The album’s 10 tracks mark a bold evolution in the band's sound and Death Pill really deliver with ferocity and belief through multiple gear changes and genres as if it were easy. Hardcore, punk, grunge, thrash, riot grrrl, emo, are just some of the touchstones this album moves through, and all with the accomplished ferocity and memorable melody the band introduced on their debut. There are cellos, piano’s, sound effects and ornate arrangements that open out their sonic palette, there’s a bit of pop and even a bit of prog. But rest assured … It's all pure ‘Death Pill’. Thematically ‘Sologamy’ is, at its core, a celebration.

So over to Death Pill for the lowdown …

“The title, inspired by the concept of marrying oneself, speaks to the importance of making a personal commitment to self-care, happiness, and emotional well-being. In an era where that can sometimes be misconstrued as selfishness, Death Pill pushes back against these misconceptions, inviting listeners to embrace the power of prioritizing their own mental and emotional health.”

“Each track on the album is quite different from the last, and we see this as a way of accepting and supporting yourself in any emotional state. You arrive in this world alone and you leave it alone. The bottom line is: You're the only person you've got. “Every song on the album is a story that happened to us. Maybe it'll happen to you too. But every story deserves to become a song.” “Sologamy” is more than just an album—it's a call to action”

Kicking off with ‘Listen To Me Sister’. A metal thrashing, bass drum pummelling, snarling statement of intent. A bag of riffs n’ grooves punctuated by one line of 'call-to-arms' vocal. It totally kicks ass. The pedal stays firmly rooted to the floor with the nasty but hooky hardcore of ‘Haters Gonna Hate’ before the fuzzy, sardonic grunge groove of ‘Ugly Me’ settles the pace. Only temporarily, because ‘Craterface’s thrash metal puts things firmly back in face melter territory.

At this point it must be said that the playing and musicianship and singing on this album is top drawer. Mariana certainly delivers the goods, doing spit and snarl and clean and melodic with equal aplomb. ‘Don’t Say It So’ is as catchy as it gets, an almost anthemic slice of grunge, which set the scene for ‘Phone Call’ , probably the most accessible Death Pill track to date, it’s a brilliant slice of … well … pop. You might call it 'pissed off pop’ something Green Day or Foo Fighters wished they’d written … a new genre if ever there was one.

And it’s at this point in the album where Death Pill really open it out. ‘Hey Man’ with it’s melodic guitar/cello intro and super hooky pop sensibility is followed by the frankly crazy ‘Monsters’. An off kilter hardcore-prog psycho nutcase story for Generation Z. It ups the ante on the single version released last year. But perhaps the trio have left the best till last, with 2 connected songs. ‘Outro’ has an almost progressive post metal vibe, twisting and turning but always (and this is one of this album’s trademarks) delivering pure earworms tunes. Complete with an almost baroque middle section and sound fx it segues into ‘Pro Yarika’s piano led opening. Which in turn explodes into proper nastycore with a great chorus. Cinematic in its scope it’s a fitting finale to a mighty second album, signalling that from this point on, Death Pill can go anywhere they choose to.

TRACK LISTING

1. Listen To Me, Sister
2. Haters Gonna Hate
3. Ugly Me
4. Craterface
5. Don’t Say It So
6. Phone Call
7. Hey, Man
8. Monsters (In My Brain)
9. Outro
10. Pro Yarika

Death In Vegas return with new album ‘Death Mask’, where disintegration, overload and total sonic immersion tell a personal tale. With dirty circuitry and rough-hewn textures at the fore, this is gritty, unpolished techno; an audio outlier that’s full of personality, and a bold artistic statement. It’s closer in DNA to the grainy growl of sunn O))), or the searing intensity of Underground Resistance at their fiercest, and as far from generic influencer business as you could possibly get.

“I’ve been soaking in Ramleh’s ‘Hole In the Heart’, the machine funk of Terrence Dixon’s Population One, Jamal Moss’ psychedelic techno jams, the stunning minimalism of Mika Vanio’s Ø and Panasonic, the layered drones of LOOP, and drowning in the acid of TM 404”

Broader inspirations are weaved into the album’s fabric too; from his Thameside Metal Box studio and evocations of nautical ghosts, to lamentations for a broken world, to memories of a youthful Detroit pilgrimage, and the innocent fraternity of rave euphoria, there’s a lot going on, acting as a chronicle of moments, and locations.

TRACK LISTING

1. Chingola
2. Lovers
3. While My Machines Gently Weep
4. Hazel
5. Roseville
6. Róisín Dub(h)
7. Robin’s Ghosts
8. Your Love
9. Death Mask

Dez Dare launches into 2025 with his 5th album, ‘CHERYL! Your Love Shines Down Like A Supernova's Death'. Blending his unique mix of existential wordplay and experimental riffage to create an album that is at arms with itself while cohesive; cheeky and upbeat, simultaneously breaking our hearts. How often do we think about what we miss when we are distracted by shiny things? While fencing with social media, long winded stories, dreams of other lives, unnecessary toys, and irrelevant social experiments with happiness, we miss the things that make up our world. This album looks at those morsels of time and the bits that fill them, soaking existence… as well as manspreaders. Those people should be added to the 7th circle of hell… or suburbia. Either is probably a similar commute!

Dez Dare (AKA Darren Smallman of labels God Unknown, BATTLE WORLDWIDE, Low Transit Industries, and bands Thee Vinyl Creatures, The Sound Platform, Warped) grew up in Geelong, Australia, where he became involved in the local punk and rock scene in 1990. Sharing stages with the likes of 5678s, Cosmic Psychos, Fugazi, The Dirty Three and the Hard-ons, before shifting his focus to running record labels. In the 2020s we see Dez Dare take form in a spare room in Brighton, UK, where Dez starts building his own studio and producing music and videos that have been described as "sounds like MONSTER MAGNET and DEVO caught in a drug bust… highly unique and highly recommended" by MAXIMUM ROCKNROLL [Nick Odorizzi] to The Wire’s Edwin Pouncey "dynamically armed with a ten-pronged set of lyrical barbs and musical hooks that, once heard, sink deep and hold fast" to Crossfire Metal "minimalistic, electronic psychedelic hippie poop that is only bearable with a hell of a lot of acid, angel dust and LSD". On this album Dez was joined by Laura Loriga on backing vocals and Jonny Halifax on backing vocals and lap steel, expanding on the sound of previous records and adding a new dimension to his trademark weird-n-roll.

TRACK LISTING

1. Cheryl! [Loading...
2. Brutalised Robotics
3. Talk, Clown.
4. Notopia
5. Your Love Shines Down Like A Supernova’s Death
6. Rights Down 50
7. What Ya Gonna Do With Yr Days
8. Light Touch Of The Man Spreader
9. Golden Cerebellum
10 .I Only Cry From A Distance X Time = Frustration
11. Blistered Eyeballs

Swedish trio Death And Vanilla follow their much-praised re-imagined soundtracks to ‘Vampyr’ (2017) and ‘The Tenant’ (2018) with their interpretation of the soundtrack to cult 1968 TV show ‘Whistle And I’ll Come To You’ via Fire Records.

At a time when post-ambient electronica and bedevilled folk music are co-habiting, and the public’s interest in Pagan rites and rituals has been sparked by a new generation of fans. The bizarre storyline of Whistle And I’ll Come To You seems even more pertinent… and strangely haunting.

The Jonathan Miller-adapted 1968 ghost story was originally part of BBC’s Omnibus series and featured Michael Horden as a fussy professor who discovers an ancient whistle which summons up the spirits. A black and white folkloric tale in the style of The Wicker Man, the original TV programme received rave reviews.

The esoteric live score was recorded at the Hypnos Theatre in Malmö. The 42-minute soundtrack utilises stuttering tape loops on ‘Intro’ before breathing new life into the primitive John Carpenter-like drum machine on ‘Supernatural Breakfast’, while ‘Walk On The Beach 2’ sounds like a hauntological rendition of a Broadcast classic. Indeed, that effect is amplified on ‘Nightmares’, with its swirling wind and other-worldly choral effect, before the feeling of some supernatural presence is suggested on the penultimate cut ‘Evidence Of Spiritualism’.

TRACK LISTING

1. Intro
2. Arrival
3. Has It Been Good Here?
4. Spooky Breakfast
5. Walk On The Beach
6. Whistle
7. Supernatural Breakfast
8. Walk On The Beach 2
9. Nightmares
10. Evidence Of Spiritualism?
11. The Apparition

Shrouded in mystery just like their magical compositions Torino’s collective Heart Of Snake are joined by Mira for their first release in six years, the enchanted ragged vibration of ‘Chamareops’, a 40 minute opus that just like the cold-hardy palm that lends its name to the album, blends classical guitar, desert folk, meditative exotica and distant island lullabies that withstand the test of time.

