Motherhood changes everything. Little moments assume a much greater significance, and every memory holds the potential to last forever. Responsibilities expand, yet joy does as well.

The Wandering Hearts intimately explore this maternal transformation on their aptly titled third full-length offering and Chrysalis Records debut, MOTHER. The UK trio — Tara Wilcox [vocals], A.J. Dean [vocals, acoustic guitar], and Francesca “Chess”Whiffin [vocals, mandolin] — chronicle this season of growth and change across eleven tracks.

“During the process, we really found ourselves as a band. Motherhood has helped us grow and find meaning. It brought our writing and performing to a different level.” Notes Chess, "From the get-go, it felt like the most authentic and true representation of who we are now."

Mother started as a folk EP but incorporates elements of folk, Americana, rock, blues, pop and more with the band's vocals tying them all together, A.J. explains "We were really just making an album for us. We think the result is the best music we've ever made.”

TRACK LISTING

1. About America
2. Still Waters
3. Tired
4. Letter To Myself
5. Hold Your Tongue
6. Waiting
7. Dance Again
8. Not Misunderstood
9. River To Cry
10. Will You Love Me
11. What Fools Believe

Following its unanimously acclaimed expanded reissues of Robert Forster’s first two solo albums Danger In The Past and Calling From A Country Phone, Needle Mythology Records is proud to announce the long-awaited remastered reissue of Robert’s 1994 'I Had A New York Girlfriend' now retitled as 'Beautiful Hearts'. The album saw Robert tackle a diverse array of his favourite songs from other composers – among them Mickey Newbury’s “Frisco Depot”, Martha & The Muffins’ “Echo Beach”, “Alone” by Heart and Guy Clark’s “Broken Hearted People" Having had three decades to reflect on the record, Robert took this chance to revisit the album’s title and artwork. I Had A New York Girlfriend had been an eleventh-hour decision, a line taken from the Modern Lovers song “Old World”. The working title had always been Beautiful Hearts, a phrase borrowed from another song, “For Those” by Tindersticks. With the old title gone, the artwork – a New York street scene – no longer made sense. “So in its place,” explains Robert, “comes a contemporaneous photograph of me conducting a set of musicians crashing into the album’s opening cut ‘Nature’s Way’. Well… that’s the fantasy.”

First time on vinyl for this remastered deluxe reissue.

TRACK LISTING

1. Nature’s Way
2. Broken Hearted People
3. Echo Beach
4. Tell Me That Isn’t True
5. 2541 6. Anytime
6. Locked Away
7. Look Out Here Comes Tomorrow
8. Alone
9. Bird
10. Frisco Depot
11. 3am

Formed during lockdown in the beautiful Peak District near Manchester, with a shared love of close vocal harmonies and soulful acoustic grooves, Bring Me The Hearts release their eponymous debut album on October 27th on Vinyl / CD and online on Rodina Music.

TRACK LISTING

1. Watersigns
2. Swampy
3. Together Again
4. Blackberries
5. Help Me
6. Down The River
7. Too Much Time
8. Feel Better
9. Good To Know
10. Something Small
11. Drive
12. Peace At Last

Celebrating its 20th anniversary with remastered audio, an expanded tracklist and a gatefold jacket, The Exploding Hearts' instant-classic debut Guitar Romantic is back. With ten undeniable songs clocking in at just 28 minutes, the Exploding Hearts' album operated as the punk rock equivalent of Ernest Hemingway’s writing: Nothing extraneous, simple, straightforward, to the point, deserving of no additional flourish or accoutrement, with every creative decision pushing forward the work as a whole. Arguably, perfect.

TRACK LISTING

1. Modern Kicks
2. I'm A Pretender
3. Thorns In Roses
4. You're Black And Blue
5. Sleeping Aides And Razorblades
6. Rumors In Town
7. Throwaway Style
8. Boulevard Trash
9. Jailbird
10. Still Crazy
11. Busy Signals
12. I'm A Pretender (King Louie Mix)
13. So Bored

