The seminal psych-rock classic 'The Evil One' by Roky Erickson And The Aliens is reissued by Fire Records in a deluxe 15-track edition, restoring the original front cover from San Francisco’s 415 Records release for the first time since 1981. Presented across two LPs cut at 45 rpm for maximum sonic depth and clarity, the release brings together the complete recordings from the legendary 1978 and 1979 sessions. The package includes a collector’s booklet with liner notes by acclaimed Austin music journalist Joe Nick Patoski, who attended a recording session for The Evil One in 1979. Alongside rare photographs and archival images from the collection of Roky’s then manager, Craig Luckin.

Following his release from Rusk State Hospital in 1974, Erickson formed The Aliens and channelled his experiences and fascination with horror and science fiction into a singular new sound. Moving beyond the psychedelic garage blues of the 13th Floor Elevators, the band created harder, more ferocious rock built around jagged guitars, strange melodies and a propulsive rhythm section.

Produced by Creedence Clearwater Revival bassist Stu Cook, The Evil One includes some of Erickson’s most celebrated recordings, including ‘Two Headed Dog’, ‘I Walked With A Zombie’ and ‘It’s A Cold Night For Alligators’. Erickson’s unmistakable voice and surreal lyrics, populated by zombies, demons, vampires and atomic monsters, gave the album a character unlike anything else in rock. Both the LP and CD editions feature rare photographs and images from the archive of Erickson’s then manager and the sessions’ executive producer, Craig Luckin.

'The Evil One' has since become a landmark of cult rock, with its songs covered by generations of artists and its influence extending across punk, alternative and psychedelic music. As Craig Luckin recalls, “Roky considers 'The Evil One' to be his favourite album that he ever recorded. He really loves that album.”

Austin music journalist Joe Nick Patoski, who attended one of the album’s 1979 sessions, contributes a new essay to the LP and CD packaging, exploring Erickson’s extraordinary career, enduring influence and place in Texas rock history.

More than a standalone reissue, this deluxe edition of 'The Evil One' opens an exciting new series honouring Roky Erickson’s extraordinary body of work, with 'Gremlins Have Pictures' and 'Don’t Slander Me' to follow in 2027.

TRACK LISTING

1. Two Headed Dog (Red Temple Prayer)
2. I Walked With A Zombie
3. Night Of The Vampire
4. Mine Mine Mind
5. White Faces
6. Creature With The Atom Brain
7. The Wind And More
8. Bloody Hammer
9. Don’t Shake Me Lucifer
10. Click Your Fingers Applauding The Play
11. If You Have Ghosts
12. Cold Night For Alligators
13. Stand For The Fire Demon
14. Sputnik
15. I Think Of Demons

Tropical FuCk Storm revisit the live album concept on ‘Inflatable Graveyard Vol. 2’, their second live album and the follow-up to the critically acclaimed ‘Fairyland Codex’. Recorded over three nights during a sold-out residency at New York venue TV Eye, the album finds the band at the height of their incendiary powers, turning already combustible songs into something even more ferocious and unpredictable.

Fine-tuned and road-tested through heavy touring, songs from ‘Fairyland Codex’ are stretched into new forms. Ballad 'Stepping on a Rake' takes on heavier undertones, 'Irukandji Syndrome' becomes a launchpad for a guitar solo worthy of the Velvets’ 'I Heard Her Call My Name' and 'Moscovium' sounds more urgent than ever.

The band also revisit back catalogue favourites including 'Who’s My Eugene' and 'You Let My Tyres Down', alongside a cover of Australian punk heroes The Saints’ 'This Perfect Day'.

Tropical Fuck Storm have built a catalogue worth obsessing over, but their live show is where the band’s brilliance really breaks open, and ‘Inflatable Graveyard Vol. 2’ catches that chaos in the act.

TRACK LISTING

1. Irukandji Syndrome (Live at TV Eye NYC)
2. Bloodsport (Live at TV Eye NYC)
3. Goon Show (Live at TV Eye NYC)
4. Stepping on a Rake (Live at TV Eye NYC)
5. Who’s My Eugene? (Live at TV Eye NYC)
6. Moscovium (Live at TV Eye NYC)
7. You Let My Tyres Down (Live at TV Eye NYC)
8. This Perfect Day (Live at TV Eye NYC)

The Lemonheads release a strictly limited edition 12” single featuring three classic tracks on white vinyl. Lead cut is ‘Roky’, Evan Dando’s homage to the late, great outsider genius Roky Erickson (of garage psyche legends 13th Floor Elevator and much solo strangeness).

"If Roky Erickson had vanished from the face of the earth after The 13th Floor Elevators released their epochal debut single, ‘You're Gonna Miss Me’, in early 1966, in all likelihood he'd still be regarded as a legend among garage rock fanatics for his primal vocal wailing and feral harmonica work." AllMusic

‘Roky’ is Evan's incisive take on the songwriter’s struggles and features a searing guitar break from the song's co-writer Nick Saloman (The Bevis Frond)

The Bevis Frond toured with The Lemonheads in support of the latter’s much-praised ‘Love Chant’ album of 2025 from where ‘Roky’ originally comes. And, to complete this unique package, the Frond cover two Lemonheads’ songs, ‘The Great Big No’ and ‘My Drug Buddy’; both sounding like the kind of UK-based left field power pop that inspired Kurt Cobain in the formative days of grunge – indeed, they could have snook out on the original Rough Trade or 53rd & 3rd labels at any time.

Fact fans looking for Roky-styled curveball ley line between events, might note that The Lemonheads covered The Bevis Frond’s ‘Old Man Blank’ on 2019’s ‘Varshons II’, the same year that Roky sadly passed.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Lemonheads – Roky feat. Nick Saloman
2. The Bevis Frond - The Great Big No (The Lemonheads Cover)
3. The Bevis Frond - My Drug Buddy (The Lemonheads Cover)

Shapeshifting trio Vanishing Twin present their new album 'Archives', a collage of postmodern songcraft that finds transcendence in the shared experience of creation.

The album’s title alludes to Vanishing Twin’s distinctive approach of listening to, piecing together and reworking daily recording sessions. Founding member Cathy Lucas describes the process as “gathering material together, riffing with it, turning it around on itself, trying to put the pieces together and create a story with it”. With Lucas now relocated to rural France, and Valentina Magaletti and Susumu Mukai in London, the three connected by swapping songs and fragments of instrumentals in a virtual studio space. Geographic distance is bridged by their hivemind creativity, with multi-instrumentalist input from each member.

Each player brings a wide experience of collaboration and improvisation, with listening back and editing studio sessions an integral part of the creative process. Concepts of authorship and ownership dissolve in Vanishing Twin’s music, as members swap instruments and lose themselves in the collaborative moment. The archives of the album title become documents of the trio’s collective intelligence.

The chaotic energy of 'Archives' pushes Vanishing Twin into unfamiliar shapes and directions. Out of their comfort zones, the trio find new moments of enlightenment and delight. Deep in the mix, you might hear Magaletti picking up the bass, Mukai unexpectedly sitting in on drums, or Lucas slipping chameleon-like between the gaps.

'Archives' refines Vanishing Twin’s model of collective music making, where egos are dispelled in playful games of mix and match, and creativity flows between the three multi-instrumentalists. Operating between and outside conventional categories of genre, they sit alongside fellow travellers such as Tara Clerkin Trio and Still House Plants, stretching the idea of the contemporary music ensemble. A decade into their existence, Vanishing Twin are more mercurial than ever.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Otherworldly vocals and ambient vocalisations twist around an ever-changing core of crispy percussion loops and experimental electronic interludes. A bracingly improvisational but unerringly cohesive fusion that could only come from a group of connected musicians.

TRACK LISTING

1. Life By The Hand
2. Sugar Stone
3. Familiar Fruit
4. Hazama
5. Bring Me The Axe
6. So Calm (Case Study House No. 8)
7. Wherever You Are
8. Archives
9. Oral Tradition

A darker yet delicately rendered work from Kristin Hersh, 'Sugar On Blackstone' explores life and death, enrichment and poverty, and the small but defining moments of childhood that continue to echo through adult life. Deeply personal and emotionally expansive, the album reflects on the lasting bonds between musicians, family and friends, and the way certain sounds, places and memories can suddenly bring someone vividly back into focus.

Recorded at Stable Sound Studios earlier this year, Hersh is joined by longtime collaborators Rob Ahlers (50FOOTWAVE) on drums and cellist Pete Harvey (Throwing Muses). The result is a stark yet warm collection of songs that balances fragility with force, intimacy with tension.

Rooted in Providence, Rhode Island, 'Sugar On Blackstone' draws heavily from Hersh’s reflections on home, displacement and memory. Revisiting the streets and parks of her childhood, the record traces the emotional weight of returning to familiar places shaped by grief, survival and resilience. The album’s title references Blackstone Boulevard and Hope Street in Providence, locations that become symbolic throughout the record of both loss and endurance.

Written in the aftermath of personal tragedy and against the backdrop of constant travel, wildfires and restless movement across America, the album carries an unsettled atmosphere throughout. Yet within that darkness, Hersh finds moments of tenderness and connection.

A poignant and expansive record that radiates strength in vulnerability, 'Sugar On Blackstone' stands as another essential entry in Kristin Hersh’s acclaimed and ever-evolving body of work.

TRACK LISTING

1. Dark Eyed Junco
2. Moths
3. Ticking
4. Silver Beach
5. Pink Nightgowns
6. 101 Run
7. Sundial
8. Snow White Lies
9. Dom In Orange
10. '72 Stingray
11. Samson

Limited white vinyl edition of ‘Car Button Cloth’, featuring Lemonheads classics ‘If I Could Talk I’d Tell You’ and ‘The Outdoor Type’. Celebrating the album’s 30th anniversary, this reissue includes the original record + a collection of rarities and unreleased cuts (download only), continuing Fire Records in-depth series of reissues from the legendary band.

‘Car Button Cloth' is an extraordinary affair of musical and emotional extremes, a soundscape spanning “the most beautiful piano-led mourning in the history of the broken heart” that switches into perky jangle-pop for fleeting moments and contains the ultimate self-deprecating classic ‘The Outdoor Type’, penned by Smudge cohort Tom Morgan, as well as a cover of the bluegrass standard ‘Knoxville Girl’ and ‘If I Could Talk I’d Tell You’ co-written with The Vaselines’ Eugene Kelly. All bases are covered.

TRACK LISTING

1. It's All True
2. If I Could Talk I'd Tell You
3. Break Me
4. Hospital
5. The Outdoor Type
6. Losing Your Mind
7. Something's Missing
8. Knoxville Girl
9. 6ix
10. C'Mon Daddy
11. One More Time
12. Tenderfoot
13. Secular Rockulidge

Jennifer Herrema’s Black Bananas return with 'Bad Bunch', the group’s first album since 2014’s 'Electric Brick Wall' and Herrema’s first release since Royal Trux’s 'White Stuff' (2019). Arriving via Fire Records, the album marks the long-awaited return of Herrema’s iconic vocals alongside longtime collaborators Brian McKinley and Kurt Midness.

From Royal Trux to RTX to Black Bananas, Jennifer Herrema’s work has never divided into separate phases so much as continued in motion. As Pitchfork observed, Black Bananas are an “alternate-universe RTX”, absorbing influences from synth-pop, hip-hop, French-touch house and dancehall into their own singular sound.

Originally formed over 20 years ago under the name RTX, Herrema, McKinley and Midness have evolved into a kinetically connected, freaky collective. 'Bad Bunch' finds the trio delivering a spaced-out, jazzy-rock groove, shaped by improvisation and new recording methods developed over the last decade.

Beginning more than ten years ago, the album took shape across periods of disconnected time, interrupted by the Royal Trux reunion and the upheaval of the pandemic. The result is a record that pushes Black Bananas’ innovative tendencies even further while remaining unmistakably their own.

TRACK LISTING

1 Nutrageous & Jam
2 All The Way
3 Dust Of Ages
4 Eddie’s Album
5 Cold Bussin
6. Terror Vision
7. Outta My Head
8. Sherman Dealer
9. Turkey Burgers
10. Tiny Chewbacca
11. Good Pass

Originally released in 2002, 'Like An Aspen Leaf' is a breathtaking smoky folk opus spiked with Americana longing. Nuanced with the help of members of Elbow, Voice Of The Seven Woods and Andy Votel, it emanates from a baroque pop netherworld, soundtracked by songs of regret, pinpricked by evocative melodies and sumptuous harmonies, and peppered with plaintive swathes of cello and a suitably meandering piano that lurks behind Jane’s minor chords. Now remastered for the modern age, 'Like An Aspen Leaf' is a bewitching seven-song set filled with aching melancholy.

TRACK LISTING

1. Like An Aspen Leaf
2. A Bird Stole The Gold
3. Bow + Arrow, Ball Of String
4. The Heart That Buckled You
5. Ridiculous
6. Flowers Bloom Again
7. Why Don't You Smile

Following with Jane’s first full-length album in 2006, 'Seven Day Smile' is a tongue-in-cheek collection of modern kitchen sink dramas; a wide-ranging set of floating dreampop episodes focusing on bittersweet bedsit tales, beautifully balanced between distant Americana and breathy new folk. Created by Jane featuring collaborations with Doves and Andy Votel, it’s a downtempo mirror of the northern post-Britpop era, with impetuous rhythms and super-real commentary. 'Seven Day Smile' is a mix of the unreleased 'Supersister' album sessions and her own home recordings that remains an intensely personal collection of songs.

TRACK LISTING

1. Slow Song
2. Seven Day Smile
3. Weathered
4. Starglow
5. The Sink
6. You're a Riot
7. Once You'd Given Me Up
8. In Summer
9. You're Not The Only Person That I Used To Know
10. Gutter Girl

The second full-length album from Jane Weaver, 'Cherlokalate' “spins songs into fragile and sparkling lullabies” (The Guardian). Inspired by cult folk artists, from Karen Dalton to Linda Perhacs, these ten songs create a unique commentary on personal travails through happiness and pain, all brimming with passion and sorrow. An intimate journey of ethereal folk sweetness, elevated by gorgeous production, aching pedal steel, violins and, in parts, a mutated take on VU-styled rock.

TRACK LISTING

1. It's Only Pastures
2. Bits and Pieces
3. O' To Be In This Land
4. Shoulder Seasons
5. Like An Aspen Leaf
6. The Pain
7. Is Everyone Happy?
8. It's Not Over Yet
9. Oh You Lucky Ones

Horrorful Heights marks a formidable new chapter in The Bevis Frond’s deep and storied catalogue, showcasing the enduring creativity of songwriter, guitarist and frontman Nick Saloman as he moves into yet another decade of recording. Long established as one of the most distinctive voices in British underground rock, Saloman continues to refine the band’s signature blend of melodic psychedelia, wiry guitar epics and sharp, emotionally attuned songwriting. Horrorful Heights offers one of the most approachable entry points to the band’s world in years: a record that gathers their core strengths into a cohesive, vivid set. Recorded with long-time drummer Dave Pearce and guitarist Paul Simmons, alongside new bassist Louis Wiggett, the album moves fluidly between jangling psych-pop, heavy-lit guitar workouts and pastoral comedown reveries. Wiggett also brings a surprising new colour to the Frond palette, contributing pedal steel to “Best Laid Plans” and “Momma Bear,” recalling early-70s country-tinged British rock from Bronco or Cochise.

The album’s range is wide but sharply defined. “Draining The Bad Blood” channels the classic Bevis Frond mode of melodic guitar pop—cut from the same cloth as longtime fan favourites later covered by Teenage Fanclub and The Lemonheads. “Space Age Eyes,” a concise nine-minute odyssey, nods toward the transcendental explorations of ’70s electric Miles Davis, complete with a blistering solo from Simmons and rhythmic elasticity from Pearce. The sitar-laden title track, written off-the-cuff while Saloman half-watched a football match, drifts through incense-hazed psychedelia with layered vocals and tumbling tablas—an affectionate echo of the head-shop mysticism he has toyed with throughout the band’s history.

Alongside the core album, this deluxe edition includes Horrorful Offal, an eleven-track companion drawn from the same fertile sessions. Far from a grab-bag of leftovers, it extends the world of Horrorful Heights with alternate moods, deep-cut experiments and songs that illuminate the album’s edges. Together they form a panoramic view of the Frond’s current creative streak.

Both albums are housed in a striking deluxe edition, presented in a bespoke die-cut slipcase that frames the artwork. Though unmistakably eclectic, Horrorful Heights presents a focused portrait of The Bevis Frond in 2025 - vital, tuneful and unburdened by nostalgia. Saloman describes the collection simply: the best songs he’d written in recent years, arriving unforced and instinctive. The result is a late-period peak from one of Britain’s most quietly influential underground bands.

TRACK LISTING

Horrorful Heights (2LP):
A1 A Mess of Stress
A2 Best Laid Plans
A3 Square House
A4 Quietly A5 Space Age Eyes

B1 Naked Air
B2 Horrorful Heights
B3 Draining the Bad Blood
B4 A Simple Pursuit
B5 Hiss

C1 Animal Man
C2 Romany Blue
C3 Mossbacks' Dream
C4 Buffaloed
C5 Silver Insects

D1 That's Your Lot
D2 Sink Estate
D3 I'm Gonna Drag You Into My World
D4 Momma Bear
D5 King for a Day.

Horrorful Offal (LP).
A1 Hotel Foot
A2 I Saw You
A3 Sweeties
A4 It Doesn't Become You
A5 I Can't Hold On

B1 Brackets & Screws
B2 You Can Count On Me
B3 Our Little Star
B4 Bomber
B5 Swimming In The Everglades
B6 Everything All At Once

Comedian Stewart Lee and director Michael Cumming (Brass Eye, Toast Of London) investigate a missing piece of punk history. Robert Lloyd, best known for fronting cult Birmingham bands The Prefects and The Nightingales, has survived under the radar for over four decades. But how, if at all, does Robert want to be remembered? The anti-rockumentary ‘King Rocker’ weaves the story of Birmingham’s undervalued underdog autodidact into that of the city’s forgotten public sculpture of King Kong, eschewing the celebrity interview and archive-raid approach for a free-associating bricolage of Indian food, bewildered chefs, vegetable gardening, prescription medicines, pop stardom and pop art. All of the highlights from the film are here, along with rarities which won’t appear on any of the deluxe reissues of the Nightingales’ catalogue, among them 7″ versions of “Use Your Loaf”, the Bob Luman hit “Let’s Think About Living” and “Black Country”, a glam remix of crowd favourite “Thick And Thin” and a version of Christy & Emily’s “Ghost” which rivals the Nightingales’ take on TLC’s “Unpretty” for sheer beauty. The only act with roots in the punk era that have gone on to make records more captivating, cutting and entertaining today than at any point in their past; 2022 will be a busy year for the Nightingales, with months of live dates planned, a limited edition remix 12″, deluxe reissues of both ‘Hysterics’ and ‘In The Good Old Country Way’, and a hardcover book collecting Robert’s lyrics.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A selection of brilliant Nightingales rarities and pieces from the film of the same name, written about Robert Lloyd of The Nightingales and The Prefects. A wonderful audio document in it's own right, and a perfect companion to a very funny film.

