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

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

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 Twilight Sad release ‘Killed My Parents And Hit The Road’ now on vinyl for the first time.

With the majority of tracks mixed and mastered by Iain Cook of Aerogramme, ‘Killed My Parents And Hit The Road’ encompasses the bands’ bare, unfeigned use of melancholy with rousing, epic intensity, never straying too far from hitting sentimental nerves. Throughout the record, melodies stagger between feedback-laden instrumentals and rich, seemingly effortless acoustic ballads, each accented by Graham’s strong Scottish tones, creating a collection of songs that are as intriguing as they are engulfing. Alongside their own tracks, the band have chosen to cover songs by Joy Division (‘Twenty Four Hours’), Yeah Yeah Yeahs (‘Modern Romance’) and The Smiths (‘Half A Person’), providing greater scope into the tracks’ pensive and wistful subjects, whilst retaining the stirring and engaging qualities of the originals.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. Walking For Two Hours
2. That Summer, At Home I Had Become The Invisible Boy
3. Untitled #28
4. Cold Days From The Birdhouse
5. And She Would Darken The Memory

Side B
1. Twenty Four Hours
2. The Weather Is Bad
3. Half A Person
4. Untitled #27
5. Modern Romance
6. I Was Hoping Winter Was Over

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

Almost a year since the release of their acclaimed fourth album Nobody Wants To Be Here and Nobody Wants To Leave, Scotland’s The Twilight Sad return with the Òran Mór Session LP: a collection of reworked, stripped-back versions of tracks from the album, b-sides and a cover of Arthur Russell’s ‘I Couldn’t Say It To Your Face’.

The sessions act as something of a means to recap and reflect on what’s been a whirlwind past year for the band, with Nobody Wants To Be Here and Nobody Wants To Leave earning rave reviews from publications including The Sunday Times, The Quietus and Q, alongside topping Drowned in Sound’s best albums of 2014 and earning a rare perfect ten from the site, finishing second in The Skinny’s list, third in Popmatters’ indie rock albums of the year and topping Any Decent Music’s Scottish albums of the year.

"It’s not until you assemble – no, grow, because this is nothing if not organic – the whole thing, that the jaw-dropping brilliance of the album reveals itself." - Drowned in Sound (10/10)

"Simple but effective, the lyrics are bleak, bitter phrases of existential loneliness and torment. His emotion hits just as potently throughout." - NME (8/10)

"The group's fourth LP more than justifies [their] ascension. Where there were youthful, wayward meanderings, Graham has emerged a man, exorcising the sorrows of lessons learnt along the way." - The Quietus

TRACK LISTING

1: Nobody Wants To Be Here And Nobody Wants To Leave
2: Last January
3: It Never Was The Same
4: Pills I Swallow
5: I Could Give You All That You Don't Want
6: Drown So I Can Watch
7: The Airport
8: Leave The House
9: I Couldn't Say It To Your Face

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

A hauntingly catchy release by American lone DIY artist Meghan Remy.

In June 2011 FatCat offshoot imprint Palmist Records released a split 12” by U.S. Girls and her production partner Slim Twig, which followed a great split 7” with the much celebrated Dirty Beaches.

U.S. Girls’ last album, ‘U.S. Girls On Kraak’, was critically acclaimed and supported by great blog coverage and a series of promo videos.

U.S. Girls pursue a minimalist aesthetic with a militant by-any-means-necessary attitude, merging experimental compositions with distinctive photocopy-art visuals to deliver a starkly defined statement.

“Don't let the scuzzy surface fool you: At the heart of Megan Remy's one-woman lo-fi project U.S. Girls beats a pop sensibility” - Pitchfork

“Remy’s aesthetics and emotional cues are pulled from the ephemera of decades past” - Refinery29

Second album from Manchester-based band Milk Maid, headed up by Martin Cohen of Nine Black Alps. A step up in terms of production, maintaining the same top standards of songwriting as heard on previous release ‘Yucca’.

The band were discovered by Jack Cooper of Mazes, who released a single on Suffering Jukebox before they were signed by FatCat Records. Frightened Rabbit are huge fans of Milk Maid, and recently recorded a cover of ‘Not Me’ (off the previous album) to release later this year.

Reference points: Mazes, Woods and the Woodsist label generally, The Shins, Guided By Voices, Ride, JAMC.

TRACK LISTING

1. Dopamine
2. Do Right
3. Stir So Slow
4. Your Neck Around Mine
5. Bad Luck
6. New Plans
7. Summertime
8. Drag To Find
9. Pictures Of Stone
10. Old Trick
11. No Goodbye

"On record, they have one of the most exciting styles on today’s music scene" - The Independent.

Chicago’s Maps & Atlases return with their eagerly awaited sophomore album, which sees the band blend their math rock roots with a more accessible direction.

