Originally released in 1994, Mother Earth’s ‘The People Tree’ is a gem of an album that encapsulates a love of soul, funk and folktinged ‘70s rock. To mark its 30th Anniversary, it is set for a special edition 2LP reissue that includes the original album, three previously unreleased tracks, and a further six that have neverbefore been on vinyl. It has been remastered from the original analogue recordings.

One of the best-loved albums in Acid Jazz history, it was the product of over a year of sessions, led by label-founder Eddie Piller, and features guest appearances from Paul Weller, Dee C Lee, and Brand New Heavies’ Simon Bartholomew. Bonus tracks include the previously-unreleased alternative ‘Apple Green’ with a distinctive female backing vocal, an alternative version of ‘Illusions’, and the title track.

First-time vinyl cuts include the alternate master of ‘Jesse’, ‘A Trip Down Brian Lane’ and the heavy funk of ‘Slide Sweet Baby’. The album is presented in a beautiful ‘wide-spine’ layout, with two printed inner sleeves, adorned with in-depth notes form Eddie Piller and unseen photos from the original cover shoot by Gerald Mankiewicz.

TRACK LISTING

1. Institution Man
2. Jesse
3. Startdust Bubblegum
4. Mr. Freedom
5. Dragster
6. Find It
7. The People Tree
8. Apple Green
9. Time Of The Future
10. Saturation
11. Illusions
12. A Trip Down Brian Lane
13. Jesse (Alternate)
14. Institution Man (Edit)
15. Warlocks Of The Mind (Pt. 1)
16. Time Of The Future (Alternate EP Mix)
17. Find It (Radio Edit)
18. Almost Grown
19. Apple Green (with Harmony Vocal)
20. Illusions (No Horns Mix)
21. A Trio Down Brian Lane (7” Mix)
22. Slide Sweet Baby
23. The People Tree (No Mellotron)
24. Jesse (Brendan Lynch Radio Mix)

Earth Tongue, the brainchild of guitarist Gussie Larkin and drummer Ezra Simons, present their second full-length album Great Haunting. The duo, known for their heavy flavor of fuzz-soaked psychedelic rock, are also pleased to unveil their signing to In The Red Records.

Earth Tongue’s partnership with In The Red stems from a run of shows supporting the legendary Ty Segall throughout New Zealand. Larkin explains: “Ty’s band Fuzz was a significant influence for our sound early on. Ezra and I saw them play live in London about nine years ago, long before Earth Tongue existed. We absorbed a lot of music at that time, and in fact many of the bands we saw released records via In The Red.”

Great Haunting sees the duo draw inspiration from the eerie depths of ’70s and ’80s horror cinema, delivering a sonic concoction of dark and primitive songs with thick layers of fuzz and punchy, compressed drums. The album was engineered by Jonathan Pearce from The Beths at his studio on Karangahape road in Auckland.

TRACK LISTING

1. Out Of This Hell
2. Bodies Dissolve Tonight!
3. Nightmare
4. The Mirror
5. Grave Pressure
6. Miraculous Death
7. Sit Next To Satan
8. Reaper Returns
9. The Reluctant Host

December 2012 I showed up totally exhausted in Vancouver BC after touring stupidly and relentlessly for however many straight months and got a job at a call centre raising money for the Red Cross. It was a scent free office but one time this woman cooked a piece of fish in the microwave for 10 minutes on low and hot boxed the whole office - we got sent home early no pay. There was the other woman I named the Call Centre Coltrane because her pitch and routine usually involved improvised flights of fancy that went off in both directions at once somehow landing back down with a credit card number and a donation. I used to sleep under the desk. I was there a few months and at the time I reconnected with John Brennan who I had played with briefly in Montreal at the Mutek Festival. In Montreal John was running an experimental music night at a burrito shop downtown called Garbage Night. While in Vancouver I began connecting with the music scene there and would go hang out with the Shearing Pinx lads who I think lived with Sydney the bass player at the time. I knew Nic and Jer from an AIDS Wolf Tour and was so stoked to get to know them both better. I really fell in love with that era of Vancouver's music scene.

Fast Forward to today. 2024

Actually it was the dying days of 2023 but you get it and John asks if I'll sit in with Earth Ball and I keep thinking about Earth Balance, the vegan butter everyone eats here. I brought my aching bones and my ipads on the beautiful ferry named the Queen of Oak Bay and out to Nanaimo BC, home of the nanaimo bar (a dessert treat - special to this region - that seems to be more popularly found under the weird glass sneeze guards in office building deli's out east in Ontario.... anyhoops ). No one in Nanaimo wants to talk to me about the famous treat. I asked a couple of people. Silence. Nanaimo is like London, Ontario but more fried and by the sea. The town is filled with blown out old sea dawgs with tin coffee pots and loose leaf tobacco, then there's the usual streetfolk you find in this part of the Canadian Pacific Northwest and a bunch of bohemians who I guess have left Vancouver behind - that fine city having become uninhabitable for those not making over 100k a year. And then up the way are all the retirees. Yup Nanaimo is a strange one. They mined the shit out of this region and Nanaimo is surely haunted by those buried in mining shafts or maimed by the heavy machinery or blown up by accident in the explosives store house. And when Earth Ball fire up the amps in Izzy and Jer's basement you can hear the voices of the ghosts hum through electrical lines and out the speakers, Kellen's hued feedback, Izy's sturdy basslines, Jer's paperbag guitar tone and rumble pack zaps, Liam's (aka the Kid) sheets of sound and Brennen's multidirectional drums. You wouldn't guess Earth Ball was auto-composing and from what my rat brain can tell - the lyrics are improvised too...Improvising lyrics and singing them is the hardest thing to do in all of music.. Izzy and Jer are pros. And their attitudes are pro too.

TRACK LISTING

1. Moon FM
2. Antifreeze
3. Through & Through
4. A Need To Cool Down
5. Flash In The Pan
6. Hollowgramma

“Earth, Our Planet?”: A call for environmental awareness. This time, Pedro Vian - the founder of Modern Obscure Music - presents his fourth solo album (following his 2020release, "Ibillorca"). "Earth, Our Planet?" promises to immerse us in a moving odyssey, crossing the boundaries of musical genres to provoke an urgent meditation on the protection of our planet. On this occasion Vian has composed the album influenced by the myth of the eternal return, the compositions are long and repetitive, generating
states of pure
trance.

Pedro Vian, singular for his fusion of genres and styles, ventures into even more complex territories in "Earth, Our Planet?". From the first listen, it is evident that this work treads the line of convention and breaks the boundaries of electronic and experimental music with artistic dexterity. The album weaves together texture, hypnotic rhythms and melody. Each track reveals his distinctive ability to create immersive landscapes, guiding the listener into deep emotional introspection. This is not just music; it is a transformative experience. The beauty of this album lies not only in the musical vision. The album features high-calibre collaborations that add layers of creativity and elegance. Trumpeter Pierre Bastien, whose early productions left an indelible mark on Aphex Twin's Reflex label, infuses "A Day in Rotterdam" with a unique emotional resonance. Violinist, Asia, renowned for her avant-garde approach and ability to conjure unique landscapes, elevates the album's opening tracks "Urobóros" and "Les Tambours Subterraniens". Their skill and sensitivity intertwine perfectly
with Vian's artistic vision. In addition, Italian producer Daniele Mana, with whom Pedro Vian collaborated closely on his previous album "Cascades", known for his experimental approach and talent for creating extraterrestrial atmospheres also contributes to "Les Tambours Subterraniens". His artistic perspective adds more complexity and texture to the piece, pushing the boundaries of contemporary electronic music. There is also a collaboration with Raül Refree, an artist with whom Vian worked with last year, presenting
“Font De la Vera Pau”, an album that The Guardian defined as 'a wonderful piece of electroacoustic music, a captivating mix of strings and analogue synth drones which sometimes flirts with Alice Coltrane-ish spiritual jazz'.

With "Earth, Our Planet?", Pedro Vian not only offers up some of his best work to date, but it is also a call to reflect on our relationship with the natural world. As a part of a planet where environmental awareness is more crucial than ever, he urges us to protect and preserve our world as an extension of ourselves. This extensive work is a statement, Vian addresses the
notion that too often we prioritise immediate needs over the well-being of the planet. It highlights the fact that we often consider the Earth as a possession when, in reality, we are but a part of it.

TRACK LISTING

1. Uróboros
2. Les Tambours Suterraniens Feat. Mana
3. Satan’s Voice
4. Lucid Dreams
5. Un Storia Infinita
6. The Limit Of Nothing feat. Raul Refree
7. A Day In Rotterdam Feat. Pierre Bastien
8. Your Face Shines More Than The Sun
9. Hipódromo
10. Crema Lent

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

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

The tracklisting for Waiting In The Sky (Before The Starman Came To Earth) runs differently from the Ziggy Stardust album and features four songs that didn’t make the final album.

On Side 1, in the place of ‘Starman’, one of the last three tracks recorded for the album in February 1972, is ‘Round and Round’, a Chuck Berry cover. The track was finally released on a single as the B-side to ‘Drive-In Saturday’ on 6th April, 1973. Initially, closing Side 1 of the album was Bowie's version of Jacques Brel’s ‘Amsterdam’, which would later appear as the B-side of ‘Sorrow’ on 12th October, 1973.

Side 2 of the 15th December, 1971 tracklisting features two long-time non-LP fan favourites, ‘Holy Holy’ and ‘Velvet Goldmine’. The former is a re-recording with The Spiders of David’s 1971 single. Again, this version of the track had to wait several years before surfacing as the B-side of ‘Diamond Dogs’ on 14th June, 1974.

The cover of Waiting In The Sky (Before The Starman Came To Earth) features a photo of David taken at an early Ziggy Stardust period session by Brian Ward, and the two sides of the inner bags are the fronts of the two Trident Studios tape boxes. The album’s title comes from the lyrics of ‘Starman’, which, along with ‘Rock ’N’ Roll Suicide’ and ‘Suffragette City’, had not yet been recorded when this variation of the album was compiled.

Waiting In The Sky (Before The Starman Came To Earth) was cut on a customised late Neumann VMS80 lathe with fully recapped electronics from 192kHz restored masters of the original Trident Studios master tapes, with no additional processing on transfer. The half-speed vinyl cut was by engineer John Webber at AIR Studios, London.

Full Earth is the latest psychedelic wunderkind from the far north featuring members of Kanaan and Motorpsycho. Cloud Sculptors is a lengthy instrumental work that combines Ingvald Vassbø's signature drumming, which is both brutally heavy and technically immaculate, with interlocking organs and chugging guitars.

This new quintet, based in Oslo, Norway, is centered around drummer and composer Ingvald Vassbø - best known as the rhythm section of Kanaan and, as of recently, Motorpsycho. Joining Vassbø are the two other members of Kanaan, Ask Vatn Strøm and Simen Wie, as well as two new colleagues.

With a deep connection to minimalist music, especially that of Terry Riley’s organ works, and heavy stoner rock such as Sleep, High on Fire and Elder, Full Earth centers on fuzzed out riffs, sonic experimentalism and noise music.

Full Earth creates entrancing organ and synth-laden soundscapes anchored by tight rhythmic grooves. As arpeggiated keys pass and interlock with one another, a compelling and hypnotic picture reveals itself to the listener gradually.

Cloud Sculptors features six songs, four of which are long-form, fuzz-heavy and sludgy numbers with interesting and unpredictable keyboard elements. The remaining two are shorter organ compositions inspired by James Ferraro, Onehotrix Point Nevers and Györgi Ligeti’s genius contributions to musical history.

In short: Full Earth promises to be a refreshing and truly innovative voice in the heavy rock underground and their debut is not to be missed. First pressing is available on clear vinyl!

We've been eagerly awaiting this reissue for quite some time. The ultimate slice of Pal Joey houseiness gets a repress on virgin vinyl, pressed in its original form together with the Dub & Beats mixes. No DJ or house music record buyer can call their collection complete without a copy (or 2) of this! A timeless classic that sounds as fresh as it did back in 1989. Played and supported by anyone and everyone HOUSE for 4 decades. Loopy, frenzied, uncontrollable house music that gets the whole floor worked up into a salivating frenzy EVERY time. Completely, utterly, essential. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: One of the all-time classics. Not over-the-top as to burn out quickly. Pure fire inside this bad boy house track from Pal Joey. You need.

The long lost 1968 debut album by singer-songwriter, Scott Fagan, once tipped to be bigger than Elvis, is set for release on 9th February 2024 via Earth Recordings. ‘South Atlantic Blues’ will be reissued for the first time in its original artwork, with an iconic portrait of Fagan by famed rock photographer, Joel Brodsky, following a widely celebrated 2015 release.

Revisiting his mystical, mythical, and deeply soulful masterpiece, this psych-folk gem doffs a Tropicalia hat direct from downtown New York. “His songs embrace a broad sonic fantasia, swirling in ’60s New York R&B and ’40s jazz, as well as the Caribbean rhythms of calypso, meringue and Pachanga.” New York Times

Scott Fagan’s story is worthy of a movie in itself. A swinging hipster who landed in 60s Greenwich folk scene, escaping the abject poverty of his U.S. Virgin Islands upbringing, Fagan found himself mentored by the Brill Building’s Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman, and feted as the next big thing. “Forget Rodriguez, forget Searching for Sugar Man,” says Sharyn Felder, daughter of the late Doc Pomus, the legendary songwriter who signed Fagan to management in 1964. “Scott was so much more. He was cut from a different cloth.”

‘South Atlantic Blues’ is the perfect soundtrack to this tale, an epic song cycle wrapped around an impassioned love story, driven by Fagan’s dense, allusive lyrics, and production by Elmer Jared Gordon (Pearls Before Swine) and rich arrangements by Horace Ott (Nina Simone, Sam Cooke, The Shirelles). The Earth Recordings reissue coincides with a resurgence in activity for Fagan, with a new album in the works – the never-recorded soundtrack to ‘Soon’, the 1971 Broadway rock musical he co-wrote and starred in – and a documentary ‘Soon: the Story of Scott Fagan’ currently filming through Scissor Kick Films, from director Marah Strauch, writer Chris Campion (who rediscovered the singer-songwriter in 2015), and producer Eric Bruggeman.

TRACK LISTING

A1. In My Head
A2. Nickels And Dimes
A3. Crying
A4. The Carnival Is Ended
A5. South Atlantic Blues
B1. Nothing But Love
B2. Tenement Hall
B3. In Your Hands
B4. Crystal Ball
B5. Madam-moiselle

Life is what happens between curtain rise and curtain fall - And when you're in the middle of your performance, it can be tough to un-blur, categorize, and interpret the details buried within the perpetual collapsing rubble of past, present, and future - Chayse Porter will release his third studio album, Endless / Boundless via Earth Libraries, nine new musical excavations and epiphanies the Birmingham-based songwriter dug up from life's bedrock and polished to a shine in his basement lair

How to describe Porter's solo work...mischievous pop? Cotton candy spun with barbed wire? Beatle-esque, Burt Bacarach-inspired soft rock left to freeze in the warped confines of a funhouse mirror? Whatever your preferred descriptor, Endless / Boundless is a fresher, more direct record than the high-concept psyche excavations of Chay's Palace, his 2022 sophomore album.

Lyrically, Endless ruminates on unrequited love, toxic American exceptionalism, and, in one of the record's lighter moments, unexpected kindness from strangers. There's jubilant dream pop (opening stunner "Bleeding Hearts"), shoegaze with threats of violence ("Lead Pipe Cinch"), and a cinematic instrumental centerpiece best enjoyed with eyes closed ("Copter").

With the record on the way and a live band assembled and ready to go, Porter has left listeners a trail of breadcrumbs in anticipation.

TRACK LISTING

Bleeding Hearts
Rolls Of 35
Vertigo
Lead Pipe Cinch
Copter 
Flowers In Chains
Must Be Nice
Flowers In Chains
Endless
Boundless 
Land Of Disenchantment

New from California born Taylor FreelsTaylor Freels aka Liquid Earth and we gotta say, this is some of the freshest house music we've heard for a while!

Quirky and squelchy in parts, deep and dubby in others, but with a raw carnival spirit running through; it's built for the big soundsystems and outdoor parties, and, as yet, is still deliciously underground. 

"Beat Girl Beat Boy" twists minds and wiggles hips with its amalgamation of filter house, botchit breaks and daft vox - fun yet hefty enough to get the crowd bumping. "Funk Patrol" deploys squashed funk licks to another almost-new-school-breaks rhythm section that should keep b-boys and fans of Skint, Les Ryhthm Digitales and even Armand Van Helden (there's a bit of "Ultrafunkula" in there if you ask me!) more than happy. 

"Bug Collector" on side B takes things a bit more bassbin orientated, taking cues from US legends like Murk and Todd Terry, with a proggy edge binging it back to mid 90s UK influences. Finally, "The Wind Up" concludes with an anthemic, foundation shaking warehouse wobbler. Full frontal bass, rave stabs, Sheffield bleeps and brick busting rhythms certifying this one as an absolute banger! 

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: I got this in solely cos it sounds like the kinda turn-of-the-millennium house and breaks that I used to buzz off 20-25 years ago. Not in a retro perverse way; it's just got that funky, stylish spirit that screams of a time more innocent yet decadent than our current climate.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Beat Girl Beat Boy
A2. Funk Patrol
B1. The Bug Collector
B2. The Wind Up

For the first time in their diverse second act, they allow themselves to be a rock band, freed of adornment and embellishment. As much as Carlson’s guitar has always been the focal point of EARTH’s music, it’s been surrounded by consistently diverse instrumentation. Here the dialog between Carlson and Davies drumming remains pivotal, underpinned by the sympathetic bass of Bill Herzog (Sunn O))), Joel RL Phelps, Jesse Sykes and the Sweet Hereafter) and thickened by additional layers of guitar from Brett Netson (Built To Spill, Caustic Resin) and Jodie Cox (Narrows). Perhaps the largest left turn on Primitive And Deadly, though, is the prominence of guest vocalists Mark Lanegan and Rabia Shaheen Qazi (Rose Windows) who transform the traditionally free ranging meditations of EARTH into something approaching traditional pop structures.

On “Rooks Across the Gates,” a song stylistically the closest to the folk inspired modality of Angels Of Darkness, Carlson stretches out into some of his most lyrical playing to date, creating an almost symbiotic relationship between his performance and the vocals of old friend Mark Lanegan. “From the Zodiacal Light,” meanwhile, takes the late 60s San Franciscan/freaked-out jazz-rock transcendence of The Bees Made Honey In The Lion’s Skull and quickly re-appropriates that sound into a musky torch song for the witching hour.

This contradictive tension between a band pushing itself ever-forward whilst surveying their history is reflected in the albums twin recording locales. The foundation of the record was laid in the mystic desert highlands of Joshua Tree, California where EARTH recorded hour after hour of meditations on each track's central theme at Rancho de la Luna. Upon returning to Seattle these were edited, arranged and expanded upon at Avast with the help of long-term collaborator Randall Dunn (who was previously at the helm for the Hex, The Bees Made Honey In The Lion's Skull and Hibernaculum sessions).

TRACK LISTING

A1 Torn By The Fox Of The Crescent Moon
A2 There Is A Serpent Coming
B From The Zodiacal Light
C1 Even Hell Has Its Heroes
C2 Rooks Across The Gate
D Badgers Bane

‘Elephantasia’ is a glorious folk opus from 1972, long lost and attaining a legendary reputation for its candour and creativity, from the late Bangor-born singer/songwriter Dave Evans. Finally, the LP sees the light of day again via Earth Recordings, it is a true gem from the vaults of British folk history. For fans of Nick Drake, Bill Fay and Davy Graham – with a touch of Michael Chapman, Bert Jansch and Fahey for good measure.

Dave Evans’ story is like a Pinter play; he sailed the seas in the merchant navy, was taught guitar in a brief interlude by the “mythical” Morocco John, wound up sharing a room with Steve Tilston in 1963 when they attended Loughborough Art College and ran the local folk club, while learning to make stringed instruments, the art of wine making and ceramics. Over the next year, Dave got a domestic 2-track reel-to-reel tape recorder and experimented with its two speeds to produce the tracks ‘Elephantasia’ and ‘Lady Portia’. He pulled in members of local prog band Squidd, including latter day Hawkwind member Steve Swindells on keyboards, John Merritt on bass and Rodney Matthews on drums, who also designed the ‘Elephantasia’ album cover, and went on to become a renowned fantasy artist.

‘Elephantasia’ the album was originally released in 1972, fully exposing Dave’s finger picking style, lilting vocal and his dalliance with the tape manipulation. It sold around 2000 copies and over the years became a talked about rarity, deemed too progressive for folk, too folk for the new prog heads. In best plot-thickening style, Dave tried two more releases and then disappeared. The scant sleeve notes recounted the songs’ creation, featuring tales of experimentation in sound inspired by elephants, old memories recounted with all of the unpleasant bits edited out, storylines for escapists, the residents of St Agnes Park, broken beauty queens and a fat feline. It’s an eclectic but beautifully fluent narrative from a finger picking maestro with a warm and engaging vocal style that wowed Peel and Whispering Bob back in the day.

Dave Evans sadly died in April 2021. Earth Recordings is proud to reissue ‘Elephantasia’ for the first time in over 50 years, in collaboration with his estate and original Village Thing producer Ian A. Anderson.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
A1 Only Blue
A2 Elephantasia
A3 Lady Portia
A4 That's My Way
A5 On The Run
Side B
B1 St. Agnes Park
B2 Beauty Queen
B3 Ten Ton Tasha
B4 Earth, Wind, Sun & Rain
B5 Take Me Easy

Did you know there are horses on the cover of Earth 2: Special Low Frequency Version? There are at least three in the right hand corner, gathered inexplicably near a white canvas tent, a human possibly perched among its folds. As widescreen and vast as the cover may seem, those little details—the horses, the possible human, the faint wisp of white clouds—give it depth and wonder, something to which the imagination can return.

Did you know that the music on Earth 2—repressed now for its 30th anniversary, back in its original artwork, and accompanied by a riveting set of remixes that demonstrate the reach of what Dylan Carlson long ago called “ambient metal”—works much the same way? The surface is massive and obvious, the meatpaw riffs of Carlson and bassist Dave Harwell pounding and swiping and pawing at the speakers, a true bludgeon in three-dimensional sound. Listen, though, for the details in the corners, for the finesse beneath the force, and Earth 2 reveals new levels of depth and wonder.

The widespread impact of Earth 2 suggests that others have indeed been leaning in, listening to these minutiae and making something new of them. A masterpiece without many genre precedents, Earth 2 surely helped send doom metal down its more modern drone, ambient, and avant-garde avenues. Those descendants are obvious. Perhaps more surprising and gratifying are the ways it has influenced electronic music, modern composition, and even hip-hop by realigning our senses of tempo, time, and texture. Earth 2 engendered a rearrangement of expectations, regardless of preferred form.

TRACK LISTING

1. Seven Angels
2. Teeth Of Lions Rule The Divine
3. Like Gold And Faceted

Did you know there are horses on the cover of Earth 2: Special Low Frequency Version? There are at least three in the right hand corner, gathered inexplicably near a white canvas tent, a human possibly perched among its folds. As widescreen and vast as the cover may seem, those little details—the horses, the possible human, the faint wisp of white clouds—give it depth and wonder, something to which the imagination can return.

