For more than a decade, Black Honey have been conjuring vivid cinematic universes alongside across their three albums, scoring top 10s, playing shows with IDLES, Liam Gallagher and The Libertines and relentlessly touring. The new album 'Soak' is a very different proposition to behind 2023’s 'A Fistful of Peaches', let alone 2021’s 'Written and Directed' or the band’s self-titled debut of 2018. Two years sober and enjoying a thriving career as a tattoo artist, front person Izzy Phillips is still a force of nature but has found healthier outlets for her boundless energy.

Needless to say, it’s not been easy, but the band are reaping the benefits now, enjoying deeper levels of self-acceptance as a byproduct of all their emotional labour. On the album Phillips says, “'Soak' is me processing a decade of touring and creating music and art as an addict. It’s me picking at the layers of messy, romantic, confusing, woozy, beautiful and fucked up things. Who I thought I was, who I was supposed to be and who looks back at me now are all so different but I’m kind of here for it.”

TRACK LISTING

1. Insulin
2. Dead
3. Psycho
4. Carroll Avenue
5. Soak
6. Sad Sun
7. Shallow
8. Drag
9. Vampire In The Kitchen
10. Slow Dance
11. To The Grave
12. Medication

Voice of the Beehive’s sophomore album. 1991’s 'Honey Lingers', saw the UK/US pop-rock band build further on their signature mix of jangly guitars, upbeat rhythms, and melodic pop hooks, edging closer to a glossier, more mainstream sound.

Working with producers such as Don Was (The B-52s, Bob Dylan), Hugh Jones (Echo & The Bunnymen, The Charlatans) and Alan Tarney (A-ha, Saint Etienne), its 3 singles all broke the UK Top 40, with lead single ‘Monsters and Angels’ gaining significant airplay on US College Radio, reaching #8 on the US Modern Rock chart.

London Records are re-issuing this alternative-pop classic, remastered and pressed on limited edition hot-pink vinyl.

The expanded and remastered double CD delves into the archives to uncover B-sides, acoustic versions and alternate takes, as well as live tracks from an iconic 1991 performance at The Kentish Town & Country Club recorded for BBC Radio One.

TRACK LISTING

LP Tracklist:
1. Monsters And Angels
2. Adonis Blue
3. I Think I Love You
4. Look At Me
5. Beauty To My Eyes
6. Just Like You
7. Little Gods
8. I’m Shooting Cupid
9. Say It
10. Perfect Place

CD Tracklist:
1. Monsters And Angels
2. Adonis Blue
3. I Think I Love You
4. Look At Me
5. Beauty To My Eyes
6. Just Like You
7. Little Gods
8. I’m Shooting Cupid
9. Say It
10. Perfect Place
11. Waitress
12. Only If You Want To
13. Pocketsize
14. Something About God
15. Shine Away
16. Dumb Club (Alternative Version)
17. I Think I Love You (Don Was Guilty Pleasure Mix)
18. Perfect Place (7” Version)
19. Gimme Shelter (with Jimmy Somerville)
20. Say It (Acoustic Version)
21. I’m Shooting Cupid (Acoustic Version)
22. Perfect Place (Acoustic Version)
23. Monsters And Angels (Alternative Version)
24. I Think I Love You (Original Version 7” Remix)
25. Look At Me (Original Remix)
26. Just Like You (Harding/Curnow 7” Version)
27. Little Gods (Spector Christmas Version)
28. Perfect Place (Piano Version)
29. Monsters And Angels (12” Version)
30. I Think I Love You (Orgy Mix)
31. Perfect Place (Pat Collier Version)
32. I Think I Love You (Don Was 1st Mix)
33. VB - Goddess Of Love (Vocal Mix)
34. I’m Shooting Cupid (Live)
35. Little Gods (Live)
36. Monsters And Angels (Live)
37. Only If You Want To (Live)

Composer and trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire’s honey from a winter stone, which he calls a “self-portrait”, features improvisational vocalist Kokayi, pianist Sam Harris, Chiquitamagic on synthesizer, drummer Justin Brown, and the Mivos Quartet (violinist Olivia Deprato and Maya Bennardo, violist Victor Lowrie Tafoya, cellist Tyler Borden). Akinmusire also says, “In many respects this entire work is inspired by and is an homage to the work of the composer Julius Eastman and his organic music concept.”

“This album is about the fears and struggles I personally face, as well as those many Black men endure: colorism, erasure, and the question of who gets to speak for my community, and why,” Akinmusire explains. “There’s also the constant negotiation of what happens when I don’t conform to certain expectations or when I choose to reject those imposed on me. These are the complexities I navigate daily.”

TRACK LISTING

1. Muffled Screams
2. Bloomed (The Ongoing Processional Of Nighas In Hoodies)
3. MYanx.
4. Owled
5. S-/Kinfolks

Fashion icon, catwalker, curator, historian, commentator, activist, Grammy winner and – damn right – DJ, there ain’t much these days that Ms. Honey Dijon doesn’t do with aplomb. Most of her achievements thus far came via her passion for clubbing and the art of DJing, from those early Chicago parties to her role as a de facto ambassador for world dancefloors. Chatting to Honey for a few minutes, you swiftly realise when it comes to records, labels, releases, she’s a house music nerd, having been schooled by some of the Windy City’s masters and is as adept at bringing the past into the future as anyone else in the business. This compilation is a testament to someone whose knowledge of the underground labels of yore is encyclopaedic and Ms. Dijon has dredged the recesses of her clubbing memories. ’I’m a huge fan of research. So putting this compilation together was basically going into my dancefloor experience and finding gems I wanted to present to people that they may not have been familiar with or that they didn’t even know existed.’ Thus we have Psychedelic Research Lab’s anthemic NY banger ‘Keep On Climbing’, which came out on producer Scott Richmond’s own store label, Satellite, or Sir Lord Comixx’s London vibes on the aptly-named ‘Soul House’ which, says Honey, ‘I heard Danny play it at 7am in Twilo and it was so fuckin’ weird’. Kingsley O, the London boy marooned in Connecticut, contributes the Jersey vibes on Maydie Myles’ brilliant debut single, ‘Keep On Luvin’, reinforced by Blaze associate Cassio The Cassmaster’s ‘Getting Hot’.