Originally led by Vincenzo Marando (Movie Star Junkies, Krano, Similou), Alberto Danzi (I Residenti, oAxAcA) and Cosimo Rosa (Krano), Heart Of Snake have expanded on ‘Chamaerops’ by adding Francesca Colombo aka Mira, violinist and composer based in Rome (member of Il Quadro di Troisi and the Misto Mame collective). The result is a unique voyage into the unknown, beautifully recorded by Paul Beauchamp, an immersive and cohesive listen that resembles a lost Polynesian documentary, a lysergic road trip through sweeping Mediterranean brush lands, lonely shrubs, torrential storms and Appalachian creeks. Divided into two sides, Chamaerops, embodies the melancholy of a lonely plant sitting in an apartment, facing a window where stardust and rays of light gently dangle a promise of an outsider microcosm.

The spirit of Frantz Casseus gently blowing through the reeds is deconstructed through field recordings, kosmische electronics, Haitian waltzes, the submerged quality of Pauline Oliveros’ accordion work and the steel guitar-delia of Santo & Johnny, half-speed-doped up Ry Cooder-ism and the spiritual sorcery of Dorothy Carter’s best work.

Once again Heart Of Snake & Mira deliver an other-worldly soundtrack, a mesmerizing record that hypnotizes as soon as the first sweeping arpeggio kicks in, transforming energies from ancient and distant musical sources into dreams that lives here and now.

TRACK LISTING

1. Chamaerops Pt1
2. Chamaerops Pt2

Sometimes records reflect life with an unsettling precision, your own breath sticking to a mirror, confounding or transforming reality. J.H. Guraj, real name Dominique Vaccaro, is back with ‘The Flip Side’, an accomplished work of grace and sprawling elegance documenting struggle and a near-death experience that summons ghosts of Western primitive masters, rollicking free folk, minimalist orchestrations, weeping guitars and smooth psychedelics.

Time stopped for J.H. Guraj in 2021 following a brush with mortality, extensive forced recovery and subsequent hints of depression after an almost fatal bike crash, leaving our wandering soul, once again, at the edges. While his previous record ‘Introspection / Migration’ hinted at Middle-Eastern influences and merged the artists’ Arbëreshë upbringing with stoic ecstasis, free-form structures and guitar wizardry under sepia tone curtains, ‘The Flip Side’ twists, turns, falls down and rises to new heights, the widescreen breadth of Dominique Vaccaro’s cinematic vision projects new colours, a stark contrast of pastoral emerald green and pitch black asphalt, urban decay and mercurial mystery.

Like passages from some archaic songbook what astonishes is how detailed the new compositions are, a warm embrace like ‘Way To Long Goodbye’, counterpoint pianos leading the way down a Gershwin avenue; ‘You Got It All Wrong So Did I’ with its Van Dyke Parks arrangement; the 9 minute epic ‘Us As Ghosts’ a haunting ballad that resolves into kosmische landscapes; the muted symphony of ‘Fake Af’ and the spectral disorientation of ‘Nothing I Can Do But Flow’. Gentle drumming from collaborator Gianluca Panici augment the eeriness of ‘The Flip Side’, motions that create a sense of suspension and yearning.

Vaccaro’s long standing career in electroacoustic music informs the record directly with a rich textural approach that blends looping, tape manipulation and electronic synthesis creating the perfect backdrop for his acoustic and resophonic guitars.

J.H. Guraj’s musical realm bridges avant-garde, harmonic song-styling, silky piano-guitar interplay, musique concrète, abstract restraint and modern chamber music. A world where Charles Ives, Dirty Three, Branko Mataja, Dead Moon and Loren Connors collide.
J.H. Guraj might be still looking for belongingness but us listeners are already far ahead of him, we already know he resides with the greats. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Leap Of No Faith
2. Ask The River
3. Way Too Long Goodbye
4. Spleen On Speed
5. You Got It All Wrong So Did I
6. Fake AF
7. Slowdown Attempts
8. Nothing I Can Do But Flow
9. Everything Sideways
10. Us As Ghosts

When we last heard from Southern California's rock n' roll sorcerers Death Valley Girls, band orchestrator and mastermind Bonnie Bloomgarden was summoning the element of water and celebrating its tempestuous power on the triumphant 2023 single 'I Am a Wave.' Surrounded by a new cast of supporting musicians, Bloomgarden returns from a brief hiatus to pay homage to the magic of celestial bodies and to honour yet another classical element on a new two-song single. On side A, Death Valley Girls cover the Fleetwood Mac track 'Sisters of the Moon,' harnessing the original version's witchy mystery while bolstering its thunderous chorus by beefing up its ominous riffage. Bloomgarden's channelling of Stevie Nicks is downright eerie, pulling off such s striking timbral similarity you might almost mistake this rendition as a more electrified and tripped-out alternate take from the original Tusk sessions. On the flipside, Death Valley Girls pay reverence to the element of fire by taking on the Link Wray classic 'Fire and Brimstone,' summoning the original's swagger while transforming its tent-revival stomp into a mash-up of Phil Spector's girl-group majesty, Motown's hip-shaking soul, and punk's bombast. Surrounded by an ensemble of like-minded celestial witches, Bloomgarden takes Death Valley Girls' sound to new heights while elevating two beloved '70s tunes into modern day religious experiences.

TRACK LISTING

1. Sisters Of The Moon
2. Fire And Brimstone

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

Die Young, Die Broke. A new mantra for the most depraved connoisseurs of Psychedelic Punk. For fans of Mainliner, Brainbombs, Les Rallizes Denudes, Stooges, Motörhead, MC5 ...

A critique and embrace of self-destruction, esoteric vanity and inevitable ruin. The molten-red LP on Riot Season Records plunges deep into an abuse of distortion, existential doom and primal Stooges-like chaos. LA’s Acid Punk Power Trio returns to its mark 1 line up, now wielding a second addition in twin-drum assault
OVER-GAIN OPTIMAL DEATH are :Jasso : Guitar/ Vocals, Luna : Bass, Backhaus + TJ : Twin Drums

Jasso (guitar/vocals) is seemingly out for blood on this 4 track studio album, leading a violent dive into the abyss, Japanese Underground fury meets Hendrix’s wreckage, fuzz-drenched wah freak-outs compete against raw punk vocals caught in an endless slap back delay…

OVER-GAIN OPTIMAL DEATH are an Acid Punk power trio formed in 2008 hailing from Los Angeles, and now currently hiding out somewhere in the South of France.
Fronted by guitarist/ vocalist Jasso (Psychedelic Speed Freaks, Antarcticans), they push a special niche product of blown-out extreme psychedelic noise rock. Their sound is enveloped in a total nihilist

"No Hope" atmosphere of heavy lyrics and distortion, mating intoxicating pulsing repetition, hyperactive improvisations and out of body guitar solos.

Resurrecting US 60s punk and acid-riffage from the likes of Blue Cheer, the Stooges, MC5 and live Hendrix Experience, OVER-GAIN OPTIMAL DEATH also draws greatly on the in-the-red sound aesthetic and high energy of the Speed Freak Underground and Hardcore scene of 80s/90s Japan. 

TRACK LISTING

A1. Die Underground (5:49)
A2. No Lord (10:28)
B1. Oversleep (4:56)
B2. Fallen Woman (14:07)

The fifth album from Newcastle’s riff wizards Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs is defined by calculated aggression and self-lacerating lyrics. Its startling bonuses include playful synth work and the appearance of a giant from hip-hop. With its title juxtaposing absurdity and seriousness, this is 'Death Hilarious'.

Whereas 2023’s 'Land Of Sleeper' was conceived as an immersive headphones experience, this time Pigs strove for something more directly hostile. “We wanted it to be a slap in the face,” grins producer and guitarist Sam Grant. That objective came, in part, from playing so many gigs over the last couple of years. The band felt well-oiled and ripe to give listeners at home the kind of pummelling their audiences receive.

