Marking their first new studio album in nearly a decade, 'Remember The Humans' reunites the Toronto collective with producer David Newfeld, who helmed their breakthrough 'You Forgot It in People' (2002) and self-titled 2005 album. Across the 12 tracks the arrangements are dense and enveloping - a lattice of horns, guitars, voices, and electronics - yet melody always remains sovereign, refusing to be swallowed by the sheer sound. When the music drifts towards abstraction, a grounding bass line arrives to anchor the listener, reminding us always that there are human hands on the controls and that, however artful, this is still rock and roll. As ever, Broken Social Scene operates less as a band than as a community and songs evolve by ceding control to whoever can best carry them forward in the moment. Drew may be the designated driver, but collaborators on 'Remember the Humans', including Hannah Georgas, Lisa Lobsinger, and Feist, step into the foreground throughout the record, shaping songs with a sense of collective authorship that has always defined the group’s ethos.

TRACK LISTING

1. Not Around Anymore
2. Only The Good I Keep
3. Mission Accomplished (Kingfisher)
4. The Call
5. Relief
6. And I Think Of You
7. This Briefest Kiss
8. Life Within The Ground
9. Hey Amanda
10. Paying For Your Love
11. What Happens Next
12. Parking Lot Dreams

José González has delivered a new album, Against the Dying of the Light, a companion and further meditation on the themes of his critically acclaimed album, Local Valley. Where Local Valley turned inward toward place, language, and personal reflection, this new record widens its gaze, becoming an urgent call to preserve the light of humanity with all its flaws, at a moment when, technology increasingly shapes how we think, feel, and relate to one another.

While José has always embraced technological advancement, he questions the assumption that every new possibility must be pursued to its maximum potential, especially when progress comes at the expense of human flourishing, attention, and empathy.

Keeping in the tradition of folk music as protest, José’s new single — sharing its title with the forthcoming album — urges listeners to resist systems that dehumanize and divide: “Disconnect from every algorithm, every perverse incentive that drags you down. Let’s rebel against the replicators, against the dying of the light. Kill the codes that feed the hate, keep the codes that make you thrive, celebrate the f**king fact that we’re alive.”

Across the album, González works within a deliberately minimal framework, pushing his familiar palette to new heights through subtle variation, restraint, and detail. Each song unfolds with its own distinct character, proving how much emotional and musical range can be achieved within self - imposed limitations. Written in English, Swedish, and Spanish, the record reflects his Swedish - Argentine roots and frames its humanist message as a global one rather than a purely personal or political statement.

José González is one of the most quietly influential artists of our generation. The Swedish - Argentine artist has built a singular musical world from hypnotic, minimal guitar work and his unmistakably gentle voice — a sound that has become deeply personal to millions of listeners worldwide. With billions of streams across platforms and hundreds of thousands of physical records sold, González’s songs often act as emotional landmarks. Ask almost anyone, and they can name at least one of his tracks tied to a defining moment in their lives.

TRACK LISTING

1. A Perfect Storm
2. Etyd
3. Against The Dying Of The Light
4. For Every Dusk
5. Sheet
6. Pajarito
7. Losing Game (Sick)
8. Ay Querida
9. U / Rawls Slöja
10. Gymnasten
11. Just A Rock
12. You & We
13. Joy (Can’t Help But Sing)

'ESSAM' is the band’s fourth album, recorded with the same core lineup, but marks a significant shift in their sound and approach. Musically, it marks a departure from the rocky, bluesy, psychedelic Tuareg guitar-driven sound influenced by Tinariwen’s heritage—moving toward something more open, modern, and exploratory.

For the first time, their long-time sound engineer Maxime Kosinetz stepped in as producer. He travelled to Tamanrasset with Emile Papandreou (of the French duo UTO), a multi-instrumentalist who introduced electronic elements by sampling live instruments andreprocessing them in real time with a modular synthesizer—subtly reshaping the band's sonic identity. The album was recorded mostly live, in one big room at Aboogi Studio—the band’s own rehearsal and recording space in Tamanrasset. The studio, a converted concert hall, has become a kind of cultural hub for the local youth. Friends dropped by during the sessions to contribute handclaps, vocals, and just be part of the energy. It’s a space where people gather, hang out, play dominoes, smoke chicha—a rare communal spot in a city that doesn’t offer many for young people, somewhat like a youth and community center.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A beautiful mix of traditional Algerian influenced desert rock, acoustic folk and with wisps of perfectly measured electronics that work to enhance the droning vocals and timbres of their instruments. A perfectly measured balance of voices, working together to create something grand.

