Following their 'The Dangling Man' EP and 'Just South of Heaven' mini-LP, 'Room Of Lights' was originally released in 1986 and featured the "London lineup" of Simon Bonney, former Birthday Party stalwarts Mick Harvey and Rowland S. Howard, Rowland’s bassist brother Harry Howard, and drummer Epic Soundtracks (formerly of Swell Maps and Jacobites). The album includes the remarkable ‘Six Bells Chime,’ which caught the attention of acclaimed German filmmaker Wim Wenders who invited the band to perform the song live in his 1988 masterpiece Wings of Desire. The album showcases great creativity filled with tension and marks the last release featuring Crime’s “London line-up”.

TRACK LISTING

1. Right Man, Wrong Man
2. No Money, No Honey
3. Hey Sinkiller
4. Six Bells Chime
5. Adventure
6. Untouchable
7. The Brother Song
8. Her Room Of Lights (For Lisa)

A Bad Diana is a project from Diana Rogerson, someone I first became aware of aged 12 when I read about Nurse With Wound and their United Dairies label in Smash Hits magazine.

I was confused, mystified and intrigued in equal measure, and a couple of years later as a result I bought my first Nurse With Wound album. This led to an interest in all things NWW related. I guess Diana could be described as the matriarch of the Nurse With Wound world but she also had her own very distinguished pre-history with Fistfuck, an early-80s extreme noise outfit.

She then made two mid 80s cult classic albums as Chrystal Belle Scrodd, both far out there rollercoaster rides of audio wildness, highly recommended to anyone with wide open ears. She then moved to rural Ireland and raised a family. There was the odd collaboration and then in 2007 A Bad Diana’s “The Lights Are On But No-One’s Home” was released on CD.

I feel this is her meisterwerk and it has become something of a cult favourite over the years. Now for the first time, almost two decades later it is available on vinyl on Optimo Music Archiv.

Produced in association with Steven Stapleton and Colin Potter from Nurse With Wound and irr. app. (ext.)’s Matt Waldron this is some seriously beautiful and strange listening. Next level sound design means this is an incredible headphone record but it is also a deeply warm and engaging home listening gem.

Beautiful, magical, ultra hypno, soulful reverberations with the deep emotion of Diana’s voice tones and bio-vibrations.

TRACK LISTING

A1 Behind The Curtain Of The Sun 00:03:41
A2 Cupboardie Re-nude 00:05:58
A3 Asphalt Kiss 00:08:12
A4 Mirage Man 00:04:33
B1 Notes From The Underground To A Crazy Girl 00:06:09
B2 Mother 00:03:39
B3 Chant D´Amour/Da Mort 00:13:41

Toolroom provide the hotly anticipated return of renowned Glaswegian artist KC Lights, as he delivers yet another classic record in the making – 'Better Times', featuring the stunning voice of Merseyside-hailing Låpsley. A debut collaboration for the pair, as they drop a sweet cut of Disco infused House that will undoubtedly soundtrack the year. A label favourite in every sense of the word, KC Lights is most-known for his 2020 smash-hit 'Girl', a record you couldn't switch off from throughout that summer, followed up by his classy cut 'Cold Light' the following year with reputable vocalist and songwriter Leo Stannard, who also appeared on his summertime anthem 'Daydreamer'. If there's one thing KC Lights can do time and time again, it's writing infectiously catchy, timeless records that you'll hear almost anywhere you go, from underground clubs to radio stations and beyond. Featuring on the record is critically acclaimed vocalist and songwriter Låpsley, who rose to fame back in 2016 with her debut LP 'The Long Way Home' on the legendary XL Recordings. Of course, you can't forget DJ Koze's massive disco edit of 'Operator', which shot Låpsley through the stratosphere. With a string of huge hits and a voice to match, KC Lights and Låpsley come together on 'Better Times', offering three different mixes for this exclusive vinyl package.

Countless radio plays on Radio 1 from Danny Howard, Sarah Story, Pete Tong Other notable radio plays – Kiss FM, Toolroom Radio, Sirius XM, Data Transmission Radio, Radio 1 Dance Anthems, Radio 1 Party Anthems, Rinse FM, Select Radio, Tomorrowland Radio

TRACK LISTING

A1. Better Times (Extended Club Edit)
B1. Better Times (Extended Mix)
B2. Better Times (Extended Dub Mix)

Debut EP from Tales From The Southside blending the raw sound of South London with Dark House

Featuring remixes from the legendary Kode9 & Real Lies

TRACK LISTING

1. City Lights
2. SE2SW
3. Marauders
4. Bandit Country
5. Marauders (Real Lies Remix)
6. Bandit Country (Kode9 Remix)

Throughout their legendary, decade-long run, the Shadow Ring were an enigmatic force on the international musical sub-underground. Before their disbandment in 2002, this shambolic rock outfit, formed by a group of rowdy teenagers in southeast England, left behind a mighty run of eight LPs, a handful of 7"s, and a spate of raucous live shows and cryptic zine appearances on both sides of the Atlantic, all which have bolstered their enduring word-of-mouth mystique. Beginning this year with the first-ever vinyl pressing of the self-released pre-Shadow Ring tape The Cat & Bells Club (1992), Blank Forms Editions is conducting a systematic retrospective of the storied group, including a multi-year LP reissue effort and a forthcoming comprehensive CD box set and an over five hundred page book.

