First time on colour vinyl with 3 never-heard before bonus tracks! Static is the follow-up to Cults' critically adorned 2010 self-titled, debut release. Written and recorded over the course of 2012 in the band's home base of New York City, Static is produced by Cults with support from Shane Stoneback (Sleigh Bells, Vampire Weekend) and Ben Allen (Animal Collective, Washed Out). The album is comprised of 11 tracks including lead single "I Can Hardly Make You Mine", "High Road" and the platinum-certified crowd favourite "Always Forever,” which is currently the band’s most popular track. In celebration of the 10th anniversary, the Static reissue will feature never-heard bonus tracks on a sky blue color vinyl.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. I Know
2. I Can Hardly Make You Mine
3. Always Forever
4. High Road
5. Were Before
6. So Far
7. Keep Your Head Up
Side B
1. TV Dream
2. We've Got It
3. Shine A Light
4. No Hope
5. Barry (Bonus Track)
6. Hurting (Bonus Track)
7. Always Forever - Demo (Bonus Track)

Legendary privately pressed 1979 LP from Scotland. This illusive, super rare and sublimely wonderful percussion album is like no other. Hypnotic, celestial, even cosmic and ambient in parts and totally unique in all ways, it was played by a group of 11 girls with an average age of 14. The group included Evelyn Glennie, who was destined to become one of the world’s greatest percussionists. This is her first ever record.

The Cults Percussion Ensemble was a group formed by percussion teaching legend Ron Forbes in the mid 1970s. The ensemble must have one of the best group names of all time. To many it will immediately come across as something sinister, a touch spooky and possibly a bit dramatic too. They are certainly two of those but the use of the word “Cults” here is easily misinterpreted. Cults, in this case, is the suburb of Aberdeen.
The average age of the students was just 14. They came from a few of the schools in the area, including the Cults Academy, Ellon Academy, Aboyne Academy, Inverurie Academy and Powis.

My original copy of the album came from Spitalfields market in London. I loved the music the second it started, because it reminded me of Carl Orff and peculiar library. So I started to investigate it further, and eventually, thanks to the highly tuned world of percussion, was given the address of Ron Forbes. I got in touch with him and now we have this, a formal release of something quite lovely that was only previously available very briefly in 1979 at concerts when the young girls performed.

The music here is really quite unique, with a celestial swirling hypnotic quality. The blend of glockenspiels, xylophones, vibraphones, marimba and timpani drums is quite intoxicating and can recall the shimmering warmth of the desert sun one minute (“Baia”) or freezing glacial ice caps the next (“Circles”). The Ensemble perform with an effortless tightness and deftness of touch, building textured layers with recurring percussive motives which appear simultaneously dense and yet sparse, almost sounding like modern sampling. In fact, while struggling to find a musical comparison, during the pulsating introduction to "Percussion Suite" I found myself recalling "Gamma Player", a piece of soulful Detroit techno minimalism from Jeff Mills (Millsart - “Humana” EP 1995) with its rhythmic percussion layered with complex emotion. Weirdly enough, other tracks on that EP also prominently feature xylophone and tuned percussion, although obviously synthesised and programmed, a good 20 years after the CPE first recorded.
Sleevenotes also include a letter from Ron Forbes:

“I decided to form a percussion group to provide an outlet for my percussion pupils to play music specially written for them. The group soon became well known in the region and as a result of winning the outstanding award at the National Festival of Music for youth on three occasions, they were invited to play at other festivals within Europe, one being in Erlangen in Germany - hence the Erlangen Polka - and Autun in France - hence the Autun Carillon. During these visits we were often asked if we had any recordings and so it was decided to make an LP”.

Thanks to Ron Forbes and Trunk Records, more people can now enjoy the simple hypnotic musical charms of the Cults Percussion Ensemble 

TRACK LISTING

Autun Carillon
Baia
My Love She’s But A Lassie Yet
Circles
Percussion Suite (3rd Movement)
The Little Dancer
Two Jubilee Pieces
Erlangen Polka
Dream Angus
Surrey With The Fringe On Top
Irish Washerwoman
Polymers

Cults are back with Offering B Sides & Remixes - a companion release to their 2017 LP Offering. Upon returning from tour in 2018, Madeline Follin and Brian Oblivion - the duo force behind Cults - went back into the studio with a handful of instrumental recordings left over from the Offering sessions. They emerged with 3 brand new B sides, each buzzing with Cults’ signature electricity and shimmering melodies. This limited edition 12” collects these three new B sides as well as three fantastic Offering remixes from Mike Simonetti, Etienne de Crecy, and John Fryer.

