‘Small Time Monsters’, the second full-length album from The Dream Machine, is set to be released this April on Run On Records/ Modern Sky.

If 2022’s critically-acclaimed debut album ‘Thank God! It’s The Dream Machine…’ was their first and most wild child, then ‘Small Time Monsters’ is its refined younger sibling. The psychedelia, euphoric choruses, flashes of surf guitar and B-movie references are all there, amongst the familiar reflections of life in their beloved and faded seaside town of New Brighton, but this time the wilder elements are controlled, the songs packed into three-minute pocket symphonies.

Lead single Frankenstein is an anthem for the sugar-rush generation, an infectious, rattling earworm that recalls everything from haunted rockabilly to the sun-drenched melodies of Blossoms. Elsewhere on the album, the pulsating surf-stomp of ‘Cindy’s Eyes’, a small-town story of unrequited love, has a chorus to fill the most cavernous arena.

Produced by The Coral’s James Skelly, the album was partially recorded at The Dream Machine’s rehearsal space, then stitched together in Skelly’s
Kempston Street Studios. There’s a refined, more literary quality to singer and primary songwriter Zak McDonnell’s lyrics; explorations of everyday life, teenage doom, B-movie monsters, family turmoil, and coming-of-age tales in the familiar backdrop of life in modern Britain. ‘Small Time Monsters’ is the sound of a band breaking free from the small town into the big world.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. Frankenstein
2. Cindy’s Eyes
3. My Father’s Son
4. Holding On
5. Cathedral
Side B
6. Tonight, I’ve Got Heaven In My Arms
7. Posters Of You
8. Wind-Up Bird
9. The Horse
10. Wolfman
11. Bring Back The Wonder

Absolutely buzzing to see Manchester's Kerrie on Tresor - one of techno's first spiritual homes, A real coup, but totally deserved as the Irish producer has carved out her own uncompromising brand of wreckin' ball techno that's totally in spirit with the iconic label. Aside from releases on her own Dark Machine Funk, this has got to be the most extensive and complete formation of her sound to date - raw, throbbing, serpentine techno that sounds like your blasting a new tunnel out of concrete some ten meters deep.

Nagging synth lines, reverbed and reversed stabs, snares that snap and crackle, a bottom end that'll knock the wind outta ya, and hats that rattle around your cerebrum like a loose pinball - this EP has it all. 

Four tracks on the vinyl - pressed beautifully loud and high fidelity - and three digital exclusives (only available to those who buy the vinyl so nerrr to all the digi-only-DJs). 

A true local techno legend in the making - massive props to Kerrie, let's hope there's plenty more in the scuba tank! 

TRACK LISTING

A1 Machine Alliance 05:38
A2 Symbiosis 05:25
B1 Technopoly Dream 05:21
B2 Ode To The D 05:13

Digital Bonus:
DX1 Replicants 04:55
DX2 System & Structure 05:08
DX3 Human In The Loop 04:35

Pull the Rope, the new record by Ibibio Sound Machine, casts the Eno Williams and Max Grunhard–led outfit in a new light. The hope, joy, and sexiness of their music remain, but, further honing the edge of their acclaimed 2022 album Electricity, the connection they aim to foster has shifted venues from the sunny buoyancy of a sunlit festival to a sweat-soaked, all-night dance club.

Williams and Grunhard attribute this shift to a matter of collaborators, recording Pull the Rope with Sheffield-based producer Ross Orton (Arctic Monkeys, M.I.A.) over the course of two weeks. The way the pair wrote songs changed significantly rather than Eno penning lyrics to music generated by Max and company’s jamming, Orton started with Eno and Max writing together before adding the band. With less time in the studio

and a new way of considering how they built songs, the duo found making decisions about Pull the Rope’s sound quicker and more instinctual than before.

“Ross is from Sheffield, which has an edgier, more industrial vibe than London,” Grunhard explains. “He hears things differently than us, is more grounded in rave and grungier sounds, and knew when to add drums or push the instrumentation more. It was very different for us, but it lends itself to where Ibibio Sound Machine is going.”

In melding their songwriting process, Grunhard and Williams have, impossibly, pulled the trick of making Ibibio Sound Machine a tighter band than ever before, building out from their core in a way that highlights the electrifying group of musicians they play with. Rather than recording with the full band in the room, Pull the

Rope was sculpted, elements added and shaped by Grunhard, Williams, and Orton along the way. As a result, Pull the Rope is a nimble, sleek machine that’s thrilling from the first note of the opening title track, Eno’s otherworldly voice and PK Ambrose’s throbbing bass driving through a kaleidoscopic array of house, post-punk, funk, Afrobeat and disco, bangers and ballads, making an argument for unity that begins on the dancefloor. “We are the places we grew up, the places we’ve been, and the people we’ve met along

the way,” Williams says. “Hopping around the globe, we’ve found that people are fundamentally the same they’re people. Opposing sides push and pull, but there is an alternative to war, violence, and suffering.”

Lead single “Got to Be Who U Are” literally globetrots, name checking locales across the world that would feel disparate were it not for how well-traveled they are. Eno growing up in the musical melting pot of the Ibibio region of Nigeria and Max being a conservatory-trained musician from Australia, one could call their meeting in London and formation of Ibibio Sound Machine predestined.

“Mama Say” and “Let My Yes Be Yes” touch themes of female empowerment. They’re indicative of the band’s depth as they push further into the electronic; “Mama Say” hits notes of electropop while “Let My Yes Be Yes” fuses electro to Afrobeat. Ibibio Sound Machine have always imbued their music with political consciousness, and the light that shines through in Williams’ vocals and voice has never felt more necessary. The sound of Pull the Rope, then, is hope in darkness, bliss in spite of bleakness. Once again, Ibibio Sound Machine are here to provide the soundtrack to the best night of your life, and the better world to come.

TRACK LISTING

1. Pull The Rope
2. Got To Be Who U Are
3. Fire
4. Them Say
5. Political Incorrect
6. Mama Say
7. Let My Yes Be Yes
8. Touch The Ceiling
9. Far Away
10. Dance In The Rain

Simply an iconic track from Swiss brothers Mandrax and Seb K aka Shakedown, ‘At Night’ is one of the most recognisable house tracks of the last two decades. With one of the most-hyped remixes of the year, artist of the moment Peggy Gou delivers with a squelching 7 minute groover, bringing in that iconic synth motif to lift the production and keep it rolling. Stepping up to tackle this masterpiece with a nu-disco dance track, Tiger & Woods use cowbell to accent a b-boy beat, with drum machine breaks bringing it back to the dancefloor. With a sophisticated house remix with a nu-disco edge is Purple Disco Machine, fusing a funk-infused bassline with Terra Deva’s unforgettable vocals. Finally is a brand new version from the Shakedown duo themselves, the Galactic Boogie Mix. With saturated synths and interplanetary breakdowns, Shakedown bring a carefree 80s quality to this iconic track’s irresistible after-dark charm.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Fresh copies of this absolute essential record from the last decade. Still one of Peggy Gou's finest moments in my opinion (and two year's before she released "It Makes You Forget"), the other remixes are also killer. One of the best house vocals from recent years.

TRACK LISTING

A1 At Night (Peggy Gou's Acid Journey Remix)
A2 At Night (Tiger & Woods Remix)
B1 At Night (Purple Disco Machine Extended Remix)
B2 At Night (Shakedown's Galactic Boogie) 

Purple Disco Machine has been setting the world on fire for years, and he’s showing no signs of slowing down any time soon. He has teamed up with German artist Roosevelt for their latest collaborative single, 'Higher Ground.'

'Higher Ground' sounds straight out of the 80s. It’s a club banger with an infectious synth loop that will keep you sweating on the dance floor.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Extended
B1. Instrumental

Originally released in 1986 on Australian label Voyeur Records.

This is the first time that the single has been released in the UK.

Even As We Speak is an indie band from Sydney, Australia. Formed in the mid 1980s, founding members Matthew Love (guitar, banjo, vocals) and Mary Wyer (vocals, guitar) were later joined by Rob Irwin (bass) Anita Rayner (drums, banjo, mandolin), Julian Knowles (guitar, keyboards, production), and Paul Clarke (guitar, vocals.)

After a series of vinyl releases on Australian independent labels including Phantom Records, and success on the Australian indie scene, they came to the attention of BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel who started to play the band’s ‘Goes So Slow’ Phantom Records release on his show. This brought them to the attention of UK audiences and began a relationship with UK indie label Sarah Records.

The band released several singles and an album on Sarah Records, three of which reached the Top 5 of the Melody Maker and New Musical Express UK independent music charts in 1992 and 1993.

TRACK LISTING

Side 1:
Looking Over Your Shoulder
By The Side Of The Road
Side 2:
I Can Do Without
Falling Down

Introducing Observers “The Age of the Machine Entities” an instrumental heavy metal reimaginin of Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C Clarke's 2001 A Space Odyssey.

Observers is a new project fronted by Martin Kennedy whose ambient rock band All India Radio has seen music used in CSI, One Tree Hill and many more.

Canadian metal titan Devin Townsend even covered an All India Radio song that he fell in love with while on holiday.

Kennedy has also released over fifteen albums with Steve Kilbey of psychedelic rock legends The Church.

Kennedy says “I’ve been fascinated by 2001 A Space Odyssey ever since my mum took me to see it in the 1970s. It blew my mind. I started making my own 2001 inspired super 8 movies, I collected everything I could afford and I’m still obsessed with it into my adult years.”

“The Age of the Machine Entities” is entirely instrumental and takes us on a cosmic journey through melodic metal, atmospheric riffs and psychedelic ambient sequences with echoes of Gojira, Black Sabbath and Tangerine Dream and the early 70’s work of Pink Floyd. Indeed treats us to a searing metal version of the obscure but fan favourite “The Narrow Way Part 2” from the Floyd’s Umma Gumma.

The album was mixed by Joe Haley from Tasmania’s legendary Psycroptic and the line up is Rich Gray (Annihilator) on bass, Chris Bohm on drums, and guest soloists including Joe Haley and Jake Weber.

The all important visual aspect is brought to life by Ryan T Hancock (known for work with King Buffalo, ᴀɢɴᴏxɪᴀ, Robot God), who created the mesmerizing album artwork.

Observers' "The Era of Machine Entities" is a fusion of artistic brilliance that pays homage to the timeless mystery of "2001: A Space Odyssey.”

TRACK LISTING

1. Into The Eye
2. Frank Poole's Dream
3. Frozen Lattices Of Light
4. Strange And Beautiful
5. Pod Bay Doors
6. Moon Doom
7. Metaphor II
8. The Star Child
9. The Narrow Way Part II (Pink Floyd) 

DJ Moplen has outdone himself with this reimagining of Machine’s disco classic. Sticking purely to elements from the original, he’s managed to completely redesign the song, starting with an extended version of the soulful piano intro. Punching up the kick drums and handclaps moves the track into house territory, complemented by a funky guitar riff that was completely buried in the original. When the bass enters front and center Moplen practically forces you to the dancefloor, leaving you vulnerable to August Darnell’s controversial lyrics. Fresh from a career-making start with Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band, lyricist/vocalist Darnell’s collaboration here with Machine was only months from his next incarnation as Kid Creole. Just like those groups, Darnell here fills his song with the politics of race, religion, and sexuality under the guise of a great beat. This release features that rarest of things: a dub just as good as the original. Rather than just removing the vocals, Moplen again rearranges the song, removing the slow intro and building a killer groove from the ground up. As well as the 1979 version, and an acapella reprise, this 12” also features the 1994 Timmy Regisford house mix that captures the dark energy of the song perfectly.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Moplen Remix
A2. Moplen Dub
B1. Original 1979 Version
B2. 1994 Timmy Regisford Remix
B3. Acapella Reprise

Kerrie from E Bloc's Dark Machine Funk goes from strength to strength with her first guest producer featuring on the label's fifth release. Head Front Panel, Kerrie confesses, has been a massive source of inspiration both for her own productions and the direction of the label; so she musta been well buzzing when they agreed to this feature!

"Panama" starts us off with concentric brick wall drums and a tribal whoop carrying Detroitian strings and swelling synth passages. Instantly traversing the Atlantic with a track that's equal parts us and Motor City. "Tactile" continues this allegiance with wigged out, nagging leads ricocheting off clattering metallic beats that somehow tips its hat to both Jeff Mills and Luke Slater simultaneously.

"Surdo" goes for a mainroom throb, fluttering hats and thrusting low end reminding us of DJ Rush in peak flow. Finally "Them", the most Millsian offering here, utilizes pitched 909s, a circular acid line and expert saturation to create a track that'll twist craniums and summon interplanetary communication between us and any passing UFOs.

Top stuff. Real techno! 

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Serious UK-Detroit hybridization here with one of my favourite releases on Kerrie's DMF label. Strictly for the headstrong, fierce, uncompromising techno that beats its chest gleefully.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Panama
A2. Tactile
B1. Surdo
B2. Them

Grammy award-winning DJ and producer Purple Disco Machine has shared his latest single ‘Beat of Your Heart’ in collaboration with Icelandic artist ÁSDÍS.

Combining Purple Disco Machine’s trademark disco infused sound with ÁSDÍS’s magnetic vocals, the high-energy track is laden with danceable grooves, big synths and catchy melodies. The accompanying music video, directed by NDVD, brings all of the joy of the dancefloor to life intertwining love, freedom and fantasy.

Speaking about the track, Purple Disco Machine says: “I was sent the vocals by ÁSDÍS and I immediately fell in love with her voice. I wanted to release the track as a single and we later re-recorded it together in my studio in Dresden, which was really great.”

TRACK LISTING

A1. Extended
A2. Instrumental
B1. Club Dub

‘Mr. Machine’ is a record that put them alongside names as Steve Reich and Philip Glass, but with considerably more groove. More than anything, Daniel, Jan and Paul are keen that the Brandt Brauer Frick Ensemble are not written off as a curiosity.

“Often people focus a lot on this whole "cross-over" aspect,” says Brauer. “We wish people would simply notice we have good chords, melodies etc. and take the music as it is. Because we make it the way we feel, and not for other, let's say purely conceptual reasons. Some only seem interested in how it’s made. Some reviewers perceive us as minimal techno, some as modern classical, some as nu jazz and so on. But we don’t divide the world into techno and nontechno.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A rhythmic, hypnotic selection of classical instrumentation and cyclic music-concrete riffs, underlaid by pulsing bass and snapping jazzy percussion. It's dance music made by nature, or like that bit in Spaced where tyres does the 'everyday raving' bit.

TRACK LISTING

1. Mr. Machine
2. Bop
3. You Make Me Real
4. Pretend
5. Mi Corazon
6. On Powdered Ground (Mixed Lines)
7. Teufelsleiter
8. 606 ‘N’ Rock ’N’ Roll

Double LP
This expanded edition features the complete album in it's original running order on LP 1 - including the band's biggest chart hit 'The Only Living Boy In New Cross' which reached No. 7 on the UK Singles Chart plus Top 40 singles 'Do Re Me, So Far So Good' and 'The Impossible Dream' (a cover of the Man of La Mancha standard).

LP 2 features '1992 - The Other Love Songs', the complete collection of B-sides from the period plus the non-album Top 20 A-side 'After The Watershed (Early Learning The Hard Way)'.

Newly remastered by Phil Kinrade at AIR Mastering and pressed on 180g blue (LP1) and yellow (LP2) translucent vinyl, housed in a gatefold sleeve with poly-lined inner bags.

CD Box
This new edition features the complete album newly remastered on CD 1- including the band's biggest chart hit 'The Only Living Boy In New Cross' which hit No. 7 on the UK Singles Chart, plus Top 40 singles 'Do Re Me, So Far So Good' and 'The Impossible Dream' (a cover of the Man of La Mancha standard).

