On September 27, UK-based noise rock outfit Schande will share their debut LP Once Around, via The Daydream Library Series, the house record label of Ecstatic Peace Library operated by Thurston & Eva Moore. Throughout the past several months, the band, fronted by Thurston Moore Guitar Ensemble member Jen Chochinov, has shared a trio of singles showcasing the band’s melodically angular approach to songwriting — searing and calm in equal measures, reminiscent yet distinctive. The most recent outing was the hard-charging “We’re Not Twins,” which acts as a bridge between the poignant and restrained guitar ambience of “Relevant Campaigns,” and its cascading, fuzzed out foil “52 hz.”

Inspired by the works of writers such as Hannah Arendt and Adriana Cavarero, Once Around focuses on notions of personal existence and subjectivity. As Chochinov puts it, the record consists of “contemplations on the ways in which we do and do not disclose ourselves to each other, our responsibilities towards ourselves and others, and the ways we do or do not acknowledge the experiences of others.” Mirrored by the band’s collaborative musical process (Chochinov writes the lyrics to instrumentals formed out of jams and group revision), the album aims to explore the ways in which even the most personal journeys depend on others, something the band of expats — Chochinov is from the US, drummer Ryan Grieve hails from Canada, and bassist Gio Villaraut is from Italy — navigate daily as they establish and reinvent themselves in their adoptive home of the UK.

Schande’s current sound was shaped by Chochinov’s stint playing in the Thurston Moore Guitar Ensemble. On the heels of playing with the group, Chochinov started experimenting with alternative tunings, including those she learned from Thurston himself. The freedom offered by new tunings gave the band a chance to approach songs and song writing in a new way. “It was like being given free reign in a science lab where nothing was off limits. At worst you create an awful sound and at best you get the chance to surprise yourself and land on something exciting.”

The California-born Chochinov has been crafting catchy, propulsive rock in DIY circles since the early 1990s. Solo and full band adventures throughout the years have included a split 7” with The Cribs and James Murphy’s pre-LCD Soundsystem group Speedking, playing the legendary Indie Tracks festival (UK), and playing Happy Happy Birthday to Me's Athens Pop Festival (US). 

TRACK LISTING

1. Derek
2. Palimpsest
3. Apogee
4. Gregor MacGregor
5. Relevant Campaigns
6. Double Hackner
7. We’re Not Twins
8. 52 Hz
9. Last Horse

Flow Critical Lucidity is his ninth solo recording. Some of the songs were written & arranged in Europe and The United Kingdom and include lyrical references to their environments and inspired by nature, lucid dreaming, modern dance and Isadora Duncan. The album was arranged at La Becque in Switzerland and recorded at Total Refreshment Studios in London in 2022, and mixed at Hermitage Studios in London with Margo Broom in 2023.

Flow Critical Lucidity comes from a lyric in the single ‘Sans Limites’ and the album sleeve cover art features Jamie Nares’ ‘Samurai Walkman’ — a helmet befitted with tuning forks. Jamie Nares (born in Great Britain) is a life long friend of Thurston Moore from his New York No Wave days and the two have often collaborated in art & music.

The Players:
Vocals, Guitar: Thurston Moore
Bass: Deb Googe
Electronics: Jon Leidecker
Piano, organ, guitar, glockenspiel: James Sedwards
Percussion: Jem Doulton
Backing vocals: Laetitia Sadier on ‘Sans Limites’
Lyrics: Radieux Radio, except ‘Shadow’
Recorded in London at Total Refreshment Centre and mixed by Margo Broom

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A beautiful, musically mature collection of pieces from one of the members of the biggest band in rock history. Moore's latest is a beautifully balanced suite of slow-paced minimalist guitars and flickering piano, slowly morphing crescendos and heartfelt sonic tales. It's a wonderful new chapter for one of the legends of alt-rock.

TRACK LISTING

1. New In Town
2. Sans Limites
3. Shadow
4. Hypnogram
5. We Get High
6. Rewilding
7. The Diver
(Bonus Track Included On A Clear Flexi Disc.) – “Isadora (Bedazzled Mix)”

Devon made her musical debut releasing her first ever recorded single, 'Swim' to swooning fans in September 2023, and followed it up with the sultry high energy tune entitled ‘Killer'. ‘Killer’ was the second song released by Actress/Model/ - and, now Musician, Singer/Songwriter: Devon Ross. ‘Killer' hit all digital platforms worldwide 1 December 2023 in advance of Devon’s very first concert at London's legendary 100 CLUB on December 13. 2023.

Inspired by Sixties and Seventies legends, such as The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Patti Smith, Bob Dylan, The Stooges and Television, Devon Ross is finally debuting her first recordings on the forthcoming EP, entitled OXFORD GARDENS. OXFORD GARDENS was recorded in Paris and mixed & mastered at Abbey Road Studios in London and set for release on Thurston & Eva Moore's indie record label, The Daydream Library Series the week of St. Valentine’s Day in February 2024.

