Two Sasamis exist in harmony. First is Sasami Ashworth, the conservatory-trained classical French horn player, producer, and composer - an artist with a studious approach to craft. And then there is all-caps SASAMI, the fearless performer and protagonist of her three increasingly audacious albums. For 'Blood On the Silver Screen', these two sides fused for her most epic and realized music to date: the all-out Sasami pop record.

After establishing herself with the poised melancholia of her eponymous 2019 debut, Sasami embraced volume and control on 2022’s 'Squeeze' - touring with a metal band—but her goal on Blood On the Silver Screen was to speak her truth with conviction by singing. Working with producers Jenn Decilveo and Rostam, with Sasami as sole writer, each 'Blood On the Silver Screen' track viscerally captures a different thread of love, sex, power, and embodiment. “Pop music is like fuel,” Sasami says. “It’s just invigorating.”

Across 'Blood On the Silver Screen', Sasami’s lyrics narrate the ecstasies and agonies of being “a modern lover,” she says—writing about “big city dating endeavors” even as she found herself relocating, on a whim, from Los Angeles to rural Northern California. The anthemic 'For the Weekend' explores “modern intimacy, where you can get deep without the relationship being defined,” while the irrepressible 'Just Be Friends' bottles the dizzying longing that can overtake those in-betweens.

“I wanted to go all out with this album,” Sasami continues. “I wanted to, in my tenderness and emotionality, have the bravery to undertake something as epic as making a pop record about love. I hope it makes people feel empowered and embodied, too. It’s important to not box yourself in.”

TRACK LISTING

1. Slugger
2. Just Be Friends
3. I'll Be Gone
4. Love Makes You Do Crazy Things
5. In Love With A Memory Fear. Clairo
6. Possessed
7. Figure It Out
8. For The Weekend
9. Honeycrash
10. Smoke (Banished From Eden)
11. Nothing But A Sad Face
12. Lose It All
13. The Seed

Colombian producer and singer Ela Minus' 2020 debut acts of rebellion, felt intentionally small, as if pounding inside the club with late-night reverie, 'DIA' is both introspective and expansive, the wide sweep of its songs revealing more of Ela as person and producer than ever before.

'DIA' is a record about becoming, from a process that entailed self-discovery at a deliberate pace to songs that seem to collectively ask where we go from here, long after we’ve been broken but long before we intend to be broken forever. Throughout the 10 songs, mixed by Marta Salogni and mastered by Heba Kadry, the same team behind acts of rebellion, Ela seems to saddle a line between worlds of pop accessibility and experimental aplomb, her incandescent choruses always surrounded by meticulous and imaginative sonics. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Abrir Monte
2. Broken
3. Idols
4. IDK
5. QQQQ
6. I Want To Be Better
7. Onwards
8. And
9. Upwards
10. Combay

Produced with Mark Ralph, who previously worked with them on their 2013 album 'Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action', the album showcases Franz at their most immediate, upbeat and life-affirming, unashamedly going for the pop-jugular in classic Franz style.

Recorded at AYR studios in Scotland, the 11-songs on 'The Human Fear' all allude to some deep-set human fears and how overcoming and accepting these fears drives and defines our lives.

Ever since their beginnings, throwing illegal parties in condemned Glasgow buildings, Franz Ferdinand have been defined by a fresh, unfading, forward-facing outlook, a transgressive art-school perspective, but with a love of a big song and 'The Human Fear' undoubtedly continues in this tradition; distinct yet new, musically, and creatively it’s a record eager to push forward.

Pretty much all written before they hit the studio, the idea was to have a songbook ready before they started recording and once in the studio it was all quickly executed - a lot of it recorded live with the band in the room and many of the vocals on the album being the original takes.

The first studio album to feature members Audrey Tait and Dino Bardot, the record also sees Julian Corrie step forward to collaborate with Alex Kapranos and Bob Hardy on song writing and creative duties.

A band for whom the aesthetic and style is almost as important as the sound, as ever the importance of this is reflected in the cover artwork which was inspired by Hungarian artist Dóra Maurer’s self-portrait 7 Twists - Maurer’s work appealed because it does exactly what they want from their music: a striking immediacy that is impossible to ignore, but with a depth and vulnerability that bears many returns and satisfactory repetition.

Maybe this is a set of songs about fear, maybe this is a set of bangers from an era-defining band continuing their unquestionably living legacy. Is that something to be afraid of?

TRACK LISTING

1. Audacious
2. Everyday Dreamer
3. The Doctor
4. Hooked
5. Build It Up
6. Night Or Day
7. Tell Me I Should Stay
8. Cats
9. Black Eyelashes
10. Bar Lonely
11. The Birds

A collection of early, previously unreleased music recorded at Jason Quever's apartment at 924 Fulton in San Francisco while McCombs was living in Berkeley between 1999-2000. The Bay Area in the late 90s housed a special community of artists including Papercuts, Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, Chris Cohen’s Curtains, and Mt. Egypt. The ethos was for maximum integrity and intimacy, and often music would only be shared with close friends. Graffiti writers, skaters and old timers from the 60s were never far away or far from mind.

Always following a mindset of moving forward, ever forward, this was a brief but productive phase in McCombs’ career before he hit the road and traveled the country, eventually landing in New York City, where he would make the music that would come to reach a wider audience. What’s so remarkable about 'Seed Cake On Leap Year' is how vibrant and raw these songs remain, full of insight and wonder, in conversation with everything yet to come.

TRACK LISTING

1. I’ve Played This Song Before
2. Anchor Child
3. Baby
4. Gum Tree
5. Wasted Again
6. If I Was A Stranger
7. You’re So Satanic
8. Always In Transit
9. What Else Can A Poor Boy Do
10. Northern Train

'The Cleansing' doesn’t only match Peter Perrett’s best work but expands it: an ambitious double album comprising 20 songs, with his uniquely narcotic and alluring melodies, gorgeous South London drawl and ravishing rock dynamic now allied to a wider span of musical arrangements and lyrical concerns. Alongside his trusted team of sons Jamie (guitar / production) and Peter Jr (bass) plus members of his live band, Perrett is assisted by a roster of starry guests including Johnny Marr, Bobby Gillespie and Fontaines DC’s Carlos O’Connell.

TRACK LISTING

1. I Wanna Go With Dignity
2. Disinfectant
3. Fountain Of You
4. Secret Taliban Wife
5. Solitary Confinement
6. Women Gone Bad
7. Survival Mode
8. Mixed Up Confucius
9. Do Not Resuscitate
10. The Cleansing
11. All That Time
12. Kill A Franco Spy
13. Set The House On Fire
14. Feast For Sore Eyes
15. There For You
16. Art Is A Disease
17. World In Chains
18. Back In The Hole
19. Less Than Nothing
20. Crystal Clear

Endless Rain is the startlingly intimate and gorgeously realised new album from One True Pairing. Recorded in Dublin with producer John ‘Spud’ Murphy (Lankum, black midi, Caroline), Endless Rain boldly restates Fleming’s vision with an autumnal, searching and often uplifting record shaped by the backgrounds in traditional music, classical and noise rock of its players, which include Cormac mac Diarmada of Lankum. Sonically, Endless Rain is an ambitious and widescreen record quite unlike anything in Fleming’s back catalogue.

TRACK LISTING

1. As Fast As I Can Go
2. Endless Rain
3. Tunnelling
4. Human Frailty
5. Prince Of Darkness
6. Doubt
7. I Don't Want To Do This Anymore
8. Mid-Life Crisis
9. A Landlord's Death
10. Ruthless Streak
11. Frozen Food Centre
12. Be Strong
13. The World Said No

'Sung Tongs' marked the beginning of a prolific five-year period in which Animal Collective went on to release their game-changing albums 'Feels' (2005), 'Strawberry Jam' (2007) and 'Merriweather Post Pavilion' (2009). At the time of 'Sung Tongs’ release, Rolling Stone called it “one of the more creative and accomplished records you’ll hear this year,” adding, “Their songs cackle with soulful eccentricity while dazzling you with deceptive chops and improvised manipulations.” Pitchfork later named it one of the best albums of the 2000s, raving, “'Sung Tongs' is an emotionally thrilling record, impossibly giddy and fully charged with big, raucous enthusiasm: Acoustic strums and wild, flailing voices (including some mind-blowing harmonies by vocalists Avey Tare and Panda Bear) coalesce into something sublimely weird and undeniably beautiful.” 

TRACK LISTING

1. Leaf House
2. Who Could Win A Rabbit
3. The Softest Voice
4. Winters Love
5. Kids On Holiday
6. Sweet Road
7. Visiting Friends
8. College
9. We Tigers
10. Mouth Wooed Her
11. Good Lovin Outside
12. Whaddit I Done

New live album on coloured vinyl, 'Sung Tongs Live At The Theatre At Ace Hotel' is a recording of the 2018 concert in Los Angeles where Avey Tare and Panda Bear performed 'Sung Tongs' in full.

TRACK LISTING

1. Leaf House - Live
2. Who Could Win A Rabbit - Live
3. The Softest Voice - Live
4. Covered In Frogs - Live
5. Winters Love - Live
6. Kids On Holiday - Live
7. Sweet Road - Live
8. Visiting Friends - Live
9. College - Live
10. We Tigers - Live
11. Mouth Wooed Her - Live
12. Good Lovin Outside - Live
13. Whaddit I Done – Live

Using a process of redaction, Thorpe brings songs to life from the pages of best-selling author Robert Macfarlane’s book of the same name. Ness is inspired by Suffolk’s Orford Ness, the former Ministry of Defence weapons development site during both World Wars and the Cold War. Acquired by the National Trust in 1993 and left to re-wild, it to this day remains a place of paradox, mystery and constant evolution. Thorpe’s Ness is an ode to Orford Ness, the physical place and the book it inspired, both featuring the words of Robert Macfarlane and the artwork of Stanley Donwood. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Merman
2. WTF Is That?
3. In The Green Chapel
4. It
5. Gull
6. He
7. Hagstone
8. She
9. Song Of The Bomb
10. They
11. V
12. As
13. Closer Away

Part angsty fantasy, part confessional melodrama, Shirt – the sixth studio album from Porches – is a rock album that oscillates between reality and make-believe to reflect both the innocence of suburban youth and the frayed reality of adulthood. A fusion of chaotic impulses, insatiable desires, and a perpetual yearning, Shirt plays with the tension between one's person and persona – the weight of your dreams crashing up against your reality. The result is something both familiar and uncanny, an anthemic tribute to this intrinsic duality built on crashing and caressing sounds.

Following in the sonic footsteps of 2022’s All Day Gentle Hold !, Shirt is instantly recognizable as Porches' heaviest album to date. Grungy guitars that shine with a menacing glint, drums and bass that punch you warmly in the stomach, interspersed with moments of eerie calmness to create a physical sense of tension and release that resonates with each track.

“All my life, all I've known, all it was was rock n roll. It was never meant to last and I think it's time to go, I pray to God the music takes me home.”

By turns devotional, empowering and nurturing, Jon Hopkins’ forthcoming RITUAL is a 41-minute electronic symphony built from cavernous subs, hypnotic drumming and transcendent melodic interplay. Tense, immersive and ultimately triumphant, it is a culmination of themes explored throughout his 22-year career, and acts as the kinetic counterpart to 2021’s Music For Psychedelic Therapy.

A single piece unfolding over eight chapters, RITUAL is personified by depth and contrast. Taking ceremony, spiritual liberation and the hero's journey as inspiration, it taps into an ancient and primal energy.

Featuring long-term collaborators Vylana, 7RAYS, Ishq, Clark, Emma Smith, Daisy Vatalaro and Cherif Hashizume, RITUAL came together within the second half of 2023, but initial seeds were sown in 2022, when Hopkins was commissioned to compose for the stroboscopic Dreamachine experience in London. A project that felt ceremonial from the outset, this shorter piece was the embryo of RITUAL, with Hopkins gaining inspiration from the feeling of intention that is inherent in the Dreamachine space.

RITUAL is both emotionally and sonically heavy, whilst retaining a warm, live feel, where the juxtaposition between softness and intensity forms the core of the whole. So take time, prepare and immerse in RITUAL for 41 minutes of uninterrupted listening: sonic divination of the most potent form.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Jon Hopkins once again shows his meticulous sound design credentials on Ritual, but where the last full-length was the beautiful but distinctly non-propulsive 'Music For Psychedelic Therapy', the new one is a spiritual and sonic successor to the brilliant duo of Immunity and Singularity. Swimming in atmosphere, gorgeously produced and beautifully danceable.

TRACK LISTING

1. Part I – Altar
2. Part Ii – Palace / Illusion
3. Part Iii – Transcend / Lament
4. Part Iv – The Veil
5. Part V - Evocation
6. Part Vi – Solar Goddess Return
7. Part Vii – Dissolution
8. Part Viii – Nothing Is Lost

As Alex Izenberg was piecing together the sweeping, psychedelic opuses on his full-band debut Alex Izenberg & The Exiles, the Los Angeles artist was focused on a simple goal: making something built to last. At the heart of his songs are bold ideas that take inspiration from the heady musings of philosopher Alan Watts, the multi-layered storytelling of King Crimson, and the imagistic vistas of Fleet Foxes. While the subject matter may feel esoteric—“My unconscious named the tongue/Of the lights of closed eyes” goes a characteristic lyric—Izenberg and his band let the music drift pleasantly to earth. The melodies are romantic and warm, and the arrangements are invitingly expansive, making expert use of a new ensemble formed around the strongest songs of his career.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Gospel Of Exiles
2. An Obscured Odyssey
3. The Wraith Behind Our Eyes
4. Drinking The Dusk Away
5. Dreams Of Déjà Vu
6. Threaded Dances
7. Only The Moon Knows
8. Pareidolia
9. United States (of Mind)
10. Apophenia
11. As The Dawn Serenades The Dark

Joe Goddard has been thinking about thinking. For the past few years, the producer, songwriter, and all-round polymath of UK dance and indie music has been trying to get more in touch with his own intuition. “This idea of trying to divorce your conscious mind from the music-making process – not trying to force meaning on the music or your collaborators, allowing that process to be very empathetic.”

The wonderful result is his third solo album 'Harmonics', a record rooted in instinct and empathy. Across 14 tracks of left-of-centre dance music – touching on UK garage, house, hip-hop, pop, and disco – Goddard opens the floor for a number of collaborators. The voice of Ibibio Sound Machine’s Eno Williams rides the afro-house groove of 'Progress', while starry-eyed boom-bap track 'When Love’s Out of Fashion' features UK rapper Oranje. Former Wild Beasts frontman Hayden Thorpe lends his uniquely expressive vocal to the low-slung house of 'Summon', and Joe’s Hot Chip bandmates Alexis Taylor and Al Doyle both appear on the gleaming half-step ballad 'Heal Your Mind'. Other guests on 'Harmonics' include Tom McFarland of the London dance-pop group Jungle, Bronx-raised singer Fiorious, Guinean vocalist Falle Nioke, and UK jazz musician Alabaster DePlume.

