WITH A FOREWORD BY SHAUN RYDER, THE MANCHESTER CHRONICLES is an exhilarating and highly personal folk-telling of the Manchester music scene, as seen through the eyes and ears (and hair) of one of the city's favourite sons, Clint Boon from the iconic Inspiral Carpets. From early days of punk in the mid-1970s through the crucible of the 1980s indie and psychedelic scenes, the explosion of Madchester, Rave and then Brit Pop in the 1990s, this is an intimately told adventure of an extraordinary musical renaissance. A born storyteller, Clint Boon pieces together a collage of often hilarious stories to give us a unique take on the city's coming of age alongside his own.

At art school, rehearsal studios and sweaty gigs, we meet the movers and shakers of Manchester, often well before they were famous, as they came together to forge their identities and put the city on the map. Be it a near-fatal car crash, or suffering the ignominy of being on Top of The Pops one week and signing on the dole the next - while your former roadie, Noel, makes pop history - Clint entertainingly captures the mayhem of music, success and the city's extraordinary musical family. Encountering bands like Buzzcocks, Joy Division, The Fall, New Order, the Smiths, James, the Stone Roses, the Happy Mondays, Elbow, Inspiral Carpets and Oasis, raconteur Clint tells the Manchester legend not as an exhaustive history, but as what it felt like to be there at the time, taking the trip of a lifetime.

When MONO recorded their previous album, 'OATH', with longtime production partner and friend Steve Albini in 2023, they never imagined it would be the final studio album they made together. Albini tragically died the following year, leaving an incalculable void in the lives of not only everyone who knew him, but also everyone with an attachment to any of the thousands of records he helped bring into the world over the past four decades. He brought clarity to chaos and a selfless dedication to art and artists that was unrivaled.

On both a personal and practical level, the loss left MONO facing profound grief and uncertainty. Albini had become a fundamental part of MONO’s unmistakable sound, and the idea of replacing him was daunting to say the least. Enter Brad Wood (Touché Amoré, The Smashing Pumpkins).

Chosen for his familiarity with MONO’s creative and technical process—as well as his decades-long friendship with Steve Albini—Brad Wood entered Albini’s storied Electrical Audio studios in September 2025 to record what would become S'nowdrop'. Working once again with Chicago-based conductor and orchestral director Chad McCullough, MONO enlisted a 10-piece orchestra and an 8-piece choir for the eight massive compositions that make up 'Snowdrop'. With the band performing and Wood recording in the same hallowed space where most of MONO’s records had been created over their 25-year history, the songs on 'Snowdrop' carry an extra weight. Mixed by Wood at his Seagrass home studio in Los Angeles, the album feels both intimate and enveloping.

Where a pall could easily hang over Snowdrop, there is instead an extraordinary sense of gratitude. Rather than steeping in heartache, the album holds a poignant appreciation for a life well spent with a dear friend—and a yearning for what may come. 'Snowdrop' is the sound of a band transforming shock and sadness into hope and wonder, finding renewed focus in the freedom of the unknown.

TRACK LISTING

1. Snowdrop 
2. Winter Daphne 
3. Gerbera 
4. Statice 
5. Hedera 
6. Shion (5:03)
7. Bells of Ireland (5:59)
8. Farewell to Spring

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2026 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON SATURDAY APRIL 18TH ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

IF THERE ARE ANY REMAINING COPIES THEY WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE ONLINE AT 8PM (BST) ON MONDAY APRIL 20th).

Released to celebrate Miles Davis centennial in 2026, this 75th anniversary reissue of Davis' first album as a bandleader was originally released on Prestige Records in 1951.

Cut (AAA) from the original mono tapes by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio, this Limited Edition 10” vinyl comes housed in a Stoughton tip-on jacket.

'Begin Here' features fan favourites 'She’s Not There', 'Summertime', and 'The Way I Feel Inside', plus three US bonus tracks including 'Tell Her No'.

This definitive new edition combines all 17 tracks from the UK and US versions of The Zombies’ 1965 debut album, remastered in its original mono mix. 'Begin Here' (Mono Remastered) is the next chapter in the series of Zombies reissues via the band’s own label Beechwood Park Records, with the same team as 'Odessey and Oracle' - again being overseen by Matthew and Jamie White, mastering by Reuben Cohen at Lurssen Mastering, and brand-new liner notes by the legendary David Fricke. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Road Runner
2. Summertime
3. I Can't Make Up My Mind
4. The Way I Feel Inside
5. Work 'n' Play
6. You've Really Got A Hold On Me/Bring It On Home To Me
7. She's Not There
8. Sticks And Stones
9. Can't Nobody Love You
10. Woman
11. I Don't Want To Know
2. I Remember When I Loved Her
13. What More Can I Do
14. I Got My Mojo Working
15. It's Alright With Me
16. Sometimes
17. Tell Her No

In 1955 Miles Davis played an all-star jam session at the Newport Jazz Festival with Thelonious Monk on piano, Gerry Mulligan on baritone sax and Zoot Sims on tenor sax. This performance immediately drew the attention of Columbia Records' George Avakian, who was so impressed that he immediately offered Davis a contract if he could form a regular band. The group he then assembled would go down in history as Davis' so-called "First Great Quintet", consisting of John Coltrane on tenor sax, Red Garland on piano, Philly Joe Jones on drums, Paul Chambers on bass and of course Miles himself on trumpet. 'Round About Midnight is Miles Davis' first record for Columbia and also the first studio recording of the First Great Quintet. The recording sessions began on October 26 1955 but the album wasn't released until 1957 as Davis was still under contract at Prestige at the time. These respective sessions yielded Steamin', Workin', Cookin' and Relaxin'; albums that would go down in history as quintessential blueprints of late 1950s hard bop. The record is made up of a collection of standards and one traditional song ("Dear Old Stockholm", from the 19th century). Notably, it features what may be considered the most well-known versions of Thelonious Monk's "'Round Midnight" and "Bye Bye Blackbird". That Avakian made a golden signing was sufficiently clear from the start, but no one could foresee that it would be this quintet on Columbia that would go on to change the course of modern jazz forever with Kind of Blue.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. 'Round Midnight
2. Ah-Leu-Cha
3. All Of You

Side B
1. Bye Bye Blackbird
2. Tadd's Delight
3. Dear Old Stockholm

Unashamedly literate UK post-punk sophisticates The Monochrome Set, having amassed a formidable catalogue of releases over 5 decades, are ready to release their new opus ’Lotus Bridge’ on Tapete Records - the band's home for the last twelve years and six studio albums. Their instantly recognisable sound and darkly humorous lyrics have always set them apart. Bid's cerebral wit and debonair tones, melded to infectious melodies and deft songcraft of a cinematic and literary quality, have been quietly influential over a diverse set of artists since their inception and throughout different stages of their career. The band are, in essence, a national treasure.

The new album 'Lotus Bridge' is a psychedelic trip into Bid’s rich and fantastical dreamworld. Based on a singular dream that re-presented itself after an eight-month hiatus just when it became time to record
again, Bid recounts in sharp detail the myriad of characters and surroundings that appeared in his dream and inspired this new set of stories to unfold. Bid elucidates, "It seemed to me, as I wrote these lyrics, that this whole story was a metaphor for a crumbling civilization, and whether or not I would leave it behind if I were given the opportunity. The other side of the bridge represents what seems to be an unknown future that I'm being asked to accept without explanation, and the other songs represent a journey back through the past and are a sometimes allegorical re-evaluation of it. I think that I managed to keep to a close narrative thread in the lyrics, and deliberately kept the underlying musical structures in a similar tempo and key. Even old poetry is timeless, if it is about personal experiences".

This new album follows on from Bid's recently released book of selected lyrics - Strange Young Alien - published by Ventil Verlag in November 2025 - a book that gives invaluable insight into his songwriting process and the more you learn about Bid's writing process, the more mysterious and intriguing things become.

'Lotus Bridge' has a subtle but quite different feel to previous TMS albums - the core use of electric piano and acoustic guitar, electric guitars often used in wide stereo, and overall a very focused and almost orchestral feel to it. There are also ambient sounds between many of the songs, so that the whole album feels like a connected whole. Bid is joined in The Monochrome Set for this recording by fellow original Andy Warren on bass, Stephen Gilchrist on drums and Athen Ayren on keyboards and guitar. Alice Healey once again provides backing vocals.

TRACK LISTING

1. Lotus Bridge
2. Diaphanous
3. The Abominations Of Hubert
4. Jenny Greenlocks
5. Arcadia
6. Athanatoi
7. Leander
8. Map Of The Night Sky
9. Polaris Aa
10. Our Sweet Souls

Kim Rapatti (Mono Junk) is a long-running Finnish electronic music producer and the operator behind DUM Records. In the early 1990s, releasing across multiple aliases was a practical way to keep output organized and to present a broader label roster. Mars 31 Heaven was one of Rapatti's period-specific side names, used to separate a more inward strand of work from the main Mono Junk line.

Mono Junk presents Mars 31 Heaven: Collected Works '93–'95 is the first time these recordings have been compiled onto a single release. The tracks were previously scattered across various compilations, with "Little Elephant" later reappearing on a Mono Junk release. Audio was sourced from the original DAT tapes and remastered by Michael Diekmann. "Osaka House Remix" and "World of Isolation" originally appeared on the B-side of DUM Records' Blue File Compilation (1993). "Violins" and "Abyss" appear on vinyl for the first time after CD-only appearances ("Violins" on Dum Trax, 1995, and "Abyss" on Unitunes and Came From Outer Space I), and the original mix of "Osaka House" is previously unreleased. Housed in full-colour sleeves designed by Ed Cheverton.

TRACK LISTING

1. Osaka House Remix
2. World Of Isolation
3. Violins
4. Little Elephant
5. Osaka House
6. Abyss

Martin Blix is BLIXX86 and his entire catalogue so far dropped back in 2021 as part of a self related run of singles. Now the lead single 'Pull The Trigger' from the last of those EPs is revisited with some new remixes. The first new version is a dark, chugging Italo cut with twinkling synth stars and gritty bass. 'Italoconnection Remix 2' has a happier outlook with rueful synths hovering above the lighter low end. There's also an AP Mono Remix that brings a deadpan 80s vocal and taps into the synth wave sounds of that era before a Gianni Durante instrumental closes out with the tightest and most retro future Italo vibes of the lot.

