George Harrison's own intimate, beautiful collection of more than two hundred never-before-collected photos of the Beatles at work and at play – the vast majority published for the first time. From 1963 to 1969, George Harrison travelled the world with his bandmates, Pentax in hand, chronicling their impossible path from Liverpool to Ed Sullivan, Adelaide to Rishikesh, the Eiffel Tower to the beaches of Tahiti and beyond. In this extraordinary collection of George’s personal photos and 8mm film stills – curated by Olivia Harrison, George’s widow – are singular images of Paul, John, Ringo, and George and the band’s friends and entourage as they rocketed to stardom and fostered the joyful madness that came to be known as Beatlemania.

This revelatory, beautifully designed book takes the reader along on their first plane ride to the US, motorcades through the Australian outback, shopping trips in Paris, and more. The candid, unguarded photos, brimming with a Harrison’s wit, intelligence and penchant for experimentation (he was enamoured of selfies, long before the iPhone), and snapped in those rare moments out of the spotlight offer a remarkable, inside look at the human beings behind the Beatles, trying to hold onto themselves – and enjoy themselves – while standing at the centre of the storm. The Third Eye opens a window into the world of the Beatles – and the transformative cultural moment that they sparked – through the singular artistic vision of George Harrison.

Spooky Eyes are a new psychedelic rock power trio rumbling out of Tasmania/lutruwita, Australia and this self-titled debut record is their mission statement. Self-written and recorded, with Eddy Current’s Mikey Young on mastering duties, 'Spooky Eyes' commits the band’s monolithic live energy and sound to wax. This is six tracks and thirty minutes of raw and timeless rock’n’roll goodness – channeling howling acid rock riffs, heady psychedelia and proto-metal grit with a loose, jam-driven energy, pulled straight from the late 60s/70s underground.

TRACK LISTING

1. Run
2. The Illusion
3. Where the Sun Stands Still
4. Psychotic Reaction
5. Harvest
6. Truth, Lies

‘Damn Those Eyes’ and ‘Never Mind the Botox’ were recorded last year at The Planet Of Noise Studio in Limmared, Sweden. Both songs are taken from The Boys sixth official studio album to be released December 2026.

Along with the Sex Pistols, Clash and The Damned, The Boys were part of the first wave of the mid-1970s UK punk explosion. Armed with an arsenal of killer Steel/Dangerfield songs The Boys became the first UK punk band to sign an album deal in January 1977. Highly regarded by the music press and their contemporaries, their well-crafted songs, together with Steel and Dangerfield’s love of harmonies, led to them being described as ‘The Beatles of Punk’ but they could (and should) just as deservedly have been compared to the Ramones ­– fast, alternately brattish and tongue-in-cheek, and gloriously anthemic.

The new single features original founding members and songwriting team Matt Dangerfield and Casino Steel, along with long time members Chips Kiesbye & Kent Norberg (from mega Swedish band Sator) & Martin H-Son (ex-Backstreet Girls). Renowned international filmmaker, and ex bass player from The Crybabys, Danny Garcia makes a guest appearance on ‘Never Mind the Botox’ as well as providing promo videos for both songs.

TRACK LISTING

1. Damn Those Eyes
2. Nevermind The Botox

Demonia Disco is a new side project to Tom McDowell's Dream Division; the brains behind the acclaimed Library of the Occult label.

2 tracks of minimal, vocoder vox, italo disco, minimal synth, kraut pop flavours- the sort of thing that might have come out of 1981 Germany with next to no info and now sets you back £200 thanks to word of mouth reminiscences from the precious few who heard it in sweaty, black walled basement Eastern European alt discos alongside early DAF, Fad Gadget and co....

Hugely recommended and super limited in numbered silkscreened sleeve, labelless disks. PLAY LOUD!

TRACK LISTING

1. Electric Eyes
2. Metal Fetishist

'Open Our Eyes' rose to Number One on the Billboard Top Soul Albums chart when it was originally released in 1974 and has been certified platinum in the U.S. The album features the Top Ten Soul singles 'Mighty Mighty' and 'Devotion'.

TRACK LISTING

1. Mighty Mighty
2. Devotion
3. Fair but so Uncool
4. Kalimba Story
5. Drum Song
6. Tee Nine Chee Bit
7. Spasmodic Movements
8. Caribou
9. Open Our Eyes

Writing a bio for a secret band is a bit like cleaning a house that nobody is living in. It looks good on your resumé but do we really need it? Only ghosts do.

Talking about ghosts: there is AI for this kind of stuff, but unfortunately, even AI is too serious and will write a 'proper' bio because AI knows stuff. Name names. Name places. Name influences. Name tour dates. Name quotes by Oscar Wilde and/or Noel Gallagher. And none of that is relevant to Ferries.

After the 2025 release of Ferries' quickly-vanishing first LP, 'Eye Flutter', not much changed for the band. They continued to exist by not existing. Et voila, a new record, 'Eye Wander', is now here. Although the medium is the same as the previous one (black gold), they've taken a next step in a smoky journey into a dubby and kraut-y world of creating songs and musical moments. Is 'avant garde pop' a genre? Or even 'dub kraut'? I know 'indie' certainly is, and I don't really agree with that either, and even a broken clock is right twice a day so what's the point anyway.

TRACK LISTING

1. Running Out of Time
2. I Swear I Left It Right There
3. All At Once Again
4. Leave Behind
5. Don’t Stop
6. Don’t Stop Again
7. Eyes Wander
8. Knightville Brawl
9. Tank Town
10. Running Out of Time Again

Left-field Brooklyn soulful lounge from Numero’s Private Mind Garden. Seven lo-fi gospel meditations that bridge the gap between Shuggie Otis and Otis G . Johnson. Get lost in Lynn Marshall’s wavering falsetto and producer Norman Marcelle’s Lowery-brand organ and primordial drum machines. 1980 never
sounded so heavy.

TRACK LISTING

1. Ain’t No Weight
2. Burn
3. Are You Listening
4. Look Out For Shaft
5. One Hundred Years
6. Calling You
7. Happy Day

Zoh Amba's Matador debut album, 'Eyes Full'. It is an album of tough and soulful songs that feel like a pure transmission from the heart.

Having already become one of the most exciting saxophonists to emerge from NYC’s avant-garde scene, Amba is now letting their heart guide them back to their first instrument, the guitar, and to their hometown of Kingsport, Tennessee. The music on ‘Eyes Full’ is distinctly, instinctively tied to that place: muddy, loose blues with sweet burnishes of Appalachian folk.

In music, Amba is always striving for greater proximity to the divine. On 'Eyes Full', they’ve never come closer. Every song circles the idea of seeing and being seen. The record looks closely at the lives of working-class folk in small towns who bust their asses off while trying to find any salvation they can. “I hope these songs touch people’s hearts,” Amba says. “They’re about people who really need to be seen and heard.”

The record was tracked live at Drop of Sun Studios in Asheville, an hour from Amba’s hometown, with no overdubs. Their best friend Kevin Hyland plays electric guitar, while drummer Jim White, whom Amba met on the streets of New York years earlier and now calls the closest thing they’ve had to a family, plays drums. The three musicians rehearsed relentlessly, playing together all day, every day, “until we got real tight,” says Amba. White and Amba play interlocked, while Amba and Hyland weave around one another, Amba playing rhythm and Hyland playing lead; currents of life running alongside one another.

'Eyes Full' is a lesson in how to look and to stay open to the universe, and to all the hearts that inhabit it. Through Amba’s gaze, the album restores spirit and dignity to those who are often overlooked or dispossessed. Across 'Eyes Full', Amba sings for people who rarely see themselves reflected back with tenderness. The music carries an ache for communities pushed to the margins, for those growing numb or losing touch with their innermost sense of self. These songs insist on sustained attention: on looking closely, meeting another person’s gaze, and refusing to look away.

TRACK LISTING

1. OCD
2. Another Time
3. Dead End Street
4. Thousand Years
5. Southern Soil
6. Eyes Full
7. Blueberry Thorn
8. Emahoy
9. Weed Eating
10. Odd Jobs
11. Child You'll See
12. PG Tips
13. Smile With Your Eyes

Limited first release in a new 7" collector series from Common Saints, the UK psychedelic soul project known for its warm analogue textures and cinematic groove-led sound

Features Idol Eyes (33M streams) and Summer Sun (24M streams), pressed on heavyweight black vinyl in a printed sleeve and cut by Stuart Hawkes at Metropolis, London. Strictly limited to 1,000 copies worldwide - strong catalogue demand meets premium analogue presentation.

My Precious Bunny, the solo project from Lily Wolter of dream-pop duo Penelope Isles, will release her debut album 'A Moment In My Eyes'.

Stepping out on her own, Wolter crafts music that feels like a memory: sun-faded, sprawling, and deeply alive. It's intimate and cinematic all at once: music for late-night heart- to- hearts and long drives to nowhere in particular, every note heavy with nostalgia and motion.

Co-produced with childhood friend Allister Kellaway (Last Living Cannibal), 'A Moment In My Eyes' is both a personal milestone and a shared vision brought to life. The songs shimmer with texture and feeling: warped pop sensibilities, bursts of saxophone, warm analogue synths and restless guitars collide with raw choral power, in a sound that feels spontaneous, magnetic and full of momentum. There's a sense of community in the way the melodies fold into each other, like old friends catching up, finishing each other's thoughts mid-sentence.

Born and raised on the Isle of Man, caught somewhere between myth and mist, Wolter's music feels inseparable from the landscape that shaped her. At times deeply personal and confessional, at others sweeping and orchestral, her songs move with a sense of purpose, like something shaped by time and tide. With some of Brighton's best musicians performing on the album, My Precious Bunny is gaining momentum fast.

TRACK LISTING

1. Times That Passed
2. Blackcurrants
3. Tryin But I'm Dyin
4. Wack
5. Joys Of Adulthood
6. Young Pup 
7. KookieCannibal 
8. Longacre
9. Punchin
10. I Go Up, You Go Down
11. A Moment In My Eyes

'Elephant Eyelash' is the second studio album from Why?. Originally released by anticon. in 2005, this reissue is in celebration of it's 20th anniversary. This release also contains the 'Sanddollars' EP, 'Dumb Hummer' EP, and a special unreleased song called 'Bangs'.

TRACK LISTING

1. Crushed Bones
2. Yo Yo Bye Bye
3. Rubber Traits
4. The Hoofs
5. Fall Saddles
6. Gemini (Birthday Song)
7. Waterfalls
8. Sanddollars
9. Speech Bubbles
10. Whispers Into The Other
11. Act Five
12. Light Leaves
13. Miss Ohio's Nameless
14. Fingernails
15. Sick 2 Think
16. Sanddollars
17. Vice Principal
18. Next Atlanta
19. Pantone Cyan
20. Mutant John
21. Dumb Hummer
22. Pick Fights
23. Deceived
24. Bangs

'CRONE' is the second album from Lynch and Brennan, following on from 2022’s slowburn slab of ambient grit, '...And Take The Black Worm With Me'. Bewildering, psychedelic and ultimately transcendental, the four tracks of One Leg One Eye’s 'CRONE' shapeshift and morph endlessly in a coarse miasma. Traditional song structures and vocal melody are eschewed, instead the trio directly channel energies from the rich seams of mythological significance submerged below the Irish psyche. The anger, rage and beauty of the sovereignty goddess burn a consistent and deliberate line through the album in the form of obscure incantations and dire pronouncements, the gnarled sinews that bind it all together.

Just as the subject matter of the tracks delve deeper into Irish myth and the remote past, the temporal reality of the album reaches back into the bands prehistory, with the majority of it the material being recorded by Lynch and Brennan in 2021 before One Leg One Eye was conceived of as an entity with Brennan working on the 'CRONE' project while Lynch worked on '...And Take The Black Worm With Me'.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: One Leg One Eye skilfully blend the traditional folky leanings of Lynch's band (Lankum) with a riotous, metallic heft and cataclysmic doomy blast of noise. It's not drone, nor metal per se, but an extension of the sound of folk twisted and churned and stretched into a thousand constituent parts before being smashed through a Boss MT-2 (or 3). Incredibly transformative, catatonic mayhem.

TRACK LISTING

1. Many are my Names Besides
2. Neither Fell nor Flesh
3. What I shall Follow, I Shall Hunt
4. Save What Birds Will Bear Away in Their Claws

Gravity Freeze is the other side of the same coin in the same time frame as Electric War. Both albums were recorded simultaneously with Gravity Freeze featuring Tony Coote in the drum seat. The songs were written and recorded in the same time period, but there were songs that fell more naturally into “Little Barrie” with Gravity Freeze having a more song-based approach with a direct link to rhythm & blues whereas Electric War was more experimental. 
Barrie had previously worked with producer Rupert Lyddon on various soundtrack and film projects including the documentary soundtrack for Dogs On The Streets and Barrie’s musical performances on Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis Movie and Scott Derrickson’s The Black Phone. 

This is the first Little Barrie album since the tragic passing of Virgil Howe in 2017. 

‘Tippex in My Eye’, Roman Flügel’s third single with Erol Alkan’s Phantasy Sound, nonetheless charts exciting new territory for the prolific German producer, finding him in collaboration with London-based vocalist and songwriter, PYTKO. Already established as a member of Phantasy’s creative family following her cultishly received 2022 debut LP ‘The Way We Blush’, PYTKO searching, surrealist lyrics and performance provide perfect synthesis for Flügel’s first ever vocal collaboration.

Somewhere between digi-dub and avant garde shades of electro-pop, ‘Tippex in My Eye’ slowly works a strange and spacious magic, meditating on bassweight while moving ever-forward with sparse piano and distinctly Flugelesque synthesis. Throughout, PYTKO’s enigmatic vocals intertwine with this ambitious arrangement, acting as an incantation for a brief but refreshingly strange journey.

Each of these elements are repurposed with hypnotic, psychedelic impact on an alternate ‘Dance Mix’. Immediately tapping into Flügel’s well-established nous for turning minimalism into euphoria, PYTKO herself becomes a guiding force for the dancefloor, as the track builds thrillingly toward a cosmic breakdown and dramatic release.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: I've always had a massive penchant for Flugel. There's no-one that pairs dancefloor eccentricity with precision and advanced production like him. The wide spectrum of his talents is clearly on show here, even though it only contains a modest two tracks (and an instrumental). But from the quirky, dubby-house of the OG, to the flailing, cranium smashing electro blast of the 'Dance Mix'; you can clearly bare witness to his many talents. A true stalwart!

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. Tippex In My Eye ft. Pytko (Vocal)
2. Tippex In My Eye ft. Pytko (Instrumental)

Side B
1.Tippex In My Eye ft. Pytko (Dance Mix)

Consuming you in one swoop, through 10 tracks of poetic electronic-pop odyssey’s, Evadney’s sensational voice acts as the guiding force, weaving between piano, strings, harp, driving electronic elements, and almost beatless moody textures.

Following the release of 3 eps on Black Acre, being remixed by I.JORDAN, inclusion on Jamz Supernova’s BBCRadio ‘Ones To Watch’ list, the Glastonbury Emerging talent list and creating an audiovisual live show performed in the UK and Shanghai, Evadney’s debut album ‘It’s Dreaming’ looks set to solidify him as a bold new voice on the UK music scene, bringing with him a new world of melancholy, narrative-driven pop.

The subjects of sexuality, love, family and a yearning for the divine are played out across this cinematic piece of work. “I’m asking myself and everyone to consider; Where is your love? What does it mean for you? What are your boundaries around it and why?” - Evadney. On ‘Plie’ Evadney’s vivid storytelling flows effortlessly in a surreal conversation with an angel who teaches him how to dance. ‘Qualia’’ is a harp laden ode to his parents and their enslaved ancestors, whilst ‘Leathered & Laced’ and ‘Good Lord’ are devastatingly beautiful and honest stories of Evadney pulling himself out of his darkest moments of lost direction and substance abuse.

TRACK LISTING

1. Pile
2. Wings
3. Amors
4. A
5. Good Lord
6. Ready
7. Leathered & Laced
8. Qualia
9. Ω
10. The All

The name of Neil Davidge is more familiar for his seminal work with Massive Attack, the link with the dance grooves and adjustments of DNA and for film and TV music credits. By contrast the first half of the 1980's Bristol band Big Outdoor Type was an earlier pop-tinged project with a planet of rhythm thrown in.

Neil and his writing partner, vocalist Tracey Fuller, had managed to come up with something a little more sophisticated than much of the local fare usually on offer. Music journalist Dave Massey picked up on the band and reviewed them to a national readership for Sounds. After that, well nothing much happened. Fast forward some four decades and Massey was able to compile the 'Blue Eyed Boy' album for Bristol Archive Records, saying:
'I was hearing terrific tracks I'd not come across before. The overall quality was so high it was too good not to see the light of day. These tracks, along with a whole mass of home, four-track and Bristol demo studio produced works, have come together in a rather wonderful collection that was a delight to compile.'

Opening track 'Don't be a Stranger' is a beautiful blast of summery warmth. The next tracks are a blissful cross between Swing Out Sister's 'Breakout' and the woozy sway of Associates in 'Sulk' mode on 'Winters Cold', the jive swing of 'The Spell', while the haunting 'Incredible Shrinking Girl' and the later 'Follow Love' are songs that echo the classic Postcard era of Sound of Young Scotland with some southern sweetening. The more jangly angles of 'City of Hell' and spacious, sub psychedelic Latin lusciousness of 'Our Last Man in Brazil' take that process several dance steps further. There is also a hint of the filmic element that would later inform Neil Davidge's future career.

This album collection was for so long a lost possible classic that never was. That's not the case any longer. Dive right in, breathe the refreshing air, enjoy the view and feel the benefit of the great outdoors.

TRACK LISTING

1. Don't Be A Stranger
2. Winters Cold
3. The Spell
4. Incredible Shrinking Girl
5. The Secret
6. Casseybottom Stomp
7. Giants
8. Terrible Friend
9. City Of Hell
10. Follow Love
11. What Happens (Boy)
12. Blue Eyed Boy 

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2026 EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

In celebration of the band's 30th anniversary, Third Eye Blind is releasing a collection of rare and unreleased rarities from the vaults as a limited edition 1LP color vinyl set. Includes alternate versions of Semi-Charmed Life, Motorcycle Drive By and more.

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2026 EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

A selection of live versions of tracks from the band’s first three albums, recorded for ‘BBC Radio 6 Music’ in Media City, Salford and London Maida Vale Studios, in 2022, 2023 and 2025.

