Gregory And The Hawk returns with her second FatCat album ‘Leche’, a more mature and honest collection of songs than her previous releases, which sees her expanding instrumentally onto piano and harp yet conveying a sense of her bedroom recording roots.

Contributors include Jeremy Backofen (Felice Brothers), Rob Laakso (Amazing Baby, Diamond Nights, Mice Parade, Swirlies), and Adam Pierce (Mice Parade, Swirlies).

TRACK LISTING

For The Best
Landscapes
Over And Over
Soulgazing
Geysir Nationale
Frebeight
Olly Olly Oxen Free
A Century Is All We Need
Leaves
Puller Return
Hard To Define
Dream Machine

One year after the release of their studio album ‘Pink Color Surgery’, The Psychotic Monks return to us more assertive than ever with ‘Talking Through Repetition’. Renowned for their fiery, experimental and emotionally charged live performances, The Psychotic Monks decided to share the vital essence of their music to a wider audience by recording their current live set.

Recorded between shows in Dijon and Dunkerque during the bands 2023 tour, the live set (of track taken from ‘Pink Colour Surgery’) was recorded in one take at the legendary La Frette studios (Nick Cave, Arctic Monkeys), and once again stylishly produced by accomplice Daniel Fox (Gilla Band, Lambrini Girls, Sprints) and mastered by Jamie Hyland (CASKRÉ).

TRACK LISTING

01. All That Fall

02. Crash

03. Décors
04. Location.memory
05. Post-Post-
06. Smile, Imagerie

Honeyblood’s acclaimed self-titled debut album was released a decade ago in July 2014. To mark the occasion, a 10th Anniversary Edition has been issued on translucent blood red vinyl. An album tour has been announced and starts in May.

Recorded in just ten days in Connecticut, US, with producer Peter Katis, Honeyblood’s self-titled debut album was laid down in just ten days. Despite their then-fledgling status and minimal setup, the songs came fully formed and perfectly assured. With nothing extraneous, the music is driven through tightly bound instrumentals and laced with the sheer strength and beauty of Stina’s voice.

The songs resonate with deep melodic hooks, and an uncomplicated charm that at the time drew comparisons to the likes of The Dum Dum Girls and the strident delivery of Jenny Lewis. They cited the darker currents of The Breeders, PJ Harvey and Throwing Muses as lifelong influences.

From the urgent guitar and dive-bomb drums of opener, ‘Fall Forever’, the album twists through the gutsy punk of ‘Killer Bangs’ to reveal discordant anthems like ‘Super Rat’. It has pared-down, alt pop gems in the likes of ‘Biro’ and ‘No Spare Key’, but also more country-influenced moments like ‘(I’d Rather Be) Anywhere But Here’, ‘Braid Burn Valley’ and ‘Bud’.

‘Honeyblood’ pulls in elements of lo-fi punk rock, unfettered indie pop and a deep-seated passion for classic rootsy song crafting that helps give the album something of an undeniable feel.

“There are a tonne of wicked reference points to get excited about - a vague hint of The Vaselines, nice touch of Velvets two-chord simplicity and even bit of Moz (solo, circa ‘Viva Hate’) chucked in for good measure in the melody” - NME

“Achieves special merit points, not just for its irresistibly perky two-minute popsmarts but for productively moving the post- White Stripes formula on in a way that many have tried and many more have failed to do.” - MOJO

“If you’re looking for some sugary crunch to your day, ‘Killer Bangs’ is the ticket, with rolling drums providing the backbone for toothache-inducing guitars and one hell of a central hook.” - Pitchfork

TRACK LISTING

Fall Forever
Super Rat
Anywhere But Here
Bud
Killer Bangs
Biro
Choke
No Spare Key
Joey
Fortune Cookie
All Dragged Up
Braid Burn
Super Rat (Old Mill Recordings)
Bud (Old Mill Recordings)
Biro (Old Mill Recordings)

Following-up their acclaimed 2023 ‘Absolute Reality’, Holiday Ghosts announce their fifth album, ‘Coat Of Arms’. The group’s latest material signals a new phase in their development and arrives alongside news of their biggest UK headline tour to date, including a date at London’s Moth Club lined up this April, which follows their debut trip stateside for SXSW.