For all the collaborators that Joe brings into his world, there are a handful of solo songs like 'Follow Me' that capture the more reflective and inward-looking side of his music. “With all the different people on this record, I’ve been working on how to respect the contribution they make and not trying to be the one who has to lead everything,” Joe says. “That follows through into the songs where I’m singing. I tried to write words without having too much of an idea of what I’m trying to express, where I’m just writing a stream of consciousness.”

This openness towards collaboration and the acceptance of people’s individual human nuances is where 'Harmonics' gets its name from. The history of dance music is replete with words like ‘ecstatic’, ‘euphoric’, and ‘uplifting’ – but here, those words do not describe hands-in-the-air clichés, but the spiritual and human side that Joe explores in his music. “Part of the reason why I wanted to call this Harmonics is that I was trying to create something very inclusive and empathetic, something harmonious,” Joe says. “There’s a lot of aggressive division in the world, and I wanted this to be loving, romantic – and fun.” This is the soulful thread that runs through all of Joe Goddard’s favourite music – genres from soul and funk, to house and garage, that were born in Black America and adopted by the UK. Harmonics is not just a title but a promise fulfilled – an unbridled celebration of compassion, collaboration, and creation.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Beautifully produced, warm electronic pieces that ooze pop sensibilities but without ever coming across too sickly, including a host of guest vocalists and continuing a legacy of beautiful songwriting from his Hot Chip tenure. There are moments of divine euphoria and arm-raising joy but equally, a good amount of room for rumination and unease. A beautifully paced, electronic pop gem.

TRACK LISTING

1. Moments Die Featuring Barrie
2. Progress Featuring Ibibio Sound Machine
3. Destiny Featuring Findia 4. New World (Flow) Featuring Fiorious
5. When Love’s Out Of Fashion Featuring Oranje
6. Follow You
7. On My Mind
8. Summon Featuring Hayden Thorpe
9. When You Call Featuring Findia
10. Out At Night
11. Mountains Featuring Alexis Taylor And Al Doyle
12. Ghosts Featuring Tom McFarland
13. Miles Away Featuring Falle Nioke
14. Revery Featuring Alabaster DePlume

Despite the album’s playful title, Cale’s second album in just over a year still contains the same feelings of fierce and inquisitive rage that were present in 2023 album MERCY. He remains angry, still incensed by the willful destruction that unchecked capitalists and unrepentant conmen have hoisted upon the wonders of this world and the goodness of its people. But this is not at all MERCY II, or some collection of castoffs, as throughout his career of more than six decades, Cale has never been much for repetition. His vanguard-shaping enthusiasms have shifted among ecstatic classicism and unbound rock, classic songcraft and electronic reimagination with proud restlessness.

And so, on POPtical Illusion, he foregoes the illustrious cast to burrow mostly alone into mazes of synthesizers and samples, organs and pianos, with words that, as far as Cale goes, constitute a sort of swirling hope, a sage insistence that change is yet possible. Produced by Cale and longtime artistic partner Nita Scott, POPtical Illusion is the work of someone trying to turn toward the future – exactly as Cale always has.

TRACK LISTING

1. God Made Me Do It (don’t Ask Me Again)
2. Davies And Wales
3. Calling You Out
4. Edge Of Reason
5. I’m Angry
6. How We See The Light
7. Company Commander
8. Setting Fires
9. Shark-Shark
10. Funkball The Brewster
11. All To The Good
12. Laughing In My Sleep
13. There Will Be No River

Beth Gibbons releases her debut solo album Lives Outgrown on Friday the 17th of May 2024. Featuring 10 beautiful new songs recorded over a period of 10 years, the album was produced by James Ford & Beth Gibbons with additional production by Lee Harris (Talk Talk).

Lives Outgrown is, by some measure, Beth’s most personal work to date, the result of a period of sustained reflection and change — “lots of goodbyes,” in Beth’s words. Farewells to family, to friends, even to her former self. These are songs from the mid-course of life, when looking ahead no longer yields what it used to, and looking back has a sudden, sharper focus.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A stunning selection of downbeat-infused instrumentals, woozy psychedelic folk and Gibbons' unmistakeably emotive vocal prowess. It's brilliantly composed, deeply personal and impeccably sequenced. It's a big relief honestly, because this further cements Gibbons as a musical legend in her own right.

TRACK LISTING

1. Tell Me Who You Are Today   
2. Floating On A Moment        
3. Burden Of Life        
4. Lost Changes          
5. Rewind
6. Reaching Out          
7. Oceans          
8. For Sale        
9. Beyond The Sun  
10. Whispering Love 

Following the kaleidoscopic adventure of Villagers’ fifth album Fever Dreams, award-winning Dublin singer-songwriter-instrumentalist-dramatist Conor O’Brien returns with the intimate inventory, That Golden Time, set for release on May 10th.

After the band-centred sessions of its predecessor, That Golden Time’s solo-centric core was not forced on O’Brien by lockdown. “For me, That Golden Time has an internalised voice, so much so that I almost found it impossible to let anyone else in,” he says. “It’s probably the most vulnerable album I’ve made. I played and recorded everything in my apartment, and finally, towards the end, invited people in.” Invites went out to, among others, Irish legend Dónal Lunny [Planxty, The Bothy Band] on bouzouki, American songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Peter Broderick on violin, and a group of players that O’Brien had first seen performing in a tribute to one of his great loves, Italian composer Ennio Morricone, who added soprano vocal, viola and cello.

The understated poetry within That Golden Time is effortlessly carried by gorgeous melodies and sublime instrumentation. In “No Drama”, as the narrator pleads for respite from the vicissitudes of life, O’Brien equates an orchestral swell with an appeal for quiet beauty and peace. “Behind That Curtain” is a rare moment of musical discombobulation as a solemn, soulful ballad hands over to a jazzy coda, “It’s the sound of deafening alarm bells inside your head,” remarks O’Brien. Exploring these themes further, there is also a secondary image of a coin on the artwork (an Irish twenty pence piece) to which O’Brien explains: “The types of physical currency change throughout time, but the essential power relationships and bartering principles persevere throughout the cosmetic changes.”

As the album comes to its conclusion with “Money On The Mind”, we find a moment of serenity with a ray of hope. The very last line, softly crooned, is “My money’s on the mind, truth be told,” a shout-out to the resilience of the human spirit. The moth might be disorientated, but it swerves the flame to live another day.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Another wonderfully heartfelt selection from Conor O'Brien, with his sweeping instrumentation and perfectly smooth vocals weaving together into modern folk ballads that are as evocative as they are distinctive. Beautifully warm, memorable and deep.

TRACK LISTING

1. Truly Alone
2. First Responder
3. I Want What I Don’t Need
4. You Lucky One
5. That Golden Time
6. Keepsake
7. Brother Hen
8. No Drama
9. Behind That Curtain
10. Money On The Mind

Fat White Family are back with the most sophisticated, vital and flamboyant creation of their career.

The cult south-London band’s resplendent fourth album Forgiveness Is Yours, like everything they’ve done, has pushed them to the limits not only of their creative talent, but of their health, their sanity, their very existence.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Another blistering outing from Fat White Family, their first since 2019's brilliant Serfs Up! We get a little more sleazy lounge groove this time around, and a little more synthesiser pulses among the instantly recognisable postpunk march and taut art-rock rhythms, but it's the same FWF at heart. Ace.

Prospect Hummer was recorded by the band's friend Rusty Santos (co-producer of 2004's Sung Tongs) and originally released in May 2005. The EP features singer-songwriter Vashti Bunyan on three of the four tracks and was released shortly before the band's 2005 release Feels. All four band members - Avey Tare, Deakin, Geologist, and Panda Bear - feature on this release.

TRACK LISTING

1. It's You
2. Prospect Hummer
3. Baleen Sample
4. I Remember Learning How To Dive

Nico's second solo album, 1968's 'The Marble Index', has long been out of print. This reissue includes audio mastered from the original tapes and previously unreleased photos of Nico by Guy Webster.

Nico's haunting vocals predicted the Gothic movement and co-producer and Velvet Underground's band mate John Cale's startingly modern classical production ensured 'The Marble Index's timeless appeal. The iconic music journalist Lester Bangs wrote, “The Marble Index is the greatest piece of 'avant-garde classical', 'serious' music of the last half of the 20th century so far,” and the New Yorker recently hailed both records as “austere miracles of will and invention.” 

TRACK LISTING

1. Janitor Of Lunacy
2. The Falconer
3. My Only Child
4. Le Petit Chevalier
5. Abschied
6. Afraid
7. Mütterlein
8. All That Is My Own

Nico's third solo album, 1970's 'Desertshore', has long been out of print. This reissue includes audio mastered from the original tapes and previously unreleased photos of Nico by Guy Webster.

1970's 'Desertshore', co-produced by her Velvet Underground band mate John Cale, like much of Nico's early work, has grown in stature with the passing of time, and alongside 'Chelsea Girl' as some of her most accessible work.

TRACK LISTING

1. Janitor Of Lunacy
2. The Falconer
3. My Only Child
4. Le Petit Chevalier
5. Abschied
6. Afraid
7. Mütterlein
8. All That Is My Own

Recent years brought about for Julia Holter an existential focus on human connection, amid the staggering change that came with the death of loved ones (including her young nephew, to whom the album is dedicated) and the birth of her daughter. On Something in the Room She Moves, Holter vividly processes the complexity, gravity, and awe of this confluence of experience. She calls the music “sensual,” “flowing,” and “nocturnal” - a testament to how love, with all of its challenges, “reroutes neural pathways.” The cover art by Holter’s childhood friend, artist Christina Quarles, highlights the multiplicity of intimate connection: are the figures embracing or in battle?

The title Something in the Room She Moves came to Holter spontaneously as she was naming the Logic project file for an early demo of what would become the album’s title track on her computer for the first time. Coincidentally, a few months later, she found herself mesmerized by the eight-hour Beatles documentary Get Back in 2021. Her titular phrase flips the gaze of the Beatles lyrics (“Something in the way she moves…”); the woman is no longer passively observed, but actively augmenting space. Holter has loved the Beatles since childhood, but sees the title less as a tribute than as a semi-surreal bit of automatic writing from her subconscious. (She had been singing Beatles tunes to her daughter at night.)

After a string of dream pop albums that established her searching voice in independent music—from 2012 breakthrough Ekstasis to Loud City Song and Have You in My Wilderness—Holter released the sprawling and thrillingly experimental Aviary in 2018. Since then, she has scored films like Never Rarely Sometimes Always, performed a commissioned live score for The Passion of Joan of Arc with the Chorus of Opera North, and collaborated with her partner, the musician Tashi Wada, who plays synth and bagpipes on her new album. Something in the Room She Moves is a remarkable progression in Holter’s oeuvre, synthesizing her free, improvisatory energy with her signature eloquence.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: 'Have You In My Wilderness' was the shop's favourite album all the way back in 2015, and she's even moved on significantly since that, to her bafflingly complex but melodically rich new album. Organic instrumental swells and glitched reverb tails ensconce her enduringly gorgeous vocal direction, while the scattered glitch and ambient wooze of new perfectly suit her dreamy composition style.

TRACK LISTING

1. Sun Girl
2. These Morning
3. Something In The Room She Moves
4. Materia
5. Meyou
6. Spinning
7. Ocean
8. Evening Mood
9. Talking To The Whisper
10. Who Brings Me

A one off Orange vinyl pressing celebrating the 45th Anniversary of the essential Buzzcocks singles collection.

Real Estate’s sixth full-length album Daniel was recorded in an ebullient nine-day spree at RCA Studio A, in Nashville with GRAMMY-winning producer and songwriter Daniel Tashian (Kacey Musgraves). In 11 compulsively tuneful songs, they connect the uninhibited wonder of their earliest work with the earned perspective of adulthood.

Several days into recording, all five members of Real Estate were discussing album titles when someone suggested “Daniel,” simply because it seemed funny to bestow a human name upon a record. Was it for Daniel Tashian? Maybe. Was it a nod to The Replacements’ Tim? Possibly. Was it the sign of a band that has now been around long enough to take its music seriously without taking itself or its perception too seriously? Absolutely.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Real Estate may have reached a point in their career where they're unworried about calling a record 'Daniel', and in a way the duality of the silliness of the name is the perfect metaphor for Real Estate's playful but deeply skilful song writing. Here we get the upbeat majesty and jangly drift we've known them for but with a more mature, less frenetic end result.

TRACK LISTING

1. Somebody New
2. Haunted World
3. Water Underground
4. Flowers
5. Interior
6. Freeze Brain
7. Say No More
8. Airdrop
9. Victoria
10. Market Street
11. You Are Here 

Panda Bear & Sonic Boom, the duo of Noah Lennox and Peter Kember, release Reset in Dub, a dub version of their acclaimed 2022 LP Reset, featuring reworkings of all nine tracks by the legendary British dub producer Adrian Sherwood, via Domino. Sherwood created his version of Reset at his On-U Sound Studios with a crew that included such storied musicians as Doug Wimbish and Skip McDonald of the Sugarhill Gang and Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five, as well as Prisoner, Alex White, Horseman, Mark Bandola, “Crucial” Tony, Ras Badthings, Ivan “Celloman” Hussey, and Mathew Smythe. “One of the primary influences on Reset was Jamaican rocksteady and it seemed like an interesting idea to explore taking it back to that sort of tropical root,” says Kember.

“I like big empty spaces; I like malls when there's no one there and the beach in the wintertime - visually it’s simple and uncluttered and the noise of the surf drowns out everything else, so I suppose it's no surprise I've always liked the sound of dub,” says Lennox, “and though some stuff bears its mark more than others I'd wager you can find residues of it in everything I've done. As a fan of Adrian’s I was excited when Pete suggested we ask him to do some dubs of Reset tracks, but as they started to come through it was clear what he was working on was much more than a dub. Reset in Dub feels like the thing filtered through a prism and it recontextualizes the OG.”

