“I am OBSESSED with the 80s. I love the loud neon colours and fashion and the kinetic energy of the music. It’s uplifting and bittersweet with a ton of keyboards, what’s not to like?” reasons Morgane when asked what it is she likes about the decade. This exuberance is brightly reflected in the mirror ball synthpop of her third album released at the end of September. It is her second long player to appear on vinyl after the release of Between The Funk And The Fear debut on the Polytechnic Youth label.

Morgane was the keyboard player in Stereolab between 1995 and 2001 during which time they released Emperor Tomato Ketchup (her favourite) and Dots And Loops. As a teenager though she first played the drums, then guitar and bass. She only learnt the keyboards one month before joining the group. “They gave me 40 songs to learn, it was a baptism of fire”.

After leaving Stereolab, Morgane first moved to New York for nine years; she’d always planned to move to America having spent a lot of time there with her parents and of course those space-pop pioneers. The warmer weather of LA enticed her though and you can hear its pulse in Day-Glo Chaos. The album’s thumping heart is pumped by the city’s night sky and when asked she cites three particular albums as her favourites: the oddball analogue electro of Jacno’s 1979 debut; John Carpenter’s ‘Escape From New York’ and The B-52’s ‘Cosmic Thing’. There’s also a strong nod to the playful computerised harmonies of Yellow Magic Orchestra whilst she’s somewhat partial to the synth prog of Yes and Soft Machine. “I actually created a synth on Ableton Live named after Rick Wakeman’. I should create one after Mike Ratledge next!”

Throughout her work (but especially on this record) you can hear the influence of computer games. “I’m an avid gamer and have been one since I was a teenager and fell in love with my Commodore 64”. Though not a fan of Hotline Miami or the GTA series (“too violent”) she liked Hang On and loved Outrun which she used to play a lot on her Sega Master System. “I just got the soundtrack reissue from Data Disc and it is beautiful” she enthuses.

You’ll see and hear such influences on the lead single from the album ‘Midnite Rogue’ the video to which pays (im)perfect juddering homage to such arcade culture. Car tyres glued to sticky tarmac, French pop music lost in the air. The title was inspired by a Fighting Fantasy book which she adored as a kid. “I love the idea of this entity causing mischief during night time”, she beams. It’s not hard to see why. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Teen Beats Highway
2. Theme From Don Henley
3. Yum Yum Yellow
4. Valley Nights (Burnin’)
5. Mid-Temp Neophyte
6. Radio Staccato
7. Diamond Boombox
8. Abstract Daddy Vol 1
9. Allison In Neon
10. Midnite Rogue
11. VHS Nemesis
12. Magic Ears
13. Floppy Disk Symphony

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

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

Emma Tricca and Jason McNiff first met each other a number of years ago in the 12 Bar Club, a venue that they both played at and frequented looking for like minded souls. Brought together by their mutual appreciation of Bert Jansch and John Renbourn, (Jason knew Bert and Emma knew John) they forged a friendship and made plans to one day record together.

Their solo careers blossomed, Tricca "carving folk's new golden era" with her two delicate records for Finders Keepers and McNiff releasing six albums of highly regarded singer/songwriter material.

But the roots run deep with Tricca McNiff, and the friendship and intention remained, finally to be realised in the summer of 2015. Fortune found them with time on their hands and after a summer of rehearsal in a farm house in rural Italy and engineer/producer Tommaso Colliva of Calibro 35 suddenly free from duties with Muse, they got to fulfil this career long ambition and "SOUTHERN STAR" was born. Consisting of six songs, three each, the mini album will be released on Dell'orso Records on 26th August.

The songs feature the pair duetting on each others material, and highlight a yearning for travel and the emotions that are stirred by distant shores. The only kids in town who were listening to Bert and John and finger-picking on their guitars in those distant days of the 12 Bar deliver a consummate and engrossing listening experience where one travels with them on a southbound train, taking in stops in New York, the Hills of Rome and Paris in rain, the long way. As the lead track, New York is given added poignancy what with Emma's new material (due in 2017) being currently mixed with Jason Victor, Pete Galub and Steve Shelley in the Big Apple resulting in Emma spending most of this year on trans-Atlantic flights.

As Tricca sings on McNiff's song, Hills of Rome, 'I come down on my bike to the market place, got petrol in my blood and wind in my face, my God I seem to be winning this race, got no one to chase to now...' 

