Even in a trajectory that was filled with drastic bends and turns, 'Joggers & Smoggers' came as a surprise. If 'Aural Guerilla' (1988) was an attempt to catch the band’s manic live energy in the studio, with seething results, follow-up 'Joggers & Smoggers' was an attempt to ignore nearly all limitations.

These 34 songs brim with a limitless eclecticism, combining the band’s legendary intensity with playful detours, literary inventions and references, and successful collaborations (from noise-rockers Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo to Amsterdam-based improvisers Ab Baars and Wolter Wierbos, and a string of already familiar friends and allies). What you get is no longer a tightly executed batch of songs, but a generous burst of creativity. On this double album, The Ex combines restlessness, playfulness, ethnic influences and improvisatory ideas of the kind that were already hinted at on releases such as 'Dignity Of Labour' (1983) and 'Blueprints For a Blackout' (1984).

The result is their most sprawling and unique album up to that point, perhaps one of their true ‘key releases’, and one that provided the foundation on which their upcoming collaboration with Tom Cora could flourish.

TRACK LISTING

1. Humm (The Fullhouse Mumble)
2. At The Gate
3. Pigs + Scales
4. Coughing
5. Morning Star
6. Wall Has Ears
7. Invitation To The Dance
8. Tightly Stretched
9. Ask The Prisoner
10. To Be Clear
11. Gentlemen
12. Make That Call
13. The Buzzword Medley
14. Shopping Street
15. Crackle Engines Vrôp Vrôp
16. Greetings From Urbania
17. Wired
18. Got Everything?
19. Waarom Niet
20. Courtyard
21. Burst!Crack!Split!
22. Brickbat
23. Hieronymus
24. Nosey Parker
25. People Who Venture
26. Watch The Driver
27. Let’s Get Sceptical
28. Tin Gods
29. State Of Freedom
30. Provisionally Untitled
31. Kachun-K Pschûh
32. The Early Bird’s Wo R M
33. Catkin
34. Upstairs With Picasso 

1991's 'Scrabbling At The Lock' became a turning point for The Ex in several ways. It was their first collaboration with New York-based improviser Tom Cora, who would play nearly 100 concerts with the band. It also expanded their range considerably and turned them into a force that steered their balance of invention and intensity to new heights. It was not only a creative benchmark, it also won them a new audience, as they became one of the first 'punk' bands to cross over into the world of improvised music, and a recurring guest at free music festivals all over Europe.

Follow-up album 'And The Weathermen Shrug Their Shoulders' continued that winning streak with another stellar batch of songs that combine scorching energy, with limitless eclecticism and a confident, improvisatory glee. Artful punk, Oriental and European folk inspirations, inventive and passionate lyrics, and a knack for real time-creation seamlessly blend together in a cocktail that is highly combustible and occasionally ominous, but also consistently adventurous and strikingly infectious. By this point, The Ex had become one of the most consistently challenging and forward-thinking bands of their generation. And now 'And The Weathermen Shrug Their Shoulders' is finally available again on vinyl!

TRACK LISTING

1. Dere Geliyor Dere 
2. The Big Black 
3. What's The Story
4. Lamp Lady
5. One-Liner From China
6. Everything And Me 
7. New Clear Daze
8. Oh Puckerlips Now
9. Empty V
10. Okinawa Mon Amour
11. Dear House 
12. Conviction Going Gaga
13. Stupid Competitions 
14. Hickwall 
15. War OD

Following acclaimed outings 'About Love and Loving Again' and 'Hold Your Love Still', Christian Kjellvander returns with 'Ex Voto / The Silent Love', a quietly devastating and profoundly intimate record that completes an unofficial trilogy exploring love in its most tender, conflicted, and spiritual forms.

Originally conceived as an album of ten soft, calm country songs, 'Ex Voto' gradually evolved into something more expansive, yet the embryo of that intention remains, pulsing gently beneath every track. The record opens with two stripped-back songs, flows into a louder, more dynamic centre piece, then drifts back into stillness, mirroring the emotional journey of its creation. As with its predecessors, 'Ex Voto' continues Christian’s exploration of themes like love, religion, the natural world, and beauty, subjects he approaches with poetic precision and emotional depth. But this album goes deeper. It is more intimate, more raw. Christian was in a different place when he began writing it, and while the gravitational centre of his artistry remains constant, that personal shift colours the entire record.

