition are discarded in favor of a screeching, static-washed loop of violin and feedback that transcends the formality of songcraft, becoming something altogether more daring and collage-like.

The more band-driven songs on 50 Million recall an early-1990’s style of production in the way chorus-twinged electric guitars and tight, papery drumbeats point our mind’s eye to the West Coast sunset, like on the mid-album standout “Gravy Days.” Sallee decorates the background of most songs with hushed humming that could stand alone as a minimalist-ambient choral album, and when employed on her songs, elevates the ¬final product to an astral level. Sallee’s gift lies in pitting the familiar against the unexpected with a delicate assuredness, never compromising the one for the other. These kinds of debuts can sometimes feel like an over-promise of what is to come, but in the case of Caroline Says there's clearly plenty more thread to be unraveled. It'll be a pleasure to see where the next bus ride takes us. 

TRACK LISTING

1 Winter Is Cold
2 I Think I'm Alone Now
3 Funeral Potatoes
4 Streetlights
5 My Fiance's Pets
6 Gravy Dayz
7 Ghost Pokes
8 God Knows
9 Lost Feeling 

After a brief hiatus Flash Forward returns with more classics from the golden years of Italian house music. A timeless masterpiece produced by Ricky Persi and mixed by DJ Fabrice and Paul Martini in 1991, "I Can Feel It" perfectly juxtaposes dreamy ambience with direct beats - a combo that would become synonymous with the style throughout years to come. Further embellished with a killer vocal hook, this is unadulterated deep house pleasure at its best. Out of press for years and highly sought after by DJs and collectors alike, don't miss out on this fully legit, beautifully pressed re-issue. 

TRACK LISTING

I Can Feel It Pt 1
I Can Feel It Pt 2

The third album from Philadelphia's Nightlands (War On Drugs’ Bassist Dave Hartley), is an exercise in synthetic nostalgia. Each of the nine songs use meticulous choral arrangements and bittersweet pop melodies to evoke a unique type of longing, not for the past, but for a future that once lay ahead but has drifted out of reach. For Dave Hartley, the artistic force behind Nightlands, the answer is found on an inward retreat, away from the cold static of modern life and into the warmth of love and protection. I Can Feel the Night Around Me showcases Hartley's finely tuned ability to layer his voice and conjure some of the most beautiful and elaborate virtual choirs in modern music. If his first two records were vocal layering experiments, his third stands as Hartley's thesis statement: "I was determined to use vocal stacking to enable my songwriting, not shroud or obscure it."

He recorded most of the album alone in a cold warehouse basement, which he affectionately calls The Space -- it's where The War on Drugs formerly rehearsed and stored their equipment. "The dissonance between the sound of the album and the atmosphere in which it was recorded is pretty striking," Hartley says. Indeed the music seems more geographically inspired by the microclimates of the Lost Coast and the moonrises of Big Sur than the post-industrial cityscape of North Philadelphia. Perhaps his periodic westward sojourns and healthy obsessions with mid-career Beach Boys albums and Denis Johnson's Already Dead: A California Gothic were influencing him more than he was aware.

Despite the warm astral vibes of opener “Lost Moon," the song was born in that unheated warehouse basement during a record-setting blizzard. "I wanted to write a song like Jimmy Webb's ‘Wichita Lineman’," he recalls. "But it didn't come out like that at all. I ended up in a lonely and unexpected place, which was a really nice surprise." The massive "Only You Know”, a cover from Dion's Phil Spectorproduced masterpiece Born to Be With You, blends perfectly with the rest of the album's shades of psyched-out doo wop revivalism If there is an outlier on I Can Feel the Night Around Me, it's the exotica-tinged “Fear of Flying,” which Hartley composed with minimalist synth virtuoso Frank LoCrasto before the two had ever even met. Soft tangles of voice wash up on the shore of the song's warbling synth backbone, pushing the album briefly into the sunlight without sacri¬cing its melancholy, late-night vibe. It's the sound of the earth turning, night falling. Soon it will be dark, but there's still light seeping over the horizon. And that's a beautiful thing. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Lost Moon 5:56
2. Depending On You 3:55
3. Easy Does It 4:19
4. Only You Know 4:23
5. Love's In Love 4:09
6. Fingers In My Ears 4:57
7. You're Silver 3:54
8. Moonbathin 5:34
9. Human Hearts 4:03