'Death Hilarious' does bring in some big surprises, particularly the track ‘Glib Tongued’, which has guest bars by El-P from Run The Jewels. When bassist John-Michael Hedley unwittingly wrote what his bandmates considered their equivalent of a hip-hop number, Pigs set their sights high and secured a blistering contribution from one of the world’s greatest rappers. That’s not to say Pigs have pivoted to nu-metal. 'Death Hilarious' is a diversely punishing record which shapeshifts through Sabbathian doom, grotesquely minimalist noise rock and cyclical post-metal fortissimos. Pigs continue to push themselves, too. Incongruous synthesiser solos appear where guitar histrionics would usually fit. Piano tracks lurk in the mix, adding near-subliminal depth to the maelstrom. ‘Stitches’ is like Motörhead trying to perform glam rock with a tipsy keyboardist. Then there’s the 100mph pace of cosmic-thrash opener ‘Blockage’. Distorted licks flying from the amplifiers of Grant and lead guitarist, Adam Ian Sykes, while the rhythm section sizzle behind. With all that power running through its veins, 'Death Hilarious' is easily going to be one of the best rock albums of 2025...and that is no joke!

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Newcastle's blistering Pigs x7 (EXACTLY seven) bring us a scuzzed-out version of their groundbreaking sound from 2023's mindblowing 'Viscerals'. There are riffs aplenty and heavy hitting lyrics, walls of noise and soaring, groovy basslines but there's also a load of garagey, saturated distortion and loads of muck. Classic pigs.

TRACK LISTING

1. Blockage
2. Detroit
3. Collider
4. Stitches
5. Glib Tongued (Feat. El–P)
6. The Wyrm
7. Carousel
8. Coyote Call
9. Toecurler 

Inspired entirely by the life and mythos of actor Dennis Hopper, Mike Scott and The Waterboys created this expansive album as tribute to one of American popular culture’s most compelling public figures. Deeply conceptual, this album of all original songs brings together high-profile featured artists like Bruce Springsteen, Fiona Apple, and Steve Earle to musically weave through Hopper’s life, including a song for each of Hopper’s wives.

TRACK LISTING

1. Kansas (feat. Steve Earle)
2. Hollywood ‘55
3. Live In The Moment, Baby
4. Brooke / 1712 North Crescent Heights
5. Andy (A Guy Like You)
6. The Tourist (feat. Barny Fletcher & Sugarfoot)
7. Freaks On Wheels
8. Blues For Terry Southern
9. Memories Of Monterey
10. Riding Down To Mardi Gras
11. Hopper’s On Top (Genius)
12. Transcendental Peruvian Blues
13. Michelle (Always Stay)
14. Freakout At The Mud Palace
15. Daria
16. Ten Years Gone (feat. Bruce Springsteen)
17. Letter From An Unknown Girlfriend (feat. Fiona Apple)
18. Rock Bottom
19. Don’t Know How I Made It (feat. Taylor Goldsmith)
20. Frank (Let’s F*ck)
21. Katherine (feat. Anana Kaye)
22. Everybody Loves Dennis Hopper
23. Golf, They Say
24. Venice, California (Victoria) / The Passing Of Hopper
25. Aftermath

Back with their musky, technicolor splatter scuzz, The Death Wheelers don’t dare ease the throttle on their drive to create soundtracks to what would be the world’s greatest fictional bikesploitation and gore film fest. These Quebec-based zombie grease goons manage to evoke the sticky floor and stale popcorn smell of an old rundown Midnight movie theater with every stroke of a barre chord and bludgeoned snare drum. Theirs is a sound that does Herschell Gordon Lewis, Roger Corman and Russ Meyer proud.

Whereas their previous albums evoked the buzzsaw surf riffs of Davie Allen, Dick Dale and The Cramps, with the thunderous groove of Motörhead, their fourth album finds these troglodytes veering hard into classic 80s heavy metal while still maintaining the compelling urgency of Italian gore gods Goblin. It’s heavier, nastier, more driving and… dosed with pure backwoods möld.

In keeping with their B-movie aesthetic, the recording offers in-your-face, loud tones dripping with stench and nastiness. But it’s also some of the best produced vintage sounding underground metal you can get your claws on in these dystopian times.

TRACK LISTING

1. Loud Pipes Take Lives
2. Homicycle Maniacs
3. Hella Hammered
4. Un Pneu Dans La Tombe - Aide Musicale À Mourir
5. The Ecstasy Of Mold
6. Blood, Bikes And Barbiturates
7. Blue Nuit (Les Plaisirs De La Chair)
8. Way Of The Road
9. The Heretic Rights Of Count Choppula
10. Get Laid... To Rest

For just over twenty years, Bianca and Sierra Casady have transmuted the love, hardship, and ecstasy of sisterhood into some of the most daring, dangerous, and wildly original music our increasingly sanitized culture has known. CocoRosie has been a project consistently at the musical vanguard, influencing countless musicians while inspiring and creating refuge for the “criminal queers” of the world. Above all, CocoRosie has been a conduit for irrepressible artistic self realization.

'Little Death Wishes' is as open and tenderhearted as anything they’ve ever created. The songs tell a kaleidoscopic story of the generational hardship of women and the shattered realities of their lives, the precarious and precious nature of being human, of being done wrong by love, and a final wish to be unbroken. It boils everything CocoRosie down to its most brutal essence: turning pain into knowledge, sisterhood into polemic, trash into treasure, and recalcifying kitsch and cliché into fresh truths.

The duo’s 8th long player exists in its own musical lexicon. It is both primordial and tawdry, a rich bricolage of dusted-over pop culture signifiers that the sisters contort into their own sense of temporality. Contributing to the avantgarde, yet unbeholden to contemporary trends, CocoRosie collects musical detritus from other times, which they fashion into their own baroque, theatricalized creations. With the sisters’ hands deep in every layer of their music, each song on 'Little Death Wishes' feels transportative and transformative.

“CocoRosie has been the center of our lives for such a long time now,” says Bianca. In those years, the sisters have been infantilized and revered, fetishized and mirrored, misogynized and adored; at times willfully misunderstood by the press—which has failed to reduce the group into mere perverse whimsy. Despite it all, CocoRosie has continuously pursued the bravest and boldest routes, uplifting the rawest, unveiled, and most tender strands of humanity and nudging us towards the light.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Enduringly off-piste gothic indie from CocoRosie, with the duo's 8th album epitomising the sort of bombastic synthy momentum we've come to know from them but with a more thumping, dancefloor drive. As oddball as ever, but with a much more cinematic presentation than we've heard before.

TRACK LISTING

1. Wait For Me
2. Cut Stitch Scar
3. Yesterday
4. Luckless
5. Paper Boat
6. It Ain’t Easy
7. Nothing But Garbage
8. Least I Have You
9. Girl In Town(feat. Chance The Rapper)
10. No Need For Money
11. Pushing Daisies
12. Unbroken

Joe Meek. Wayward genius; the British Phil Spector,the first producer to treat the recording studio as an instrument; head of oneof the earliest independent record labels; creator of some of the mostincredibly influential pop music ever, including ‘Telstar’, the first Americannumber one single by a British band; and a man tormented by mental healthissues and financial battles. He was all these and more, as author Darryl W. Bullockreveals through numerous original interviews with friends and colleagues in hiscompelling biography of the legendary producer.

Love and Fury takes readers on a guided tour ofMeek’s fabled Holloway Road studio, examines the recordings issued during hislifetime, looks at the wealth of unreleased material he left behind - thelegendary Tea Chest tapes, rumoured to include recordings by David Bowie, MarcBolan, Ray Davies of the Kinks and others – and examines that events whichultimately led to murder and suicide.

After four EPs of skeletal kraut-punk and slimmed down post-motorik alienage Milan’s Tv Dust are back with an entirely different beast, their proper debut ‘Transition’, an incredible collection of no-jazz, breakneck rhythms, mutant-wave, trance-funk, shredded sax jags and furious, yet mysterious assaults.

Tv Dust run a tight ship, they jam econo, with the album strongly based around the incredible interplay of drums (Sergio Tringali), bass (Filippo Aloisi) and sax/synth (newest member Gaetano Pappalardo). Shedding the use of vocals has completely freed the band up into a mutating beast, wild horses racing beside a volcano eruption, improv bursts that perfectly soundtrack the ruins of a city facing the inhuman consequences of wild expansion and dumb economics.

'Transition' is a no-jazz, no-panic, no-border album, born between a small bar and a basement, reworking some ideas from the first Tv Dust sessions with a new mindset, with improvisation becoming an important tool in the trio's new path that already sees releases on Occult Punk Gang, My Own Private Records, Sentiero Futuro and Maple Death.

'Transition' like the transformation of the group, you still get the original package of furious hypnotic grooves, shortwave radio alien funk, devo-id convulsions, jittery no-wave and Italo post-punk tradition alongside dada-jazz and freeform freakouts.

'Transition' is our natural condition. No one is excluded.