The third release on Midnight Drive takes us back to the heady days of 1984, New York City. We find Clive Stevens, a UK born saxophonist, producer, writer and poet at the helm of a truly staggering cast of international musicians known as 'Brainchild', recording an LP entitled 'Semjase' for Brazilian label Vôo Livre. The LP featured incredible session musicians whose CV's include work with some of the biggest names in popular music including Chic, Kate Bush, Miles Davis, David Bowie, Eric Clapton, Tom Petty and more (the list is endless). One track from this fairly obscure LP - 'Mystery Man' - somehow managed to find its way into the hands of the one and only Daniele Baldelli, who swiftly turned it into a cosmic classic. Present and correct on a number of the cosmic tapes, "Mystery Man" is a truly unique record melding electro-style programming, live percussion, synthesizers and vocals into a blistering slow motion disco jam that'll have you dancing like a loon and scratching your head trying to work out when, where and how it was made. Not content with offering us ucky bunch a first official reissue of this classic, Midnight Drive procured the original 1984 session parts from Clive himself, enabling a brand new remix from Gerry Rooney and Joel Martin aka Velvet Season & The Hearts Of Gold. Stretching the track to new tripped out heights, Gerry and Joel transform the cosmic roller into a dreamy and dubby tropical pop killer perfect for your next Balearic dancefloor set.

STAFF COMMENTS

Patrick says: Holy interplanetary beach resort Batman! Midnight Drive pluck one of the finest Cosmic classics from the Baldelli tapes and deliver a first official reissue of the mega "Mystery Man". Alongside the original mix of this totally tropical electro-funk killer we get the dubby delight of a brand new extension from Velvet Season & The Hearts Of Gold. Top one!

TRACK LISTING

A. Mystery Man (Disco Mix) 
B. Mystery Man (Velvet Season & The Hearts Of Gold Special Disco Mix) 

Think of Tired Hearts, the new album from rising, indie-pop trio BAILEN, as a highly charged electrical field. Opposite charges attract, similar charges repel, and the current is set in motion. On this, their second full-length album for Fantasy, the New York City based siblings, Daniel, David, and Julia Bailen heighten the musical tension, and deliver a dazzling set of songs that incisively navigates the space between the heart’s expectation and the head’s sober reality. A masterful follow-up to BAILEN’s accomplished debut, 2019’s Thrilled To Be Here, Tired Heartsbeats with empathy, vulnerability, and resolve.

Produced by Brad Cook (Bon Iver, Waxahatchee) and recorded at his home studio in Durham, North Carolina, Tired Hearts’ taut, synth-driven tracks are centered around BAILEN’s radiant harmonies and futuristic arrangements furthering the group’s exhilarating avant-pop evolution.

By way of example, the dopamine saturated “Nothing Left To Give,” and the high-wattage New Wave dance track “Call It Like It Is,” seem destined for playlisting greatness. The evocative “These Bones,” a touching parable of reconciliation and the alluring “Love You Blind,” connect with assured simplicity. Meanwhile, the title track’s dramatic sonics skillfully underscore an aching portrait of betrayal, the dreamy folk-ballad “Relic” recalls the best of early-period Bee Gees, and the stunning “BRCA” gracefully unties a complex knot of familial anxiety, guilt, and acceptance.

On Tired Hearts, their exquisite new album, BAILEN learns how to dream in the face of life’s uncertainty and in the process, moves forward aware, resilient, and hopeful.

TRACK LISTING

01. Tired Hearts
02. Nothing Left To Give
03. These Bones
04. Leave Me Wanting More
05. Here We Are Again
06. Call It Like It Is
07. Change Your Mind
08. Love You Blind
09. Relic
10. BRCA (Nothing Takes Me Down)
11. Shadows
12. Hiding 

New from Dutch singer-songwriter Benny Sings: an album made entirely in collaboration with producer to the stars Kenny Beats

Benny Sings’ third album for Stones Throw, following the successful City Pop and Music. Benny Sings has collaborated with Mac DeMarco, Tom Misch, GoldLink, Mocky, Cola Boyy, and more. Young Hearts features rising star Remi Wolf on two songs 

TRACK LISTING

1. Young Hearts (ft. Remi Wolf)
2. The Only One
3. Simple Love Songs
4. Pyjamas (ft Remi Wolf)
5. The World
6. Distance
7. Love Will Find A Way
8. Movie Star
9. Let’s Go
10. Take Your Time

Long-awaited follow-up to Weyes Blood’s 2019 breakthrough album Titanic Rising.  And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow was co-produced by Weyes Blood and Jonathan Rado, with engineering by Andrew Sarlo (Big Thief), and additional instrumentation by Meg Duffy (Hand Habits) and Mary Lattimore. 

