Skep Wax Records are re-issuing all four Heavenly albums over a two year period, and ‘Le Jardin De Heavenly’ is the second. To celebrate, the band are re-uniting to play two sold-out dates at Bush Hall in London this year. The interest and appetite for Heavenly’s music feels as strong, if not stronger than it did back in the early 1990s, with hundreds of thousands of new fans accessing the band’s music through Tiktok and the streaming platforms.

Each re-issue album includes relevant single releases, a 7” booklet with lyrics, and new sleeve notes by the members of the band. Altogether, the four albums will amount to a thorough collection of the band’s recorded output.

LE JARDIN DE HEAVENLY - the second album
By the time their second album was ready to roll Heavenly were an established part of the Sarah Records stable in the UK and honorary members of the International Pop Underground in the USA, where Le Jardin De Heavenly was released by K Records. The songs on the album are rich with pop melodies and complex harmonies but the band aren’t holding back – Mathew’s drumming is intense; Peter’s guitar flourishes are sharp-edged and loud. There are still elements of the gentler twee sound that had become the band’s hallmark (or curse): Different Day and So Little Deserve are winsome, delicate pop songs. But there are also swirls of early shoegaze – Starshy is a dreamy, atmospheric confection heavy with reverb and harmony. And there’s a defiant attitude in there too: I’m Not Scared Of You is the sound of a young woman refusing to be cowed by a male bully. It’s not hard to see how Heavenly ended up as part of the riot grrrl scene in the US (an encounter that would have a profound influence on the band’s later output). At the heart of the album, ‘C Is The Heavenly Option’ feels like a perfect celebration of Heavenly’s transatlantic existence, and the marriage of two indie traditions: Amelia’s English pop voice duets with Calvin Johnson’s gravelly American baritone while the band alternate between cute melody and all-out thrash. It’s a joyous combination.

The eight-track album was released by Sarah Records and by K Records.

The Skep Wax re-issue of ‘Le Jardin De Heavenly’ includes Heavenly’s third Sarah Records single – So Little Deserve/I’m Not Scared Of You’ and the first K Records single - ‘She Says/Escort Crash On Marston Street’.

The vinyl re-issue of Heavenly’s third album ‘The Decline And Fall Of Heavenly’ will follow in Autumn 2023. ‘Operation Heavenly’ will arrive in 2024. 

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A
1. Starshy
2. Tool
3. Orange Corduroy Dress
4. Different Day
5. C Is The Heavenly Option
6. Smile
SIDE B
1. And The Birds Aren’t Singing
2. Sort Of Mine
3. So Little Deserve
4. I’m Not Scared Of You
5. She Says
6. Escort Crash On Marston Street 

Jardín was made up of Orlando Ramírez and Raúl Gómez, and has been a true cult band of Lima's experimental underground since they made themselves known at the end of the 1990s, when they started playing at electronic music venues as well as in the context of art performances and contemporary dance events.

"Maqui de hierro", their fourth published work, defined the sonic universe of the duo, in which electronic cosmic experimentation converges with hypnotic rhythmic patterns inspired by ritual percussion music from the Amazon, using console feedback processed by pedals, drum machines and ocarinas.

Jardín's work can be related to that of other great luminaries of rhythmic repetition such as Silver Apples, Suicide, Esplendor Geométrico or Pansonic, a sound that finds in "Maqui de Hierro" a singular incarnation: metallic drum machines that lead the trance between echoes and layers of reverberant sounds, in a kind of rhythmic drone dub trip. Appeared in cassette format in 2005, "Maqui de Hierro" collects recordings of 2002 and 2003, made during intense and unforgettable concerts, as well as in recorded sessions at the duo's private haven known as Cuarto Azul, located in an industrial zone of Lima.

Recorded entirely live and direct to open reel tape, "Maqui de hierro" is now published for the first time in vinyl format, as part of the Essential Sounds collection, with which Buh Records discloses a series of fundamental albums of Peruvian sound experimentation.