Bio: Model-actress-guitarist, 23-year-old recording artist was raised in Los Angeles and moved to London in 2020. British Vogue cited Ross as “the coolest model currently climbing up the ranks”. During 2019, Gucci recruited her for a Rome runway show before casting her in the launch of the Gucci x Disney Collection (notably shot at Disneyland). It opened up the floodgates as she went on to walk for Valentino, Erdem, Gauchere, Sies Marjan, and Simone Rocha and lead campaigns for Vivienne Westwood and Mulberry. Her career would be chronicled by L’Officiel, 10 Magazine, W, and many more. In 2021, she joined the cast of HBO and A24’s Irma Vep - The Serial (2021) alongside Academy® Award Winner Alicia Vikander, Adria Arjona, Carrie Brownstein, Byron Bowers, and others.

Eva & Thurston met Devon at Cannes Film Festival in France in 2021 and started going to shows and kicking around London together. After witnessing her guitar playing and hearing her music the couple invited her to release music on their independent record label. This month November 2023, The Daydream Library Series independent record label will celebrate five years in operation. Thurston & Eva founded the label in 2018 to release the debut album Sistahs by London’s black, feminist, punk band Big Joanie.

TRACK LISTING

1. I Don’t Wanna
2. Swim
3. Killer
4. Mine Not Yours

Black feminist punk band Big Joanie have announced their upcoming second album 'Back Home', set for release on Daydream Library Series in the UK and Kill Rock Stars in the US.

The brand new album 'Back Home' follows on from last month's one-off single 'Happier Still', and the release of their 2020 single ‘Cranes in the Sky’, a cover of Solange Knowles released on Jack White’s Third Man Records. Recorded at Hermitage Works Studios in North London, 'Back Home' was produced and mixed by Margo Broom (Goat Girl, Fat White Family) and features violin courtesy of Charlotte Valentine of the experimental art rock project No Home, who recently collaborated with the LA-based artist SASAMI. 'Back Home' is a dramatic leap forward for the band; the band build on their tightly knit, lo-fi punk formula to bring forth a collage of blazing guitars, down tempo dance punk, and melancholic strings that evoke the full depth of the band’s expansive art punk vision. The album title references a search for a place to call home, whether real or metaphysical. “We were really ruminating on the idea of a home and what it means,” explains Stephanie. “It’s about the different ideas of home, whether that’s here in the UK, back in Africa or the Caribbean, or a place that doesn’t really exist; it’s neither here nor there."

The band worked with multidisciplinary artist Angelica Ellis to design the striking embroidered cover art, which is a depiction of Chardine’s nephew at the barbers. The artwork is a reference to the embroidered wall hangings popular in Caribbean homes post-Windrush that were a callback to the homes they left behind. The album’s strength lies in the band’s bold and varied new sound. Album opener ‘Cactus Tree’ is an eerie, gothic folk tale that tells the story of a woman waiting for her lover while a wall of euphoric harmonies and screaming feedback roll in the background.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Big Joanie are back! This time forging on from their blistering debut, 2018's 'Sistahs' to an ever more ferocious and thematically diverse follow-up. Drawing influence from all over the musical spectrum, 'Back Home' is an accomplished and hugely enjoyable slice of art-rock tinged post-punk.

TRACK LISTING

1. Cactus Tree
2. Taut
3. Confident Man
4. What Are You Waiting For?
5. In My Arms
6. Your Words
7. Count To Ten
8. Happier Still
9. Insecure
10. Today
11. I Will
12. In My Arms (Reprise)
13. Sainted

Singer/songwriter and guitarist Jayan Bertrand, bassist Josh Ewers, electronic drummer Josue Vargas and guitarist Dion Kerr have coined new genre “Caribbean Jazzgaze” to describe their wholly unique combination of jazz, shoegaze, rock, hip-hop, and Afro-Caribbean rhythms that is Seafoam Walls.Seafoam Walls caught the attention of cultish music and art communities around South Florida with a soundtrack befitting of their dark tropical paradise, and have remained a Miami secret since 2016. Bandleader Jayan began his journey as a musician listening to metal and classic rock. His first formal lessons after a year of self-taught practice came from a family friend and talented jazz guitarist, Bemol Telfort. Although jazz wasn’t his first love but opened his heart to explorations of free improvisation which led to an introduction to Dion, Josh, and Josue — all active members on South Florida’s jazz scene.