Recorded live over a few days in an old summer house by the sea at Sweden’s southern tip, the album captures the breath and quiet of a room where no headphones were needed, where vocals bleed into the space through a PA, and every creak of the floorboards became part of the sound. The spectres of each voice and instrument haunt the multi-tracks like spirits lingering in a deep desert night. It’s romantic and cinematic, a kind of small-town noir transposed from the Texan wilderness to the Swedish coast. At the heart of the record is Kjellvander’s deep, expressive baritone and lyrical clarity, surrounded by a sparse yet richly textured palette: brush drums, bass clarinet, mournful cornet, Rhodes, synths, and the haunting counterpoint of female vocals. From the ghostly intimacy of 'Love of Another' to the stormy crescendo of 'Deathrider', the album moves with patience and purpose.

Songs like 'God Simple' and 'It Can Heal If You Let It' ride slow grooves into emotional catharsis, while 'The View Is Watching' swells into a shadowy, psychedelic dirge. Even the instrumental 'Ex Voto' hums with spiritual weight. Producer Tobias Fröberg focused on the scale of Christian’s voice and the gravity of his words, using reverb to lend a hyper-real quality to the album’s mood. The sound is different to its predecessors, and so was the recording process - just players in a room, leaning into the silence between sounds. The result is a document of presence: atmospheric, unguarded, and emotionally resonant. Ex Voto / The Silent Love is a record that inspires patience. It’s not to be consumed, but sat with, like a long conversation late into the night.

TRACK LISTING

1. Love Of Another
2. Hole In My Heart
3. God Simple
4. The View Is Watching
5. Obsession
6. It Can Heal You If You Let It
7. Ex Voto
8. Deathrider
9. Reasonable Love

Ex-Vöid - featuring Lan McArdle (Joanna Gruesome, Lanny) and Owen Williams (The Tubs) - return with their second LP: In Love Again. Joined by Laurie Foster (bass) and George Rothman (drums), the record sees the band flourish from a chaotic power punk group into a fully fledged pop behemoth. Taking in elements of shoegaze (Pinhead), country (Outline), 90s indie rock (In Love Again) and pretty much the entire history of guitar music, In Love Again reveals McArdle and Williams to be true students of perfect pop. The pair have been collaborating for a decade now, having played in Joanna Gruesome as teenagers, and In Love Again sees them both building on the sound they’ve honed together and embracing a new, unapologetic attitude towards songcraft. “We wanted to stop being cringed out by the idea of writing pop music. We’re a bit older now and not trying to remind everyone we come from hardcore/DIY scenes. It’s still there in our DNA but we wanted to see what might happen if we write the biggest bangers possible” says Williams. Backed by the tight-yet-raucous rhythm section of Foster and Rothman, In Love Again delivers as a huge pop album without sacrificing any of the hardcore propulsion that characterised the band’s first album. Perhaps the most striking aspect of the Ex-Vöid sound is the sublime blend of McArdle and Williams’ vocals: close, folk- indebted harmonies which guide the listener through an onslaught of hooks. And while this is utilised to full effect on In Love Again, the album also sees McArdle make full use of their vocal range. Tunes like July and Sara reveal a set of pipes and knack for chorus-writing rarely heard in today’s indie scene. In keeping with their new sound, McArdle and Williams have taken a more autobiographical, nuanced approach to lyric writing this time around, a move influenced by touring with Waxahatchee. (The band also cover Lonely Girls by Lucinda Williams - one of Katie Crutchfield’s heroes). The hints of folk and country embedded in the tunes also stretch to this new lyrical approach- storytelling and heartbreak abound. This was helped by the fact both members had recently experienced a breakup while writing the album. “Obviously a super catastrophic breakup is useful to have,” McArdle says, “It means I can still be selfdeprecating and not super sincere. But also be like: I’m in pain.” Williams agrees: “It makes you go mental and while this is a cliche – it's definitely good for the band. And it’s interesting to compare, say, my breakup song Down The Drain to Lan’s July, because it’s two quite different perspectives but we’re each there on each other’s songs, harmonising or ripping guitar solos.” The band’s first LP, Bigger Than Before, received positive coverage in Pitchfork, SPIN, Stereogum and others. It received airtime on BBC Radio 6, and saw the band support/tour with acts such as Waxahatchee, Speedy Ortiz and Alvvays. Williams also fronts The Tubs - whose 2023 debut saw them touring internationally and receiving plaudits from Pitchfork, The Guardian and Iggy Pop. 