Did you know that the music on Earth 2—repressed now for its 30th anniversary, back in its original artwork, and accompanied by a riveting set of remixes that demonstrate the reach of what Dylan Carlson long ago called “ambient metal”—works much the same way? The surface is massive and obvious, the meatpaw riffs of Carlson and bassist Dave Harwell pounding and swiping and pawing at the speakers, a true bludgeon in three-dimensional sound. Listen, though, for the details in the corners, for the finesse beneath the force, and Earth 2 reveals new levels of depth and wonder.

The widespread impact of Earth 2 suggests that others have indeed been leaning in, listening to these minutiae and making something new of them. A masterpiece without many genre precedents, Earth 2 surely helped send doom metal down its more modern drone, ambient, and avant-garde avenues. Those descendants are obvious. Perhaps more surprising and gratifying are the ways it has influenced electronic music, modern composition, and even hip-hop by realigning our senses of tempo, time, and texture. Earth 2 engendered a rearrangement of expectations, regardless of preferred form.

The new remix set, Earth 2.23: Special Lower Frequency Mix, makes this clearer than ever. The Bug has taken a bit of “Seven Angels” and laced it with feedback and big bass, allowing grime luminary Flowdan to climb atop it with his dark, staccato visions. Responsible for many transformational records himself, Justin K. Broadrick of Jesu and Godflesh crawls inside “Teeth” to lash at it with punishing drum machines and sordid layers of new distortion, building it into some brokedown palace of industrial mayhem. Loop’s Robert Hampson makes good on the premise of ambient metal with his 30-minute hypnotic beauty, while longtime Earth cohort and longtime Built to Spill multi-instrumentalist Brett Netson seems to float the sound through a benighted graveyard on his clever “Teeth” revamp.

TRACK LISTING

1. Angels (The Bug Remix Feat. Flowdan)
2. May Your Vanquished Be Saved From The Bondage Of Their Sins (Robert Hampson Remix)
3. Teeth Of Lions Rule The Divine (Justin K Broadrick Remix)
4. Teeth Of Lions Rule The Divine (Brett Netson Version)

Originally released in the fall of 2003, The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place was a watershed moment for Explosions In The Sky, and a landmark album for underground and experimental music. Its iconic sound would become a touchstone in film and television as it inspired a generational sea change towards introspective art rock in lieu of traditional orchestral scores.

Artfully remastered by Bob Weston at Chicago Mastering Service, The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place Anniversary Edition is packaged in a stunning triple gatefold with restored and expanded original artwork, housed in a heavyweight slipcase. Exquisitely pressed onto colored vinyl for the first time ever, this is the soundtrack to our everyday lives in full panoramic wonder.

TRACK LISTING

1. First Breath After Coma (9:34)
2. The Only Moment We Were Alone (10:14)
3. Six Days At The Bottom Of The Ocean (8:43)
4. Memorial (8:50)
5. Your Hand In Mine (8:17)

Bert Jansch was often quoted as saying “I’m not playing for anyone, just myself” and this feels no more apparent than on 1979’s ‘Avocet’, his beautifully meditative paean to British birds. This isn’t to say that Jansch was throwing commercial success to the wind, or was unaware of his audience, more that this album feels like a uniquely personal reflection of him. (The subject of British birds is one that Jansch held close to his heart. Indeed, just preceding this album was his 1978 split 7” single with Shirley Collins - with proceeds in aid of the RSPB.)

For fans of Jansch this is often the album that is singled out as his best work. The freedoms of a post-Pentangle career are much in evidence; folk rock and even trad folk give way to an album that is not only without lyrical accompaniment but really quite orchestral, classical even, in its composition. There are surprises in particular in ‘Lapwing’ (a dirge-like waltz that wouldn’t be out of place on a Nils Frahm album) and ‘Bittern’ (which speaks of Arthur Russell’s more experimental pieces).

Featuring ex-bandmate Danny Thompson, alongside Martin Jenkins (Dando Shaft, amongst others) with sleeve notes by Jansch aficionado Colin Harper (author of ‘Dazzling Stranger: Bert Jansch and the British Folk and Blues revival’).

Limited Art print edition, reissued as part of ‘Bert Jansch 80’, celebrating the enduring legacy of Bert Jansch’s peerless guitar playing and songwriting, comes with 6 high-quality, lithograph art prints (by UK illustrator Hannah Alice) representing each of the birds on the album, held in a heavy board die-cut gatefold sleeve. This unique packaging is fully interactive - the cover image is interchangeable with any of the prints, though each one is perfectly frameable too. This edition also features three bonus tracks as a download, recorded live in Italy in in 1977 (‘Bittern’; ‘Kingfisher’; ‘Avocet’), as well as Danny Thompson’s recollections of the making of ‘Avocet’, recorded by Dave Thompson (Mojo Magazine) in typical style.

TRACK LISTING

01: Avocet
02: Lapwing
03: Bittern
04: Kingfisher
05: Osprey
06: Goldfinch Bonus Tracks ( DL Only ) Recorded Live In Italy, 1977
07: Bittern
08: Kingfisher
09: Avocet

TRACK LISTING

1. Spirit Call
2. The Lord’s With Me
3. Valley Of The Ocean
4. God Is In Control
5. Power
6. Stronger
7. Fields
8. Soul Inside My Beautiful Imagination
9. Warrior 

RIYL: Wet Leg, Es, Devo, LITHICS, Maraudeur, NOTS, The Staches, The Fates, Y Pants, Raincoats, Kleenex/Liliput, Chrisma.

German post-punk band Onyon scrambled our brains when we heard them for the first time last year, so much so that we signed them & reissued their eponymous debut cassette EP (originally co-released in limited quantities by the Flennen/U-Bac labels) in June of ’22. “Last Days On Earth” is the band’s latest & first proper full-length for Trouble In Mind.

The oddball, synth-soaked world of Onyon is disorienting at first - the band’s herky-jerky rhythms may operate in a familiar fashion to bands like Devo, Kleenex/Liliput or label-mates LITHICS, but Maria Untheim’s woozy synth squiggles that populate & punctuate the band’s songs keeps everything at arms-length. Flirting with the primitive cool of 80’s minimal-synth and the wire-haired cretinism of 60s garage, especially on tunes like the manic ‘Dogman’ or first single ‘Alien, Alien’. Guitarist Ilka Kellner’s six-string salvos rage unpretentiously with edges torn & frayed, rarely (if ever) soloing, but never afraid to unleash a spindly lead-line over Florian Schmidt’s rubbery bass lines & Mario Pongratz’s stuttering drum patterns that phase in & out of time imperceptibly like drunks doing their best to seem sober. Kellner & Untheim share vocal duties (in both English & German - sometimes in the same song), but the real magic comes when the two sing together, voices merging in loosely harmonic gang vocals; one deadpan, the other slightly unhinged. The group’s beguiling lyrics add to the mystique - inscrutable neu-world fables about egg machines, ghosts, worms that talk, and urges to consume newspaper that ooze a rural, old-world understanding of life & the imperceptible spaces in between reality & fiction, transmuted thru a modernist sci-fi lensflare.

TRACK LISTING

1. Alien, Alien
2. Talking Worms
3. Egg Machine
4. Goldie
5. Two Faces
6. Dogman
7. Blue Lagoon
8. Yahtzee
9. Invisible Spook
10. I Would Like To Eat The Newspaper
11. O.U.T.
12. Mower

Northern California psychedelic sorcerers Carlton Melton are brain surfers, mind trippers, … “psychlists,” if you prefer. The band will take your head for a ride, occasionally rushing at superluminal speeds through a wormhole or gliding softly on a gentle breeze in a leafy glade. Sometimes your brain needs to rage, and sometimes it needs to repose.

For a decade and a half, the band has yo-yo’ed, almost schizophrenically, between these two modes: walloping space jams with furious guitar solos in one hemisphere of the brain and ethereal, feather-light splashdowns in the other. Not to mention a track here and there that builds from the latter into the former.

But with two new releases in 2023, the band has evolved. Whether psych rock or ambient trance, their sound remains driving, organic, and flowing. With the addition of Anthony Taibi (White Manna, DDT), however, the group’s metal freak-outs are Hawkwindier and their droning kraut trances are Spacemen 3-er. In January, the quartet released the playfully spacey Resemble Ensemble, recorded in Taibi’s home studio 3D Light. October now sees the band Turn To Earth, a work with scents of Autumn, a season of death and transition. The cover art evokes a vine-covered, electric crucifix. The sound is, well, earthy but also gritty and striving towards change. The album was recorded in Fall 2022 and now harvested in Fall 2023.

Phil Becker (Terry Gross, Pins Of Light) contributed drums and percussion to a few tracks on Turn To Earth, recording the album at El Studio in San Francisco. With Becker at the helm, the synths have become more prominent (“Cosmicity,” “Roboflow,” “Migration”) and the tone heavier on the doom (“Cloudstorming,” “Unlock The Land,” title track): several moments could even serve as background music for epic dark fantasy films like Conan the Barbarian, Fire and Ice, or Heavy Metal.

As exquisite as Turn To Earth is, Melton are best appreciated as a live act: their recordings as well as their gigs are largely improvised – not so much composed as birthed. And yet their most recent tour ended abruptly and perilously. The group had to cancel its final three shows once members were admitted to Arnhem hospital in the Netherlands. Five years later, reinforcements have strengthened the band and restocked its arsenal of great tracks.

After the rockus interruptus of that 2018 tour and the tantric tease of the intervening Covid lockdown, Melton have some unfinished business. An October 2023 tour is poised to set the freshly minted quartet back onto the stages of Europe and within the cerebral folds of its fans.

Turn To Earth, sure … but keep your head in outer space.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: You know where you are with a blast of Carlton Melton. It's slowly growing psych, with sounds twisting and turning and weaving into a psychedelic monolith. 'Turn To Earth' does not disappoint, it too grows into a soaring grooving behemoth, with the help of White Manna's Anthony Taibi, bringing his airy lysergic groove to the mix of standout musicians.

TRACK LISTING

01. Turn To Earth
02. Cloudstorming
03. Vanquished
04. Cosmicity
05. Canned Head
06. Sundering
07. Unlock The Land
08. Roboflow
09. Last Times
10. Migration
11. Mutiny 

soaring wayne phoenix story the earth and sky is the debut album from multi-disciplinary British artist Wayne Phoenix. Originally conceived over a decade ago as one part of an elaborate project encompassing music, film, and performance, story the earth and sky is not only a profoundly personal and vulnerable expression unbound by Phoenix’s exploration of creative potential and mystery, but a bridge beyond the artificial boundaries that separate us all from an unfiltered voice within us all.

The impetus of this album formed around a musical improvisation that occurred in 2009 between Phoenix and Richard, a man who he was working with as a support client. Richard suffered from severe autism, and had been labeled as non-verbal. But as Wayne sat down to play the piano one day with Richard in the room, he was met with some surprising behavior. Richard began uttering some simple phrases over Wayne’s piano, his speech interplaying with the melancholic chords.

Moved, if not transformed, by the event, Phoenix began developing a vocal style in tune with our natural, unmanufactured voice as a means to accomplish boundless interconnectivity. He searched for “the voice of the child within, which has no concept of the world it inhabits, nor any means to navigate that world.”

This realization spurred a deeply creative period for the artist, spanning nearly fourteen years to date. Originally conceived as one part of a multimedia project, soaring wayne phoenix story the earth and sky, communicates the core of the artist’s creative intentions. Phoenix says that “all these works to date are the by-product of something else, which has manifested as music and has been spread over various artistic formats, not limited to any one specific discipline.”

Phoenix perpetuates this hazy aura of his work, stating “if it came to finding the converging principle that ties it all together, one could find oneself in a position similar to Rumi’s story of the elephant in the dark, in which each person felt a different part of the elephant and considered it to be the whole”

Mirroring this theme of subjectivity, the first half of story the earth and sky starts in abstract, words and thoughts left hanging in the ether. Phoenix’s broken, spoken word obscures itself in melodic white noise and distortion. As we reach the middle of the record, the smoky sound of the opening pieces begins to clear, making space for a melancholic yet musical manifestation of Phoenix’s work, that while still somewhat disarming, soars to higher heights. soaring wayne phoenix story the earth and sky focuses on the artist’s internal search and dissolves in the surrounding ambiance before eventually, and undeniably, arriving outside and beyond itself. A powerful, intentional debut from an artist determined to find and define a new form of expression.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Mood
A2. Alone
A3. Place
A4. Home
A5. ...and Sleepless Skies
A6. Burn False Messages
A7. I Gave You Power
A8. Reserve
A9. Death Is Pure Objectivity
B1. Latika’s Grace (it’s Not What You Go Through, It’s How You Go Through It)
B2. Gate
B3. Nightswim Feat. Run Rivers
B4. Cygnet
B5. The Light The Lamb
B6. One Man Island Feat. CrystalXulu

A spiritual soul inspired by nature, life and her experience living as an Afrikan woman, blending spiritual mantras and conscious lyricism, her music is truly transformative. Muva of Earth announces her debut project Align With Nature’s Intelligence via Brownswood Recordings. A soft and celestial spell lush with playful keys, delicate sparkling chimes and the harp expertly played by muva, this single explores her deep appreciation of being a unique and divine being. A meditative project centred around vulnerability, healing and an evolved way of thinking, on the forthcoming project across 8-tracks (also known as affirmations and chants) muva of Earth encourages empowerment and self-expression.

Born as Davina Adeosun-Bright (Davina, which originates from the word ‘divinity’, Adeosun pronounced A-de -o-shu is Yoruba tongue and means ‘Crown of Ọṣun’ which is a dedication to the orisha and goddess of the river, Ọṣun), muva of Earth was raised by Nigerian parents to be strong and independent. Making an impact early in her career, her live experience has already led her to open for Erykah Badu and Pink Siifu at the Southbank Center in Nov 2022, as well as previous headline shows and plays at We Out Here, SuperSonicJazz Funk and Soul Weekender, Cross The Tracks, X Jazz! Festival and more.

TRACK LISTING

1. Heaven Hear Me Above
2. No One Else Has Your Magik!
3. Your Intuition Is Your Friend
4. Nserewa
5. Meditation: Align With Nature's Intelligence (feat Sirius B)
6. Free Soul
7. Mermaid Under The Sun
8. The Sun Will Guide You

With Too Late For Edelweiss, Matsson weaves together a sparse collection of home recordings made in Sweden and North Carolina, captured fresh off a 39- date run with the adrenaline of tour rattling through his veins. The songs on Too Late For Edelweiss have been with Matsson since he started playing music as The Tallest Man on Earth in 2006. In those early years, Matsson used to perform "Lost Highway" by Hank Williams before he had enough songs to flesh out a full set.

In July 2022, Matsson released a cover of Swedish super star Hakan Hellstrom's "For sent for Edelweiss," a precious song that has been The Tallest Man's walk-on music before every performance for over a decade and what inspired the title of this covers album. Since then, in the lead-up to this announcement, he has quietly released other selections, including Lucinda Williams' "Metal Firecracker," Yo La Tengo's "Tears Are In Your Eyes" and now "Lost Highway." Mattson explains, "When I was a teenager I borrowed a Hank Williams album at the local library, and 'Lost Highway' has been haunting me ever since. Many vocal sound checks throughout my career have heard Hank's advice."

As much as Too Late For Edelweiss feels like a scrapbook, an intimate memento with the ghosts of The Tallest Man's earlier, sparser sound hovering at the edges, it's also just the artifact of a moment - a flash of joy, of feeling recharged, of feeling good. These are the songs that happened to be in Matsson's head at the time he sat down to record. It came together so simply and easily - and in that way, it's the purest distillation of making music - and being a fan of it, charting the connective tissue of a songwriter's life.

TRACK LISTING

For Sent For Edelweiss
Metal Firecracker
Little Birdie
Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye
Blood Bank
Tears Are In Your Eyes
Fairest Of The Seasons
Pink Rabbits
Lost Highway
In My Life

Manchester jazz-funkers, Secret Night Gang return with their sophomore album “Belongs on a Place Called Earth”, via Brownswood Recordings. “Belongs on a Place Called Earth” is a record birthed from the emotional rollercoaster the world collectively faced over the past few years, as a result of the pandemic. A time which cultivated self-reflection and profound life questions leading to an evolution for the Manchester natives. This new record is undeniably a fresh & bold new sound, with the leading purpose of permeating hope & light through their music. In continued strength to strength, Secret Night Gang are carving their own lane across the British jazz & street soul scene and this upcoming album, is set to take them to new heights.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Following on from a very well received couple of releases for Brownswood, the soulful funk powerhouse that is SNG returns for 'Belongs On A Place Called Earth'. Soaring funky instrumentals, perfectly played and full of vigour, simmer beneath the silken vocals and perfect layered harmonies. Rich, sumptuous and perfect for the summer.

TRACK LISTING

1. Respect Me
2. Dkw Tomorrow Brings
3. One & Only
4. Never Ever
5. Find A Way
6. Do For You
7. Outta Ma Head
8. Ev'ry Nation
9. Things Will Work Out 

Third studio album by the American rock band, originally released in December 2005 and featuring 14 tracks which showcase the core of The Strokes' sound: staccato, poppy, memorable hooks wrapped around Julian Casablancas' voice. The album, originally released in 2005, debuted at number 1 on the UK Albums Chart and spawned the hit singles 'Juicebox', 'Heart in a Cage' and 'You Only Live Once'.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A 
1. You Only Live Once
2. Juicebox
3. Heart In A Cage
4. Razorblade
5. On The Other Side
6. Vision Of Division
7. Ask Me Anything
SIDE B
1. Electricityscape
2. Killing Lies
3. Fear Of Sleep
4. 15 Minutes
5. Size Of The World
6. Evening Sun
7. Red Light

King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard announce their 24th album, PetroDragonic Apocalypse; or, Dawn of Eternal Night: An Annihilation of Planet Earth and the Beginning of Merciless Damnation.

It is the group’s second full-length album excursion into thrash — following 2019’s Infest The Rats’ Nest — though, as you might expect, PetroDragonic Apocalypse is no mere retread of Rats’ Nest’s gory glories, but rather a full evolutionary step all of its own.

TRACK LISTING

LP1 – Side A
1. Motor Spirit
2. Supercell
LP1 – Side B
1. Converge
2. Witchcraft
3. Gila Monster
LP2 – Side A
1. Dragon
2. Flamethrower
LP2 – Side B
1. Dawn Of Eternal Night 

I Shall Die Here / Earth Triumphant is an expanded edition of the fourth full-length album by The Body, first released to widespread acclaim, and terror, in 2014. Sharing their moribund vision with Bobby Krlic, aka The Haxan Cloak, the tried andtrue sound of The Body is shred to pieceson I Shall Die Here, mutilated by processand re-animated in a spectral state by the collaboration. This double album set is expanded with the previously unreleased Earth Triumphant, a full-length companion album that would become I Shall Die Here, showcasing The Body’s brutality in its most primal form. With both albums revisited by The Body and Seth Manchester at Machines With Magnets and remastered by Matt Colton at Metropolis Studios, this is the definitive edition of a shocking classic of unbridled bleakness and innovation.

Formed by drummer Lee Buford and guitarist Chip King in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1999, The Body soon relocated to Providence, Rhode Island. The duo remained in Providence for a decade before moving west to their current home of Portland, Oregon. Their debut self-titled album (Moganano, 2003) and on the widely-acclaimed, classification curtailing of All the Waters of the Earth Turn to Blood (At A Loss, 2011) readied the band for even more experimentations. The employment of the Assembly of Light Choir’s classical chorales on All the Waters, alongside more industrial music techniques such as vocal sampling and drum programming, prompted RVNG to inquire with King and Buford which darker corners of the electronic universe they were presumably interested in exploring.

The undertaking of I Shall Die Here was aided by Seth Manchester and Keith Souza, The Body’s long standing engineer and creative collaborator, and noted producer Bobby Krlic. Krlic’s own work as The Haxan Cloak struck a similarly despairing chord to The Body with the celebrated Excavation (Tri Angle, 2013), itself a minimalist evocation of the afterlife. I Shall Die Here shares similar nether space with the morbidly deviating darkness of Excavation, but remains sculpturally frozen in a sort of earthen purgatory. The Body’s musical approach, engraved by Buford’s colossal beats and King’s mad howl and bass-bladed guitar dirge, became something even more terrifying with Krlic’s post-mortem ambiences serving as both baseline and outer limit. I Shall Die Here sonically serrates the remains of metal’s already unidentifiable corpse and splays it amid tormented voices in shadow.

This expanded edition gives us a window into the creation of a classic with the inclusion of its in utero twin, Earth Triumphant. Recorded as a nearly finished album by Buford and King before The Haxan Cloak’s transformation,
it stands as a raw statement of intent, the original DNA for what would soon mutate into something wholly new. Fans of I Shall Die Here will find familiar sonic fragments in a more primitive state - like seeing an out-of-context photograph of a family member taken well before you knew them - but the album stands on its own in its minimalist brutality, a natural bridge to what The Body was soon to become.

The Body’s I Shall Die Here / Earth Triumphant will be released in digital and vinyl formats on June 30, 2023. On behalf of The Body, The Haxan Cloak, and RVNG Intl., a portion of the proceeds from this release will benefit Intransitive, an organization that works to advance the cause of Trans liberation in Arkansas through art, education, advocacy, organizing and culture in order to create effective systemic change and on-the-ground impact.

TRACK LISTING

1. To Carry The Seeds Of Death Within Me
2. Alone All The Way
3. The Night Knows No Dawn
4. Hail To Thee, Everlasting Pain
5. Our Souls Were Clean
6. Darkness Surrounds Us
7. Our New Genesis
8. No Sadness In The Many
9. A Testament To Willingness
10. A Cloud Broke Open
11. Wind On The Ocean, Wind On The Trees
12. Death At A Great Distance

'Earth Is Not For Humans' is the funk definition of its not a God given right! The interstellar groove brings the outer world timing to the third planet.Be warned humans you are merely temporary visitors on the miraculous terraferma.What can be deemed more different than 'Uniquely Fresh' a jazz fusion boogie combination set in the year 2055.Lastly Shokazulu warms us down with Seeing Is Believing only Shokazulu Will Protect You.

TRACK LISTING

1. Uniquely Fresh
2. Earth Is Not For Humans
3. Seeing Is Believing

Is there a curse that says Brian ‘BC Camplight’ Christinzio cannot move forward without being knocked back? That the greatest material is born out of emotional trauma?

Whilst making his new album The Last Rotation Of Earth, Christinzio’s relationship with his fiancé crumbled after nine inseparable years. The album follows this break-up amid long-term struggles with addiction and declining mental health. The outcome is an extraordinary record, with Christinzio describing it as “more cinematic, sophisticated, and nuanced than anything I’ve done before. And more desperate”.

