Newly signed to SO Recordings and with a debut album proper in hand, The Joy Hotel have become a word-of-mouth success story in the Scottish DIY scene, and have since taken their live show across the UK and Europe, playing festivals including Hidden Door, Doune the Rabbit Hole, Connect, TRNSMT, Twisterella, Latitude, Sound City and The Great Escape.

The band spent eleven days at Rockfield, the legendary studio in Monmouth, Wales, recording live-to-tape. When they left, they had a sound. It is often contradictory, in that it combines the songwriting sensibilities of pop and country with arrangements reminiscent of the psychedelic scene of the 60s, six-part vocal harmonies with elements of noise rock, beautiful balladry with a sense of humour, and a cinematic quality. The result of those eleven days is debut album 'Ceremony', a record that searches for the profound in the seemingly routine, and reaches out with arms wide open to wring celebration out of each moment.

TRACK LISTING

1. I Decline
2. Forever Tender Blue
3. First Joy
4. Jeremiah
5. Black Balloon
6. Rapid Eye Movement
7. Old Man's Eyes
8. While You're Young
9. No Use
10. Twenty Three (A Comedy) - Part 1
11. Twenty Three (A Comedy) - Part 2
12. Killing Time
13. Small Mercy

The Joy, a five-piece acapella group from South Africa is releasing their self-titled debut album which was recorded and captured on film in one take at Paul Epworth’s Church Studios in late 2023.

In Hammarsdale in South Africa, where the Zulu tradition of a cappella singing is central to the cultural identity of its people, you’ll have to transcend the sum of your constituent parts to truly command attention. But singing together as teenage boys for the first time, Pastor (Ntokozo Bright Magcaba), Duzie (Melokuhle Mkhungo), Guduza (Sphelele Hlophe), Sthombe (Phelelani Sithole) and Marcus (Sanele Ngcobo) have no reason to pause and consider that.

In Hammarsdale, Ladysmith Black Mambazo have been worshipped for decades – their Grammy-winning success an authentication of the fact that the magic of isicathamiya music isn’t restricted to the townships where it flourished. The Joy grew up on Ladysmith Black Mambazo, but their harmonies harks back to another vocal tradition. Mbube means ‘lion’, which gives some indication of the elemental power its practitioners summon when bursting into song. This seems to be the lineage into which lead vocalist Duzie seems to be tapping when he cuts loose from the intonations of his co-travellers, as if compelled to commune with the ancestral spirits whose music he invokes.

In the right hands, these songs can open the gates of heaven, so perhaps it’s not so surprising that, for The Joy, they open up the gates to places they’d never imagined they’d see with their own eyes. First prize in a municipality-wide singing contest earns them something in the region of $1,300, which they divided in five and sent straight to their families, where it’s most needed. Alicia Keys and Jennifer Hudson pronounce themselves fans, the latter calling them “my favourite group” and inviting them onto her US talk show. Sessions produced by longtime champion Two Inch Punch amass millions of streams either in spite or because of the fact that they correspond to nothing else competing for your attention in the modern musical firmament. And, displaying the brotherhood that they say bonded them together from that very first session, they insist that the music speaks to them all with one voice, telling them what to do before they themselves are even aware of it.

The Joy sing about the big stuff – the power of dreams, religious faith – but actually when they address the harrowing specifics of day to day life, sometimes these are the moments that assume even greater emotional magnitude.

TRACK LISTING

1. Uhlenge
2. Amaqatha Amancane
3. Mama Ka Nomthandazo
4. Bayang'khethela
5. Mama Uleli Kanjani
6. Ngiphuphe Ngilele
7. Mashaya Kancane
8. UBaba Uthwelekanzima
9. You Complete Me
10. Amandla Ka Moya
11. Jesu

Joy O returns with a highly anticipated 10" double header. Now, I don't say the phrase: 'hang onto your underpants' very often, but in this case - 'HANG ONTO YOUR UNDERPANTS!!!'.

"Flight FM" sounds like a rocket powered by subwoofers is about to take off from the runaway. Niggly, granular synths breaking down as thrusters engage before soaring into the sky with jet-propelled bass. There's plenty of Joy O signatures - rickety hi-hats, rib-punch kicks; but the intensity has been ramped up to max velocity on this one... a true speaker testing watermark for the festivals and big rig raves this Summer.

"Shiloh's Revenge" is no wallflower either; with more intricate synthesis paired with jaw smashing drums, wubbing subs and a cavernous, warehouse-filling presence. There's even a bit of Overmono-esque vox towards the end of the track which sets the arrangement on fire.  

Likely to fly out faster than limited bottles of Prime on a tictok viral vid... Don't sleep on this absolute BEAST massive!

TRACK LISTING

Flight Fm
Shiloh’s Revenge

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

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

Heavy horn-laden steppers dub here inna similar vein to Aba Shanti-I's "Horns Of Jericho" release. Uptempo and fierce steppers that's tailored for maximum soundsystem enjoyment and riotous soul ascension. Proper carnival tackle that'll unite the tribes under the blanket of bass and horns. Comes with echo-drenched dub...Tip! 

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: More from WhoDem's J. Robinson archive, joined this time by Ital Horns. It's a juggernaut of heavy steppers digi-dub that should be enough to see off any competition inna clash.

TRACK LISTING

1. Jericho’s Ancient Horns
2. Walls Tumbling Down Dub 

Super Rhythm Trax present Adonis’ resident DJ, Hannah Holland making her label debut.

These tracks leap out the speakers sounding super fresh and have been doing plenty of damage, already featuring heavily in her sets during the last few months.

3 larger than life HH productions take the scenic route around acid, house, techno and even some early jungle references for the eagle eared spotters amongst you, with live percussion from Joy Joseph on the track "She’s Giving Cray".

Jerome Hill also joins the party with an euphorically doom laden remix!

Only 100 copies - no represses! 

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Super Rhythm Trax enlist the in-vogue polymath Hannah Holland for a chunky trip into rave anarchy. Masterfully harnessing the 303s and drum boxes for a suitably narcotic ride.

TRACK LISTING

A1. She’s Giving Cray (ft. Joy Joseph)
A2. She’s Giving Cray (Jerome Hill Remix)
B1. Satisfy
B2. Roller

An original member of Soft Machine, Kevin Ayers embarked on a solo career following a US tour with the Jimi Hendrix Experience in 1968. He was one of the first signings to EMI’s Progressive imprint Harvest and recorded his debut album in the Summer of 1969 at Abbey Road studios.

‘Joy Of A Toy’ is a classic of psychedelic and progressive rock, featuring contributions from his former Soft Machine band mates, David Bedford and such wonderful songs as ‘The Lady Rachel’, ‘Stop This Train (Again Doing It)’, ‘Girl on a Swing’ and ‘All This Crazy Gift of Time’.

This official gatefold LP vinyl edition fully restores the original LP artwork, has been remastered from the original Harvest master tapes and has been cut at Abbey Road studios.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE ONE
1 Joy Of A Toy Continued
2 Town Feeling
3 The Clarietta Rag
4 Girl On A Swing
5 Song For Insane Times
SIDE TWO
1 Stop This Train (Again Doing It)
2 Eleanor’s Cake (Which Ate Her)
3 The Lady Rachel
4 Oleh Oleh Bandu Bandong
5 All This Crazy Gift Of Time

The post-garage-punk and psychedelic power pop anomaly Chemtrails return with their upcoming third album - their boldest yet with a more danceable and rhythm-driven style, armed with their trademark fuzzy guitars and playfully sinister melodies.

Working with producer Margo Broom (Fat White Family, Goat Girl) this time around, the group has traded in their DIY approach for a more hi-fi studio sound, remaining just as raw and wild as ever, but with a whole new level of focus and intensity.

TRACK LISTING

Detritus Andronicus
Bang Bang
Business Class War Paint
Sycophant's Paradise
Mushroom Cloud Nine
Join Our Death Cult
Pink Whale
Superhuman Superhighway
Apocalypstick
(Post-Apocalypstick)
Endless Stream Of The Bizarre

Following the huge success of “Serious”, remixed by Michael Gray, we now dive into the enchanting world of “Joy & Pain,” a timeless masterpiece penned by the legendary Frankie Beverly of Maze fame. Performed by the brilliant Donna Allen and expertly remixed by the maestro himself, Dr Packer. With his trademark nu disco groove, Dr Packer unleashes an irresistible sonic force, propelling you into a realm where Donna effortlessly takes the reins with her divine R&B prowess. Together, they embark on an awe-inspiring journey, catapulting you into the very heart of dancefloor ecstasy. Dr Packer unveils a package of unparalleled excellence, breathing new life into this classic gem and ensuring its enduring legacy.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Dr Packers housifies Donna Allen's take on this classic Maze joint. Tastefully done, it'll surely be big a hit at Horse Meat Disco, Homoelectric, Supernature and all churches of the disco ball.

TRACK LISTING

1. Joy And Pain (Dr Packer Extended Main Mix)
2. Joy And Pain (Dr Packer Dubstrumental Mix)

Peter Hook & The Light celebrate the work of Joy Division live at Manchester Apollo in an amazing set lasting over 2 and a half hours.

TRACK LISTING

Vinyl Tracklisting
Disc 1
Side 1
1. Dead Souls
2. Disorder
3. Day Of The Lords
4. Candidate
5. Insight
Side 2
1. New Dawn Fades
2. She's Lost Control
3. Shadowplay
4. Wilderness
Disc 2
Side 1
1. Interzone
2. I Remember Nothing
3. Atrocity Exhibition
4. Isolation
Side 2
1. Passover
2. Colony
3. A Means To An End
4. Heart & Soul
Disc 3
Side 1
1. Twenty Four Hours
2. The Eternal
3. Decades
Side 2
1. Atmosphere
2. Ceremony
3. Transmission
4. Love Will Tear Us Apart
Disc 4
Side 1
1. Elegia (CD)
2. Cries & Whispers (CD)
3. Regret (CD)
4. What Do You Want From Me? (CD)
5. Vanishing Point (CD)
6. True Faith (CD)
7. The Perfect Kiss (CD)

CD Tracklisting
Disc 1
1. Elegia
2. Cries & Whispers
3. Regret
4. What Do You Want From Me?
5. Vanishing Point
6. True Faith
7. The Perfect Kiss
Disc 2
1. Dead Souls
2. Disorder
3. Day Of The Lords
4. Candidate
5. Insight
6. New Dawn Fades
7. She's Lost Control
8. Shadowplay
9. Wilderness
10. Interzone
11. I Remember Nothing
Disc 3
1. Atrocity Exhibition
2. Isolation
3. Passover
4. Colony
5. A Means To An End
6. Heart & Soul
7. Twenty Four Hours
8. The Eternal
9. Decades
10. Atmosphere
11. Ceremony
12. Transmission
13. Love Will Tear Us Apart

The essential 2015 debut album from the Tenderlonious led jazz outfit - Ruby Rushton. The album tore up the rule book at the time and is a reflective, instrumental composition, nuanced by a fusion of jazz, afro-beat, hip-hop and electronic influences.

