Recorded with Andy Miller at Chemikal Underground and mixed by Gareth Jones at Castle Of Doom, ‘The Hawk Is Howling’ saw Mogwai return to a totally instrumental landscape on their sixth studio album. The album features the single ‘Batcat’.

To celebrate the 15th Anniversary of the release, the album is available as a newly remastered 2LP White Vinyl on September 22nd, fifteen years to the day since the album’s original release.

The album was remastered by Frank Arkwright at Abbey Road Studios.

RY X and Frank Wiedemann reunite as Howling to present ‘Colure’ the sophomore full-length record from their joint musical enterprise, released via Counter Records.

RY X, solo alternative artist and member of The Acid, and Frank, one half of Âme, bring fans a bigger, sharper follow-up to their debut, ‘Sacred Ground.’

On ‘Colure’, the Berlin-based Wiedemann and Los Angeles-based RY X conjure transcendent creations out of their contrasting musical backgrounds and environments. The album is assuredly dualistic: electronic and acoustic sounds sit comfortably side-byside, and big melodic hooks are laced into hypnotic club productions.

RY X rose to underground-folk fame with breakthrough hit ‘Berlin’ and followed up with solo albums ‘Dawn’ and 2019’s ‘Unfurl’. His band, The Acid - a project with producers Adam Freeland and Steve Nalepa created a multimedia film, “the bomb” in 2017.

Wiedemann is royalty of the 4/4 scene as one half of Âme with Kristian Beyer and head honcho of Berlin label Innervisions he co-owns with Dixon & Kristian.

Howling took their collaboration out on the road with a mesmerising live show playing a string of sold out shows and festivals in the UK and across the world including Melt! Festival, Lovebox, Lowlands, Pukkelpop, Electronic Beats Festival, Sacred Ground Festival and more and played live at Innervisions showcase at The Royal Albert Hall (+ Live Stream) in September 2018.

Recommended if you like Atoms For Peace, Âme, Dixon, RY X, Tale of Us, Mano le Tough, The Acid.

TRACK LISTING

1. Ellipses I
2. Pieces
3. Bind
4. Healing
5. Dew
6. Need You Now
7. The Water
8. Light On
9. Phases
10. Mother
11. Body Inside
12. Lover
13. Ellipses Ii

Howling Bells return with their stunning new album, Heartstrings, on 2nd June. Howling Bells are an indie rock band that formed in Sydney in 2004. The lineup consists of Juanita Stein, Glenn Moule, Joel Stein, Gary Daines and are notable for a doom-and-gloom, country-and-rock music style, and they have been labelled as melodic blues and country-goth. Heartstrings is the band’s 4th album and was recorded in London with producers Catherine J Marks and Alan Moulder.

TRACK LISTING

1. Paris
2. Possessed
3. Your Love
4. Slowburn
5. Tornado
6. Euphoria
7. Paper Heart
8. Original Sin
9. Reverie
10. Heartstrings

Downer pop songsmith Oliver Wilde has unveiled details of his highly anticipated second LP, Red Tide Opal in the Loose End Womb, due for release on May 5th through Bristol’s most forward thinking DIY label Howling Owl Records.

An organic progression from Oliver Wilde’s debut album A Brief Introduction to Unnatural Lightyears, which as well as gaining critical acclaim from The Guardian, Loud & Quiet, Drowned in Sound, and DIY et al, also helped him build a passionate following through smaller yet well respected champions of independent music; Red Tide Opal In the Loose End Womb finds the prodigal artist expanding musically his sonic experimentation and lyrically the surreal yet intimate imagery that has so enraptured listeners.

From ‘Stomach Full of Cats’ infectious synth swirls, ‘Smiler’s foreboding, pulsing electronics through to the record’s soaring crescendo ‘Vessel’ – written during Wilde’s time spent in hospital recovering from heart failure – Red Tide Opal In the Loose End Womb is an album that rewards listeners with subtle gems, buried within.

Describing the process behind the album, Wilde states “Lyrically, A Brief Introduction to Unnatural Lightyears felt like a series of introspective, often personal confessions whereas Red Tide Opal In the Loose End Womb explores relationships occurring between those close to me and abstract concepts through dreamlike prose. Though, at the heart, Red Tide Opal In the Loose End Womb is still a bedroom recording, musically the overall palette overflows into a wider variety of textures. Also, as a natural progression through developing the live show and entrusting a group of musicians that started out as a ‘backing band’, they then became more involved and enabled me to filter their ideas into my world. Therefore, changing the overall textures and features in some of the recordings. As we become more of a family, I hope we will explore our ideas more collectively in the future.”

TRACK LISTING

1. On This Morning
2. Stomach Full Of Cats
3. St Elmo's Fire
4. Say Yes To Ewans
5. Plume
6. Smiler
7. Play & Be Saved
8. Pull
9. Rest Less
10. Balance Out
11. Night In Time Lapse
12. Vessel

‘The Best Of The Howling Hex’ is a new album of new music by a new incarnation of The Howling Hex, now broadcasting as a band from the big town of Denver, Colorado. After years staked out in the border country of southern New Mexico, guitarist and leader Neil Hagerty is back in the phonebook, giving the Hex an urban soapbox on which to stand for the first time in their ten years of rere- revisionist history.

‘The Best Of The Howling Hex’ is the first album of new music since the release of ‘Wilson Semiconductors’ in 2011.

‘The Best Of The Howling Hex’ weaves the wild spirits and far-flung textures of ‘Wilson Semiconductors’ into tightly compressed sing-songs, before turning the jam out to bring the levee home. Hagerty’s guitar tone is an alien wonder, and the careening beat of the band unleashes him to fill solo spots with fervour.

