A tree may lose its leaves but will continue to grow. For Teleman, the band’s fourth album ‘Good Time / Hard Time’ is their first as a trio and sees them evolve as a force of nature as they navigate new beginnings despite a wealth of experience behind them. Music and lyrical stream of consciousness entwined, the album makes sense of a world in chaos and its words of wisdom are a vital reminder that even when things seem heavy, life is precious.

“Nature can teach us so much about patience and how you can’t control everything - you just have to let things happen as it intends… it’s great therapy,” tells the band’s singer and guitarist, Thomas Sanders whose garden-dwelling and park strolls to the studio have inevitably wormed their way into Teleman’s songwriting. “I was reading about forests and how trees help each other, they don’t survive on their own, they grow together… as a band we’ve now grown into each other as a triangle shape after having been a square for so long.”

With classic Teleman style, ‘Good Time / Hard Time’ is their most dancefloor-friendly record to date. Following the departure of the band’s long-time keyboard player Jonny Sanders to focus on his film and design work, Peter Cattermoul now leads on keyboard duties and Hiro Amamiya slides seamlessly between drum machine, live drums and even the odd keyboard solo as it captures the bounce of choice cuts from their own DJ sets such as Metronomy or the classic disco of Boney M, Giorgio Moroder, early house music and 80s vibes - all the while doused in their trademark blend of uplifting melancholy. “You’ve got to experience the hard times to appreciate the good times in life,” Tom explains. “Most of the songs are about universal things everyone can relate to, the small and simple details about difficult connections and overcoming them.”

TRACK LISTING

Side A
Short Life
Trees Grow High
Wonderful Times
Easy Now I've Got You
Cherish
Side B
1. Hello Everybody
2. I Can Do It For You
3. The Juice
4. The Girls Who Came To Stay
5. Good Time/Hard Time

Dinked Edition Bonus 7”:
Side A
Somebody Tell Me It’s Alright
Side B
Short Life Demo

Comprised of Betamax and fellow Comet is Coming member Danalogue, Soccer96 is a new project of spiritual combat music to steady us through the stormy changes of the outer world. Co-written with a wealth of modern talent (The Colours That Rise, Tom Herbert, Salami Rose Joe Louis, Simbad and Rozi Plain), it's an exhilarating sugar rush of electricity and rhythm. Spontaneously combustible and channeling a kind of aggressive alchemy between man, machine and instrument: it captures the spirituality of jazz and the progressive nature of electronica whilst never comfortably sitting in either genre for too long.

The hybridization between jazz and electronica recalls acts like Flying Lotus, Squarepusher and Autechre; with the kinda hypercoloured sparkle of Hudson Mohawk or ED DMX's more out-there productions. It's urgent, it's fresh, it's ambitious; it's now!

TRACK LISTING

1 Inner Worlds, Outer Worlds
2 Speak More Of Love
3 Crystal Pyramid
4 Yesterday Knows Me
5 Adrenaline
6 Underwater Cities
7 Gatekeepers
8 Triple Helix

The Wave Pictures, industrious and prolific as ever, return on Thursday 18 November with ‘This Heart Of Mine’. Following two albums in 2018, ‘Brushes With Happiness’ and ‘Look Inside Your Heart’, this is the first track to be made available from their new double album ‘When The Purple Emperor Spreads His Wings’, due for 2022 release.

Formed over twenty years ago by Franic Rozycki and David Tattersall in Wymeswold, Leicestershire, and joined by Jonny ‘Hudderfield’ Helm since 2005, The Wave Pictures have released over twenty albums of their own, along with exciting side projects such as garage rock supergroup The Surfing Magazines, several albums with Stanley Brinks, and Dave’s recent guitar contributions to Billy Childish albums, with whom they also collaborated on their 2014 album ‘Great Big Flamingo Burning Moon’. Across these varied releases, accommodating Dave’s free flowing fountain of songwriting, The Wave Pictures have shown their deep affection for rock and roll, blues, jazz, classic rock, and of course Dave’s legendary love of good guitar solo.

With a nuance of autumn, ‘This Heart Of Mine’ references time and space travel & memory all rolled into one. Musically inspired by classic Neil Young, ‘This Heart Of Mine’ witnesses The Wave Pictures going full-on country and features cowboy harmonica from Dominic ‘Hotdog’ Brider, Franic Rozycki on mandolin, alongside Dave Tattersall’s gentle acoustic guitar strum.

TRACK LISTING

A1. River Of Gold
A2. Back In The City
A3. French Cricket
A4. Never Better
A5. Blink The Sun
B1. Samsun
B2This Heart Of Mine
B3. Douglas
B4. Jennifer
B5. Smell The Ocean
C1. I'd Be Doing Anything
C2. Hazel Irvine
C3. Don't Forget Me
C4. Winter Baby
C5. Flight From Destruction
D1. When The Purple Emperor Spreads His Wings
D2. Never Let You Down
D3. Dale It's A Damn Shame
D4. Walking To Wymeswold
D5. Secret Messages

‘Wax Limousine’ is the third solo album from London’s Wesley Gonzalez. 

With its truly eclectic range of musical influences drawing on Gonzalez’s ever developing sonic palette, the album’s uplifting sound juxtaposes its themes, documenting the end of a long-term relationship and the overwhelming experience of dealing with a family member’s cancer diagnosis and subsequent treatment. ‘Wax Limousine’ navigates these hurdles with a razor-sharp wit and often brutally perceptive self-awareness, nowhere more so than on the new single. Inspired by both 'Faithless' by Scritti Politti and Aretha Franklin, it is Gonzalez’s version of an 80’s gospel song and, as he explains, written at a crucial point over the last 12 months

“This was written right after the breakup and cancer diagnosis. It was that early stage of a breakup where you can't really understand what went wrong for you or for your ex. There was resentment for the extreme change I had suddenly found myself in, and I was asking what it really was I did wrong. The title Wax Limousine came from old phrases like "as useless as an ashtray on a motorbike". I was trying to express how useless I felt within every situation that had just arrived at my doorstep.”

Wesley Gonzalez first made a name for himself as the leader of Let's Wrestle, whose tuneful and eccentric punk earned critical accolades and a devoted audience with three albums, including 2011’s Steve Albini produced ‘Nursing Home’. Gonzalez wasted little time forging his own path and quickly assembled a live band for his solo work, expanding upon the guitar-driven music of his former band, with an interesting concoction of classic 70’s pop, soul, and indie rock. Gonzalez released his debut solo record ‘Excellent Musician’ in 2017, then the follow up ‘Appalling Human’ in June 2020 through Moshi Moshi Records. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Greater Expectations
2. When I Fell For You
3. Protein & Perfume
4. In Confidence, I’m Scared
5. 1,2,3,4,5 Just Get Rid Of It
6. Wax Limousine
7. A Taste Of Something New
8. Penelope Ditches Ulysses
9. It’s You
10. Drive You Home
11. Grateful
12. Waiting For Your Letter 

Not all new starts offer a fresh beginning.

While it might seem branching out with a solo album after a decade in a band would provide that clean start, in reality, more time must pass before the real change, movement and progress can occur. “With the last record (Now That I’m a River, 2018), I didn’t really know what I was doing - I just wanted to make something that felt like me,” reflects Charles, as he prepares to release his second solo album YES.

Out went major keys, swampy reverb, gloomy imagery and the kind of layered production which characterised Now That I’m a River. In their stead - lyrics of joy, minor keys, and a direct, stripped back approach Watson had always shied away from. “I think it’s about having the confidence to be myself,” he says. “The confidence to simplify things, to strip back where I would have added more, to be more direct.”

In addition, Watson was buoyed by the positivity directed at certain songs from Now That I’m a River - the title track, particularly. “I felt like I had been hiding for so long, behind reverb, behind certain effects and tricks, and that was a hang-up from when I was in Slow Club,” he explains. “And now, I’ve arrived at a place of not wanting to carry my insecurities on to a record. I want to project the purest form of what I want to say. I feel like I’ve come so far in the space of two albums and can already see I’m not the person I was when I was writing this album, just as I’m no longer the person I was when I made the first album. This record is the start of untangling all of those feelings and stepping forward.”

Alongside his solo career, Charles is known for his work as one half of the band Slow Club and as a member of the garage-rock super group The Surfing Magazines. In recent years Charles has worked as a composer, writing the music for acclaimed Netflix & Channel 4 production 'Feel Good' which led to the show's creator, Canadian comedian Mae Martin, becoming a fan. Charles has also recently composed the score for 'Youngstown', the forthcoming indie feature film from director Pete Ohs (Everything Beautiful is Far Away) due for release in late 2021.

