This one was an unexpected treat - two of our favourite contemporary musicians, Finn Rees & SHOLTO coming together and collaborating on a double dose of celestial, cinematic alchemy

At Mr Bongo we are massive admirers of drummer, musician, and producer SHOLTO (Oscar Robertson). His two albums on Funk Night Records and DeepMatter Records, had both been highlights of their respective years.

We'd gotten to know Oscar and sent him a few records. Included in the package was Australian pianist- composer Finn Rees' debut album, Dawn Is A Melody, which was one of our favourite releases on Mr Bongo in 2024. In Oscar's words 'For me it was a standout modern jazz record - encapsulating a spiritual / hazy dreamy soundscape which hugely resonated with me. Glissando keys and harp with lush melodies, I was instantly intrigued." The pair started following each other online and as luck would have it, Finn was staying in London for the summer season, so they arranged to meet.

The pair instantly clicked and said it felt like they'd known each other for years. After 40 minutes of chatting, they started to jam. 'Love In Memory' and 'Bluebell' were recorded over two days - a track a day in Oscar's SFJ studios. Laid down on mostly analogue equipment, the pair utilised Wurlitzer's, mellotrons, and ribbon mics through Oscar's '70s Studer desk. Composed and crafted without any real intentions, other than a shared appreciation for the same style of music and approach, the tracks started to take shape. The results were as lush, nostalgic and textured as you'd expect from these two brilliant musicians, with a classical feel inspired by artists such as Piero Piccioni, Piero Umiliani, and Henry Mancini.

For the beautiful string arrangements, the pair recruited the talents of SHOLTO's longtime friend and collaborator Clementine Brown (Penguin Cafe Orchestra) and Matthew Hayes of 30/70, Allysha Joy, Xpress Point, Zeitgeist Freedom Energy Exchange fame, was brought in to play bass on 'Bluebell'.

So here we have it, a chance collaborative project built on two musicians' mutual respect for each other's outputs. The result is truly breathtaking.

TRACK LISTING

Love In Memory
Bluebell

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Craig Finn returns with 'Always Been', his first solo album since 2022. The album was produced by Finn’s long time friend Adam Granduciel, the principal of The War on Drugs. Always Been is direct both in music and title. As Finn says, “I’ve always been Craig Finn.”

Recorded throughout 2024 at One Cue Studio in Burbank, CA, 'Always Been' features a host of musicians, including many of Granduciel’s bandmates in The War on Drugs. Kathleen Edwards and Sam Fender provide guest vocals. The musical result is distinctive, purposeful, and commanding.

This is perhaps Finn’s most narrative record yet. It tells the story of a man who becomes a clergyman despite a lack of faith. The songs detail his rise, fall, and eventual redemption, while also shining a light to sharply reveal the other characters that populate the world he moves through.

'Always Been' is Finn’s sixth solo record and stands alongside his nine albums with The Hold Steady. With his last solo release, 'A Legacy of Rentals', receiving year-end accolades from Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, Aquarium Drunkard and more, Always Been arrives as an exciting next step for this prolific storyteller and songwriter.

TRACK LISTING

1. Bethany
2. People Of Substance
3. Crumbs
4. Luke & Leanna
5. The Man I've Always Been
6. Fletcher's
7. A Man Needs A Vocation
8. I Walk With A Cane
9. Clayton
10. Postcards

Mr Bongo proudly presents the debut album from Tasmania-born, Melbourne-based, Finn Rees.

Gliding across a swirling palette of saturated hues, Dawn Is A Melody feels vintage yet vibrant, new but familiar at the same time. A spiritual, deep and textured jazz record, tipping its hat to greats from the past, capturing memories and reformulating them into new ideas with the help of some of Melbourne's finest talent.

Expert keys player for the likes of 30/70 and Elle Shimada, alongside one-half of Close Counters, this debut LP was Finn's conscious departure from the realm of groove-based jazz. Instead, Dawn Is A Melody places the piano and arrangements centre stage, giving Finn and his fellow Melbourne crew freedom to explore the spaces in between, new emotions and alternate soundscapes.

The album arcs between opening, middle and end. Beginning with the optimism of 'Looking Up' and 'Lagoon', the former a celestial, string and harp marbled slice of positivity, the latter a spiritual journey of exuberance and hope, Finn's fingers dancing across the '70s Yamaha grand piano . From there the songs blossom outwards with the cinematic soulful journey of 'It's Behind Me Now' and Brazilianinspired 'Expansion', as the divine 'Crossing' signals a transition to a new realm. The energy is transformed from the rich cosmic textures to a more intimate and personal feeling with 'Ablaze', 'Between Spaces' and 'As It Passes' which blissfully fades down to simply piano and strings to close out the record.