TRACK LISTING

Side 1
Martin Blix - Pull The Trigger (Mix 11)
Martin Blix - Pull The Trigger (Italoconnection Remix 2.3)

Side 2
Blixx86 - Pull The Trigger (A.P. Mono Remix)
Blixx86 - Pull The Trigger (Gianni Durante Instrumental)

Originally released in 1999. A very hard to find piece now re-issued for the first time with a respectful remaster. Berlin native T.H. Reingold (aka Tom Clark) has been an integral part of the scene there for for over 25 years - establishing Gold Plate and Highgrade Records along the way. Together on this EP with former Tresor resident Mad Max, the much sought after 'Sophisticated EP' is a heady blend of old school house, techno and loopy disco chops. Foundation music - part of the eclectic soup that became known as the Berlin club sound. Originals fetch big bucks. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Symbolic of Berlin's up-all-nite mindset, this lost little nugget, remarkably produced in 1999, contains four tracks of brilliantly broiling house energy. Not afraid to flirt with the techno heads (a prerequisite in Berlin at the time!); there's also a restrained futurism which will find favour with lovers of Craig Richards and Carl Craig.

TRACK LISTING

El Sheik
Monicas Blow Job
Ice Express
Criminal Justice

When MONO first conceived of a live concert backed by an orchestra, it seemed like a once-in-a-lifetime dream — an event that would require a unique set of circumstances, an enormous crew of like-minded and generous contributors, and a titanic amount of luck. At exactly a decade into their career, it was by far their most ambitious undertaking. They flew from their home country of Japan — where, at the time, they were ironically less acclaimed and accomplished than in the United States and Europe — to New York City, where they assembled an orchestra, secured a historic venue near Lincoln Center, and bet on themselves to pull off a truly unforgettable evening.

Not only was the concert a rousing success, but it spawned what has become a defining part of MONO’s identity: the orchestral live performance. Since that magical night in NYC in 2009, MONO have performed more than three dozen live concerts with a diverse array of orchestras, spanning nearly as many countries throughout the world. Their last such concert in Japan, however, was more than 15 years ago. A quarter-century into their storied career, MONO has finally come home.

'Forever Home: Live in Japan with Orchestra PITREZA' celebrates MONO’s 25th Anniversary OATH Orchestral World Tour, which stretched to 20 concerts in Europe, Asia, and the United States in the final months of 2024. Recorded in front of a sold-out crowd at Spotify O-EAST in Tokyo, Forever Home features a 12-piece orchestra — led by orchestra director and frequent collaborator Chad McCullough — supporting MONO as they perform their latest album, OATH, in its entirety. The 100-minute concert concludes with a pair of the band’s most iconic songs — 'Ashes in the Snow' and 'Everlasting Light' — that pay homage to that first-ever orchestral live performance in NYC 15 years ago.

Recorded and mixed by MONO’s longtime touring sound engineer Matt Cook, Forever Home captures the venerable group in their natural environment, and at their most transcendent. With the symphonic accompaniment of Japan’s Orchestra PITREZA, MONO makes a room in Tokyo feel like a limitless sea — mercurial, contemplative, and overwhelming.

TRACK LISTING

1. Oath
2. Run On 
3. Reflection
4. Hear The Wind Sing
5. Hourglass
6. Moonlight Drawing
7. Holy Winter
8. We All Shine
9. Time Goes By
10. Ashes In The Snow
11. Everlasting Light 

Colemine Records is proud to present a special 10 year anniversary pressing of 'Sound of Sinning,' Monophonic's breakthrough studio LP. Released in April of 2015, Monophonic's proudly carry the torch of the rich musical history and culture of San Francisco through the generations into today’s musical landscape. Holding on to tradition, but by no means purists of any kind, they play their own brand of music known as “Psychedelic Soul.” The groups prior album 'In Your Brain,' saw the band pulling influences from such acts as early Funkadelic, Sly and The Family Stone and the The Temptation's Norman Whitfield produced records.

'Sound of Sinning' marked the beginning of the band's growth in all areas. Touching on Northern soul, doo-wop, rock and roll, Psych pop, and cinematic music, Monophonics show off their diversity while remaining true to their roots. Overall it's heartfelt music and old school vibes, without losing sight of the present. This is is music steeped in that timeless feeling when people could write and produce songs that you could listen to over and over again. 'Sound of Sinning' was produced by Kelly Finnigan & Ian McDonald and recorded on an old Tascam eight-track 1/4” tape machine at Transistor Sound Studios in San Rafael, CA. Since 'Sound of Sinning,' the group has gone on to release the critically acclaimed 'It's Only Us' (2020) and concept-record 'Sage Motel' (2023).

TRACK LISTING

1. Lying Eyes
2. Sound Of Sinning
3. La La La Love Me
4. Promises
5. Falling Apart
6. Hanging On
7. Strange Love
8. Find My Way Back Home
9. Holding Back Your Love
10. Too Long
11. Everyone's Got...

Mike James Kirkland, who has been out of the musical spotlight since 2020, returns with the first single from his upcoming fourth album, releasing on Ubiquity/Luv N Haight in early spring 2026.“Glowin’” finds the Los Angeles-by-way-of-Yazoo City, Mississippi, artist collaborating with the Bay Area-based Monophonics on a cover of Dr. John’s deep album cut from the 1969 ATCO release, Babylon.That same year garage rockers The Rationals, whose cover inspired this rendition, cut the only other version on their sole full-length.Having sat in record bins for far too long, it’s beyond time for the beautiful mantra to return to listeners’ ears.Where the original blended a spiritual jazz ethos with a subtle but jaunty horn arrangement, Kirkland’s interpretation smooths out the proceedings.Lyrical elements from the Rebennack-penned verses are minimally rearranged while keeping a strong connection to the song’s roots.Kirkland showcases a confident and pensive delivery, while Kelly Finnigan provides dreamy background vocals that beautifully accompany an understated bass line and flute solo.Sixty years since Kirkland entered the music business with his family and over 50 years since his debut solo album, it’s a sensational return to form from an artist who wants to do more than just hang on in there.

TRACK LISTING

1. Glowin'
2. Glowin' (Instrumental)

'Odessey and Oracle' features fan favorites 'Time of the Season' and 'This Will Be Our Year' and is the resurrection story that keeps on giving. This new edition is the first time the band’s original mono mix has appeared since the record’s British issue in April 1968 and it’s the first time ever in America. 'Odessey and Oracle', The Zombies’ second album, has been named as one of Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time and has been dubbed “a psych-pop masterpiece…decades ahead of its time” by Pitchfork. The newly remastered in mono album now has new liner notes by the brilliant David Fricke.

TRACK LISTING

1. Care Of Cell 44
2. A Rose For Emily
3. Maybe After He's Gone
4. Beechwood Park
5. Brief Candles
6. Hung Up On A Dream
7. Changes
8. I Want Her She Wants Me
9. This Will Be Our Year
10. Butcher’s Tale (Western Front 1914)
11. Friends Of Mine
12. Time Of The Season

Originally released in 1997, Princess Mononoke explored environmental issues through an epic feud between forest gods and a mining community.

Studio Ghibli Records presents the vinyl version of the Soundtrack Album by Joe Hisaishi.

Making its vinyl debut, the soundtrack was recorded with the Tokyo City Philharmonic Orchestra, and features the main theme song with vocals by Yoshikazu Mera.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Legend Of Ashitaka
2. The Demon God
3. Departure -To The West-
4. Demon Power
5. The Land Of The Impure
6. The Encounter
7. Kodamas
8. The Forest Of The God
9. Evening At The Fireworks
10. The Demon God II -The Lost Mountain-
11. Lady Eboshi
12. The Tatara Woman Work Song
13. The Furies
14. The Young Man From The East
15. Requiem
16. Will To Live
17. San And Ashitaka In The Forest Of The Deer God
18. Princess Mononoke Theme Song (Instrumental Version)
19. Requiem II
20. Princess Mononoke Theme Song (Vocal)
21. Battle Drums
22. Battle In Front Of The Ironworks
23. Demon Power II
24. Requiem III
25. Retreat
26. The Demon God III
27. Adagio Of Life And Death
28. The World Of The Dead
29. The World Of The Dead II
30. Adagio Of Life And Death II
31. Ashitaka And San
32. Princess Mononoke Theme Song (Vocal Ending)
33. The Legend Of Ashitaka (Ending)

Just before recording their epic disasterpiece, You Are There in late 2005, Mono began collaborating with fellow Tokyo native and modern electronic composer, world’s end girlfriend. The result was a five-part suite of neoclassical grace and luminescence that defies easy categorization. As dark as the bottom of the ocean, and nearly as otherworldly, Palmless Prayer / Mass Murder Refrain finds ,ono inhabiting an illuminated world previously only hinted at in their most orchestral compositions. Recorded in multiple studios in Japan last year, Palmless Prayer highlighted Mono’s increasing obsession with classical music with world’s end girlfriend’s mastery of subtle dynamic shifts. Forgoing their tendency to erupt into hellish bursts of speaker-destroying noise, Mono instead exhibited remarkable restraint, stretching song lengths up to and beyond the 15-minute mark and turning barely-there crescendoes into earth-shaking events. Less an epiphany and more a reminder of the beauty that already exists all around us, Palmless Prayer was a miniature panoramic view of the sea on an eerily still day, the current swaying at an impossibly laconic pace and the sound of a thousand tiny waves crashing in the distance all at once.

TRACK LISTING

1. Part One
2. Part Two
3. Part Three
4. Part Four
5. Part Five

All You Need is Love is a ground-breaking oral history of the Beatles and how it all came to an end. Based on never-before-published or heard interviews with Paul McCartney, Yoko Ono, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, and their families, friends, and business associates, this is a landmark book, containing stunning new revelations, about the biggest band the world has ever seen. In 1980-1981 former COO of Apple Corp, Peter Brown and author Steven Gaines interviewed everyone in the Beatles' inner circle and included a small portion of the transcripts in their international bestselling book The Love You Make, which spent four months on the New York Times bestseller list.

But left in their archives was a treasure trove of unique and candid interviews that they chose not to publish, until now. A powerful work assembled through honest, intimate, sometimes contradictory and always fascinating testimony, All You Need is Love is a one-of-a-kind insight into the final days, weeks, months and years of the Beatles phenomenon.

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2025 EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

The Courettes proudly present their third album, 'Back In Mono', now available on picture disc LP! The album cemented their place in the garage rock firmament. Its “spit ´n´snarl garage rumble-meets-Phil Spector pop” showcased the band in top form - great songwriting skills, Spector-esque arrangements, with broader nuances, influences and production qualities added to their garage rock recipe.Fourteen Wagnerian teen-trash-tragedy masterpieces - it's as if The Ronettes and The Ramones were invited to a wild party in Gold Star Studios’ echo chamber. Fuzz guitars, loud drums, trashy pianos, jingle bells, tambourines and three-minute dance floor garage killers where a Wall of Sound blasts the songs out of the speakers! Produced and recorded by Søren Christensen at Starr Sound Recording Studios in Denmark and mixed by top producer/wall of sound aficionado Seiki Sato in Japan.