CD 2 features rarities, B-sides, and the non-album Top 20 single 'After The Watershed (Early Learning The Hard Way)', plus BBC 'Live In Norwich' recordings, and a previously unreleased mix of 'Skywest And Crooked'.

CD 3 includes the complete 1992 Glastonbury headlining performance from the legendary Pyramid stage - available in its entirety for the very first time.

Rounding off the set is a DVD with the 55 minute 'What Do You Think Of The Programme So Far?' feature, plus three Top Of The Pops performances, all appearing on DVD for the first time and accompanied by exclusive new commentary by Jim Bob and Fruitbat.

The classic loops of the original FM3 Buddha Machine evoke instant nostalgia for a slower, more simple world. Born before the iPhone era, this iconic device has weathered two decades of pop culture and fashion trends, yet remains defiantly, heroically unique. Its enduring simplicity cloaks an extraordinary power: the ability to transcend time. It is both a sonic portal to a hands-on analogue past and a bridge to a digital ever-present. This is not just a re-issue; it is a revival and refinement of a sonic manifesto that unfolds softly, gently and organically, resonating with the subtle rhythms of life. The Buddha 1 2023 edition from FM3.

Available now in 5 colours: Red, Orange, Green, Blue and limited-edition Pink. Features upgraded sound quality and user experience. Louder speaker and 2 new individual side buttons make device control more direct and intuitive.

The classic loops of the original FM3 Buddha Machine evoke instant nostalgia for a slower, more simple world. Born before the iPhone era, this iconic device has weathered two decades of pop culture and fashion trends, yet remains defiantly, heroically unique. Its enduring simplicity cloaks an extraordinary power: the ability to transcend time. It is both a sonic portal to a hands-on analogue past and a bridge to a digital ever-present. This is not just a re-issue; it is a revival and refinement of a sonic manifesto that unfolds softly, gently and organically, resonating with the subtle rhythms of life. The Buddha 1 2023 edition from FM3.

Available now in 5 colours: Red, Orange, Green, Blue and limited-edition Pink. Features upgraded sound quality and user experience. Louder speaker and 2 new individual side buttons make device control more direct and intuitive.

The classic loops of the original FM3 Buddha Machine evoke instant nostalgia for a slower, more simple world. Born before the iPhone era, this iconic device has weathered two decades of pop culture and fashion trends, yet remains defiantly, heroically unique. Its enduring simplicity cloaks an extraordinary power: the ability to transcend time. It is both a sonic portal to a hands-on analogue past and a bridge to a digital ever-present. This is not just a re-issue; it is a revival and refinement of a sonic manifesto that unfolds softly, gently and organically, resonating with the subtle rhythms of life. The Buddha 1 2023 edition from FM3.

Available now in 5 colours: Red, Orange, Green, Blue and limited-edition Pink. Features upgraded sound quality and user experience. Louder speaker and 2 new individual side buttons make device control more direct and intuitive.

The classic loops of the original FM3 Buddha Machine evoke instant nostalgia for a slower, more simple world. Born before the iPhone era, this iconic device has weathered two decades of pop culture and fashion trends, yet remains defiantly, heroically unique. Its enduring simplicity cloaks an extraordinary power: the ability to transcend time. It is both a sonic portal to a hands-on analogue past and a bridge to a digital ever-present. This is not just a re-issue; it is a revival and refinement of a sonic manifesto that unfolds softly, gently and organically, resonating with the subtle rhythms of life. The Buddha 1 2023 edition from FM3.

Available now in 5 colours: Red, Orange, Green, Blue and limited-edition Pink. Features upgraded sound quality and user experience. Louder speaker and 2 new individual side buttons make device control more direct and intuitive.

The classic loops of the original FM3 Buddha Machine evoke instant nostalgia for a slower, more simple world. Born before the iPhone era, this iconic device has weathered two decades of pop culture and fashion trends, yet remains defiantly, heroically unique. Its enduring simplicity cloaks an extraordinary power: the ability to transcend time. It is both a sonic portal to a hands-on analogue past and a bridge to a digital ever-present. This is not just a re-issue; it is a revival and refinement of a sonic manifesto that unfolds softly, gently and organically, resonating with the subtle rhythms of life. The Buddha 1 2023 edition from FM3.

Available now in 5 colours: Red, Orange, Green, Blue and limited-edition Pink. Features upgraded sound quality and user experience. Louder speaker and 2 new individual side buttons make device control more direct and intuitive.

Mock Media’s debut LP Mock Media II – out November 17 on Meat Machine captures this firebrand four piece’s head-on plunge into enthralling existential contradictions: songs that explore the darkest corners of humanity, yet come out at the other end with the unwavering joy that marked their genesis. It’s an album of sneaky eclecticism: the high-wired punk rock stylings serve as Mock Media’s framework to clad their agog explorations into pop, electronic and world folk music.

Mock Media, Canada’s new supergroup, contains members: Evan Aasen, Garnet Aronyk Muhammad, Austin Boylan and Bennett Smith. Mock Media originates in Vernon, British Columbia, a small farming town surrounded by blue lakes and majestic mountain ranges. Such wholesome beginnings naturally sparked a heady wanderlust and DIY-spirit within its founding members.

The album’s connective tissue is a knack for crafty, tongue-in-cheek pop melodies and the kind of plucky storytelling that chronicles the greater complexities of life – chapters where strife and survival are usually rife. The R&B-infected “Louis wont break”, for example, references Laura Hillenbrand's novel Unbroken, which tells the story of Louis Zamperini, a former Olympic track star turned fighter pilot who spent 47 days on a raft at sea and two and a half years in a Japanese POW camp.

Lead single “Madness” confidently vaults from skittish noise punk into a zany country rock anthem, the stylistic choices mediating a greater narrative on the threshold between order and chaos: “What if you struggled to feed yourself / Would you take it from somebody else?”. “It's just looking at human history,” Aasen comments. “Because it’s been so terrible in a lot of ways. How civilized we normally are, it just takes the drop of a coin and it can turn into something real bad. And we're always kind of teetering on the edge of that. People in their own lives too: you can hit rock bottom pretty quickly, but you can also persevere.”

The seething “Father Of The Crime '' – driven by Smith’s frantic drumming – draws a parallel between polarization and the often reactive ways we handle relationships. Aronyk: “There's a lot of similarities between that sort of situation where somebody finds their significant other cheating on them, and the decision making process in that moment is similar to what happens when somebody is radicalized and pushed to do something crazy.” Opening track “ILL”, with its rumbling piano melody and Skrillex inspired synth line, littered with samples and droning horns, “ILL”, addresses a clash between mob and cult mentality on the rise.

The courting of themes like violence, imprisonment, and famine isn’t a voyeuristic act for Mock Media, but a deeper interrogation on where to unearth notions of triumph and empathy. Both in writing and execution, Mock Media II is an exercise of tension and release, the ease of the chemistry between the four musicians giving merit to the weight of the subject matter.

The frolicking “Rambo”— adorned by flute flourishes performed by Aronyk’s mom- recites a tale of a prison hustler, the titular Rambo, and his hardships of confinement. “Modern Visions” became an inspired meshing of separate musical ideas by Aronyk and Aasen, coalescing into a more electronic pop progression that required extensive tinkering and reassessing over a four-year period. “I think that track addresses a common theme through our music,” Aronyk adds. “It reflects on trying to understand violence and chaos throughout different corners of the world, and not being overcome by nihilism.”

The frolicking “Rambo”– adorned by flute flourishes performed by Aronyk’s mom – recites a tale of a prison hustler, the titular Rambo, and his hardships of con?nement. “Modern Visions” became an inspired meshing of separate musical ideas by Aronyk and Aasen, coalescing into a more electronic pop progression that required extensive tinkering and reassessing over a four-year period. “I think that track addresses a common theme through our music,” Aronyk adds. “It reflects on trying to understand violence and chaos throughout different corners of the world, and not being overcome by nihilism.”

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. Ill
2. Louis Wont Break
3. Father Of That Crime
4. Rambo
5. Modern Visions
Side B
1. Madness
2. Reason
3. Touch The Ground
4. Get On The Ship
5. The Weight Is On

The Struts have taken the raucous nature of their live shows and transmuted it into an album, fusing their arena-sized energy into their most concentrated and exciting songs to date. “This record showcases each individual member's strengths,” Spiller says of their impending fourth album and first full-length release on Big Machine Records, Pretty Vicious (03/11). “It’s some of my favourite music, hands down, we’ve ever conjured up. It’s the record everyone’s been waiting for.”

TRACK LISTING

1. Too Good At Raising Hell
2. Pretty Vicious
3. I Won’t Run
4. Hands On Me
5. Do What You Want
6. Rockstar
7. Remember The Name
8. Bad Decisions
9. Better Love
10. Gimme Some Blood
11. Somebody Someday

"Half multimedia art studio, half experimental musical group- the Vancouver-based collective better known as Crack Cloud took over Evolutionary Arts Hackney with their massive genre-bending sound in October 2022.

Fresh from the September 16th release of their sophomore record Tough Baby, this performance with six piece choir and strings (the band totalled seventeen on stage), for one night only was recorded and documented on film and presented here as Crack Cloud - Crackin Up Live in London. A legendary band at a legendary venue"

Celebrate 5 of Tom Waits’ albums from the Island years, all of which have had an incredible impact on music history.

All remastered to HD audio.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
The Earth Died Screaming
Dirt In The Ground
Such A Scream
All Stripped Down
Who Are You
The Ocean Doesn't Want Me
Jesus Gonna Be Here
A Little Rain
Side B
In The Colosseum
Goin' Out West
Murder In The Red Barn
Black Wings
Whistle Down The Wind
I Don't Wanna Grow Up
Let Me Get Up On It
That Feel

Kerrie from Eastern Bloc hits us with the forth EP on her Dark Machine Funk imprint which has impressed with every release and left us in no doubt that she's one of the northwest's most hardcore machine manglers.

"It Takes Grit" is the autological eponymous track - a blitzed-up and corrosive blend of Brummy techno influences and anarchistic, feral, almost free party spirit. "Low End Behaviour" keenly shows off the sorceress' polyphonic synth play and caustic sound design. Paired with a stomping groove it's another full-pelt shirt lifter for the wild ones.

Onto side B and "Count On Geiger" wraps strangling synths and face slapping, rib-cracking drums around a nagging mechanic drone (that I can only assume, given the track title, Kerrie has lifted or was inspired by a Geiger counter!). It's one of those tracks that'll terrify occupants of your living room while you hit another bong toke at 6PM, but give it an aircraft hanger full of kids on drugs and you'll harness more free energy than the Ancient Egyptians could've dreamed of! Pyramid tackle!

"Glitch The System" concludes with one of those skitty, modular-esque sounding buzzes that she's accustomed to sticking on these EPs. A little akin to the Voam label and dare-I-say-it, some of Blawan's earlier experiments. I fuckin' love this record!

Early DJ support from James Ruskin, Daniel Avery, Kwartz, Tensal, Casual Treatment.

Mastered by Paul Mac @ Hardgroove Mastering
Original Artwork by Hankohooligan
Record Design by Kerrie

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Kerrie once again cajoles her machines into making a fine racket that'll have you beating your chest like a primordial beast atop of some tall podium in the middle of some rave-encrusted aircraft hanger or warehouse. Brilliant!

TRACK LISTING

A1. It Takes Grit
A2. Low End Behaviour
B1. Count On Geiger
B2. Glitch The System

ANTI- Records is honored to share a never-before-heard album by Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse titled Bird Machine.

Originally recorded in 2010 and mixed by Mark Hamilton (who also worked on It's A Wonderful Life), Mark's brother Matt notes "great care has been taken to archive and preserve Mark's music. We are very thankful for Mark and the beauty he brought to this world."

Sparklehorse was an American indie rock band formed by singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Mark Linkous in the mid-1990s. Born on September 9, 1962, in Arlington, Virginia, Linkous began playing music as a teenager.

Described as an artist who "compelled listeners to heed the beauty of darkness" by Pitchfork, Sparklehorse released many influential records, including the renowned albums Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot and Good Morning Spider in the '90s, It's A Wonderful Life and Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain in the early aughts, and a collaborative album Dark Night of the Soul released in 2010.

Throughout his career Mark collaborated with thought provoking artists like Vic Chesnutt, Daniel Johnston, Tom Waits, Danger Mouse, and David Lynch.

While Mark recorded in various studios, collaborating with other musicians and producers, he did much of his work in his home studio, Static King, often playing and recording everything on his own. He was "very much kind of a working-class guy with a very poetic sensibility, who was drawn to artists like himself, who worked in isolation," said NPR Fresh Air's Ken Tucker.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: As you'd expect, Bird Machine is a tenderly written selection of Linkous' unmistakeable vocals and brittle melodic turns, with heaps of intimate intensity. Does it matter that it's a posthumously released collection? Often, but certainly not in this case. Beautiful.

TRACK LISTING

It Will Never Stop
Kind Ghosts
Evening Star Supercharger
O Child
Falling Down
I Fucked It Up
Hello Lord
Daddy's Gone
Chaos Of The Universe
Listening To The Higsons
Everybody's Gone To Sleep
The Scull Of Lucia
Blue
Stay

Water Machine is an office romance between Hando Morice (they/them), Flore de Hoog (she/her), Jimmy Gage (he/him) and Goda Ilgauskaitė (she/her). An unassuming supergroup formed out of Glasgow institutions including Goth GF, Passion Pusher, Brenda and Soursob, their sound careens between punk, country and alt-rock underpinned by the unique quality they call “Raw Liquid Power”.

Following last year’s self-titled demo tape on Gold Mold Records, and fresh off of shows with the likes of Holiday Ghosts, The Cool Greenhouse and The Orielles, as well as a rollicking Viagra Boys afterparty, the four-piece  release their highly-anticipated first studio effort ‘Raw Liquid Power’ on Upset The Rhythm.

The EP opens with a menacing, modulating synth melody. Gage’s guitar enters with a mighty bend before breaking into the chugging rhythm of ‘Water Machine Pt. 2’. This timely reminder to refill your water bottle - “don’t be late, hydrate!” less a wellness mantra than a threat - builds to a spacey outro with flashes of the art-punk weirdness of Suburban Lawns. ‘Stilettos’ marches on indignantly with a spiky riff punctuated by Ilgauskaitė’s cowbells. Staccato talk-singing tells a playful tale of stray cats following you home, but belies a darker subtext as the breakdown gives way to paranoid duelling guitars evoking The Fire Engines.

The anti-anthem ‘At the Drive In’ skewers joyless DIY crowds, reminiscent of much-missed Glasgow punks Breakfast Muff. Water Machine’s irrepressible sincerity can’t help but shine through in the final moments though, as jibes about “late night trade potential” give way to plaintive vocal harmonies. Morice tears public transport a new one on closer ‘Bussy’, a First Bus diss track bemoaning precarious employment amidst crumbling infrastructure. “That’s why I’m not on time!” they roar over de Hoog’s frantic, pounding bass, bringing the record to a skidding, screeching halt. 

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A
01. Water Machine Pt. II
02. Stilettos
SIDE B
03. At The Drive In
04. Bussy

The fifth studio album from the New York Alt-Rock band originally released in
March 2013. Features the first single "All the Time". 

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A
1. Tap Out
2. All The Time
3. One Way Trigger
4. Welcome To Japan
5. 80's Comedown Machine
SIDE B
1. 50/50
2. Slow Animals
3. Partners In Crime
4. Chances
5. Happy Ending
6. Call It Fate, Call It Karma

My Soft Machine is a deeply personal body of work; a narration of Parks’ experiences as she navigates her 20’s and the growth intertwined. Explained ever-articulately in her own words below...