“This is a complete reset of Reset from myself and the On-U Sound crew,” says Sherwood. “Being a fan of Animal Collective and Spacemen 3, when it was suggested we do this together I loved the idea and relished the challenge. We talked about influences, old records, mixing techniques and made a plan, which was to keep all the elements of trippy fun, but with added menace, groove and an ultra active mix for the ‘heads.’ Very happy and proud of the result.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A brilliant flipside to PB & SB's already superb Reset album. You just know a suite of dubs put together by the great Adrian Sherwood is going to be a great time, and with such stallar source material it's no surprise that it's turned out this well. Rich, cosmic dubby madness.

trip9love…??? is the third album from Tirzah, produced by long-time musical collaborator Mica Levi. It is out today to stream in full with a physical release set for November 17th.

Stream trip9love…??? here.

It was written and recorded at both their homes and various corners of South East London and Kent.

After several recording sessions over roughly a year, eventually the music suddenly came into a sound that they wanted to follow. The tracks were built using piano loops on top of one beat, distortion added, then romantic vocal toplines. Poems centre on themes of love, both real and imagined. The world the record finds space in is a lazy club fantasy zone.

The speed, the connection and similarity between all of the instrumentals led the record to feel like one song, a diary entry of a moment or a fascination with one sound that they felt was important to go with. The nature of trip9love…???‘s release reflects how it was made.

Tirzah has confirmed several UK shows beginning next week including London’s Colour Factory as well as dates in Amsterdam, Berlin, Paris, Reeperbahn Festival and Unsound before she heads to North America at the start of October.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Trip9Love sees Tirzah's effortless mixing of myriad styles and grooves realised by Mica Levi, resulting in a mindblowing cross-pollination of club ready grooves and off-kilter fractured electronica. A heady and deeply hypnotic journey.

TRACK LISTING

1. F22
2. Promises
3. U All The Time
4. Their Love
5. No Limit
6. Today
7. Stars
8. He Made
9. 2 D I C U V
10. 6 Phrazes
11. Nightmare

In November 2022, Cat Power took the stage at London’s Royal Albert Hall and delivered a song-for-song recreation of one of the most fabled and transformative live sets of all time. Held at the Manchester Free Trade Hall in May 1966—but long known as the “Royal Albert Hall Concert” due to a mislabeled bootleg—the original performance saw Bob Dylan switching from acoustic to electric midway through the show, drawing ire from an audience of folk purists and forever altering the course of rock-and-roll. In her own rendition of that historic night, the artist otherwise known as Chan Marshall inhabited each song with equal parts conviction and grace and a palpable sense of protectiveness, ultimately transposing the anarchic tension of Dylan’s set with a warm and luminous joy. Now captured on the live album Cat Power Sings Dylan: The 1966 Royal Albert Hall Concert, Marshall’s spellbinding performance both lovingly honors her hero’s imprint on history and brings a stunning new vitality to many of his most revered songs.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Chan Marshall presents a beautiful recreation of Bob Dylan's legendary performance here, both faithfully honouring Dylan's stylistic inflection and adding her own twist. It's clear there's an in-depth knowledge of Dylan's works here, from a true fan and as a performance, it's flawless.

They say long live the king and all, but nothing’s ever set in stone. A quarter of a century since his self-inflicted coronation, and self-released debut solo album, Kenny Anderson - DIY pop voyager, ancestral seaside home restorer, squeezebox lothario, Fife for lifer, diamond miner, hijacker of hearts, and the man also known as King Creosote - has released over 100 records (at a relatively conservative guess), collaborated with the likes of Jon Hopkins,KT Tunstall, Beta Band’s Lone Pigeon, and had his songs covered and performed by artists including Patti Smith and Simple Minds. Yet he’s still standing, fallible, doubtful, patched together, bloody-minded and unbowed. He’s got a new LP, despite or perhaps because of it all. It’s called I DES.

While the record’s kaleidoscopic musical terrain plots vibraphones, accordions, e-bows, samplers, ungulates, scratched records and wine glass-drones across its landscape, there’s common ground in the wonder of the synthesiser – not to mention Anderson’s singular voice, and his roguish, roving, ever-evolving, gorgeous songs in the key of Fife.

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: A totally gorgeous and varied album blending tasty electronics with a whole host of acoustic instruments. There's a lot of heartache and sorrow this time out, but the over all feeling is one of a deep sense of beauty. Kenny is such a great songwriter. It's been worth the wait!

TRACK LISTING

1. It’s Sin That’s Got Its Hold Upon Us
2. Blue Marbled Elm Trees
3. Burial Bleak
4. Dust
5. Walter De La Nightmare
6. Susie Mullen
7. Love Is A Curse
8. Ides
9. Please Come Back I Will Listen, I Will Behave, I Will Toe The Line
10. Drone In B#

Whether we look for him or not, we all find God somewhere. It could be in nature. It could be in church. It could be in the metaverse. It differs for each and every one of us. In terms of where God might be, The Kills aren’t necessarily saying, but the duo - Alison Mosshart and Jamie Hince - certainly sound like they’ve seen him. How else could you explain the primal call-and-response between Alison’s full body blues-soul vocal catharsis and Jamie’s swaggering, guillotine-smooth guitar transmissions on the duo’s sixth full-length offering, God Games?

The Kills have emerged as international rock stars, setting the pace for the genre, shaping this era’s sound, and redefining what rock music can be in the 21st century. They’re the rare force of nature who can tour with Queens of the Stone Age or Guns N’ Roses and light up Coachella. Returning home from the road in 2019, Alison and Jamie commenced writing for what would become God Games. However, the old adage, “Make plans, God laughs,” couldn’t have been more apropos.

Stretching boundaries, Jamie encouraged Alison to “buy this 100-dollar keyboard and try to write.” She added another creative tool to her arsenal, while he tinkered with textures, sounds and “wrote on guitar less than ever,” opting to primarily compose on piano for the first time. This powerful combination of forces gave the album its own sonic identity, a new path forged in the pair’s creative bond.

The Kills decamped to an old church (a bit ironic now isn’t it?) where they recorded with old friend and Academy and GRAMMY Award-winning producer Paul Epworth [Adele]. “Paul was our very first soundman in 2002,” recalls Jamie. “Since he was with us when we had two amps, a lightbulb, and a couple of mics in a van, it seemed perfect. He knew how far it had come and could trace the thread back.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: The Kills have been known for pummelling a riff or two, and though there's no shortage of that on 'God Games', it's by far their most contemplative and mature outing yet. Incendiary passages are tempered with blues, post-punk and even bits of folk seep into the mix, and it's all the better for it.

To celebrate the 10-year anniversary of Jon Hopkins’ seminal fourth album, Immunity, a newly remastered version of the record is now available.

A confident, dramatic record defined by an acute sense of physicality and place, Immunity felt and still feels, like the accompaniment to a journey of creativity, a trip inside Hopkins’ mind. It brought together everything he had learnt and experienced already but also paved the way for the evolution of his future records, most recently, 2021’s Music For Psychedelic Therapy.

Immunity was a turning point in Hopkins’ career. On its release in 2013, Immunity announced itself as a powerful, multi-faceted beast, packed with the most aggressively dancefloor-focussed music Hopkins had ever made. However, Immunity was never just about the techno behemoths - of which there were several. Hopkins wanted the album to help people to reach different states of mind. From graceful and mournful piano notes, stirring choral drones, he was always seeking new melodic routes to aid this and his desire to use physical, real-world sounds as the basis for many of the album’s rhythms allowed him to craft one of the most human electronic albums.

TRACK LISTING

Disc 1
1. We Disappear - Remaster 2023
2. Open Eye Signal - Remaster 2023
3. Breathe This Air - Remaster 2023
4. Collider - Remaster 2023
5. Abandon Window - Remaster 2023
6. Form By Firelight - Remaster 2023
7. Sun Harmonics - Remaster 2023
8. Immunity - Remaster 2023

Disc 2 (CD And Download + Download Code With Vinyl)
1. Immunity (Asleep Version)
2. Form By Firelight (Asleep Version)
3. Breathe This Air (Asleep Version)
4. Open Eye Signal (Asleep Version)
5. Abandon Window (Moderat Remix)
6. Breathe This Air (feat. Purity Ring)
7. We Disappear (feat. Lulu James)
8. Open Eye Signal (George Fitzgerald Remix)
9. Collider (Pangaea Remix)

Distinguishing itself from Animal Collective’s expansive catalog, Isn’t It Now? is the first Animal Collective album since Centipede Hz (2012) that was recorded with all four members in the same room at the same time. To bring it all together, the band enlisted multi-Grammy winning producer Russell Elevado (D’Angelo, Al Green, Alicia Keys, The Dandy Warhols) to co-produce alongside the band.

Across its 9 tracks, Isn’t It Now? has something for everyone from the catchy bassline on the highly-repeatable single “Gem & I” to the heady 22min centrepiece “Defeat” which we recently released on 12”.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Never one to stick with a formula, the weird and wonderful Animal Collective return for 'Isn't It Now?', fusing the oddball jank of their wild earlier records with a more relaxed, mature pace. The off-piste 22-minute epic of 'Defeat' on the c-side is a particular highlight.

Nearly 30 years after Kids’ seismic release, Music For KIDS – a deluxe reissue of The Folk Implosion’s original compositions that soundtracked Larry Clark’s and Harmony Korine’s 1995 cult classic film – compiles for the first time all of the songs the duo of Lou Barlow (Sebadoh, Dinosaur Jr.) and John Davis wrote for the movie, newly remastered, including the surprise Top 40 hit single “Natural One,” B-sides and previously unreleased tracks.

Animal Collective release new single “Defeat.” Recorded with Grammy-winning producer Russell Elevado (D’Angelo, Kamasi Washington, The Roots), the 22-minute epic is an unapologetic ode to perseverance and hope, to “staying grounded like the spruce” when the very land seems to shift beneath us. “What have we become?” Avey Tare sings in an irrepressible hook, shouting the question in a way that exclaims we might still become something more. The song’s slow-motion finale feels like a fantasia vision of what’s to come—a quieter place where we can thrive together, not apart. This is the beautiful and redemptive saga of the Animal Collective condensed into one unforgettable suite, a song for holding fast even as the world spins ahead, ever faster.

Limited edition 12-inch features the B-side “The Challenge (Live Edit)." “The Challenge” is a completely improvised track that has only been played in front of a live audience and originated as an unrehearsed intro to the song “Strung With Everything” while the band was on tour last year. The recorded version that appears on the 12-inch was collaged together from 11 different shows between March and September of 2022.

“The only time it was even discussed was after shows late in the touring cycle when it took on its own identity,” says Geologist. “‘How did we feel about the Strung intro?’ often provided the answer to ‘how was the show?’ But the discussion always ended at what happened that night, without any detailed critique, and never with how it might happen the next. We became aware the same discussions were happening amongst our fans, who were recording, uploading and listening to the shows each night. They took notice and named the section ‘The Challenge.’ This edit is for them.”

Keeping Secrets Will Destroy You – an album made as it was meant to be heard, in a room. The sound of people together – a sound we’d so recently feared that we’d lost – playing, communing, strings and wood and keys and voices singing. KSWDY presents simply, and is sung along easily and happily with in time BUT --is it family portrait or fairy tale? How does it think the world was made, and will end?

Keeping Secrets Will Destroy You was recorded in Louisville by Nick Roeder, featuring Sara Louise Callaway on violin, Kendall Carter on keys, Elisabeth Fuchsia on viola and violin, Dave Howard on Mandolin, Drew Miller on saxophone and Dane Waters’ voice. The presence of so many local players and music educators in the band lends not only to a flow of moments so fluidly encompassing of a wide range of musics from classical to Japanese acid folk and elsewhere, but perhaps even more importantly, to the sense of community, heredity and the triumph of inheritance that is the marrow and life blood of this music. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Though 'Keeping secrets...' is undoubtedly one of BPB's quietest outings in terms of its instrumentation, drawing beauty from a reasonably unadorned mixture of guitar strings and vocals, the depth of feeling and scope of the result is astounding. Heartwarming folky balladry abound, all pulled together with Oldham's unmatched sensitivity.

TRACK LISTING

1. Like It Or Not
2. Behold! Be Held!
3. Bananas
4. Blood Of The Wine
5. Sing Them Down Together
6. Kentucky Is Water
7. Willow, Pine And Oak
8. Trees Of Hell
9. Rise And Rule (She Was Born In Honolulu)
10. Queens Of Sorrow
11. Crazy Blue Bells
12. Good Morning, Popocatépetl

Recorded at his studio in Lisbon, "Tomboy" sees Panda Bear, aka Noah Lennox, stepping away from the sample-based parameters of his previous record and incorporating more guitar and synthesiser. Still prevalent though, is the interest in texture that made "Person Pitch" such a dense record; crashing waves and cheering crowds bounce against the gurgling arpeggios and give the tracks an immense sense of space. Soaked in reverb and punctuated with inflections of delay, the album’s drums reveal a dub influence which gives them a visceral punch that lingers after each hit. Lennox’s lofty, self-harmonising vocals smooth out the songs, and Sonic Boom’s mixing gives the work a large dynamic range.

Through it all, Lennox has remained resilient in following his singular vision and voice. 'I’ve definitely traversed some kind of mind field the last year or so and it hasn’t always been pleasant or easy', Lennox says. 'But it’s been more a positive irritant than anything else'. "Tomboy" proves, above all else, that he’s risen to the challenge and surpassed (as well as sidestepped) all expectations. And in following up "Person Pitch", Panda Bear has again taken to releasing the album as a batch of separate singles first, for labels like Kompakt, Fat Cat, Paw Tracks, and Domino. 'Doing the singles helps me focus on every song and also helps me move along in the process'.

Also part of the process was moving past the gear that informed the dense sonic tapestries of "Person Pitch" and MPP: 'I got tired of the severe parameters of using samplers. Thinking about Nirvana and the White Stripes got me into the idea of doing something with a heavy focus on guitar and rhythm'. Favouring a darker, more-streamlined sound on "Tomboy", Lennox went for a more visceral and direct approach, though that rock tendency was offset by another old influence on Lennox: 'With regards to where I am with Tomboy, I’m definitely reliving middle school and all the Baltimore R&B radio we used to ingest'.

It lends itself to the paradox of the title itself. Lennox explains: 'A lot of the songs are about something that’s in conflict with itself, so the image of a ‘tomboy’ has become the overseeing figure as far as the group of songs go'. It might even exemplify the conflict of Panda Bear himself: underground and experimental in his approach to sound, he also strives to craft gorgeous pop for the widest audience possible. With "Tomboy", he’s attained his greatest balance between the two extremes yet.

Both as a member of Animal Collective and as solo artist, Panda Bear, Noah Lennox spent the aughts helping redefine the aesthetics and methodology of experimental and independent music. With work ranging from splayed but lyrical noise, florid acoustic arrangements, and guitar-centric psychedelia, he and his bandmates have covered a vast musical territory that blurs the line between pop and experimentalism.