TRACK LISTING

1. Figure Skater
2. All My Mountains
3. Reared In The West
4. I Was Sent Here To Love You
5. Afghan Hound
6. Spectator Sports
7. Beauty Contest
8. Going Places
9. It Must Be Night
10. People Run Towards People

Cologne trio SPARKLING announce ‘This Is My Life / Das Ist Mein Leben / C´est Ma Vie’ EP via Moshi Moshi Records (Anna Meredith, Du Blonde, Girl Ray).

Hailing from a city that birthed the likes of Krautrock, and with LCD Soundsystem’s Al Doyle and Hot Chip’s Joe Goddard on production reins for their upcoming EP, SPARKLING’s remarkable progression continues, having originally formed during their time studying at University and Art School in Cologne, where they developed a reputation live in their homeland for hot, heady and sweat-drenched club-room sets.

A move to London followed, where they soon worked with Stereolab’s Andy Ramsay on their debut LP ‘I Want To See Everything’; a jagged, quick-witted set of ten pop-flecked post-punk tunes, breaking them out of Germany and attracting widespread support across the BBC Radio 1 (Jack Saunders) and BBC 6 Music (Lauren Laverne, Steve Lamacq) airwaves, as well as an invitation to play at SXSW.

Arriving ahead of their EP release in spring 2022 and subsequent live run, lead track ‘C’est Ma Vie’ is the sort of irrepressible hands in the air indie anthem that defies resistance. A song about self-doubt and regaining self-confidence, it’s cathartic in its sense of unashamed grandiosity and positivity in contrast to the twin troubles of the pandemic and Brexit that the group have drawn influence from. 

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A

A1. C'est Ma Vie
A2. Not The Right Place

SIDE B

B1. Feelings
B2.Wir Träumen

Consisting of one half of Slow Club and two thirds of The Wave Pictures, The Surfing Magazines’ primary influences are Bob Dylan, The Velvet Underground and all the great surf guitar music of the 1960s. They burst onto the scene with their eponymous debut album in 2017, a lauded LP described by Record Collector Mag as “a vintage-yet-modern rock’n’roll classic”.

Mixing the noir surf textures of 1960s garage rock along with westcoast sun beaten harmony pop, the 17-track Badgers of Wymeswold follows the acclaimed debut and is to be released July this year. The London based foursome recorded the album at Ranscomb Studio in Rochester in February last year before the start of the first UK lockdown.

Pushing their sound forward, the band utilise their garage rock ethic and have both Drummer Dominic Brider and Rhythm guitar player Charles Watso lead on vocals across multiple tracks. The album sees a return of free form saxophone parts, eerie violins and piano all appear, notably on tracks ‘Nostaw Boogie’ and ‘I’m Going Out Tonight To Play Some Pool’. The title track is drawn from David Tattersall’s nightmare vision about his home town's population of self governing people, the album artwork was also made by Tattersall and depicts a collage of his referenced dreams. The extensive LP showcases their characteristic sound at their brightest, from softer ballads such as ‘Poppies’ and ‘Silver Breasts’, surf guitar rock anthem ‘Locomotive Cheer’, and to the six bar blues ‘Pink Ice Cream’.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Surfing Magazines have greta lineage, and you can really hear the talent oozing through the sound, which ends up sounding like a distillation of garage rock, 60's psych and with just a touch of both the Wave Pictures and Slow Club (surprisingly). A Brilliantly dynamic, exciting LP and well worth the wait.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A
1. Joke
2. Locomotive Cheer
3. Pink Ice Cream
4. I Dreamed When I Was Young
SIDE B
5. Ten Days Of Shiver
6. Running Scared
7. Bonsai Tree
8. Century Breaks
SIDE C
9. Badgers Of Wymeswold
10. Nostaw Boogie
11. Sports Bar
12. Hard Times
SIDE D
13. Silver Breasts
14. Caribbean Ginger Cake
15. I'm Going Out Tonight To Play Some Pool
16. Poppies

Fulu Mizikiroughly translates as “music from the garbage”, which in a literal sense is an accurate description of the thrillingly chaotic eco-friendly Afro-Futurist collective. The instruments they design, build and play are masterclasses in upcycling.

From guembris built out of computer casing, to jerry-can drum-kits, keyboard inventions from wood, springs and aluminium pipes, and old flip-flops used as pads by plastic tube-wielding percussion players, the Democratic Republic of Congo-formed group’s ethos lies in the respect of nature, the celebration of its gifts and the importance of its preservation through environmentalism.

Their new EP, entitled Ngbaka, finds Fulu Miziki embracing electronica textures and production styles, in a departure from their traditional sound. This shift in style was prompted by the Coronavirus lockdown in Kampala, Uganda (their current base): with rehearsal rooms and public spaces shut, the collective were forced inside and encouraged to conduct sonic experiments. Lead single "OK Seke Bien" is inspired by the church choir singing from the group members' childhoods,.

Fulu Miziki draw from the roots of their native Congolese rumba and soukous, incorporating its driving percussion and tightly rhythmic instrumentation alongside group vocals that move between repetitious chanting refrains and effortlessly interloping harmonies. The hyperactive nature of these dizzyingly psychedelic jams is married with Westward-looking touchstones: American R’n’B and hip-hop, pop music and – increasingly – a diaspora of club culture from both at home and abroad.

The combination forms something of a mutated new strain of dance music: steeped in the heritage of their native Kinshasa but pulsating with the frantic BPM, synthetic processing and manipulated frequencies of modern pop. Lyrically meanwhile, the group are inspired by their environment, with songs centred around climate change – although social issues of police brutality and more conventional love songs find their way in too.

Fulu Miziki’s message is simple and clear: love the earth you live on. It’s environmental activism meant for the dancefloor, love and devotion to Mother Nature fed through a refraction of Congolese rhythms and western pop; but most of all its about humanity, and asking how we’re going to turn around the damage we’ve done to a planet that we’ve for so long taken for granted.

TRACK LISTING

01. OK Seke Bien (ft. Sekelembele)
02. Lokito (ft. DJ Final)
03. Bivada (ft. Sekelembele)
04. Mokili Makambo (ft. Sekelembele)
05. Toko Yambana (ft. DJ Final And Deboul)
06. Beta Ndule (ft. DJ Final And Deboul)

“It was important just to get some new music out sooner rather than later,” says Thomas Sanders, the singer and guitarist of Teleman. “Making an EP felt like we could be more spontaneous and try things out without the pressure and expectation surrounding an album release. So it was a more fun experience I'd say.”

However, a fleeting, throwaway stop gap this is not. The EP is as realised a piece of work as any the band have created. Although the sense of fun, spontaneity, and intuition that Sanders speaks of can be palpably felt across the breezy five tracks here that span art rock, electronic pop and that unshakable idiosyncratic tone that is always unmistakably Teleman.

Despite possessing such a distinct sense of tone and personality in all that they do, the band are also keen collaborators having previously worked with producers Dan Carey, Bernard Butler, Bullion, Moscoman and Boxed In. Here they are working with Al Doyle and Joe Goddard of Hot Chip on production duties. “They created a super relaxed and enjoyable atmosphere to work in, it was all about experimentation and fun” says Sanders. “We've been mutual admirer's of each others' bands for quite some time so it seemed to us like a really good pairing.”

The EP has come after the band’s keyboard player Jonny Sanders left the group to focus on his film and design work (he actually directs the new video for 'Right As Rain' from the EP). However, the forced recalibration of the band’s line-up has reinvigorated them as a unit, opening new areas for exploration and possibilities with Peter Cattermoul taking over most of the keyboard duties and Hiro Amamiya sliding seamlessly between drum machine, live drums and even the odd keyboard solo. “The fact we’ve lost a member forced us to be a bit more flexible and open about how we approach playing the songs,” says Sanders. “You have to try and turn events like this around and make them work for not against you.

The opening ‘Right As Rain’ combines taut guitar work, sparse rhythms and a soaring vocal take to explore the murky middle ground where contentment and hollowness are often inseparable. “I felt especially over lockdown like life was becoming an endless series of little vignettes of short lived moments of pleasure punctuating a weird void,” says Sanders. “I think quite a few other people felt the same way and I hope people can relate to it.”