“The world/our view of it is peppered by the biggest things we experience - our traumas, upbringing, vulnerabilities almost like visual snow. This record is life through my lens, through my body - the mid 20s anxiety, the substance abuse of friends around me, the viscera of being in love for the first time, navigating PTSD and grief and self sabotage and joy, moving through worlds with wonder and sensitivity - what it’s like to be trapped in this particular body. There is a quote from a Joanna Hogg film called the Souvenir, it’s an A24 semi-autobiographical film with Tilda Swinton - it recounts a young film student falling in love with an older, charismatic man as a young film student then being drawn into his addiction - in an early scene he’s explaining why people watch films - “we don’t want to see life as it is played out we want to see life as it is experienced in this soft machine.” So there we have it, the record is called....My Soft Machine.” - Arlo Parks

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: The superb Arlo Parks returns following her 2021 Mercury prize win, with a hugely personal and beautifully evocative selection of downbeat synth gems and woozy, wistful R&B. Parks has proved once again that both her songwriting and production talents are endless.

TRACK LISTING

Bruiseless
Impurities
Devotion
Blades
Purple Phase
Weightless
Pegasus Ft. Phoebe Bridgers
Dog Rose
Puppy
I'm Sorry
Room (red Wings)
Ghost

Stunning outernational funk for the psych breaks dancefloor featuring the mesmerizing vocals of Ukrainian jazz singer Mona. Sung in her mother language, "Moya Vode" is about the "ancient ritual to put a spell on water and remove all negativity through its power".

Mona and MC Fame, a well-known Ukrainian hiphop producer and activist, both left their hometown Kyiv last year and found a new home in the Hammerbrook district of Hamburg, Germany, where they quickly connected with the lively funk scene of the city. Together with the Mocambo crew they set off to work out some magic by combining universal funk grooves and Ukrainian folklore.

Mona's mystical soulful vocals are backed by the "Hammerbrook Sound Machine", a group featuring members of Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band and the Mighty Mocambos, with instruments like the Tsymbaly or Drymba added on top. The "folk-funk" continues more electronically on the instrumental flip side when MC Fame takes over the lead on Moog synthesizer. Dive into this spell!

TRACK LISTING

1. Moya Vode (Part 1) [Vocal]
2. Moya Vode (Part 2) [Instrumental]

‘Thank God! It’s The Dream Machine…’ is the hotly anticipated debut album from The Dream Machine. A self-produced collection of 12 tracks exploring everything from love and loss to angels, dogs and The Devil. Recorded on an 8-track in the winter of 2021 in the bands rehearsal space. The album treads a familiar path of 60’s inspired pop anthems, psychedelic-tinged country, punk, doo wop and everything in-between.

The Dream Machine take their name from ‘Dream Machine’ an invention that recreates hallucinations similar to psychedelics without taking substances with their music being portrayed as enigmatic, mysterious and very psychedelic. Formed in 2021, the band have already gained widespread support including Steve Lamacq, Radcliffe & Maconie and Chris Hawkins on BBC Radio 6 Music, John Kennedy on Radio X, Gary Crowley on BBC Radio Londo, Dave Monks on BBC Introducing in Merseyside as well as repeat plays across Amazing Radio.

STAFF COMMENTS

Martin says: The Dream Machine brilliantly toe the line between jangling psychedelic 60's influenced pop and soaring northern indie. It's both melodically rich and full of hooks, but never strays into pastiche.

TRACK LISTING

1. Lola, In The Morning
2. Tears
3. Children, My England
4. Sweet Mary
5. TV Baby/Satan's Child
6. The Time Around
7. White Shadow Blues
8. Intermission
9. Away For The Summer
10. The Last Temptation
11. Always On My Mind
12. Angel Of The North

7" With Dinked Edition Only:
Side A
Before The Rain
Side B
01. Rama Go

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2023 EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine exploded onto the indie punk scene in the early '90 releasing a string of hit singles and top ten albums as well as selling out countless live shows acquiring a fiercely loyal fanbase

30 Something was Carter's second album. Released in February 1991, it charted at number 8 in the UK album charts and spawned the singles 'Anytime Anyplace Anywhere' and 'Bloodsport For All' With nods to The Clash and Bowie, the album contained the band's trademark lyrical puns and snarling punk vocals juxtaposing with harmonisng guitars. The album received 10/10 from NME upon release and ranked as number 8 on their albums of the year list for 1991.

This RSD version is presented as a picture disc in a cut out spined sleeve.

Recorded at the band’s two sold out Madison Square Garden shows in September 2022, Dance Fever (Live at Madison Square Garden), the new live album from Florence + the Machine, features live versions of tracks from the much-lauded new album Dance Fever—including “Free”, “King” and “Dream Girl Evil”—plus classics from throughout the band’s career. Available as a gatefold 2LP on heavyweight black vinyl.

TRACK LISTING

Heaven Is Here (Live At Madison Square Garden)
King (Live At Madison Square Garden)
Ship To Wreck (Live At Madison Square Garden)
Free (Live At Madison Square Garden)
Daffodil (Live At Madison Square Garden)
Dog Days Are Over (Live At Madison Square Garden)
Girls Against God (Live At Madison Square Garden)
Dream Girl Evil (Live At Madison Square Garden)
Cassandra (Live At Madison Square Garden)
Morning Elvis (Live At Madison Square Garden)
June (Live At Madison Square Garden)
Choreomania (Live At Madison Square Garden)
Kiss With A Fist (Live At Madison Square Garden)
Cosmic Love (Live At Madison Square Garden)
My Love (Live At Madison Square Garden)
Restraint (Live At Madison Square Garden)
The End Of Love (Live At Madison Square Garden)
Never Let Me Go (Live At Madison Square Garden)
Shake It Out (Live At Madison Square Garden)
Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up) (Live At Madison Square Garden)

Borderless hi-tech soul music with loose rhythms, supported by Amsterdam jazz man Han Litz!

Kennedy returns to another musical dream state bringing nocturnal visions to life through the power of machines. On this third 12" in the series he widens his sonic scope via elements of jazz and African rhythms next to his own distinctive take on the original sounds of Detroit.

It's another musical offering that comes from deep within mind, body and soul. Side A sounds like a warm fusion of loose rhythms and glowing synths determined by machines, whereas the B-side is more explicitly human-made with flute recorded live by Amsterdam jazz man Han Litz, bringing a lightness of touch that imbues the music with hope and optimism. Beneath that, a battery of drums is set free calling up acoustic sounds driving from deep inside in a dense forest.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Hi-tech, full spectrum psychedelic house here aimed squarely at the cosmos. Spiritual elements combine as Kennedy sets out his synths as one to watch.

TRACK LISTING

Vacuum
My Friend The Sun Ft. Han Litz
Heliosphere Ft. Han Litz

Nuha Ruby Ra presents new EP Machine Like Me, featuring the singles Self Portraiture and My Voice. 2021’s How To Move EP, released to critical acclaim cemented Nuha as one of the most exciting and provocative new acts in the country. Live shows across UK and Europe followed - both as headliner and supporting the likes of Yard Act, Warmduscher, Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs, King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard and Viagra Boys - and in 2022 her debut at SXSW in Austin, Texas. She’s also booked prestigious slots on home turf at the likes of Glastonbury and Bluedot, as well as European showcases at Left Of The Dial, Reeperbahn, Grauzone and more.

On this colossally ambitious new EP, Nuha’s drive is plain to hear. She played almost every instrument herself, holed up in a small Essex cabin, from the dirty bass drones of My Voice to Self-Portraiture’s squalling battles between synth and guitar, the lurching punk stomp of 6 In The Morning to the teeming electronics of Slicer, the manic industrial noise of Rise to You Never Know’s sudden strip back into moody ambience.

“The most important thing to me is that I do exactly what I want,” says Nuha Ruby Ra. “Not in a stubborn way, but in the way I need as a person.”

TRACK LISTING

1. My Voice
2. Self Portraiture
3. 6 In The Morning
4. Slicer
5. Rise
6. You Never Know 

Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine were synonymous with the indie punk scene in the early ’90s with a run of top ten singles and albums.

They sold out multiple venues time after time playing to a fiercely loyal fanbase. 30 Something was Carter’s second album. Originally released in February 1991, it charted at number 8 in the UK spawning the singles “Anytime Anyplace Anywhere” and “Bloodsport For All”. With nods to The Clash and Bowie, the album contained the band’s trademark lyrical puns and snarling punk vocals juxtaposing with harmonisng guitars. The album received 10/10 from NME upon release and ranked as number 8 on their albums of the year list for 1991.

This deluxe version features 3CDs and a DVD housed in a clamshell box with a poster booklet. All audio content is remastered. The package also includes the “In Bed With Carter” live concert from Brixton in 1991. This was previously only available on VHS and is highly sought after with a new commentary from Jim Bob and Fruitbat.

TRACK LISTING

Surfin' U.S.M.
My Second To Last Will And Testament
Anytime Anyplace Anywhere
A Prince In A Pauper's Grave
Shopper's Paradise
Billy's Smart Circus
Bloodsport For All
Sealed With A Glasgow Kiss
Say It With Flowers
Falling On A Bruise
The Final Comedown
Re-Educating Rita
Alternate Title
Randy Sarf Git
2001: A Clockwork Orange
Bedsitter
Christmas Shoppers­ Paradise
G.I. Blues (Live At Kent Uni 27/10/90)
Rubbish (BBC Radio 1 At The Great British Music Weekend 19/1/91)
Re-Educating Rita (BBC Radio 1 At The Great British Music Weekend 19/1/91)
My Second To Last Will And Testament (BBC Radio 1 At The Great British Music Weekend 19/1/91)
Sheriff Fatman (BBC Radio 1 At The Great British Music Weekend 19/1/91)
Rent (BBC Radio 1 At The Great British Music Weekend 19/1/91)
Surfin' USM (BBC In Concert: Live At Kilburn 7/12/91)
Midnight On The Murder Mile (BBC In Concert: Live At Kilburn 7/12/91)
Rubbish (BBC In Concert: Live At Kilburn 7/12/91)
Good Grief Charlie Brown (BBC In Concert: Live At Kilburn 7/12/91)
My Second To Last Will And Testament (BBC In Concert: Live At Kilburn 7/12/91)
Re-Educating Rita (BBC In Concert: Live At Kilburn 7/12/91)
Anytime Anyplace Anywhere (BBC In Concert: Live At Kilburn 7/12/91)
Say It With Flowers (BBC In Concert: Live At Kilburn 7/12/91)
A Prince In A Pauper's Grave (BBC In Concert: Live At Kilburn 7/12/91)
Sheriff Fatman (BBC In Concert: Live At Kilburn 7/12/91)
After The Watershed (BBC In Concert: Live At Kilburn 7/12/91)
Shoppers' Paradise (BBC In Concert: Live At Kilburn 7/12/91)
The '90s Revival (BBC In Concert: Live At Kilburn 7/12/91)
Bloodsport For All (BBC In Concert: Live At Kilburn 7/12/91)
This Is How It Feels (BBC In Concert: Live At Kilburn 7/12/91)
A Perfect Day To Drop The Bomb (BBC In Concert: Live At Kilburn 7/12/91)
Introduction
Surfin' USM
Re-Educating Rita
Midnight On The Murder Mile
My Second To Last Will And Testament
Rubbish
Say It With Flowers
A Prince In A Pauper's Grave
Bloodsport For All
Billy's Smart Circus
A Perfect Day To Drop The Bomb
This Is How It Feels
Rent
G.I. Blues
Sheriff Fatman
Backstage With Mum And Auntie

In 2022, Machine Head are back with their most crushing and complete album yet. ØF KINGDØM AND CRØWN is an hour-long conceptual monolith, rich in colour and dynamics but hell-bent on destruction. Set in a futuristic wasteland where the sky is always crimson red, ØF KINGDØM AND CRØWN tells the tale of two characters, both faced with incalculable trauma, whose stories become bloodily entwined as this deep, dark record progresses.

TRACK LISTING

Slaughter The Martyr/
Chøke øn The Ashes øf Yøur Hate/
Becøme The Firestørm
øverdøse/
My Hands Are Empty/
Unhalløwed

For Helen Ganya, entering her thirties made her question and pull away from the heteronormative social constructs that surround us. On her new album polish the machine, the Brighton-based songwriter stretches away from the suburban nightmare, seeking a cathartic reprieve that looks beyond the ordinary. “I was looking to the truth of removing any expectations that we’ve acquired along the way,” she says.

Previously performing under the moniker Dog in the Snow, Ganya’s 2017 album Consume Me (Battle Worldwide) introduced a meticulous and elegant voice, while 2019 album Vanishing Lands (Bella Union) - inspired by the striking imagery in a period of vivid dreams - utilised swirling dream-pop and haunting post-punk to present an eerie, unflinching look at the often nightmarish reality of the present world. polish the machine leans further into Ganya’s interiority, but refuses to succumb to despondency, instead pursuing a platform for community and tentative optimism. Here, the constraints of societal roles are loosened to encourage a different route: a wandering, ever-evolving path.

TRACK LISTING

1 I Will Hold That Hand For You
2 Young Girls Never Die
3 Wedding In The Night Time
4 Delicate Graffiti
5 Afterparty
6 The Crowd
7 Deep Sea
8 Devotion
9 Polish The Machine
10 Blue Fruit
11 Birdsong

In the 10 songs that make up This Machine Still Kills Fascists, Dropkick Murphys bring Woody Guthrie’s perennial jabs at life – many of which are from the 1940s and ‘50s – into the present, with the resulting music eerily relevant to today’s world. And they’ve done it all without their usual arsenal of electric guitars. In fact, not a single amplifier was used to animate Woody’s words in these songs, but DKM harnessed all of their trademark power to bring Woody’s lyrics to life.

Dropkick Murphys founder Ken Casey explained, “The project has been a long time in the making. Nora Guthrie thought her father would’ve got a kick out of us, would’ve liked us, that we were somewhat kindred spirits so to speak, which to us was a huge honor.”

The idea for the collaboration that became This Machine Still Kills Fascists has been percolating between Woody’s daughter Nora Guthrie and the band for more than a decade, with Nora curating a collection of her father’s never-published lyrics for the band over the years. The challenge was always finding the right time to pull it together. When Dropkick Murphys co-lead vocalist Al Barr was sidelined in the latter half of 2021 – taking a leave of absence from the band to care for his ailing mother – the band was apprehensive about making a normal DKM album. The perfect time to take on the Woody project had presented itself, and the band leapt at the chance to bring more of Woody’s timeless lyrics to life with a Dropkick Murphys musical twist. The end result is This Machine Still Kills Fascists – the true fruition of like-minded rebellious artists collaborating – albeit nearly a century apart.

Woody Guthrie wrote songs from the heart and for the common person. He made a point of showing up when it counted most, often performing at fundraisers, benefits, and rallies to champion working class causes and condemn greed, war, and unchecked capitalism – all with his guitar in hand.

This is exactly where Woody Guthrie and Dropkick Murphys intersect. Dropkick Murphys’ entire ethos of family, community, service, and action depends upon honest reporting in their music. Like Woody, showing up in real life is what makes their songs so impactful. They just are who they say they are. Whether it’s standing up to Nazi thugs or standing with working men and women on a picket line, showing up is what holds the center in DKM’s world.

As Woody once said: “A folk song is what's wrong and how to fix it, or it could be who’s hungry and where their mouth is, or who’s out of work and where the job is, or who’s broke and where the money is, or who’s carrying a gun and where the peace is.” In both song and deed, Dropkick Murphys have always held true to this same view.