Lead single ‘Sublime Disconnect’ is a perfect distillation of the sound Holiday Ghosts have perfected over their career. Co-vocalist Kat Rackin’s driving drumming style and staccato vocal delivery propels a rousing guitar melody and breakneck bassline, until a catchy chorus of ‘ba ba bas’ erupts over the entire endeavour.

However, beneath the buoyant demeanour belies a deeper lyrical meaning. “I’m Iranian, my parents were both born there and moved to Sweden after the Iranian revolution in the 80s,” explains Kat. “I was born in Malmö and moved to England when I was eight. I grew up as a child with little attachment to Iran as I tried my hardest to blend in with the people around me, but the older I got the more different I felt the more blurred my sense of self got.”

‘Sublime Disconnect’’s lyrics speak to this dissonance of identity, with lines like: “And now they ask who am I and where am I from / Will I find peace when I belong?” “In hindsight I can pinpoint a few incidents of racism that planted this seed that I didn’t-fully belong here, that Sweden or England, weren’t really my home,” says Kat, “nor is Iran as I have never been there as my parents aren’t allowed back. The song is partly putting this question out there: what does it mean to belong?”

‘Sublime Disconnect’ can be seen at the album’s political crux, the track anchors the band’s activist identity. “I think this question of belonging is kind of rhetorical though, because I don’t think there is peace for anyone except for those that make the rules,” says Kat. “I think living under governments where the immigration policies are getting more and more dystopian has also hugely contributed to this song and the notion of belonging. The line: ‘Does your future burn bright? And what about me? A free pass, favour, till I’m back on my feet,’ is a reference to privilege versus having to start from scratch, about the obliviousness that some people have towards the struggle of others.”

TRACK LISTING

Western Daylight
Big Congratulations
Dead Streets
Energy
Sublime Disconnect
Coat Of Arms
Tired Eyes
Today’s Headlines
I’m Still Here
Shoot For Peace

Starting out as an organ and drum machine solo project for Luke Richards, Ubiquitous Meh! are now a fully-fledged band.

Self-described as ‘Cult post-something organ jams for fans of Young Marble Giants / Dead Moon / the Stranglers’, they still only record to 4-track and still only do seven song records, pushing the old Hohner into every corner of the experimental pop landscape.

“Vintage synth wizardry... a nostalgic evocation of late-1970s electronic experimentalism.” - Electronic Sound

“Reminds me of the kind of post-punk indie releases John Peel would introduce on his radio show around 1979-80... entertaining and intriguing at the same time.” - Fear and Loathing

“There’s a unique, underground beauty lurking within it.” - The PRSD

“Hooky as hell, mysterious and prudently brilliant.” - HiveMind

TRACK LISTING

Songs Wrought Wrong
Jigsaw
Your Heart Is Still In Its Shrink
Do You Want To Play Dress Up?
Outta The Traps
Gold Plate Coffin
Smoke Like
Got Nerves
That’s Needless
Fecund With Love
Unit 4
Mindrockin’
Meh! Can Empower You 1
Meh! Can Empower You 2

Arriving hot on the heels of acclaimed 2022 EP ‘Credit Note’, ‘Absolute Reality’ tackles different themes of social commentary, with fiery lyrics and hard picked guitars, holding both honest confessions and tall tales, lived stories and movie-like landscapes. Showcasing the noise and texture that Holiday Ghosts love from the New York punk scene and New Wave era, ‘Vulture’ cements their flourishing status within the alt-rock scene and lays down a real marker ahead of their spring LP release.

TRACK LISTING

01 Rocket
02 Lunch
03 Again And Again
04 Limbo
05 Vulture
06 Lose The Game
07 Blue
08 Fight Or Flight
09 Absolute Reality
10 B Truck
11 Big Cold River

Berlin artist Jennifer Touch returns with her second album, ‘Midnight Proposals’, via FatCat Records.

Touch was reading ‘Grapes of Wrath’ by John Steinbeck when she started to work on ‘Midnight Proposals’. “The whole settlers movement touched me, and I really felt like a cowboy whilst writing and recording these songs,” she explains. It reminded her of her great-grandparents’ story, and the house they built in the 30s that was her sanctuary as a child. “As cosy as it was, I always yearned for somewhere else, to find myself and my own place to settle.”