TRACK LISTING

A1 Use Your Loaf (7” Version)
A2 Surplus And Scarcity (Live)
A3 What A Carry On
A4 Let's Think About Living (7” Version)
A5 Black Country (7” Version)
A6 Ghost
B1 Born Again In Birmingham
B2 Overreactor
B3 Thick And Thin (Glam Version)
B4 Chaff
B5 The Desperate Quartet
B6 Gales Doc

Genre-bending Tropical Fuck Storm present special editions of their critically acclaimed album ‘Fairyland Codex,’ on their label home Fire Records – this edition includes an oversized poster featuring art by Joe Becker. Recorded with co-producer Michael Beach at the band’s Dodgy Brothers studio in Nagambie, Australia, the songs on ‘Fairyland Codex’ immerse us in the chaos of a fateful landslide, picking out the characters that litter the impending collapse of society.

Acidic, acerbic, anarchic; Tropical Fuck Storm's command of wordplay, undercut by snarling guitars, pulsing rhythms, and explosive salvos, populates a hinterland between light and dark. The vocal interplay between Liddiard and the soaring harmonies of Kitschin and Dunn creates a teetering balancing act that’s intensified by the frantic narratives that evolve from their collective psyche.

TRACK LISTING

1. Irukandji Syndrome
2. Goon Show
3. Stepping on a Rake
4. Teeth Marché
5. Fairyland Codex
6. Dunning Kruger's Loser Cruiser
7. Bloodsport
8. Joe Meek Will Inherit the Earth
9. Bye Bye Snake Eyes
10. Moscovium

The long-awaited reissue of 'Rifferama', the acclaimed debut album by Glasgow indie trailblazers Thrum. Out on Fire Records, the remaster revisits one of the most revered cult records of the 1990s UK guitar scene. The release includes an exclusive download of the band’s reunion show recorded live at Airdrie Town Hall in 2025, along with a new studio version of ‘Hey Joe’.

Originally released to critical acclaim, 'Rifferama' captured a moment when melody, distortion and emotional urgency collided to create something timeless. Now newly remastered from the original recordings, the album returns with enhanced depth and clarity, reaffirming its reputation as a lost classic of the era.

Fronted by the unmistakable voice of Monica Queen (known for her work with Belle and Sebastian and Snow Patrol), Thrum’s sound blended shimmering pop hooks with driving, fuzz-laden riffs. Alongside Johnny Smillie’s distinctive guitar work, the band forged a sonic identity that stood proudly alongside the era’s most influential alternative acts.

This reissue is dedicated to the late great Phil Vinall, who mixed the album.

TRACK LISTING

1. Rifferama
2. Purify
3. So Glad
4. You Wish
5. Lullaby II
6. Here I Am
7. Hey Joe
8. Won't Be Long
9. Nowhere To Run
10. Almost Done

Haylie Davis channels the spirit of the early ’70s, when Carole King and Joni Mitchell redefined songwriting. That time-travelling sensibility is celebrated on 'Wandering Star', the album’s title track and new single, out today. A piano-led meditation steeped in longing, the song carries the eerie shadow of Karen Carpenter, buoyed by a luminous, aching sub-melody.

The blissful ballad ‘Horns of Time’ taps into a plaintive cosmic country palette reminiscent of Emmylou Harris. ‘Give Me a Rainbow’ follows, a lo-fi folk reverie recalling Clairo, as if filtered through a back-porch-reclining, wide-eyed Dolly Parton in awe of her own roots. Rolling Stone has hailed Davis’ earlier recordings as “gently hued Laurel Canyon folk-pop songs”, and on Wandering Star her compass swings wider still. Her maturing worldview and distinctive vocal at times evoke Lana Del Rey and Weyes Blood crafting an ode to Gram Parsons - a hybrid on full display in the self-examining passion of ‘I Was Wrong’.

A fresh take on modern pop, 'Wandering Star' is infectious, brimming with hooks, soaring choruses and storylines that tug at the heartstrings.

TRACK LISTING

1. Country Boy
2. Golden Age
3. I Was Wrong
4. Born To Be Blue
5. Lily Of The Valley
6. Give Me A Rainbow
7. Young Man
8. Horns Of Time
9. Lonely Too
10. Wandering Star
11. Mourning Dove

'Horrorble' is a full-length dub reinterpretation of Mekons’ acclaimed 2025 album 'Horror', created in collaboration with Tony Maimone (Pere Ubu). Songs from 'Horror' are pulled apart and reshaped into a drifting dub landscape. Basslines stretch and dissolve, rhythms echo into open space and tracks are dismantled and reassembled into versions that drift, jar and unravel. Working with Maimone, the album treats dub as subtraction, space and echo rather than simple revision, revealing hidden textures and new emotional weight within the original recordings.

The partnership has deep roots. Mekons first toured with Pere Ubu in 1988 and later worked closely with Maimone in the early 1990s. That shared history informs the exploratory spirit of Horrorble, reframing the urgency of 'Horror' through atmosphere, rhythm and sonic deconstruction.

Featuring a guest appearance from Benji Webbe of Skindred on 'Mudcrawlers', the album transforms familiar material into immersive, echo-laden soundscapes that emphasise tension and depth.

The original 'Horror' confronted climate catastrophe, economic violence and political decay through rock and roll, punk and melody. 'Horrorble' reveals its shadow counterpart. Formed in Leeds in the late 1970s, Mekons have always operated as a collective, working outside trends and expectations. Guided by the belief that the political and personal remain inseparable, they continue to create on their own terms, combining experimentation with a call to organise and resist.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Did you ever wish you could have a former member of Pere Ubu, producer and New York scene mainstay dub out The Mekons' last LP? Me too! Well, now you ruddy well can. Tony Maimone stretches the pieces into simmering dubby heaters, and it works *surprisingly* well.

TRACK LISTING

1. Before The Ice Age (Version)
2. Sad And Sad And Sad (Version)
3. War Economy (Version)
4. A Horse Has Escaped (Version)
5. The Western Design (Version)
6. Glasgow (Version)
7. You're Not Singing Anymore (Version)
8. Private Defense Contractor (Version)
9. Sanctuary (Version)
10. Surrender (Version)
11. Mudcrawlers Ft. Benji Webbe (Version)
12. Fallen Leaves (Version)

'The Portcullis' draws on dungeon-synth textures, medieval ambience, and the imaginative pull of folklore. Taking the listener on a focused journey through shifting eras, symbols, and atmospheres. It plays like a lost fantasy soundtrack, inviting the listener into an adventure that feels both ancient and newly invented.

Released on Fire Records, ‘The Portcullis’ sees composer Graham Reynolds on an ancestral journey back to Launceston Castle.

"For 'The Portcullis', I took a deep dive into the history of my family’s patrilineal side. Starting with my grandfather, an ironworker who built the Hartford Cathedral, to my great great great Grandmother, who was a galley cook on a Welsh sailing ship, to the enlightenment era celebrity portrait painter, Joshua Reynolds, and finally to twelfth century know Richard Reynell (before the Reynolds spelling was standardized). Reynell was the Sheriff of Devon and the custodian of Lauceston Castle. While King Richard I was away on the crusades, Reynell made his name defending the castle from the usurper Prince John. I started making sketches of the scenes and stories I imagined. 'The Portcullis' follows Reynell from castle to castle, sequentially as they were built after the Norman invasion. On Reynell’s chest and shield is the symbol and crest of the Reynolds family: 'The Portcullis'."

TRACK LISTING

1. Pevensey
2. Hastinges
3. Warwic
4. Douera
5. Lincolia
6. Exonia
7. Grantebrycge
8. Eboracum
9. Dunelmum
10. Oxeneford
11. Wintonia
12. White Tower
13. Lauceston
14. Portcullis

Nurtured on 90s alternative indie, lucky break’s music melds the emotional directness of Fiona Apple, the wide-eyed warmth of Bedouine and the Americana-leaning alt rock of Lucinda Williams. Fans of Alvvays, Hole, Phoebe Bridgers and The Breeders will find familiar touchstones here.

lucky break is a hand-drawn cartoon character and a girl with a guitar, an ever-expanding container for the feelings that come with making art. She can be very sad and very joyful, living somewhere between worlds. On her debut for Fire Records, made it!, lucky break builds a new world for her character to inhabit.

'made it!' collects songs written between the ages of 19 and 23, documenting the uncertainty of early adulthood, the end of a first major relationship and the process of learning to stand up for yourself. Tracks like 'Crush' pair sharp lyrical insight with big drums and crisp bass, while 'Head Down' uses bright, dreamy guitars to explore themes of politics, consumer culture and moral complacency.

Confessional, direct and emotionally precise, lucky break’s songwriting is matched by a versatile and expressive vocal performance that shifts across moods and styles throughout the record. Produced with Elliott Woodbridge in Burbank, 'made it!' is a playful, self-assured debut from a young artist who has already found her voice and is stepping confidently into a bright future.

TRACK LISTING

1. Big Swing
2. Burning String
3. Camp Song
4. City Lights
5. Crush
6. Darklight
7. Head Down
8. If People Could Fly
9. Pictures Of Herself
10. Red Balloon
11. Spinning Cup

'Acknowledge Kindness' expands The Reds, Pinks And Purples’ distinctive brand of emotional pop, music built for the quiet hours and the restless mind. Evolving naturally from the heavier, melancholic indie rock of previous releases, the mood here feels more exposed and reflective, blossoming into lush dreamscapes that recall the bittersweet sorrow of The Cure or the tenderly gloomy transcendence of California by American Music Club.

Created from a new headspace, the album finds Glenn Donaldson observing both the present and the weight of what came before it. Songs lean into a deeper sense of nostalgia, allowing him to look back with intent and revisit moments that once carried a sting.

Donaldson comments: “This album is probably about learning to live with your ghosts and trying to be alive in the present. There’s a certain kind of big sounding record I aspire to make, like California by American Music Club or 16-Lover's Lane by The Go-Betweens, works that steer into the pain but become a transportational device for the listener.”

Donaldson’s vocals are captured in high fidelity, raw and immediate, with lyrical abstraction underpinned by chiming acoustic guitars and achingly beautiful piano.

‘New Leaf’ teases with a perpetual guitar line plucking at the heartstrings while a sub-melody cushions Donaldson’s musings. ‘Heaven of Love’ tackles cynicism with positive energy as it tumbles into a glorious chorus, while the guitars on ‘Worthy of Love’ chime dutifully as it dispels heavy memories and heads for a better place. Two plush instrumentals, the winsome ‘Blue Heron Lake’ and the symphonic title track, sound like Eno post Roxy pre ambient or Felt without words.

Having written more than 200 songs and released nine albums in just six years, Glenn Donaldson has shaped a distinctive songwriting world rooted in emotional clarity and romanticised wonder.

Across its 11 tracks, 'Acknowledge Kindness' expands The Reds, Pinks And Purples’ emotional and sonic panorama, with Donaldson’s ongoing world-building remaining both warmly nostalgic and strikingly original.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: There has always been a pronounced melancholic tinge to The Reds, Pinks And Purples' canon, but it comes to the fore here with Donaldson's voice and the well crafted shoegaze-adjacent instrumentals leaning heavily towards The Cure's particular brand of wavy, minor-key gloom. A solidly produced and wonderfully evocative journey, as ever.

TRACK LISTING

1. Is It You, Or Is It Them?
2. Heaven Of Love
3. Emo Band
4. New Leaf
5. Houses
6. Blue Heron Lake
7. Worthy Of Love
8. Doubt In Vain
9. Where Did I Go Last Night?
10. Build Love
11. Acknowledge Kindness

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

1000 copies on Gold vinyl. Eclectic and esoteric dreampop pioneer’s surreal 2011 score for film maker and fashion designer Paola Suhonen of the brand Ivana Helsinki. A suitably eerie and ethereal collection of ambient pieces with a nod to the Cocteau’s Liz Fraser, Tangerine Dream and Ennio Morricone. Reissued for the first time in 15 years, with brand new revitalised artwork featuring unseen stills from the film.

“A cosmic voyage to inner space.” MOJO.

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2026 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON SATURDAY APRIL 18TH ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

IF THERE ARE ANY REMAINING COPIES THEY WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE ONLINE AT 8PM (BST) ON MONDAY APRIL 20th).

The sixth in the band’s series of limited-edition super rare releases showcasing jam sessions and other miscellany.

Recorded in the Lemur House between January 2004 and March of 2005 and featuring the mind-blowingly ethereal ‘Circles’ and the super intense ‘Fulcaneli’.

Never released before, pressed on colour vinyl.

“One of underground rock’s most extraordinary enigmas.” The Quietus.

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2026 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON SATURDAY APRIL 18TH ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

IF THERE ARE ANY REMAINING COPIES THEY WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE ONLINE AT 8PM (BST) ON MONDAY APRIL 20th).

1000 copies on Orange vinyl. The late, great Martin Phillipps circa 1996. Following the self-combustion of the original Chills in the States, a set of gloriously introspective songs recorded in the UK with Fairport’s Dave Mattacks and XTC’s Dave Gregory when the new line-up were turned away at Heathrow. A Phillipps solo album by default, that led to a hiatus before The Chills’ glorious return in 2013. Back on vinyl for the first time in 30 years with revitalised artwork and pressed on colour wax. “The Chills’ Martin Phillipps leaves a legacy of melancholy brilliance.” The Guardian.

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2026 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON SATURDAY APRIL 18TH ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

IF THERE ARE ANY REMAINING COPIES THEY WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE ONLINE AT 8PM (BST) ON MONDAY APRIL 20th).

1000 copies on Yellow vinyl. A brand-new musical project from two pioneers, released for the very first time as part of Record Store Day 2026. This is music that feels both ancient and immediate - haunting, beautiful, and defiantly different on a new EP from Tanya Donelly - co-founder of Belly, Throwing Muses, and The Breeders - and Chris Brokaw, guitarist/singer for the legendary Come and longtime collaborator with Codeine, Thurston Moore, and The Lemonheads. A beautiful reimagining of the centuries-old form of the madrigal for the modern era. Pressed on colour vinyl.

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2026 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON SATURDAY APRIL 18TH ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

IF THERE ARE ANY REMAINING COPIES THEY WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE ONLINE AT 8PM (BST) ON MONDAY APRIL 20th).

1500 copies on Red vinyl. Unreleased rare recordings from The Dream Syndicate’s awesome ‘Medicine Show’ era, circa 1983-84. Featuring rehearsals and live out-takes including a wayward take on Dylan’s ‘Knocking On Heaven’s Door’ plus the anti-war opus ‘Morning Dew’ featuring producer Sandy Pearlman. “Dense with songs of violence, paranoia, lurking evil, and Karl Precoda's uncanny guitar.” Uncut.

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2026 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON SATURDAY APRIL 18TH ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

IF THERE ARE ANY REMAINING COPIES THEY WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE ONLINE AT 8PM (BST) ON MONDAY APRIL 20th).

500 copies on Blue vinyl. First time on vinyl since its original release in 2001. Following Giant Sand’s celebrated ‘Chore Of Enchantment’, ‘Confluence’ is a beatnik travelogue traversing moods and mindsets with Howe joined by a host of friends and family along for a trip that mixes spidery piano, an Elvis cover and plenty of dustbowl ambience. Pressed on colour vinyl. “A wandering troubadour in search of treasured happenstance, Howe Gelb is an enigma.” The Quietus.

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

1000 copies on Silver Vinyl. Exclusive unreleased live recording from Fire Records' 40th anniversary extravaganza in London – Giant Syndicate are Giant Sand, Steve Wynn (The Dream Syndicate) and Kristin Hersh (Throwing Muses). A caustic cacophony, like Neil Young in his Arc Weld period, as Giant Sand are fused with The Dream Syndicate for a live event to celebrate 40 years of Fire Records. Home favourites became chemically imbalanced, Iggy’s ‘Lust For Life’ is revived and Kristin Hersh of Throwing Muses arrives to dismantle Memphis Minnie’s ‘When The Levee Breaks’. A Paisley-hued live maelstrom all to celebrate the ever glowing Fire. Pressed on colour vinyl.

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2026 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON SATURDAY APRIL 18TH ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

IF THERE ARE ANY REMAINING COPIES THEY WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE ONLINE AT 8PM (BST) ON MONDAY APRIL 20th).

500 copies on Lemon Yellow vinyl. Back on vinyl for the first time in over 25 years. Renowned as one of Kurt Cobain’s favourite albums and not available on vinyl since its original release in 1990, an experimental improv collage of tunes old and new, haphazardly dissected for maximum impact. Kurt: “I like to listen to Jad Fair and Half Japanese with headphones on, walking around shopping malls — in the heart of the American culture. I just think that, if people could hear this music right now, they’d melt.” Pressed on colour vinyl. “One of the longest running art-punk bands in history.” The Quietus.

Life Slime is the sixth full-length album by Pictish Trail (AKA Johnny Lynch) — a strange, tender, psychedelic electro-pop record shaped by transformation, exhaustion, hope, guilt, and renewal. Written at home on the Isle of Eigg and recorded at Mike Lindsay’s studio down in Margate (Tunng / LUMP), the album follows 2022’s critically acclaimed Island Family, further refining Lynch’s world of lo-fi electronics, warped pop melodies, baggy psych rhythms and emotionally direct songwriting. It’s a record that balances woozy synth-pop, motorik propulsion and intimate acoustic songwriting, all infused with the emotional messiness that gives the album its title.

Across the album’s singles — the guilt-stained psych-pop ballad ‘Hold It’, the life-affirming shimmer of ‘Infinity Ooze’, the late-night confession of ‘Torch Song’, the expansive eight-minute centrepiece ‘Another Way’, and the cinematic closer ‘Werewolf Ending’ — Life Slime charts a journey from emotional fracture to uneasy release. ‘Sorry Eyes’ brings a punchy electro-pop strut with a sharp emotional edge, ‘Crystal Cave’ drifts through crystalline guitars and shoegaze haze into transformation, and the title track ‘Life Slime’ moves with a slow, weary swagger toward bittersweet acceptance. Together, these tracks form a cohesive album statement about surrender, resistance, change and renewal.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: High-definition pop music, gorgeously evocative athletic vocals and otherworldly, unexpected instrumental coimpositions. Lynch has consistently managed to push the boundaries of singer-songwriter pop music over the past few albums and 'Life Slime' shows how his off-piste meanderings are only getting more effective and (if possible) even more unexpected. Brilliant.

TRACK LISTING

1. Hold It
2. Life Slime
3. Toxic Spillage
4. Battery Pack
5. Another Way
6. Sorry Eyes
7. Infinity Ooze
8. Crystal Cave
9. Torch Song
10. Werewolf Ending

'Horrorful Heights' marks a formidable new chapter in The Bevis Frond’s deep and storied catalogue, showcasing the enduring creativity of songwriter, guitarist and frontman Nick Saloman as he moves into yet another decade of recording. Long established as one of the most distinctive voices in British underground rock, Saloman continues to refine the band’s signature blend of melodic psychedelia, wiry guitar epics and sharp, emotionally attuned songwriting. 'Horrorful Heights' offers one of the most approachable entry points to the band’s world in years: a record that gathers their core strengths into a cohesive, vivid set.