Recorded and self-released by the group’s own Dry Leaf Discs in 1993, City Lights is the debut record of the then duo Graham Lambkin and Darren Harris an assured arrival statement teeming with stripling angst and ambition. Lifelong chums Lambkin and Harris were barely nineteen and living at home in the seaside town of Folkestone, Kent, with few overhead expenses. The two were freshly employed as a forklift operator at a hardware store and an aide at a home for children with disabilities, respectively, affording them the time and funds to commit to a proper full-length release. Frontman Lambkin describes the album as a “microscopic examination of leisure activities, this time centered around a nightclub,” a conceit surging through its lyrics, song titles, cover art (depicting an audience of cats and mice at the Leas Club, a Folkestone fixture), and flip side (replete with fictional bandmates and pseudonymous liner notes).

On a recently-acquired secondhand guitar, Lambkin plays repetitive, brooding licks that form the record’s backbone, weaving in and out of sync with Harris’s free-form percussion and the pair’s sing-song poetry. Tracks range from unraveling nursery-rhyme ditties to extended jams awash with Casiotone and toy piano noodling. The duo’s musical hobby-horses work themselves in: the influence of Mark E. Smith’s breathless deadpan, the headless outer-edges of ESP-Disk’s back catalog, the eerie atmospherics of Hirsche Nicht Aufs Sofa, and the deconstructed rock tunes of the Dunedin scene are all detectable, although there is a sui generis quality to the Shadow Ring’s artless temerity. “I’ve got to see and taste those city lights,” intones Lambkin on the album’s title track indeed, this is a record of naked drive and pent-up desperation, and a shimmering glimpse of what’s to come.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Double Standard
A2. City Lights
A3. Oooh Ahh
A4. Cape Of Seaweed
A5. Lyin' Eyes
A6. Cold Coffee
B1. Here Come The Candles
B2. Faithful Calls
B3. White Eyes
B4. The Visitor
B5. Snowbirds Of Alkatraz

Write. Record. Break. Recategorize. Reassemble. In K. Leimer’s most recent work, he returns to his long running interest in developing relationships in sound that are not composed, not planned, not under conscious influence or control. Phrases and patterns emerge from dense layering and editing; melodic elements are split apart, re-voiced and reset in successive contexts. A music of distressed fragments, Spall originates from acoustic, electric, synthesized, manipulated, torn, and piece-work audio that combines into complex, layered, and flowing pieces of unexpected turns and contrasts. Modified, melted, and shaped into shifting sonic environments that fuse the clear signal with the distorted, the recognizable with ambiguous, Spall is music mined from an abandoned quarry.

TRACK LISTING

1. Implied Music
2. Aimless Plight
3. Vagary
4. Compartments
5. Passive Search
6. In Difficulty
7. Forage

Another crucial Space Grapes lands. Influenced by the deeper side of late 70s New York (think Mancuso, Gibbons and Levan), the single features both vocal and dub versions of the dancefloor jam "Turn Down The Lights“, as well as the trippy, almost 10 minute long remix version of "Take Me To New York", full of spacey FX, percussion madness and unexpected turns. As usual, seriously limited copies. Order quickly to avoid disappointment! 

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Another slice of imperative new disco from the Jeroboam clan who exercise authentic Loft-y disco vibes on this bustling new jam. Blink and you'll miss it!

TRACK LISTING

Turn Down The Lights
Turn Down The Lights (Dub)
Take Me To New York

“When it was time to master the BLINKING LIGHTS reissue I needed to listen to the whole double album for the first time since it came out in 2005, and I was surprised by what I heard. It was an intense and emotional experience for me and I felt proud of it and overwhelmed by how hard we worked on it. I’ll start mentally preparing to listen to it again when its reissued again in 10 years.”