TRACK LISTING

You Can Count On Me
Tomboy
Slow Motion
Surfer's Hymn
Last Night At The Jetty
Drone
Alsatian Darn
Scheherazade
Friendship Bracelet
Afterburner
Benfica

"The Year Of the Leopard" confounds categories. If there's a traditional side to it, it's following the tradition of individual singer-songwriter albums which conjure and inhabit a genre which lasts just as long as the needle's in the groove. Produced by former Talk Talk member Paul Webb, Yorkston approached him after hearing his understated but enthralling work on "Out Of Season", Webb's Rustin' Man album with Beth Gibbons (Portishead). And what they've come up with is another warm, mellow, gentle folk album which could snuggle up nicely next to "Moving Up Country" and knocks his last LP into a cocked hat! Lovely.

One of the most long-awaited albums, for our shop anyway. Yorkston's debut was one of the surprise records of the year back in 2002 and all of us loved it. Now this one does sound, initially at least, to be less 'Pop'. Instead this feels like a proper folk album. Not 'Hey Nonny Nonny', just more serious, focussed....dense with banjos, mandolins and accordians. The production's slightly fuller thanks to Four Tet's Keiren Hebden and the songs all deal with romance, nature and (everyday) magic. There's the odd sea-shanty too and it all feels very warm, real and unconcerned with commerce or, indeed, 'normal' life. What a lovely world this record inhabits. Add him to the list of greats?

Wonderful timeless folk-tinged pop from James Yorkston. He's been compared to everyone from Shane Macgowan to John Martyn, and there's definitely a bit of Nick Drake in there too. The more I listen to this album, the more I love it! 

James Yorkston returns with his 4th studio album "When The Haar Rolls In" and proves once again why he is one of the most essential songwriters of our time. Returning with his trusty Athletes, along with some legendary English folk names - Norma Waterson, Mike Waterson, Marry Gilhooly, Olly Knight, there is much to mine for Yorkston fans of old and new, all the ambition, beauty and pathos of his previous albums sweeps through with soothing, lush arrangements of all sorts.

Since their 2012 debut, Protomartyr have mastered the art of evoking place: the grinding Midwest humility of their hometown, as well as the x-rayed elucidation of America that comes with their vantage. The group’s sixth album was recorded at Sonic Ranch in Tornillo, TX with producer Jake Aron. “The desert is more of a metaphor or symbol,” singer Joe Casey says, “of emotional deserts, or a place or time that seems to lack life.” The “growth” came from a period of colossal transition for Casey, including the death of his mother. But life does go on, and Casey describes the great theme of Formal Growth In The Desert as an embrace and acknowledgment of that fact: a 12-song testament to “getting on with life,” even when it feels impossibly hard.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: While 'Formal Growth In The Desert' has all of the angular riffs and jagged edges of 2015's superb 'The Agent Intellect', there's a lot more of a nuanced sound on display here. There are moments of relative calm, echoes of country music and gothic choruses scattered around before launching once again into that familiar, scathing fire. Unafraid as ever to push the boundaries but without sacrificing their core sound, classic Protomartyr.

Chiming laments for a childhood's end, Spirit They’re Gone, Spirit They’ve Vanished opens with the phrase "want to hear a secret, I know one," suggesting these secrets just might be buried deep within the flocks of high frequencies, electronic glitches, bleeps and swells that follow. The duo's approach is similar to Love's (circa Forever Changes), with Avey Tare's picked acoustic guitar flowing in perfect syncopation with Panda Bear's tumbling drum kit. But the layers of tonal and atonal electronics that fatten the thinner pulse of the songwriter's vision make this album resemble something closer to modern electronic composition. The songs range from speedy patchwork pieces to slower piano melodies, a somehow coherent yet very fragile brand of psychedelic music - their grasp of pop hooks and dynamics being counterbalanced by a love of noise / friction and musical anarchy; their songs wavering on the tightrope between deeply affecting beauty and unrestrained chaos. Whilst the band have gone on to rightfully become one of the most name-dropped and influential groups of the past two decades, this debut effort reminds us of where they came from and remains a truly stunning and unique album.

TRACK LISTING

1. Spirit They've Vanished (Remastered 2023)
2. April And The Phantom (Remastered 2023)
3. Untitled (Remastered 2023)
4. Penny Dreadfuls (Remastered 2023)
5. Chocolate Girl (Remastered 2023)
6. Everyone Whistling (Remastered 2023)
7. La Rapet (Remastered 2023)
8. Bat You'll Fly (Remastered 2023)
9. Someday I'll Grow To Be As Tall As The Giant (Remastered 2023)
10. Alvin Row (Remastered 2023)

Fase Luna is the ocean-inspired, wobbly-pop filled third album, by LA Priest, aka Sam Eastgate – due for release May 5th via Domino. Following 2020’s GENE, named after a modular drum machine that Sam designed using 150 electrical circuits he’d built himself, Fase Luna strips things back to little more than Sam and his guitar: nine sunshine-streaked tracks of pure bliss.

Recording in Mexico and the rainforests of Costa Rica, Fase Luna draws inspiration from each area’s mythical history and ancient connections to the ocean, drawing heavily on both to pack Fase Luna with stories of spirits and imaginations of life on the ocean bed. Raw and unfiltered, Fase Luna offers a one-way ticket to another world.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: 'Fase Luna' brilliant walks the path of Demarco-inspired woozy pop, with tape warble and shimmering affected guitar lines warping around each-other. It's brilliantly loose, perfectly laid back and results in an otherworldly experience all round. Lovely stuff.

His most open, honest and vibrant solo record to date, Brothers & Sisters marries the personal and the political but does so in an emotive and uplifting manner. Written against a backdrop of fear and uncertainty, and at a time when those in charge lurched from one disaster to the next mismanagement with increasing regularity, Brothers & Sisters is in fact an incredibly joyous, even spiritual, listen.

With musical contributions from feted Pakistani singer Javed Bashir, British gospel singers Jayando Cole, Keshia Smith, Connie McCall & Adrian Blake and Kaviraj Singh on the santoor it’s a record about bringing people together through art, music and culture.

“To me, this record is a massive ‘Fuck you’ to Brexit,” explains Mason. “And a giant ‘Fuck you’ to anyone that is terrified of immigration because there is nothing that immigration has brought to this country that isn’t to be applauded. Can you imagine what this place would be like without that [immigration]? I mean what would it be like? Cornish pasties and morris dancing?.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: A record which Steve himself calls "a massive Fuck You to Brexit" is actually an incredibly uplifting pop record with some of the best tunes and grooves of his whole career. Inspirational!

TRACK LISTING

1. Mars Man
2. I’m On My Way
3. No More
4. All Over Again
5. The People Say
6. Let It Go
7. Pieces Of Me
8. Travelling Hard
9. Brixton Fish Fry
10. Upon My Soul
11. Brothers & Sisters

You remember how it was, don’t you, back in the Spring of 2020? Knowing so little about what any of us should do, so many of us crawled inside our quarters to find new obsessions or indulge the familiar ones, unencumbered by anything else we could do. At home in the woods on the eastern edge of Asheville, N.C., Avey Tare took the latter path, sequestering himself in his small home studio to sort the songs he’d written and recorded with friends in the instantly distant before times—Animal Collective’s Time Skiffs, of course, their astonishing document of communal creativity a quarter-century into the enterprise. He often worked there for 12 hours a day, tweaking mixes alone, save the birds and bears and his girlfriend, Madelyn. By Fall, though, it was done, so what next? How else should Avey now occupy himself in his cozy little room? The answer became 7s, his fourth solo album (and first in four years), an enchanting romp through the playground of his head. He wasn’t, however, going to do it alone.

During the first week of January 2021, Avey began making regular drives to his friend Adam McDaniel’s Drop of Sun Studios to give guts and flesh and color to the skeletal demos he’d made at home. They turned first to “Hey Bog,” a tune Avey had been tinkering with since he wrote it to have new material for a rare live performance years earlier. The inquisitive electronic meditation—all tiny percussive pops and surrealist textures at first—slowly morphs into a gem about surrendering cynicism and accepting the world a bit more readily, the call buttressed by trunk-rattling bass and spectral guitar. It feels like a lifetime map for new possibilities, encapsulated in nine absorbing minutes. The plot for 7s, then, was set: trusting, intuitive, exploratory collaboration among friends, after a Winter without it. These songs are like overstuffed jelly jars, cracking so that the sweetness oozes out into unexpected shapes. Still, the sweetness—that is, Avey’s compulsory hooks—remains at the center, the joy inside these Rorschach blots.

If Animal Collective has forever been defined by its charming inscrutability, Avey surrenders to a new intimacy and candor with 7s. Take “The Musical,” a bouncing ball of rubbery synths and wah-wah guitars that contemplates what draws someone to sound and how turning that calling into a profession can alter the source. “I can hear the mountains singing,” he counters with an audible smile wiped across his face, painting a postcard of his home amid one of the United States’ folk hubs, “and I do believe they could do that forever.” Obligations aside, this is a self-renewing love, he realizes, the source as captivating as it was the first time. “Have you ever felt a thing and known that’s how you felt about it all along?” he ends this guileless love song for everything.

TRACK LISTING

1. Invisible Darlings
2. Lips At Night
3. The Musical
4. Hey Bog
5. Sweeper’s Grin
6. Neurons
7. Cloud Stop Rest Start

Quite simply, this is an astonishing album. Animal Collective member Panda Bear (a.k.a. Noah Lennox) boldly returns with his third solo record "Person Pitch". Years in the making, "Person Pitch" marks a dramatic departure from Panda Bear's previous solo record "Young Prayer". The acoustic instruments of "Young Prayer" have been replaced with samplers and electronics. Imagine if you will, a stoned out, ethereal collaboration with a young Brian Wilson, Steve Reich, My Bloody Valentine's Kevin Shields and Brian Eno and you might be getting half way near to the aural brilliance on show here. The songs here shimmer along combining dizzying melodies, abstract sounds and off-kilter rhythms, all coated in a super rich surround-sound that mesmerizes the listener into a state of wide-eyed bliss, like a drug induced dream of all the best bits of music from since time began rolled into one album.

TRACK LISTING

Comfy In Nautica
Take Pills
Bros
I’m Not
Good Girls / Carrots
Search For Delicious
Ponytail

White Lung’s Premonition is about birth and rebirth. It’s about growing—and growing older—without losing the furious energy of youth. It’s the last album we’ll be getting from one of the best bands to ever do it. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: White Lung's self-professed last album is a roaring, scathing selection of blasting riffs and deft instrumentation, both reminiscent of 00's hardcore and the more poppy side of the punk spectrum. A perfect closing chapter for a band of singular talent.

Although Panda Bear and Sonic Boom are no strangers to each other’s music, Reset marks their first collaborative release. When SB pitched an idea to take their working relationship to the next level, he reckoned PB might reject the proposition outright—in the nine gloriously, feverishly hook-bound tracks of Reset, though, you can hear exactly how much he loved the prospect.

SB’s notion was simple enough: After lugging his records to Portugal years ago, his fascination was renewed by old favorites and standards he had not heard in years. Something struck him, the way the ornate intros by Eddie Cochran or the Everly Brothers felt largely like stage curtains, compelling in their own right even if they had very little to do with the hits that followed. SB began crafting loops from these preambles, twisting and bending the parts like scrap metal before sending them onto PB.

The kernel of Reset emerged not long after international lockdowns began. If making it supplied temporary medicine for the duo, it is now permanently so for the rest of us, a reminder that sometimes playing and singing along to old favorites with friends can be enough to make the world feel a bit better.

STAFF COMMENTS

Darryl says: Noah Lennox AKA Panda Bear and Pete Kember AKA Sonic Boom are longtime collaborators so it seemed only a matter of time before they’d team up together on an album. Reset is a 60s concept record built around intros to rock’n’roll 45s, before being reshaped with harmony overloads, repetitive loops, and psychedelic heavy samples. A perfect sonic melding of their previous bands, Animal Collective and Spacemen 3.

TRACK LISTING

1. Gettin’ To The Point
2. Go On
3. Everyday
4. Edge Of The Edge
5. In My Body
6. Whirlpool
7. Danger
8. Livin’ In The After
9. Everything’s Been Leading To This

Pop in your earpiece, close your eyes and embrace the wonders (and horrors) of augmented reality and prepare to travel 500 years into the future as Richard Dawson returns with…The Ruby Cord. These seven tracks plunge us into an unreal, fantastical and at times sinister future where social mores have mutated, ethical and physical boundaries have evaporated; a place where you no longer need to engage with anyone but yourself and your own imagination. It’s a leap into a future that is well within reach, in some cases already here. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Richard Dawson hits the legendary Domino once again for a new album of wonderfully off-piste songwriting, both wildly inventive and full of stylistic turns that he alone pulls off so seamlessly. I admit that I didn't quite get Dawson's music for a while, but I definitely do now, and this is for my money, his finest work to date.

Pulling together the lion’s share of Beat Happening’s non-LP material not covered by the expanded edition of the debut album, Music To Climb The Apple Tree By collects tracks from the band’s singles and compilation contributions along with their share of the Beat Happening/Screaming Trees EP. Essential ephemera.

TRACK LISTING

1. Angel Gone
2. Nancy Sin
3. Sea Hunt
4. Look Around
5. Not A Care In The World
6. Dreamy
7. That Girl
8. Secret Picnic Spot
9. Zombie Limbo Time
10. Foggy Eyes
11. Knock On Any Door
12. Sea Babies
13. Tales Of Brave Aphrodite
14. Polly Pereguinn
15. I Dig You

Here’s where it all began…This expanded double LP version of the “first album” thoroughly (though not completely) documents Beat Happening’s first four years of recorded history.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Foggy Eyes
A2. Bad Seeds
A3. I Let Him Get To Me
A4. I Spy
A5. Run Down The Stairs
A6. In Love With You Thing
A7. I Love You
A8. Down At The Sea
A9. Our Secret
A10. What’s Important
A11. Fourteen
A12. Bad Seeds (live)
B1. Run Down The Stairs
B2. In My Memory
B3. Honey Pot
B4. The Fall
B5. Youth
B6. Don’t Mix The Colors
B7. Christmas
B8. Fourteen
B9. Let’s Kiss
B10. 1, 2, 3
B11. Look Around
B12. I Love You (demo)

Is it okay to call Black Candy a departure? A Jungian descent into a darker psychological state? If the starkness of the cover art wasn’t enough of a harbinger, the edgier tone of Black Candy coupled with all this lyrical talk about gravediggers, lost boyfriends, ghosts and… pajama parties is enough to wonder just how close to the bonfire Beat Happening were willing to dance.