TRACK LISTING

1. Ahitmanin
2. Derhan N’oulhine (extended Version)
3. Télallalt
4. Tamiditin
5. Okcheur - CD Only
6. Azaman Amoutay (extended Version)
7. Tin Arayth
8. Tinfoussen
9. Adounia Tochal (extended Version)
10. Assagasswar

The long awaited re-press of the debut album by Junip, the Swedish folk-rock band featuring José González, is finally here.

TRACK LISTING

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

Australian duo Party Dozen — a feral blast of noise-funk chaos championed by Nick Cave and Amyl & The Sniffers — return with “Mad Rooter”. Built without a click track, it lurches and struts with wild, off-grid swagger, featuring a sax solo that channels late-night TV energy. Gritty samples from a battered, half-broken guitar add raw texture to a track that’s ten feet tall and gives zero f*cks. And that’s only the first hit: it’s followed by an insanely good cover of the Suicide classic “Ghost Rider.” It’s the cherry on top of this double-whammy.

TRACK LISTING

A1: Mad Rooter
A2: Ghost Rider (Suicide Cover)

DITZ return with Don Enzo Magic Carpet Salesman — a 9-minute, three-part noise-rock epic that marks a bold new direction for the Brighton band. Fierce, hypnotic and unpredictable, it captures their live energy in full force. Out Oct 29 via City Slang, just ahead of their November tour and a French TV session airing this month.

TRACK LISTING

Side A: Don Enzo Magic Carpet Salesman
Side B: Kalimba Song

After an incredible year with their debut album 'Who Let The Dogs Out' — released in January and followed by what felt like a thousand sold-out shows and countless festival appearances across the globe — Lambrini Girls cemented their place as one of the most talked-about, loved, hated, debated and celebrated bands of the year. The record has become a fixture on end-of- year lists from fans, press and record stores alike.

Now, 'Who Let The Dogs Out' returns in a very special end-of-year edition. But this isn’t one of those over- priced deluxe versions — quite the opposite. It’s a stripped-back, black-and-white, DIY, down-to-earth punk rock version, complete with alternative artwork by none other than fellow legend, visual artist David Shrigley.

TRACK LISTING

1. Bad Apple
2. Company Culture
3. Big Dick Energy
4. No Homo
5. Nothing Tastes As Good As It Feels
6. You’re Not From Around Here
7. Scarcity Is Fake (Communist Propaganda)
8. Filthy Rich Nepo Baby
9. Special Different
10. Love
11. Cuntology 101

180G reissue of Calexico’s acclaimed 1998 album.

The perfect soundtrack for a summer roadtrip in an old car across Death Valley.

“Calexico's musical textures are woven out of a dazzling array of instruments and styles, including mariachi trumpets, countrified pedal steel, Latin jazz percussion, and carnival organ, just to name a few. The songs move at siesta speed, casually looping and loping along, never getting overheated. Bandmates Joey Burns and John Convertino have their hands in so many musical pies--including projects with OP8, Giant Sand, Victoria Williams, Giant Sand, and Richard Buckner--one wonders how they find the time to create the sun-soaked music of Calexico. But thank God they have.” --Tod Nelson

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

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

TRACK LISTING

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

There’s a palpable flurry of momentum surrounding SPRINTS. The Dublin band have enjoyed a whirlwind year, marked by back-to-back wins and rapid ascent. They unveiled their Top 20 debut album “Letter to Self” in January 2024, picked up two RTÉ Choice Award nominations for Best Irish Album and Breakthrough Irish Artist, opened for IDLES and Pixies, and delivered feverishly talked- about sets at Glastonbury, End of the Road, and All Together Now.

Since the album’s release in 2024 – met with 5-star reviews from NME, DIY, and Dork, and acclaim from Pitchfork and Brooklyn Vegan – the four-piece have taken their visceral live show across the globe. Along the way, they’ve become an essential new name in contemporary rock, known for urgent, compassionate songwriting shaped by personal tales of trauma and resilience.

