‘Mount Elephant’ is organic psychedelia at its finest. These are drifting, pastoral meditations rooted in the “joy and rhythms” of Eastern music and one of the most precious luxuries of our time: doing things slowly. Italian multi-instrumentalist Alessio Ferarri’s third Upupuyāma record and first on Fuzz Club finds inspiration in traditional Bhutanese music, Thai disco and Anatolian psych, by way of the lysergic acid-folk, ‘70s kosmische and stoner-rock that has always coursed through the project – dream-like instrumentals always threatening to breakdown into blasts of fuzzed-out riffing.

“Mount Elephant was born out of a need to listen, to listen to silence”, Ferrari says: “Listening to the silence while observing flowers, while moving your hands in the wind, listening to your body while you are dancing. If in my first album (Upupayāma) I had travelled the length and breadth of a place, in the second (The Golden Pond) I had reached one and stopped there, in this third album I set out again, crossing a border and entering a long-dreamed place that I could finally ‘see with my own eyes’.”

A six-piece band live, where things take a more ever-evolving improvisation-based approach, on the recordings Ferrari writes, plays and records everything himself – guitars, keys, flute, sitar, erhu and an arsenal of percussion all feature. The recordings were laid down over time in Ferrari's home barn studio in a small mountain village overlooking the city of Parma, before being mixed by Chris Smith at Kluster Sounds (Kikagaku Moyo, Wax Machine).

TRACK LISTING

1. Moon Needs The Wolf
2. Thimpu
3. Fil Dağı
4. Moon Needs The Owl
5. Dabadaba
6. Mount Elephant

When jazz neets Italo-disco. Two Italian legends meet and deliver a unique contemporary jazz-house fusion! 'Stefano Cantini is a well-known saxophonist in the Italian and international jazz scene. In recent years he has focused on a project called Living Coltrane with Ares Tavolazzi, Francesco Maccianti and Piero Borri. Stefano and Maurizio Dami (Alexander Robotnick) had worked together for a while in the mid '80s and Stefano also played on GMM's album (''Love Supreme'' is the best known track). Since then, Stefano has focused totally on jazz whilst Maurizio Dami produced world music in the '90s and later on, under the artist name Alexander Robotnick, retrieved in 2000, turned to electronic music again, so the two musicians lost track of each other for 40 years. Robotnick says, ''In March 2023 I received a call from a club in Pisa, Cantiere San Bernardo. They asked me whether I could play live with Stefano ''Cocco'' Cantini on the occasion of a special event dedicated to Giovanotti Mondani Meccanici. I called him and he answered enthusiastically. Shortly before the concert we rehearsed at the Follonica Music School which he directs. He improvised with me on the bases of my live. We liked our rehearsal and a few days later, on June 2nd 2023, we played in Pisa with much success. So came the idea of doing something together. We decided to produce an EP featuring 3 tracks. On some of my bases Stefano created a harmonic texture to improvise on. I mainly took care of the arrangement and the production. But what we play is the result of improvisation, with hardly any editing. It's amazing how we managed to work together so smoothly after so many years, as if we had never stopped. We called this project 'Robocok'. They are modal tracks with a techno approach and harmonically open. Almost a provocation to the staticity of contemporary dance. On ''Francocco'' and ''Frigiococco'' Stefano plays soprano sax whilst on ''Afrococco'' he plays alto. Guglielmo Bottin took the task of making a remix. He picked ''Francocco'' and skilfully turned it into a pure drums and piano groove. Perfect for the dancefloor.''

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Ever since he DJed with his top off at the sweat box that was Charlie's for Naïve Melody, Alexander Robotnick has been a legend here in Manchester (probably before this incident but it's what won me over!). Enjoying one of the longest serving careers in cosmic music, he joins forces here with esteemed saxophonist Stefano Cantini for an ambitious and adventurous diversion that should interest even the most forlorn and cynical Italo music critics.

TRACK LISTING

1. Francocco
2. Rigiococco
3. Afrococco
4. Francocco Bottin Rmx

Neon Pill is the highly anticipated new album from Cage The Elephant, and group’s first new music since their album, Social Cues, which won Best Rock album at the 2019 GRAMMY Awards. Cage The Elephant consists of brothers Matt Shultz (vocals) and Brad Shultz (rhythm guitar) along with Daniel Tichenor (bass), Jared Champion (drums), Nick Bockrath (lead guitar) and Matthan Minster (guitar, keyboards, backing vocals).