TRACK LISTING

1. Want You! Like A Cigarette
2. I Can Hardly Wait
3. Hey Boy
4. Night Time (The Boy Of Mine)
5. R.I.N.G.O.
6. Until You're Mine
7. Trash Can Honey
8. Hop The Twig
9. Misfits & Freaks
10. My One And Only Baby
11. Too Late To Say I'm Sorry
12. Edge Of My Nerves
13. Won't Let You Go
14. Cry Cry Cry

Kim Rapatti, aka Mono Junk, is a key figure in Finnish techno, known for his deep, hardware-driven sound. A firm believer in analogue synthesis, he has been shaping raw and hypnotic club tracks since the early '90s, drawing inspiration from Detroit pioneers like Derrick May and Juan Atkins. His releases have appeared on his own imprint, DUM Records, as well as Skudge, Forbidden Planet, and most recently, Cold Blow—earning him a dedicated following among DJs and collectors.

Recorded in Turku in 2002 using the Korg Minikorg 700s, Loving Your Mind showcases Mono Junk's signature stripped-down grooves and live hardware improvisation—an essential pick for anyone seeking an authentic slice of early-2000s machine funk. Alongside the title track is Gamma, a previously unheard production that was commissioned as an exclusive for a highly regarded mix series, further cementing Mono Junk's status as a trusted name in underground techno. Built around a percussive groove, a deep electro-funk bassline, and a four-to-the-floor pulse, the track unfolds in an atmospheric haze, balancing dancefloor functionality with hypnotic depth.

The B-side features remixes from Katerina and Sansibar, two of Finland's most notable international breakthroughs in recent years, known for their modern yet timeless club productions that nod to classic techno and house.

Katerina, a versatile DJ and producer with releases on Rekids, Running Back, and Cómeme, transforms Loving Your Mind into a high-energy techno duet, layering her own vocals over the original vocal track, with her infectious synth lead as the icing on the cake.

Sansibar, one of the fastest-rising names in the underground with releases on Kalahari Oyster Cult, WARNING, and Émotsiya, delivers a darker, four-to-the-floor rework—bringing a sinister edge while maintaining the raw energy of classic machine funk.

TRACK LISTING

1. Loving Your Mind
2. Gamma
3. Loving Your Mind (Katerina's Mind Mix)
4. Loving Your Mind (Sansibar Remix)

The complete 1959 Miles Davis album 'Kind of Blue', one of the most influential Jazz albums of all time, presented here as a 2LP set in its original mono and stereo versions.

TRACK LISTING

1. So What
2. Freddie Freeloader
3. Blue In Green
4. All Blues
5. Flamenco Sketches
6. So What
7. Freddie Freeloader
8. Blue In Green
9. All Blues
10. Flamenco Sketches

Monophonics are back with another 45 from their acclaimed concept album "Sage Motel." Featuring two heavy hitters, the A-side 'Warpaint' takes the band in a new sonic direction. Featuring heavy and layered guitars, rock-riffs, and the ever-soulful vocals of Kelly Finnigan, 'Warpaint' packs an ever-elusive punch. The B-side, 'Crash & Burn' is a luscious but solemn song about love and life, highlighting delicate percussion arrangements and textured layers of sound.

TRACK LISTING

1. Warpaint
2. Crash & Burn

With 'The Monochrome Set – Radio Sessions (Marc Riley BBC 6 Music 2011-2022)' we revive the great tradition of releasing radio sessions of great (independent) acts. And what could be more natural than starting our series with a band that represents the indie ethos like few others in following their own unique artistic vision without compromise.

The most unique thing about the radio session recordings is that they encompass a mixture of concert and studio. The bands are freer than in studio recordings at the same time more focused than in live performances - gems from the bands repertoire which might not have been played live are often preserved only in the radio sessions.

The Monochrome Set - Radio Sessions contains all the BBC 6 sessions recorded for and hosted by the great Marc Riley from the years 2011-2022. 32 songs in total including well-known hits like "Eine Symphonie des Grauens", "Jet Set Junta" and "Alphaville" as well as fantastic versions of seldom heard or not so well-known songs like "Rain Check" or "Hip Kitten Spinning Chrome". With the kind support of the BBC, we are now able to release these recordings of the most demonstrably intelligent, dark, witty and British of all guitar pop bands on record for the first time. Radio Sessions" by THE TELESCOPES and COMET GAIN are planned for the near future. Stay tuned!

TRACK LISTING

LP1/CD1
A1) Eine Symphonie Des Grauens
A2) The Mouse Trap
A3) Alphaville
A4) Jet Set Junta
A5) Hip Kitten Spinning Chrome
A6) Streams
A7) They Call Me Silence
A8) Cauchemar
B1) Super Plastic City
B2) The Time I've Spent Doing Nothing
B3) Lefty
B4) Strange Young Alien
B5) The Z Train
B6) Iceman
B7) Fantasy Creatures
B8) Rain Check

LP2/CD2
C1) Cosmonaut
C2) Reach For Your Gun
C3) Stick Your Hand Up If You’re Louche
C4) Fele
C5) I Feel Fine
C6) Maisieworld
C7) Mrs Robot
C8) Oh Yes I'm Going To Be In Your Dreams Tonight
D1) Rest, Unquiet Spirit
D2) Summer Of The Demon
D3) I Can't Sleep
D4) La Chanson De La Pucelle
D5) Allhallowtide
D6) Hello, Save Me
D7) Really In The Wrong Town
D8) Resplendent In A Darkness

Teeming with melodic epiphanies and layered sounds, Squid’s second album O Monolith is a musical evocation of environment, domesticity and self-made folklore. Like its predecessor, 2021’s critically acclaimed, UK number 4 album Bright Green Field, it is dense and tricksy – but also more warm and characterful, with a meandering, questioning nature.

Expansive, evocative and hugely varied, O Monolith retains Squid’s restless, enigmatic spirit, but it still holds surprises for those familiar with Bright Green Field. It’s a reflection of the outsized progression of a band always looking to the future. Like its namesake, O Monolith is vast and strange; alive with endless possible interpretations of its inner mysteries.

STAFF COMMENTS

Willow says: The Oxford English dictionary defines ‘squid’ as “an elongated, fast-swimming cephalopod mollusc with eight arms and two long tentacles, typically able to change colour”, which is about as appropriate a definition as any to tack onto this eclectic collection of manic yet thoughtful pieces of music. ‘O Monolith’ is some other dimension’s version of pop music - an honest and unrelenting synthesis of the haunting art, isolation and real-world brutality that inspired it, an earworm that nests itself only in the most obscure recesses of your mind. It would be fit to feature in any year-end list on the strength of bombastic lead single and opener “‘Swing (In a Dream)” alone, but the contemplative “The Blades” and the mind-bending closer with a title that would exceed my world limit, to name a couple, as well as how smoothly the album flows, cement this record’s place as a truly original modern classic.

TRACK LISTING

1. Swing (In A Dream)
2. Devil’s Den
3. Siphon Song
4. Undergrowth
5. The Blades
6. After The Flash
7. Green Light
8. If You Had Seen The Bull’s Swimming Attempts You Would Have Stayed Away

2004 saw the release of Monster Magnet’s sixth studio album Monolithic Baby, the follow-up to 2000’s “God Says No”, which cemented the Red Bank, NJ rockers in the world of space rock and roll. This 14-track journey of masterful hard rock features 11 ripping originals and three cover songs recorded in true classic Magnet style, including covers of The Velvet Underground, David Gilmour and Robert Calvert. Monolithic Baby is being reissued on August 19th via Napalm Records on orange vinyl with white and black splatter, as well as in a limited glow in the dark vinyl variant! Don’t miss the album Ultimate Classic Rock calls “a revitalized, fire-breathing Monster Magnet” and All Music calls “another collection of undeniably Wyndorfian tunes.”

TRACK LISTING

1. Slut Machine
2. Supercruel
3. On The Verge
4. Unbroken (Hotel Baby)
5. Radiation Day
6. Monolithic
7. The Right Stuff
8. There's No Way Out Of Here
9. Master Of Light
10. Too Bad
11. Ultimate Everything
12. CNN War Theme

MONO’s first-ever feature-length motion picture soundtrack.

My Story, The Buraku Story is a new feature-length documentary film that explores the discrimination against a group of people – commonly called “the burakumin” who were classed into lowly groups and segregated from the rest of Japanese society. This discrimination is not by race or ethnicity, but rather by place of residence and bloodline, and has existed for centuries – albeit very rarely acknowledged or discussed in Japan. When director Yusaku Mitsuwaka imagined the exemplary score for such a culturally sensitive and significant subject, he idealized MONO to help tell this story through their legendarily cinematic music.

Following their recent experiments with electronic textures infused into their trademark dynamic rock compositions, My Story, The Buraku Story finds MONO at their most understated and elegiac. The songs that make up My Story, The Buraku Story are largely built around piano, strings, synths, and choral vocal loops. As one might expect from MONO, the arrangements are masterworks of understated execution with oversized emotional resonance. By far MONO’s most delicate album, it is a fitting document of the band’s first-ever full-length film soundtrack.

TRACK LISTING

1. Doumyaku (4:33)
2. Watashi (3:31)
3. Kokyo (2:31)
4. Yurameki (2:36)
5. Gohon No Yubi (3:34)
6. Kioku (3:27)
7. Kattou (3:48)
8. Chinmoku (3:39)
9. Himitsu (4:28)
10. Songen (5:47)
11. The Place (4:28)

For Fans Of... Durand Jones & The Indications, Tame Impala, Temples, Lee Fields.

Monophonics cordially invite you to attend the grand re-opening of the once thriving, once vibrant establishment, the legendary Sage Motel. A place where folks experience the highs and lows of human existence. A place where big dreams and broken hearts live, where people arrive at without ever knowing how they got there. It's where folks find themselves at a crossroads in life.

So join us as we examine where the stories are told and experiences unfold.....and sink into a soft pillow of soulful psychedelia.....down at the Sage Motel.

Sage Motel, Monophonics' fifth studio album since 2012, tells its story. Once again produced by brilliant bandleader Kelly Finnigan, the album captures a timeless sound that blends heavy soul with psych-rock. With their previous album, It’s Only Us, selling over 10,000 physical units and garnering over 20 million streams, Monophonics have built a reputation over the past decade as one of the most impactful bands in the country.

If these walls of the Sage Motel could talk, this is what they'd say. So join us as we examine where the stories are told and experiences unfold.....and sink into a soft pillow of soulful psychedelia.....down at the Sage Motel.

TRACK LISTING

1. Check In
2. Sage Motel
3. Let That Sink In
4. The Shape Of My Teardrops
5. Broken Boundaries
6. Love You Better
7. Never Stop Saying These Words
8. Warpaint
9. Crash & Burn
10. Check Out

Four years in making, Voyeurs In the Dark is Toronto artist Barzin’s fifth studio album. That the album is more cinematic in its scope and conceptual in feel than his previous studio albums can be attributed to the time he spent over the past several years composing the soundtrack for the independent film, Viewfinder. Voyeurs In the Dark retains that cinematic quality, and at the same time infuses the music with elements taken from Jazz, electronica, rock and pop. Having primarily explored the quiet side pop and folk in his previous four albums, Barzin has expanded his musical palate, broadening his sound towards a more an experimental direction, while still retaining his preoccupation with exploring the internal landscape. The uniformity of sound that characterized the previous albums has been abandoned for the expression of differing aspects of the self that at times hold opposing views and desires.