'Two For Joy' perhaps came at a time when jazz wasn't cool, but was a triumph nonetheless, fuelled by a love of Coltrane, Yusef Lateef and Fela Kuti to more contemporary artists like Slum Village and Sa-Ra. Recorded way back in 2011, it tore up the rule book reaching beyond traditional jazz and coffee table conformity. The band was a quartet at the time made up of composer and 22a label boss Ed Cawthorne (Tenderlonious) on saxophone, Nick Walters on trumpet, Aiden Shepherd on keys and Yussef Dayes (Yussef Kamaal) on drums. The album fuses jazz, hip hop, Afrobeat and electronic music and captures the sound of London.

TRACK LISTING

1. An Introduction
2. Room With A View
3. Trudi Mary
4. Where Are You Now? (Part 1)
5. Spritely Does It!
6. Two For Joy
7. Aidan's Song
8. For Her
9. Where Are You Know? (Part 2)
10. Room With A View (Reprise)

Bristol, UK 5-piece Idles (aka “the UK's best punk band" - The Guardian) release their sophomore LP - ‘Joy as an Act of Resistance.’ 

Produced by Space and mixed by Adam Greenspan & Nick Launay (Arcade Fire, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Kate Bush), ‘Joy as an Act of Resistance.’ takes aim at everything from toxic masculinity, nationalism, immigration, and class inequality - all while maintaining a visceral, infectious positivity. Singer Joe Talbot summarizes: “This album is an attempt to be vulnerable to our audience and to encourage vulnerability; a brave naked smile in this shitty new world. We have stripped back the songs and lyrics to our bare flesh to allow each other to breathe, to celebrate our differences, and act as an ode to communities and the individuals that forge them. Because without our community, we’d be nothing.”

TRACK LISTING

1. Colossus
2. Never Fight A Man With A Perm
3. I’m Scum
4. Danny Nedelko
5. Love Song
6. June
7. Samaritans
8. Television
9. Great
10. Gram Rock
11. Cry To Me
12. Rottweiler

It’s spring of 2023 in the North Carolina Piedmont, and songwriter and singer M.C. Taylor leader of the band Hiss Golden Messenger is feeling alive. Joyful. Eternal, he might say. For the Grammy-nominated musician, whose albums have traced an internal path through adulthood, fatherhood, spirituality, and depression for well over a decade, this is something new. “The tunes on Jump for Joy were composed in free moments throughout 2022, a year during which Hiss was on the road more or less constantly,” explains Taylor. “And perhaps because the post-pandemic energy out in the world felt so chaotic and uncertain, I found myself thinking a lot about the role that music has played in my life and how exactly I ended up in the rarefied position of leading a band and crew all over the globe through dingy graffiti-scrawled green rooms, venerated music halls, dust-blown roadside motels. Sometimes playing in front of 5,000; sometimes 200. Sleeping sitting up. Laughing until my stomach hurts. Not being able to fall asleep at 3 a.m. in some anonymous bed because my mind is spinning with anxiety or depression or adrenaline, or because my ears are still ringing. Robbing Peter to pay Paul, then robbing Paul to pay Peter back. Over and over again. It’s an outlaw life but one, I’m coming to realize, that makes me happy.”

The songs that make up Jump for Joy the sharpest and most autobiographical that Taylor has written under the Hiss name read as a sort of epistolary, postcards between the present-day songwriter and his alias Michael Crow, a teenaged dreamer very much like Taylor himself, who trips his way through the 14 tunes that make up the record. In this way, Jump for Joy is a meditation on a life lived with art, and the ways that our hopes and dreams and decisions bump up against and, with a little bit of luck, occasionally merge with real life. “Creating this character became the way that I could explore these vulnerable, tender moments that were so decisive in my life, even if I didn’t know it at the time,” explains Taylor.

Produced by Taylor and engineered by longtime Hiss compatriot Scott Hirsch over two weeks in the late fall of 2022 at the fabled Sonic Ranch studio in Tornillo, TX, just a short walk from the Mexican border, Jump for Joy dances with joyful, spontaneous energy that feels like a fresh chapter in the Hiss Golden Messenger oeuvre. Taylor is accompanied throughout the album by his crack live band: guitarist Chris Boerner, bassist Alex Bingham, keyboardist Sam Fribush, and drummer Nick Falk, a collection of musicians that have helped make Hiss Golden Messenger’s live performances legendary affairs.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Though Hiss Golden Messenger hasn't historically been the most maudlin musical outfit, it would be hard to claim that anything they've written is overtly jubilant, but it's on 'Jump For Joy' that the most uplifting pieces of their musical career emerge. Conceptually, the idea of a younger more optimistic self conversing with an older alter-ego is fascinating, and as ever it's pulled off with aplomb. Lovely.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A:
1. 20 Years And A Nickel
2. Alice
3. I Saw The New Day In The World
4. Shinbone
5. Little Pink Church
6. Jesus Is Bored
7. Nu-Grape
SIDE B:
8. Feeling Eternal
9. Jump For Joy
10. The Wondering
11. Palo Santo/Cloud Mesa
12. California King
13. My Old Friends
14. Sunset On The Faders

To mark its ten year anniversary, Mexican Summer presents a new, limited edition pressing of No Joy’s classic album Wait to Pleasure expanded with two new tracks from the beloved band's original line up. Wait To Pleasure is the product of the Montreal noise-pop band’s first foray in a fullyfurnished studio environment. Here the band has flourished, delivering their finest set to date, rooted heavily in shoegaze ripcurls and devastating melody, finishing sentences whispered long ago with depth, variance and force. Singer-guitarists Jasamine White-Gluz and Laura Lloyd and drummer Garland Hastings knock down the fence between nostalgiaand modernity, chaos and control, in a perfectly- realized effort made to bridge their uncompromised musical pasts with the alarmist tendencies of the present. Wait To Pleasure found No Joy set loose in Mexican Summer’s studio, Gary’s Electric, for two weeks in 2012, with producer Jorge Elbrecht at the helm. “Our earlier records are purely guitar-based, rock band lineups,” Laura adds, “and with Wait To Pleasure we seized the opportunity to change things up a bit.”

TRACK LISTING

1. E
2. Hare Tarot Lies
3. Prodigy
4. Slug Night
5. Blue Neck Riviera
6. Lizard Kids
7. Lunar Phobia
8. Wrack Attack
9. Ignored Pets
10. Pleasure
11. Uhy Yuoi Yoi
12. Dorion (Bonus Track)
13. Beauty (Bonus Track)

Joy’All, the fifth solo album from Jenny Lewis and follow up to 2019’s critically acclaimed On The Line (Warner Records) finds the singer-songwriter embarking on a new era in a new town—and on a new label, as she joins the iconic roster of Blue Note/Capitol Records.

“I started writing some of these songs on the road, pre-pandemic... and then put them aside as the world shut down, and then from my home in Nashville in early 2021, I joined a week-long virtual songwriting workshop with a handful of amazing artists, hosted by Beck. The challenge was to write one song every day for seven days, with guidelines from Beck. The guidelines would be prompts like ‘write a song with 1-4-5 chord progression,’ ‘write a song with only cliches,’ or ‘write in free form style.’ The first song I submitted to the group was ‘Puppy and a Truck.’” As the days progressed, the assignments kept coming in and Jenny ended up writing a good portion of Joy’All.

While Joy’All pulls from a bounty of sonic inspiration–from soul to 90’s R&B, as well as country and classic singer-songwriter records the album’s rich and intimate, live sound is the hallmark of eight-time Grammy winning producer Dave Cobb (John Prine, Brandi Carlile, Chris Stapleton, Jason Isbell), whom Jenny met by chance while visiting Lucius at the Historic RCA Studio A in Nashville. A natural kinship developed between the two, and with her arsenal of songs that she had demoed on her iPhone ready to roll, Jenny texted Dave and asked him to produce her new album.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Swooning country guitars, rolling basslines and Lewis' unmistakeable vocals are ever present on her latest LP, Joy'All'. The real lift here comes from the bright joy of proceedings, dealing with some sadness but with a levity and wit that's refreshing, providing a buffer to Lewis' famously deep vocal musings.

Early Band Of Holy Joy existed somewhere on the cut-up side of proto-industrial music, resting between Marc Stewart & Maffia, Sonic Youth, and Current 93, and proponents of a more romantic musical language - Virginia Astley, Dead Can Dance and Cocteau Twins among them - all artists whose work BPHJ's music sat comfortably alongside across on a stream of low-budget vinyl and cassette compilations after the start of the eighties. A great leap in polish led to a deal with Rough Trade and several early '90s albums which flirted with the mainstream, with BOHJ almost an odder, less obvious cousin to Dexys Midnight Runners. When these releases failed to take off as hoped, lost years followed on smaller labels and self-released projects, until the renewed urgency of the 2016 Brutalism Begins At Home EP and increasingly majestic albums on which saw leader Johny Brown's lyricism enter a new phase. The common thread through BOHJ's four decades of recordings is the foundational warmth and humanity of Brown's words. The band's earliest recordings seemed garnered from street-level observations of neighbourhood people and sights. By the time of near-hit "Tactless", their songs - whatever the underlying impulses may have been - had become immediate enough to overcome the mystery of a line like "Do you remember the swan that was shot in the park?"

Over each of their last three albums - Funambulist We Love You, Neon Primitives and Dreams Take Flight - BOHJ has bettered itself, and may now have reached their apex, Fated Beautiful Mistakes. We live in a time of generally justifiable gloom and awkward uncertainty. So it may appear cavalier to claim this album sounds revelatory in that context, but Band Of Holy Joy's strengths rest largely in Johny Brown and the band's ability to capture a wider societal feeling. One listen to the escapist fantasy of "Our Flighty Season Under The Flighty Sun" and its slightly-haunted ending speaks volumes beyond most of what passes for music in 2023, and it's just one of many perfect moments on this album.

TRACK LISTING

Lighthouse Keeper
New York Romantic
A Citadel Of Crooked Soul
Mersey Ferry On The River Thames
Our Flighty Season Inn The Dirty Sun
Circus Folk
City People
Instagram Moon
The Curve Of The Bay
The Full Bloom Of Roses
Babylon Farewell

MPC grooves meet modular textures downtown on Mr Beatnick's "Joy in Variation", his third and most floor-focussed album to date. Steeped in the language and form of hip hop production techniques and shaped by his musical education propping up the wall of London clubs like Plastic People in the early noughties, the album offers eight playful dancefloor experiments in poly-rhythm, tempo-change and the colourful palettes opened up by modular synthesis exploration.