TRACK LISTING

1. Other Side
2. Black Candy
3. Knick Knack
4. Pajama Party In A Haunted Hive
5. Grave Digger Blues
6. Cast A Shadow
7. Bonfire
8. T.V. Girl
9. Playhouse
10. Ponytail

Released in tandem with the International Pop Underground festival, 1991 was a very good year on the S.S. Beat Happening. Songs from Dreamy crowd many fan favorite lists and with good reason.

TRACK LISTING

1. Me Untamed
2. Left Behind
3. Hot Chocolate Boy
4. I’ve Lost You
5. Cry For A Shadow
6. Collide
7.Nancy Sin
8. Fortune Cookie Prize
9. Revolution Come And Gone
10. Red Head Walking

Jamboree contains America’s accidental entry into the 1988 Eurovision contest, “Indian Summer.” Beat Happening lost to a then-unknown Céline Dion.

TRACK LISTING

1. Bewitched
2. In Between
3. Indian Summer
4. Hangman
5. Jamboree
6. Ask Me
7. Crashing Through
8. Cat Walk
9. Drive Car Girl
10. Midnight A Go-Go
11. The This Many Boyfriends Club

From the hypnotic, elegiac pulse of “Tiger Trap” to the meditative tone poem of “Godsend,” the quiet maturity and melodic confidence of You Turn Me On makes it a bittersweet swansong for Beat Happening, but what a way to go out.

TRACK LISTING

1. Tiger Trap
2. Noise
3. Pinebox Derby
4. Teenage Caveman
5. Sleepy Head
6. You Turn Me On
7. Godsend
8. Hey Day
9. Bury The Hammer

The Car is the seventh studio album from Arctic Monkeys. Featuring ten new songs written by Alex Turner, produced by James Ford and recorded at Butley Priory, Suffolk, La Frette, Paris and RAK Studios, London.

STAFF COMMENTS

Liam says: Making the descent back to Earth after their stay at the Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino, Arctic Monkeys continue where they left off with album number seven. From stunning string-led ballads ("There'd Better Be A Mirrorball", "Big Ideas"), to late night funk ("Hello You", "Jet Skis On The Moat"), "The Car" proceeds with Arctic's evolution with lavish and exquisite results.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A
1. There'd Better Be A Mirrorball
2. I Ain't Quite Where I Think I Am
3. Sculptures Of Anything Goes
4. Jet Skis On The Moat
5. Body Paint

SIDE B
6. The Car
7. Big Ideas
8. Hello You
9. Mr Schwartz
10. Perfect Sense

London once again features as a prominent character on Sorry’s second studio album, Anywhere But Here.

"If our first version of London in 925 was innocent and fresh-faced, then this is rougher around the edges. It's a much more haggard place," Louis says.

Earwigged conversations, text messages, snatched speech recorded underground; the city’s discarded words fed into the lyrics which map the experience of urban life on a young and frustrated generation. Produced alongside Portishead’s Adrian Utley in Bristol, the result is an angular, acerbic, bittersweet triumph.

“God” figures in the new album from Philadelphia, PA based Alex Giannascoli's LP’s title, its first song, and multiple of its thirteen tracks thereafter, not as a concrete religious entity but as a sign for a generalized sense of faith (in something, anything) that fortifies Giannascoli, or the characters he voices, amid the songs’ often fraught situations.

Beyond the ambient inspiration of pop, Giannascoli has been drawn in recent years to artists who balance the public and hermetic, the oblique and the intimate, and who present faith more as a shared social language than religious doctrine.

As with his previous records, Giannascoli wrote and demoed these songs by himself, at home; but, for the sake of both new tones and “a routine that was outside of my apartment,” he asked some half-dozen engineers to help him produce the “best” recording quality, whatever that meant. The result is an album more dynamic than ever in its sonic palette.

TRACK LISTING

1. After All
2. Runner
3. Mission
4. S.D.O.S.
5. No Bitterness
6. Ain’t It Easy
7. Cross The Sea
8. Blessing
9. Early Morning Waiting
10. Immunity
11. Headroom Piano
12. Miracles
13. Forgive

Sorry’s blistering new single, ‘Let The Lights On’, on 7”, backed by earworm b-side ‘I Tried 4 U 2’.

TRACK LISTING

Let The Lights On
I Tried 4 U 2

Freakout/Release is another dizzying high in a multi-decade career that’s seen Hot Chip continuing to innovate and develop a rich, resonant songcraft. And while they continue to operate at peak form, the album also feels like a new chapter for the group—a collection of flesh-and-blood songs that finds the band reaching into the darkness to emerge as a true creative unit, their gazes fixed positively on the future ahead. The album features Canadian rapper Cadence Weapon, British DJ & musician Lou Hayter & production work from Soulwax.

Max Tundra, aka Ben Jacobs, announces the reissue of his first three studio albums: the uncategorisable 2000 debut ‘Some Best Friend You Turned Out To Be’, 2002’s breakthrough ‘Mastered by Guy at The Exchange’, and the 2008 masterwork ‘Parallax Error Beheads You’. Available to independent retailers on coloured vinyl.

Ben is one of the most influential artists of popular music right now. The hyperpop pioneer has collaborated with the likes of Arca, Daphne & Celeste and A.G. Cook.The natural musical predecessor to the likes of PC Music, Jacobs also boasts a remix roster which includes Pet Shop Boys, The Strokes and Franz Ferdinand. The reissues’ announcement went down wonderfully, with pick-up in Pitchfork, The Line of Best Fit and other key media outlets, as well as social support from Danny LHarle, Shygirl, Arca, A.G. Cook, Colin Self and Caroline Polachek.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Merman
A2. Mbgate
A3. Lysine
A4. Fuerte
A5. Pocket
A6. Cabasa
B1. 61over
B2. Lights
B3. Hilted
B4. Acorns
B5. Gondry
B6. Labial

Max Tundra, aka Ben Jacobs, announces the reissue of his first three studio albums: the uncategorisable 2000 debut ‘Some Best Friend You Turned Out To Be’, 2002’s breakthrough ‘Mastered by Guy at The Exchange’, and the 2008 masterwork ‘Parallax Error Beheads You’. Available to independent retailers on coloured vinyl.

Ben is one of the most influential artists of popular music right now. The hyperpoppioneer has collaborated with the likes of Arca, Daphne & Celeste and A.G. Cook.The natural musical predecessor to the likes of PC Music, Jacobs also boasts aremix roster which includes Pet Shop Boys, The Strokes and Franz Ferdinand. The reissues’ announcement went down wonderfully, with pick-up in Pitchfork, TheLine of Best Fit and other key media outlets, as well as social support from Danny LHarle, Shygirl, Arca, A.G. Cook, Colin Self and Caroline Polachek.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Cakes
A2. Lamplite On A One Horse Shoe
A3. Ah, There's Deek Now Let's Ask Him
A4. Lausanne
A5. Tuli, A Plain Ride From Canvas
A6. Bill Sholem Quintette
A7. Ink Me
B1. The Salation
B2. Sussi Kuku
B3. 6161
B4. Carbon Cones

Max Tundra, aka Ben Jacobs, announces the reissue of his first three studio albums: the uncategorisable 2000 debut ‘Some Best Friend You Turned Out To Be’, 2002’s breakthrough ‘Mastered by Guy at The Exchange’, and the 2008 masterwork ‘Parallax Error Beheads You’. Available to independent retailers on coloured vinyl.

Ben is one of the most influential artists of popular music right now. The hyperpoppioneer has collaborated with the likes of Arca, Daphne & Celeste and A.G. Cook.The natural musical predecessor to the likes of PC Music, Jacobs also boasts aremix roster which includes Pet Shop Boys, The Strokes and Franz Ferdinand. The reissues’ announcement went down wonderfully, with pick-up in Pitchfork, TheLine of Best Fit and other key media outlets, as well as social support from Danny LHarle, Shygirl, Arca, A.G. Cook, Colin Self and Caroline Polachek.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Gum Chimes
A2. Will Get Fooled Again
A3. Which Song
A4. My Night Out
A5. Orphaned
A6. Nord Lead Three
B1. The Entertainment
B2. Number Our Days
B3. Glycaemic Index Blues
B4. Until We Die

A brand-new 7” from Sorry, featuring new single “There’s So Many People That Want To Be Loved” backed by b-side “15’4”.

As inspired by the unvarnished portraiture of Martin Parr as he is Ballardian grotesquerie - and by the seedy witticisms of Jarvis Cocker and arch art-pop commentary of Neil Tennant, Gore’s music sits proudly within a rich tradition of distinctively British disrupters. Skewering notions of national identity with a vivid mix of pin-sharp satire in an expansive palette of synthesising new wave art-rock, Gore effortlessly creates songs that are as ingeniously calculated as they are dance-inducing.

When the first Superorganism music surfaced in 2017, the group’s in-your-face aesthetic — a post-everything mishmash of psychedelic indie pop and fizzy, funky electronica — quickly began to resonate with the likes of Frank Ocean, Vampire Weekend, Jehnny Beth, Gorillaz as well as finding them legions of fans across the world.

World Wide Pop is their first new music since 2018’s self-titled debut.

Superorganism have mutated and are now based around the core of Orono, Harry, Tucan, B and Soul but World Wide Pop also brings in an international set of collaborators including Stephen Malkmus, CHAI, Pi Ja Ma, Dylan Cartlidge as well as legendary musician and actor Gen Hoshino.

Blasting back with thirteen tracks that strike a balance between artifice and earnestness, between sci-fi silliness and existential intensity, World Wide Pop is a showcase for Superorganism’s newly deepened understanding of each other’s interests and impulses, the kind of creative convergence you’d expect when online friends start spending time together IRL (their debut was completed before the whole band had ever been in the same room at the same time).

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: 'Something For Your MIND' will forever be cemented in my memory, and it's a pleasure to say that their newest outing retains all of the catchy charm and pristine electronic stomp of that single and the following LP. With a whole host of collaborators pitching in too, it's another statement of their singular intention and more evidence of their synth-pop legends status.

TRACK LISTING

1. Black Hole Baby
2. World Wide Pop
3. On & On
4. Teenager (feat. CHAI & Pi Ja Ma)
5. It’s Raining (feat. Stephen Malkmus & Dylan Cartlidge
6. Flying
7. Solar System (feat. CHAI & Boa Constrictors
8. Into The Sun (feat. Gen Hoshino, Stephen Malkmus & Pi Ja Ma)
9. Put Down Your Phone
10. Crushed.zip
11. Oh Come On
12. Don’t Let The Colony Collapse
13. Everything Falls Apart

When Martin Courtney was a teenager, he knew how to get lost. In the late ‘90s and early 2000s, there’s Martin, loaded into a car with friends. They’re navigating the suburban sprawl of New Jersey with no destination in mind. He and his friends would “get thoroughly confused and look for familiar green signs with arrows pointing to towns we’d heard of. We’d call them ‘magic signs,’” he says.

That’s the thing about magic: when you go looking for it, you start to see it everywhere. And you can hear it twinklingly throughout the ten songs on Magic Sign, the second solo album written, performed, & produced by the Real Estate songwriter. The album was recorded, mixed & co-produced by Rob Schnapf. Additional performers include Matt Barrick, Oliver Hill, Kacey Johansing, and Tim Ramsey

My Bloody Valentine, the quartet of Bilinda Butcher, Kevin Shields, Deb Googe and Colm Ó Cíosóig, are widely revered as one of the most ground-breaking and influential groups of the past forty years. During an era in which guitar bands denoted, at best, a retro-classicism, not only did my bloody valentine sound unlike any of their contemporaries, the band achieved the rare feat of sounding like the future.

With their debut album, ‘isn’t anything’ (originally released in 1988), my bloody valentine revolutionised alternative music and heralded a new approach to guitar music for generations to come. The album birthed a sound which became a template for thousands of new subgenres, heralding a new approach to guitar music and studio production. Not only was it a new type of music, it paved the way for a new type of journalism; inciting comparisons to elemental phenomenon, tapping into how the music affected the psyche.

Shields and Butcher frequently sang in a similar vocal range that allowed their voices to blend together. This had the effect of making their gender indistinguishable, to the point where their voices could be used as another melodic layer to complement the vertigo-inducing sounds made by Shields’ guitars. It is a record characterised by the ominous sense of space that inhabits many of its songs, which veered between the harried and propulsive, to the subdued and eerie.

TRACK LISTING

Soft As Snow (but Warm inside)
Lose My Breath
Cupid Come
(when You Wake) You’re Still In A Dream
No More Sorry
All I Need
Feed Me With Your Kiss
Sueisfine
Several Girls Galore
You Never Should
Nothing Much To Lose
I Can See It (but I Can’t Feel it)

‘Love Is Yours’, the new album from Flasher, out on Domino, steps up the ambition and reaches for the horizon.

The new record is ablaze with mood, melody, and carefully threaded hooks, finding the band foregrounding the pop sensibilities that had always been present in their previous releases. It retains the attitude that was fundamental to the band’s DIY roots, but cuts loose a touch of the angst.

Though the songs process disillusionment and loss, the music evokes warmth and optimism. It is their best record and also their most generous.

Now a duo, guitarist Mulitz and drummer Emma Baker had to reimagine Flasher’s voice. ‘Love Is Yours’ was recorded in Washington, D.C. with long-time friend Owen Wuerker. Rather than binding the duo to its past - to geography, old habits, or trusted sounds - the familiar environment proved liberating. Working out of Wuerker’s well-appointed homestudio allowed inspiration to arrive off deadline. With no shows in sight, Flasher could relax on presenting as a ‘rock’ band.

TRACK LISTING

I Saw You
Love Is Yours
Little Things
Nothing
Spell It Out
Still Life
All Day Long
I'm Better
Sideways
Pink
Damage
Dial Up
Tangerine

On Mercury, Hinton builds on the techniques he established on his critically acclaimed 2016 LP Potential, seeking to create human connection in the Internet age through sampling vocalists from the corners of YouTube, Instagram, and Periscope. “I feel like I can find ways to express myself in ways that I’m too shy or unable to do in the real world,” Hinton says of the process. Mercury is moody, transportive, and undeniably rave-infused, and although it is indebted to IDM mainstays and grime pioneers, the album finds Hinton pushing himself outside the constraints of any one specific genre.

TRACK LISTING

1. Bicameral
2. 1995
3. Urethane
4. Ricercar
5. Not For Me
6. Relegate
7. A Tree Day
8. Balm
9. Cantor
10. Every Good Thing
11. Violet

On their seminal second album, No Wow, The Kills established the ethos that would set the tone for their expansive career - capture the rawest emotions and sounds, and then push them to the furthest possible edge.