This is best represented in the image chosen for the cover of the album, which depicts three figures in one body. The album seems to be the expression of not one unified self, but the various aspects of the self. Voyeurs In the Dark sees the artist plot a seductive, contemplative route through city haze, shuttling between graceful glimmering interludes, with wonderfully atmospheric songs at every stop. From opener Voyeurs In the Dark’s first guitar strums and the fizz of its drum machine, the record envelopes itself in a glorious shadow, as shown in the slow waltz of I Don’t Want To Sober Up, dancing around its own swirling guitar chords. On Watching, Barzin plunges himself deeper into a wash of cyclic bass, guitar and synth riffs, as the gloom grooves into light. It’s Never Too Late To Lose Your Life has a much more affirming and urgent tone, shade turning into shapes and motion, while To Be Missed In the End builds its own smoke in a cloud of saxophone and sparse guitar notes, closing out a record full to the brim with scatterbrain beauty and eclectic dusk.

TRACK LISTING

1. Voyeurs In The Dark
2. Born Yesterday
3. Knife In The Water
4. Watching
5. Golden Stairs
6. I Don’t Want To Sober Up
7. Impossible Voice
8. It’s Never Too Late To Lose Your Life
9. Forever Arriving
10. To Be Missed In The End
11. Distant Memories

Having amassed a formidable catalogue of releases on a number of key labels over 5 decades, including Rough Trade, Dindisc and Cherry Red, The Monochrome Set are ready to release their new studio album on Tapete Records - the bands home for the last eight years and five albums.

The indie pop veterans have been hard to pin down over this time. Their instantly recognisable sound and darkly hilarious lyrics have always set them apart. Bid's cerebral Brit wit spikiness and debonair tones melded to infectious melodies and deft songcraft of a cinematic and literary quality has been quietly influential over a diverse set of artists since their inception and throughout different stages of their career so they can count the likes of Graham Coxon, Iggy Pop, Alex Kapranos, Neil Hannon, Johnny Marr and Jarvis Cocker as fans.

Bid is joined in The Monochrome Set by fellow original Andy Warren on bass, Mike Urban on drums and newest recruit Athen Ayren on keyboards. For the album recording Alice Healey brovides backing vocals with Karen Yarnell on percussion and Jon Clayton, additional instrumentation. The album was recorded at OneCat Studio in London, engineered by Jon Clayton and produced by Jon Clayton and Bid.

After an aeon spent in infinitely old cities of the body and mind, a magical creature glides back into its bedroom.It has been changed forever - what once was human is now a higher being, an unnatural force, the new perfect.

It can still feel the exulting gaze of The Eye upon its back- thousands of years of brooding, planning, in deep, dark, secret places, waiting for the stars to align, the ideal body to infuse.

The air around it spits ferociously; the whines of the weak still sing in its ears, like the pathetic squeaks of old curtains as they are closed forever.

It stands before the full length mirror, its reflection now clouded with dust. A lifetime of waiting; my poor mirror, here I am, I will clean you!
It picks up a cloth and wipes across the glass triumphantly!
Strange.
It looks the same as before it left, all that time ago.
A naked old man.
...and from a hidden door comes the strains of The Monochrome Set's 16th and latest album, "Allhallowtide", with its elegantly crafted pop songs, ornate melodies, sumptuous lyrics, all performed superbly by a rare and legendary band.

TRACK LISTING

1) Allhallowtide
2) Ballad Of The Flaming Man
3) My Deep Shoreline
4) Moon Garden
5) Really In The Wrong Town
6) Box Of Sorrows
7) I, Servant
8) In A Chapel Of A Personal Design
9) Hello, Save Me
10) Resplendent In A Darkness
11) Parapluie

From the shadows of Slovenia, Shadow Universe is an instrumental music project, creating breathtaking cinematic soundscapes from post-rock, neoclassical/ambient and post-metal elements. Their third album, Subtle Realms, Subtle Worlds is released on 11 March 2022 worldwide on Monotreme Records. Formed in 2017 by Peter Dimnik and Žan Šebrek, Shadow Universe merge contrasting textures of shimmering ambient soundscapes and heavy anxious darkness to portray the diversity of nature and life on earth and beyond. Subtle Realms, Subtle Worlds: Every person experiences the world differently, which puts us into our own unique bubbles, subtle worlds. Subtle Realms, Subtle Worlds finds the band turning their songs into living, breathing ecosystems, carefully dissecting every moment of peace and chaos alike. The album sees the building particles of the universe as separate worlds, with their own story, perception, rules and individual inner realm. Opening track Organism, which portrays the coherence of forming organisms; from a vast universe itself down to the tiniest building particles of it, sets the tone with its slow, tense build to crushing, exhilarating peaks. Don’t Look at It and You’ll See It evokes free-flowing spontaneity through beautiful cascading piano and emotive violin, towering guitars, and soaring synths. Masterfully harnessing both the quiet and the loud, Hymn for the Giants glorifies our almighty and precious trees, with moments of calm cut apart by vast swathes of brutal, yet considered, cacophony. Losing Home’s portentous, droning synths and trumpet ratchet up the suspense, while on Antares Goes Supernova the band carve out layer upon layer of affirming and effecting riffs, each one more powerful than the last. Season of Eternal Maze wraps up the album with a meditative piano and harmonium, wide guitar driven melodies and guides you to your inner maze. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Organism
2. Don’t Look At It And You’ll See It
3. Hymn For The Giants
4. Losing Home
5. Antares Goes Supernova
6. Season Of Eternal Maze

On a creative explosion of late, Linkwoods productions have branched out in many directions, a collaboration LP with jazz Genius Greg Foat, Another with Local Edinburgh Legend Other lands with a load more yet to surface.

Linkwood now comes back to solo work with a hyper focused piece of electro goodness. Lo-fi but all the better for it, Mono comprises 14 deeply distilled tracks. After producing some more complex records it was time for a pure palate cleanser, we locked Nick in the Athens of the north studio for a week with his friends Moog and Oberheim to see what might happen. Somewhere between Electro, Early 80s Synth pop and techno the album is an extremely listenable piece as a whole, unpretentious and timeless. Sprinklings of Dave Stewart pop noodles, Newbuild, Early Era Nu Groove but very much Linkwood at the same time, I can't recommend this enough.

TRACK LISTING

1. Bubbles
2. Candy Land
3. Shortwave
4. Rain & Shine / Byte Size
5. Squeeze
6. Endcoms
7. I Love You
8. No One's Perfect
9. Date-Line
10. Refresher
11. Kubes
12. Dust Jacket
13. Strangely Enough

Three-piece US experimental indie-rock band Thee More Shallows released three albums and a couple of EPs back in the early 00’s, garnering widespread critical acclaim and a cult following before the band disbanded. Each of the members moved into new phases of their lives. Now, frontman Dee Kesler has emerged from the wilderness working under the Thee More Shallows moniker again with the help of some previous band members and some new musicians. ‘Dad Jams’ is an indie-pop ode to waking up middle aged with kids. Musically, it retains the adventurous, experimental edge of previous Thee More Shallows albums, but it is also rooted in a stronger pop sensibility, with plenty of bouncy, hooky melodies that burrow into the mind for days. First single ‘Ancient Baby’ rockets the album open with an invigorating blast of psychedelic hippy-infused pop, its weaving flute refrain becoming more and more embedded in the mind with each return. ‘Boogie Woogie’ builds around a restrained synth groove that surprises and delights with crystalline harmonies in the sort of way bands like Foster The People and The Temper Trap combine sensitive emotive themes in a tightly packed indie formula.

Elsewhere on the album the catchy warped acoustic melodies of ‘Drinking Tang’ expand into bubbly synths and ice-cream sweet reflective heart-tugging goodness, and ‘Hey, Come On!’ moves more sparsely with a distant drum machine underpinning melancholic lyrics. Each track on this record unfurls in its own way, with more and more sonic gems to find on each listen. ‘Dad Jams’ is probably the coolest album anyone’s ever written about fatherhood. The album’s playful melting pot of sounds combines eccentric experimentation with perfect epic pop moments, achieving the mysterious feat of merging electronic, experimental and indie rock genres seamlessly for an intriguing set of incredibly engaging earworms

TRACK LISTING

1. Ancient Baby
2. A Mummy At The Lake
3. Boogie Woogie
4. Cold Picture
5. Copy Body
6. Drinking Tang
7. Little Brave Friends
8. Hey, Come On!
9. Hocus Pocus
10. A Strobelight On A Dumb Dancefloor
11. Wizard Wednesdays

Classic 1969 blue-eyed soul monster that was the flipside of Sue Lynne’s ‘You’ single on RCA.

Huge at Wigan Casino back in the day.

Original copies now go for a huge £700 apiece.

A brass-powered stomper with a funky rhythm and backbeat that leads to a euphoric chorus and instrumental break.

Expertly remastered from the original sound source.

Two stellar versions; both mono and stereo for maximum dancefloor impact.

Written by Chris Andrews, who also penned Chris Farlowe’s mod anthem ‘Out Of Time’.

Sue Lynne (AKA Sue Vanner) quit the music business after the single’s failure to chart and ended up in the Bond movie ‘The Spy Who Love Me’, as well as a host of TV shows.

TRACK LISTING

Sue Lynne - Don’t Pity Me
Sue Lynne - Don’t Pity Me (Mono Version)

Following Brutalism (2017) and Joy as an Act of Resistance (2018), two releases that garnered global critical acclaim, IDLES return with their highly anticipated third album – Ultra Mono. Sonically constructed to capture the feeling of a hip-hop record (including production contribution from Kenny Beats), the album doubles down on the vitriolic sneer and blunt social commentary of their past work. Not far beneath the surface of their self-admitted sloganeering lies a deeply complex and brutally relevant album that chews up clichés and spits them out as high art for the masses. This is momentary acceptance of the self. This is Ultra Mono.

STAFF COMMENTS

Darryl says: Including guest performances from David Yow, Jenny Beth, and Warren Ellis, their third album is an exhilarating punk tour-de-force. Bludgeoning drums, pummelling bass and searing guitars combine with wry social commentary for their most assured album to date.

TRACK LISTING

1. War
2. Grounds
3. Mr. Motivator
4. Anxiety
5. Kill Them With Kindness
6. Model Village
7. Ne Touche Pas Moi
8. Carcinogenic
9. Reigns
10. The Lover
11. A Hymn
12. Danke

Haunting and other-worldly new record from Ed Harcourt, his ninth studio album and second release on Point Of Departure following 2018’s ‘Beyond The End’.