HELENA CELLE is the synth work and multi-dimensional audio practise of Glasgow-based musician Kay Logan. A 21st century polymath, Logan’s interests lie in the power relationships inherent in technology, how to harness aleatoric practise in a discipline that is often rigid and in exploring the interface between computer science (Logan is also a computer programmer) and sound. Originally recorded in 2014, "If I Can't Handle.." is the first step on the wander, a deliriously sun-burnt foray into abstract techno and a very personal take on an electronic music language that remains obscure to outsiders but here rendered a unique form of emotional communication.

While Logan’s interests are powered by academic exploration, what’s most striking about Helena Celle’s approach to electronic music is how effortlessly she deconstructs it, makes it personal: the results are emotive without being explicit, raw and engaging, a true outsider music. The taking apart of norms can be heard on the squelched solo on "I'm Done With 666", governed by the love of noise, the wave is eviscerated, smothering the track in a glorious disregard for convention. The crashing, ultra-compressed chords that flatten opener "Streaming Music for Biometrics" re-wire the listener to appreciate chance, to break the loop. Recorded exclusively using a faltering MC303, live in a room straight to consumer dictaphones, the breadth of texture and depth of ideas on these tracks is truly astonishing. "Miming Swinging Baseball Bat" manages to submerge a bass-line straight into the tape heads, grounding a celestial synth arpeggio that flutters overhead.

Informed by limit yet sounding limitless, If I Can't Handle Me... evokes a personal space, a rewired take on electronic music, convention seen through the prism of anti-tradition, a wonderfully careless disregard for electronic music dogma before Logan's next phase as Helena Celle. After several releases under various other pseudonyms (Rick Ross, Larks) Helena Celle sees Logan focusing her ideas into a coherent whole, questioning the hegemony of neo-liberal ideas and their intersection with capital, culture and social practises, how these ideas inform the music we make, the choices we buy. Indeed, while Logan's current practise is moving further into the field of an open-source musical programming language, developing a truly democratic music practise set adrift from capital, here Logan's intent is to make sense of the nonsense we take for granted.

LuckyMe star and bass-house monolith Jacques Green returns with "Afterglow", alongside fan favourite and summer hit single "You Can’t Deny".  It’s been two years since we last heard new music from the Canadian artist and producer who helped revolutionize the palette of new dance music with his colourful set of contemporary influences. "Afterglow" on first listen has the potential to be this year "Hyph / Mngo", or some equally large Floating Points numbers. Anthemic yet painfully contemporary, it's gonna sound equally catchy blazing out of the Funktion1's at your local dance party as it is blaring obnoxiously out of the mid-range tweeter on your Samsung Galaxy.  "You Can't Deny" matches its former, possibly surpassing it even with sheer serotonin-flooded luminescent joy. A speed up RnB vocal riding neon-purple synth stabs and dropping with an almighty snare roll. The main hook consisting of rock solid 808 subs, trap-style hats, and a consistent vocal stab. Like "Afterglow" there's huge chorus' and massive hooks but the whole thing is wrapped in a futureproof glow that cement it as a sure fire hit with the yoof.
Born and raised in Montreal, now residing in Toronto via New York’s Lower East Side, Jacques Greene broke out of a generation of independent electronic labels like Uno, 3024, Night Slugs and LuckyMe as a genre-defining artist (via 2011’s ’Another Girl’, one of Pitchfork’s Songs Of The Decade) who laid the blueprint for countless young producers and DJs inspired by the intersection of contemporary music such as hip hop, RnB, house and techno. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Toronto bass head Jacques Greene with two ridiculously catchy numbers on the ever reliable Lucky Me

Sorrow Cow are a band from between Liverpool and Manchester.