Spanning various different chapters of Pale Blue Eyes…Fun, chaos, elation, nerves, all in the midst of tours, breakdowns, robberies and miles and miles on the road.

The band have chosen their favourite tracks from the three different live sessions that they did for ‘The Marc Riley Show’ and ‘The Riley & Coe Show’.

A great way of documenting and remembering the first few years of Pale Blue Eyes. The album will be released on limited edition red vinyl for RSD.

'Alaska' (Side A) is a poignant folk love song about departure and hope. This recording features some eloquent guitar work by guest artist Doug Gillard who has previously contributed his skills to such artists as Nada Surf and Guided by Voices. 'Alaska' is a rare Bill Fox recording in a full professional studio setting.

'Pale Blue Eye' (Side B) is an energized take on the Velvet Underground classic, this recording features an experimental eclectic ensemble of percussion (by brother Tommy Fox and friends) with pulsive searing acoustic guitar. Bill's version is a head on celebration of audial unconventionality.

TRACK LISTING

1. Alaska
2. Pale Blue Eyes

Celebrated guitar virtuoso and composer Pat Metheny returns with 'Side-Eye III+', a new 8 song jazz project with his latest group, featuring Chris Fishman on piano and keyboards, Joe Dyson on drums, and Jermaine Paul on bass. In partnership with Green Hill Music, the 20-time Grammy award winner launches his own label imprint, Uniquity Music, and embarks on an extensive world tour with his new ensemble. The all-original album includes 'In On It', 'Don’t Look Down', and 'Make a New World'. 

TRACK LISTING

1. In On It
2. Don’t Look Down
3. Make A New World
4. Urban And Western
5. SE-O
6. Our Old Street
7. Risk And Reward
8. So Far, So Good

WOW. Released on Valentine's Day 2025, Be With Records are releasing the first time reissue of the first *ever* heart-shaped red vinyl 45. Extremely limited!

The smooth titan of blue-eyed soul, Bobby Caldwell transcended genre tags with consummate ease; he was a musical icon of real class and versatility, cherished the world over.

The originals of these red heart-shaped vinyl records go for stupid money - if you can find one in good condition. Here's your chance to snag a real collectors item for fans of Bobby and, well, LOVE, the world over.

The eternal 'What You Won't Do for Love' became a national anthem. It remains that way - perhaps even more so in the past year or two. It perfectly captured Bobby's ability to infuse a contagious groove with introspective and relatable lyrics. With its instantly recognisable horn riff and Caldwell's soulful delivery, this timeless, chiller anthem continues to captivate audiences and define his musical legacy.

A perennial favourite, it has been heavily sampled, such is its unique allure; Aaliyah sang over snatches of it on 'Age Ain’t Nothing But A Number' and you can hear Caldwell’s vocal sample used for the hook on Tupac’s posthumously released 'Do For Love'.

Bobby's dynamite 'Open Your Eyes' was immortalised by the eternal J Dilla in the hip-hop canon with his production of Common’s epochal 'The Light', which heavily samples the magical 'Open Your Eyes'. On a post paying tribute to Bobby in March 2023, Questlove claimed that he "got word Brother Bobby loved it". Bobby's original has seen new life even more recently from the likes of Dwele and Kendrick Lamar and deservingly so, as its insistent drums and staccato piano created a modern-soul classic.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Taking cues from the infamous Mayer Hawthorn heart shaped disc from yesteryear; local legends Be With reissue this schmoozy doozy from Bobby Caldwell - just in time for Valentine's Day!

TRACK LISTING

1. What You Won't Do For Love
2. Open Your Eyes 

Spanning recordings from 2018 to 2025, 'Archive Vol. 1' is a curated collection of outtakes, alternate versions, and previously unreleased tracks that didn’t find a home on the band’s three studio albums. The band describes the project as “an album that came together almost by accident,” born from revisiting forgotten demos and half-finished ideas that, when assembled, revealed a cohesive and emotionally resonant body of work.

The album features 18 tracks, including fan-favourite live staples and experimental interludes.

With its blend of shoegaze textures, new wave energy, and introspective songwriting, 'Archive Vol. 1' offers a unique glimpse into the creative process behind Pale Blue Eyes’ evolving sound.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: I always think it can give you a good impression of a band if you listen to their outtakes as well as their LP's and this one really leaves me thinking 'why would you leave that off?' Ram-packed with moments of divine beauty. Mixed and mastered by Dean Honer.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Park
2. New Boots
3. Daisy
4. This House
5. Signify
6. Don’t Hurry Time

7. Believe It All
8. Records
9. How Long Is Now (Alt Version)
10. Loops
11. Not The End Of The World
12 Outro (Narcissist)

Frank Popp is the first German artist to collaborate with legendary British musician Paul Weller on a song.

The extremely well-crafted track 'Right Before My Eyes' combines Weller's unique voice, lyrics, and guitar solo with the lush production and catchy songwriting that Frank Popp is known for. Fans of the old Weller albums will get their money's worth here, but the song also has the potential to win over new listeners.

TRACK LISTING

1. Right Before My Eyes
2. Right Before My Eyes

'Sleepy Eyed' has been expanded into a double LP, and the refreshed artwork includes new photos and images of ephemera plus notes written by the band and producer John Agnello about the recording of the album.

'Sleepy Eyed' marked a turning point for the band. Their previous album, 1993’s 'Big Red Letter Day' was a huge album for them, landing on the Billboard charts and bringing them to new levels of fame when 'Late At Night' was heavily featured in a pivotal scene of the short-lived mid-90s cult TV show My So Called Life which starred Claire Danes and Jared Leto. The song was not only in the episode, but the band was also shown performing it.

The making of that album was a massive, glossy undertaking, recorded in LA with huge producers, and as Bill Janovitz noted “It was a full-on, old-school peak-analog record production”. The band’s inclination for their follow-up was to bring it back to a more stripped down and raw recording situation. Bill said, “I was thinking of 'Some Girls' and 'Tonight's the Night', and those electric Dylan records like 'Highway 61 Revisited' and 'Blonde on Blonde', where you could hear instruments bleeding into each other, snare drum rattling from the guitars and bass, and off-microphone stuff, and even mistakes, where it just felt like you were in the room with the band.”

They found the perfect partner in this plan with producer John Agnello and the perfect place to make it – at Dreamland Recordings Studio in upstate New York. Tom Maginnis noted that “there were really no distractions, and we ended up spending long days into the night at the studio and just crashing at the house to sleep. We would do take after take to get the right basic track, so it felt like playing many live sets in a single day.”

The songs on 'Sleepy Eyed', which include an impressive opening trio of three of their most popular - 'Tangerine', 'Summer' and 'Kitchen Door' are amongst many fan favorites. Their trademark harmonies, timeless songwriting and guitar fueled passion is perfectly exemplified on this release.

Buffalo Tom (Bill Janovitz, Chris Colbourn and Tom Maginnis) formed at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1986 - a breeding ground of post punk guitar bands like Dinosaur Jr. and Pixies. The three longstanding bandmates recognize the achievement of their longevity as a creative unit - 10 albums, 40 years as a band. Nice work if you can get it!

TRACK LISTING

1. Tangerine
2. Summer
3. Kitchen Door
4. Rules
5. It's You
6. When You Discover
7. Sunday Night
8. Your Stripes
9. Sparklers
10. Clobbered
11. Sundress
12. Twenty-Points (The Ballad Of Sexual Dependency)
13. Souvenir
14. Crueler
15. Tangerine
16. Summer
17. Kitchen Door
18. Clobbered
19. Hold Me Up
20. Don't Blow Your Wind

Originally released in 2004, the 'Eye To The Telescope' album catapulted Scottish Singer Songwriter KT Tunstall into the global spotlight, fuelled by an unforgettable live debut of 'Black Horse and the Cherry Tree' on Later… with Jools Holland. The record went on to achieve platinum status in both the UK and US.

The album includes several standout tracks, including 'Black Horse and the Cherry Tree', 'Other Side of The World' and notably the hit single 'Suddenly I See', which became a defining pop culture moment after featuring prominently in the opening sequence of The Devil Wears Prada.

TRACK LISTING

1LP Tracklist:
1. Other Side Of The World
2. Another Place To Fall
3. Under The Weather
4. Black Horse And The Cherry Tree
5. Miniature Disasters
6. Silent Sea
7. Universe & U
8. False Alarm
9. Suddenly I See
10. Stoppin’ The Love
11. Heal Over
12. Through The Dark

2LP Tracklist:
1. Other Side Of The World
2. Another Place To Fall
3. Under The Weather
4. Black Horse And The Cherry Tree
5. Miniature Disasters
6. Silent Sea
7. Universe & U
8. False Alarm
9. Suddenly I See
10. Stoppin’ The Love
11. Heal Over
12. Through The Dark
13. Eye To The Telescope (feat. Shabaka)
14. Cancerian
15. Anything At All
16. Miniature Disasters (live)
17. Other Side Of The World (live)
18. Perfect (live)
19. Black Horse And The Cherry Tree /Sweet Dreams (live)
20. Under The Weather (live)
21. Through The Dark (live)
22. Stoppin’ The Love (live)
23. Suddenly I See (live)
24. Don’t You (Forget About Me) (live)

2CD Tracklisting:
1. Other Side Of The World
2. Another Place To Fall
3. Under The Weather
4. Black Horse And The Cherry Tree
5. Miniature Disasters
6. Silent Sea
7. Universe & U
8. False Alarm
9. Suddenly I See
10. Stoppin’ The Love
11. Heal Over
12. Through The Dark
13. Eye To The Telescope (feat. Shabaka)
14. Cancerian
15. Anything At All
16. Miniature Disasters (live)
17. Other Side Of The World (live)
18. Perfect (live)
19. Black Horse And The Cherry Tree /Sweet Dreams (live)
20. Under The Weather (live)
21. Through The Dark (live)
22. Stoppin’ The Love (live)
23. Suddenly I See (live)
24. Don’t You (Forget About Me) (live)

4CD Tracklist:
CD1- Eyes To The Telescope:
1. Other Side Of The World
2. Another Place To Fall
3. Under The Weather
4. Anything At All (Stargazer Bonus Track)
5. Black Horse And The Cherry Tree
6. Miniature Disasters
7. Silent Sea
8. Eye To The Telescope (Stargazer Bonus Track)
9. Universe & U
10. False Alarm
11. Suddenly I See
12. Cancerian (Stargazer Bonus Track)
13. Stoppin’ The Love
14. Heal Over
15. Through The Dark

CD2 – Acoustic Extravaganza:
1. Ashes
2. Girl And The Ghost
3. One Day
4. Golden Age
5. Boo Hoo
6. Gone To The Dogs
7. Change
8. Miniature Disasters
9. Universe & U
10. Throw Me A Rope
11. Black Horse And The Cherry Tree (Pinewood Version)
12. Cancerian (Still Version)
13. Anything At All (Still Version)
14. Eye To The Telescope (Still Version)

CD3 – B-Sides & BBC Sessions:
1. Black & White
2. Morning Stars (B-side 'Other Side Of The World)
3. Boo Hoo (B-side 'Other Side Of The World'))
4. Barbie (B-side 'Black Horse And The Cherry Tree')
5. Little Favours (B-side 'Under The Weather')
6. Stoppin' The Love (Gideon Coe - BBC 6 Music)
7. Miniature Disasters (Mark Radcliffe)
8. Black Horse And The Cherry Tree (Janice Long)
9. Other Side Of The World (Janice Long)
10. Get Ur Freak On (Jo Whiley - BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge)
11. Suddenly I See (Jo Whiley - BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge)
12. Fake Plastic Trees (Jo Whiley - BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge)
13. The Prayer (Jo Whiley - BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge)
14. Tangled Up In Blue (BBC4 - Bob Dylan Tribute Concert)
15. Other Side Of The World / America (Live In Bournemouth) Feat. Andy Burrows

CD4 – Live:
1. Suddenly I See (Live From The Mercury Lounge, NYC, 2005)
2. Under The Weather (live - Radcliffe & Maconie)
3. Other Side Of The World (Live From ISC, Switzerland, 2010)
4. Another Place To Fall (live - Radcliffe & Maconie)
5. One Day (live At Gaia Music)
6. Immune (live At Gaia Music)
7. Moment Of Madness (Live B-side 'Suddenly I See'))
8. Golden Age (Live Mercury Lounge Version)
9. Miniature Disasters
10. Other Side Of The World
11. Perfect (Fairground Attraction Cover)
12. Black Horse And The Cherry Tree
13. Under The Weather
14. Through The Dark
15. Stoppin' The Love
16. Suddenly I See
17. Don't You Forget About Me (Simple Minds Cover)

With 'Hallelujah! Don’t Let The Devil Fool Ya', Robert Finley returns in full force—testifying with grit, fire, and a voice forged in the juke joints and backwoods churches of North Louisiana. His fourth release with Dan Auerbach’s Easy Eye Sound is a raw, soul-stirring journey through the sounds that shaped him, channeling deep blues, gospel, and Southern spirit into a collection that’s as timeless as it is urgent. Now in his 70s and singing stronger than ever, Finley delivers songs that stomp, soar, and uplift—proving once again that he's one of the most vital voices in American roots music today.

TRACK LISTING

1. I Wanna Thank You
2. Praise Him
3. Holy Ghost Party
4. His Love
5. Helping Hand
6. Can't Take My Joy
7. On The Battlefield
8. I Am A Witness 

With his fifth album, 'Eyen Forever', London-based singer-songwriter Eli Carvajal completes a two-album chronicle of love, loss and rebirth from a time living in Japan.

It is a deeply introspective work drawing on the classic singer-songwriter poetics of Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell and the wide-eyed intimacy of Adrianne Lenker, Mount Eerie and Bill Callahan. With minimal embellishments, these contemplative songs focus on strummed guitar melodies and Carvajal’s warm blanket of a voice.

Musically, the familiar fare has a strange twist coming from Carvajal's unorthodox playing style. He plays left-handed with an upside-down right-handed guitar, using exclusively open tunings. This creates a spacious sound, with drone notes continuously ringing around Carvajal’s lyrics.

The songs don’t follow verse-chorus-verse song structures, instead unfolding organically along a unifying melody/harmony, unfurling laterally like any good journey. It has a defined destination but the route can throw in surprises. He refers to his writing style as ‘next-door to storytelling’.

The storytelling on this collection begins with fourth album'Eat Shiitake Now', which was created in real-time, chronological order during his first year living in Tokyo, Japan in the wake of the whirlwind marriage that brought him there (only to end nine months into his stay). Over this time, he taught English, singing and songwriting in different schools around the city, recording the album in his bedroom in Higashikitazawa, Tokyo, overlooking Mount Fuji.

Released in 2024, that album captured the realness of every moment in stark detail. 'Eyen Forever' acts as the reflective full-stop to this period of his life, telling stories from his final year in Japan: looking back at what was, dwelling on another short-lived relationship and drawing parallels to his twin’s battles with mental health and Carvajal’s own powerlessness to help.

Back in the UK and closing the page on his twenties, this album is a love letter to his time in Japan, a farewell, filled with gratitude. While making contact with the profound, the music is intimate. As a listener you are invited into close proximity with Carvajal's experiences, like eavesdropping on a personal monologue.

He delves into his own pain, joy and longing with a stark vulnerability and humour as he creates music as frail and strong as the human condition. There are layers of meaning within every line of his poetic lyrics that mean something specific and special to him, but can also be interpreted in comforting ways by listeners. If you care about lyrics coming from an honest and authentic place (brimming with humanity), 'Eyen Forever' is your next favourite album.

While this is Carvajal's personal story, the Tokyo location is as much the main character as he is, seeping into every idea and every note on the record. Hear it in the thunder from a typhoon that broke out during the recording of ‘New Year’ and ‘Cinnabon Odori Day’.

‘Gemini III’ was written on his bike as Carvajal broke into tears whilst riding across Tokyo, en route to teach junior high school kids about Canada (a place he has never visited) before they went on a field trip there. They sang ‘O Canada’ to him as he arrived. This unexplained burst of uncontrollable emotion shows a single person overwhelmed by the beauty and enormity of the world, grounded by the relationships of those around them.

This explains 'Eyen Forever' perfectly.

TRACK LISTING

1. Forever
2. Scar
3. Fear Of Love 
4. Spirit In The Window
5. New Year
6. Stretch Marks
7. Churabee
8. Conkers
9. Gemini III
10. Follow Home
11. Crisis House
12. Cinnabon Odori Day

Studio Electrophonique, the solo project of singer-songwriter James Leesley, is one of the most original musical outfits to emerge from Sheffield's current independent scene. Taking the name 'Studio Electrophonique' from an old analogue recording studio in Sheffield, Leesley has already released two celebrated EPs under this moniker. He will release later this year his eponymous debut album on Paris-based label Valley of Eyes Records. It is produced by Simon Tong (The Verve, The Good, The Bad and The Queen and The Magnetic North).

James Leesley grew up in Handsworth, Sheffield where week-day evenings were spent kicking a football around grassy urban edgelands. At the weekends, the social clubs with their glitter balls, comedians, cockle sellers and sequin-suited cabaret singers brought a touch of glamour to this hilltop suburb on the fringe of an industrial northern city. The stage was not some far-off place. Dreams could be made and broken under bright lights and by the brusk tones of a bingo caller.

The classic songs, slap back echo and house organ sounds of the social club scene are in Leesley’s blood. His work draws inspiration from the heartfelt melodies of songsmiths like Carole King and Burt Bacharach with the smokey tenderness of vocalists such as Dusty Springfield and Elvis. Add to that his enthusiasm for American literature and the surrealism of 60s French cinema.

After stumbling across an old 4-track tape machine at a local Bring and Buy, Leesley used it to distill these influences into something that is spare in its sound but full in its intention and emotion. In 2019 he released Buxton Palace Hotel on Violette Records, an EP of six odes to the mystery of modern romance, followed in 2022 by the Happier Things EP. Leesley found a fan in Richard Hawley who he joined on a tour of the UK and Ireland and, under the Studio Electrophonique name, he played at the prestigious End of the Road and Green Man Festivals. He was also invited by French superstar Etienne Daho to support him at the legendary Olympia in Paris. Leesley received airplay on BBC Radio 6 Music (Steve Lamacq, Gideon Coe, Mark Radcliffe, Stuart Maconie & Tom Robinson), BBC Radio 3 (Unclassified) and Soho Radio (Pete Paphides).