TRACK LISTING

1. Transition
2. Last Call
3. Smelly Floor
4. Why Spuzz Out
5. Ivory
6. Fly
7. Lila
8. U Say II
9. Storm
10. So
11. Volcanic Collapse

A total sonic violation yet bewitchingly beautiful, ‘While My Machines Gently Weep’ sits on the precipice of overload, with Orwellian echoes of humanity’s ugliness.

Acid Rejects Volume 1. A minimal sonic ritual which transcends into a sublime 303 and 909 duel.

Pressed on a ltd 12” with the Acid Rejects Vol 1. as a vinyl exclusive.

Mastered by Rashad Becker.

Italian composer and saxophonist Laura Agnusdei returns with 'Flowers Are Blooming In Antarctica' a career defining record that sees the artist diving into uncharted waters, a profound timeless meditation on our relationship with planet Earth, the eco-conflicts arising and the fascination with non human forms of life, backdropped to a vivid soundtrack of coral exotica, spiritual Jazz, fourth-world minimalism, tropical electronics, tribal futurism and contemporary elegance.

Every step of Laura Agnusdei’s path, from electroacoustic experimentation to her constant research based upon the acoustic dimension of wind instruments and their interaction with polymorphic electronic sounds, seems to have pivoted into a new sense of awareness, as if the mind and intellectual practice has finally caught up with the body, the heart and the soul, resulting in her most organic and transcendent work yet. 'Flowers Are Blooming In Antarctica' is loosely inspired around a trifecta of pioneering ideas that explore unconventional reality: James Bridle’s ‘Ways Of Being’ with his radical story that mixes ecology, tech and intelligence; Luigi Serafini’s late-70s fantastical ‘Codex Seraphinianus’, an unparalleled collection of flora, fauna, anatomies metamorphosed into new fragile beings; J.G. Ballard’s climate-fiction foreshadowing sci-fi ruminations. These influences shift Agnusdei’s musical trajectory injecting doses of terrestrial malaise, the earthy sub-saharan ‘Ittiolalia’ with its wah-wah filtered sax and trance inducing groove; the rubbery playfulness of ‘Oasi Bar’; the gentle eco-system of ‘P.P.R.N’ reminiscent of Herbie Hancock’s innovative synthesis of funk, space and synthesizers; the kaleidoscopic northern lights of ‘Emperor Penguin Lullaby’, where south-east Asian echoes reach icy shores; the Jon Hassell hyper-ambience of ‘Cuttlefish REM Phase’; the post-apocalyptic march of ‘The Drowned World, a jazz standard for an artificial civilization on the brink of self-destruction. Nothing feels out of place and it’s no coincidence that one of the most powerful messages on the record is delivered on centerpiece ‘Are We Dinos?’ via an interview conducted with two preschoolers. Radical optimism or sonic liberation?

Laura Agnusdei’s tenor sax cuts deep all across 'Flowers Are Blooming In Antarctica', a laser baton raised up to the clouds, a conductor orchestrating devotional soundscapes for a three-eyed dolphin, guiding us through prismatic pastures and acidic oceans. Her tropicalized realm is pin-pointed with Miles-like sheer clarity, a bristling nakedness on the verge of exploding at any time, creating an album where ascension becomes the unifying code. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Ittiolalia
2. Cuttlefish REM Phase
3. The Drowned World
4. P.P.R.N (Physarum Polycephalum Rail Network)
5. Are We Dinos?
6. Oasi Bar
7. Solvay Beach
8. Emperor Penguin Lullaby

“Death Knocks And He Shall Die” is an instrumental hip-hop album inspired by Italian ‘Giallo’ movies and Film Noir. It's a movie for your ears or rather a soundtrack to a film that doesn't exist. Using film dialogue sampled and arranged across 16 tracks, it tells a story of seduction, infidelity and murder over boom-bap styled jazzy grooves and horror soundscapes that are layered with seductive and haunting female singing. This album is a journey best listened to from start to end and should appeal to fans of DJ Shadow and some of the instrumental hip-hop LPs we get in from over in the US. A nice concept well executed! Check!

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Local beatsmith Chalk gets all Giallo on our backsides and drops a killer soundtrack to an imaginary film Noir. Perfect for hot boxing the Beemer, throwing down some freestyle bars or utilizing in your next cutting and scratching sesh!

TRACK LISTING

A1 The Seduction
A2 And Now You're Here
A3 Stay With Me
A4 Last Hope
A5 Maker Of Evil
A6 He Shall Die
A7 Death Knocks
B1 Worries
B2 Missing Person
B3 The Crime Scene
B4 Coroner's Office
B5 Nightmares
B6 The Other Woman
B7 Sirens
B8 Shadow's In The Dark
B9 The Confession

Originally recorded back in 2020 in the heart of a global pandemic, the band reunited to record a live film in their practice space in Los Angeles, CA.

"Wow! Getting to do this project was such an honor, and a treat! We finished recording our record Under the Spell of Joy one day before lock down. Rolling out an album under normal circumstances is a huge, and all consuming job. Then figuring out how to compassionately, respectfully, and successfully roll out an album during a world wide catastrophe, and especially an album about spells, and incantations for joy, was a real head scratcher! Getting to work on this live recording during that period allowed us to focus on a way we could be most helpful in a world of sorrow, and forced us to be creative. We were desperate to be of service. We realized astral projection - and concepts around leaving the 3D experience was an exciting idea. If we could connect people on the astral plane, we wouldn’t have to feel so alone! So we decided to start the session with an introduction on how to astral project! Learning how to meditate on this concept turned out to be the greatest gift, and a lasting escape during this terrible time. This recording finally getting to be on vinyl is so exciting! The idea that we can all meet up in sky, and leave our problems behind for a bit is such a fun exercise! Now all you gotta do is drop that needle and fly! Thank you for letting us!" - Death Valley Girls

TRACK LISTING

1. Astral Projection
2. Abre Camino
3. Street Justice
4. Death Valley Boogie
5. Sanitarium Blues
6. More Dead (Than Alive)
7. 666
8. Disco
9. Wear Black
10. I'm A Man Too
11. Dream Cleaver
12. Disaster (Is What We're After)
13. Electric High

1983's 'Multi-Death Corporations' broke new ground by addressing, in the lengthy liner notes and artwork, the growth of corporations and the violent suppression of left-wing politics in Central America. The Austin-based band released material through ex-Dead Kennedys singer Jello Biafra, cited influences such as Black Flag and D.O.A, as well as working with Crass Records.

Penny Rimbaud tells us; “MDC were one of the first American bands to follow the political mantle set by Crass in the UK. Straight-edge purist to the last mouthful of sprouted grass, MDC were equally fierce with their polemic and uncompromising politics. Sharp as a blade, they cut through the crap. ‘They meant it, ma’am’, and some.”

Penny finally notes that “Our (Crass’) interest was never in personalities, profits or power, and neither did we have time for reformist liberals. Our position was solidly revolutionary; we took no prisoners. Ours wasn’t a show, it was a battle, not a living, but a lifestyle, a lifestyle with a difference – rather than looking only to ourselves, we sought to share our gains. I feel that this willingness added great strength to the form of anarchism that we practiced both on stage and out on the street.”

In giving a platform to an impressive array of other bands, Crass Records broadened the front of what popularly became known as anarcho-punk. Not, it must be said, a moniker that Crass themselves much favoured. In this respect, Crass’ classic line, “There is no authority but yourself”, makes its point. Crass sought to empower others, and the output of Crass Records does much to confirm this, while ‘2 By 2 And Back Again’ seems to nail it – “get out of your own way, we’re all in this together”.

TRACK LISTING

1. Multi-Death Corporations
2. Selfish Shit
3. Radioactive Chocolate
4. No Place To Piss

21st Century troubadour Hak Baker - following his critically acclaimed debut album 'World's End FM' - releases new EP 'Nostalgia Death Act I'. 'Nostalgia Death' is about looking to the future and "succeeding ourselves" rather than "tunneling into hubs shrouded in nostalgia... it’s dangerous, moreish and comfortable." Do old habits really die young?

TRACK LISTING

1. No Control!
2. Nameless
3. Boys X Girls
4. Blender
5. Nostalgia Death
6. Everybody's Dyin’
7. Prometheus (Live)
8. LUVLY
9. Poems

Mariam The Believer, the solo moniker of Mariam Wallentin, is a pop project with flavours of diverse genres and inspirations. There’s an air of jazz, a touch of soul, the receptiveness and enchantment of spiritual music, and the spacious richness of improvisation.