Following the release of the ‘Can Vinyl Box’ - the limited edition box set that consisted of 17 LPs housed in a linen wrapped box, Mute are now proud to release the Can studio albums individually on vinyl.

‘Out Of Reach’, ‘Can’, ‘Rite Time’, ‘Delay’ and ‘Unlimited Edition’ are the third wave in the series, following ‘Monster Movie’, ‘Soundtracks’, ‘Tago Mago’, ‘Ege Bamyasi’, ‘Future Days’, ‘Soon Over Babaluma’, ‘Landed’, ‘Flow Motion’ and ‘Saw Delight’.

The albums were mastered and cut to vinyl by Kevin Metcalfe at The Soundmasters, London. The remastering and vinyl processing was coordinated by long time collaborator Jono Podmore. Additional titles will be released over the coming months.

‘Rite Time’ was originally released in 1986. Can got back together with original vocalist Malcolm Mooney to record again.

Revaluated as one of the classic Can albums, they show again how everything changes yet remains unmistakably Can.

Following the release of the ‘Can Vinyl Box’ - the limited edition box set that consisted of 17 LPs housed in a linen wrapped box, Mute are now proud to release the Can studio albums individually on vinyl.

‘Out Of Reach’, ‘Can’, ‘Rite Time’, ‘Delay’ and ‘Unlimited Edition’ are the third wave in the series, following ‘Monster Movie’, ‘Soundtracks’, ‘Tago Mago’, ‘Ege Bamyasi’, ‘Future Days’, ‘Soon Over Babaluma’, ‘Landed’, ‘Flow Motion’ and ‘Saw Delight’.

The albums were mastered and cut to vinyl by Kevin Metcalfe at The Soundmasters, London. The remastering and vinyl processing was coordinated by long time collaborator Jono Podmore. Additional titles will be released over the coming months.

‘Out Of Reach’ has been unavailable in any official format since its original release in 1978.

‘Out Of Reach’ is one of Can’s rarest, less-known albums. This is due in a large part to the fact that bassist Holger Czukay left the band and drummer Jaki Liebezeit has a reduced role, leaving most of the rhythm duties to percussionist come-lately Reebop Kwaku Baah.

As on the group’s proper swansong, 1977’s ‘Saw Delight’, new bassist Rosko Gee largely leads the group, and his jazz-inflected playing is marvellous, especially on the centrepiece improvisations ‘November’ and ‘Serpentine’.

Following the release of the Can Vinyl Box – the limited edition box set that consisted of 17 LPs housed in a linen wrapped box, Mute are now proud to release the CAN studio albums individually on vinyl. 

The albums were mastered and cut to vinyl by Kevin Metcalfe at The Soundmasters, London. Remasters and vinyl processing was coordinated by long time collaborator, Jono Podmore. 

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A
1. Future Days
2. Spray
3. Moonshake

SIDE B
1. Bel Air

Following the release of the Can Vinyl Box – the limited edition box set that consisted of 17 LPs housed in a linen wrapped box, Mute are now proud to release the CAN studio albums individually on vinyl. 

The albums were mastered and cut to vinyl by Kevin Metcalfe at The Soundmasters, London. Remasters and vinyl processing was coordinated by long time collaborator, Jono Podmore. 

Following the release of the Can Vinyl Box – the limited edition box set that consisted of 17 LPs housed in a linen wrapped box, Mute are now proud to release the CAN studio albums individually on vinyl.

Released in batches, the first albums in the series to be released are Monster Movie, Soundtracks, Tago Mago and Ege Bamyasi.

The albums were mastered and cut to vinyl by Kevin Metcalfe at The Soundmasters, London. Remasters and vinyl processing was coordinated by long time collaborator, Jono Podmore.

Monster Movie is the debut album of Can, recorded and released in 1969. The use of improvisation, experimentation, editing and layering of sounds set a standard for Can's subsequent albums in the early 1970s, which were seminal to the freewheeling avant-garde style dubbed "krautrock" by the British music press.