TRACK LISTING

1. Right As Rain
2. Sweet Morning
3. Free Bird
4. Simple Like Us
5. Storm Chasing

Bumps Per Minute is a full-throttle reinvention of the traditional fairground dodgems, from Mercury Award-shortlisted composer, producer and musician Anna Meredith. The music is part of the DODGE installation, which can be experienced until 22nd August at Somerset House.

For Bumps Per Minute, Meredith has collaborated with BAFTA-winning sound artist Nick Ryan to design a bespoke tracking technology so that every thump, bump and swerve of the 18 dodgems around the track can trigger a separate composition. This results in a kind of ultimate shuffle where high octane music and ideas compete for airtime and each performance is unique. The installation will occur approximately every hour at DODGE through the day/evening.

The idea for Bumps Per Minute came about when the composer was thinking about what might be a more pandemic friendly replacement for the ice rink at Somerset House where she has her studio. The idea grew from there and now this summer DODGE is taking over the main courtyard at Somerset House, featuring a full smorgasbord of Yinka Ilori designs, DJs, food, drink and of course, dodgem rides.

Bumps Per Minute: 18 Studies for Dodgems features full-length individual musical identities of all 18 dodgems – each one a bold and distinct musical track in its own right as well an intro and outro track (voiced by comedian Rob Broderick).

The key to both the dodgems themselves and the release is a user ‘driven’ triggering and shuffling of the material. Meredith encourages the listener to ‘take the driving seat’ and jump from one track to another, mirroring the real dodgem ride, shuffling and curating their own listening experience via the virtual interactive dodgems page or their preferred listening platform.

Bumps Per Minute: 18 Studies for Dodgems explodes out of the starting gate with Meredith’s uncategorisable sound and signature energy, combining fairground wildness with a healthy dose of the nostalgic electronics of old school gaming.

On the composition, Meredith says “I approached writing these 18 tracks like little exercises, making identities that are bold, playful and characterful but without beats, percussion or any acoustic elements and relying on my skills to create melodic and harmonic based energy”. She continues “they’re also less about musical development than my orchestral work or material in my studio albums, these tracks are only themselves and unapologetically so, and that freed me up to unleash some pretty bonkers ideas, knowing it’s about these bold switches - like a sort of musical Whacky Races…"

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: I'm not going to pretend that this isn't an unhinged selection of neon synth stabs and video-game soundtrack influenced fairground music, because that's absolutely what it is but I would also be amiss if I didn't say it's also wildly inventive, heavy af and undeniably brilliant. What madness.

TRACK LISTING

A1 START ENGINES
A2 BPM 100
A3 BPM 144
A4 BPM 108
A5 BPM 178
A6 BPM 62
A7 BPM 124
A8 BPM 112
A9 BPM 130

B1 BPM 200
B2 BPM 72
B3 BPM 104
B4 BPM 131
B5 BPM 110
B6 BPM 109
B7 BPM 101
B8 BPM 194
B9 BPM 155
B10 BPM 107
B11 STOP ENGINES 

Callum Easter has always been a force of nature. The singer and multi-instrumentalist thrives on impulse and spontaneity, balancing that with an impeccable song writing craftsmanship that makes even the more outré moments of his current batch of mutated soul punk/rock ‘n’ roll instantly arresting. New album System was recorded largely alone in his Edinburgh studio, but it bustles with a brash, maximalist vigour, that draws a line under his previous work and charges exhilaratingly forwards - beginning a journey that he describes as a “descent into ordinary madness.”

Easter's love of rock ‘n’ roll has long been baked in – but there’s a new fervour to where he’s taken this source. Now there is an outward fire; a raging – albeit with the sort of wryly humorous delivery only Easter can provide - against the general noise of everyday living and a longing for something else, something more, something that looks you straight in the eye.

System is careful to balance protest with positivity; it’s accentuated on the album’s stirring opener and first single ‘What You Think?’ Which sees Easter urge the listener via his steely growl that “there’s no point crying, what’s the use? No more hiding, what’s the use?” to focus on living and the positive changes we can make as individuals and collectively.

TRACK LISTING

01. What You Think?
02. System
03. Little Honey
04. Find ‘Em A Home
05. Be Somebody
06. My Love
07. Honey Bee
08. Lose Sometime (ft. Law Holt)
09.Tell ‘Em Child
10. This Feeling

It’s one thing to take the drone rock of your debut album in an entirely new direction but quite another when the result is an ambitious 30 track three-part album.  

But that’s what London collective Moderate Rebels have done on their biggest project to date, the opus ‘If You See Something That Doesn’t Look Right’. Fearless in their refusal to be pigeonholed, they touch on everything from driving rhythmic repetition, discordant guitar fuzz and hazy psychedelia, to late 60s-indebted folk and lilting melodic hooks, via twinkling piano ballads, drum machine rigidity and playful synth pop.

The album touches on the progressive works of Phil Spector, Fripp & Eno and Syd Barrett, the transcendental pop of Spiritualized, St Etienne and Stereolab, and the wry humour of 80s Pet Shop Boys. But it comes stamped with the group’s own inimitable identity.

TRACK LISTING

LP 1
1. Information Research Department
2. Higher Than The Hierarchy
3. Perfect Grey Day
4. Amo Amas Amat
5. The Penultimate Truth
6. Hug Me 'Til You Drug Me
7. These Are The Good Times
8. Forever Tomorrow Today
9.Vesica Piscis
10. Odds Be Never
LP 2
1. Every Cheat You Meet Sings Love Songs
2. Stay Frosty
3. Iconomachy
4. Trickster Gods
5. Neu Romancer
6. Don't See It, Don't Say It
7. Painballers' Anthem
8. Based On An Untrue Story
9. You Don't Want To Know What I Think
10. In A Hundred Years
LP 3
1. Swim The Crocodiles
2. You & Your Shadows
3. Suntory Breakfast
4. The Bad Sleep Well

5. The World Inside
6. The Body Electric
7. Peacekeepers
8. Remember, Caesar...
9. Ministry Of Love
10. Sol Invictus

It’s one thing to take the drone rock of your debut album in an entirely new direction but quite another when the result is an ambitious 30 track three-part album.  

But that’s what London collective Moderate Rebels have done on their biggest project to date, the opus ‘If You See Something That Doesn’t Look Right’. Fearless in their refusal to be pigeonholed, they touch on everything from driving rhythmic repetition, discordant guitar fuzz and hazy psychedelia, to late 60s-indebted folk and lilting melodic hooks, via twinkling piano ballads, drum machine rigidity and playful synth pop.

‘If You See Something That Doesn’t Look Right’ will be released in three ten track parts in 2021, part one being released on Moshi Moshi on 30th April 2021.

The album touches on the progressive works of Phil Spector, Fripp & Eno and Syd Barrett, the transcendental pop of Spiritualized, St Etienne and Stereolab, and the wry humour of 80s Pet Shop Boys. But it comes stamped with the group’s own inimitable identity.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. Swim The Crocodiles
2. You & Your Shadows
3. Suntory Breakfast
4. The Bad Sleep Well
5. The World Inside
6. The Body Electric

Side B
1. Peacekeepers
2. Remember, Caesar...
3. Ministry Of Love
4. Sol Invictus

A new Soccer96 album is a chance for Danalogue (Dan Leavers) and Betamax (Maxwell Hallett) to return to something of a spiritual creative home. Between them, the keyboardist and drummer have become synonymous with the thriving London jazz scene and, in their mind-bending incarnation as the astral synths-and-drums pairing, they’ve traversed stylistic worlds. Over nearly a decade, the duo have metamorphosed from a DIY outfit whose rough-edged recordings hit with a punk spirit, to cosmic dreamers that use sound to travel the reaches of the mind.

“The record is inspired by the idea of humanity’s ever-increasing entanglement with technology and artificial intelligence, balancing fears and moral concerns with the possibilities of evolution’s next phase".

TRACK LISTING

1 Enter The Vortex
2 Prelude To The Age Of Transhumanism
3 Psychic Mechanics
4 Dopamine Ft. Nuha Ruby Ra
5 Entanglement
6 Red Skies Of The Anthropocene
7 Sitting On A Satellite Ft. Salami Rose Joe Louis
8 Use Music To Kill
9 Perfect Dystopia
10 Telepathic DNA
11 Interplanetary Meditations
12 Carry Us Home 

It’s one thing to take the drone rock of your debut album in an entirely new direction but quite another when the result is an ambitious 30 track three-part album.  

