“We died when we started writing this album,” say Sorry, preparing to release 'COSPLAY', their third studio album, set for release on 7th November on Domino. But if Sorry did, indeed, die before a note had been recorded, before a single word had even been jotted down, who the hell are this bunch now masquerading as Sorry? Who has donned the Sorry outfits so convincingly? Who is it that has recorded 'COSPLAY', this album that first meticulously erases and then extravagantly redraws the perimeters of what a contemporary rock’n’roll band can achieve? Welcome to the world of 'COSPLAY', where anyone can be anyone, past or present, real or imaginary, dead or alive.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Effortlessly slipping between jagged, angular garage rock and woozy alt-pop with flickering post-rock instrumentation and soaring synthy accents. All of this perfectly twisting around Asha Lorenz's evocative, chameleonic vocal. A brilliantly momentous, constantly evolving treasure.

TRACK LISTING

1. Echoes
2. Jetplane
3. Love Posture
4. Antelope
5. Candle
6. Today Might Be The Hit
7. Life In This Body
8. Waxwing
9. Magic
10. Into The Dark
11. JIVE

‘Songs for Nina and Johanna’ is the beautiful new album from James Yorkston, this time featuring not one but two of Sweden’s most recognisable female vocalists. Recorded in Stockholm with Nina Persson (The Cardigans), Johanna Söderberg (First Aid Kit) and members of The Second Hand Orchestra, these are songs about family, love and parenthood. Tender and heart-breaking yet overwhelmingly life-affirming, ‘Songs for Nina and Johanna’ is a vital addition to the James Yorkston catalogue.

Songs for Nina and Johanna is the beautiful new album from James Yorkston, his sixteenth on Domino and his third to be recorded in Stockholm in conjunction with members of The Second Hand Orchestra. Nina Persson (The Cardigans), who teamed up with James on his previous critically-acclaimed album, The Great White Sea Eagle, this time divides singing duties with Johanna Söderberg (First Aid Kit), the two of them singing separately with James on five and four tracks respectively.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: I've always been a huge fan of the otherworldly vocals of Nina Persson and this gorgeous LP from James Yorkston features both Nina and Johanna from First Aid Kit singing alongside Yorkston's perfectly pitched syrupy drawl. It's beautifully written and performed even more beautifully than you'd expect. A wonderfully warm, evocative study in collaboration.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. I Can Change
2. Oh Light, Oh Light
3. A Moment Longer
4. Love / Luck
5. Where's The Time?

Side B
6. Rabbit
7. Love That Tree
8. Oh Sparrow, Up Yours
9. I Spooked The Neighbours
10. With Me, With You

Dinked Edition Bonus CD EP: “Reimaginations” By The Second Hand Orchestra
1. Time Was Short (5 1/2 Min To Be Exact)
2. With You, With Me (in Swedish)
3. A Moment Longer (Lina Langendorf Solo Saxophone)
4. Where’s The Time? (Instrumental)

To celebrate the release of the new book 'Passing a Message: The Lyrics and Artwork of Conor J. O'Brien', Domino is repressing Villagers' back catalogue with a new range of coloured vinyl. 'Passing a Message' presents the lyrics of over 80 songs from the Villagers songbook with Conor's drawings, photographs and previously unseen notebook lyric drafts.

To celebrate the release of the new book 'Passing a Message: The Lyrics and Artwork of Conor J. O'Brien', Domino is repressing Villagers' back catalogue with a new range of coloured vinyl. 'Passing a Message' presents the lyrics of over 80 songs from the Villagers songbook with Conor's drawings, photographs and previously unseen notebook lyric drafts.