TRACK LISTING

Two 6’s Upside Down
Talking Jukebox
All You Fonies
Never Git Drunk No More (featuring Nikki Lane) 
Ten Times More
The Last One (featuring Evan Felker Of Turnpike Troubadours)
Cadillac, Cadillac
Waters Are A'risin
Where Trouble Is At
Dig A Hole (featuring Woody Guthrie)

The gift that keeps on giving, Purple Disco Machines' 'Exotica (Deluxe Album)' is being treated to some epic remixes of your favourite songs now available on vinyl.

On show here, ‘Opposite of Crazy’ gets a juicy rework by The Emperor Machine and the one and only Art Of Tones takes on ‘Loneliness’ in trademark style.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Opposite Of Crazy - Feat. Bloom Twins - The Emperor Machine Remix
B1. Loneliness - Feat. Francesa Lombardo - Art Of Tones Remix

"Comedown Machine" is the fifth studio album by American rock band the Strokes. It was released on March 26, 2013, through RCA Records. The band decided to pull a media blackout for the album, with no promotion in the form of television appearances, interviews, photoshoots, live shows, or tours. The cover artwork was designed to resemble an old RCA tape reel box. "Comedown Machine" received mostly positive reviews from critics, and was placed at number 41 on the NME's list of the "50 Best Albums of 2013". 

'She Said' is the third album from Los Angeles Rock band, Starcrawler. Fronted by Arrow de Wilde, guitarist Henri Cash, bassist Tim Franco, pedal steel/guitar player Bill Cash and drummer Seth Carolina, Starcrawler have morphed into a modern day take on LA legends X, with a sprinkle of The Go-Go’s, a smattering of The Distillers and some Rolling Stones sleaze thrown in for good measure. Though defiantly not a record obsessed with the pandemic, the constraints of lockdown mean that ‘She Said’ is Starcrawler’s most considered release to date. These are anthems made for blaring out of car speakers on warm summer night drives with the windows down and the volume up.

“We wanted to make songs on this record for everyone,” explains Henri. “For people that weren't just into punk rock.” Starcrawler might have broadened their scope, but they’ve definitely not watered down their sound. Known for his work on action and horror movie soundtracks, including the John Wick films, Dawn of the Dead, 300 and Halloweens I and II, the album was produced by industry titan Tyler Bates. Starcrawer met Tyler when he was drafted in to work with them on Goodtime Girl, a stand-alone single for DC’s Dark Nights: Death Metal soundtrack, which the band appeared on alongside the likes of Idles, Mastodon and Chelsea Wolfe. “It just sounded so big,” says Arrow of the resulting track. “It made me think we should do the whole of the new record like a movie soundtrack.”

TRACK LISTING

1. Roadkill
2. She Said
3. Stranded
4. Thursday
5. Broken Angels
6. Jetblack
7. True
8. Midnight
9. Runaway
10. A Better Place

The gift that keeps on giving, Purple Disco Machines' 'Exotica (Deluxe Album)' is being treated to some epic remixes of your favourite songs now available on vinyl.

Highlighted here, a remix of 'Dopamine' by current heavy hitter John Summit and a Club Dub mix of 'I Remember'.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Dopamine (Feat. Eyelar) - John Summit Remix
B1. I Remember - Club Dub Mix

Larger-than-life personality Lou Roy has shared ‘Valkryie’ - a sassy, alt-pop jam that she co-produced alongside Sarah Tudzin of Illuminati Hotties. It marks Lou’s first release for Balloon Machine.

From Topanga Canyon, a mountainous LA suburb, Lou lives by the mantra ‘joy is king!’ - a saying that comes from her admiration for the chaotic, adult playground of Las Vegas. ‘Chaos reigns. All is permitted’ she sings on Valkyrie, immediately declaring how the limitlessness of her music matches up with the city she so idolises.

‘Valkyrie’ is a vibrant showcase of the humour, invention and peacock swagger that permeates Lou’s music. Lou calls our attempt to give meaning to the chaos of life “sweet” and life’s unpredictability echoes in her urgent genre shifts which take in rock’s most outlandish moments, the playfulness of pop and the straight-up quality of folk.

The new single finds Lou assembling the Valkyrie - “female figures in Norse mythology who ride horses through the sky with big, long swords and are very sick”, Lou’s description - to overcome a particularly brutal trauma.

Of the track, she said: “The song began with me tapping my water bottle while listening to my buddies have a conversation around me. It was called “water bottle birthday beat” for months, until one night in July I got high and decided to just put the beat on loop and improvise lyrics. I had a panic attack a few days before, and had recounted that in the opening line, and from there I just decided to go stream of consciousness based on that. Apparently, I was feeling angry and vengeful - the rest of what came out was all about embracing rage.

“Then in a sudden shift of perspective, I noticed I wanted peace and quiet and asked myself, “hey man, whatcha doin? Come on back, I need you movin!”. It was a gentle request to please not be so upset, I’m scaring me!”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Sitting somewhere between the grooving, shimmering Americana of Lucy Dacus or Fenne Lilly and the punky, angular pop of Claud, 'Pure Chaos' is anything but pure chaos, it's meticulously crafted and eminently enjoyable, an essential addition to any collection.

TRACK LISTING

1. Valkyrie
2. Scroll
3. Uppercut
4. U.D.I.D
5. If We Were Strangers
6. Myth
7. Down Since ’07
8. Bull Ride
9. Big Anvil
10. Dream
11. Talkin’ To Ya 

Taylor Swift's 2nd Album was released in October 2008 and has sold over 10 Million albums in the USA alone. The album features the hit singles- ''Fifteen'', ''Love Story'', ''You Belong To Me'', ''Fearless'', and ''White Horse''.

Slow Dawn is from Ottawa, Canada and have spent the past few years honing their craft with a series of self released titles, including 2020’s Experimental Farm, a rather angst-ridden and raw display of sonic power. They are led by guitarist Dan Druff, formerly of Holy Cobras, and are rounded out by Chris DiLauro on drums and Jesse Winchester (Masss) on bass and synthesizer. The band draws influence from the darker edges of the musical spectrum and places a majority of their energy on filling empty voids with as much sound as possible. Slow Dawn is a cacophony of reverberating distortion, swirls of echoing vocals, droning horns, and a steady din of plodding drums. Whether it’s Ottawa’s grim and cold winters or simply a sign of the times, the band’s sound is quite dystopian and is marked by a sense of solemn minimalism. It would be safe to say that with Slow Dawn, the glass is rarely half full.

With six songs clocking in at about 22 minutes, Into the Machine Haus moves quickly and efficiently through a range of territories that include post-punk, psych, krautrock, noise, and even a little bit of goth. It’s a unique amalgamation of sound that demands attention. The band’s influences are easily read but integrated in a way that they escape the dreaded “sounds like” tag. And, to their credit, there are no wasted moments or frivolous meanderings. Their approach is straightforward, primal, and succinct. In the case of this album, less is definitely more. (Mike Mannix).

Dance Fever was recorded predominately in London over the course of the pandemic in anticipation of the world’s reopening. It conjures up what Florence missed most in the midst of lockdown -clubs, dancing at festivals, being in the whirl of movement and togetherness -and the hope of reunions to come. It’s the album that brings back the very best of Florence – the festival headlining Boudicca, wielding anthems like a flaming sword.

Just before the pandemic Florence had become fascinated by choreomania, a Renaissance phenomenon in which groups of people - sometimes thousands - danced wildly to the point of exhaustion, collapse and death. The imagery resonated with Florence, who had been touring nonstop for more than a decade, and in lockdown felt oddly prescient.

The image and concept of dance, and choreomania, remained central as Florence wove her own experiences of dance - a discipline she turned to in the early days of sobriety - with the folkloric elements of a moral panic from the Middle Ages. In recent times of torpor and confinement, dance offered propulsion, energy and a way of looking at music more choreographically.

Starting, as ever, armed with a notebook of poems and ideas, Florence had just arrived in New York in March 2020 to begin recording the record with Jack Antonoff when Covid-19 forced a retreat to London. Holed up at home, the songs began to transform, with nods to dance, folk, ‘70s Iggy Pop, longing-for-the-road folk tracks a la Lucinda Williams or Emmylou Harris and more.

Once back in London, ‘My Love’ was one particular track that shapeshifted from one entity to another with the help of Dave Bayley from Glass Animals. Welch had written the song in her kitchen as a “sad little poem”, and when she recorded it acoustically it just didn’t seem to work. Bayley suggested using synths and it soon expanded with floor-filling, chest-thumping energy.
With Dave’s love of synths and Florence’s fascination with all things gothic and creepy a kind of “Nick Cave at the club” sound started to emerge to shape the record. Lyrically, she took inspiration from the tragic heroines of pre-Raphaelite art, the gothic fiction of Carmen Maria Machado and Julia Armfield, the visceral wave of folk horror film from The Wicker Man and The Witch to Midsommar.

Dance Fever is an album that sees Florence at the peak of her powers, coming into a fully realised self-knowledge, poking sly fun at her own self-created persona, playing with ideas of identity, masculine and feminine, redemptive, celebratory, stepping fully into her place in the iconic pantheon.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: The great Florence Welch returns, machine in tow for her most bombastic and exuberant outing yet. The ever-present gothic leaning synth anthems take on a more confident and operatic tone, lending further evidence (as if any were needed) that Welch and to a lesser extent, The Machine are here to stay. a Majestic and impeccable collection.

TRACK LISTING

King
Free
Choreomania
Back In Town
Girls Against God
Dream Girl Evil
Prayer Factory
Cassandra
Heaven Is Here
Daffodil
My Love
Restraint
The Bomb
Morning Elvis

Even in trying times, “there is no love without electricity.” Electricity is the fourth and most progressive album from Ibibio Sound Machine, and like all good Afrofuturist stories, it begins with an existential crisis. “It’s darker than anything we’ve done previously,” says Eno Williams, the group’s singer. “That’s because it grew out of the turbulence of the past year. It inhabits an edgier world.”

Electricity was produced by the Grammy Award and Mercury Prize nominated British synthpop group Hot Chip, a collaboration born out of mutual admiration watching each other on festival stages, as well as a shared love of Francis Bebey and Giorgio Moroder. The fruits of their labor reveal a gleaming, supercharged, Afrofuturist blinder. Electricity is the first album Ibibio Sound Machine have made with external producers since the group’s formation in London in 2013 by Williams and saxophonist Max Grunhard. True, 2017’s Uyai featured mixdown guests including Dan Leavers, aka Danalogue, the keyboard jedi in future-jazz trio The Comet Is Coming, but Hot Chip and Ibibio Sound Machine worked together more deeply throughout the process, collaborating fully. Along the way, the team conjured a kaleidoscope of delights that include resonances of Jonzun Crew, Grace Jones, William Onyeabor, Tom Tom Club, Kae Tempest, Keith LeBlanc, The J.B.’s, Jon Hassell’s “Fourth World,” and Bootsy Collins.

The hook of opener “Protection From Evil” has Williams wielding a massive synth line from Hot Chip’s Al Doyle like a spiritual shield against unspecified, malign forces unspecified because Williams is speaking in tongues. Her lyrics are onomatopoeic: their meaning is defined in her energetic delivery. As Electricity takes off, so do Williams’ words towards a brighter future, alternating between English and Ibibio, sometimes within verses, and propelled by Joseph Amoako’s unabating afrobeat. She digs into this sentiment further on single “All That You Want,” coolly assuring her romantic interest while also requesting reciprocity. Meanwhile, Scott Baylis’ playful Juno synth guides the listener’s feet along the dancefloor.

Electricity is a deep and seamless realization of Williams’ and Grunhard’s ambitious founding manifesto to combine the singularly rhythmic character of the Ibibio language which Williams spoke growing up in Nigeria with a range of traditional West African music and more modern electronic sounds. While the band enjoys veering further into electronic territory with the help of mutuals like Hot Chip, Grunhard emphasizes, “For us, it’s not just a matter of embracing new technology. What’s key is to keep the music grounded in African roots.” Ibibio Sound Machine best exemplify this on Electricity’s “Freedom.” That track was inspired by the water-drumming rhythms of Cameroon’s Baka women, which in turn fueled its lyrics, which in turn prompted Hot Chip and Ibibio Sound Machine to layer joyfully kinetic electronic counterparts on top in the studio. As the track culminates with the mantra of “rage, hope, cope, soul,” it’s clear that Ibibio Sound Machine have channelled, harnessed, and distilled these words as guiding principles, both for the album and for the turbulent world that awaits it.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: I remember buying ISM's self titled album from this very shop around 2014 because it was recommended highly, and it couldn't have been more of a welcome punt. It turns out that they've only gone from strength to strength, and 'Electricity' absolutely shines with the raw groove and scattered influences of the earlier LP's, but with a much more honed sense of rhythm and melody. Absolutely, unsurprisingly brilliant.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A
1. Protection From Evil
2 .Electricity
3 .Casio (Yak Nda Nda)
4. Afo Ken Doko Mien
SIDE B
5. All That You Want
6. Wanna See Your Face Again
7. 17 18 19
8. Truth No Lie
9. Oyoyo

CD & LP3 Download Bonus:
10. Something We’ll Remember
11. Almost Flying
12. Freedom

Feeding The Machine is the long-awaited 3rd studio album by semi-free jazz duo Binker and Moses. The album yet again cements Binker and Moses' status as being at the vanguard of London's jazz and jazz-adjacent music scene. With honorary band member Max Luthert on tape loops and electronics, Feeding The Machine crosses into ambient, minimalism and experimental electronic music territories, whilst also nodding to the duo's roots in riff-heavy free jazz.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A
1. Asynchronous Intervals
2. Active-Multiple-Fetish-Overlord
3. Accelerometer Overdose
SIDE B
1. Feed Infinite
2. After The Machine Settles
3. Because Because

Re-press of 2020’s hugely successful and critically acclaimed LP “Róisín Machine” in limited edition 2LP gatefold splatter vinyl for National Album Day 2021 release by Skint Records.

2020’s Róisín Machine” was Murphy’s first full-length project since 2015’s Mercury Nominated “Hairless Toys” and 2016’s equally revered “Take Her Up to Monto” and perhaps her best yet if the adulatory reviews are anything to go by. The likes of Guardian and the Independent garlanded the record with Album of the Week sobriquets, while Metro, The Arts Desk, Daily Star and NME gave it a full 5 stars and everyone from Uncut to Classic Pop to Evening Standard giving breathless 4-star reviews. “Roisin Machine” was universally recognized as one of the albums of the year, further cemented by 6 (SIX!) consecutive A-list records at BBC6 and slots at Sunday Brunch and – most hallowed of all – Graham Norton where she performed “Murphy’s Law” on the premiere episode of his 28th season.

TRACK LISTING

LP 1
Side A:
Simulation
Kingdom Of Ends
Side B:
Something More
Shellfish Mademoiselle
Incapable

LP2
Side C:
We Got Together
Murphy’s Law
Game Changer
Side D:
Narcissus
Jealousy

Ever since childhood, learning to play various instruments in a suburban Cincinnati basement alongside his brother Bryce, Aaron Dessner has consistently sought an emotional outlet and deep human connection through music — be it as a primary songwriter in The National, a founder and architect of beloved collaboration-driven music festivals, or collaborator on two critically acclaimed and chart-topping Taylor Swift albums recorded in complete pandemic-era isolation at his Long Pond Studio in upstate New York, among many other projects. Through it all, Dessner has brought together an unlikely community of musicians that share his impulse to connect, celebrate and, most of all, process emotion and experience through music. This generous spirit and desire to push music forward has never been more deeply felt than on Big Red Machine’s “How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last?,” the second album from Dessner’s evermorphing project with Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon. In 2008, while assembling material for the charity compilation “Dark Was the Night,” Dessner sent Vernon a song sketch titled “big red machine”. Vernon interpreted “big red machine” as a beating heart and finished the song accordingly — a metaphor Dessner says “still sticks with me today.