But that’s what London collective Moderate Rebels have done on their biggest project to date, the opus ‘If You See Something That Doesn’t Look Right’. Fearless in their refusal to be pigeonholed, they touch on everything from driving rhythmic repetition, discordant guitar fuzz and hazy psychedelia, to late 60s-indebted folk and lilting melodic hooks, via twinkling piano ballads, drum machine rigidity and playful synth pop.

‘If You See Something That Doesn’t Look Right’ will be released in three ten track parts in 2021, part one being released on Moshi Moshi on 30th April 2021.

The album touches on the progressive works of Phil Spector, Fripp & Eno and Syd Barrett, the transcendental pop of Spiritualized, St Etienne and Stereolab, and the wry humour of 80s Pet Shop Boys. But it comes stamped with the group’s own inimitable identity.

TRACK LISTING

Side A

1. Every Cheat You Meet Sings Love Songs
2. Stay Frosty
3. Iconomachy
4. Trickster Gods
5. Neu Romancer

Side B

1. Don't See It, Don't Say It
2. Painballers' Anthem
3. Based On An Untrue Story
4. You Don't Want To Know What I Think
5. In A Hundred Years

Lunar Tredd – Fimber Bravo’s first album on Moshi Moshi since the much acclaimed Con-Fusion – tells the tale. The highlife fusion of You Can’t Control Me resonates in the wake of the global Black Lives Matters protests. There is fire in these impactful clarion calls to resist oppression, recognise strength in resilience and fight against the corruption of power.

Bravo’s been a constant collaborative force - as his time as leader of 20th Century Steel Band, as musical director of Steel ‘n’ Skin, and appearances with everyone from Sun Ra Arkestra to Hot Chip, shows. Lunar Tredd reflects the influence of the music handed down to him by “ancestors” . Helped by an enviable cast of friends and collaborators, Fimber has shifted those touchstones to create something that sounds resolutely like the here and now.

Those friends that appear on Lunar Tredd, include Alexis Taylor of Hot Chip and The Horrors’ Tom Furse; The Invisible drummer Leo Taylor and Senegalese percussionist, Mamadou Sarr dropping in on rhythm duties, while there are also appearances from Susumu Mukai aka Zongamin, the brilliant Kora player Kadialy Kouyate, vocalist Cottie Williams, Vanishing Twin’s Catherine Lucas, and production from Lapo Frost and Ghostpoet producer Shuta Shinoda. Some, like Zongamin and Williams go way back with Fimber, other connections are newer, but all have quickly become part of the London-based musician’s musical family.

Indeed, Fimber never loses sight of where he’s come from on LUNAR TREDD - even as he looks to where he might go next. As a musician, he’s still finding new creative peaks nearly 50 years after he began.

TRACK LISTING

1. Can’t Control We
2. Can’t Control Me
3. Hiyah Man
4. Call My Name
5. Santana’s Daughter
6. Singo
7. Caribbean Bluez (In The Shadow Of Windrush)
8. F. Pan Landing
9. Coming Home
10. Lunar Tredd
11. Tabli Tabli
12. Woonya Waa

It’s one thing to take the drone rock of your debut album in an entirely new direction but quite another when the result is an ambitious 30 track three-part album.

But that’s what London collective Moderate Rebels have done on their biggest project to date, the opus ‘If You See Something That Doesn’t Look Right’. Fearless in their refusal to be pigeonholed, they touch on everything from driving rhythmic repetition, discordant guitar fuzz and hazy psychedelia, to late 60s-indebted folk and lilting melodic hooks, via twinkling piano ballads, drum machine rigidity and playful synth pop.

‘If You See Something That Doesn’t Look Right’ will be released in three ten track parts in 2021, part one being released on Moshi Moshi on 30th April 2021.

The album touches on the progressive works of Phil Spector, Fripp & Eno and Syd Barrett, the transcendental pop of Spiritualized, St Etienne and Stereolab, and the wry humour of 80s Pet Shop Boys. But it comes stamped with the group’s own inimitable identity.

TRACK LISTING

1. Information Research Department
2. Higher Than The Hierarchy
3. Perfect Grey Day
4. Amo Amas Amat
5. The Penultimate Truth
6. Hug Me 'Til You Drug Me
7. These Are The Good Times
8. Forever Tomorrow Today
9. Vesica Piscis
10. Odds Be Never

The universality of music can mean different things to different people. For Albertine Sarges – Berlin-based musician and producer – it’s a vessel that she uses for self-exploration and growth, never more so than on her new album The Sticky Fingers.

The Sticky Fingers has its roots in the south of the German capital – Albertine grew up in Kreuzberg during the fall of the Berlin Wall and records in nearby Neukölln - but from there its branches shoot out to take in feminist theory, musings on bisexuality, gender stereotypes, depression and mental health. These topics fall under the ever-shifting veneer of Albertine’s chameleonic pop motifs: from Viv Albertine-inspired post-punk and kaleidoscopic dream-pop to quiet-loud guitar squall and Merrill Garbus-reminiscent vocal acrobatics.

With her debut, Albertine Sarges demonstrates yet again her versatile musical talents, creating her very own world, a world in which community and open discourse count. The Sticky Fingers is an album that fights for your attention. It’s an album with twists and turns, emotional peaks and troughs and lyrical themes that are at once intensely close to their author’s own life, yet also universal and able to connect on a much broader level – something that is the mark of all great pop music.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Airy melodies and crisp percussion form into a driven but weightless collection of perfectly progressive melodies and perfectly formed vox. Happily floating between the grooving punk of Courtney Barnett and the Kosmische synth soundscapes of the International Teachers of Pop.

TRACK LISTING

A1 Free Today
A2 The Girls
A3 Beat Again
A4 Oh My Love
B1 Stille
B2 Fish
B3 Post Office
B4 Rollercoaster

Releasing music for the first time under his own name, Sanders has worked to deliver an irresistibly charming collection of tracks for ‘Only Magic’, with similarities around struggles and adventures in life and relationships in the modern world.

The single ‘Little Human’ is an infectiously wistful indie-folk track which finds Sanders reflecting on life lessons to his daughter, and detailing his own personal journey to growing up. His instantly recognisable vocal adds a genuine poignancy. 

Well-known for fronting Teleman, Sanders performs as singer and guitarist for the group which has released three seminal albums to widespread critical acclaim from the likes of The Guardian and Drowned In Sound.

“Making this record really took something out of me; I feel like I might have put too much into it” Sanders reflects on writing towards his album. “But it’s not a sadness that I hear listening back, it's more a kind of deep blue happiness.”

An exciting single steeped in emotion, ‘Little Human’ is the first single to come out ahead of TomSanders’ enthralling debut album via Moshi Moshi Records.

TRACK LISTING

1. Most Of The Time
2. Fly For A While
3. Lonesome High
4. Baby All You've Got
5. Touch Down
6. Distant Light
7. Little Human
8. Tom Quixote
9. Spanish Flat
10. It's Only Magic 

Born in London, with roots in India, alongside time spent growing up in Italy, Albania, Saudi Arabia, Dubai and Nigeria, Mera Bhai’s worldly influence seeps into his unique take on dance music. Known as a founding member of Tropical-Psychedelia band Flamingods, the multi-instrumentalist has worked closely with Moshi Moshi Records, Soundway Records and Total Refreshment Centre.

Hard to pin down, Mera Bhai is centred on a musical balance, between eastern and western traditions, the new and the old. Taking influence from Indian Carnatic music, Arabic Rai and 70s Disco, with a heavy dose of 80s/90s Acid House, Detroit techno and Tropicalia on top. “Having grown up all over the world,” Karthik explains, “I was surrounded by a wealth of different sounds - I’m just trying to weave the cultural through line that I hear in music”.

On newest offering ‘Mañana Groove’, Karthik explains, “I wrote this track during a pretty tumultuous time of my life where I was grieving recently lost family members and coming to terms with fraught relationships. I escaped to India for a few months by myself and set up my studio there, and this was one of the first tracks that I wrote.”
Having started a journey of total sobriety, he continues: “I really needed to feel the carefreeness that comes with being in a club/festival environment and wanted to know that I wouldn’t be excluded from feeling that by being sober. I also felt the need to free myself from what I was going through and transmute my challenging experiences into something positive and happy, and that I could share.”
It is an immediately energetic cut, “it’s a sun-soaked anthem to blast out the windows as you cruise out of town. It’s a careless, “I’ll do it mañana” answer to life’s responsibilities, a getaway tune, here to take us out of lockdown into sunnier times ahead.” Karthik explains.