Recorded with long-time drummer Dave Pearce and guitarist Paul Simmons, alongside new bassist Louis Wiggett, the album moves fluidly between jangling psych-pop, heavy-lit guitar workouts and pastoral comedown reveries. Wiggett also brings a surprising new colour to the Frond palette, contributing pedal steel to 'Best Laid Plans' and 'Momma Bear', recalling early-70s country-tinged British rock from Bronco or Cochise.

The album’s range is wide but sharply defined. 'Draining The Bad Blood' channels the classic Bevis Frond mode of melodic guitar pop—cut from the same cloth as longtime fan favourites later covered by Teenage Fanclub and The Lemonheads. 'Space Age Eyes', a concise nine-minute odyssey, nods toward the transcendental explorations of ’70s electric Miles Davis, complete with a blistering solo from Simmons and rhythmic elasticity from Pearce.

The sitar-laden title track, written off-the-cuff while Saloman half-watched a football match, drifts through incense-hazed psychedelia with layered vocals and tumbling tablas—an affectionate echo of the head-shop mysticism he has toyed with throughout the band’s history. Elsewhere, 'Mossback’s Dream' splices lysergic leads with the propulsive energy of ’80s American hardcore, forging a hybrid that feels both timeless and entirely its own.

Additional highlights include the Byrds-tinged 'Buffaloed', the swirling narrative freeze-frame of 'Silver Insects', and 'That’s Your Lot', a rapid-moving burst of melancholic euphoria and one of the record’s most immediate songs.

Though unmistakably eclectic, 'Horrorful Heights' presents a focused portrait of The Bevis Frond in 2025 - vital, tuneful and unburdened by nostalgia. Saloman describes the collection simply: the best songs he’d written in recent years, arriving unforced and instinctive. The result is a late-period peak from one of Britain’s most quietly influential underground bands.

TRACK LISTING

1. A Mess Of Stress
2. Best Laid Plans
3. Square House
4. Quietly
5. Space Age Eyes
6. Naked Air
7. Horrorful Heights
8. Draining The Bad Blood
9. A Simple Pursuit
10. Hiss
11. Animal Man
12. Romany Blue
13. Mossbacks' Dream
14. Buffaloed
15. Silver Insects
16. That's Your Lot
17. Sink Estate
18. I'm Gonna Drag You Into My World
19. Momma Bear
20. King For A Day

MEMORIALS jump off the waterslides and head above the clouds with their stunning second album, ‘All Clouds Bring Not Rain’. The duo of Verity Susman and Matthew Simms (formerly of Electrelane and WIRE) locked themselves away in a studio in a barn secluded deep in the woods in southwestern France and re-emerged with a beautiful, unusual record that is both melodic and unconventional. For such an ambitious album it’s striking that it was written, performed, recorded and mixed solely by the two of them.

Sounding like an unearthed classic, MEMORIALS twist their influences into their own unmistakable sound. Imagine Nico singing with Can produced by David Axelrod and you’re somewhere in the right ballpark. The record draws inspiration from a wide range of music including folk, dub, post punk, experimental tape music, 60s soul, garage rock, 70s spiritual jazz and Canterbury prog.

This attention to detail in their sound meant finding several other studios to get what they needed to record with, including a harpsichord at 4AD’s studio in London and a vibraphone and vintage Leslie speaker in Stereolab drummer Andy Ramsay’s studio Press Play.

Verity’s distinctive, unadorned singing is a focal point of the record, moving from tender to wild. Her vocal melodies quickly become earworms, providing the tuneful heart around which the songs’ more unorthodox elements are arranged, which is where Matthew’s unconventional approach to recording and production comes to the fore.

With their adventurous arrangements, classic songwriting skills and innovative production techniques, MEMORIALS have created another mesmerising listen that’s accomplished and compelling in its unique approach yet remains dizzyingly immersive - just like their acclaimed live shows.

TRACK LISTING

1. Life Could Be A Cloud
2. Cut Glass Hammer
3. I Can't See A Rainbow
4. Dropped Down The Well
5. In The Weeds
6. Reimagined River
7. Mediocre Demon
8. Bell Miner
9. Lemon Trees
10. Watching The Moon
11. Wildly Remote
12. Holy Invisible

New “Inversions” of drone rock pioneers Earth’s debut release. A collaboration between Dylan Carlson and Black Noi$e (Armand Hammer, Danny Brown, Earl Sweatshirt) formed in mutual respect and appreciation for one another. Both artists were intrigued by the creation of vast musical landscapes and the connection of music, with its ability to transport the listener. The music of Earth was recognised and celebrated for moving at a glacial pace and yet this new collaboration surprisingly saw Black Noi$e slowing things down even further.

The debut, which originally came out in 1991, notably featured Kelly Canary and Kurt Cobain on vocals on the tracks 'A Bureaucratic Desire for Revenge Part 2' and 'Divine and Bright'. Black Noi$e reimagines the original recordings with his experimental sensibility and innovative multi-instrumental, cross genre exploration. Applying contemporary electronics to the heavy droning bass and guitars and languid rhythms, this inversion oscillates and reverberates with a different kind of energy whilst simultaneously highlighting the much loved low slow and distorted properties of the original.

‘Extra Capsular Extraction’ was the first music Dylan made with Earth and his first time in a recording studio, which he recalls at the time as being “terribly exciting”. It also marked the first time collaborating with others and seeing it reified into a tangible object or product, a spirit that Dylan has carried through to the present. The original album is a document of a specific period and Dylan’s creative development. These inversions of 'Extra Capsular Extraction' are, to quote Dylan, “an exciting way to reintegrate them into the present time and with my more expanded conceptions of musical endeavours”.

TRACK LISTING

1. A Bureaucratic Desire For Revenge Part 1 (Black Noi$e Inversion)
2. A Bureaucratic Desire For Revenge Part 2 (Black Noi$e Inversion)
3. Ouroboros Is Broken (Black Noi$e Inversion)
4. Geometry Of Murder (Black Noi$e Inversion)
5. German Dental Work (Black Noi$e Inversion)
6. Divine And Bright (Black Noi$e Inversion)
7. Dissolution I (Black Noi$e Inversion)

‘Memorial Waterslides’ is the debut album from MEMORIALS, the duo consisting of Verity Susman and Matthew Simms (previously of Electrelane and Wire). This is an otherworldly, surrealist pop record that is both timeless and timely, displaying a rare mix of classic songwriting and avant-garde attitudes.

MEMORIALS create panoramic pop that draws on both the familiar and the strange, while also treading new ground. With their playful and experimental style, combined with a love of good tunes, they sit comfortably alongside Broadcast, Portishead, Arthur Russell, The Velvet Underground, Yo La Tengo and Tortoise.

The album is awash with imagery evoking a lost future, a veiled present and a daydreamed past, each song playing a role in creating a swirling, widescreen atmosphere, the listener taken along for the ride. Produced entirely by the two of them, the sound of the record was inspired by the reel-to-reel tape experiments they first played around with onstage as they began to develop their multi-layered recordings for live performances as a duo.

Following their acclaimed 2023 soundtracks ‘Women Against The Bomb’ and ‘Tramps!’, a European tour with Stereolab (they’ve been called “Stereolab’s evil twin”) and a new music commission from the Centre Pompidou in Paris, Verity and Matthew arrived at MEMORIALS in reverse, escaping their soundtracking day jobs to create cosmic journeys through the garden shed into psychedelic rock, far-out folk and wild analogue electronics.

“Exciting and unpredictable” The Guardian.

“Everything you’d expect from a duo adept in the strange and esoteric, while also in thrall to pop music’s melodic bent.” The Quietus.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
A1 Acceptable Experience
A2 Lamplighter
A3 Cut It Like A Diamond
A4 Name Me
A5 Memorial Waterslide II

Side B
B1 Book Stall
B2 False Landing
B3 Horse Head Pencil
B4 I Have Been Alive
B5 The Politics Of Whatever

Scandinavian indie pop four-piece Hater end a three-year hiatus following their formidable third album Sincere with the release of 'Mosquito', an intriguing dream pop drama played out across eleven gripping instalments of self-examination.

On 'Mosquito', Malmö-based Hater sound rejuvenated – they embrace the raw indie pop approach that they’ve become known for, but with a more direct, polished songwriting style. The band have refined their shoegaze roots into something sharper, more melodic, and deeply resonant. 'Mosquito' overflows with stories where mythical twists (vampires, Cupid, mosquitos) are underpinned by the sad-eyed yearning for true love. But this is not your typical album about love the band are keen to point out.

'Angel Cupid' unfurls in slow motion, a gorgeously controlled diatribe against bland love songs when you’re locked out of that emotion yourself. The curious lead single 'This Guy?' is a mystery in itself: the tale of a strangely confused interloper, unidentified and unidentifiable – and the band themselves call it “a quiet confusing song”. Entering an echoey cavern of gothic strangeness, 'Stinger's insistent drums and Caroline’s lyrics worm into the inner thoughts of a love struck supernatural.

An emotional rollercoaster by any other name, 'Mosquito' spills over with half remembered broken hearts and broken promises, filled with torture and tingle, yet punctuated by hopes and dreams for future resolutions.

'Mosquito' was recorded in the splendid isolation of AGM Studios in Vollsjö, Sweden, with long-time collaborator Joakim Lindberg at the controls and bassist Adam Agace returning to the fold. They completed the project at Lindberg’s famed Studio Sickan, with Caroline Landahl, Måns Leonartsson, Rasmus Andersson, and Adam Agace all contributing equally to a sound that morphs between punchy introspection and melancholy realisation.

TRACK LISTING

1. Landslide
2. Angel Cupid
3. This Guy?
4. Stung Again
5. Mosquito
6. Brighter
7. Guts
8. Still Thinking Of You
9. Stinger
10. Sad Eyes
11. Last Summer I'll Spill

‘Moonlight Concessions’ goes back to basics, a return for Throwing Muses to their esoteric off-kilter best courtesy of Kristin’s pin-sharp sketches and their suitably abrasive musical arrangements. The album follows their acclaimed ‘Sun Racket’ from 2020, a heady set filled with tough and tender tales spiked with surreal imagery.

Produced by Kristin Hersh at Steve Rizzo's Stable Sound Studio in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, ‘Moonlight Concessions’ is a collection of snippets from everyday life writ large - think Raymond Carver Short Cuts, overheard conversations, recounted happenings and telling one-liners, all sewed together to illustrate the times as they slowly mature, fully peppered with original Muses’ vim and vigour.

‘Drugstore Drastic’ is a kerbside soliloquy caught en route to a more alluring rendezvous. Built on a brisk acoustic strum with a guitar sub-melody underpinning proceedings, it’s an unfolding tale of social awareness from a blurred sub-conscious. ‘Summer Of Love’ began as a bet with a guy for a dollar that revolved around the idea that the seasons don’t change us. The album opener, it’s a haunting baroque overture, bowed and brooding. ‘Libretto’s strings offset the acoustic ambience, the hot and cold of longing at the very heart of it, a thematic driver filed with warmth in a safe haven lubricated by tequila.

Written in the differing South Coast environs of The Gulf Of Mexico and Southern California, ‘Moonlight Concessions’ pulls from the star clusters that light both, generating optimism and hope in varying degrees. Hersh explains, “In New Orleans the stars look greenish-blue, as it’s below sea level and swamp-lit. But on Moonlight Beach, they glow icy white. All these songs were written in these two glowy places, which helped our sonic technique find itself.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Guttoral baritone guitar passages and drunkenly staggering drum loops sit beneath the Shellac-adjacent instrumental harmonies and Hersch's distinctive, perfectly engaged vocals. Hazy, half-remembered fever dreams, rendered by a unique musical voice.

TRACK LISTING

1. Summer Of Love
2. South Coast
3. Theremini
4. Libretto
5. Albatross.
6. Sally's Beauty
7. Drugstore Drastic
8. You're Clouds
9. Moonlight Concessions

Italian singer-songwriter Marta Del Grandi returns with Dream Life, an album that bustles in a field of dreams, a multi-dimensional panoramic snapshot punctuated with serene disillusionment, that transcends musical boundaries as personal hopes and aspirations are cast against the vastness of the stars and beyond.  

The record opens with Antarctica, addressing the world’s ethical dilemma and shaking us out of our comfort zone with a riff reminiscent of Talking Heads in their prime, infused with Laurie Anderson-like abstract phrasing.  While Neon Lights underlines the sentiment but tackles it on a more personal level, its fuzzy guitars and roaming bass offering a harsher slice of rebellious self-exploration set in a symphonic swirl of sound. 

“My previous album Selva had a poetic and bucolic nature - in my head I can picture each song as an oil painting - Dream Life has a more contemporary approach, with lyrics touching political and social issues, a more explicit personal storytelling and a more defined pop sound. It’s more like a photobook, more defined and detailed”. - Marta Del Grandi 

Further into Dream Life, Alpha Centauri is a haunting introspective slice of pop magic that allows Marta’s gorgeous vocal to prowl in nostalgia for teenage times, rediscovering her inner child while a distant tuba carries a counter melody. The title track examines the quantum leap between reality and our dreams and ambitions, a counter point to Shoe Shaped Cloud and its brooding study of a relationship gone awry that’s propelled by an aching vocal which recalls Radiohead at their most brittle.  

The album reflects a growing awareness that we cannot fully control the future or the outcome of our plans. This thread weaves throughout the record, a journey that is poetic, ironic, and deeply grounded in the present.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Bright, understated melodies and organic rhythms mix with jazzy flourishes and off-kilter production, all topped with Del Grandi's quirky vocal affectation, resulting in an album that defies categorisation in the best possible way.

TRACK LISTING

A1 You Could Perhaps
A2 Dream Life
A3 Antarctica
A4 20 Days Of Summer
A5 Alpha Centauri
B1 Shoe Shaped Cloud
B2 Neon Lights
B3 Gold Mine
B4 Some Days (feat. Fenne Kuppens)
B5 Oh, My Father

On its 15th anniversary 'The Fallen By Watch Bird' is reissued as a special expanded edition with The Watchbird Alluminate, featuring reinterpretations by Demdike Stare, The Focus Group, Anworth Kirk, Emma Tricca and others. Originally released on Weaver’s own label Bird Records, it is a tapestry of psychedelic femme-folk-rock drawing influence from Eastern European children's cinema, Germanic kunstmärchen, 70s television music and 80s electronic scores. Steeped in synths and mysticism, this fully realised conceptual record weaves imagery of absent sailors, telekinesis, bird messengers and white witchcraft alongside pagan themes of death and rebirth. A formative masterpiece from her ever-growing discography, 'The Fallen By Watch Bird' continued to build on the themes of its predecessor ('Like An Aspen Leaf') and innovative production techniques developed in her earlier releases.

Presented across seven chapters it features performances from Septième Soeur Wendy Flower of the Wendy & Bonnie folk-pop duo who released 1969’s Genesis, Lisa Jen – Welsh vocalist on Gruff Rhys’ 'Candylion' – lost American folk-pop singer Susan Christie and Bosnian folk musician and violinist Behar.

As accompanying extras, ‘The Watchbird Alluminate’ continues with a sense of wonderment through explorations into drone, psychedelia, folk and shapeshifting soundscapes. Inspired by post-war cinematic interpretations and the traditions of chronicling folk stories, Weaver reimagines the original release with spoken word narrative from Susan Christie reinterpreted by Ghostbox’s Focus Group; elsewhere Bird label artists Emma Tricca and falsetto soloist Magpahi offer their own interpretations. The release evokes David Lynch’s Twin Peaks on ‘Whispers of Winter’ with Wendy Flower alongside alluring vocal moments reminiscent of Vashti Bunyan (‘Turning In Circles’ ft. Emma Tricca) and Kate Bush (‘My Soul Was Lost & No one Saved Me’ ft. Magpahi).

Jane Weaver’s illustrious career has produced an expansive library of music that has seen her journey through solo folkloric and pop leaning beginnings through to the psychedelic synth-pop explorations of today. Celebrating her pioneering vision, Fire Records will be deep diving into her early catalogue with a new reissue series set for release in 2026.

TRACK LISTING

1. Europium Alluminate
2. A Circle And A Star
3. The Fallen By Watch Bird
4. Turning In Circles
5. Hud A Llefrith
6. Whispers Of Winter
7. Noctilumina
8. My Soul Was Lost, My Soul Was Lost, And No One Saved Me
9. Silver Chord
10. Jane Weaver Septiéme Soeur With Demdike Stare – Europium Alluminate
11. The Focus Group With Susan Christie– A Circle And A Star Part 1 (Poetry By Michael Hill)
12. Jane Weaver Septiéme Soeur – The Fallen By Watchbird (Video Edit)
13. Emma Tricca – Turning In Circles
14. Jane Weaver Septiéme Soeur - Majic Milk
15. Jane Weaver Septiéme Soeur With Wendy Flower – Whispers Of Winter
16. Jane Weaver Septiéme Soeur With Anworth Kirk –Noctilumina
17. Magpahi – My Soul Was Lost, My Soul Was Lost & No One Saved Me
18. Jane Weaver Septiéme Soeur* With Samandtheplants And Wendy Flower – Silver Cord
19. The Focus Group With Susan Christie - A Circle And A Star Part 2 (Poetry By Michael Hill)

57 years on since it's original release, ‘Scratching The Surface’ is The Groundhogs extraordinary debut album. A landmark in the British blues movement in the 60s, the record released in 1968 includes their fierce reworking of Muddy Waters’ ‘Still A Fool’.

TRACK LISTING

1. Rocking Chair
2. Early In The Morning
3. Waking Blues
4. Married Men
5. No More Doggin'
6. Man Trouble
7. Come Back Baby
8. You Don't Love Me
9. Still A Fool.

A much-loved opus with a side-long concept piece. A bona fide inspirational rock classic. “Tony McPhee has turned to anarchic paranoid battlegrounds of the mind for inspiration,” Melody Maker. And a second side that delivers the mighty ‘Cherry Red’, McPhee’s take on The Beatles’ ‘A Day In the Life’, a sideswipe at junk food and a glorious interpretation of John Lee Hooker’s ‘Groundhogs Blues’

TRACK LISTING

1. Split - Part One
2. Split - Part Two
3. Split - Part Three
4. Split - Part Four
5. Cherry Red
6. A Year In The Life
7. Junkman
8. Groundhog

The second studio album from The Groundhogs, now slimmed to the classic three piece line up of Tony TS McPhee on guitar, Pete Cruikshank on bass and Ken Pestelnik on drums. The beginning of their domination as the hardest working band on the circuit, a testament to their creativity as they re-tooled the blues into a neo-psyche groove. Breaking from their traditional influences, the first stepping stone for the power trio who would blossom with ‘Thank Christ For the Bomb’, ‘Split’ and ‘Who Will Save The World?’. Inspired by a Yardbirds’ freak out, hearing authentic Indian drumming and the magic that existed between this legendary trio, ‘Blues Obituary’ is a juggernaut of riffs. According to Tony in Zig Zag’s John Tobler’s sleeve notes to the 1987 re-issue of ‘Blues Obituary’ it was the BBC’s John Peel producer John Walters that forced the band’s hand. “He decided he hated the blues,” McPhee told Tobler, “We figured it was time to get away from it.” “A deep excursion into musical depths further down than Canned Heat ever dared go.” The re-issue also includes a mono-friendly single cut of ‘BDD’ plus its original B-side ‘Gasoline’, an aching solo Tony TS McPhee track.