From the swing and bump of "Joy In Variation" and "Shuffle the Bud", to the tempo-switching beatdown of "Shapeshifter", vintage boogie-funk on "When This Is Over" and even a playful take on Tangerine Dream's 1983 staple "Love On A Real Train", this is a varied set designed to hit hard enough for club play, but stay chilled enough for deeper home listening.

"Joy In Variation" is further evidence of why Mr Beatnick's late noughties cuts like "Synthetes" and "Ice Cream Strut" continue to stay close to the boxes of discerning djs after all this time, and why his NTS Radio show has built such a dedicated following over the last decade.

TRACK LISTING

1. Joy In Variation
2. Shuffle The Bud
3. Poseidon
4. Wave Cascade
5. When This Is Over
6. Chime Of The Healer
7. Shapeshifter
8. Love On A Real Train

An intimate and original memoir of love, grief and male friendship by one of Scotland's brightest young talents.

Ever feel like you were fated to be friends with someone? An alchemy in your meeting, instant fondness – part chemical, part kismet. This is how I’ve felt about every friend I’ve fallen in love with – none so much as you.

In 2018, Michael Pedersen lost a most cherished friend soon after their collective voyage into the landscape and luminosity of the Scottish Highlands. Sitting at a desk at The Curfew Tower, Northern Ireland, Michael begins to write to his departed friend – Scott Hutchison. What starts as a love letter to one magical, coruscating human soon becomes a paean to many friendships – perhaps all friendship.

In Boy Friends, Pedersen confronts the bewildering process of grief. As memories rise to the surface – both heart-wrenching and hilarious – he recalls his younger self: the overly sensitive boy growing up in working-class Edinburgh; his befuddling stint in an ancient collegiate university; a short-lived, combustible career as a lawyer; and, foremost, the gorgeous male friendships that have transformed his life.

Written to glitter, with intoxicating energy, Boy Friends is a powerful depiction of friendship and loss, a homage to the beauty of moments shared.

Does Spring Hide Its Joy is an immersive piece by composer Kali Malone featuring Stephen O’Malley on electric guitar, Lucy Railton on cello, and Malone herself on tuned sine wave oscillators. The music is a study in harmonics and non-linear composition with a heightened focus on just intonation and beating interference patterns. Malone’s experience with pipe organ tuning, harmonic theory, and long durational composition provide prominent points of departure for this work. Her nuanced minimalism unfolds an astonishing depth of focus and opens up contemplative spaces in the listener’s attention.

Does Spring Hide Its Joy follows Malone’s critically acclaimed records The Sacrificial Code [Ideal Recordings, 2019] & Living Torch [Portraits GRM, 2022]. Her collaborative approach expands from her previous work to closely include the musicians Stephen O’Malley & Lucy Railton in the creation and development of the piece. While the music is distinctly Malone’s sonic palette, she composed specifically for the unique styles and techniques of O’Malley & Railton, presenting a framework for subjective interpretation and non-hierarchical movement throughout the music.

Does Spring Hide Its Joy is a durational experience of variable length that follows slowly evolving harmony and timbre between cello, sine waves, and electric guitar. As a listener, the transition between these junctures can be difficult to pinpoint. There’s obscurity and unity in the instrumentation and identities of the players; the electric guitar’s saturation timbre blends with the cello’s rich periodicity, while shifting overtone feedback develops interference patterns against the precise sine waves. The gradual yet ever-occurring changes in harmony challenge the listener’s perception of stasis and movement. The moment you grasp the music, a slight shift in perspective guides your attention forward into a new and unfolding harmonic experience.

Does Spring Hide Its Joy was created between March and May of 2020. During this unsettling period of the pandemic, Malone found herself in Berlin with a great deal of time and conceptual space to consider new compositional methods. With a few interns left on-site, Malone was invited to the Berlin Funkhaus & MONOM to develop and record new music within the empty concert halls. She took this opportunity to form a small ensemble with her close friends and collaborators Lucy Railton & Stephen O’Malley to explore these new structural ideas within those various acoustic spaces. Hence, the foundation was laid for Does Spring Hide Its Joy.

In Kali’s own words: “Like most of the world, my perception of time went through a significant transformation during the pandemic confinements of spring 2020. Unmarked by the familiar milestones of life, the days and months dripped by, instinctively blending with no end in sight. Time stood still until subtle shifts in the environment suggested there had been a passing. Memories blurred non-sequentially, the fabric of reality deteriorated, unforeseen kinships formed and disappeared, and all the while, the seasons changed and moved on without the ones we lost. Playing this music for hours on end was a profound way to digest the countless life transitions and hold time together.”

Ideologic Organ is pleased to present Kali Malone’s Does Spring Hide Its Joy as a triple LP set of around two-hours duration. Mastered by Stephen Mathieu and cut at Schnittstelle Mastering, the record is pressed in perfect sound quality by Optimal in Germany. The album is packaged in a heavyweight laminated jacket with full-color printed inner sleeves, and also available as a three-hour triple CD and in all digital formats.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A stunning set of long-form drone and drifting oscillations on Editions Mego offshoot Ideologic Organ. It's a perfect home for Malone's hypnotic instrumental dialogue, and the perfect landscape for O'Malley & Railton's guest appearances. A grand and uncompromising work of sound design beauty.

TRACK LISTING

3xCDs
Disc 1 - Does Spring Hide Its Joy V1 (01:00:25)
Disc 2 - Does Spring Hide Its Joy V2 (01:00:54)
Disc 3 - Does Spring Hide Its Joy V3 (01:00:15)

3xLPs
1A - Does Spring Hide Its Joy V1.1 (21:05)
1B - Does Spring Hide Its Joy V1.2 (18:50)
2A - Does Spring Hide Its Joy V1.3 (20:30)
2B - Does Spring Hide Its Joy V2.1 (20:12)
3A - Does Spring Hide Its Joy V2.2 (18:08)
3B - Does Spring Hide Its Joy V2.3 (22:43)

Joy Division live at the Leigh Rock Festival in 1979.

The Leigh Rock and Music Festival was a 3-day mini-festival co-hosted by Zoo Records and Factory Records, held in Leigh on 25, 26 & 27 August 1979. Factory gave the event the catalogue number Fac 15 and the title 'Zoo Meets Factory Half-way'. The roster included A Certain Ratio, Joy Division, Crawling Chaos, The Teardrop Explodes, OMD, and Echo and the Bunnymen.

TRACK LISTING

Disorder/ Stage Announcements
Leaders Of Men
Colony
Insight
Digital
Dead Souls
Shadow Play
She’s Lost Control
Transmission
Interzone
Sound Of Music- Intro

American Whip is the second album by the New York dream-pop duo Joy Zipper released in 2003. Praised for its "charming melodies, heart- melting harmonies and hazy lo-fi guitars" forming "an intoxicating alt-pop nectar," the album contains 12 of the most seductive four-minute tracks you'll hear on one album.

TRACK LISTING

Sunstroke
Christmas Song
Baby You Should Know
33x
Out Of The Sun
Drugs
Dosed And Became Invisible
Alzheimers
Ron
In The Never Ending Search For A Suitable Enemy
VSX
Valley Stream

“A young vocalist with a low alto as rich as custard…and a devotion, at least for now, to a classic cool-jazz sound” – The New York Times.

Samara Joy makes her Verve debut, with a voice, tone and phrasing that harkens back to the most iconic jazz vocalists of all time. At just 22 years old, Samara already belongs in the company of iconic label mates from Ella Fitzgerald to Sarah Vaughan to Billie Holiday, and is poised to become synonymous with timeless jazz music. Her stunningly timeless voice belies her youth and her approach to jazz feels reverent but also truly fresh and exciting.

TRACK LISTING

1. Can’t Get Out Of This Mood
2. Guess Who I Saw Today
3. Nostalgia
4. Sweet Pumpkin
5. Misty
6. Social Call
7. I’m Confessin’
8. Linger Awhile
9. ‘Round Midnight
10. Someone To Watch Over Me

In tough times, music can be the way through. With an expertise in fuzzy riffs, melodic heaviness, high energy and sharp lyrics, Sick Joy are one of British rock’s most promising young bands.

Even their start was a challenge to be beaten. Originally formed in Newcastle, the band soon relocated to Brighton in order to be part of a bigger music scene. That is, singer/guitarist Mykl Barton installed a bed in the back of the band’s van and lived and slept in there.

Quickly, though, the move began to pay off. Their Amateurs EP announced them as something exciting, with some describing them as straddling the melodic genius of The Pixies and the raw energy of Slipknot. Off the back of the EP, the band received huge support from BBC Radio 1, Kerrang! Radio and Radio X. Live, meanwhile, their shows with the likes of Feeder, Dinosaur Pile-Up and Demob Happy fully demonstrated Sick Joy’s infectious vitality and power.

Now they return with the roaring, fuzzy alt.rock explosion of their debut album, WE'RE ALL GONNA F***ING DIE. With Mykl saying that he can only really write about universal themes (“Everyone knows about love, sex, death, sadness”), despite its title, it’s a record that actually leans into a great deal of joy.

Speaking of new single, 'i've got more than i need (and i don't have much)', Mykl shares, "It came from a feeling of exasperation towards trying to process some things from my past that I’d been dealing with in damaging ways and realising it. I didn’t have space in my head to be clever or dance around stuff lyrically, it was just emphatically - “this is what this is and I can see it now. Like, fuck, this is heavy and it hurts, but there’s a vein of fighting back flowing through it too”. It’s a flagship of the theme and message that runs through the album, this positive nihilism. It’s a linear story of the whole process I was going through, anger, sadness, doubt, fear and ultimately, hope and empowerment."

Featuring contributions from Jamie Lenman and Mykl’s own stepdad (lending a touch of harmonica to recent single 'belly aching beast'), 'WE'RE ALL GONNA F***ING DIE', takes life’s gristle and turns it into something uplifting and euphoric. With headline gigs, dates with Dinosaur Pile Up, The Pixies and Pearl Jam and an appearance at 2000 Trees on the calendar, it looks, fittingly, like the start of a happy chapter for Sick Joy.

“For me, that title’s a positive,” says Mykl. “I realised, ‘it's going to be over one day, man. So do whatever the fuck you're gonna do, and have a good fucking time. And I don't mean just get loaded and be a dick. I mean do the things you want to do. Don't let fear decide where you're going to go. We're all going to fucking die. So get out and fucking kill it, man.”