TRACK LISTING

A1 Swansea
A2 In Love Again
A3 July
A4 Nightmare
A5 Pinhead
B1 Lonely Girls
B2 Sara
B3 Strange Insinuation
B4 Down The Drain
B5 Outline

So, in 45 years they did more than 2000 concerts in 45 countries. It was time for a new 45rpm 7" single. From the brand-new set they are playing full-on this year, they picked two blinding tracks: 'Great!' and 'The Evidence'. Urgent, willful, adventurous, open hearted and joyfully obstinate. As such, The Ex remains true to that one, indestructible adage: forward in all directions!

Originally released in 1991, ex:el was the third studio album by 808 State, and the last to feature founding member Martin Price. The album contains guest vocals from Bernard Sumner of New Order in the single ‘Spanish Heart’, and Björk with ‘Qmart’ and ‘Ooops’, paving the way for early concepts of modern electronic music. The release comes as a limited-edition 140-gram blue vinyl.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
San Francisco
Spanish Heart
Leo Leo
Side B
Qmart
Nephatiti
Lift
Side C
Ooops
Empire
In Yer Face
Side D
Cübik
Lambrusco Cowboy
Techno Bell
Olympic

Originally released as a 4x7" box in 1983.

First time on vinyl LP.

With all original artwork, A2 poster and 16- page photo-booklet.

"This package continues the dance of the dispossessed, with a thick atmospheric reconstruction of a factory’s death... The ultimate urban blues, a soundtrack that sounds like a manic collision between Neubauten and the Gang Of Four.Hammer hard beats with an ever present human touch throb along mechanically. Man and machine in perfect harmony you might say..”

On It’s Real, the group’s second album, Ex Hex’s commitment to larger-than-life riffs and unforgettable hooks remains intact, but the garage-y, post-punk approach that defined their debut album Rips has grown in scale and ambition. What started as a reaction to the blown-out aesthetic of Rips would test the sonic limits of the power trio and lead the band on a quest for a more immersive and three-dimensional sound. Vocal harmonies are layered ten tracks deep, solos shimmer and modulate atop heaving power chords, and the codas linger and stretch toward new frontiers of sound. On first listen, you might think you’ve unearthed a long-lost LP carved from the space where crunch-minded art rock and glitter-covered hard rock converge, an event horizon at the intersection of towering choruses and swaggering guitars.

Ex Hex were already one of America’s best guitar bands—but on It’s Real, their musical savvy has thrillingly combined with anything-goes curiosity, studio experimentation, and a dedication to refinement, resulting in an album that’s ready to be played at maximum volume.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Ex hex return with their most incendiary offering yet. Blazing hooks and huge rock choruses, encompassing that huge 70's rock sound with all of the best pomp and stadium grandiosity chucked in for good measure. TURN IT UP

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A
Tough Enough
Rainbow Shiner
Good Times
Want It To Be True
Diamond Drive

SIDE B
No Reflection
Another Dimension
Cosmic Cave
Radiate
Talk To Me

Elena Tonra, guitarist, vocalist and lyricist of Daughter, has announced details of a solo project. Running parallel to Daughter, she’s assumed the pseudonym Ex:Re (pronounced ex ray) for her eponymously-titled debut solo album, a deeply personal record that was made with both a sense of urgency and a cathartic need. Just finished, it’s being released with equal speed and will be out digitally on 30th November

Tonra’s candid solo songs document the time after a relationship ended and are written like unsent letters to herself and others. Taking on a creative moniker, she chose Ex:Re to mean ‘regarding ex’ and also ‘X-Ray’ as a way to look inside and see what is really there. Writing took a year but the recording process lasted mere months, turning to Fabian Prynn (4AD’s in-house engineer and producer) and composer Josephine Stephenson on cello to help bring Ex:Re to life.