For fans of Paul Simon, Vampire Weekend, The Beach Boys, The Maccabees.

“Like some weird hoodied mad professors, or the bastard sons of Crystal Castles and Steve Jobs” - NME

The album was recorded at Sigur Ros’ Sundlaughin studio in Iceland and mixed at the band’s Kennington based creative HQ in a converted bank called The Lab.

Forest Fire’s electrifying new full-length with a focus on mature singer-songwriter pop writing and instant-classic hooks.

Recommended for fans of The Velvet Underground, Television, Pink Floyd as well as contemporaries The Walkmen and Phosphorescent.

This is the band’s second album, after 2008’s Survival, which garnered some great critical responses and made several top 10 lists.

“A general air of beat-poet cool and a careless articulacy to the lyrics that heightens the impression of the band as quintessential SoHo bohos” - The Guardian.

“These are songs of the most universal of human themes… the battle between the darker side of human instinct and angelic purity” - Drowned In Sound.

We Were Promised Jetpacks make their hotly anticipated return with a gripping new album, ‘In The Pit Of The Stomach’ that bears testimony to the poise, control, confidence and vigour the band now command.

Signing off their debut ‘These Four Walls’ campaign with 'The Last Place You'll Look EP' in April 2010 – and a spectacular North American tour with Jimmy Eat World, We Were Promised Jetpacks decamped to Sigur Ros’ Sundlaugin Studios in the frozen wilds of Iceland to record the new record. “We had been touring the debut album extensively for over two years” says singer Adam, “So we were very excited to get back in the studio and record the follow-up, which we hope demonstrates how much we have progressed as a band.”

The approach to recording was markedly different this time around, “We recorded the debut album in 8 days with one short tour under our belts - this time around we spent a full three weeks in the studio recording with [live sound engineer] Andrew Bush and made an album that both captures the sound of our live show and is strong start to finish.” Peter Katis (Frightened Rabbit, The National) was also on hand for mixing and additional production duties.

Armed with the confidence built from their time on the road and firm ideas as to how the new record should sound, ‘In The Pit Of The Stomach’ is emphatically a sustained piece of work full of fiery, muscular and hugely atmospheric epics like (lead single) ‘Medicine’, ‘Picture Of Heath’ and ‘Human Error’ - and impresses with the sheer scale of it’s ambition.

Post the release of their ‘These Four Walls’ debut in June 2009 (sales of which currently stand at 40,000 worldwide) the band have achieved huge success touring America and Europe, highlights of which include selling out New York’s Williamsburg Music Hall and attracting high-profile support slots for gold-selling US rock bands like Passion Pit and Jimmy Eat World.

With thunderous live performances matching the power of fellow Scot’s Mogwai and a pop sensibility comparable to that of Foals or Bloc Party, ‘In The Pit Of The Stomach’ proves how WWPJ have stealthily become a fully-fledged rock band - louder, wilder, avidly literate, fiercely melodic, powerfully restrained.

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 result of sessions that took place on an old lightship moored on the Thames, April the 11th sees the release of Mazes’ debut album; "A Thousand Heys". The band (formed of Jack Cooper on vocals and guitar, Neil Robinson on drums, Jarin Tabata on guitar and Conan Roberts on bass) admit that the time spent in the boat represented the first time that they were able to concentrate on their performances during a recording session, rather than, as Jack puts it, ‘pressing record and then running over to our instruments to play.’ This relative liberty has allowed Mazes to focus on creating an album that captures the refreshing spontaneity and looseness that characterised their 30-track Italian Beach Babes mixtape, whilst simultaneously refines the sharp instinct for a pop hook that can be found in their back catalogue of 7”s and splits.

Mazes formed in Manchester in early 2009 and began their life touring with Pens and Wavves before going on to share stages with bands such as Deerhunter, Thee Oh Sees, Sic Alps, Dum Dum Girls and Crocodiles. Whilst these bands are peers and contemporaries, Mazes are not an act swayed by fashion or influenced only by what is happening immediately around them. “A Thousand Heys” is a tapestry of collective influences that draws on the band’s multi-national constitution (Jarin is from the US, Neil from New Zealand) and sees them dart in and out of their record collections with the same enthusiasm and sense of fun as the two wide-eyed kids messing about in front of the camera on the album’s cover. The opener "Go Betweens" is a song influenced by the honeyed, major-key pop of the band the song’s title references, but with New York Dolls guitars, Buzzcocks intensity and Big Star-esque nihilist lyrics. At other times, as referred to by Marc Riley when he called them a ‘sort of really garagey Kinks’, they can sound like a British Invasion group; a syncopated McCartney bassline kicks in during a chorus that starts with a ‘Hey!’ on "Surf & Turf", with lyrics that actually reference ‘The Beatles at JFK’.