TRACK LISTING

1) Don’t Feel Like Dying
2) Talking To The Drugs
3) Stay Numb
4) Deep Dream
5) I've Got More Than I Need (and I Don’t Have Much)
6) Alive On The Inside
7) The Blood & The Bliss
8) Rich Hippies
9) Belly Aching Beast (feat. Jamie Lenman)
10) Sadisfaction
11) Nothing Better
12) Ultimately

Delivered unfiltered, straight from the soul, ´Torn : Tonic' pulls us into a 10 track journey that weaves through the multiplicity of letting go, standing tall, and creating space all at once. The album's expansive and vivid exploration of healing examines the power that comes with accepting the complexity of change. Allysha walks listeners through the remedy she finds in sound and emerges empowered to share this healing with others. Deeply moving and lyrically compelling, 'Torn : Tonic' hosts a stellar line-up of artists, creating a world of collective power, growth, and hope.

Allysha Joy is an integral member of the vibrant Melbourne soul & jazz scene, well known for both her solo work and as lead vocalist for 30/70. A uniquely-talented soul, her husky voice, and formidable Fender Rhodes prowess have garnered attentive audiences around the world.

Her 2018 debut album 'Acadie : Raw' was named 'Best Soul Album' at the Music Victoria Awards, featured in Bandcamp's 'Top Soul Albums' of the year and received a nomination for 'Best Jazz Album' at the Worldwide Awards. An incredibly prolific artist, Allysha has released on labels; Rhythm Section, Gondwana, Future Classic, Total Refreshment Centre and now another drop for First Word, after her acclaimed 2020 EP, 'Light It Again'.

Allysha's production on 'Torn : Tonic' effortlessly arches across a sonic palette, comprised of shuffling broken grooves and exquisite celestial melodies. There are healthy swathes of skippy neo-soul boom bap sensibilities, entwined with stark swing-laden electronic percussion, Detroit-esque sun-saturated synths, and Antipodean bruk backbeats. And whilst this project was produced entirely by Joy herself, she is far from alone, inviting in an array of female and non-binary artists to bless assorted tracks with their own unique gifts. Ego Ella May, BINA, Rara Zulu, Belle Bangard and Dancing Water all appear, expanding upon the formulaic roles of featured artists to share the creative space as equal collaborators.

'Torn : Tonic' exudes vibes, from the opening whiplash snare of 'Peace, to the rolling jazz-bruk of lead single 'Let It!', to the sweet soulful sonics of 'Still Dreaming', to the closing triumphant shout of "All Joy!!" on 'G.N.D.', this is a 40-minute opus that will definitely require repeat listening.

Allysha's poetic introspection reveals the album's intention to demand space, purpose, and pleasure. Her words are deliberate and direct to the alarm bells and messages her artistic vision carries. Fluid, cross-genre, and spirited with generational stories embodied, 'Torn : Tonic' sits at the intersection of a feminist manifesto of Joy's momentous leap as an artist, and her exploration of what it means to be human in today's capitalist-driven world.

In Allysha's words, 'Torn : Tonic' is exactly as the name describes. "It is looking directly into the shadow of pain and overcoming it with joy. No love songs! Just social, political, emotional anthems for change! It is the first record I have produced entirely on my own and it feels like that perseverance that I have consistently had to conjure up is embedded in this music, overcoming my own conditioning in a society and industry that constantly tells me I can't, so I must!"

TRACK LISTING

1. Peace (feat. Rara Zulu)
2. Calling You (feat. Ego Ella May)
3. YK X YE (feat. BINA)
4. Let It!
5. Quit, Trying So Hard
6. Still Dreaming (feat. Rara Zulu)
7. Remedy
8. Healers (feat. Dancing Water)
9. Fatima (feat. Belle Bangard)
10. G.N.D.

Originally released in 2017 on the band’s own label Artificial Plastic and now being reissued by Fuzz Club Records, ‘Damage And Joy’ is the seventh studio album from Scottish alt-rock legends The Jesus and Mary Chain. The long-awaited follow-up to 1998’s ‘Munki’, ‘Damage And Joy’ was the band’s first studio album in nearly two decades and contained brand new material alongside reimagined versions of songs that had been released in various forms by the Reid brothers in between the Mary Chain’s 1999 break-up and 2007 reunion. Coproduced by Youth (Killing Joke) and featuring the lead singles ‘Amputation’ and ‘All Things Pass’, ‘Damage & Joy’ also featured guest appearances from Scottish singer-songwriter Isobel Campbell (‘The Two of Us’, ‘Song For A Secret’) and American alt-pop star Sky Ferreira (‘Black And Blues’).

Included in this reissue and available on vinyl for the very first time is ‘Ono Yoko’ (originally only available on the Japanese CD version of the album), as well as alternative versions of ‘The Two Of Us’ featuring Sky Ferreira and ‘Black And Blues’ featuring Isobel Campbell.

As Pitchfork wrote at the time of the album's release: “It will take more than a nearly twodecade recording hiatus to diminish the band’s intrinsic ultraviolet vibe. ‘Damage And Joy’ carries the reassurance that now, more than ever, The Jesus and Mary Chain are united in holy acrimony.”

TRACK LISTING

1. Amputation
2. The Two Of Us (feat Sky Ferreira)
3. All Things Pass
4. Always Sad
5. Song For A Secret (feat. Isobel Campbell)
6. War On Peace
7. Black And Blues (feat. Isobel Campbell)
8. Los Feliz (Blues And Greens)
9. Mood Rider
10. Presidici (Et Chapaquiditch)
11. Get On Home
12. Facing Up To The Facts
13. Simian Split
14. Black And Blues (feat. Sky Ferreira)
15. Ono Yoko
16. The Two Of Us (feat Isobel Campbell)
17. Can't Stop The Rock

More magic on Bongo Joe's, this time from the Moroccan based Mameen 3, awesome left-field goodness!

TRACK LISTING

A1. Kudreda
B1. Mamermaids

‘Skin’ is the debut album and hugely personal body of work from one of the UK’s boldest and brightest young talents, Joy Crookes. A collection of songs built and honed throughout her adolescence and into her early twenties, it weaves through topics such as mental health, relationships, and politics all with grace and sensitivity. Recorded between Abbey Road & Konk & produced by Blue May (Kano, Blood Orange), the end product is a debut record that is both perfectly of the moment, and entirely timeless.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Joy Crookes' 'Skin' is a wonderfully heartfelt, beautifully written mix of soul and R&B, rich in melody and swimming with Crookes' stunning vocals. It's a wonderfully impressive debut, soaring and confessional in equal measure, and a great sign of what's to come..

‘Still Slipping Vol.1’ is the debut full length project from Joy Orbison. Fans of Joy O’s DJ sets and radio shows will already be aware of his diverse tastes and inspirations, represented here through a roll call of delicately curated, mainly UK, collaborators that include Herron, James Massiah, Bathe, Léa Sen, Goya Gumbani and TYSON.

Just as important are the voices of Joy Orbison's family - mum, dad, sister Sarah, uncle Frankie, uncle Keith (recently departed), auntie Helen and cousins Lola and Mia, as well as Leighann, who was the first person to introduce him to drum and bass and garage as a kid and stars on the mixtape’s cover art.

They appear throughout the record via a series of voice notes, his only contact with his family during this year of worldwide lockdown and an intimate, vicarious glimpse into the personal world of an artist who has generally side-stepped the public gaze. 

It's a long time coming since 2009's "Hyph Mngo" revolutionized and married the worlds of bass and techno together. Instrumental in advancing dance music and merging tribes of different electronic genres together, his Sunklo items have become treasured artifacts of dance music lineage and it seems utterally bewildering that it's taken him until now to release a full length album.

Painfully succinct, delicately poised and highly advanced; all the trademarks that mark this singular and innovative producer / DJ. Sequenced to perfection and playing more like a mixtape tape than a collection of individual tracks, you'll struggle to take the needle off the record until its completion I can assure you! Highly recommended!  

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Can you believe this is Joy-O's first long player?! His tracks seem to have influenced and soundtracked the better dancefloors of the last decade on a near-permanent basis. Over a transient, constantly-morphing LP we get the skitty, advanced kinetics; emotive washes and his shadowy, blurred vox all showcased at their most intimate and astonishing. One of our royal treasures of electronic music.

TRACK LISTING

W/ Dad & Frankie
Sparko (feat. Herron)
Swag W/ Kav (feat. James Massiah & Bathe)
Better (feat. Léa Sen)
Bernard?
Runnersz
Rraine (feat. Edna)
Glorious Amateurs
S Gets Jaded
Froth Sipping
Layer 6
In Drink
Playground (feat. Goya Gumbani)
Born Slipping (feat. TYSON)

The apotheosis of Band Of Holy Joy's bile toward today's pathetic state of affairs will be released shortly – a blistering remix of "The Devil Has A Hold On The Land" from their last album, Neon Primitives. Remixed by Youth (Killing Joke bassist, Paul McCartney collaborator, producer of Melanie C and U2!), who was so taken by the song as to remix it gratis, the remix will be part of a series of 23 discrete 7" 45s by Jon Langford of The Mekons and an assortment fellow travellers from around the globe. Dreams Take Flight transitions from political discourse into a post-virus rebirth of human relationship and the inevitable fumblings of the society's psychological reconstruction over the forthcoming year. Have you ever wondered what purpose your joy or my pain? All those moments shared together to be washed away by the rain . . . Have you ever doubted our super hipster being love-in at all? Just a pair of urbane fools passing through waiting for our call . . . Take a leap into the great unknown. Almost perversely heart-on-sleeve, Johny Brown and compatriots have never fitted well within a particular scene - nor have they ever seem to try.

Although recorded under the existence of quarantine and a healthy amount of paranoia, in search of the joy of greatly hindered collaboration, the band has opted to turn over each song to a different visionary video artist for an exhibition which will take place for a week at London's Gallery 46 beginning at the end of February and open to the public. The video exhibition will subsequently be available online, before the album's release. While still featuring some of the band's strongest songs, Dreams Take Flight has a strange film-like ambience in parts, almost as if planned as a soundtrack, a thought mirrored in Inga Tillere's sublime, dream-like sleeve, best seen in real life. "A Leap Into The Great Unknown" and "Notes From A Gallery" will likely be heard as too disarmingly direct for radio, and the videos will likely never see the entry door to MTV, but Dreams Take Flight will ultimately be considered a masterwork of clarity in a confused, contentious time.

TRACK LISTING

1. This Is The Festival Scene 
2. A Leap Into The Great Unknown 
3. That Magic Thing 
4. When Love Is Not Enough 
5. On Set Romance 
6. Notes From A Gallery 
7. The Rhythm Of Life 
8. A New Clear Vision 

In the words of Mac DeMarco: “Eddie Chacon is planet earth’s number one musician. Yesterday, today, and forever.”

"'The soulful singer had a worldwide hit with 1992’s Would I Lie to You, but he was dropped and his musical partner died. Now, he has poured his pain into a cathartic comeback album''

Eddie Chacon experienced proper, peak-nineties acclaim in the soul duo Charles and Eddie: they scored a global No. 1 in 1992 with “Would I Lie To You,” appeared three times on Top of the Pops, and featured on soundtracks from True Romance to Super Mario Bros..