After five years of wandering through the arid brushcountry of ‘Earth Junk’ and ‘Wilson Semiconductors’ (as well as the sidetrack soundtrack adventure that was ‘Victory Chimp, A Book’), the days of the covered wagon seem to be behind The Howling Hex for the time being. However, the depth of the earth and the true direction of the wind are lessons learned from their years out there - they can’t be unlearned.

The Howling Hex are now operating out of Denver, CO, and feature Eric Allen (of The Apples In Stereo) on bass guitar.

TRACK LISTING

Built A Friend
Primetime Clown
Highlights
Electric Northern
Street Craps
The General Prologue
Green Limousine
Trashcan Bahamas

A raw, psychedelic third studio album, and the sequel to 2009's Radio Wars, the recording of 'The Loudest Engine' saw Howling Bells, the Australian-formed, London-based four piece comprising singer/ guitarist Juanita Stein and her brother Joel (lead guitarist), drummer Glenn Moule, and bassist Brendan Picchio - forge a sonic union with Nevada's expansive surroundings and Las Vegas's street-soiled vibe.

Howling Bells' desert sessions were the final part of a year-long writing adventure that saw the band, on their own tours and with the likes of Coldplay and The Killers, wander through strange American outposts and seedy European back streets in their downtime. Their travels provided endless lyrical inspiration; much of 'The Loudest Engine' was written on the road.

It was on the road that Howling Bells first linked with The Killers' Mark Stoermer. Touring together, the two groups bonded over their love of similar music; so, when Howling Bells began planning the recording of their latest project at the tail end of summer 2010, The Killers' bassist was the first person they called.

With Stoermer at the dials, Howling Bells worked with a creative spirit they'd not channeled previously. They'd already worked up 30 fresh demos, but in The Killers' Battle Born studio in Nevada, these sketches were fleshed out, given new muscle. The result is 12 songs that burn with a ferocious intensity, clipping garage blues (Charlatan) to end of the world freak outs (The Wilderness) and heart-bruised laments (Into The Sky). This is an album Howling Bells were eager to make.

Says Stein of the album, "There's a singular sound which is more folk and rock than our last two albums, but it's interpreted in a modern sense. It wasn't a conscious effort to make a '70s tinged record. It was a very natural progression.

"The album shows that we're we're 21st century kids making a modern psychedelic record. [It] is our grown up record. The first was about that great initial leap, the second was us exploring different waters. This one is us, all having met at one place, at one time. I think this record will change people's perspectives of the band."

STAFF COMMENTS

Darryl says: Howling Bells bounce back with a big bold rock record; the guitars shine and the drums pound and it's all topped off the strong and seductive vocals of Juanita Stein.

TRACK LISTING

1. Charlatan
2. Into The Sky
3. The Wilderness
4. Secrets
5. Don't Run
6. The Faith
7. Live On
8. Loudest Engine
9. Gold Suns, White Guns
10. Sioux
11. Baby Blue
12. Invisible

"Howling Songs" is the magnificent third and last part to the 'songs trilogy'. This is a very haunted and personal piece of music which is the testimony of a unique talent where moving melodies follow other moving melodies balancing between ballad songs and folk music, madness and reason, revolt and despair. "Howling Songs" sympathizes with the surrounding world; it is a definitive observation in which one can feel, throughout the songs, an outraged sensitivity which is the signature of the artist. It is all the more sensitive that Matt's voice is sometimes present without any chorus in the background, bringing to the whole both confidence and unquestionable heat. "Howling Songs" is, without a doubt, the most introspective album by Matt Elliott and the one which carries best his musical personality. Fans of Nick Drake, Yann Tiersen, Crippled black phoenix, Wovenhand will enjoy Elliott's powerful songwriting and outraged sensitivity.

"The Hawk Is Howling", their sixth album, sees Mogwai return to a totally instrumental landscape, with many songs coming in at around the eight minute mark. A brooding and atmospheric collection, full of the band's exceptional use of dynamics and creation of hypnotic soundscapes, "The Hawk Is Howling" is, however, partly more reflective than previous releases, perhaps sharing more in common with 2001's "Rock Action". Instrumentally the band have somewhat branched out, utilising light synthesizers on tracks such as "The Sun Smells Too Loud". The album was recorded with Andy Miller at Chemikal Underground and mixed by Gareth Jones at Castle Of Doom. It's the first time the band have recorded with Andy Miller since they worked with him on their debut "Young Team". Artwork for the album is designed by Aidan Moffat.

TRACK LISTING

1. I'm Jim Morrison I'm Dead
2. Batcat
3. Daphne And The Brain
4. Local Authority
5. Sun Smells Too Loud
6. Kings Meadow
7. I Love You I'm Going To Blow Up Your School
8. Scotland's Shame
9. Thank You Space Expert
10. Precipice

This is American street music for the soul. "Car Wash" is a blues garage rock album of the most traditional kind, performed with craft and power by one of Michigan's best kept out of-state secrets. Formed in the mid-90s as the house band for the legendary Detroit blues club Sully's, the Diablos honed their chops backing up blues and R&B stars like Earl King, Johnny Adams, Albert Collins and Johnnie Johnson, before devising their own brand of funk jam blues, not a million miles away from the Black Keys brand of the blues. "Car Wash" is the inspired album of dirty funk blues that should finally establish the Howling Diablos as one of Michigan's greatest. Open a cold beer, crank up the volume and enjoy!