TRACK LISTING

1) Southern Star
2) Middletown
3) New York
4) Hills Of Rome
5) Southbound Train
6) Paris Rain

Anyone with affection for treasure of a particularly luminous dream-pop vintage will know about Joe Cassidy and his alias Butterfly Child.

Having recorded three albums and a handful of EPs in the 90s, in 2012 a brand new Butterfly Child single ‘No Longer Living In Your Shadow’ was released without any fanfare, as Cassidy wasn’t then sure of what he was shaping up for. This is now resolved, as the first Butterfly Child album in 18 years is here.

'Futures' refutes any fears that Cassidy couldn’t match past glories with an epic, radiant 54-minute journey invested with his usual melodic richness – both musical and vocal - and a more widescreen production, even though the record was recorded at Cassidy’s LA home. Sonically, the album lives somewhere between The Beach Boys and dreampop, but with a much more direct emotional impact, between bliss and melancholy. It combines new songs with unreleased older material, reaching as far back as Cassidy’s very first demos as a teenager, and lyrics inspired by relationships past and present, and where Cassidy is now, 24 years after Butterfly Child’s first release.

In the early Nineties, a Butterfly Child demo had ended up with the celebrated noise/dream-pop adventurists A.R.Kane. The duo were signed to Rough Trade (UK) and Luaka Bop (US) but were starting their own label H! Ark. Cassidy recorded the Toothfairy EP (1991) and the Eucalyptus EP (1992) for H.ark! before he moved to Rough Trade himself for the Ghetto Speak EP and debut album Onomatopoeia (both 1993).

But Rough Trade’s collapse saw Butterfly Child move again, to Dedicated for the Beaujolais EP (1994) and The Honeymoon Suite album (1995). It was then Dedicated’s turn to implode. Cassidy – battling Britpop’s tide, “which I found woefully uninspiring” – was given a fortuitous way out by Chicago label Hitit!, which had licensed both Butterfly Child albums for the US, and invited Cassidy over to make use of studio space. “I just fell in love with Chicago,” he recalls. “I recorded eight tracks in a week, and then the label asked if I wanted to make an album. So I went back, and stayed for ten years! I’ve always gone where the chance to make music has been afforded to me.”

Hence the lush, sun-dappled climes of LA, which can be felt in the expansive folds and grooves of Futures, both on the softer, heartache-y side and pop-centric songs such as ‘A Shot In The Dark’ and ‘Holding On’. The latter has a fascinating genesis: Sirman sent a string loop to Cassidy, which reminded him of Dionne Warwick, though the eventual track was inspired by Jimmy Webb and Glen Campbell. This being LA, Cassidy could call on his pals Justin, James and Christiaan, Webb’s three sons, to add backing vocals, while Campbell’s son Cal plays guitar and percussion.

The track also features drummer Matt Walker (he’s also on ‘Shot In The Dark’) and keyboardist Brian Liesegang. Other Futures guests are Ryan J Rapsys (Euphone, drums), Pendle Poucher (a Butterfly Child accomplice back in the Nineties, on ‘glitch’ guitar), Merritt Lear (another Butterfly Child accomplice, and Assassins co-singer, on violin and backing vocals) and Oliver Kraus (strings and horns on the exquisite finale ‘Beauty #2’). Assassins producer Stephen Hague (of Pet Shop Boys and New Order fame too) has done a remix of ‘A Shot In The Dark’ that will be released as the next Butterfly Child single. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: Luminous dream pop with shoegazey swathes and a Big Music widescreen sweep. In another pop world this would be massive! Heartbreak and longing never sounded so good.

TRACK LISTING

1. Blind Me So I May See
2. Still Learning To Crawl
3. Playfair Steps
4. Our Delays
5. No Longer Living In Your Shadow
6. Sheets Of Whitewashed Sun
7. A Shot In The Dark
8. Night Music
9. Holding On
10. The Only Sound
11. Futures
12. Lost In These Machines
13. Beauty #2

This is The Dexateens' previously unreleased debut album. Recorded in Spring 2000, in two days flat, it laid down the foundations of what was to come with "The Dexateens" and "Red Dust Rising". This album finds them at their most primal Motorhead meets manic Southern-fried rock. Raw'n'rowdy porch blues at its finest.

Debut English language album from Cardiff's Big Leaves. They meld folk, psyche-pop, Beach Boys-esque harmonies and glam-ish rock to create gorgeously skewed pop songs. For fans of early Supergrass and Super Furry Animals.