4 years in the making, this surprise collaboration between Drop and Ashong fuses soul and psychedelia with downtempo beats.

Ashong’s continuing mission to subvert expectations manifests greatly here, but the album is full of melodic hooks, layered to infinity alongside his acoustic guitar. Meanwhile Jonny Drop quietly flips samples unrecognisable from his extensive vinyl collections and once again makes a leap forward in his production identity.

Stand out single Puzzle Dust is a perfect slice of UK soul and jazz that sets everyone up for a unique sonic experience.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A beautifully laid-back fusion of mid-tempo Baleraric percussion and rich hazy reverbs. Dreamy, scattered soulful vocal snippets and swooming, opening pads. A perfectly paced, summery party piece.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Lightgeist
A2. Ephemera
A3. One To Free
A4. Blood
B1. We Are Here
B2. Puzzle Dust
B3. Sun Sailing
B4. Outsighed

"Search Party" is the debut album from pianist, Rupert Cox. Rupert has made a little following for himself already being a respected player for Myele Manzanza, China Moses, Chris Hyson and many more.

His debut album swings between laidback contemporary jazz and swirling electronics. There are mellow and moving moments alongside joyful, uplifting melodies and dancing rhythms.

The record has already won support from people like Deb Grant on BBC Radio 6 Music and is slowly developing an ardent following.

TRACK LISTING

A1. The Nowhere Dance
A2. Fig Tree
A3. Summer Wake
A4. Hearth
A5. Lament
A6. Search Party
B1. Embers
B2. Gold
B3. Remember This
B4. Sanctuary
B5. Green Yellow Brown

‘Double Pink’ is the debut album by And Is Phi (Andrea Isabelle Phillips), a multidisciplinary artist from Norway and the Philippines now based in South East London. Set for release via Albert’s Favourites on 22nd September, ‘Double Pink’ is a nuanced world that draws on colours and texture; with influences of Joni Mitchell and Frank Zappa, 90's R&B and Madlib’s ‘Shades Of Blue’ blending languidly to produce a base for uncovering layers of self, a deep release, and fragile new form.

Written by Andrea and co-produced with Fiona Roberts and Lorenz Okello over a nine month period; ‘Double Pink’ thematically explores the many movements of internal change, speaking from a deep inner voice inside the body. The title track is an invitation to be as unapologetically hungry as you please after a long absence of life giving passion and trust in oneself. ‘White Noise’ is a recovery song playing in your soul the first time you made it back out to the dance floor after a heart break so massive it laid rest to the person you used to be. Songs like ‘Working’ and ‘Staaar’ come from a candid and contemplative aspect. Stages of grief and resilience and wonder and wisdom are all touched upon.

“The album explores metamorphosis, liminal spaces, and the multiple faces of love”, says Andrea. “I mention love as a key ingredient, because anyone who has had to push and pull and hold and yield themselves through great loss and transformation knows it ain’t gonna happen without love. Tough times ask for double love, a stronger heart, something like a double pink”.

Andrea’s story dots between periods spent living in Norway, the Philippines and England - experiencing joy and beauty battling corruption and violence in Manila, DJing in Oslo, losing her sizable record collection in a warehouse fire before making friends and family in the jazz scene in London. Every story needs a scene, a landscape, an environment; all things Andrea visualises when writing songs.

“At my heart I am emotional and imaginative, searching for freedom for my spirit. What grounds it all is coming from a family of storytellers. My father played drums and percussion, he was a great dancer and a true collector and connoisseur of music from everywhere. My wise mother instilled in me a sense of faith and grace”.