Deer Tick’s debut album, ‘War Elephant’, is back (even though it never went anywhere). It is the same stellar album released in 2007 and then reissued by Partisan in 2008. This version of the album finds us returning to the original 2007 illustrated cover. This cover will become the new standard version of the album across all formats. The music and track listing remains the same.

John McCauley III wrote, arranged, played, and recorded the album at the tender age of 21. The album is full of songs wiser and more nuanced than John should have been able to produce according to natural law. The words are deliberate and heartfelt and follow the lead of singer / songwriter heroes of John’s like Townes van Zandt, Neil Young and Richie Valens.

The album concludes with a cover of the 1962 GRAMMY-winning Song Of The Year, ‘What Kind of Fool Am I’, made famous by Sammy Davis, Jr.

It can safely be said that this debut album is a genre defying classic; it’s a hook filled bar room rock album that is as connected to 90’s Seattle catchy gloom as it is to left-of-the-dial late 80’s Minneapolis and 70’s Austin honky tonk.

TRACK LISTING

1. Ashamed
2. Art Isn't Real (City Of Sin)
3. Standing At The Threshold
4. Dirty Dishes
5. Long Time
6. Nevada
7. Baltimore Blues No. 1
8. These Old Shoes
9. Not So Dense
10. Spend The Night
11. Diamond Rings 2007
12. Sink Or Swim
13. Christ Jesus
14. What Kind Of Fool Am I 

Ontario four piece Tokyo Police Club burst on to the scene as teenage sensations with 2007’s A Lesson in Crime EP, an opening salvo that delighted discriminating young music fans around the world and saw them win plaudits from NME, Pitchfork and more.

The EP was followed up in 2008 with Peter Katis on the desk for their debut album Elephant Shell which spawned the hits Your English is Good and Tesselate. Elephant Shell is the sound of these four young friends coming of age and into their own. The album catapulted the band into the popular consciousness, landing the band on the stages of the world’s biggest festivals, a spot in MTV’s video rotation, appearances on the Late Show with David Letterman, and even a cameo on Desperate Housewives. Beyond that, Elephant Shell has stood up as one of the defining albums of this particular era in indie rock. Hard to believe it’s 15 years hence. Elephant Shell is ripe for a reissue and this 2023 edition comes on tricolour-incolour-vinyl.

TRACK LISTING

1. Centennial
2. In A Cave
3. Graves
4. Juno
5. Tessellate
6. Sixties Remake
7. The Harrowing Adventures Of…
8. Nursery, Academy
9. Your English Is Good
10. Listen To The Math
11. The Baskervilles

In his tenth year with Acid Jazz, the ever-prolific Matt Berry has crafted a psych masterpiece. Once again proving his artistic progression and ambition knows no bounds

Recorded during the summer of 2020, ‘Blue Elephant’ is testament to Matt’s exceptional musicianship, production skills and songwriting prowess with every instrument played by Matt including, guitars, bass, a variety of keyboards and synthesizers (piano, Wurlitzer, mellotron, Moog, Hammond, Vox and Farfisa organs), with the exception of drums – supplied by Craig Blundell, on arguably his best album to date. 

This music soundtracks an album that explores themes surrounding today’s close scrutiny in all its bewildering, objectifying and unnerving experiences. Very much a conceptual and, therefore, continuous long-player, the album’s infectious grooves come to the fore on standout tracks ‘Summer Sun’, heavy-psych instrumental ‘Invisible’, the three-part ‘Blues Inside Me’, which encompasses a psych journey through a late ‘60s and early glam filter mixed with the propulsive ‘Like Stone’.

TRACK LISTING

1. Aboard
2. Summer Sun
3. Safe Passage
4. Now Disappear
5. Alone
6. Invisible
7. Blues Inside Me
8. I Cannot Speak
9. The Blue Elephant
10. Life Unknown
11. Safer Passage
12. Like Stone
13. Story Told
14. Forget Me
15. Now Disappear (Again)

Recorded in ten days flat, in England's own Toe Rag studio (8-track, valve amps, nothing new in fact since 1963!) the White Stripes' fourth album is everything you ever wanted it to be. Same formula, but with a warmer, fuller tone, but... we're in it for the songs, aren't we? Well, NME nailed it when they said this album's like a White Stripes' Greatest Hits, every song's a potential single - it really is that strong. Who'd have thought they could actually go one better?! It feels stupid to write about stuff this pure, real, honest and passionate; I know you'll just buy it, play it, and allow yourselves to be taken over! Analysis ain't necessary, it's rock'n'roll distilled and it's happening right now. We're very lucky girls and boys!