Now, SPRINTS are turning that relentless energy into new material. Later this year the quartet will unleash brand-new music and pack an even busier schedule, with a major slot at Glastonbury, appearances at Pinkpop, Dour and Latitude, plus a run of German arena dates supporting Fontaines D.C.

SPRINTS about the new album:
“While the world is literally burning down around us there are voices that seem hell bent on pointing the finger at anyone but those responsible. There’s no need to dream-up dystopia, we’re living in it.

And somehow, while the world has never seemed uglier, our life has never been more beautiful. We have clawed ourselves out of the depths of imposter syndrome, anxiety and struggle to come together, stronger than ever, in the pursuit of that which we love most, music.
All That Is Over feels like a second chance at a first album. Gone are the shackles of insecurity, and we have confidently stepped into what we feel is our best work yet. Its loud, emotive, boisterous and a lot of fucking fun.

This is an album about love, lust, art and passion. It is a rejection of the narratives they will try to spin to force those already marginalised to suffer more. It is the repelling of criticism, critique and the combat of the modern world. This is renaissance and rebellion because within the disillusionment with the world, the fatigue, there is still hope. There is still love, music and art and a chance to start again and that’s where you’ll find us. In between hope and a hard place. Welcome to our cowboy gothic.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A raucous, distorted distillation of garage rock and post-punk, with a breadth of sound you don't necessarily expect from a second album. 'To The Bone' is a particularly brilliant non-sequitur that shows how flexible the band are.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. Abandon
2. To The Bone
3. Descartes
4. Need
5. Beg
6. Rage

Side B
7. Something’s Gonna Happen
8. Pieces
9. Better
10. Coming Alive
11. Desire

'The Amateur View' is widely hailed as one of the definitive records of late ’90s analog electronica. Released in the U.S. via Mute Records, it was named one of UNCUT's Albums of the Year in 1999 and perfectly captured the introspective, experimental mood of the era.

The album's influence was far-reaching—so much so that Saint Etienne enlisted To Rococo Rot for their 2000 album Sound of Water. At the time, To Rococo Rot were the band of the moment—jetting across the globe to play the most cutting-edge electronica festivals, including wild WARP events where none other than Aphex Twin spun support DJ sets, The trio was invited three times by John Peel to record radio sessions in the BBC studios between 1997 and 1999.

Bands like Modeselektor still cite them as key influences and pioneers. Stephen McRobbie of The Pastels, Mark Fell (SND), and Kieran Hebden (aka Four Tet) are all big fans—Kieran even remixed a track from their debut album so did Mira Calyx and Daniel Miller of Mute, a longtime supporter, and yes Björk is a fan too. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: An electronic classic, and one of my favourite examples of the sort of glitchy, fractured melodies we'd expect from newer bands like Múm or Four Tet. There's a lot of influence can be heard in electronic music nowadays that sprang from this album, and it's available once more!

TRACK LISTING

1. I Am In The World With You
2. Telema
3. Prado
4. A Little Asphalt Here And There
5. This Sandy Piece
6. Tomorrow
7. Greenwich
8. Cars
9. She Loves Animals
10. Die Dinge Des Lebens
11. Set
12. Cars (Variant)
13. Meet The Lucky Kitchen
14. Telema (Längs)
15. Rocket Fuel
16. Copa
17. Pantone 6
18. Numbers In Love
19. Casper
20. Milker
21. A Day Long
22. Pantone 1 

Magic, Alive! Began life when Dixon received an unexpected email from English producer Sam Yamaha. Dixon’s early beats had inspired Yamaha’s own nascent work, and he wanted Dixon to listen. Before long, Dixon rendezvoused with him in London, digging through his archive to find a wealth of beats that resonated with his own approach and with the burgeoning concept for Magic, Alive! In July 2024, Dixon returned to his native Richmond, Virginia, with a tranche of sounds from Sam Yamaha and Koff, with whom he’d worked before.