Breathing Techniques is an album showcasing Wallentin’s respect and devotion to air, breath, and space – conveying a feeling of openness to the world and to oneself. Together with Wallentin’s haunting and honest vocals, the musical arrangement is intimate yet persuasive. A tender harp, delicate strings, playful synthesizers, a flowing piano, and the ever-present drums in Wallentin’s musical world – acting as a beating heart throughout her music – all lend a succulent presence to the musical journey of every song. The sound is close yet atmospherical, a musical landscape that opens up as the music evolves through subtle progressions, repetitions and sometimes seemingly sporadic arrangements. A setting reminiscent of an updated classical chamber orchestra, fronted by Wallentin´s singing, breathing life into the wonder of vulnerability and care that is the littlest of everyday life.

Taking a view on the most ordinary and natural – like breath – Breathing Techniques brings the mundane into an esoteric perspective. Wallentin has used the act of breathing as a vehicle, bringing awareness to her astonishment of her everyday surroundings. Breathing Techniques is a weave of mantras, a guide to seeing and registering the small things, the tiny animals, the elements, the presence, and the precious.

The album echoes of influences from women in music from the past and now. There is a stroke of Alice Coltrane’s low-key spiritual recordings, the rhythmic improvisations of Meredith Monk, the airiness of Stina Nordenstam and the exploring vocal qualities of Sheila Chandra and Gal Costa. Wallentin has a spiritual, body-and-mind, relationship to breathing through her kundalini practice. As a trained kundalini teacher, she recognize the power of repetition and breath. While pregnant with her second child, Wallentin attended her Kundalini teacher training, growing life while at the same time giving birth to the compositions that was to become Breathing Techniques.

In addition to her solo work, Wallentin has collaborated with renowned musicians such as Feist, Damien Rice, Hildur Gudnadottir, Adrienne Lenker, Lykke Li, Deerhoof, Efterklang, Alice Boman, Refused, Konono no 1 and Mats Gustafsson to name a few. Her recent theme song for Ridley Scott’s HBO series Raised by Wolves is a collaboration with drone musician Ben Frost.

Mariam Wallentin is one half of vocal-and-drum duo Wildbirds & Peacedrums with her husband Andreas Werliin, a duo that has slowly made an impact in the world of musicians, focusing on honest and raw compositions structured around vocal melodies and rhythm patterns, and have collaborated with and supported artists like St Vincent, Arcade Fire, Joanna Newsom, Jose Gonzales and Caribou.
With musical roots partly in improvisation, partly in pop and soul, Wallentin’s career path has crossed diverse musical territories, from free form jazz constellations and solo voice improvisations, composing for the jazz-big-band Fire! Orchestra and choir compositions to a lead part in a modern opera touring on stages such as the Royal Opera House and Holland Festival. Equipped with her courageously uncompromising approach to music-making Wallentin also wants to channel her instincts and write pop songs - which she now does under the moniker Mariam The Believer.

The new album follows Mariam The Believer’s two critically acclaimed previous records: 2017’s Love Everything and the 2013 debut album Blood Donation. Like her previous Mariam The Believer recordings, the new album is written and produced by Wallentin herself and self-released on her own label, Repeat Until Death.

TRACK LISTING

Both Arms
Home
Misty
A Heart
Breathing Techniques
Tiny Animals
Dreams
Highest Peak

On Oceanator’s third full-length album, 'Everything is Love and Death', songwriter Elise Okusami showcases her exceptional pop sensibilities, delivering 11 tracks full of melodic depth and lively energy. Produced by Grammy nominated engineer/producer Will Yip (Title Fight, Turnstile, Bartees Strange), the new album features some of the biggest and boldest songs Okusami has ever written, such as the anthemic and sludgy 'Drift Away', featuring backing vocals from NNAMDÏ.

Oceanator’s music has been praised in outlets such as Stereogum, Pitchfork, NPR and SPIN, who described Okusami as having “the kind of voice that can silence a room.” The band has shared the stage with the likes of Jeff Rosenstock, Laura Jane Grace, PUP, and others with a notable touring history across North America and Europe.

TRACK LISTING

1. First Time
2. Lullaby
3. Cut String
4. Happy New Year
5. Get Out
6. Home For The Weekend
7. Be Here
8. All The Same
9. Drain The Well
10. Drift Away
11. Won't Someone

Electrifying Los Angeles trio Palaye Royale's highly anticipated fourth studio album “Death or Glory”. "Death or Glory" offers an intriguing glimpse into a transformative and grandiose musical journey. As an anthem to resilience and self-discovery, the album embodies the band's artistic evolution and commitment to pushing the boundaries of glam-rock art-punk & brit-pop into a sound distinctively their own.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A
A1. Death Or Glory
A2. Hot Mess
A3. Just My Type
A4. Ache In My Heart
A5. For You
A6. Dark Side Of The Silver Spoon

SIDE B
B1. Showbiz
B2. Mister Devil
B3. Addicted To The Wicked & Twisted
B4. Self-Loathing Conversation
B5. Been Too Long
B6. Pretty Stranger

The fourth studio album from Seattle's Death Cab For Cutie blends intelligent songwriting, amazing production, boundless creativity and thoughtful rock. Simple piano lines are picked up gracefully by understated, building guitar in the sublime title track, contrasting with the more direct, but no less affecting style of another of the LP's highlights, "The New Year". It's a light / dark balance that is carried throughout the LP, and it's a marriage of subtlety and passion that works beautifully. We love it...

TRACK LISTING

1. New Year
2. Lightness
3. Title And Registration
4. Expo '86
5. Sound Of Settling
6. Tiny Vessels
7. Transatlanticism
8. Passenger Seat
9. Death Of An Interior Decorator
10. We Looked Like Giants
11. Lack Of Color

Metallica’s tenth album, Death Magnetic (2008), will be pressed on 140g ‘Magnetic Silver’ limited edition coloured vinyl.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
That Was Just Your Life
The End Of The Line
Boken, Beat & Scarred
Side B
The Day That Never Comes
All Nightmare Long
Cyanide
Side C
The Unforgiven II
The Judas Kiss
Side D
Suicide & Redemption
My Apocalypse

Death Row Records/ gamma is pleased to announce the release of a 30th Anniversary edition of Above The Rim (The Soundtrack) on 17th May. This is the first time the full 21-song tracklist will be available on vinyl. All previous LP releases have been 18 tracks. It will be available on double yellow with orange and red splatter vinyl.

Upon its initial release, Above The Rim (The Soundtrack) sold over 2 million copies and held the #1 spot on the Billboard R&B Albums chart for 10 consecutive weeks. The soundtrack is loaded with songs from epic artists including Tha Dogg Pound featuring Nate Dogg and Snoop Doggy Dogg, Dr. Dre, Warren G, DJ Quik and Al B. Sure! Additionally, this special 30th Anniversary edition will now include tracks from 2Pac "Pain" (feat. Stretch), Lord G “Mi Monie Rite!" and 2Pac “Loyal To The Game" (feat. Treach & Riddler).

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. Anything Swv
2. Old Time's Sake Sweet Sable
3. Part Time Lover H-Town
4. Big Pimpin’ The Dogg Pound Gangstas
5. Didn’t Mean To Turn You On 2nd Ii None

Side B
1. Doggie Style D.J. Rogers
2. Regulate Nate Dogg & Warren G
3. Pour Out A Little Liquor Thug Life
4. Gonna Give It To Ya Jewell & Aaron Hall
5. Afro Puffs The Lady Of Rage

Side C
1. Jus So Ya No Cpo-Boss Hogg
2. Hoochies Need Love Too Paradise
3. I’m Still In Love With You Al B. Sure!
4. Crack ‘Em O.F.T.B.
5. U Bring Da Dog Out Rhythm & Knowledge
6. Blowed Away B-Rezell

Side D
1. It's Not Deep Enough Jewell
2. Dogg Pound 4 Life Tha Dogg Pound
3. Pain 2pac & Stretch
4. Mi Monie Rite! Lord G
5. Loyal To The Game 2pac, Treach & Riddler

In 2023, Death Cult returned and reunited for a handful of performances. In 2024, to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of The Cult, Ian Astbury and Billy Duffy have curated the previously released Death Cult collection 'Ghost Dance', and recompiled the tracks for a 2024 release titled 'Paradise Now'. 