The band is celebrating No Wow’s 15-year anniversary with a deluxe reissue featuring a fresh new mix by the multiple grammy award-winning Tchad Blake (The Black Keys, Fiona Apple, Arctic Monkeys) that brings new life to the 11 vivid tracks.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A superb new mix of this seminal Kills LP from 2015 sees legendary deskman Tchad Blake give the raucous percussion and grinding overdrive room to breathe below Mosshart's legendary vocal fire. A wonderful album, and an essential purchase for those of you unaware of the power it holds. Superb.

TRACK LISTING

1. No Wow/Telephone Radio Germany
2. Love Is A Deserter
3. Dead Road 7
4. The Good Ones
5. I Hate The Way You Love
6. I Hate The Way You Love, Pt. 2
7. At The Back Of The Shell
8. Sweet Cloud
9. Rodeo Town
10. Murdermile
11. Ticket Man

Debut LP from college buddies Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers who’s rapid ascent has seen them go from playing a handful of gigs pre-lockdown, to being name checked by Iggy Pop and ranked No. 2 in the BBC’s Sound Of 2022.

Surely everyone has heard their debut single Chaise Longue by now? It catapulted this Isle Of Wight duo into our consciousness during lock down and was followed by a handful of smart, hook filled pop songs that have made this LP one of the most anticipated debuts of the year. And it doesn’t disappoint!

Their half sung half spoken vocals deliver witty, brazen takes on navigating the ups and downs of modern life. There’s a definite nod to the 90s their sound: Angelica’s dead pan vocals and meandering bass bring to mind Elastica while Being In Love recalls the bitter sweet, dreamy pop of Lush and there’s a smattering of The Breeders in their more up beat songs. Combining this love of 90s indie-pop with a playful, anything goes attitude, they’ve created one of the most exciting debuts of the year.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A
1 Being In Love
2 Chaise Longue (Vinyl Version)
3 Angelica
4 I Don't Wanna Go Out
5 Wet Dream
6 Convincing

SIDE B
1 Loving You
2 Ur Mum
3 Oh No
4 Piece Of Shit
5 Supermarket
6 Too Late Now

Music for Psychedelic Therapy is Hopkins’ first full-length since sister albums, the GRAMMY-nominated Singularity (2018) and Immunity (2013). For this collection, Hopkins wanted to make something that faced the opposite direction, something egoless and introspective, made with total, raw honesty. “It felt like time for a reset, to wait for music to appear from a different place,” says Hopkins. That place ended up being Tayos Caves in Ecuador, where Hopkins went on a life-changing creative expedition in 2018.

“‘Sit Around The Fire’ exists from one of the deep synchronicities that ushered this thing (Music For Psychedelic Therapy) into being,” comments Hopkins. “I was contacted by East Forest, who had spent some time with Ram Dass in Hawaii before he passed. He was given access to several lesser-heard talks from the 70s, and asked to set them to music. He sent me some starting points, including the beautiful choral vocals he recorded which open the piece. I put my headphones on and with Ram Dass’ voice inside my head, I sat at the piano and improvised. What you hear is the first thing that came out - it just appeared in response to the words.”

Hopkins elaborates on Music For Psychedelic Therapy: “What grew from this experience is an album with no beats, not one drum sound, something that is closer to a classical symphony than a dance / electronica record. Something that is more like having an experience than listening to a piece of music. Maybe something far more emotionally honest than I had been comfortable making before - a merging of music, nature and my own desire to heal.  The freedom from traditional rhythmic structures unlocked so much - it felt like I was free to explore a new form of rhythm, one that you discover when you just allow things to flow without letting yourself get in the way. 

“Music For Psychedelic Therapy is not ambient, classical or drone but has elements of all three. For me it’s a place as much as it is a sound. It works for the sober mind, but takes on a new dimension entirely when brought into a psychedelic ceremony. In my own psychedelic explorations testing this music, I found a quote I had read would keep coming to mind. ‘Music is liquid architecture, architecture is frozen music.’ I love this idea of music as something you inhabit, something that works on you energetically. In fact, it was while in that state that the title appeared to me. Psychedelic-assisted therapies are moving into legality across the world, and yet it feels like no one is talking about the music; the music is as important as the medicine.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Jon Hopkins presents a beautiful suite showing the other side to his more electronic / experimental excursions from his superb last few studio LP's. Here we get a brittle, all-encompassing selection of beautiful lysergic pads and shimmering, twinkling ambience.

TRACK LISTING

1.Welcome
2. Tayos Caves, Ecuador I
3. Tayos Caves, Ecuador Ii
4. Tayos Caves, Ecuador Iii
5. Love Flows Over Us In Prismatic Waves
6. Deep In The Glowing Heart
7. Ascending, Dawn Sky
8. Arriving
9. Sit Around The Fire (with Ram Dass, East Forest) 

Franz Ferdinand have announced details of Hits To The Head, a 20-track greatest hits collection showcasing the world-conquering success of the band’s career to date. Released on Friday March 11th 2022 on Domino, Hits To The Head also features two brand-new tracks Billy Goodbye and Curious, produced by Alex Kapranos, Julian Corrie and Stuart Price (Dua Lipa, Madonna, Pet Shop Boys).

Armed with an astute sense of what constitutes the ‘classic pop song’ (famously proclaiming that they write music ‘to make girls dance to’) the music of Franz Ferdinand continues to resonate globally and over the course of nearly two decades they’ve become, commercially and critically, one of the biggest UK bands in the world, selling over 10 million albums, 1.2 billion streams to date, 14 platinum albums, winning Brit, Ivor Novello + Mercury Prize awards, Grammy nominations and selling 6 million tickets for their incendiary live show worldwide.

TRACK LISTING

01 Darts Of Pleasure
02 Take Me Out
03 The Dark Of The Matinée
04 Michael
05 This Fire
06 Do You Want To
07 Walk Away
08 The Fallen
09 Outsiders
10 Lucid Dreams
11 Ulysses
12 No You Girls
13 Right Action
14 Evil Eye
15 Love Illumination
16 Stand On The Horizon
17 Always Ascending
18 Glimpse Of Love
19 Curious
20 Billy Goodbye 

Squeeze, the second full length from SASAMI, surveys the raw aggression of nu-metal, tender plainspokeness of country-pop and folk rock, and dramatic romanticism of classical music.

Time Skiffs’ nine songs are love letters, distress signals, en plein air observations, and relaxation hymns, the collected transmissions of four people who have grown into relationships and parenthood and adult worry. But they are rendered with Animal Collective’s singular sense of exploratory wonder. Harmonies so rich you want to skydive through their shared air, textures so fascinating you want to decode their sorcery, rhythms so intricate you want to untangle their sources. Here is Animal Collective nearing 20, still in search of what’s next.

TRACK LISTING

1. Dragon Slayer
2. Car Keys
3. Prester John
4. Strung With Everything
5. Walker
6. Cherokee
7. Passer-by
8. We Go Back
9. Royal And Desire

Cat Power returns with Covers, Chan Marshall’s third album of her celebrated reinterpretations of songs by classic and contemporary artists including Lana Del Ray, Nick Cave, Frank Ocean & The Pogues.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A beautiful new album from Cat Power, comprising of (you guessed it), her versions of some well-known (and some less well-known) cover versions. It's a beguiling affair throughout, the majority of which are solemn but beautiful, with the odd curveball thrown in there for good measure. Typically well done, and quintessentially Cat Power.

TRACK LISTING

1 Bad Religion
2 Unhate
3 Pa Pa Power
4 White Mustang
5 A Pair Of Brown Eyes
6 Against The Wind
7 Endless Sea
8 These Days
9 It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels
10 I Had A Dream Joe
11 Here Comes A Regular
12 I'll Be Seeing You

Richard Dawson is the diminutive Geordie troubadour whose moving songs have been described as state-of-the-nation addresses, even — or perhaps especially — when he’s singing about pre-medieval peasants. Circle are the genre-straddling pioneers of The New Wave Of Finnish Heavy Metal, known for wearing spandex or dead fish onstage and singing in a made-up language.

Together they are… Richard Dawson & Circle! Today, we are pleased to announce news of their collaborative album Henki, due November 26th via Weird World. Their epic joint record might seem a departure to those who are most familiar with Dawson from recent solo albums like 2017’s Peasant and 2020 (released in 2019). In fact, Henki fits comfortably into the bigger picture of two acts who have always strived for uninhibited originality.

Dawson explains the album’s title: “The word 'henki' roughly translates as 'spirit'. It's a very rich word, supple in its meaning in the same way as the Geordie 'canny'; difficult to pin down.” True to its name, while Henki is influenced, in part by heavy-metal bands, it does not sound like any metal album you will have heard before. For one thing, few metal albums are filled with songs about plants. Inspired by Circle’s guitarist Janne Westerlund instructing the group during recording to be less straightforward and more “like a plant”, each of Henki’s seven tracks deal with special plants throughout history.

As mutual fans of each other, Circle and Dawson originally hit off it via Twitter, which led to Dawson being invited to accompany Circle for their set at Helsinki’s Sideways Festival in 2019. Dawson recalls the moment: “It was like being a teenager and suddenly being asked to go onstage with Iron Maiden. That’s how important this band are to me”. Having pulled that off, they started exchanging demos before they finally got in a room together to set off on their journey proper. Most of the recording took place in Pori - a fine jewel of a city on Finland's balmy west coast - across several visits, the last being in late January 2020 just as Covid-19 first reached Europe. From there they had to finish Henki remotely - via waves of pure thought beamed across the dark dividing oceans betwixt them, and email.

Easily the greatest flora-themed hypno-folk-metal record you’ll hear this year, Henki adds an electrifying new chapter to the remarkable story of each act, and marks the beginning of a beautiful partnership. Circle, described as "the world’s greatest band - in every category” are Pekka Jääskeläinen (guitar), Julius Jääskeläinen (guitar), Jussi Lehtisalo (bass, voice), Mika Rättö (keyboard, voice), Tomi Leppänen (drums) and Janne Westerlund (guitar, voice). Richard Dawson plays guitar and vocals. Henki was mixed by Antti Uusimäki and mastered by Christian Wright.

HARD FEELINGS is the new collaborative project between Joe Goddard (Hot Chip) and Amy Douglas. For all intents and purposes, ‘HARD FEELINGS’, the self-titled debut album released on Domino Recordings, is “an opera of sad bangers.” Loosely conceptual without being a full concept album, the material is the ultimate immersive cinematic experience for your feet and ears, seated fluidly at the intersections of New Wave and Synthpop-inspired Pop Music and full on Dance majesty.

New York City’s Amy Douglas has made her reputation across the worlds of house and disco with her distinctive voice and stellar songwriting ability. She has worked with such artists as Luke Solomon, The Crooked Man and Horse Meat Disco, and she wrote ‘Something More’ for Roisin Murphy on her recent album ‘Roisin Machine’.

Joe Goddard is also synonymous with the electronic music world, widely-known in the front ranks of British producers, creating a sounds from across his panoramic musical life, from house, techno and disco to UK garage, R&B and electro-pop. Joe forms one fifth of the UK electronic-pop powerhouse Hot Chip whilst, alongside Raf Rundell, he is one half of The 2 Bears.

TRACK LISTING

Love Scenes
Dangerous
Running Out Of Time
You Always Know
Take You Down
About Us
Holding On Too Long
Sister Infinity

In contrast to Diviner, a record that very much favoured the inner world, Moondust For My Diamound sees Hayden Thorpe moving into a more natural visual and sonic palette, gazing outward on the world. Produced by Richard Formby and Nathan Jenkins (Bullion), Thorpe has made an album that is galvanising, reassuring, elegant, seductive: it oozes Big Cosmic Energy.

‘Down There’ is the debut solo album from Animal Collective member Avey Tare.

Recorded in 2010 at the Good House, an old church in upstate New York, with fellow Animal Collective band member Deakin.

‘Down There’ is a world of nine songs from Avey Tare. His first official solo full length carries you through a murky world of sound, an alien death world of soul grooves that is both honest and otherworldly.

Take a ride on this haunted boat and let yourself be guided through deep sloshy rhythms, waterlogged bass and moonlit breaks in the canopy that reveal a crisp crystalline pop buzz.

TRACK LISTING

Laughing Hieroglyphic
3 Umbrellas
Oliver Twist
Glass Bottom Boat
Ghost Of Books
Cemeteries
Heads Hammock
Heather In The Hospital
Lucky 1

The LP was produced by White and recorded between his beloved Kensington Avenue home studio (and album namesake) K Bay, Richmond’s Montrose Recording and his own local institution, Spacebomb Studio. K Bay finds the singer/songwriter, bandleader, and musical polymath expanding every facet of his creative process and harnessing the full power of his community, culminating in the best record of his career.

"For me, one of the most exciting production techniques from this record was this idea where I’d record the song twice,” explains White of K Bay and “Genuine Hesitation.” “First, in a more traditional, band-in-the-room, work out the parts and sounds, nail it, kind of way. Secondly, I would distill the concept of the song one way or another into an instrumental composition. I had a much larger band (based off of Miles Davis’s On The Corner bands) play this kind of new-music/improvisational piece at the same tempo as I had recorded the first, more ‘normal’ take. The goal was to be able to cut across between the two pieces, and/or layer them and have them fit together in wild ways. To a large degree it worked, which was pretty exciting for me. The intro to ‘Genuine Hesitation’ is an excerpt from the much longer improvisation based instrumental."

K Bay, White’s first solo album in six years, is the astounding record he has forever aspired to make. A bold reclamation of independence and identity, K Bay establishes White as one of his era’s most imaginative artists. These 11 pieces are retro-futurist magic tricks that feel instantly classic and contemporary, the product of a musical mind that has internalized the lessons of his idols and used them to build a brilliant world of his own.

After his solo introduction Big Inner became a surprise hit and his 2015 debut for Domino, Fresh Blood, ascended him to late night TV performances and further critical acclaim, career demands nearly overwhelmed White. His record label/studio Spacebomb, for instance, ballooned into a bevy of obligations and expectations. White followed Fresh Blood with 2017’s Gentlewoman, Ruby Man, a set of duets with Flo Morrissey, and continued to produce records for the likes of Natalie Prass, Bedouine, and more—doubtless privileges that sometimes crowded out his ability to work on his own music. So he began building K Bay, a home studio where he could sequester himself with his thoughts. Newly married and starting to talk about children as he inched toward 40, White funneled a lifetime of experiences, enthusiasms, and obsessions into these new songs.