TRACK LISTING

1 Theme From Blinking Lights (Remastered For Vinyl)
2 From Which I Came / A Magic World (Remastered For Vinyl)
3 Son Of A Bitch (Remastered For Vinyl)
4 Blinking Lights (For Me) (Remastered For Vinyl)
5 Trouble With Dreams (Remastered For Vinyl)
6 Marie Floating Over The Backyard (Remastered For Vinyl)

1 Suicide Life (Remastered For Vinyl)
2 In The Yard, Behind The Church (Remastered For Vinyl)
3 Railroad Man (Remastered For Vinyl)
4 The Other Shoe (Remastered For Vinyl)
5 Last Time We Spoke (Remastered For Vinyl)

1 Mother Mary (Remastered For Vinyl)
2 Going Fetal (Remastered For Vinyl)
3 Understanding Salesman (Remastered For Vinyl)
4 Theme For A Pretty Girl That Makes You Believe God Exists (Remastered For Vinyl)
5 Checkout Blues (Remastered For Vinyl)
6 Blinking Lights (For You) (Remastered For Vinyl)

1 Dust Of Ages (Remastered For Vinyl, Explicit)
2 Old Shit / New Shit (Remastered For Vinyl, Explicit)
3 Bride Of Theme From Blinking Lights (Remastered For Vinyl)
4 Hey Man (Now You're Really Living) (Remastered For Vinyl)
5 I'm Going To Stop Pretending That I Didn't Break Your Heart (Remastered For Vinyl)

1 To Lick Your Boots (Remastered For Vinyl)
2 If You See Natalie (Remastered For Vinyl)
3 Sweet Li'l Thing (Remastered For Vinyl)
4 Dusk: A Peach In The Orchard (Remastered For Vinyl)
5 Whatever Happened To Soy Bomb (Remastered For Vinyl)
6 Ugly Love (Remastered For Vinyl)

1 God's Silence (Remastered For Vinyl)
2 Losing Streak (Remastered For Vinyl)
3 Last Days Of My Bitter Heart (Remastered For Vinyl)
4 The Stars Shine In The Sky Tonight (Remastered For Vinyl)
5 Things The Grandchildren Should Know (Remastered For Vinyl) 

Sorry’s blistering new single, ‘Let The Lights On’, on 7”, backed by earworm b-side ‘I Tried 4 U 2’.

TRACK LISTING

Let The Lights On
I Tried 4 U 2

After a hiatus of over eight years Fuzzy Lights are making a welcome return. Burials is the follow-up to the critically acclaimed album Rule of Twelfths, and the fourth album from the Cambridge-based post-folk collective.

Their sound has been stripped back to its component parts, deconstructed and rebuilt under less obvious influences. There’s a bedrock of folk-rock - predecessors like Trees and Fairport Convention - but this is then built upon through multiple layers, from the stillness of Talk Talk to the orchestral chaos of Godspeed You! Black Emperor. With Burials Fuzzy Lights have cultivated these sounds and influences into something new and fresh that distances the album from the rest of the folk-rock crowd.

The most striking element of these songs is how intimate they are. Lyricist Rachel Watkins has revealed a lot about herself in these seven songs, which have been written from a very personal perspective. Raw experiences have been distilled into each piece, her translucent vocals often betraying the content of the songs themselves. The album is bookended with the most personal of these. Opener ‘The Maidens Call’ reveals her loss from suffering a miscarriage, whilst album closer, ‘The Gathering Storm’ frames the rallying cry of women’s rights around how individuals must work together now, and in future generations, to destroy prejudice. There is also engagement with humanity’s immediate surroundings and the environment. ‘Under The Waves’ deals with devastation of coral reefs, ocean resources and our natural world, and ‘The Graveyard Song’ imagines the perception of time from the juxtaposed views of a yew tree and a young woman.

As scenarios, paths, and outcomes shift around us, Burials’ amalgam of glowering, intense instrumentation, timeless, weightless melody, and exactingly revealing lyricism carves a very particular path through the world. This is music that tears us away from the everyday not just as a form of escapism, but as a means of self-reflection on hardship and the strategies we develop to overcome it. It is the band’s rawest yet most accomplished statement to date.

TRACK LISTING

1) Maiden’s Call
2) Songbird
3) The Graveyard Song
4) Haraldskaer Woman
5) Under The Waves
6) Sirens
7) The Gathering Storm

Released in 2020, Rheinzand’s self-titled debut LP heralded an authentic vibe of retro-futuristic disco-pop, distinguishing themselves in the current climate of dance music. The album was met with acclaim, picked by Piccadilly Records as their nr. 1 album of the year. Since, the material on that album have proven fertile ground for practitioners in the art of the remix. On this EP, we release a selection of those efforts.

On the first slot, we have Running Back label owner and longstanding DJ heavyweight Gerd Janson polishing off his house music fluency with a gleaming take on ‘Blind’. The swerving vocals of Charlotte Caluwaerts’ reverberate through space ray arpeggiators and burnished drum gates.
Belgian compatriot Blitzzega, the neon-drenched moniker of composer Bjorn Eriksson, features with a dizzyingly switched-on version of ‘Mi Mundo’, sporting gnawing synths and hijacked funk licks.

Next, dub-pop wizards Peaking Lights serve up a heady brew of plugged-up melodies braided around Reinhard and Charlotte’s shuffling vocals. This remix blends the magenta glow of synthwave with the deep grooves of maybe late Theo Parrish. We round off the EP with a treat form Dennis ‘Citizen’ Kane, the iconic dance music figure who emerged in mid-90s NYC downtown scene. A veteran DJ and disco-head, Kane applies a luminous hand to Rheinzand’s ’14 Again’, deepening the vibe of kittenish mystery through carefully layered work of phasing drones, wandering synths, and mushrooming rhythm section (think T-Connection). 