Andrea is far from new to the scene, having performed with Steamdown, Emma Jean Thackray, Hector Plimmer, Scrimshire, William Florelle and many more as a valuable and inspiring creative force within the South London music scene. Andrea also created the album’s artwork and music videos: musicality and painting evolved from her initial creative languages of drawing and dance. All aspects are dialects of her common language: singing what can’t be painted and painting what can’t be sung.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Double Pink
A2. White Noise
A3. There’s A
A4. Why I’m Shy
B1. Working
B2. Staaar
B3. Eyes That Open

In November 2022, Cat Power took the stage at London’s Royal Albert Hall and delivered a song-for-song recreation of one of the most fabled and transformative live sets of all time. Held at the Manchester Free Trade Hall in May 1966—but long known as the “Royal Albert Hall Concert” due to a mislabeled bootleg—the original performance saw Bob Dylan switching from acoustic to electric midway through the show, drawing ire from an audience of folk purists and forever altering the course of rock-and-roll. In her own rendition of that historic night, the artist otherwise known as Chan Marshall inhabited each song with equal parts conviction and grace and a palpable sense of protectiveness, ultimately transposing the anarchic tension of Dylan’s set with a warm and luminous joy. Now captured on the live album Cat Power Sings Dylan: The 1966 Royal Albert Hall Concert, Marshall’s spellbinding performance both lovingly honors her hero’s imprint on history and brings a stunning new vitality to many of his most revered songs.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Chan Marshall presents a beautiful recreation of Bob Dylan's legendary performance here, both faithfully honouring Dylan's stylistic inflection and adding her own twist. It's clear there's an in-depth knowledge of Dylan's works here, from a true fan and as a performance, it's flawless.

1968’s Love Cry mixes Albert Ayler’s free jazz with a catchy combination of nursery rhythms and brass band marches, resulting in a peak example of experimental jazz of the period. This was Ayler’s last recording with his brother, Donald, who keeps the pace fiery along with the rhythm section of bassist Alan Silva and drummer Milford Graves, and harpsichordist Call Cobbs.

This Verve By Request title is pressed on 180-gram vinyl at Third Man in Detroit.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. Love Cry
2. Ghosts
3. Omega
4. Dancing Flowers
5. Bells
6. Love Flower
Side B
7. Zion Hill
8. Universal Indians

Pop/rock singer, songwriter, and guitarist Albert Hammond Jr. is the lead & rhythm guitarist and songwriting member of the GRAMMY® and BRIT Awards-winning band The Strokes. He has released 4 solo albums to date, most recently the acclaimed “Francis Trouble” in 2018 which spawned the radio single “Far Away Truths”. In the 4 years, since then, The Strokes released their US Top 10 charting GRAMMY® nominated rock record “The New Abnormal” and toured the world extensively. Albert also began the songwriting process for his 5th solo album “Melodies on Hiatus”, a 19-track album, crafted in a most experimental style. Albert teamed up with his writing partner, Canadian songwriter, and poet Simon Wilcox (whom he never met during the process) and had lengthy conversations via the telephone; Simon would jot down notes from Albert’s stream of consciousness, and draft the lyrics on her typewriter, and drop them into his letterbox! Albert then added the lyrics to the melodies he had already crafted. The songwriting process became a long distant “anonymous love affair of ideas & lyrics.” The album covers themes of childhood, surviving adolescence, adulthood, vulnerability, fame, relationship with self and others, and is Albert’s “deconstructed broken down ego reaction” to “Francis Trouble.” The album also features songs with GoldLink, Matt Helders (of the Arctic Monkeys), Steve Stevens and Rainsford, and was mixed by Tony Hoffer (known for his work with Beck, Air, M83, The Kooks, Fitz and the Tantrums, Metric, Chromeo, etc.) and mastered by Dave Cooley at Elysian Masters (Paramore, Spoon, Tame Impala, Jimmy Eat World, Peanut Butter Wolfe).

TRACK LISTING

Disc: 1
1. Libertude
2. 100-99 (ft. Goldlink)
3. Memo Of Hate
4. Downtown Fred
5. Old Man
6. Home Again
7. I Got You
8. Darlin'
9. 5. Thoughtful Distress (ft. Matt Helders & Steve Stevens)

Disc: 2
1. Fast Kitten
2. Caught By Night
3. I'd Never Leave
4. Dead Air
5. One Chance
6. Never Stop
7. False Alarm
8. 13. Remember (ft. Rainsford)
9. 818
10. 19. Alright Tomorrow (ft. Rainsford)

In the mid-’60s, Albert Ayler found himself at the center of major transformations within jazz. On his albums for ESP-Disk’, his delivery was radically aggressive and his tone blistering—aiming for something beyond the New Thing. His music would be further energized when (at the behest of John Coltrane) Bob Thiele signed him to Impulse! As Ayler told The Plain Dealer at the time, “It’s not about notes anymore. It’s a sound—a feeling. The approach we’re taking will discontinue the use of the word ‘jazz.’”

