Known for their unique blend of punk rock, post-punk, folk, alternative rock and all kinds of musical sub-cultures, New Model Army refuses to belong to any club or style. Formed in Bradford in 1980, the band's lineup has changed over the years, with Justin Sullivan being the constant and central figure. They have released numerous albums and continue to tour and record music, maintaining a dedicated fanbase. Their music often addresses themes related to social and political issues, personal struggles, and the human condition, making them a significant presence in the alternative rock and post-punk music scenes. The 2019 studio album “From Here” ranked # 13 in the UK Album charts, and the 2023 live album “Sinfonia” hit #1 in the UK Music Video-Charts, making it the highest charting album in the band’s history.

Described as "Dark Motown" by Justin himself, “Unbroken” features a diverse collection of tracks that touch on topics ranging from social and political commentary to deeply personal reflections. The album is a powerful and emotionally intense body of work ranging from rebellious tracks as “I Did Nothing Wrong”, to contemplative songs like “First Summer After”. With this album, the band continues to push the boundaries of their signature sound while staying true to the themes that have made them a force to be reckoned with in the music world. “Unbroken” is the first studio album since 2019’s long-player “From Here” and the 16th studio album of the band.

TRACK LISTING

1. First Summer After
2. Language
3. Reload
4. I Did Nothing Wrong
5. Cold Wind
6. Coming Or Going
7. If I Am Still Me
8. Legend
9. Do You Really Want To Go There?
10. Idumea
11. Deserters

Juan Atkin's masterpiece compilation, the blueprint of techno albums.... the 1993 Model 500 "Classics" compilation with some of Juan Atkins' biggest early Metroplex milestones, with some of them in exclusive remixed versions. 3 decades later Metroplex is re-releasing this collection of hugely influential tracks for a new generation to play from fresh and clean vinyl!. Just like the recent 12" reissue series, this album has been fully remastered with all the care and attention to detail you can imagine. Tracks like "No UFOs", "The Chase", "Techno Music", "Night Drive (Time, Space, Transmat)" or "Off To Battle" are basically techno ground zero, with the electro influence of mid-80s to late-80s Juan Atkins productions still omnipresent. 30 years on since its original release on R&S records, "Classics" is still as gritty and timeless a statement as ever. Pure sonic futurism!

TRACK LISTING

01 No Ufo S Remix
02 The Chase Remix
03 Off To Battle Remix
04 Night Drive Time Space Transmat
05 Electric Entourage
06 Electronic Remix
07 Ocean To Ocean Instrumental
08 Techno Music M500 Version
09 Sound Of Stereo

New Metroplex! Featuring Basic Channel demigod Moritz Von Oswald on remix duties.

"Starlight" is an adequate title for this swung piece of Detroit minimalism / futurism. Using slowly evolving synth parameters, a reverb-laden hi-hat rhythm and supporting bass weight, the track rocks on a dub-echoed pendulum; cavernous, pitch black, and gazing into the endless wonder of the galaxy.

Grounding the track into more submerged terra firma, Moritz accentuates the swung rhythms, minimizing the space and making the track hit more directly - especially around the low mids. It's an expert refix which retains all the qualities of the original whilst giving it a whole new sonic environment.

Specialist tackle from two stalwarts of the game - these are gonna fly out so buy now or cry later! 

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Hotly anticipcated new music from techno overlords Juan Atkins and Moritz. It doesn't disappoint!

TRACK LISTING

A. Starlight
B. Starlight (Moritz Remix)

Dogsbody is the debut album by Brooklyn-based Model/Actriz (Cole Haden, Jack Wetmore, Ruben Radlauer, Aaron Shapiro). Inspired by the repetition of electronic music and propulsive sounds of post-punk, Dogsbody was named ‘Best New Music’ by Pitchfork – as well as featured in Rolling Stone, Alt Press, SPIN, Dazed, The Needle Drop, and more.

Having toured with Gilla Band, Machine Girl, Liily, The Soft Moon, !!!, and Girl Pusher, Dogsbody is Model/Actriz’s debut into a new lyrical and physical landscape.

TRACK LISTING

1. Donkey Show
2. Mosquito
3. Crossing Guard
4. Slate
5. Divers
6. Amaranth
7. Pure Mode
8. Maria
9. Sleepless
10. Sun In

After the haunting My Name Is Safe in Your Mouth (2018) and the dramatic, synth-loaded Who the Power (2020), Liela Moss’ new album Internal Working Model bristles with frustration at our disconnected culture but also – crucially – burns with a desire to reconnect – in her own words: “We see the beneficiaries of the status quo suppress realness and wellbeing by selling you a banal alternative that upholds their agenda. I want to add to the firepower to burn that old house down.”

With Moss’ expressive voice leading the way over fractious synth backdrops, the result is at once tense and tender, timeless and timely; determined to plug into positivity wherever it can be found. Personal and expansive, galvanic and inquisitive, it’s an album that sees the modern world’s mess through open eyes but isn’t willing to stop there: it wants to seek out solutions, source the potential in other ways of being and seeing.

TRACK LISTING

1 Empathy Files
2 WOO (No One's Awake)
3 Vanishing Shadows
4 The Wall From The Floor
5 Ache In The Middle
6 New Day
7 Come And Find Me
8 Welcome To It
9 Love As Hard As You Can

His influences are broad, yet tied together by a strong desire to share his story and spark emotion in the listener. In his hometown he experienced the peak of UK garage and jungle/drum’n’bass. From his early forays into music, playing guitar, to his recent incarnation as Model Man, Mark has always drawn on his eclectic tastes to transmit a range of different feelings.