The album is credited to "The Can", a name suggested by vocalist Malcolm Mooney and adopted by democratic vote. Previously the band had been known as "Inner Space", which later became the name of their purpose-built recording studio. Some copies of the LP bore the subtitle "Made in a castle with better equipment", referring to Schloss Nörvenich, the 14th-century castle in North Rhine-Westphalia where the band recorded from 1968-69.

The 20-minute jam "Yoo Doo Right" was pared down from 6 hours' taping, while the lyrics of "Mary, Mary So Contrary" riff off of Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary, a popular English nursery rhyme.

Monster Movie was the only Can album on which Malcolm Mooney performed all of the vocals until Rite Time, 20 years after.

TRACK LISTING

Father Connot Yell
Mary, Mary, So Contrary
Outside My Door
Yoo Doo Right

Following the release of the Can Vinyl Box – the limited edition box set that consisted of 17 LPs housed in a linen wrapped box, Mute are now proud to release the CAN studio albums individually on vinyl.

Released in batches, the first albums in the series to be released are Monster Movie, Soundtracks, Tago Mago and Ege Bamyasi.

The albums were mastered and cut to vinyl by Kevin Metcalfe at The Soundmasters, London. Remasters and vinyl processing was coordinated by long time collaborator, Jono Podmore.

A “landmark release in the history of rock ‘n’ roll” – MOJO Honours List winner of Classic Album Award

“stunning” – John Lydon “sounds only like itself, like no-one before or after” – Julian Cope

“mind expanding” – Q

“The music was like nothing I'd ever heard before, not American, not rock & roll but mysterious and European." – Bobby Gillespie, Primal Scream

Of all the band’s oeuvre, Tago Mago has been most often cited as an influence for a host of artists including John Lydon, Radiohead, The Fall, Ariel Pink, Fuck Buttons, Sonic Youth, Factory Floor and Queens Of The Stone Age. Just last week Geoff Barrow (Portishead) mentioned Can as his favourite and most inspiring band ever (The Quietus).

Tago Mago the first album with Damo Suzuki on vocals, features the Can line up of Holger Czukay on bass, Michael Karoli on guitars, Jaki Liebezeit on drums and Irmin Schmidt on keyboards, and was recorded at Schloss Nörvenich in 1971.

TRACK LISTING

Paperhouse
Mushroom
Oh Yeah
Halleluwah
Aumgn
Peking O.
Bring Me Coffee Or Tea

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

The Wedding Present’s 'Record Store Day' releases seem to have become something of a little obsession for David Gedge. The yearly 10” EPs make him little profit; he just gets the satisfaction of singing and recording in other languages… and producing Extremely collectable records. In 2012 he tried his tongue at French and 2013 brought us his Teutonic warblings. This year, he’s really gone all out… this 10” vinyl only release has been sung in Welsh! A big fan of Wales and the Welsh in general, David doesn’t actually speak the language, but this didn’t stop him. He called in renowned Welsh actor, Andrew Teilo, who translated and created demos of four existing Wedding Present songs. David then travelled to Penarth where he and Andrew recorded the vocals with some recording expertise from Arwyn Davies. They kept the Welshness going with a little help from Andrew's fellow actor, Llinor ap Gwynedd, on backing vocals. The songs [recorded in the same session as the recent album, ‘Valentina’] are different from the songs on the other two ‘language’ EPs from Record Store Days past… and include the charming ‘Valentina’ album track ‘Meet Cute’. There were a few little hiccoughs during the translation from English into Welsh… the first song, 1000 Fahrenheit, had to be translated into Welsh as 10,000 (Deng Mil) Fahrenheit... not because there is no word for 1000, but apparently it just sounded better! Perhaps the songs all sound better in Welsh! All Welsh album next time Mr. Gedge?! The band will be promoting the release of ‘EP 4 Cân’ with a performance at the 'Wales Goes Pop’ festival in Cardiff during the evening of April 19 following an acoustic set at Spiller’s Records during the afternoon.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. 1000 Fahrenheit [Welsh Version]
2. Meet Cute [Welsh Version]

Side B
1. Journey Into Space [Welsh Version]
2. Can You Keep A Secret? [Welsh Version]

Nathan Salsburg’s 2011 debut was a beautiful ode to racehorses (a point of pride for any resident of Kentucky). Comprised of seven acoustic guitar instrumentals and one vocal track, ‘Affirmed’ caused Popmatters to declare the record “one that others like it will soon be measured against.”