This project goes to many places and is always on some level about experimentation, but it shines a light on why I make music in the first place, which is an emotional need. It’s one of my therapies and one of the ways I interrogate the past.” Released in 2018, Big Red Machine’s self-titled debut album evolved from improvisation and what Dessner calls “structured experimentalism,” with an ear toward building tracks that would work well in a live setting alongside visual elements. When Dessner and Vernon started the Eaux Claires Music Festival in 2015, they staged the original “Big Red Machine” as an improvisation-based performance piece. They later took that show to the PEOPLE collective’s Berlin residency and festival, and to Dessner’s Haven Festival in Copenhagen. “Big Red Machine started as this thing we would do for fun, and we fell in love with the feeling of it,” says Dessner.” Vernon agrees: “I remember it feeling really easy, but we never knew what would happen. It was exciting. As time went on, we just kept doing things together. And our friendship has grown strong, alongside all the collaborative stuff.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: It won't be a gigantic surprise i'm sure, to hear that Big Red Machine's newest LP is as stunningly accomplished and wonderfully listenable as it's long list of collaborators would suggest. Brimming with beautiful folk charm and uncompromising melodic direction, there's very few people who wouldn't find something to enjoy here.

TRACK LISTING

1. Latter Days (feat. Anaïs Mitchell)
2. Reese
3. Phoenix (feat. Fleet Foxes And Anaïs Mitchell)
4. Birch (feat. Taylor Swift
5. Renegade (feat. Taylor Swift)
6. The Ghost Of Cincinnati
7. Hoping Then
8. Mimi (feat. Ilsey)
9. Easy To Sabotage (feat. Naeem)
10. Hutch (feat. Sharon Van Etten, Lisa Hannigan And SharaNova [My Brightest Diamond])
11. 8:22am (feat. La Force)
12. Magnolia
13. June’s A River (feat. Ben Howard And This Is The Kit
14. Brycie
15. New Auburn (feat. Anaïs Mitchell)

When the Covid-19 pandemic shut down the promotional run and worldwide tour for The Killers’ majestic, critically-acclaimed 2020 album Imploding the Mirage, “everything came to this grinding halt,” says frontman Brandon Flowers. “And it was the first time in a long time for me that I was faced with silence. And out of that silence this record began to bloom, full of songs that would have otherwise been too quiet and drowned out by the noise of typical Killers records.” Indeed, for the first time since 2004, the relentless momentum and pressures of being in a globally-renowned, stadium-shaking band stopped. Enter Pressure Machine: a view into the everyday realities of a small American town with a stark, tough beauty, and The Killers’ most restrained and resonant album yet.

A quieter, character-study-driven album, Pressure Machine lives squarely in Flowers’ hometown of Nephi, Utah, a close-knit community of 5300 people with no traffic lights, a rubber plant, wheat fields, and the West Hills. Nephi is the place Flowers spent his formative years (10-16), saying “had it not been for advancements in the automotive industry, Nephi in the 90s could have been the 1950s.” The album’s songs are based on the memories and stories of people that impacted him growing up, interspersed with commentary from current Nephi locals about their town. “We were discussing [Brandon] moving to Nephi as a kid and being stuck in the middle of nowhere,” says the band’s drummer Ronnie Vannucci Jr. “And during Covid-19, it started to feel like we were all in the middle of nowhere.” Concurs Flowers, “I discovered this grief that I hadn’t dealt with,” he says, “many memories of my time in Nephi are tender. But the ones tied to fear or great sadness were emotionally charged. I’ve got more understanding now than when we started the band, and hopefully I was able to do justice to these stories and these lives in this little town that I grew up in.”

The resulting record is an aural document of growing up - and living - in the American Southwest, told from a myriad of perspectives. For the first time in his life, Flowers had complete lyrics before a note of music was put to tape. No stranger to inhabiting different characters in songs, on Pressure Machine he steps into the shoes of some of the people whose lives he watched unfold as a teen. The album weaves the threads of Flowers’ signature lyricism throughout his career into a perfect whole culminating in the most elegant album The Killers have ever made.

Through its characters and also its title, the album squares up to the unbending pressure of the American dream compounded by religious disenchantment. A born optimist, moments of beauty inevitably shine out of the grief of Flowers's songs: the healing arrival of summer, the first crop of hay, sweeter skies. Pressure Machine’s stories detail the real life personal battles, overwhelming regrets, local tragedies, and the opioid epidemic that hit Flowers’ hometown, as well as every hometown in America. Flowers sings about the choices people make, for better and for worse, and the consequences of those choices; the ones who were left behind, and the ones that can’t be forgotten.

Pressure Machine’s album cover image was shot on the highway just outside Nephi, taken as photographer Wes Johnson passed a roadside inspirational display set up by a local Baptist church. Johnson took dozens of incredible images of Flowers’ hometown throughout the early part of 2021, many of which are featured in the album’s packaging for the physical edition. 

TRACK LISTING

1. West Hills
2. Quiet Town
3. Cody
4. Terrible Thing
5. Sleepwalker
6. Runaway Horses Featuring Phoebe Bridgers **
7. In The Car Outside
8. In Another Life
9. Desperate Things
10. Pressure Machine
11. The Getting By

A singular group of experts issues a notice of extraordinary urgency in the vicinity of various atmospheric phenomena, which are partially localized and, above all, of high intensity. Yet the sun shines with strength over the Neapolitan favela. 'Allerta Meteo' is the first album of sparkling sonics by The Funkin' Machine Collective and the newest release of Periodica Records? Pegaso Series, comprising a cross-section of jazz and funk sounds, with bright colors that are good for any season, whether rain or shine. The voice of Andres Balbucea - the binding soul of the opera - is supported by the unmistakable flow of Speaker Cenzou during the vibrant ''L'ora d'o Groove'', accompanied by the performances of Roberto Porzio on the synthesizers, Alessio Pignorio and Riccardo Betteghella on the guitars, Vincenzo Lamagna bass guitar, Andrea De Fazio drums, Paolo Bianconcini on percussions, and the extraordinary participation of Pietro Santangelo in the cinematic ''Django'' and Jeroen Verberne on Trombone in ''Rafiki''. An authentic wave of warm notes destined to overwhelm the most observant listener, the first-hour followers, and all the citizens.

TRACK LISTING

1. Prufesso
2. Django (Fischio)
3. Rafiki
4. Allerta Meteo
5. Affittacamere
6. Ll'ora Do Groove
7. Pataturk

Soul Jazz Records’ new ‘Two Synths, A Guitar (And) A Drum Machine’ is a new collection of current DIY post-punk shaped by the mutant sounds of no wave, punk funk and New York Noise bands from the late 70s and early 80s that collided with the world of underground dance music found at the Paradise Garage, Mudd Club in New York City (ESG, Arthur Russell, Bush Tetras, Talking Heads, Suicide, Liquid Liquid).

Other influences cited here include Manchester and Sheffield’s industrial post-punk sounds of the 1980s (Joy Division, Cabaret Voltaire, Gang of Four) as well as the 1970s German electronic experimentalism of Cluster, Neu!, Harmonia and Can.

Featured artists from around the globe include Los Angeles DIY band Automatic, New Fries from Toronto, artist/music collaborators Toresch from Germany, Susumu Makai from Japan/UK, Vex Ruffin from the Philippines/California and Madmadmad, Gramme, Tom of England and other UK groups.

That all the bands featured here manage to make distinctive contemporary music out of these 80s roots is testament to the wide range of other musics that are seamlessly absorbed into a modern melting pot of sound - hip hop, the electronic European avant-garde, rave culture and more.

TRACK LISTING

Automatic - Too Much Money
Zongamin - Underwater Paramid
New Fries - Lily
Vex Ruffin & Fab 5
Freddy - The Balance
Ixna - Somebody Said
Leroy Duncann - Dream River
Tom Of England - Neon Green
Toresch - Tocar
Becker & Mukai - La Rivière Des Perles
Gramme - Discolovers
Niagara - Ida
Charles Manier - Sift Through Art Collecting People
Black Deer - Baseball Shorts
Madmadmad - Hot Disco
Wino D - Untitled

Gorillaz started the year with Episode 1 - ‘Momentary Bliss ft. slowthai and Slaves’ - of Song Machine, a whole new concept from one of the most innovative bands around. Now, six episodes in, Noodle, 2D, Murdoc and Russel have visited Morocco and Paris, London and Lake Como, as well as travelling all the way to the moon, and Gorillaz is ready to bring you the full collection titled Song Machine: Season One - Strange Timez, out on 23rd October 2020.

Song Machine is the ongoing and ever-evolving process which has seen Gorillaz joined by an expanding roster of collaborators captured live in Kong Studios and beyond. The result is an expansive collection of tracks embracing a myriad of sounds, styles, genres and attitudes from a breath-taking line-up of guest artists including Beck, Elton John, Fatoumata Diawara, Georgia, Kano, Leee John, Octavian, Peter Hook, Robert Smith, Roxani Arias, ScHoolboy Q, Slaves, Slowthai, St Vincent and 6LACK.
To date the project has seen over 100million streams on all tracks already and the band’s biggest period of sustained growth across both listenership and fanbase growth. All this before the album has even been announced!

Virtual band Gorillaz is singer 2D, bassist Murdoc Niccals, guitarist Noodle and drummer Russel Hobbs. Created by Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett, their acclaimed eponymous debut album was released in 2001. The BRIT and Grammy Award winning band’s subsequent albums are Demon Days (2005), Plastic Beach (2010), The Fall (2011), Humanz (2017) and The Now Now (2018). A truly global phenomenon, Gorillaz have achieved success in entirely ground-breaking ways, touring the world from San Diego to Syria, winning numerous awards including the coveted Jim Henson Creativity Honor.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: You will have heard a few of these already, but it's nice to finally have all of the disparate releases compiled into one handy to pop-on collection. The deluxe CD has even more of these fruitful collaborations with some of the most recognisable names in modern music. It's a diverse and entertaining selection, and one that will have fans keen for a follow-up.

TRACK LISTING

1. Strange Timez (feat. Robert Smith)
2. The Valley Of The Pagans (feat. Beck)
3. The Lost Chord (feat. Leee John)
4. Pac-Man (feat. ScHoolboy Q)
5. Chalk Tablet Towers (feat. St Vincent)
6. The Pink Phantom (feat. Elton John And 6LACK)
7. Aries (feat. Peter Hook And Georgia)
8. Friday 13th (feat. Octavian)
9. Dead Butterflies (feat. Kano And Roxani Arias)
10. Désolé (feat. Fatoumata Diawara) [Extended Version]
11. Momentary Bliss (feat. Slowthai And Slaves)

Deluxe CD And Deluxe Vinyl Box Set Tracklist:
Disc 1
1. Strange Timez (feat. Robert Smith)
2. The Valley Of The Pagans (feat. Beck)
3. The Lost Chord (feat. Leee John)
4. Pac-Man (feat. ScHoolboy Q)
5. Chalk Tablet Towers (feat. St Vincent)
6. The Pink Phantom (feat. Elton John And 6LACK)
7. Aries (feat. Peter Hook And Georgia)
8. Friday 13th (feat. Octavian)
9. Dead Butterflies (feat. Kano And Roxani Arias)
10. Désolé (feat. Fatoumata Diawara) [Extended Version]
11. Momentary Bliss (feat. Slowthai And Slaves)

Disc 2
12. Opium (feat. EARTHGANG)
13. Simplicity (feat. Joan As Police Woman)
14. Severed Head (feat. Goldlink And Unknown Mortal Orchestra)
15. With Love To An Ex (feat Moonchild Sanelly)
16. MLS (feat. JPEGMAFIA And CHAI)
17. How Far? (feat. Tony Allen And Skepta)

A bold new look, sound and concept for Kraftwerk. Over supple processed rhythms which predate the rise of European techno and trance, they address automation and alienation, space travel and engineering, the seductive allure of urban landscapes and the vacant glamour of celebrity. Clipped and funky, "The Robots" adds another dimension to Kraftwerk's ultra-dry sense of humour. Behind its intoxicating melodic pulse, "The Model" is a highly prophetic satire on the beauty industry, so ahead of its time that it only becomes a UK chart-topper by accident three years later. And "Neon Lights" is Kraftwerk's most achingly romantic song to date, a sci-fi lullaby for cities at twilight. Pure magic. 

"Róisín Machine" is the culmination of a rich, decades long partnership between Murphy and one of her most trusted collaborators Crooked Man aka DJ Parrot. Although packed to the rafters with masterclass singles, including “Simulation”, “Jealousy”, “Incapable”, Narcissus” and “Murphy’s Law”, it is also an ingeniously and seamlessly edited listening experience, designed to be listened to in one uninterrupted sitting, from start to dazzling finish.

From the intoxicating disco-funk of “Incapable”, to the quintessential “Narcissus” which crystallised New-Disco and established a high watermark for the genre, to “Murphy’s Law”, a 70s inflected stomper, “Roisin Machine” offers up everything you could ask for on an exquisite plate. Added to the familiar tunes are five new songs, including the Dalek-funk of ‘We Got Together’ and the fantastical “Shellfish Mademoiselle”. An album that works perfectly on the home sound system but also comes alive in a basement sweatbox, it impeccably sits alongside Murphy’s stellar cannon of work released across 25 boundary pushing, trailblazing years, a career encompassing iconic music, directorial, art and fashion moments.

STAFF COMMENTS

Mine says: Róisín Murphy has always had that certain indefinable something; a self-assured demeanour that although grandiose never seems pretentious. Perky and eccentric, but always charming - someone you can look up to in an artistic way but equally just want to take out for a pint and a bit of banter. Add to her showmanship, incredible voice and pop sensibility the musical genius of long-time collaborator Richard Barratt aka Crooked Man / DJ Parrot and you end up with an irresistible mix of shimmering disco strut, pulsating synths and thumping club beats.

‘Róisín Machine’ seems like the culmination of and logical conclusion to Murphy's 25-year career - from her time as one half of Moloko through to collaborations with the likes of Boris Dlugosch, Maurice Fulton and Crooked Man - but at the same time feels new and exciting and oozes with confidence, as if Murphy is only just getting started. “I feel my story is still untold, but I'll make my own happy ending...” are the revealing opening words of the album which has been a decade in the making.

Even though every song on the record is a standalone winner that would feel at home on most dancefloors, the album also works extremely well as a whole, with one track seamlessly blending into the next. It therefore equally lends itself to an afternoon on the sofa - headphones on, choice of drink in hand and dreaming of a time when we can finally hear it blasting through the speakers of our favourite clubs. Luckily, there is a wealth of lockdown video content by Murphy herself that will keep us entertained until then!

TRACK LISTING

Simulation
Kingdom Of Ends
Something More
Shellfish Mademoiselle
Incapable
We Got Together
Murphy’s Law
Game Changer
Narcissus
Jelaousy

Antony Ryan and Robin Saville - the inventors of electronica - are returning with their ninth studio album. Three years in the making, "The Lamenting Machine" will go down in history as the deepest and most satisfying chapter yet in the ongoing musical conversation between these brilliant musicians. Subtle yet mesmerizing melodies evoking long forgotten memories, calmly throbbing bass figurines pulsing gently along - all paying tribute to free-floating rhythms and their eternal noises. ISAN has always been an intimate and personal take on electronic music.