More than love, romance, or self-reliance, this is the animating ideal of K Bay—that we can forever strive for something better, no matter how flawed or blessed we have already been. A decade ago, Matthew E. White made a classic beauty no one expected; on K Bay, he has made a masterpiece by harnessing what he’s learned from that community and life itself in entirely unexpected, electrifying, and reaffirming ways

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: K Bay is by far White's most texturally interesting and conceptually exciting outing yet, and sees White heading more towards the sort of neon-lit futuristic synthpop that his technically minded production sensibilities are perfect for. It's swimming in groove and constantly confounding expectation while remaining resolutely melodic and typically inventive.

TRACK LISTING

1. Genuine Hesitation
2. Electric
3. Nested
4. Take Your Time (And Find That Orange To Squeeze)
5. Let’s Ball
6. Fell Like An Ax
7. Only In America / When The Curtains Of The Night Are Peeled Back - Feat. Joseph “JoJo” Clarke
8. Never Had It Better
9. Judy
10. Shine A Light For Me
11. Hedged In Darkness

Where once was Superwolf, now roam Superwolves, the new album and demon spawn of Matt Sweeney and Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy

The songs that make up Superwolves, the duo’s second album and first since 2005’s Superwolf, go boldly into undreamed-of places, and go deep, as Matt and Bonny take all the musics they know to make songs that penetrate. In classic Garcia-Hunter style, Sweeney and the ‘Prince’ first work separately, finding a path to each other in their solitary imaginings. Bonnie lyric sets delivered to Matt spark Sweeney’s guitar brain; chords and a melody are shaped, recorded fast and loose and sent back to the Prince, then the two parties meet up to sing, stitch, strengthen and finally perform them together in front of a small unsuspecting audience. Then new sets of lyrics are sent, animated and played in a high wire style until the shared songs and experiences are ready to commit to record. This is just the beginning of their fusion process, as words imply vocalizations to counter and support, and guitar lines suggest harmonic fields to subtly push into. In this process, a new creature grows out of the old one. In this name of this partnership, the guitar shares an open and fluid space with the vocals, the voices sing with the guitars—every moment in the life of Superwolves is an extravaganza, guided only by its need.

“The chemistry comes from lives, lived separately, in which music is crucial sustenance. We listen with gratitude and awe, knowing that we belong in there. We construct our dream selves with the faith that these selves will have their chance at life. We know what we are capable of doing and just need each other’s support to bring the imagined languages to life.” — Will Oldham

“I love the challenge to write melodies for Will to sing. Struggle with that challenge too. Knowing that Will’s voice will elevate the melody makes me reach higher and dig deeper for the tune. Makes me want to match it with a guitar part that holds his voice like a chalice holds wine (or blood, or whatever is needed to live the best life). I also love singing harmonies and responses to this voice of his.” — Matt Sweeney

As far as this record, as in when and how it came together, the two man crew started working on it five years ago. The first actual session, however, went down about a year ago at Brooklyn’s Strange Weather and the next took place at the Butcher Shoppe in Nashville. Sweeney oversaw the mixing of the Brooklyn sessions with Oldham overseeing the Nashville mixes. On the album, Sweeney sings harmonies along, with, and around his favorite singer, and plays all electric, acoustic, and bass guitars, joined in places by David Ferguson on stand-up bass, Mike Coltun on electric bass, Mdou Moctar on electric lead, Ahmoudou Madassane on rhythm guitar, Souleyman Ibrahim, Ryan Sawyer and Peter Townsend on drums and Mike Rojas on keys. The Bonnie ‘Prince’ sings. Does he ever. And Superwolves rules over all.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: This is a perfect collaborative effort from Sweeney & Oldham here, offsetting BPB's sometimes saccharine vocal style with Sweeney's brilliantly dynamic guitar playing. There are moments of stunning minimalistic bliss ('Resist The Urge') or more psychedelic grooving force ('Hall Of Death') but this is a constantly confounding and rewarding listen.

TRACK LISTING

1. Make Worry For Me
2. Good To My Girls
3. God Is Waiting
4. Hall Of Death
5. Shorty’s Ark
6. I Am A Youth Inclined To Ramble
7. My Popsicle
8. Watch What Happens
9. Resist The Urge
10. There Must Be A Someone
11. My Blue Suit
12. My Body Is My Own
13. You Can Regret What You Have Done
14. Not Fooling

‘Feels’ is Animal Collective’s sixth studio album, originally released in 2008. The album features all four band members - Avey Tare, Deakin, Geologist and Panda Bear.

TRACK LISTING

Did You See The Words
Grass
Flesh Canoe
The Purple Bottle
Bees
Banshee Beat
Daffy Duck
Loch Raven
Turn Into Something

‘Sung Tongs’ is the band's fifth studio album. Originally released in 2005, the album features Avey Tare and Panda Bear.

TRACK LISTING

Leaf House
Who Could Win A Rabbit
The Softest Voice
Winters Love
Kids On Holiday
Sweet Road
Visiting Friends
College
We Tigers
Mouth Wooed Her
Good Lovin Outside
Whaddit I Done

Finally re-emerging in 2013 after two full decades in relative hiding, their third album m b v is by turns their most experimental record but also their most melodic and immediate; proof real of their unerring desire for re-invention. Continuing to push boundaries of both music and genre, m b v is an album of astonishing music, some of which could lay claim to being of a type never been made before. Otherworldly, intimate and a visceral listen, m b v is a startling and beautiful metamorphosis of what was known of the my bloody valentine sound, pushing the boundaries of genre unlike any other band. The album’s closer, “Wonder 2” is an example of this, seeing Shields meld hypnotic guitar with drum’n’bass to astonishing result.

TRACK LISTING

1. She Found Now
2. Only Tomorrow
3. Who Sees You
4. Is This And Yes
5. If I Am
6. New You
7. In Another Way
8. Nothing Is
9. Wonder 2

With their debut album, Isn’t Anything (originally released in 1988), my bloody valentine revolutionised alternative music and heralded a new approach to guitar music for generations to come. The album birthed a sound which became a template for thousands of new subgenres, heralding a new approach to guitar music and studio production. Not only was it a new type of music, it paved the way for a new type of journalism; inciting comparisons to elemental phenomenon, tapping into how the music affected the psyche. Shields and Butcher frequently sang in a similar vocal range that allowed their voices to blend together. This had the effect of making their gender indistinguishable, to the point where their voices could be used as another melodic layer to complement the vertigo-inducing sounds made by Shields’ guitars.

TRACK LISTING

1. Soft As Snow (But Warm Inside)
2. Lose My Breath
3. Cupid Come
4. (When You Wake) You’re Still In A Dream
5. No More Sorry
6. All I Need
7. Feed Me With Your Kiss
8. Sueisfine
9. Several Girls Galore
10. You Never Should
11. Nothing Much To Lose
12. I Can See It (But I Can’t Feel It)

EPs 1988-1991 And Rare Tracks compiles the group’s four EPs, wherein many of their devoted fans’ favourite music lies. You Made Me Realise and Feed Me With Your Kiss both preceded the band’s debut album in 1988 in quick succession. In the gap between Isn’t Anything and loveless, the band released two further EPs; Glider (1990) and Tremolo (1991).

TRACK LISTING

CD1
1. You Made Me Realise
2. Slow
3. Thorn
4. Cigarette In Your Bed
5. Drive It All Over Me
6. Feed Me With Your Kiss
7. I Believe
8. Emptiness Inside
9. I Need No Trust
10. Soon
11. Glider
12. Don’t Ask Why
13. Off Your Face

CD2
1. To Here Knows When
2. Swallow
3. Honey Power
4. Moon Song
5. Instrumental No. 2
6. Instrumental No. 1
7. Glider (full Length Version)
8. Sugar
9. Angel
10. Good For You
11. How Do You Do It

The second my bloody valentine album, loveless, was released in 1991. Musically, it took an unexpected leap forwards, standing ahead of anything released at the time. Shields and the band moved further towards a music of pure sensation, creating textures and tones that could be felt as much as heard; with loveless the band created an album that overwhelmed the senses. loveless is widely considered a flawless whole and rightly regarded as a masterpiece; a 1990s equivalent to Pet Sounds, In A Silent Way or Innervisions, a record constructed by exploring the edges of what a recording studio is capable of. It is a record best experienced as a whole, in one sitting - a listening experience like no other and unmatchable in its sonic brevity.

TRACK LISTING

1. Only Shallow
2. Loomer
3. Touched
4. To Here Knows When
5. When You Sleep
6. I Only Said
7. Come In Alone
8. Sometimes
9. Blown A Wish
10. What You Want
11. Soon

Anna Calvi will release a 10-year Anniversary edition of her self-titled debut album via Domino. An astonishingly confident record; ‘Anna Calvi’ showcases the unique strengths of her songwriting, singing and virtuoso guitar-playing, all jumping out of the speaker together. Calvi drew on the ghosts of Nina Simone and Maria Callas for influence to create a stunningly modern sound.

To date, Anna Calvi has released three studio albums (‘Anna Calvi’, ‘One Breath’ and ‘Hunter’), a collaborative EP with David Byrne (‘Strange Weather’) and the most recent ‘Hunted’, a seven-track reworking of ‘Hunter’. Additionally, Calvi wrote and performed the score for Season 5 of BBC One’s Peaky Blinders and wrote the music for the opera The Sandman, directed by Robert Wilson.

Anna is the first solo artist to achieve three consecutive Mercury Prize nominations and has also received a Brit Award nomination. Throughout her career, Calvi has worked with Brian Eno, Marianne Faithfull, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Joe Talbot (IDLES), Dave Okumu (The Invisible), Johnny Flynn, Adrian Utley (Portishead) and Courtney Barnett.

The LP, which includes the likes of ‘Desire’, ‘Blackout’, ‘Rider To The Sea’ and ‘Suzanne And I’, is reissued for the first time, available to independent retailers on deluxe red vinyl. It also features brand new cover artwork and an 8-page booklet containing previously unseen photographs, plus digital download code.

TRACK LISTING

1. Rider To The Sea
2. No More Words
3. Desire
4. Suzanne And I
5. First We Kiss
6. The Devil
7. Blackout
9. I’ll Be Your Man
10. Morning Light
11. Love Won’t Be Leaving

Set in the desert of Crestone, Colorado over the course of eight days and set to an original score composed by Animal Collective's Geologist & Deakin. Crestone follows a group of SoundCloud rappers who live in solitude, growing weed and making music for the internet. When an old friend arrives to make a movie, reality and fiction begin to blur.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: It's a bit of a different vibe for Animal Collective this time round, with their notoriously clangy arty-indie replaced with brittle atmospherics and suitable filmic drones. It's a big step, but a perfectly fitting soundtrack and a testament to the continued skill of this Maryland crew.

‘Island’, the latest album from Oscar-nominated composer and songwriter Owen Pallett, released on Domino / Secret City Records (Canada).

Almost entirely acoustic, ‘Island’ begins with 13 darkened chords and was recorded live at Abbey Road Studios with the London Contemporary Orchestra. The introduction is the sound of waking up alone and on the shore of a strange land. What follows is a shimmering and luscious orchestral album that draws across the full breadth of Pallett’s discography, from ‘Heartland’’s Technicolor to the glittering, fingerpicked guitar that marked Pallett’s first records with their trio, Les Mouches.

In addition to Pallett’s Grammy Award-winning work with Arcade Fire, Pallett’s commissions have included string, brass and orchestral work for Last Shadow Puppets, The National, The Mountain Goats, Christine and arrangements for Frank Ocean, Caribou, R.E.M., Linkin Park, Sigur Rós, Taylor Swift and the Pet Shop Boys.

Since the release of ‘In Conflict’ (2014), Pallett has earned an Oscar nomination for their film scoring work on Spike Jonze’s ‘Her’ and an Emmy for Sølve Sundsbø’s ‘Fourteen Actors Acting’. Their score for Matt Wolf’s ‘Spaceship Earth’, a documentary about a crew who spent two years quarantined inside a replica of Earth’s ecosystem called BIOSPHERE 2, is out now.

TRACK LISTING

---> (i)
Transformer
Paragon Of Order
---> (ii)
The Sound Of The
Engines
Perseverance Of The
Saints
Polar Vortex
---> (iii)
A Bloody Morning
Fire-Mare
Lewis Gets Fucked Into
Space
---> (iv)
In Darkness
Paragon Of Order
(version)
Fire-Mare (version)

‘Banane Bleue’ (French for blue banana), the brand new album from Frànçois & The Atlas Mountains, is a nomadic and truly European record, hailing from rented workspaces in some of the continent’s key cities - Berlin, Athens and Paris - and recorded with instruments that were often borrowed from likeminded musicians.

Written solely by Frànçois Marry himself, close collaborator and Weird World artist Jaakko Eino Kalevi was enlisted for production duties whilst Renaud Letang (Feist, Gonzales, Connan Mockasin) mixed the album.

The title of the album is taken from the ‘blue banana’ concept, a geographical theory that groups together a corridor of Europe’s biggest cities, originally conceived in the 1980s. The theory states that the blurring of these cities’ boundaries has resulted in the formation of one massive, interconnected megalopolis.

Expanding on the theory, Frànçois poetised it, picturing a luminescent blue banana shape that you can see from space with vibrant, ethereal currents that surround and bind us. It explores common cultural and romantic ground, creating an album full of missed meetings and misunderstandings.

TRACK LISTING

The Foreigner
Coucou
Julie
Par Le Passé
Holly Golightly
Lee-Ann & Lucie
Tourne Autour
Revu
Gold & Lips
Dans Un Taxi

Animal Collective present the physical release for ‘Bridge To Quiet’, out on Domino.

The band took some of their unreleased improvisations, remixed them, collaged them and built them into fully formed songs, finding their way to ‘Bridge To Quiet’.

Animal Collective consists of musicians Avey Tare (David Portner), Panda Bear (Noah Lennox), Deakin (Josh Dibb) and Geologist (Brian Weitz), who play in various configurations on each album. Their expansive catalogue spans the entirety of the 2000s, including ‘Strawberry Jam’, ‘Feels’ and ‘Sung Tongs’. With the release of ‘Merriweather Post Pavilion’, named after the Baltimore venue, they established themselves as one of the most acclaimed acts of the 21st Century.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Bridge To Quiet shows the Animal Collective in a more expansive, avant-ambient mood, with these stunning shadowy vocals and electronic artifacts mixed with glitched synths and off-kilter snappy percussion.

TRACK LISTING

Rain In Cups
Piggy Knows
Sux-Bier Passage
Bridge To Quiet

The album came to be after the blossoming of a long-term friendship between James Yorkston and Karl-Jonas Winqvist, the Swedish music producer, leader and conductor of The Second Hand Orchestra.