Technological agitation. Narcissism fatigue. A galaxy of isolation. These are the new norms keeping Weyes Blood (aka Natalie Mering) up at night and the themes at the heart of her latest release, And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow.  The celestial-influenced folk album is her follow-up to the acclaimed Titanic Rising. (Pitchfork, NPR, and The Guardian admiringly named it one of 2019’s best.) While Titanic Rising was an observation of doom to come, And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow is about being in the thick of it: a search for an escape hatch to liberate us from algorithms and ideological chaos. “We’re in a fully functional shit show,” Mering says. “My heart is a glow stick that’s been cracked, lighting up my chest in an explosion of earnestness.” And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow opens with the wistful, winsome “It's Not Just Me, It's Everybody,” a song about the interconnectivity of all beings, despite the fraying of society around us. “I was asking a lot of questions while writing these songs. Hyper-isolation kept coming up,” Mering says. “Our culture relies less and less on people. Something is off, and even though the feeling appears differently for each individual, it is universal.” Other tracks follow in kind. The lullaby-like “Grapevine” chronicles the splintering of a human connection. The otherworldly dirge “God Turn Me into a Flower” serves as allegory about our collective hubris. “The Worst Is Done” is an ominous warning, set against a deceivingly breezy pop melody. “Chaos is natural. But so is negentropy, or the tendency for things to fall into order,” she says. “These songs may not be manifestos or solutions, but I know they shed light on the meaning of our contemporary disillusionment.” 

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: The wonderful Weyes Blood returns for her most expansive and musically accomplished outing yet. Hazy, mid-century Americana meets smoky lounge bars and wistful folk music in a stunningly evocative and quintessentially Weyes Blood work. From strength to strength (including a stint as JOMF's bass player no less!), Mering pulls out all the stops for 'And In The Darkness', and it's come out a treat.

TRACK LISTING

It's Not Just Me, It's Everybody
Children Of The Empire
Grapevine
God Turn Me Into A Flower
Hearts Aglow
And In The Darkness
Twin Flame    
In Holy Flux
The Worst Is Done
A Given Thing

First official release in nearly five years from the rapper, poet, and trailblazer Mykki Blanco, since their debut full-length "Mykki." Features special guests Blood Orange (Dev Hynes), Big Freedia, Kari Faux and is produced by FaltyDL.

Opening with the groovy yet ethereal "Trust A Little Bit" - seared with soulful auto-tune and huge harmonies - we move into the anthemic boom-slap of "Summer Ride" which has vintage Outkast vibes beamed via a hologram of Justin Timberlake. It's clear that Blanco's hear is in big tunes that fill the room.

Elsewhere we get drank-fueled, slo-mo RnB, cut with trap beats and rich with FaltyDL's glassy, refracted production aesthetic. Somehow perfectly bridging the gap between pop and RnB's hooky ephemera, gritty street rap and the overwhelming stimulus of bass music and future beats. There's some quirky, idiosyncratic skits that tie tracks together that really, you're only gonna dig if you follow the artist's whole social profile (that's followers grandad - Ed) but they do provide some light yet beautifully timed, and sometimes comedic relief between the attitude-riddled songs that pepper the album.

Includes the 6Music A-listed single "Free Ride" co-produced with Hudson Mohawke.

TRACK LISTING

1. Trust A Little Bit (God Colony Version)
2. Free Ride
3. Summer Fling (feat. Kari Faux)
4. It’s Not My Choice (feat. Blood Orange)
5. Fuck Your Choices
6. Love Me (feat. Jamila Woods And Jay Cue)
7. Want From Me (feat. Bruno Ribeiro)
8. Patriarchy Ain’t The End Of Me
9. That’s Folks (feat. Big Freedia)

Twelve of Hearts is the debut album by experimental songwriters, Daniel O’Sullivan and Richard Youngs.

Each song has four chords. No more. No less. They cycle without variation. They never change key. As Youngs sings on Oblivion Riviera, this is “the glittering formula”.

The music is augmented by an array of sources including piano, tape machines, guitars, reeds, strings, metal sheet and computer. Constructed over several months - O’Sullivan in London, Youngs in Glasgow - only material strictly adhering to the formula has made it on to this release. The result is a cycle of 12 songs based on one chord progression.

After releasing O’Sullivan’s two solo albums ‘Veld’ and ‘Folly’ and Youngs’ 2018 album ‘Belief’, this is the duo's first for Tim Burgess' O Genesis label.

TRACK LISTING

A1 First Throw Of The Ocean
A2 Big Old Star
A3 Fear Catches The Sky
A4 Long Joyful Dream
A5 The Gate
A6 Touch Of The Sun
B1 Don't Hang With Angels
B2 Oblivion Riviera
B3 In The August Dream
B4 Like I Need To Be Amazed
B5 Remain The Fool
B6 Twelve Of Hearts

“I like the drive as much as the scenery”. Buckle up as producer, DJ, and archivist Cherrystones (Gareth Goddard) takes you on a return trip to Critical Mass! Those in the know speak of Cherrystones alongside the finest curators and compilers of our time. Preferring to move in the shadows, you won’t find Cherrystones on every identikit summer festival line-up or playing the big bucks Discogs tease on social media. However, it is why you will find him as one of the most long-standing members of the NTS family - “the greatest ever to do it”, according to founder Femi Adeyemi. And it’s why a host of underground artists make the call to check out his legendary record vault when passing through town. Or maybe you will have caught him at ease for hours behind the decks in the corner of an intimate, dimly lit joint pulling out killer jam after killer jam...