Making this album has been a process that has been endlessly rewarding for Ryder-Jones, both creatively and personally, as he finally accepts that he’s made an album that has bettered one he’s been trying to top for a decade. “It's been incredible making this,” he says. “Despite all the life stuff that's happened, it has brought me immense happiness. I've always railed against it when people ask if making a record is cathartic but I’d have to admit that this one really was. Over the years my music has lost a bit of its hope I reckon. It were important for me to make a record that had more hope in it. Even by my standards the last few years have been rocky, but I’ve chosen to soundtrack it with more positive music, you know? I love this album. I haven't been this proud of a record since A Bad Wind Blows in My Heart.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Darryl says: Having left The Coral in 2008 Bill Ryder-Jones released four albums from 2011 to 2018. Unfortunately the COVID period saw a downturn in Bill’s mental health, and this coupled with a broken romantic relationship has led to an understandably long wait for his epic fifth album, ‘Iechyd Da’. Explaining the reasoning behind the title (Welsh for “good health”) Bill says, “My love of Wales has always been there. Half of my family is from there, I lost my brother there, all my childhood holidays were in Scotland or Wales. It’s just a magical place with an incredibly beautiful language. Although I did have to go to Gruff Rhys and ask him about calling it this as I’m still very much an Englishman – he OK’d it.”

There’s a lot of melancholy in Bill’s music, the aforementioned loss of his brother at an early age and recent anguish and despair would usher in the dark clouds for most people, and although the album is filled with understandable heartache its glorious widescreen warmth offers a light at the end of the tunnel.

From the very first bars of opener “I Know That It’s Like This (Baby)” to the final refrain of “Nos Da”, ‘Iechyd Da’ is a work of disarming beauty; Bill’s intimate lyrical honesty shining through as he tries to make sense of the world. His articulate musicology also comes to the fore with classy references throughout; Gal Costa on the aforementioned opener; “Street Hassle” on the poignant “If Tomorrow Starts Without Me”; “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” on the anthemic “Nothing To Be Done”; and Mercury Rev’s “Holes” on the utterly gorgeous redemption song “Thankfully For Anthony” with its lyrical refrain, “I know loss, but I chose love”.

One of Britain's best songwriters is back, and 'Iechyd Da' is Bill-Ryder Jones' masterpiece.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
I Know That It’s Like This (Baby)
A Bad Wind Blows In My Heart Pt. 3
If Tomorrow Starts Without Me
We Don’t Need Them
I Hold Something In My Hand
This Can’t Go On
Side B
1. …And The Sea…
2. Nothing To Be Done
3. It’s Today Again
4. Christinha
5. How Beautiful I Am
6. Thankfully For Anthony
7. Nos Da

Dinked Edition Bonus 7”:
Bedbound Melodies (Big Softies)
When Will I Get Used To This? (Big Softies)

Georgia announces her return with her incredible new album Euphoric; co-produced by Rostam (Haim, Carly Rae Jepsen, Clairo), it marks the first time that Georgia has worked with another producer on her own material. The result is her dynamite third studio LP, featuring ten songs that vibrate with energy.

Euphoric follows Georgia’s club-coercing last record, the universally adored and critically acclaimed Seeking Thrills which well and truly cemented her as one of the UK’s premier producers and songwriters. Since then, Georgia has collaborated with the likes of Mura Masa, Gorillaz, Shygirl, Baby Tate, Dan Carey and David Jackson, most recently writing with Years and Years’ Olly Alexander and on Shania Twain’s #1 album Queen Of Me. All of this experience has been poured into her forthcoming album.

Georgia has also shared the first single from the record, “It’s Euphoric”, complete with a vibrant and compelling video directed by Fa & Fon. Powered by a gentle ecstasy, the song opens with a grounding bassline which Georgia toys with through her playful vocal rhythms (“I wasn’t saying much/ It was on the tip of my tongue”). “It’s Euphoric” was the first track that Rostam and Georgia wrote together and it went on to dictate the entirety of the album’s colourful soundscape.

Having written her last two albums within a three-metre radius of her bedroom, it was important for Georgia to find a new physical and emotional space in which to write: “I wanted an adventure! Being a self-produced musician, it’s easy to get stuck on one thing or in one place.” As fate would have it, esteemed producer Rostam DM’d Georgia after hearing her on the Mura Masa track “Live Like We’re Dancing”, and she swiftly was on a flight out to LA.