That Christinzio has bettered his previous album is an achievement, given that Shortly After Takeoff received the best reviews of his life. “A masterpiece,” said The Guardian’s 5 star review, “a half hour or so that roils with anxiety, stuns with beauty and, occasionally, provokes laughter.” Even then, fate intervened when the album was released in April 2020, just as Covid and lockdown kicked in, so he was unable to tour the record until late 2021. The Philadelphian then joked, “I can't wait to make an album that isn’t surrounded by some awful tragedy.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A wonderful return for Brian Christinzio, full of soaring pop songs and perfectly manicured melodies, as you'd expect. What's not so expected however is how BC's self-confessed pains and setbacks have resulted in such a wonderfully jubilant end-result. Heartfelt, grand and full of nuance, 'The Last Rotation..' is by far his most refined and enjoyable outing yet.

TRACK LISTING

Side A:
1. The Last Rotation Of Earth
2. The Movie
3. It Never Rains In Manchester
4. Kicking Up A Fuss
Side B:
1. She's Gone Cold
2. Fear Life In A Dozen Years
3. Going Out On A Low Note
4. I'm Ugly
5. The Mournin

Volume 2 of this beautiful instrumental Soothsayers series featuring 10-tracks mixed and dubbed by Sao Paolo-based by Grammy-winning bass player/producer Victor Rice (Easy Star All Stars, Skatelites, Cedric Brooks), already popular with UK soundsystems including Channel One, Real Roots Soundsytem

TRACK LISTING

1. Glass Fish
2. Hummingbird Highway
3. Standing Back
4. Harry's Way
5. Black Sand
6. Glass Fish (Dub)
7. Standing Back (Dub)
8. Harry's Way (Dub)
9. Hummingbird Highway (Dub)
10. Black Sand (Dub)

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2023 EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

Toy Balloon receives itís long overdue debut vinyl pressing, featuring new artwork. Caught somewhere between traditional folk and Janschís penchant for the blues, ëToy Ballooní, from 1998, was the elder statesman of British folkís 20th studio album. Featuring a host of fantastic solo performances along with a brace of bigger sounding moments with a band including former Dire Straitsí Pick Withers on drums and the legendary Pee Wee Ellis on sax, the mainly self-penned opus also boasts a hypnotic cover of the standard ëShe Moves Through The Fairí and an evocative reading of Jackson C Frankís ëCarnivalí.

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2023 EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

When The Circus Comes To Town receives it's long overdue first vinyl pressing, featuring new artwork. From 1995, the 19th studio album from the revered legend of the British folk community, saw Bert Jansch in a purple patch surrounded by the umpteenth folk revival and new generations "discovering" his virtuoso playing. Featuring 15 self-penned originals and bringing both sax and slide guitar into the mix on occasion, 'When The Circus Comes To Town' finds Jansch in fine voice as well as with swift fingers which feature on a brace of standout solo acoustic numbers.

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2023 EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

Double LP expanded re-issue of Pearls Before Swine's classic debut, plus unreleased extras, including demos, rehearsals and alternative versions. With faithfully recreated original sleeve and extensive notes, all created in collaboration with the Tom Rapp Estate. The psychedelic-folk debut from "one of the most erudite, literate minds in rock" a stunning piece of work, from the nightmarish sleeve art - the "Hell Panel" from Hieronymus Bosch's 15th century painting "Garden Of Delights" - to the strange yet powerful songs." AllMusic. "From moody, poetic gems to the anger and intensity of the bitter anti-war anthem, "Uncle John". Fiercely unique and individual sounding." Goldmine. "A high of psychedelic delicacy and deceptive urgency, one of his masterpieces." Rolling Stone.

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2023 EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

Double LP expanded re-issue of Pearls Before Swine's follow up to "One Nation Underground", plus a second disc of unreleased extras including demos, rehearsals and alternative versions. With a faithfully recreated original sleeve and extensive notes, produced in collaboration with the Tom Rapp Estate. "The near-brilliant follow-up intended as a defiant condemnation of the Vietnam War, it doesn't offer anthemic, fist-pounding protest songs. Instead, Tom Rapp vented his anger through surrealist poetry, irony, and historical reference." AllMusic. "A high point in his recorded output." Goldmine. "A high of psychedelic delicacy and deceptive urgency, one of his masterpieces." Rolling Stone.

Kristian Matsson has never remained in one place for very long. Having spent much of the last decade touring around the world as The Tallest Man on Earth, Matsson has captivated audiences using, as The New York Times describes, every inch of his long guitar cord to roam the stage: darting around, crouching, stretching, hip-twitching, perching briefly and jittering away. Mr. Matsson is a guitar-slinger rooted in folk, and his songs are troubadour ballads at heart.

Now, Matsson returns as The Tallest Man on Earth with Henry St., his sixth studio album following 2012's There's No Leaving Now, full of vivid imagery, clever turns-of-phrase, and devastating, world-weary observations (Under The Radar) and 2015's Dark Bird Is A Home, his most personal record surreal and dreamlike (Pitchfork). Henry St. notably marks the first time he recorded an album in a band setting. My entire career Ive been a DIY person mostly fuelled by the feeling that I didn't know what I was doing, so Id just do everything myself. But now, longing for the energy that's only released when creating together with others, Matsson invited his friends to come and play.

Nick Sanborn (of Sylvan Esso) produced Henry St., which includes contributions from Ryan Gustafson (of The Dead Tongues) on guitar, lap steel and ukulele, TJ Maiani on drums, CJ Camerieri (of Bon Iver) on trumpet and French horn, Phil Cook on piano and organ, Rob Moose (of Bon Iver, yMusic) on strings and Adam Schatz on saxophone.

TRACK LISTING

Bless You
Looking For Love
Every Little Heart
Slowly Rivers Turn
Major League
Henry St.
In Your Garden Still
Goodbye
Italy
New Religion
Foothills

'Why Does the Earth Give Us People to Love?' is the debut album by Chicago-based Poet Laureate & singer-songwriter Kara Jackson.

'Why Does the Earth Give Us People to Love?', is a sonic invitation to process our grief. The title is a question the author is always answering. How do we give ourselves permission to yearn for the people we miss? How do we find the courage to let go of what begs to be released? How do we have the audacity to love in spite of everything invented to deter us from it?

Kara wrote and recorded the original demos in her childhood bedroom during the early days of the pandemic, drafting lyrics in bed and singing into a mic propped up on her dresser. From there she brought in Nnamdi, Kaina and Sen Morimoto to re-record the demos and help shape the production.

Wielding her voice like a honey-coated blade, Kara Jackson crafts a blend of emotional folk music and poetic alt-country. With the radical honesty of Nina Simone, the intricate lyricism of Fiona Apple and Joanna Newsom, and the straightforward, no-frills delivery of artists like Kimya Dawson, Kara’s writing blurs the line between poetry and song, demanding an attentive ear and a repeat listen.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Jackson's music is both intensely powerful and wildly understated, often relying upon an unadorned guitar and single vocal, before flourishing into orchestral swells and beautifully harmonised melodies. An arresting, cohesive debut LP with a singular sound.

Acid Jazz is marking its 35th Anniversary with a series of classic releases from their catalogue The first of these is Mother Earth’s debut album - ‘Stoned Woman’.

Recorded in a Tottenham industrial estate studio at the height of ‘acid jazz’, it’s a rock inflected, funky brew that heavily referenced Blaxploitation soundtracks from the early to mid 70s. Mother Earth developed a life of their own, moving through line-up changes, and leaving behind the arguably more radical sound that remains distilled in this album. A must-have for original-era acid jazz fans, marking an important time in British music.

Sony Music is proud to re-issue The Strokes’ critically acclaimed, Gold-certified album ‘First Impressions Of Earth’ on vinyl. The album, originally released in 2005, debuted at number 1 on the UK Official Albums Chart and spawned the hit singles ‘Juicebox,’ ‘Heart in a Cage’ and ‘You Only Live Once.’

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. You Only Live Once
2. Juicebox
3. Heart In A Cage
4. Razorblade
5. On The Other Side
6. Vision Of Division
7. Ask Me Anything
Side B
1. Electricityscape
2. Killing Lies
3. Fear Of Sleep
4. 15 Minutes
5. Ize Of The World
6. Evening Sun
7. Red Light

Dynamite cuts is proud to releases another Monster 7" double pack.The one and only Earth, Wind & Fire, four tracks taken from the anthemic first LP. These amazing tracks are all MUST HAVE 45s Cuts! Loaded with classic B-Boy break, Loops and club dancers.

TRACK LISTING

1. C'mon Children
2. Bad Tune
3. Help Somebody
4. Moment Of Truth

Remastered and re-appraised 31-track collection of Pearls Before Swine rarities from the private tape collection of the late, great Tom Rapp. Also available as an expanded 45 track double CD collection.

For the first time on vinyl, this beautiful collection brings together alternate versions of Rapp originals ‘The Jeweler’, ‘Translucent Carriages’ and ‘Rocket Man’. It also includes jaw-dropping covers of Rapp’s contemporaries Cohen, Dylan and Joni Mitchell, with bonus download material featuring seven amazing live versions plus a never before released intimate show at The Other End circa 1976.

A goldmine of possibilities from a prospector with a silver tongue and stories to tell. ‘The Wizard Of Is’ is a weird and wonderful trip inside its creator’s mind, from sonnets and space hymns to stories of revolution and the war. It’s an American Gothic fantasy that straddles old tyme America and the outer edges of an imagined stratosphere.

“Extremely influential.” Rolling Stone.
“A more intoxicating version of folk psychedelia.” Wire magazine.
“Shimmering folk hymns.” Spin magazine.
“Unabashedly poetic.” Crawdaddy.

TRACK LISTING

VINYL
Side A
A1 Where Is Love?
A2 Butterflies (Alternate Version)
A3 Love, You Are Not Alone
A4 Grace Street
A5 Translucent Carriages (Alternate Version)
A6 Space
Side B
B1 Rocket Man (Alternate Version)
B2 City Of Gold (Alternate Version)
B3 For Free
B4 Wizard Of Is (Alternate Version)
B5 Riegal (Alternate Version)
B6 Sail Away (Alternate Version)
B7 Footnote/When The War Began
Side C
C1 Everybody's Got Pain (Alternate Version)
C2 Crawling Towards Bethlehem
C3 I'm Going To The City (Alternate Version)
C4 Can't Go Back
C5 Prisoner Of War
C6 Another Time (Alternate Version)
C7 If You Don't Want To (I Don't Mind) (Alternate Version)
C8 (Oh Dear) Miss Morse (Alternate Version)
Side D
D1 The Jeweler (Alternate Version)
D2 The Lincoln Dream
D3 There's No Other (Like My Baby)
D4 Roadside Hotel
D5 Song About A Rose (Alternate Version)
D6 Mary Mary
D7 Crew Man
D8 Suzanne
D9 Oh Sister
D10 Full Fathom Five/I Shall Not Care
Bonus Download Tracks
1 Translucent Carriages (Live)
2 Island Lady (Live)
3 Morning Song (Live)
4 Marshall (Live)
5 Ballad To An Amber Lady / I Saw The World (Live)
6 Prayers Of Action / Candle (Live)
7 Rocket Man (Live)

CD
Disc One
1 Where Is The Love?
2 Butterflies (Alternate Version)
3 Love, You Are Not Alone
4 Grace Street
5 Translucent Carriages (Alternate Version)
6 Space
7 Rocket Man (Alternate Version)
8 City Of Gold (Alternate Version)
9 For Free
10 Wizard Of Is (Alternate Version)
11 Riegal (Alternate Version)
12 Sail Away (Alternate Version)
13 Footnote / When The War Began
14 Translucent Carriages (Live)
15 Island Lady (Live)
16 Morning Song (Live)
17 Marshall (Live)
18 Ballad To An Amber Lady / I Saw The World (Live)
19 Prayers Of Action / Candle (Live)
20 Rocket Man (Live)
Disc Two
1 Everybody's Got Pain (Alternate Version)
2 Crawling Towards Bethlehem
3 I'm Going To The City (Alternate Version)
4 Can't Go Back
5 Prisoner Of War
6 Another Time (Alternate Version)
7 If You Don't Want To (I Don't Mind) (Alternate Version)
8 (Oh Dear) Miss Morse (Alternate Version)
9 The Jeweler (Alternate Version)
10 The Lincoln Dream
11 There's No Other (Like My Baby)
12 Roadside Hotel
13 Song About A Rose (Alternate Version)
14 Mary Mary
15 Crew Man
16 Suzanne (Alternate Version)
17 Oh Sister
18 Full Fathom Five / I Shall Not Care
19 Frog In The Window (Live At The Other End, 1972)
20 There Was A Man (Live At The Other End, 1972)
21 The Jeweler (Live At The Other End, 1972)
22 Another Time (Live At The Other End, 1972)
23 Every Change Is A Release (Live At The Other End, 1972)
24 Rocket Man (Live At The Other End, 1972)
25 Love/Sex (Live At The Other End, 1972)

Bert At the BBC is a comprehensive collection of Jansch’s appearances at the BBC, featuring over eight hours of rare and unreleased recordings, including live-on-air spots, studio sessions and full concerts straight from the BBC vaults, delving further into this legendary performer’s canon. Bert Jansch was the very essence of folk music, providing inspiration for everyone from Paul Simon and Neil Young to Led Zeppelin and countless folk revivalists.

This unparalleled limited-edition compendium is available as a 4xLP and 8xCD set, housed in a coffee-table book set with a lavish 40-page book tracing the recordings from Bert’s earliest moments at the BBC. It includes interviews and insights from Lauren Laverne, Jools Holland, Johnny Marr, Jacqui McShee, Bob Harris, Bernard Butler, Mark Radcliffe and many more. Twenty broadcasters, producers and collaborators contribute at length to the booklet, with great affection for this gentle, maverick genius.

Bert’s BBC legacy remains the most significant and exciting untapped reservoir of his music. The undeniable advantage of recordings made for broadcast is that they were, by their nature, created for public consumption and, barring live-on-air appearances – which might go well or go badly, but were going out either way – were explicitly signed-off by the artist as representations of his art that were good enough to be heard.

The set is compiled by Colin Harper, author of Dazzling Stranger: Bert Jansch and the British folk and blues revival (Bloomsbury, 2000), who contributes detailed liner notes to the package. The release is mastered by IFTA award-winning engineer Cormac O’Kane.

The vinyl release features 48 tracks on LP and is accompanied by a download card with over six hours of extras spanning 1966–2009, including BBC4’s St Luke’s concert (2003), and a complete Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh concert (2004) for BBC Radio Scotland. It is also available as a special 8xCD set containing all 147 tracks and encased within a coffee-table book.

Bert Jansch At The BBC is an epic and enduring trail, 45 years in the making.

“He was that rarity, a musician who really did deserve to be regarded as a legend.” The Guardian.

“As a guitar player there was no one like him. He was jazz and blues and folk but there was a whole world in there that was just him, esoteric” Johnny Marr.

TRACK LISTING

Vinyl Tracklisting:
Disc One - Side A
A1 Whiskey Man (Guitar Club, Light Programme, 1966)
A2 Running From Home (Guitar Club, Light Programme, 1966)
A3 Interview (Guitar Club, Light Programme, 1966)
A4 The Wheel (Guitar Club, Light Programme, 1966)
A5 Orlando (Top Gear, BBC Radio 1, 1968)
A6 Thames Lighterman (Night Ride, BBC Radio 1, 1968)
A7 I Am Lonely (Radio 1 Club, BBC Radio 1, 1969)
A8 Speak Of The Devil (The Pentangle, BBC Radio 1, 1970)
Disc One - Side B
B1 Blues Run The Game (Folkweave, BBC World Service, 1977)
B2 Daybreak (Folkweave, BBC World Service, 1977)
B3 Running From Home (In Concert, BBC Radio 1, 1980)
B4 Up To The Stars (In Concert, BBC Radio 1, 1982)
B5 Heartbreak Hotel (In Concert, BBC Radio 1, 1980)
B6 Angie (Russell Harty, BBC1, 1982)
Disc Two - Side C
C1 Sweet Rose (Folk On 2, BBC Radio 2, 1988)
C2 Knight’s Move (Folk On 2, BBC Radio 2, 1988)
C3 The Snows (Night Ride, BBC Radio 2, 1988)
C4 Been On The Road So Long (Night Ride, BBC Radio 2, 1988)
C5 Bogie’s Bonny Belle (Night Ride, BBC Radio 2, 1988)
Disc Two - Side D
D1 Heartbreak Hotel (Anderson On The Box, BBC NI, 1992)
D2 Stealing The Night Away (Bob Harris, Unbroadcast, 1993)
D3 Walk Quietly By (Bob Harris, Unbroadcast, 1993)
D4 Trouble In Mind (Bob Harris, BBC Radio 2, 1993)
D5 When The Circus Comes To Town (Later... With Jools Holland, BBC2, 1996)
D6 The River Bank (Later...with Jools Holland, BBC2, 2000)
Disc Three - Side E
E1 High Days (Liz Kershaw, BBC 6 Music, 2004)
E2 Blues Run The Game (Liz Kershaw, BBC 6 Music, 2004)
E3 The Auld Triangle (Freak Zone, BBC 6 Music, 2008)
E4 A Woman Like You (Freak Zone, BBC 6 Music, 2008)
E5 It Don’t Bother Me (Mark Radcliffe, BBC Radio 2, 2006
E6 Angie (Freak Zone, BBC 6 Music, 2008)
Disc Three - Side F
F1 Empty Pocket Blues (Queen's Hall, Edinburgh, BBC Radio Scotland, 2004)
F2 Courting Blues (Queen's Hall, Edinburgh, BBC Radio Scotland, 2004)
F3 Rosemary Lane (Queen's Hall, Edinburgh, BBC Radio Scotland, 2004)
F4 October Song (Queen's Hall, Edinburgh, BBC Radio Scotland, 2004)
F5 Summer Heat (Queen's Hall, Edinburgh, BBC Radio Scotland, 2004)
F6 Texas Cowboy Blues (Queen's Hall, Edinburgh, BBC Radio Scotland, 2004)
Disc Four - Side G
G1 Crimson Moon (Queen's Hall, Edinburgh, BBC Radio Scotland, 2004)
G2 Blackwater Side (60th Birthday Concert, LSO St Lukes, BBC4, 2003)
G3 Train Song (60th Birthday Concert, LSO St Lukes, BBC4, 2003)
G4 Fool’s Mate (60th Birthday Concert, LSO St Lukes, BBC4, 2003)
G5 Carnival (60th Birthday Concert, LSO St Lukes, BBC4, 2003)
Disc Four - Side H
H1 Running From Home (Celtic Connections, BBC Scotland, 2008)
H2 In The Bleak Midwinter (Teddy Thompson And Friends, BBC Radio 2, 2008)
H3 Angie (Radio 2 Folk Awards, BBC Radio 2, 2009)
H4 Blues Run The Game (Tom Robinson, BBC 6 Music, 2009)
H5 Fresh As A Sweet Sunday Morning (Tom Robinson, BBC 6 Music, 2009)
H6 One For Jo (Tom Robinson, BBC 6 Music, 2009)