Alongside a cavalcade of guests and friends, from the mighty singer Anji mile and imaginative Alabama emcee Pink Siifuto trombonist Reggie Pace and harpist Eli Owens, Dixon split these beats wide open, adding hooks and horn lines and guest spots. He strung several songs together, too, so that Magic, Alive! moves like adream or, at the very least, an alternate reality where new rules reign.

For the better part of a decade, Dixon has been turning his experiences as a native Southerner sometimes living in Queens and an eager student of literature into vivid reflections on joy, pain, and perseverance. His breakthrough, though, began with2021’smuch-lovedFor My Mama and Anyone Who Look Like Herand continued with 2023’s Beloved! Paradise! Jazz!?, both instrumentally rich exercises in storytelling wrapped up in the trauma and grief of losing a young friend. Those albums were emotional expurgations, Dixon dumping his feelings into marathons of literary references where Toni Morrison and Greek mythology shared space with detailed personal reflections.

TRACK LISTING

Side A:
01. Watch My Hands
02. Sugar Water (feat. Quelle Chris And Anjimile)
03. Crooked Stick (feat. Ghais Guevera And Alfred.)
04. Recitatif (feat. Teller Bank$)
05. Run, Run, Run Pt. II
06. We're Outside, Rejoice!

Side B:
07. All The Loved Ones (What Would We Do???) (feat. ICECOLDBISHOP And Pink Siifu)
08. F.F.O.L. (feat. Teller Bank$)
09. Listen Gentle
10. Magic, Alive!
11. Could've Been Different

Sophia Kennedy, the Baltimore-born, Hamburg-based artist, returns with her new album in May. Known for her genre-blending innovation and distinct vocal style, she has collaborated with DJ Koze and earned praise from The Guardian, Iggy Pop, and Resident Advisor.

Following her self-titled debut (2017, Pampa Records), a radiant dance between the glamour of the Great American Songbook, electronic textures, and clubland influences, earning her international acclaim, Kennedy released her second album, 'Monsters' (2021, City Slang), and delved deeper into surrealism and transcendence. Now, on 'Squeeze Me', Kennedy and her long -time musical collaborator and co-writer Mense Reents sketch a more disillusioned commentary on the status quo of the world at large. The complexity of interpersonal relationships, questions of power dynamics, and the quest for self-determination - longstanding themes for Kennedy - run as a cohesive narrative throughout the album.

More minimalist than her previous works, Squeeze Me brims with Kennedy’s gift for catchy melodies with a certain pop appeal and psychedelic hues. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Beautifully textured stabs of bass and crisp sidechained synth swells, forging a briliantly modern juxtaposition of saturated tape-like production and crisp, meticulous rhythmic programming. Add to that Kennedy's emotive, flowing vocal talents and you have a wonderfully well thought out whole that's as clever as it is fun to listen to.

TRACK LISTING

1. Nose For A Mountain
2. Imaginary Friend
3. Drive The Lorry
4. Runner
5. Rodeo
6. Feed Me
7. Oakwood 21
8. Upstairs Cabaret
9. Closing Time
10. Hot Match

Linking music and literature, building a bridge between the written and the sung–only the greats have managed to do this in the past. Leonard Cohen, Scott Walker, and Patti Smith were just some of the shining stars that Anna B Savage orientated herself towards as a teenager. Born on the anniversary of Bach’s death, the young musician spent her birthday every year in the Green Room of the Royal Albert Hall watching her parents perform compositions by the grand master. That shaped her.

Today, thanks to albums such as her debut, “A Common Turn” (2021), and the incredibly sensual art-pop opus “in|FLUX” (2023), the singer-songwriter is one of the truly exceptional talents on the British independent scene. In her music, otherworldly vocals nestle up against chamber orchestral compositions, delicate arrangements rise up and blow away, and the musician’s highly eclectic sound grows song by song into an experience that lingers for days and weeks. Potentially life-changing.