In Greenwich Village, Ayler’s first LP on Impulse!, perfectly captures the Cleveland-born saxophonist’s radiant intensity. Sourced from a pair of live engagements—February ’67 at the Village Theatre on New York’s Lower East Side and December ’66 at the Village Vanguard—these recordings show an improved clarity in production and performance.

Both sets feature two basses (including Alan Silva and Henry Grimes) which allowed the ensemble to go in different harmonic directions while maintaining an organic unity. Of particular interest are “For John Coltrane,” a tribute to Ayler’s mentor who would pass later that year, and “Truth Is Marching In” where trumpeter Donald Ayler joins his brother to celebrate and ultimately deconstruct several jazz traditions to stunning effect.

Vibrant in sound and vision, Albert Ayler’s In Greenwich Village is a landmark statement in free jazz and a career high-point for this truly original artist. Superior Viaduct is honored to present this classic album on vinyl for the first time domestically in 30 years.

TRACK LISTING

1. For John Coltrane
2. Change Has Come
3. Truth Is Marching In
4. Our Prayer

Albert’s Favourites label founder Scrimshire is set to release bold new album 'Paroxysm'. In the last few weeks of October 2022, Scrimshire wrote a new collection of songs with the descriptive working title "Scream". A direct response to the absurdity of the breakdown in the UK government, the horror of the treatment of refugees arriving on our shores and the callous disregard for the trauma being caused to low-income people or anyone considered "other". The anger, sadness, mourning, and frustration he felt was poured into these recordings.

Originally named “Scream 8”, ‘Unity Gain’ was one of the early outpourings from those sessions. Piano and drums bubble up until it fully boils over with huge stabbing synthesiser and string sounds in an outburst of frenetic energy. "Division seems to characterise our daily experience”, says Scrimshire. “How does a society stop the callousness and corruption from seeping into its bones?".

Singer Faye Houston features on both ‘Eyes Shut’ as well as, alongside saxophonist, composer, and multi-wind instrumentalist Tamar Osborn, on ‘Flames’. About the latter Scrimshire explains, “One person can breathe fire into your life and the world, leaving an indelible mark. The album was influenced hugely by a friend we sadly have lost. I think of it like the heat you still feel after a fire has gone out”.

London-based poet and emcee The Repeat Beat Poet captures moments of time, thought, and feeling on ‘What Is The State Of Our State’, a furious yet succinct stream-of-consciousness diatribe in two parts. From afrobeat and reggae-influenced London band Soothsayers, clarinetist and saxophonist Idris Rahman features on ‘Your Invasion Is A Lie’, an ever-progressing, cosmic-jazz track.

The elegiac ‘Unforgotten, Unforgiven’ features saxophonist Nat Birchall, on which Scrimshire says "This is dedicated to the politicians who have forced refugees into life-threatening decisions. Pushing people into the hands of traffickers, into small boats and too many beneath the waves of our seas. Who force the lives of men, women, and children into more danger, in the hope of escaping war, poverty and persecution only to meet more cruelty and persecution. It won't be forgotten, and it won't be forgiven".

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Paroxysm is the epitome of emotive, rich spiritual jazz, bringing together flickering percussion and rich bass rolls that both surprise and transport the listener. It's an intense experience, but so beautifully balanced and perfectly measured that it never comes across as anything less than a bracing and fascinating listen.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Permeate
A2. Unity Gain
A3. Eyes Shut Feat. Faye Houston
A4. What Is The State Of Our State (Part 1) Feat. Repeat Beat Poet
A5. Your Invasion Is A Lie Feat. Idris Rahman
B1. Unforgotten, Unforgiven
B2. What Is The State Of Our State (Part 2) Feat. Repeat Beat Poet
B3. Flames Feat. Faye Houston & Tamar Osborn
B4. Refuge (Interlude)
B5. Refuge

Encompassing elements of experimental techno, ambient, dub and jazz; sonic scientist Pie Eye Collective - the solo project of Bristol-born, London-based Matthew Gordon - returns with second album ‘Tangential City’, an instrumental exposition of how people experience different lives in the same city.