Full of hope and mystery, ‘Midnight Proposals’ is a selection of songs that both celebrate and question the romance of this illusion, documenting a very human desire to search for our people and our safe place.

For a reinvigorated Touch, it marks the next stop of a journey both artistically and sonically. “These are my dark proposals to the world,” she proclaims. “So come and join me around the fire!”

Unlike biographical debut album ‘Behind the Wall’, which took years to pen, ‘Midnight Proposals’ was written in an explosion of energy and creativity and completed in just four months. Touch spent a few weeks prior sorting her set-up from her Berlin studio and gathering the tools she needed to complete the record. “I didn’t know what was going to happen, I just said to the universe: hey, I’m here and I’m your vessel. It was a like a trip or something and I really don’t remember the process, but I love every song on it.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A wonderfully rich mix of Berlin school electronics and fractured cold wave, topped with Touch's haunting vocal delivery. It's minimalistic in terms of the amount of instruments used, but fills the sound spectrum with reverbs and drones a mile wide. A lot of industrial and cold wave of the 80's is produced a little roughly but the atmosphere and delivery of this record is second to none. Brilliant.

TRACK LISTING

Summerchild
Rumor
A Day
Prayer
Sacred Type
Gudrun
Twisted
Soft & Dark
Shot Shot
Already There
Art
Sold Out
Strings

‘Social Graces’ is the debut album from Australian post-punk outfit Loose Fit. Made up of Kaylene Miller, Anna Langdon, Max edgar and Richard Martin, Kaylene & Anna met in fashion school & instantly bonded through their love of experimental music. After toying with lo-fi bedroom recordings, the pair recruited Max edgar on guitar and Richard Martin on bass and started making some actual noise.

Kaylene is also behind the cult knitwear brand WAH-WAH Australia with items worn by Noel Fielding, Courtney Barnett and even Kim Gordon. The band’s rhythm-heavy sound contains echoes of UK post-punk titans such as PiL and A Certain Ratio.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. Social Graces
2. Cool Change
3. Stupid Drama
4. Cut Your Teeth
5. Exhale

Side B
6. Mosquito
7. Colours For The Walls
8. Best Face Forward
9. On Land
10. Enemies
11. Potential Things

‘Fourteen Autumns…’ is a complete record, the nine tracks working together to create a strong narrative flow. Deceptively simple songs are rendered transcendent. Bleached, overdriven guitars consistently ride a line between ambient and coruscating, working in tandem with an articulate, at times tumultuous rhythm section, forever poised between tension and release. Augmented by piano and more frequently accordion, which provide the songs with a dramatic swoon, The Twilight Sad purvey an awestruck, ragged sentimentality. Lyrically suggestive and metaphorical, their songs give glimpses of bitter experience and romantic failure, their songs at times verging on the anthemic or celebrative, yet firmly rooted in the familiar, often unsaid hurt behind day to day events.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. Cold Days From The Birdhouse
2. That Summer, At Home I Had Become The Invisible Boy
3. Walking For Two Hours
4. Last Year’s Rain Didn’t Fall So Hard
Side B
1. Talking With Fireworks / Here, It Never Snowed
2. Mapped By What Surrounded Them
3. And She Would Darken The Memory
4. I’m Taking The Train Home
5. Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters

The Twilight Sad’s third full-length, No One Can Ever Know, marks a sonic shift for the band. Freshly inspired by a listening diet of Cabaret Voltaire, Can, Liars, Magazine, Autechre, and Public Image Limited, the band turn to a dark, synth-heavy sound for No One Can Ever Know; the resulting LP shares thematic and sonic space with the most innovative offerings from Depeche Mode, The Cure, or even Nine Inch Nails. “We wanted to be a lot more spontaneous, get outside our comfort zone - not to fall back into repeating what we’ve done previously,” explains guitarist Andy MacFarlane. “So we moved to London for a month to record at The Pool and got Andrew Weatherall involved to bounce ideas off and to generally reassure us of the direction we were already progressing in – toward a sparser sound, with a colder, slightly militant feel.”