DOWNLOAD CARD: Includes An Additional 6 Hours Of Music From The BBC Archives

CD Tracklisting:
Disc 1 (1966–77)
1. Whiskey Man (Guitar Club, Light Programme, 1966)
2. Running From Home (Guitar Club, Light Programme, 1966)
3. Interview (Guitar Club, Light Programme, 1966)
4. The Wheel (Guitar Club, Light Programme, 1966)
5. Tic-Tocative (Wonderful Copenhagen, BBC Radio 2, 1967)
6. The Time Has Come (Wonderful Copenhagen, BBC Radio 2, 1967)
7. Soho (Top Gear, BBC Radio 1, 1968)
8. Orlando (Top Gear, BBC Radio 1, 1968)
9. Thames Lighterman (Night Ride, BBC Radio 1, 1968)
10. Sarabande (The Pentangle, BBC Radio 1, 1969)
11. I Am Lonely (Radio 1 Club, BBC Radio 1, 1969)
12. Reynardine (The Pentangle, BBC Radio 1, 1970)
13. Speak Of The Devil (The Pentangle, BBC Radio 1, 1970)
14. Introduction (Folkweave, BBC World Service, 1977)
15. Poor Mouth (Folkweave, BBC World Service, 1977)
16. Blues Run The Game (Folkweave, BBC World Service, 1977)
17. Daybreak (Folkweave, BBC World Service, 1977)
18. Pretty Saro (Folkweave, BBC World Service, 1977
19. Ask Your Daddy (Folkweave, BBC World Service, 1977)
20. If I Had A Lover (Folkweave, BBC World Service, 1977)
21. Come Back Baby (Folkweave, BBC World Service, 1977)
Disc 2 (1980–87)
1. Poor Mouth (In Concert, BBC Radio 1, 1980)
2. Running From Home (In Concert, BBC Radio 1, 1980)
3. Kingfisher (In Concert, BBC Radio 1, 1980)
4. Let Me Sing (In Concert, BBC Radio 1, 1980)
5. Sovay (In Concert, BBC Radio 1, 1980)
6. Alimony (In Concert, BBC Radio 1, 1980)
7. Introduction (In Concert, BBC Radio 1, 1982)
8. Love Is Lost (In Concert, BBC Radio 1, 1982)
9. Fresh As A Sweet Sunday Morning (In Concert, BBC Radio 1, 1982)
10. Up To The Stars (In Concert, BBC Radio 1, 1982)
11. If I Were A Carpenter (In Concert, BBC Radio 1, 1982)
12. Sit Down Beside Me (In Concert, BBC Radio 1, 1982)
13. Is It Real? (In Concert, BBC Radio 1, 1982)
14. Heartbreak Hotel (In Concert, BBC Radio 1, 1982)
15. Angie (Russell Harty, BBC1, 1982)
16. Is It Real? (Round Midnight, BBC Radio 4, 1985)
Disc 3 (1988–94)
1. Sweet Rose (Folk On 2, BBC Radio 2, 1988)
2. Knight's Move (Folk On 2, BBC Radio 2, 1988)
3. Strolling Down The Highway (Folk On 2, BBC Radio 2, 1988)
4. This Land Is Your Land (Folk On 2, BBC Radio 2, 1988)
5. Ain't No More Cane (Folk On 2, BBC Radio 2, 1988)
6. Been On The Road So Long (Night Ride, BBC Radio 2, 1988)
7. Bogies Bonny Belle (Night Ride, BBC Radio 2, 1988)
8. Sally Free And Easy (Night Ride, BBC Radio 2, 1988)
9. The Snows (Night Ride, BBC Radio 2, 1988)
10. Poor Mouth (Night Ride, BBC Radio 2, 1988)
11. Heartbreak Hotel (Anderson On The Box, BBC NI, 1992)
12. Stealing The Night Away (Bob Harris, Unbroadcast, 1993)
13. Walk Quietly By (Bob Harris, Unbroadcast, 1993)
14. Interview (Bob Harris, BBC Radio 2, 1993)
15. Lily Of The West (Bob Harris, BBC Radio 2, 1993)
16. Trouble In Mind (Bob Harris, BBC Radio 2, 1993)
17. The Bonny Boy (Gloria Hunniford, BBC Radio 2, 1994)
18. Sally Free And Easy (Gloria Hunniford, BBC Radio 2, 1994)
19. Interview (Gloria Hunniford, BBC Radio 2, 1994)
20. Chasing Love (Gloria Hunniford, BBC Radio 2, 1994)
Disc 4 (1996–2009)
1. When The Circus Comes To Town (Later... With Jools Holland, BBC2, 1996)
2. Blackwater Side (Later... With Jools Holland, BBC2, 1996)
3. She Moved Through The Fair (Cunningham And Co, BBC Radio Scotland, 1998)
4. The Riverbank (Later...with Jools Holland, BBC2, 2000)
5. Crimson Moon (Cambridge Folk Festival, BBC4, 2004)
6. High Days (Liz Kershaw, BBC 6 Music, 2004)
7. Blues Run The Game (Liz Kershaw, BBC 6 Music, 2004)
8. Angie (Folk Britannia, BBC4, 2006)
9. Interview (Freak Zone, BBC6 Music, 2008)
10. The Old Triangle (Freak Zone, BBC 6 Music, 2008)
11. A Woman Like You (Freak Zone, BBC 6 Music, 2008)
12. Angie (Freak Zone, BBC 6 Music, 2008)
13. Interview (Mark Radcliffe, BBC Radio 2, 2006)
14. High Days (Mark Radcliffe, BBC Radio 2, 2006)
15. It Don't Bother Me (Mark Radcliffe, BBC Radio 2, 2006)
16. The Old Triangle (Mark Radcliffe, BBC Radio 2, 2006)
17. High Days (Celtic Connections, BBC Scotland, 2008)
18. Running From Home (Celtic Connections, BBC Scotland, 2008)
19. In The Bleak Midwinter (Teddy Thompson And Friends, BBC Radio 2, 2008)
20. Angie (Teddy Thompson And Friends, BBC Radio 2, 2008)
21. Moonshine (Teddy Thompson And Friends, BBC Radio 2, 2008)
22. Blues Run The Game (Tom Robinson, BBC 6 Music, 2009)
23. Fresh As A Sweet Sunday Morning (Tom Robinson, BBC 6 Music, 2009)
24. One For Jo (Tom Robinson, BBC 6 Music, 2009)
Disc 5 (BBC4 St Luke’s Concert 2003 & Radio 2 Folk Awards 2001)
1. Introduction (60th Birthday Concert, LSO St Lukes, BBC4, 2003)
2. Blues Run The Game (60th Birthday Concert, LSO St Lukes, BBC4, 2003)
3. Blackwater Side (60th Birthday Concert, LSO St Lukes, BBC4, 2003)
4. Running From Home (60th Birthday Concert, LSO St Lukes, BBC4, 2003)
5. Moonshine (60th Birthday Concert, LSO St Lukes, BBC4, 2003)
6. Angie (60th Birthday Concert, LSO St Lukes, BBC4, 2003)
7. Edge Of A Dream (60th Birthday Concert, LSO St Lukes, BBC4, 2003)
8. Crimson Moon (60th Birthday Concert, LSO St Lukes, BBC4, 2003)
9. Bruton Town (60th Birthday Concert, LSO St Lukes, BBC4, 2003)
10. Train Song (60th Birthday Concert, LSO St Lukes, BBC4, 2003)
11. I've Got A Feeling (60th Birthday Concert, LSO St Lukes, BBC4, 2003)
12. It Don't Bother Me (60th Birthday Concert, LSO St Lukes, BBC4, 2003)
13. Fool's Mate (60th Birthday Concert, LSO St Lukes, BBC4, 2003)
14. The River Bank (60th Birthday Concert, LSO St Lukes, BBC4, 2003)
15. Strolling Down The Highway (60th Birthday Concert, LSO St Lukes, BBC4, 2003)
16. Carnival (60th Birthday Concert, LSO St Lukes, BBC4, 2003)
17. Presentation Speech (BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, Radio 2, 2001)
18. Poison (BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, Radio 2, 2001)
Disc 6 (Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, 17/8/04, BBC Radio Scotland – Set 1)
1. Carnival (Queen's Hall, Edinburgh, BBC Radio Scotland, 2004)
2. Come Back Baby (Queen's Hall, Edinburgh, BBC Radio Scotland, 2004)
3. Rosemary Lane (Queen's Hall, Edinburgh, BBC Radio Scotland, 2004)
4. Black Water Side (Queen's Hall, Edinburgh, BBC Radio Scotland, 2004)
5. She Moved Through The Fair (Queen's Hall, Edinburgh, BBC Radio Scotland, 2004)
6. Crimson Moon (Queen's Hall, Edinburgh, BBC Radio Scotland, 2004)
7. The River Bank (Queen's Hall, Edinburgh, BBC Radio Scotland, 2004)
8. Empty Pocket Blues (Queen's Hall, Edinburgh, BBC Radio Scotland, 2004)
9. The Old Triangle (Queen's Hall, Edinburgh, BBC Radio Scotland, 2004)
10. Poison (Queen's Hall, Edinburgh, BBC Radio Scotland, 2004)
11. October Song (Queen's Hall, Edinburgh, BBC Radio Scotland, 2004)
Disc 7 (Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, 17/8/04, BBC Radio Scotland – Set 2)
1. Strolling Down The Highway ( Queen's Hall, Edinburgh, BBC Radio Scotland, 2004)
2. Angie (Queen's Hall, Edinburgh, BBC Radio Scotland, 2004)
3. Blues Run The Game (Queen's Hall, Edinburgh, BBC Radio Scotland, 2004)
4. Lily Of The West (Queen's Hall, Edinburgh, BBC Radio Scotland, 2004)
5. Down Under (Queen's Hall, Edinburgh, BBC Radio Scotland, 2004)
6. Summer Heat (Queen's Hall, Edinburgh, BBC Radio Scotland, 2004)
7. Weeping Willow Blues (Queen's Hall, Edinburgh, BBC Radio Scotland, 2004)
8. Let Me Sing (Queen's Hall, Edinburgh, BBC Radio Scotland, 2004)
9. Walking This Road (Queen's Hall, Edinburgh, BBC Radio Scotland, 2004)
10. La Luna (Queen's Hall, Edinburgh, BBC Radio Scotland, 2004)
11. Watch The Stars (Queen's Hall, Edinburgh, BBC Radio Scotland, 2004)
12. It Don't Bother Me (Queen's Hall, Edinburgh, BBC Radio Scotland, 2004)
13. Step Back (Queen's Hall, Edinburgh, BBC Radio Scotland, 2004)
14. High Days (Queen's Hall, Edinburgh, BBC Radio Scotland, 2004)
15. Courting Blues (Queen's Hall, Edinburgh, BBC Radio Scotland, 2004)
16. A Woman Like You (Queen's Hall, Edinburgh, BBC Radio Scotland, 2004)
17. Texas Cowboy Blues (Queen's Hall, Edinburgh, BBC Radio Scotland, 2004)
18. Candy Man (Queen's Hall, Edinburgh, BBC Radio Scotland, 2004)
Disc 8 (Extras 1968–2000)
1. I Am Lonely (Top Gear, BBC, 1968)
2. Tree Song (Night Ride, BBC, 1968)
3. I Got A Woman (Night Ride, BBC, 1968)
4. I Loved A Lass (Night Ride, BBC, 1968)
5. The Snows (Unabridged On Night Ride, BBC Radio 2, 1988)
6. Knight's Move (Night Ride, BBC Radio 2, 1988)
7. This Land Is Your Land (Night Ride, BBC Radio 2, 1988)
8. Strolling Down The Highway (Night Ride, BBC Radio 2, 1988)
9. Come Back Baby (Look North, BBC Yorkshire, 1994)
10. Blues Run The Game (We Stayed In With… Jungr & Parker, BBC Radio 2, 1993)
11. Dobbin's Flowery Vale (We Stayed In With… Jungr & Parker, BBC Radio 2, 1993)
12. Paper Houses (Bob Harris, GLR, 1998)
13. How It All Came Down (Bob Harris, GLR, 1998)
14. Crimson Moon (Edinburgh Fringes, BBC Radio 4, 2000)
15. The River Bank (Edinburgh Fringes, BBC Radio 4, 2000)
16. Moonshine (Mike Harding, BBC Radio 2, 2004)
17. Angie (Radio 2 Folk Awards, BBC Radio 2, 2009)
18. Crimson Moon (John Bennett, BBC Radio Ulster, 2000)
19. The River Bank (John Bennett, BBC Radio Ulster, 2000)

Emergency on Planet Earth'' is the debut studio album by English funk and acid jazz band Jamiroquai. Originally released on 14th June 1993 it reached number one in the UK Albums Chart and sold over 1,200,000 copies worldwide. This release which marks 30 years since the release of first single ‘When You Gonna Learn’, is pressed on heavyweight transparent vinyl and presented in a gatefold sleeve with spot gloss embellishments, printed inner sleeves and 12'' insert featuring Jay Kay’s 2013 and 2017 liner notes. 

In my 50s I realised that the past slowly becomes a bigger country than the future. As always, the future is where I’m headed, but now the past and all that comes with it is stacked up behind me. And, as time on earth passes, more and more of my contemporaries have started to disappear from the planet.

I’ve made 11 albums of new material since 1987. I realise that anything I’ve ever thought that mattered, that told the real story, is in those records. It’s been 5 years since my last album of new songs. Perhaps more than before, there’s been plenty of time over the last few years to think and reflect. Like every set of work, Time on Earth is an attempt to make sense of life by making work about it.

As erstwhile editor of the NME and Q, journalist Danny Kelly wrote recently while interviewing The Loft: ‘a lifetime of listening to them has led me to believe that Pete Astor’s songs would have always found a way to reach an audience. If he’d been a Californian baby boomer, he’s have ended up in the Capitol Records building in Los Angeles, laying down late-night grooves with the Wrecking Crew for a largely-neglected, slightly gloomy, pop album that’d now be worth a fortune. If he’d been born into post-War Britain, earnest girls in sweaters would’ve fallen in love with him, and his songs, in Embassy-fogged folk clubs.’ Of course, I love this quote. And I believe that Time on Earth is most of these things. But then I would say that, wouldn’t I?

Time on Earth has songs which were written in direct response to loss and bereavement (Undertaker, Fine and Dandy); songs striving for different kinds of belief (New Religion, Time on Earth, Miracle on the High Street); stories from either end of the cycles of life (Sixth Form Rock Boys, English Weather). And a few still searching for fulfilment of the heart. (Stay Lonely, Grey Garden, Soft Switch).

I was lucky enough to be able to make the music with the help of multi-instrumentalist Ian Button (Wreckless Eric, Death in Vegas, Papernut Cambridge) on the drums, bass maestro Andy Lewis (Spearmint, Paul Weller, and DJ at London’s legendary Blow Up Club and Soho Radio), long time guitarist Neil Scott (Everything But the Girl, Denim) and last but by no means least, Sean Read (Dexys, Edwyn Collins, Rockingbirds) who recorded and produced the album at his Famous Times Studios. As you would expect, I’m convinced it’s the best record I’ve made.

Pete Astor is a musician, writer and educator. He led Creation Records’ groups The Loft and The Weather Prophets, writing songs and releasing records that helped define the sound of the label and the emerging Indie genre. He has gone on to a lengthy solo career since then; writing, recording and releasing music on a range of labels including Matador, Heavenly, Warp, EMI and Fortuna Pop. He is Senior Lecturer in Music at the University of Westminster. As well as touring extensively, he also makes records with David Sheppard as Ellis Island Sound and releases his spoken word work as The Attendant on his label Faux Lux with the help of Ian Button. Since 2017 Astor has been signed to Tapete Records, home to Robert Forster, Lloyd Cole and Comet Gain among many estimable others.

TRACK LISTING

1) New Religion
2) English Weather
3) Stay Lonely
4) Time On Earth
5) Miracle On The High Street
6) Sixth Form Rock Boys
7) Soft Switch
8) Grey Garden
9) Undertaker
10) Fine And Dandy

Trees classic albums, beautifully packaged as a four-disc anniversary edition includes 12” book with liner notes from founder member David Costa and comedian Stewart Lee - Features two new discs of alternate mixes, early demos, BBC session tracks and 2018 live recordings in London - Includes lost demos of ‘Polly On The Shore’ and ‘Streets Of Derry’ It’s now over fifty years since Trees’ formation and, although ‘Acid Folk’ has now become a sub-category in the lexicon of record dealers and music critics, and although founder member David Costa feels the original noughties reissue helped consolidate a gathering wave of curiosity, they themselves remain in the shadows. Earth’s new Trees collection brings together both albums adding shiny alternate mixes of key tracks along with a selection of radio sessions and demos, all sounding brighter and cleaner than ever before.

Trees first album, ‘The Garden of Jane Delawney’ (1970) snuggles nicely into contemporary nu-folkies’ idea of the genre, and shares some of the pastoral-whimsy that characterised The Incredible String Band or Donovan, offset by some stunning interpretations of traditional material and Bias’ own songs, which were somehow part of the tradition Trees had adopted. Readings of ‘Lady Margaret’, ‘Glasgerion’ and the old standard ‘She Moved Thro’ The Fair’, and the extended fade of the group’s own ‘Road’, presage the explosive instrumental duelling that would come to characterise the follow up album, ‘On The Shore’.

There’s a definite shift between the records, the second being darker and more ambivalent. Here Trees don’t tell you what to think. You’re left to formulate your own response to this odd, opaque music. The ‘Streets of Derry’ session version leans into the brain vibrating drone-groove they somehow found at the traditional tune’s centre. ‘Polly On The Shore’, another traditional tune, is one of the definitive moments of English folk rock.

This special expansive collector’s edition celebrates the bands 50th anniversary.

“A beautiful hybrid, Trees found a unique space between intimate folk and freewheeling psychedelia. Musically ambitious yet brilliantly balanced, they have left an enduring legacy for those lucky enough to be in on the secret” Edd Gibson, Friendly Fires.

TRACK LISTING

Disc One - The Garden Of Jane Delawney (EARTHLP036)
Side A
Nothing Special
The Great Silkie
The Garden Of Jane Delawney
Lady Margaret

Side B
Glasgerion
She Moved Thro' The Fair
Road
Epitaph
Snail's Lament

Disc Two - On The Shore (EARTHLP035)
Side A
Soldiers Three
Murdoch
Streets Of Derry
Sally Free And Easy

Side B
Fool
Adam's Toon
Geordie
While The Iron Is Hot
Little Sadie
Polly On The Shore

Disc Three - Fore & After (Part 1)
Side A
Soldiers Three (Remix 2007)
Murdoch (Remix 2007)
Streets Of Derry (Remix 2007)
Geordie (Remix 2007)

Side B
Polly On The Shore (Remix 2007)
Fool (Remix 2007)
Polly On The Shore(demo 1970) Previously Unreleased
Streets Of Derry (demo 1970) Previously Unreleased

Disc Four - Fore & After (Part 2)
Side A
She Moved Thro' The Fair (Demo 1969)
Pretty Polly (Demo 1969)
The Great Silkie (BBC 1970) Previously Unreleased
Soldier's Three (BBC 1970) Previously Unreleased
Little Black Cloud (demo 1969 )
Forest Fire ( BBC 1970)

Side B
She Moved Thro' The Fair (Live At Cafe Oto 2018)*
Murdoch (Live At Cafe Oto 2018) *
Black Widow (2007)
Little Black Cloud Suite (2007)

Noah & The Whale were one of the leading protagonists of the small but perfectly formed indie-folk scene of the early days of the 21st Century. Formed in Twickenham, the five-piece, led by vocalist and guitarist Charlie Fink, originally boasted Laura Marling in their line-up, before she left to begin her successful solo career.

Containing the Top 10 single L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N., Last Night On Earth was partially recorded in LA with producer Jason Lader. On its release in 2011, Fink spoke of capturing "that excitement of being young and being in the night," and being influenced by Bruce Springsteen. That can be heard on Wild Thing, which blends Springsteen and Lou Reed into something that is unmistakeably the group's own. The Telegraph called it "Heartfelt, spirited, lyrical, moody and mostly magnificent pop rock."

TRACK LISTING

Life Is Life
Tonight's The Kind Of Night
L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N.
Wild Thing
Give It All Back
Just Me Before We Met
Paradise Stars
Waiting For My Chance To Come
The Line
Old Joy
Tonight's The Kind Of Night (Demo)
Wild Thing (Demo)

Genre: Indie, Electronic, Latin. RIYL: Toro y Moi, Helado Negro, Rosalía, Tame Impala, Cuco.

Divino Niño are no strangers to bold reinvention. When Camilo Medina and Javier Forero—friends whose bond dates back to their childhoods in Bogotá, Colombia—moved to Chicago and recruited guitarist Guillermo Rodriguez to form a band, they were psych-pop outsiders playing live shows with a drum machine. With the addition of drummer Pierce Codina, their 2019 breakthrough and debut LP for Winspear, Foam, solidified their place as local indie rock mainstays.

Soon after, multi-instrumentalist Justin Vittori joined to round out their lineup. Once again, with their masterful, unpredictable, and eminently danceable new album, the band has done something radical: They totally upended the way they write songs, eschewing practice room jams for unrelentingly collaborative beats, implied grooves for immersive dance floor heaters, and mellow vibes for frenetic doses of reggaeton, electropop, and trap on their most adventurous and ambitious work to date.

Welcome to the Last Spa on Earth. Written and recorded over the past two years, Last Spa on Earth deals in release and catharsis: confronting your darkest moments and coming out better for it. The album artwork, done by Medina, a longstanding visual artist, depicts a dreamy, yet graffiti-tagged spa, void of physical bodies so listeners can envision themselves in this unique environment. It represents the yin and yang approach Divino Niño took while creating the album: the serenity of the spa and the chaos of the party. Ultimately, the band’s desire is to provide healing in the same way one feels after sweating, shivering, stretching, and resting at the spa against the backdrop of the world’s darkness. Last Spa on Earth is the cathartic product of Divino Niño letting go of their musical preconceptions, past traumas, and future anxieties to embrace change, chaos, and each other’s contributions both to these songs and to each other.

TRACK LISTING

01. LSE
02. Nos Soltamos
03. Tu Tonto
04. XO
05. Toy Premiado
06. Ecstasy
07. Drive
08. Miami
09. Mona
10. Especial
11. Papelito
12. I Am Nobody

Sow Your Gold in the White Foliated Earth exists first as a curator’s fancy – in this case from Oslo’s Ultima Festival for contemporary music in 2014. The idea was to give revered Norwegian experimental electronic musician Helge Sten, aka Deathprod, access to seminal avant-garde composer Harry Partch’s self-designed, custom-made, specialized, invented instruments – an orchestra tuned to just intonation, using up to 43 intervals instead of the standard 12 for the most commonly used Western equal temperament.

An artist with a 30+ year career and an uncompromising reputation that reflects the emotional specificity of his uneasy, yet compelling sound, maintained throughout his expansive discography, Sten was an intriguing choice for such a project. Although he attended art school, training in electronic music and sound art, he had little experience with acoustic instruments and can neither read nor write music notation. Yet he’s been engaged with Partch’s music, and outsider art more generally, since he was a teenager. His resulting piece/composition for the project was originally intended only for performance by Cologne-based Ensemble Musikfabrik, for a series of concerts in five European cities between 2015 and 2018. It’s Musikfabrik that undertook the painstaking, expensive process of building an entire set of the composer’s creations – the second only to the originals built by Partch himself. They are the professional musicians and virtuosic instrumentalists that had to re-train and re-educate on these unknown and experimental sound sculptures in non-standard tunings. And they house this large, gorgeous physical instrumentarium and deal with the enormous logistics of working with it, sometimes shipping the fragile pieces to other locales via semi-trucks or ships.

Because of such monumental efforts, Musikfabrik are notoriously guarded with recordings of the instruments. And rightly so. They’re the only ones allowed to perform on them, too. But Sow Your Gold isn’t Musikfabrik playing. Instead, Sten spent days and nights alone with the instrumentarium in Cologne. He played the instruments himself while recording, layering the recordings and editing without effects to compose an ‘audio score’ for Musikfabrik to work from in order for the ensemble to perform the piece. (Partch also regularly worked this way, although he would transcribe afterwards. Likewise, Sten workedwith a professional arranger to create a detailed score, too.) So, that makes Sow Your Gold an even less likely rarity – partly why its release comes seven years after its creation.

If you ask Sten about the album’s title, he’ll point you to the text he borrowed it from – Michael Maier’s Atalanta Fugiens by H.M.E. De Jong, a 1969 study of a 1617 book of alchemical emblems – and notable passages dealing with alchemy, chemistry, and agriculture, all transformative processes. And while that may sound complicated, his takeaway is simple: “You have to break something down to create something new,” – a lesson he felt related strongly to his own musical process, especially in this project.

So, while Sow Your Gold in the White Foliated Earth is a piece written for specific, oddly tuned, extremely rare and unusual instruments, and for a certain ensemble – namely, some of the finest contemporary musicians in Europe – Sten grew fond of the audio score, recognizing it as coming directly from the creative process in its purest, most natural form. And so from a foliated earth, where obscure tradition, treasured scarcity, immense effort, and patient certainty layer and criss-cross, comes rugged gold, polished to shining by one outsider for another.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A:
1. I O
2. II O
3. III O
4. IV O
5. V O
Side B:
1. VI O
2. VII O
3. VIII O
4. IX O

The members of Szun Waves may not have been collectively in the same country, let alone room, for over two years, but that hasn’t prevented them from realising their third album, Earth Patterns.

The trio – comprised of producer Luke Abbott, saxophonist Jack Wyllie (Portico Quartet) and drummer Laurence Pike (Triosk/PVT/Liars) – recorded the album sessions together at the tail end of their 2019 European tour, locking themselves away in the studio for three days of improvisation. They emerged with hours of music, some inspired by their live shows, most born fresh in the studio itself, ready to be moulded into the group’s third album in five years.

However, with Laurence marooned in Australia, and Luke and Jack grounded in different parts of the UK, it meant an unexpected reassessment of the band’s creative remit, and the enforced long gestation period almost inadvertently ended up creating the most fully-formed Szun Waves record to date.

Where second album, New Hymn To Freedom, had its face tilted up to the heavens, Earth Patterns is a more grounded record, and in places, a more claustrophobic one: Wyllie’s saxophone squalls ripple in the background as Pike’s dense drums clatter, both shaped and guided by the atmospherics of Abbott’s synths. Moments of jazz harmony collide with cinematic soundscapes; long searching passages build into kaleidoscopic frenzies.

“I think the record we've ended up with is an emotional outpouring,” Abbott says. “There's a fluidity to it that feels like we tapped into something quite raw. The last record felt like drifting in space but I see this new record as a journey from the outer reaches of the universe down onto the earth, like a macrocosm to microcosm arc,” he explains.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
A1. Exploding Upwards
A2. New Universe
A3. Garden
A4. In The Moon House
Side B
B1. Be A Pattern For The World
B2. Willow Leaf Pear
B3. Atomkerne

Featuring many unreleased recordings and rarities from the cult favourite and all endorsed by the Tom Rapp estate. The grand masters of acid folk, Pearls Before Swine outline the genius of leader Tom Rapp on an album created from a dusty box of tapes left behind by the incisive tunesmith. Never before heard recordings remastered to create the perfect route into the essential ‘Balaklava’ and ‘One Nation Underground’ albums that kick started a whole genre. This new vinyl compilation was made in collaboration with, and fully endorsed, by the Tom Rapp estate. 