After a chance meeting with Simon Tong, the pair bonded over a love of The Velvet Underground, The Byrds, Barry Hines’ books, Jake Thackray, Blackpool's North Pier, and late night attic-darts. At Tong’s home studio in South London they added an assortment of vintage guitars and Casio keyboards (Pipe Organ mode) to fragments of lyrics Leesley had scribbled on the back of betting slips and bus tickets.

The result is an 11-track album that finds big feelings in small details. Loneliness, beauty, longing and loss all linger in the everyday occurrences: the moments of miscommunication over tea and eggs, the neatly folded pyjamas left by a long-gone lover, the raindrops on the top deck window of a No. 52 bus, the rain-sodden faded glamour of a cheap seaside getaway. Captured on a Tascam reel to reel, Leesley’s mesmerising debut promises to whisk any listener away to a warm, intimate and day-dreamy place.

TRACK LISTING

01. David And Jayne
02. Taxi Ride
03. How Can I Love Anyone Else ?
04. All-Time Biggest Fans
05. Too Many Lonely Nights
06. The World’s Most Beautiful Cinema
07. Break My Heart Again
08. Handbrake Turns
09. The Last One
10. The World’s Most Beautiful Cinema Pt.2
11. Him Without Her

It’s A Beautiful Place opens with zero-gravity instrumental ‘One Small Step’ – a fitting prelude for what is one giant leap for New York duo Water From Your Eyes. The album is a gleaming megalopolis, a satellite view of eras and musical forms, a reframing of the y2k songbook that is at once awe-struck and mindful of its place in the vastness. “It ended up being about time, dinosaurs and space,” says Nate Amos. “We wanted to present a wide range of styles in a way that acknowledges everything’s just a tiny blip.”

The duo recorded the bulk of It’s A Beautiful Place last summer, just as they have every other WFYE release: in Amos’s bedroom. But this time, much of the writing and recording were shaped around the dynamics of a full-blooded live group: “When you’re playing with a band you tend to write with one in mind - this was the first time I wrote anything for WFYE imagining us playing anywhere bigger than a basement,” he observes.

Throughout the album is a clear sense of a band who have honed their curveballs into home runs. Looming and melancholy, wide-eyed and petrified, it’s Blade Runner meets WALL-E, it’s Kubrick and Asimov with a hint of Jay and Silent Bob. These are songs that look outward, conscious of our smallness and questioning our place in the universe while admiring the surrounding beauty.

“A song can feel like everything, communicating vast emotional landscapes,” says Amos, “but your favorite album is less important than any person. That person is less interesting than any mountain. That mountain is boring compared to any planet. That planet is only a part of a solar system. If music and all other human practices are meaningless on a cosmic scale why does it still feel so important?”

“One of the most exciting bands out there right now.” Rolling Stone.

“There’s a lot of beauty to be found in the scatterbrained mayhem.” Stereogum.

“Excellent” The New York Times.

“Thrilling” The Guardian.

“WFYE are one of the most interesting acts in music these days.” Under the Radar.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Water From Your Eyes forge a sort of noise that could result in me trying to describe song after song in an endless stream of genre descriptions, but it would do no good. You need to hear it. Mad avant indie, jagged math rock and arty psychedelia, and the rest.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
One Small Step
Life Sings
Nights In Armor
Born 2
You Don’t Believe In God?

Side B
Spaceship
Playing Classics
It’s A Beautiful Place
Blood On The Dollar
For Mankind

Pale Blue Eyes release a remix of ‘How Long Is Now’, the first single from new album 'New Place', by legendary ‘spatial landscaper’ Richard Norris on their own Broadcast Recordings label. The original track features on their current ‘New Place’ album released earlier this year.

Richard describes his approach to the track as such:
"As soon as I heard the track I knew I'd approach the mix somewhere along the autobahn, about 3am, with Klaus Dinger trying to overtake on the inside lane. Approaching the speed limit. One for the kosmik and expanded psychonauts."

TRACK LISTING

1. How Long Is Now (Richard Norris Remix)
2. How Long Is Now (Richard Norris Remix Instrumental)

Reissued to coincide with the vinyl – "Twelves" 3LP; the complete 3CD World In Your Eyes set, originally released in 2009, and out of print for over 12-13 years.

3 CDS containing all the all the band's 12-inches and compilation tracks in chronological order, with some demo tracks along the way, featuring tracks from the very first Loop demo, "16 Dreams" single, "Spinning", "Collision", "Black Sun" and "Arclite" as well as the Nick Drake tribute on Imaginary, the Neil Young tribute Comp on No. 6 Records, the "promo" Live 12", and even the Godflesh cover version from their split on Clawfist.

All remastered from Original tapes in 2008 by Kevin Metcalf and Robert Hampson.

TRACK LISTING

CD 1
16 Dreams
Head On
Burning World
Spinning (Parts 1&2)
Brittle Head Girl
Deep Hit
I'll Take You There

1st Loop Demo - House In The Woods:
Brittle Head Girl
Burning World

Spinning (Spun Out) Good Feeling Compilation

CD 2
Collision
Crawling Heart
Thief Of Fire
Thief (Motherfucker)
Black Sun
Circle Grave
Mother Sky

Nick Drake / Neil Young Covers Compilation Tracks
Pink Moon
Cinnamon Girl

CD 3
Arc-Lite (Sonar)
Arc-Lite (Radar) Daniel Miller Remix
Sunburst
Arc-Lite (Radiated) Daniel Miller Remix

Prisma Uber Europa Promo Live 12":
Afterglow
Got To Get It Over
Burning World

(Loop / Godflesh Split Single Comp)
Like Rats (Loopflesh)

Electric War marks an electrifying collaboration between British power trio, Little Barrie, composed of Barrie Cadogan and Lewis Wharton and acclaimed producer/drummer,Malcolm Catto, fusing unique talents into a mesmerizing exploration of raw, experimental sound. And they are also the band behind the opening theme to Better Call Saul.

Electric War delivers a blend of sharp guitar lines, thunderous drums, and swirling textures that evoke a post-apocalyptic soundscape teetering between chaos and harmony. Tracks range from pulsating, fuzz-heavy anthems to moody, groove-centric pieces and are underscored by each musician’s seamless interplay. Channeling their shared love for analog warmth and raw, unfiltered sound, the album creates a visceral experience that invites listeners into a world where rock, funk, and psychedelia collide. For fans of boundary-pushing, instrumental-driven music, Electric War is a potent testament to the power of collaboration.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Intricate guitar work and skittering percussion loop around each-other before the soaring, spooky vocal effortlessly rides atop, tempering the frenetic chaos somewhat. It's not all intensely paced though, there are moments of relative calm scattered throughout. A beautifully produced, funky odyssey of an album.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
Electric War
Zero Sun
Spektator
Creaky

Side B
‘Said Soul
Sick 8
My Now
Count Of Four

Brand new single drop from one of the most beloved bands of the modern era, part-pioneers of DFA records and Brooklyn-based scene starters, LCD Soundsystem. As you'd expect, the main groove is an angular vocal-led stomp that harks back to the classic days of machine-heavy off-piste electronics (Chris Carter, Reznor) and minimal, snappy electro but soon descends into an artifact-laiden suite of echoic blips and increasingly frenetic synth soloing. 

Murphy's vocals here slot in perfectly beneath the slow synth passages too, lending a momentum that belies the reasonably unchanging percussion, and the flip-side focuses a little more on the vocal and snappy percussion with an aquatic sounding dub that relies even more heavily on the avant-garde drone elements of the original. Another superb single from one of the most legendary figures in todays indie landscape. 

TRACK LISTING

A1. X-Ray Eyes
B1. X-Ray Eyes (Extended Trash Can Dub)

The third album from Pale Blue Eyes is called 'New Place' – invocation of fresh horizons; swapping creamy Devon for the synth central of Sheffield. The album arrives on the back of extensive and emotional transit. For PBE, 2024 started with a wonderful tour of 12 European countries with Slowdive. Over 12,000 kilometres. Snow and deep cold in Norway and Poland. Drought-stricken landscapes in France and Spain. On and on, joyously so. The year’s end brought more movement for the married couple at the core of Pale Blue Eyes, singer and guitarist Matt Board and drummer and synth queen Lucy Board. Sadly, family tragedy catalysed a move from South Devon to South Yorkshire.

“Change is a theme throughout the new album,” says Lucy. “It’s about being in a new place, starting again but reflecting on the journey and what and who got us to this place. It's a celebration of making it to this point and starting again.”

That new start is fully manifested on Pale Blue Eyes’ new album, released on the band’s Broadcast Recordings label. Return single 'How Long Is Now' brought uplifting synth carousels and was titled after a Berlin mural and art installation. On 'Pieces Of You' gorgeously deliquescent guitar ripples out over Matt’s distinctive tenor voice. Be There is meditative, delicate, with guest vocals from Rachael Swinton of Glasgow electronic-rock duo Cloth. Aubrey made his own fretless bass. It features on the track 'Seven Years'. Several tracks have input from two musicians who have featured in the PBE live line-up – Tom Sharkett, music producer and guitarist with W.H. Lung, and music producer and musician Lewis Johnson-Kellett.

“The new album comes with a new landscape,” says Matt, summing up. “We were in new surroundings with new city sounds – a bit overwhelming for me, but also exciting. I hope the result is uplifting, driving, a perpetual forward motion." There are new sounds but also a steadfast Krautrock influence, alongside some of the band’s other favourite moods and flavours. The album reflects the end of an era and embracing new beginnings in a new place.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Beautifully rich shoegaze soundscapes with shimmering chorused guitars and dreamy, lysergic vocals swimming over the top. There are echoes of classic 90's 'gaze here, but it's accomplished with an injection of modern sounding pop song structures and a keen production ear. Wonderfully hazy, but without being muddied, Pale Blue Eyes take the best elements of shoegaze, synth and pop and bring them together perfectly.

TRACK LISTING

1. How Long Is Now
2. Scrolling
3. Pieces Of You
4. On The Surface
5. The Dreamer
6. Travel Day
7. Rituals
8. Our Lost Words
9. Now And Again
10. Be There
11. Half Light
12. Seven Years 

Black Eyed Sons - A New Rock 'n' Roll Collective - Members of The Quireboys and Down n' Outz are joined by an amazing collection of fellow musicians for a joyous collaboration of mutual admiration and musical celebration.

TRACK LISTING

1. Lie To Me
2. Medicine (w/ Josh Todd, Stevie D From Buckcherry)
3. Foolin' Yourself (w/ Steve Conte From NY Dolls, Mike Monroe, Kyf Brewer From Company Of Wolves/Barley Juice)
4. Autumn Reigns (w/ Charlie Starr From Blackberry Smoke)
5. Cowboys In Pinstriped Suits (w/ Joe Elliott From Def Leppard, Ryan Roxie From Alice Cooper, Chip Z’Nuff From Enuff Z’Nuff)
6. Don't Throw Me In The Corner (w/ Chip Z’Nuff From Enuff Z’Nuff)
7. Your True Colours (w/ Mike Tramp From White Lion)
8. Savoir Faire (w/ Alan Clayton From Dirty Strangers, Steve Conte From NY Dolls, Mike Monroe, Chris Johnstone From Quireboys)
9. Dig Me Out Of This Hole (w/ Scotti Hill From Skid Row)
10. So Glorious (w/ Dan Reed From Dan Reed Network)
11. Can't Put Your Arms Around A Memory (w/ Ryan Roxie From Alice Cooper)

Four years after 'The Watchful Eye Of The Stars', Adrian Crowley returns with a new John Parish-produced album 'Measure of Joy' and featuring Nadine Khouri. 'Measure of Joy' is a nocturnal album. Not in the usual commonplace sense of dark and moody though it can be. The night is present in the sounds that can only be noticed when most things rest. In the lost transmission and the ghost lips that talk on the phone over sleepy jazz. "Like a gothic Leonard Cohen – leaving you aching for more." UNCUT.

Hello and welcome to 'Decide Which Way The Eyes Are Looking', the new record by Lina Tullgren. It is a deeply gorgeous intervention, a carefully ornamented dilemma, the most inviting crisis. Made with a host of Los Angeles musicians, 'Decide' exposes Tullgren’s daring and trust. Each song is a ring of curious sound: the skip of harp strings, the flutter of woodwinds, the ratchet of percussion, the euphonium’s sigh. And at the center of each wreath, Tullgren sings, finding this space between Judee Sill and Sam Jayne. It’s a tone that signals weariness, but a weariness hand-in-hand with tenacity. There’s a clarity, a kind of immovability.

Lina Tullgren’s first record came in 2016, a homemade, under-the-skin set of laments. Subsequent LPs and constant touring cemented Tullgren’s reputation as a composer of “wide-eyed wonder paired with a resonant despair.” 2019’s 'Free Cell' showed Tullgren lingering in the margins of their songs, finding places both aloof and spare. Floodgates opened; Tullgren spent the subsequent years exploring deep listening, improvised music, and extended technique. They developed a patience and faith in cooperation that ranged at the far edge of song. Collaborations with Mayo Thompson and Claire Rousay furthered this development. This was not a break with the past for Tullgren, rather it was an opportunity to see how far a song could go. And from that distance, deep in a landscape of drone and tension, Tullgren returned to the bright vulnerability of a lyric and a hook. Weaving together the affective and the radical, Tullgren took the quiet isolation of a shoreline cabin to write the songs that would become 'Decide Which Way The Eyes Are Looking'.

For Tullgren, 'Decide' is a culmination of all the work they’ve done throughout their life: the melodic, the dense, the confessional, the unknowable. It’s also a tribute to collaboration. Describing the sessions as having “a lot of space and a lot of ease,” Tullgren invited musicians from a vast field of songmaking to play on the recording: Leng Bian, Zach Burba, Luke Csehak, Corey Fogel, Jenny Hirons, Tara Milch, Tim Ramsey, Michael Sachs, Jude Tedaldi, Marta Tiesenga and Ben Varian. Jonny Kosmo’s backhouse was offered as a cozy, easygoing space for the players to create their parts together, and the record was completed by Tullgren and Luke Csehak together at their Los Angeles home. In Tullgren’s words: “I feel really strongly that this album is a portrait of the community I found in Los Angeles.”

'Decide Which Way The Eyes Are Looking' is a quiet masterpiece: a generous, memorable journey. It is the result of five years of labor, the product of abandoning the pop song entirely and starting over. Whatever wanderings or doubt fueled it, 'Decide' is also entirely at ease: a record on which Tullgren sings “and I know/what to do now” and “I know exactly what to do” in subsequent songs, clear in the revelations this path has given them.

TRACK LISTING

1. A Day Walks By
2. Glow Emits
3. Window Dream
4. Poem
5. Flex
6. A Go To
7. Explain A Green
8. Something New All Day
9. Shedding Shredding
10. Do You Know What I Mean

Burial and Kode9’s acclaimed joint 12”, initially released as a Hyperdub webshop exclusive in summer 2024, now available in record stores worldwide, with revised label art and custom sleeve.

TRACK LISTING

A. Burial – Phoneglow
AA. Kode9 - Eyes Go Blank

- This is the 1995 remix version of the album
- Never before released on vinyl
- Remastered and cut to lacquer
- Same front cover as the original though the back has been altered
- The inner sleeve contains liner notes explaining the genesis of the remix
- FFO: MC5, The Stooges, The Saints

Living Eyes was recorded at Rockfield Studios in Wales during a break in the band’s 1978 tour of Britain and Europe. Relations between members were falling apart and Sire had dropped the band prior to the start of recording. Their breakup soon followed. Initial releases of the album were cut from a tape dub of trial mixes as the band never received an official master. In 1994 the original tapes were retrieved from Rockfield and remixed in Australia for a CD only release. This is the first time the remix version has been released on vinyl. It has been remaster and cut to lacquer.

TRACK LISTING

1. More Fun
2. T.P.B.R. Combo
3. 455 SD
4. Do The Movin' Change
5. I 94
6. Iskender Time
7. Burn My Eye '78
8. Time To Fall
9. Smith And Wesson Blues
10. Crying Sun
11. Breaks My Heart
12. Alone In The Endzone
13. Hanging On

‘Dyp Tid’, the fifth album from Norwegian psych-rock group Electric Eye, is a contemplation of the unknown and the ineffable. Crafted in a landscape where time and space collapse, the record is Electric Eye's most ambitious and experimental project to date. Originally commissioned by Sildajazz – the Haugesund International Jazz Festival – and premiering there in 2022, ‘Dyp Tid’ (Norwegian for ‘Deep Time’) is both a meditative journey and an exploration of what it means to exist in a universe where time stretches far beyond humanity’s grasp. First performed live in Skåre Kirke, an octagonal wooden church in Haugesund, Norway that was built in 1858, these six atmospheric compositions centre church organs, synths and choral vocals over any traditional ‘rock’ instrumentation. Gradually winding through ambient minimalism, kosmische improvisations and experimental psych-jazz, ‘Dyp Tid’ isn’t just an album but a space; a mental landscape where sound and time intersect. Talking about the album, Electric Eye’s Øystein Braut says: “We have always been drawn to the cinematic, to the sense that something feels larger than life, and in Dyp Tid we wove these elements together into something both deeply personal and utterly elusive.” Setting up in Bergen´s Duper Studio, the recording space became a laboratory to further develop these new ideas and transform the ‘Dyp Tid’ piece into a fully-fledged studio album: “We delved into analogue technology, explored vintage machines, and experimented with what lay at the edge of our control. We sought the sound of time’s depths, something that felt infinite and uncontrollable. In an age where everything seems algorithmic and predictable, we aimed to create something that refused to be boxed in – something that lives and breathes by its own rules. The album intricately weaves together live recordings from the wooden church and studio sessions, often oscillating between the two in the course of a single track.”

TRACK LISTING

1. Pendelen Svinger
2. Octagon
3. Den Første Lysstråle
4. Clock Of The Long Now
5. Mycelium
6. Hvit Lotus

After 3 years of silence, the Canadian band Nap Eyes have returned with their own meditations on the monstrous and familiar (or the monstrously familiar). 'The Neon Gate', their metamorphic 5th long-player, collects a cache of 9 fascinating reveries recorded over the 4 years since their last album, 'Snapshot of a Beginner' (5 of which were released episodically throughout the spring and summer of 2024). 'I See Phantoms of Hatred and of the Heart's Fullness and of the Coming Emptiness', the album’s colossal penultimate track, is, along with 'Demons', their languorous adaptation of a phantasmagorical poem by Russian Romantic Alexander Pushkin (1799–1837), one of two ambitious but adept adaptations in which singer and principal songwriter Nigel Chapman unravels knotty, century-old verse into a fluid, memorable melodies across the loom of the band’s pulsing instrumental syncretism.