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. Alphabet
2. Dead City
Side B
3. Sick
4. Don’t Move
Side C
5. Nil
6. Don’t Look At Me
7. Not Sleeping
Side D
8. Another Bed
9. Kill It In The Morning

Split between London and Brighton, Breathe Panel come together to create a sound that is the sum of their four parts. Playing together half unplugged in a living room and swapping drums for cushions is where they would often hit their natural rhythm, capturing a shared feeling in songs in a quick and simple way.

With no agenda other than enjoying making music together, the resulting album Lets It In is ultimately positive in outlook. Themes include falling in love, moments in places, light, breathing, walking, urban living and finding beauty in a sometimes heavy environment. Living together in a shared house in East London, frontman Nick Green and lead guitarist Josh Tyler would start writing songs together as an escape from the restlessness of the city. “A sort of meditation from the mess”, says Nick.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. A Good Day
2. Lets It In
3. Tomatoes
4. Sure
5. Spring

Side B
6. Days Inbetween
7. Stretch
8. Love You, I Love You
9. Sometimes Brighter
10. I Cannot Wait To Be There
11. My Preferred Memory Was

Social Haul’ is a collection of songs to get to know us by. The album loosely depicts a protagonist challenging perceived negative aspects of character, particularly in others, attacking in stages or episodes. Not dissimilar to that unfinished Bruce Lee movie. Including bouts with ignorance, through to rebellion, disassociation, spiritual bypass[1]ing, indifference and eventually light-enlightenment. ‘Social Haul’ centres around the middle distance, the place in which we realise that no matter how insignificant or excluded we may feel, we all have something worthwhile to say. Produced with Daniel Fox (Girl Band).

TRACK LISTING

A
1. Complain
2. Wet Eyes
3. This Is All I Need
4. Anthea
5. The Bayou

B
6. The Ease
7. Prized From The Rot
8. The Best Dust-Up
9. Utmost Care
10. I Have A Pen

Shopping return with their new album All Or Nothing – a record that speaks about commitment, leaps of faith and tests of courage. “A lot has happened in our personal lives since we last recorded and we knew this album was going to reflect that exciting and scary feeling that comes with change, heartbreak and personal evolution”, the band explains. Since their last record the band are now spread across the globe with Billy in LA and Andrew and Rachel in Glasgow, and the songs were written in a two week intensive period while they were all together. Taking a bold leap towards pop with their most vibrant & punchy production to date, mixed and produced by Nick Sylvester. For fans of ESG, Bodega, Priests, Squid, Public Practice, Sacred Paws, Sault, Dry Cleaning.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Driven rolling bass and fuzzy guitars swirl around under the angular, mathy buzz. Shopping maintain the momentum while injecting things with a good amount of vigour, and a keen melodic sensibility. Lovely stuff.

TRACK LISTING

Side A:
Trust In Us
Initiative
Follow Me
No Apologies
For Your Pleasure

Side B:
About You
Lies
Expert Advice
Body Clock
All Or Nothing

The album is a rare record that manages to be both fiery and textural. It combines the charge and speed of a record that resembles a car veering dangerously close to a cliff edge yet also manages to instil a confidence in the ability of the driver. MNNQNS exude a sense of controlled danger and chaos and this permeates throughout their debut. This feverish and unpredictable approach is also represented by the band’s diverse musical tastes and inspirations. If you’ve ever wondered what a record would sound like that shares influences as eclectic as Deerhunter, Death Grips, the Beach Boys, Omni and the films of Jean-Jacques Beineix then wonder no more because MNNQNS debut is the answer.

Such a sense of determination and focus is apparent on the record throughout; whether it’s the post-punk assault of “Wire (Down to The)”, the harmony-soaked pop swing of “NotWhatYouThoughtYouKnew”, the deeply textural explorations of “Stagnant Pools” - which combines seamless melody with an urgency that resembles This Heat - or the kick-down-your-frontdoor charge of “Urinals”. This duality of harmony and discordance that exists on the record is something that D’Epinay feels when he reflects on the recording process. “Some tracks make me want to go out and dance whilst others remind me of being totally alone in the countryside. Listening to the record is like being pushed away from the city and then dragged back in.”