Yorkston says of recording “Struggle” with TSHO: “The band were sat by in the studio by themselves, looping the verses over and over. I was in the control room, drinking sweet tea. I just had to wait for the right moment and jump on board, like when I’m pushing my kids round on a roundabout in the local park. I love that everyone was singing along so freely when we recorded this. There were vocal mics for everyone, and people would just lean in with a harmony, every now and then. It gives it a very communal feeling.”

That communal feeling is apparent across the entire album. Recorded and mixed in Sweden over the course of three days with a selection of musicians Winqvist had brought together, including Peter Morén (Peter, Bjorn & John), Cecilia Österholm (one of Sweden’s best-known nyckelharpa players), Emma Nordenstam (piano & cello) and Ulrika Gyllenberg (violin). The studio approach with The Second Hand Orchestra was entirely improvised around Yorkston’s songs, and the only song they heard in advance was “Ella Mary Leather”; Yorkston didn’t want to direct anyone too much but instead, allowed for a welcoming, instinctive, free-spirited and joyful atmosphere. The Wide, Wide River is a soothing, warm and sublime listen, whilst also highlighting Yorkston’s skills for songwriting, collaboration and as a musical conductor. The record takes in past loves, advancing age and friends, now gone, whilst also containing some of the most sanguine songs Yorkston has ever made.

The Wide, Wide River is James’ tenth album for Domino, not to mention his three albums as part of Yorkston/Thorne/Khan and his two books. A prolific writer, Yorkston has worked with a wealth of talent over his two-decade career including Four Tet, Alexis Taylor, KT Tunstall, Rustin Man, Simon Raymonde, Norma and Mike Waterson, Martin Carthy, Max Cooper, David Wrench and many others.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: James Yorkston makes some of the most endearing melodic indie-folk you're likely to hear and teaming up hear with the Second Hand Orchestra ends up sounding like a joyful, clattering distillation of trad folk and wild exhuberant art-rock. Exactly what we need right now.

TRACK LISTING

Ella Mary Leather
To Soothe Her Wee Bit Sorrows
Choices, Like Wild Rivers
Struggle
There Is No Upside
A Droplet Forms
A Very Old-Fashioned Blues
We Test The Beams

Following last year’s extensive re-release campaign, Domino announce the Buzzcocks 7” box-set containing the 12 singles the band released for United Artists between 1977 and 1980.

Remastered from the original tapes and in the original Malcolm Garrett designed sleeves, the box also contains a 36-page booklet written by acclaimed author and punk chronicler Clinton Heylin.

A thrilling run of singles, primarily written by Pete Shelley & Steve Diggle, which showcased their effortless ability to write three-minute-minimasterpieces that would endure long after the initial spark of punk had faded, many of these tracks were compiled and released on the album Singles Going Steady, a record which came out in the U.K. in November 1981 and quickly transcended its status as a mere compilation going on to become regarded as a seminal and era– defining release.

12 x 7’’ black vinyl in flip-top box with 36-page booklet and digital download card.

TRACK LISTING

Single 1
Orgasm Addict
What Ever Happened To?
Single 2
What Do I Get?
Oh Shit!
Single 3
I Don’t Mind
Autonomy
Single 4
Love You More
Noise Annoys
Single 5
Ever Fallen In Love (With
Someone You Shouldn’t’ve?)
Just Lust
Single 6
Promises
Lipstick
Single 7
Everybody’s Happy Nowadays
Why Can’t I Touch It?
Single 8
Harmony In My Head
Something’s Gone Wrong Again
Single 9
You Say You Don’t Love Me
Raison D’Etre
Single 10
Are Everything
Why She’s A Girl From The
Chainstore
Single 11
Strange Thing
Airwaves Dream
Single 12
Running Free
What Do You

Georgia’s new album, ‘Seeking Thrills’, is a musically daring story of hedonism, self-discovery and, above all, the transcendental power of the dancefloor.

The North West Londoner has been on a long, dazzling journey since the release of her critically acclaimed debut album in 2015. Her first self-titled collection of percussive, punk-inflected pop songs was lauded by The Guardian, Vice, The FADER and others - but nobody predicted the about turn she would make when she returned with two rough-hewn diamonds of house music in 2019.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: I was a huge fan of the superb album from Georgia a few years ago, and if anything, the crystal clear production and effortless absorption of dancefloor influence and soulful 80s groove in 'Seeking Thrills' is even more satisfying. Ram-packed with day-long earworms.

TRACK LISTING

Started Out
About Work The Dancefloor
Never Let You Go
24 Hours *
Mellow (ft Shygirl)
Til I Own It
I Can’t Wait
Feel It
Ultimate Sailor
Ray Guns
The Thrill (ft Maurice)
Honey Dripping Sky

* = CD / LP Digital download Card Only

The Kills have compiled an extraordinary career spanning b-sides and rarities album titled, appropriately, Little Bastards. The songs date back from the band’s first 7-inch singles in 2002 through to 2009. All of the material has been newly remastered for release on 2 x LP, CD & Digital and marks the first ever vinyl pressing for some of these tracks.

The compilation includes the unreleased and never-before-heard demo “Raise Me” from the 2008-2009 Midnight Boom era. Other highlights include “I Call It Art” from the Monsieur Gainsbourg Revisited covers compilation, the brilliant Midnight Boom digital bonus track “Night Train,” a blistering performance of “Love Is A Deserter” from an XFM radio session and a handful of classic American roots songs performed with the kind of bruising delivery they’re famous for: Howlin’ Wolfs’ “Forty Four,” Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ “I Put A Spell on You” and Dock Boggs’ “Sugar Baby.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: It always amazes me when a band releases a b-sides album that could easily have held an album’s worth of material. In the case of the new Kills retrospective, ‘Little Bastards’ (named after a presumably disobedient Roland 880 sampler) it could easily have been two albums worth.

TRACK LISTING

1. SUPERPOWERLESS / Last Day Of Magic 7” - 2008
2. PASSION IS ACCURATE / Love Is A Deserter CD Single - 2005
3. KISS THE WRONG SIDE / Cheap And Cheerful 7” - 2008
4. RAISE ME / Unreleased Demo 2009
5. NIGHT TRAIN / Midnight Boom Digital Bonus Track 2008
6. HALF OF US / No Wow 7” - 2005
7. LONDON HATES YOU / Tape Song 7” - 2008
8. I CALL IT ART / Monsieur Gainsbourg Revisited Compilation - 2006
9. FORTY FOUR / Black Balloon 7” - 2009
10. LOVE IS A DESERTER / Recorded For XFM - 2005
11. THE SEARCH FOR CHERRY RED / Pull A U 7” Single - 2003
12. MAGAZINE / Love Is A Deserter 7” - 2005
13. BLUE MOON / Future Starts Slow 7” Single - 2011
14. JEWEL THIEF / Fried My Little Brains 7” Single - 2003
15. BABY’S EYES / The Good Ones 7” Single - 2003
16. I PUT A SPELL ON YOU / Screamin’ Jay Hawkins Cover - 2009
17. RUN HOME SLOW / The Good Ones CD Single - 2005
18. WEED KILLER / Black Balloon 10” - 2009
19. THE VOID / No Wow Expanded Edition CD - 2005 

Recorded at the start of the band’s ‘Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino’ tour, ‘Arctic Monkeys - Live At The Royal Albert Hall’, features 20 of the band’s finest moments to date.  All proceeds from the album will go to War Child to help fill the £2 million deficit they are facing in 2021 caused by the devastating impact of Covid-19 on their fundraising. These funds are urgently needed to support those who are worst hit by the virus.

“On June 7, 2018 we played a very special show at London’s Royal Albert Hall. All the proceeds from that memorable night were donated to War Child in support of the vital work they do protecting, educating, and rehabilitating children who have experienced the trauma of conflict and the horror of war. The situation that was bad in 2018 is now desperate and those children and their families need our help more than ever. To enable War Child to reduce their funding deficit and continue their valuable work, we are happy to be able to release a live album, recorded that evening at The Royal Albert Hall. All proceeds will go direct to the charity. We thank all our fans in advance for their support of this release and in turn for their support of War Child” - Arctic Monkeys.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A completely essential document of the Arctic Monkeys incendiary live show here, on top form and all for a good cause. The set-list is everything you'd expect from a Monkeys best-of gig and all from the comfort of your own home! What more could you want.

TRACK LISTING

1. Four Out Of Five
2. Brianstorm
3. Crying Lightning
4. Do I Wanna Know?
5. Why'd You Only Call Me When You're High?
6. 505
7. One Point Perspective
8. Do Me A Favour
9. Cornerstone
10. Knee Socks
11. Arabella
12. Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino
13. She Looks Like Fun
14. From The Ritz To The Rubble
15. Pretty Visitors
16. Don't Sit Down 'Cause I've Moved Your Chair
17. I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor
18. Star Treatment
19. The View From The Afternoon
20. R U Mine?

As the These New Puritans canon has grown through the years, Hidden has always stood as the great indicator of the group's detail, precision and ambition. Originally released in 2010, when both Jack and George Barnett were just 22 years old, Hidden was the second album the twins released as These New Puritans.

The album itself was produced by TNP's Jack Barnett and Graham Sutton (Bark Psychosis, Boymerang) and mixed by Dave Cooley (J Dilla, MF DOOM), it draws on both the rhythmic lexicons of dancehall and 20th century post-minimalism, the recording features 6ft Japanese Taiko drums, a thirteen piece brass and woodwind ensemble, sub-heavy beats, prepared piano & a children's choir. The result is equal parts brutal and melancholy, standing the test of time, sounding as pioneering and bold a decade on.

Hidden is a record that crushes together menace and beauty: after the prelude of woodwind that is “Time Xone”, “We Want War” remains one of the most startling tracks to be released as a single in this millennium - a sound like swarms of invading, metallic wasps, robotic voices intoning, the martial rattle of layers of drums, Jack Barnett’s vocals an incantation. The militant funk of “Three Thousand”, strange skittish jazz in “Hologram”, and “Drum Courts - Where Corals Lie” feels like an ancient, elegiac folk song carried forth on a storm. A record of intense variety, soul and depth, Hidden is remarkable by anyone’s standards, let alone one made by a group of people barely out of their teens.

Through the extremes of recording, These New Puritans had a critical hit. It was rightly lauded for its singularity and adventure at the time and found the group a legion of loyal fans and was given NME’s prestigious Album of the Year 2010 accolade. Further to the record, it spawned the Hidden Live tour, featuring a large ensemble, conductor Andre De Ridder, and a kids choir. 

TRACK LISTING

Disc 1
1. Time Xone
2. We Want War
3. Three Thousand
4. Hologram
5. Attack Music
6. Fire–Power
7. Orion
8. Canticle
9. Drum Courts–Where Corals Lie
10. White Chords
11. 5

Disc 2
12. Hologram Pianos
13. We Want War Brass & Woodwind
14. 5 Mallets
15. Hologram Chamber Mix
16. Drum Courts Hidden Live Paris
17. Irreversible¬¬–En Papier Hidden Live Berlin

Dirty Projectors’ 2020 five four-song EPs, each strikingly different from the next, all come together in a 20-song anthology titled ‘5EPs’.

Each EP features lead vocals by a different band member: Maia Friedman, Felicia Douglass, Kristin Slipp and Dave Longstreth, who all trade verses on the series closer.

Maia’s ‘Windows Open’ is acoustic and folky, Felicia’s ‘Flight Tower’ is both soulful and electronic, Dave’s ‘Super João’ is a four-track bossa nova homage to João Gilberto, Kirstin’s ‘Earth Crisis’ is a cut-up orchestral collage in the mode of through-composed art song, whereas the final EP ‘Ring Road’ weaves together the emotional, stylistic, and lyrical threads explored in the prior four EPs.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: I was just listening to Dirty Projectors' song with David Byrne for the 'Dark Was The Night' compilation just the other day, which led me to wishing for a collection of some of the more unheard of tracks from their canon. Lo and behold, stone the crows etc. Here it is. You'll have heard some of these tracks before, but it's a brilliant document to have them all together like this.

TRACK LISTING

On The Breeze
Overlord
Search For Life
Guarding The Baby
Inner World
Lose Your Love
Self Design
Empty Vessel
Holy Mackerel
I Get Carried Away
You Create Yourself
Moon, If Ever
Eyes On The Road
There I Said It
Bird’s Eye
Now I Know
Por Qué No
Searching Spirit
No Studying
My Possession

‘A Bag Of Eyes’ is Fogarty’s third album - a wholly different sonic prospect to 2017’s much-lauded ‘The Curious Hand’. Weary of the guitar, and seeking something darker than its predecessor, he chose to lean more heavily on synths and drum machines and, additionally, to self-produce. “It was about creating and exploring new sound worlds,” Fogarty says. “Experimenting with new ways of incorporating electronics into the songwriting process, and in some cases dispensing with conventional songwriting processes altogether.”

On ‘A Bag OF Eyes’ there is industrial judder, slacker-fuzz guitar, a cacophony of saxophones. On one track, ring-modulated drums kick in with oscillating fury. Another moves from 90s shit-hole grunge venue to sleazy jazz joint in four minutes. Whilst on a third a synth is deployed, with the express purpose of sawing the listener’s ears in half, Fogarty attests. However, beneath them all lie fragments of melody, image, drone; a flicker of banjo, an electronic pulse. “I like to purposely make music that clashes with the more traditional stuff that I do,” he says.

Fogarty’s celebrated storytelling is at home in this new sound world, rambling between the fantastical and the mundane: nuns playing volleyball, horses on clifftops, lives glimpsed through rear windows. There are echoes of his own past, the loss of dear friends. Ireland, London and two views of San Francisco, 15 years apart. It is bus stops, house fires and Jimmy Stewart. ‘A Bag Of Eyes’ was recorded across London, Kent and East Sussex and features Fogarty’s partner Emma Smith, Meilyr Jones, long-time collaborators Leo Abrahams, Aram Zarikian and John Fogarty, as well as someone slightly more unexpected, an audience member recorded live at one of Seamus’ gigs in Dublin. If there is a restlessness to these songs it is there not only in their geographical sweep, their mingling of memory and nostalgia, but also in their sense of invention: audience anecdotes, a trad ballad cover, electronic fury, dirty guitar solos, all pressed fiercely together into something that feels startling and new and explorative. 

TRACK LISTING

Shapes
Old Suit
Jimmy Stewart
Wake Up Felix
Bus Shelter Blues
Nuns
Ghosts
Horse
Interlude
Johnny K
San Francisco
My Boy Willie