RIYL: Jason Molina, Bonnie Prince Billy, Bill Callahan, Damien Jurado.

The raw inspiration for Vague Tidings came from a 2006 DIY tour of the 49th state. It was a trip that went off the beaten path sometimes a bit too far for comfort. Now, over a decade later, listeners find Joe O’Connell aka Elephant Micah stationed at a creaky spinet piano, singing about the Alaskan sky. Throughout, his lyrics take a new angle on a pet theme: human encounters with the natural world.

Vague Tidings places these encounters in the American West and, at times, in its sci-fi corollary, outer space. Its imagery draws from the allure of Alaska, the idea of Western prosperity, and the human relationship to wilderness more broadly. Often, O’Connell sings about the goal of capturing and commodifying nature. In poetic sketches of resource extraction industries and dark sky tourism, frontier lust runs amok. Pipelines catch fire and stars disappear, all to the tune of a stark, uncanny Americana. Vague Tidings is a sustained, hallucinatory rendering of this theme. In style, its eight songs follow a switchback path between foggy incantations and mountain anthems. Made with a small cohort of acoustic instrumentalists, the record is rough hewn, but easy on the ears. To put Vague Tidings down on tape, O’Connell assembled some of his favorite musicians in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina area, where he’s lived since 2015: Libby Rodenbough (Mipso) bows and plucks a detuned fiddle, Matt Douglas (Mountain Goats) breathes life into various woodwinds, and Matt O’Connell (Lean Year) sets the pace on a two-piece drum set. Their loose, imaginative playing pushes Vague Tidings beyond the singer-songwriter genre into something richer in texture. Ultimately, this is foreboding but spacious music, with plenty of room for reconsidering life on earth.

On their fifth album, UK based, Kentucky band Cage The Elephant have taken their garage rock roots and thrown in a heavy dose of Bowie-esque glam as they deal with the double header of classic rock’n’roll subject matter: the price of fame and heartbreak.

“Propulsive gorgeousness not dissimilar from what the Concretes were doing in their prime.” - Pitchfork 

Amelia Rivas and Christian Pinchbeck don’t just sing about feverish, frayed and fractured romances - in the three years since forming Elephant, they’ve been living one. It’s fitting that ‘Sky Swimming’, their debut full length release is a seductive, night time delight of an album. After all, it was in the twilight hours of a May morning three years ago that Pontefract native Amelia Rivas and Bristolian Christian Pinchbeck met at a house party and in alcohol-soaked all-nighter sessions that ‘Sky Swimming’ was written. 

A fibrous collection of songs about relationships - their own included, which broke down during the making of the album - hazy memories, twisted dreams, the metaphysical bleeding in to the physical - ‘Sky Swimming’ - all trilling keyboards, swooping melodies, broken hip hop beats, looped strings and Amelia’s uniquely curvy vocals - that makes you want to clamp your headphones tighter on your ears, letting you swim in its every detail and emotion. Influenced by everything from Toro Y Moi to composer Angelo Badalamenti, Everything But The Girl to rap originators Arrested Development and Joe Meek’s productions, it’s an intensely varied listen. 

“The first time we worked together, I went round to his house and didn’t leave for 3 days. I barely knew him,” Amelia remembers. “She turned up with some £10 Casio she bought from a charity shop in France and the whole demo EP was made on that,” recalls Christian. Elephant have grown beyond their lo-fi roots since then, with Andy Dragazis being drafted in on co-production duties, while retaining the emotional rawness of those early songs. Tracks vary from psyche-delving ballads about growing up - ‘Torn Tongues’ and ‘Skyscraper’ (“I want to understand what’s wrong with my brain,” Rivas laughs), to the thrilling pop of ‘Elusive Youth’, a eulogy to a friend who “wears a city crown”, to the everyday trials of being young and poor in London (see ‘Ants’ about Amelia’s crumbling Tooting bedsit and ‘TV Dinner’, a paean to rubbish telly and cheap booze) and the heartbreaking title track ‘Sky Swimming’ written in the eye storm of their relationship meltdown with the refrain “do your eyes turn blue before you cry, I see the blue in you”. 