Recorded at his own Wolf Cabin studio in rural Oxfordshire between January and October 2019, this beautiful 12-track album was written and produced entirely by Harcourt. It features Clive Deamer from Portishead on drums on three tracks, and Gita and Amy Langley on violin and cello respectively

The new album is full of rapturous outreach. It was made with an interesting blend of instrumentation, ancient and modern. There’s a 1910 Hopkinson baby grand piano and also a dulcitone, a 19th-Century oddity where hammers strike an array of tuning forks.

A much-acclaimed recording artist who released his Mercury Prize nominated debut ‘Here Be Monsters’ on Heavenly Records in 2001, in recent years Harcourt has gained acclaim for his songwriting for a variety of artists. He’s co-written songs with Marianne Faithfull, Lisa Marie Presley, Paloma Faith, Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Orbital’s Paul Hartnoll. He’s featured on albums with Mark Lanegan and alongside an intercontinental array of musicians, from Egypt and Tanzania to Argentina and Russia (this global cast featuring on the 2019 album ‘Beyond Music: Same Sky’). Moving from bands to the big screen, Ed has written for several soundtracks, including the recent superhero comedy Supervised and the 2014 drama Like Sunday, Like Rain.

TRACK LISTING

First Light
Ascension
Drowning In Dreams
Her Blood Is Volcanic
Only The Darkness
Smiles For You
Death Of The Siren
After The Carnival
Last Rites
So Here’s To You, Hally
Childhood
King Raman
Monochrome Into Colour

Grammy Award winning artist Ray LaMontagne is set to release his eagerly anticipated, eighth studio album 'MONOVISION' via Columbia Records.

The 10 track album sees Ray not only writing and producing the album once again but also includes added duties of engineering as well as performing all the instruments for the tracks. 

Released in February 1980, their first album Strange Boutique, featuring the band's percussion-heavy theme song (predating Adam & The Ants's "Kings of the Wild Frontier" by months) and the Johnny Marr-anticipating "Love Goes Down The Drain", caught the Monochrome Set in full flight, quickly followed by the equally taut, funny and adventurously dynamic Love Zombies. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Love Zombies
2. Adeste Fideles
3. 405 Lines
4. B-I-D Spells Bid
5. R.S.V.P.
6. Apocalypso
7. Karma Suture
8. The Man With The Black Moustache
9. The Weird, Wild And Wonderful World Of Tony Potts
10. "In Love, Cancer?"

As the title suggests, UK producer Stumbleine’s seventh album ‘Sink Into The Ether’ offers a deep submergence within a celestial upper region somewhere beyond the clouds. Thriving on the space in between things, ‘Sink Into The Ether’ is chilled, heavenly and thought provoking. It’s another multi-faceted creation of glowing sonic vistas that are set to enrapture in 2020. The album envelops the listener from the outset with the soft, pitched sway of “Sonder”. The track ebbs through calming shadows, showcasing Stumbleine’s warm, electronic glow and gamut of influences, with hushed hypnotic delayed sounds, vocal samples and snappy beats. Stumbleine’s skill at blending an array of electronic timbres washes over the largely instrumental record, exemplified in “Supermodels”, with its lo-fi chorus-drenched haze building to an emotional, percussion-driven climax.

Here, and scattered about the album, RnB vocals are chopped-up, but glistening a dark, dreamy hue. A cover of the Hole song, “Malibu” features Elizabeth Heaton of Midas Fall. Her delicate, dream-like vocals waft over the hazy instrumental waves like tendrils of smoke, as they both grow ever more desperate, and slowly crash. Elsewhere on the album tracks like ‘Lost To The World’ come together more immediately with flourishing synths and soaring backdrops overlaid by a heady bass and intricate beats, while ‘White Noise Therapy’ invokes a cinematic Tokyo-set film score peppered with playful soft pianos. “Lost To the World” swings in addictive pitched-vocal punches, circling itself into a spiral. “Your Angel Was Fake” has a hopeful darkness about it, recalling electronic shoegaze and witch house artists of the early 2010s. It scales and then pulls away, at once breathing and stopping, full of blanket synth pads and subtle snaps of percussion.

Also known for his work in post-dubstep trio Swarms, Stumbleine has steadily built a cult of admirers around himself following collaborations across his varied albums and EPs with the likes of ASA, Shura, Violet Skies, Birds of Passage, Steffaloo and more. His sound, if it can be compared to anything at all, straddles post-rock shoegaze soundscapes with ambient electronica and experimental movements into something that can be both an ASMR hug to the ears yet also similarly arresting, fractured and off-kilter depending on which way things flow. As different sounds shift in and out, narratives become clear slowly and disappear quickly throughout Stumbleine’s kaleidoscopic visions. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Sonder
2. Aloof
3. Malibu (ft Elizabeth Heaton)
4. My Head Hurts
5. Lost To The World
6. Tidepool
7. Words Fail Me
8. Supermodels
9. White Noise Therapy
10. Your Angel Was A Fake
11. Disintegrate Together

The casual prose of pop history is full of backhanded compliments, and The Monochrome Set have received a few, ranging from "should have been massive" to "influential", numbering the likes of Morrissey and Marr, Blur's Graham Coxon and Franz Ferdinand's Alex Kapranos among their celebrity admirers. . Released in February 1980, their first album Strange Boutique, featuring the band's percussion-heavy theme song (predating Adam & The Ants's "Kings of the Wild Frontier" by months) and the Johnny Marr-anticipating "Love Goes Down The Drain", caught the Monochrome Set in full flight, quickly followed by the equally taut, funny and adventurously dynamic Love Zombies. 

TRACK LISTING

1. The Monochrome Set (I Presume)
2. The Lighter Side Of Dating
3. Expresso
4. The Puerto Rican Fence Climber
5. Tomorrow Will Be Too Long
6. Martians Go Home
7. Love Goes Down The Drain
8. Ici Les Enfants
9. The Etcetera Stroll
10. Goodbye Joe
11. The Strange Boutique

With a timeless sound that blends heavy soul and psych-rock, Monophonics have built a reputation over the past decade as one of the best live bands in the country. Led by singer Kelly Finnigan, the band has drawn on their colorful history - both their experiences as veteran touring performers and as individuals growing up in the Bay Area - to create "It's Only Us," their fourth release since 2012. A reflection of what they see as the current state of the world, the record touches on difficult subjects such as broken relationships, mental health issues, gun violence and power struggles, all with an underlying message of unity, resilience and acceptance. The band's signature style of arrangement has been expanded with top-notch production and creative instrumentation to round out the Monophonics' trademark soul sound, while Finnigan's vocals are more powerful than ever. At times these tracks can feel classic, as familiar as an old song you grew up with, while simultaneously raising questions about the state of music in 2020 and what the future might hold. "It's Only Us" is the sound of a group continuing to grow as songwriters, musicians, performers and people - reflecting on where they've been, and pushing the boundaries of what's possible in the years to come

TRACK LISTING

1. Chances
2. Suffocating
3. Last One Standing
4. Tunnel Vision
5. It’s Only Us
6. Run For Your Life
7. All In The Family
8. Day By Day

“Novemberism” is the debut album of 23-year-old UK artist Oliver Spalding. As with his debut EP “Unfurl” (2017), the album was written and recorded with producer Ed Tullett (Novo Amor). Built around Spalding’s staggeringly beautiful voice, the record is full of melodic, immediate songwriting and arresting electronic production. Asked about his choice of title, Spalding explains, “To be melancholy all year round is to suffer from Novemberism.” And indeed, these 11 tracks are woven together with a common thread of heavyheartedness. Even the more upbeat songs, like title track “Novemberism” and “Bow Creek”, which drive and glisten with intoxicating pop hooks and 80s era synths, recall the darker undercurrents of classic New Order.

Says Spalding, “The album focuses on a certain period of time in my life and the things that happened around me. My honesty in songwriting is key. The aim of this album was to be raw and emotional. Emotions are scary and no one wants to face them, and that’s what I wanted the album to feel like - something that is uncomfortable but also beautifully revealing. Synthesizers feature heavily across the record, including single “Bow Creek”, where iridescent synth stabs and lush strings wash over a hazy, late-night London. “I’m a huge Roxy Music fan”, says Spalding, “I love Brian Ferry’s work and take inspiration from the Prophet synth sounds on the 80s Bruce Springsteen records. Opener “Athamé” explodes the record into life with a barrage of saxophone and cymbals, before settling down to “Xanax”’s addictive delayed guitar lines and Spalding’s world-weary vocals. The slow, dark R&B simmer of “Her Crescent” reflects in the dark, ethereal pool of Björk-influenced soundscape “Emissive”, and the quietude of the delicate, piano-led heartbreaker “Golden” gives room to breathe after the gloomy electronic cacophony of “AIBM”. Elsewhere in the album, “Unreal” sees Spalding’s gossamer, spine-tingling falsetto soar to the heavens, and epic power ballad “Everglades” lifts Spalding’s voice to its towering, affecting peak, bringing the album to a close with a shudder of thundering drums. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Athamé
2. Xanax
3. Her Crescent
4. Novemberism
5. Unreal
6. A Stop
7. Emissive
8. AIBM
9. Golden
10. Bow Creek
11. Everglades

Brand new recordings of some classic early MONO songs that have become fan favorites and live staples. MONO formed in Tokyo, Japan in the closing winter weeks of December, 1999. They played their first live shows at the top of the new millennium, and released their first album, Under The Pipal Tree, in 2001. Recorded live in one day on a razor-thin budget, Pipal Tree was an earnest introduction to the curious magic of a band that would eventually become synonymous with monstrously dynamic, contemporary classical rock music. To commemorate those austere beginnings - and celebrate their remarkable longevity - MONO revisit three of their earliest songs, and retrofit them with speaker-destroying upgrades.

Anchored by the towering 16-minute noise opus, "Com(?)", Before The Past - Live From Electrical Audio shows the evolution of MONO's execution, stripping away the strings and layers of guitar overdubs to show just how massive this band can be at their most instrumentally austere. Newly recorded in one day in 2019 with longtime collaborator, Steve Albini - and mixed by Albini with Temporary Residence founder, Jeremy deVine - Before The Past is as much a declaration of the present as it is a document of the past. These songs, which are now 20 years old, feel more powerful and profound than ever; a testament to MONO's enduring dedication to their craft, and their dogged exploration of maximum minimalism

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: One of the most legendary post-rock bands return with a stunning set of all-encompassing fuzz and tentative instrumental guitar play from those early years, recorded anew with Albini at the helm. Superb.

TRACK LISTING

1. Com(?) (Live From Electrical Audio) (16:11)
2. L’America (Live From Electrical Audio) (4:55)
3. Halo (Live From Electrical Audio) (8:23)

At the end of the 70s, The Monochrome Set were part of the first wave of 'post punk' bands. Right from the beginning, the band earned a solid reputation as purveyors of fine pop, gaining praise from 80s contemporaries such as Morrissey and Edwyn Collins. The Monochrome Set sound has often been described as 'timeless', and that alone explains why, over the years, the band has continued gaining admirers. As with all TMS albums, "Fabula Mendax" is at once accessible and arcane, upbeat and dark, lush and spare, and with lyrics that as ever remain tantalisingly opaque.