TRACK LISTING

1 State U
2 Translucent Carriages
3 Ring Thing (Three Rings)
4 The Jeweler
5 Harding Street
6 New Man
7 I Saw The World
8 For The Dead In Space
9 From The Movie Of The Same Name
10 Rocket Man
11 Teacup Kingdom
12 Images Of April
13 If You Don’t Want To (I Don’t Mind)
14 Sin Of Jesus 

Having crested the west coast modular-ambient wave in just a few releases including 2018’s Sharing Waves on the influential LA experimental imprint Leaving Records-- Sean Hellfritsch has swapped the mossy analog synth improvisations of his prior output for refined melodic arrangements dressed in sprightly dawn-of-digital textures. Big Earth Energy plumbs the depths of Hellfritsch’s multimedia mind and naturalist heart, spinning an impressionistic narrative world off of cultural touchstones like the PC game MYST, and the work of Studio Ghibli composer Joe Hisaishi.

Inspired by the aforementioned, and guided by Hellfritsch’s experience as an animator and filmmaker, Big Earth Energy is the soundtrack to a hypothetical video game with a pointedly ecological premise, and a twist of psychedelic charm. In Hellfritsch’s imagined virtual journey, the player assumes the perspective of a treefrog sixty-five-million years ago, hopping epochs with each new level, forming a comprehensive picture of the massive changes the planet has gone through over the eons. The ultimate goal of the game is not to amass resources, defeat enemies, or gain power, but to fully witness the unfolding of one of the biggest systems of energy imaginable-- or as the album’s creator puts it-- “to explore the incomprehensibly vast energetic expression and mystery that is Earth.”

Big Earth Energy is steeped in exploratory RPG intrigue, possibility, and contemplation, lovingly overlaid with Miyazaki-an sentiments and aesthetics. The through-composed, organic, meandering synthesis heard on previous Cool Maritime albums has been fully replaced by meticulous polygonal arrangements that recall the computerized sheen of late 80s work by composers like Hiroshi Yoshimura, and Yoichiro Yoshikawa using true-to-period gear no less.

Even given its referentiality, Big Earth Energy comes off as forward-facing where so much reminiscent music remains fixed to a bygone moment in pop culture. Hellfritsch has created a musical world where the endless verdancy of the biosphere finds its parallel in the golden age of early 1990s video games, and late 80s Japanese environmental music, all while pointing to a hopeful planetary and artistic future that vindicates the motives of all of these muses.

TRACK LISTING

01 Big Earth Energy 6:18
02 Amphibia 6:24
03 Temporal Dryft 6:46
04 Soft Fascination 5:08
05 Avian Glide 4:23
06 Secret Of The Megafauna 5:47
07 Apex 4:32

Clint Mansell's incredible synth score to Ben Wheatley's "In The Earth” The score is pressed on 180g black vinyl, and housed in a deluxe spined sleeve with double sided printed insert and download card. For the score, Mansell actually captured the sound of singing plants via PlantWave MIDI sprout machine, in keeping with the vegetal themes of the film. "It's big, ominous, sometimes beautiful and often eerie -- think Blade Runner or Annihilation -- not to mention unsettling at times." Clint says, "Paranoia, isolation, anxiety, synths, plants...something for everyone!” In The Earth was made by Ben Wheatley during lockdown and was one of the most talked about films of Sundance Film Festival. As the world searches for a cure to a devastating virus, a scientist and a park scout venture deep into the woods. As night falls, their journey becomes a terrifying voyage through the heart of darkness as the forest comes to life around them.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: One of the masters of the soundtrack returns for Ben Wheatley's brilliant 'In The Earth'. Deep, dark synths slowly morph into airy orchestral arrangements in a perfect culmination of beauty and unease. Classic Mansell.

TRACK LISTING

1. Mycorrhiza [60-250 Hz]
2. Spirit Of The Woods
3. ATU327A
4. The Forest
5. In The Earth I
6. Mycorrhiza [250-500 Hz]
7. In The Earth II
8. The Mist
9. Mycorrhiza [2-4 Hz]
10. Hammer Of The Witches
11. Spiritu Venio Silvarum
12. Return To The Green
13. Standing Stone
14. In The Earth III
15. Parnag Fegg
16. The Woods

‘The Time Has Come’ is an absolute master class on words and guitar twisting into one another - the poetry goes beyond simple observation into deeply personal and profound lore. A timeless document of sweet and haunting melodies. My favorite record of all time.’ Ryley Walker. // "I've never written songs, regularly, because I never considered myself a song-writer. I've only ever really considered myself a ballad singer, which is what is most important to me. The stories... the ancient nature of the situations and the human condition. And obviously, it's changed so much over the centuries that those songs have been sung, but it always retains that essence of something that's universal... to humanity, and I've always wanted to touch that. I think I wanted to understand people; I think I wanted to understand myself. It's a way of finding the truth. I felt I belonged to that music.” Anne Briggs // Offering some of her first original compositions, ‘The Time Has Come’ was a break from tradition in more ways than one for Anne Briggs.

Where previous recordings displayed the unaccompanied melodies of her voice, this album - originally released by CBS in 1971 - brings additional instrumentation in the form of guitar and bouzouki. The result is that her vocals are not submerged, but heightened - the plucked strings providing the perfect foil for her crystalline inflection. ‘The Time Has Come’ is a mix of Anne’s own songs alongside some notable covers (Lal Waterson, Steve Ashley, Stan Ellison, Henry McCulloch). All are graced with the quietly self-assured elegance of Anne’s playing, with sounds ranging from the breezy ‘Clea Caught A Rabbit’ to the terrible beauty of ‘Wishing Well’ - each song typifying the bouzouki or guitar style. To say that Anne was an accomplished picker is to do her something of an disservice - the intricacy of her finger-work rivals - and more often than not eclipses - any number of her contemporaries.

TRACK LISTING

1 Sandman's Song
2 Highlodge Hare
3 Fire And Wine
4 Step Right Up
5 Ride, Ride
6 The Time Has Come
7 Clea Caught A Rabbit
8 Tangled Man
9 Wishing Well
10 Standing On The Shore
11 Tidewave
12 Everytime
13 Fine Horseman 

The world renowned guitarist, Bert Jansch, has long been celebrated for his innovative playing style, influencing generations of musicians and fans alike.

A companion piece to 1966’s Jack Orion, The Ornament Tree gets newly reissued with liner notes from Colin Harper, who wrote the biography of Bert and the new folk Revival, Dazzling Stranger.

Bert's eighteenth studio album comprises Scottish and Irish traditional songs. Filled with ballads like the title song and instrumentals ‘The Rocky Road to Dublin’ and ‘Lady Fair’. Tradition is threaded throughout with the accompaniment of Celtic fiddles, flutes and bodhran. It features performances from Maggie Boyle, Peter Boyle, Steve Tilston and Michael Klein.

It’s been over thirty years since The Ornament Tree’s initial release, here Jansch continues to prove his importance in contemporary folk with this timeless and invigorating offering.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
A1 The Ornament Tree (Bonny Portmore)
A2 The Banks O'Sicily
A3 The Rambling Boys Of Pleasure
A4 The Rocky Road To Dublin
A5 Three Dreamers
A6 The Mountain Streams

Side B
B1 The Blackbirds Of Mullamore
B2 Ladyfair
B3 The Road Tae Dundee
B4 Tramps And Hawkers
B5 The January Man
B6 Dobbins Flowery Vale

Robin Richards' "The Earth Asleep // Birdsong" comprises his modern classical soundtracks to two eponymous films: Clara Casian’s documentaries about the 2011 Japan tsunami and 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster, respectively.

The Earth Asleep (2021) addresses the ways in which our exposure to extreme live-trauma in the form of rolling news and citizen reportage has resulted in an inability to process grief at a manageable, human scale. Film, poetry and live music intertwine to conjure a pathway by which the human soul might navigate unseen astral dimensions. As the earth sleeps, past and present merge in this live rhythmic montage. The soundtrack features members of two Mercury Prize-nominated bands: Chris Illingworth of GoGo Penguin on piano; and Michael Spearman of Everything Everything on drums and percussion.

An amusement park in the Ukrainian city of Pripyat was due to be opened on the 1st May 1986, but the Chernobyl nuclear disaster occurred just a few miles away on 26th April. The park’s owners opened the park for a couple of hours the following day for the people of Pripyat before the city was evacuated. Eerie images of the deserted Pripyat Amusement Park now permeate the visual representation of the city’s desolation. Combining the immediacy and energy of live musical performance with the visual impact of film, Birdsong: Stories from Pripyat weaves personal and scientific narratives filmed within the Chernobyl exclusion zone. Combining the immediacy and energy of live musical performance with the visual impact of film, Birdsong: Stories from Pripyat aims to revisit a dramatic and devastating historical event using personal and scientific narratives to draw out the tensions and truths at play in our collective, cultural memories of this unfathomable event.

Memories of Earth is D Rothon’s second LP for Clay Pipe Music. In the years since 2018’s critically acclaimed Nightscapes, aside from working on this follow-up, he has played pedal steel on albums by Lost Horizons (on the John Grant-fronted track Cordelia), Liela Moss and Johanna Warren. He has also contributed to two recent compilations by the Second Language label – a kindred spirit to Clay Pipe.

The catalyst for Memories of Earth was the 2019 Moving to Mars exhibition at London’s Design Museum - which created a simulation of a future Martian settlement. For Rothon this triggered recollections of a childhood fascination with space – fuelled by the moon landings, visits to the London Planetarium and being taken aged six to see Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. “I recall it as a time when a science fiction-style future seemed just around the corner,” he says. He cites as another influential experience the landmark Cybernetics Serendipity show at the ICA, which featured collaborations between artists and scientists: machines were shown alongside artwork in a spirit of postwar optimism for the positive power of new technologies. “I actually remember very little about it other than it was very noisy and somewhat scary!”

Memories of Earth reflects a spectrum of emotional responses to the idea of space travel – from the optimism and wonder of those childhood dreams to the sense of disconnection, isolation and loss we might feel on a one-way trip to Mars... or beyond. The final, bittersweet track brings us back down to earth with a sense that perhaps it’s caring for our own planet that should be our priority.
Musically Memories of Earth draws on a varied palette of influences including early prog, electronica and European film soundtracks. This diversity of styles flows together to form an album that’s coherent but full of surprises. It also benefits from vocal contributions by acclaimed US musician Johanna Warren and actress/chanteuse Claudia Barton, who wrote and performs the words for the title track – a paean to Earth’s “soft, green bacterial surface”; its “deep, wet, blue mysteries”...

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: I bloody love Clay Pipe, and this new D Rothon release is a prime example of why. Brimming with the sort of soft focus haze I love in my instrumental music, 'Memories Of Earth' is a beautifully rich journey, part jazz part ambient and entirely brilliant. As ever, it's a buy-on-sight from me.

TRACK LISTING

1. Apeman, Spaceman
2.Cybernetics Serendipity
3. Eight Million Miles High
4. Aquarius Rising
5. West Of The Moon
6.The Stars Below Us.
7. The Ghosts We Bring
8.The Spaces Between
9. Further From Home
10. Memories Of Earth

Rose City Band is celebrated guitarist Ripley Johnson. A prolific songwriter, Johnson started Rose City Band to have an outlet to explore songwriting styles apart from Wooden Shjips and Moon Duo, where he is often not the lead songwriter. Rose City Band allowed him to follow his musical muses as they greet him and not be bound by the schedule of bandmates and demands of a touring group. Stepping out from behind the psychedelic haze that envelops his other output, Rose City Band’s lean yet richly textured arrangements lay bare the beauty of his songcraft. On Earth Trip, Johnson reveals more of himself than ever before, coloring the project’s country-rock twang with a melancholic, wistful undertone. It charts a journey of personal growth and introspection with surprising honesty, from pining for summers spent with friends to meditations on space, stillness and the splendor of the natural world. It continues Rose City Band’s celebration of summer warmth and the great outdoors, seen from a new vantage point, and with newfound appreciation for the freedom and joy that nature provides.

Earth Trip was written during a period of sudden shocks and drastic lifestyle changes for Johnson. Forced to cancel extensive touring plans for 2020, the guitarist found himself home for an extended period for the first time in years. No longer in constant motion, he was able to experience and enjoy the simple pleasures of home life, of being in one place: hikes in nature, bathing outside, and waking with the dawn. Forming new connections to his surroundings, from tending to a garden to sleeping out under the stars, Johnson found hope and healing in a more mindful relationship with the natural world.

Themes of recalibration and finding personal space are equally mirrored in Earth Trip’s lean production. Recorded at his home studio in Portland and mixed by Cooper Crain (Bitchin’ Bajas, Cave), Johnson makes deft use of space while experimenting with new sonics. Shimmering pedal steel, woozy harmonica melodies, and stately piano enhance the album’s introspective tone without ever clouding arrangements. Psychedelic elements that nod to Johnson’s other projects and influences still appear throughout, but hover at the edge of perception, a subtle halo adding colour and texture to Johnson’s songwriting rather than taking centrer-stage. He elaborates: “I told Cooper I was trying to capture that feeling when you take psychedelics and they just start coming on - maybe objects start buzzing in the edges of your vision, you start seeing slight trails, maybe the characteristics of sound change subtly. But you’re not fully tripping yet. He got the idea right away and his mix really captures that feeling.” Johnson’s lithe guitar playing throughout treads a fine line between country and cosmic, taut melodies spiralling out into long reverb trails or free-form solos buoyed by a breeze, radiating summer warmth.

Through its daring honesty and masteful arrangements, Earth Trip cements Johnson’s place as a singular songwriter of inimitable skill. It’s message of mindfulness and our interconnectedness to the environment expands on a long country and blues music tradition that draws a symbiotic relationship between storyteller and the land, capturing the beauty of the natural world while also emphasising our responsibility in preserving it for future generations.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Rose city band go full country! Slide guitars, lap steel and tasteful reverb coalesce into a brilliantly evocative and wonderfully produced distillation of that Rose City sound into a country shell. It's a testament to Ripley Johnson's skill that his sound can be so successfully transplanted into a different shell while retaining everything that made him so great in the first place. Lovely stuff.

TRACK LISTING

1. Silver Roses
2. In The Rain
3. World Is Turning
4. Feel Of Love
5. Lonely Places
6. Ramblin’ With The Day
7. Rabbit
8. Dawn Patrol

The third release in Fu Manchu’s 30th Anniversary vinyl reissue series, Return To Earth 91-93 Deluxe Edition, is the first ever update to this legendary compilation of the band’s earliest singles. These songs are the only ones recorded with the band’s original lead guitarist, Scott Votaw, as well as the only ones recorded as a three piece of the original core line-up of Scott Hill (vocals/guitar), Mark Abshire (bass) and Ruben Romano (drums). Return To Earth 91-93 Deluxe Edition features the 9 songs from the original release including the first version of fan favorite, “Ojo Rojo,” plus 2 newly discovered tracks that have never been heard before: “Ford-Natic” and an early version of “Shine It On,” which was later re-recorded for their debut album. All songs were remixed by Scott Hill along with the band’s current producing partner, Jim Monroe (Adolescents, Channel 3, Ignite) and remastered by Carl Saff for optimum fidelity. This limited edition 2,000 unit LP run is pressed on neon purple vinyl and the newly designed gatefold package includes never before seen photos of the band and flyers from their early shows. The limited edition 1,000 unit CD run also features the updated art and a digital specific remaster

TRACK LISTING

1.“Don’t Bother Knockin’ (If This Van’s Rockin’)”
2.“Ford-Natic”
3.“El Don”
4.“Pick-Up Summer”
5.“Ojo Rojo”
6.“Pinbuster”
7.“Senioritis”
8.“Shine It On”
9.“Simco”
10.“Space Sucker”
11.“Vankhana (Rollin’ Rooms)”

At first glance, Sarah Louise might seem an unlikely candidate to credit technology as inspiration for her new album, Earth Bow. After all, she has lived in rural Appalachia for the last decade, foraging numerous species of wild mushroom, concocting medicine from plants she gathers, and performing what she terms “Earth Practices” to deepen her relationship with the natural world. But it is precisely her ability to find connections between false binaries that makes this album so novel and richly immersive. Louise conceived Earth Bow as an interconnected ecosystem, meant to evolve, interact and grow. Known for her inventive guitar playing, vocal harmonies and electronic experiments, it was her use of the SP-404SX sampler that became a primary inspiration for the album’s woven nature.

“Improvising with the 404 during live shows allows me to collaborate with the music as a living system, almost the way generative music works,” she says. “I kept finding more and more samples that worked together and realized I wanted to connect the entire record—and that there were many ways it could be connected.” Through this process, what began as eight core songs blossomed into two sweeping suites. Samples—denizens of her electronic forest—move around the record with changing context like words in a sestina or phrases in the I Ching, revealing new connections with each listen. Mesmeric sounds abound on Earth Bow, from analog synth tones, to digitally manipulated sonics that she stretches and layers with a painterly touch. These electronic sounds inhabit the same environment as field recordings, ceremonial percussion, guitars and empathic vocals, weaving together her vast and borderless influences into an enveloping world. “I want this record to take people on a journey through the wonders of our incredible planet, to help people feel held by the mysteries of nature,” she enthuses. “I believe music can heal.” After a string of celebrated releases on Thrill Jockey, Sarah Louise is self-releasing Earth Bow on her new imprint of the same name.

TRACK LISTING

1. Where The Owl Hums
2. Jewel Of The Blueridge
3. Mossy Slope
4. Summertime Moves Slow
5. Earth Wakes Up
6. Your Dreams
7. Surrender To The Night
8. If You Build A Pond The Frogs Will Come
9. Where Heron Fish At Dawn
10. Healers Circle Up

Following the recently released and highly praised Trees 50th Anniversary box set on Earth Recordings, Trees reissue 3 their second album as a standalone release. “A beautiful hybrid, Trees found a unique space between intimate folk and freewheeling psychedelia. Musically ambitious yet brilliantly balanced, they have left an enduring legacy for those lucky enough to be in on the secret” Edd Gibson, Friendly Fires. It’s now over fifty years since Trees’ formation, a band who helped define ‘Acid Folk’, creating a subcategory in the lexicon of record dealers and music critics alike. Released just months after their debut second album, ‘On The Shore’ sees a shift from the first record into something darker and more ambivalent with an arcane Englishness.

The product of an era characterised by clunky polemic, arcadian sentimentality or English fuzzy-felt surrealism, the album, like all classic records, is so much greater than the sum of its parts. Opening with ‘Soldiers Three’, learned from Dave Swarbrick, the album includes another traditional tune and one of the definitive moments in English folk rock ‘Polly On The Shore’ alongside ’Sally Free and Easy’ and ‘Streets of Derry’. // “The music’s arcane power remains intact” Mojo // “A fantastic band” Record Collector. // “Spectacular” Uncut. // “Sublime” Shindig. // “Timeless” Prog. // “It’s these two original albums that stand as pinnacles of form” The Wire.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Soldiers Three
A2. Murdoch
A3. Streets Of Derry
A4. Sally Free And Easy
B1. Fool

B2. Adam's Toon
B3. Geordie
B4. While The Iron Is Hot
B5. Little Sadie
B6. Polly On The Shore 

Following the recently released and highly praised Trees 50th Anniversary box set on Earth Recordings, Trees reissue their debut album ‘The Garden of Jane Delawney’as a standalone release. It’s now over fifty years since Trees’ formation, a band who helped define ‘Acid Folk’, creating a subcategory in the lexicon of record dealers and music critics alike. “When we are talking about psych folk or acid folk, we are really talking about music like this by Trees” Stuart Maconie, BBC6 Music. Trees first album, ‘The Garden of Jane Delawney’ (1970) snuggles nicely into contemporary nu-folkies’ idea of the genre, and shares some of the pastoral-whimsy that characterised The Incredible String Band or Donovan, offset by some stunning interpretations of traditional material and Bias’ own songs. The record includes readings of ‘Lady Margaret’, ‘Glasgerion’, the old standard ‘She Moved Thro’ The Fair’, and the extended fade of the group’s own ‘Road’, presage the explosive instrumental duelling that would come to characterise the follow up album, ‘On The Shore’.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Nothing Special
A2. The Great Silkie
A3. The Garden Of Jane Delawney
A4. Lady Margaret

B1. Glasgerion
B2. She Moved Thro' The Fair
B3. Road B4. Epitaph
B5. Snail's Lament

Recorded at the EELS’ Los Feliz, California studio, ‘Earth to Dora’ was produced by band leader Mark Oliver Everett a.k.a. E, and performed by E, Koool G Murder, The Chet and P-Boo.

Speaking about the new record, E says: “These songs came about just before the pandemic hit and changed everything. I’m hoping they can be, maybe kind of soothing or something. To hear songs dealing with things we are dreaming about getting back to. Or maybe people are dealing with some of the topics right now as well. Just one song was done in the thick of the early pandemic days, ‘Are We Alright Again’, which is kind of a quarantine daydream I desperately needed to have.”

‘Earth to Dora’ marks the 13th full length EELS album, and first since 2018’s ‘The Deconstruction’, their first in four years, the album was released to widespread acclaim and described as “another EELS album to treasure” by MOJO, “overwhelming” by Uncut, and “a career-straddling greatest hits collection, in which all the ‘hits’ are brand new,” by CLASH.

EELS have had one of the most consistently acclaimed careers in music. The ever-changing project of principal singer/songwriter E (Mark Oliver Everett), EELS have released 12 studio albums since their 1996 debut, Beautiful Freak. In 2008, E published his highly-acclaimed book Things the Grandchildren Should Know and starred in the award-winning Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives documentary about the search to understand his quantum physicist father, Hugh Everett III.

2015 saw the release of the band’s extraordinary Royal Albert Hall live album and concert film. In the same year, the band’s “Fresh Blood” served as the theme song to HBO’s “The Jinx” and from 2016 to 2018 E appeared in Judd Apatow’s Netflix original series “Love.” EELS released their 12th studio album, and first in four years, ‘The Deconstruction’ in April 2018 and toured America and Europe in 2018 and 2019. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: 13 ALBUMS!! There's something to be said for a band that manage to keep bringing the goods year after year, and Eels are one of the best examples. 'Earth To Dora' has all of the melodicism and hidden melancholy that we expect from the LA stalwarts.

TRACK LISTING

1. Anything For Boo
2. Are We Alright Again
3. Who You Say You Are
4. Earth To Dora
5. Dark And Dramatic
6. Are You Fucking Your Ex
7. The Gentle Souls
8. Of Unsent Letters
9. I Got Hurt
10. OK
11. Baby Let's Make It Real
12. Waking Up

One of Bert Jansch’s later recordings, ‘Crimson Moon’ is some of his finest work and sees the musician at the top of his game, with appearances from Johnny Marr, Bernard Butler and many more. Earth Recordings revisits the album on its 20th Anniversary with its first standalone cut to vinyl. Originally released in 2000, there is a brooding resonance in ‘Crimson Moon’ centred around his accomplished guitar style that brings his contemplative songwriting to the fore. Traditional ballads have touches of jazz and blues adorned by contributions from guitarists Johnny Marr, Bernard Butler and Johnny “Guitar” Hodge along with guest vocals from Bert’s wife Loren Auerbach (‘My Donald’).