This compilation is a pan-global, multi-era waltz through house music’s storied past. Repping Chicago, there’s Dance Mania’s Dance Kings, Blackjoy and Art Of Tones carrying the flag for Paris and even Shaboom’s Blackpool gets a nod. Some of these are forgotten classics, some are dollar bin finds, and there’s also a brand new Dijon track, sprinkled with her usual mustard-hot flourishes and lightly seasoned with some more recent efforts by Waajeed and Kiko Navarro. This can be consumed on a dancefloor, in the back of a cab or relaxing at home with a glass of something cold (or, if you must, hot).

TRACK LISTING

CD Tracklist:
1. Honey Dijon - Intro
2. Chestnut - Pot Of Gold
3. Charly Brown - Freaked Out
4. Stereo MC's - Good Feeling (Mr G’s Turn On Dub)
5. Johnny Dangerous - Dear Father In Heaven (Mr. Marvin House Of Dreams Mix)
6. Psychedelic Research Lab - Keep On Climbin’ (Mix 2)
7. Blow Out Express - You’re Mine (Sound Factory Bar Mix)
8. The Dance Kings - Climb The Walls
9. Buika X Kiko Navarro - Mama Calling (Tedd Patterson Remix)
10. Cassio The Cassmaster - Getting Hot (Broad Market Street Mix)
11. Maydie Myles - Keep On Luvin (West Tribe Beats)
12. Michi Lange - Brothers And Sisters (Radio Mix)
13. Shaboom - Bessie
14. D:Ream - U R The Best Thing (Def Club Mix)
15. Sir Lord Comixx - Soul House
16. Honey Dijon - Finding My Way (DJ-Kicks) Ft. Ben Westbeech
17. Art Of Tones - Praise
18. Waajeed - Right Now
19. Black Joy - Untitled (Solid Groove Remix)

LP Tracklist:
1. Honey Dijon - Finding My Way (DJ-Kicks) Ft. Ben Westbeech
2. Buika X Kiko Navarro - Mama Calling (Tedd Patterson Remix)
3. Shaboom - Bessie
4. D:Ream - U R The Best Thing (Def Club Mix)
5. Stereo MC’s - Good Feeling (Mr G’s Turn On Dub)
6. Black Joy - Untitled (Solid Groove Remix)
7. Scott Richmond & John Selway Present Psychedelic Research Lab - Keep On Climbin’ (Mix 2)
8. Charly Brown - Freaked Out
9. Maydie Myles - Keep On Luvin’ (West Tribe Beats)
10. Johnny Dangerous - Dear Father In Heaven (Mr. Marvin’s House Of Dreams Mix)

Dan Snaith's latest album, "Honey," marks an intriguing new phase for Caribou. Over more than two decades Dan Snaith has had many guises. After putting every ounce of himself into Our Love and Suddenly, for his sixth Caribou album Snaith now pulls himself away a little in search of music that isn’t about any one person and is available to everybody. Huge dancefloor tracks twinkle, shimmer and surprise in a way only Snaith’s productions can but with a freshness that defines an artist who is too excited by music- making to ever truly settle into any one sound.

There’s never been a Caribou record that sounds like the last, so change here is just as comforting as constant. They say expect the unexpected and you’ll never be surprised; well there’s plenty here to be surprised by, but then with a Caribou record you’d never expect anything less. "Honey" captures Snaith's curiosity and joy in music-making, offering a fresh yet quintessential Caribou experience. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Soaring, euphoric dancefloor electronica that's both instantly enjoyable and endlessly deep, from the brilliant Dan Snaith. Though there is a strong core of propulsive percussion and insistent melodic elements, the woozy drift and organic wooze stop this from feeling anything but seamlessly organic, resulting in probably his most balanced effort to date.

TRACK LISTING

A1 Broke My Heart
A2 Honey
A3 Volume
A4 Do Without You
A5 Come Find Me
A6 August 20/24
B1 Dear Life
B2 Over Now
B3 Campfire
B4 Climbing
B5 Only You
B6 Got To Change 

Experience the raw power of Ministry's "The Land of Rape and Honey (Deluxe Edition)." This definitive collection includes iconic tracks like "Stigmata" and the haunting title track, plus exclusive remixes and extended cuts. Dive into the intense energy and industrial ferocity of this genre-defining album.

TRACK LISTING

Disc 1
1. Stigmata
2. The Missing
3. Deity
4. Golden Dawn
5. Destruction
6. The Land Of Rape And Honey
7. You Know What You Are
8. Flashback
9. Abortive

Disc 2
Exclusive Remixes And Extended Cuts

After the highly anticipated debut album "Sugar Honey Iced Tea!," the dynamic NYC duo strikes once more with a double pack of alternate versions and remixes. Craig Handfield and Brandon Weems, better known as musclecars, have unveiled a dance music masterpiece, now graced by the touch of house music legends Louie Vega and Maurice Fulton. This double pack showcases multiple versions of "Tonight," remixed by dance music maestro Louie Vega, who momentarily stepped away from his Masters At Work ventures to infuse this project with his magic. The main remix unfolds like an epic journey adorned with orchestral elegance, while the dub versions range from festival anthems (NV South Jersey Mix) to tracks that echo the early Masters At Work essence (Louie Vega’s Bronx Dub). Additionally, we are gifted a new version of "Hello?" reimagined by Maurice Fulton. In this version, Maurice's signature live bass lines intertwine with exuberant, hard-hitting percussion, casting a whimsical light on the deep, introspective original. Complementing the remixes from musclecars' esteemed inspirations, we encounter two new versions of "Ha Ya! (Eternal Life)" and "Water," both stripped of percussion to reveal the stunning arrangements, textures, and harmonies. These renditions are accompanied by a full side of musclecars’ dance odyssey "I Don’t Remember The Last Time I Saw Stars." The Double Honey Pack is a tour de force. It’s a rarity to witness two legends unite to elevate an already stellar project, yet Vega and Fulton achieve just that. Meanwhile, Weems and Handfield meticulously peel back the layers, allowing the intricate details to shine. This promises to be the release of the summer!