Southern Death Cult formed in 1981, releasing their sole, self-titled album posthumously in 1983. That same year, Death Cult formed, with Astbury joining forces with Duffy for a musical partnership that has endured for 40-plus years. The band released two 12-inches that same year, one being the 'Death Cult EP', which were subsequently combined and released as a CD. Death Cult is a vital transmission from the generation of Shamanic post-punk gothic futurists. In late 2023, Astbury and Duffy reformed Death Cult for a series of live performances including a sole U.S. date at The Theatre at The Ace Hotel in Los Angeles and a limited run of U.K. dates including back-to-back sold out shows at the Brixton Electric. Death Cult became The Cult in 1984, releasing Dreamtime that same year. The seminal post-punk band has gone on to sell in excess of four million albums with numerous international and U.S. gold and platinum certifications.

Ian Astbury (vocals) and Billy Duffy (guitar) have released 11 studio albums over The Cult’s 40-year career. The band, dubbed “Shamanic goths” by Classic Rock Magazine, found international renown with the 1985 album, 'Love', which featured the enduring rock anthem “She Sells Sanctuary,” as well as the oft-heard follow-up single “Rain.” Electric arrived in 1987, with Rolling Stone saying the collection of songs (particularly “Love Removal Machine,” “Wild Flower” and “Lil’ Devil”) “swaggers, crunches and howls.” Most recently, The Cult released Under the Midnight Sun. Mojo, in a review of the eight-song album, said “rock’s unquenchable melodramatists have the fire in their eyes still”.

TRACK LISTING

1. Horse Nation
2. Ghost Dance
3. Brothers Grimm
4. Christians
5. Gods Zoo (These Times)
6. A Flower In The Desert
7. Butterflies
8. With Love (Sea And Sky)

With 'Death Jokes', for the first time since the project's incarnation in 2006, the spiritual reflections and meditations of Amen Dunes are turned away from himself, and out sharply towards the world. The album is also a drastic turn musically and thematically, rooted in the electronic music of raves and of rap music he grew up with but never imagined himself able to make, playing like a scathing electronic essay on America’s culture of violence, dominance, and destructive individualism.

The work on 'Death Jokes' began just weeks before the first word of the pandemic came in the winter of 2019; it was completed three years later as we began to emerge from the worst. The album's meaning morphed as the pandemic went on, first a reflection on our attachment to form, and to ourselves, and then shifting into a solemn indictment of our culture’s blind spots as we misjudge and attack, veiled self-centeredness and self-importance masquerading as morality.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Amen Dunes is without a doubt entering his purple patch here, with the brilliant 'Death Jokes' taking all of the woozy songwriting and soaring melodicism of his early work but rendering it in bold brushes of echoic 80's electronica and jagged, blended electronic fragments.

TRACK LISTING

1. Death Jokes
2. Ian
3. Joyrider
4. What I Want
5. Rugby Child
6. Boys
7. Exodus
8. Predator
9. Solo Tape
10. Purple Land
11. I Don’t Mind
12. Mary Anne
13. Round The World
14. Poor Cops 

Death Songbook is an exquisite and unique collaboration between Suede’s Brett Anderson, Charles Hazlewood and Paraorchestra featuring special guests Nadine Shah and Gwenno.

The album features delicate new interpretations of iconic songs by the likes of Echo & The Bunnymen, Suede, Depeche Mode, Mercury Rev and Japan tackling themes of death, the death of love, anxiety, loss and transcendence.

Paraorchestra is the world's first large-scale virtuoso ensemble of professional disabled and non-disabled musicians.

The CD and LP packages feature beautiful photography from the original recordings at Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Killing Moon
2. Unsung
3. Holes (feat. Nadine Shah)
4. Nightporter
5. She Still Leads Me On
6. Wonderful Life
7. The Next Life
8. He's Dead
9. Enjoy The Silence (feat. Gwenno)
10. The End Of The World (feat. Nadine Shah)
11. My Death
12. Brutal Lover

"She and Me Fall Together in Free Death" is probably the most approachable, largely "musical" album that NWW has released since Rock N' Roll Station . It's also one of his strangest concepts, a marriage of trance inducing Krautrock grooves with a traditional jazz standard and some jarringly atonal musique concrete. Side A is the 20- minute title track: a slow-motion jam reminiscent of of one of Can's sidelong tracks on Tago Mago or the more avant-garde grooves of Tony Conrad and Faust's Outside the Dream Syndicate. The propulsive Jaki Liebezeit drumbeat is the foundation for a long jam session with what sounds like a dijderidoo and layers of guitar feedback. It's a massive, heavy sound, the kind that Julian Cope would devote a whole chapter to in his "Kratrocksampler". Side B is one long piece with three distinct movements. Beginning with those familiar, World Serpent-trademark windchimes, the listener is quickly ushered into Staple- ton's singing debut (!) in a rendition of the oft- covered traditional jazz ballad " Black is the Color of My True Love's Hair " This was a favorite of the recently deceased Nina Simone, and also of the avant- jazz screamer Patty Waters. Nurse With Wound's version is backed by cello drones, repetitive guitar strums and tambourine, sounding very much like The Velvet Un- derground's " Venus in Furs ". It's such a treat to hear Steven Stapleton's multitracked vocals cover this classic song, and this eerie version rates as one of my favorites. This song and the title track prove to the naysayers that Nurse With Wound is equally adept at rock n' roll songcraft as he is at demented sound collages. The creepy jazz cover seques into "Chicken Con- cret (For Missy E)", a truly warped tape-edit job that juxtaposes chicken squawks and sythesized birdcalls with random bleeps, speaker hiccups and gongs.

Could this be Steven Stapleton 's tribute to Timbaland and Missy Elliott's incomparable use of musique concrete techniques on their major label hip- hop anthems? Hard to say, but I like to think so. Side B ends with the hyper-sexualized "Gusset Typing", in which a mutated woman's voice describes her masturbation and orgasm in in- timate, anatomical detail. Her monologue is set against an intense rhythmic throbbing that builds as she reaches her climax. At the end, she blows her load and the record ends. This certainly qualifies as an active listening experience, and it's also a great make-out rec

TRACK LISTING

1. She And Me Fall Together Like Free Death
2. Black Is The Color Of My True Loves Hair
3. Chicken Concret 
4. Gusset Typing
5.She And Me Fall Together Like Free Death (Phosphorous Mix) 
6. Chicken Korma
7. Fine Writin'
8. She And Me Fall Together In Free Death (Funereal Mix)
9. Yellowed
10. Seeting Red
11. Black

Dead Elvis is the debut studio album by British band Death in Vegas, which was originally released in 1997. It featured a blend of musical genres, but most of the tracks are mainly based in dub and electronic dance music. This was the only Death in Vegas album to feature original member Steve Hellier. A limited vinyl run of Dead Elvis was released in 1997 but didn't feature the complete album. The complete Dead Elvis album, including the singles "Dirt", "Rocco" & "Rekkit" is now for the first time available on vinyl.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. All That Glitters
2. Opium Shuffle
3. GBH

Side B
1. Dirt
2. Rocco
3. Rekkit

Side C
1. I Spy
2. Amber

Side D
1. Rematerialised
2. 68 Balcony
3. Sly

Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes return with their fifth studio album, 'Dark Rainbow' - set for release on 26 January 2024. The Rattlesnakes have built a reputation for blistering anthems that owe as much to brooding desert rock as it does hardcore and power-pop. They’re redefining punk-rock with a sound that straddles eras and genres, putting The Rattlesnakes in a category all their own, while also challenging tired cliches and setting the world to rights.

TRACK LISTING

1. Honey
2. Man Of The Hour
3. Can I Take You Home
4. American Spirit
5. Happier Days
6. Brambles
7. Queen Of Hearts
8. Sun Bright Golden Happening
9. Superstar
10. Self Love
11. A Dark Rainbow

THIS IS A BLACK FRIDAY 2023 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON FRIDAY NOVEMBER 24TH 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 8AM ON SATURDAY NOVEMBER 25TH).

This first-ever vinyl pressing of Alan Silvestri’s score for the 1992 black comedy Death Becomes Her features seven cues that were not included in the original soundtrack release, plus the original song “Me,” performed by legendary actress Meryl Streep. Pressed on limited-edition Purple vinyl with original cover art and a printed inner sleeve. 

Cursed to ride forever on this mortal plane after partaking in a satanic drug ritual, the Death Wheelers pledge allegiance to the god of hell and fire. However, in order to prove themselves to their newly anointed leader and for the spell to take effect, the club Will need to engage in a series of lewd acts of sex and violence across the country.Immortality comes at a price and you’re about to pay for it…

The beating heart of The Death Wheelers is a rumbling engine. Since their self-titled debut in 2015 and in 2020’s cinematic-storytelling breakout, Divine Filth, the Canadian outfit have tapped into wind-through-hair freedom and careened down open roads of groove, not a cop in sight. Their third record, Chaos and the Art of Motorcycle Madness, more than lives up to its name on all fronts. With songs like “Morbid Bails” and “Lucifer’s Bend,” the in-the-know references abound, and The Death Wheelers draw from classic underground metal, scummer heavy rock and cast themselves into a cauldron of cultish biker devil worship, reveling in any and all post-apocalyptic dystopias with genuine glee at having just seen the world eat itself. You might hear some surf guitar. Crazy things can happen.