An explosion of various sounds and influences, the track is inspired by ‘Inspector Norse’ by Todd Terje and is sampled from a Mr. Bongo Record’s reissue (close friends of Karthik), ‘A Son Magni’ by Cissé Abdoulaye. “I wanted to take this tune that’s already in my DJ record bag to another dimension,” he continues, “it also gives a nod to one of my favourite anthems ‘Pacific State’ by 808 State, which frames summertime feels for me.”

Previously releasing debut single ‘Jama El F’Na’, Mera Bhai created a bootleg remix of Ahmed Fakroun’s track, from a crossover record combining Libyan influences with western Europop and dance music, “- very much something that mirrors my story. I guess I’ve subconsciously taken his western crossover and made it into my own.”

The merging of cultures is reflected in the artist name also. Mera Bhai is a Hindi greeting, which translates to ‘My Brother’ - the welcoming implication speaks to the borderless nature of dance music, both in a global sense, as well as personal. Infused with a wide, authentic cultural understanding and appreciation for the way dance music brings people together democratically, Mera Bhai seeks to expand minds, or to simply block out the rigorous day to day, and foster a sense of belonging.

TRACK LISTING

1. Manana Groove
2. Futureproofing
3. You, Me, Us (ft Andrew Ashong)
4. Back Whenever (ft. Alxndr London)
5. Jama El F’na Bootleg
6. Manana Groove (dub) 

Dancers can always be sure of one thing with Chen Moscovici – a.k.a. Moscoman – a certain unpredictability and energy will always define the music he serves up. As well as having a background in indie and rock, he plays house, acid, techno, dark disco, synth, all from a more alternative angle. For that reason, he is a regular at wide-ranging but iconic places like Space in Miami, Berghain’s Panorama Bar, Glastonbury and Pacha Ibiza.

2020 sees the release of Moscoman’s long awaited second LP.

In the studio Moscoman has always switched up from one release to the next: raw and rugged machine disco, melodic techno and wonky house on past record labels Because, Life And Death, Greco-Roman/City Slang and his own label Disco Halal. Time Slips Away shows Moscoman stay true to his roots, while exploring new sonic textures with more direct themes. The forthcoming LP also sees him collaborate with artists Tom Teleman, Vanity Fairy, Wooze, Niki KiniandNuphar.

Moscoman says of the album: “The best way to describe the album overall is a feeling of ‘happy sad’. It’s inspired by the highs and lows of my touring life–the amazing gigs, the shitty ones, the opportunity to see the world vs the crazy traveling schedules and lack of sleep.”

Next to all this, Moscoman continues to focus on building his Disco Halal label. It is a place where artists like Simple Symmetry, Red Axes, Trikk and Auntie Flo have all freely expressed themselves. Like Moscoman's own approach to music, it is an unrestricted label that never fails to subvert and surprise.

TRACK LISTING

1. Time Slips Away
2. What Do We Care Feat. Tom Sanders (Teleman)
3. Wish I Was In Tokyo
4. Eyes Wide Shut (feat. Wooze)
5. Maker Breaker Faker Taker
6. Myths Still Exist (feat. Niki Kini)
7. Sense Of Time
8. Turning Tides (feat. Vanity Fairy)
9. Back And Again
10. Natural Born Losers (feat. Wooze)
11. Violet Candy
12. Golden Hours (feat. Nuphar)

Until Now, All Is Well is the latest track to be shared by The Nix, a loose collection of uniquely talented musicians corralled together by Nick McCarthy (ex Franz Ferdinand) and Seb Kellig around their Sausage Studio in east London.

Based around the original composition ‘Warm Canto’ by Mal Waldron, the track features founding member of the avant-pop band Stereolab Laetitia Sadier.

Out on Moshi Moshi Records, Seb of The Nix said about the making of the track:

A night at Sausage Studios and nothing falls into place...we talk, we laugh, we mess about. But the 'record' button remains un-hit. Time is not on our side, we need inspiration, and we know where to find it: We saddle our bikes and ride into the mild London night. Down to Homerton, along the Canal, passing Springfield, we end up in Tottenham.

The mighty Jah Shaka tears the place apart. Low ceilings, the place is filled with smoke and bass. One love, unity, another version....the mids, the tweeters - in perfect harmony. Familiar riddims, unknown dubs. Shaka on the wire.

We get back to Sausage as the sun rises. Our senses are numb. We can't hear, don't want to see, how good it feels not to be guided by ears but by the heart. We close the curtains and plug in. A melody by Mal Waldron in one-ness with the song of the morning birds. We turn up the bass, let the Space Echo guide us, and hit record.

No-one but Laetitia Sadier could capture the mood more perfectly, we feel. She is only a phone call away, comes to the studio a few days later, scribbles down lyrics and spoils us with her beautiful voice and mesmerising poetry.

Wolfie from Munich fills the gaps with haunting sax lines, and the track is done.

Thanks to Laetitia, Wolfie, Mal Waldron and Shaka we found what we were looking for. We salute them.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Highest
2. Until Now All Is Well 

Adana born Manchester raised Al Robinson specialises in a languid style of bittersweet funk music, spurred on by the blue eyed soul of 70's icons Todd Rundgren& Daryl Hall besides taking heavy influence from the legends of poetic groove; Curtis Mayfield, Stevie Wonder & the brothers Isley. A former touring musician with Los Angeles psych-pop outfit Drugdealer, starlet Charlotte Gainsbourg and New Zealand's iconic Connan Mockasin, RH remains a prolific and determined figure in Manchester’s musical scene, often seen collaborating & performing with The Birthmarks, The Foetals and Duds.

In his debut LP "Respect 4 Devotion", he unveils the Timbaland flavoured 'Since 1992', Jazz fusion inflected "Better 2" and sorrowful pop ditty 'Jaded Lovers', featured on the LP amongst others are pianist John Carroll Kirby (Solange, Sebastian Tellier), drummer Stella Mozgawa (Warpaint) and guitarist Alex Brettin (Mild High Club). To celebrate the release, Aldous RH shared the first single ‘Since 1992’. Al explains, “Lyrically we're talking about looking for true love, with some trials and tribulations along the way”. The track is accompanied by a video which Al adds, “mainly serves as an homage to RNB video directing. The idea behind the clock is to show that time can heal almost any wound of the heart. And of course some believe the zodiac to serve as an oracle for relationship compatibility - how true that rings I cannot say. Henceforth I believe the potential for the zodiac to find you your soul mate is merely down to the time elapsed in your search for them & for me personally I was born in 1992, so it all began on that day.”

TRACK LISTING

1. Far N’ Distant Memory
2. True Lust
3. Since 1992
4. Reply
5. Respect 4 Devotion
6. The Endless Search
7. Jaded Lovers
8. Playa 4 Life
9. Better 2’ve Loved

Moshi Moshi first came across the choir in 2017 when they booked them to play Caring Is Creepy in Margate. The choir was a new thing then and a little rough around the edges (They initially wondered if it was a cover for mid-week drinking by some of Margate’s mums, and for that they sincerely apologise). It seemed like a nice idea to ask them to cover some Moshi Moshi songs to mark their 20th birthday celebrations but they never dreamed they would come out sounding as good as they have. Much of the credit for that must go to the expert guidance of choir master Hughie Gavin who arranged and directed the recordings and took these songs in some deeply moving and unexpected directions, with some additional help in the mix from Margate resident Adem Ilan. This has been one of Moshi Moshi's most joyous releases in recent years and maybe just the start of a wonderful working relationship.

TRACK LISTING

1. Crap Kraft Dinner (Hot Chip)
2. Let’s Go Swimming Wild (Sweet Baboo)
3. Dog Days Are Over (Florence + The Machine)
4. Paris (Friendly Fires)

Fibs is heralded by the release of ‘Paramour’, its first single and spectacular accompanying single-take video, and a song that forbids you from turning away - its sweeps, jerks and wrong turns pinning your ears to the speakers whilst heading for warp speed at a blistering 176 BPM before rounding the journey out with an (utterly unexpected) tuba-led half-time rock-out. Arriving three and a half years on from the release of her Scottish Album of the Year Award-winning debut studio album Varmints, Fibs is 45 minutes of technicolour maximalism, almost perpetual rhythmic reinvention, and boasts a visceral richness and unparalleled accessibility.