TRACK LISTING

A-Side

1. Body Negative
2. NotWhatYouThoughtYouKnew
3. She’s Waiting For The Day
4. Double Visions
5. Different Sides Of Truth
6. Limits Of Town
7. Urinals
8. Desperation Moon

B-Side

9. Drinking From The Pond
10. Fall Down
11. Stagnant Pools
12. Wire (Down To The)
13. (Ghost Track,

‘The Heavy Steps Of Dreaming’ is the brilliant debut album from Vancouver-based Minor Pieces, a new songwriting partnership comprising acclaimed singer/composer Ian William Craig and newcomer Missy Donaldson, a singer and multi-instrumentalist. Retaining some of the textural play and experimentation of Ian’s solo material whilst channeling it squarely within the domain of tangible songwriting, the pair utilise guitar, modified tape decks, bass and synths to fashion deeply-felt songs with their beautifully matched male/ female vocals standing resolutely centre-stage. Taking influence and inspiration from the likes of Low, Grouper, Mazzy Star, Portishead, My Bloody Valentine, Talk Talk and Cat Power, ‘The Heavy Steps Of Dreaming’ sounds at once familiar whilst forging something new, unique and beyond the sum of its influences.

Over the course of its 8 tracks - from the opening bars of ‘Rothko’ to the resonant closing lines of ‘Shipbreaking’ - the duo move fluidly between voices, shift from moments of overwhelming power to perfect points of stillness; from acoustic balladry pared down to the sparsest of means to thick, tumbling swells of tape and electronics or billowing synth trails. At both album and song level, it’s a work of contrasts and combinations; of broad, bold dynamics. Masterfully crafted, the lyrics are rendered with an almost painterly approach and reveal a palpable joy in the richness of language and its capacity to conjure resonances, to hold moments close and to patch together meaning from life’s scattered detritus. What’s forged is a kind of Alt. Americana filtered through a progressive modern lens and the tactile, heavily processed tactics of Ian’s solo practice – an approach that links to the corrosive asethetics of electronic artists like Fennesz, William Basinski or The Caretaker.

TRACK LISTING

1 Rothko
2 This House
3 Brávallagata
4 Grace
5 Burden
6 The Way We Are In Song
7 Tender Fire
8 Shipbreaking

Brimming with emotion and passion, this musically strong and assured album sees the unique and identifiable Jetpacks sound now grown and fully galvanised.

‘Unravelling’ is a captivating ride of tense excitement, pounding rhythm, huge walls of cavernous guitar and hyperborean beauty, all kept in check by the band’s gifted songwriting skills.

The album release also sees the addition of a new member to the band in the form of multi-instrumentalist Stuart McGachan. Adam Thompson explains “Stuart is an accomplished keys, piano and guitar player as well as having a lovely little singing voice, and with him we’ve tried to do something a little different. We've known him for ages and played music with him before so we were pretty sure it would work out. It has just been the four of us since 2004, so having someone new with us has been an enjoyable part of the process.”

TRACK LISTING

1: Safety In Numbers
2: Peaks And Troughs
3: I Keep It Composed
4: Peace Sign
5: Night Terror
6: Disconnecting
7: Bright Minds
8: A Part Of It
9: Moral Compass
10: Peace Of Mind
11: Ricochet

The Growlers have announced details of the release of their new album. Chinese Fountain will be released through Fat Cat Records. Having demoed the tracks at guitarist Matt Taylor’s Topanga home, the 11-track album was recorded quickly in a week-and-a-half at Sea Horse Sands Studio in downtown Los Angeles. Produced by JP Plunier.

Self-describing their music as “Beach Goth”, sunburned and salty, the term perfectly describes their distinctive melding of reverb heavy surf guitar and Bakersfield-style honky tonk with ‘80s post-punk. Chinese Fountain, their fourth long-player having formed in Dana Point, California in 2006, is their most confident album to date.

“The band played better than they’ve ever played,” says Brooks Nielsen. “We’ve got the process down now. There’s less screwing around to get the songs laid out and we weren’t waiting around for take after take. We knew it and we played without much time to spare.”