Recorded at Rolling Stock in Collingwood, Melbourne, Henry Jenkins was drafted in as recording and mix engineer, his minimal vintage mic setups giving a live aesthetic and warmth to the arrangements. Lucky Pereira and Blakely McLean Davies form the rock- solid rhythm section, with a hand- picked line- up of other Melbourne talent on display, including Cheryl Durongpitikul on tenor sax, Siwei Wong on harp, Audrey Powne on trumpet and Allysha Joy on vocals to name only a few.

Plotting a course from Alice Coltrane, through Herbie Hancock, to Arthur Verocai, this is a debut nourished by the past but firmly made in the present. A record unable to be age-stamped, casting ambiguity as to when, what era and by whom it has been crafted. Like a vintage lens capturing a current scene, Dawn Is A Melody is warm and familiar yet focused on the here now.

For fans of Alice Coltrane, Herbie Hancock and Arthur Verocai.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Moving tastefully between frenetic lounge jazz and shimmering spiritual business, offering many a moment of sublime weirdness amongst the richly orchestral backdrop, and resulting in a varied but hugely satisfying end result.

TRACK LISTING

Looking Up
Lagoon
Horizons
It's Behind Me Now
Expansion
End Of The Line
Crossing
Ablaze
Between Spaces
As It Passes

Needle Mythology reissue a special expanded album edition of Finn, the album released by New Zealand’s most celebrated musical siblings Tim and Neil Finn to acclaim both from critics and long-time fans who had followed the pair’s work since their time in together in Split Enz. This is the first time Finn has received a vinyl release.

Released in close collaboration with Tim and Neil, the newly-expanded Finn comes with an entire album The Finn Demos, which gathers together ten songs from 1989’s legendary Murchison St sessions, remastered by Miles Showell at Abbey Road Studios. Convening at Neil’s new Melbourne apartment with a view to making an album together, Tim and Neil embarked on an intensely productive period, writing several songs that would briefly result in Tim joining Crowded House for the resulting Woodface album.

Assisted by the late Paul Hester on drums, the demos capture a host of songs that would go on to be played in arenas around the world in their newborn state: ‘It’s Only Natural’, ‘Catherine Wheels’, ‘Weather With You’, featuring a whole extra verse and the previously unreleased ‘Four Stepping in 3/4 Time’.

For this release, long-time fan and collaborator on Neil’s 7 Worlds Collide project, Ed O’Brien (Radiohead) contributed liner notes, hymning the album’s “heavy” beauty and its “elemental energy.” Featuring brand new artwork designed by Needle Mythology’s James Gosling, the expanded Finn features newly-unearthed images of Tim and Neil taken by Darryl Ward during the sessions for the album. For this release, Tim and Neil have also shared the “listening notes” submitted by the brothers’ parents – something they would do for every song their sons wrote.

For Finn, Tim and Neil enlisted the services of Tchad Blake, whose “feel”-based approach brought out the best in the brothers, who played every instrument on the record. Writing about the record for Mojo at the time, David Hepworth characterised Finn as a “warm and loose record” that hardcore fans would undoubtedly “adore”.

Originally released on Parlophone Records, Finn spawned an unlikely top 30 hit, the mesmerising semi-improvised psych-rock fan favourite ‘Suffer Never’.

The expanded double album edition of Finn has been cut at Abbey Road by Miles Showell and pressed on 180g vinyl at The Vinyl Factory.

Of this release, Needle Mythology co-founder Pete Paphides says, “As a life-long fan of the Finn brothers’ music in all its incarnations, I’m grateful that Tim and Neil have given us the opportunity to re-present their work to the world in a manner that befits the magic of these sessions. The experience of hearing these songs emerge from the speakers at Abbey Road is one I’ll never forget.”

TRACK LISTING

DISC 1
SIDE 1
1. Only Talking Sense
2. Eyes Of The World
3. Mood Swinging Man
4. Last Day Of June
5. Suffer Never
6. Angel’s Heap
SIDE 2
1. Niwhai
2. Where Is My Soul
3. Bullets In My Hairdo
4. Paradise (Wherever You Are)
5. Kiss The Road Of Rarotonga
DISC 2
SIDE 1
1. Catherine Wheels (Demo)
2. Prodigal Son (Demo)
3. Four-Stepping In 3/4 Time (Demo)
4. There Goes God (Demo)
5. It’s Only Natural (Demo)
SIDE 2
1. Weather With You (Demo)
2. Strangeness And Charm (Demo)
3. Four Seasons In One Day (Demo)
4. In Love With It All (Demo)
5. How Will You Go (Demo)

Best known as the singer of the Hold Steady, Craig Finn is a Minnesota-bred singer, songwriter, and guitarist based out of New York City. Combining literary influences like Jack Kerouac and John Berryman with the musical influences of Bruce Springsteen and fellow Minnesotan Paul Westerberg, Finn's highly descriptive lyrical style has a strong focus on narrative, crafting whole worlds for the people in his songs to exist within.