Fibs is no “Varmints Part 2” — the retreading of old ground, or even a smooth progression from one project to another, just isn’t Meredith’s style. Instead, if anything, it’s “Varmints 2.0”, an overhauled and updated version of the composer’s soundworld, involving, in places, a literal retooling that has seen Meredith chuck out her old MIDI patches and combine her unique compositional voice with brand-new instruments, both acoustic and electronic, and a writing process that’s more intense than she’s ever known. Despite Meredith’s background and skills these tracks are no academic exercise, the world of Fibs is at both overwhelming and intimate, a journey of intense energy and joyful irreverence.

Fibs, says Meredith, are “lies — but nice friendly lies, little stories and constructions and daydreams and narratives that you make for yourself or you tell yourself”. Entirely internally generated and perfectly balanced, they can be a source of comfort and excitement, intrigue and endless entertainment. The eleven fibs contained on Anna Meredith’s second record will do all that, and more besides.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: As some of you may well know, i'm a fan of a nice cheery arp, and 'Fibs' is RAM-PACKED with them. Half way between the 16-bit rave aesthetic of Anamanaguci or the brooding, soundtracky synths of Konami Kukeiha Club and high energy synthpop (Kristin Kontrol, Tegan & Sara etc), Meredith has crafted a completely unexpected and thoroughly exciting fusion. Stunning.

TRACK LISTING

01. Sawbones
02. Inhale Exhale
03. Calion
04. Killjoy
05. Bump
06. Moonmoons
07. Divining
08. Limpet
09. Ribbons
10. Paramour
11. Unfurl

International psych explorers Flamingods are back with brand new album ‘Levitation’ coming out on via Moshi Moshi Records.

Inspired largely by the disco, funk and psychedelic sounds coming out of the Middle East and South Asia in the 70s, the album channels these influences through a vision soaked in mysticism, positivity and sun-drenched imagery.

During the process of writing and recording ‘Levitation’, Flamingods for the first time in four years found themselves living in the same continent, it’s this new unified feel that defines the confident and eclectic sound of the album.

‘Levitation’ is the follow-up to Flamingods’ breakthrough 2016 album ‘Majesty’ and follows their ‘Kewali’ EP release for Moshi Moshi in 2017 and a one-off release with Dan Carey for his Speedy Wunderground singles club. During this time they’ve performed live sessions at 6Music (with Gilles Peterson & Lauren Laverne), KEXP, Boiler Room and have been travelling the globe spreading their exotic psychedelia to the masses and getting people dancing from Austin to Amsterdam. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Flamingods return, bringing with them a brilliantly psychedelic mix of eastern-influenced groove, dreamy anthemic pop and acid-tinged folk. With pummeling percusion and rolling distorted bass holding down the backline, the guitars and echoing vox are allowed free-reign over the sonic spectrum. Killer stuff.

TRACK LISTING

1. Paradise Drive
2. Koray
3. Marigold
4. Astral Plane
5. Peaches
6. Moonshine On Water
7. Olympia
8. Club Coco
9. Mantra East
10. Nizwa
11. Levitation 

Kiran Leonard is a 22 year old musician from Saddleworth, Greater Manchester. Debut album proper Bowler Hat Soup (2014) and follow-up Grapefruit (2016) were both recorded at home, with Kiran playing virtually every instrument himself. Dervaun Seraun (2017), a concept album in five movements inspired by five pieces of literature and arranged for piano, strings and voice, was an ambitious departure from his usual sound.

Western Culture now sees him return to the signature sound of his first two records, yet marks a huge sonic progression thanks to the involvement of his venerable live band on record for the first time, as well as being the first to have been made in a professional studio (Old Granada Studios in central Manchester). Please read on for Kiran's statement on the record, discussing the themes within.

I like the phrase “WESTERN CULTURE” very much because it is a resounding clang from a hollow vessel, connoting so much (grandeur; authority; hostility) without possessing a concrete meaning in of itself. What does ‘western culture’ consist of? This question changes shape depending on who is speaking: e.g., ’culture’ is constantly evolving and autonomous, rapidly reacting to and altering the present in which it unfolds, but is simultaneously regarded as something static and possessed, corresponding roughly to ‘tradition’ or ‘heritage’, something people can call on when the world seems precarious and alien and antagonistic. And so very often when we talk about culture, we reveal our personal conceptions of world events and of what is to be done.

"“WESTERN CULTURE” — these heavy phrases without substance are of great importance because they are easily manipulatable agents with the potential to sustain great impact on the real world. Not every issue stems from language, and sometimes we allow our discourses to replace real things, which belittles violence and misunderstands the very real violence that phrases inflict. But I wanted to write about the relationship between the two, and show how a lot of very real brutality is distorted and justified by how we choose to depict it.

"In part, then, it is a response to brutality. We seem inundated by a brutality beyond our comprehension: the kind of nationalisms and capital, and the brutality of not knowing. The latter is particularly damaging because it is so difficult to oppose what you can’t understand/articulate. I wrote this record about all this not because I wanted the real world to be eclipsed (that is; I didn’t want to self-absorbedly change a problem of violence into one of self-expression) but because I don’t understand any of this, and the struggle to depict the world and lived experience in a more truthful way is waged discursively.

"Process of understanding; process of recognising perspectives beyond your own, and the historical, political forces of imbalance that engender them. I am interested in where songs might fit into all this; I think that it might be a valid means of approaching an articulation of violence, but I also suspect there is something totally absurd about the whole venture."

TRACK LISTING

1. The Universe Out There Knows No Smile
2. Paralysed Force
3. Working People
4. An Easel
5. Legacy Of Neglect
6. Now Then
7. Unreflective Life
8. Shuddering Instance
9. Exactitude And Science
10. Suspension 

As one of the UK’s most prolific and beloved bands, it has become expected – nay, the fans have demanded - that The Wave Pictures release several albums a year. This year, they are releasing two albums and they’re kindly letting us know well in advance, so that we can set our calendars and save our pennies in anticipation. Starting with the spontaneous, recorded in one-day, minor-key, epic masterpiece that is Brushes with Happiness in June, the trio of Jonny Helm (drums), Dave Tattersall (guitar & vocals) and Franic Rozycki (bass), will be following up with a more up-beat party album, Look Inside Your Heart in October.

Brushes with Happiness sees The Wave Pictures in contemplative and expansive mood. Mellower and more reflective than last year’s rock’n’roll surf-garage-rock collaboration with Charles Watson from Slow Club, as new band The Surfing Magazines, or 2016’s blues driven Bamboo Diner in the Rain or 2015’s Billy Childish produced Great Big Flamingo Burning Moon. This album is more akin to 2016’s acoustic release A Season in Hull, which, like Brushes With Happiness, was recorded live in one room in a single January day.

Guitarist and songwriter Dave Tattersall explains the process of recording Brushes With Happiness; “We recorded this album live in a small room to tape on one night in January, playing music into the wee hours. Listening to the album feels like being in a ceremony. It takes you to that place. This is music that emanates from one group of people in one place in space and time. Listening to it is like being let in on a secret.”

They wanted to make an album that was as spontaneous as possible, emulating the jazz, folk, blues and live albums that they love so much. As Dave explains; “As music fans we treasure spontaneous recordings. When we put an album on we want to hear a little of the human spirit.”

The Wave Pictures undertook several steps in order to ensure that this was a magical album:

- Tattersall didn’t write any music prior to the recording sessions, just lyrics. “The lyrics were written in advance, but the music was an improvisation, completed in one night. You can thus hear how in tune we are with one another after ten years playing together in bars.”

- Everything on record is a first take and mostly material that Jonny and Franic had never heard before and Dave had never played. None of it existed in any shape or form before they put it to tape.

- They recorded it late at night so as to be as relaxed as possible. As Dave explains; “Lots of bands pretend that they have made their Tonight’s The Night or Astral Weeks, that special album which is recorded in those rare, late-night, pressure-free circumstances; that loose collection of inspired jams. They haven’t done it really. They’ve spent bloody ages working on the thing. They’ve lost their nerve. This is the real thing. A genuine shitfaced improvisation.”

- They got extremely high and inebriated, “We wanted to get rid of any self-consciousness together,” says Dave.

- The songs are predominantly in minor key. Dave explains; “I cannot help how I feel - for me this is the happiest kind of key to play in.”