TRACK LISTING

1. B.D.D.
2. Daze Of The Weak
3. Times
4. Mistreated
5. Express Man
6. Natchez Burning
7. Light Was The Day
8. B.D.D. (Mono)
9. Gasoline

Featuring epic 1970 concepts from this far reaching trio much praised by Underworld’s Karl Hyde, Captain Sensible, Stephen Malkmus and a host of others. ‘Thank Christ For The Bomb’ is a visionary tale of cold war fear, alienation and everyday drama.

A thinking man’s rumination on alienation, the album is a game of two halves; side one tackling the thermo nuclear threat while side two traces riches to rags alienation in everyday London. First of a trio of ground-breaking albums that steered the band from the Blues into a heavier, more prog-based sound and a true reflection of their much praised live sound.

TRACK LISTING

1. Strange Town
2 Darkness Is No Friend
3 Soldier
4 Thank Christ For The Bomb.
5 Ship On The Ocean
6 Garden
7 Status People
8 Rich Man, Poor Man
9 Eccentric Man

'Long March Through the Jazz Age' is the last album by Chris Bailey and The Saints. It’s a moving farewell - a testament to a restless, uncompromising artist who always moved forward, one of rock’s great lyricists and iconoclasts.

Recorded in late 2018 at Church Street Studios in Sydney, Bailey and longtime Saints drummer Pete Wilkinson flew in from Europe to reunite with guitarist/engineer Sean Carey, who had previously toured and recorded with the band. They were joined by Davey Lane (You Am I) on guitar, plus a handpicked ensemble of Sydney’s most exciting young horn, string and keyboard players. From Bailey’s rough demos, 'Long March Through the Jazz Age' grew into a deeply human snapshot of modern times.

'Empires (Sometimes We Fall)' is the album’s anthemic opener, cast on a bedrock of western guitars punctuated by Bailey’s aching lyrics: “Sometimes we rise, sometimes we fall”. It’s the perfect set up for an album that swaggers with Bailey’s inherent punk spirit while flowing freely in a spacious production. A 12-string adds harmony and warmth to the string-laden Judas, it is a glorious melancholic piece, 'Gasoline' smacks of the Stones country honking for 'Exile On Main Street', while 'Bruises' is a candid recollection of how this celebrated troubadour got to where he did.

There are moments of Dylan-esque majesty as chiming guitars and strings widen the panoramic scale, while the title track carries a haunting, poetic intensity, its mournful trumpet break as spine-tingling as anything you'll hear. 'Long March Through the Jazz Age' marks the end of Chris Bailey and The Saints’ remarkable journey - over four decades of music making and rule defying.

TRACK LISTING

1. Empires (Sometimes We Fall)
2. Break Away
3. Judas
4. Vikings
5. Bruises
6. Gasoline
7. The Key
8. Resurrection Day
9. Carnivore (Long March Through The Jazz Age)
10. Will You Still Be There

After years of writing, wandering, and starting over, Evan Dando returns with 'Love Chant', the first Lemonheads studio album of original material in nearly two decades. Long in the works and shaped by shifting geographies and a cast of trusted collaborators, it’s a bold, melodic reaffirmation of one of alternative rock’s most distinctive voices.

Now based in Brazil, where much of the album was recorded, Dando’s relocation in recent years has offered a quiet shift in perspective — a chance to reset, reconnect, and finally bring these songs into focus. The result is a record that sounds both fresh and familiar: rooted in the hallmarks of The Lemonheads’ best work, yet expanded by years of lived experience and new surroundings.

'Love Chant' was produced by Brazilian multi-instrumentalist Apollo Nove, it draws together old friends and new allies. J Mascis (Dinosaur Jr), Juliana Hatfield, and Tom Morgan rejoin the fold, alongside producer Bryce Goggin (Pavement, Antony and the Johnsons), Nashville’s Erin Rae, John Strohm of the Blake Babies and Nick Saloman of The Bevis Frond. Adam Green of cult New York favourites The Moldy Peaches also contributes as co-writer on the loose-limbed country detour 'Wild Thing'.

Over the past few years, The Lemonheads’ influence has only deepened. Artists like MJ Lenderman, Courtney Barnett and Waxahatchee have all covered Dando’s songs, praising the emotional clarity, melodic instinct, and wry intimacy that define his writing. That resonance across generations makes 'Love Chant' feel like more than a return — it’s a reminder of what made this band matter in the first place.

TRACK LISTING

1. 58 Second Song
2. Deep End
3. In The Margin
4. Wild Thing
5. Be-In
6. Cell Phone Blues
7. Togetherness Is All I'm After
8. Marauders
9. Love Chant
10. The Key Of Victory
11. Roky

Minimal and nuanced, 'Diary of a Candle' is a consoling, melodic suite from acclaimed experimental composer, musician, and producer Faten Kanaan. On this album Faten uses counterpoint as a narrative tool to create music that is mysterious, smudgy, and deeply melodic. From the repetitive structures of modern minimalism and early music/baroque influences - to more languid textural ebbs and tides, there's a warmth in her use of synthesizers that gives her work a curiously timeless feel. Composing intuitively, her music creates its own world - one that isn't easily categorised.

'Diary of a Candle' is punctuated with tender woodwinds and richly-layered strings, touched by the hazy atmospheres of 1970s/1980s films. Its understated heart-on sleeve romanticism follows the rhythm of nature: it bends in the breeze, drifts through the air, and settles on the ground. The ambiance is not an escapism, but the re-focusing of a lens through which humans are no longer the protagonists. Instead, a landscape's intimate details become the central figures.

With the sparseness of Hiroshi Yoshimura's 1982 album 'Music for Nine Post Cards' as a starting-point influence, Faten's music exudes a wistful yet hopeful sentiment, honouring moments of beauty in the world around us. Some of the album titles are inspired by East-Asian rites and folkloric superstitions, often related to nature.

All music written performed and mixed by Faten Kanaan and mastered by Heba Kadry.

TRACK LISTING

1. Afternoon
2. Celadon
3. Tsukumogami (Sensu)
4. Book Of Changes
5. Supercore
6. Acorns
7. Soseol
8. Alcoyana-Capri
9. Scene For A Wooden Room
10. Sondol Baram
11. Barjees
12. Naming The Cloud (Version 2)

Black Lips return with a brand-new studio album, 'Season Of The Peach', a 40-minute rock and roll odyssey, tripping through DIY genres where garage rock meets new wave pop, and disgruntled country shakes hands with epic western soundtracks. The 14-track album captures the energy and spirit of early Black Lips while simultaneously applying new approaches to songwriting.

The album is a musical merry-go-round, a journey featuring road-weary tales from the underbelly of a lights-out America. It’s bookended by 'The Illusion' parts one and two: a barroom quest for hope, fear, and hate, thwarted at each turn by a sense of resignation, “you reach for the sky / but it’s an illusion.” Elsewhere, 'Wild One' plays out like a Morricone romp through another day in Hell. A mantra for the hungover, a skin-crawling lament in praise of the wild at heart.

'Tippy Tongue' sees Black Lips take on 60s girl group soul, like The Shangri-Las and Ronettes infiltrated by Jayne/Wayne County, paying homage to Buddha Records. Meanwhile, 'Kassandra' has a guitar sound scrubbed clean for a Sunday, chiming its way through ever-spiralling salvos like The Chocolate Watchband with Zappa on vocals. 'Zulu Saints' is an upbeat country honk, a good-time brush with bravado, peppered with Cole on an incredulous radio phone-in show, looking for black-eyed peas and winning big on the slot machines.

For the recording sessions they holed up in the bucolic surroundings of drummer Oakley’s new Sound At Manor studio in the Catskills (the first album recorded there since Oakley built the studio in 2020). In this idyllic setting, the band disconnected from city life and committed their music to analogue tape, part of their quest to embrace spontaneity and capture the energy of a live Black Lips show on record.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A woozy, grand psychedelic journey from Black Lips here, sounding like a slo-mo mashup of classic rock, garage and folk, with modern production and instrumental clarity perfectly highlighting the band's brilliant musicianship.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Illusion Part Two
2. Zulu Saints
3. Sx Sx Sx Men
4. Wild One
5. So Far Gone
6. Judas Pig
7. Kassandra
8. Baptism In The Death House
9. Until We Meet Again
10. Tippy Tongue
11. Happy Place
12. Prick
13. Hatman
14. The Illusion Part One

Released alongside their new album 'Season Of The Peach', 'Bebop Armageddon (Detours & Offcuts From Season Of The Peach)' is a wild companion piece: a collection of demos, alternate versions, and sonic misadventures dragged from the edges of the Lips’ recent sessions and committed to wax for the real heads.

If 'Season Of The Peach' is the full-colour hallucination - part garage rock fantasia, part scorched-earth Americana - 'Bebop Armageddon' is its ragged, magnetic shadow. These 14 tracks take a more deranged route through the same terrain, offering up mutant sketches, beautiful wreckage, and freak-scene detours that rumble with raw charm and chaotic invention.

There are alternate mixes (‘Kassandra’), demo versions (‘Judas Pig’, ‘Zulu Saints’), and woozy reimaginings like ‘The Illusion Pt. 1 (dream mix)’. There are brand-new diversions too - ‘Colt 44’ (featuring King Khan) rattles forward like a freight train threatening to derail, while ‘Satan’ and ‘Back To Kiev’ offer up scorched psych, barroom gospel, and haunted front-porch melodies in equal measure.

All tracked to analogue tape at Oakley Munson’s Sound At Manor studio in the Catskills, Bebop Armageddon captures the spirit of the sessions in raw, unmannered form. No clean lines. No retakes. No gloss.

This is the chaos underneath the polish - the cuts that wouldn’t behave.

TRACK LISTING

1. Kingdom Come
2. Colt 44 (ft. King Khan)
3. Step Back Old King Cole
4. Gunnin'
5. Bound For Rodeo
6. Zulu Saints (Demo)
7. Sx Sx Sx Men (Remix)
8. Back To Kiev
9. The One
10. Satan
11. Back With The Breeze
12. Judas Pig (Demo)
13. Kassandra (Alternate Mix)
14. Gunnin Demo (Instrumental)
15. The Illusion Pt. 1 (Dream Mix)

Whitney K returns with ‘Bubble’, his first album for Fire Records and follow-up to 2022’s acclaimed ‘Hard To Be A God’. Whitney K continue his migrant mind games, summoning up a series of intriguing characters, littered with everyday foibles and fantasies.

Along the way, he pens a journal of possibilities as he travels further into transient America, touching on everything from bar room chatter, rumour and distortion to misinformation, daydreams, misunderstanding and self-realisation; with anecdotes lifted from the paperback in his back pocket and his half-forgotten past.

‘Bubble’ is a 13-part cerebral mystery that unravels on songs that bring to mind the gruff sentimentality of the late Kris Kristoferson, Lennon’s ‘Jealous Guy’, Eels at their most troubled and the American Gothic sketches of David Ackles; the perfect soundtrack for a Raymond Carver book club.

TRACK LISTING

1. Heaven
2. Something Strange
3. Jolene
4. Freud Estate
5. TV Dreaming
6. The Ocean
7. Sunshine2
8. Beetlejuice
9. Morning After
10. Apocalypse Rock
11. We'll See
12. Rosy
13. Lately

Delving into the Great American Songbook of Howe Gelb, 'Sandworms' is a new collection that rephrases and rephases the legacy of Giant Sand across generations. This release offers bold reinterpretations from Water From Your Eyes, Deradoorian, Jesca Hoop & John Parish, Lily Konigsberg, Holiday Ghosts, Ella Raphael, Monde UFO, The Golden Dregs, and Gently Tender.

The ever-present Giant Sand and their one-man cerebral traveller, Howe Gelb, are anchored by a reputation for idiosyncratic storytelling. A “natural storyteller,” Gelb’s multifarious musical delivery adds an enduring sense of wonder as he extols the virtues of happenstance. This collection celebrates the esoteric and singular journey Giant Sand have taken, through alt-country, jazz, lo-fi experiments, and beyond, while their legacy is reimagined here by a new generation of artists paying tribute to their lasting influence.

Brooklyn duo Water From Your Eyes, known for their stoner humour, fatalistic undercurrents, and art-pop flair, bring a delicate balance of punk riffing and dream-pop escapism to 'Warm Storm', first heard on Giant Sand’s 'Ramp' (1991). Whitney K takes on 'Happenstance' (from 1994’s 'Glum'), unravelling its existential puzzles with a whispering baritone that recalls the hushed intensity of Leonard Cohen.

Drifting further into orbit, Angel Deradoorian reinterprets 'Center Of The Universe', the title track from the band’s 1992 album, transforming its desert-fried rock into a spaced-out Sun Ra-paced drama. Elsewhere, 'Yer Ropes', a jaw-dropping highlight from 'Glum', is taken on by The Golden Dregs, blurring sentimentality and relationship mismanagement into something truly strange and moving.

A special collection for both long-time fans and the newly curious, 'Sandworms: The Songs of Howe Gelb and Giant Sand' is released via Fire Records and includes liner notes from Dave Henderson (Mojo).

TRACK LISTING

1. Jesca Hoop & John Parish - But I Did Not
2. Lily Konigsberg - Shiver
3. Water From Your Eyes - Warm Storm
4. Whitney K - Happenstance
5. Deradoorian - Center Of The Universe
6. Gently Tender - Forever And A Day
7. The Golden Dregs - Yer Ropes
8. Holiday Ghosts - New River
9. Ella Raphael - A Hard Man To Get To Know
10. Monde UFO - Who Am I?

In the madrigal-strewn world of neo folk-psychedelia, the queen of drones holds court…In this late teen decade, as green men are burnt, resources dwindle and naturalists plunder for authentic Englishness, the hunt for the grail-like 'Silver Globe' continues. Back in 2014, the story was first whispered; A mythical jaunt set to a motorik rhythm, played out in an overgrown forest of ideas: Jane Weaver’s ‘The Silver Globe’ was a conceptual delicacy – “a synth-ridden post-apocalyptic prog-pop opus based on tightly embroidered, non-linear recurring themes inspired by esoteric stories, cosmic imagery and re-filtered past experiences”. Since those heady beginnings, our heroine has time travelled to darker times and been celebrated for her glorious ‘Modern Kosmology’ (top album of 2017, here, there, everywhere).

TRACK LISTING

1. The Silver Globe
2. Argent
3. The Electric Mountain
4. If Only We Could Be In Love
5. Don’t Take My Soul
6. Cells
7. Mission Desire
8. Stealing Gold
9. Arrows
10. Your Time In This Life Is Just Temporary

Legendary indie travellers Half Japanese return with their new album 'Adventure'. The prolific outsider combo, helmed by the ever-optimistic Jad Fair, delivers a heartwarming set of upbeat sonnets celebrating the power of love, affection, and maturity.

More than 50 years since Jad and his brother David emerged from their lo-fi bedroom in Uniontown, Maryland, USA, Adventure takes the latest incarnation of the band down new and more refined avenues. Recorded in London at Vacant TV and produced by Jason Willett and Jad, Adventure presents a more pristine and polished canvas for Jad to expand upon. The addition of Euan Hinshelwood to the sonic palette, with saxophone, harmonica, and piano, creates a smoother backdrop for the band’s less lubricated sound.

'Lemonade Sunset' is an ode to the world of wonder, a spacious overture built with melancholy in mind but relishing the positivity of life. By contrast, 'Step On Up' revolves around a glorious rising piano motif that hints at Steely Dan if they were high on energy drinks and spinach rather than their usual tipple. It’s a light-hearted evocation of the good times.

'Magnificent' is a homage to living in the present tense, powered by the bittersweet saxophone, with a glorious piano-led sub-melody offsetting Jad’s positivity: “magnificently magnificent,” no less. Elsewhere, ringing percussion and sharp arrangements provide Jad with a sturdy and far reaching soundtrack to lament over. 'Adventure' sees Half Japanese covering new ground, with Jad’s considered soliloquies set in a sumptuous setting.

The lineup for Half Japanese on Adventure includes Jason Willett (bass, keyboards), Gilles-Vincent Rieder (drums, percussion), John Sluggett (guitar, piano, bass), Mick Hobbs (guitar), Euan Hinshelwood (guitar, saxophone, piano, harmonica), and Jad Fair (vocals, percussion). Sadly, longstanding member Mick Hobbs passed away last year.

TRACK LISTING

1. Beyond Compare
2. Step On Up
3. Meant To Be
4. Possibilities
5. Things
6. That's Fate
7. Adventure
8. The Summer Of Love
9. Stars Don't Lie
10. Lemonade Sunset
11. Magnificent
12. Blame It On Your Smile

Pulp had changed significantly since their debut 'It'. By this time every member bar Jarvis had moved on but the addition of Russell Senior proved to be a pivotal turning point for the band. No longer did Pulp sound pastoral, easy-natured; now they were darkly romantic, brooding, noisy and a little bit Gothic, in the way young folk who brush their hair a certain way are always a little bit Gothic.

Pulp were out-of-tune with the times: but the times didn't satisfy Pulp. The album is quite marvellous. Most of these songs stand the distance of time: it was here, possibly even more than 1992's Separations, that Pulp started coming into their own as a band with a fully-realised aesthetic. The first disc is the original album, unaltered and in its entirety. The second is a bonus disc comprising of tracks from the two big non-album singles from the same era, 'Little Girl (With Blue Eyes)' and 'Dogs are Everywhere'. Two further b-sides 'Tunnel' and 'Manon' complete the second disc for the definitive 'Freaks' period release. Pulp's 'It' and 'Separations' will be reissued at the same time for the complete Pulp on Fire collection.

TRACK LISTING

DISC 1 :

1. Fairground
2. I Want You
3. Being Followed Home
4. Master Of The Universe
5. Life Must Be So Wonderful
6. There's No Emotion
7. Anorexic Beauty
8. The Never Ending Story
9. Don't You Know
10. They Suffocate At Night.

Bonus Disc 2 :

11. Little Girl (With Blue Eyes) (BONUS)
12. Simultaneous (BONUS)
13. Blue Glow (BONUS)
14. The Will To Power (BONUS)
15. Dogs Are Everywhere (BONUS)
16. The Mark Of The Devil (BONUS)
17. 97 Lovers (BONUS)
18. Aborigine (BONUS)
19. Goodnight (BONUS)
20. Tunnel (BONUS)
21. Manon (BONUS)

Pulp’s debut and one of their most honest recordings - capturing a band at the beginning of their startling career. ‘It’ is a gentle, mainly acoustic album that hints at the musical directions Pulp would later pursue. The album touches on the majestic, theatrical ballads of Scott Walker, as well as the stark, folky song poems of Leonard Cohen. Certainly an album by a young band trying to pinpoint their direction, and absorbing many an influence from all around, ‘It’ has aged beautifully into a charming collection.

Fire are to reissue Pulp’s 1983 debut album ‘It’ as part of the Fire reissue series with bonus material. Re-mastered and repackaged. New liner notes by Everett True. Featuring 4 Bonus tracks including single version of ‘My Lighthouse’ and alternative mix of ‘Blue Girls’, the previously unreleased ‘Sink Or Swim’ and ‘Please Don’t Worry’ from Pulp’s John Peel session in 1981.