STAFF COMMENTS

Mine says: After the success of the first remix EP we'll again be stocking an exclusive 12" by our album of the year winners Rheinzand, this time featuring remixes by Running Back mastermind Gerd Janson and shop favourites Peaking Lights. LUSH!

TRACK LISTING

A1. Blind (Gerd Janson Dance Mix)
A2. Mi Mundo (Blitzzega Mix)
B1. Synti (Peaking Lights Disco Dub Mix)
B2. 14 Again (Dennis Kane Remix)

The second solo LP from the legendary Wolfhounds' Andy Golding under his anagrammatic Dragon Welding moniker is a wondrous tapestry of ambient guitar instrumentals and sonic manipulations. This is music that channels the cosmic experimentations of 70s German avant-garde rock with a dark Essex twist that somehow has glorious poptones. 

The second of the new PY releases sees the return of VORDERHAUS. Familiar, longterm label favourites and solo offshoot project to Mark Vorderhaus’ Detox Twins groop. 

In Mark’s own words; “From a simple past, Vorderhaus recollects a decade living in Neukölln, Berlin. Dimly lit urban streets unfold as a backdrop to reveal the lives they contain and their stories within. Tales of love and loss, carved out destinies and shadows that despair, of driven ambitions and broken dreams all eventually consumed by time and the city to be rendered nothing more than a series of lights and faces stretching back into Berlin’s recesses. Simple lines and motifs collect the atmosphere in the music and melody for each life and each street - nowhere is ever home…”

Once again, we strongly recommend the 45 to all fans of early Mute, Fad Gadget, Blackwing Studios, Minimal synth / synth pop. A pressing of 250 copies and another brace of perfect electronic pop gems and sure to sell out super quick style….

TRACK LISTING

A1. Lights & Faces, Faces & Lights
B1. Tanz Tanz Tanz Oder Ich Bin Verloren

Welsh musician Gwenifer Raymond’s 2018 debut album, You Never Were Much of a Dancer, introduced a new voice on acoustic guitar, receiving 5 stars in The Guardian, big spreads in MOJO and UNCUT, and airplay on multiple BBC programmes. This led to months of touring on the European festival circuit. Her latest, Strange Lights Over Garth Mountain, finds Raymond ranging into unexplored experimental territory, drawing from her Welsh roots.

In her own words : My new album, 'Strange Lights Over Garth Mountain', has eight songs in it. All were recorded in a basement flat in central Brighton, locked-down amidst a global pandemic. I recorded them myself and neither I, nor any of the songs saw said outbreak coming. Coronavirus may have dictated the circumstance under which the album was recorded but it did not otherwise inform any of the compositions that run through it; like I said, we didn't see it coming. Growing up in Wales was not a theme strongly present in my first record (perhaps not too surprising in an album of 'American Primitive'), but I feel as though my memories of that time have started to insinuate themselves in the tunes here.

In my opinion, landscape does a lot to shape a community's folk music; from my childhood I recall tall, spooky trees, black against the grey sky, breath misting in cold air, and I have tried to take something of Welsh folk horror to make my own 'Welsh Primitive'. Whilst this isn't the only theme present in the album, childhood memories do form the background for a couple of tracks: coal trains steaming along the foot of our garden, rattling the glasses on the kitchen table; and the titular 'Strange Lights...' dancing above the peak of the mountain which loomed over the house where I grew up. Dead men also feature prominently, as well as personal tragedies and the madness of touring. It's possible this album is leaning more into the left-field than the first - the songs are longer and more 'compositional' for lack of a better word, rather than deriving so heavily from the folk and blues traditions, though, they're still there - all of those dead men are hard to shake. Some parts go fast and others go slow. Sometimes I play more aggressively than I intend to and other times I play exactly as aggressively as I intend to. I still say it's punk music and I have no idea what key the last tune is in.For Erik Satie, Master Wilburn Burchette, and Ruben the dog.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: At points taut, but brilliantly emotive throughout, 'Strange Lights...' is an album full of rhythmic twists and unbelievably skilful and effecting performances.