Elena said of the album, “Although the record is written for someone, a lot of the time it’s about the space without that person in it. In every scenario, there's either the person in memory or the noticeable absence of that person in the present moment. I suppose it is a break-up record, however I do not talk about the relationship at all, and he hardly features in the scenes. He is only felt as a ghostly presence.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Daughter were one of the most refreshing bands to come out a good few years ago, and this Solo album from haunting voiced singer, Elena Tonra is a beautiful and comfortingly different outlet for her undeniable vocal and songwriting talents. Beautiful.

TRACK LISTING

Where The Time Went
Crushing
New York
Romance
The Dazzler
Too Sad
Liar
I Can't Keep You
5AM
My Heart

Funkycan aka Am Kinem teams up with Max Gee, while Money $ex regulars Imyrmind & Delphonic join Glenn Astro and Lonny Benz for a jam packed Money $ex outing. "Steiermark2017" is by Funkycan 7 & Graef and is a techno track made with a DR-550 and the crumar performer. It weaves and winds with slightly discordant melodies as fizzy, saturated drums pop and spurt. Glenn and Max drop the sub heavy and highly trickski, "No Tricks Dub". Thick walls of bass and intricately programmed tribal rhythms are order of the day as the pair conjure up a track similar to Paul Daly's cult remix of Jose Padilla's "Adios Amigo" - excellent! Delphonic & Astro provide the EPs crowning glory (in my opinion), a gentle propullsive, percussive glider that sounds like it's been ripped off a Sued record and should wins fans across the board with its delicate but engrossing sounds. Finally Imyrmind collaborates with Lonny Benz for the disjointed club attack that is "DID" - a juddering assault of drums embellished with subtle analogue nuances. A belter here from all involved, most recommended. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: I'll be honest, Money $ex doesn't always do it for me (then what does?! - ed) but this doozy from the allstars of the label has kept me more than entertained. Interesting sounds, intricate rhythms and experimental arrangements all keeping me hooked. Top one.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Funkycan 7 Max Graef - Steiermark2017
A2. Max Graef & Glenn Astro - No Tricks Dub
B1. Glenn Astro & Delphonic - Riddim Fur Die Atzen
B2. Imyrmind & Lonny Benz - D.I.D

Following 2016's acclaimed album KIN and EP Serenade, The Duke Spirit march on with poignant new album Sky Is Mine. Produced by the band themselves, and mixed by Bruno Ellingham (Massive Attack), it also features guest vocals by long time friends Josh T Pearson (Lift to Experience) on the woozy How Could, How Come, and Duke Garwood on album closer Broken Dream. Each song approaches, revises, steps back and looks for humanity on a planetary scale. From the shimmering melodies and prodigious power of tracks like ‘Magenta’ and ‘See Power’ to the energy-fuelled psychedelic rock of ‘Houses’ and ‘Yoyo’, the album flows with a dark, beguiling grandeur with the majestic allure of Liela Moss’ crystal vocals. Sky Is Mine looks at Harm, Control and Lack of love but burns through it to find the essential human heart. Talking about the inspiration behind the album, front-woman Liela Moss explains: “With feet cold and wet from standing in the sludgy shit of rhetoric, illegitimacy and fear that is the world we tread upon, the album snapshots a palpitating love that bursts with, and values, Life. Half-finished sentences, which describe shards of arrogance, egomania and cruelty are dissolved by being pissed on from a great height with a stream of golden, glowing benevolence."

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Haunting reverbed guitars and swooning synths are laid out into languid carpets of sound before being joined by the unearthly, mesmerising vocals of Liela Moss. Like the best instrumental affectations of stunning post-rock but joined by the soaring majesty of a good vocal line. Brilliant.