The Neon Machine, the 4th album from Austin musician Abram Shook, is a dystopian dance party, and everyone’s invited. Juxtaposed against 2017’s sepia-tinged, quietly reflective Love at Low Speed, the new record’s mix of irresistible beats and slyly humorous lyrics might seem like a 180 at first glance: a giddy, knowing soundtrack to the end of the world. The varied influences of world music and jazz that are present in all his records can still be heard (as in the High-Life inspired guitar work on “My Money”), though here Shook tucks them into the corners and uses them in more subtle ways, giving center stage to a vintage Sequential Circuits Prophet 600, a drum sequencer, and his signature rubbery bass lines.

In Shook’s adept hands, The Neon Machine is full of day-glo danceability even though something slightly sinister lurks beneath the surface; it’s a kind of tour de force synesthesia for the fevered mind. With this record, Shook has traded in his usual gimlet-eyed observations for a playfully cynical sense of humor. Using highly confessional lyrics and deeply personal insight to convey his anger, with the current political climate, he writes candidly about his anxieties, and frustrations toward a country and culture that he’s grown up with, but hasn’t always felt at home in. Full of Prince-esque riffs, Blood Orange-style beats, and David Bowie allusions, The Neon Machine is accessible and adventurous at once. It has as its backdrop a party that’s lasted too long, and the foreground of a narrator full of anxiety and skepticism whose hangover has already begun. The beauty of it lies in its malleability. What appears on the surface to be an effervescent album of pop anthems, with its familiar themes of sex, love and drugs, soon reveals its true heart: the intimate insights of a man, long accustomed to being an outside observer, who has decided to join the fray. “In a lot of ways it feels like the record I’ve always wanted to make.” 

TRACK LISTING

01 Neon Love 4:16
02 Your Time 3:25
03 Cocaine Blonde 3:45
04 Future Hustler 3:38
05 My Money 3:39 
06 Visionary Fiction 4:29
07 Can't Get Away 3:10
08 Sugar Teeth 3:52
09 The Latest Trend 3:34
10 Hot Mess 3:49 
11 Fake It 3:41

The third release on U-TRAX in 1993 was also a third debut, this time by Natasja Hagemeier and Jeroen Brandjes. Early in their career, they used several artist names, but became most commonly known as The Connection Machine. With their debut mini-album The Dream Tec Album they more or less described their style: dreamy techno. It became an instant Dutch techno classic and U-TRAX is proud and delighted to offer a fully remastered re-release, including three never before released bonus tracks (one of which is digital-only).

Natasja and Jeroen resided in Utrecht back in the 90s. In 1991 they assembled all their ideas and recorded the track "24 Hours" with DJ Paradize. Soon after this experience, they started to buy their own gear, all strictly MIDI (which wasn't too obvious in those days). In their early recording years, they had three producer-names (Syndrome, The Connection Machine and Bitch&Bites), that were all collected under the The Utroid Machine Missions umbrella, which was used for their debut on U-TRAX.

All tracks on The Dream Tec Album are The Connection Machine's earliest works, from the 1991/1992 years.

"An Overflow of the Mind" is a beautiful, dreamy track with almost divine sounds and strange voice-samples that serves perfectly as an introduction to their entire repertoire.

Their first production was "24 Hours", and what a brilliant one it is! A well-known jazz-musician talks about a "24 hour party going on", on top of a sinister and trancey rug, woven of sampled sounds from pioneers in electronic music and nailed down to the floor with a deep pounding bassdrum. At the time they made this track, 141 bpm was unbelievably fast...

"Evilish Cosmos" is all about a very sad and personal emotion, so everything we say about it will be absolutely wrong. Just listen to the meandering piano line, distorted voice samples - and feel it.

The first bonus track on this release is "Recognized Pain", which was intended to be part of the original The Dream Tec Album. It had appeared on the Phuture Classical Section C cassette in 1993, on the famous Drome Tapes label that formed the roots of U-TRAX. It truly is an amazing track: pure sonic terror with haunting rhythms, psychedelic synth lines and shards of voice samples that make the listener feel slightly uncomfortable.

"X_Manray" is many electronic music lover's favorite track. It is sooo deep that it is hard not to get hypnotized by it. Warm strings are coupled with deep beats that show up and disappear every now and then. Could serve perfectly to start off any DJ's set, as long as she or he has the guts.

Though "Braindrain" is probably the most danceable track on this album, it is carefully designed to tease the listener. Everything in this track drops in too late and every tone, melody or loop last exactly a few bars too long. Designed as a DJ-teaser and so it is.

The second bonus track, "Cafe d'Anvers", is another previously unreleased work, of which unfortunately no master recording was saved. All that is left, as far as we know, was an old VHS Hifi tape from the U-TRAX Archives. And that is where this bonus track was taken from. Mastering engineer Thee J Johanz managed to restore the quality of the recording somewhat, while at the same time maintaining its dark, clubby sound, a tribute to the famous club of the track's name in Antwerp, Belgium.

"Dream Affected Dream" is one of the most recent productions on this album. It was recorded with CNN playing live on top of it. At this exact moment, CNN was having an interview with David Koresh, the leader of the infamous Branch Davidians sect from Waco, Texas, while they were under siege by an armed police force. Natasja and Jeroen were just ready to record Dream Affected Dream, and spontaneously decided to mix in the audio from CNN. Not very long after that, the cult members set fire to themselves. A very strange and oddly funky track, that also serves as a time-document.

The final track is another bonus track. Like Cafe d'Anvers, "Voight-Kampff" is taken from on old U-TRAX VHS Hifi tape and masterfully mastered into a lovely relaxed dreamtech piece. Very suitable to start the Sunday after a long night of clubbing. This track is available for free to buyers of the complete digital album only.

TRACK LISTING

A1. An Overflow Of The Mind
A2. 24 Hours
B1. Evilish Cosmos
B2. Recognized Pain
C1. X_Manray
C2. Braindrain
D1. Cafe D'Anvers
D2. Dream Affected Dream

‘War Machine’ is a new Netflix film, directed by David Michôd and starring Brad Pitt and Tilda Swinton among many others.

Military snares set a sharp cadence beneath the score’s eerie synths and strings, instantly reminiscent of ‘Skeleton Tree’ by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds and the beautiful ‘Hell Or High Water’ score.

“Together we made a score that was both light and dark, propulsive and meditative at the same time. We developed a kind of ‘spiritual electronics’ that captured both the melancholy and the terrible absurdity of the Afghan war,” Cave and Ellis said in a press release. “It was a great pleasure to work with David Michôd, who is not only an extraordinary filmmaker but a musician too. Our favorite score!”

TRACK LISTING

Ah America
Humble Man
The Bubble
The Civilian Executive
In Liebe Dein (Roedelius)
Badi Basim
Kamee (Roedelius)
The Moon Landing
Our Noise
Fabelwein (Roedelius)
Jeanie
NY Snow Globe (Rachel’s)
Thousands Of Parades, All Over America
Marjah
Staunen Im Fjord (Roedelius)
The Hand Of Helping
Be Lovely
A Page In The History Books
War Machine

Eno Williams, frontwoman of Ibibio Sound Machine, uses both English and the Nigerian language from which her band’s name is derived for the dazzling new album. Long lauded for jubilant, explosive live shows, Ibibio Sound Machine fully capture that energy on "Doko Mien", the followup to "Uyai". By pulsing the mystic shapes of Williams’ lines through further inventive, glittering collages of genre, Ibibio Sound Machine crack apart the horizon separating cultures, between nature and technology, between joy and pain, between tradition and future. That propensity for duality and paradox seems common in people whose lives span continents. Williams was born in the UK, but grew up in Nigeria, always steeped in her family heritage. She obsessed over West African electronic music, highlife, and the like, but was equally empowered by Western genres such as post-punk, disco, and funk.

The traditional Ibibio folk tale bobs over the waves of tuned percussion, chunky synth, and pinprick highlife-esque guitar, while Jose Joyette’s drums and Derrick McIntyre’s bass funk groove bring everyone to the dance floor. 'These stories won’t be forgotten. Feel the music: it speaks to everybody,' Williams says. 'We can travel back in time together, while convening on a futuristic, present tense. We hope that we can give people that reason to wake up, that one song to sing and dance and be happy.'

On their new album, Ibibio Sound Machine provide the perfect companion, ready to digest as much as possible and then further unfurl beauty and hope. They remember and honor the past and charge forward toward the future, all while intensely expanding the present.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A
I Need You To Be Sweet Like Sugar (Nnge Nte Suka)
Wanna Come Down
Tell Me (Doko Mien)
I Know That You’re Thinking About Me
I Will Run

SIDE B
Just Go Forward (Ka I So)
She Work Very Hard
Nyak Mien, Kuka
Guess We Found A Way

Released only in Japan in 1997, this collection of live and demo tracks—available for the first time on vinyl—is a must for Rage Against The Machine fans! Includes fiery versions of “Take The Power Back” and “Bombtrack,” covers of N.W.A.’s “Fuck Tha Police” and Public Enemy’s “Black Steel In The Hour Of Chaos” (with Chuck D on lead vocals) and tracks from the band’s original 1991 demo tape.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A
1 Bullet In The Head (live)
2 Settle For Nothing (live)
3 Bombtrack (live)

SIDE B
1 Take The Power Back (live)
2 Freedom (live)
3 Intro (Black Steel In The Hour Of Chaos) (live)
4 Zapata's Blood (live)

SIDE C
1 Without A Face (live)
2 Hadda Be Playing On The Jukebox (live)

SIDE D
1 Fuck Tha Police (live)
2 Darkness
3 Clear The Lane

Optimo Music see off what's been a busy year with a tasty slew of end-of-year releases. One of which is this amazing new album from Lia Mice - the Australian-born but UK-residing DJ, producer and instrument designer.

'When I moved to London in 2015, many things changed at once - I started going to more techno and electro nights, I changed my live-set setup, and I had access to a fully-equipped recording studio through my music masters programme. At the same time I was reading a lot of books on time travel, not just science fiction but also psychology and neuroscience - like how the human brain perceives time from moment to moment, how we can experience overlapping time, and how we interact with our past and future through memory and imagination. “The Sampler As A Time Machine” is the result of all these new influences coming together. The tracks were developed out of ongoing studio experiments interpreting these different ideas of time travel by using samplers and tape to re-sample and manipulate original music performed by me on various instruments including my voice.'

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: I'm sure Optimo Music devotees don't need convincing here. But anyone wondering what the label's about could do much worse than bagging this LP and the forthcoming compilation from the camp. Essential stuff for lovers of leftfield, DIY electronics.

TRACK LISTING

Side 1
1. Human Being (3:45)
2. Overwrite The Past (3:39)
3. It's All Connected (2:36)
4. Time Can Break In (4:07)
Side 2
1. We Are The Beat (4:38)
2. Marconi's Eternal Tone Cloud (3:09)
3. Made Of Glass (1:46)
4. Which Memories Will Make It (7:11)

Collaboration between Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon and The National’s Aaron Dessner · Other collaborators include Phoebe Bridgers, Lisa Hannigan, Richard Reed Parry and more.

In 2008, Aaron Dessner sent Justin Vernon an instrumental sketch of a song called “Big Red Machine” for Dark Was The Night. This was before they had met in person. Justin wrote a song to it, interpreting the Big Red Machine title as a heart. 10 years of friendship later, there are 10 more songs. Big Red Machine. Each song includes a large number of collaborators via the PEOPLE platform and the record was produced by Justin and Aaron with longtime collaborator Brad Cook and engineered by Jonathan Low primarily at Aaron’s studio Long Pond in Upper Hudson Valley, NY

People is a steadily growing group of international artists who have come together to create and share our work freely, with each other and everyone. It was born outo a wish to establish an independent and nurturing space in which to make work (generally around music) that is collaborative, spontaneous and expressive in nature and where all unnecessary distractions or obstacles that get in the way are removed. People is for the benefit and development of the artists involved and just as importantly, for those who would like to access and enjoy the output. It is as much about the process of making work and showing all that openly, as the final outcome.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Such a well-heeled duo as Dessner and Vernon working together is bound to throw up some challenging and fascinating themes, and Big Red Machine doesn't fail to live up to expectations. Massive electronic scree, brittle log-cabin pieces and a collaborative chemistry that would make Dangermouse and Penfold attend a weekend retreat to iron out the creases. Top stuff.

TRACK LISTING

1. Deep Green
2. Gratitude
3. Lyla
4. Air Stryp
5. Hymnostic
6. Forest Green
7. OMDB
8. People Lullaby
9. I Won’t Run From It
10. Melt

It's been over six years now since the word got out that the Titans from The Big O* (as in Oslo, Norway) were re-resurrected for a second time since their grimy beginnings back in 1989. Hell, not even Jesus could do THAT! music lovers worldwide were heard to shriek. Back in the saddle, the band have crisscrossed the globe delighting fans old and new, packing 'em in from LA to 'lesund, Melbourne to Manchester and all points in between.November 2015 heralded the unveiling of not only the first new music since 2012's Sexual Harassment but a new member for the group!

Hot For Nietzsche found our boys on full throttle, staring the void right in the face and raising a glass to its honour. The video was shot on location in Vegas a suitable backdrop for the debauchery.The HFN single release show in Oslo saw the stage debut of the newest edition to the denim recruits: Keyboard Wizard Crown Prince Haakon-Marius, a hugely invaluable addition to the line-up, according to Guitar Ubermensch Euroboy: We're happy to have a keyboard player back in the band again, six years after P Pot Pamparius performed his last show with the band. Crown Prince Haakon Marius is a friend of ours from the Oslo music scene and an amazing musician! We had so much fun getting back in the studio as a six piece, to record new material which the addition of a keyboard-player inspired the songwriting and the production.Well, lightning does strike twice, because May 2016 saw ANOTHER new single! Just in time for final exams,

TURBONEGRO unleashed Special Education to the unsuspecting public. A story of a teenage boy's fall from academic grace and the cruel and unusual discipline he finds at the very bottom, the song was inspired by repeated watchings of Scum and The Story Of O on the tour bus VHS player; They were the only tapes we had! Guitarist Rune Rebellion confesses.Bass player and cultural commenter Happy Tom could not contain his excitement. 

I Speak Machine are vocalist and synth nerd Tara Busch and filmmaker Maf Lewis. Together they make brooding soundtracks and horror/sci-fi films, creating the audio and visual in unison and giving both elements equal prominence. Their approach is inspired by Spaghetti Western cinema duo Ennio Morricone and Sergio Leone, who used to play with score ideas for scenes while scripts were being written. Following the release of The Silence (the score to their own sci-fi short film) in 2014, Busch and Lewis have teamed up with Benge from Wrangler/John Foxx & The Maths to work on their latest short film and album, Zombies 1985

* For analogue synth enthusiasts and fans of John Carpenter scores.
* Tara Bush has previously collaborated with John Foxx, Clint Mansell, and Bat For Lashes

Shock Machine is the new project from the Mercury and Ivor Novello winning artist James Righton (formerly of Klaxons).

His eponymous debut album is a collection of timeless pop music that embraces inspiration from decades of off-kilter classics, such as ELO, Roxy Music, 70s McCartney, “Benny and the Jets by Elton John on acid”, alongside a passion for ultra vivid shimmering psychedelia - the result is a gorgeous celebration of melody and synths.

Recorded in a cabin in the South of France with the help of esteemed producer James Ford (Arctic Monkeys, Florence and the Machine, Foals, Haim) and then mixed in Atlanta by Ben H Allen (Animal Collective, Deerhunter, Gnarls Barkely), the material has already won fans such as Mark Ronson,The Strokes, Graham Coxon and Erol Alkan, as well as continued support from Pitchfork, Zane Lowe and Annie Mac.