A band that has been extensively covered on the blog scene, much has already been made of Mazes’ ability to juxtapose measured three-minute pop songs with short bratty blasts. Although there is no "Painting of Tupac Shakur", the thirty second thrash punk song found on their split with Spectrals, songs such as "Till I’m Dead" prove they can still shred when they want to, whilst "Eva" references the aforementioned IBB mixtape in sounding like a sketched out idea, a fleeting moment in time recorded for posterity. Conversely, the Dunedine Sound influenced "Cenetaph" is a beautifully controlled pop song that demonstrates the band care more for songcraft than correct spelling, whilst "No Way" recalls early REM.

Perhaps the most thrilling moment on the album is when Mazes combine these two elements in the shape of lead single "Most Days". In under two minutes the band encapsulate their sound with a driving pop song full of hooks and sugared melody that makes way for a frenzied ending of flailing guitars and crashing drums, the lyrics somehow simultaneously capturing both the recklessness of youth and the terror of mortality in about three lines. Throughout the album Jack Cooper proves himself to be a versatile vocalist, able to recall the impassioned yelp and ‘oohs’ of James Mercer in one instance, and the sigh of Elf Power’s Andrew Rieger in the next. The lyrics on the album display a similar range, from the idealised childhood and subsequent collapse into post-adolescent apathy of "Summer Hits/ J&J Don’t Like", to the vivid vignette of "Cenetaph", the youthful forcefulness of "Death House" to the Swell-like world-weariness of "Wait Anyway".

Beautiful second full length from Montreal’s French-born Olivier Alary, the songwriter / composer behind Ensemble

Alary has previously collaborated with Cat Power, Bjork and Lou Barlow, amongst others.

"Excerpts" features the arranging input of heavyweight, award winning film / theatre composer Johannes Malfatti.

“A quietly stunning synthesis of melody and texture” - The Wire.

New full length from Maps & Atlases, a gorgeous, complex, slightly skewed take on pop music.

Recommended for fans of Vampire Weekend, TV On The Radio and Band Of Horses.

'"Perch Patchwork" is eclectic and consistent enough that each detour offers its own small reward' - Pitchfork.

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

Brakes is comprised of members of British Sea Power, Electric Soft Parade, Restlesslist, Pipettes and Tenderfoot. "Touchdown" was recorded at the legendary Glasgow studio Chem 19 by The Delgados' Paul Savage (Mogwai, Arab Strap, Malcolm Middleton) and mastered by the similarly legendary Alan Douches at West West Side, NY.

A somewhat enigmatic proposition by current UK standards, sounding refreshingly out of step with current trends, Charlottefield's second album is still undoubtedly informed by post-hardcore and post-punk experimentalism, yet bears witness to a band clearly focused on extending their sonic palette. It builds on the anglicised post-hardcore foundations of their previous album "How Long Are You Staying". Utilising a familiar four-piece, dual guitar, bass, drums and vocals template, Charlottefield's oeuvre is stripped of extraneous musical frippery, focusing instead on rhythmic, structural and textural detail; a constantly shifting dialogue between a democratic band.

Debut full length release from super-talented young DIY noise/pop/punk two piece No Age, formed from the ashes of Wives, reminiscent of early Black Dice, The Ramones and My Bloody Valentine. Until 12th March 2007, the band had released no recorded output whatsoever – that changed when they decided to release five limited edition vinyl-only releases on a variety of DIY labels across the globe on the same day (namely UTR, Deleted Art, Teardrops, Youth Attack and Dean's own PPM label). "Weirdo Rippers" is a collection of recorded highlights taken from the aforementioned releases, plus one exclusive track. Harnessing an explosive dynamic tension, No Age's music is prone to switch from syncopated punk-rock squalls to melodic, transient flashes of colour, or conversely, a pop song might spontaneously cut through the noise.

Welcome are both distinct and familiar, at once drawing the listener in, and suggesting worlds of possibilities. Their sound is melodic, and rhythmically and sonically ambitious, sitting somewhere between the fractured, exploratory idealism of 60s psych pop (The Creation, Revolver-era Beatles, Syd Barrett), and such non-conformist alt-rock luminaries as Unwound, The Breeders, Deerhoof or Lilys.

17-track compilation from Fat Cat's widely-acclaimed split 12" series, from which many new artists have been discovered. Includes Matmos, Kid606, and David Grubbs. This CD-only release showcases material previously only available across the eight 12" singles from Split Series number 9 to number 16 - a period that spans nearly four years. Excepting the Matmos track (which is one of their greatest ever), this is the first time any of these tracks have appeared on CD. Includes sought after gems from Fennesz, Avey Tare (Animal Collective), Kid 606 and David Grubbs.