With debut album ‘Salvation’ released in 2021, Matthew Gordon gained emphatic support from Mary Anne Hobbs, Jamz Supernova and Tom Ravenscroft at BBC Radio 6 Music and Radio 1Xtra. His one-man live show saw him experimenting in venues around London and supporting luminaries including Emma-Jean Thackray, Ben Marc, and Richard Spaven.

Pie Eye Collective’s voice remains clear in this new record, while hinting at exciting new developments in an ongoing exploration of rhythm and frequency. With a quasi-scientific, research based approach to music making, Pie Eye Collective creates an organic collage of evocative sounds, which could be filed alongside records by Theo Parrish, Lorraine James or Space Afrika. Personally influenced by mathematics, graphs, geometry, and calculus; his genre-melding music draws equally from jazz and soul music, both ancient, contemporary, and futuristic. Time signatures, sometimes hard to pin down, only lead to a more hypnotic sense of being afloat in a sea of harmonics and strangely familiar musical memories. Melodic and full of spatial movement, momentary pulses, and interjection; it is music that wants you to free yourself completely and wash over you.

One person has a different experience of living in a city to that of another. Barred by accessibility, wealth, race, gender, nationality; parts of the city are opened or closed to the individual with or without their knowledge. Impressions can either diverge and deviate so much that they could be describing entirely separate places, or be so similar they could be living the same life. Multiply this by the several million people that live next to each other and a wildly fractured vision appears. A multiverse of possible experiences. Can the paths of these separate existences be unlocked and traversed? 'Tangential City' is the point of intersection.

“'Tangential City' was coined by my younger brother to describe our neurodivergent conversational style,” says Gordon, “hopping around seemingly unrelated topics that are connected to each other by infinitesimal tangents. I’ve adopted 'Tangential City' as an expression of the real and metaphysical liminal realities we all exist in. It’s the atlas of my musical/artistic mind.”

The album’s first single ‘Land of Wood and Water’ is the definition of the Taíno word ‘xaymaca’, which is the indigenous name of the island of Jamaica. Gordon says “I’d like to think this music sounds Jamaican but from a very slightly different time-line.”

‘Axiom’ is named after the mathematical statements that serve as foundations from which other statements are logically derived (e.g., the parallel postulate of euclidean geometry). “One can similarly re-derive elements of the Pie Eye Collective sound if working from the axioms that 1. within a piece of music, more than one tempo can exist in a superposition of states; 2. there is no intrinsic value to the 4/4-time signature.”

‘Pie’s Eyes’ is the fourth and most recent addition to the growing Pie Eye Collective + Hector Plimmer songbook (the first and second appeared on Hector’s second album ‘Next To Nothing’, the third arrived on PEC’s debut ‘Salvation’). “Our creative process is very natural, spontaneous and fluid”, says Gordon. “When we write together we bounce around the studio playing with synthesizers, drum machines and bits of percussion. This track is like the playful, unbounded, collaborative dance we do.”

TRACK LISTING

A1.  Away Mission
A2.  Summation
A3.  Line Of Best Fit
A4.  Land Of Wood And Water
A5.  Pie’s Eyes Feat. Hector Plimmer
A6.  Satellite
A7.  Uroboros
B1.  Searching
B2.  Tangential City
B3.  Grounded
B4.  Regeneration
B5.  Axiom
B6.  The Infinite Boundary

Craft recordings announces never-before-released live album from Creedence Clearwater Revival’s legendary 1970 London performance: Creedence Clearwater Revival at the Royal Albert Hall.

After 50 years, the meticulously restored album will be released alongside the documentary concert film Travelin’ Band: Creedence Clearwater Revival at the Royal Albert Hall Narrated by Jeff Bridges, Directed by Bob Smeaton (The Beatles Anthology) and restored and mixed by Giles Martin and engineer Sam Okell. Featuring the fabled performance in its entirety, the recording includes such enduring hits as “Fortunate Son,” “Proud Mary,” and “Bad Moon Rising”. 