Running parallel to his world renown for collecting, archiving and sharing the furthest-flung sounds, Goddard’s own productions and soundtracks have long been revered - recently scoring campaigns for Adidas, Stone Island and YMC. Self taught as a teenager on a range of instrumentation and DIY production/programming techniques, his work is driven by the original idea of punk as an aesthetic - a creative portal devoid of rules. He has a life-long obsession with the soundtrack and was also gripped early by a love of rap (a trusted MPC 2000 never far from his side). The channeling of context, underscore, timing and placement has always fuelled the distinctive flavour of Cherrystones’ output. This open-eared and open-armed approach is what makes ‘Critical Mass Vol.2’ another stunning compilation.

As Goddard states: “this is not a rare-for-rare-sake appendix of bands designed to showcase exclusivity and superiority”. These are tracks that have lived with him, and he has lived within, gathered over travels throughout Europe - living, DJ-ing, and creating. Five years on from the first volume, this eighteen track compilation once again fully outlines the breadth and possibility of the post-punk and new wave era. “Many of these artists fell by the wayside as underdogs or were just too ahead of their time. These selections have strong rhythmic undertones - percussively and tonally - and you can hear the subtle influence of dance music and the dance floor as a reference point.”

On our journey we hear hyped up punk-funk from the Netherlands in the form of Koneć, the cosmic synth-stomp of Daniele Baldelli approved Italians - Neon, the gonzo, outsider shrieks of England’s Loco Lotus, through to the dark, dance floor groove of Belgium’s Siglo XX and, of course, there’s a whole heap more outré excursions on the way.

“From one of the last true originals - a personal, passionate draft of a "scene" that could have been. As far as possible from diggers' wet dreams - most of the music here is/was hidden in plain sight. So take one step back and figure out what might have gone wrong." Vladimir Ivkovic.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Danse Society - Dolphins
2. A Primary Industry - Bled Dry
3. Paul Lemos - Hog Rhythm
4. Koneć - Hey
5. Die Form - Slow Love
6. Neon - My Blues Is You (Slow Dub)
7. The Neon Judgement - Antoine
8. Loco Lotus - Passage
9. New Asia - Double Gates
10. The Mud Hutters - Bowl Of Cherries
11. Martin Rössel & The Dum Dum Boys - Pablo Picasso
12. Flue - Some
13. Unknown Gender - The Beast
14. Vitor Hublot - Clip Eroclap
15. Concise - Lady Run
16. Siglo XX - Moving Creatures
17. JP 118 - Le Vieux Satrape
18. November Group - Night Architecture 

Half Japanese return with another thrilling ride into unknown charters encountering beasts, celebrities, and menaces.

Purveyors of noise and indie rock for over four decades, Half Japanese have inspired generations of fans from musicians and critics alike.

Now set to release their 19th studio album ‘Crazy Hearts’ continues with their detuned, outsider pop capturing you in the way that only Jad Fair ever can.

A philosophical psych-tinged journey, these whip-smart observations are uplifting with life-affirming sentiments (‘Wondrous Wonder’) that we are familiar with. They meld melodic classic rock riffs with heavier bass lines and darker, more twisted tones on ‘My Celebrity’ and ‘A Phantom Menace’.
Their last excursion saw Uncut praising them for their “unchanged, more ecstatic musings on love and science fiction” that continues to resonate here.

Half Japanese deliver another well-wrought album with their usual DIY ethos and art punk spirit at its core (‘Undisputed Champions’), all whilst wearing Jad’s heart firmly on its sleeve (‘Crazy Hearts’).
Recorded across various studios in Spain, France and the US, Jad Fair is accompanied by his longstanding band members John Sluggett, Giles Vincent Rieder, Mick Hobbs and Jason Willett. Mastered by Brian Pyle and mixed by Jason Willett of the band. Album includes artwork from American illustrator and cartoonist, Gary Panter and David Fair.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Beast Master
2. Wondrous Wonder
3. Dark World
4. And It Is
5. My Celebrity
6. Late At Night
7. Undisputed Champions
8. Crazy Hearts
9. As Best You Can
10. A Phantom Menace
11. A Job Well Done
12. Let It Show

In the winter of 2019, Bob Mould bucked the era’s despair with his most melodic, upbeat album in ages, Sunshine Rock.