Produced by John Carroll Kirby, the like-minded artist and collaborator with Frank Ocean and Solange Knowles, it features restrained percussion from Kanye West’s Sunday Service drummer Lamar Carter. Celestial soul as a break from chaos, these are quietly challenging songs as timeless as they are contemporary.

By that time, Chacon had already been navigating music in interesting ways, all the way back to his teen garage rock band with the late Cliff Burton (Metallica) and Mike Bordin (Faith No More). In the late ’80s, he released a full-length on Uncle Luke from 2 Live Crew’s label and signed to Columbia as a solo act. He was a working artist, always popping up in unexpected places: through the course of his career, Chacon would write, sing, or produce ten Top 40 hits around the globe.

Years ago, Chacon retired from music for a second calling as a fashion photographer and creative director. In an interview at the time, he said, “I was fortunate to have a 35-year music career and felt that there wasn’t that much more for me to say or achieve.” Very thankfully, that’s no longer the case. Private experiments, far from the major-label center he once frequented, began to feel urgent and new. “There’s nothing more exciting for me than getting to start from the beginning again,” he says today.

“Pleasure, Joy and Happiness” will be available on the boutique Los Angeles-based label Day End Records. This is a thoughtfully considered album of quiet, confident R&B: it doesn’t jump out at you, but rather gets in you.

Produced by John Carroll Kirby, the like-minded artist and collaborator with Frank Ocean and Solange Knowles, it features restrained percussion from Kanye West’s Sunday Service drummer Lamar Carter. Celestial soul as a break from chaos, these are quietly challenging songs as timeless as they are contemporary.

“What a rare and cool challenge it was for me to help Eddie re-emerge after a long hiatus,” says John Carroll Kirby. “I was excited to produce a record for him that captured the chill, laid-back wisdom and easy vocal mastery he has that you don’t see that much these days.”

Lead single “My Mind Is Out of Its Mind” finds a deep groove to try and contain spiraling heartbreak, while the sweet and wobbly “Trouble” balances the delightful near whisper of the title track “Pleasure, Joy and Happiness.” But even the project’s lightest moments feel sincere and mature. Altogether: a truly unifying release, coming from a man who’s earned the right to share such a regal, romantic sound.

“I used to think to myself,” Chacon says, “if I ever make a record again, I’d want it to be a record you’d have to be my age to make.”

TRACK LISTING

A1. Trouble
A2. Hurt
A3. Outside
A4. My Mind Is Out Of It's Mind
B1. Pleasure Joy & Happiness
B2. Papa
B3. Wicked World
B4. Above Below

'Genuinely funny; indeed, the story will keep you entertained for a very long time' - Sunday Times

Joy Division changed the face of music. Godfathers of the enduring alternative scene, they reinvented rock in the post-punk era, creating a sound - dark, hypnotic, intense - that would influence U2, Morrissey, R.E.M., Radiohead and many others. This is the rollercoaster story of Joy Division - the friendships, fights, fall-outs; the rehearsals and recording sessions; the larger than life characters - told by the band's legendary bassist, Peter Hook.

'Hook has restored a flesh-and-blood rawness to what was becoming a standard tale. Few pop music books manage that' - Guardian

Three Queens in Mourning first gathered in summit to sing celebration of the publication of Will Oldham’s book of collected lyrics, Songs of Love and Horror. Alasdair Roberts (Appendix Out), Jill O' Sullivan (Jill Lorean), and Alex Neilson (Trembling Bells, Alex Rex) each arrived provisioned with a small armful of selections nearest and dearest from Bonnie Prince Oldham’s far-reaching catalogue.

Three Queens in Mourning’s takes on these tunes follow naturally from the fit between Will’s words and their three distinctive voices. Alasdair Roberts’ sweet, guileless delivery of “Christmas Time in the Mountains” amplifiesthe lacerating quality of the lyric “we need an enemy / I’m saving all my rage for you”; even if at the outset of the song we’re told that “time is the enemy,” the abiding sentiment—the red-hot word that organizes my memory of the song—is rage. Ali’s and Jill’s trading of verses on “New Partner” puts a different spin on what had previously registered as an especially mercurial first-person narrative voice, one that swoops between tenderness (“lay back, rest your head on my thighs”) and ecstatic self-absorption (breaking it to the ex to whom the song is addressed that “I’ve got a new partner riding with me”). Add Alex’s voice, not only for his madcap “Lost Blues,” but as part of the choir on “Ohio River Boat Song” (a song with origins in the traditional “Loch Tay Boat Song”), and these three Scottish accents singing about the muddy Ohio, Smoketown, Oldham County, and Floyds Knobs, I mean, there’s not much else this Kentuckian—these are all deeply familiar landmarks—can say. Type through tears. On this back to back records, The Bonnie 'Prince' Billy LP is a collection of three cover versions from Ali, Jill and Alex directory and one original track.

Three Queens in Mourning / Bonnie 'Prince' Billy is a collaboration between Will Oldham (Bonnie Prince Billy), Alasdair Roberts (Appendix out / Drag City), Jill O Sullivan (Jill Lorean) and Alex Neilson (Trembling Bells, Alex Rex).

TRACK LISTING

Three Queen In Mourning / Bonnie Prince Billy (Will Oldham/Palace/BPB Covers)
1/Stablemate
2/Christmas Time In The Mountains
3/Lost Blues
4/Madeleine Mary
5/No More Workhorse Blues
6/No Such As What I Want
7/I See A Darkness
8/Trudy Dies
9/Tonight’s Decision
10/Darling
11/New Partner
12/Ohio Riverboat Song

Bonnie Prince Billy
13/Coral And Tar
14/Coward Song
15/Dead Man
16/Wild Dandelion

Joy Division’s most enduring classic, Love Will Tear Us Apart, was released in June 1980 not long after Ian Curtis’ untimely passing; and become the group’s highest charting single. Named NME Single of the Year 1980, this 40th anniversary 12” has been remastered and pressed on 180g vinyl and features Peter Saville’s iconic original artwork.

TRACK LISTING

A: Love Will Tear Us Apart
B: These Days

Joy Division’s debut single, FAC 13, Transmission kicked off the group’s trend for releasing singles that didn’t appear on their albums. This 40th anniversary 12” features remastered audio on 180g vinyl, and the original artwork on heavyweight board with an embossed sleeve.

TRACK LISTING

A: Transmission
B: Novelty

The second of the group’s three singles, Atmosphere, was originally released as “Licht und Blindheit” in France only with a different B-side, before being released on Factory in May 1980 as FACUS 2. This 40th anniversary 12” single has been remastered and pressed on 180g vinyl and features the original artwork.

TRACK LISTING

A: Atmosphere
B: She’s Lost Control

Welsh noisy indie-pop maestros Seazoo are heavily influenced by the likes of Yo La Tengo, Courtney Barnett and Grandaddy. The rousing five-piece have enjoyed significant support throughout the tastemaker community (Q Magazine, NME, DIY, The Line Of Best Fit, Clash, Dork) and across the airwaves (BBC Radio 1, 6 Music), with their glowing reputation as an exceptional live act leading to appearances at SXSW, The Great Escape and Green Man and slots with IDLES, The Lovely Eggs and Circa Waves. The band’s debut album TRUNKS enjoyed critical acclaim and was shortlisted for the 2018 Welsh Music Prize alongside Boy Azooga, Gwenno, Gruff Rhys and The Manic Street Preachers. 2020 will see the band release their second album JOY via BIG TERRY. Recorded at Big Jelly Studios and produced by Ben Trow and Mike Collins (Girl Ray, Pip Blom), Seazoo’s JOY will land in all good record stores April 3rd.

“Magical indie-pop” – DIY “A delicately coiled indie pop explosion…an absolute riot” – Clash “Wobbly synths and retro-feeling guitars that sparkle with nostalgia” – The Line Of Best Fit “Mixing the ferocity of early Arctic Monkeys with vocal melodies that could have come straight off a Vaccines record…a cavorting chunk of freewheeling indie pop” 

TRACK LISTING

1. The Pleasure
2. Passing Place
3. Honey Bee
4. We Return
5. Throw It Up
6. The Start Of Everything
7. Heading Out
8. I See Beauty
9. Best Quest
10. Impossible Sound

Manchester’s The Slow Readers Club return with their fourth album, The Joy Of The Return. Opening to an energetic blend of driving drums and infectious guitar lines, the opening track builds through evocative verses and anthemic choruses, imbued with their idiosyncratic brand of insightful and confronting lyricism and set against relentlessly danceable and energy-provoking instrumentation. “‘All I Hear’ is about a lack of agency and an inability to affect change. That there’s something happening, and you have no choice but to go along with it,” explains singer Aaron Starkie.

Throughout the album, the band explore a vast swathe of sonic territory, from the passionately delivered ‘All The Idols’, to the poppier tones of ‘Jericho’ that power through with bright indie guitar lines and ethereally melodic choruses.  Recorded at Parr Street Studios in Liverpool and produced by long-standing collaborator Phil Bulleyment, The Joy Of The Return marks a significant change in the band’s process, with their extensive touring allowing them time to write and develop tracks and arrangements through soundchecks and back-of-van jams.

“I think it’s definitely our most interesting and accomplished record musically,” says singer Aaron Starkie. “Lyrically the album covers love, alienation, the rise of right wing populism and comments on algorithm driven propaganda. And as always, I try to deliver those lyrics with uplifting melody.”

The dark power-pop that defined their previous releases holds a strong influence, with the brooding ‘No Surprise’ providing a powerful dose of evocative lyricism amid immersive soundscapes, while the unsettling ‘Paris’ is an undulating exploration of observational songwriting and eclectic musicality The swelling, arena-sized ‘Zero Hour’ displays the enormity of The Slow Readers Club sound and sets the precedent for their incredibly exciting future, while ‘The Wait’ closes the album with a beautifully absorptive combination of atmospheric synths flipping the pace of the record on its head to intoxicating effect.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. All I Hear
2. Something Missing
3. Problem Child
4. Jericho
5. No Surprise
6. Paris

Side B
1. Killing Me
2. All The Idols
3. Every Word
4. Zero Hour
5. The Wait

"Juan Pablo: The Philosopher" has been one of our favourite releases here at Piccadilly in recent years, so we were utterly buzzing to hear word of a new LP from the mighty Ezra Collective. Soon enough the London five-piece furnished us with a promo CD, and it's been on the Piccadilly player ever since. Continuing the genre-bending journey they began on "Juan Pablo", "You Can't Steal My Joy" sees the ensemble apply their incredible musicianship to elements of Afrobeat, hip-hop, grime and dub, wrapping their diverse influences into their fearless, fun and contemporary take on jazz. If you needed any further evidence of their top tier credentials, they recently broke off from a sold out, mosh-pit-filled UK tour to play at Quincy Jones' birthday party - nuff respect. This is the jazz sound of 2019 folks - get joyful.