The addition of electric guitar subtly compliments Bert’s percussive fingerpicking bringing new depth to his compositions. Title track ‘Crimson Moon’ is a take on traditional song ‘Omie Wise’ and was written about his wife Loren, ‘Caledonia’ conjures pastoral images of Scotland alongside covers of The Incredible String Band’s ‘October Song’, Guy Mitchell’s ‘Singing The Blues’ and Owen Hand’s ‘My Donald’. Otherworldly tale ‘Neptune’s Daughter’ sees a mermaid-like creature recount the death of her relatives from a poison in the sea. Passionate about nature, the song carries an underlying ecological message. Released in his 60s, ‘Crimson Moon’ proves Bert Jansch to still be an innovator and a unique talent

TRACK LISTING

A1 Caledonia
A2 Going Home
A3 Crimson Moon
A4 Downunder
A5 October Song
A6 Looking For Love

B1 Fool's Mate
B2 The River Bank
B3 Omie Wise
B4 My Donald
B5 Neptune's Daughter
B6 Singing The Blues

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2020 RELEASE AVAILABLE ONLINE ONLY AS PART OF THE AUGUST 29TH DROP DAY AT 6PM.
LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

Yellow Vinyl.After the incredible success of the film Easy Rider, Dennis Hopper was given complete freedom to direct and star in the bizarre, surrealist The Last Movie ñ released in 1971.Filmed in a drug fuelled haze in Peru with Hopper, Peter Fonda, Kris Kristofferson, Dean Stockwell, Michelle Phillips, Russ Tamblyn, and Samuel Fuller ñ there has never been a soundtrack to this film until now! Featuring the first ever performances of Kristofferson's legendary "Me and Bobby McGee" plus sublime country-folk songs from John Buck Wilkin, Peruvian folk & dance music ñ all recorded live on set in Peru ñ nothing was overdubbed! Plus, provocative movie dialogue from Dennis Hopper, Sam Fuller and others ñ coupled with the ambient sounds of the mountains and villages of South America ñ reissue producer Pat Thomas and Hopper Estate archivist Jessica Hundley have assembled a groovy listening experience that will melt minds.Packaging includes rare vintage photos, detailed liner notes, et al.The Last Movie recordings are being released for the first time ever in any audio format ñ taken from the original movie reels!

Ed O’Brien never planned to make a solo record. As a guitarist with Radiohead, who over almost three decades and nine albums have established themselves as one of the most innovative and influential musical forces of our time, he thought his artistic side had its outlet and was happy to spend any downtime from Radiohead with his family. Plus, he wondered, would it really be necessary? “Thom, Jonny and Phillip are making music,” he says, “and I’m like, ‘The last thing the world needs is a shit album by me.’”

But suddenly a switch was flicked and the songs came pouring out of him. That creative surge resulted in an album of rediscovery and adventure by O’Brien under the moniker EOB that deftly veers from moments of delicate folk to euphoric house, its songs seamlessly pinned together by unswerving melodic hooks and candid lyricism. A spirit of collaboration runs through it, from the production team of Flood, Catherine Marks, Alan Moulder and Adam ‘Cecil’ Bartlett to the extraordinary musicians O’Brien assembled to help bring these tracks to life; Omar Hakim, Colin Greenwood, David Okumu, Laura Marling, Adrian Utley, Nathan East and Glenn Kotche.

But every group of collaborators needs a leader, and this album is all O’Brien’s vision. “I wanted to make a record from the heart,” he says. “I wanted to make something direct. I wanted to talk about love, your family in the immediate and the wider sense, where we are on the planet, the bigger picture, life and death. I wanted to make a big hearted, warm and colorful album… something hopeful and full of love.”

It all started in Brazil. Ed and his family moved out to the Brazilian countryside at the end of 2012. After setting up a home studio and dabbling with the idea of making an electronic record, a listen to Primal Scream’s landmark Screamadelica was O’Brien’s eureka moment. “I thought, this is it… I want my music to have that joy, that light, the depth and breadth of that album… elements of dance, soul, ambient… Uplifting in parts.” He immediately picked up an acoustic guitar and started writing, the new direction further influenced by a trip to Rio Carnival. “Carnival was another eureka moment… an extraordinary explosion of rhythm, melody, dance, light and joy… I felt there was a thread right through Screamadelica, rave and carnival.”

The O’Briens returned home in summer 2013 and Ed hunkered down in a remote cottage in the shadow of the Cambrian Mountains in Wales to begin writing songs. As the material for the album was taking shape, Flood offered his services as producer having heard some of the demos. “I had my man, my producer… He’s probably my favorite producer. The breadth of the stuff he’s done, from Depeche Mode, PJ Harvey, U2, Foals… he’s a sonic maestro.”

They rented a big house in Wales and over three weeks, in the Autumn of 2017, O’Brien and his house band – East, Hakim and Okumu – got down the bones of the record. A year of tinkering and re-working followed at Assault & Battery Studios in Willesden, London. “The house band was so good for some tracks – but other stuff needed a different approach. Any record that I’ve been involved with, that’s been of any merit, is always a journey.”

And then, following five years of writing and recording scheduled during any possible break from the making and touring of Radiohead’s A Moon Shaped Pool, EOB’s debut was finally completed. “I see this as part of a bigger story…. A trilogy perhaps…I’ve really just started.” It has been a long, necessary process, and O’Brien has emerged a different person. “You have to keep moving and finding the things that inspire you and that resonate… there’s a music that I’m chasing… this feels like the right start.” EOB marks a new beginning for Ed O’Brien. From here, he can go anywhere.

TRACK LISTING

1. Shangri-La
2. Brasil
3. Deep Days
4. Long Time Coming
5. Mass
6. Banksters
7. Sail On
8. Olympik
9. Cloak Of The Night

Newly expanded audio. New liner notes from Pentangle bandmate and collaborator Danny Thompson. Vinyl only, limited to 500 copies worldwide. Expanded 40th anniversary edition, featuring newly discovered live tracks and notes from Pentangle bandmate (and Avocet collaborator) Danny Thompson. Bert Jansch was often quoted as saying “I’m not playing for anyone, just myself” and this feels no more apparent than on 1979’s ‘Avocet’, his beautifully meditative paean to British birds.

This isn’t to say that Jansch was throwing commercial success to the wind, or was unaware of his audience, more that this album feels like a uniquely personal reflection of him. (The subject of British birds is one that Jansch held close to his heart. Indeed, just preceding this album was his 1978 split 7” single with Shirley Collins - with proceeds in aid of the RSPB.) For fans of Jansch this is often the album that is singled out as his best work. The freedoms of a post-Pentangle career are much in evidence; folk rock and even trad folk give way to an album that is not only without lyrical accompaniment but really quite orchestral, classical even, in its composition. There are surprises in particular in ‘Lapwing’ (a dirge-like waltz that wouldn’t be out of place on a Nils Frahm album) and ‘Bittern’ (which speaks of Arthur Russell’s more experimental pieces). Featuring ex-bandmate Danny Thompson, alongside Martin Jenkins (Dando Shaft, amongst others) with sleeve notes by Jansch aficionado Colin Harper (author of ‘Dazzling Stranger: Bert Jansch and the British Folk and Blues revival’). This new edition also comprises three never-before heard tracks, recorded live in Italy in in 1977 (‘Bittern’; ‘Kingfisher’; ‘Avocet’), as well as Danny Thompson’s recollections of the making of ‘Avocet’, recorded by Dave Thompson (Mojo Magazine) in typical style. Remastered by Brian Pyle from original tapes. 

TRACK LISTING

01: Avocet
02: Lapwing
03: Bittern
04: Kingfisher
05: Osprey
06: Goldfinch Bonus Tracks ( DL Only ) – Recorded Live In Italy, 1977
07: Bittern
08: Kingfisher
09: Avocet

Philadelphia based noise punks, Empath, featuring members of Perfect Pussy and Waxahatchee, write songs like communing with nature, bringing all their fuzzed and tripped out idiosyncrasies into harmony.

Empath began in 2016 when Garrett Koloski, Emily "Jem" Shanahan, and Catherine Elicson moved into a house in West Philadelphia together, with Randall Coon joining shortly after. Even with the simple vision to shred, there’s a natural sensitivity in the way Empath communicates. Between the contrast of Elicson’s lush, almost delicate vocals, Koloski’s boisterous drumming, and the half-harmonious wash of guitar and Shanahan and Coon’s synths, Empath equips us with a healthy dose of emotional repose. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Mixing all the best bits of shimmering synth-pop, clashing garage rock and grooving riot grrrl drive, Empath effortlessly smash out a confident and accomplished debut, brilliantly accomplished but never too serious to smile.

TRACK LISTING

1. Soft Shape
2. Pure Intent
3. Hanging Out Of Cars
4. Roses That Cry
5. Rowing
6. Heaven
7. IV
8. Decor
9. Rodeo Fever

Kristian Matsson is a singer-songwriter from Dalarna, Sweden, who performs under the stage name of The Tallest Man on Earth. Matsson grew up in Leksand, and began his solo career in 2006, having previously been the lead singer of the indie band Montezumas. His music has often drawn comparisons to the music of Bob Dylan.

“Last summer, Kristian Matsson lamented that steady touring had slowed the arrival of I Love You. It’s a Fever Dream., his fifth album as the Tallest Man on Earth. “I can’t write good stuff on tour,” he complained. “I can’t write about life on a tour bus.” Ironically, Fever Dream arrives as a focused and frequently lovely rumination on life lived on a tour bus. Songs unfold in hotel bars, on open roads, beneath vast blue bowls of rural sky. The rhythms of perpetual travel pulse beneath acoustic melodies that lie somewhere between Dylan and Sufjan—a few gentle, a few forceful. With depth and delicacy, Matsson explores the banalities and oddities of tour, like the phenomenon of performing for an adoring audience to whom you are a stranger.

Matsson’s music mirrors his lyrical themes. Though he remains devoted to sparse arrangements of guitar, banjo, and harmonica, these songs begin to veer into more adventurous territory. “Hotel Bar” introduces a horn section, and “The Running Styles of New York” is bookended by momentary blips of electronics. These new elements are deployed sparingly and selectively, a sprinkle of salt to draw new flavor from familiar sound. Tempos vary, too, from raucous stomping to slow, plaintive fingerpicking—as if he’s stretching, sprinting, growing fatigued, slowing down. As in his words, he wrestles with the question of where to go, and how quickly.” - Pitchfork

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: It might be slightly misleading to call him the tallest man on earth (at 5'5, i've even been taller than him myself), but the comparisons to Dylan are thankfully, completely accurate. Beautiful plucked guitar, honestly written heartfelt lyrics and a stunning ear for melody make this an essential for all of you that like a nice soft strum and a beautiful hushed vocal.

TRACK LISTING

The Running Styles Of New York
Theres A Girl
My Dear
What Ive Been Kicking Around 
Im A Stranger Now
Waiting For My Ghost
Ill Be A Sky
All I Can Keep Is Now
I Love You Its A Fever Dream

In the mid-1970s, a force of nature swept across the continental United States, cutting across all strata of race and class, rooting in our minds, our homes, our culture. It wasn’t The Exorcist, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, or even bell-bottoms, but instead a book called The Secret Life of Plants. The work of occultist/former OSS agent Peter Tompkins and former CIA agent/dowsing enthusiast Christopher Bird, the books shot up the bestseller charts and spread like kudzu across the landscape, becoming a phenomenon. Seemingly overnight, the indoor plant business was in full bloom and photosynthetic eukaryotes of every genus were hanging off walls, lording over bookshelves, and basking on sunny window ledges. The science behind Secret Life was specious: plants can hear our prayers, they’re lie detectors, they’re telepathic, able to predict natural disasters and receive signals from distant galaxies. But that didn’t stop millions from buying and nurturing their new plants.

Perhaps the craziest claim of the book was that plants also dug music. And whether you purchased a snake plant, asparagus fern, peace lily, or what have you from Mother Earth on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles (or bought a Simmons mattress from Sears), you also took home Plantasia, an album recorded especially for them. Subtitled “warm earth music for plants…and the people that love them,” it was full of bucolic, charming, stoner-friendly, decidedly unscientific tunes enacted on the new-fangled device called the Moog. Plants date back from the dawn of time, but apparently they loved the Moog, never mind that the synthesizer had been on the market for just a few years. Most of all, the plants loved the ditties made by composer Mort Garson.

Few characters in early electronic music can be both fearless pioneers and cheesy trend-chasers, but Garson embraced both extremes, and has been unheralded as a result. When one writer rhetorically asked: “How was Garson’s music so ubiquitous while the man remained so under the radar?” the answer was simple. Well before Brian Eno did it, Garson was making discreet music, both the man and his music as inconspicuous as a Chlorophytum comosum. Julliard-educated and active as a session player in the post-war era, Garson wrote lounge hits, scored plush arrangements for Doris Day, and garlanded weeping countrypolitan strings around Glen Campbell’s “By the Time I Get to Phoenix.” He could render the Beatles and Simon & Garfunkel alike into easy listening and also dreamed up his own ditties. “An idear” as Garson himself would drawl it out. “I live with it, I walk it, I sing it.”

But as his daughter Day Darmet recalls: “When my dad found the synthesizer, he realized he didn’t want to do pop music anymore.” Garson encountered Robert Moog and his new device at the Audio Engineering Society’s West Coast convention in 1967 and immediately began tinkering with the device. With the Moog, those idears could be transformed. “He constantly had a song he was humming,” Darmet says. “At the table he was constantly tapping.” Which is to say that Mort pulled his melodies out of thin air, just like any household plant would.

The Plantae kingdom grew to its height by 1976, from DC Comics’ mossy superhero Swamp Thing to Stevie Wonder’s own herbal meditation, Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants. Nefarious manifestations of human-plant interaction also abounded, be it the grotesque pods in Invasion of the Body Snatchers or the pothead paranoia of the US Government spraying Mexican marijuana fields with the herbicide paraquat (which led to the rise in homegrown pot by the 1980s). And then there’s the warm, leafy embrace of Plantasia itself.

“My mom had a lot of plants,” Darmet says. “She didn’t believe in organized religion, she believed the earth was the best thing in the whole world. Whatever created us was incredible.” And she also knew when her husband had a good song, shouting from another room when she heard him humming a good idear. Novel as it might seem, Plantasia is simply full of good tunes.

Garson may have given the album away to new plant and bed owners, but a decade later a new generation could hear his music in another surreptitious way. Millions of kids bought The Legend of Zelda for their Nintendo Entertainment System back in 1986 and one distinct 8-bit tune bears more than a passing resemblance to album highlight “Concerto for Philodendron and Pothos.” Garson was never properly credited for it, but he nevertheless subliminally slipped into a new generations’ head, helping kids and plants alike grow.

Hearing Plantasia in the 21st century, it seems less an ode to our photosynthesizing friends by Garson and more an homage to his wife, the one with the green thumb that made everything flower around him. “My dad would be totally pleased to know that people are really interested in this music that had no popularity at the time,” Darmet says of Plantasia’s new renaissance. “He would be fascinated by the fact that people are finally understanding and appreciating this part of his musical career that he got no admiration for back then.” Garson seems to be everywhere again, even if he’s not really noticed, just like a houseplant.

STAFF COMMENTS

Patrick says: Perfect for playing to plants, pasta and unborn children (Barry reckons you can play it to your cat too), this early electronic masterpiece is amongst the finest Moog records ever recorded. Shut your eyes and you’ll find yourself brushing through the verdant flora of a distant planet, glittering arps and delicate melodies accompanying your every move. Originally given away with any houseplant purchase at LA’s Mother Earth, this unique LP has since become a holy grail for open-minded audiophiles, and we’re eternally indebted to Sacred Bones for such a gorgeous reissue.

TRACK LISTING

(A)
1. Plantasia
2. Symphony For A Spider Plant
3. Baby’s Tears Blues
4. Ode To An African Violet
5. Concerto For Philodendron And Pothos

(B)
1. Rhapsody In Green
2. Swingin' Spathiphyllums
3. You Don't Have To Walk A Begonia
4. A Mellow Mood For Maidenhair 

Commemorating thirty trips around the sun as one of metal’s most monolithic bands, Earth release their ninth studio album, Full Upon Her Burning Lips. A purge of the embellishment and panache from previous releases, Full Upon Her Burning Lips intimates Earth’s commitment to the minimalism of their primordial days.

Deconstructing the tried-and-true dynamic consisting of Dylan Carlson on guitar and bass and Adrienne Davies on drums and percussion, Full Upon Her Burning Lips taps into the Platonic ideal of Earth—an incarnation of the long running band bolstered by the authority of purpose, where every note and every strike on the drum kit carries the weight of the world. In addition to scaling back the flourishes of their hulking, drone-driven opuses, Full Upon Her Burning Lips was composed sans narrative, relying instead on their collective subconscious to hone in on the overarching muse as the songs developed.

The record was engineered, mixed, and mastered by long time associate Mell Dettmer at Studio Soli. Showcasing Carlson’s sepia-toned Bakersfield Sound guitars and Davies’ death knell drums, Full Upon Her Burning Lips mines for the expressive, nuanced, and tonally rich components of Earth’s arsenal of sound. And indeed, anyone that’s followed Earth on their journey will bask in the unadulterated hums, throbs, and reverberations conjured by Carlson and Davies.

“I feel like this is the fullest expression and purest distillation of what Earth does since I re-started the band,” Carlson says in reflection of Full Upon Her Burning Lips. And indeed, anyone that’s followed Earth on their journey will bask in the unadulterated hums, throbs, and reverberations conjured by Carlson and Davies.

TRACK LISTING

1. Datura's Crimson Veils
2. Exaltation Of Larks
3. Cats On The Briar
4. The Colour Of Poison
5. Descending Belladonna
6. She Rides An Air Of Malevolence
7. Maidens Catafalque
8. An Unnatural Carousel
9. The Mandrake's Hymn
10. A Wretched Country Of Dusk

The definitive Prince reissue series continues with a first time on vinyl for three of his essential noughties albums, "Musicology", "3121" and "Planet Earth".
On its original UK release, Prince's 2007 album "Planet Earth" was available as a free covermount CD with the Mail On Sunday, or as part of a ticket deal for his 21 night live run at London's O2 arena. While this might have caused chaos amongst record stores at the time, it did ensure that a great late Prince album was heard by the widest audience possible. Where previous albums "Musicology" and "3121" predominently dealt with funk and R&B, "Planet Earth" is more of a mixed bag, as evidenced by its three singles, "Guitar", "Somewhere Here On Earth" and "Chelsea Rodgers".

TRACK LISTING

A1. Planet Earth
A2. Guitar
A3. Somewhere Here On Earth
A4. The One U Wanna C
B1. Future Baby Momma
B2. Mr. Goodnight
B3. All The Midnights In The World
B4. Chelsea Rodgers
B5. Lion Of Judah
B6. Resolution

Bagpuss, dear Bagpuss

Old fat furry cat-puss

Wake up and look at this thing that I bring

Wake up, be bright

Be golden and light

Bagpuss, Oh hear what I sing

12th of February, 1974, and for an audience of small children at 1:45pm, a life irrevocably coloured by the wayward wonderings of one saggy cloth cat. Some 44 years later and Earth Recordings opens the door to Bagpuss & Co. once again, revealing for the first time the original music in all its newly-mastered splendour.

The 32 tracks that make up the main body of the compositions are – like all good folk music – a patchwork of traditional pieces, half-remembered tunes and pure improvisation. It's testament to Sandra Kerr and John Faulkner's musicianship that the recordings work so well, not only within the context of the television episodes, but as an album in its own right. Of the recording, Oliver Postgate (in his exquisite autobiography 'Seeing Things') says: "Between them Sandra and John could play every sort of instrument from a mountain dulcimer to an Irish fiddle. They knew and could sing every tune in the world and didn't bother with written music, except as a last resort. They were exactly suited to Gabriel the Toad and Madeleine the Rag Doll and in those roles were happy to play whatever music and sing whatever songs would be needed."

Those songs manifested themselves as reworkings of familiar tunes ('I Saw A Ship'; 'Row Your Boat'; 'Bucket's Burning'), takes on traditional ballads ('Brian O'Lynn'; 'The Frog Princess'; 'Weaving Song'; 'The Old Woman Tossed Up in a Basket') and delicious flights of fancy ('The Bony King of Nowhere'; 'Turtle Calypso'; 'Uncle Feedle'). The counterpart to Madeleine and Gabriel's more polished ditties are the interludes from the mice; a raggle-taggle chorus that accompanies the creatures' efforts of help (with the mice once famously going on strike when they were not permitted sang as they worked). Again, Postgate muses: "Once I had worked out a few episodes I would make a very rough list of the bits where I though music would be appropriate. I would send it to [Sandra and John] to think about. Then we would borrow a fairly silent room in a remote house and, taking the various articles that we intended to celebrate with us, would spend a happy day with a tape recorder, thinking up and recording whatever songs and tunes came to mind."

The outtakes provide an intimate – and often very humourous – insight into the trio's work ethic, if it can be called such a thing. (By all accounts they sound as though they're having a very jolly time indeed.) Highlights include alternative opening words and end music, as well as Postgate sound-checking in character as Bagpuss. This never-before heard audio provides a real treat for fans (and indeed those new to the Smallfilms stable) – affirmation again to the enduring quality of these special recordings, and the beloved programme that inspired them.

"An accidental classic of the folk-roots underground that we never dared hope we’d hear with such clarity." -Stewart Lee.

And so their work was done.

TRACK LISTING

1 Opening
2 We Will Wash It
3 I Saw A Ship
4 We Will Rub It
5 The Bony King Of Nowhere
6 Cat And Bird Tone Phone
7 Princess Suite
8 The Old Woman Who Lived In A Shoe
9 Row The Boat
10 We Will Lace It
11 Ballerina Music Box
12 Porcupine Song
13 Here's A Pin
14 We Will Fix It
15 Turtle Calypso
16 The Elephant's Fable
17 The Miller's Song
18 We Will Find It
19 The Town Band
20 Song Of The Flea
21 We Will Do It (Undo It)
22 The Weaving Song
23 Charliemouse Weaving
24 Bucket's Burning
25 Brian O'Lynn
26 Lullaby For Cabbages
27 We Will Do It (Go Through It)
28 The Old Woman Tossed Up In A Basket
29 Mouse Ragtime
30 We Will Fold It
31Uncle Feedle
32 Closing
33 Opening Words (Outtake)
34 Introducing The Characters (Outtake)
35 Characters Waking Up (Outtake)
36 Bagpuss Soundcheck
37 I Saw A Ship A-Sailing (Alternate Version)
38 Mermaid Song
39 Captain Bagpuss Poem
40 Owls Of Athens Story
41 Birdsong
42 Princess Suite (Outtake)
43 The Old Woman Who Lived In A Shoe (Outtake)
44 Porcupine Song (Outtake)
45 Bagpipes
46 Brian O'Lynn (Outtake )
47 Agricultural Jig
48 Percy Pratt Poem
49 End Music (Outtake) 

‘Heathen Earth’: A live document of a performance by TG to a small and invited audience on 16 February 1980. Uses re-mastering from 2011. Neither an insight into TG’s recording process nor private live show, ‘Heathen Earth’ is its own entity and exists as a document and testament to a group of people at the height of their creative powers, recorded just over a year before they disbanded and terminated the mission.