TRACK LISTING

01. Not Impossible
02. Hope You Found What You’ve Been Missing
03. An Echo
04. Offering (Mike Simonetti Remix)
05. I Took Your Picture (Etienne De Crecy Remix)
06. Recovery (John Fryer Remix)

Vinyl re-press of 2009 collaboration between Broadcast and their longtime sleeve designer Julian House (also co-founder of the Ghost Box label) to create a unique mini-album pulling in both collaborators' unique sense of melody and love of library music and film scores.

From their beginnings in Birmingham in 1995, Broadcast's aesthetic has remained a combination of their love for film, library music and electronics with psych-pop colour – a style which has gained them an enthusiastic fanbase including musicians such as Flying Lotus, Tim Gane from Stereolab, Grizzly Bear, Atlas Sound and DangerMouse. Long time friend of the band and renowned artwork designer Julian House (aka The Focus Group) is co-founder of the Ghost Box label, which in the last few years has birthed a cult of its own with releases reflecting its creators' obsessions with library music, English folklore and the eerie feel of vintage programmes for schools and colleges. His music as The Focus Group offers some of the most enchanting distillations of all the above, instantly complementing Broadcast's own long-standing aesthetic. As well as being a long-term visual collaborator with the band, House has provided visuals and artwork for Stereolab amongst many others.

TRACK LISTING

A1 Intro / Magnetic Tales
A2 The Be Colony
A3 How Do You Get Along Sir?
A4 Will You Read Me.
A5 Reception / Group Therapy
A6 A Quiet Moment
A7 I See, So I See So
A8 You Must Wake
A9 One Million Years Ago
A10 A Seancing Song
A11 Mr Beard, You Chatterbox
A12 Drug Party
A13 Libra, The Mirror's Minor Self
A14 Love's Long Listen-In
B1 We Are After All Here
B2 A Medium's High
B3 Ritual / Looking In
B4 Make My Sleep His Song
B5 Royal Chant
B6 What I Saw
B7 Let It Begin / Oh Joy
B8 Round And Round And Round
B9 The Be Colony / Dashing Home / What On Earth Took You?

Privately pressed in Scotland in 1979, this elusive and quite wonderful percussion / jazz album is like no other. Played by a group of 11 girls with an average age of 14, the group included Evelyn Glennie, who was destined to become one of the world’s greatest percussionist. This is her first ever record.

Johnny Trunk says:

The Cults Percussion Ensemble was a group formed by percussion teaching legend Ron Forbes in the mid 1970s. The ensemble must have one of the best group names of all time. To many it will immediately come across as something sinister, a touch spooky and possibly a bit dramatic too. They are certainly two of those but the use of the word “Cults” here is easily misinterpreted. Cults, in this case, is the suburb of Aberdeen.

The average age of the students was just 14. They came from a few of the schools in the area, including the Cults Academy, Ellon Academy, Aboyne Academy, Inverurie Academy and Powis.

My original copy of the album came from Spitalfields market in London. I loved the music the second it started, because it reminded me of Carl Orff and peculiar library. So I started to investigate it further, and eventually, thanks to the highly tuned world of percussion, was given the address of Ron Forbes. I got in touch with him and now we have this, a formal release of something quite lovely that was only previously available very briefly in 1979 at concerts when the young girls performed.

The music here is really quite unique, with a celestial swirling hypnotic quality. The blend of glockenspiels, xylophones, vibraphones, marimba and timpani drums is quite intoxicating and can recall the shimmering warmth of the desert sun one minute (“Baia”) or freezing glacial icecaps the next (“Circles”). The Ensemble perform with an effortless tightness and deftness of touch, building textured layers with recurring percussive motives which appear simultaneously dense and yet sparse, almost sounding like modern sampling. In fact, while struggling to find a musical comparison, during the pulsating introduction to "Percussion Suite" I found myself recalling "Gamma Player", a piece of soulful Detroit techno minimalism from Jeff Mills (Millsart - “Humana” EP 1995) with its rhythmic percussion layered with complex emotion. Weirdly enough, other tracks on that EP also prominently feature xylophone and tuned percussion, although obviously synthesised and programmed, a good 20 years after the CPE first recorded.

The LP comes with a new sleeve and the CD has a 6 page fold out booklet, which includes biographies and rare shots of the ensemble

STAFF COMMENTS

Philippa says: Not what you'd expect a privately pressed album by a group of 14 year old girls from late 70s Scotland to sound like. Forget preconceived ideas about scratchy, poorly recorded school bands, this is an impressive percussive jazz album with great sound.