This fresh engagement with narrative and lyric formality complements the 7 original songs on the record, which reveal classic Naps touchstones but also evidence of divergent impulses toward nonlinear abstraction and longform improvisational composition (resulting in their most discursive, deconstructed, and deliquescent songs to date). With The Neon Gate Nap Eyes have transmuted, as has their understanding of what a song is, what it can do, where it might go.

That all sounds deadly serious, but these songs are also as funny, quirky, and touching as ever, juxtaposing absurdist Middle Ages settings with concisely rendered quotidian details of journeys between earthly and cosmic planes (see the picaresque 'Passageway' in particular). Castles and mystical critters abound, and faith in chemistry, astrophysics, and naturalistic observation tempers the spiraling doubt that can accompany deep cogitation. So the humble titular birds of opening track 'Eight Tired Starlings' (Star Birds) must navigate light beams, curving spacetime, gravitational waves, and “billion-years-distant” galactic collisions. The pocket light beam, “complacent wizard,” and “breakfast plate” of eight-minute closing track “Isolation” (written, naturally, during COVID-19 pandemic lockdown) catalyze an uncomfortable revelation in the form of a one-liner: “how to get crushed under a gigantic / metaphysical rock.” In between, piloted by the band’s subtle, synthetic rhythms, 'Feline Wave Race' emerges from Chapman’s current improvisational writing practice and experiments with spontaneous composition. We are transported, in the company of a digital wildcat, from deep space through telescoping deep time “when the gas clouds / pass away and / the molecules / distribute / all across the fabric / of the horizon” from “the edge of the moat / of the 13th-century castle” to 1996, the year Nintendo released the jetskiing video game Wave Race 64.

The recording methodology informed how the other band members Seamus Dalton, Josh Salter, and Brad Labelle, often supplementing or supplanting their customary respective roles on drums, bass, and guitar with synth work and drum programming kept pace with this dream logic. Nigel recorded demos many involving loops and the band built recursive fractal patterns upon those skeletal armatures, often remotely (sometimes with assistance from engineer René Wilson). The origins of even the most otherworldy songs were often intimately domestic. Although most vocals were tracked live with the band, Nigel recorded his vocals for 'Feline Wave Race' and 'Dark Mystery Enigma Bird', two disjunctive fables about animals told through stream-of-consciousness narratives, in a blanket-draped children’s cardboard castle in his parents’ basement.

When they exist at all verse-chorus-verse structures often disintegrate in favor of an unhurried unfolding, an emphasis on marking, attenuating, and collapsing time over standard musical notions of progression or refrain, a foregrounding of ellipsis over resolution. Only the careening 'Ice Grass Underpass', written in 2009, predating the band’s existence but prefiguring the sonic signature of their foundational first two albums, closely resembles, with Labelle’s snowy guitar squall (also evident in his lacerating, atonal leads scribbling through 'Tangent Dissolve'), their older material. Speaking of snow: half-blinded by a blizzard and in danger of losing their way and plunging “headlong into some damned ravine,” the “master” and coachman of 'Demons' are first mystified and then petrified by eerie apparitions of uncanny but uncertain spectral nature. “Is there a witch who is getting married?” the coachman speculates earnestly. “Some goblin they’re burying?”

TRACK LISTING

1. Eight Tired Starlings
2. Dark Mystery Enigma Bird
3. Demons
4. Feline Wave Race
5. Tangent Dissolve
6. Ice Grass Underpass
7. Passageway
8. I See Phantoms Of Hatred...
9. Isolation

Five Dice, All Threes is a record of uncommon intensity and tenderness, communal exorcism and personal excavation. These are, of course, qualities that fans have come to expect from Bright Eyes, nearly three decades into their career. The tight-knit band of Conor Oberst, Mike Mogis, and Nate Walcott tends to operate in distinct sweeping movements: each unique in its sound and story but unified by a sense of ambition and ever-growing emotional stakes.

Even with this rich history behind them, these new songs exude a visceral thrill like nothing they have attempted before. Oberst has always sung in a voice that conveys a sense of life-or-death gravity. At times throughout Five Dice, All Threes, you may feel worried for him; other times, he may seem like the only one with the clarity to get us out of this mess.

On the self-produced album, Bright Eyes embrace the elusive quality that has made them so enduring and influential across generations and genres, bringing their homespun sound from an Omaha bedroom to devoted audiences around the world. In Oberst’s songwriting lies a promise that our loneliest thoughts and feelings can take on grander shapes when passed between friends, blasted through speakers, or shouted among crowds. This time around, the band invites such like-minded voices onto the record with them, with notable guest appearances from Cat Power (“All Threes”), The National’s Matt Berninger (“The Time I Have Left”), and Alex Orange Drink, the frontman of the New York punk band The So So Glos, who co-wrote several songs and shares a climactic verse in the surging “Rainbow Overpass.”

When they hit the studio with Oberst’s longtime bandmates—the multiinstrumentalist and producer Mike Mogis, the keyboardist and arranger Nate Walcott—they opted for a fast-paced approach that drew inspiration from formative influences like The Replacements and Frank Black. They sought textures that burst from the mix like gnarly splashes of paint on a blank canvas; they opted for first takes and spontaneous decisions. Five Dice, All Threes thrashes and squirms and resists classification. In the brilliant expanse of “El Capitan,” they blend a galloping rhythm you might find in a Johnny Cash standard with a swell of funereal horns, shouted vocals, and lyrics that read like a sobering farewell between twin souls. “So they’re burning you an effigy,” Oberst sings. “Well, that happens to me all the time!”

For every striking turn in his lyrics, the band knows just how to complement him. On one level, Five Dice, All Threes may be the most fun album in the Bright Eyes catalog, filled with singalong hooks and buzzing performances.

And yet, sitting alongside these adrenalized rockers that sound beamed in directly from the garage, you will find contemplative, psychedelic material like the heartbreaking “Tiny Suicides” and “All Threes,” a song whose jazzy piano solo and free-associative lyrics feel totally unprecedented in the Bright Eyes catalog.

As per usual, the music comes loaded with subtext that invites deep listening—the signature touch of a band who has always honored the album as its own exalted work of art. In the game of threes, the titular move would indicate a perfect roll. Perfection, however, means something different in the world of Bright Eyes, where our flaws are what grants us authority and finding meaning is only possible if we bear witness to the dark, winding journey to get there. On Five Dice, All Threes, Bright Eyes embrace these beliefs with music that feels thrillingly alive, as if we were all in the room with them, shouting along and gaining the strength to move forward together. It doesn’t just sound like classic Bright Eyes. It sounds like their future, too.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Conor Oberst's voice is as distinctive as his compositions, so there would really be no point pretending to anyone that there is something radically different going on here, but the distinctive folky swing of Bright Eyes' work, collectively is as on point here as it's ever been. Broad strokes of clashing guitar and frantic perucssion tempered with a basecoat of reflective minimalism.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A
1. Five Dice
2. Bells And Whistles
3. El Capitan
4. Bas Jan Ader
5. Tiny Suicides

SIDE B
6. All Threes
7. Rainbow Overpass
8. Hate
9. Real Feel 105°

SIDE C
10. Spun Out
11. Trains Still Run On Time
12. The Time I Have Left
13. Tin Soldier Boy

David Versace is an Australian multi-genre keyboardist, composer and producer based in Meanjin, Queensland. Growing up in a very musical household it was always important to express and embrace all types of music and sonics. His sound ranges from Jazz and Samba to ambient works and the odd dance-floor heater. David also plays in Meanjin nu-jazz dance outfit First Beige.

TRACK LISTING

1. Heart To Heart
2. Full Moon Sprint
3. With Time
4. You Really Mean It
5. Same Signals
6. Red Dirt
7. New Day
8. Capricorn

EYE – the new band from Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard (MWWB) singer-songwriter/musician Jessica Ball – has announced the arrival of their eagerly awaited debut album, 'Dark Light’.

"These songs have been many years in the making... Some of these ideas were crafted before MWWB, this is something I've always wanted to do. Over the last couple of years, I’ve spent some time on finishing and crafting these ideas and pieces of music into songs. Some were snippets of lyrics from my early twenties which reflect on what seems like a different person. I think it’s quite poetic how it’s all come together now.

I was also encouraged after finding musicians who understood the vision and style I was trying to achieve, and of course my experience of being in MWWB. I’m a guitarist above all, and I loved reconnecting with guitar again. It feels like all my influences and favourite styles have come together in this album. Shoegaze, doom, folk, dream pop... It’s a real mix bag but as a whole, it represents many different stages of my life and tells a story.

The album ultimately is quite introspective yet lyrically loose enough to be open to interpretation – I’ve always been a fan of songs that seem to perfectly slot into the situation I’m experiencing and not too specific to one person's experience... I think that comes across in this album.”

Jessica relocated from Wrexham to join her new partner, veteran Welsh musician Gid Goundrey (Gulp, Ghostlawns, Martin Carr), in Cardiff just as the pandemic era dawned. Confined to their small Grangetown flat, they quite naturally began making music together.

Having earned acclaim and a fervent fan following for her role in MWWB, Ball took the opportunity to compose songs that were all her own – nuanced, lyrical, and hypnotically distinctive.

Triggered in part by the existential dread looming outside as well as the sudden ill health of her dear friend, MWWB guitarist Paul “Dave” Davies, then fighting for life after a Covid-related stroke.

With Goundrey on drums (for the first time in his musical career) and joined by keyboardist Johnny TK, Eye experimented with sounds to match Ball’s melodic songs, traversing a diverse spectrum of dark folk, dreampop, IDM and psychedelic doom, to create sometimes heavy and foreboding drones, alongside spare but still richly textured sonics.

The result is their debut album ‘Dark Light’. An intensely atmospheric fusion of emotionally charged songcraft and inspired sonic energy. The clue is in the album's paradoxical title. Chilling and even bleak melodies with arrangements daringly and deliberately stripped down and minimal. Revealing a kinship with sonic bed-fellows Mazzy Star, Chelsea Wolfe or even Portishead.

Songs like “The Other Sees”, “Respair”, "See Yourself" are chameleonic and commanding, wielding snaky, chiming guitar back to back with fuzzed out riffs.

Vocal melodies may be sweet but melancholic, amidst tightly contrasted spatial dimensions, and Ball’s signature vocals are at the forefront, sometimes soaring but also with a heart of darkness.

Of the two ‘heavier’ numbers “In Your Night,” slowly builds to a brooding fuzz-groove like a down-tuned Yo La Tengo until a huge space-doom riffs carries you home while with "See Yourself" the contrast from folk delicacy to tripped out sub-bass fuzz riffage is astounding.

So, whilst not strictly speaking ‘Doom’ or ‘Metal’ fans of Jessica’s previous work with MWWB will not be disappointed. Along with producer Chris Fielding (MWWB, Conan) EYE have produced something otherworldly, which is at times heavy and epic, yet still deeply intimate and dark.

A striking debut.

TRACK LISTING

1. Window
2. Dark Light
3. The Other Sees
4. In Your Night
5. In The Sun Eternally
6. Respair
7. Out Of Sight
8. Stillness
9. See Yourself
10. Rescue You

Whitelands are Etienne, Jagun, Vanessa and Michael and they are ostensibly a shoegaze band ever since Etienne stumbled across Slowdive’s KEXP session in his recommended videos on YouTube a few years ago. However, they come at the resurgent, Gen Z-soundtracking genre from a refreshingly different angle thanks to their mishmash of musical backgrounds. There’s also the fact that their line-up is fully PoC in what is traditionally seen as a predominantly white genre.

“There’s an underlying narrative that it’s OK for white men to be romantic, sensitive, emotional and make dreamy music and, by contrast, young Black men should be making angry music,” says Vanessa. “We’ve all grown up with these stereotypes and therefore I think people are mystified when they see Whitelands.” “I consume a lot of media,” says Etienne of his wide range of influences. “Videogames, music, news, paintings, manga, animations and film are my go-to, especially anime. There is this drive to want to understand and feel the whole weight of an expression. So, the songs are based on other songs, pictures, aesthetics, ‘vibes’, an emotion someone else felt. Fundamentally, you are what you eat.”

As a result of this diet, the lyrics are stunning, dealing with everything from unbalanced relationships and vulnerability to depression, being diagnosed with ADHD and, on the new single ‘Tell Me About It’ (featuring vocals by Dottie from the band’s Sonic Cathedral labelmates deary), trying to navigate love following that diagnosis.

The album is bookended by two poetically political songs – ‘Setting Sun’ and ‘Now Here’s The Weather’ – that deal with imperialism, racism and performative ignorance.

“We’ve experienced tokenism, micro-behaviours, envy and resentment,” concludes Vanessa. “So we feel we have to continually prove ourselves. We know we’re making a positive impact, but I want Whitelands to really break some barriers.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Liam says: Massive shoegaze tip!!! I've been loving their track 'Tell Me About It' (which is complete ethereal bliss) for the past month and thankfully the rest of this LP from Whitelands lives up to the anticipation. With sprinklings of DIIV, Slowdive and even an appearance from fellow gazers Deary, 'Night-bound Eyes Are Blind To The Day' is proper reverb drenched goodness that manages to avoid the derivative trappings many modern shoegaze acts can sometimes fall in to. It also has the Slowdive seal of approval as it was mastered by drummer Simon Scott, with the shoegaze legends also taking Whitelands out on tour with them - so how's that for a recommendation? MEGA!

TRACK LISTING

1. Setting Sun
2. The Prophet & I
3. Cheer
4. Tell Me About It
5. How It Feels
6. Chosen Light
7. Born In Understanding
8. Now Here’s The Weather

Following on from 2022 debut LP 'A Light For Attracting Attention', which garnered a top 20 spot in our 2022 end of year review, 'Wall Of Eyes' sees Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood and Tom Skinner once again coming together for another art-rock opus that is inventive and boundry-pushing; whilst still remaining incredibly accessible and potent at it's core. With string arrangements by the London Contemporary Orchestra, 'Wall Of Eyes' comfortably shrugs off the burden of being "just another Radiohead side-project" and in the process leaves us hoping there's more from The Smile for years to come.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Though it's easy to compare The Smile to Radiohead (for obvious reasons), and there is a similarity to the sound that Yorke & Greenwood bring, the end result ends up quite drastically different. The Smile are a lot less rooted in rock music, ending up presenting something that's both beautifully organic and free-flowing whilst never straying too far into experimental territories. Lovely stuff.

TRACK LISTING

1. Wall Of Eyes
2. Teleharmonic
3. Read The Room
4. Under Our Pillows
5. Friend Of A Friend
6. I Quit
7. B7ending Hectic
8. You Know Me

Bright Eyes’ Christmas Album begins with a piano, flute, ambient noise, and musical saw-driven version of “Away in a Manger,” helping weed out casual Christmas music enjoyers, but all too tempting for the most devout of Conor Oberst’s disciples, who originally learned that the warmth of the holiday season is trumped only by its potential for melancholy back in 2002 with the original Saddle Creek release. Oberst and a small army of friends at his house proceed to jamboree through Christmas classics like “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen,” and “Oh Little Town of Bethlehem,” Holiday cheer, when delivered with Oberst’s trademark tremble, sounds more like a lament than it does hymns of ecclesiastical joy. But the spirited listener will find that the fragile, homespun, and somewhat blinkered vibe that permeates the album sets itself apart from the bog-standard, less sonically humble offerings of the holidays, and, both strangely and satisfyingly, is probably more aligned with the true spirit of the season.

TRACK LISTING

1) Away In A Manger
2) Blue Christmas
3) Oh Little Town Of Bethlehem
4) God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
5) The First Noel
6) Little Drummer Boy
7) White Christmas
8) Silent Night
9) Silver Bells
10) Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
11) The Night Before Christmas

Some fifteen years after Dead Can Dance’s self-titled debut, Brendan Perry first stepped out on his own in 1999 with the wondrous eight track album, Eye of the Hunter.

Having mutually disbanded Dead Can Dance so he and Lisa Gerrard could focus on their own material (a hiatus that would last seven years between playing live shows and sixteen between making albums), Brendan’s debut built on his renown as a solo performer, having often played just he and an acoustic guitar during his band’s otherworldly live shows. Indeed, Dead Can Dance’s first official live album, 1994’s Toward The Within, captures just this with three Brendan solo tracks helping to set the scene for what came next.

Recorded at Brendan's Quivvy Church studio in County Cavan in Ireland and backed by the band of Liam Bradley (drums), Glen Garrett (bass guitar) and Martin Quinn (pedal steel), Brendan performs the guitar, a 12-string guitar, mandolin and keys to achieve a rich, gothic sound while the album’s incredible production elevates his vocals to Scott Walker and Tim Buckley levels of delivery; two clear influences, the latter’s ‘I Must Have Been Blind Here’ is thoughtfully covered here.

A record that has been out of print on vinyl since its release in 1999, people have been asking for it to be repressed for long enough. Having been mastered at Abbey Road, fans will be delighted to hear that not only is Eye of the Hunter finally being reissued but that it’s also been expanded to include Live at the I.C.A. The single ‘Happy Time (Live at the I.C.A.)’, a Tim Buckley cover, is released today from the latter. A true collectible, this extra album has previously only been available on a rare as hen’s teeth promotional cassette, recorded during 4AD’s infamous 13 Year Itch residency at London’s Institute of Contemporary Arts in 1993. Chris Bigg’s fantastic art remains front and centre, upgraded to a gatefold sleeve for the LP with the coloured vinyl matching the album’s palette (Eye of the Hunter on transparent teal and Live at the I.C.A. on seafoam green). 

TRACK LISTING

Eye Of The Hunter

1. Saturday’s Child
2. Voyage Of Bran
3. Medusa
4. Sloth
5. I Must Have Been Blind
6. Captive Heart
7. Death Will Be My Bride
8. Archangel 

         
Live At The I.C.A.

1. Alone / American Dreaming
2. Sarabande
3. Sloth   
4. Chase The Blues
5. Captive Heart
6. Happy Time
7. Don’t Fade Away

Our review from 2003:

The eccentric genius that is Daniel Johnston returns with the help of Sparklehorse's Mark Linkous, which in turn has made this one of his most accessible albums to date potentially appealing to fans of the Mercury Rev / Flaming Lips style sound.