STAFF COMMENTS

Millie says: Contemporary Jazz 5-piece Ezra Collective have encapsulated joy in record form, and you can feel the happiness radiating through the tracks here, especially “Chris And Jane” and “Quest For Coin”. My record of the year by far, Afro-beat meets Jazz meets Hip Hop makes for a glorious combination to put you in an upbeat mood.

TRACK LISTING

DISC 1
SIDE A
1. Space Is The Place (Reprise)
2. Why You Mad?
3. Red Whine
4. Quest For Coin

SIDE B
1. Reason In Disguise Feat. Jorja Smith
2. What Am I To Do? Feat. Loyle Carner
3. Chris And Jane

DISC 2
SIDE C
1. People Saved
2. Philosopher II

SIDE D
1. São Paulo
2. King Of The Jungle
3. You Can't Steal My Joy
4. Shakara Feat. KOKOROKO

Despite an incredibly short recording career Joy Division remarkably have stood the test of time in terms of influential British bands. Their dark, brooding sound has inspired more artists than could be listed and their continued adoration today is testament to the forward thinking yet inward projected music and lyricism of a young band on the brink of success yet unsure of how to deal with it. With the sad passing of Ian Curtis, from the ashes rose New Order; the same core band but with a new fresh approach to their chosen career path. Loud, colourful and full of life.

‘Total’ is a chronological look at the two bands most important tracks, covering Joy Division staples such as 'Love Will Tear Us Apart', and the resonating 'Atmosphere'. New Order bring to the table 'Blue Monday', 'Bizarre Love Triangle' and 'True Faith'. Also included is a brand new never released New Order track ‘Hellbent’.

TRACK LISTING

Side One
Transmission
Love Will Tear Us Apart
Isolation
She’s Lost Control
Atmosphere

Side Two
Ceremony
Temptation
Blue Monday

Side Three
Thieves Like Us
The Perfect Kiss
Bizarre Love Triangle
True Faith
Fine Time

Side Four
World In Motion
Regret
Crystal
Krafty
Hellbent

Singer, pianist, writer, poet and creative being, Allysha Joy, is a key member of Melbourne collective, 30/70. Their growing success over the last two years has led her to further challenge her expression in a project of her own, pushing boundaries as a female keys player, poet, singer and producer. Whether performing solo on Fender Rhodes or accompanied by her band, Allysha's steady groove, husky vocal tone and unique style of writing emanates her own personal truth and illuminates a powerful feminine energy learning to be peaceful, giving and considerate of others.

Allysha grew up listening to jazz, soul, hip hop and RnB. Her sound is dynamic and raw, real and complex. "As a performer I look to people that present their genuine self on stage, reaching for something beyond the present moment, beyond themselves, being a vessel for something greater. I always try to take the audience on a journey".And as a song-writer Allysha draws from her own experiences and the empathy she feels for the world and its inhabitants. "I write as a way to process the emotion that consumes me in day to day life, otherwise I'd explode".


For Allysha, Acadie : Raw signifies a moment in time: "from beginning to completion of creating this music, it has been a chance to express a deeper, more personal side of self and to take full control of the vision and the music. This record has allowed me to dive deeply into my creative expression and is just the beginning". The album features members of 30/70, the collective born from the creative music scene in Melbourne: "I play both solo or with my 30/70 family, Henry Hicks, Ziggy Zeitgeist, Josh Kelly and Danika Smith. I feel super blessed to have met this crew, we've been playing together now for four years and for me this record is just another extension of the 30/70 collective, constantly unravelling and branching out".

It is the heartfelt mix of love and power, of desire and wonder, anger and faith and hope for change that underpins Acadie : Raw and marks Allysha Joy out as a future star telling her tales and spreading her wings to bring the joys of life to us all.

STAFF COMMENTS

Millie says: Brand new from the Gondwana label is Allysha Joy's Acadie: Raw, the album has a bold powerful presence and her style is refreshingly original, different to anything else out there right now. Her vocals are beautifully husky and you can feel the emotion weaved throughout the album. This is up there with the best jazz record of this year.

TRACK LISTING

1 FNFL
2 Selfish
3 Honesty
4 Know Your Power
5 Desire
6 Akala
7 Doom
8 Eagle
9 Swallow Me
10 Enate

Blonde and brunette. Dog and cat. Lemon and onion. Friend and foam. The change has been made! You can scratch your seven-year itch freely now: Ty Segall and White Fence are become one again, regrooving what we once called Hair into what is now Joy.

Hair grew out of a simpler time, man! If, as the dyphrenic duo indeed affi rm on Joy, rock in 2018 is dead, don’t come around here looking for no burial. Instead, fi nd Joy caught up in the commencement of on-beyond rock; music made with the old tools, but emitted from a fresh new, single-celled organism. This time, the old “one and one make one” line does not apply. Hair had the quality of emulsion — drops of Segall suspended in Fence; a compound of White dispersed over sheets of Ty. With Joy, Tim and Ty arrive without travelling from the same place, occupy one single headspace, fi nishing the other’s phrases, pulling licks from each other’s places. Singing and thinking and laughing as one. Calling themselves from inside the house. C-c-c-creepy!

Both these fellows have been known to trifl e with tropic pasts and reactivate vintage visions within their new music. Not now. Now is the only time this time — Joy is their own sound of today, a shared individuality, prisming all possible stances into an unseamly metastasis that FLOWS for 15 ebbcentric tracks. Plus, since it ends at the beginning, it never has to stop. LOOP that shit!

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Ty Segall and White Fence bring it back for more of their collaborative journey through foggy psychedelia, simmering rock and roll and lysergic arm-swaying riffage. Yet another superb meeting of minds from these two top talents. Superb.

TRACK LISTING

1 Beginning
2 Please Don't Leave This Town
3 Room Connector
4 Body Behavior
5 Good Boy
6 Hey Joel, Where You Going With That?
7 Rock Flute
8 A Nod
9 Grin Without Smile
10 Other Way
11 Prettiest Dog
12 Do Your Hair
13 She Is Gold
14 Tommy's Place
15 My Friend

Long awaited repress of the essenti al 2015 debut album from the Tenderlonious led jazz outf it - Ruby Rushton “Two For Joy”. The album tore up the rule book at the ti me and is a refl ecti ve, instrumental compositi on, nuanced by a fusion of jazz, afro-beat, hip-hop and electronic infl uences. Features drummer Yussef Dayes of Yussef Kamaal.

Back when Ruby Rushton released their debut album in 2015, the London jazz landscape looked very diff erent. Moses Boyd hadn’t yet released the genreunifying ‘Rye Lane Shuffl e’, Yussef Kamaal Trio had only just fi rst teased their output at the 22a Boiler Room, never mind releasing an album which opened jazz up to a completely new audience. Shabakah Hutchins too conti nued to operate from the shadows, before The Ancestors, Sons of Kemet and Comet is Coming got their dues.

Two For Joy perhaps came at a ti me when jazz wasn’t cool, but was a triumph nonetheless, fuelled by a love of Coltrane, Yusef Lateef and Fela Kuti to more contemporary arti sts like Slum Village and Sa-Ra. Recorded way back in 2011, it tore up the rule book reaching beyond traditi onal jazz and coff ee table conformity.

The band was a quartet at the ti me made up of composer and 22a label boss Ed Cawthorne (Tenderlonious) on Saxophone, Nick Walters on Trumpet, Aiden Shepherd on keys and Yussef Dayes (Yussef Kamaal) playing drums. The album fuses jazz, Hip Hop, Afro-Beat and electronic music, captures the sound of London today! The album is fi lled with moments of ramped-up spell-binding energy, meditati ve slow-build solos, and melancholic grooves. Recorded live in e day, “Two For Joy” is the result of four friends coming together and expressing themselves in the only way they truly can.

TRACK LISTING

An Introduction
Room With A View
Trudi Mary
Where Are You Now? (Part 1)
Spritely Does It!
Two For Joy
Aidan’s Song
For Her
Where Are You Now? (Part 2)
Room With A View (Reprise)

Shining sounds from the dawn of the Sun Ra Arkestra. "El is A Sound of Joy" was recorded in 1956 and appeared the following year on the very first Saturn LP, Super-Sonic Jazz. Incredible is the fact that saxophonist Charles Davis, here providing the soulful baritone anchor line (counterpoint to Ra's formidable left hand), remains in the front-line of today's Sun Ra Arkestra directed by Marshall Allen. Shuffle swing breakdown jets leisurely, casually, masterfully, painting lush, post-modern impressions of ancient future worlds, of space, of time … of Chicago's elevated trains … Reaching for the sky, for Joy …. The “Joy” coda dovetails magically into the intro theme of "Black Sky And Blue Moon," before downshifting into another dimension of romantic outrospection. We follow The Nu Sounds, aka Cosmic Rays, on a faraway journey to the land of late-50s Chicago singing groups, the Arkestra supporting with quiet grace, pulsing in Nubians of Plutonia mode. An uncanny blend of antique blackness and bright satellites, ethereal voices perfectly in tune; thanks to Ra's disciplined coaching (plus Modern Harmonic's expert re-mastering), their sweet dynamics and exact harmonics are crystal clear. Flute solo from Marshall Allen. Hearts swelling like the full moon, ripening in the darkness to the point of bursting.

"I try to write as if it's forever," says Lyndon Morgans, alias Welsh singer-songwriter Songdog. The Welsh native has certainly achieved this artistic objective on his seventh album, the sublime Joy Street. While the eleven tracks here retain what NME once described as "glacier-paced folk noir", the collection augments Songdog's melancholic majesty with a radio-friendly buoyancy. The whole thing is beautifully blended by renowned producer Nigel Stonier, who has previously worked with Fairport Covention, Joan Baez and Thea Gilmore. And indeed Gilmore appears as a backing vocalist on four songs.

Rising from the smoking embers of several leading Merseyside acts, newcomers Pure Joy have now readied their playful, intelligent and refreshingly bold psych-rock to tape in the form of debut LP ‘Bang Flower.’

This band of friends stemming from the Wirral (the beautiful, sleepy, wigged-out bank off the Mersey - Liverpool's Brooklyn if you will) serve up hot, psychedelia-heavy filthy garage-rock candy tinged with patches of late-60s American psych, buzzy Motor City riffage, and decades of British pop, ranging from the pastoral pop of Ray Davies to the vivid expansiveness of Kurt Vile and the Antipodean warmth of Tame Impala.