TRACK LISTING

Open Up The Sky
Unlimited Love
Shock Machine
Lost In The Mystery
Let Her Love In 
First Of May
Fire Up My Heart
Strange Waves 
Get You
Something More

Barberos are from Liverpool and make the sort of driven, angular psychedelic noises that Battles and And So I Watch You From Afar excel at. It is a riotous, jagged beast, slathering with reams of grooving distorted bass, punchy percussives and sliding synth squeals, enriched with otherworldly echoes. It is forceful, surprising and as heavy as you get without killing the groove. Barberos are a talented bunch, and know how to make a stone-cold groove. Killer melodies, thundering percussion and an absolute riot. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Barberos kill it with this collection of off-kilter jams, otherworldly cosmic squeals and soul-shaking groove. Killer math-rock. Essential.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Return Of The Ladius
2. The Ladius
3. Timur
4. Hoyl
5. Concerto (Reprise)
6. Akropolis
7. Obladden

Pioneering English traditional folk powerhouse, Eliza Carthy, first assembled the Wayward Band in 2013 in order to explore and celebrate her long and varied career in folk music; 'the last truly underground music scene'.

To do this Eliza put together a team of hugely talented people from across the UK, and set out on the road to promote her 'Best Of' compilation, 'Wayward Daughter,' which coincided with a biography of the same name. Since then, the band has become a festival favourite, and Eliza has been awarded the MBE for services to folk music. Eliza and the Wayward Band loved playing together so much it seemed natural and inevitable, as well as characteristically ambitious, that this 12-piece would set about recording an album. Early in 2016 they did just that. 'Big Machine' is the result and the renowned Real World and Rockfield Studios are where it all happened.

The material represents a healthy slice of everything good that is happening in traditional music now, across a sparkling spectrum of sound. The album features three contemporary songs; Eliza's own 'You Know Me' about the migrant crisis and notions of hospitality (featuring MC Dizraeli), a powerful cover of Ewan Maccoll's Radio Ballad 'The Fitter's Song' (at the behest of Peggy Seeger - and the song which inspired the album title) and an affectionate reworking of 'Hug You Like a Mountain' (Rory MacLeod), re-imagined here as a duet with Teddy Thompson.

There are also several examples of the Broadside ballad collections housed in Chetham's Library in Manchester given a new twist with music by Eliza and the band. This follows an acclaimed programme Eliza presented for Radio 4 about the Manchester Ballads last year, covering everything from songs about and caused by domestic abuse ('Devil in the Woman,' 'Fade and Fall (Love Not)'), to love of the seafaring life ('The Sea'). Added to that a couple of searing instrumentals, a song about dying from custard poisoning and a heartbreaking traditional ballad 'I Wish that the Wars were all Over' (performed live with the band onstage in Real World Studios' Studio One and featuring Irish superstar Damien Dempsey), and you begin to get the picture.

A very Big picture, a Big Machine firing on all cylinders. 'Big Machine' is one of Eliza Carthy's most adventurous and accomplished works to date -- and given that Eliza is the most passionate and groundbreaking English traditional singer of her generation, 'Big Machine' is an album you really won't want to miss.

In the time-honored tradition of husband/wife duos, (think Yo La Tengo and Sonic Youth) providing the creative core and identity of a band, Burette and Gabrielle Douglas bring a sound and musical vision all their own to The Cush.

TRACK LISTING

1. Heavy Psych
2. One Shot Love
3. Orange Like Water
4. Droids
5. Phantom Girl
6. Highway Brain
7. Broken Radio
8. Summer's Gone
9. Color Your Eyes
10. Distant Light

Cherry Red Records are pleased to announce the release of the new album by the legendary Hawkwind, 'The Machine Stops'. A concept studio album and a live stage show, The Machine Stops is based on EM Forster's sci-fi classic. His dystopian vision of the future is brought to life with characteristic Hawkwind style.

An atmospheric, musical interpretation beginning in tunnels deep beneath the earth, where every need is controlled and catered for by the machine. The struggle to escape and find a way to reach the outer surface is a utopian dream, which could prove to be the most deadly dream of all. Forster's visionary masterpiece provides a chilling warning of the dangers of isolation, reliance on computer technology and the effects upon society.

The uncompromising debut from American quartet, Rage Against the Machine, opens with the fast-paced “Bombtrack” and continues its intensity through the remaining nine tracks, including the huge hits "Bullet In The Head" and "Killing In The Name Of". The self-titled album combines metal riffs with hip-hop which has been employed by plenty of bands with varying degrees of success. What really set RATM apart though was the political conviction and sheer intensity and venom of frontman Zach De La Rocha's vocal delivery.

TRACK LISTING

Disc: 1
1. Bombtrack
2. Killing In The Name
3. Take The Power Back
4. Settle For Nothing
5. Bullet In The Head
Disc: 2
1. Know Your Enemy
2. Wake Up
3. Fistful Of Steel
4. Township Rebellion
5. Freedom

HOW BIG
For Florence Welch, the success of her first two Florence + the Machine albums Lungs (2009 – Album of the year, Brit Awards 2010) and Ceremonials (2011) meant five years of back-to-back recording, promoting and touring. Lungs ran straight into the making, promoting and touring of the Grammy-nominated Ceremonials, an album written while on the road and recorded straight after coming off tour. The shows were getting bigger, the hair redder, the success wider and wilder.

HOW BLUE
A pop star at 21, with two international hit albums behind her, Florence discovered that in giving seven years to her music, some elements of real life had been left by the wayside. Coming back from tour and moving out of her mother’s Camberwell home, Florence re-engaged with normal life: going out, falling in and out of love, and simply trying to learn how to look after herself outside of the hermetic bubble of life of the road. And so the new Florence, and her songs, started to swim into focus.

HOW BEAUTIFUL
The result is 'How Big How Blue How Beautiful', a collection of songs, written and recorded over the course of 2014. Produced by Markus Dravs (Björk, Arcade Fire, Coldplay) with contributions from Paul Epworth, Kid Harpoon and John Hill, the third album by Florence + The Machine is live-sounding, tune-rich, unhinged in all the right places and powerful in all the best ways. In voice and, ultimately, outlook Florence has never sounded better.

TRACK LISTING

1. Ship To Wreck
2. What Kind Of Man
3. How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful
4. Queen Of Peace
5. Various Storms & Saints
6.Delilah
7. Long & Lost
8. Caught
9. Third Eye
10. St Jude
11. Mother

Their long awaited follow up ‘The Door Behind The Door’ transforms The Black Ryder’s kaleidoscopic sound and vision into something even more vivid, uncompromising, and sublime, bringing in new textures, emotions & moments of catharsis and transcendence.” (Matt Diehl – Spin/Rolling Stone/Billboard/Pitchfork/Interview)

To date, the band have toured + played with Primal Scream, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Broken Social Scene, The Cult, The Black Angels, The Raveonettes, The Charlatans, Spectrum (Pete Kember of Spacemen 3).

‘ethereal drone, ceremonial percussion, and dead-eyed harmonies carry on together until they build up to something sublime. There’s never really a climax because the whole thing feels like one overwhelming wave of gorgeous noise’
- STEREOGUM

On the tail of their breakout second LP Midnight Passenger, Memphis-based punk cyclone Ex-Cult delivers a brand new batch of bruisers. Chris Shaw lends a sneering, spitting toughness to the proceedings while the band flays riffs in loose, hairy, mosh-inducing menace behind him, touching on post-punk, psych sprawl and early-’80s hardcore while remaining beholden to none. They have the power to convert even the most jaded and bored concertgoer into a sweaty mess in the pit. Punks, skate rats, scenesters, skinheads, hardcore kids, druggies-so many disparate groups dig this band it’s like an MRR cartoon waiting to happen. The adrenal-enhancers on Cigarette Machine are road warriors already, having been honed on the band’s recent tour that no doubt laid waste to a town nearby. The only problem with this sterling batch of sluggers is that it’s over too quick.

TRACK LISTING

1. Clinical Study
2. Cigarette Machine
3. Rats In The Gas Tank
4. Meda House Company
5. Dripping Mouth
6. Your Mask

Ample Play Records hit us with a heavily, heavenly hallucinogenic collection of Richard Norris’ recent Time And Space Machine remixes. A man of many guises, he has often operated as a duo - as The Grid with Dave Ball, as Beyond The Wizard's Sleeve with Erol Alkan - but when it's time for some solo sonic action, he records and remixes as The Time And Space Machine. It's under this guise that he sparks up the Bunsen burner, primes his iron filings and ionizes "The Way Out Sound From In", reworking the most cosmic beat combos around into hitherto unheard psychedelic shapes.

Warpaint, Jagwar Ma, Temples, Psychemagik, The Sufis and more fall into the Time And Space Machine and come out the other side with wider grins and shinier eyes. Ploughing a similar dancefloor furrow to Andrew Weatherall and Timothy J Fairplay's A Love From Outer Space sound, Norris revives the late 80s / early 90s tripped-out, cosmic, Balearic-friendly, baggy house sound, which combines well with the psychedelic sounds of the original bands / artists here.  It's The Way Out Sound From In....all aboard.

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: It's all gone a bit Baggy in 'ere! Love it!!

Ibibio Sound Machine finally release their hotly anticipated debut album on the ever brilliant Soundway Records. The self-titled set sees the group effortlessly combine diverse genres with an ease I've not heard since the days of LCD Soundsystem, pulling together elements of West African highlife, disco, post-punk, psychedelic electro soul and nasty ass P-funk. On the squelchy bassed "The Talking Fish" and the 6 Music fave "Let's Dance" and the more traditional highlife cuts "I'm Running", "Uwa The Peacock" and "Woman Of Substance", Ibibio Sound Machine pack the wax with pure effusive energy. Elsewhere, "The Tortoise", "The Talking Fish" and "Prodigal Son" are bursting with raw funk power, with British / Nigerian vocalist Eno Williams in particularly fierce form. Folk stories, recounted to Eno by her family as a child in her mother's South-Eastern Nigerian Ibibio language form the creative lyrical fabric of the album, as can be seen with the natural and proverbial track titles. What I love most about this record is the fact it flows together as an album so well, with a nice progression from highlife to funk and electro disco aided by the excellent musicianship of the players. The album has soul in abundance, bookended as it is by two beautiful spiritual pieces, but will keep the dancefloor just as happy as the congregation. After all, they're pretty much the same aren't they?

TRACK LISTING

A1. Voice Of The Bird (Uyio Inuen)
A2. I'm Running (Nya Fehe)
A3. The Talking Fish (Asem Usem Iyak)
A4. Let’s Dance (Yak Inek Unek)
A5. Uwa The Peacock (Eki Ko Inuen Uwa)
B1. The Tortoise (Nsaha Edem Ikit)
B2. Woman Of Substance (Awuwan Itiaba)
B3. Prodigal Son (Ayen Ake Feheke)
B4. Got To Move, Got To Get Out! (Ana Nkpong Ana Nwuoro)
B5. Ibibio Spiritual

"The year was 1996 (a guess really), when I had LA MACHINE play in our Olneyville warehouse space. It was the first time I danced in front of other people. (I was later told I was really good). I think maybe it was the first time I can recall where I stood in front of something I would consider modern psychedelic music. Not a rehash of some ghost from the past but something new to me.

We had a plethora of hardcore, improv, and noise bands in New England... but this... this was something different. It was churning and it had a haunting floor-scraping ass on it. It had hints of nausea and a cyclic simplicity that to this day I still love and listen to often. Loudly, stoned, driving through the desert, laughing. They played and my friends skated the quarter pipe my flate mate had built...it was my first successful party and I thank La Machine for it.

RICK PELLTIER and JOHN LOPER have compiled these tunes for us to release post-mortem, but who knows...maybe they will come back to haunt a warehouse near you...OoOoOoOH. Every song reminds me of when I was younger, stronger, and faster. But now I know enough to realize how lucky I actually was to have this stuff around me. And now you can too. Enjoy." -John Dwyer (4.30.13).

Lovingly remastered from the original cassette with new original art by WILLIAM KEIHN.

X Ray Pop are the synth-pop duo of Doc Pilot and Zouka Dzaza from Tours, France. They got their start in the no wave art group Bocal 5 in 1981 and split off in 1984 to focus on their own brand of quirky synthesized electronics. Influenced by Erik Satie, Brigitte Bardot, Suicide and Young Marble Giants, they call their music “minimum naive new wave.” Armed with a Casio PT-20 keyboard and a rudimentary Yamaha MR10 drum machine they recorded their demo cassette and first 7″ “Eurasienne”/ “La Machine à Rêver” in 1984. Upgrading their synthesizers and adding some saxophone and guitar, they recorded the “Alcool”/ “Amazone” 7″ in 1985 and the “DS”/” El Gato” 7″ in 1986.

“The Dream Machine” collects X Ray Pop’s first three 7″ singles plus 8 songs from their demo cassette, never released on vinyl before. Their songs are short, concise and well structured; richly textured, moving at a quick speed with hardly a pause. The demos show a sense of humor, vitality and carefree playfulness. Zouka’s pouting, tongue-in-cheek vocals (sung in French) come together for a catchy, sensuous, danceable, eccentric psychedelic ride. Reminiscent of the Mo-dettes, early OMD or Algebra Suicide, X Ray Pop could be the missing link to Stereolab.

28 years later, this is the first time since the original issue that the songs of X Ray Pop are reappearing on vinyl again, but is the world ready?

TRACK LISTING

01. La Machine á Rêver
02. L´Eurosienne
03. Alcool
04. Amazone
05. DS
06. El Gato
07. Playgirl
08. Mina
09. Analphabelfe
10. Contakt
11. Louphoque
12. Madison Fraise
13. Bobby Bonbeck
14. Revers

Following his dazzling single ‘Pill Party In India’, The Time And Space Machine rides straight out the gate to deliver his second studio album for Tirk, titled ‘Taste The Lazer’. For those new to the fray, The Time And Space Machine is the solo output of Richard Norris, founding member of 90s cult dance outfit The Grid, and one part of DJ / production duo Beyond The Wizard’s Sleeve with Erol Alkan.

The album kicks off with ‘Hiding In The Light’, an incandescent organ-fuelled intro littered with splashes and live drums that drive forthright into ‘Black Rainbow’, a track of equal vivacity, but with loads more vigour and breathy vocal lines above another tasteful organ riff. Up next is the single ‘Pill Party In India’, a twanging, bubbling excursion into the realms of exotica that's simply sublime. ‘Studio 23’ follows, with a stomping bass heavy groove and smoldering string moods underneath clack-clack percussion. ‘Outta My Head’ starts off clean before diving deep into smoky vocal passages, crunching rhythm guitar effects, dirty basslines and trippy polyrhythmic hi-hats.

Stepping off the gas for ‘Threshold’, Norris allows for a bit of Eastern-kissed downtime with his selection of worldly stringed instruments taking turns to solo around contemplative pad washes. Up next, ‘Explosions In The Sky’ and its joyous vocal hook add a playful touch to some of the devilishly melancholic moods on the album. ‘Magic Mountain’ irons out the creases further for a pleasant air-filled journey in to the seemingly chilled (for now) mind of The Time And Space Machine. Before the final curtain, we're dealt ‘Flow River Flow’, a spaced out vocal powerhouse with swathes of tremolo guitar and a funked up lounge bassline that’s just right. To finish the album we're met with a glorious awakening in the form of ‘Good Morning’. Its sunny tones and easy-going swing are lovely touches at the end of a dynamic album.

STAFF COMMENTS

Philippa says: More cosmic-disco, Balearic-rock and psychedelic grooves from Richard Norris in his Time And Space Machine guise.