TRACK LISTING

Disc: 1
1. Tonight (Louie Vega Remix)
2. Tonight
3. Tonight (Louie Vega Bronx Dub)

Disc: 2
1. I Don’t Remember The Last Time I Saw Stars
2. Hello? (Maurice Fulton Remix)
3. Ha Ya! (Eternal Life)(Planetarium Mix)

Not one to rest on his laurels, the Grammy-winning nu-disco hitmaker is at it again. Purple Disco Machine collaborates with a wealth of talent on his latest single "Honey Boy". The star cast includes Swedish hitmaker Benjamin Ingrosso, Jamaican rising star Shenseea, and disco legend Nile Rodgers, creating a funked up fusion track that merges modern pop energy with decades of disco knowledge and excellence - not forgetting them signature Rodgers guitar licks!

TRACK LISTING

A1. Extended Mix
B1. Original Mix
B2. Instrumental Mix

One of the best 80's Funk-Disco-Boogie repressed for the 1st time.

Recorded in Lagos, Nigeria in 1982. Features the great Nkono Teles on clavinet and electric piano and Jojo Kuo, drummer who played with Manu Dibango and Fela Kuti among others.

TRACK LISTING

1. Pleasure
2. Dooby Dooby
3. Free Like The Wind
4. Give Your Love To Me (feat. Festus F. Nwabuaku & Candido Obajimi)
5. Shake Your Body
6. We Can Make It
7. Come Back To Me

Sugar Honey Iced Tea! is the highly anticipated debut album from musclecars, set for a May 2024 release on BBE Music. Having already established their presence in the club scene, from the joyous atmosphere of their Coloring Lessons parties to their residency at Nowadays in NYC, and with genre-bending performances worldwide, musclecars are eager to unveil this new world they've intentionally crafted. This forthcoming album comprises 13 tracks that sonically come together to offer a profound lens into the Afro-American experience. Themes range from joy, to loss, intimacy, helplessness, perseverance, and all the facets that lie in between. From the very first tune, musclecars set the tone with an exploration of afro-dystopia, carrying listeners through the entire album whilst creating imaginary futures born out of self-preservation and self-discovery. Through their practice of sonic storytelling, native New Yorkers Brandon Weems and Craig Handfield use this album to speak to the nuances of their daily lives and their environment. Join them on this musical journey as they delve into a collection that captures the essence of the black experience with authenticity, emotion, and rhythm. This album stands as one of their favorite bodies of work in recent memory, and they're so excited to share it with you.

TRACK LISTING

Disc: 1
1. The Afro-American Conundrum (Where Does That Leave Us?)
2. Ha Ya! (Eternal Life) (Feat. Natalie Greffel)
3. I Don’t Remember The Last Time I Saw Stars
4. Dream Boy
5. Tonight (Feat. Kamaal)
6. Every Party Must Come To An End (Feat. Kamaal)
7. Running Out Of Time

Disc: 2
1. There’s Space For Us All
2. Carlos Sanchez Interlude
3. Water (Feat. New Past)
4. Hello? (Feat. Aden)
5. Circles I (Prelude)
6. Circles II (Feat. Toribio)

Honey Honey (English) 7″ picture disc incorporates classic band imagery from the original era and features a b-side companion track.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
Honey, Honey
Side B
King Kong Song

Super limited vinyl edition of Glenn Underground's remix of Erykah Badu's neo-soul smash "Honey". Tweaking it out into a jazzy, soulful-house cut resplendent in the producer’s luscious licks and adding the soul queen's infectious vocal on top. It's a no brainer really and sure to satisfy even the hardest to please Saturday night reveler.

Limited copies - move quick! 

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: I didn't really think I needed a house refix of Erykah Badu's "Solder", off 2008's "New Amerika Pt 1". But under Glenn Underground's persuasive potter's wheel the track is effortlessly moulded into the perfect deep house jam; with Badu's vocals flowing like liquid gold through the stems. Essential stuff!

TRACK LISTING

A. Honey (GU Remix)

Reissue of Black Honey’s self titled debut EP originally released in 2014

TRACK LISTING

1. The Taste
2. Sleep Forever
3. Teenager
4. Bloodlust

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2023 EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

This is Honey Bane's first vinyl release in 40 years. Music's biggest rebel turned her back on the scene in 1983, after a string of successful punk/new wave singles. Violence Grows is Bane's 1978 debut, which she wrote at just 14 years old. She recorded it under her band, Fatal Microbes. The single has been reissued, with digitally remastered audio and pressed on limited edition, "bruised" black and blue 12 inch vinyl. This is the first ever coloured vinyl in Bane's catalogue of work.

A Fistful of Peaches will follow Black Honey’s 2021 album Written & Directed. “If the vibe of Written & Directed was creating this whole Tarantino world and this safe space of me almost refusing help and saying I was fine, then with this album it’s the opposite,” Phillips commented. “Lockdown had happened, I’d had two years of not writing anything and feeling like my entire purpose had gone down the drain, I’d been in intense therapy which was exhausting, and what came out was just me regurgitating things from my entire life and building my brain cells back to how they should be. I’ve had to be more honest and vulnerable with myself, but I feel like I’d be disservicing anyone who spends their time and passion and energy into this project to not fucking unveil it all.”