With winning appearances at Primavera and Eurosonic festivals behind them, not to mention support slots with cult hero Matthew E White, under their belts, Elephant have in ‘Sky Swimming’ one of the year’s most seductive sounds. “I flew to the moon to mirror you” sings Amelia on album closer ‘Shapeshifter’, with the sort raw melancholy that could only be cribbed from a ‘Blue Valentine’ romance. “I saw the future.” It should be a very bright future ahead for Elephant indeed.

Amelia Rivas and Christian Pinchbeck don't just sing about feverish, frayed and fractured romances - in the three years since forming Elephant, they've been living one.

Their first recordings, recorded in the strung out early mornings after the night before, were delirious and lightheaded. Rivas’ stream of conscious lyricism combined with Pinchbeck’s innate melodic nous to create vignettes of delight and wonder. A debut single followed, 2011’s woozy ‘Ants’, followed by the ‘Assembly’ EP. But before they had a chance to capitalise on the growing acclaim around them the duo’s relationship broke down, almost to the point of no return.

An unexpected rapprochement in late 2012, along with a renewed musical hunger, saw Rivas and Pinchbeck reconcile. The first fruit was this year’s gauzy single ‘Skyscraper’, which announced their return in spectacular fashion, with Rivas’ swooping vocals allied to a spectral chorus creating an eerie, lens-flared 3 minute wonder of song.

Now, new release ‘Shapeshifter’ provides confirmation that Elephant are truly back as a force to be reckoned with. “I flew to the moon to mirror you and I saw the future” sings Rivas, with a raw melancholy and nostalgic longing. A sumptuous missive of love lost and lessons learned, that sparkles with charm, optimism, and the sort of lush swoonsome string arrangements that reach into your chest and wring your heart dry.

Backed by the sparse and stretched out ‘Snowday’, as icily cool as it sounds, full of chiaroscuro contrasts and flickering atmospherics, this is a release that suggests their debut album is set to be one of the standout albums of 2014.

Amelia Rivas and Christian Pinchbeck aka Elephant.

The two met in the early hours of a house party back in May 2010, a fateful encounter that led to many a long night writing and recording songs in Christian’s South London bedsit. They soon came to the attention of Memphis Industries in the Autumn of 2010, with whom they subsequently released a pair of acclaimed 7” singles, ‘Ants’ and ‘Allured’, with The Guardian declaring “they're a Meg'n'Jack reared on breathy Brill Building pop and haunting atmospherics”.

The pair set to work on their debut EP and the result, titled ‘Assembly’ and released in 2011, was a four track wonder that expanded and developed the quiet beauty evidenced on their previous releases.

But all was not well with Elephant - Amelia and Christian had parted ways in a Fleetwood Mac style bout of acrimony. Then Christian broke his wrist (which may or may not be related to the aforementioned acrimony) rendering him unable to play. It looked unlikely that they would ever write together again.

Sometimes, though, you have to realize when you’ve got something good. After a tempestuous year, where they just about managed to play a show at Primavera’s opening party without injury (or worse), a gradual rapprochement took place. September finally saw them starting to write together again and playing shows (including an appearance at Eurosonic and supports with Matthew E White), and lo and behold, an album shaped batch of songs finally started to take shape.

Sumptuous new track ‘Skyscraper’ sees Amelia’s vocals swooning and swooping over a backdrop that twists familiar fifties Doo-wop stylings into something new and alluring, whilst B side ‘Spies’ is a sweet and sparse repost.

It’s a strong, confident marker that Elephant’s debut album will be worth braving broken hearts and broken bones for.

White vinyl 7”.

TRACK LISTING

Skyscraper
Spies

Debut EP from hotly tipped London based band.

Elephant are Amelia Rivas (vocals, keys) and Christian Pinchbeck (guitars, computers).

French-by-way-of-Pontefract chanteuse Amelia Rivas met Christian Pinchbeck back in May 2010, since when they’ve been quietly creating some hauntingly fragile songs with a sense of mystery and history that belies their teenage years, picking up strong radio and press support along the way.

Elephant are heading out on tour for the first time, supporting Chapel Club and Casiokids, as well as appearing at SWN Festival

Currently writing toward their debut album which is due some time in 2012.

STAFF COMMENTS

Darryl says: A beautiful debut EP, from this duo with lots of promise. Recalls the likes of AR Kane and Microdisney at their pomp. Can't wait for the album!!