A sense of rootedness is at the heart of Anna B Savage’s third record You and I are Earth, a record that is as much about healing as it is an unbowed sense of curiosity, and, more simply, “a love letter to a man and to Ireland.” Following on from her critically acclaimed records ACommon Turn and in|FLUX, You and I are Earth manages to convey a sense of intimacy, while also being open-ended. Gentleness is as radiant a touchstone on the record as earthiness, something that Savage attributes to the place she finds herself at present, both geographically and emotionally. And quite literally the record bears witness to a particular piece of earth-Ireland, and Savage’s relationship to it as her new home. That process is brilliantly rendered on Agnes, a complicated piece of work featuring AnnaMieke that turns on tropes of duality and transformation. It mirrors an unsettling experience that Savage had through meditation, which ultimately ended in an immersive, beautiful feeling, “I felt like I was part of the earth, completely connected to the mycelium network, felt like I was where I was meant to be.”

In many ways, that experience framed the album’s artwork, a photograph taken in some woodlands in Co. Sligo, with Savage looking up at the trees, their fractals reflected in her eyes, mirroring something she had felt in her meditation, bringing us back full circle, and to that sense that we are essentially in unison, or at least striving to be, that “you and I are earth”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A beautifully tender mix of flickering acoustic guitar, dynamic chord changes and airy bucolic lyrical themes, perfectly presented in Savage's athletic vocal style. It's a wonderfully enthralling, constantly twisting tapestry of melody and rhythmic drive, and shows just how influential Savage's unique style could be.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. Talk To Me
2. Lighthouse
3. Donegal
4. Big & Wild
5. Mo Cheol Thu
́
Side B
6. Incertus
7. I Reach For You In My Sleep
8. Agnes
9. You & I Are Earth
10. The Rest Of Our Lives 

'Who Let The Dogs Out' is the debut album from Brighton based noise-punk duo Lambrini Girls. Recorded with Gilla Band’s Daniel Fox. with mixing by Seth Manchester (Mdou Moctar/ Battles / Model/Actriz), 'Who Let The Dogs Out' bottles everything wrong with the modern world and shakes it up. If peppering political songs with humour is like sticking a sparkler in some bread, then 'Who Let The Dogs Out' is like a fireworks display in the factory itself: strange, dangerous, exciting.

The album rips through a laundry list of social ills.Sirens blare over a heavy distorted bass and a live drum breakbeat. The band dance between upbeat pop-punk, dirty grunge tones and discordant post-punk. There’s even some noise-pop cheer for putting yourself first, whether it’s having an autistic meltdown or doing a poo at your mate’s house.

With instrumentals that inhale you like a Level 5 tornado and sentiments that make you want to kick the nearest door through, it’s a take-no-prisoners debut from one of the UK’s most fun and fearless bands.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Thrashing, groove-filled mayhem from the superb Lambrini Girls here, with their debut full-length transmission coming out of the gates with a roaring mix of indie, punk and rock and roll. Lyrically incendiary, instrumentally perfect and absolutely FULL of attitude. Brilliant.

TRACK LISTING

1. Bad Apple
2. Company Culture
3. Big Dick Energy
4. No Homo
5. Nothing Tastes As Good As It Feels
6. You’re Not From Around Here
7. Scarcity Is Fake (Communist Propaganda)
8. Filthy Rich Nepo Baby
9. Special Different
10. Love
11. Cuntology 101

The ten songs on Boy Harsher’s second full length album, 'Careful', spanning forty-four minutes, contain eerie narrative soundscapes that are both bracing, high tempo and dynamic. The album delivers manifold emotions, from the nostalgic yearning of 'LA' to the gripping intensity of 'Come Closer'. The nervousness of Augustus Muller's bent, out of tune synths paired with the lush and sometimes brittle vocals of Jae Matthews, delivers an unsettled, yet fulfilling encounter with Boy Harsher. Careful summons a new spirit for the young band - that of growth and desire. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Keep Driving
2. Face The Fire
3. Fate
4. LA
5. Come Closer
6. The Look You Gave (Jerry)
7. Tears
8. Crush
9. Lost
10. Careful

Pom Pom Squad’s sophomore LP, aptly titled Mirror Starts Moving Without Me, Berrin traverses the hall of mirrors to celebrate the true self at the heart. The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Stereogum, and many more have lauded the pop-centric return of Brooklyn’s favorite rising post-grunge band, lead byfrontperson Mia Berrin, for their refreshing new chapter. Berrin had a hand in the crafting of this darker and stronger sound, co-producing the record at the legendary Electric Lady Studios.