TRACK LISTING

Born On The Bayou
Green River
Tombstone Shadow
Travelin’ Band
Fortunate Son
Commotion
Midnight Special
Bad Moon Rising
Proud Mary
The Night Time Is The Right Time
Good Golly Miss Molly
Keep On Chooglin’

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

For years, rumors have circulated about a long-lost Creedence recording, captured in 1970 during the bandís appearance at Londonís Royal Albert Hall. Now, more than 50 years later, fans can now a piece of rock 'n' roll lore with this collectible 7-inch.†Mirroring the original double-sided 45 released in 1970, Side A features the Albert Hall performance of ìTraveliní Band,î marking the debut release of this rare recording, while Side B offers ìWhoíll Stop the Rain,î live at Oakland Coliseum, CA.†

Recorded at the start of the band’s ‘Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino’ tour, ‘Arctic Monkeys - Live At The Royal Albert Hall’, features 20 of the band’s finest moments to date.  All proceeds from the album will go to War Child to help fill the £2 million deficit they are facing in 2021 caused by the devastating impact of Covid-19 on their fundraising. These funds are urgently needed to support those who are worst hit by the virus.

“On June 7, 2018 we played a very special show at London’s Royal Albert Hall. All the proceeds from that memorable night were donated to War Child in support of the vital work they do protecting, educating, and rehabilitating children who have experienced the trauma of conflict and the horror of war. The situation that was bad in 2018 is now desperate and those children and their families need our help more than ever. To enable War Child to reduce their funding deficit and continue their valuable work, we are happy to be able to release a live album, recorded that evening at The Royal Albert Hall. All proceeds will go direct to the charity. We thank all our fans in advance for their support of this release and in turn for their support of War Child” - Arctic Monkeys.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A completely essential document of the Arctic Monkeys incendiary live show here, on top form and all for a good cause. The set-list is everything you'd expect from a Monkeys best-of gig and all from the comfort of your own home! What more could you want.

TRACK LISTING

1. Four Out Of Five
2. Brianstorm
3. Crying Lightning
4. Do I Wanna Know?
5. Why'd You Only Call Me When You're High?
6. 505
7. One Point Perspective
8. Do Me A Favour
9. Cornerstone
10. Knee Socks
11. Arabella
12. Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino
13. She Looks Like Fun
14. From The Ritz To The Rubble
15. Pretty Visitors
16. Don't Sit Down 'Cause I've Moved Your Chair
17. I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor
18. Star Treatment
19. The View From The Afternoon
20. R U Mine?

Albert’s Favourites co-founder Adam Scrimshire is set to release his fifth album 'Believers Vol. 1’, featuring guests And Is Phi, Bessi, K.O.G., Omar, Xana & Faye Houston, Penya, Stac and Tamar Osborn. The album draws from Scrimshire's passion for jazz, soul and electronic music of all styles; from energetic Afro-disco through lushly orchestrated neo-soul to harmonious jazz experiments.

'Anadwo' opens the album, a bright, Afro-disco inspired groove written with Ghanaian artist K.O.G., and is possibly Scrimshire's most extroverted track to date. Regular collaborator Stac and Brighton singer and producer Bessi sing on snappy neo-soul tracks ‘Where Are We’ and ‘Lost In Space And Time’ respectively. And Is Phi brings an eclectic mix of jazz, poetry and improvisation to ‘Chance Me’ while ‘Transformation’ stars acclaimed saxophonist Tamar Osborn. Genre-defying quartet Penya feature on global-jazz epic ‘Tanto Tiempo’ and the incomparable Omar joins with Xana and Faye Houston on album highlight ‘Love Is Loving’. Cosmic-jazz instrumental ‘Peaceless Peace’ closes out ‘Believers Vol. 1’, ending a bold and positive album filled with creativity and joy.

“Writing and producing my last album, ‘Listeners’, opened the floodgates for me. I’ve written more in the last 18 months than in years. Practicing for the live band levelled up my playing and opened up possibilities in writing I couldn’t find before. Since then I’ve written more than two albums worth of “Scrimshire” songs. But I really wanted to try and focus the experience and separate between music that represented the positivity and optimism I’ve experienced in recent years against my more introverted and angrier instincts.