After 10 years of being her own main collaborator, a crucial part of the writing process was learning to relinquish control. And for Georgia, this record is a surrender, “To my issues, to my past, to my flaws and to the healing process” and through it she was able to guide herself to a new healthy form of unconstrained liberation. Euphoric see Georgia stepping out from behind the recording desk and establishing herself as a unique left-field pop artist. It’s the sound of life and of living in the now rather than escaping it.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: It's been a long, agonising wait for the new Georgia LP after her brilliant debut 'Seeking Thrills' (which still gets played at least once a week round these parts), but the stunning 'Euphoric' takes all of the thumping percussion and silken synth-lines from that spellbinding collection and knocks it up a notch. Perfectly composed, and a more than worthy step up from her already brilliant canon.

TRACK LISTING

1. It’s Euphoric
2. Give It Up For Love
3. Some Things You’ll Never Know
4. Mountain Song
5. All Night
6. Live Like We’re Dancing Part II
7. The Dream
8. Keep On
9. Friends Will Never Let You Go
10. So What

James Yorkston, Nina Persson and The Second Hand Orchestra release The Great White Sea Eagle, the follow up to James Yorkston and The Second Hand Orchestra’s The Wide, Wide River - a Guardian Top 10 Folk Album of 2021.

The record didn’t start life as a follow up; in early 2021, Yorkston began visiting his studio in Cellardyke, Fife and for the first time, starting writing songs on the piano as opposed to his usual guitar as he gazed upon the sea outside his window.

After sending the first five or six songs to Karl-Jonas Winqvist (the ringleader/conductor of TSHO), they began to discuss working on the music together. With Yorkston’s shift from guitar to piano, they thought about what other changes they could make to their process which led to the involvement of a guest singer and the legendary Nina Persson (The Cardigans) was brought into the fold.

They followed the same methodology as The Wide, Wide River – apart from James, Nina and KJ, none of The Second Hand Orchestra had heard the music prior to entering the studio – and the arrangements were made up on the spot. Yorkston summarises: “Everyone who was playing in The Second Hand Orchestra, in their own way they are all unique and colourful players. There was no-one there who didn’t know what to do. I would bring them the songs, we would start one - I would play it, and second time round people would start singing and playing, and by the time we had done it three or four times we would hit record and we would be ready to go. And the thing that they all had was the ability to give each other space and to come up with their parts based on what other people were playing naturally was a very quick process, and they were all so open, nobody was egotistical. Everything was just happy. I love the wildness in it.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: It's the second cracking Dinked release for the week and sees The Cardigans' Nina Persson team up with the endlessly talented James Yorkston and The Secondhand Orchestra for a beautiful LP brimming with brittle guitars and twinkling piano, all topped with those instantly recognisable vocal talents. A very welcome meeting of minds.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
Sam & Jeanie McGreagor
An Upturned Crab
Keeping Up With The Grandchildren, Yeah
The Heavy Lyric Police
A Sweetness In You
A Forestful Of Rougues
Side B
Peter Paulo Van Der Heyden
Mary
Hold Out For Love
The Harmony
The Great White Sea Eagle
A Hollow Skeleton Lifts A Heavy Wing

Tirzah releases "Highgrade". A full reworking of the ten tracks on her acclaimed second album "Colourgrade". Containing remixes from the likes of Arca, Actress, Lafawndah, Loraine James and Speakers Corner Quartet. Moving through orchestral jazz, deconstructed r'n'b and minimal electronica, "Highgrade", like all Tirzah’s music is not easily definable by genre, and all the better for it.

Personal favourites include the mutant jazz delivered by Speakers Corner Quartet's remix of "Hive Mind" (check the cello work especially!) and the reversed psychedelic lullaby of "Sleeping", remixed here by Anja Ngozi. Actress' twist on "Sink In" is also worth of a special mention - the moody downtechno wizard imbuing the track with a kind of glowing-through-the-drizzle aesthetic that's perfect for half-falling asleep on long, inner city bus journeys.

Tirzah says on Highgrade: 'The pieces can live another life and come together as a collection of hybrids. So very grateful to all the artists. Thanking them all for the music.'