TRACK LISTING

1. Incantation
2. Hell For Certain
3. Worn Out Blues
4. Marseilles Bunkhouse
5. Gwaed Am Gwaed
6. Ruben’s Song
7. Eulogy For Dead French Composer
8. Strange Lights Over Garth Mountain 

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2020 RELEASE AVAILABLE ONLINE ONLY AS PART OF THE AUGUST 29TH DROP DAY AT 6PM.
LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

Available on limited edition pink vinyl, with extra previously unreleased tracks included on the download card, this Record Store Day exclusive is a repackaging of a long out-of-print vinyl version of Gemma Ray's sophomore solo album "Lights Out Zoltar!", on its 10th anniversary. Recorded and produced at home in London with Michael J Sheehy (Dream City Film Club, Miraculous Mule), it showcased Gemma as an original and ambitious writer and producer, an independent with a wondrous box of tricks up her sleeve.As such it received rave reviews from the international press (below), whilst "100 mph (in 2nd Gear)" was Single of the Week on BBC Radio 2's Mark Radcliffe show. "By rights she should be a household name.This album is a rare treat indeed" - John Doran (BBC/QUIETUS) "Had Phil Spector forced his girl groups in a more noir-soundtrack direction, this might've been the result.Ray has a truly impressive feel for vintage pop flourishes, layered to lavish effect.And all those details are what you're supposed to be paying attention to, right up until the blade hits your back." SPIN "Three months after I first got the album I'm still marveling at the way Ray has synthesized a whole slew of retro references into a cinematic psychedelic sound.Ray's sound is like one of those Willy Wonka Gobstoppers: it's massive and composed of layer upon layer of aural tastes and colours" - VANITY FAIR "An eerie aural kaleidoscope that conjures up thoughts of what an album by Mary Weiss of the Shangri-Las produced by David Lynch would have sounded like.Though it echoes with references to mid-'60s melodramatic pop, it's of the moment and

In a world chock full of flame-outs, coulda-been contenders and great white hopes, the band Jonathan Fire*Eater are among the “almost-est.” Widely praised as the mid-Nineties next-big-thing, they are largely credited with being the earliest purveyors of the “New York City Rock and Roll Revival” circa 2001. Which would be great, if only the band hadn’t imploded by 1998. The quintet employed a fresh, one-of-a-kind blend of sly rock and roll reference and reverence. Their press release at the time name-dropped all the correct and relevant influences...the Stooges, the Modern Lovers, Tom Waits, the Scientists, ? and the Mysterians, the Cramps, Nation of Ulysses, the Stones, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds...all markers conveying the point that Fire-Eater’s dark, brooding overtones are complemented by springy Farfisa tones and impressionistic, evocative lyrics.

The band was inarguably in top form with the 1996 EP release of Tremble Under Boom Lights. Mean and lean at only five tracks, those songs click together perfectly, enough so to kick-start a major label bidding frenzy which found the band signing a lucrative, seven-figure contract. Showcasing lead singer Stewart Lupton’s redolent exercises in picturesque poetry, coupled with Matt Barrick’s inimitable percussive attack, Paul Maroon’s wide, unadorned guitar blistering throughout while Walter Martin’s choice, deliberate organ accompaniment and Tom Frank’s propulsive, bottom-heavy bass all join together for a full, beautiful, glorious masterpiece. Lead-off track “The Search For Cherry Red” would not only provide the EP with a title via its lyrics, but would also see a second life as covered by esteemed rock-and-rollers The Kills. “Give Me Daughters” is enviable for the perspective it foresees, when taking into consideration its narrator was barely 21 years old at the time.

Songs fl it about cockfights, open caskets, ballroom gowns, switchblades, motorcycle accidents and jewel thieves all to propel the record into a world of juvenile delinquent attitude and vivid cinematic color. For the Japanese release of Tremble Under Boom Lights, the five-song running order was accentuated with four bonus tracks...three songs from the band’s 1995 debut single and a spritely cover of the Lee Hazelwood gem “The City Never Sleeps.” With the 2019 reissue, Third Man Records is proud to make these seminal songs available digitally and on vinyl for the first time in over two decades. All parties involved are beyond overjoyed to augment the running order of the Japanese version of Tremble Under Boom Lights to include the bonus track “In the Head.”

Touted by the band members as the last song they ever recorded, it is wincingly brilliant, the most artful, dudes-in-their-early-twenties version of a swan song that one may ever hear. After the break-up, Barrick, Maroon and Martin would go on to form the backbone of the Walkmen and enjoy a solid run with their seven full-length releases. All three are still active in the music business today. Frank went on to a career in journalism, writing for Vanity Fair and acting as contributing editor for Washington Monthly. Despite struggling with addiction for years, Stewart Lupton notched solid efforts with his bands the Child Ballads and the Beatings. Lupton passed away suddenly on May 27th, 2018 at the age of 43.

TRACK LISTING

01. The Search For Cherry Red
02. Make It Precious
03. Give Me Daughters
04. The Beautician
05. Winston Plum: Undertaker
06. The Public Hanging Of A Movie Star
07. The Cakewalk Of Crime
08. When Prince Was A Kid
09. The City Never Sleeps
10. In The Head (previously Unreleased)

The Mystery Lights's sophomore album on Daptone's rock subsidiary, Wick Records, finds the group digging deeper into their well of eclectic influences, enriching their sound without echoing the past.

It mixes the energy and swagger of punk’s golden age, the pop sensibility of The Kinks, and the stark, deliberate execution of Television and the eerie, insistent synth sounds of groups like The Normal and Suicide.