His second album, ‘Hard For To Win And Can’t Be Won’, is a grander effort. Although still primarily composed of acoustic guitar, the songs sound bigger. They bounce along, weaving through unexpected twists and turns, with the occasional piano melody or fiddle line.

TRACK LISTING

First Field Path
Mrs Gristles Reel
Paraffin Turpentine
Coll Mackensie
Concessions
Dog At Bay
Chief Wants
To Welcome The Travelers Home
What Can’t Be Won

Vocalist Damo Suzuki’s departure from CAN in 1973 had forced the band to re-evaluate their sound. Now with Michael Karoli and Irmin Schmidt sharing vocal duties, the band had also begun drawing on influences from disco and glam. While still remaining staunchly outside the mainstream, they undoubtedly became more accessible to a wider audience, and soon had a huge fan base in the UK. In fact, just a few months after playing the live show found on this double LP (recorded in Lyon in January of 1976), CAN was even on Top Of The Pops!

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A: “The Yellow Side”
1. Citrus
2. Red Hot Indians

SIDE B: “The Cyan Side”
1.Dizzy Dizzy
2. Chain Reaction

SIDE C: “The Red Side”
1. One More Night
2. Vernal Equinox

SIDE D: “The Black Side”
1. More Spree Vitamin C

The new mini-album from Manchester-based, indiepopping Amida, and their first for Seattle's legendary Jigsaw Records. “Caffeine fueled dumpster diving hijinks.”- LOOFK.

"Not one, but two songs, essentially epic in their succinctness. A 7-inch’d musical debut with a view (and an audible one at that), with its A-Side offering of ‘a life that’s moving too fast-track’, nimble on it’s Snide-winding feet and lyrically heralding a drum punctuated game of ingestible and acronym’d chemical keepie-up. An inaugural no’ that’s closely followed flipside by an east-coasting and bass city roller of a tune, one initially dominated by a ruddy and happy slapping bass guitar, artistically doodling and fluidly noodling away, not unlike the re-vivified ghost of a certain and funk-driven finger and thumbing Bobby Watson. 2 fine and finite examples of some altogether raucous and truncated brevity, with each track vocally Cruickshank’d by ‘The Rhythm’s’ North-Eastern and Full-Back to Frontman. Frenetically delivering 2 songs, ever so quickly, by First-Class-Post-punk; postally popping itself straight through our Bonjouring and Branching French-Letterbeatboxes. Zut alors!"
The Lonely Piper 2010

Laura Marling’s 2008 debut album "Alas, I Cannot Swim" proved to be one of the most endearing critical successes of recent years and earned the young singer-songwriter a Mercury Music Prize nomination, and more importantly being one of our top five albums of the year. Now Marling is back with her second album, "I Speak Because I Can". Crafted with producer Ethan Johns (Kings of Leon, Ryan Adams, Paolo Nutini, Rufus Wainwright), "I Speak Because I Can" sets quintessentially English lyrical themes and stories to a backdrop of music that recalls prime Americana and the Laurel Canyon scene. Backed by sublime performances by musicians including Mumford & Sons, the album represents a coming-of-age for Laura; her unique identity - thoroughly English, unapologetically female, and a fully-fledged musician – now freshly defined.