‘Believers Vol.1’ represents warmth and hope. Everyone I worked with early in lockdown, seemed to want to express those longings for physical and emotional connection too. The whole album reaches out, I think it’s full of long embraces. But it is also, for me personally a love letter to black music and the black artists that shaped everything I care about sonically, from my very first memories of music until now. It draws from sounds I grew up around in the early to mid eighties, classic records from the seventies that I’ve never tired of, but important dance records from the late nineties and early 2000s that celebrated and subverted those ideas too.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Millie says: An eclectic mixture of soul, afro-disco and electronic synth funky-goodness, it’s hard to believe it has improvisation featured on the album as it’s so put together and effortless. This one is sure to get you moving.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Anadwo (Tonite) (feat KOG)
A2. Where Are We (feat Stac)
A3. Lost In Space & Time (feat Bessi)
A4. Chance Me (feat And Is Phi)
B1. Transformation (feat Tamar Osborn)
B2. Tanto Tiempo (feat Penya)
B3. Love Is Loving (feat Omar, XANA & Faye Houston)
B4. Peaceless Peace

Albert Ayler’s 1969 album New Grass has been misunderstood from the day of its release.

The album finds Ayler experimenting with soul music and digging back into his R&B roots (he started his career playing saxophone with Chicago bluesman Little Walter), fusing it with the avant-garde free jazz (the one element of the record which garnered consistent praise) and adding the vocals of Rose Marie McCoy, The Soul Singers and Ayler himself. As if predicting the divisiveness of the record to follow, Ayler speaks directly to the listener and explains that New Grass is nothing like his albums before — that it is of “a different dimension of his life” — in the album opener “Message from Albert.”

New Grass deserves reconsideration, if not for the heavy grooves and surprising arrangements, then for its bravery in challenging norms of the time; by the ‘60s, jazz was well-accepted as a uniquely American art form, while soul as a genre was very much still seen as primitive. Ayler melds them together and creates something novel, adventurous, and completely his own. At the time of its release, despite its divisive reception, New Grass helped break down the unnecessary walls dividing genres and revealed music’s potential freedoms. The album has gone on to influence generations of Jazz, R&B, Funk, Hip Hop, Post Punk, No Wave and unshrinking artists like Pharaoh Sanders, Alice Coltrane, Funkadelic, Jungle Brothers, Red Krayola, Sonic Youth and Mark E. Smith.

Third Man Records can’t recommend this record highly enough. We are confi dent that it won’t take but one listen for you to understand New Grass is an undeniable healing force

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A
1. Message From Albert / New Grass
2. New Generation
3. Sun Watcher

SIDE B
1. New Ghosts
2. Heart Love
3. Everybody?s Movin
4. Free At Last

This album was recorded at Larkins' landmark hometown show to 2000 rapturous fans. Frontman Josh Noble says, “We are very proud to present a recording from our live show at the Albert Hall in Manchester. It felt like everything we had done so far as a band had kind of led to this moment. We’ve played almost every venue in town over the past few years and we’d always joked about playing Albert Hall, half-expecting it to never happen."

“Our first show was in a pub to just 30 people just around the corner from the Albert Hall so to get to this point and to have so many people who want to see our music live is surreal. This tour has showed us what it means to be a part of this band and to finish at home was perfect. To every single person that came, we can’t even express how much we loved the show. What you hear is what we played on the night and hopefully this gives you an idea of what’s to come.” Larkins are on a meteoric rise as one of the most exciting and in-demand bands to emerge from Manchester in recent times and are recording their debut album with producers Dan Nigro (A-Trak, Sky Ferreira, Lewis Capaldi) and Andrew Dawson (Kanye West, Fun, Kid Cudi).

TRACK LISTING

Are We Having Any Fun Yet?
Sugar Sweet
Pink & Blue
Hit & Run
The Place
The Tale Of Cassandra
River Bed
Wasted Years
TV Dreams
Pieces
Something Beautiful

Albert Hammond Jr’s fourth solo album Francis Trouble explores a deeply personal topic – the stillborn death of his twin brother, Francis, and the lingering effects that event has had in his life and music.