TRACK LISTING

1: Big Toe
2: Black Memories
3: Chinese Fountain
4: Dull Boy
5: Good Advice
6: Going Gets Tough
7: Magnificent Sadness
8: Love Test
9: Not The Man
10: Rare Hearts
11: Purgatory Drive

Showcasing the impressive songwriting ability that His Clancyness mastermind Jonathan Clancy has demonstrated since the start of the project, opening track ‘Safe Around the Edges’ is a hook-filled, intelligent pop song that encapsulates the His Clancyness sound perfectly. A heady mix of breezy Americana and tightly wound krautrock, Clancy’s compositions simultaneously bring to mind contemporary artists as diverse as Kurt Vile and Lower Dens but are delivered with the ease and a flair of a songwriter totally confident in his own singular vision.

TRACK LISTING

1. Safe Around The Edges
2. Miss Out These Days
3. Gold Diggers
4. Hunting Men
5. Slash The Night
6. Run Wild
7. Machines
8. Avenue
9. Crystal Clear
10. Zenith Diamond
11. Castle Sand Ambient
12. Progress

Will appeal to fans of: The Black Keys, The Beach Boys, Thee Oh Sees, Ty Segall, Captain Beefheart, The Flying Burrito Brothers, The Black Lips, The Doors, The Allah-Las.

“…pitchy organ and plunky, country-western bass are punctuated by faux-dub echoes that hang like tapestries in a chill-bro den.” SPIN

“Invokes a smoking ‘60s beach party” Time Out

“The So-Cal five-piece sound so comfortable being the stoned philosopher on Hung at Heart, hopping from party to party, delivering gems of lyrical wisdom in the midst of the thoroughly kicked out jams.” Consequence of Sound

TRACK LISTING

1. Someday
2. Naked Kids
3. Salt On A Slug
4. One Million Lovers
5. No Need For Eyes
6. Living In A Memory
7. Pet Shop Eyes
8. In Between
9. Burden Of The Captain
10. Row
11. It's No Use

Milk Maid is Martin Cohen from Nine Black Alps.

They were discovered by Jack Cooper of Mazes, who released a single on Suffering Jukebox before they were signed by FatCat Records.

The whole album was recorded on Martin’s 8-track in his flat in Manchester.

Reference points include Mazes, Woods and the Woodsist label, The Shins, Guided By Voices, Oasis, Jesus And Mary Chain.

“Milk Maid are already a smashing success” - NME; “Have a listen to the wonderful Milk Maid, new signing to FatCat. I am addicted” - Scott from Frightened Rabbit on Twitter.

STAFF COMMENTS

Darryl says: Fuzzed-up indie guitars and lo-fi melodic vocals with an American edge, that would sit more than nicely on the Captured Tracks and Woodsist labels.

TRACK LISTING

1. Such Fun
2. Can’t You See
3. Oh!
4. Dead Wrong
5. Girl
6. Not Me
7. Kill Me Again
8. Same As What
9. Back Of Your Knees
10. Sad Song
11. Someone You Thought You’d Forgot

The first collaboration between David Karsten Daniels and Fight The Big Bull, "I Mean To Live Here Still" is the product of two decidedly individual, but musically (and geographically) distant sets of musicians.

David Karsten Daniels is an immensely talented, formally-trained composer/musician with a background in hymn singing and four-track experimentation, and a release history of gentle, acoustic, plaintive folk music embellished with touches of orchestration and jazz.

Following on from Daniels’ "Sharp Teeth" and "Fear Of Flying" albums, this record is a lush contribution to a stunning personal canon and an album that transcends influence, tradition and climate.

Fight The Big Bull are a nonet led by composer / arranger / guitarist Matthew White, exist loosely in the Duke Ellington / Charles Mingus / Ornette Coleman plane of jazz, yet are fiercely, often unpredictably, unique.

TRACK LISTING

1. All Things Are Current Found
2. The Funeral Bell
3. Die And Be Buried
4. October Airs
5. On Fields
6. Though All The Fates
7. Salmon Brook
8. Smoke
9. Each Summer Sound
10. Epitaph On The World