A sample in “Triple D (Dead, Drunk and Depraved)” underscores the message: “We want to be free to ride our machines without being hassled by the man. And we want to get loaded.” That line, from Roger Corman’s 1966 film The Wild Angels, serves as a mission statement, and as “Lucifer’s Bend” starts by laughing about how you can’t get away from Satan, they might as well carve it into their forearms to be ready when the blast of distortion hits, as much Entombed as Motörhead, galloping and sinister, coated in road dust and blood.

The band tells the story like this: “Cursed to ride forever on this mortal plane after partaking in a satanic drug ritual, the Death Wheelers pledge allegiance to the god of hell and fire. However, in order to prove themselves to their newly anointed leader and for the spell to take effect, the club will need to engage in a series of lewd acts of sex and violence across the country. Immortality comes at a price and you’re about to pay for it…”

While forging songs adherent more to ideology than style, The Death Wheelers cast their biker cult in their own image, and on Chaos and the Art of Motorcycle Madness, they challenge death head-on as only those with no fear of it could hope to do.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Scum Always Rises To The Top
2. Morbid Bails
3. Les Mufflers Du Mal
4. Ride Into The Rot (Everything Lewder Than Everything Else)
5. Triple D (Dead, Drunk, Depraved)
6. Lucifer?s Bend
7. Brain Bucket
8. Open Road X Open Casket
9. Motortician
10. Interquaalude
11. Sissy Bar Strut (Nymphony 69)
12. Cycling For Satan Part II

‘Love And Death - The Five Chandeliers Of The Funereal Exorcisms’ pulls back the veil unto a nocturnal scene populated by shadows, embers burning coldly in the underworld. Marina Zispin is your guide, siren and protector both. Marina Zispin is the negative space between musicians Bianca Scout and Martyn Reid. Love And Death is the duo’s debut release, five chandeliers of melancholic, vibrant synth pop twinkling in the inky blackness. Both originally hailing from the North East of England and forming a musical partnership before lockdown, Bianca Scout and Martyn Reid initially worked remotely. Having relocated to South London and Newcastle respectively, Marina Zispin was born in earnest after the duo could begin writing and practising in the same space. Bianca Scout is a celebrated musician and dancer with a number of solo and collaborative works in her discographywhile Martyn Reid is a mainstay of the UK noise and power electronics scene, most recently with solo project Depletion. Marina Zispin largely eschews both Scout’s deconstructed approach to song and Reid’s focus on visceral, noise- based productions; the result is a new entity, the underground pop star that exists only in darkened dreams. Marina Zispin, then, is an avatar cajoled, nurtured and directed by Scout and Reid. Analogue electronics redolent of the early 80s Cold Wave and Synth Pop era form the base of the Zispin worldview, with Bianca Scout donning the Marina disguise, embodying the character over five songs of swooning drama, playful melodic interplays and tear-stained, doe-eyed sentiment. Flowers In The Sea opens with an austere 4/4 beat and hypnotic synth parts before Scout/Zispin floats in across the lagoon. Scout’s vocal tone is an instant winner, sweet like honey pouring down over the cold, robotic productions and stereo-panned synth work. We can almost see the petals drift into the horizon before being pulled under by the artist’s sadness. Ski Resort bursts out with a Jacno-inspired bassline and backing that could have been buried in a French disco in 1982 (think Stereo or Linear Movement) before Scout’s narrative details frivolousness and regret before a magical shift for the final coda into major key. Backworth Gold Club closes Side A, a mysterious rigid beat and minor chord synth arpeggios swimming in space, floating and obscure. On Side B, Hymn carries the tone on, church-like synths holding down the pattern for Zispin/Scout to float above in a flowing gown of reverb. The marriage of Reid’s cold musical backbone and Scout’s effortless vocal and co- production is in full flow here, the vocals at times rising to the rafters of this nocturnal place of worship, at other points they’re fuzzy samples cutting in and drifting out or sung with an extreme autotune, abstract and perfect in the moment. Surprise Party is the most straightforward pop bullet, Scout/Zispin’s vocal peering out more from the fog, perhaps revealing more than usual: vulnerability, maybe, the wandering muse of the artists behind the veil or just another layer of mystery behind the enigma? Marina Zispin’s Life & Death - The Five Chandeliers Of The Funereal Exorcisms ends as it began, scintillating in obscurity, leaving everything unanswered but open.

TRACK LISTING

1. Flowers In The Sea
2. Ski Resort
3. Backworth Golf Club
4. Hymn
5. Surprise Party

Undisputed icons of rock and roll The Hives are back, channelling the electrifying energy of the group's greatest hits with their first new album in over 10 years.

Their colossal new album, The Death Of Randy Fitzsimmons, reignites the band's lore in arresting fashion, exploring the disappearance of the band's mysterious sixth member Randy Fitzsimmons. Having gone missing some time ago, the band are without their best man, and things are not well in the manor. Maybe, just maybe, the release of new music will get Randy's attention and bring him back from the void...

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: The Hives are back! After 10 long years they return with the scuzzy monolith, 'the Death Of Randy Fitzsimmons' Fuzzed-out riffs lie between swathes of percussion and distorted, rhythmic vocal punches. It's a significant entry in the bands catalogue, managing to both assuage current fans, and no doubt attract a whole new audience. Lovely stuff.

TRACK LISTING

1. Bogus Operandi
2. Trapdoor Solution
3. Countdown To Shutdown
4. Rigor Mortis Radio
5. Stick Up
6. Smoke & Mirrors
7. Crash Into The Weekend
8. Two Kinds Of Trouble
9. The Way The Story Goes
10. The Bomb
11. What Did I Ever Do To You?
12. Step Out Of The Way

RIYL: Derek Bailey, David Bowie, Tim Buckley, John Cale, Michael Chapman, Lol Coxhill, Davey Graham, Steve Gunn, Van Morrison, Louis Moholo, Mike Osborne, Lou Reed, Sonny Sharrock & Television.

Mike Cooper wrote his final songwriter record, a suite of gloaming glam-rock anthems performed with a spiritual jazz trio, while living on the Costa Tropical of Granada, Spain, an era when he was considering retiring from music altogether. A chance encounter and a last-ditch record deal convinced him to make one last album, which he recorded in 1974 at Pathway Studios in London, with “The Greatest Rock and Roll Band in the World,” featuring the inventive South African jazz rhythm section of Louis Moholo and Harry Miller with UK saxophonist Mike Osborne.

This first-ever reissue includes a bonus CD of Milan Live Acoustic 2018, a previously unreleased solo set that represents Cooper’s return, after forty-four years pursuing free improvisation and electronics, to a new, deconstructed approach to singing, steel guitar, and songcraft.

The deluxe LP+CD edition also features a six-panel insert with additional artwork and an essay by the artist about both records. The deluxe 2xCD gatefold edition features an eight-panel version of the same insert.

In the wake of his magisterial triptych of early 1970s avant-folk-rock records Trout Steel (1970), Places I Know (1971), and The Machine Gun Co. (1972) the British songwriter, guitarist, and fledgling improviser Mike Cooper retreated to the Costa Tropical of Granada, Spain. With no prospects for touring or recording again, his fiery band the Machine Gun Co. had disintegrated. Cooper sets the scene in his liner notes of the first-ever reissue of his unjustly forgotten next album Life and Death in Paradise (1974): No one came running with offers of fame and riches, and we fell apart, and I left the country and headed for the beach, disillusioned and a bit disorientated musically. I went to Almuñécar in Andalusia, a place I had been going since 1969, because a painter friend from Reading, Rowland Fade who made the collage in the gatefold of my earlier album Trout Steel had moved there in 1968.