TRACK LISTING

1. Downhill
2. Spinning
3. Street Fighter
4. Everybody’s Moving On
5. Villain
6. Running From Myself
7. Messages
8. Montauk
9. Doll Song
10. Tarot Interlude
11. The Tower

Dan Snaith's latest album, "Honey," marks an intriguing new phase for Caribou. Over more than two decades Dan Snaith has had many guises. After putting every ounce of himself into Our Love and Suddenly, for his sixth Caribou album Snaith now pulls himself away a little in search of music that isn’t about any one person and is available to everybody. Huge dancefloor tracks twinkle, shimmer and surprise in a way only Snaith’s productions can but with a freshness that defines an artist who is too excited by music- making to ever truly settle into any one sound.

There’s never been a Caribou record that sounds like the last, so change here is just as comforting as constant. They say expect the unexpected and you’ll never be surprised; well there’s plenty here to be surprised by, but then with a Caribou record you’d never expect anything less. "Honey" captures Snaith's curiosity and joy in music-making, offering a fresh yet quintessential Caribou experience. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Soaring, euphoric dancefloor electronica that's both instantly enjoyable and endlessly deep, from the brilliant Dan Snaith. Though there is a strong core of propulsive percussion and insistent melodic elements, the woozy drift and organic wooze stop this from feeling anything but seamlessly organic, resulting in probably his most balanced effort to date.

TRACK LISTING

A1 Broke My Heart
A2 Honey
A3 Volume
A4 Do Without You
A5 Come Find Me
A6 August 20/24
B1 Dear Life
B2 Over Now
B3 Campfire
B4 Climbing
B5 Only You
B6 Got To Change 

Danish band Efterklang returns with their seventh studio album 'Things We Have In Common’, set for release on September 27th via City Slang.

An album about friendship, belonging, faith and understanding, themes which are palpable in the music, which is gentle and uplifting, healing and rousing.

Efterklang has become an open community with three permanent members: Mads Brauer, Casper Clausen and Rasmus Stolberg. On this album the core trio re-connected with their old friend and founding Efterklang member Rune Mølgaard who left the band in 2007 to join the mormon church, and ultimately withdrew from the church in 2022. His profound spiritual journey significantly influences the album's content and tone, on which he has co-written seven of the nine songs.

'Things We Have In Common' coincides with the 20th anniversary of the band’s debut album, and presents 2 decades of collaboration, exploration, evolution and reconnection.

The album features contributions from a variety of international musicians. Zach Condon of Beirut, Finnish drummer Tatu Rönkkö, Venezuelan guitarist Hector Tosta and Guatemalan cellist and singer Mabe Fratti all became key collaborators. Italian award- winning mixer Francesco Donadello and South Denmark Girls’ Choir both left their indelible mark on the record, as their did with the band’s 2012 album ‘Piramida’.

TRACK LISTING

1. Balancing Stones (feat. Mabe Fratti)
2. Plant (feat. Mabe Fratti)
3. Getting Reminders (feat. Beirut)
4. Ambulance
5. Leave It All Behind
6. Animated Heart (feat. Sønderjysk Pigekor)
7. Shelf Break
8. Sentiment
9. To A New Day (feat. Sønderjysk Pigekor)

Tindersticks' 14th album "Soft Tissue" showcases their exploratory spirit, mixing intimate songwriting with experimental soundscapes. The album evolves from their previous work, balancing introspective lyrics with innovative musical textures. Band members, including singer Stuart Staples, emphasize the collaborative nature of the creation process, fostering a dynamic dialogue that shapes their music. Key tracks like "New World" and "Always a Stranger" highlight this blend of personal reflection and sonic exploration, underscoring the band's enduring ambition and versatility.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: It's generally true that as bands age, they tend to get more comfortable and thus less outwardly energetic, and while that is true too for Tindersticks, their sound is just as intense as it ever was. 'Soft Tissue' is a beautifully rich, expansive work that certainly brings to mind some of David's brilliant solo work for Clay Pipe records, but also has a strong identity as a quintessential Tindersticks outing.