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A:
1 Hive Mind (Speakers Corner Quartet Remix) 
2 Crepuscular Rays (Lafawndah Remix) 
3 Sleeping (Anja Ngozi Remix) 
SIDE B:
4 Colourgrade (Arca Vortex Remix) 
5 Tectonic (Fauzia Remix) 
SIDE C:
6 Sink In (Actress Remix) 
7 Hips (Loraine James Remix) 
SIDE D:
8 Recipe (Wu-lu Remix) 
9 '22222 ('Send Me' Rework)' (Still House Plants) 
10 Beating (Tone Remix) 

Stellar Drifting is 10 tracks of widescreen, futuristic electronic music. With features from the likes of SOAK, London Grammar and Domino’s own Panda Bear, Stellar Drifting is George’s most ambitious project to date. George keeps his roots deep within the electronic music scene, bringing in pop melodies, club rhythms and other UK dance music elements whilst pushing the boundaries of his sound.

Thematically the record incorporates intergalactic utopian narratives; escapism, outer space and utopian vision of the future feature. The term ‘stellar drift’ refers to the movement of stars - far from being static and eternal, space is constantly in motion, and celestial bodies are changing over time. The album title hints at an otherworldly serenity that might be found within this continual flux.

The visual elements for Stellar Drifting have been created by designer, David Rudnick in collaboration with digital developer, Chris Shier. 

Emotional Eternal, the third studio album from Melody’s Echo Chamber, is a deeply human collection of songs full of prolonged moments of sonic transcendency – a record that clearly exhibits its maturity but still regards the world with a childlike wonder. Having swapped Paris for the clean air of the Alps, Melody hopes the record “has that uplifting quality. I made some big and impactful decisions and changes to my life. It took me to where it is peaceful, and I think the record reflects this.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Melody's Echo Chamber lies in the sweet spot between tropical, psychedelic pop (think the recent Pop Psychedelique Comp) and jangling indie, both anthemic and dreamy. A Brilliant and hugely melodic juxtaposition of thoughtful groove and major-key jubilance.

The new Porches record, ‘All Day Gentle Hold !’, via Domino, is a celebratory collection of songs. It’s charged up and chaotic, and described by the artist Aaron Maine as “the most energetic, off-thecuff moments, collaged together into the most captivating songs [he] could make.”

‘All Day Gentle Hold !’ was meant to be released as a short, punchy collection of songs that embraced Maine’s rock roots with live drums, two guitars, a keyboard, and a drum machine. As he fully embraced the guitar as his main instrument and returned to a minimal band arrangement, Maine found a new way of working, one that pared down the maximalism of previous album ‘Ricky Music’ to a more focused sonic palette.

After years of experimentation, this record was an effort to create the music Maine makes most naturally, not through the lens of a producer, but as a songwriter and performer reaching out to an audience he could no longer see or feel.

TRACK LISTING

Lately
I Miss That
Okay
Swimming Big
Back3School
Swarovski
Watergetsinside
In A Fashion
Inasint
Grab The Phone
Comedown Song (Gunk)

On their vibrant and eclectic ninth studio album Clinic, the band who wore surgical masks before it was a matter of urgency, are taking you to Fantasy Island, where you will find yourself transported to tropical climes.

In Hartley’s words: “Clinic look to a brighter future, [Fantasy Island] it’s a very positive album, it's more about what you can make happen rather than being defeatist.”

Their last album, 2019’s Wheeltappers and Shunters, found the band satirising British culture and wallowing in sleazy Seventies nostalgia. Fantasy Island was recorded in an old studio on Merseyside during the summer of 2019, with good vibrations seeping into the grooves. This time they are embracing “the idea of looking at the future and the different ways it can unfold”, with their most electronic and pop record to date. “It’s a more global, international and outward looking record,” says Hartley. “Clear blue horizons. The brave new world!”