TRACK LISTING

1. Now
2. Syrup Of Tears
3. Mountain Top
4. Love Enchanted
5. Must
6. Fish
7. The Power Of Love
8. Forever Your Love
9. Love Not Dead
10. You Hurt Me
11. Wish
12. Living It For The Moment

Like tributaries feeding a mighty river, the blues encompasses myriad genres and artists – no two alike – but all comprising a powerful current that flows through the rich history of contemporary music itself. Tell Everybody! (21st Century Juke Joint Blues From Easy Eye Sound), a compilation of new recordings from across the blues spectrum, is a payment of respect and admiration for the musicians carrying this American tradition into this century and beyond.

The album features artists all recorded at Dan Auerbach's Easy Eye Sound studio in Nashville and includes new recordings from Auerbach himself, as well as modern titans The Black Keys. From GRAMMY®-nominated blues artists RL Boyce and Jimmy "Duck" Holmes, to lost gems by the departed Leo "Bud" Welch and the storied Ohio guitar legend Glenn Schwartz, to new voices of the blues like Nat Myers, Gabe Carter, and Moonrisers, this compilation is a remarkable journey in 12 songs, a stunning perspective on an artform whose legacy is living and breathing in modern music.

TRACK LISTING

Coal Black Mattie - RL Boyce
Tell Everybody - Robert Finley
Tall Shadow - Moonrisers
Every Chance I Get (I Want You In The Flesh) - Dan Auerbach
Catfish Blues (Mono) - Jimmy "Duck" Holmes
Anything You Need - Gabe Carter
Willow Witchin' - Nat Myers
Don't Let The Devil Ride (Mono) - Leo Bud Welch
No Lovin' - The Black Keys
Daughter Of Zion (Featuring Joe Walsh) - Glenn Schwartz
Buffalo Road - Gabe Carter
Collinwood Fire - Glenn Schwartz 

“When Mum died, five years after Dad, there was this charge hanging in the air, connecting each person in the room,” says Matt. “Time stopped. I felt like I momentarily entered an alternative dimension between life and death. Days and weeks later I’d see my family in every corner of the house – all the reminders, ghosts and memories. Then, gradually, it felt like time for a new start, moving on from the house and my amazing parents.”

While the band’s debut LP Souvenirs captured memories and melancholy from around the death of Matt’s father, This House is its next-door neighbour. The new album was finished in the immediate aftermath of the death of Matt’s mum. As soon as the record was completed, PBE were packing up the contents from their self-built Penquit Mill home studio, financed through endless casual work and a bank loan. The location was a dream – in the middle of nowhere, just south of Dartmoor, midway between Plymouth and Totnes.

The studio was where they spent hours recording and self-producing both records, while supporting Matt’s mum through the decline of a long-term illness. Matt and his bandmate and wife Lucy Board (drums/synth/production) have now returned north, to her native Sheffield, with funk-mad bassist Aubrey Simpson living between Devon and London.

“It’s a more sombre and more ecstatic album, with an urgent desire to remember and enjoy every moment,” says Matt of the record’s life-defining “end of era” moments. “We’ve dealt with loss throughout both albums,” says Matt, “but this time there has been rebuilding – appreciating and relishing the things and people still here.” Pertinently, album tracks ‘Sister’ and ‘More’ celebrate the complexities of relationships between family and friends.

“We wanted to turn a shitty situation into something positive,” says Lucy, “ so we put all our energy into making music that was fun to play live and perhaps open up a way out.” Matt concurs: “The album captures moments of elation and joy alongside the grave mood that eventually engulfed our home. During those tough times we played all over the UK and overseas, buoyed by the thrill of people listening to what we’d been working on… knowing two days later we’d be in a hospice saying our final goodbyes to Mum. The ultimate headfuckery.”

PBE say the new album is a “slightly more worldly-wise sibling” to 2022 debut LP Souvenirs. The latter was roundly acclaimed. “Joyous... propulsive… exhilarating”, said Uncut. Magic of France were impressed: “Ultrapuissante... orgasmique... profondeur infinie.” Line Of Best Fit said, “‘Like all great debuts it’s both a culmination of their beginnings as well as a pointer to the wide open road ahead.”

Mixed and mastered by Moonlandingz’s Dean Honer (Róisín Murphy, The Human League, I Monster), with jam sessions its driving force, This House bounces through analogue tape delays and effects pedals to capture life’s oscillating journey. Celebratory ‘Simmering,’ and ‘Hang Out’ offer peaks, highlighting the importance of pressing the ‘off’ switch. “It’s about enjoying simple moments,” says Matt, “the sun on your face, hanging with friends in the pub, looking at the night sky...”

Any threat of troughs are lifted by motorik rhythms from their Moog Little Phatty and Prophet 12 – thanks to Lucy’s fascination for South Yorkshire synth innovation. The dissertation for her music degree was titled “An Investigation into Sheffield's Alternative Music Scene Between 1973 and 1978, with Particular Reference to Cabaret Voltaire.”

With This House, Lucy’s hometown sounds blend with Aubrey’s evangelical interest in Motown and various funk titans. These diverse touchstones comes through in the PBE album’s blend of pop hooks and psych-rock sophistication. ‘Heating’s On’ is a driving anthem, glistening with ’80s guitar and a trumpet part care of Lucy. ‘Sister’ mixes goth-rock guitar with DIY choral grandeur, a tasty mix of The Cult and Joe Meek. ‘Millions Times Over’ takes feelings of hopelessness and then creates a lovely bittersweet feel via shimmering synths and wistful vocals. The album concludes with the widescreen expanse of ‘Underwater’, a moving, meditative set-piece.

“Mum always said she loved hearing the sounds of the recording process as people would come and go from the studio,” Matt remembers.

Making music as a means to go on, Pale Blue Eyes’ two albums bookend other significant moments, such as soundtracking the Atmos arts-and-housing project in Totnes (featuring a sound-and-light installation by Brian Eno). There was also the time PBE’s beloved old Citroën blew up between gigs, reinforcing a valuable lesson. “You have to embrace the Berlingo!” says Lucy, rolling out the band’s new motto.

“Change is inevitable,” Matt adds. “You have to embrace it all, the good and bad, and the horribly ugly.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: With rich grooving guitars, snappy percussion and Matt Board's gorgeous psychedelic vocal stylings, Pale Blue Eyes' formula might not sound like the most complex, but it results in the huge, warm sound bath we hear on 'This House'. Beautifully written melodies and stuck-in-your-head riffs abound, Pale Blue Eyes have smashed out an incomparable debut.

Rejected Unknown is a 2001 album released by the acclaimed musician, Daniel Johnston. This is the first time the record has been pressed to vinyl in over 20 years. "The main themes on Rejected Unknown are the themes Johnston has explored throughout much of his career: hopeless longing, unrequited love, and as might be gathered from the album's title, fear of rejection. This fear probably took on very real terms for Johnston as he was finally dropped from Atlantic Records after being held for years in contractual limbo. Rejected Unknown is unmistakably Johnston's album; he sings and plays piano and guitar, and even adds some percussion to the oddly quirky pop songs."

TRACK LISTING

1. Impossible Love
2. Funeral Girl
3. Dream Scream
4. Love Forever
5. Cathy Cline
6. Davinare
7. Party
8. The Spook
9. Girl Of My Dreams
10. Billions / Rock
11. Thrill
12. Favorite Darling Girl
13. Some Time Spent In Heaven
14. Wedding Ring Bells Blue
15. I Lose

Sunfruits are pleased to announce their forthcoming debut album, One Degree. In high anticipation ever since the Melbourne/Naarm band released their Certified Organic EP in 2020, the album sees their most mature and conceptual songwriting to date. As heard in recent singles ‘End Of The World’, ‘Believe It All’ and ‘Made To Love’, the album showcases Sunfruits’ knack for writing memorable pop songs and their desire to use their music for good. The album is filled with anthemic choruses, melodic psychedelia, harmonious ballads and danceable indie pop, interplaying with potent lyrical messages of hope and despair.

Through the album’s 11 tracks the band explore environmental collapse, resilience, self-reflection, love and relationships, all textured with a coming-of-age feel. On their debut album One Degree, the band presents new-age, anthemic psychedelia and indie-pop, similar to MGMT and Pond. The album’s memorable guitar hooks and garage-rock grit nods to artists such as Ty Segall and 70s glam-rocker, T. Rex, while the album’s softer moments echo the cinematic folk of Weyes Blood. Sunfruits take this eclectic mix of influences and create something uniquely their own, branded by euphonious four part vocals that have become a big part of their new sound. One Degree lets the listener sit with their feelings and encourages them to experience the rawness of human existence — highs, lows and the in-betweens.

TRACK LISTING

1. Believe It All
2. Made To Love
3. Better Off Dead
4. One Degree
5. Reeling
6.End Of The World
7. Hello Future Me
8. Feeling Fine
9. Spiders
10. Jasmine
11. Warning Signs

Out of print for many years and regarded as one of the greatest music books ever written, My Magpie Eyes are Hungry for the Prize: The Creation Records Story is the definitive account of the iconic British record label, republished for the label's 40th anniversary.

'The greatest book ever written on British independent music' Guardian 'One of the best British music books of the last ten years' Mojo

Founded by Alan McGee in 1983, Creation Records achieved notoriety as the home of Primal Scream, the Jesus and Mary Chain and other anti-Establishment acts. During the Britpop boom of the mid-90s, the astonishing success of Oasis brought Creation fame on the world stage. In 1999, however, McGee announced his shock departure as his label's influence over a generation of British music came to a confusing and disappointing end. Containing interviews with Creation musicians, employees, supporters and detractors, this is the inside story of Creation Records - and of British music since the 1980s.

Just like the title Suicide and Sunshine, Trophy Eyes’ fourth album is about contrast. About light and dark. About beauty and tragedy. About the full spectrum of life, as told through the eyes of frontman John Floreani. “It’s the human experience,” says Floreani. “What we experience and how we navigate it. The millions of tiny flashes of light that are memories and thoughts and feelings and smells, all those little moments make up a lifetime. They’re beautifully tragic because they don’t mean anything to anyone, and on the scale of everything in the universe don’t mean a damn thing. But it’s so beautiful that they happen in the first place.” 

Floreani’s willingness to dive so deeply into the most personal parts of his life is matched by the band’s desire to explore the very boundaries of the hardcore genre. Alongside Floreani’s impassioned vocals, drummer Blake Caruso’s insistent rhythms, Jeremy Winchester’s unflinching bass and the powerful guitars – handled by Floreani, producer Shane Edwards and former guitarist Andrew Hallett – the album is rich with anthemic hooks, dark modern pop (“My Inheritance”), electronic flourishes courtesy of co-producer Fletcher Matthews, and atmospheric, swirling synths (“Runaway Come Home” and “Sydney”).  

"When we did Chemical Miracle, our second full length, the logo for the album was a palm tree and a noose. That’s literally suicide and sunshine. It’s always been there on my mind. And I think I finally just phonetically set it out. That encompasses everything I’ve been trying to do my entire career.” 

TRACK LISTING

1. Sydney
2. Life In Slow Motion
3. People Like You
4. My Inheritance
5. Blue Eyed Boy
6. Runaway, Come
7. Home
8. Burden
9. Sean
10. What Hurts The Most
11. OMW
12. Kill
13. Sweet Soft Sound
14. Stay Here
15. Epilogue

One of the things that struck Oberst as he and the band went through twenty-plus years of music is that he may in fact have been writing the same song this whole time. Not sonically, of course, but conceptually. This last wave contains, in Noise Floor, early Bright Eyes songs so raw Oberst never even released them back in the day, as well as, in Cassadaga and The People’s Key, the band’s most polished and sophisticated albums. When Bright Eyes toured Cassadega they performed an epic 7 sold-out nights at NYC’s Town Hall. What’s more grown-up rock- star than that? And yet ...“Thematically those early songs are not that different than the songs I make now,” Oberst says, shaking his head. “There’s something affirming and disheartening about it. It’s like, have I really changed or grown? But maybe it’s just that I knew what I wanted to write about from the beginning.”

TRACK LISTING

1. Mirrors And Fevers
2. I Will Be Grateful For This Day
3. Trees Get Wheeled Away
4. Drunk Kid Catholic
5. Spent On Rainy Days
6. The Vanishing Act
7. Soon You Will Be Leaving Your Man
8. Blue Angels Air Show
9. Weather Reports
10. Seashell Tale
11. Bad Blood
12. Amy In The White Coat
13. Devil Town
14. I’ve Been Eating (For You)
15. Happy Birthday To Me (February 15)
16. Motion Sickness
17. Act Of Contrition
18. Hungry For A Holiday
19. When The Curious Girl Realizes She Is Under Glass Again
20. Entry Way Song
21. It’s Cool, We Can Still Be Friends

One of the things that struck Oberst as he and the band went through twenty-plus years of music is that he may in fact have been writing the same song this whole time. Not sonically, of course, but conceptually. This last wave contains, in Noise Floor, early Bright Eyes songs so raw Oberst never even released them back in the day, as well as, in Cassadaga and The People’s Key, the band’s most polished and sophisticated albums. When Bright Eyes toured Cassadega they performed an epic 7 sold-out nights at NYC’s Town Hall. What’s more grown-up rock- star than that? And yet ...“Thematically those early songs are not that different than the songs I make now,” Oberst says, shaking his head. “There’s something affirming and disheartening about it. It’s like, have I really changed or grown? But maybe it’s just that I knew what I wanted to write about from the beginning.

TRACK LISTING

1. Firewall
2. Shell Games
3. Jejune Stars
4. Approximate Sunlight
5. Haile Sellassie
6. A Machine Spiritual (In The People’s Key)
7. Triple Spiral
8. Beginner’s Mind
9. Ladder Song
10. One For You, One For Me

One of the things that struck Oberst as he and the band went through twenty-plus years of music is that he may in fact have been writing the same song this whole time. Not sonically, of course, but conceptually. This last wave contains, in Noise Floor, early Bright Eyes songs so raw Oberst never even released them back in the day, as well as, in Cassadaga and The People’s Key, the band’s most polished and sophisticated albums. When Bright Eyes toured Cassadega they performed an epic 7 sold-out nights at NYC’s Town Hall. What’s more grown-up rock- star than that? And yet ...“Thematically those early songs are not that different than the songs I make now,” Oberst says, shaking his head. “There’s something affirming and disheartening about it. It’s like, have I really changed or grown? But maybe it’s just that I knew what I wanted to write about from the beginning.”

TRACK LISTING

1. Clairaudients (Kill Or Be Killed)
2. Four Winds
3. If The Brakeman Turns My Way
4. Hot Knives
5. Make A Plan To Love Me
6. Soul Singer In A Session Band
7. Classic Cars
8. Middleman
9. Cleanse Song
10. No One Would Riot For Less
11. Coat Check Dream Song
12. I Must Belong Somewhere
13. Lime Tree

One of the things that struck Oberst as he and the band went through twenty-plus years of music is that he may in fact have been writing the same song this whole time. Not sonically, of course, but conceptually. This last wave contains, in Noise Floor, early Bright Eyes songs so raw Oberst never even released them back in the day, as well as, in Cassadaga and The People’s Key, the band’s most polished and sophisticated albums. When Bright Eyes toured Cassadega they performed an epic 7 sold-out nights at NYC’s Town Hall. What’s more grown-up rock- star than that? And yet ...“Thematically those early songs are not that different than the songs I make now,” Oberst says, shaking his head. “There’s something affirming and disheartening about it. It’s like, have I really changed or grown? But maybe it’s just that I knew what I wanted to write about from the beginning.

TRACK LISTING

1. Jejune Stars (Companion Version)
2. Firewall (Companion Version)
3. When You Were Mine
4. Approximate Sunlight (Companion Version)
5. A Machine Spiritual (The People’s Key) (Companion Version)
6. Beginner’s Mind (Companion Version)

One of the things that struck Oberst as he and the band went through twenty-plus years of music is that he may in fact have been writing the same song this whole time. Not sonically, of course, but conceptually. This last wave contains, in Noise Floor, early Bright Eyes songs so raw Oberst never even released them back in the day, as well as, in Cassadaga and The People’s Key, the band’s most polished and sophisticated albums. When Bright Eyes toured Cassadega they performed an epic 7 sold-out nights at NYC’s Town Hall. What’s more grown-up rock- star than that? And yet ...“Thematically those early songs are not that different than the songs I make now,” Oberst says, shaking his head. “There’s something affirming and disheartening about it. It’s like, have I really changed or grown? But maybe it’s just that I knew what I wanted to write about from the beginning.”

TRACK LISTING

1. Nunca Seré Feliz Otra Vez (Companion Version)
2. The Vanishing Act (Companion Version)
3. Soon You Will Be Leaving Your Man (Companion Version)
4. Blue Angels Air Show (Companion Version)
5. I Will Be Grateful For This Day (Companion Version)
6. Motion Sickness (Companion Version)
7. I Won’t Ever Be Happy Again (Companion Version)

One of the things that struck Oberst as he and the band went through twenty-plus years of music is that he may in fact have been writing the same song this whole time. Not sonically, of course, but conceptually. This last wave contains, in Noise Floor, early Bright Eyes songs so raw Oberst never even released them back in the day, as well as, in Cassadaga and The People’s Key, the band’s most polished and sophisticated albums. When Bright Eyes toured Cassadega they performed an epic 7 sold-out nights at NYC’s Town Hall. What’s more grown-up rock- star than that? And yet ...“Thematically those early songs are not that different than the songs I make now,” Oberst says, shaking his head. “There’s something affirming and disheartening about it. It’s like, have I really changed or grown? But maybe it’s just that I knew what I wanted to write about from the beginning.”

TRACK LISTING

1. Clairaudients (Kill Or Be Killed) (Companion Version)
2. Middleman (Companion Version)
3. Coat Check Dream Song (Companion Version)
4. (Companion Version)
5. I Must Belong Somewhere (Companion Version)
6. Napoleon’s Hat (Companion Version)
7. Wrecking Bal

Life is horribly dark right now. And yet, it is not unfunny.