Oh yes, indeed! Jack is BACK! "Love Interruption" is the first taste of Jack White's debut album, Blunderbuss, out April 23 on Third Man Records/XL.

Features non-LP B-side "Machine Gun Silhouette".

Produced by White and recorded at his own Third Man Studio in Nashville, Blunderbuss has been described by White as "an album I couldn't have released until now. I've put off making records under my own name for a long time but these songs feel like they could only be presented under my name. These songs were written from scratch, had nothing to do with anyone or anything else but my own expression, my own colors on my own canvas."

A limited, 500 copies re-press, of this classic Fading Yellow volume which has been out of print for many years.

TRACK LISTING

1. Disraeli - "What Will The New Day Bring?"
2. Network - "Ears Of Stone"
3. Whispers - "Knowin'"
4. July Four - "Frightened Little Girl"
5. Calliope - "I'll Take It Back"
6. George Edwards - "Never Mind, I'm Freezing"
7. Poor - "How Many Tears"
8. Happy Return - "I Thought I Loved Her"
9. Oracle - "Don't Say No"
10. Rites - "Hour Girl"
11. Dynamics - "All She Said"
12. Holy Mackerel - "Scorpio Red"
13. Peppermint Trolley Co. - "Trust"
14. Higher Elevation - "The Summer Skies"
15. Chris And Craig - "Isha"
16. Backseat - "Where Is Mary"
17. Poor - "Come Back Baby"
18. Cascades - "I Bet You Won't Stay"
19. Sound Set - "Mind In A Bottle"
20. Reign - "Sea Of Dreams"
21. Look - "In A Whirl"
22. Unknown Artist - "Bonus Track"

The second album from Holiday Shores is a real step on from their brilliant, zeitgeist spearing, debut 'Columbus'd The Whim'. ‘New Masses For Squaw Peak’ sees them channeling 'Here Come The Warm Jets' era Brian Eno, Talking Heads, Donald Fagen and Can, but losing none of their trademark twinkling and zigzagging melodies, building their shape shifting pop in to something as wide open a landscape as the title suggests. ‘New Masses for Squaw Peak’ is packed tight with style: experimentation; jazz-chord death-pop; shifty proto-prog; nervy, dissonant, white funk; instinctive tribal rhythms; historical and personal mythologies weaved through its passages, creating something akin to pop sci-fi. Described as equal parts Studio 54 and tropical. ‘New Masses For Squaw Peak’ was laid to tape in the belly of an abandon Philadelphia textile factory; run through three mixing boards by three separate sets of hands; and ultimately mixed into its final form by the band. Holiday Shores are Nathan Pemberton on vocals and guitar, multi-instrumentalists Josh Martin and Brian Forfa and drummer John Frank.

TRACK LISTING

1. Airglow
2. We Couldn’t Be Together
3. Threepeat Got Old
4. Ocotillo Dripping
5. Spells
6. Squaw Peak
7. Mystic Pharaohs (Masc Pharaohs)
8. Coming To Shores
9. Cord Du Roi
10. New Masses
11. Injun
12. Shadie Spun Gold

Recorded throughout the spring of 2010 by frontman and first time producer Martin Colclough, "Lifeline" is the album that everybody believed The Answering Machine could make. A departure and a knowing deviation from the sound that established the band on 2009’s angular debut "Another City, Another Sorry", "Lifeline" is a unique, intelligent and diverse LP. Stylistically extensive, the album clicks between moments of post rock magnificence to glitch-driven programming; at once inhaling a varied catalogue of influences and exhaling a body of work that will top End of Year polls.

After working with producers from London and New York, writing songs in Tokyo, demoing in sky scrapers and honing ideas in Brooklyn, it became obvious that ‘home’ was the perfect place to pull "Lifeline" together. The cliché goes that record producers are the so-called ‘fifth member’ of the band but Manchester’s The Answering Machine decided to keep things simple and opted for an actual member of the band to produce their second album. After several successful remix projects, frontman Martin Colclough decided to step up to the role. What followed was not an expensive studio, engineers or remote location; instead the band opted for their underground practice room in the city centre. From six feet under they emerged with their lifeline.

While journalists stalked the streets murmuring buzz words and hailing the new ‘Manchester scene’ The Answering Machine were hard to find. They were in fact below the city campaigning for change, creating a record that is far removed from people’s expectations of them, peeling all the layers of what journalists and fans had deemed them to be and avoiding being caught up in any industry onslaught on their city. They stand alone and by doing so have rediscovered themselves, their identity and uncovered a new sound. Central to this regeneration has been the acquisition of a number of vintage synths passed down from the Factory Records band Repetition. These, along with pump organs and acoustic guitars, opened up a new and more collaborative way of writing for the band.

There are no gimmicks, stories or press angles for The Answering Machine on their second album campaign. This is because what the band have created and achieved is truly remarkable and therefore the ONLY thing worth writing about. Musically eclectic, textural and complex, lyrically sophisticated, honest and striking "Lifeline" is a very special record; the first great record of 2011. It documents a band reborn, a band who have taken the model of Radiohead and The Beatles before them, determined to make a record that sounds nothing like their last. They have succeeded with a grace and elegance all of their own.

STAFF COMMENTS

Laura says: Sadly, The Answering Machine have decided to call it a day, but they bow out in style with the release of the Limited Edition vinyl version of this album.

TRACK LISTING

1. My Little Navy
2. Lifeline
3. Animals
4. 3 Miles
5. Romantic And Square
6. Anything Anything
7. Hospital Lung
8. Rules
9. Video 8
10. So Alive
11. The End

The Danish four-piece — Nikolaj Manuel Vonsild (vocals), Jonas Kenton (keyboards), Simon Muschinsky (keyboards) and Silas Moldenhawer (drums) — are a complicated mix of influences. There’s dance music in there, for sure, but also post punk, some experimental electronica in the Aphex Twin mould, and, crucially, a healthy dose of pop. You could describe the end result as a heady mix of Caribou, The Knife/Fever Ray and Arthur Russell. But, really, it doesn’t sound like anything else out there.

The band formed in 2007. They started out making dance music, but quickly left four-four beats behind and started fusing electronics with pop melodies. They caused a local stir when Danish radio picked up on some tracks they’d uploaded onto Myspace. The buzz meant that their first ever gig was at Vega, one of Copenhagen’s leading venues. Then, last year, they opened the Roskilde Festival in front of 45,000 people, an experience Nikolaj describes as “fantastic”.

The band’s debut album, ‘Konkylie’, (Danish for ‘conch shell’ incidentally), has been two years in the making. It sees them moving their sound on into new, uncharted territory. On ‘Parix’, Nikolaj’s spectral vocals, a mix of Antony Heggarty’s tremulous falsetto and Talk Talk frontman Mark Hollis, are pitched against a shimmering mirage of synths. There’s an echo of their clubland past on ‘Kelly’, which is underpinned by a chugging, mid-paced beat. It’s the jumping off point for four-minutes of electro pop perfection, like Empire Of The Sun with some added Scandinavian cool. Nikolaj’s vocals, meanwhile, are never more beautiful that on the closing track ‘Add Ends’, where they float over skillfully orchestrated strings and gently popping electronics. It’s an atmospheric reverie that transports you to another place. All told, it’s stunning stuff, esoteric, yet instantly accessible, the kind of underground record that everyone can buy into.

One of the things that sets When Saints Go Machine apart from their peers is that there’s a warmth to ‘Konkylie’. Electronic music can sometimes sound rectilinear, like a Cubist painting. It was something the band were keen to avoid. They went to great lengths to inject an organic feel into the record, experimenting with new recording techniques and locations. All the vocals on the title track and opener ‘Konkylie’ were recorded outside in such unlikely spots as a tunnel and a forest. Then there was the assemblage of effects they created to inject a random element into proceedings. “We had this set-up of effects that we ran sound through to create an organic feel. Like tape echoes, other effects and synths. We’d control one element each and we’d mess around,” explains Nikolaj.

The band make no apologies for the fact that ‘Konkylie’ is a dense, at times complicated record. It’s partly down to the fact that they’ve spent a lot of time on it. “If you spend two years on 11 songs then there will be a lot of detail and strange sounds in there,” confirms Nikolaj. But it’s also a product of the four members different music influences. “Our musical backgrounds are so different from each other. Jonas and Silas are from a clubby background and they still make house and techno together as Kenton Slash Demon; Simon’s is jazz and neo soul; and I’m somewhere in between, ’60s and ’70s breaks, bands like Broadcast and The Slits and White Noise. That’s why there are so many elements in there — dance, post-punk, classical. But it’s hard to pick out tracks and connect them to one particular song. I think that’s a good thing.

And if it’s been a difficult, at times protracted process, the band are convinced it’s been worth it. “We’re really pleased with the album,” says Nikolaj. “All the songs fit together more than anything we’ve done up to this point. A lot of details we left in the songs from earlier versions. I think it gives the record a sense of many layers. The arrangements are bigger and better. It’s more evolved all round.”

True enough. When Saints Go Machine: you’ve never heard anything like them.

TRACK LISTING

1. Konkylie
2. Church And Law
3. Parix
4. Chestnut
5. The Same Scissors
6. Jets
7. Kelly
8. On The Move
9. Whoever Made You Stand So Still
10. Add Ends

Sweden’s Mono Stereo return with new single "Me And My Machine" on Minty Highway. The lead track will be backed by a brand new, acoustically led track - "You Gotta Take Me Home".

"Me And My Machine" has been produced by Kramer, the man behind the legendary Galaxie 500 canon and the discovery of Low, and is the first glimpse into the Malmö band’s debut album – due for release spring 2011. His stamp on the bands addictively melodic take on psychedelia works perfectly, with the single cementing Mono Stereo as one of the finest purveyors of the revivalist sound in Europe today.

The B-side, recorded by the band themselves, finds the band in a more introspective mood, and brings a new rawness and diversity to their sound.

Having received welcome support from Steve Lamacq and Tom Ravenscroft on BBC 6music for previous single ‘On and On’, as well as comparisons to the likes of Brian Jonestown Massacre, Black Angels and BRMC from a variety of online music critics, the timing seems ideal for Mono Stereo’s brand of psychedelic rock to be brought to a wider social consciousness.

A bold new look, sound and concept for Kraftwerk. Over supple processed rhythms which predate the rise of European techno and trance, they address automation and alienation, space travel and engineering, the seductive allure of urban landscapes and the vacant glamour of celebrity. Clipped and funky, "The Robots" adds another dimension to Kraftwerk's ultra-dry sense of humour. Behind its intoxicating melodic pulse, "The Model" is a highly prophetic satire on the beauty industry, so ahead of its time that it only becomes a UK chart-topper by accident three years later. And "Neon Lights" is Kraftwerk's most achingly romantic song to date, a sci-fi lullaby for cities at twilight. Pure magic.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Robots (2009 Digital Remaster)
2. Spacelab (2009 Digital Remaster)
3. Metropolis (2009 Digital Remaster)
4. The Model (2009 Digital Remaster)
5. Neon Lights (2009 Digital Remaster)
6. The Man Machine (2009 Digital Remaster)

During the time between their first and second albums, Soft Machine toured with The Jimi Hendrix Experience and even briefly employed future Police guitarist Andy Summers as a replacement for Daevid Allen. Bassist and songwriter Kevin Ayers left the band and was replaced by Hugh Hopper, a move that put to rest the psychedelic pop era of Soft Machine: from here on out, the band would be heavily influenced by jazz. "Volume Two" is as much a transitional release for Soft Machine as their debut album, as it represents the band at a period just before they developed their mature style.

Tracklisting
1. Pataphysical Introduction, Pt. I
2. A Concise British Alphabet, Pt. 1
3. Hibou Anemone And Bear
4. A Concise British Alphabet, Pt. II
5. Hulloder
6. Dada Was Here
7. Thank You Pierrot Lunaire
8. Have You Ever Bean Grean?
9. Pataphysical Introduction, Pt. II
10. Out Of Tunes
11. As Long As He Lies Perfectly Still
12. Dedicated To You But You Weren't Listening
13. Fire Engine Passing With Bells Clanging
14. Pig
15. Orange Skin Food
16. A Door Opens And Closes
17. 10:30 Returns To The Bedroom

With all things digital taking over the western world, Manchester outfit Shmoo draw our attention to the beauty of old school analogue sounds on their debut 7". On "She Machine" they pile up layers of electronic beats, live drums and synths, packing the song with Moog-laden filters and gorgeous pads for a retro sounding future electrock'n'roll anthem. Less electro, more rock'n'roll is B-side track "Every Second" that comes across like Muse but with a punkier edge - no wonder it's a big live favourite!

Former bassist & vocalist with space-rockers Jessamine, Dawn returns with her second solo album. Where Smithson's first album was wounded and tentative in it's approach, "Earth Machine" is strong and sure of it's footing. Where there was deep melancholy with a glimmer of hope in the former, the latter reaches it's winding paths out to further hills and valleys, encompassing a wide range of emotion. Songs seem to tell one long story as they segue into one another. From the rounded nylon string guitar picking and gurgling synths to the pure feedback drones and sometimes Floydian electric guitar, "Earth Machine" has real continuity and a strong sense of being a true 'album'.

During the time between their first and second albums, Soft Machine toured with The Jimi Hendrix Experience and even briefly employed future Police guitarist Andy Summers as a replacement for Daevid Allen. Bassist and songwriter Kevin Ayers left the band and was replaced by Hugh Hopper, a move that put to rest the psychedelic pop era of Soft Machine: from here on out, the band would be heavily influenced by jazz. "Volume Two" is as much a transitional release for Soft Machine as their debut album, as it represents the band at a period just before they developed their mature style.

Hard-Fi are the product of their suburban West London environment; the sound of twenty-something gun-slingers on the minimum wage. It's the sound of a band weaned on the heady concrete glamour of The Clash, Dexys, Curtis Mayfield, and Happy Mondays. In love and in debt - the raw materials required to soundtrack a life of box-fresh Adidas, Berwick Street vinyl, and the black economy. This track was originally release as their debut single and has been unavailable and much sought after since.

"The Cloud Making Machine" is Laurent's most personal album to date. It's not a straight up dance album, but by turns cinematic, deep, bluesy, experimental and only sometimes aimed squarely at the dancefloor. Since "Unreasonable Behaviour" Laurent has been hooking up with musicians from different scenes, amongst them, the Norwegian jazz pianist Bugge Wesseltoft and Dhafer Youssef, a Tunisian singer and master oud player, who was invited to come and work in Garnier's Parisien studio, The Kub. This studio has, over the past four years, become a meeting point for musician friends such as Scan X, Sangoma Everett, Marc Chalosse or Philippe Nadaud, all of whom bring their skills to the LP as well.

Cartwheel have been together since 1998, playing gigs around Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide alongside noteworthy bands such as Ninetynine, The Lucksmiths and Architecture in Helsinki. This is their first release for Valentine and features four tracks of skewed, down-beat electro-pop which slips somewhere between Stereolab and Lali Puna - with a touch of old-school 909 action along the way.

Third album from Denmark's Dureforsog. The album is a combination of their diverse range of influences - Melt Banana, This Heat, Residents, all mixed together and moulded into their unique sound.

More than any other Suicide Machine album before it, there's plenty of nose-thumbing old-school punk such as "The Killing Blow", "Scars" and "Honor Among Thieves". From Detroit they have an energized, highly intense sound. One track to look out for is their bonkers version of REM's hit "It's The End Of The World As We Know It".

Covers album, including versions of tracks by everyone from Dylan and the Rolling Stones to Devo and Africa Bambaataa. This special edition also includes 2 live hidden bouns tracks.