If you've already checked out the Salem, Zola Jesus, Balam Acab and OoOOo releases, plus the "F*>K Dance, Let's Art" compilation you'll already be aware of the whole 'witch house', 'ghost step' and 'drag' sound that's been eminating from (mostly) America this year. These new genres combines elements of electronica, industrial, hip-hop, goth and shoegaze, with fractured beats, eerie, melancholic vocals and layers of doomy synth noise all combining to bring us a new sound for 2010. In association with Disaro Records, "Isvolt" features nine acts from across America, Europe and Australia, all of whom have previously only released on ultra-low run, self distributed CD-Rs or DVD-R / VHS or sold out 45s. Dark and murky, like the damp walls in and unfinished cellar, these acts will, as my nanna might have said, give you the willies.

TRACK LISTING

1. †‡† (Ritualzz) - Misery Walk
2. Party Trash - Sky Clad
3. Fostercare - Cold Light
4. //TENSE// - Versus Man
5. Modern Witch - Your Life A Movie
6. Mater Suspiria Vision - Ritualz Of The Crack Witches
7. Horse MacGyver- Nod
8. White Ring - IxC999
9. Raw Moans - Nectarine

'I used to have a girlfriend…..but she’s six feet underground'.

Describing their sound as 'A kick in the teeth…..with a load of reverb', Speak & The Spells formed somewhere deep inside their collective vinyl collection. And now they’re adding to yours with their debut single.

The ominous surf-rock opening riff of "She’s Dead" sets the tone for a b-movie style tale of grief and grave digging. Scratchy guitars and screams provide the perfect soundtrack for singer Joe Eakin’s lament. Front man Joe is joined by Benjamin Craven (Bass) and Alex Felstead (Drums) to complete a stripped back, bare essentials line-up that’s a million miles from the gadget heavy electro of 2009 but just as thrilling.

The equally enthralling b-side "Brianna" show’s a spiced up more punk side to the band, while "Caleb Pink" finds the band in a more experimental mood with a 4.5 minute instrumental.

Initially bonding at school through a shared love of Garage, Psych and Freak-Beat, the 3-piece outfit was conceived in a West London storeroom playing covers of 60s teenage garage heroes like The Downliners Sect and Tintern Abbey before developing their own unique and exciting style.

Straight out of school, the band created "Ricky Ticks" in a Soho basement, a bi-monthly clubnight where they could play their records and hone their live act. They quickly caught the attention of fellow London promoters, which led to them supporting one of their personal idols; Billy Childish and being invited by The Horrors to play their own night ‘The Cave Club’. They’ve also played alongside the likes of The Guillotines, Bo Ningen and The Vinyl Stitches.

"She’s Dead" is one of those records destined to accompany the sound of needle hitting wax but perfectly at home on your ipod as well as in your pile of prized 45’s.

"Elephant Shell" lands roughly a year and half after the "A Lesson In Crime" EP and barely three years on from the band's 2005 formation. David Monks, lead singer/bassist, described "A Lesson in Crime" at the time of release as 'wide-eyed post-punk with a tendency to get over excited' - "Elephant Shell" is built on the same rapid-fire foundations of their previous work but is now built high with corridors of soaring sonic invention. The opening one-two rapid-fire salvo of "Centennial" and "In A Cave" barely evaporates before "Graves" and "Juno" pack innumerable hooks and "what-does-that-remind-me-of" glimmers into taut 2-minute-and-change frameworks, while "Tessellate" and "Sixties Remake" encapsulate everything great about the manic Tokyo Police Club live experience: soaring guitar signatures and keyboard figures, driving backbeats and irresistible sing-along's abound. Elsewhere, "The Harrowing Adventures Of..." and the dubbed out standout "Listen To The Math" find our young protagonists stretching out, hinting at a new-found maturity, ably adapting their energy into more subdued structures before the rousing coda of "The Baskervilles" brings the record to a shuddering halt.

Naming their CD after a business card found in a wallet left behind in a drug deal gone bad (the card says 'reece nasty, splittin' wigs'), the EP is a spellbinding collection of guitar pop that brings to mind the likes of The La's, The Verve, The Shins, and Ride or even 60s British bands like The Small Faces and The Kinks.

15 track compilation album from the Land Of Nod highlighting the band's choice cuts since their inception in 1997. "Reality Channel" includes tracks from the group's four albums on the UK label Ochre Records, "Translucent", "Timeless point", "Archive:02" and the current UK album "Inducing The Sleep Sphere". This also includes the full three track session recorded for Slobodan Vujanovic's show on B-92 radio show in Serbia.