TRACK LISTING

1. My Lighthouse
2. Wishful Thinking
3. Joking Aside
4. Boats And Trains
5. Blue Girls
6. Love Love
7. In Many Ways
8. Looking For Life
9. My Lighthouse (Single Version)
10. Please Don't Worry
11. Blue Girls (Alternative Mix)
12. Sink Or Swim

Pulp’s 1992 album ‘Separations’ is part of the Fire reissue series with unreleased bonus material. Their third and last album on Fire, Pulp had already transformed from their debut ‘It’ through the dark electronic phase of Freaks and were garnering significant momentum. Now critically acclaimed and with a live reputation matched by only a few, most of the songs on Separations sound fully-realised in that undeniably Pulp manner that was soon to be experienced everywhere. And, for the first time, there was an inescapable disco pulse.

This is the transition album where Pulp, caught between a doomed romantic outsider past and an acid-bright future, made an album that brilliantly reflects both. Remastered and repackaged. Liner notes by Everett True. Featuring 4 bonus tracks ‘Death Goes To The Disco’ and ‘Is This House’, as well as an extended version of the single ‘Countdown’ and the previously unreleased ‘Death Comes To Town’. Separations spawned two of Pulps most successful singles to date in ‘Countdown and ‘My Legendary Girlfriend’ with the latter being placed on many top singles of 1991 lists by major music publications. Pulp’s ‘It’ and ‘Freaks’ will be reissued at the same time for the complete Pulp on Fire collection. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Love Is Blind
2. Don't You Want Me Anymore?
3. She's Dead
4. Separations
5. Down By The River
6. Countdown
7. My Legendary Girlfriend
8. Death II
9. This House Is Condemned
10. Death Goes To The Disco (BONUS)

11. Is This House? (BONUS)
12. Countdown (BONUS Extended Version)
13. Death Comes To Town (BONUS)

Having penned over 200 songs in the last six years, The Reds, Pinks and Purples release a collection of tracks previously unreleased on physical format that continues to romanticise the wonders and woes of the world.

With song titles that read like chapter sub-heads for a post-Douglas Coupland novella, ‘The Past Is A Garden I Never Fed’ takes The Reds, Pinks and Purples central orator Glenn Donaldson through the turmoil of small talk and everyday water cooler moments with a fine sense of pathos and irony.

Set to a soundtrack that swerves between the dark days of Television Personalities and Byrdsian twang to the Jarvis Cocker-styled rhetoric and vocal tenderness of ‘Richard In the Age Of The Corporation’ with hints of everything from Husker Du’s fuzzed splendour to the chiming majesty of The Chameleons it’s an empowering listen.

The pathos and irony of the glorious track ‘The World Doesn’t Need Another Band’ sets out the band’s store, it’s a measured and quietly outspoken rant at lacklustre opposition peppered with a gorgeous guitar break. Meanwhile, ‘I Only Ever Wanted To See You Fail’ rumbles with an Eddie And The Hot Rods pre-punk riff before dissolving into a tale of self-doubt and remorse, bemoaning others’ good luck. ‘Toxic Friend’ is from the book of the TVP’s Daniel Treacey with an upbeat chorus that smacks of all that was good in old school indie in a hail of fuzzy logic and guitars.

From humble beginnings as a home recording project, The Reds, Pinks and Purples has blossomed into a sporadic live unit with tours on both sides of the Atlantic and appearances at Pitchfork Fest London and Woodsist Fest as well as support slots for indie legends such as Destroyer, Guided By Voices, and The Feelies.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A lovely selection of pieces that haven't ever been available on a physical format from one of our favourite psychedelic jangle-pop outfits, and most prolific songwriters. It's always a hit and miss affair, the ol' B-sides compilation, but if anyone can sidestep that, it's the RP&P. A great, stylistically fluid collection.

TRACK LISTING

1. The World Doesn’t Need Another Band
2. I Only Ever Wanted To See You Fail
3. A Figure On The Stairs
4. Slow Torture Of An Hourly Wage
5. Trouble Don’t Last
6. You’re Never Safe From Yourself
7. Your Cult Is On Fire
8. My Toxic Friend
9. Your Taste Makes You Strange
10. Marty As A Youth
11. What’s The Worst Thing You Heard?
12. No One Absolves Us In The End
13. Richard In The Age Of The Corporation
14. There Must Be A Pill For This

On her debut album, Lucy Gooch stays true to her electronic foundations, while incorporating more acoustic instrumentation and digging deeper into her folk roots through songwriting. But at the heart of Lucy’s music is her rapturous vocal, with which she has experimented more than ever over the course of her first full-length.

Many of the pieces on ‘Desert Window’ started out as vocal improvisations from which she pulled a narrative. Taking cues from the incantatory chanting found in middle English poetry such as ‘The Names of the Hare’, as well as the prescient imagery in contemporary works like ‘The Hearing Trumpet’ by Leonora Carrington (1974). “To a larger extent, this became an experiment in placing my voice in a more narrative way, while remaining oblique,” Gooch explains.

While her previous work could be compared to drawn-out landscapes punctuated with moments of romance and radiance, this album feels grounded in materiality and the everyday. Gooch’s voice is at times strident, while elsewhere restrained and broken. “I lost connection to my voice and then had to rediscover it, which was exhilarating. There were these bursts of energy where I’d be messing around and occasionally stumble upon something”. There are hushed melodies and exhausted squalls, creating dissonance and space.

The result is an atmospheric balance between Kate Bush and Cocteau Twins harmonies, Vangelis major chords, and a juxtaposition of folk ambience reminiscent of the offset madrigals of The Third Ear Band and Italian cult film composers Goblin. It is a complex and elegant album, an all-consuming series of songs that reach into jazz, electronica and classical song construction.

TRACK LISTING

1. Like Clay
2. Night Window (Part One)
3. Night Window (Part Two)
4. Keep Pulling Me In
5. Jack Hare
6. Clouds
7. Our Relativity
8. Desert Window

Seattle drone-rock titans Earth release their latest live document, 'WEM Dominator (Live in London NW1, 2016)', an unrelenting display of the band’s seismic force, recorded during their performance at London’s KOKO in 2016. Sharing the bill with legendary heavyweights Neurosis, Earth delivered a set of hypnotic intensity, crushing volume, and towering, glacial beauty.

For over three decades, Dylan Carlson and his ever-evolving ensemble have been crafting tectonic soundscapes that defy convention, forging a path between meditative drone and colossal doom-laden riffs. 'WEM Dominator' is an album of mesmeric modal patterns, it’s a recording that captures the trio’s intricate, slowly evolving euphoria in a period when their experimentation swerved through endless possibilities. From the creeping grandeur of The 'Bees Made Honey In The Lion’s Skull' to the ominous crawl of 'Even Hell Has Its Heroes', the album presents Earth at their most immersive and powerful.

This record reasserts Earth’s mastery of atmosphere and weight, where every note feels tectonic, and silence itself becomes an instrument of crushing tension. It is a hypnotic, stripped down sonic symphony embracing influences as wide ranging as the Velvet Underground, Terry Riley and La Monte Young, a visceral slow-motion reading of the original sound that inspired Sun O))) and the generation that followed.

The lineup of this performance was Dylan Carson (guitar), Jodie Cox (baritone guitar) and Adrienne Davis (drums), it was recorded live at KOKO, London on November 7th 2016 and is mixed and mastered by Mell Dettmer at Studio Soli in Seattle.

TRACK LISTING

1. Bees Made Honey In The Lion's Skull (Live In London NW1, 2016)
2. There Is A Serpent Coming (Live In London NW1, 2016)
3. Descending Belladonna (Live In London NW1, 2016)
4. Even Hell Has Its Heroes (Live In London NW1, 2016)
5. High Command (Live In London NW1, 2016)

Swedish trio Death And Vanilla follow their much-praised re-imagined soundtracks to ‘Vampyr’ (2017) and ‘The Tenant’ (2018) with their interpretation of the soundtrack to cult 1968 TV show ‘Whistle And I’ll Come To You’ via Fire Records.

At a time when post-ambient electronica and bedevilled folk music are co-habiting, and the public’s interest in Pagan rites and rituals has been sparked by a new generation of fans. The bizarre storyline of Whistle And I’ll Come To You seems even more pertinent… and strangely haunting.

The Jonathan Miller-adapted 1968 ghost story was originally part of BBC’s Omnibus series and featured Michael Horden as a fussy professor who discovers an ancient whistle which summons up the spirits. A black and white folkloric tale in the style of The Wicker Man, the original TV programme received rave reviews.

The esoteric live score was recorded at the Hypnos Theatre in Malmö. The 42-minute soundtrack utilises stuttering tape loops on ‘Intro’ before breathing new life into the primitive John Carpenter-like drum machine on ‘Supernatural Breakfast’, while ‘Walk On The Beach 2’ sounds like a hauntological rendition of a Broadcast classic. Indeed, that effect is amplified on ‘Nightmares’, with its swirling wind and other-worldly choral effect, before the feeling of some supernatural presence is suggested on the penultimate cut ‘Evidence Of Spiritualism’.

TRACK LISTING

1. Intro
2. Arrival
3. Has It Been Good Here?
4. Spooky Breakfast
5. Walk On The Beach
6. Whistle
7. Supernatural Breakfast
8. Walk On The Beach 2
9. Nightmares
10. Evidence Of Spiritualism?
11. The Apparition

A double LP package from Bardo Pond, combining two of their super rare jam volumes on vinyl for the first time. A further edition in this celebrated series, ‘Volume 4’ and ‘Volume 5’ feature more freeform improvisational pieces from the hypnotic Philadelphia outfit.

Capturing the raw essence of the band, whose fearless exploration blurs the lines between structure, chaos, melody and noise. Bardo Pond's music traverses space rock, acid rock, post-rock, shoegaze, noise, Krautrock and psychedelia.

‘Volume 4’ hails from self-released sessions recorded in January 2002, its five tracks include the supremely tripped out heaviness of ‘K2’ and the balance-shifting ‘New Drunks (Revisited)’ with Isobel Sollenberger’s exquisite and, frankly, quite disturbing vocal. They’re shorter interrogations of sound by Bardo terms, almost succinct in their mesmerising riffage and off-kilter arrangements.

By contrast, ‘Volume 5’ consists of two lengthy mantras recorded between 2000 and 2004 and released as the tape spool spiralled out. ‘FUFO’ sounds like Cluster unravelling with Merzbow mixing, a post-industrial slew of hypnotic proportions, while ‘Monarch’ begins as a Current 93-like neo-folk mood piece before evolving into a wailing slice of drone-drenched Americana by way of a Velvets’ jam.

“We were pushing improvisations as far as we could. It was glorious having the studio. The more that our heads were spinning after a session, the better we knew that session would sound when we listened back. We were getting together two nights a week, usually three or four hours working on material and songs and the other half the time letting loose. Volumes 4 and 5 gather together some of these improvisations, and one early song that we felt like doing.” Adds Michael Gibbons of Bardo Pond.

TRACK LISTING

1. Take What You Need
2. K2
3. New Drunks (Revisited)
4. Pangolin Dance
5. Narmada
6. Fufo
7. Monarch

Deradoorian (Decisive Pink, Dirty Projectors) returns with ‘Ready for Heaven’, dealing with heaven and earth, damnation and salvation. It is a classic forty-minute set of inquisitive pop songs, blessed with a lightness of touch and a sharp focus that can’t help but charm the listener. It conjures up some last, faint afterglow of the old belief that an electronic, programmed beat can smash itself - and you - into another, more egalitarian consciousness

It is a remarkable fact that this bold and open-hearted record is made by one person, working alone. Repeatedly reworking the songs until they were complete is a painstaking process that generated an energy and space where Angel Deradoorian could indulge in the arcana of her artform. “I love the production more than the songwriting. [...] In fact, I don’t even feel like a songwriter at times, I feel like someone who is just inspired by so much music. And I want to try it all out! Like Lizzy Mercier Descloux, Mingus, or ESG and Silver Apples, or making weird krautrock and industrial music. I love dub, and Sly and Robbie. I love the productions of those records and the collective energies released by their creators in the studio. It’s just a weird thing to do it by yourself!”

Engaging with past musical glories helps deal with a major theme of this album; the awful nature of the world around us. Deradoorian: “This album is partly about watching humanity erode. It’s about mental struggle, and it’s avowedly anti-capitalist. I mean; would we have all these identity labels we have to live by, if we didn’t live in a capitalist world?”

A lot of the lyrical content deals with the struggle to be a human being in the modern world, and the determination to keep on keeping on. But even when a darker mood informs a track, as with ‘Hell Island’ or ‘Digital Gravestone’, there are arrangements that seduce and hooks that ensnare.

We are dealing with a world where there is too much chaos to cut through and where human connections are burnt dry. ‘Ready for Heaven’ is an avowedly human response to the world we find ourselves in, and Deradoorian uses every ounce of her reserves of wit and knowledge to create a source of comfort and solace for the listener.

TRACK LISTING

1. Storm In My Brain
2. Any Other World
3. No No Yes Yes
4. Digital Gravestone
5. Set Me Free
6. Golden Teachers
7. Purgatory Of Consciousness
8. Reigning Down
9. Hell Island

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2025 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON SATURDAY APRIL 12TH ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

IF THERE ARE ANY REMAINING COPIES THEY WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE ONLINE AT 8PM ON MONDAY APRIL 14th.

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2025 EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

Extremely rare demo recordings from the alt rock iconoclasts, previously only available on a handful of cassettes back in 1998. Before the rush of their much-hailed ‘Twin Infinitives’ in 1988, the formidable Royal Trux recorded an collection of demos. This highly sought-after release features early recordings of ‘Walkin’ Machine’, ‘Cut You Loose', and ‘Gold Dust’ alongside the Neil Young-penned ‘Time Fades Away’. Released in full on vinyl for the first time, this is an essential for any Royal Trux fan documenting the formative years of the influential duo who left an incomparable legacy to admire in their wake. “Royal Trux were nothing if not fearless.” Pitchfork. 

TRACK LISTING

A1 Walkin' Machine
A2 Bad Blood
A3 Gold Dust
A4 Red Stars
A5 The Set Up
A6 Super Sly
A7 Incineration
A8 Time Fades Away
A9 Cut You Loose
A10 Luminous Dolphin
B1 Andersonville
B2 Hawk'n
B3 Jack Insurance
B4 Bare Bones
B5 Archie Again

Legendary postmodern, post punk, post human, past caring collective Mekons return with a brand-new album for 2025. Their first release on Fire Records, ‘Horror’ a collection of songs written in late 2022 but providing a horribly prescient reflection of the world in its current miasma and how we got here.

‘Horror’ looks at history and the legacies of British imperialism with mashed up lyrics set against a typically eclectic sound that amalgamates everything from dub, country, noise, rock & roll, electronica, punk, music hall, polka and you can even take your partner for a nice waltz on ‘Sad And Sad And Sad’. The roots of their global sound reflect their nomadic journey through time and space from Leeds to California in the West and Siberia in the East and is woven into the fabric and intricacies of their song creation…

Sounding like The Chills and R.E.M circa the I.R.S Records years, ‘Mudcrawlers’ sees just about the whole band joining Jon Langford on vocals speaking of Irish famine and refugees journeying to Wales. ‘War Economy’ shivers in the cold of such Boroughs spiked one-liners: “Clinical coercion will not achieve dominance!” Sounding like its straight off a Jenny Holzer neon sign (she of Abuse Of Power Comes As No Surprise), it’s held together by a disgruntled swaggering riff that underpins an explosion of disquiet.

Meanwhile, Rico takes the lead on the maliciously luscious ‘Fallen Leaves’ an appalled and appalling Hammer Horror take on climate breakdown reminiscent of Rolling Thunder Dylan, that recalls The Pogues at their most introspective, its Celtic twilightism augmented by Susie Honeyman’s keening violin as the dying sun sinks down and the river Styx flows on in the pitch black night.

Almost 50 years in the making, these Mekons continue to astound, their sound, sentiment and method of delivery blended to perfection by bass player and studio wizard, Dave Trumfio. The Mekons are Jon Langford, Sally Timms, Tom Greenhalgh, Dave Trumfio, Susie Honeyman, Rico Bell, Steve Goulding, and Lu Edmonds.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Western Design
2. Sad And Sad And Sad
3. Glasgow
4. Fallen Leaves
5. War Economy
6. Mudcrawlers
7. A Horse Has Escaped
8. Private Defense Contractor
9. Sanctuary
10. Surrender
11. You're Not Singing Any More
12. Before The Ice Age

The Nightingales return with ‘The Awful Truth’, a modern mutant music hall interpretation of the day’s news, a haunting jolt into realism narrated with all the angst of an insistent, slightly dishevelled late-night newscaster. Following the widely celebrated Stewart Lee-narrated King Rocker film in 2020, the curtain has finally been raised on the magic of the “long serving punk/alternative rock volunteer” (The Quietus). As pertinent as ever, The Nightingales release a poignant tirade on modern times heralded, quite rightly, as ‘The Awful Truth’.

Opening cut, ‘The New Emperor’s New Clothes’ is an upbeat immersive eruption with a thumping percussive piano holding proceedings in order; think the Velvets meet Fairport Convention in a crowded boozer, still waiting for their man. ‘Same Old Riff’ recalls Bowie’s ‘Queen Bitch’ rekindling the class war struggles and throwing sharp focus on the national unrest in the summer of 2024.

Robert Lloyd’s acidic one-liners trace the collapse of modern society, retaining the harmonious warble of a veteran pub crooner infected with the growl and grouse of The Fall, Nick Cave and at times Beefheart reincarnated.

In the early 80s they enjoyed cult status as darlings of the credible music scene and were championed by John Peel, who said of them – “Their performances will serve to confirm their excellence when we are far enough distanced from the 1980’s to look at the period rationally and other, infinitely better known, bands stand revealed as charlatans.” Their time has indeed come.

The Nightingales are Robert Lloyd, Andreas Schmid (Faust) on bass, Fliss Kitson (Violet Violet) on drums and guitarist, James Smith (Damo Suzuki).

TRACK LISTING

1. The New Emperor's New Clothes
2. Same Old Riff
3. The Gates Of Heaven Ajar
4. The Men, Again
5. The Best Revenge
6. Just Before
7. Warm Up
8. Joyce
9. All Smiles
10. The Limpest Bark
11. The Princess And The Piss Artist
12. Giddy Aunt
13. The Morning After Mouth

Acclaimed composer (A Scanner Darkly, Before Midnight, Hit Man) and musical maverick Graham Reynolds releases his debut solo album for Fire Records.

Pressed on limited edition purple/white splatter vinyl and housed in a deluxe Die Cut ‘Mountain’ Sleeve with a DL card.

“The quintessential modern composer” The Independent.

A socio-geographic trip along the sierra in your mind, standout title track ‘Mountain (Part 1)’ is filled with romantic orchestral sweeps conjuring up an image of a vast landscape disrupted by a singular peak, while ‘…Part 2’ takes a more jagged path, traversing an angular ridge before steadying itself into a piece of Hermann-esque Hitchcock. ‘Mt Monadnock’ in New Hampshire is namechecked, while the ‘Enchanted Rock’ (a thunderous Einstürzende Neubauten-like reawakening of the senses played out on Graham’s signature booming orchestral drum) stands just outside of Austin, Texas, Reynolds’ home-base for over 30 years.