TRACK LISTING

1. Devil's Spoke
2. Made By Maid
3. Rambling Man
4. Blackberry Stone
5. Alpha Shallows
6. Goodbye England (Covered In Snow)
7. Hope In The Air
8. What He Wrote
9. Darkness Descends
10. I Speak Because I Can

Manchester-based six-piece Table are led by songwriter David O'Dowda, who combs together different strands of modern folk music to create something new and wonderful on this, their first seven-inch titled "Songs You Can Sing". The two tracks on this single are sumptuous delights, airy and ornate while being oddly familiar. Marshalled by David, Table waltz through quietly elegant folk-pop with minimal guitar, stately piano and low-key vocals on what sounds like an endearingly sweet single, despite the deceptively barbed tale woven throughout. If "Songs You Can Sing" is beguilingly understated, then "Most" is multi-layered and bursting with ideas where electronic and organic sounds collide. It's a many hued delight which pulls together disparate elements and twists them into a myriad shapes, blurring excitedly before sweeping to a beautiful climax. Music that reaches into you and pulls out your soul, personal and frankly as dangerous as it is fragile. Imagine East River Pipe covering a Richard Hawley penned lullaby and you'll have a good idea of what to expect.

STAFF COMMENTS

Laura says: I can't really think what to say about this, other than I really like it! Two slices of cleverly constructed folkiness which despite the addition of electronics, maintains a real warmth and charm. Lovely stuff!

Philadelphia's The Capitol Years return with this new single on new label SOE. "You Can Stay There" is wonderful sunkissed pop that has similar shimmering pop dynamics to The Shins: Melodic, intricate guitars, vocal harmonies, and dreamy vocals. Over on the flip, "1000 Guns" employs the same melodic guitar work, over a lolloping drum beat again topped with gorgeous dreamy vocals. Reminiscent of Piccadilly favourites Ambulance LTD. Lovely stuff!

Finn is German singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and fashion designer, Patrick Zimmer who splits his time between Hamburg and London, where he recently found a new home with cinematic music label Erased Tapes – a conceptualist with the voice of Leonard Cohen on helium. Born in 1977, yet combining influences that span decades, Finn had to wander through a playground of electronica and low-fi recordings to get here. His third album "The Best Low-Priced Heartbreakers You Can Own" shows a surprisingly mature and cohesive collection of haunting and mesmerizing songs as a result from his consequential musical progression. Finn lived, recorded and produced the album over the course of seven months in the catacombs of an old 14th century church underneath the streets of St. Pauli. With this release, Patrick Zimmer prescribed himself a concept album.

Nelson have been hailed as 'the best French band to join the music scene in over 10 years'. Their music can be described as a cross between Joy Division, The Rapture, and Animal Collective. They promise explosive performances where aggressive guitars compete with delicate electronic sounds.

The album condenses the bands first three years of work, influenced by the likes of Fugazi, Fela Kuti and The Mars Volta into one un-cohesive package. Ranging from the folky lament of "Menwith Hill" to the frenetic avant-rhumba-punk of "Zeroes And Ones", a dystopian view of 'the idea of a liberating universal internet consciousness'.

O Fracas return with the limited edition "Factfinding" EP featuring two tracks from their forthcoming debut album, "Fits & Starts", due early next year (08). The band recently signed to I Can Count in the UK and Vinyl Junkie in Japan and this release follows the release of two critically acclaimed singles on Marquis Cha Cha. This EP comprises of two lead tracks "Factfinding" and "And So A Scratch Runs Down A Wall", taken from "Fits & Starts". Along with "Moth To A Flame" and a remix of "Scratched Wall" by Leeds' up and coming hip hop export Breaking The Illusion. O Fracas are the collision of a myriad of influences. Inspired as much by the DC hardcore of Fugazi and Q And Not U along with the rhythms of Billy Cobham and Fela Kuti, they bring this together with the range of Talking Heads songbook and condense it into three minutes pop songs played with a vigour and taut musicianship beyond many of their peers. Lyrically, lead singer Ben writes about the human condition with the insight of a man twice his age, O Fracas set themselves apart from the pack and with an average age of just twenty this really is surely just the beginning for O Fracas.

Double A-side from this Manchester band featuring their live mini-anthems "Can We Do it Again" and "The Carjack Song".