TRACK LISTING

1. New World
2. Don't Walk, Run
3. Nancy
4. Falling, The Light
5. Always A Stranger
6. The Secret Of Breathing
7. Turned My Back
8. Soon To Be April

If Los Bitchos’ electrifying 2022 debut album Let the Festivities Begin! Was the rowdy build up to the big night out, then Talkie Talkie is the Technicolor explosion of the dancefloor. Made up of lead guitarist Serra, who carries both Australian and Turkish heritage, Uruguayan synth and keytar player Agustina Ruiz, Swedish bassist Josefine Jonsson and British drummer Nic Crawshaw, the group are united by a commitment to having fun.

It’s a contagious energy they’ve had no problem transmitting to the world: since the band officially arrived in 2019 with two sell-out 7" singles, they marked themselves as one of London’s brightest bands to watch. Since then, they’ve found a home in beloved indie label City Slang, ripped stages across the most coveted stages the globe over (such as Glastonbury and Coachella, as well as supporting Pavement and King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard), and radiated the verve of their personalities and cultures through their exploratory take on rock’n’roll.

The London-based quartet’s new album is glistening with charisma, sonic experimentation and a puckish spirit. Named after a fictional club of the same name Talkie Talkie is a late-night paradise brimming with freedom and possibility; a place where partygoers can escape reality in the dance or daydream along to the invigorating soundscapes.

Los Bitchos promise to turn the global indie rock scene upside down in 2024!

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Explosive lead lines and snapping percussive loops, funky breakdowns and euphoric floor-focused groove. Los Bitchos are without a doubt dropping one of the biggest party anthems of 2024 in 'Don't Change' too. Ace.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Hi!
A2. Talkie Talkie, Charlie Charlie
A3. Don’t Change
A4. Kiki, You Complete Me
A5. Road
A6. 1K!
B7. La Bomba
B8. Open The Bunny, Wasting My Time
B9. It’s About Time
B10. Naughty Little Clove
B11. Tango & Twirl
B12. Let Me Cook You

King Hannah crafts a musical tapestry that seamlessly weaves between the serene depths of meditative pop and the expansive, sonorous landscapes brimming with darkness, wit, and wry humor. Merrick’s vocals, a smoky delight, imbue her words with profound weight and potency, complemented by the bluesy canvases Whittle masterfully paints beneath them. Their sound effortlessly transitions from moments of post-rock expansiveness to evoking the sensation of Springsteen straying onto a gritty side-street off his highway to freedom.

In recent times, the duo has graced stages alongside esteemed artists such as Kurt Vile, Thurston Moore, Kevin Morby, and DIIV, captivating audiences at festivals across Europe and North America including End of the Road, Green Man, Primavera Sound, and Fusion, among others. King Hannah’s accolades include being hailed as Stereogum’s Band to Watch, The Guardian’s Ones to Watch, Paste’s Best of What’s Next, and featured in DIY Magazine’s NEU segment, SPIN’s rising artists, and many more.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Absolutely stunning melodic, soaring indie-rock with rich vocal harmonies and crescentic arm-raising rock breakdowns. Brittle in parts, but swimming in melody and perfectly paced throughout, growing and retracting organically like the sea. A beautifully endearing listen.

TRACK LISTING

A1 Big Swimmer
A2 New York, Let's Do Nothing
A3 The Mattress
A4 Milk Boy (I Love You)
A5 Suddenly, Your Hand
B6 Somewhere Near El Paso
B7 Lily Pad
B8 Davey Says
B9 Scully
B10 This Wasn't Intentional
B11 John Prine On The Radio

On her fourth album, west coast artist Jessica Pratt expands the scope of her artistry, placing her sharpest songs to date within an ever-broadening pool of influences including spectral '60s pop, Hollywood psychedelia and bossa nova. Whereas Pratt's 2019 record, Quiet Signs, floated elegantly in the ether, Here in the Pitch is entrenched in more earthen characteristics, as the title suggests, and her craft is emboldened with a newfound gravitas.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: 'Here In The Pitch' takes Jessica Pratt's established sound (brittle folk and slow country balladry) and widens the net into slow hazy pop and soaring widescreen songwriting. Though she's not moved away from the more minimalistic pieces, there are a lot more moments of both jubilance and fear, it's a beautifully crafted and intensely personal creation.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
A1 Life Is
A2 Better Hate
A3 World On A String
A4 Get Your Head Out
A5 By Hook Or By Crook