Cut to spring of 2020, and he has this to say: “We’re really in deep shit now.”

That sentiment informs the new full-length album, Blue Hearts (Merge, September 25), the raging-but-catchy yin to Sunshine Rock’s yang.

To be sure, we were in some shit back in 2018, when Mould recorded Sunshine Rock with longtime colleagues Jon Wurster (drums), Jason Narducy (bass), and Beau Sorenson (engineer). Back then, he had a song called “American Crisis” that didn’t fit the album.

“That song is the seed for what we’re talking about now,” Mould says from his home in San Francisco during the COVID-19 lockdown. “At the time, it just seemed too heavy. Today it seems fucking quaint.”

“American Crisis” is the third song in a walloping first half of an album that spits plainspoken fire at the people who fomented this crisis. “This is the catchiest batch of protest songs I’ve ever written in one sitting,” he says.

Through some of the most direct, confrontational lyrics of his four-decade career, Mould makes his POV clear: “I never thought I’d see this bullshit again / To come of age in the ’80s was bad enough / We were marginalized and demonized / I watched a lot of my generation die / Welcome back to American crisis.”

Why “welcome back”? Because Mould experienced deja vu writing Blue Hearts in the fall of 2019. “Where it started to go in my head is back to a spot that I’ve been in before,” he says. “And that was the fall of 1983.”

Back then, Mould was a self-described “22-year-old closeted gay man” touring with the legendary Hüsker Dü and seeing an epidemic consume his community. Leaders, including the one in the White House, were content to let AIDS kill a generation. Mould later realized why his mind wandered back there for Blue Hearts.

“We have a charismatic, telegenic, say-anything leader being propped up by evangelicals,” he says. “These fuckers tried to kill me once. They didn’t do it. They scared me. I didn’t do enough. Guess what? I’m back, and we’re back here again. And I’m not going to sit quietly this time and worry about alienating anyone.”

Recorded at the famed Electrical Audio in Chicago with Sorenson engineering and Mould producing, Blue Hearts nods to Mould’s past while remaining firmly planted in the issues of the day. Acoustic opener “Heart on My Sleeve” catalogues the ravages of climate change. “Next Generation” worries for who comes next. “American Crisis” references “Evangelical ISIS” and features this dagger of a line: “Pro-life, pro-life until you make it in someone else’s wife.”

“There are songs that have no room,” Mould says, laughing. “The other songs, there’s room. There is room for imagination on the second half of the record.”

That’s where the songs turn personal in a different way. Tracks like “When You Left,” “Siberian Butterfly,” and “Everyth!ng to You” are grounded in personal relationships. “Racing to the End” captures the economic disparity of Mould’s neighborhood, and “Leather Dreams”… well, maybe Jon Wurster put it best.

“Jon turns to Jason and asks, ‘Is this the dirtiest song you’ve ever played on?’” Mould recalls with a chuckle. “I clearly did not put the edit tool to that one. Those are all pretty true bits. What kind of person could possibly have a life like that?” He laughs again. “Says the author.”

“Leather Dreams,” “Password to My Soul,” and “The Ocean” were composed during a writing binge before a January 2020 Solo Electric tour, when Mould stayed up for three straight days. “Songs just kept coming out,” he says. “‘Leather Dreams’ and ‘The Ocean’ both appeared within hours. I barely remember writing them.”

That feels right for an explosive, hook-laden album like Blue Hearts. Only there’s nothing forgettable about it.

TRACK LISTING

1. Heart On My Sleeve
2. Next Generation
3. American Crisis
4. Fireball
5. Forecast Of Rain
6. When You Left
7. Siberian Butterfly
8. Everyth!ng To You
9. Racing To The End
10. Baby Needs A Cookie
11. Little Pieces
12. Leather Dreams
13. Password To My Soul
14. The Ocean

Formed in 2010 above a fried chicken shop on London's Holloway Road, MFC Chicken play raw, sax-fueled r'n'r tunes about fast food & broken hearts. Formed in 2010 on top of a dirty fried chicken shop on London's Holloway Road, MFC Chicken play raw, sax-fueled rock and roll tunes about fast food and broken hearts. When tenor sax player Spencer Evoy arrived in London fresh from Canada, little did he know that his quest to reignite the spirit of the rock'n'roll sound of the American Pacific Northwest would start outside a chicken shop on the Holloway Road. Since those early days, this poultry-power rock and roll group have released four award winning LPs and a fistful of instantly collectable singles on Dirty Water Records (UK) and FOLC Records (Spain).