That’s the sentiment that animates Water From Your Eyes on their new album, and first for Matador, ‘Everyone’s Crushed’. On the follow-up to the Brooklyn duo’s 2021 breakthrough, ‘Structure’, Rachel Brown (they/them) and Nate Amos (he/him) find silliness and fatalism dancing in a frantic lockstep, using heart palpitating rhythms and absurdist, deadpan lyrics to convey stories of personal and societal unease. Described by Brown as Water From Your Eyes’ most collaborative record ever, it’s a swollen contusion of an album: experimental pop music that’s pretty and violent, raw and indelible.

‘Everyone’s Crushed’ is shot through with unresolved tension, its nine tracks skittishly refusing to seek out resolute endings or stick to traditional structures. Many songs were written using serialism and microtonalism, and at times evoke the futurist-pop moves of Japanese composer Haruomi Hosono and the brutalism of Glenn Branca. “Barley” is a dance-rock track sequenced in alien tonality, with Brown speaking garbled transmissions (“One two three/Counter/You’re a cool thing count mountains”) over a bed of hallucinatory guitars. “14” leans into contemporary classical, with curtains of overlapping de-tuned strings underscoring lyrics that Nate describes as something out of a “gross-out horror movie”: “I’m ready to throw you up.”

Water From Your Eyes still possess an off kilter, shitposty quality. ‘Everyone’s Crushed’ manages to reference classic rock twice – first, on “Barley,” when Brown accidentally invokes Sting with the lyric “walk in fields of gold,” and again on “True Life”, when they sing: “Neil let me sing your song/It’s been this way for so long/Give me another chance.” Those weren’t the song’s original lyrics – Brown and Amos initially wanted to interpolate the bridge to “Cinnamon Girl” – but this is a typically meta compromise for the pair, a way to turn “True Life” into a song about writing the song “True Life”.

‘Everyone’s Crushed’ maps the liminal space between humor and darkness, between cracking up and freaking out. In the album’s closing moments Brown speaks in direct terms, “Clap those hands/Buy my product/There are no happy endings/I’m spending/I’m spending.” It’s playful and totally serious, punky bordering on anarchic, and a resolution to the record’s opening sentiment - “I just wanted to pray for the rain/Wishful thinking for sunny days.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Ashley says: A wonderfully bold, jagged juxtaposition of gritty electronics and swooning guitar riffs, all topped with perfectly measured vocals and soaring harmonies. It's steeped in post-punk and electronic history, but lightened with a melodic sensibility that could only have bloomed from the past 20 years of pop history.

TRACK LISTING

1. Structure
2. Barley
3. Out There
4. Open
5. Everyone’s Crushed
6. True Life
7. Remember Not My Name
8. 14
9. Buy My Product

Dreams In Splattered Lines fuses together Wolf Eyes' 25 years of DIY electronics with the avant-garde sensibilities of Fluxus and the granite of dreary Midwestern life. Continuing some of the ideas explored on the Difficult Messages record of collaborations, the result is a surreal dreamscape of disorienting sound collages, where hit songs are transformed into terrariums of sonic flora and decimated fauna. As if pulled from a fever dream, the surrealists of the 1960s converge with alien electronic blues musicians in an underworld of mystery. The air is thick with car wash radio white noise, crackling and fizzing like a toxic elixir, spoken word poetry transmissions as absurd and cryptic phrases. Each corroded aural environment is a microcosm of chaos, honed to razor-sharp precision. Swept away in a whirlwind of thirteen perplexing narratives, each one an unpredictable journey through subterranean worlds, a sonic trip of reality folded into itself.

TRACK LISTING

1. Car Wash Two W/Short Hands
2. Radio Box (excerpt)
3. Plus Warning
4. Engaged Withdrawal
5. Exploding Time
6. My Whole Life
7. The Museums We Carry
8. Pointerstare
9. Comforts Of The Mind
10. In Society
11. Find You (Vocal)
12. Days Decay
13. Dreams In Shattered Time

Eyes of Others is the studio alias of Edinburgh based John Bryden, a self-christened ‘post-pub couldn’t get in the club’ producer.

Having announced their signing to Heavenly Recordings last November with the release of a 10” vinyl-only 6-track EP, Bewitched By The Flames, which sold out immediately through independent shops and mail order, Eyes Of Others is now set to present their debut, self-titled album.

Marrying the anything-goes, freestyle magpie tendencies of Beck and The Beta Band to the electronic stylings of primetime 80s New Order by way of the spacious moods conjured by King Tubby, Eyes of Others debut’s whimsical demeanour is the perfect sonic balm to the utter confusion of the outside world. As is its sense of almost Balearic musical freedom. Such a mindset is fundamental to the music according to Bryden.

“I was thinking where’s my spot?” Bryden reflects about the pick & mix quality of the album. “The music is later than a gig but it’s not full-on early morning club fare. It’s the in-between space where I was imagining where my music works.”

But his beguiling tunes are perfect for the music soundtracking the afters too. As the dawn breaks and the sun begins to rise. “Maybe there aren’t enough venues opening at 7am!” he laughs, before quickly adding: “I don’t think it will catch on unfortunately.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: Eyes of Others is, basically, the musical alias for Edinburgh based artist, John Bryden. Even though it’s on the mighty Heavenly Records, this summer release has remained pretty much under the radar. But, not in our shop it hasn’t! This is a dreamy whimsical, electronic pop record that floats around and drifts all over the musical landscape. Heavenly describe it themselves as “Pure musical freedom” and if you could imagine a sound palette which includes dub, synth, techno and folk then you’d be halfway there. It’s delightfully elusive but Bryden depicts his sound as kind of “later than a gig, but not full-on early morning club fare. It’s the inbetween space.” I’m gonna say, it sounds like the Beta Band jamming with Peaking Lights over The Stone Roses’ “Something’s Burning” around at Arthur Russell’s flat. Have some of that!

TRACK LISTING

Once, Twice, Thrice
Safehouse
Escalation
At Home I Am A Leader
New Hair New Me
Ego Hit
Mother Father
Jargon Jones And Jones
Come Inside
Big Companies, Large Tentacles 

Coherence is overrated. Especially if keeping things hazy, and not smoothing away all the rough edges, and allowing all the seeming contradictions to find their own unique harmony with each other in their own time can result in the heady magic of Lock Eyes & Collide, the second EP from South London-based quintet Moreish Idols. Across these four tracks, Moreish Idols deal in tangles of hyper-melodic guitar, sleepy-eyed murmurs glowing with unassuming poetry, blossoms of wise saxophone, rhythms that pulse and purr to their own inarguable logic. You could spend days trying to define what exactly it is they are doing over these fifteen or so minutes, but you’d be wiser to just lose yourself within Lock Eyes & Collide’s laser-guided twists and turns.

Pulling into focus. They passed tracks from initial collaborative song-writing sessions along to Dan Carey, who signed Moreish Idols to his Speedy Wunderground label and produced their first release on the label, the Float EP, in the summer of 2022 (they’d released a pair of self-released 7”s before lockdown). Restless, jerky, jagged and rhythmically centred, many of Float’s energetic pleasures bore the influence of their earlier flirtation of post-punk, but the ruminative When The River Runs Dry spelled deeper treasures lay within, while the erratic, wonderful Speedboat spoke to Moreish Idols’ essential gift for mystery. Lock Eyes & Collide is something else altogether, though – a looser constellation of ideas, a clearer hint of the group’s future.

The elements that compose the EP – swooning tremolo guitars, prickly melodic riddles, erudite saxophone improvs, loose and flexible rhythms – make perfect sense together, on vinyl if not on paper, sounding like Watery, Domestic-era Pavement one second and some bucolic Canterbury Scene prog the next, but always, always like Moreish Idols most of all.

The future that is undefined is limitless. If Lock Eyes & Collide captures Moreish Idols’ present, what do they see in their future? “If we’d just made Float II for our second EP, people would be, ‘Oh, they’re the band that does that,” says Tom. “I’m so glad we’ve made this weird alter-ego of our first EP; now we feel we can do whatever we want.”

TRACK LISTING

1. Nocturnal Creatures
2. Between These Ears
3. Green Light
4. Chum

Songs of Pain, the debut album from the late Daniel Johnston, is being released on vinyl for the first time this March. Originally recorded on homemade cassette in 1981 and later released as a standardised version by Stress Records in 1988, Songs of Pain was recorded between 1980 and 1981 in Johnston’s parents’ basement in West Virginia.

TRACK LISTING

1. Grievances
2. A Little Story
3. Joy Without Pleasure
4. Never Relaxed
5. Brainwash
6. Pot Head
7. Wicked World
8. Lazy
9. I Save Cigarette Butts
10. Like A Monkey In A Zoo
11. Wicked Will
12. An Idiot's End
13. Wild West Virginia
14. Since I Lost My Tooth
15. Urge
16. Living Life
17. Tuna Ketchup
18. Premarital Sex
19. Don't Act Nice
20. Hate Song
21. Lead Belly Was An Outlaw
22. I Love You (I'd Like To Read You Some Poetry)
23. Why Don't You Love Me True
24. I'm A Rambling Kinda Guy
25. Sleepy Lagoon
26. Natalie Queen Of Weirton
27. Golly Gee
28. You Need A Reason

Swiss artist Lukas Traxel releases his powerful debut album One-Eyed Daruma on We Jazz Records, March 10. The trio features Traxel on double bass, Otis Sandsjö on sax and Moritz Baumgärtner on drums. Compact, deep, and organic to the bone, Traxel & co's sound echoes the innovations of rhythmically driven avantgarde jazz while keeping things moving at all times. There's both drive and freedom to this sound.

ONe-Eyed Daruma features eight new compositions by Traxel, who crafted the outline for the album while dealing with the loss of his father. The group came together after an open invitation from the Zurich jazz club Moods to present a new group. The trio of Traxel, Sandsjö and Baumgärtner creates a full, symphonic, and powerful body of sound despite the instrumentation without a harmony instrument. The trio functions as a collective where the boundaries between composition, melody, and accompaniment are in flux, while keeping the common goal of creating new music together in sight at all times. Traxel reports that after playing bass in various groups with guitar and/or piano, he wanted to create a counterpoint of sorts with his new group and specifically go about it with a more sparse setup. As One-Eyed Drama proves, the idea behind the trio dynamic is a strong one and the unit makes use of their extra space in creating evocative, moody, swinging creative jazz with a distinguishable fingerprint of its own.

Lukas Traxel says:

"The process of composing this music while dealing with the loss of a loved one resulted in a writer's block at first. The notes would just not flow out of my pen until I noticed a mysterious-looking figure in the right upper corner of my piano. It was a daruma, an eyeless figure that in the Japanese tradition brings luck and prosperity. According to the myth, the first eye must be drawn onto the figure while expressing a wish. The second eye can be added only if the wish comes true. My daruma is meant to stay one-eyed as my wish, strongly connected and intertwined with my now gone father, is not meant to be fulfilled. The feeling of unfulfillment and imperfection of life serves as a common thread throughout this album, right down to its title. In a similar fashion, a composition remains incomplete until it is interpreted by musicians, and given form as music. That being said, for me playing together with this trio symbolises the upside: the sense of fulfillment in music and life.

Our musical influences include the American composer and singer Caroline Shaw, Swiss pianist Colin Vallon's trio, and composer/singer-songwriter Gabriel Kahane. In addition, I have listened a lot to the trio albums of Jimmy Guiffre and Sonny Rollins. Besides that, my musical heroes like Charlie Haden, John Coltrane, and Keith Jarrett always flow into the music. Another very important influence in the music is the work of American visual artist Agnes Martin, in whose works the imperfection of a multiplicity of repetitions results in a lively big whole in the end. (See "Wild Flower")

Live, the trio takes a lot of freedom in interpreting this music, yet we have a deeper, almost pop-like attitude towards the live performance as an experience. For me it's always important to build a strong narrative with the band while on stage."

TRACK LISTING

1. First Timer (feat. Otis Sandsjö & Moritz Baumgärtner)
2. The Call (feat. Otis Sandsjö & Moritz Baumgärtner)
3. Die Wahrscheinlichkeit (feat. Otis Sandsjö & Moritz Baumgärtner)
4. Empty Seat (feat. Otis Sandsjö & Moritz Baumgärtner)
5. Origami (feat. Otis Sandsjö & Moritz Baumgärtner)
6. Nasty People (feat. Otis Sandsjö & Moritz Baumgärtner)
7. Transience (feat. Otis Sandsjö & Moritz Baumgärtner)
8. One-Eyed Daruma (feat. Otis Sandsjö & Moritz Baumgärtner)

Encompassing elements of experimental techno, ambient, dub and jazz; sonic scientist Pie Eye Collective - the solo project of Bristol-born, London-based Matthew Gordon - returns with second album ‘Tangential City’, an instrumental exposition of how people experience different lives in the same city.

With debut album ‘Salvation’ released in 2021, Matthew Gordon gained emphatic support from Mary Anne Hobbs, Jamz Supernova and Tom Ravenscroft at BBC Radio 6 Music and Radio 1Xtra. His one-man live show saw him experimenting in venues around London and supporting luminaries including Emma-Jean Thackray, Ben Marc, and Richard Spaven.

Pie Eye Collective’s voice remains clear in this new record, while hinting at exciting new developments in an ongoing exploration of rhythm and frequency. With a quasi-scientific, research based approach to music making, Pie Eye Collective creates an organic collage of evocative sounds, which could be filed alongside records by Theo Parrish, Lorraine James or Space Afrika. Personally influenced by mathematics, graphs, geometry, and calculus; his genre-melding music draws equally from jazz and soul music, both ancient, contemporary, and futuristic. Time signatures, sometimes hard to pin down, only lead to a more hypnotic sense of being afloat in a sea of harmonics and strangely familiar musical memories. Melodic and full of spatial movement, momentary pulses, and interjection; it is music that wants you to free yourself completely and wash over you.

One person has a different experience of living in a city to that of another. Barred by accessibility, wealth, race, gender, nationality; parts of the city are opened or closed to the individual with or without their knowledge. Impressions can either diverge and deviate so much that they could be describing entirely separate places, or be so similar they could be living the same life. Multiply this by the several million people that live next to each other and a wildly fractured vision appears. A multiverse of possible experiences. Can the paths of these separate existences be unlocked and traversed? 'Tangential City' is the point of intersection.

“'Tangential City' was coined by my younger brother to describe our neurodivergent conversational style,” says Gordon, “hopping around seemingly unrelated topics that are connected to each other by infinitesimal tangents. I’ve adopted 'Tangential City' as an expression of the real and metaphysical liminal realities we all exist in. It’s the atlas of my musical/artistic mind.”

The album’s first single ‘Land of Wood and Water’ is the definition of the Taíno word ‘xaymaca’, which is the indigenous name of the island of Jamaica. Gordon says “I’d like to think this music sounds Jamaican but from a very slightly different time-line.”

‘Axiom’ is named after the mathematical statements that serve as foundations from which other statements are logically derived (e.g., the parallel postulate of euclidean geometry). “One can similarly re-derive elements of the Pie Eye Collective sound if working from the axioms that 1. within a piece of music, more than one tempo can exist in a superposition of states; 2. there is no intrinsic value to the 4/4-time signature.”

‘Pie’s Eyes’ is the fourth and most recent addition to the growing Pie Eye Collective + Hector Plimmer songbook (the first and second appeared on Hector’s second album ‘Next To Nothing’, the third arrived on PEC’s debut ‘Salvation’). “Our creative process is very natural, spontaneous and fluid”, says Gordon. “When we write together we bounce around the studio playing with synthesizers, drum machines and bits of percussion. This track is like the playful, unbounded, collaborative dance we do.”

TRACK LISTING

A1.  Away Mission
A2.  Summation
A3.  Line Of Best Fit
A4.  Land Of Wood And Water
A5.  Pie’s Eyes Feat. Hector Plimmer
A6.  Satellite
A7.  Uroboros
B1.  Searching
B2.  Tangential City
B3.  Grounded
B4.  Regeneration
B5.  Axiom
B6.  The Infinite Boundary

Lykke Li returns with her fifth studio album EYEYE. The LP is an eight track story about lust, attraction, attachment, and rejection; the landscape of love. The songs are inhabited by moving images that neither start nor end. Each film functions as a visual loop, concise as a haiku, yet continuing in perpetuity. The result is a somatic, repetitious experience. Compounding chapters between a dream and reality.

Lykke Li creates connection with the depth of emotion in her lyrics and her consistency has made her an iconic staple in music with a decade spanning career having created her own lane when it comes to genre and songwriting. In addition to selling out shows across the world, she has performed on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Conan, Jools Holland, and received praise from The New York Times, NPR, Pitchfork, The Fader, Complex, Rolling Stone and more. Last year, Lykke featured on Mark Ronson’s critically acclaimed single “Late Night Feelings” and joined him for a live performance on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. Outside of music, she starred in the Terrence Malick film Song to Song and also co-founded the female owned Yola Mezcal brand, which brought the inaugural all-female music and arts festival Yola Día to Los Angeles and featured performances from Megan Thee Stallion, Cat Power, and Courtney Love.

TRACK LISTING

1. No Hotel
2. You Don't Go Away
3. Highway To Your Heart
4. Happy Hurts
5. Carousel
6. 5D
7. Over
8. Ü&I

TRACK LISTING

Hit The Switch
Down In A Rabbit Hole
Arc Of Time (Time Code)
Ship In A Bottle
Agenda Suicide
Gold Mine Gutted

TRACK LISTING

Old Soul Song (for The New World Order)
First Day Of My Life
Fare Thee Well, Miss Carousel
We Are Nowhere And It’s Now
Road To Joy
Land Locked Blues

TRACK LISTING

The Big Picture
Method Acting
False Advertising
You Will. You? Will. You? Will. You? Will.
Lover I Don’t Have To Love
Bowl Of Oranges
Don’t Know When But A Day Is Gonna Come
Nothing Gets Crossed Out
Make War
Waste Of Paint
From A Balance Beam
Laura Laurent
Let’s Not Shit Ourselves (to Love And To Be Loved)

TRACK LISTING

The Big Picture
You Will. You? Will. You? Will. You? Will.
Laura Laurent
Nothing Gets Crossed Out
November
Waste Of Paint

“The first three are innocent in a way, because we didn’t have an audience when we were making them,” says Bright Eyes’ Conor Oberst. “But from ‘Lifted’ on, I was definitely aware of an audience. ‘Lifted’ was well received right away, and then everything happened with ‘Wide Awake’ and ‘Digital Ash’.”