Invada Records and Lakeshore Records will co-release ‘Monos: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack’, featuring original music by Ivor Novello Award-winner and Academy Award-nominated Mica Levi (Jackie, Under the Skin).

The London-based composer, music producer and artist creates an indescribably hallucinatory, often menacing backdrop to the survivalist thriller set on a remote mountain in Latin America.

Says director Alejandro Landes: “Mica connected with and understood the spirit of the film: the faces, the colors, the extremeness of the environment, the mash of costumes, the absence of a specific time, place or date. She's classically trained but can be equally as inspired by pop or heavy metal; she can mix synthesizer-driven music with a quartet. All this brings a very particular sensibility, a mixing of instruments, that made for a distinct, emotional and atemporal sound.”

TRACK LISTING

Guerreros
Mensajero
Lobo Y Lady
Aullido
Solos
Funeral
Honguitos
A La Selva
Sin Radio
Castigo
El Regreso De
Patagrande
Pisa Suave
Corre
Helicóptero
Monos

"I have always thought orchestra. I play that way, even when playing the piano." - Sun Ra

Considering the monumental depth of Sun Ra's recorded oeuvre, there are surprisingly few solo piano albums.

Monorails and Satellites Volumes 1 and 2 were the first commercial LPs of the artist's solo keyboard excursions. Recorded in 1966 and released on his Saturn imprint in 1968, Volume 1 featured seven idiosyncratic originals and one standard ("Easy Street") delivered in Sunny's singular manner. Volume 2 was released the following year, and contains five compositions, all originals. A third volume was prepped but shelved, and this deluxe edition marks it's premiere release.

As with all Cosmic Myth releases these volumes are superbly mastered, and are available as a deluxe 2xCD or 3xLP tri-gatefold cover with copious liners notes by renown American jazz pianist Vijay Iyer, and additional overviews by jazz historian Ben Young and producer Irwin Chusid.

TRACK LISTING

1. Space Towers
2. Cognition
3. Skylight
4. The Alter Destiny
5. Easy Street
6. Blue Differentials
7. Monorails And Satellites
8. The Galaxy Way
9. Astro Vision
10. The Ninth Eye
11. Solar Boats
12. Perspective Prisms Of Is
13. Calundronius
14. Soundscapes
15. The Eternal Tomorrow
16. Today Is Not Yesterday
17. World Island Festival
18. The Changing Wind
19. Don't Blame Me
20. Gone With The Wind
21. How Am I To Know
22. Yesterdays

Australian newcomer A Most Wanted Man joins with the Monologues Records family with a sumptuous debut EP that shows he's very much one to watch.

'Hep Cat' is a peppy, soulful slow-burner which gradually reveals a triumphant string sample, 'Voice From Above' is another buoyant beauty with feel-good strings and vocal cuts, and 'Importance Of The Hi-Hat' is a more stripped-back slice of warm deep deep house.

Fellow fast-rising Aussie, Jad & The, pursues his passion for tonking breakbeats on his remix of the latter, making for a spooky, mysterious workout.

TRACK LISTING

A1 Hep Cat
A2 Importance Of A Hi-Hat
B1 Voices From Above
B2 Importance Of A Hi-Hat (Jad & The ‘Kaos’ Remix)

London post-punk band the monochrome set’s third album “eligible bachelors” re-issued, complete with a huge amount of bonus tracks and additional hard to find material. Contains the original “eligible bachelors” album, the live album “fin” (aka the good life), singles and b-sides, rarities and bbc sessions, plus a number of lead singer and songwriter bid’s solo tracks. 3cds packed with some of the monochrome set’s finest music. All material digitally remastered for this new re-issue. The monochrome set were widely recognised as one of the best post-punk bands of the late ‘70s and ‘80s, with the album “eligible bachelors” regarded as one of their finest pieces of work. Allmusic named it as “one of the classic undiscovered albums of the early ‘80s. Eligible bachelors is a tour de force of wit and musical imagination” as well as “an age-defining record”, with trouser press praising the band for their “witty intelligence” and declaring that ‘eligible bachelors’ “strips the music down to essential elements”. Cherry red have paid “eligible bachelors” the respect it deserves by carefully packaging the album alongside the monochrome set’s fine live album “fin” (aka the good life), and a whole host of singles, b-sides and rarities. All this has been remastered and beautifully packaged for the album’s re-issue.

TRACK LISTING

Disc: 1
1. The Jet Set Junta
2. I'll Cry Instead
3. On The 13th Day
4. Cloud 10
5. The Mating Game
6. March Of The Eligible Bachelors
7. The Devil Rides Out
8. Fun For All The Family
9. The Midas Touch
10. The Ruling Class
11. The Great Barrier Riff
12. He's Frank
13. Alphaville
14. Eine Symphonie Des Grauens
15. Lester Leaps In
16. The Monochrome Set
17. Mr. Bizarro
18. He's Frank (Slight Return)
19. Silicon Carne
20. Fallout
21. Ten Don'ts For Honeymooners
22. Straits Of Malacca
23. J.D.H.A.N.E.Y.
24. Cast A Long Shadow
25. The Bridge
26. The Jet Set Junta

Disc: 2
1. Love Goes Down The Drain
2. Noise (Eine Kleine Symphonie)
3. Espresso
4. Fat Fun
5. Ici Les Enfants
6. Martians Go Home
7. Fallout
8. Goodbye Joe
9. Strange Boutique
10. Viva Death Row
11. 405 Lines
12. Love Zombies
13. The Man With The Black Moustache
14. Fun For All The Family
15. The Ruling Class
16. Avanti
17. Yo, Ho, Ho And Three Bottles Of Wine
18. Andiamo
19. Cowboy Country
20. Jacob’s Ladder
21. Inside Your Heart
22. White Noise
23. We Are Zarbie
24. I Don't Know
25. Flesh/Trash/Heat
26. Private Dick
27. It's More Than Just Love

Disc: 3
1. He's Frank
2. Martians Go Home
3. Straits Of Malacca
4. Sugar Plum
5. B-I-D Spells Bid
6. Alphaville
7. Heaven Can Wait
8. Goodbye Joe
9. The Strange Boutique
10. The Strange Boutique (Reprise)
11. Jacob's Ladder
12. Wallflower
13. Apocalypso
14. Mr. Bizarro
15. I'll Scry Instead
16. Espresso
17. 405 Lines
18. Eine Symphonie Des Grauens
19. The Monochrome Set
20. Up (1986 Demo)
21. Reach For Your Gun
22. Love
23. Sweet Chariots

Maisieworld is the brand new studio album from The Monochrome Set. At the end of the 70s, The Monochrome Set were part of the first wave of 'post punk' bands. Right from the beginning, the band earned a solid reputation as purveyors of fine pop, gaining praise from 80s contemporaries such as Morrissey and Edwyn Collins. Importantly, in later years this praise has continued with artists such as Franz Ferdinand, The Divine Comedy and Graham Coxon, all citing the band as a key influence on their own work.

Gothenburg, Sweden trio Monolord is a rare breed: A band both encompassing and transcending genre; a vortex of heavy rock density that consumes all others. Their thunderous, tuneful heft has built a rabid international fanbase in short order since their 2014 debut. But Rust, the band’s third full length, truly exemplifies why some refer to them as the Nirvana of doom.

Monolord’s enveloping, syrupy sludge is a vibe, it’s a state of mind. Not riffs for riffs sake, but a collective buzzing, rattling and rumbling that’s more total environment than collection of songs. Together, guitarist/vocalist Thomas Jäger, drummer Esben Willems and bassist Mika Häkki create a massive, dynamic sound with ultra-low frequencies serving as its fourth member.
“We've always been inspired by great band musicians — as opposed to technical solo peacocks,” Willems says. “Because that force of a band really playing together as one single unit is incomparable. At its best, it's just unstoppable.” And, Monolord is truly unstoppable, on record and on stage. “A heavy groove that contains both bombastic overkill and a lot of dynamics is what we always aim for in Monolord; in playing, in song writing and arranging, in recording,” Willems says.

Album opener “Where Death Meets the Sea” perfectly exemplifies their mastery of dynamics and hooks with a driving, infectious buzzsaw riff that lesser bands would ride off into the sunset, but Monolord uses subtly to spur the song’s skull rattling rhythmic core ever onward. Jäger’s watery vocals glide over ominously building verses that erupt with the song’s insistent refrain. Being such a tight rhythmic unit, it sounds almost like an early ZZ Top record played at half speed. “Dear Lucifer” squeals and hums with slow deliberation as Willems summons Dale Crover pummel with chasm like low-tuned toms and syncopated cymbal crashes. The album’s title track is also its centerpiece, opening with a dramatic, shimmering Hammond organ intro as Jäger sings, “you are the reason that I lied/ You are the reason that I cried/ Please don’t wait until tomorrow/ There’s only pain and grief and sorrow.” Suddenly, the band kicks in with a downtuned open-C line that nosedives down the guitar neck as the drums hammer down for the kill. Elsewhere, tastefully understated guitar harmonies elevate the behemoth churn of “Wormland” and apocalyptic album closer “At Niceae” simmers in a slow build of rumbling guitars and rolling drum triplets.

Monolord formed in 2013, quickly recording their 2xLP debut Empress Rising, which RidingEasy Records released in April 1st, 2014. The second album, Vænir, followed April 28th, 2015. The 2-song Lord of Suffering / Die in Haze EP was issued in late 2016 amid the band’s relentless touring schedule in order to tide fans over until the next full length.

Noisey calls Monolord "universally beloved" and "Swedish doom royalty”, while Consequence of Sound deems them, “a truly modern sound: recognizably doom, but with glistening production values and adventurous songcraft.” Vænir landed on countless Album of the Year lists in 2015, and Rust is poised to open an entirely new range of possibilities for Monolord. 

Limited to 800 on Black Vinyl. Formed in 2010, The Cosmic Dead are a quartet from Glasgow, Scotland who share their music through good vibes and better vibrations. Known for their improvised, chaos-strewn, Buckfast-smashed-against-the-wall take on space music, they have roamed from Roadburn to Las Vegas, Dundee to Bangalore. Each album is a document of the time and space the group find themselves in, a tangible artefact hewn from a psychedelic continuum orchestrated by The Cosmic Dead. Eccie Bam Yas, E? began life as a more meditative piece than the rocket-fuelled out-rock the band are more associated with.