Composed and performed by Graham Reynolds, with contributions from his rotating cast of musical compadres, the album was produced and mixed by mysterious English duo Peter Talisman. There are surprises throughout the album as Austin neighbour Jad Fair (Half Japanese) pops up with backing vocals along with Italian chanteuse Marta del Grandi whose evocative words on ‘Linger In Silence’ spark a wonderful re-awakening of the exquisite seven-minute stand-out ‘Prophet Harmonic’.

“This album is personal. It starts with Monadnock, the first mountain I ever climbed, up in New England. The first side ends with Enchanted Rock, the first mountain I climbed in my adopted state of Texas. And, though I’ve been releasing music for my whole adult life, this is the first time I’ve had real label support for something of my own, unattached to a film or other media. So, in a way, oddly, it’s my first real solo album” Graham Reynolds.

TRACK LISTING

A1 Monadnock
A2 The Lost Weekend
A3 Great Western
A4 Long Island Sound
A5 Prophet Harmonic
A6 Enchanted Rock
B1 Caretaker Of Kings
B2 Mountain Part 1
B3 Mountain Part 2
B4 Linger In Silence Feat. Marta Del Grandi
B5 The Lost Weekend (Revisited)
B6 Splendor Falls

Monde UFO follow the celebrated ‘7171’ album with a trip to the mysterious ‘Flamingo Tower’. In the shadows of the Los Angeles bustling music scene, the enigmatic collective led by visionary Ray Monde create a trance-like fusion of psychedelia and avant jazz, mantra-like evocations, brash moody ambience and passages reminiscent of long-lost library music.

Magnifying Monde UFO’s idea of musical chaos, their early sonic escapades into off-kilter exotica is now elevated with sweeping atmospheric waves of sound inspired by an eclectic brew of Arto Lindsey, Khan Jamal’s ‘Drum Dance To The Motherland’, Keith Hudson, Milford Graves, Marion Brown, Don Cherry and Lennie Tristano.

Cast deep into number theory with occasional quasi-religious touchstones, ‘Flamingo Tower’ bustles with background sounds overlaid with intimate melodies conjuring plenty of suitably strange illusions; a synthetic orchestra plays baroque pop, a guitar is set to auto destruct and Ray Monde’s hushed vocals carry a bracing narrative. It’s an evocative album, one for the heavy music nerds, sprinkled with ear candy and proliferated by mysterious numbers which litter the song titles.

TRACK LISTING

1. Gambled House We're Wiping Fire (psalm -1)
2. Sunset Entertainment 3
3. Samba 9
4. Old Town Pollution
5. Ave Tascam (psalm 0)
6. 119
7. Il Mortificanto
8. No Sight Screening
9. Devil Food Cake
10. Solitaire
11. Psalm 3

‘Spring Board: The Early Unrecorded Songs’ is a Martin Phillipps passion project. A dedicated reimagining of his earlier unreleased songs that became his artistic farewell, a lasting legacy, and a reminder of his huge, underappreciated talent. The album has been finalised for release with the love and support of his band, family and friends.  

As the subject of an undulating life and times movie – The Chills: The Triumph And Tragedy Of Martin Phillipps – Chills’ singer, songwriter and main motivator, Martin Phillipps spent the last decade releasing studio and live albums while careering into his sixtieth year with typical gusto.

Amid such momentum, Martin was stilling digging through old tapes, searching for the foundations that resulted in global rapture in 1987, an overnight success that took a mere seven years to ignite. These early songs and musings were revisited, revised and finally put to record. As such, ‘Spring Board’ is the final chapter of The Chills, immeasurably significant output.  

‘Spring Board: The Early Unrecorded Songs’ is alarming, personal, brittle and at times hopelessly upbeat. This is a man casting his mind back on an esoteric career that led to nothing short of cult status; someone rediscovering his roots, his innermost thoughts, hopes and fears. 

The Chills are Martin Phillipps, Oli Wilson, Erica Scally, Callum Hampton and Todd Knudson. ‘Spring Board’ features contributions from Fur Patrol’s Julia Deans, Elroy Finn and Split Enz, Crowded House alumni Neil Finn, Tiny Ruins’ Hollie Fullbrook, Manics producer Greg Haver, Troy Kingi, Shona Laing, Tami Neilson, Dianne Swann (Everything That Flies) and Purple Pilgrims’ Clementine Valentine.

TRACK LISTING

1. Dolphins
2. Learn To Try Again
3. If This World Was Made For Me
4. Juicy Creaming Soda
5. I'll Protect You
6. And When You're There
7. Declaration
8. Stay Longer
9. Slime
10. Steel Skies
11. Jellyhead
12. Such Self Pity
13. Meet My Eyes
14. Bad Eggs
15. Lion Tamer
16. The Other
17. Since You Left Me
18. Watching Old Home Movies
19. I Saw Your Silhouette
20. I Don't Want To Live Forever

Following on from her formative debut ‘Adolescence’, Thala releases her remarkable new album ‘Avalanche’ on Fire Records. As 2023’s EPs revisited painful chapters in her life, ‘Avalanche’ offers a more focussed worldview, tackling more mature matters of the heart. Drawn to the cerebral emotion of early 90s shoegaze and indie rock, these are songs to live by. This is pop music that blossoms from verse to chorus much like Sharon Van Etten, with piercing soundscapes by way of Ethal Cain and Wolf Alice.

A reawakening, full of positivity and purpose from the everyday thrall of life. ‘Avalanche’ sees Thala caught in that moment when indie confidently explodes into soaring panoramic rock, a coming of age statement and a strident evolution from her previous work. Opening cut ‘1st of the year’ is a heady slice of realisation that everything’s not going to work out as planned and is an outpouring of emotion which reveals a darker side to her music.

It sets the scene for a cathartic awakening; Thala is a performer living life’s rich adventures and rolling with its punches; ‘don’t want u to die’ is an honest parable filled with modern-day melancholy, it’s a liberating piece of indie rock that surges with dramatic heft and is executed with pinpoint precision; ‘spit it out’ is a cursory chronicle of revenge served cold, while ‘tongue-tied & starry-eyed’ (featuring Communion artist Sfven) is the understanding that sometimes you just have to move on. Thala takes us on her personal trip as ‘drive song’ slides into a somnambulant plea with vintage Cure-like chiming guitars while ‘body to you’ raises the ante with a gloriously triumphant chorus of “it’s alright, it’s alright”.

TRACK LISTING

1. 1st Of The Year
2. Body To You
3. Don't Want You To Die
4. Drive Song
5. Spit You Out
6. Sinner
7. Sleep Paralysis
8. Tongue-tied & Starry Eyed Feat. Sfven
9. It’s Good
10. Avalanche

Rats on Rafts descend further into the brooding wasteland on their new album ‘Deep Below’, a darker, slower, eroded sound from the Rotterdam band. Highlighting different shades within the monochrome landscape compared to their previous, more colourful albums: they dive deeper into their psyche, questioning our relationships with nature, religion and each other. Echoes of The Cure, Cocteau Twins and Slowdive seem present yet so many different influences make up an album that only they could create. It sees Rats on Rafts coming of age whilst raising their heads from the underground.

Forever drifting into new territory, ‘Deep Below’ is certainly their darkest and most cohesive work to date. True to their analogue recording process, the tape machines, reverbs, echoes and vital new ingredients: the Soundcraft 1s mixing desk (Used by Lee Perry) and the eerie sounding Eminent String Ensemble synth all amplify the authentic sounds of the 1980’s without sounding like a relic.

‘Japanese Medicine’ is a haunting minor chord piece driven by debris of icy chiming guitars, galloping drums and waves of lush synths. lyrically it gathers memories of teenage friendship, littered with cigarettes, life-changing records, punctuated with the dark thoughts and the demons they summon up. Though the band have kept the songs relatively slow-paced and sparse, deeper ruminations of mortality and alienation creep through the cracks. ‘Nature Breaks’, the most propulsive song on the record, thematically locks into this notion, as Fagan meditates on human impulse in the face of abject survival, and how those situations often unlock one's true self.

You may conclude Rotterdam’s Rats on Rafts relationship with the past is complicated. ‘The Moon Is Big’ (2011) ‘Tape Hiss’ (2015) and ‘Excerpts From Chapter 3’ (2021) are truly gripping analog timestamps of a band refusing to give in to the supposed ‘progress of the world’ instead forging their own way each time. ‘Deep Below’ is Rats on Rafts’ most minimalist work since their 2011 debut. Where the latter album was fuelled by a brash bravado, these recordings meditate on sentiments of doubt, loss, and ageing.

TRACK LISTING

1. Afterworld
2. Japanese Medicine
3. All These Things
4. Hibernation
5. Voiceprint
6. The Day Before
7. Deep Below
8. Nature Breaks
9. Sleepwalking 

Focus On Nature is the new studio album from celebrated post-psyche singer songwriter Nick Saloman and his band The Bevis Frond. Seventy-five minutes of glorious melodies that span 60s psych, English folk, Seattle art-punks The Wipers, the buzzsaw pop of Dinosaur Jr and Hendrix-esque explorations. There’s always an element of playful Englishness to their music.

Heavily influencing the likes of The Lemonheads, Teenage Fanclub, Elliot Smith, Pavement and Dinosaur Jr, the cult icons have produced another off-kilter mix of melodic piano-led melancholy, acoustic ruminations, scratchy garage rock with a punky edge and full-on guitar histrionics.

Like its much-praised predecessor, ‘Little Eden’, the new record studies the world’s weariness but fills out a bigger canvas; fast food and global warming, broken hearts and long gone nights out, everyday immortality and being God’s gift all share space. It’s like Townshend at his most thematic; Big Star in all their acoustic glory, perfectly balancing the punky garage rock combo who end up running on ‘Empty’ with Gilmour breaks that elevate it all to grandeur.

“Still mixing pop, punk and psych to giddy effect.” The Guardian

“Self-reflection is twinned with a rueful survey of the current state of the nation.” Uncut

TRACK LISTING

1. Heat
2. Focus On Nature
3. God's Gift
4. Vitruvian Man
5. A Mirror
6. Leb Off
7. Here For The Other One
8. Happy Wings
9. Empty
10. Wrong Way Round
11. Mr Freds Disco
12. Jack Immortal
13. Hairstreaks
14. Maybe We Got It Wrong
15. Brocadine
16. Big Black Sky
17. The Hug
18. I Can't Breathe
19. Hung On A Wire

Recalibrating her singular journey in the British musical landscape with her most open-hearted, direct and intimate collection of material yet. Love In Constant Spectacle evokes spectacular imagery and distills the artists’ vision in its purest form, elevating her inimitable sound and poetic vision to new heights.

Recapturing the melancholy of her early work whilst propelling it forward, she sketches scenes as we watch new colours, shapes and languages emerge and fill the frame. Love In Constant Spectacle sees her take measured steps towards a vivid, dreamlike record, that offers resolve in the face of life’s inevitability.

The foundations of Weaver’s sound are still evident – lush motorik drums, pulsating bass, custom modded synths and exotic fuzz pedals - but the stream is awash with scrabble piece poetry and Letraset lullabies leading to lush escapism, the free abandon that you’d associate with free jazz and the avant-garde. But, as determined and visionary as Weaver might be, Love In Constant Spectacle wasn’t executed without assistance. Here we find a long mooted unison with Jane’s first ever producer, John Parish (PJ Harvey, Aldous Harding), who has shared Weaver’s process in the surrounds of Rockfield Studios and Geoff Barrow’s Invada studio.

Love In Constant Spectacle is otherworldly, it is both intimate yet distant, a surrealist interpretation of the foundations that make us human – the stories and landscapes it paints are habitats of their own. A voyage into undisclosed pastures, it’s a heartfelt manifesto from an artist that continues to boundlessly evolve with each chapter in her career.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: We're big fans of Jane & co. here at Piccadilly, and 'Love In Constant Spectacle' takes everything we've known and loved from previous releases; her rich melodic thread and progressive instrumental leanings, and injects the pieces with perfectly extracted DNA from jazz, 60's psychedelic pop and art-rock.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
A1 Perfect Storm
A2 Emotional Components
A3 Love In Constant Spectacle -
A4 Motif
A5 The Axis And The Seed
Side B
B1 Is Metal
B2 Happiness In Proximity
B3 Romantic Worlds
B4 Univers
B5 Family Of The Sun

1992’s ‘Untitled’ brought the band’s third album that re-cemented the duo once again as the progenitors of the “lo-fi” genre. This breakthrough set transitioned "The Trux" into a never ending all-inclusive rotating cast of musicians. Continuing Fire Records’ series of classic remastered albums from Royal Trux, ‘Untitled’ is released on white vinyl and features updated monochrome and silver artwork.

As unpredictable as ever, Neil Hagerty and Jennifer Herrema shook off the next level layering and noise of ’Twin Infinitives’ to embrace the history of rock ‘n’ roll in all its deformed grandeur. Utilizing their ever present mind set of macro-inclusivity, they allowed the subconscious "radio stations" of their lives to infiltrate, lead, and dictate. Culling from their collective minds and memories twisted tunes that touched them. After the blood rush of their much-hailed avant-garde masterpiece ‘Twin Infinitives’ (1988), this eight-song opus added to the lo-fi genre that originated on ‘Twin Infinitives’.

On ‘Untitled’ Hagerty uses his 5-string blues roots and hails rock’s twisted potential, while Herrema slurs and snarls in ecstasy. They sound like they’re locked in a fourth-floor boudoir at the Chelsea Hotel; bottles clink, an album clicks on its run-out groove, the band plays on. In the mix are the characters and casualties of the 90s, a roll call of swaggering misfits. These aren’t superficial sketches, the Trux cut much deeper than that…

“‘Junkie Nurse' isn't just about addiction; it's about the twisted hope that even the most broken people can somehow mend others, even when they're falling apart themselves." Jennifer Herrema, Royal Trux.

With ‘Untitled’ Royal Trux justifiably increased their coterie of convicted followers, becoming the cult heroes for a transgressive generation, and the Rosetta Stone for male/female duos (ie:The White Stripes, The Kills etc... ) over the years inspiring everyone from The Silver Jews (David Berman) & Sonic Youth through to melodic blue-eyed soulsters like Hot Chip - “I urge and encourage you to enter the harmolodic multiverse of their music.” Alexis Taylor, Hot Chip

“Royal Trux were nothing if not fearless.” Pitchfork

TRACK LISTING

Side A
A1. Air
A2. Move
A3. Hallucination
A4. Junkie Nurse

Side B
B1. Sometimes
B2. Lightning Boxer
B3. Blood Flowers
B4. Sun On The Run

From a long-forgotten trunk; two extended jams, twin slabs, circa 1989. Continuing Fire Records’ series of classic remastered albums from Royal Trux, ‘Hand Of Glory’ is released on silver vinyl.

This bad-ass black, white and blue magic is a kind of Burial Dub… or so preached the sleeve of ‘Hand Of Glory’ on its original release in 2002. Legend has it, the two sides of this 40-minute gem were recorded between 1985 and 1989. The resultant mountain of creativity from where they hail were inevitably left under a scuzzy sofa as life and a career that ebbed and flowed over nine albums. Royal Trux became an inspirational tipping point for everyone from Pavement & Sonic Youth to the Black Keys, Kurt Cobain, The Avalanches & Hot Chip’s Alexis Taylor. “I urge and encourage you to enter the harmolodic multiverse of their music.” Alexis Taylor, Hot Chip

‘Hand Of Glory’ is not like their other albums but then again none of their albums are alike, it’s a two-faced masterpiece. Side one’s ‘Domo Des Burros’/‘Two Sticks’ is on par with Beefheart’s sprawling ‘Troutmask Replica’. It plays out in 19 minutes, sounding like it was laid down on Warhol’s sofa in The Factory; like Dylan’s sprawling ‘Desolation Row’ with, background squalls, interruptions and both Neil Hagerty and Jennifer Herrema’s overlayed stream of consciousness peeping through a multi-layered backdrop. It’s just staggering.

“Royal Trux were nothing if not fearless.” Pitchfork

Side two’s ‘The Boxing Story’, a loose homage to William Burroughs, moulds and morphs from tape to tape, a multi-speed soundtrack, while the dynamic duo press pause, guitars ring, occasional melodic lines arrive and evaporate. Lou Reed’s pastoral ‘Metal Machine Music’ could perhaps be recognized as an older and perhaps less challenging sibling.

A two-sided masterpiece featuring two wayward pieces of creative genius.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
A1. Domo Des Borros (Two Sticks)

Side B
B1. The Boxing Story - Electric Boxing Show
B2. The Boxing Story - Four Kings
B3. The Boxing Story - Golden Lament
B4. The Boxing Story - Pots And Pansy
B5. The Boxing Story - K-9 To The Core

First time on CD for this incendiary live set of greatest hits of The Bevis Frond circa 1998.

Featuring over an hour’s worth of prime Frond, it mixes the bittersweet melodies of Nick Saloman’s much-covered ‘Lights Are Changing’ and ‘He’d Be A Diamond’ with fuzz fuelled riffs and masterful solo-ing. Played as a power trio with Saloman enlists his long-time associate and former Hawkwind bass player Adrian Shaw, and Andy Ward, former drummer with 70s prog giants Camel. With a staggering ten-minute rethinking of Love’s come down anthem ‘Signed DC’ closing the show. This set also includes culled cuts from their debut ‘Miasma’ through to the groundbreaking ‘New River Head’ and beyond into the 90s.

TRACK LISTING

Hole Song #2
Maybe
Love Is
New River Head
Stoned Train Driver
Lights Are Changing
Red Hair
He'd Be A Diamond
Well Out Of It
Stain On The Sun
The Wind Blew All Around Me
Signed DC.

Vanishing Twin furthers their exploration of decidedly experimental territories with Afternoon X. Crafted with a playful balance of humour and rigour, with each member embracing the role of the multi-instrumentalist and process, over outcome.

Following a series of line-up changes, Vanishing Twin is now the tightly honed collective of singer and multi-instrumentalist Cathy Lucas, drummer Valentina Magaletti (Holy Tongue, Tomaga, Moin) and bassist Susumu Mukai (Zongamin). Harnessing the diverse touchstones of its members; Lucas’ left-field song-craft, Magaletti’s singular approaches to experimental percussion, and Mukai’s long history in the production of electronic music, the band has refined a hypnotic sound at the juncture of minimalism, kosmische, post-punk, and dream-laden, psychedelic pop.

These eight fluttering abstractions, culled, collaged, and built upon from a vast constellation of instruments, samples, and unclaimed sources. Lucas employs her voice as an instrument and a generator of raw sound, weaving surreal imagery and uncanny juxtapositions amongst the dance and propellant drive. From infectious grooves of the album’s title track and the constrained minimalism of “Subito”, to the ambitious heights of pieces like ‘The Down Below’ and Lazy Garden, which unfurl a psychedelic avant-gardism on the scope and scale of David Axelrod and Scott Walker.

Vanishing Twin embark upon a new multifaceted journey that collectively culminates as the bands most forward-thinking and groundbreaking release to date.

TRACK LISTING

1. Melty
2. Afternoon X
3. Brain Weather
4. Lotus Eater
5. Marbles
6. The Down Below
7. Lazy Garden
8. Subito

Ella Raphael is blessed with an amazing voice, filled with warmth and emotion; it’s engaging, like an old friend telling tales and spinning stories. Mad Sometimes is her debut album, release via Fire Records.