“In the year of the snitch, there are forces beyond your control that keep you up at night. Ghost notions that swirl around your room while you sleep. Your own pillow laughing right in your face while you fight for an hour of rest. Voices whisper from the corner, telling you everything you never wanted to hear. Negative Growth, our third album, is dedicated to fear and deception. “This collection of songs was conceived in Memphis and finalized in Los Angeles, with the help of our family doctor Ty Segall. It was created in February 2016, when we traded Memphis misery for a week of California sunshine. Negative Growth is a nine-track nightmare, a death trip in the crystal ship. The institution known as In The Red Records will do the honors. The Hollywood Heat Seeker takes ten years off your life.” - Chris Shaw of Ex-Cult.

TRACK LISTING

1. Mr. Investigator
2. Attention Ritual
3. Let You In
4. Government Birdcage
5. Dogs Roll In
6. Panic In Pig Park
7. Hollywood Heatseeker
8. Nightmare Zone
9. New Face On

The London 4-piece return with an album brimming with new sounds amid a vibrant energy, flecked with sublimely delicate, intimate spaces and recorded by Simon Raymonde (Bella Union / Cocteau Twins).

At the core is a deep respect for the frailty of life and the nobility that can be observed in death. Sonar, a highly emotional Liela Moss vocal, delivers a poignant goodbye to a loved one, framed by a magnificent circular guitar hook around which organs, bass and drums carry prayer and eulogy. There are some maverick guest appearances throughout the record, Mark Lanegan, Raymonde himself, longterm TDS collaborator Terry Edwards (PJ Harvey/Gallon Drunk) and old friend Sam Windett from Archie Bronson Outfit is here also to duet with Liela on the wiry post-punk vibes of Side By Side.

One of the many standouts on the album is Pacific, a hyper vigilant and introspective tale of travel and self-discovery, of the realisation that often silence is a better way to communicate than with words. Adding to the tension, a force that pulls you in deep throughout the album, is a beautiful melody at the start of the song played on the saw by Mara Carlyle who also lends her effortlessly fluid voice to this and Sonar.

Despite these cameos, this is about The Duke Spirit, who in ten glorious songs, have resurfaced effortlessly and quietly, with one of the most exhilarating albums of this year.

TRACK LISTING

1. Blue And Yellow Light
2. Sonar
3. Wounded Wing
4. Hands
5. Here Comes The Vapour
6. Pacific
7. Anola
8. Side By Side
9. 100 Horses Run
10. Follow

On the tail of their breakout second LP Midnight Passenger, Memphis-based punk cyclone Ex-Cult delivers a brand new batch of bruisers. Chris Shaw lends a sneering, spitting toughness to the proceedings while the band flays riffs in loose, hairy, mosh-inducing menace behind him, touching on post-punk, psych sprawl and early-’80s hardcore while remaining beholden to none. They have the power to convert even the most jaded and bored concertgoer into a sweaty mess in the pit. Punks, skate rats, scenesters, skinheads, hardcore kids, druggies-so many disparate groups dig this band it’s like an MRR cartoon waiting to happen. The adrenal-enhancers on Cigarette Machine are road warriors already, having been honed on the band’s recent tour that no doubt laid waste to a town nearby. The only problem with this sterling batch of sluggers is that it’s over too quick.

TRACK LISTING

1. Clinical Study
2. Cigarette Machine
3. Rats In The Gas Tank
4. Meda House Company
5. Dripping Mouth
6. Your Mask

Ex Hex is a power trio hailing from Washington, DC. With Wild Flag on hiatus, Mary Timony (Autoclave, Helium) needed a new outlet, so she retreated to her basement and started writing. To her surprise, the songs came easily and the hooks practically wrote themselves. Mary found Laura Harris and they hit it off immediately. The pair played together for a couple of months in a tiny carpet-lined practice space shared with half a dozen hardcore bands and what appeared to be the better part of a BC Rich Mockingbird. In walked Betsy Wright from the wilds of Virginia. She and Mary have similar tendencies, both defaulting to denim and The Voidoids. Betsy is a performer and an ace piano player, and before long, she was slinging a cherry SG as the third member of Ex Hex.