The Mystery Lights are taking their idiosyncratic brand of rock and roll to dizzying new heights.

The Mystery Lights story begins in 2004 in the small town of Salinas California when friends Michael Brandon and Luis Alfonso -whose shared fondness for groups like The Mc5, Velvet Underground, Dead Moon, and The Fall (just to name a few) -decided to join forces and craft their own brand of unhinged rock and roll. From there they spent the better part of 10 years touring relentlessly before migrating to Queens, New York in 2014.

With a live show known for its raw, visceral energy and relentless assault –leaving little to no stoppage between songs –they barreled through countless NYC haunts and DIY venues, quickly amassing a fervent local following. The buzz soon caught the attention of Daptone Records execs who were in the beginning stages of launching a new rock-centric imprint, Wick Records. Impressed by the groups’ musicianship, groove, endless supply of energy, and understanding of musical history the Mystery Lights were quickly signed to Wick. Though a rock band at heart, the parallels to what Daptone Records had traditionally looked for in their Soul artists was undeniable. Soon sessions were booked with Producer/Engineer Wayne Gordon, and the release of their debut single “Too Many Girls” b/w “Too Tough to Bear” launched to mass critical fanfare.

TRACK LISTING

Synthtro
I'm So Tired (Of Living In The City)
Can't Get Through To My Head
Someone Else Is In Control
Goin' Down
Wish That She'd Come Back
Thick Skin
Too Much Tension
Watching The News Gives Me The Blues
It's Alright
Traces

Juanita Stein’s second solo album arrives less than a year after her first, ‘America’, saw the former Howling Bells front-woman exploring the iconography and cultural landscapes of a country that had always fascinated her from afar. Yet, while ’Until The Lights Fade’ is cut from the same musical cloth as its predecessor - the crepuscular twang of bar-room guitars, the keening romanticism of its melodies, the sparseness and simplicity of its arrangements - the album’s ten songs are concerned with thoughts, feelings, stories and characters rooted far closer to home. The album was produced by Stuart Sikes (The White Stripes, Cat Power, Loretta Lyn) at his studio in Austin, TX.

TRACK LISTING

1. All The Way
2. Forgiver
3. Get Back To The City
4. In Your Hands
5. Cool
6. Release Me
7. Silver Linings
8. Easy Street
9. Fast Lane
10. French Films

Julien Baker releases her highly anticipated second album, ‘Turn Out The Lights’, via Matador Records.

‘Turn Out The Lights’ arrives nearly two years to the day after Baker’s debut album, ‘Sprained Ankle’, which was widely acclaimed by outlets including The New York Times, Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, Noisey, and MOJO, among others.

Recorded at the legendary Ardent Studios in Baker’s hometown of Memphis, TN, ‘Turn Out The Lights’ expands upon the sound and vision of ‘Sprained Ankle’ while retaining the haunting, confessional songwriting style for which she has become known. Throughout the album, Baker reflects on experiences of her own and those closest to her, exploring the internal conflicts that wrestle inside us all: how we deal and cope with our struggles and how it all impacts both ourselves and our relationships of all kinds. The result is a deeply empathetic album that embraces the greys and complex truths of humanity and mental health.

‘Turn Out The Lights’ was written and produced by Baker and mixed by Craig Silvey (The National, Arcade Fire, Florence & The Machine).

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: 'Sprained Ankle' went down a storm in here (was it really that long ago?) and I have no doubt this will surpass that. More heartfelt lyrics, cleverly constructed melodies and introspective moments, all wrapped in that warm veneer of Baker's spellbinding voice.

TRACK LISTING

Over
Appointments
Turn Out The Lights
Shadowboxing
Sour Breath
Televangelist
Everything That Helps
You Sleep
Happy To Be Here
Hurt Less
Even
Claws In Your Back

Released in 2015, The Grey Catalog departs from Leimer’s typical obsessions with understatement and homogeneity to range freely across rhythmic, melodic and disassembled forms. Incorporating percussion, electric guitar and bass as well as found sound, digital and analog synthesis and sampled instruments, The Grey Catalog spins off multiple intimations of musical forms.

“A resplendent soundworld rich in keyboards, strings, guitar, bass, and electronics is presented throughout, and it quickly becomes apparent that describing Leimer’s material as ambient proves to be a bit of a misnomer. Yes, the tempo is typically slow and the music far from frenetic, but the amplitude of sounds within a given arrangement makes for an always arresting listening experience...the sensibility that comes through the tracks feels as much Eastern as Western, given the material’s meditative bent and lulling rhythmic flow.” – Textura.

Surrender yourself into Naked Lights’ dark and intense orbit! From the first few seconds through to the end, On Nature is intensely addictive and welcomely unpredictable. Shades of post-punk, dub, even anarcho-punk are thrillingly blended into wholly futuristic shapes that defy easy categorization.