From the blissed out cloudburst of ‘Bubblegum Husky’ to the anthemic sun-blasted driving pulse of first single, ‘Katie's Gone Home’, the timeless sleaze of ‘Thunderlooper’, the lick-sodden Morrissey-esque weavings of ‘Theme From…Peach Fuzz’ and the complex dream-weavings of ‘Turner Sky’, Pure Joy guide you through a neo-psych wonderland, gripping your sweaty mitt and lurching you into fantastical scenery (‘Terrorize’) or into sheer bewildering, hippy-infested, hallucinogenic territory.

On album closer ‘O’Sullivan On Song’ the band float some creamy synth and trippy guitar interplay before ripping a hole across the chest of the song with a woozy guitar line so big it essentially serves as a chorus.

Sampling the 1995 film Billy Madison, the band close their album with the phrase ‘May God have mercy on your soul.’ Standing at 37 minutes, the brevity of the album only makes one yearn for the much-missed ‘repeat’ button.

TRACK LISTING

1. Bubblegum Husky
2. Girl
3. Katie’s Gone Home
4. Sweet Jesus
5. The Sex Beatles
6. Eight Fifty
7. Theme From…Peach Fuzz
8. Terrorize
9. Don’t Do It
10. Turner Sky
11. Thunderlooper
12. On And On And On…
13. O’sullivan On Song

United Sounds Of Joy are a new collaboration between Michael J Sheehy and former Dream City Film Club bandmate Alex Vald. Their self-titled debut album is released on Bronze Rat Records on CD / LP / digital download.

“Don’t call it a reunion,” spits Michael J Sheehy, “we’re not even a band in the traditional fashion.” Dream City Film Club were signed to Beggars Banquet within a year of forming in 1995, releasing an album and recording two Peel sessions before Vald was unceremoniously kicked out. “Alex was dismissed because he was the only decent human being in the band,” says Sheehy. “We were intent on dismantling the band from the off. Everyone was pulling in different directions, each with his own very particular variety of personality disorder, drug abuse or mental illness. And if all that stuff hadn’t got us then I’m sure we would have buckled beneath the weight of our own very lofty pretensions.”

Almost two decades removed from each other’s musical energies, Vald and Sheehy have reunited to craft some heartrending, mind-bending music. Coming on like Joe Meek and Goldfrapp entangled in some ancient machinery, the first-listen track ‘The Sun That Hides A Darker Star’ is a magnificent, shimmering sound. Amongst others, Lauren Laverne picked up on the track, with regular spins, describing it thusly; “if David Cronenberg directed a spaghetti western, we reckon it would feel a little like this.”

Featuring contributions from Fiona Brice and Gemma Ray, the album is full of alluring, devious pop noir, the songs immersed in an eerie, crepuscular pool of fuzzy, warmly welcoming psychedelics. United Sounds Of Joy traverse a road to a new and rewarding gothic chanson.

The beautiful cover is by Russian artist Aleksandra Laika.

TRACK LISTING

Seams Of Sorrow
The Sun That Hides A Darker Star
Dust Veil
Wounded Moon
She Sets The Stars In Motion
I Hear Her Call My Name
Queen Of Seven Dials
Free To Fall

'Still', first released in October ‘81 through Factory Records is a compilation consisting of Joy Division’s unreleased studio and live recordings. 'Still' includes a live recording of Joy Division’s last concert at Birmingham University, plus the only live performance of “Ceremony” which later become New Order’s debut single, and a cover of The Velvet Underground’s ‘Sister Ray’ recorded at the moonlight club in London April 1980. This new heavyweight double vinyl edition features audio from the 2007 remaster available on vinyl for the first time. 

TRACK LISTING

Exercise One 3:05
Ice Age 2:22
The Sound Of Music 3:53
Glass 3:55
The Only Mistake 4:15
Walked In Line 2:46
The Kill 2:14
Something Must Break 2:47
Dead Souls 4:52
Sister Ray 7:34
Ceremony 3:50
Shadowplay 3:54
A Means To An End 4:01
Passover 5:05
New Dawn Fades 4:01
Twenty Four Hours 4:00
Transmission 3:33
Disorder 3:20
Isolation 3:05
Decades 5:22
Digital 3:53

Joy Division compilation ‘Substance’, first released in 1988 fills in the missing pieces of the band’s history with four non-album singles (‘Transmission’, ‘Komakino’, ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ and ‘Atmosphere’), plus their B-sides.

LP Edition
This new heavyweight double vinyl edition features audio remastered in 2010 for the +- singles box and for the first time on vinyl, the expanded tracklist from the original CD release, plus two additional songs: “As You Said” and the Pennine version of “Love Will Tear Us Apart.” 

CD Edition
This new CD edition features audio remastered in 2010 for the +- singles box. The tracklist matches the expanded original CD release, plus two additional songs: “As You Said” and the Pennine version of “Love Will Tear Us Apart.” 

TRACK LISTING

A1 Warsaw
A2 Leaders Of Men
A3 Digital
A4 Autosuggestion
A5 Transmission
B1 She’s Lost Control
B2 Incubation
B3 Dead Souls
B4 Atmosphere
B5 Love Will Tear Us Apart
C1 No Love Lost
C2 Failures
C3 Glass
C4 From Safety To Where
D1 Novelty
D2 Komakino
D4 As You Said
D3 These Days
D5 Love Will Tear Us Apart (Pennine Version)

Joy Division's second album came out a year after their debut, and many consider it an even greater achievement. Whilst still messed-up, depressed and turbulent, there's a less violent and more resigned vibe here. A majestic gloom prevails and whilst the old side one would feature their trademark, twisted, scariness, a glacial, detached beauty sees the last four songs take Joy Division into the realm of the gods. These are brooding soundscapes with keyboards to the fore (the whole album has less guitars) and heartbreaking melodies. In this seamless run of four unbelievable tracks, the sorrow and emptiness is so real, so powerful, that nothing in popular music has since surpassed it. They were growing as writers and their sound had evolved. Two of the most stunning albums in the history of pop and only a year apart. A whole slew of imitators were waiting in the wings, and Joy Division were set to take on the world. We all know what happened next.

TRACK LISTING

1. Atrocity Exhibition 
2. Isolation 
3. Passover 
4. Colony 
5. A Means To An End 
6. Heart And Soul 
7. Twenty Four Hours 
8. The Eternal
9. Decades 

It's difficult to describe the jaw-dropping astonishment that came with the release of this, Joy Division's debut album, in 1979. That four Mancunian punks could create a work of such power, splendour and originality that would change pop music forever, well, a whole new genre had to be invented for them. This had the honesty and passion of punk, but this was arty, angular, literary and unique; this was definitely post-punk, but the massive impact of this record saw Joy Division quickly transcend any pigeon-holing. With singer Ian Curtis documenting fear and alienation, and the band conjuring powerful, brooding rock that featured bass as a lead instrument, dischordant guitar and churning drums and percussion, an emotive group was turned into one of the greatest of all time by Martin Hannett's beautiful production. This is bleak, heavy music, but it's also incredibly exhilarating. In Curtis's words and monotone vocals there's doom and drama, but you could never say this was an act; this is pure, naked emotion captured on tape. There's an intensity here that still shocks.

TRACK LISTING

1. Disorder
2. Day Of The Lords
3. Candidate
4. Insight
5. New Dawn Fades
6. She's Lost Control
7. Shadowplay
8. Wilderness
9. Interzone
10. I Remember Nothing

More Faithful' is No Joy’s third full-length for Mexican Summer, and bears the fruits of a band that redefined its work ethic in the gulf of time between recording sessions. The outcome – the juxtaposition of unrest and calm, beauty and chaos, truth and fantasy, in the throes of dimmed amps and hair-whipping guitar goddess rock music – is as unwavering as ever.

But where 'Wait To Pleasure' (2013) balanced textural differences with the freewheeling novelty of the studio environment, 'More Faithful' documents a much more rigorous creative process and performance, one in which the group pushed themselves to new peaks of intensity. All of the record’s 11 songs, in whole or in part, jump at the listener with atypical tunings and key changes, tension from odd time signatures and an upfront rhythmic presence, and the force demonstrated in their live show.

Listen to More Faithful then listen to it again. There is no question that it’s the most forward, throttling record No Joy has made to date, taking their set of influences to the wall in a brazen display of beauty-laced power. At times it’s heavier than anything they’ve done yet, and also their fastest, riffs shooting upward in discord and drifting down in angelic harmonies. Shoegaze and ethereal and alternative rock revivals be damned; More Faithful pushes No Joy to the breaking point. They’ve leveled up.

Hand Of Glory records asked twelve artists for an original Christmas song.

Here are twelve tracks that sum up the many experiences of Christmas, from lush widescreen pop (Webb Brothers), to sparkly Saturnalian disco (Mary Epworth) to dystopian Fall-esque horror (Extradition Order).

Other standout tracks include Young Knives’ dark medieval-esque ‘Low Carol’, Kiran Leonard’s sprawling proggy epic ‘Huygens probe’ and Papernut Cambridge’s charming and magical ‘93 Million And One’.

TRACK LISTING

Mary Epworth - The Wolf And The Woods
Young Knives - Low Carol
Extradition Order - Be A Ghost
The Count Of Chateau Noir - Awake Awake
Papernut Cambridge - 93 Million And One 
Citizen Helene - On Christmas Day
The Webb Brothers - Are You Coming Home For Christmas?
Kiran Leonard - Huygens Probe
Aliens Pat - Santa Fell Down The Chimney
Jon Epworth - Atheist
The Outdoor Types - The Unwritten Christmas Card
Richard Holley - Old Year’s Night

Hailing from North Wales Golden Fable are Rebecca Palins, Tim McIver & Jack McCarthy and released their debut album Star Maps in 2012 an album constructed from electronic beats, synths and processed effects alongside guitars , pianos and strings resulting in ”an incredibly gorgeous dream pop collection” – In Your Speakers.

Recorded in Snowdonia with David Wrench (Bats for Lashes /Caribou) and Jimmy Robertson (Anna Calvi) , Ancient Blue is an impassioned , more intense and bolder recording than its predecessor. On Ancient blue Golden Fable move between the heart-wrenching stillness of Low or Dead Can Dance and the textural electronica of The Album leaf or M83 , with Rebacca Palin’s vocals drawing comparisons with Cocteau Twins Liz Frazer. Golden Fable’s haunting sounds have entranced crowds at The End of the Road and Green Man festivals this summer whilst new single Breathe has already received airplays from the likes of Gideon Coe , Tom Robinson and Radcliffe & Maconie.

What they said about their first album
“enchanting and haunting , there is something almost otherworldly about the sound they produce” - Clash magazine.
“Boy this is good, brilliant” Tom Robinson.
“Beautiful” – Guy Garvey, Elbow.

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2013 EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

Strictly Ltd Ed 12” release from Joy Formidable for Record Store Day.

Featuring 2 brand new exclusive non-album tracks ‘A Minute’s Silence’ and a live cover version of the Bruce Springsteen track ‘Badlands’.

Limited in the UK to 500 copies only.