In November of 1979, Hammond Jr’s mother, Claudia, miscarried. Although they rushed to the hospital, Claudia and Albert Hammond Sr. were told that the baby was far too premature to live. Albert continued to grow inside of his mother undetected until she was nearly six months pregnant. Although he had always known of the existence of Francis, it was not until he was 36 years old that he learned from an aunt that part of Francis had remained behind in the womb and was born along side him – a fingernail. With his music moving in a different path than before, Hammond Jr wondered if this new direction came from another avenue of himself, perhaps emanating from whatever he and the departed Francis had shared for the few short months they had together.

Taking a page from Bowie, Hammond Jr says: “What the music says may be serious, but as a medium it should not be questioned, analyzed or taken too seriously. I think it should be tarted up, made into a character, a parody of itself. The music is the mask the message wears and I, the performer, am the message.” Working within this mentality, Hammond Jr created Francis Trouble, an homage to both the death of his twin and his own birth, as well as the complexities of identity that arise because of their intermingling.

The number 36 became especially relevant, as he had learned more of Francis’s story at that age, and because he was born on the 9th day of the 4th month of the year. Significantly, the album is exactly 36 minutes long.

TRACK LISTING

1. DVSL
2. Far Away Truths
3. Muted Beatings
4. Set To Attack
5. Tea For Two
6. Stop And Go
7. Screamer
8. Rocky’s Late Night
9. Strangers
10. Harder, Harder, Harder

Recorded on the Boatman's Call tour, this is a suberb live recording, catching them at their very best.

TRACK LISTING

1. Lime Tree Arbour (Live At The Royal Albert Hall)
2. Stranger Than Kindness (Live At The Royal Albert Hall)
3. Red Right Hand (Live At The Royal Albert Hall)
4. I Let Love In (Live At The Royal Albert Hall)
5. Brompton Oratory (Live At The Royal Albert Hall)
6. Henry Lee (Live At The Royal Albert Hall)
7. The Ship Song (Live At The Royal Albert Hall)
8. Where The Wild Roses Grow (Live At The Royal Albert Hall)
9. People Aint No Good (Live At The Royal Albert Hall)
10. Do You Love Me? (Live At The Royal Albert Hall)
11. Far From Me (Live At The Royal Albert Hall)
12. The Mercy Seat (Live At The Royal Albert Hall)

With The Strokes fresh off their first European show in four years, guitarist Albert Hammond Jr. is focused on breaking an even longer seven year lull between solo LPs. ‘Momentary Madness’ is his third album after ‘Yours To Keep’ and ‘¿Cómo Te Llama?’.

The ten track album includes the singles ‘Born Slippy’ and ‘Losing Touch’.

‘Momentary Masters’ features production from longtime Strokes engineer Gus Oberg. Unlike previous releases, Hammond called on the aid of a number of musicians for the recording sessions, including guitarists Mon Khmer’s Hammarsing Kharhmar and Bleachers’ Mikey Hart, bassist Jordan Brooks and drummer Jeremy Gustin.

TRACK LISTING

1 Born Slippy
2 Power Hungry
3 Caught By My Shadow
4 Coming To Getcha
5 Losing Touch
6 Don't Think Twice
7 Razors Edge
8 Touché
9 Drunched In Crumbs
10 Side Boob

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2014 EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

2 track 12" on Blue Note

Limited to 200 copies.

On November 2nd 2007, Jason Swinscoe brought an enhanced line-up of the The Cinematic Orchestra, incorporating the 24 piece Heritage Orchestra, to the Royal Albert Hall and played a show to a sold-out crowd of more than 4000 people. With over 40 musicians onstage at times, Swinscoe and his colleagues used the show as a unique opportunity to open out his chamber pieces into intense, beautiful and exquisitely realised epics which left the huge audience baying for more. Featuring vocal contributions from Heidi Vogel, Lou Rhodes (formerly of Lamb) and Grey Reverend, plus the return of original member PC on turntables, an intense, beautiful night is captured here in all its glory. History as it's lived, human emotion, love and rapture. You can feel it in the hairs on the back of your neck.