Spliced and reformed by the band, taken from jams and improvised sets taken from the Rainbowhead recordings in Kyle of Lochalsh, a small village in the North of Scotland near the Isle of Skye. In this remote setting the band recorded a myriad of improvised pieces inspired by their rural surroundings and the material has been scattered across three albums; 'Easterfaust'(2014), 'Rainbowhead'(2016) and 'Eccie Bam, Yas E?'(2017). Beginning with an eldritch drift that roams the stereo field, phasing in an out from another realm, Smash The Sash melts into an electronic rock piece powered by keyboardist Lewis Cook’s analog synth sequence and drummer Julian Dicken’s pummelling drum work.

The cumulative effect reminds the listener of early Krautrock experiments, like first line-up Tangerine Dream playing Tanzmusik with early, rock-band Kraftwerk while epic show-stealer Fleein’ From The Polis brings the stringed instruments centre stage, Bassist Omar Aborida duets with James MacKay’s warped guitar playing to create weaves of sound across a moody rhythm section. Side B opens with Buckfast Aye, a brooding exploration with stereo-panned guitars a-flutter before the band take the listener into a slow-paced burner that brings the group’s psychedelic craftsmanship into play. The set ends with a full on trip. Lynx Africa builds the group’s sound into a space-rock jam that reminds the listener of classic mid-70s Hawkwind or the more long-form music White Hills built their early career on. What’s without question on Eccie Bam Yas, E? is that the group are telepathic in their playing and psychopathic in their purpose. Monorail Music of Glasgow are proud to announce a new imprint with the intention of documenting our global community and the many forms it takes.

At the end of the 70s, The Monochrome Set were part of the first wave of 'post punk' bands. Right from the beginning, the band earned a solid reputation as purveyors of fine pop, gaining praise from 80s contemporaries such as Morrissey and Edwyn Collins. Importantly, in later years this praise has continued with artists such as Franz Ferdinand, The Divine Comedy and Graham Coxon, all citing the band as a key influence on their own work. The Monochrome Set sound has often been described as 'timeless', and that alone explains why, over the years, the band has continued gaining admirers.

The Monochrome Set is black & white, at the same time, with no grey.

That's what the name always meant - delivering mirth and melancholy, pleasure and panic, delight and dread, wrapped up in tuneful pop songs with curious lyrics.

The band seem to occupy a parallel universe, with a rich panoply of sounds and words, all somehow evocative of something just beyond reach or remembrance - yet the songs have an immediate simplicity and power.

"Cosmonaut", the band's 13th album, is a perfect example of this exhilarating mix. The title track opens with a Theremin cyber fly buzzing towards your skull before the song hits, launching you into a mirror dimension that is both familiar and alien. The whole album is a trip that starts with a hallucinating cash-till lady, then travels through dream-sets involving cannibalism, disaffected squirrels, strange gods, dying sweethearts, sexual depravity, Alzheimer's, backward evolution, and ends in an operating theatre, amid a sea of medical tentacles.

In short, a camping holiday.

The trademark TMS guitar is ever-present, but this time complemented by delightfully busy keyboards, which give an added richness and spice to the album.

In just 30 minutes, "Cosmonaut" will catapult you into orbit and take you on a zany, hallucinogenic joyride - not in outer space as it turns out, but in and around the arcane and fantastical recesses of Bid's imagination. With minimal risk of explosion, persistent floatiness or disappointing space food.

The best Beach Boys album, and one of the best of the 1960s. The group here reached a whole new level in terms of both composition and production, layering tracks upon tracks of vocals and instruments to create a richly symphonic sound. Conventional keyboards and guitars were combined with exotic touches of orchestrated strings, bicycle bells, buzzing organs, harpsichords, flutes, Theremin, Hawaiian-sounding string instruments, Coca-Cola cans, barking dogs, and more. It wouldn't have been a classic without great songs, and this has some of the group's most stunning melodies, as well as lyrical themes which evoke both the intensity of newly born love affairs and the disappointment of failed romance (add in some general statements about loss of innocence and modern-day confusion as well). The spiritual quality of the material is enhanced by some of the most gorgeous upper-register male vocals (especially by Brian and Carl Wilson) ever heard on a rock record. "Wouldn't It Be Nice," "God Only Knows," "Caroline No," and "Sloop John B" (the last of which wasn't originally intended to go on the album) are the well-known hits, but equally worthy are such cuts as "You Still Believe in Me," "Don't Talk," "I Know There's an Answer," and "I Just Wasn't Made for These Times."

TRACK LISTING

1. Wouldn't It Be Nice
2. You Still Believe In Me
3. That's Not Me
4. Don't Talk (Put Your Head On My Shoulder)
5. I'm Waiting For The Day
6. Let's Go Away For Awhile
7. Sloop John B
8. God Only Knows
9. I Know There's An Answer
10. Here Today
11. I Just Wasn't Made For These Times
12. Pet Sounds
13. Caroline, No

Essentially the project of multi-instrumentalist and producer Demian Castellanos, The Oscillation was formed in London in 2006 with the release of the debut seven-inch and Rough Trade Records ‘single of the week’; ‘New Way To Feel’ on Bee And Smoke records. Drawing inspiration from The Cure, Loop, Can, The Durutti Column, PIL, Spacemen 3, Popol Vuh and Chrome, they’ve since gone on to release three critically acclaimed studio albums; ‘Out Of Phase’ (2007), ‘Veils’ (2011) and ‘From Tomorrow’ (2013). Over the last few years The Oscillation have also appeared on several highly rated compilation albums and provided remixes for the likes of Simian Mobile Disco, Telepathe, Nick Nicely and most recently the Fat White Family.

The new long player ‘Monographic’ sees the multi-talented Castellanos, who sings, play bass, guitars and synths on the album, joined by Valentina Magaletti on drums in what is without doubt the band’s most accomplished and outstanding set of songs to date.

The Oscillation are set to embark on several dates in the UK and Europe with a band line up that sees Demian Castellanos (guitar/vocals) and Valentina Magaletti (drums) joined by Tom Relleen (bass) and Cathy Lucas (keys). 

THE OSCILLATION 'Monographic' Album Teaser from JULIAN HAND on Vimeo.

TRACK LISTING

Monographic
Take Us To The Moon
Let It Be The End
Truth In Reverse
Another Attack
Lonely People
Alignment Zone

"On one hand, the music is very melodic and cheerful. The lyrics, however, deal with death, decay, change ... no wonder we are rather popular with the undead," says singer, guitarist and songwriter Bid of the new The Monochrome Set album "Spaces Everywhere". A very particular humor. And a very unique sound: Although this time banjos, Hammond organ, female backing vocals and even flutes can be heard on the new album, experts and laymen alike will recognize: This is The Monochrome Set. Undistorted, nervous guitars, like the soundtrack to a Nouvelle Vague film ... but one featuring Michael Caine, Louis de Funès and Belmondo (directed by Andy Warhol). Peculiarly timeless, it is a sound that can not be categorized. Although rooted in the 1950s and 60s (the guitar sound, for example, is a hybrid of Duane Eddy and Sterling Morrison), it still feels oddly modern. Then there is Bid's voice, which this time is more reminiscent of the great American crooners than of Lou Reed. Bid wrote most of the songs in May and June of 2014. Perhaps the band's popularity among the undead will diminish upon hearing the springtime air that can thus be detected in this music? Nevertheless - like virtually every album by The Monochrome Set - this album, which was recorded in Brixton in London, has the potential to become a classic, the potential to be a hit. While music historians and critics continue to grapple with the baffling reasons why this band has never attained major success, the in-crowd has always known what they have in The Monochrome Set. Time and again, the story is repeated of how Johnny Marr found a single by the band in Morrissey's record collection and decided it might not be a bad idea to start a band with the somewhat eccentric singer. The influence of The Monochrome Set on bands like Felt, Franz Ferdinand, Belle and Sebastian or the Strokes can hardly be ignored. With "Spaces Everywhere" The Monochrome Set present an album that will become a modern classic like "Eligible Bachelors" or "Strange Boutique".

And where is the best place to listen to the album? Bid: "In a deconsecrated church, without a mirror." There he goes again.

Following the release of their debut collaborative EP, Chasing Honeybees, in February 2014, UK producer Stumbleine (aka Peter Cooper) and vocalist/songwriter Violet Skies deliver their first full-length album, Dissolver. In it, the duo continues to explore the fusion of Stumbleine’s electronic beats and dreamy, shoegaze guitars with Violet Skies’ soulful pop / R’NB vocals. From the slow-burning soul of opener Thunderdome through the catchy melodic pop of Sunset Boulevard and Heroine, the propulsive R’NB of Her Touch and Whirlpool and the swirling shoegaze-infused balladry of One Step Closer and Sleeping Through The Day, Dissolver delivers a welcome progression to the pop genre that seamlessly blends classic pop sensibilities with modern R’NB, contemporary electronica and 80’s shoegaze indie. The music still retains the trademark lush production that Stumbleine is noted for, with strong melody lines and compelling lyrics penned by Violet Skies.

With Violet now involved in the songwriting, Peter affirms that she’s given Stumbleine a face and stamped his music with her personality. “She makes the music stand out and has opened the door to a wider audience,” he says, “I’ve pushed myself much harder over the past year to create something a bit different”. With Dissolver, Peter has added Violet’s vitality to the dreamy essence of Stumbleine and the results are breathtaking. Violet Skies has recently launched her own solo career, with the recent debut of her first track “How The Mighty”.

TRACK LISTING

1. Thunderdome
2. Sunset Boulevard
3. We’re Shadows
4. Her Touch
5. Heroine
6. Whirlpool
7. One Step Closer
8. Baby Don’t Go
9. XYZ
10. Sleeping Through The Day

Holy Vacants, the fourth album from Trophy Scars, sees the New Jersey quartet deliver their magnum opus as they continue to evolve their sound. The album was initially worked up as a 35-page screenplay by vocalist/lyricist Jerry Jones and is even more ambitious than 2011's Never Born Never Dead, which took reincarnation as its theme. Holy Vacants uses as its springboard a bizarre cocktail of mythology, ancient religion, and conspiracy theory surrounding the Nephilitic gene. The album revolves around Jones's tale of two lovers who have discovered not only that the blood of angels contains the fountain of youth, but also the formula for Qeres. This ancient Egyptian perfume is claimed to be the only substance that can kill angels and Nephilites, who are the supposed offspring of angels/human unions. Armed with this knowledge, the couple embark on a killing spree, drinking spilled Nephilitic blood to stop growing old. The narrative may be conceptually out-there, but it doesn’t fence the album in and stands as a metaphor for far simpler and more widely recognized issues – the idealization of youth, loss of identity and corrupted innocence.