The cross-talking guitars speak their own thorny language, the atmosphere is wide-focus and carries a subtle tang of danger, and it’s topped off with unique vocals that are as in-your-face as they are intriguing and foreign. An altogether refreshingly vital listen, Naked Lights’ On Nature comes courtesy of Castle Face Records.

TRACK LISTING

1. New Carrion
2. Pictus
3. On Nature
4. Nicht Leiden
5. Hedges
6. Mechanical Eye
7. Blue Ink
8. Mostly Bag
9. Pool On A Platter
10. Clock Support
11. Silouette
12. Barrel
13. Peep Hole
14. Trepanning
15. Undo

The new Bishop Allen record, 'Lights Out' is here at last. Here's what went into it: ten years, three full-lengths, twelve EPs, thousands of shows, a move out of Brooklyn, a new home in the wooly wilds of Kingston, NY, time off to score the films Bully and Mutual Friends, as well as an Anderson Cooper 360 special, months of demos, drum tracking in a sweat-lodge attic studio during a July heat wave, a wet Fall arranging guitars, bass, and synths in a now-chilly attic studio, the coldest December on record spent mixing, a close call with a frozen pipe and flooded hard drives, and a photo found on a friend's refrigerator.

Here's what you do with it: Check the weather. If you live in the Northern Hemisphere, you've still got some summer left - the bittersweet tail end of it. Get yourself invited to some cookouts, or throw one, and if you still have it in you to get a little drunk or otherwise shut off any sense of responsibility, go for that. Play this record at that event. You don't have to listen too closely - it sounds great & you're going to have fun with it and feel good. Hey! you'll say, I wish we had this record at the beginning of the summer!

Eat Lights Become Lights (ELBL) were formed in London in the winter of 2007 by Neil Rudd. The ELBL sound orbits around those of late 1970’s German electronica artists and more contemporary sonic explorers.

2014 will see the release of the 4th album, 'Into Forever'. Taking the trade mark ELBL sound Neil has ventured further into the sonic stratosphere. Soaring melodies and a more organic feel are the order of the day. Neil approached the recording of 'Into Forever' from a different direction to previous works. Spending many weeks sampling percussive elements, thumb pianos, ethnic instruments etc in order to create a more grounded musical framework to hang his melodic synthesizer parts on. Exploring a more diverse set of influences has created a more adventurous sound allowing for space to breath and adapt the music to a new found love of differing time signatures and tunings. Citing minimalist composers such as Steve Reich and Moondog as big influences on the new long player Neil has produced a set of tunes that will have you accelerating to attack speed before easing back into Moog led melodic passages that are sure to please any sonic adventurer.

“Eat Lights; Become Lights mix Krautrock rhythms and celestial drones to heavenly effect” NME

TRACK LISTING

1. Velocet Vir Nesat
2. Bounce Synth
3. Time Enough
4. Shapes And Patterns
5. Vapour Trails
6. You And Disko
7. Into Forever

Glasgow's Attic Lights return with long awaited 2nd album. This stunning new record is brimful of bright, luminous melodies, epic guitars & soaring pop songs.

"Resembling a hybrid of John Martyn and Gerry Rafferty on the inside sleeve photo of his second album, the Stalybridge singer-songwriter also demonstrates throughout a similar knack for innovative songwriting talents as the aforementioned duo.

Away From The Bright Lights is awash with fine, sensitively delivered Frith originals that superbly demonstrate his versatility: smooth acoustic soul on 'Not The Man' stomping bare bone blues on 'Pretty Penny', an absorbing full-band sound with sweeping violin and a perfectly laid-back rhythm section on 'This One' the mandolin and violin colours the celtic flavours of 'RocknRollBand' and the rich strain of gritty Americana that runs through 'Good Thing'.

What sets Frith apart is his warm and welcoming voice, which maintains its authority and stamps its mark on an album of understated confidence, possessing a beautifully brooding mood and atmosphere." - Danny Moore

More than 18 years since he left the public spotlight, mysterious mad-genius David Baker, legendary frontman of the original incarnation of Mercury Rev, is back with new band Variety Lights. The masterful new album 'Central Flow', due for release in May, is a collaboration between Baker and fellow vintage synth addict Will MacLean and demonstrates that Baker has lost none of his flair for the extraordinary, the experimental and the exceptional. As co-founder and vocalist of Mercury Rev, Baker helped to forge their revolutionary sound with their first two (and most critically acclaimed) albums; 'Yerself Is Steam' (1991) and 'Boces' (1993).

The band were highly innovative and weren't afraid to experiment but above all they were loud, fun and hugely influential. In the UK, the critics embraced enthusiastically, as Chris Roberts in Melody Maker said (in his review of 'Yerself Is Steam'): "At last, one of those rare records that revolve along once in a blooming moon and have something new to struggle to say... A daring, brazen, and demented juxtaposition of voice and guitars and timpani flings Mercury Rev, lemming like at your more responsive caches of fear."