Side B
B1 Nowhere It Was
B2 Empires Never Know
B3 Glances
B4 The Last Year

We Belong, is the eighth studio album from Sinkane, a band led by multi- instrumentalist Ahmed Gallab. And like much of Sinkane’s previous releases, it resists genre. It’s pop. It’s funk. It’s electronic. It blends the gritty punk newness of a 70s and 80s New York with the steady, foundational soul of the rhythms of his native Sudan. Though We Belong comes deep into the catalog of a long career, it also resists stagnation. It moves and travels—through words and eras, through emotion and healing. Gallab calls this album his “love letter to Black music,” and each track pulses with the energy of different eras and forms: the gospel-soaked “Everything Is Everything,” the dreamy, Quiet Storm-influenced Afro-beats of “Rise Above,” the 70s-funk of “We Belong” and its Sly Stone influence, the Stevie Wonder-edged “Another Day”—they tell a story about Black music and Black people.

TRACK LISTING

1. Come Together
2. Another Day (ft. STOUT & Bilal)
3. Rise Above
4. Invisible Distance (ft. Tru Osborne)
5. Everything Is Everything (ft. Tru Osborne)
6. We Belong (ft. STOUT)
7. How Sweet Is Your Love
8. Liming
9. Home (ft. Hollie Cook)
10. The Anthem (ft. STOUT)

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

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: 'Big Anonymous' is a journey to be undertaken in one fell swoop, moving cohesively between grand gothic ambience, choral majesty and imposing fractured glitch. Though there are pieces that sound undeniably impactful alone (In Silence for example is a life-alteringly affecting piece regardless of context), within the album as a whole, every impeccable part has its place and comes together flawlessly.

TRACK LISTING

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

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

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

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

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

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

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Effortlessly drawing in wisps of influence from the post-punk and indie trailblazers while retaining their own unique and incendiary take on the formula, Sprints lurch from jagged instrumental melodies and cathartic punky groove without breaking step. A hugely impressive debut from this Dublin band.

TRACK LISTING

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

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

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

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

TRACK LISTING

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

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

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

TRACK LISTING

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

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

TRACK LISTING

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

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

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

TRACK LISTING

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

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

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

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

STAFF COMMENTS

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

TRACK LISTING

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

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

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

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

STAFF COMMENTS

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

TRACK LISTING

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

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

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

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

TRACK LISTING

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

STAFF COMMENTS

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

TRACK LISTING

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

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

TRACK LISTING

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

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

TRACK LISTING

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

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

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

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

STAFF COMMENTS

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

TRACK LISTING

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

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

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

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

Accompanying statement from Ahmed Gallab: -

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Best,

Ahmed Gallab

TRACK LISTING

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

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

TRACK LISTING

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

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

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

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

TRACK LISTING

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

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

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

STAFF COMMENTS

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

TRACK LISTING

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

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

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

Liner notes by Kurt Wagner himself.

TRACK LISTING

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

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

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

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

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

STAFF COMMENTS

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

TRACK LISTING

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

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

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

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

TRACK LISTING

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

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

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

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

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

TRACK LISTING

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

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

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

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

TRACK LISTING

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

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

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

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

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

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

TRACK LISTING

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

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

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

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

STAFF COMMENTS

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

TRACK LISTING

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

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

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

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

TRACK LISTING

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

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

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

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

STAFF COMMENTS

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

TRACK LISTING

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

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

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

STAFF COMMENTS

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

TRACK LISTING

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

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

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

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

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

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

STAFF COMMENTS

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

TRACK LISTING

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

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

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

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

TRACK LISTING

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

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

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

STAFF COMMENTS

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

TRACK LISTING

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

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

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

TRACK LISTING

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

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

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

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

TRACK LISTING

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

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

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

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

TRACK LISTING

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

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

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

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

TRACK LISTING

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

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

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

TRACK LISTING

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

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

PRESS: quotes from original release:

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

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

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

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

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

TRACK LISTING

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

TRACK LISTING

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

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

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

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

TRACK LISTING

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

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

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

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

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

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

TRACK LISTING

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

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

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

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

TRACK LISTING

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

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

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

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

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

TRACK LISTING

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

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

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

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

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