TRACK LISTING

A1 Lulu (5:13)
A2 Perfume De Ceniza (Ash Perfume) (4:53)
A3 Thumalpu (7:42)
B1 Vientos Estelares (Stellar Winds) (3:22)
B2 Serpientes De Humo (Smoke Snakes) (15:28)

Sampled by Drake (“Jungle”) and G-Eazy (“Running”). Instrumental versions of Gabriel’s Stones Throw Records debut Jardín now available on limited edition wax. Gabriel Garzón-Montano’s formidable skills have come to fruition on Jardín in his Stones Throw debut. “This album came out of wanting to make music that reminds people how beautiful life is and how delicate their heart is,” he said. “I’ve always wanted to make music that is healing, comforting, and funky. I named the album Jardín hoping for it to create a space for healing when people put it on. “A garden is full of life, growth and beauty,” Gabriel said of choosing that unifying image as the title for his new album. “It makes me think of green and white and all the colors as they appear in different flowers.” That vivid spectrum bursts forth on Jardín itself and the album contains references to fruit of all sorts, sour mango, juicy tangerines and sweet peaches. From the heartache and aching vocals that float over the dusty drums of “Crawl” to the stutter-step thump of “Bombo Fabrika” to the high falsetto he nails on “Octave,” Garzón-Montano proves himself to already be one of 2017’s biggest breakout talents.

TRACK LISTING

1. Trial (Instrumental)
2. Sour Mango (Instrumental)
3. Fruitflies (Instrumental)
4. The Game (Instrumental)
5. Long Ears (Instrumental)
6. Crawl (Instrumental)
7. Bombo Fabrika (Instrumental)
8. Cantiga (Instrumental)
9. My Balloon (Instrumental)
10. Lullaby (Instrumental)

Gabriel Garzón-Montano’s formidable skills have come to fruition on Jardín in his Stones Throw debut . “This album came out of wanting to make music that reminds people how beautiful life is and how delicate their heart is,” he said. “I’ve always wanted to make music that is healing, comforting, and funky. I named the album Jardín hoping for it to create a space for healing when people put it on. “A garden is full of life, growth and beauty,” Gabriel said of choosing that unifying image as the title for his new album. “It makes me think of green and white and all the colours as they appear in different flowers.” That vivid spectrum bursts forth on Jardín itself and the album contains references to fruit of all sorts, sour mango, juicy tangerines and sweet peaches. From the heartache and aching vocals that float over the dusty drums of “Crawl” to the stutter-step thump of “Bombo Fabrika” to the high falsetto he nails on “Octave,” Garzón-Montano proves himself to already be one of 2017’s biggest breakout talents. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Trial
2. Sour Mango
3. Fruitflies
4. The Game
5. Long Ears
6. Crawl
7. Bombo Fabrica
8. Cantiga
9. My Balloon
10. Lullaby

"Jardin Au Fou" is the second solo album by German keyboardist Hans-Joachim Roedelius, best known for his work with Cluster, Harmonia, and Aquarello. Recorded from April through July, 1978 at Paragon Studios in Berlin, it was produced by former Tangerine Dream member Peter Baumann and released by the French label Egg in 1979. The original release included 10 tracks but the final short piece, "Final", was left off the tracklisting on the original album cover.

Las Malas Amistades - 'the bad friends' - formed in 1994 when several arts students in Bogota, Colombia, began meeting up to play music together (though none of them were musicians). From the start their method has been to make up songs there at the session, sometimes whilst their four-track is already running, moving straight on when something is caught on the tape. The music is fresh, spontaneous, intimate, spare. It's lovely, heartfelt, a bit wrong, full of poppy wit and beauty. There are six members of the band at present. They use a hulking charity-shop synth and a Casiotone, electronic drums, an acoustic guitar and a cuatro, various small percussion gadgets. Sometimes songs are acoustic, sometimes electronic, usually both. This album was recorded in March 2006, but keep an eye out for "La Musica De Las Malas Amistades", a collection of songs from the first five or six years of the band, which Honest Jon's have in the pipeline.