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.

Everything But The Girl's 'At Maida Vale EP' is made up of four tracks recorded in April 2023 at the BBCís famous Maida Vale Studios - Run A Red Light, Single and When You Mess Up, first broadcast on Gideon Coeís BBC 6 Music show; and Nothing Left To Lose first heard on Jo Whileyís BBC Radio 2 show. All the recordings are versions of tracks on the bandís current album, ëFuseî, except Single which first appeared on their platinum 1996 album, Walking Wounded. The session was the only live performance that the band did around the release of their new album.Speaking about the EP, Tracey Thorn says: "It was exciting returning to such a famous studio to record these tracks. It was almost 40 years since our first John Peel Session there. The idea was to start by approaching all four as live piano and vocal takes.""Nothing Left To Lose was then left stripped back as a complete contrast to the original," adds Ben Watt, "while for the others we added a few one-take overdubs of synth, guitar, drums and backing vocals to capture both the spontaneity of a session but a flavour of the original album arrangements." Everything But The Girlís new album Fuse charted at Number 3 in the UK Official Album Chart, the highest position of the bandís career. The Guardian was among several top publications to post a 5-star review ('Still staking out pop's frontier after 40 years Ö a comeback worth waiting for'). Pitchfork called it the duoís 'triumphant new album Ö bewitching and soul-baring'. High level support has also come at radio (two singles on the BBC 6 Music A-List Playlist) and at key editorial DSP playlists (New Music Friday, All New Indie, Altar, Metropolis, The Other List, Loops).

Everything But The Girl - aka EBTG - was formed in 1982 by singer-songwriter-musicians Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt. Their debut single was a stark jazz-folk cover of Cole Porter's Night and Day.

Acclaimed for their tender-tough lyrics, Thorn’s unique voice and Watt’s arrangements, they released a string of UK gold albums throughout the 1980s experimenting with jazz, guitar pop, orchestral wall-of-sound and drum-machine soul.

In the 1990 they released three albums, Amplified Heart, Walking Wounded and Temperamental, which gained them huge critical acclaim and commercial success. Then in 2000 they chose to quit. Tracey focused on family life away from the spotlight before returning with a run of solo albums and best-selling autobiographical books. Ben moved into DJing and remixing, and launched the respected electronic label, Buzzin' Fly. He returned to his singer-songwriter roots with a trilogy of solo albums from 2014-2020.

Now at last, the duo return with their new LP, which sees Tracey’s distinctive dolorous vocals topping their downtempo grooves. And as you’d expect, the songwriting is exemplary. Some, 20 years on, it feels like a natural progression from their ‘90s sound, filtered through the uncertainty and confusion of the intervening years.

TRACK LISTING

1. Nothing Left To Lose
2. Run A Red Light
3. Caution To The Wind
4. When You Mess Up
5. Time And Time Again
6. No One Knows We’re Dancing
7. Lost
8. Forever
9. Interior Space
10. Karaoke

Everything But The Girl's best-selling debut album, 'Eden' is the latest re-release from the duo to benefit from half-speed remastering at Abbey Road Studios by Miles Showell, and a fresh 180gm vinyl pressing.

Originally released in May 1984, the album spent almost six months on the official UK album chart peaking at number 14 and spawned the UK Top 40 hit, Each and Every One. The label wanted further singles but the duo preferred the album to grow by word of mouth. 'Eden' achieved gold album status in the UK and has gone on to sell more than 500,000 copies worldwide.

Ben Watt and Tracey Thorn met at the University of Hull in 1981; they formed Everything But The Girl initially as a side-project, as both had already established themselves on the UK independent music scene as teenagers - Tracey with her lo-fi minimal girl group, Marine Girls (later name-checked as one of Kurt Cobain's favourite bands); Ben as a young guitarist and singer-songwriter, collaborating with alt-folk icon Robert Wyatt on his debut EP.

In the summer of 1983 the pair - having each gone on to to release debut solo albums - decided to pool their new songs for 'Eden'. It was recorded with producer Robin Millar (chosen for his work with Weekend and The Pale Fountains) at his Power Plant Studios in Willesden, North West London.

"All the songs were written on guitar in Hull in early 1983. We were living in one room with a shared kitchen on Pearson Park," recalls Tracey. "Power Plant seemed very glamorous by comparison. Sade was recording downstairs. We were upstairs."