For an album recorded in this way, Brushes with Happiness really does surpass all expectations. From the languid guitar licks to Dave’s faltering vocals, every note oozes emotional truth. The synchronicity of the band is evident in tracks like “Laces”, where you can hear the very process of composition or the Django Reinhardt inspired “Red Suitcase.” “The Burnt Match” is the kind of song they would have tried to do many times in the past but wouldn’t have been able to pull-off as they would have over-thought it. Yet in this live environment it turned out perfectly. As Dave explains; “We just improvised these songs on the fly, on the spur of the moment. So you can hear them come together with a lot more vitality than they would have done in the past.”

The album title double meaning is a nod to Jonny Helm’s completely original approach to drumming with brushes. As Dave enthuses; “The way he does it seems to me to come out of the natural world, like waves crashing on rocks, rather than to come out of some school of drumming textbook.” Dave also praises Franic Rozycki’s bass playing, saying, “He uses the bass guitar as a vehicle for personal expression, which is virtually unheard of outside of the jazz world.” Not to be outdone, Dave Tattersall himself has been hailed for his musicianship, with BBC 6 Music DJ Marc Riley calling him; “the greatest guitar player of his generation”.

Brushes With Happiness sees a band at the top of their game. No other band could just improvise an album out of thin air, no trouble at all, and have it sound THIS good.

STAFF COMMENTS

Laura says: This album was recorded in one night, in one room, in one take. They arrived to record with just some lyrics and everything else was improvised on the night. It's a lovely laid back affair, and the nature of the recording gives it a raw, intimate feel. It captures the trio on fine form, completely in synch, and as ever the songwriting is top notch.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Red Suitcase
2. Rise Up
3. Jim
4. Laces
5. The Little Window
6. Crow Jane
7. The Burnt Match
8. Brushes With Happiness
9. Volcano

In 2014 I was invited to perform at a residency commemorating the re-opening of Manchester Central Library. I wrote a piece in five movements for voice, piano and string trio and called it “DEREVAUN SERAUN”. Each movement is written about a different piece of literature, exploring the value I see in each work and the impression it has made on me, and there is nothing more to it than that. The pleasure of books – of good verse and stories and ideas – is a very simple thing, and I felt that some lofty unifying theme for the entire piece would be a betrayal of that belief.

I think that when a work resonates with you it is an instinctive response to something. You can be taught to understand a challenging book, but not to feel affection for it; I think a lot of conversation around art, especially around literature, sometimes forgets this. In my experience, the art I like the most, irrespective of its 'difficulty', is the art I can advocate most directly and plainly, and about which I can say: “I read this piece and now I do not read or think in the same way that I did before”, or: “This is a story that I could not explain to someone; I do not understand it word-for-word, yet I feel like innately I understand the whole, and that the whole spoke to me”. This is a piece about five books that I like and why I like them

TRACK LISTING

1. Could She Still Draw Back
2. Living With Your Ailments
3. A Particle Of Flesh Refuse The Consummation Of Death
4. The Mute Wide-Open Eye Of All Things
5. The Cure For Pneumothorax 

Girl Ray, the North London three-piece comprising 19 year-olds Poppy Hankin (guitar/vocals), Iris McConnell (drums) and Sophie Moss (bass), was formed two years ago when the band were still just 16 years old and in a twist of fate as symbolic as it was bittersweet, ‘Trouble’, their first single for Moshi Moshi was recorded on what would have been their final day of school.

A band whose songs document the dramas of adolescence with a wit and wistfulness far beyond their years, Girl Ray are the sound of that uncertain period in everybody’s life when the rest of it starts to loom large, when feels are felt more intensely than ever before, and when every decision seems like a fork in the road on your way to adulthood. Being a teenager is a crucible of heightened emotions and transformative confusion from which the ‘real’ you will ultimately emerge, having fallen in love (and out again), outgrown friendships you thought would last forever, and changed in ways you never thought possible. What you typically won’t emerge with, however, is a debut album as richly evocative of the experience as ‘Earl Grey’.

Recorded with their friend (and now touring guitarist) Mike O'Malley over two "intense and insane" weeks at Ramsgate's Big Jelly studios, Earl Grey is a record of invention and ambition, whose delicate, sun-dappled melodies dance around the inside of your skull like a flickering zoetrope of memories - some fond, others less so.

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: It's crazy that the 3 women in Girl Ray are only 19 years old! The themes may be gloriously youthful but the playing is anything but! You could call it C86 era retro indie but that's doing them a bit of a disservice, as the unusual arrangements and lovely melodies make this a unique, fresh and totally now record. This is buoyant, charming, charismatic pop music!

TRACK LISTING

1. Just Like That
2. Monday Tuesday
3. Stupid Things
4. Don't Go Back At Ten
5. Cutting Shapes
6. Preacher
7. A Few Months
8. Earl Grey (Stuck In A Groove)
9. Where Am I Now
10. Stupid Things (reprise)
11. Ghosty
12. Waiting Ages

How do you keep a band interesting after ten years? It’s a question Slow Club’s Charles Watson and Rebecca Taylor must have asked themselves as they started work on their fourth album.The answer seems to be producer Matthew E. White, the master of Southern-gothic folk, whose in-house band at Richmond’s Spacebomb Studios provided the consistency and tone the album required. Almost every track was played live in the studio, allowing the long-established session band’s natural chemistry to augment Charles and Rebecca’s, with the double advantage of recording being very effective, and also comparatively quick.

One Day…. contains some of the best melodies they’ve yet created. The duo’s knack for writing hooks and melody has, if anything, become stronger. There are choruses here you instantly feel you’ve known your whole life, like ‘Ancient Rolling Seas’ timeless, reassuring refrain of “I’ll always be by your side”, or ‘Champion’’s Dolly Parton via-Linda Ronstadt anthem of self-celebration through the darkest times. Perhaps best of all are a pair of songs to be found at the top of what traditionalists would call “side 2”- ‘Rebecca Casanova’, a slice of widescreen, four-to-the-floor pop that recalls soft-rock giants Fleetwood Mac in the way it channels heartbreak onto the dancefloor, and ‘Tattoo Of The King’, a tale that takes Neil Young and the Doobie Brothers to the disco.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Chemistry like this doesn't come along every day. It is clear from the offset that Slow Club work on another level of understanding : there is a warmth and subdued energy to all of these pieces that demonstrate how important that understanding is. 'In Waves' is assured Southern country of the highest order while 'Sweetest Grape On The Vine' could easily have some of the best close vocal harmonies i've heard for a long time. 'Rebecca Casanova' is perfectly stripped-back yet sounds surprisingly complete. Intoxicating and mesmerising songs with strikingly effective production. A triumphant return for Slow Club.

Hot Chip front man Alexis Taylor pares everything back to just piano and voice for an intimate record of new songs, reinterpretations of his own writing, and a selection of favourites both well-known and unheard before by other artists. Recorded at Hackney Road Studios by Shuta Shinoda, Piano invites the listener to be privy to a very private recital, with Alexis’ vocal and piano captured live and up-close, preserving each beautiful moment.

“The idea with this record was to choose songs of my own and others' that were personal to me and to document live performances which were intimate and unadorned. I wanted to reduce everything to the barest elements, record a great piano well and do as little as possible to the recordings eq or effects-wise. The mood created on the record is pretty different from that on other records I have been involved with. It feels like a special place to be able to go to."

“After it was completed 'Piano' struck me as a sort of gospel record in places - albeit an atheist's gospel album, if that's possible. 'In The Light of the Room', Elvis's 'Crying In The Chapel', the hymnal 'I Never Lock That Door', and the miracle-referencing 'So Much Further To Go' - they have that feel to them for me lyrically and musically. But the Miracles in 'So Much Further' are Smokey's as much as anything Biblical, and the reference to both silence and music filling the air reflects the album’s observations about absence, loss, repair and surrender to love and sound. The song is one I was really happy with when I first wrote it partly because it offered some mystery to me - I didn't fully understand it. After a close friend and collaborator passed away during the making of this record - actually someone who I had asked to contribute small string parts to it - I felt I understood it all too well:

'Life a miracle - a miracle that's hard to bear'”

TRACK LISTING

01. I’m Ready
02. So Much Further To Go
03. Crying In The Chapel
04. Without Your Name
05. In The Light Of The Room
06. Lonely Vagabond
07. Repair Man
08. Don’t Make My Brown Eyes Blue
09. I Never Lock That Door
10. Just For A Little While
11. Don’t Worry

The art of songwriting has been the driving force behind Brilliant Sanity, the process of crafting of the immaculate pop song, the dogged pursuit of the perfect hook. The result is an album that appears fastidiously and impeccably made, but also charged with joy.