His debut self-titled album traverses a variety of UK-influenced sounds imbued with Model Man’s classical training and his eclectic tastes from Steve Reich to Todd Edwards and Bill Withers; piano keys dancing alongside 2-step beats, jungle breaks slamming down as wistful melodies drift overhead.

TRACK LISTING

Emoclew
Don’t Cry Feat. Hamzaa
Sweet Surrender
ESC (Holding Back Feat. Rationale)
Hurt Feat. Arctic Lake
Trappist-1
Wait Till Tonight
Take Me There
Distant Memory
Sidewinder
Clarity
Impromptu No1 (Apogee)

Spanish Model tells the story of what happens to a seminal album (This Year’s Model) recorded 42 years ago when it is reinterpreted with new voices in another language. This is a story of transformation, adaptation, reflection; a mash-up of language, geography, culture, and passion. How past/present and time/ space can partner with music/talent to reimagine a completely new work – Spanish Model. Elvis Costello’s “This Year’s Model” will be reinterpreted all in Spanish with 19 of today’s top Latin artists (Luis Fonsi, Sebastian Yatra, Juanes, and many more) representing a total of 9 countries. The lyrics have been precisely translated to have the featured Latin artists sing to the original multis.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
No Action - Elvis Costello & The Attractions, Nina Diaz
(I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea - Elvis Costello & The Attractions, Raquel Sofía, Fuego
The Beat - Elvis Costello & The Attractions, Draco Rosa
Pump It Up - Elvis Costello & The Attractions, Juanes, Guitar: Mick Jones
Little Triggers - Elvis Costello & The Attractions, La Marisoul
You Belong To Me - Elvis Costello & The Attractions, Luis Fonsi
Hand In Hand - Elvis Costello & The Attractions, Francisca Valenzuela, Luis Humberto Navejas
This Year's Girl - Elvis Costello & The Attractions, Cami

Side B
Lip Service - Elvis Costello & The Attractions, Pablo López
Living In Paradise - Elvis Costello & The Attractions, Jesse & Joy
Lipstick Vogue - Elvis Costello & The Attractions, Morat
Night Rally - Elvis Costello & The Attractions, Jorge Drexler
Big Tears - Elvis Costello & The Attractions, Sebastian Yatra, Guitar: Mick Jones
Radio Radio - Elvis Costello & The Attractions, Fito Paez
Crawling To The U.S.A. - Elvis Costello & The Attractions, Gian Marco, Nicole Zignago
Running Out Of Angels - Elvis Costello & The Attractions, Vega

Formed in Bradford in 1980, New Model Army's beginnings were inspired by Northern Soul, Punk Rock and the incendiary atmosphere of the times. Since then, they have had a long, creative and eventful journey. They have been massively influential in 'post-punk', 'folkrock', 'political-rock', 'goth', 'metal' and all kinds of musical sub-cultures but they have steadfastly refused to belong to any club or style.

Members have changed over the years and musical styles have evolved but at the heart of the band Justin has remained, along with a distinct and sincere belief in the power of music to inspire and effect change on both a personal and political scale, locally and globally.

'From Here' was recorded earlier on the tiny Norwegian island of Giske at the beautiful Ocean Sound Recordings studio and reflects the spectacular isolation of that environment yet has profound messages for the world we all live in and the times we are experiencing. The album was mostly written in just two months and recorded in only nine days and is the follow up on the two hugely acclaimed albums Between Dog And Wolf (2013) and Winter (2016). New Model Army decided to work again with Lee Smith and Jamie Lockhart, with whom they have developed a productive relationship over a few years and who persuaded them to leave a lot of the details of the music to spontaneity.

“This album has a feel that is different to our other albums, but it still contains all the elements that characterise our peculiarly unidentifiable music – perhaps even more than ever. And “From Here” was an obvious title. The record belongs to a very special place and a particular time – what is happening in the world, where we are as a band and where we are as people.”

Despite the doors being closed on Dissident in 2009, former boss Andy Blake has been anything but quiet, with his World Unknown imprint bringing the acid and EBM sounds of his night of the same name to the world. Now he's started another label, In Plain Sight, which looks set to bring more esoteric house sounds to our ears, with the first release coming from the hitherto unknown YoungTEE. The first track, "Dr Chocolate" fuses the kind of oddball low-slung sounds and spoken-word samples that In Flagranti have been masters of for years, with jazzy keys and 808 cowbells which hint at a subtle Chicago influence. The classic house influence continues of "Perfect Model", which combines misty chords with an 80s pop groove, falsetto vocal sample and synth jam solo which comes across as alternate universe Michael Jackson track. As you'd expect from a label curated by Blake, it's house music, but not quite as you know it.

STAFF COMMENTS

Philippa says: After Dissident and World Unknown Andy Blake arrives with another new imprint, In Plain Sight, which looks set to bring more esoteric house sounds to our ears. YoungTEE is the label's debut.

Post-hardcore heroes, Garrison get more EMOtional with every release and these five new songs are their best yet. It's the record that will undoubtedly propel them into the emo premier league with its echoes of the Foo Fighters and the strength of the songs.