The sessions featured a band handpicked by Ben and Tracey: Working Week's Simon Booth on second guitar, This Heat’s Charles Hayward on drums, and South American musicians Chucho Merchan (double bass) and Bosco D’Oliveira (percussion) plus a clutch of top horn players from the English jazz scene. The line-up was part friends from London, part musicians Ben admired from trips to the Bull's Head jazz room with his dad when growing up, in particular Peter King (alto sax).

"We were intent on being non-rock," says Ben. "No clichés. No snare drums, no solid body electric guitars or electric bass. We wanted soft horns, Gretsch guitars, no fuss, a lightness of touch. We were into pop, latin, torch songs, sharp lyrics."

The album was released on the newly-formed imprint Blanco Y Negro (co-run by Mike Alway and Rough Trade's Geoff Travis) through Warner, and signalled Everything But The Girl’s move from an independent - Cherry Red - to a major label.

The artwork by Marine Girls band member Jane Fox was delivered as a three-dimensional collage of hand-drawn art and torn paper. Warner (who were marketing and distributing the record) didn’t really know what to do with it. The original version didn’t even have the name of the band on it. In the end it was photographed and printed on ‘reverse-board stock’ - unusual for a major release at the time.

TRACK LISTING

Each And Every One
Bittersweet
Tender Blue
Another Bridge
The Spice Of Life
The Dustbowl
Crabwalk
Even So
Frost And Fire
Fascination
I Must Confess
Soft Touch

Following on from the recent and well received half-speed masters of ‘Amplified Heart’ and ‘Walking Wounded’, Buzzin’ Fly are proud to release EBTG’s 1999 album ‘Temperamental’.

The album is a follow on from the global success of Walking Wounded in 1996 and features a myriad of rhythmic pop styles, including deep house grooves, fierce drum & bass and hip-hop infused funk. It contains the singles Five Fathoms, Blame and the title track Temperamental.

The original vinyl was released on a limited edition ‘DJ friendly’ vinyl which is now a collectable item. The artwork for this new edition has been re-created from the original source material to bring it in line with the original CD version. Like the previous two releases, it has been Mastered and Cut at half-speed by Miles Showell at London’s Abbey Road Studios.

Amplified Heart was Everything But The Girl’s million-selling and critically acclaimed seventh studio album and now appears for the first time on vinyl in a deluxe 25th Anniversary Edition mastered at half-speed for optimum audio fidelity by Miles Showell at London’s Abbey Road Studios.

The record - released in early 1994 by UK alt-pop duo Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt - contains the original version of what was to become the band’s biggest hit, Missing. If Todd Terry’s famous house remix took that song onto the world’s dance floors and upper reaches of the global pop charts in 1995 (#2 on US Billboard Hot 100, #1 on US Billboard Hot 100 Airplay, #3 on the UK Top 40, and #1 in Canada, Germany and Italy), the original version also remains a timeless classic, now in heavy demand on modern streaming services, and one that perhaps better reflects the enduring appeal of the album’s modern-retro hybrid of ardent folk-soul and scratchy electronica.

Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt met whilst at University in Hull in the early 80’s. Both were signed independently to indie label Cherry Red Records, Ben as a solo artist and Tracey as part of the band The Marine Girls. They formed Everything But The Girl in early ‘82, releasing one single on Cherry Red (Cole Porter’s ‘Night & Day’) before signing to Blanco Y Negro records and releasing their debut album ‘Eden’ to critical acclaim.

Following this, they released 5 further highly praised and commercially successful albums including the much-loved classic singles, These Early Days, Driving and the covers ‘I Don’t Want To Talk About It’ and ‘The Only Living Boy In New York’. ‘Amplified Heart’ was the seventh full-length album released in June 1994, featuring the singles ‘Missing’ and ‘Rollercoaster’. Primarily an acoustic driven album, it features heavyweight session musicians and guests, Danny Thompson (bass), Martin Ditcham (percussion), Dave Mattacks (drums) and Richard Thompson lead guitar on the track 25th December.

“We’ve alway been proud of Amplified Heart” says Ben, reflecting on the new edition. “It’s both close to the bone - understandable given it’s background - but also gentle in it’s touch, and shot through with resiliance. The newly mastered pressing sounds amazing - as good as the original tapes.” “I think it’s a real rebirth record” adds Tracey, “the momenent we got our mojo back. And it’s where ‘Missing’ began, so it’s a significant album for us.”

TRACK LISTING

Rollercoaster
Troubled Mind
I Don’t Understand Anything
Walking To You
Get Me
Missing
Two Star
We Walk The Same Line
25th December
Disenchanted