It’s also Jones’ personal way of drawing a line under an intense past relationship: “The album was about being so in love with somebody that they literally destroy you,” he explains. “I had to write the album as a way of exorcising this person from my mind and soul. I wanted a Bonnie and Clyde-type story, because I’ve always loved that. There’s something beautiful about the idea of rebelling together against something and losing yourself in the rebellion to the extent that it destroys your life. It’s the doomed romanticism thing.” Holy Vacants was intended the band’s final album , but instead constitutes a complete rebirth. “I thought we had one more record in us and we wanted to go out with a bang”,says Jones. Guitarist Ferrara, who Jones calls “an unbelievable composer”, sent the singer some bare-bones riffs and he found himself connecting with them immediately, hearing how they might work with strings here, a Moog and organ, maybe some brass and an all-girl choir there. And listening to the likes of opener “Archangel” and “Qeres”, with its free-wheeling but complex and cathartic, psychedelic blues, it’s obvious the band have moved light years away from their post-hardcore early years. They reveal their admiration for fellow New Jersey son Springsteen, circa Darkness on the Edge of Town with “Crystallophobia”, “Everything Disappearing” and “Extant”, and for Jimi Hendrix via “Hagiophobia”, while elsewhere there are echoes of Guns N’ Roses and The Mars Volta. But what might sound like an unworkable agglomeration of disparate parts is an intense and cohesive, hugely compelling whole, with powerful contrasts that make for a visceral immediacy.

TRACK LISTING

1. Extant
2. Qeres
3. Archangel
4. Crystallophobia
5. Burning Mirror
6. Hagiophobia
7. Chicago Typewriter
8. Vertigo
9. Gutted
10. Every City, Vacant
11. Everything Disappearing
12. Nyctophobia

Canadian songwriter Barzin will release his fourth full-length album, To Live Alone In That Long Summer, on February 24th, 2014 on Monotreme Records. His past work has won acclaim from NPR Music “Song of The Day”,Salon.com, Stereogum, Uncut, Exclaim!, and La Blogotheque among others. To Live Alone... follows his well-received 2009 album Notes To An Absent Lover, praised by Mojo Magazine as “Americana Album of The Month”.

To Live Alone In That Long Summer explores such themes as loneliness, intimacy, and connection between strangers. Modern life in the fast paced environment of the city provides the backdrop to the narrative of these songs. Whilst still embracing a relatively minimalist aesthetic, the songs alternate between up and down-tempo, with arrangements that envelope the listener like the warm glow of fading daylight. “All the While”, one of the highlights of the album, is at once both elegiac and hopeful, with its bright guitar and brisk tempo underpinned by mournful strings and Barzin’s soft, melancholy vocals. The dark, percussive “In The Dark You Can Love This Place” lends an exotic nocturnal feel with its winding woodwinds. Another standout track, “Fake It ‘til You Make It, is a lush, sweeping cinematic pop number. Barzin has recently pursued projects outside his own songwriting, including assisting in producing his compatriots Memoryhouse’s recent album, The Slideshow Effect (Subpop Records). He has also written a book of poems entitled, "Something I Have Not Done Is Following Me."

Bradford Cox's music is the stuff of an obsessive and unquiet mind. Everything about the singer's approach to music — whether he's dumping four discs' worth of home recordings onto the Internet with little fanfare or smearing fake blood onto his spindly, dress-clad body onstage — has a chaotic, haunted quality to it, even in painstakingly crafted recordings that layer his sound with atmospheric psychedelia.

All of which makes Monomania a perfect title for an album by Cox's band : A single-minded obsession with music is so clearly what's kept him intact and whole throughout his adult life. But this particular collection, the sound of which he describes as "nocturnal garage," has a dirtier, wirier, looser and less fussed-over feel than he's often cultivated in recent years. Five studio albums into Deerhunter's existence, Monomania captures Cox's gift for self-laceration and unpredictability, but it moves in a less studio-bound direction, closer to the raw and unhinged spirit of his live shows.

Monomania's gnarly dissonance leaves a bit less room than usual for glimmers of beauty — though they shine through in a few haunting tracks like "The Missing" — as Deerhunter opts more often for the raw, noisy, slurred and basement-friendly feel of "Pensacola." Elsewhere, "Blue Agent" meets somewhere on Deerhunter's continuum between sideways prettiness and the sort of thorniness that ensures arm's-length distance. Even as its sound continues to shift unpredictably, Deerhunter has maintained that balance throughout its fruitful run — no small task, coming from a man whose entire artistic persona is rooted in an understanding that balance doesn't come easy, even on the best days.

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: Less Shoegaze, more Velvets. Always good songs!

"OTTO" is:
1 The Italian word for the number 8, which rotated 90 degrees becomes the ancient symbol of infinity.
2 The first Niagara L.P.
3 The magic number in nuclear physics.
4 The number of the "Law of Ocataves" from Georges Ivanovich Gurdjieff.
5 The number of the lotus petals, and therefore, in Buddhist terminology, the paths of the Way.
6 The number of cosmic balance: the octagonal shape is that of Buddhist temples centered on the one who spins the wheel in the center of the universe.
7 The maximum number of electrons that can occupy a valence shell.
8 August.

Niagara is the collaborative project of Turin-based singers/producers David Tomat (TOMAT / N.A.M.B./ GEMINI EXCERPT) and Gabriele Ottino (N.A.M.B. / Milena Lovesick / GEMINI EXCERPT), who like to take a less conventional approach to composition. Much of their music is developed by continuous experimentation with sounds during improvised sessions, in which vocals are often used as just another instrumental layer. However, they also have a great ear for a killer pop tune and the vocal chops to deliver it.

On ‘Otto’, their debut album, Niagara blend together a heady mixture of experimental pop, electronica and psychedelia to create their own brand of ‘avant-psych-tronica’. The first single, ‘Seal’, is a joyously off-kilter mandolin-fueled pop paean to summer, with an uplifting chorus filled with handclaps, sweet west-coast harmonies and humourously surreal lyrics. ‘Watershipdown’ recalls the trippier, spacier synth-fuelled explorations of The Flaming Lips, with a driving beat, drones and chopped vocal samples. Etacarinea tears a page from the ‘Sgt. Pepper’ era Beatles book with its bouncy brass band and synths, gradually morphing into a psychedelic wig-out. It all ends with the whimsical ‘Love Me Love Me’ skipping lightly through a garden of syncopated percussion. The album was recorded by Niagara and mixed by G.U.P. Alcaro at Superbudda Studio in Turin and mastered by Francesco Donandello at Calyx Mastering Studio in Berlin.

TRACK LISTING

1. Eight
2. Superbe
3. Seal
4. Watershipdown
5. Etacarinae
6. E.V.A.
7. Galaxy Glacier
8. Love Me Love Me.

"Mantler's 2010 effort “Monody” is a soulful and engagingly moody album that features singer/songwriter Chris A. Cummings' knack for bare-bones soft rock and indie soul. With songs centred most prominently around Cummings' lo-fi Wurlitzer keyboard compositions, “Monody” often sounds something like a mix of 70s icons Steely Dan backed by French pop duo Air. These are low-key but still somehow hugely cinematic tracks that register as a kind of indie rock take on film noir. It doesn't hurt that Cummings fills out these arrangements with orchestral flourishes, various wind instruments, and percussion elements that help to broaden his already expansive jazz-infused musical palette. However, just when you think you've got Cummings pegged as the captain of his soft rock yacht, he smacks you with such mid-album cuts as "Fresh and Fair" that pop and percolate with electronic keyboards and programmed beats. Similarly, the creeping and stealthy "Breaking Past and Day" hits with a kind of 80s synth pop Taco-meets-ELO vibe" - All Music Guide.

Since the release of their debut album "Red Your Blues" in 2001, Toronto-based Picastro have continued to mine a rich seam of beautifully melancholic (and sometimes menacing) avant-folk / rock. Their fourth album, “Become Secret”, finds them on top form once again, with the familiar accompaniment of cello, acoustic guitar, drums and piano employed to great effect on songs that incorporate Eastern-European folk themes, bleak cinematic soundscapes and dark, unsettling pop.

Front woman and songwriter Liz Hysen shares vocal duties on several songs with guest vocalists including Tony Dekker (Great Lake Swimmers), Brendan Massei (Viking Moses), Colleen Kinsella (Fire On Fire, Cerberus Shoal) and John McIntyre Lyrically, Hysen drew inspiration from a variety of sources, including Cormac McCarthy, Westerns and the Bible, as well as Antonioni’s film 'The Passenger'. (Hysen, an avid film buff who also makes Super 8 films as a hobby, says that the final album track, “The Stiff”, synchs up perfectly with the final scene of 'The Passenger'.) The sleeve art, which was drawn by Josef Bolf, is based on The Temptation of St. Anthony.

TRACK LISTING

1. Twilight Parting
2. A Dune A Doom
3. Pig & Sucker
4. Spilt Head
5. I Know My Time Now
6. Neva
7. Suttee
8. A Neck In The Desert
9. The Stiff

Long-awaited return of ex-Granfaloon Bus frontman Felix Costanza. After releasing eight critically acclaimed albums over more than a decade, San Francisco's Granfaloon Bus 'parked' forever in 2003. The band had built up a good following in Europe, and many press writers wondered openly how much longer the band could possibly remain 'under the radar' before the wider world finally woke up to their considerable talents. Following the split of the band, front man and songwriter Felix Costanza turned his attentions to a new solo project, which he called Okie Rosette. The album "Leap Second" was brought to life with the help of various accomplices. Thee More Shallows' Dee Kesler lent his recording expertise and sonic wizardry to some of the tracks, Carrie Bradley (The Breeders, 100 Watt Smile) contributed violin parts, and ex-Granfaloon Bus members Jeff Stevenson (bass) and Ajax Green (guitar) joined in too, along with various other contributors. The addition of Rachel Stevenson's dulcet, husky voice provided the perfect foil to Costanza's world-weary vocals. A description once used by a journalist to describe the music of Granfaloon Bus – 'slanted folk-pop' – still applies as an apt description of this mixture of folk / melodic pop / Americana stylings, further tweaked with distorted samples, electronic beats, loops and skewed lyrics. It all adds up to a stunning album – the best work yet by Felix Costanza, and hopefully only the beginning of his long-overdue ascent 'above the radar'.

Athens, Georgia trio The Low Lows return to Europe in February to promote their new single, "Elizabeth Pier". The title track is taken from their forthcoming album, "Little Tigers". Backed with B-side "Raining In Eva", and the video for "Dear Flies, Love Spider". Their debut album "Fire On The Bright Sky" was released in October. It's a radiant, desperate prom-night of a record, in which stark southern sweetness gives way unexpectedly to great storms of guitar noise. Sheets of dissonance and singer P.L. Noon's arcing wail conjure Galaxie 500 or "Electr-O-Pura" era Yo La Tengo, while bright walls of country narcosis à la My Morning Jacket crumble into climactic, stomping feedback and lush, sad balladry.

Cerberus Shoal come from the state of Maine in the USA. They exist as an ever-evolving collective of musicians, who have, over more than a decade, produced 11 releases, which are quite varied in style. "The Land We All Believe In" is an exhilarating journey through the weird and wonderful realms of twisted avant-folk-pop, combining psychedelic, African, Arabic, Eastern European and other forms of music with some truly unique vocal performances.