TRACK LISTING

1. Charlie Bronson
2. Heavy
3. Ups Against It
4. Out Of My Mind
5. Rock Bottom
6. Cut The Cord
7. OK
8. I’m A Man
9. Nobody Knows
10. Weirdos
11. Tombstone
12. Bummer

There’s a line on Honey, the latest album from Nashville-via-NYC songwriter Samia, about Aspen Grove, a collection of 40,000 trees in the plains of North America, all connected by a single expansive root system. There’s no stronger metaphor for the audience the 25-year-old empathy engine has been generating since she began releasing music seven years ago. Her songs, her fans, her friends: one enormous, interconnected ecosystem. Honey, comprised of eleven new moments of catharsis, is by and for that organism. The album was recorded at North Carolina studio Betty’s – owned and operated by Sylvan Esso’s Nick Sandborn and Amelia Meath, frequent touring partners of Samia’s. It was produced by Caleb Wright, part of the team that helmed Samia’s breakthrough 2020 debut The Baby, and a founding member of one of Samia’s favorite bands, The Happy Children. It features some of her nearest and dearest friends: Christian Lee Hutson, Briston Maroney, Jake Luppen, Raffaella. Its songs were surreptitiously road tested for her devotees while opening for Lucy Dacus, Courtney Barnett, and more. The end result is what Samia calls simply “a real community record.”

TRACK LISTING

1. Kill Her Freak Out
2. Charm You
3. Pink Balloon
4. Mad At Me
5. Sea Lions
6. To Me It Was
7. Breathing Song
8. Honey
9. Nanana
10. Amelia
11. Dream Song

Produced by Fussell and co-founder Alana Pagnutti and mixed by Joel Ford (Ford & Lopatin, Yes/And), Honey Harper & The Infinite Sky features the premiere of The Infinite Sky, a stacked backing band consisting of longtime bassist and contributing writer Mick Mayer, pianist John Carroll Kirby (Solange, Steve Lacy), Spoon keyboardist Alex Fischel, guitarist Jackson MacIntosh (Drugdealer, Jessica Pratt), pedal-steel player Connor Gallaher (Black Lips, Calexico), and TOPS drummer Riley Fleck.

Within the first few moments of the self-titled new album, Honey Harper & The Infinite Sky deliver a dashed-off statement on the trappings of country music. Despite the high level of conceptualization that went into its creation, the record embodies an irresistibly loose and groove-heavy sound that hits with an immediate impact. While previous album Starmaker was touted as “country music for people who don’t like country music,” Honey Harper & The Infinite Sky is “country music for everyone.”

TRACK LISTING

1. Reflections
2. Ain't No Cowboys In Georgia
3. Broken Token
4. One Thing
5. Tired Of Feeling Good
6. The World Moves
7. Boots Mine Gold
8. Hard To Make A Living
9. Lake Song
10. Crystal Heart
11. Heaven Knows I Won't Be There
12. Big Sky

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2022 EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

Rock'n'Roll hits adapted and sung in Italiano to seduce an exotic and difficult music market. A tradition that saw many stars (Mick Jagger, Francoise Hardy...) test their pronounciation skills with swinging (but always very fun) results. Now its The Courettes' turn, to translate two of their newest songs for a special limited single 7'', released in time for their southern Europe tour and the Record Store Day 2022.

‘Dear Someone, Happy Something’ is the debut album by London based sisters Rowan, Robin and Sylvie. The three sisters from Honor Oak Park in South London, with an average age of only 13 and a ½ years old, write songs that reflect a disarmingly frank child’s-eye view of the world.

Honey Hahs have been championed by, and played shows with, Goat Girl, Fat White Family, Insecure Men, Shame, Micachu and The Moonlandingz amongst others.

‘Dear Someone, Happy Something’ was recorded in London with Steve Mackey. Rowan plays guitar and piano, Robin plays bass and Sylvie plays drums, and they all sing and harmonise.

TRACK LISTING

Forever
River
Rain Falls Down
I Know You Know
OK
Olive Green
Beer Fear
Sometime Ago
Away
Concrete
Stop Him
Swallow
Whoever

‘Written & Directed’ is Black Honey’s second album. It follows their outstanding self-titled debut released back in 2018 when the world that surrounded the Brighton fourpiece looked and felt like a very different place. Black Honey however are still the bad-ass, truly original band they have always been, they’ve just graduated from the intriguingly anomalous newcomers to becoming one of UK indie’s most singular outfits. They've travelled the world and released a Top 40 album; graced the cover of the NME and become the faces and soundtrack of Roberto Cavalli's Milan Fashion Week show; smashed Glastonbury and supported Queens of the Stone Age, all without compromising a shred of the wild, wicked vision they first set out with.

It's now time for the next instalment of their story – ‘Written & Directed” – which see’s Black Honey deliver one, very singular, message – a 10 track mission statement that aims to unashamedly plant a flag in the ground for strong, world-conquering women. For fierce frontwoman and album protagonist Izzy B. Phillips – it’s the most important message she could send to inspire her cult-like fanbase and fill the female-shaped gap that she felt so acutely when she was growing up and discovering rock music for the first time.

Written throughout 2019 and recorded in fits and spurts between touring, ‘Written & Directed’ is drenched with a hedonistic, anything-goes attitude. It’s also the most full-throttle collection of music that Black Honey have ever-written – egged-on by their run of shows supporting long-term friends and collaborators Royal Blood. Exploring everything from womanhood, to identity and power, it’s an album that revels in the rich history of pop culture, throws a wink to its rock-and-roll heroes, but ultimately (and in true Black Honey fashion) it stands on its own two feet.