The band - Spencer Evoy (Sax/Lead Vox), Ravi Low-Beer (Drums), Zig Criscuolo (Bass/Vox), and Dan Criscuolo (Guitar/Vox) - have set the UK and Europe alight with 100’s of live shows presenting their own red hot take on "the music the Sonics and The Wailers were listening to", cementing this globe-spanning gang into the finest purveyors of Pacific Northwest rhythm and blues in the land. 2020 sees the 10th anniversary of the band and the release of their newest slab of vinyl presenting 14 brand new slabs of rock and roll, frat rock and rhythm and blues. Highlights include “KFC Called The Cops On Me”, “Breakfast ‘Taters” and “Fuck You, Me”. If you love dancing but hate contemporary music… if you are desperate to hear rock'n'roll taken back to its roots… if you are hungry for the greasiest item on the rhythm and blues dance menu, then you are most definitely ready for the indescribable, unstoppable sound of MFC Chicken - the best in the land! 

TRACK LISTING

01 Always, Always, Always
02 . KFC Called The Cops On Me
03 . Who Gave What To Who?
04 Shell Of A Man
05 I’m Lost.
06 I Couldn’t Say No
07 Fresh Chicken, Straight From The Trash
08 Spy Wail.
09 Spontaneous Combust
10 Breakfast Taters.
11 Fuck You Me
12 Free Range Man
13 Tipa Tapa
14 Waste Of Space

The Battle For Hearts & Minds is Savvy, AKA Asaviour's long anticipated LP, featuring guest appearances from a range of artist & musicians DJ IQ, Aisha Zoe, Lisa Luxx, Ben Maron, Malcolm Carson, Therealdemo, Aisha Zoe, Dj Madhandz, Joh1st, Jade America, and more… In Savvy’s words: “It’s a look at the state of the world: at our battle for power, control, for sanity & clarity. “ I guess I’m questioning: what’s your battle? What are you dealing with? Why’s this the case? …The lyrics in the tracks relate to these questions in complex ways. They’re split between logic and emotion.”

Throughout the LP we see Savvy’s own personal and political musings. The lyrics open us up to ideas in order to provide us with food for thought, to open begin to open up our own questions, provoke new thoughts and ideas. Simply, to open our minds. The album begins with the words of spoken word artist, Lisa Luxx which pre empt the tone for this musical journey. She states: “ The world has stalled”., between tracks she guides the listener through the album. Her poetry connects the recurring themes between the tracks and works in dialogue with them.

Savvy’s new LP has become both a vessel for knowledge and also a place to inspire. Interestingly, the album is a return from a long hiatus, after years of a love and hate relationship with hip hop, In the end, staying true to his original love for music, he has created a body of work that transcends mundane questions of value and claims of status to offer us a piece that is undoubtedly human. Giving a critical (albeit, uncensored) look at our flaws, our nature, our manipulation, our hopes, fears, successes, our love, hate, namely, our contradictions. He is asking the listener to follow him on this journey of questioning our own humanity and what we do with it. What we can do to better ourselves as individuals and as a society as a whole. And how we can win this battle over our hearts and minds, to achieve… What, exactly? You’ll have to listen to find out. 

TRACK LISTING

Intro
T.B.F.H.A.M
The Only Way I Know
In The Pursuit Of...
Change
The Abyss - Skit
Mind Over Matter
Climax
Saving Grace
A Warrior Knows - Skit
Forfeit
Third Times A Charm
The Hour Of The Wolf (Huddwink)
Divine Resolution
Survival - Skit
Endurance
Goodnight
Outro
Refreshment

Produced by Giles Martin for this year’s universally heralded ‘Sgt. Pepper’ Anniversary Edition releases, the album’s new stereo mix was sourced directly from the original four-track session tapes and guided by the original, Beatles-preferred mono mix produced by Giles’ father, George Martin. Praised by fans and music critics around the world, The Beatles’ ‘Sgt. Pepper’ Anniversary Edition is 2017’s most celebrated historical music release and an ideal gift for Beatle People here, there, and everywhere.

Recorded in his hometown of Dunedin at the notoriously haunted Chick’s Hotel studio, Kane teamed up with producer Stephen Marr from trip hop group Doprah for Two Hearts and No Brain. The collaborative result is a razor sharp blend of intelligent alt-rock, bearing the signatures of grunge/alt rock swiftly executed with careful, meticulous precision over 11 tracks. Marr’s influence brings a pristine, retro-futuristic sheen which complements Strang’s perfectionist recording style, sharp melody, and verbose lyrical neuroticism. Taking to well-worn subject matter (heartbreak, loneliness, family) with a disarmingly frank scalpel, Strang’s wryly deadpan lines never miss a beat – the results often sardonic, and always captivating.