Having left the band in 1993, Baker went on to release a solo album 'World' under the moniker Shady, which featured members of the Boo Radleys, Rollerskate Skinny, Swervedriver and Th' Faith Healers. At times soaringly catchy and lightheartedly loony, 'World' is a sonic adventure which Vox described as "... awash with fragments of dense noise, stumbling, narcotic-laced tempos and lyrics from outer space... that mutate into spiky, bittersweet pop." Although there has been much speculation about his life during his time away from the public eye, Baker has continued to make recordings and is an avid music fan, working as a producer for various artists.

Now he is back, morphed and transmogrified into Variety Lights (a name lifted from Fellini's first film). When he met Will MacLean, Baker found a songwriting partner who shared a passion for analogue synths and electronic psychedelia. Initial experimentation together live to tape – to see how big and crazy just the two of them could sound – started to reveal melodies and Variety Lights was born. Much of Variety Lights’ debut was recorded by Baker at his own Over the Trees studio. The sound was created using a mixture of chained around-the-room 80's era midi expanders as well as the duo's collection of vintage keyboards and combining them with an array of drum machines and effected guitars. In creating 'Central Flow's sound, Baker says that "personal adventure is and always has been the most important thing". Baker and MacLean found themselves using references to colours, pictures and describing film scenes to help them communicate about their music. As in his early work, Baker took a richly layered approach, using multiple vocals in a search to find emotion in noises and sounds.

TRACK LISTING

1. Starlit
2. Establishment
3. Sea Faraway
4. Invisible Forest
5. Silent Too Long
6. Oh Setting Sun
7. Sell Your Soul
8. You Are So Famous
9. Crystal Cove
10. Feeling All Alone
11. Infinity Room

AU are Portland, Oregon-based duo Luke Wyland and Dana Valatka. 'Both Lights' is AU’s third album and first for The Leaf Label, a joint release with US label Hometapes

'Both Lights' is the closest their recorded incarnation has yet reached to the blissful force of an AU live show, while expanding outward in new directions. Since 2008’s 'Verbs' album, AU have slimmed down to an extraordinarily potent two-piece live band, with Valatka on percussion and Wyland taking care of everything else: vocals, keyboard, sampler, lap steel, banjo and melodica (often two or more at once). Wyland’s rich baritone takes centre stage on 'Both Lights', a one-man tug-of-war with love, loss, pain, anger and desire, while the music behind him flits with gleeful abandon between styles - choral folk, ferocious jazz-punk, wild percussive workouts, sumptuous indie-pop.

AU contributed a track to the Tradi-Mods vs. Rockers collaboration in 2010, which featured versions of tracks by Konono No.1 and Kasai Allstars. The Congolese bands’ influence is strongly evident on 'Both Lights'.

TRACK LISTING

CD: Vinyl:
1. A1. Epic
2. A2. Get Alive
3. A3. Crazy Idol
4. A4. OJ
5. A5. The Veil
6. B1. Solid Gold
7. B2. Today/Tonight
8. B3. Why I Must
9. B4. Go Slow
10. B5. Old Friend
11. B6. Don’t Lie Down

“Silent Diane are in possession of a much sharper, clearer sound than many immersed in the revolving worlds of chillwave and w*itchhouse which they border. ‘Capella’ could almost be an outtake from a Zola Jesus recording session, if it didn’t have the optimistic flourish of aerial chords to close. Sweet song. ‘Lights On’ is equally melodramatic, but with a
more nuanced arrangement oscillating between twirling swoon and tribal synth-pop rapture. Check!” Boomkat

A killer single from Austin’s Silent Diane. Silent Diane is a project founded by Christine Aprile & Malcolm Elijah in 2009 in an effort to, in their own words, “dedicate themselves to genuine emotion”. Aprile and Elijah are seen around Austin playing with a few other bands, notably Sleep Over, but none of their projects sounds quite as colorfully bombastic, composed ambitious as this one.

Aprile’s voice towers over the a-side “Capella”, it swells over and denies the mountains of washed out reverb one might expect. No one is hiding on either of these tracks, Silent Diane’s scope and arrangement is really direct and strong here, influenced by vintage soundscapes, but still somehow totally contemporary. No doubt, it’s powered by a synthetic pulse and futuristic keys but there is something undeniably human and intimate about this music and we’re proud to get to share it with you!

Again in Silent Diane’s words ”the music becomes a collaborative venture to join the pleasing and the unusual together. It is a product of living with yourself.” YES INDEED

TRACK LISTING

01 Capella
02 Lights On

Slightly rockier than there previous americana styled albums, this still has their unique classic songwriting to sucker you in.

‘Turn On The Bright Lights’ is the seminal debut studio album by American post punk revival band Interpol.

The album was originally released in August 2002 and was co-produced, mixed and engineered by Peter Katis and Gareth Jones.