Brought up in London, surrounded by sound, listening to Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Etta James, while encountering Queen, The Beatles and the Stones from her Dad’s collection, Ella’s musical journey continued in Australia where she met many other musicians, and ended up sailing with would-be pirates, singing in the bow of their boat and deciding that music was the path for her. Charmed by the music she has discovered on further travels across the US and Europe, she refined that eclectic mix, adding Love, Serge Gainsbourg, Karen Dalton, Vashti Bunyan, Catherine Riberio And Alpes, the original masters of Tropicalia, exotic 50s guitars and the more esoteric sounds of The Beatles.

Writing outdoors, freedom has always been a virtue to Ella, penning songs that are at once aching and brittle, then elated and celebratory; she has perfected a sound that’s as wide-ranging as her influences and experiences, music that’s as beautiful as its surroundings, using the intricacies and subtle nuances of sound to channel both light and dark into her music.

On her first LP, the sound comes from a stylish mix of lap steel, mandolin, guiro, congas, synthesisers, a shruti box and stringed instruments played by Ella, Eyal Samson, Uzi Ramirez, Ron Ephrati, Guy Mintus and Amir Sadot.

TRACK LISTING

A1. See You Through
A2. Mad Sometimes
A3. Let The Light In
A4. Good Eyes
B1. Tangled Love
B2. All In
B3. Late
B4. Somber
B5. Outro

Originally released in 1982, ‘They Could Have Been Bigger Than The Beatles’ was the influential band’s third album. A collection of singles, demos, outtakes and rarities that was intended to mark the band's breakup in 1982, had they not got back together again so soon. This 2024 reissue comes with faithfully restored artwork, from one the album’s original hand painted sleeves.

The record features ‘David Hockney's Diaries’, ‘The Boy In The Paisley Shirt’ and ‘Psychedelic Holiday’. With the formidable Daniel Treacy at its core, Television Personalities remain one of new wave’s longest serving and seminal artists, with a career spanning over three decades. The indie pop visionaries have influenced many people across the industry including Pavement, The Lemonheads, Fat White Family, MGMT and Creation Records’ Alan McGee.

“Its scope is incredible, its ambition outstanding and its heart damn near broken.” Melody Maker.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
A1. Three Wishes
A2. David Hockney's Diary
A3. In A Perfumed Garden
A4. Flowers For Abigail
A5. King And Country
A6. The Boy In The Paisley Shirt
A7. Games For Boys

Side B
B1. Painter Men
B2. Psychedelic Holiday
B3. 14th Floor
B4. Sooty's Disco Party
B5. Makin' Time
B6. When Emily Cries
B7. The Glittering Prizes
B8. Anxiety Block
B9. Mysterious Ways 

The brand-new solo album from The Dream Syndicate’s Steve Wynn, released in tandem with his memoir. Make It Right is a commentary between literal and metaphorical ruminating – a dialogue between memoirist and musician - a vulnerable, more reflective Wynn than previously heard.

‘Make It Right’ features notable contributions from Mike Mills (R.E.M.), Vicki Peterson (The Bangles), Chris Schlarb (Psychic Temple), Emil Nikolaisen (Serena Maneesh), Linda Pitmon (The Baseball project) and a cast of dozens.

“I wrote and recorded these songs in tandem with working on “I Wouldn’t Say It If It Wasn’t True,” my memoir which comes out on Jawbone Press the same week as “Make It Right,” my first solo album since 2010. With each chapter, I would get ideas for songs inspired by the deep dive into my past and vice versa. The reflections became intertwined after a while, a mutual commentary between literal and metaphorical ruminating. It was a dialogue between the memoirist and the musician, a one-man Q&A, a gentle volley in the tennis court of my mind. 40-love, game, set and match.”

Although ‘Make It Right’ isn’t autobiographical, it begins with Santa Monica - the city and boulevard where he was born and concludes with “Roosevelt Avenue”, the main thoroughfare of the Queen’s neighbourhood in New York City that he calls home today.

TRACK LISTING

Santa Monica
Make It Right
What Were You Expecting
You're Halfway There
Making Good On My Promises
Cherry Avenue
Then Again
Madly
Simpler Than The Rain
Roosevelt Avenue

Vanishing Twin’s seminal LP, The Age Of Immunology, receives a Ltd edition pressing on Yellow vinyl, paired with matching sleeve art. As essential take on psych-pop futurism and a must for fans of Broadcast, Sun Ra and Ennio Morricone.

Establishing the band as innovators in their field, the record was declared “a masterpiece” by The Line Of Best Fit, while The Quietus asserted Vanishing Twin as “one of the most original and exciting acts of the moment”.

This was the group’s first LP for Fire Records, at the time of recording the band’s evolving lineup consisted of songwriter, singer and multi-instrumentalist Cathy Lucas, drummer Valentina Magaletti, bassist Susumu Mukai, synth/guitar player Phil MFU and visual artist/film maker Elliott Arndt on flute and percussion.

The album was produced by Lucas in a number of non-standard, non-studio settings. ‘KRK (At Home In Strange Places)’ summons up the spirit of Sun Ra’s Lanquidity and Broadcast And The Focus Group Investigate Witch Cults Of The Radio and was simply recorded on an iPhone during a live set which crackled with psychic connectivity on the Croatian island of Krk. The magical Morricone-esque lounge of ‘You Are Not an Island’, the blissed-out Jean-Claude Vannier style arrangement of ‘Invisible World’ and burbling sci fi funk ode to a 1972 cult French animation, ‘Planète Sauvage’, were all recorded in nighttime sessions in an abandoned mill in Sudbury.

TRACK LISTING

1. KRK (At Home In Strange Places)
2. Wise Children
3. Cryonic Suspension May Save Your Life
4. You Are Not An Island
5. The Age Of Immunology
6. Magician’s Success
7. Planète Sauvage
8. Backstroke
9. Invisible World
10. Language Is A City (Let Me Out!)

Bonus Tracks: Download ONLY
1. The Age Of Immunology (Version)
2. Magician’s Success (Live)
3. Backstroke (Live)
4. Language Is A City (Let Me Out!) (Live)
5. You Are Not An Island (Version)
6. Cryonic Suspension May Save Your Life (Extended Life Version)

Originally released in 1990, Royal Trux’s ‘Twin Infinitives’ is being re-issued in all its (yet to be translated) alien glory, by Fire Records. A dismantled overture that sprawls out over two records, an avant-garde masterpiece that was the spark for Drag City Records and generations of new sound seeking musicians.

Hailed in the same immortal breath as Beefheart’s ‘Trout Mask Replica’, the Velvets’ at their frenzied peak and Ornette Coleman at his most avant-garde, the duo of Pussy Galore’s Neil "Michael" Hagerty and Jennifer Herrema recorded ‘Twin Infinitives’ while imbibing all kinds of mind-altering substances to create an inadvertent blueprint for what the duo was building with moog’s, guitars and melodicas to name a few ingredients.

It is the legendary second album from the masters of the genre mashup - long before “genre mashups” even existed. Arguably, the term “mashup” was coined to describe what Trux, as they subconsciously scrolled through the radio stations of their lives.

The album’s chaotic sound and offbeat construction laid the foundations for a string of Royal Trux albums that spiralled between genres, tunings, and noise. Through the 90s they would re-invent the rock ‘n’ roll ethic, straddle alien surf music, re-align boogie rock, not to mention 80s hair metal, and confound critics by their wildly meandering and courageous rites of passage.

Remastered as part of a career spanning catalogue deal with Fire Records. The infamous and influential duo of Jennifer Herrema and Neil Hagerty will be delving into the archive with a comprehensive reissue series, unearthing the vaults and revisiting what made them such a compelling benchmark for their contemporaries and imitators. Reawakening their prolific output within a new monochrome vinyl series covering 1988-1993, they begin with their seminal deconstructed rock masterpiece Twin Infinitives.

“Sounding like a subway ride inside a television inside an earthquake inside the end of the world and a pounding death rhythm of apocalyptic now.” Pitchfork

TRACK LISTING

Disc One
A1 Solid Gold Tooth
A2 Ice Cream
A3 Jet Pet
A4 RTX-USA
A5 Kool Down Wheels
B1 Chances Are The Comets In Our Future
B2 Yin Jim Versus The Vomit Creature
B3 Osiris

Disc Two
C1 (Edge Of The) Ape Oven
D1 Florida Avenue Theme
D2 Lick My Boots
D3 Glitterbust
D4 Funky Son
D5 Ratcreeps
D6 New York Avenue Bridge

Restored ‘Original Gold Sleeve Edition’ on classic black vinyl. An intense neo-psychedelic gem that journeys through serenity before collapsing into its own itchy comedown. A glorious amalgamation of discordant psyche, Lou Reed hustle and Gospel surrealism. A kaleidoscopic blueprint for everything that followed, with lovingly restored artwork. Spacemen 3's second album is a remarkable departure from the band's 1986 debut, Sound Of Confusion. Reduced to a trio (guitarists / keyboardists Pete "Sonic Boom" Kember, Jason "Spaceman" Pierce, and bassist Pete Bassman), Spacemen 3 makes an asset out of the newfound lack of percussion, giving The Perfect Prescription a considerably less rock-oriented sound with much more open space in its varied, subtle arrangements.

“Like taking an acid bath in the dungeon of the mind.” Pitchfork.

TRACK LISTING

1. Take Me To The Other Side
2. Walkin' With Jesus
3. Ode To Street Hassle
4. Ecstasy Symphony
5. Feel So Good
6. Things'll Never Be The Same
7. Come Down Easy
8. Call The Doctor
9. Soul 4
10. That’s Just Fine 

The third album of powerfully vivid songwriting from Marina Allen. Beautifully orchestrated, highly melodic and delivered with unrivalled lyrical perspective. Across two acclaimed records, the Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter has ripened a rare harvest, but her third studio album is an arrival home.

Taking fragments and stories from Marina’s past, Eight-Pointed Star deftly weaves together a new future, in what feels for all the world like a glittering, clear-eyed modern classic of alternative folk and Americana. For fans of Aldous Harding, Fiona Apple and Waxahatchee.

Ineffable and timeless, this collection of songs holds a curiosity that’s as open to you as you are to them. Compared to the soaring and swelling compositions of Allen’s second album Centrifics or the innocent tranquillity of Candlepower, the world of Eight Pointed Star is more deeply addressing and open-armed. It favours a type of soul-searching that doesn’t dwell in complications, and is open to answers. Rolling guitars rise and fall with the canyons and dust is kicked-up from the red scarred earth. Allen’s vocals pure and crystalline whilst the instrumentation is rich and bursting with brightness. You can hear contentment radiating from the music, with Chris Cohen’s production offering a full-band affair.

Allen’s affection runs deepest for singers who in her words can really sing, from The Roches to Karen Dalton, Joanna Newsom to Meredith Monk. But these influences vanish like ghosts in the attic when she starts to sing herself. Allen has a voice that stands up to the canon – inimitable – and it’s never sounded more resolute than it does here.

TRACK LISTING

A1 I'm The Same
A2 Deep Fake
A3 Red Cloud
A4 Swinging Doors
A5 Bad Eye Opal
B1 Easy
B2 Love Comes Back
B3 Landlocked
B4 Between Seasons

Vanishing Twin’s seminal LP, The Age Of Immunology, receives a LTD edition pressing on None ‘Pink’ and Sine ‘Teal’ vinyl, limited to 500 units each and paired with matching sleeve art. As essential take on psych-pop futurism and a must for fans of Broadcast, Sun Ra and Ennio Morricone.

Establishing the band as innovators in their field, the record was declared “a masterpiece” by The Line Of Best Fit, while The Quietus asserted Vanishing Twin as “one of the most original and exciting acts of the moment”.

This was the group’s first LP for Fire Records, at the time of recording the band’s evolving lineup consisted of songwriter, singer and multi-instrumentalist Cathy Lucas, drummer Valentina Magaletti, bassist Susumu Mukai, synth/guitar player Phil MFU and visual artist/film maker Elliott Arndt on flute and percussion.

The album was produced by Lucas in a number of non-standard, non-studio settings. ‘KRK (At Home In Strange Places)’ summons up the spirit of Sun Ra’s Lanquidity and Broadcast And The Focus Group Investigate Witch Cults Of The Radio and was simply recorded on an iPhone during a live set which crackled with psychic connectivity on the Croatian island of Krk. The magical Morricone-esque lounge of ‘You Are Not an Island’, the blissed-out Jean-Claude Vannier style arrangement of ‘Invisible World’ and burbling sci fi funk ode to a 1972 cult French animation, ‘Planète Sauvage’, were all recorded in nighttime sessions in an abandoned mill in Sudbury.

TRACK LISTING

1. KRK (At Home In Strange Places)
2. Wise Children
3. Cryonic Suspension May Save Your Life
4. You Are Not An Island
5. The Age Of Immunology
6. Magician’s Success
7. Planète Sauvage
8. Backstroke
9. Invisible World
10. Language Is A City (Let Me Out!)

BONUS TRACKS: Download ONLY
1. The Age Of Immunology (Version)
2. Magician’s Success (Live)
3. Backstroke (Live)
4. Language Is A City (Let Me Out!) (Live)
5. You Are Not An Island (Version)
6. Cryonic Suspension May Save Your Life (Extended Life Version)

On Gut Buster, Yosa Peit spawns fleshy sonic escapades, a swarm of vigorously processed vocals and soulful bass, set to a backdrop of visceral percussive structures. Full of roguish curiosity, the record is cast with an air of lo-fi experimentation, but with a platinum glint of pop sensibility. Peit’s second album grapples with the destructive force of modern consumption, Gut Buster is an anti-capitalist battle cry that syntheses intimacy and hostility; a surrealist-punk affirmation and a testament to Peit’s singular vision and unique approach.

The free-ranging sound of Yosa Peit recalls the intense arrangements of a cyber-era Prince with the surrealist tones of Arthur Russell and early Björk. At the album’s core, “World Eaters” unleashes scorching guitars in search of humankind’s end, “I was born on a planet, I got hungry and I ate it.”

Even in the face of planetary doom and personal obstacles, Yosa evokes our propensity for mischief, humor and pleasure. “bb moon” processes sound solely from her bass into wicked oblivion. “CALL ME,” a song about friendship, chews up it’s anthemic melody into a gnarled strut worthy of an A$AP Rocky production, while “HAD3S” urges us to find balance, nodding to the mystical fuzz of Prince. Yosa’s work has been called “personal, punk, poignant, deep” yet her genre-defying production, as textured as it is catchy, escapes definition.

Gut Buster takes that collective playground for creation to planetary reaches, congregating friends from Berlin, Cologne, and New York’s fuzzy musical underbelly: Employee, Funkycan, Gerry Franke, Glenn Astro, Nauker, Paingel, Tbz, and UCC Harlo. The record was mixed by Brainfeeder affiliate Benjamin Vukelic in Portland and Jan Brauer in Berlin.

“Glitchy yet supple, the broken beats and warped abstractions are wholly unpredictable yet deliciously odd, like an esoteric mashup of Bjork, Aphex and Laurie Anderson” Electronic Sound.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
A1 Twixx
A2 Had3s
A3 Tower Flower
A4 Dnuora Kool
A5 Shelly
A6 Call Me
Side B
B1 World Eaters
B2 Aol Slyt
B3 Bb Moon
B4 Nbp
B5 Alma
B6 Portimao
B7 Look Around
B8 Pepper Plane
B9 Gut Is God (Gate Of Discord)

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2024 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON SATURDAY APRIL 20TH ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

IF THERE ARE ANY REMAINING COPIES THEY WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE ONLINE AT 8PM ON MONDAY APRIL 22ND.

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2024 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON SATURDAY APRIL 20TH ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

IF THERE ARE ANY REMAINING COPIES THEY WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE ONLINE AT 8PM ON MONDAY APRIL 22ND.

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2024 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON SATURDAY APRIL 20TH ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

IF THERE ARE ANY REMAINING COPIES THEY WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE ONLINE AT 8PM ON MONDAY APRIL 22ND.

Recorded 25 years into their career, Giant Sand’s 25th album is a gorgeous and much-celebrated collection of perfectly-crafted, personal songwriting from Howe Gelb. With the exception of one or two wonderfully abrupt and perfectly placed outbursts, it’s a gentle rollercoaster traversing the inner thinking of the why’s and wherefores of whatever, a meditation on time and the ageing process.

Musing on the record, Howe Gelb explains “On this LP I show off an acquired appreciation for the simple lyric. Kinda haiku at times, like flamenco verse, or the blues. I can focus more as it’s obvious there’s only so much time left – that has a production value all its own.”

Highlighting their eclectic and esoteric career, this reissue celebrates the band’s magnificent, long and winding career. This deluxe reissue features restored artwork and newly penned liner notes from MOJO’s Dave Henderson.

Giant Sand have been the primary outlet for the stylistic curveballs and sun-damaged songcraft of singer-songwriter Howe Gelb. In four plus decades he’s managed to reinvent rock, country, blues, punk, garage, lo-fi, jazz, gospel, avant-garde noise and flamenco gypsy music with his impressionistic imagery and expansive observations of the world.

“An album full of heart, soul, and wit, this music confirms that no one does quite what Howe Gelb can do with such remarkably innate grace and feel” AllMusic.

TRACK LISTING

A1 Fields Of Green
A2 Chunk Of Coal
A3 The Last One
A4 Monk's Mountain
A5 Spellbound
A6 Ride The Rail
A7 Lucky Star Love
B1 Thin Line Man
B2 No Tellin'
B3 Brand New Swamp Thing
B4 Erosion
B5 Time Flies
B6 Better Man Than Me
B7 Love A Loser

Celebrating 25 years since the release of Giant Sand’s legendary ‘Chore Of Enchantment’, the panoramic masterpiece that was the turning point for the classic line-up featuring seasoned songwriter Howe Gelb and latter-day Calexico members Joey Burns and John Convertino from 1999.

Filled with mind-bending one-liners, customary offbeat instrumentation, echo fields and hazy horizons; ‘The Chore Of Enchantment’ is a songbook of Howe Gelb’s greatest songs. The high level production by the legendary Jim Dickinson, PJ Harvey foil John Parish and acclaimed singer/songwriter/producer Kevin Salem, a tour-de-force of Gelb’s unique oeuvre.

Highlighting their eclectic and esoteric career, this reissue celebrates the band’s magnificent, long and winding career. This 2xLP deluxe reissue features restored artwork and newly penned liner notes from MOJO’s Dave Henderson.

“A beautiful, emotionally complex album.” The Quietus.

Giant Sand have been the primary outlet for the stylistic curveballs and sun-damaged songcraft of singer-songwriter Howe Gelb. In four plus decades he’s managed to reinvent rock, country, blues, punk, garage, lo-fi, jazz, gospel, avant-garde noise and flamenco gypsy music with his impressionistic imagery and expansive observations of the world.