Two Hearts and No Brain is pure pop genius from start to finish. It’s hard to imagine who else could convincingly fuse fuzzy synths with slide guitar; crunchy chords with chiming vocals in such a kaleidoscopic pop vision. The album’s cover art, featuring a refracted analogue photograph taken of Kane atop of a rocky precipice; echoes the spirit of lean guitar-pop shining through a truly contemporary, innovative lens. His attention to detail shows up the fat slack present in the work of many of Kane’s contemporaries; yet his sound remains emotive and playfully laced with a tongue-in-cheek nostalgia – timelessly old and new in the same breath.

What sets Kane apart from the rafts of DIY indie songwriters is a willingness to push further. Having mastered the lo-fi aesthetic, he’s stretched his already limber songwriting legs and production chops to new unexpected spaces on Two Hearts and No Brain. Kane’s vision of extending his sound far beyond the bedroom promises international touring and releases the world over. With a live show that exhibits his unpredictable and exhilarating command on stage, Kane’s amassed a band of cohorts to execute his vision with arresting impact, sure to charm crowds with his sideways slant of guitar pop.

TRACK LISTING

1. Lagoons
2. Silence Overgrown
3. Not Quite
4. Oh So You’re Off I See
5. See Thru
6. Summertime In Your Lounge
7. My Smile Is Extinct
8. Two Hearts And No Brain
9. It’s Not That Bad
10. Don’t Follow Me (I’m Lost)
11. Good Guy

Perhaps fitting for a band Conceived in a monastery in Upper Vienna, Hearts Hearts create beautiful, elegiac songs which live at the intersection of classical and contemporary electronic and pop music.

Coming a generation after their spiritual forebearers like The Notwist and Radiohead, Hearts Hearts do not so much repeat or pay homage to these artists, but instead build upon them and ask how much has changed in the decade since there and then.

Anchored by Österle’s voice and as likely to evoke Sigur Ros as Flying Lotus, their debut album Young is an album about experimentation and observation - literate, sophisticated, but vulnerable and warm.
The songs on Young resemble miniature symphonies in their composition and dynamic scope, where surprising choices create a sense of tension and provocation. Tension that is so evident in the icy, melancholy “AAA” which pairs skittery, propulsive odd-time signature beats with long, legato cello lines to form a sweeping, moving aural landscape, or the racing machine heart of the title track “Young” with its mechanical beats straining against Österle’s yearning vocals. And the R&B-influenced “I Am In” which shows the band in a moment of reflection, sensual and human.

And this sense of tension and release, is reflected in the lyrics and, indeed, the concept for the album as a whole. «Young deals with the familiar patterns we find ourselves in life, the constrictions that come with that, and most of all, the attempt of breaking through, to temporarily stop going through the motions.» says David Österle, lead singer and writer. «Our lives are so over-defined and over-structured (that) we are measuring and weighing and then cutting off what’s undefined. And in reaction to all this, we are seeking spaces of temporary escape.»

TRACK LISTING

1. The World Was My Oyster
2. Bent Pyramid
3. I Am In
4. AAA
5. Potemkinsche Dörfer
6. Blood Level
7. Young
8. Inner Market Hunter Limits 10.If

Founding fathers of the New Romantics and pioneers of the 80s sound Visage, return with a new album ‘Hearts And Knives’.

‘Hearts & Knives’ is the title of the fourth Visage album. It is not only a paraphrased lyric from the lead single ‘Shameless Fashion’, but also a metaphor for the past 29 years of Steve Strange and Visage. Life is always mixture of trials, highs and lows. There are always people, situations and circumstances to cut you down (the knives), however the love, compassion and caring that has surrounded Steve Strange throughout his life is truly heartfelt.

The first song to be written for the album was co-written with long time collaborator and former Visage and Magazine keyboard player Dave Formula. ‘Diaries Of A Madman’ is a sneaky tongue and cheek vocal poke at Steve’s detractors. This and new songs crafted with Steve Barnacle and Robin Simon proved to be the catalytic creative spark to bring the album together. With a this core classic (and analogue) Visage sound in place the picture slowly started forming and the band reached out (once again) to Martin Rushent. He suggested the blueprint for the album and had began working on the first tracks before his untimely death in 2010. Undeterred, the Visage then reached out for further songwriting collaborations. Mick MacNeil, the creative musical core of Simple Minds, contributed to two songs the classic sounding ‘She’s Electric (Coming Around)’ and the radio-friendly ‘Dreamer I Know’ (which was also co-written with 80s super producer Youth). The Welsh connection was further extended when Visage co-wrote three songs with Rich Mowatt.