'A Legacy of Rental's', the 6th solo record from Finn, was produced by Josh Kaufman and recorded by D. James Goodwin at The Clubhouse recording studio. Compared to past solo releases, this new collection was recorded with the help of a 14-piece string section including violins, violas and cellos, instead of the usually horn-heavy sounds that Craig and The Hold Steady are known for. The themes of the record explore memory -- how we remember our loved ones, the places in our lives that have changed, and recent events that are part of our pasts.

TRACK LISTING

1. Messing With The Settings
2. The Amarillo Kid
3. Birthdays
4. The Year We Fell Behind
5. Due To Depart
6. Curtis & Shepard
7. Never Any Horses
8. Jessamine
9. A Break From The Barrage
10. This Is What It Looks Like

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.

Double black LP collecting B-sides and alternate version from Craig Finn's previous three albums Faith In The Future (2015), We All Want The Same Things (2017), I Need A New War (2019).Download card TBC

Craig Finn is best known as the frontman of The Hold Steady but he is also a skilled songwriter in his own right. ‘I Need A New War’ is the third album in a trilogy (following 2015’s ‘Faith In The Future’ and 2017’s ‘We All Want The Same Things’). The album focuses on regular people trying to respond to extraordinary times, attempting to find connection while wondering how to keep pace with a world moving faster than they are. It solidifies Craig as one of today’s most important storytellers, among the ranks of Leonard Cohen and Tom Waits.

TRACK LISTING

Blankets
Magic Marker
A Bathtub In The Kitchen
Indications
Grant At Galena
Something To Hope For
Carmen Isn’t Coming In
Today
Holyoke
Her With The Blues
Anne Marie & Shane

Craig Finn (of The Hold Steady) will release his new solo album 'Faith in the Future' through Partisan Records on 11th September. Josh Kaufman produced the record in the cosy, rustic confines of Woodstock's The Isokon recording studio and helped Finn stretch the boundaries of his songwriting with confidence, invention and ambition to realise what will be a defining moment in his career.

At times stark and spare, at other times vibrant and dynamic, 'Faith in the Future' is Finn's most compelling collection thus far, each song a powerfully alluring and subtly nuanced composition wedded to his distinctive short story narratives.

TRACK LISTING

Maggie I’ve Been Searching For Our Son
Roman Guitars
Newmyer’s Roof
Sarah, Calling From A Hotel
Going To A Show
Sandra From Scranton
Saint Peter Upside Down
Trapper Avenue
Christine
I Was Doing Fine (Then A Few People Died)

Produced by Dave Fridmann (Mercury Rev, The Flaming Lips), ‘Dizzy Heights’ is the third solo album by Neil Finn following 1998's Try Whistling This and 2001's One Nil.

Finn did not set out on his third solo album with a theme in mind. But by the time he came to call it after another track on the record, “Dizzy Heights”, it had become inescapable. “It crept up on me. I started noticing it in lots of places. You start off with a number of different threads and angles and demos, and they dictate the terms of the record. It’s only in the course of the process that you maybe get a feeling there’s a type of song emerging, or an atmosphere.”

Neil Finn was 18 when he was invited by his older brother Tim to join the trailblazing art rock band Split Enz. His career since might be measured as a series of bounds, the best-known being Crowded House, which he founded with Paul Hester and Nick Seymour after the breakup of Split Enz in 1984. Four albums, among them Crowded House and Together Alone, brought the group popular and critical acclaim around the world.

Along the way, there have been a host of collaborations, including with brother Tim and wife Sharon, and an array of names from Johnny Marr, Ed O’Brien, Eddie Vedder and most of Wilco. And yet Dizzy Heights unmistakably marks a fresh leap.

“I didn’t want to make it a solo record in a stripped back singer-songwriter sort of way,” says Finn. “I had a feeling Dave would be good at adding some odd shapes to the music. Which I always welcome – making things a little more expansive ... He is good at subverting things, and making things sound a bit messed up and not as obvious, rather than being too tasteful, which is always a temptation.”

TRACK LISTING

Impressions
Dizzy Heights
Flying In The Face Of Love
Divebomber
Better Than TV
Pony Ride
White Lies And Alibis
Recluse
Strangest Friends
In My Blood
Lights Of New York

Finn is German singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and fashion designer, Patrick Zimmer who splits his time between Hamburg and London, where he recently found a new home with cinematic music label Erased Tapes – a conceptualist with the voice of Leonard Cohen on helium. Born in 1977, yet combining influences that span decades, Finn had to wander through a playground of electronica and low-fi recordings to get here. His third album "The Best Low-Priced Heartbreakers You Can Own" shows a surprisingly mature and cohesive collection of haunting and mesmerizing songs as a result from his consequential musical progression. Finn lived, recorded and produced the album over the course of seven months in the catacombs of an old 14th century church underneath the streets of St. Pauli. With this release, Patrick Zimmer prescribed himself a concept album.