TRACK LISTING

CD1
Cornet
The Old Man Smiled
Improvisation
The World Is A War Film
Something Came Over Me
Still Talking
Bass
Don't Do As You're Told, Do As You
Think
Painless Childbirth

CD2
Introducton - Sheffield University 1980
Trained Condition Of Obedience - S036
Club Berlin 1980
Heathen Earth - Sheffield University
1980
An Old Man Smiled - S036 Club Berlin
1980
Auschwitz - Rafters, Manchester 1980
Devil's Gateway - Rafters, Manchester
1980
Punished - Sheffield University 1980
Tortured Smiles - Sheffield University
1980
We Said No - Sheffield University 1980
Subhuman
Adrenalin

LP
Untitled
Untitled

The long-awaited follow up to Washington’s debut "The Epic", "Heaven & Earth" is comprised of two halves, which find Washington confronting quotidian realities with cosmic themes. A further investigation of Washington’s world building ideas, the new album explores his reckoning with current global chaos and his vision for the future.

Washington convened his band, The Next Step, as well as members of the long running collective The West Coast Get Down at Henson Studios in Los Angeles to record the 16 tracks on Heaven & Earth. The music was composed, written and arranged by Washington, with new arrangements of jazz and bebop legend Freddie Hubbard’s “Hubtones” and iconic kung fu film theme “Fists of Fury,” as well as one song by bandmate Ryan Porter. Thundercat, Terrace Martin, Ronald Bruner, Jr., Cameron Graves, Brandon Coleman, Miles Mosley, Patrice Quinn, Tony Austin and many more contribute to the album.

Clocking in at two and a half colossal hours of music, "Heaven & Earth" is available on double deluxe CD and a four piece vinyl housed in bespoke double gatefold sleeve

“The world that my mind lives in, lives in my mind.” This idea inspired me to make this album Heaven & Earth. The reality we experience is a mere creation of our consciousness, but our consciousness creates this reality based on those very same experiences. We are simultaneously the creators of our personal universe and creations of our personal universe. The Earth side of this album represents the world as I see it outwardly, the world that I am a part of. The Heaven side of this album represents the world as I see it inwardly, the world that is a part of me. Who I am and the choices I make lie somewhere in between.”
Kamasi Washington

STAFF COMMENTS

Patrick says: The man responsible for turning a younger generation of music lovers onto the passion and power of jazz returns with the bombastic brilliance of his sophomore LP. Seriously spiritual and surprisingly groovy, "Heaven & Earth" incorporates Marvin-esque soul, Old Testament intensity and soaring, searing solos into a breathtaking vision of jazz's next incarnation.

TRACK LISTING

Earth
1. Fists Of Fury
2. Can You Hear Him
3. Hub -Tones
4. Connections
5. Tiffakonkae
6. The Invincible Youth
7. Testify
8. One Of One

Heaven
1. The Space Travelers Lullaby
2. Vi Lua Vi Sol
3. Street Fighter Mas
4. Song For The Fallen
5. Journey
6. The Psalmnist
7. Show Us The Way
8. Will You Sing

When Evil Blizzard emerged from the bowels of Lancashire with their debut album 5 years ago it is fair to say they caused a stir. Put on the front cover of The Guardian, and championed by Mark E. Smith (who gave the band the money to record their debut album out of his own pocket) their gruesome mix of four bass players blending Psyche, Krautrock, Post Punk and an unmistakable image saw them launched onto magazines and websites world-wide. Their new album 'The Worst Show On Earth' (on their own newly-founded Crackedankles Records label) presents a logical progression from the previous two, a third stepping stone on the journey into their peculiar sonic dream- or nightmare? -scape.

Heavy, grinding, yet commercially viable, this release sees the band truly shake off the ‘gimmick’ tag of the past and stride forward into new musical dimensions. Yes, there’s still 4 basses. But also piano, cello, samples and a general disregard for the basic concept of a ‘pop song,’ with 2 tracks hitting the 10 minute mark. The introduction of keyboards into their live onslaught (you have seen them live, right? Right?!?) has developed their sound to incorporate techno and industrial elements, with recent single ‘Fast Forward Rewind’ hitting the nation’s airwaves aided by its freak show video shot illegally in an abandoned Victorian music hall.

The album title came from a less than impressed reviewer. The band, ever self-deprecating, take great pleasure in antagonising their crowd to the point that their dedicated following greet live performances with booing rather than applause. One fan, who has the band logo tattooed on his arm, made his own ‘I Hate Evil Blizzard’ t-shirts. ‘People pay money to hate us. Win/Win.’ 

TRACK LISTING

1) Hello
2) Fast Forward Rewind
3) Unleash The Misery
4) Those We Left Behind
5) Like A God
6) Tell Me
7) Pull God From The Sky
8) The Worst Show On Earth (* Extended Version - CD/download Only)

Having had a wealth of self-released outings under his own name, Luke Spillane has a new, four-track epic out called 'The Salt Of The Earth'. We kick things off with the instantly frenetic 'The One And The Only', with rapidly arpeggiated saw-waves and pulsing pads riding over the insistent drum machine kicks, before introducing echoed vocal swells, helping to anchor things before floating off into a cosmic scree. 'Crown Of Life' continues the same arepggiated loop before introducing a resonant notched filter sweep, harmonic and intentionally jarring at the same time. 

The closing duo of 'Vaster' and 'Under My Wing' keep the narrative thread running through them, giving a sense of continuity and anchoring the progressive experimentation around that tried and tested central pattern. 

TRACK LISTING

1. The One And The Only 10:22
2. Crown Of Life 07:44
3. Vaster 14:37
4. Under My Wing 13:26

New Zealand’s The Cavemen are back, ready to drink, fight, fxck and play some goddamn rock and roll! “Nuke Earth” is their 3rd footlong rekkid and it’s pure, primitive motherfuckin’ GARAGE PUNK like you lust after every night when you’re licking your sexiest leather record jackets, or ‘77 punk steeped in a moldy stack of bootleg Motörhead outtake LPs. The ‘Men have gone batshit crazy, and they’re in full-on attack mode here with 13 tracks of panty dropping chaos guaranteed to land you in jail faster than you can crack one off in a grindhouse showing an “Ilsa” film. Rock’n’roll is here to stay, and it’ll always be for the crazy kids… like it or lump it! 

TRACK LISTING

1:Lust For Evil
2:Criminal Love
3:Janey
4:Batshit Crazy
5:Chernobyl Baby
6:7 Day Weekend
7:The Night Jimmy Savile Died
8:Concrete Town
9:Don’t Wanna Hang
10:Gimme Beer Or Gimme Death
11:Elvis Is Alive
12:Thug
13:Speaking In Tongues.

‘Earth Loop’, the debut album by BEAK> keyboardist William Young’s Moon Gangs project, is set for release via Village Green Recordings.

A classically-trained pianist, Young composed ‘Earth Loop’ “half and half in a classical sense,” some played live on keyboards, with ideas notated traditionally, the other half created using analogue sequencers with random voltage sources.

“Earth Loop mainly came out of jamming with synths. The mixer I use is an old Tascam 144 so if things are sounding good I just hit record and get it to tape. Everything started as big long rambles recorded live that are then trimmed down into something more concise. Inspiration-wise I’d been listening to more classical stuff, a lot of chamber music for strings, and I think that shows in the string section-y bits. Although they’re all synths, not actual strings. It was recorded all over the place over quite a long time which I guess is why there are a lot of different ‘moods’ on it, rather than it being a document of a specific period of time/place. I also started building a field recording library over the last couple of years so there’s quite a bit of that in there, but they’re generally processed and run through synths so they’re not too recognisable.” - William Young, Moon Gangs

Young’s introduction to synth music came from listening to film scores when he was a teenager, such as ‘Terminator’, ‘Videodrome’, ‘Zombie Flesh Eaters’ and ‘Phantasm’. Scores from kosmische pioneers Tangerine Dream and Popol Vuh also played a large part in these formative musical years.

Not going out much as a child, Young spent a lot of time indoors playing video games. Instead of a SNES, his mum bought him a Commodore 64 as she thought the keyboard made it seem more educational. Certain games and their soundtracks also struck a chord, such as ‘The Last Ninja’, ‘Dante’s Inferno’, ‘Stormlord’ and ‘Castle Master’.

Moon Gangs officially began in 2011, with the release of ‘Sea/Sky’ on cassette tape via the incipient Where To Now label. Friends from his time spent in Brighton, it was both Young’s and the label’s first release and set the tone for his later output with ambient, analogue synth loops and foreboding, cinematic drones. Subsequent releases followed, such as 2014’s self-titled EP, mixed by Hookworms’ MJ, and an appearance on the Blanck Mass-curated film score ‘The Strange Colour Of Your Body's Tears’, released via Death Waltz.

From high in the Rocky Mountains, Last of the Easy riders descend with Unto the Earth, its new psych-infused country-rock long-player.

While the Easy Riders’ first outing exhibited the band’s kaleidoscope of trippy guitar sounds and production techniques, Unto the Earth unveils the band’s earnest songwriting chops and knack for genuine Bakersfield-Sound country. Though, the guys certainly didn’t abandon its lysergic-leanings, especially on the mind-warping title track – which also serves as the lead single.

With no shortage of jangly guitars, piano and pedal steel, the LP no doubt echoes Clarence White-era Byrds, but it doesn’t stray far from the band’s Southwestern-rock ‘n’ roll roots. The early-‘70s AM rock sounds of “Free Wheelin’,” the opening track, reverberates the band’s nomadic lyrical tendencies, while promptly setting up the sonic road trip Unto the Earth delivers. “Turn the Tide,” which closes Side A, melds brilliantly modest Tom Petty-esque guitar riffing with the Easy Riders’ signature vocal harmonies – which soar across both sides of the wax.

Being the first full-length for the band, the members – whom all share songwriting credits – were able to stretch out and laydown some lengthy and tastefully-stacked arrangements. From the fiery doors-esque jamming on “Woodland Echoes” to the ominous western guitar lines of “Shadow Cruiser,” numerous moods freely wander across the nine-song track list.

“Almost all the lyrics are intended to paint vivid picture, and give listeners a sense of place,” says the band’s co-founder Christopher Minarik (guitar/backing vocals). “Certain songs and lyrics really lay it on the line and say exactly how the songwriter felt, or what they were going through. It’s the most personal and honest songwriting I’ve ever done.”

Rounding out the lineup heard on the LP is bassist/vocalist Dan Duggan, guitarist Bradley Grear and drummer Mitch Mitchum. Unto the Earth was recorded in March 2017 in Lansing, Michigan by producer/songwriter George Szegedy – who also offered up his own song for the disc, the twangy-and-wistful “It Won't Be Long” After five months of mixing and fine-tuning, the Last of the Easy Riders were ready to deliver the record.

STAFF COMMENTS

Laura says: Sublime psych-tinged country rock from this Denver four piece. If Byrdsian guitar jangles, vocal harmonies and pedal-steel are your thing then this is definitely for you. Lovely stuff!

TRACK LISTING

A
1 Freewheelin'
2 It Won't Be Long
3 Easy Alameda
4. Unto The Earth
5. Turn The Tide

B
1 High And Lonesome
2 Shadow Cruiser
3 Silver Canyon
4 Woodland Echoes

Comprising Bert’s seminal 1960s output (alongside his only album as a duet with Pentangle bandmate John Renbourn) this four disc set covers an era that forged creative paths for everyone from Neil Young to Johnny Marr. New listening notes from Bill Leader, as well as unseen photographs from Brian Shuel complete this special collection. Where to start with a career as prolific as that of Bert Jansch? Why, the beginning of course. Bert’s first studio (though as Bill Leader rightly points out, that’s a bit of a stretch) albums capture a man whose star is truly on the rise. It also marks his most prolific period - these four LPs were written, recorded and issued in just two years; a testament to not only Bert’s abundant musicality but to a time for music that was changing - excitedly - from minute to minute.

From Bert’s masterclass in elegant, melodic, one-man-and-his-guitar fingerpicking on his self-titled LP, to the beginnings of something altogether more exotic on ‘Bert and John’, these records are nothing if not a remarkable insight into the changing face of folk music at the time. For those unfamiliar with Jansch’s oeuvre, this is a real treat; you won’t find a more comprehensively produced collection. ‘A Man I’d Rather Be’ includes all the original liner notes (from both Keith De Groot and Bert himself) as well as new ruminations from Bill Leader (who recorded much of Jansch’s nascent work) as well as never-before seen photographs by the illustrious Brian Shuel.

For those in the know, this is a chance to revisit these extraordinary albums, revel in new insights and add some - perhaps more listenable LPs - to sit alongside their love-worn originals. “The Jimi Hendrix of the acoustic guitar” - Neil Young // "At one point, I was absolutely obsessed with Bert Jansch. When I first heard that LP, I couldn’t believe it. It was so far ahead of what everyone else was doing. No one in America could touch that.” - Jimmy Page // "I particularly like his second record. The album before it [1965's Bert Jansch] is more revered and held up by most journalists as being the seminal one, but I think the songs are better on It Don't Bother Me, particularly the title track. The fact that they were both recorded in a kitchen at his mate's house is another reason why it has never dated.” 

TRACK LISTING

DISC ONE –

Bert Jansch:

1 Strolling Down The Highway
2 Smokey River
3 Oh How Your Love Is Strong
4 I Have No Time
5 Finches
6 Ramblings Going To Be The Death Of Me
7 Veronica
8 Needle Of Death
9 Do You Hear Me Now?
10 Alice's Wonderland
11 Running From Home
12 Courting Blues
13 Casbah
14 Dreams Of Love
15 Angie

DISC TWO – It Don’t Bother Me:

1 Oh My Babe
2 Ring-A-Ding Bird
3 Tinker's Blues
4 Anti Apartheid
5 The Wheel
6 A Man I'd Rather Be
7 My Lover
8 It Don't Bother Me
9 Harvest Your Thoughts Of Love
10 Lucky Thirteen
11 As The Day Grows Longer Now
12 So Long (Been On The Road So Long)
13 Want My Daddy Now
14 900 Miles.

DISC THREE – Jack Orion:

1 The Waggoner's Lad
2 The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face
3 Jack Orion
4 The Gardener
5 Nottamun Town
6 Henry Martin
7 Black Water Side
8 Pretty Polly.

DISC 4 – Bert And John:

1 East Wind
2 Piano Tune
3 Goodbye Pork Pie Hat
4 Soho
5 Tic-Tocative
6 Orlando
7 Red's Favorite
8 No Exit
9 Along The Way
10 The Time Has Come
11 Stepping Stones
12 After The Dance.

A landmark in cinematic wildlife fi lmmaking, Earth: One Amazing Day dramati cally brings to life the crucial role the sun plays in shaping the destinies of life-forms on the planet, including ourselves. It’s a spectacular vision of the rhythms of day and night and how a relati onship with the sun binds every species together.

The score is produced by Alex Heffes, one of fi lm world’s most exciting composers, with credits such as Touching The Void, The Last King Of Scotland and Queen Of Katwe.

This vinyl edition is packaged as a gatefold double LP on blue and green translucent heavyweight vinyl. The artwork contains numerous photos from the
film itself.

TRACK LISTING

LP 1:
Earth
Sunrise
Serval
Iguanas Vs. Snakes
Waltz Of The Flowers
Baby Panda
Cloud Building
Zebra River Crossing
Narwhales
Brown Bears
Sleepy Lions
Giraffe Battle
Sand Dunes
Sperm Whales

LP 2:
Sloth Story
Penguin Colony
Penguin Raiders Return
Penguins Reunited
Racket Tailed Hummingbird
Field Mouse
Mayflies
Zebra Survives Another Day
White Headed Langurs
Creatures Of The Night
Click Beetle
Bioluminescence
Night Sky
Fireflies
Another Ordinary Day
End Credits

“Lankum are the darlings of Dublin’s 300 year-old folk scene.” Colin Irwin – The Guardian

Lankum are one of the most talked about bands to come out of Ireland in decades. They are a Dublin four-piece who combine distinctive four-part vocal harmonies with arrangements of uilleann pipes, concertina, accordion, fiddle and guitar. Their repertoire spans humorous Dublin music-hall ditties and street-songs, classic ballads from the Traveller tradition, traditional Irish and American dance tunes, and their own original material. The band comprises of brothers Ian and Daragh Lynch along with Cormac MacDiarmada and Radie Peat. When not on tour Ian lectures in Irish Folklore and musical traditions in University College Dublin, while Cormac and Radie grew up as champion traditional players, on the fiddle and concertina, respectively. Yet Lankum are not purely trad themselves, in the same way The Pogues were more urban music. Rough-hewn and raw, they’re the edgiest thing in Dublin right now.

Having spent the last number of years performing as ‘Lynched’ a play on Ian and Daragh’s family name Lynch, the band decided that they would no longer continue with the name due to the unavoidable implications that it has in regards to acts of racist violence. Their new name comes from the ballad ‘False Lankum’, as sung by the Irish Traveller John Reilly Jr.

The band was originally formed by brothers Ian and Daragh Lynch in the early 2000’s, and has since progressed through a number of incarnations, culminating in the four-piece group playing today. The release of their album 'Cold Old Fire' and a subsequent appearance on the BBC television programme, 'Later... with Jools Holland' cemented their reputation as a band that successfully crosses genres. Lankum are busy breathing new life into old music.

Although an acoustic group whose repertoire is fundamentally based on traditional song, influenced by legends such as Frank Harte, Planxty, The Dubliners and the Watersons, subtle traces of the group’s collective influences can be detected, ranging from American old-timey music to krautrock and drone.

Local Action presents Earth Body, the long-awaited debut album by Deadboy. Deadboy is one of UK underground music’s most influential and respected artists. His early singles ‘U Cheated’ and ‘If U Want Me’ predicted an entire generation of post-dubstep dance music, bringing much-needed r&b, house and dancehall influences to a landscape dominated by grime and dubstep and helping to pave the way for a new age of UK club music. After developing his unique attitude to the club across longer EPs like Blaquewerk and Here, 2015 saw Deadboy usher in a new phase of his career with his deepest record to date, White Magick - which saw elements of new age, meditational and ambient music that had always existed in Deadboy’s music find their way to the surface of his sound.

After launching the ambient club night New Atlantis, he then re-located from London to Montreal, where he wrote Earth Body. Written and recorded entirely during Montreal’s winter, Earth Body is not only Deadboy’s first album, but the first time his own vocals have been front and centre of his music rather than simply sampled. Although this is clearly an album by someone who's done their time in the clubs - as evidenced by the clattering drums of ‘Caballero’, for instance - it’s ultimately a pop record, inspired by Deadboy’s long-standing love of Scott Walker, Sade, Drake and the Beach Boys and filled with bold choruses and multi-tracked harmonies. It’s a record that features stark, uncomfortable moments of cold isolation, but ultimately is hopeful and full of love.

TRACK LISTING

01. ‘Caballero’
02. ‘Water Body’
03. ‘Tide’
04. ‘Rain’
05. ‘Orion’
06. ‘Virtue Coast’
07. ‘Lo Heat’
08. ‘There Is A Light’
09. ‘Laurier’

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2017 EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

The Mothers Earth Experiment is a six piece contemporary progressive outfit from the UK. The band pride themselves on their eclectic mix of inspirations and style to weave detailed sonic tapestries of dense psychedelic atmospheres, rhythmic drive and emotive melodies. 'Cool Down Mama' is the first glimpse of their much awaited debut album. With a non-LP B-side, this single represents their message of social and ecological consciousness that is further expanded on in their self titled album to be released in the Spring of 2017. They released their debut E.P ‘Don’t Speak Against the Sun’ in september 2015 and their first show supporting Gong has
led to a series of dynamic performances across the UK. The band is proud to have provided support for such artists as Syd Arthur, Purson, Acid Mothers Temple, Nicholas Allbrook (Pond, Tame Impala), Braids, Arthur Brown and Soft Machine. individually numbered limited edition of 500.

Following on from Earth’s definitive collection of Jansch’s 1990s works ‘Living In The Shadows Part 2: On The Edge Of A Dream' picks up from where it left off, bringing together Bert Jansch’s final recordings, made between 2000 and 2006. This remarkable anthology documents some of Jansch’s finest work, and a man at the top of his game, some forty years(!) after his first release. From the brooding resonance of Crimson Moon (where Jansch is joined by Johnny Marr, Bernard Butler and Johnny “Guitar” Hodge, as well as son Adam Jansch and Bert’s wife Loren Jansch) to the intimacy of Edge Of A Dream (Bernard Butler, Hope Sandoval, Dave Swarbrick, Ralph McTell, Johnny “Guitar” Hodge, Paul Wassif, Adam Jansch and Loren Jansch) to the wondrous new folk / trad folk harmony of Black Swan (Beth Orton, Devendra Banhart, Kevin Barker, Helena Espvall, Paul Wassif), these seemingly very different albums all speak of one thing: Bert’s natural talent for turning out extraordinary music, regardless of genre. Disc four, The Setting Of The Sun, takes in more demos and unreleased material, with guest appearances from Gordon Giltrap and Johnny Marr adding additional delight for fans old and new. These peeks into Jansch’s recording process are nothing if not fascinating, with his home studio lending itself perfectly to any recording fancy he might arrive at. Like Part 1, this deluxe case-bound set exhibits the sublime attention to detail that has become Earth Recordings’ calling card. Liner notes come courtesy of colleague Bernard Butler and Bert’s son Adam, while a comprehensive listening guide (by esteemed journalist, Dave Henderson) is also included. 

TRACK LISTING

DISC ONE – Crimson Moon

1 Caledonia
2 Going Home
3 Crimson Moon
4 Downunder
5 October Song
6 Looking For Love
7 Fool's Mate
8 The River Bank
9 Omie Wise
10 My Donald
11 Neptune's Daughter
12 Singing The Blues

DISC TWO – Edge Of A Dream

1 On The Edge Of A Dream
2 All This Remains
3 What Is On Your Mind
4 Sweet Death
5 I Cannot Keep From Crying
6 La Luna
7 Gypsy Dave
8 Walking This Road
9 The Quiet Joys Of Brotherhood
10 Black Cat Blues
11 Bright Sunny Morning

DISC THREE – The Black Swan -

1 The Black Swan
2 High Days
3 When The Sun Comes Up
4 Katie Cruel
5 My Pocket's Empty
6 Watch The Stars
7 A Woman Like You
8 The Old Triangle
9 Bring Your Religion
10 Texas Cowboy Blues
11 Magdalina's Dance
12 Hey Pretty Girl..

DISC FOUR – The Setting Of The Sun (Bonus Disc)

1 Watch The Stars Demo, The Black Swan
2 It Don’t Bother Me Unreleased, With Johnny Marr
3 On The Edge Of A Dream Demo, Edge Of A Dream
4 Walking This Road Demo, Edge Of A Dream
5 My Pocket’s Empty Demo, The Black Swan
6 Cocaine Unreleased, With Johnny Marr
7 Untitled Unreleased
8 Chambertin Unreleased, With Gordon Giltrap
9 Katie Cruel Demo, The Black Swan
10 Fool’s Mate Demo, Crimson Moon
11 The Quiet Joys Of Brotherhood Demo, Edge Of A Dream

It's going on four years since a Slugabed album, but the man's been busy - running a label, working with others, and making a two scrapped LPs' worth of cuts similar in vibe to the hyper-pop of 2014's Coolest EP - happier, forest-y, more 'plinky-plonky.'