With a typically hyper-visual world referencing grindhouse cinema, kitschy pulp films and a flip-reverse of female cinematic representation all primed to unfurl and explode around them, 'Written & Directed' is the sound of Black Honey strapping in and saddling up, of harnessing their quirks, and, as the Phillips has always hoped, riding them joyously into the sunset.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Black Honey return, bringing more of their scathing guitars and pummeling rhythms, pitch-perfect vocals and psychedelic grooves. A superbly singable and dynamic coalition of energy and politicism in one hugely enjoyable package.

TRACK LISTING

1. I Like The Way You Die
2. Run For Cover
3. Beaches
4. Back Of The Bar
5. Believer
6. I Do It To Myself
7. Disinfect
8. Summer '92
9. Fire
10. Gabrielle

Countdown Records (via Acid Jazz) are proud to announce the release of the label’s first 7” single in over 30 years. And what could be more apt than the single that never was by label favourites Makin’ Time?

Produced by The Truth and 9 Below Zero’s Dennis Greaves and Mick Lister, this was to have been the West Midland group’s debut single for Countdown.

Featuring the group’s original members, it remained unreleased when that line-up changed and Countdown’s parent label Stiff decided in a change of direction, aiming the group at the pop charts.

Featuring two highlights of their early live set - the Fay Hallam composed ‘Honey’ and ‘Take What You Can Get’, written by Martin Blunt.

The 7” comes in an exclusive Countdown sleeve so make sure to get your copy now.

TRACK LISTING

Honey (Original Version)
Take What You Can Get (Original Version)

Fool's Gold Vinyl is for Indies only. RIYL: Purling Hiss, Neil Young, Jim Shepard, Roy Montgomery, Peter Laughner, Circuit Rider. Nebraska songwriter David Nance returns to Trouble In Mind with his fifth (proper) studio album "Staunch Honey", his follow-up to his acclaimed 2018 album "Peaced and Slightly Pulverized". Returning to the home-recorded magic of his early albums, "Staunch Honey" was recorded entirely to tape by Nance himself at his Omaha home with scattered assistance from his longtime live bandmates Jim Schroeder & Kevin Donohue."Staunch Honey" is the culmination of two years of hard work - Nance worked and reworked the album three times over, recording & rerecording songs until they sounded just so - a stunning batch of sonic manna that hums with feeling and mood; expertly crafted, but sounding simultaneously off-the-cuff. Nance dials back the squalling feedback & raging guitars found on "Peaced..." into something a bit mellower, like the soundtrack to a late-night drive or late night hangs. Rusted & dusted with mid-fi, stoney brilliance.

"The Merchandise" kicks off the album, loping into earshot with an off-kilter countrified gait, not unlike a front porch jam session. This vibe permeates the album, other tunes like "Save Me Some Tears", "Gentle Traitor" & "When The Covers Come Off" burn with casual intensity, while rockers like "My Love, The Dark and I" and "Sell It All Night" sizzle with a six-string fury. "Black Mustang" - the penultimate number - is a real standout, with a subtle banjo plucking in the background & a palpable yearning and melancholy. Nance's true gift as a songwriter lies in his ability to craft poetry and personas that feel "lived-in". There's a world-weariness to his lyrical and musical approach, but rooted in joy, love and above all; passion. Many of the tunes on "Staunch Honey" feel like classics, but that's because in Nance's hands - they are. Not content to let the album go by without the rumble of guitar, "If The Truth Ever Shows Up" closes out the album. It's an instrumental jam with Nance wrangling and riffing on a gut-punching guitar solo for 6-plus minutes that feels very much like the end credits to a long-lost midnight movie

TRACK LISTING

1. The Merchandise
2. My Love, The Dark And I
3. This Side Of The Moon
4. Save Me Some Tears
5. July Sunrise
6. Gentle Traitor
7. Learn The Curve
8. When The Covers Come Off
9. Sell It All Night
10. Black Mustang
11. If The Truth Ever Shows Up

Black Sheep – and their 1991 'A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing' album - were definitely an outlier in the Native Tongues fold. They were raunchier and more playful than their peers which, given that those peers were A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul and Jungle Brothers, is really saying something.

'Strobelite Honey' catches that difference perfectly, leaning heavily on a pair of 1980 disco samples rather than the jazz of their brethren, and taking a somewhat less chivalrous approach to women. 'Strobelite's slender but fun narrative sees rapper Dres up in the club and fooled by the lights – approaching a girl he likes the look off but backing off when they reveal she's not what he expected. Charmed, we're sure.

Dres and his partner Mr. Lawnge were always willing to push boundaries, and that extends to the often confusing labelling of the various remixes of this choice single. 12"s dropped with the 'No We Didn't Mix', 'Yes We Did Mix' and 'Maybe We Did Mix' (not to mention a separate 12" of House mixes).

The last and best of these accompanied the original version on the now-rare 1991 7", as it does here. The 'Maybe We Did Mix' adds urgent horns - almost like the buzzing of a bee - and a new beat to completely reconfigure the sound into something much more of its era. It's a reminder of when remixes were about much more than the same beat with different rappers.

TRACK LISTING

Strobelite Honey (Maybe We Did Mix)
Strobelite Honey (The Original)

The lead singer of beloved heartland-punk band The Gaslight Anthem, Brian Fallon steps away from that sound and into a stripped-down Americana space on his third solo album, Local Honey. Produced by Grammy-award winning producer Peter Katis (The National, Frightened Rabbit, Death Cab for Cutie), the album showcases Fallon's songwriting in small vignettes, from a loving devotional for his daughter to a vengeful murder ballad.