The album was mixed last year by Claudius Mittendorfer, who has worked with Parquet Courts, Neon Indian and many pop greats.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Clinic take their trademark post-punk psychedelic groove into new territories with their latest outing, 'Fantasy Island'. Part outsider electronica, part woozy psychedelic groove and entirely wonderful, it's a perfect listen for the times we live in.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Lamplighter
2. Fine Dining
3. Take A Chance
4. Refractions (In The Rain)
5. Dreams Can Come True
6. Miracles
7. On The Other Side…
8. Fantasy Island
9. I Can’t Stand The Rain
10. Feelings
11. Hocus Pocus
12. Grand Finale

“Colourgrade” is the latest album from Tirzah, the British-based avant garde performer who has recently been signed to Domino following some well received 12”s on Greco-Roman.

The album explores recovery, gratitude and new beginnings, presenting a singer having discovered the type of love that is shared between a mother and a child for the first time, whilst simultaneously working as an artist. Capturing both the great and the scary, the exhaustion and the recovery, Colourgrade is a listless amble through the innermost feelings, an intoxicating presentation of a full time mother and artist.

As always, a Tirzah record is a family affair. That doesn’t just mean grandmum and granddad, but the extended CURL crew that includes long term collaborators, Mica Levi and Coby Sey, the younger brother of producer Kwes who mixes on “Colourgrade.” It’s this natural, collaborative energy that keeps Tirzah’s music fresh and progressive.

If you’re into Bjork, FKA Twigs, James Ferraro, Portishead or Anika; this might be up your street. It’s a pretty varied list I appreciate, but the kind of DIY use of electronics, the lo-fi production and the dreamy aesthetic lend itself to the aforementioned acts. Check it out, there’s nowt much like it on the market at the moment! 

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Tirzah's brilliant Colourgrade follows on from the Mica Levi produced 'Devotion' and continues the impressive skewed-pop footprint, but with developments in production style and pure danceability. It's a brilliantly unique sound, fusing R&B, jazz and pop music into one brilliantly wonky, hugely enjoyable end result.

TRACK LISTING

Colourgrade
Tectonic
Hive Mind (feat. Coby Sey)
Recipe
Beating
Sleeping
Crepuscular Rays
Send Me
Sink In
Hips

Conor O'Brien is pleased to announce Villagers' fifth studio album Fever Dreams which will be released on August 20th via Domino. Escapism is a very necessary pursuit right now, and Fever Dreams follows it to mesmerising effect. It works like all the best records - it becomes a mode of transport; it picks you up from where you are and sets you down elsewhere.

O’Brien says on the gestation of Fever Dreams: “I had an urge to write something that was as generous to the listener as it was to myself. Sometimes the most delirious states can produce the most ecstatic, euphoric and escapist dreams.”

These are songs with the strange, melted shapes and the magical ambivalence of dreams. The intent of the songs is both mysterious and as clear as a bell. With Fever Dreams, there is a sense of a deepening mastery and an expanding reach by O’Brien. Inspiration for the album was found in many places and came in from all angles, from night swimming on a Dutch island to Flann O’Brien, Audre Lorde, David Lynch, L. S. Lowry via the library music of Piero Umiliani and Alessandro Alessandroni and jazz from Duke Ellington and Alice Coltrane.

Written over the course of two years, the main bodies of the songs were recorded in a series of full-band studio sessions in late 2019 and early 2020. During the long, slow pandemic days, O’Brien refined them in his tiny home studio in Dublin, and the album was then mixed by David Wrench (Frank Ocean, The xx, FKA Twigs).

TRACK LISTING

Side A
01 Something Bigger
02 The First Day
03 Song In Seven
04 So Simpatico
05 Momentarily

Side B
01 Circles In The Firing Line
02 Restless Endeavour
03 Full Faith In Providence
04 Fever Dreams
05 Deep In My Heart

Presented as the sister record to 2014’s “Asleep Versions”, “Piano Versions” is a collection of ambient piano cover versions. The songs on the EP, originally by Roger & Brian Eno, Thom Yorke, Luke Abbott and James Yorkston, are presented in a completely new context to their initial form. On these versions, Hopkins used his upright piano as the centrepiece of the EP, whilst recording the ambient, environmental elements around it.

TRACK LISTING

Dawn Chorus
Heron
Modern Driveway
Wintergreen