TRACK LISTING

Side A) A Minute's Silence Side
B) Badlands (Live From Sirius)

We can’t really offer you any dirt on No Joy. They won’t give us any. They won’t give you any either, at least not anything you can use. They’ve been asked the same questions one too many times. “What are your influences?” “What’s it like being a woman in rock music?” You’re not gonna get much out of them outside of their music, which has been exclusively in the domain of Mexican Summer since their debut 7”.Check the record covers – no information, no photos, no inserts. Of course their music does not exist in a void, but it stands to reason that if you’re going to put something out there, you’d best back it up. If you’ve seen No Joy perform, you know that this is not their problem.

Wait To Pleasure may not provide you with any new answers, but what it does provide is a batch of incredible new songs, the product of the Montreal noise-pop band’s first foray in a fully-furnished studio environment. Here the band has flourished, delivering their finest set to date, rooted heavily in shoegaze ripcurls and devastating melody, finishing sentences whispered long ago with depth, variance and force. Singer-guitarists Jasamine White-Gluz and Laura Lloyd and drummer Garland Hastings knock down the fence between nostalgia and modernity, chaos and control, in a perfectly-realized effort made to bridge their uncompromised musical pasts with the alarmist tendencies of the present.

British Sea Power’s new, fifth album ‘Machineries Of Joy’ will be released on Rough Trade Records. The album release will be accompanied by a full UK tour.

‘Machineries Of Joy’ was written in the Berwyn mountains in north Wales and recorded in Brighton with Dan Smith and mixer Ken Thomas (David Bowie, Sigur Ros).

“We’d like to think the album is warm and restorative,” says singer Yan. “Various things are touched on in the words - Franciscan monks, ketamine, French female bodybuilders turned erotic movie stars. The world often seems a mad, hysterical place at the moment. You can’t really be oblivious to that, but we’d like the record to be an antidote - a nice game of cards in pleasant company.”

The Joy Formidable return with their first release from new album ‘Wolf’s Law’ on October 15th. As NME noted prior to their first UK shows of 2012 at packed NME / Radio One Stages at Reading and Leeds Festivals on hearing sneak previews of the new songs, ‘Wolf’s Law’ ‘could well see them become the next big British guitar band’.

The finished album, for which ‘Cholla’ is the perfect calling card, takes the band’s already acknowledged mastery of melody and dynamic to another level, achieving the band’s aim at its inception ‘to keep the sense that everything is possible.’

TRACK LISTING

1 Cholla (Album Version)
2 Tempo (Strong-Weak-Weak)
3 Cholla (Acoustic)
4 Wolf’s Law

First album released domestically from acclaimed Australian group. Recorded by Steve Albini mixed by Scott Horscroft (SILVERCHAIR, THE PRESETS). Garnering increasing acclaim in their native Australia with their first two albums, we are proud to finally present Melbourne trio My Disco’s third full-length, the truly brilliant and enigmatic "Little Joy". As always with My Disco, the most fascinating and unique element to their sound is space – long, deep, sometimes scary space. Their defiance of rock music’s time-worn tropes is what defines them, and "Little Joy" explores and expands on that concept, stretching a naked few instruments to transform short blasts into heavy, rhythmic, meditative body music. The bare bones of a drum beat, a rumbling bass, one repeated phrase and some bursts of feedback add up to a wholly compelling world of sounds between sounds. Shards of vaguely recognizable post-punk riffs fuse pounding, euphoric rhythms to hypnotic, almost psychedelic vocal mantras.

The result is a new take on an old idea that occupies the unlikely space between Boredoms, The Necks, Wire and Liars. Recorded by Steve Albini and mixed by Scott Horscroft, My Disco’s minimalist instincts are perfectly suited for Albini’s famously austere productions and Horscroft’s textured, pop-leaning sensibilities. This unlikely marriage is at the heart of "Little Joy"s success. It’s the sound of a band using the fewest tools to create the greatest range of possibilities – a record both expansive and minimal, a compressed expression of vast emotions.

'The minimalist trio don't so much defy convention as simply deny it, sidestepping genre and tradition to smash together their own sound. Identifiable elements include shards of black noise, striking percussion, lyrical snatches delivered with prosecutorial zeal and pulmonary bass parts.The band have used the ethos of the DIY scene they came out of to craft a fascinating sound, where repetition gives way to harsh beauty' - Craig Mathieson, The Age.

TRACK LISTING

1 Closer (2:58)
2 Young (8:46)
3 Turn (3:45)
4 Sun Bear (6:45)
5 Sunray (4:40)
6 Lil’ Joy (6:46)
7 With Age (3:35)
8 Rivers (9:51)
9 A Turreted Berg (4:12)

A collection of 14 tracks highlighting the band's career on disc one, while disc two, "The Peel Sessions" is a collection of the two John Peel sessions recorded by Joy Division in 1979, along with the Something Else versions of "Transmission" and "She's Lost Control" and an interview by Richard Skinner with Ian Curtis and Stephen Morris. Music doesn't get any better than this!!!

"Wake Of The Dying Sun King" is the second full-length of epic meditative drone from this South Western Virginia collective. Like Pelt (with whom it shares several members), Spiral Joy Band uses mostly acoustic instruments to create slow, building pieces rich with human detail. The steady rolling of multiple Tibetan bowls, bowed and struck gongs, hypnotic fiddle, sruti box, and other instruments are recorded live in continuous performances that frequently stretch beyond an hour per piece. The performance aspect is key to Spiral Joy Band's aura - the variations in approach, force, etc. with which each tone is played, and the clear, open recording (mostly in Blacksburg's Glade baptist church) highlight the subtleties of the music.

It's difficult to describe the jaw-dropping astonishment that came with the release of this, Joy Division's debut album, in 1979. That four Mancunian punks could create a work of such power, splendour and originality that would change pop music forever, well, a whole new genre had to be invented for them. This had the honesty and passion of punk, but this was arty, angular, literary and unique; this was definitely post-punk, but the massive impact of this record saw Joy Division quickly transcend any pigeon-holing. With singer Ian Curtis documenting fear and alienation, and the band conjuring powerful, brooding rock that featured bass as a lead instrument, dischordant guitar and churning drums and percussion, an emotive group was turned into one of the greatest of all time by Martin Hannett's beautiful production. This is bleak, heavy music, but it's also incredibly exhilarating. In Curtis's words and monotone vocals there's doom and drama, but you could never say this was an act; this is pure, naked emotion captured on tape. There's an intensity here that still shocks.

This album is a compilation released after Ian Curtis's death and it's an odds'n'sods affair featuring outtakes, live tracks and b-sides. The unreleased songs are of their early, punkish variety: edgy, fractured and intense. But it's the live album which makes this special. This is the band's last ever gig at Birmingham University and whilst there's some punkish mistakes and wonky sound, Joy Division's power is undeniable. This is the only place you can hear their version of what would become New Order's debut (and greatest?) single, too: "Ceremony", though hindered by a dozy soundman, proves that this band were going to mix awesome rock songs with the more refined splendour of "Closer's" new, calm, keyboard-ghostliness. Their scope was breathtaking. But two weeks later, Ian Curtis was dead.

Discovered by friends of Martin Hannett recently and with input from one of his relatives, these recordings give a rare insight into his production ideas for Joy Division and his relationship with the band - the strange things, sound effects - they recorded in the studio together. The studio chit chat and interplay between Hannett, Gretton and Joy Division members is all here as Martin left his own tape machine running throughout studio sessions. On this album we have rare alternative mixes of Joy Division that were Martin's personal favourites and he had the forethought to get the band members to give him control of these recordings. Includes alternative mixes of "Autosuggestion", "Heart And Soul", "24 Hours", "Passover", "The Eternal" (2 mixes), "From Safety To Where" and "Decades" (3 mixes). An essential item for all Joy Division fans.

TRACK LISTING

Side 1
From Safety To Where
Autosuggestion
Heart And Soul
Side 2
N 4 Europop (Decades)
24 Hours
Passover
Side 3
N 4 Europop (Decades)
N 4 Europop (Decades)
Synth Tone
Hannetts Lift Recording 1
Joy Division Keyboard Doodles
Hannetts Lift Recording 2
Organ Doodles
Side 4
The Eternal
The Eternal
Chit Chat And Cup Smashing
Hannett Speaks. 

The 1979 Leigh Rock Festival has become legendary for the outstanding bill of up and coming bands that played on the third day of the festival in 1979. The full sets of four of those bands, including most importantly Joy Division, are featured on this two CD set plus one track from one of the lesser known bands on the bill who start their track with an announcement for Factory's Tony Wilson. The running order of the two CD set is Disc One: Joy Division - 11 tracks, Eltifits - one track, A Certain Ratio - six tracks. Disc Two: Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark eight tracks, Teardrop Explodes nine tracks. What strikes you is the rawness of the bands' sets at this festival- a great live document- and this is a newly remastered version of The Joy Division set - all these recordings have come from live recordings organised by the original Leigh Festrival organisers back in 1979.

This long running but until-now-undocumented Virginia group was founded in 2001 by Pelt members Mikel Dimmick and Mike Gangloff with Karl Precoda (Last Days Of May, The Dream Syndicate). Their debut CD concentrates on live performances featuring marathon, unorthodox drone treaties for acoustic instruments, including tibetan singing bowl, gong, sruti, and esraj. The bowed, rolled, and (usually) gently struck metal percussion anchors the sound with rich, resonating tones. The music is a cousin to Pelt's explorations. "Lullaby 1" is built almost entirely on the gongs and bowls, a slowly building narcoleptic trip. The forty-one-minute epic "Lullaby 2" begins with Gangloff on esraj, building up a trance before the shenais and sharply struck gongs take over at the climax of the piece. "Lullaby 3" throws some surprisingly melodic and active piano into the mix, evoking a long-form version of Popol Vuh's "Die Nacht Der Seele".

Put together by a couple of Belgian Joy Division experts to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the sadly missed Ian Curtis-and the year that the Ian Curtis Movie is to begin. This album contains extremely rare audio interviews with all members of Joy Division - some of which have never seen the light of day before plus spoken word contribution on one number from Martin Hannett and a rare Martin Hannett interview. The interview sections are interspersed with superb live performances from various venues through the career of the band including rarities from Dutch and Belgian concert performances and a couple of rare alternative studio outtakes. The eight page fold out full colour CD booklet contains lots of Joy Division images and a biographical article on the band by Mick Middles from 1978.

Third full length from Toronto's Deadly Snakes, their second for the garage rock stronghold In The Red records. It's their finest moment to date, this six-piece dig deep into the Rolling Stones, Van Morrison, the Band, electric Bob Dylan, and the entire canon of early soul music, also earning the reputation in the USA as a one of the most soul-shaking live acts!! These guys have the Memphis soul gone punk rock sound nailed!!