TRACK LISTING

1. When You're Ready
2. 21 Days
3. Vincent
4. I Don't Mind (If I'm With You)
5. Lonely For You Only
6. Horses
7. Hard Feelings
8. You Have Stolen My Heart

Born William Fussell in 1989 in Adel, Georgia (a small town near the Okefenokee Swamp) Harper’s family quickly relocated to Hollywood, Florida where he immersed himself in the arts more readily available in southern Florida: disco and country music. His father was an Elvis impersonator who introduced him to Waylon Jennings, Patsy Cline and Hank Williams and his mother watched ‘Grease’ with him every month introducing him to his lifelong style icon, Olivia Newton John. At the age of 10, Harper’s family returned to Georgia, this time to the suburbs of Atlanta, where he would spend his teenage years performing in both church choirs and punk bands. On the day of his eighteenth birthday, Harper left home, beginning his journey to become the Starmaker celebrated in his album’s title.

The name ‘Starmaker’ is inspired by the Joni Mitchell classic ‘Free Man in Paris’, which is an ode to the stresses of having to play the game of the music industry. Co- written with his wife, Alana Pagnutti, the album is not a commentary on Mitchell’s words but it explores similar ideas about fame, fortune and failure. “I'm the starmaker,” he offers. “These songs are primarily about my journey to create them. The album as a whole, is about my relationship with my wife and loved ones in the search of this success and fame.”

The majority of songs on ‘Starmaker’ embrace contradictions and dichotomies in both subject matter and style. Love and sadness, melancholia and happiness, success and failure, come in and out of focus. ‘Something Relative’ is an elegantly simple ballad about a friend of Harper’s that died of an overdose. The sparse picked guitar contrasts the flowing, melodic strings as Harper hopefully sings about his lost friend. ‘Tomorrow Never Comes’, a Big Star meets The Eagles turned Krautrock instant classic, speaks to the early days of Harper and his wife’s long-distance relationship; the happiness of finding someone you love tarnished by the eventuality of having to say goodbye. In Dido Building Carthage, a tragic story of love and suicide is contrasted with the hope of building a new empire. The juxtaposition is mirrored in the surface of Tuner’s painting where classically-painted figures appear and simultaneously fade into a looser, more abstract handling of the landscape.

TRACK LISTING

Green Shadows
In Light Of Us
The Day It Rained Forever
Something Relative
Tired Tower
Suzuki Dreams
Vaguely Satisfied
Someone Else’s Dream
Tomorrow Never Comes
Strawberry Lite
Starmaker

Honey Boy OST by Alex Somers. Beautiful and transcendent soundtrack to accompany the Shia LaBeouf written and Alma Har'el directed Honey Boy.

TRACK LISTING

Side A

1. Honey Boy (Feat. Zach Shields) / 2. Apologize / 3. A Good Day / 4. Where You Come From / 5. Blood Family / 6. Treehouse / 7. Without A Net / 8. Play The Tape Out / 9. Blackout

Side B

1. A Mirror Behind You / 2. Save Yourself / 3. Fair / 4. Mother Fell Out Of A Window (Feat. Zach Shields) / 5. Real World / 6. None OfIt's Real / 7. Trust Me Honey Boy / 8. I Want You To Be Here (Feat. Zach Shields) / 9. You're A Fucking Star (Feat. Zach Shields) / 10. A Violent Act / 11. All I Ever Wanted

Kyle Craft and his now solidified backing band, dubbed Showboat Honey, reflect the sturm und drang of life with their self-titled album, the contemplative yet restless ‘Showboat Honey’. “This is basically an album centered around bad luck and good fortune hitting at the same time,” Craft explains “Then, out of nowhere, I find love. Everything went to shit except that. I guess that’s how life works.”

The sticky-sweet title of the album is lifted from the brightly choral ‘Buzzkill Caterwaul’: “I wanted to make something that sounded like a raucous collision of Leon Russell and Patti Smith,” he says, “But ‘Buzzkill Caterwaul’ was the only tune that ended up showcasing that vision.” Though aesthetics veer from song to song, ‘Showboat Honey’s steadfast formula remains the same. Drummer Haven Mutlz holds down the machine with a 60s/70s fast-molasses groove that locks in with the slinky rolling bass of Billy Slater. When Kevin Clark isn’t bouncing across the piano, his mellotron strings swell in and out of frame. Jack of all trades Ben Steinmetz’s organ parts well up from the deep of the songs, while lead guitarist Jeremy Kale’s solos rip through them like electricity. On top of it all, sits the tongue-in-cheek phantasmagoria created by Craft’s lyrics, in which perspectives shift to imbue life into a cast of intriguing, mysterious characters, à la Bob Dylan. (“There is not a single thing in my life that has affected me more than the first time I heard Dylan,” says Craft. “It immediately changed my life.”)

Craft started writing about as soon as he could play the guitar at the age of 15. He grew up in the isolated Mississippi River town of Vidalia, Louisiana where his chops weren’t honed in a woodshed but rather an old, dingy meat freezer that was out of commission. After years of touring, two albums with Sub Pop Records and solidifying the band, he’s grown into a prodigious songwriter, to say the least. The band recorded ‘Showboat Honey’ - co- produced by Craft, Clark and Slater - at their own Moonbase Studios in Portland over 2018. “We approached this record differently for sure,” Craft says. “I’d make a demo, and after putting the songs together, shoot it to the band for ideas.” Kyle and the members of Showboat Honey worked at such a feverish wine-fuelled pace that they actually ended up with two completely different albums. At the end of the day, they decided to combine the two into what is now ‘Showboat Honey'.

TRACK LISTING

Broken Mirror Pose
O! Lucky Hand
2 Ugly 4 NY
Blackhole/Joyride
Bed Of Needles #2
Deathwish Blue
Blood In The Water
Buzzkill Caterwaul
Sunday Driver
Johnny (Free & Easy)
She’s Lily Riptide

Montreal trio Lungbutter serves up an exhilarating and relentless barrage of astringent noise-punk, at times refracted variously through sludge rock and slowcore. Kaity Zozula's tri-amped guitar squall occupies a huge tonal space from low-end bass to paint-peeling treble, redolent of blown-out Melvins/Flipper fuzz and indebted to the frenetic dissonance of Keiji Haino or Merzbow. Song structures coalesce around guitar riffs of shifting tempos and the backbone of Joni Sadler's muscular, deliberate drums, while Ky Brooks' wry phenomenological sing-speak vocals - at once mantric and declarative - deconstruct one brilliant lyrical theme after another, dancing along the knife-edge of dispassionate acerbic examination and wide-eyed cathartic revelation.