TRACK LISTING

A1 Overture
A2 (Well) Dusted (For The Millenium)
A3 Punishing Sun
A4 X-Tra Wide
A5 1972
A6 Temptation Of Egg
A7 Raw
B1 Wolfy
B2 Shiver
B3 Dirty From The Rain
B4 Astonished (In Memphis)
B5 No Reply
C1 Satellite
C2 Bottom Line Man
C3 Way To End The Day
C4 Shrine
D1 Astonished (In Tucson) (Bonus)
D2 Dusted (In Tucson) (Bonus)
D3 Shiver (In Tucson) (Bonus)
D4 Punishing Sun (In Tucson) (Bonus)
D5 Bad (Not Good) (Bonus)

Monde UFO, LA-based duo of Ray Monde and Kris Chau, are a monochromatic sunset for the senses. A sonic journey through psychedelia, space rock and jazz. A cosmic space where Spacemen 3 meets Vanishing Twin, by way of Sun Ra. 7171 perfectly embodies the framework of lo and hi-fi sounds which have helped define the band. Included in this expanded package is Four Songs, Monde UFO’s radical interpretation of Fugazi’s music, housed for the first time on LTD 7” with new artwork.

In a downtown Los Angeles warehouse, on 7th Street, Ray Monde began writing songs on an old Yamaha church organ for a project that eventually became Monde UFO. Utilizing the organ as a bass, alongside keyboards and a drum machine, he began making demos on a four-track cassette recorder. Heavily influenced by the musician Sandy Bull, sonically landing in a similar no-man's land of Worldly Jazz and Psych Folk. Monde experimented with the themes mostly of meditation and UFO lore.

In time Ray moved in with the artist Kris Chau. With little crossover in musical tastes, they exclusively started listening to jazz, ambient and new age music in the house. Increased interest in sound baths and experimental music led to seeing music in a different light. Envisioning something that would sound like Don Cherry making a record with Yo La Tengo. ‘7171’ is an amalgam of influences, interpretations and otherworldly sounds channeled through genre bending experimentation.

This expanded edition of ‘7171’ includes the sought after ‘Four Songs’ EP, a reimagining Fugazi’s early classics, songs that take on a life of their own, lost amongst the haze and sugar sweet psych. Ray Monde explains, "Long Division was one of my favorite tracks off 'Steady Diet of Nothing' the first Fugazi record I ever owned; more than ever, it also feels truly poignant in the times we live in.Version 2 is our interpretation of Version from ‘Red Medicine’, my favorite Fugazi Record.”

TRACK LISTING

Side A:
A1. Cosmic Trigger
A2. Lowered Shelf
A3. A Pale Horse In Roswell 1947
A4. Weathered Underground
A5. Vallee
A6. SAXXAS
Side B:
B1. Amalgamated
B2. Black Triangles
B3. Lying On The Ground
B4. Solar Consiousness

4 Songs EP 7"
Side A:
A1. I'm So Tired
A2. Long Division
Side B:
B1. Version
B2. Cashout

Bas Jan return with a polished and poignant collection of perfectly-crafted pop songs that retains their authentic indie edginess. ‘Back To The Swamp’ is a heady tussle between their incorrigible DIY ethics and new responsibilities.

Serafina Steer, Charlotte Stock, Emma Smith and Rachel Horwood cast an examining eye over modern times, lost love, Tarot intuition and long days in an everyday swamp. Awash with lush chorale effects, orchestral hewn loops, pin sharp electronic beats and sublime harmonies. Back To The Swamp is filled with thought-provoking stories, it’s a reflective worldview. It’s a polished and poignant collection of perfectly-crafted pop songs that retains their authentic indie edginess.

These new studio recordings feature more accomplished pop production; filled with cerebral one-liners that pluck at the senses. And, there’s a nod to an eclectic mix of influences; The Pet Shop Boys, Lizzy Mercier Descloux, Kate Bush, Heaven 17 and Jon Hassell by way of Brian Eno.

Witches, Tarot readings, road signs, Salt-N-Pepa namechecks and a river all cried out, welcome to the swamp…

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A
A1 At The Counter
A2 No More Swamp
A3 Credit Card
A4 Ding Dong
A5 Margaret Calvert Drives Out
SIDE B
B1 Back To The Swamp
B2 Singing Bar
B3 Cried A River
B4 Tarot Card

On new EP twotwentytwo, indie riser THALA continues to embrace vulnerability, summoning long-buried emotions to colour her ardent love for lyricism amid psych-tinged ‘90s indie soundscapes. Filled with potent songwriting and coming-of-age anthems straight from the heart, these everyday love stories surrender to life’s insecurities. Evoking the soundscapes of Slowdive and Deerhunter, whilst recalling the widescreen pop of boygenius and Snail Mail.

Recorded in London and Berlin earlier this year, twotwentytwo follows the release of ‘In Theory Depression’, THALA’s first EP on Fire Records. Spanning six tracks, it builds on its predecessor’s fearless lyricism, excavating deep-set feelings of loss, pain, desire and conflict against luminous production and addictive melodies. Following rammed appearances at SXSW and The Great Escape, and having picked up the attention BBC Radio 1’s Jack Saunders, THALA shows no signs of slowing down…

Blissful guitars and evocative crescendos permeate THALA’s unique vision of dreampop, reveling in soaring choruses and intimate storylines. On its surface, twotwentytwo boasts a kind of glorious emotive draw - you’d be forgiven for mistaking any one of these tracks as a backdrop to any teen-angst drama. However, while THALA wants her songs to feel nostalgic, it’s the complexity of her songwriting that sees her modern compositions really resonate and she is keen to stress her lyrics can be interpreted in numerous ways.

And therein lies the heart of this release - a cathartic, wildly empowering, self-explorative from a future indie heartbreaker at her gutsy best.

TRACK LISTING

Side A:
A1 It Was You
A2 I Know When You Care
A3 Windowsill
Side B:
B1 Honey
B2 Twotwentytwo
B3 Ferris Wheel

‘Architecture Of Language 1979-1982’ is a four disc CD bookback set with excerpts from the Pere Ubu scrapbook 75-82, written by David Thomas, including historical photos. It features the ground-breaking ‘New Picnic Time’ described by one critic as the “scariest album ever recorded”. Plus ‘The Art Of Walking’ featuring Mayo Thomson of Red Crayola, ‘Song Of The Bailing Man’ and a further CD of glorious out-takes and oddities, ‘Architectural Salvage’. This release features Ubu approved notes and memorabilia.

Reinventing rock music from the ground up, Pere Ubu are equally at ease with Sun Ra and The Monkees, Glen Campbell and The MC5, Can and The Raspberries, they are the white Funkadelic.



“Inspired, invigorating, confounding, disturbing…” Rolling Stone.

As vital as ever, no band before or since has ever sounded like Pere Ubu - period.

TRACK LISTING

Disc One - New Picnic Time
1 The Fabulous Sequel (Have Shoes Will Walk)
2 49 Guitars And One Girl
3 A Small Dark Cloud
4 Small Was Fast
5 All The Dogs Are Barking
6 One Less Worry
7 Make Hay
8 Goodbye
9 Voice Of The Sand
10 Kingdom Come
Disc Two - The Art Of Walking
1 Go
2 Rhapsody In Pink
3 Arabia
4 Misery Goats
5 Young Miles In The Basement
6 Loop
7 Rounder
8 Birdies
9 Lost In Art
10 Horses
11 Crush This Horn
Disc Three - Song Of The Bailing Man
1 The Long Walk Home
2 Use Of A Dog
3 Petrified
4 Stormy Weather
5 West Side Story
6 Thoughts That Go By Steam
7 Big Ed's Used Farms
8 A Day Such As This
9 The Vulgar Boatman Bird
10 My Hat
11 Horns Are A Dilemma
Disc Four - Architectural Salvage
1 Humor Me - Live
2 The Book Is On The Table
3 All The Dogs Are Barking (alt Mix 4)
4 Arabian Nights
5 Tribute To Miles
6 Horses (alt Mix 3)
7 Rounder (alt Mix 1)
8 Not Happy
9 Lonesome Cowboy Dave

10th anniversary clear, black and white splatter vinyl reissue of 'Peace on Venus' by Bardo Pond, Philadelphia's foremost purveyors of psychedelic rock. Includes ‘Kali Yuga Blues’, a true behemoth of a song and a shining example of the band’s ecstatic intensity.

Delving deep in to their subconscious to bring it to the conscious, the band’s 2013 effort dazzles, with their gift for heavy riffs laced with soaring vocals and swathes of sound. Bardo Pond has the outward specifications of a rock band but the rivers that converge into the band's oneiric flow have their headwaters in the outlands of ecstatic jazz, free noise and the avant-garde.

The recording process of ‘Peace On Venus’ used the principle of the Quintessence, which is a principle cited by the 16th Century physician Paracelsus, who noted: "Nothing of true value is located in the body of a substance, but in the virtue thereof, and this is the principle of the Quintessence, which reduces, say 20 lbs. of a given substance into a single Ounce, and that ounce far exceeds the 20 lbs. in potency. Hence the less there is of body, the more in proportion is the virtue thereof."

“Obviously, Bardo Pond are the greatest band in the world” Vice.

TRACK LISTING

A1 Kali Yuga Blues
A2 Taste
A3 Fir
B1 Chance
B2 Before The Moon

Italian singer songwriter Marta Del Grandi returns with ‘Selva’, her most intricate and shimmering effort yet, a refined devotional suite of astute pop that flows effortlessly, uniting emotional complexity, divine organic arrangements with a sci-fi finish.

If her debut ‘Until We Fossilize’ showed all the qualities of Marta’s unique approach, tip-toeing between Laurel Canyon dust, Lynchian etherealism and dramatic Morricone scores, ‘Selva’ delves deeper into the undergrowth, showcasing an ambition to deliver a whole new universe, her own ecosystem, where the strength of her voice alone is the pillar to build on.

Beams of choral light radiate and permeate each track, with layered vocal drones creating a cathartic collision of sharp and soft textures, as almost to guide us hand in hand across Marta Del Grandi’s enchanted universe. The ambition is blinding and the outcome is here to prove it: 12 songs of sprawling ethereal pop that is vivid, immense and fully illuminated.

“Ultimately compels with its detached, lynchian ambience.” ALLMUSIC

“Bucolic yet often emotionally complex, her songwriting – patching electronic synths against ambient elements, with a touch of modern classical – taps into areas that go beyond words.” CLASH.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
A1 Mata Hari
A2 Eye Of The Day
A3 Chameleon Eyes
A4 Snapdragon
A5 Marble Season
A6 End Of The World Pt.1
Side B
B1 Two Halves
B2 Polar Bear Village
B3 Good Story
B4 Selva
B5 Stay
B6 End Of The World Pt.2

“The songwriter that helped kick off indie rock as we know it" NPR…

Remixed and remastered under the supervision of Martin Phillipps, this expanded edition of The Chills’ debut album is reissued for the first time in over 35 years. The newly mixed edition features additional rarities and unreleased tracks from The Chills vaults, along with brand new reimagined artwork by Martin Phillipps and a host of additional liner notes.

Originally produced by Mayo Thompson (Pere Ubu/Red Krayola) and featuring standout tracks ‘Wet Blanket’, ‘Night Of Chills Blue’, this extended 18-track edition includes much-lauded tracks from the era, such as ‘House With A Hundred Rooms’ and the awesome ‘Party In My Heart’.

Part of the 80s extraordinarily vibrant and innovative independent music scene in New Zealand, The Chills became flag bearers, taking the Dunedin sound, as championed by the Flying Nun label, to the world. Long recognised as one of New Zealand's most influential bands, Brave Words is a shining example of their unique sound and has been praised as a masterpiece by critics and fans alike.

“‘Brave Words’ may well be The Chills' finest album.” AllMusic.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
A1 Push (Remastered)
A2 Rain (Remastered)
A3 Speak For Yourself (Remastered)
A4 Look For The Good In Others And They'll See The Good In You (Remastered)
A5 Wet Blanket (Remastered)
A6 Ghosts (Remastered)
Side B
B1 Dan Destiny And The Silver Dawn (Remastered)
B2 Night Of Chill Blue (Remastered)
B3 16 Heart-Throbs (Remastered)
B4 Brave Words (Remastered)
B5 Dark Carnival (Remastered)
B6 Creep (Remastered)
Side C
C1 The Oncoming Day (Remastered)
C2 I Think I’d Thought I'd Nothing Else To Think About (Remastered)
C3 House With A Hundred Rooms (Remastered)
Side D
D1 Party In My Heart (Remastered)
D2 Living In A Jungle (Remastered)
D3 Rain (Alternate Instrumental Version - Remastered)

This is what a living legend looks and sounds like” Rolling Stone.

The Chills reissue their celebrated early singles compilation, this 24-track expanded version of Kaleidoscope World gathers together tracks from the ‘Dunedin Double’ compilation, live recordings, ‘Doledrums’ single and the band’s seminal ‘Pink Frost’.

The collection also contains ‘The Lost EP’, with early takes on their groundbreaking ‘Submarine Bells’ album, alongside the aching ‘I Love My Leather Jacket’, perfectly illustrating the rollercoaster ride of Martin Phillipps and The Chills as portrayed in the award film The Triumph And The Tragedy Of Martin Phillipps.

“Singer/guitarist Martin Phillipps’ group was at the forefront of the extraordinary little guitar-pop scene in New Zealand in the early ’80s.. Kaleidoscope World is the major document of their early era.” Pitchfork

Part of the 80’s extraordinarily vibrant and innovative independent music scene in New Zealand, The Chills became flag bearers, taking the Dunedin sound, as championed by the Flying Nun label, to the world. Long recognised as one of New Zealand's most influential bands, Kaleidoscope World is a definitive artifact from Martin Phillipps’ groundbreaking project.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
A1 Kaleidoscope World
A2 Satin Doll
A3 Frantic Drift
A4 Rolling Moon
A5 Bite
Side B
B1 Flame Thrower
B2 Pink Frost
B3 Purple Girl
B4 This Is The Way
B5 Never Never Go
B6 Don't Even Know Her Name
B7 Bee Bah Bee Bah Bee Boe
Side C
C1 Whole Weird World
C2 Dream By Dream
C3 Doledrums
C4 Hidden Bay
C5 I Love My Leather Jacket
C6 The Great Escape
Side D
D1 Oncoming Day (Early Version)
D2 Dan Destiny And The Silver Dawn (Unplugged)
D3 Martyn’s Doctor Told Me
D4 I'll Only See You Alone Again
D5 Green-Eyed Owl (Live)
D6 Smile From A Dead Dead Face (Live)

Vanishing Twin furthers their exploration of decidedly experimental territories with Afternoon X. Crafted with a playful balance of humour and rigour, with each member embracing the role of the multi-instrumentalist and process, over outcome.

Following a series of line-up changes, Vanishing Twin is now the tightly honed collective of singer and multi-instrumentalist Cathy Lucas, drummer Valentina Magaletti (Holy Tongue, Tomaga, Moin) and bassist Susumu Mukai (Zongamin). Harnessing the diverse touchstones of its members; Lucas’ left-field song-craft, Magaletti’s singular approaches to experimental percussion, and Mukai’s long history in the production of electronic music, the band has refined a hypnotic sound at the juncture of minimalism, kosmische, post-punk, and dream-laden, psychedelic pop.

These eight fluttering abstractions, culled, collaged, and built upon from a vast constellation of instruments, samples, and unclaimed sources. Lucas employs her voice as an instrument and a generator of raw sound, weaving surreal imagery and uncanny juxtapositions amongst the dance and propellant drive. From infectious grooves of the album’s title track and the constrained minimalism of “Subito”, to the ambitious heights of pieces like ‘The Down Below’ and Lazy Garden, which unfurl a psychedelic avant-gardism on the scope and scale of David Axelrod and Scott Walker.

Vanishing Twin embark upon a new multifaceted journey that collectively culminates as the bands most forward-thinking and groundbreaking release to date.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Vanishing Twin take all the best elements of easy listening and psych-pop and wraps them in a veil of mystery and woozy unease. It's got gothic charm, but it's also got a litany of perfectly written hooks and masterfully crafted atmospheres. Yet another giant leap forwards for a brilliant band.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
A1 Melty
A2 Afternoon X
A3 Brain Weather
A4 Lotus Eater
A5 Marbles
Side B
B1 The Down Below
B2 Lazy Garden
B3 Subito

The genre-defying Welsh group define their vision with a breath-taking new album, Islet’s ‘Soft Fascination’ is an ecstatic experience in music, an explosion of emotion subsumed in sound. The album is filled with high energy cadence and meditations on collective joy, a balancing act underpinned with glorious melodies and Emma Daman Thomas’ evocative vocals that swirl in the symphonic surf. Self-produced, and with instruments recorded live with few overdubs, the effect is direct, it veers from the upfront and immediate to the spacious and challenging.

The first half is intentionally fast, intense, almost relentless. The second half is more spacious, as the album unravels and becomes more hazy. There is excitement and fascination and a willingness to show a lack of restraint in realising it, traversing hailstorms, hedgerows, broken promises and poisoned prayers; constantly breathing real life all in. Featuring standout singles: the pulsating ‘Euphoria’, the liberating flow of energy on ‘River Body’ and the recurring conundrum of choice of ‘Hat Person’, ‘Soft Fascination’ is an album of rare beauty.

TRACK LISTING

A1 Euphoria
A2 River Body
A3 Sherry
A4 Flailing
A5 Hat Person
B1 An Open Door
B2 Woolgathering
B3 Lemons
B4 Sleepwalker In A Fog
B5 Discipline
B6 Kits

‘Elistism For The People 1975-1978’ is a four-disc ‘bookback’ set featuring excerpts from the Pere Ubu scrapbook 75-82, written by David Thomas, including historical photos. It features the seismic debut album ‘Modern Dance’, it’s follow up ‘Dub Housing’ and ‘The Hearpen Singles’ and the incendiary ‘Live At Max’s Kansas City’. The set collects the bracing and brilliant Pere Ubu in their earliest incarnation, with the devasting one-two knockout blow of 1978 studio bookends.

“The Modern Dance is one of the first and greatest art-rock records.” The Guardian

Reinventing rock music from the ground up, Pere Ubu are equally at ease with Sun Ra and The Monkees, Glen Campbell and The MC5, Can and The Raspberries, they are the white Funkadelic.

“Harsh and willfully ugly, yet always mindful of certain rock & roll imperatives: a solid beat, snappy lyrics and engaging themes” Rolling Stone

As vital as ever, no band before or since has ever sounded like Pere Ubu - period.

TRACK LISTING

Disc One - The Modern Dance
1 Non-Alignment Pact
2 Modern Dance
3 Laughing
4 Street Waves
5 Chinese Radiation
6 Life Stinks
7 Real World
8 Over My Head
9 Sentimental Journey
10 Humor Me
Disc Two - Dub Housing
1 Navvy
2 On The Surface
3 Dub Housing
4 Caligari's Mirror
5 Thriller!
6 I, Will Wait
7 Drinking Wine Spodyody
8 (Pa) Ubu Dance Party
9 Blow Daddy-o
10 Codex
Disc Three - The Hearpen Singles
1 30 Seconds Over Tokyo
2 Heart Of Darkness
3 Final Solution
4 Cloud 149
5 Untitled
6 Street Waves
7 My Dark Ages
8 Modern Dance
9 Heaven
Disc Four - Manhattan: Live At Max's Kansas City 1977
1 My Dark Ages
2 Heaven
3 Sentimental Journey
4 Over My Head
5 30 Seconds Over Tokyo
6 Life Stinks