Those two albums came out simultaneously. And their lead singles - ‘Take It Easy (Love Nothing)’, from the austere, remote ‘Digital Ash’, and ‘Lua’, from the warm, folky ‘Wide Awake’ - debuted in the top two slots on the Billboard Hot 100. ‘First Day of My Life’, also from ‘Wide Awake’, would later be voted the Number One Love Song Of All Time by NPR Music’s readers’ poll. 

Bright Eyes had officially broken through. It was a heady, exciting time, but also fraught and tense, both because of the band’s careening new fame, and because of the state of the world. When Bright Eyes made their Tonight Show debut in 2006, they chose to perform none of their shiny new hits, instead delivering a searing, harrowing rendition of their caustic anti-Bush anthem, ‘When The President Talks To God’. 

TRACK LISTING

Time Code
Gold Mine Gutted
Arc Of Time (Time Code)
Down In A Rabbit Hole
Take It Easy (Love Nothing)
Hit The Switch
I Believe In Symmetry
Devil In The Details
Ship In A Bottle
Light Pollution
Theme To Piñata
Easy/Lucky/Free

“The first three are innocent in a way, because we didn’t have an audience when we were making them,” says Bright Eyes’ Conor Oberst. “But from ‘Lifted’ on, I was definitely aware of an audience. ‘Lifted’ was well received right away, and then everything happened with ‘Wide Awake’ and ‘Digital Ash’.”

Those two albums came out simultaneously. And their lead singles - ‘Take It Easy (Love Nothing)’, from the austere, remote ‘Digital Ash’, and ‘Lua’, from the warm, folky ‘Wide Awake’ - debuted in the top two slots on the Billboard Hot 100. ‘First Day of My Life’, also from ‘Wide Awake’, would later be voted the Number One Love Song Of All Time by NPR Music’s readers’ poll. 

Bright Eyes had officially broken through. It was a heady, exciting time, but also fraught and tense, both because of the band’s careening new fame, and because of the state of the world. When Bright Eyes made their Tonight Show debut in 2006, they chose to perform none of their shiny new hits, instead delivering a searing, harrowing rendition of their caustic anti-Bush anthem, ‘When The President Talks To God’. 

TRACK LISTING

At The Bottom Of Everything
We Are Nowhere And It’s Now
Old Soul Song (For The New World Order)
Lua
Train Under Water
First Day Of My Life
Another Travelin’ Song
Land Locked Blues
Poison Oak
Road To Joy

Josephine Foster's peculiar 2000 home recorded debut There Are Eyes Above is an essential introduction to her music that’s unfolded now for over two decades. Released for the first time on vinyl, this limited edition 10-inch pressing comes packaged with brand new artwork and is adorned by one of Josephine’s illustrations.

Lo-fi and unaffected by tradition or commercialism these initial recordings are sepia-tinted, folk-art music with powered by uke minimalism; it’s outsider music that still doesn't fit in.

Just 30-minutes caught in time before her 2001 follow up Little Life - this humble first incarnation includes here for posterity super personal lullabies and a glimpse into her songwriting evolution. It’s music from an era that only exists in your mind, with a bow to Tin Pan Alley for good measure.

This super rare collection, originally only released on CDR and sold at shows, remains an essential part of the curious oeuvre of this unique songwriter and singer.

“A dissonant soprano and lyrics about benevolence and old-time faith, Foster expertly weaves ancient and modern” The Guardian.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
One Hundred Songs I Sing
Emily Told Me
Teeter Totter
Little Life
I Am A Guest In Here
Side B
Robber Song
Hey Matthew
There Are Eyes Above
Godcake
Yippee I'm Leaving
Two Not One

Eyes of Others - have been described as making ‘post-pub couldn’t get in the club music’. Really though, you’ll recognise it as the sound of the small hours.

It’s The Blue Nile lost on the dancefloor at an Optimo night; John Martyn working magic with drum loops and Logic; a copy of the first Suicide LP washed up on the shores of Portobello Beach. It’s drawn curtains and an overheating stereo in your friend’s living room after the rest of town has called it a night, it’s hours spent watching the windows before sunrise in a slumbering city.

Bewitched by the Flames is a very limited vinyl only EP of home recordings. The songs are intimate, compelling and strange - electronic yet completely human, stories of everyday life set to woozy, lolloping rhythm tracks.

STAFF COMMENTS

Laura says: Dreamy hypnotic grooves - like a slow-mo Beta Band or early Panda Bear - perfect late night / early hours listening. We really love this here at Piccadilly!

TRACK LISTING

1. Once, Twice, Thrice
2. Escalation
3. Well-thumbed Letters
4. Jargon Jones And Jones
5. Granny
6. Mother Father

"Welcome To My World" is a collection of some of Daniel's most-beloved songs and is now available on vinyl for the very first time. These are the songs that built the legend...a must-have for the legion of devoted Daniel Johnston Fans as well as the perfect introduction for new listeners. Welcome To My World serves as an introduction to Daniel Johnston, housing a number of his most acclaimed works. Johnston's music captivated fellow artists and fans with its childlike elements and lo-fi elements. The singer-songwriter and artist earned a cult following in the early '80s, sharing homemade cassette tapes of his music, and his prominence was established after Kurt Cobain was publicly seen wearing a shirt with Johnston's illustration.

TRACK LISTING

1. Peek A Boo
2. Casper The Friendly Ghost
3. Some Things Last A Long Time
4. Walking The Cow
5. I'm Nervous
6. Man Obsessed
7. Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Your Grievances
8. Never Before Never Again
9. The Sun Shines Down On Me
10. Chord Organ Blues
11. Living Life
12. Speeding Motorcycle
13. True Love Will Find You In The End
14. Never Relaxed
15. Sorry Entertainer
16. Ain't No Woman Gonna Make A George Jones Outta Me
17. Lennon Song
18. Devil Town
19. Laurie
20. Story Of An Artist
21. Funeral Home
22. Go
23. My Yoke Is Heavy
24. Wild West Virginia
25. I Live My Broken Dreams
26. Marching Guitars
27. The Great Tune

The PBE album is called Souvenirs because, as Lucy explains, “The songs encapsulate a few years’ worth of memories and experiences – times of change and personal sadness. The songs were an outlet for us and they now serve as souvenirs of all those times”.

As Pale Blue Eyes worked toward the album, Matt’s father died – the album is dedicated to the late Danny Board. Matt has endless fond memories of his father, including “when I’d wake up on a summer’s morning to the sound of dad playing a Cocteau Twins album – really loud with all the windows and doors open”. PBE built their studio adjacent to Matt’s old family home – so they could be there to help Matt’s mum through long-term illness. The album includes reflection on death and despondent times, as on the former single TV Flicker, which, perhaps surprisingly given the subject matter, became a playlisted radio smash. But Pale Blue Eyes accentuate the positive – reacting to difficult times by making an album that pulses with exhilaration, beauty and joy.

The album brims with a kind of elective positivity, as made clear when Matt lists the album’s themes: “Embracing good times, escapism, losing yourself in a moment of bliss when the world around you is going to shit… Processing and understanding loss and grief and using our music as a vehicle to move on… Fighting against the mundane and not giving up on dreams… The pure joy of a good night out or a moment of being moved by a band or a piece of artwork or a great film… Making the most of the time you have…” The tracks Little Gem and Globe, in particular, beam with positivity – alighting on optimism, gardening and hedonistic days in a shared student house.

TRACK LISTING

1. Globe
2. TV Flicker
3. Little Gem
4. Dr Pong
5. Honeybear
6. Star Vehicle
7. Champagne
8. Sing It Like We Used To
9. Under Northern Sky
10. Chelsea

It’s the desire to celebrate their sonic bounty that first got Oberst and the band excited about the idea of comprehensive reissues. But this wouldn’t be a Bright Eyes project if a moment devoted to appreciating the past weren’t turned into an opportunity to connect with the future. That’s where the nine companion EPs come in. Or as Oberst puts it, “the supplemental reading” for the primary reissues: One six-track EP per reissued album, each featuring five reworked songs from that album. “My thing was they had to sound different from the originals, we had to mess with them in a substantial way.” Plus one cover that felt “of the era” in which that particular albums was made – a song that meant something to the band at the time. To help the EPs come alive in the fullest way, Bright Eyes called in lots of old friends, like Bridgers, M. Ward, and Welch and Rawlings, as well as new ones like Katie Crutchfield of Waxahatchee.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A:
1.The Invisible Gardener
2. Patient Hope In New Snow
3. Saturday As Usual
4. Falling Out Of Love At This Volume
5. Exaltation On A Cool Kitchen Floor

SIDE B:
6. The Awful Sweetness Of Escaping Sweat
7. Puella Quam Amo Est Pulchra
8. Driving Fast Through A Big City At Night
9. How Many Lights Do You See?
10. I Watched You Taking Off

SIDE C:
11. A Celebration Upon Completion
12. Emiy, Sing Something Sweet
13. All Of The Truth
14. One Straw
15. Lila

SIDE D:
16. A Few Minutes On Friday
17. Supriya
18. Solid Jackson
19. Feb. 15th
20. The ‘Feel Good’ Revolution

Sunny Ozuna is a living legend and a man worthy of praise on many levels. In the Texas and Latin Music pantheon, few have been at it longer and are more revered by their fans and peers than Sunny is. He became a star right out of high school in the late ‘50s and hasn’t looked back in the seven decades since. Among countless other honors and notable achievements, Sunny was the ­rst Latino artist to appear on Dick Clark’s “American Bandstand” (in 1963). He penned "Smile Now, Cry Later," a hit for him and The Sunliners, which along with the theater masks that grace the album's cover, became staples in the Chicano Soul and Lowrider Soul cultures. We have been fans of Sunny & The Sunliners' music for a long time. We fi­rst got in touch with Sunny to try to reissue some of his records in 2013 but we didn't sign a deal until 2015.

It took a trip to San Antonio and then two years of steady phone calls before they decided "if you have been chasing us for this long, you must be serious." With Sunny's blessing we started getting everything mastered, scanned, and planned. First we released 2017's Mr Brown Eyed Soul Vol. 1 compilation that put rare 7" sides next to some of his biggest hits and mixed in some choice album cuts for good measure. In the wake of that, we released three of Sunny's full lengths with their original track lists and art: Smile Now, Cry Later, Little Brown Eyed Soul, and The Missing Link all of which were Record Store Day releases that raised money for the victims of 2017's Hurricane Harvey. For the 7" collectors, we reissued ­ve 45s, making some very hard to come by sides widely available again and pressing some tunes on the format for the ­rst time. In 2020, as an homage to Sunny, we released Dear Sunny... a compilation of Big Crown artists covering Sunny & The Sunliners songs.

Through all of this we were able to do what we set out to do: get Sunny's music to a new audience of people and make it all accessible and available again to his existing fanbase. Sunny still keeps a busy schedule and loves performing as much as he did as a teenager. His music and the music that it directly in‑uenced are seeing a resurgence in popularity in the last few years.

With any luck at all, our efforts played some small part in that, and on that note, we present Mr Brown Eyed Soul Vol. 2 – another compilation curated by us, where we dig a little deeper into Sunny's catalog and pull some lesser known gems that hold court with his hits. Hats off again to Mr Brown Eyed Soul himself, San Antonio's own, Sunny Ozuna, we are sure you will enjoy the music

TRACK LISTING

1 I Can Remember
2 Sitting In The Park
3 Give Me Time
4 Should I Take You Home (Keyloc Version)
5 If I Could See You Now
6 Come Back Baby
7 Viva Mi Triestesa 
8 Runaway
9 Sharing You
10 I’ve Never Found A Girl
11 Together
12 I’m No Stranger
13 Best Of Both Worlds
14 Baby, I Apologize

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2022 EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

Classic Creation 1990 lp from Biff Bang Pow! feauring Alan McGee & Dick Green, founders of Creation Records.

Unavailable on vinyl since it's release. Biff Bang Pow! were a seminal 80s indie group, overshadowed by the success of their label. Time for a re-assessment we think. This is a beautiful pastoral acoustic-led recording. Sleeve notes by Alan McGee.

TRACK LISTING

She Kills Me
The Girl From Well Lane
Baby You Just Don’t Care
If You Don’t Love Me Now You Never Ever Will
Someone To Share My Life With
Religious
Hug Me Honey

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A:
1. If Winter Ends
2. Padraic My Prince
3. Contract And Compare
4. The City Has Sex
5. The Difference In The Shades
6. Touch

SIDE B:
7. June On The West Coast
8. Pull My Hair
9. A Poetic Retelling Of An
Unfortunate Seduction
10. Tereza And Tomas

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A:
1.Driving Fast Through A Big City At Night
2. Solid Jackson
3. A Celebration Upon Completition
SIDE B:
4. Falling Out Of Love At This Volume
5. Exaltation On A Cool Kitchen Floor
6. Double Joe

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A:
1. The Difference In The Shades
2. The City Has Sex (feat. Waxahatchee)
3. Contrast And Compare (feat. Waxahatchee)
SIDE B:
4. Kathy With A K’s Song (feat. M Ward)
5. St. Ides Heaven (feat. Phoebe Bridgers)
6. June On The West Coast (feat. Becky Stark)

It’s the desire to celebrate their sonic bounty that first got Oberst and the band excited about the idea of comprehensive reissues. But this wouldn’t be a Bright Eyes project if a moment devoted to appreciating the past weren’t turned into an opportunity to connect with the future. That’s where the nine companion EPs come in. Or as Oberst puts it, “the supplemental reading” for the primary reissues: One six-track EP per reissued album, each featuring five reworked songs from that album. “My thing was they had to sound different from the originals, we had to mess with them in a substantial way.” Plus one cover that felt “of the era” in which that particular albums was made – a song that meant something to the band at the time. To help the EPs come alive in the fullest way, Bright Eyes called in lots of old friends, like Bridgers, M. Ward, and Welch and Rawlings, as well as new ones like Katie Crutchfield of Waxahatchee.

TRACK LISTING

A Spindle, A Darkness, A Fever, And A Necklace
A Scale, A Mirror, And Those Indifferent Clocks
The Calendar Hung Itself…
Something Vague
The Movement Of A Hand
Arienette
When The Curious Girl
Realizes She Is Under Glass
Haligh, Haligh, A Lie, Haligh
The Center Of The World
Sunrise, Sunset
An Attempt To Tip The Scales
A Song To Pass The Time

It’s the desire to celebrate their sonic bounty that first got Oberst and the band excited about the idea of comprehensive reissues. But this wouldn’t be a Bright Eyes project if a moment devoted to appreciating the past weren’t turned into an opportunity to connect with the future. That’s where the nine companion EPs come in. Or as Oberst puts it, “the supplemental reading” for the primary reissues: One six-track EP per reissued album, each featuring five reworked songs from that album. “My thing was they had to sound different from the originals, we had to mess with them in a substantial way.” Plus one cover that felt “of the era” in which that particular albums was made – a song that meant something to the band at the time. To help the EPs come alive in the fullest way, Bright Eyes called in lots of old friends, like Bridgers, M. Ward, and Welch and Rawlings, as well as new ones like Katie Crutchfield of Waxahatchee.

TRACK LISTING

Haligh, Haligh, A Lie, Haligh (feat. Phoebe Bridgers)
A Scale, A Mirror, And Those Indifferent Clocks (feat. Phoebe Bridgers)
Arienette
Hypnotist (Song For Daniel H)
When The Curious Girl Realizes She Is Under Glass (feat. Phoebe Bridgers)
A Spindle, A Darkness, A Fever, And A Necklace (feat. Phoebe Bridgers)

Water From Your Eyes’ Rachel Brown and Nate Amos are no strangers to contradiction, with Pitchfork making note of their “confidence in splicing different genres and feels from acoustic twee to indie-electronica” in their review of 2019’s Somebody Else’s Songs. So, upon first listen, Structure – with its tendency to turn on a dime from the buzzsaw synths and string arrangements that sonically bookend tracks like “My Love’s,” to the subtle, almost Squarepusher-esque rhythms that round out electronic compositions like “”Quotations”” – may just seem like a further refinement of the duo’s idiosyncratic approach to making music. However, repeat listens will reveal that, even though the album zigs and zags in a manner consistent with WFYE’s prior releases, its line of best fit trends in a very clear direction away from the quaint affectations of their prior work and towards something more deliberate and half a shade darker.

Even on ostensibly cheery tracks like album opener “When You’re Around,” which, with its saccharine melodicism sounds like it could be a lost song from The Apples in Stereo or one of their Elephant 6-era labelmates, there’s an underlying eeriness that’s not immediately apparent until the song is listened to in the context of the full album. Amos’ advice for navigating Structure’s sonic terrain is to “remember that this is weed music,” while his counterpart Brown offers that that the album is like “solving a puzzle with a ton of different answers.” Although these varied descriptions of how to approach listening to Structure may accurately reveal it to be another exercise in contradictions, the clear intent with which the pair approached creating the album can only be appreciated with repeat listens, and is likely what makes it, by far, their most compelling entry to date.

TRACK LISTING

1. When You’re Around
2. My Love’s
3. You’re The Embers
4. Quotations
5. Monday
6. Track Five
7. You’re The Watching Fly
8. “Quotations”

Year Of The Spider was written and recorded in Nashville with GRAMMY® Award winning Producer of the Year, Dan Auerbach, at his legendary Easy Eye Sound studio this past year, fronted by Shannon Shaw and Cody Blanchard on lead vocals. It is an endlessly vivacious, ebullient, and clever album from the kings and queen of the Bay Area garage punk scene. Fresh off of their supporting tours with the likes of The Black Keys and Greta Van Fleet, they returned to the studio with their unique vintage sound that incorporates wonderfully strange elements of doo-wop, classic R&B, garage psych and surf rock to produce this timeless gem from these perennial favourites.

TRACK LISTING

1. Do I Wanna Stay
2. All Of My Cryin'
3. Midnight Wine
4. I Need You Bad
5. Year Of The Spider
6. In The Hills, In The Pines
7. Godstone
8. Snakes Crawl
9. Mary, Don’t Go
10. Leaves Fall Again
11. Flowers Will Return
12. Crawl
13. Vanishing

Six years hath passed since the last release action from NewZild's most noted crafters of classic rock. A lengthy period of quiet has been broken, with a stash of fresh riffing & renewed wailing. What change might have come to bear in a half dozen years? Is the DATSUN tribe more world weary, more savvy, more learned...? Is all this on evidence in the capturing of the newly birthed sonic heft and hooks? Have these geezers still got what it takes? The exhibit - Album No.7 - "Eye to Eye". The stylistic grasp of these 11 tunes wrap the locomotive chug of classic Ian Gillan/Ritchie Blackmore helmed Deep Purple, seasoned nicely with generous servings of Jon Lord keyboard surge, to some updated glam boogie power chord-age, in a manner not dissimilar to the production shenanigans Josh Homme (that QOTSA fella) applies to his various projects.