Brooks, Sadler and Zozula have all been mainstays of the vibrant experimental noise/rock milieu in the city for several years, having put in time as members of innumerable bands and community projects. Lungbutter has been their main jam for a while, playing frequently in Montreal and with sporadic excursions to DIY spaces around eastern North America. Honey is their first full-length album, following the self-released Extractor cassette EP from 2014, which Big Takeover described as ""hick neanderthal sludge, stream of consciousness yelps over lawnmower riffs, a dweeb-metal triumph" and Weird Canada praised as "confident, artful, intense". Lungbutter’s minimal guitar-drums-voice configuration is rooted in a visceral, ascetic punk idiom, refracted variously by free-noise, sludge rock and slowcore. Zozula marshals chaotic motifs of full-spectrum distorto-guitar, occupying a huge tonal space from low-end bass to paint-peeling treble,redolent of blown-out Melvins/Flipper fuzz and equallyindebted to the frenetic dissonance of Keiji Haino or Merzbow (as in the thrilling passages of warped noise on “Solar” or “Veneer”).

Song structures coalesce around guitar riffs of shifting tempos and the backbone of Sadler’s muscular, deliberate drums, while Brooks’ voice – at once mantric and declarative – deconstructs one brilliant lyrical theme after another, dancing along the knife-edge of dispassionate acerbic examination and wide-eyed cathartic revelation. Honey is 33 minutes of satisfyingly searing, sharp-as-tacks, scum-tainted art-rock from one of Montréal’s most vital, exciting and uncompromising bands. The LP includes multiple artwork inserts sourced from an original cover painting by Australian-born Montréal-based artist and graphic novelist Tommi Parrish (Fantagraphics, etc). 

TRACK LISTING

01.  Honey
02.  Solar
03.  Vile
04.  Flat White
05.  Bravo
06.  Henry Darger
07.  Intrinsic
08.  Maryland
09.  Depanneur Sun
10.  Curtain
11.  Veneer 

Bursting out of the ether in 2014 with their squalling guitars, vivid colours and cinematic vignettes, there’s no other British band out there quite like Black Honey. Having spent the last four years perfecting the indie game, everything you think you know about them and their unique surrealist world is about to be wonderfully shaken up as they prepare to release their hugely anticipated debut album. With contradiction at every turn, it’s an album that celebrates being human, in all its different forms and by doing so, will touch the hearts of everyone that hears it. We’ve already heard ‘Bad Friends’ earlier this year, but with the exception of 2016’s ‘Hello, Today’ (the track that saw the band become a household name at Radio 1), and the 2017 closer ‘Dig’, the album is made up of entirely new music with 9 brand new songs on offer. Album opener ‘I Only Hurts The Ones I Love’ – which you can listen to now – is a fascinating Garbage-flavoured meander that sets the tone for the record brilliantly. From there, there’s stone cold classic ‘Wasting Time’, Lana Del Ray nodding slow-burner ‘Blue Romance’ and disco-pop Trojan horse ‘Midnight’ – to name just a few. However, across the entirety of the record, you can always feel the bare bones of front lady Izzy B Phillips diary scribbles are just around the corner as the varying tracks switch between chart-headed bangers and scuzzy, industrial David Lynch inspired strangeness. It’s the weird and wonderful mind of Philipps - her lovable but villainous, Milky-Bar-kid-meets-Debbie Harry persona – that you find very much at the heart of ‘Black Honey’. An open sufferer of both dyslexia and ADHD, she’s a huge advocate for self-expression without limit and has relied hugely on her band – Tom Dewhurst (drums), Tom Taylor (bass) and Chris Ostler (guitar) – to channel everything that comes from her obsessive and dizzyingly creative head and bottle it into music. The album as a result is ultimately a collage of chaos, shot straight at the heart – honest, inspiring and deeply infectious.

TRACK LISTING

1. I Only Hurt The Ones I Love
2. Midnight
3. What Happened To You
4. Bad Friends
5. Blue Romance
6. Crowded City
7. Hello Today
8. Baby
9. Into The Nightmare
10. Dig
11. Just Calling
12. Wasting Time

One of the UK's most obscure but dearly-cherished indie bands THE HIT PARADE release their twelfth single on 7" vinyl on JSH RECORDS on 1st December 2017. "Oh Honey I..." is a new song, a three minute pop lament to 1961 classic British film "A Taste of Honey" recorded in lo-fi mono and produced by R G Watts. The B-Side "History of Art" is another new song, an imagined portrait of British novelist Elizabeth Jane Howard (1923-2014) in later life. 

The Cornshed Sisters release their second album ‘Honey & Tar’ on Memphis Industries. It was recorded and produced by Peter Brewis at Field Music’s Studio on the banks of the river Wear.

The Cornshed Sisters are Jennie Brewis, Cath Stephens, Liz Corney (moonlighting from the Field Music band) and Marie Nixon (erstwhile of 90s upstarts Kenickie); four singersongwriters based in Tyne and Wear, who weave together pop, folk, ballad and protest music into a unique and distinctive style.

The Cornshed Sisters have been away for a while (their last album, ‘Tell Tales’, was released back in 2012) but we can probably let them off as they’ve been using the time well, becoming mothers, bringing millions of pounds of funding into major Sunderland arts projects, recording and touring with Field Music and somehow making time to write songs and record this album together.