The group played a handful of shows and a couple of months later, in the spring of 2014, headed into the studio. Working furiously, they recorded over the span of two weeks in North Carolina with Mitch Easter (Let's Active) and in the basement of Mary's home with frequent collaborator Jonah Takagi. What results is Ex Hex 'Rips', twelve songs about underdogs, guys stealing your wallet, schoolyard brawls, and getting bent. The record happens pretty quickly, so don't blink.

“a fun-as-hell supercharged take on Ramones punk and Cheap Trick power-pop, direct and catchy beyond belief” - STEREOGUM.
“While the song’s reminiscent of Wild Flag’s rollicking material, it simultaneously holds its own as a sizzling and energetic little rocker.“ - CONSEQUENCE OF SOUND, on “Don’t Wanna Lose”.

TRACK LISTING

1. Don’t Wanna Lose
2. Beast
3. Waste Your Time
4. You Fell Apart
5. How You Got That Girl
6. Waterfall
7. Hot And Cold
8. Radio On
9. New Kid
10. War Paint
11. Everywhere
12. Outro

Plastikman, aka Richie Hawtin recorded 'EX' at the Guggenheim, New York’s iconic art museum. This very special performance was at the invitation of influential Belgium fashion designer and artistic director at Dior, Raf Simons, for the Guggenheim’s annual fundraiser, performed around a specially constructed LED obelisk.

Richie Hawtin explains, “I knew that Raf was a long time Plastikman fan so by accepting his offer to perform at the Dior event at the Guggenheim I knew I’d set myself up to a huge challenge. Although Raf was happy to have the already complete Plastikman Live 1.5 show, I locked myself away in a series of intense studio sessions and quickly recorded enough new material for the performance and realized I might also have enough for a complete new album. The music came out of me effortlessly as I was very inspired by the opportunity to play in this beautiful architectural space renowned more for art than music. The location also allowed me to step far away from the dancefloor, giving me a huge amount of freedom to EXplore any sonic ideas that I had. Art, music, architecture, painting, sculpture – these mediums are supposed to live together.”

Richie Hawtin is many things - an extraordinary DJ, creator of the ENTER. experience, mastermind behind the M_nus label, technological innovator, art aficionado - in 2011 he collaborated with British sculptor Anish Kapoor for an installation in Paris - and style icon. Before this, though, and perhaps most famously of all, he was and is Plastikman, an electronic music phenomenon whose followers are legion and fanatic.

Between 1993 and 2003, Plastikman created an astonishing body of work, one that didn’t so much define a time and place as explode them, expanding the dimensions of Detroit techno and redefining the possibilities of electronic dance music. Across six albums (‘Sheet One’, ‘Musik’, ‘Recycled Plastik’, ‘Consumed’, ‘Artifakts (B.C.)’, and ‘Closer)’ and numerous singles such as ‘Spastik’, ‘Plastique’, and ‘Sickness’, Plastikman evolved into one of contemporary electronic music’s most distinctive voices: minimalist, psychedelic, seriously groove-laden, and ever mindful of the transcendent properties of electronica.

Plastikman was never going to be a heritage dance act and this latest renaissance opens doors few never knew existed, showcasing a master at work.

Hey bro, check it out: In Memphis in early 2011, five people joined forces to start a punk rock band. They each came from different scenes—hardcore, psychedelic, and various flavors of indie pop. Things gelled. I mean, really came together, man! Following the release of two killer singles under the name Sex Cult, they were faced with a lawsuit from a similarly named and very aggressive techno label in New York City. So Sex Cult became Ex-Cult. Playing a series of house parties and gigs in dive bars, Ex-Cult honed their sound—a punk rock sweet spot that incorporates angular post-punk, flying saucer fuzz guitar, snotty vocals and bash-your-head-in energy. A real stone groove! Killer linear punk à la Wire, Urinals, Australia’s X or something, man! A show at SXSW caught the attention of indie wonderkind Ty Segall, and the two began making plans to record in San Francisco. This is the end result—a debut album that takes the living energy of their show and crams it onto the grooves of an LP. Wild, man! Wild!

Latest offering from Amsterdam's experimental anarcho-punk legends. This one is engineered by Steve Albini who stamps his authority and sound all over this release.

Their second album is an assured piece of neo-prog still with the Genesis influences coming through and with some of their strongest material, beautifully played and produced.