The sound of ‘Hearts & Knives’ is classic Visage, with the odd tip of the hat to modern production values. Most 80s groups reforming and making albums shy away from using the classic analogue hardware synthesizers. They remember how much work it was, and it’s all plug ins and software these days. Not Visage. All synthesizers on the album (aside from one bassline) are analogue. The production by John Bryan and analogue synthesizer collector Sare Havlicek is firmly rooted in the 80s.

Robert Rorison releases his astounding debut album recording through Marketstall Records under his new all-purpose nom-de-plume Blue Balloon. The release is limited to an initial run of 500 numbered, hand-packaged, signed compact discs.

“Hearts Are Pretty Heavy” is an album several years in the making during which time Robert not only lost a longterm relationship, a couple of jobs and several friends as he pursued the sound he had in his head, but also suffered mental health issues that Rob has had to fight hard to overcome. Rorison is not fucking about when it comes to his music.

His early days as a beat-matching hip-hop DJ (Wu Tang Clan were his watershed moment) led him to a lyrical complexity and rhythmic intonation that are simultaneously worthy of both your admiration and devotion. ‘I see little lyric shaped holes in the world I feel like I can fill…the words are a lot like puzzles I have to work into a song’ says Rob. This rings ever more true as the lyrical gymnastics and lithe poetry of ‘Hearts Are Pretty Heavy’ reveal themselves to the patient listener, gripping you more tightly with every play.

Influenced heavily by hip-hop but having had his head turned by Leonard Cohen, Daniel Johnston and Elliott Smith, Rob spent a long time wending his way through quirky acoustic covers of the likes of Prince, The Cure and even Will Smith before finding his true voice – a clear, heartfelt sigh that can rise to desperation and drop to a tremble in the space of a note.

Having solidified his growing reputation as a master songwriter and performer with support slots for First Aid Kit and Stornoway Rob is now ready to reveal the first document of his heartfelt, heavenly work in the shape of ‘Hearts Are Pretty Heavy’.

Debut single from this Leeds via Manchester via London duo on the fledgling O Genesis Recordings label.

Replicas, Helena Gee (vocals/ guitar) and Ashiya Eastwood (vocals/ guitar/ keyboard), formed at the end of last year and have been quietly building a growing fan base around the country with their enchanting slant on moody, yet melodic pop.

Produced by Tim Burgess, the new single is a three track EP featuring ‘Hearts Beat’, ‘In The City’ and Disappear’.

TRACK LISTING

A1: Hearts Beat (33 Rpm)
A2: The City (33 Rpm)
AA: You Disappear (45 Rpm)

Two years on from a debut album awash with punk spirit and scorching blues-rock, London trio Noisettes make their return with "Wild Young Hearts", a set of sleek pop songs steeped in soul, dizzy on disco and harking back to the days of blues and jazz greats. From the galloping funk grooves of forthcoming, first single "Don't Upset The Rhythm", to the joyous, jazzy title track, the stomping electro-rock of "Saturday Night", the glorious 60s-tinged soul of "Never Forget You" and the sultry, shimmering pop of "24 Hours", in "Wild Young Hearts", Noisettes have made what is set to be one of 2009's most adventurous albums. Never fond of a formula, the trio always intended a radical musical detour from their acclaimed debut, "What's The Time Mr Wolf?", an album that spawned five singles and took them on tour for over a year, sharing arena stages with Muse and criss-crossing the States with TV On The Radio and Bloc Party. If you can imagine a hybrid of Blondie, Ting Tings and Rihanna, you'll begin to get an idea of how special this new record is. Vocalist Shingai Shoniwa, meanwhile, is fast becoming a style icon with the makings of a modern-day Deborah Harry.

"Driverlights" is the second single to be taken from Gothenburg's Hearts Of Black Science album "The Ghost You Left Behind". It takes a leather-clad pinch of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and stirs it up with some soaring 80s synth-pop sounds and ethereal vox. A melancholic and dark pop melody, yet uplifting and positive at the same time.

Shai Hulud are capable of producing some of the most colossal and towering punk / metal on the planet as this 1997 release amply demonstrates. You may need a thesaurus to sift through the lyrics of songs like "Eating Bullets Of Acceptance" or "Solely Concentrating On The Negative Aspects Of Life" but their passion and commitment is undeniable.