Which isn't to say "Inherit the Earth" is bereft of lyrics or even lighter moments. "Gold" plays like a trippy merger of Y2K pop and contemporary alt-R&B thanks, in part, to vocal and production contributions from Hairy Hands and Peter Lyons. Album ender "Earth Is Gone Sorry" is also less bleak than the name would suggest - Lum's soulful voice and the shimmering interstellar textures imply the universe may be better off without our planet making a mess of things. And for all of the slasher-flick effects of "Very Serious Puzzle" and speaker-blowing bass of "Infinite Wave," there is also the thick, glorious funk of "Time 2 Let It Go" and silly digitized brass of "Feeding Time."

TRACK LISTING

The Right Person To Talk To
Stupid Earth
Infinite Wave
Levitating Above My Own Useless Body
Gold (ft. Hairy Hands & Peter Lyons)
Very Serious Puzzle
Time 2 Let It Go
A Thousand Tiny Hands
Perfect Earth
Feeding Time
Virtuous Circle
Earth Is Gone Sorry (ft. Lum)

Hot Creations launch the new ‘Paradise on Earth’ DJ Mix series with the first installment coming as a Mexico special from Paradise residents and label regulars Nathan Barato and Patrick Topping. Each mix is expertly crafted, fusing musical influences with exclusive new material alongside current favourites, and old classics for your listening pleasure.

The first CD comes from Toronto-based DJ & producer Nathan Barato, an artist that has been on the rapid rise with releases on Cajual, MOOD, Relief, Saved, Circus Records, Defected and of course Hot Creations.

UK talent Patrick Topping has cemented his status as one of the most in demand names in dance music with 5 Beatport Tech-House number 1s, touring the world’s biggest festivals, from Creamfields in South America to Stereosonic in Australia, to the main stage at Movement in Detroit, whilst this year completing his third summer as resident at DC10 in Ibiza for Paradise.

Since label head and visionary Jamie Jones began his Paradise night at DC10 in Ibiza five years ago, the night has gone on to be by far one of the biggest on the island, inviting the biggest names in the business to come play alongside his solid crew of talented friends and residents. The launch of the new mix series is a natural progression for the brand as the Hot Creations and Paradise empire continues to grow only stronger.

TRACK LISTING

CD
Nathan Barato Mix
1 Derrick Carter - Where Ya At? (Mix Originale)
2 Precious - It's Gonna Be My Way (Spen & Karizma Deepah Dub)
3 Moritz Piske - Dirt Cabana
4 Gabry Fasano & Riccardo Ferri - Snare City
5 Carlo Lio & Nathan Barato - Feeding The Rhythm
6 Ian Pooley - Higgledy Piggledy
7 Makam - Loleatta
8 Brand New Heavies - Shelter (Dan's Groove Part 1)
9 Hardrive 2000 - Never Forget (When You Touch Me) (Bonus Beats)
10 Nathan Barato - A Little Love
11 Vibe Killers - Get Up!
12 Nathan Barato - Love Came Around
13 Green Velvet – UFO’s
14 ItaloJohnson – 08 A
15 Jovonn- Jump Off
16 Thomas Schumacher - Hush (Catz ‘n Dogz 2013 Remix)
17 Jared Wilson - Girl, I'm Waitin'
18 Robert Hood – Dancer

Patrick Topping Mix
1 Wendy Gondeln – Fracking-Eins (Magazine Remix)
2 Redshape – Dog Day
3 Tronco Trax - Walk 4 Me (Milk Bar Mix)
4 Sex Sells - Ain't No Wifey
5 Jack N Jerk - Acid Gaddafi*
6 Patrick Topping – Tease Magnet*
7 Elliot Adamson - Pleased To Meet You*
8 Metaboman – Next Please
9 The Boss - Congo (Ministry Anthem)
10 DJ Freddy Feat. La Chose – Emergency Delivery
11 Gene Hunt – Dr. Roland
12 Butch - Disco Shhh
13 Itchy + Scratchy Disco Girlfriend (Spot On Mix)
14 Sean Miller - Control Your Body*
15 Patrick Topping – Metro*
16 Oli Furness - Binary Code*
17 Jark Prongo - Movin' Thru Your System (Dave Clarke Remix)
18 Amentia – Serpent
19 Michael Mayer – Mental Caddy
20 Patrick Topping - Wouldn't Dare*
* Unreleased Exclusive

LP
A1 Ian Pooley - Higgledy Piggledy
A2 Precious - It's Gonna Be My Way (Spen & Karizma Deepah Dub)
B1 Green Velvet – UFO’s
B2 ItaloJohnson – 08 A
C1 Redshape – Dog Day
C2 DJ Freddy Feat. La Chose – Emergency Delivery
D1 Tronco Trax - Walk 4 Me (Milk Bar Mix)
D2 Itchy + Scratchy Disco Girlfriend (Spot On Mix)

Natalie Mering, the being behind Weyes Blood, embeds her sublime song in a harmonic gauze of arpeggiated piano, acoustic guitar, druggy horns, & outer space electronics. Propulsive, spare drums carry us across the album’s course.

There is a faded California beauty to Front Row. A gentle honesty that recalls the finest folk music made on the West Coast of the ‘70s. The hue hangs in the sweet-spooky harmonies, the pulsing sway of the vibrato & the ecstatic chord resolves. But this beauty is scratched with shadow; with dark foreboding, alienation, & acceptance of change. Love & loss balance together in suspended alchemy, as the earthiness of the singer-songwriter tradition wears digital sounds like feathers in its hair. Mering, together with co-producer Chris Cohen contrasts live band intimacy with the post-modern electric sheen of A.M. radio atmospherics. The experimental flourishes sparkle amid the succinct, thoughtful arrangements.

The closeness of this record - how personal, alone, & frank it feels - conceals its aspirations to the outside, to the "Earth" of its title. Weyes Blood harbors devastating weight while also universalizing the strange ways of identity & relationships. These are not typical love songs or protest songs -- they are painful, poignant riddles that celebrate the ambiguity of love & affirm the conflict of harmonious life within a disharmonic world.

TRACK LISTING

1. Diary
2. Used To Be
3. Be Free
4. Do You Need My Love
5. Generation Why
6. Can't Go Home
7. Seven Words
8. Away Above
9. Front Row Seat

A Post-rock staple. Intertwining delayed guitar melodies weave around eac-other, adding layers of simple melodies before bursting into euphoric instrumental bliss. Lengthy solo passages do more to exacerbate the eventual burst of action, heightening the impact and soothing the soul. An absolute unmissable classic.

TRACK LISTING

1. "First Breath After Coma" 9:33
2. "The Only Moment We Were Alone" 10:14
3. "Six Days At The Bottom Of The Ocean" 8:43
4. "Memorial" 8:50
5. "Your Hand In Mine" 8:16

“We never stop reading, although every book comes to an end, just as we never stop living, although death is certain” - Roberto Bolaño, Last Evenings On Earth

Question: it’s the end of the world, how are you going to spend it?

Last Evenings On Earth is the apocalyptic second album by Melt Yourself Down, evangelical hawkers of DNA-rearranging post-punk exotica. Snatch your passport and let this hydra-headed serpent take you for a dizzying, continent-hopping voyage around a globe spinning ever more rapidly off its axis.

If MYD’s self-titled debut was a series of feverish nocturnal visions beamed from a sub-Saharan desert, where voodoo spirits were raised from dusty catacombs, then this is an even headier trip. Here the rhythm has migrated to the city to merge with the pulses and dark currents that run through it.

Capturing the raw energy and wild-eyed intensity of the MYD live show, this is music that speaks in tongues. In both sound and aesthetic, Melt Yourself Down have celebrated migration since day one. Theirs is musical unity through movement and sound.

If this is the end of the world, the Last Evening On Earth... bring it.

Melt Yourself Down are Kushal Gaya (vocals), Ruth Goller (bass), Shabaka Hutchings (saxophone), Satin Singh (percussion), Tom Skinner (drums) and Pete Wareham (saxophone), with Leafcutter John (electronics/production).

There’s something particularly pleasing about a privately pressed record. The artist or musicians involved have wanted these recordings to exist with such conviction that they’ve been willing to fund it themselves; the result is either a vanity project or something rather special. Steve Warner’s eponymous 1979 debit falls firmly into the latter. Funded by the combination of a bank loan and a council grant from his native Australia, Steve manage to record, produce, mix and manufacture what would be come to be his only recorded output (Steve went onto teach music afterwards - imagine being in that class!). Nick Armstrong at the legendary Spectangle Studios - also where Howard Eynon recorded ‘Jam’ - was there to assist and the album was eventually managed by Tasmanian label, Candle.

Running to 13 tracks, 11 of which original compositions, this album of delicate folk songs, madcap ditties and more psychedelic orchestrated pieces feels incredibly accomplished for what was basically a one man show. For fans of Dennis Wilson, Roedelius, The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band and Elliott Smith (yes, as far reaching as that). "At the time I would have long dreams about music, but strangely never did I actually hear music in them. I would dream of music in a very abstract sense - it's tension and release, it's inner harmonies, often in a visual or graphic way like an architect might. Lines of stress and of release, tension and slackness, angles between elements, heavy and light, strength and fragility. I used to be fascinated by the grey zone between sleeping and waking, and of finding that place in music.” - Steve Warner, 2015

TRACK LISTING

01 Summer
02 Hey, Hosanna
03 Lightning Over The Meadow
04 A Boogie
05 Rainfall
06 Charlton
07 We’ll Go On
08 Poems In Your Eyes
09 Fireflies
10 Momento
11 Untitled
12 Crisp Morning
13 Cement River

With an output as far reaching as Bert Jansch’s, it’s small wonder that the occasional gem would be overlooked. ‘Moonshine’ - recorded in 1973 - is one such treasure. While the slightly more obvious (and indeed Pentangle-like) albums of 60s Bert are undisputedly wonderful, there is something about the gently brooding style of ‘Moonshine’ that really resonates. Joined by an all-star cast (Ralph McTell! Mary Hopkin! Tony Visconti!) Jansch’s eighth solo album is steeped in tradition, often giving way to a more baroque style of folk music.

TRACK LISTING

1.Yarrow
2.Brought With The Rain
3.The January Man
4.Night Time Blues
5.Moonshine
6.The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face
7.Rambleaway
8.Twa Corbies
9.Oh My Father

Available on vinyl for the first time, included download code. Inspiring generations of musicians, Scottish guitarist and songwriter Bert Jansch will be forever known as a remarkable talent and a leading figure in the British folk revival. He came to prominence in the 1960s becoming widely known for his exemplary guitar technique and innovative blend of folk, blues and jazz. Later he became a founding member of folk super group Pentangle before returning to his solo career. Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Donovan and Johnny Marr have long been fans. Reaching people far and wide, Bert deservedly received many accolades for his contributions to music including the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Radio 2 Folk Awards and a MOJO Merit Award.

‘Live at the 12 Bar’ was recorded in 1995 at the legendary London music venue and is a fitting tribute not only to Bert’s virtuosity but to this renowned hub for folk music and other genres. Bert’s meticulous performance brings together songs from ‘When The Circus Comes To Town’, released in the same year, along with the haunting reworking of ‘Blues Run The Game’ (written by Earth’s own Jackson C. Frank) and traditional folk songs ‘Curragh Of Kildare’ and ‘Lily Of The West’ which were staples in Jansch’s repertoire. ‘Live at the 12 Bar’ captures an intimate gig that’s richly brought to life by his spellbinding ability to hold a room. The warmth and reverent silence from fans reminds us of what it was like to attend his shows and the true legend that we have lost. Two decades after its first release, ‘Live At The 12 Bar’ is issued for the first time on vinyl. This exceptional record is the first release in Earth Recordings’ new extensive reissue series of Bert Jansch catalogue. 

“One of the most innovative instrumentalists of the twentieth century in the folk rock canon” The Quietus.

Peerless in his consistency of making astonishing records” All Music.

TRACK LISTING

1. Summer Heat
2. Curragh Of Kildare
3. Walk Quietly By
4. Come Back Baby
5. Blackwater Side
6. Fresh As A Sweet Sunday Morning
7. Morning Brings Peace Of Mind
8. The Lily Of The West
9. Kingfisher
10. Trouble In Mind
11. Just A Dream
12. Blues Runs The Game
13. Let Me Sing
14. Strolling Down The Highway
15. A Woman Like You

Dark Bird Is Home, the fourth album from The Tallest Man On Earth, doesn’t feel like it came from one time, one place, or one tape machine. The songs and sounds were captured in various countries, studios, and barns, and they carry a weather-worn quality, some dirt and some grit.

Early in Dark Bird, toward the end of the opening track, we hear other voices and sounds backing Kristian Matsson’s own. One of them, later credited in the liner notes with Angel Vocals, shows up several times throughout the record, adding new color to the familiar palette. And so the story grows and expands. That first song has horns and a piano, keyboards, synthesizers, and other modern noisemakers . . . and by track two you’ve got The Tallest Man on Earth as full-throttle rock and roll.

While Dark Bird is The Tallest Man at his most personal and direct, deeper and darker than ever at times, it’s also an album with strokes of whimsy and the scent of new beginnings — which feels fresh for The Tallest Man on Earth, and well timed. Reliably, the melodies and arrangements are sturdy and classic, like old cars and tightly wound clocks. The lyrics and their delivery are both comforting and alarming, like tall trees and wide hills.

The other musicians and layers on this recording put a wide lens on familiar themes. Fear and darkness, sleep or lack of it, dreams in the dark and in the light. Moving, leaving, going. Distance and short stops, long straight lines, temporal places. More hopefully, a grateful nod to a traveling partner, a healing mind. Maybe a little forgiveness needed. Definitely some things to forget.

TRACK LISTING

01. Fields Of Our Home
02. Darkness Of The Dream
03. Singers
04. Slow Dance
05. Little Nowhere Towns
06. Sagres
07. Timothy
08. Beginners
09. Seventeen
10. Dark Bird Is Home

'Music from Planet Earth' is a compilation of music selected from some of Soundway Records' current roster of active artists. More than ever in 2014 the moniker 'world music' seems redundant. A term used to lump everything that isn't from a certain place or sung in a dominant language into one category that receives less attention from nearly all mainstream music media is an unhelpful one to say the least. Soundway Records aims to support new (and old) music that doesn't always fit into a convenient genre. That could be a band based in London formed of musicians from 6 countries making hybrid pop music sung in a Nigerian dialect. It could be music made in South Africa by five people of completely different age, race and background. It could be synth-funk sung in Spanish and English by a New York native of Cuban heritage. It could be made by an English producer who hooked up with purveyor of psychedelic cumbia from Bogota and put together a super-group of Colombian session players. Or an Angolan-born Portuguese producer based in Lisbon working with MCs, dancers and musicians from Nairobi, Luanda and Newcastle. A collective of Aucklanders with backgrounds as diverse as Nigeria, Trinidad and Sudan rocking crowds and making music in New Zealand. Surrealist Electronica with Arabic vocals from Brittany by way of Brooklyn or Spanish / Sri Lankan experimental sound textures forged late at night in Camden Town. Call it anything, we might not have the answers just please stop calling it 'world music'.

“A solo record works best when you feel like you’re opening a window into somebody’s life, experiencing the things they’re going through or thinking about, places they’re seeing, through their eyes. At its best, you find a universality in it.” - Lee Ranaldo

Lee Ranaldo and his family were among the lucky Manhattanites left relatively unscathed by Hurrican Sandy in 2012, but for a week, they had no electricity, running water or heat. He did, however, have an acoustic guitar and, as has been the case of late, some new songs began spilling out of it, reflecting a prolific period imbued with eerie uncertainty. · Ranaldo had finished work on his last album, Between The Times And The Tides’, before Sonic Youth went on hiatus in the Autumn of 2011. The record followed an informal period of songwriting, borne of acoustic guitar fiddling and more direct lyrics from a poet known for emotive abstraction. His plans to record a low-key acoustic album soon evolved and many friends (Steve Shelley, Alan Licht, Nels Cline, Jim O’Rourke, Bob Bert, John Medeski, wife / artist Leah Singer) dropped by to conjure a vaguely psychedelic pop-rock sound that served Ranaldo and SY fans well.

A core unit came together, getting tighter after some roadwork, and soon Steve Shelley (Sonic Youth), Alan Licht, and bassist Tim Lüntzel became The Dust. The band dug in at Echo Canyon West through the winter, evolving a new set of songs with a decidedly more group dynamic. Yet even though he was tracking new songs with the band (plus the always-welcome Medeski), Ranaldo wanted to present songs that were even more personal and adaptable to various live contexts.

The songs on this album are darker, longer, and more intense than those of its predecessor, which was comparably upbeat. Despair and rage ripple through its atmosphere, but are held at bay, never quite able to touchdown. Ranaldo lives near Zucotti Park, which was HQ for NYC’s Occupy Wall Street movement. He has visited Occupy encampments in Toronto, São Paulo, and wherever else he can, often bringing his kids with him so they can witness left wing, non-violent democracy in action. Unlike his last record’s ‘Shouts’, there is no specific tribute to OWS, but there is a yearning for some real, societal shift. “Every time I wait for the revolution to come,” Ranaldo sings on ‘Home Chds.’ “Every night I think it?s here and then it?s gone.”

At the same time the songs on ‘Last Night On Earth’ reveal a guarded optimism. The term ‘hope’ has been politically co-opted and devalued but it’s a key element on ‘Last Night On Earth’. Ranaldo sings of land and water and love and certainty - external life forces that can turn on us at any second - from an exploratory, inviting place of coexistence.

Lee Ranaldo is a founding member of Sonic Youth, now in 32nd year. Although songwriting and performing with his band The Dust (Steve Shelley, Alan Licht, Tim Lüntzel) is his current focus, Lee also premiered a new work, ‘Hurricane Sandy Transcriptions’, for Berlin-based string ensemble Kaleidoskop (with Lee on guitar) at the Holland Festival in June 2013, with more performances to follow in spring 2014. Lee continues to perform experimental events with partner Leah Singer as well. Their recent live performances have been large scale, multi projection quadraphonic sound & cinema events, with Lee performing suspended electric guitar phenomena.

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: Lee Ranaldo surprised with the classicist nature of his debut album in 2012. Here he stretches out, getting darker and deeper, with some inspired guitar playing and moodier songs. It's excellent.

Kites of San Quentin deliver a mini album (plus DVD). Featuring atmospheric electronic cuts, this fusion of computer compositions and ethereal female vocals harks back to the early Bristol scene (and also early Moloko) but also moves things forward to post-dubstep atmospheric grooves and futuristic rhythms (juke etc). The fragile harmonies also hint at ghostly folk music that has somehow ended up in the future.

TRACK LISTING

1. Vimana
2. Fable Dark
3. III
4. The Witch House
5. V
6. Daimones

It’s impossible to discuss The Tallest Man On Earth’s music without acknowledging Bob Dylan. The seemingly effortlessness, the melodic sensibility and the deft lyricism all recall Dylan’s early years. But when you witness the Tallest Man on Earth perform live, you are watching a man possessed. The energy pours out with every word. Full of intensity and raw emotion, he paces the stage, bringing the audience into the palm of his hand, completely lost in his songs.

This is a reissue of his debut EP.

A fascination with taxidermy, a love of Krautrock, and interests ranging from vintage synths to gothic Victoriana - Ghosting Season embody the eccentric and the ethereal. ‘The Very Last Of The Saints’ is the debut album from the Manchester-based duo, aka Gavin Miller and Thomas Ragsdale.

Stepping off the path laid by the great British leftfield tradition (Eno, Aphex, Seefeel, Global Communication, Burial, Lone et al), Ghosting Season fuse elements of ambient techno, musique concrete, IDM and post-rock into the kind of textured soundscapes that have won them much critical acclaim via a handful of releases, remixes (Radiohead, Cloud Control) and their formidable live show (Fields, SXSW and beyond).

Ghosting Season’s sound first emerged as tangents from Gavin and Tom’s previous band project, worriedaboutsatan. While the latter took its cues from the likes of Explosions In The Sky and Mogwai, the pair’s music began to head off into a different direction, one that was informed far more by electronic music, but still incorporated their love of guitars, vocals and found sounds. This new identity bore its first fruit with 2011’s ‘Far End Of The Graveyard EP’.

‘The Very Last Of The Saints’ is a breathtaking debut, moving from beautifully crafted cerebal electronica to tripped out house, glitchy drone collages and more strobe-friendly peaktime techno.

‘The Very Last Of The Saints’ is the first album release on Sasha’s Last Night On Earth label.

TRACK LISTING

CD 1
01. Ghost Drift
02. Far End Of The Graveyard
03. A Muffled Sound Of Voices Feat. Knox
04. Follow Your Eyes Feat. Gregory Hoepffner
05. Lie
06. Through Your Teeth
07. Lost At Sea
08. Time Without Question
09. Pio
10. 13 Feat. Birds Of Passage

CD 2
The Forgotten Saints Mix

Hugely anticipated, The Tallest Man On Earth returns with ‘There’s No Leaving Now’.

The sense of urgency that fuelled his previous work remains, and the results are paralyzing – drums, piano, baritone guitar, woodwinds and pedal steel combine with songwriting so detailed and captivating.

Since his last album, ‘The Wild Hunt’, The Tallest Man On Earth has sold out Shepherds Bush Empire two months in advance of the show, performed on ‘Later With Jools Holland’ and now lands at the start of this campaign with a sold out London Hackney Empire show, with fans desperate to hear his new material.

De Stijl is proud to announce the release of EARTH, Black to Comm's music for the film of the same name. EARTH is a 2009 silent film by Ho Tzu Nyen, one of Singapore's foremost artists. The visually arresting film has been live-soundtracked by a number of artists (including Oren Ambarchi) in several locales, and after Black to Comm, a.k.a. Marc Richter's accompaniment at Berlin's Asian Film Festival and the Unsound Festival in Krakow (both in 2010), he decided to commit it to record.

In Marc's own words: "Most of the music was composed under the influence of heavy pain killers while recovering from a broken leg. The music (like the film) is about slowness and decay, states of unconsciousness, sleeping and waking up, dying and being reborn. The film basically is a post-apocalyptic collage based on paintings by classical European painters (Caravaggio, Delacroix, Rembrandt, Géricault) - the music tries to translate that concept employing similar collage-based sampling techniques using loops made from vintage vinyl and shellac records combined with acoustic and electronic instrumentation and voice."

Richter's already formidable expressive power stretches over all of EARTH. Reflecting the countless cyclical forces that make up, oh, more or less everything we know and are, the music on EARTH is bracing, lovely, bustling and still, and at times bittersweet, a commingling of sensations and emotions that can't be neatly separated from one another. (EARTH is complex, as you know.) Guests on EARTH include David Aird, a.k.a Vindicatrix (on the Mordant Music label), contributing startling vocal work; Renate Nikolaus on an array of instruments and noise devices; Rutger Zuydervelt (singing bowls); and Christopher Kline (singing saw). EARTH is Black to Comm's seventh album and his debut for De Stijl, following the acclaimed Alphabet 1968 (on Type) and last year's vinyl-only collaboration with Mike Kelley of Destroy All Monsters (on the En/Of label).