Now a four-piece made up of singer and guitarist Tommy Sanders, his brother Jonny on synths, Pete Cattermoul on bass and Hiro Amamiya on drums, the process of touring has honed Teleman into a spectacular live act and brought about the decision to record the new record in a very live and spontaneous way.

Six months were spent in a rehearsal space in Homerton, working on the songs written by each band member, with Sanders’ own songwriting forming the core of the album. “I don’t know if other bands do this,” says Tommy Sanders, “but in our rehearsal room we had a white board, and for each song we’d write the chords up on the white board, write the structure out. We’ve got different colour pens and stuff. It’s very professional.”

With lyrics written on the road ‘when you’re sitting on a tour bus for eight hours just looking out the window’, Brilliant Sanity shows Sanders as an accomplished and distinctive lyricist, with a passion for the music of words themselves and an eye for the singular image.

In Dan Carey’s Streatham studio, the songs’ structure changed little, but it was Carey’s suggestion that they choose core synthesiser sounds — the Mellotron, the Roland Jupiter, the Korg Trident — to help define the aesthetic of the album. Sanders talks of their time in the studio, of their collective obsession with the Vietnamese restaurant across the street, of how they would set the mood for recording each song using a series of coloured lights, and of how, in breaks from recording the band would go out on the roof and gaze at the moon through Carey’s telescope, “It had,” he says, “a very calming and settling influence.”

“Sometimes,” he says, “a record can take itself a bit too seriously. So it’s good to have a bit of a lighthearted side. It’s good just to enjoy making it, for your own sake — because if you’re enjoying making the songs then other people are going to enjoy listening to them.”

TRACK LISTING

1 Dusseldorf
2 Fall In Time
3 Glory Hallelujah
4 Brilliant Sanity
5 Superglue
6 Canvas Shoe
7 Tangerine
8 English Architecture
9 Melrose
10 Drop Out
11 Devil In My Shoe

For all its atmospheric diversity, Anna Meredith’s ‘Varmints’, released on Moshi Moshi, is held together by her expert understanding of dynamics. “Pacing is a physical thing,” she explains. “I can feel when stuff has to happen in a track. I knew I wanted ‘Varmints’ to end privately but start confidently, have moments of privacy and moments of power and build. I love writing a build - my friends talk about ‘the Meredith Build’! I love the feeling of ‘get on board, we’re building up now!’ Even if you’re dancing at a club, there’s an amazing transparency to a build.”

Aside from sharing bills with Anna Calvi, James Blake and These New Puritans, Meredith’s dizzying CV includes being Composer In Residence for the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, writing a piece for MRI scanner, soundtracking Prada’s Spring / Summer 2015 campaign, symphonies created for nursery children, music for park benches in Hong Kong and sleep-pods in Singapore.

After announcing his forthcoming first solo album, ‘2013’, on Moshi Moshi records, Cate Le Bon collaborator and Royal Academy Of Music drop-out Meilyr Jones releases ‘How To Recognise A Work Of Art’ on 7”.

Recorded completely live with a full band this is a song about authenticity and forgery, of which Meilyr says: “I wrote the song about the preposterous world of art collectors, the panic of what is popular, what will succeed, telling people what to like, what to eat, and the recycling of pop culture. I also wanted to make something light and fun, and full of humour.”

‘How To Recognise A Work Of Art’ is about the obsession in our time with authenticity and the cult of the artist.

Hercules & Love Affair’s new album ‘The Feast Of The Broken Heart’ sees another musical reinvention from ringmaster Andy Butler, delivered by an impeccable new line up.

Brits nominee John Grant’s ability for translating hardship into elegance is writ large on ‘I Try To Talk To You’ and ‘Liberty’; Rouge Mary, whose deep, spiritual voice is hewn from a gospel education; Belgian singer Gustaph, whose counter tenor takes lead on the single ‘Do You Feel The Same?’; smoky voiced virtuoso Krystle Warren, who was introduced to Butler by Grant, and sings the provocative ‘My Offence’.

The old school house production sounding almost techno aesthetic, coupled with tales of emotional triumph, makes for something tough yet soulful; meaningful house music that’s pop music, speaking to the most musically adroit of tastes.

‘The Feast Of The Broken Heart’ is co-produced by Ha-Ze Factory and industrial stalwart Mark Pistel.

The London based electronic punk trio, rose to infamy at breakneck speed since forming in 2008. Consisting of composer Ximon Tayki, vocalist Veronica So, and drummer Simon Whybray, TEETH enraptured a global audience with jubilant, no-rave jams and hacker dance anthems.

The ten-track debut album is a veritable slice of lo-fi electro noise-pop with riot-grrrl vocals emulating the hi-NRG of their raucous stage tearing live shows, featuring current single Care Bear and soon to be released Flowers.

Bent on demolishing stages at night clubs, festivals, and warehouse parties with as much distorted noise as smooth synth melodies, TEETH deliver with an unapologetic edge. Their lo-fi, noise-pop assault is coupled with So’s equally dynamic vocal performance that suggests a cross between a euro-pop princess and a riot-grrrl. The stroboscopic live shows and relentless online persona make TEETH incomparable amongst their contemporaries, although media outlets like Dazed and Confused state TEETH are “…more epic than Battles, [and] cheerier than Throbbing Gristle.”

Hailed as “a nastier Yeah Yeah Yeahs and a subtler Melt Banana” by the 405 and boggling the minds of critics who attempt to pin down their multitude of styles as “...acid rave, dance-hall, pop, punk, grunge, acid house, tropical and all out weird shyt,” (MTV UK).

‘Raucous joyous skronky dancey whatever-wave with more ideas than time and more pep in its step than a five year old on a Pixie Stick high’ - Pitchfork

‘Outright Strange’ - NME

TRACK LISTING

1. Confusion
2. U R 1
3. Care Bear
4. Dead Boys
5. Time Changes
6. This Time
7. Pill Program
8. See Spaces
9. Flowers
10. Street Jams

With propulsive beats, delicate vocals and whispering melodies, "The Quiet Earth" is another melancholic slice of Trophy Wife’s “ambitionless office disco”. The band’s meticulous yet restrained production highlights the fragility of Jody Prewett’s vocals against Kit Monteith’s defiant drums and Ben Rimmer’s echoing keys.

Backed by the majestic "White Horses", where glimmering vocals offset the stunning violin and sparse rhythms before pulsating bass lines melt into the track, the song documents the misplaced sense of clarity you feel just before a comedown, the simultaneous feelings of invincibility and vulnerability. Trophy Wife’s new single delivers on the initial promise "Microlite" showed and hints at what the future holds for them.

The band’s sound and aesthetic is informed by influences as diverse as Studio, Polmo Polpo, The Notwist, Hank Marvin and Tortoise. These influences can not only be heard in the band’s music and production, but also echoed in their artwork, photography and videos – all facets of which the three band members contribute to equally.

TRACK LISTING

A: The Quiet Earth
AA: White Horses

Signals are a band from LA comprised of 3 beautiful boys: Jon Gray, Bill Gray, and Jacob Cooper. The three have played together since 2005, but are most well known for all being former members of the spazz-punk band The Mae Shi.

The Mae Shi’s debut album, "HLLYH", was released in February 08 to critical acclaim – ‘They’ve mastered the emergent micro-genes of the 21st century, from jerk-pop to bitpop, and twisted them further into out and out sound ventures. Eureka indeed.” (9/10 NME). Two years on, the energy and excitement that was abundant as TMS is now, rather brilliantly, being channelled into the noise of Signals.

TRACK LISTING

Silver Fish
What Dreams

Hot Club de Paris mark their eagerly-awaited return in 2010 with a brand-new 6 song EP entitled “With Days Like This As Cheap As Chewing Gum, Why Would Anyone Want To Work?” (A phrase generously loaned by acclaimed British poet Matthew Welton). Still operating with their usual punk-rock ethic and still proudly flying the flag for British DIY, Hot Club are now self producing and recording themselves in their Liverpool rehearsal space.

STAFF COMMENTS

Laura says: Scouse three piece Hot Club De Paris return with this superb collection of acrobatic, articulate pop songs, neatly packaged into a limited edition 10" in a hand numbered sleeve.

An arresting vocal, held in heartbreaking solitude by a brittle framework of sounds, "Diamonds On A Boat" is the astonishing debut single from "Samuel & The Dragon". Samuel's voice is an effortless confession, calling down the line amid James Cameron's ambient mix of the organic and electronic; a warm but isolated sound of the city.