Seafoam Walls released their first EP, titled R-E-F-L-E-C-T in 2018 and ROOT in 2019 via Bandcamp.The band recently attracted international rock n roll consciousness following a secret all-ages matinee in the gardens of North Miami’s Centre for Subtropical Affairs with DC hardcore photographer Susie J (Teen Idles, Minor Threat, et al.) and Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore front row centre. The Miami indie band completed the eight-track album entitled XVI earlier this year. Norwegian sound artist Lasse Marhaug mastered the work, and the band will stream three singles through the summer and autumn months before releasing the complete album at the end of 2021 on seafoam-green coloured vinyl via Daydream Library Series

TRACK LISTING

1.Sound Check (1:52)
2.You Can’t Have Your Cake And Ego Too (5:37)
3.Ai (6:02)
4.Dependency (2:36)
5.You Always Said (5:45)
6.Program (2:51)
7.See (4:14)
8.Rushed Rain (5:49)

This is Thurston Moore’s seventh solo album, and features musicians Deb Googe (My Bloody Valentine) on bass and backing vocals, Jon Leidecker aka ‘Wobbly’ (of Negativland) on electronics, James Sedwards on guitar, and Sonic Youth’s Steve Shelley, as well as Jem Doulton, alternating on drums. ‘Hashish’ is the first single from the album to be released and is described by Moore as “an ode to the narcotic of love in our shared responsibility to each other during isolation." The song includes a video with footage from The Thurston Moore Group’s tour in early 2020 in Europe, as well as footage of Thurston quarantined in his home during the past few months “with respect to the sacred healing truth of nature.”

Prior to isolation during the COVID pandemic, Thurston worked in recording studios in North London until the third week of March 2020 to complete this album for release on September 5, 2020. While the musicians may not immediately tour, Thurston was adamant to release BY THE FIRE in 2020, and with Daydream Library, has released this quote: ​BY THE FIRE is music in flames.

2020 is our time for radical change and collective awareness and Thurston Moore has written nine songs of enlightenment, released to a world on fire. Taking a cue from Albert Ayler's "music is the healing force of the universe", this recording offers songs as flames of rainbow energy, where the power of love becomes our call. These are love songs in a time where creativity is our dignity, our demonstration against the forces of oppression. BY THE FIRE is a gathering, a party of peace—songs in the heat of the moment.

Some of the songs feature all of the musicians whist a few are solo guitar and vocals.

BY THE FIRE is released on The Daydream Library Series record label which was founded in 2018 especially to release London Afro-punk feminist trio Big Joanie’s debut album ‘Sistahs’.

TRACK LISTING

1. Hashish (5:54)
2. Cantaloupe (4:44)
3. Breath (10:54)
4. Siren (12:20)
5. Calligraphy (5:20)
6. Locomotives (16:50)
7. Dreamers Work (4:53)
8. They Believe In Love (When They Look At You) (7:49)
9. Venus (14:20) Instrumental

Originally released in 2007 This was Thurston's first solo outing since 1995's Psychic Hearts.

From original 2007 Press release: “Thurston recorded primarily on acoustic guitar and bass, laying down the core of the tunes with drummer compatriot Sonic Youth's Steve Shelly and violinist Samara Lubelski, a noted player from MV/EE and The Golden Road, Hall of Fame and other awesome gatherings as well as solo artiste. Thurston grabbed John Agnello to record and mix the sucker after having a helluva good time with the bro from working on Sonic Youth's 2006 killer Rather Ripped. They decided to work in Dinosaur Jr.'s J Mascis' Bisquiteen studio (the top floor in J's Amherst house actually) where Dino did their Beyond album. This worked out very nicely as it allowed Thurston to yell down the stairs every time he needed a shredding guitar solo and J would trundle up, plug in and BURN.

Other guests on "trees outside..." are Christina Carter, she of Charalambides, and she of the most beatific, beautific voice on land, sea and air. One track called Honest James has Thurston and Christina singing duet against a single acoustic guitar and it is a naked groove. The otherworldly Canadian musician Andrew Macgregor aka "Gown" plays some spectacularly understated and incredible guitar and Sunburned Hand of The Man's John Moloney takes over the drum stool to absolutely flail on the pit snarling Wonderful Witches. And then there's the 20 seconds or so of primal noise wave courtesy of American noise underground genius Leslie Keffer on Off Work. Most of the tunes are lyric driven but there are a couple of majestic instrumentals like Trees Outside The Academy, which brings the album to a musical and breathless close. There's also some weird cassette tape that Thurston found at his mom's of him at 13 years old in the early 70s making some kind of sound-theatre.” 

TRACK LISTING

1. Frozen Gtr
2. The Shape Is In A Trance
3. Honest James
4. Silver>Blue
5. Fri/End
6. American Coffin
7. Wonderful Witches
8. Off Work
9. Never Day
10. Free Noise Among Friends
11. Trees Outside The Academy
12. Thurston@13

Each 7-inch comprises an excerpted moment from the THURSTON MOORE GROUP live in 2019, free-mixed and free-created by Wobbly (aka Jon Leidecker). The B-side of each is a special cover of a New Order track (recorded in Salford).

Each 7-inch comprises an excerpted moment from the THURSTON MOORE GROUP live in 2019, free-mixed and free-created by Wobbly (aka Jon Leidecker). The B-side of each is a special cover of a New Order track (recorded in Salford).