Has Datsun vocal main man Dolf de Borst always come across like some bastard offspring of Marc Bolan and Alice Cooper? There's some otherworldly fantastical floating folk glam vocal melodies wafting in & out of this selection of tracks. And the Cooper sneer & snarl rears its head, in those tunes of a more heart pounding nature... The guitar effects and greater keyboard dosage have peppered this clutch of new tunes with more flavours on the menu. Lest us not ferget the master of the cabin fever mongrel pedal electronic mechanics, and frequently featured lead Datsun instrumentalist, Christian Livingstone. It can be imagined the man has been labouring intently, in a wintry lock downed Northern hemisphere, fine tuning freaked fuzz frequencies, sci-fi squeal & spazz, and a host of other soaring dogfighting & dive-bombing tones, fer the instrumental breaks and beds for this album. The inherent rok dramatics and attack are the responsibilities Mr Livingstone bears.

The dynamics and tempo rest in the mitts of them other Datsun three. "Windmill" Phil Somervell gets to bring his rhythmic geetar chops & noted arm flailin', to underscore the light & shade of the riffage, knowing whens to slash or slug, pinch or punch. Ben "Poundin' Soul" Cole machine guns the rolls, and hits the timing twists & turns when required. Master de Borst locks in his bass walkin', & talkin', stuttering & strutting w/his fellow rhythm men.. An album entrenched in the past, remodelled for the future, one unknown & uncertain more than ever.

TRACK LISTING

1. Dehumanise
2. Warped Signals
3. White Noise Machine
4. Sweet Talk
5. Brain To Brain
6. Moongazer
7. Bite My Tongue
8. Raygun; Suspicion
9. Other People’s Eyes
10. In Record Time 

Tony Joe White's posthumous album, Smoke from the Chimney, brings to life previously unknown home recordings by the legendary songwriter and musician. A pioneer of the Louisiana swamp rock sound, White's eclectic legacy has persevered through decades of influence, covers and popular culture. Starting with the album's genesis as an unforeseen trove of demos to the hands of producer Dan Auerbach and legendary session musicians, Smoke from the Chimney captures Tony Joe White's signature style in its purest form and serves as a living testimony to one of the most gifted lyricists and storytellers music has ever known.

TRACK LISTING

1. Smoke From The Chimney
2. Boot Money
3. Del Rio You're Making Me Cry
4. Listen To Your Song
5. Over You
6. Scary Stories
7. Bubba Jones
8. Someone Is Crying
9. Billy

A classic Vee-Jay side from 1965 that originally sneaked out on the Bay Area Wee label. The original goes for around £100, the second Wee press for £75, while the Vee-Jay version is 50 quid a throw. That said, copies are few and far between these days.

Featuring an upbeat, brass-powered Temptationslike harmony with a call and response, a deep sax wail and a piano motif pushing it forward towards a glorious middle eight that breaks into a Gospel roll out.

Powered by Ric-Tic-like drum rolls; a euphoric soulful classic split into two essential parts.

The Ballads were a four-piece from Oakland, across the bridge from San Francisco, featuring Freddie Hughes, who would later sign to Wand. The band themselves almost made it, charting in 1968 with the Willie Hutch-produced ‘God Bless Our Love’ but this earlier recording is the business.

Both sides remastered from the original sound source.

TRACK LISTING

I Can’t See Your Love (For The Tears In My Eyes) Pt.1
I Can’t See Your Love (For The Tears In My Eyes) Pt.2

A Powys trio whose free-spirited invention and exuberant intensity flows through experimental pop: hypnotic, exhilarating and defiantly unique. The Welsh band Islet return with the release of their long-awaited new album.

Eyelet was recorded at home tucked away in the hills of rural Mid Wales. It took form the months following the birth of band members Emma and Mark Daman Thomas’ second child and the death of fellow band member Alex Williams’ mother. Alex came to live with Emma and Mark, and the band enlisted Rob Jones (Pictish Trail, Charles Watson) to produce.

‘Caterpillar’ described by Emma as “a song for my unborn child”. It's followed by syncopated lullaby ‘Good Grief’ with its haunting keyboard hook and icy percussion thawed by Emma’s yearning vocals about the quiet strength of generations of women. With nods towards Arthur Russell and Jenny Hval, ‘Geese’ is a mini symphony of driven electronica inspired by Welsh cultural theorist Raymond Williams’ novel People Of The Black Mountains.

Young Fathers inflected rhythm can be heard on ‘Radel 10’ that accompanies the multi-tracked variations of Emma and defiant lyrics that were inspired in part by The Good Immigrant - the landmark anthology of essays on race and immigration by BAME writers.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Islet were one of the first bands I saw play when I moved to Wales, and remained a mainstay on my shelves since that day. Whilst their groove has morphed, and the frenetic energy has both waxed and waned, the output has remained undeniably brilliant. 'Eyelet' is on the more relaxing side, but absolutely glimmers with astoundingly written pop songs and immersive, soaring heft. Their greatest work to date, in a catalogue of gold.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
A1 Caterpillar
A2 Good Grief
A3 Treasure
A4 Geese
A5 Sgwylfa Rock

Side B
B1 Radel 10
B2 Clouds
B3 Florist
B4 Moon
B5 No Host
B6 Gyratory Circus

Nap Eyes’ latest full length, ‘Snapshot Of A Beginner’, is proof that sometimes the late bloomers bloom brightest. Eight years and four albums into it, the artistic arc of Nap Eyes finds itself tracing a line alongside frontman Nigel Chapman’s daily tai chi practice. Those first years and albums are the cold mornings in the park: the measured movements, the joint aches, the self-doubt. With each new release, an incremental and invigorating step forward. And with the end of each album and tour, a return to the beginner’s practice. And now, ‘Snapshot Of A Beginner’ - Nap Eyes’ boldest, most concentrated and most hi-fi album to date - a study of that repeated return and all that it can teach you.

Almost all the songs of Nap Eyes are whittled into their final form from Chapman’s unspooling, 20-minute voice-and-guitar free-writing sessions. Each member - drummer Seamus Dalton, bassist Josh Salter or guitarist Brad Loughead - then plays a crucial role in song development, composing around the idiosyncratic structures and directing the overall sound and feel of the songs. Until now, that final song construction and recording has been mostly done live in a room. But for ‘Snapshot Of A Beginner’ the band went to The National’s neuvo-legendary upstate NY Long Pond Studio, working with producers Jonathan Low (Big Red Machine, The National) and James Elkington (Steve Gunn, Joan Shelley), the latter of whom also did pre-production arrangement work with the band.

It took Nap Eyes a long time and a long practice to reach this artistic zen but one gets the feeling throughout ‘Snapshot Of A Beginner’ that this balance is going to hold.

Previous album ‘I’m Bad Now’ was described by Uncut as “as much a modest masterpiece as ‘Spring Hill Fair’ [by The Go-Betweens] or ‘Tigermilk’ [by Belle and Sebastian].”

TRACK LISTING

So Tired
Primordial Soup
Even Though I Can’t Read Your Mind
Mark Zuckerberg
Mystery Calling
Fool Thinking Ways
If You Were In Prison
Real Thoughts
Dark Link
When I Struck Out On My Own
Though I Wish I Could

‘A Bag Of Eyes’ is Fogarty’s third album - a wholly different sonic prospect to 2017’s much-lauded ‘The Curious Hand’. Weary of the guitar, and seeking something darker than its predecessor, he chose to lean more heavily on synths and drum machines and, additionally, to self-produce. “It was about creating and exploring new sound worlds,” Fogarty says. “Experimenting with new ways of incorporating electronics into the songwriting process, and in some cases dispensing with conventional songwriting processes altogether.”

On ‘A Bag OF Eyes’ there is industrial judder, slacker-fuzz guitar, a cacophony of saxophones. On one track, ring-modulated drums kick in with oscillating fury. Another moves from 90s shit-hole grunge venue to sleazy jazz joint in four minutes. Whilst on a third a synth is deployed, with the express purpose of sawing the listener’s ears in half, Fogarty attests. However, beneath them all lie fragments of melody, image, drone; a flicker of banjo, an electronic pulse. “I like to purposely make music that clashes with the more traditional stuff that I do,” he says.

Fogarty’s celebrated storytelling is at home in this new sound world, rambling between the fantastical and the mundane: nuns playing volleyball, horses on clifftops, lives glimpsed through rear windows. There are echoes of his own past, the loss of dear friends. Ireland, London and two views of San Francisco, 15 years apart. It is bus stops, house fires and Jimmy Stewart. ‘A Bag Of Eyes’ was recorded across London, Kent and East Sussex and features Fogarty’s partner Emma Smith, Meilyr Jones, long-time collaborators Leo Abrahams, Aram Zarikian and John Fogarty, as well as someone slightly more unexpected, an audience member recorded live at one of Seamus’ gigs in Dublin. If there is a restlessness to these songs it is there not only in their geographical sweep, their mingling of memory and nostalgia, but also in their sense of invention: audience anecdotes, a trad ballad cover, electronic fury, dirty guitar solos, all pressed fiercely together into something that feels startling and new and explorative. 

TRACK LISTING

Shapes
Old Suit
Jimmy Stewart
Wake Up Felix
Bus Shelter Blues
Nuns
Ghosts
Horse
Interlude
Johnny K
San Francisco
My Boy Willie

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.

Limited edition on black vinyl.North Carolina folk rockers Hiss Golden Messenger re-record two of their original songs, "Cat's Eye Blue" (from their critically acclaimed 2019 album Terms of Surrender) & B-side "Standing in the Doorway" at Spacebomb Studios with contributions from their in-house orchestra.It's the latest in the Alive at Spacebomb Studios series.

A lone pair of footsteps meanders down a street in omaha, into the neighborhood bar and then into a near-imperceptible tangle of conversations – about wars, sleepless nights – a surrealist din pushing against the sound of ragtime. Then, as the background quiets, a line rings out clearly: “i think about how much people need – what they need right now is to feel like there’s something to look forward to. We have to hold on. We have to hold on.”

Thus we enter the fitting, cacophonic introduction to bright eyes’ tenth studio album and first release since 2011. Down in the weeds, where the world once was is an enormous record caught in the profound in-between of grief and clarity – one arm wrestling its demons, the other gripping the hand of love, in spite of it.

The end of bright eyes’ unofficial hiatus came naturally. Conor oberst pitched the idea of getting the band back together during a 2017 christmas party at bright eyes bandmate nathaniel walcott’s los angeles home. The two huddled in the bathroom and called mike mogis, who was christmas shopping at an omaha mall. Mogis immediately said yes. There was no specific catalyst for the trio, aside from finding comfort amidst a decade of brutal change. Sure, why now? Is the question, but for a project whose friendship is at the core, it was simply why not?

The resulting bright eyes album came together unlike any other of its predecessors. Down in the weeds is bright eyes’ most collaborative, stemming from only one demo and written in stints in omaha and in bits and pieces in walcott’s los angeles home. Radically altering a writing process 25 years into a project seems daunting, but oberst said there was no trepidation: “our history and our friendship, and my trust level with them, is so complete and deep. And i wanted it to feel as much like a three-headed monster as possible.”

As a title, as a thesis, down in the weeds, where the world once was functions on a global, apocalyptic level of anxiety that looms throughout the record. But on a personal level, it speaks to rooting around in the dirt of one’s memories, trying to find the preciousness that’s overgrown and unrecognizable. For oberst, coming back to bright eyes was a bit of that. A symbol of simpler times, vaguely nostalgic. And even though it wasn’t actually possible to go back to the way things were, even though there wasn’t an easy happy ending, there was a new reality left to work with.

And here, there is a bleary-eyed hopefulness – earnest, emotive recommitments to love appear on “dance and sing” and “just once in the world.” And throughout, down in the weeds features snippets of oberst’s loved ones speaking, in late-night conversations. The fleeting loveliness of intimate moments punctuates the bleakness of the record’s existential crisis, crackling like lightning bugs illuminating the long night.

Down in the weeds is a distillation of a prolific, enduring canon. It’s immediate and urgent, the product of its creators’ growth across a decade apart, as well as the need to make a record together to find solace from loss. Through deliberate, fearless experimentation in process, the trio made the truest bright eyes sound: the sound of a deep bond, of a band coming home, but also a seamless continuation, like bright eyes never went away. It’s the impossible, sprawling mess of human experience that bright eyes has always sought to put to tape, since the beginning – the sound of holding on. Why now? Why not?

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: It's been far too long since the last Bright Eyes album, and this one shows why we've missed him so much. Beautifully tender melodies, orchestral swoon and soaring crescendos aplenty. This is a new journey for Oberst & crew, but also warmingly familiar.

TRACK LISTING

Pageturners Rag
Dance And Sing
Just Once In The World
Mariana Trench
One And Done
Pan And Broom
Stairwell Song
Persona Non Grata
Tilt-a-whirl
Hot Car In The Sun
Forced Convalescence
To Death’s Heart (in Three Parts)
Calais To Dover
Comet Song

Chicago songwriter and guitarist James Elkington who has collaborated with everyone from Richard Thompson to Jeff Tweedy to Tortoise recorded his sophomore album at Wilco’s Loft, expanding upon his celebrated 2017 debut Wintres Woma (PoB-034) as well as his recent production and arrangement work for the likes of Steve Gunn, Nap Eyes, and Joan Shelley. Casting glances back to British folk traditions as well as toward avant-garde horizons, these brilliant new songs, as accessible as they are arcane, buttress Elkington’s brisk guitar figures and baritone poesy with strings, woodwinds, and backing vocals by Tamara Lindeman of the Weather Station.

“An epiphany… a cryptic storyteller and dazzling acoustic guitarist.” Rolling Stone

“Elkington stands apart among the wave of 21st century guitar soloists. Beautiful, complex, and assured.” Pitchfork

“A convincing, warmly whirling weather system of his own.” The Guardian

“James Elkington is a friend of mine, and I have long enjoyed and indeed found satisfaction from witnessing the juicy fruits of his successful labors. Though it sounds like a line culled from a murderous Child ballad, “Ever-Roving Eye” has everything to do instead with the slipperiness of satisfaction, and the equal parts virtue and vice that is being your own mule and driver. Meticulously planned and quickly tracked (the Elkingtonian way), it includes Wintres Woma alumni Nick Macri (James’ longtime bass colleague) and Macie Stewart (violin), plus new recruits Lia Kohl (cello), Spencer Tweedy (drums), The Weather Station’s Tamara Lindeman (vocals), and the prolific Paul Von Mertens (Brian Wilson) on woodwinds. Where the first record was more firmly situated in the sonic tradition of England’s more interesting 1970s folk revivalists, Eye engages in a broader wrassle, roping in echoes of British library musics, horror-film soundtracks, demure psychedelia, and more rocking elements of folk-rock. The result is a record even more elaborate, shrewd, thoughtful and confessional than its predecessor. Ever-Roving Eye is instead a sublime distillation of the humane wisdom of a dude who’ll never be; the dude who sings on the single, “Nowhere Time”: “There’s a master plan somebody understands / And I wish that one was me.” It might well cast a pox on the concept of satisfaction altogether. Though it still satisfies the hell out of me”. Nathan Salsburg, December 2019

TRACK LISTING

A1. Nowhere Time 4:25
A2. Sleeping Me Awake 3:02
A3. Leopards Lay Down 3:47
A4. Moon Tempering 3:13
A5. Rendlesham Way 4:14
B1. Late Jim's Lament 2:54
B2. Carousel 2:50
B3. Go Easy On October 3:02
B4. Ever-Roving Eye 4:41
B5. Much Master 4:24

In just over a year since their initial inception, Eye Flys have established themselves as a force beyond reckoning. Their debut full-length ‘Tub of Lard’ is stunningly potency full of piss and vinegar, scientific in its ability to pulverize everything in its path. Due in part to the considerable pedigree of the band’s line- up (including members of Full of Hell, Backslider, Triac), the East Coast-based quartet chew through steel-barbed riffs and off-kilter rhythms with exponential force. Their 2019 debut EP ‘Context’ set an early precedent for just how lean and ruthless they can be. On ‘Tub of Lard’, Eye Flys launch that potential into 10 songs of maximum impact that find both raw power and subtlety in their simplicity.

For fans of Unsane, Cherubs, The Melvins.

TRACK LISTING

Tubba Lard
Guillotine
Predator And Prey
Not Ready For Tomorrow
Reality Tunnel
Nice Guy
Chapel Perilous
Extraterrestrial Memoradum
BLS
Perception Is Gamble

Eye Flys brings together the minds of four musicians known for their work in some of the most extreme, blistering bands today. The quartet was initially started by Full Of Hell guitarist Spencer Hazard and former Backslider drummer Patrick Forrest as an outlet to play aggressive music with equal intensity that would contrast the breakneck speeds of their other projects. After asking Backslider bassist Jake Smith to join on guitar and vocals and Triac’s Kevin Bernsten on bass, Eye Flys’ potential for crafting impossibly heavy songs was solidified.

Eye Flys’ debut ‘Context’ was written and recorded just a few short months from the band’s inception, drawing on each members’ considerable experience and driven by the excitement of playing in uncharted territory. This is an album of commanding, lean noise rock absolutely brimming with vitriol.

The direct, raw energy of Eye Flys’ music is simultaneously menacing and intoxicating. Drawing immediate comparisons to bands like Unsane, Cherubs and The Melvins (where they take their name), the quartet’s bludgeoning sound is underpinned by a razor sharp edge. Smith’s vicious lyrics are paralleled by his unrelenting barks with passages like the opening of ‘Weaponize’ literally spat through grinding teeth. Their taut, muscular riffing and pummelling drums lay atop a foundation of deceptively intricate arrangements.

Eye Flys’ ‘Context’ stands as a testament to its members’ abilities to produce music that is as ferocious as it is addictive. In just six songs Eye Flys not only prove their place among their peers but stand out as a force of sheer, immovable power.

TRACK LISTING

Stems
Dosed
Crushing Of The Human
Spirit
Weaponize
The Triumph Of Hagbard Celine
Fuckface