Drawing on a palette of solo and harmony vocals and a blend of acoustic and electronic instruments, they convey their stories with sensitivity and humour. Their subject matter is love, motherhood, fake happiness, friendship, family, feminism and the increasing complexities of life as you get older but no wiser. The band are proud to write about their experiences as women and their songwriting always has a stark realism to it - as Marie puts it when discussing the track ‘We Have Said This Is Impossible’: “True love is buggering off together in a Ford Focus.”

As their first release featuring songs written collaboratively by all three band members, it only makes sense that Honey’s sophomore LP New Moody Judy was recorded with the intent of perfectly capturing the dynamic, human energy that’s a vital component of their sound.

From the opening track, "Wage Agreement," – a song featuring a repeating blues lick framing verses that could either be about begging your boss for more hours or fighting with everything you have to not fall out of love – Honey make it clear that even with its ferocious riffs and careening rhythms, New Moody Judy’s message is one of empathy. “Through that front door / I’ll find anything but love” Dan Wise sings from the gut – what person hasn’t experienced the futility of trying to escape from a feeling like that. Equally relatable, if slightly more uplifting, is the message of the album’s first single “Dream Come Now”, an anthem to never giving up on your dreams even when they seem out of reach. Sonically, the song displays a new level of concision and brute heaviness previously known only to those who have seen Honey play live: the pummel and swing, the rave-ups and come downs -– the sound of perfect rock and roll, music always on the edge of spinning out of control.

From the tight jam giving way to a thrilling cascade of riffs that fuel the rush of "Hungry" to the ender-ender blowout of "Peggy Ray," New Moody Judy sees Honey giving everything to the music, and in doing so they create an LP that is meant to be felt all the way through. A band can't swing this heavy without heart, and New Moody Judy is about staying sensitized; about not numbing yourself to your relationships and the world around you even during the times that everything seems to be going to hell.

TRACK LISTING

Wage Agreement
Dream Come Now
New Moody Judy
Spped, Glue
Hungry
Bagman
Power
Wage Too
Peggy Ray

The Honey Hahs are three sisters from South London somewhere between Nunhead and Peckham. Their average age is 11 and a ½ years old. Rowan plays guitar and piano, Robin plays bass and Sylvie plays drum. They all sing and harmonise.

Released in 1993, Pablo Honey is the debut studio album from Radiohead. Produced by Sean Slade and Paul Kolderie, the album was recorded at Chipping Norton Recording Studios and Courtyard Studio, Oxfordshire. The album features the singles, "Anyone Can Play Guitar", "Stop Whispering", and "Creep". - The standout single "Creep" was the international hit that helped propel Radiohead and Pablo Honey to popular acclaim. Released several months before the album itself, "Creep" went on to define the band's early career. Also included on Pablo Honey are ethereal rocker "You", fan favorite "Thinking About You", and "Blow Out", all of which point to the band's future sonic manipulations.

TRACK LISTING

1. You
2. Creep
3. How Do You?
4. Stop Whispering
5. Thinking About You
6. Anyone Can Play Guitar
7. Ripcord
8. Vegetable
9. Prove Yourself
10. I Can't
11. Lurgee
12. Blow Out

*Based around ex-patriot Englishmen Oliver Baroni and Duncan James together with chanteuse Emanuela Hutter, they’ve long been showing Zurich how to rock’n’roll. Now having conquered both their domestic residence and neighbouring France, they return to the UK as part of a Europe-wide tour for dates in early May and August. As their name suggests The Hillbilly Moon Explosion’s roots are in rockabilly; however they’ve always been just as comfortable with 60’s pop and smoky ballads. They’ve now have widened their template to embrace all roots Americana.

‘Damn Right Honey’ features two distinctive guest singers joining them for duets. Rockabilly stalwart Paul Ansell, the chosen vocalist of Scotty Moore, contributes to the single ‘Flying High, Moaning Low’. And Sparky Phillips returns to duet with Emanuela on ‘Northern Crown’. For the first time they’ve engaged a brass section, and are also aided and abetted by BJ Cole and Geraint Watkins amongst others.

White Heath are an Edinburgh-based 6 piece who are currently signed to Glasgow record label Electric Honey – one time home to Biffy Clyro and Belle & Sebastian. Combining an anything-goes attitude to music composition with a fusion of contemporary rock and pop with the western classical cannon, they produce an inspiring, emotive and thrilling sound.

Lee F Cullen is predominantly a multi- instrumentalist/ bedroom-based producer who has written in excess of 500 songs. For live work Lee has the help of an ever changing group of musicians collectively named 'The Corvidae Family' who radically alter the songs on stage to keep them breathing and organic. After the break up of his last band, the funk orientated Big Wow he returned to his first love of psychedelia and 'song' orientated material. Drawing inspiration from The Nice, Procol Harum, July, Bill Fay, Barclay James Harvest, Baroque Music, Ray Manzerek, John Carpenter and the D.I.Y ethic of home taping artists – Lee strives to create swirling technicolour music. Working with a P.C. and Reel-to-Reel Tape Machines lee writes, records, and produces songs at an alarming rate, "Wild Honey Arabesques" is the first work of a series of albums. "Wild Honey Arabesques" was written during the fallout of Lee's last band Big Wow. Using instrumentation such as Mellotron, Organ, Harpsichord and Piano as the main voices Lee concedes that he doesn't remember writing any of these songs! Being, as they were, little more than fragments amassed from hours of tapes written while experiencing writers block. The album is about the 'Dispossession Of The Self' and what happens when one is led astray from their own path. This is not nostalgic psychedelia; psychedelia is used here, as it is the chosen medium for artistic expression with clichés subverted to produce introspective psych closer in spirit to singer songwriters like Leonard Cohen and Bill Fay than Tintern Abbey. Actually think Tintern Abbey covering a Bill Fay Song and you're not so far off!