It was in this synthetic coastal “paradise,” unmoored and adrift, considering retiring from music altogether, that he began tentatively writing new songs. A chance encounter with producer Tony Hall, who offered Cooper a last-ditch record deal on Hall’s nascent Fresh Air label, convinced him to make one last album with the stipulation that he could assemble what he called “The Greatest Rock and Roll Band in the World.” I told Tony that I would do it if I could hire some of my South African jazz musician friends that I had used on my Pye/Dawn albums and some friends from Reading that I still knew and admired. I called up Harry Miller, Louis Moholo, and Mike Osborne, who were in fact a trio at the time … and several local Reading heroes, including the singer-songwriter Terry Clarke. The result, recorded live with minimal overdubbing at Pathway Studios in London, was Life and Death in Paradise, an utterly singular suite of gloaming glam-rock anthems performed with a spiritual jazz trio comprising the inventive South African jazz rhythm section of Moholo and Miller with UK saxophonist Osborne. Unlike anything else in Cooper’s extensive catalog. Fresh Air fizzled, and Life and Death became Cooper’s final record as a songwriter, having pushed the form as far as he could.

Drifting north from Spain back to the UK, he fell into the scene of the London Musicians Collective (LMC) including Paul Burwell, David Toop, and saxophonist Lol Coxhill, Cooper’s bandmate in the Recedents and fully embraced free improvisation. He was still, however, interested in singing and lyrics, so, influenced by Tom Phillips, William Burroughs, and Brion Gysin, he began experimenting with text collage and cut-up techniques, arriving at his own hybrid compositional strategy for improvisatory songs. The previously unreleased solo set Milan Live Acoustic 2018 represents Cooper’s return, after more than four decades pursuing free improvisation and electronics, to a new, deconstructed approach to singing, lap steel guitar, and songcraft. Presented here together with Life and Death in Paradise, the two records provide fascinating bookends to Mike Cooper’s long, mercurial, and pioneering practice as a songmaker.

TRACK LISTING

Life And Death In Paradise:
A1. Rocket Summer
A2. Black Night Crash (including “Horry Rocker Show”)
A3. O.M.M. Coda
B1. Suicide De Luxe (including “Rock And Roll Hi Way”)
B2. Life And Death In Paradise (including “Through A Veil,” “Beads On A String,” And “Reprise”)
B3. Critical Incidents

Milan Live Acoustic 2018:
1. Migrants Song
2. Approaching Zero
3. Industrial Hazard
4. In Moments Of Reverie
5. Peach Trees
6. Sage And Thyme
7. Lord Franklin

Stuart Argabright (Ike Yard) revives his legendary NYC hip hop unit, Death Comet Crew, for a landmark debut album release on the burgeoning Diagonal Records. Titled in tribute to the group's fallen member, Rammellzee (R.I.P), 'Ghost Among The Crew' rocks up a feral blend of hip hop, industrial and jazz fusion with a furtive cyberpunk swagger, marking their first output since 'This Is Riphop' for Mike Simonetti's Troubleman Unlimited label nearly 2 decade's ago.

TRACK LISTING

1. Me Czar Of The Magyars
2. Deep Space Woman
3. Drag Racing
4. Moons On Titan's Seas
5. Let The Clubs Ring
6. One On Ones
7. Run Map
8. Ignition Spark
9. Crustacean Live

Combining sensitive songwriting, memorable melodies, and the rich, wistful vocal tone of its leader Ben Gibbard, Seattle's Death Cab for Cutie quickly rose from a low-key solo project to become one of the definitive indie bands of the 2000s and 2010s. Then based in the bayside college town of Bellingham, Washington, Gibbard had a minor breakthrough in 1997 with his debut cassette, You Can Play These Songs with Chords, prompting him to put together a band that included the cassette's producer, Chris Walla.

After marrying grungy rock and bittersweet indie pop for nearly a decade, their 2005 major-label debut, the more polished Plans, propelled Death Cab for Cutie into the Top Five behind the Hot 100 single "Soul Meets Body." They followed it with another hit song, the ballad "I Will Possess Your Heart" from 2008's Narrow Stairs, which went all the way to number one on the Billboard 200. (Both records were also nominated for Grammy Awards for Best Alternative Music Album.) Continuing a trend toward more refined production, they returned to the Top Ten with releases such as 2011's Codes and Keys (another Grammy nominee for Best Alternative Music Album) and 2015's Kintsugi (a Best Rock Album nominee). Their tenth studio full-length, Asphalt Meadows, saw release in 2022, 25 years after Gibbard's breakout cassette.

ABOUT ASPHALT MEADOWS (ACOUSTIC)
“we recorded asphalt meadows (acoustic) over four days in december 2022 with our friend andy park. our goal was to reinterpret our latest album with the most minimal arrangements possible and present the songs in their rawest, most intimate forms. some songs were able to take shapes similar to those on the proper album. others required full re-engineering to snap into focus.”

TRACK LISTING

I Don’t Know How I Survive (Acoustic)
Roman Candles (Acoustic)
Asphalt Meadows (Acoustic)
Rand McNally (Acoustic)
Here To Forever (Acoustic)
Foxglove Through The Clearcut (Acoustic)
Pepper (Acoustic)
I Miss Strangers (Acoustic)
Wheat Like Waves (Acoustic)
Fragments From The Decade (Acoustic)
I’ll Never Give Up On You (Acoustic)
The Plan

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2023 EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.
 
Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes have built a reputation for blistering anthems that owe as much to brooding desert rock as it does hardcore and power-pop. They're redefining punk-rock with a sound that straddles eras and genres, putting The Rattlesnakes in a category all their own, while also challenging tired cliches and setting the world to rights. These two tracks will only be released physcially for RSD with no future plans to release them on other formats. 'The Drugs' features Mercury Award winner and UK chart topper Jamie T. Spec: Transparent red / transparent red 7", CMYK Labels, White Paper inners, Spined Sleeve, Shrinkwrap

Live In St. Kilda is a twelve song live album from a one-time-only show in which Kid Congo Powers was backed by The Near Death Experience. Kid Congo says, “How did I hook up with The Near Death Experience you may ask? One fine day Kim Salmon, my long time Scientists Surrealist Beast of a friend, wrote from Australia to ask me to play at his book launch for his biography Nine Parts Water, One Part Sand: Kim Salmon And The Formula For Grunge on November 9th, 2019. The launch was to take place at the Memo Music Hall in St. Kilda, a seaside suburb of Melbourne. A royal command performance for the king of Kim? How could I say no to such an honor? What to do about a band? It did not take more than a minute for each of us to suggest Harry Howard and The Near Death Experience as the logical choice. I was a massive fan of the band already and we shared crossed paths as expats claiming out our musical in 1980s London. Harry with Crime And The City Solution and These Immortal Souls, Dave and Clare with The Moodists, Kim with the Scientists and me with Gun Club and Fur Bible. Needless to say it was fantastical to get together and make a playlist for Kim featuring covers by Suicide and Shangri La, with mine and NDE’s songs as well. The night was magic—I still am floating on a surrealistic pillow remembering the night. Enjoy the racket, enjoy the love, enjoy this record of friendship and celebration.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Snapping garage percussion and screaming guitars lay the foundation for Kid Kongo Powers' unmistakeable vocals and scathing live show. Featuring the Near Death Experience members instead of the usual Pink Monkey Birds has lent his sound an even more raw edge, accentuated by the live setting. Hefty.

TRACK LISTING

1. LSDC
2. I Found A Peanut
3. Black Santa
4. La Llorona
5. The Only One
6. Sophisticated Boom Boom
7. New Kind Of Kick
8. Diamonds, Fur Coat, Champagne
9. She Doesn't Like It
10. Sex Beat
11. When He Finds Out
12. Garbage Man

Mats Gustafsson is a key character in the modern jazz scene as a world-renowned saxophone player, and has collaborated with countless artists including Sonic Youth, Neneh Cherry, Peter Brötzmann and Merzbow.

Joachim Nordwall has been creating psychedelic electronic music since the late 1980s, and has been in groups such as The Skull Defekts and Alvars Orkester, with work credited alongside Aaron Dilloway, Mika Vainio, Kevin Drumm, Christine Abdelnour and John Duncan.

Nordwall founded and runs the lauded record label iDEAL Recordings, operating at the cutting edge of experimental and electronic music, and hosting festivals, exhibitions, concerts, and club nights.

The duo create a sense of vast, three dimensional auditory expanses. “This is where acoustics and analogue synths meet. It is unique music. Unheard Vibes. Perfect for special venues and good PAs” - Gustafsson and Nordwall.

TRACK LISTING

1.  THERE ARE SOME WORLDS WHERE ALL DREAMS DIE (en Glad Stund)
2.  THE DAY OF DAYS WAS THERE (vardag)
3.  LOVE SHOWS IN HER SMILE: IT IS CONFIDENT (panik)
4. THEIR NEW LIFE WAS THEIR FINAL LIFE (vilse)
5.  BIRDBRAIN (olle ångest)
6.  HIS FINGERS, MOVING IN THE AIR, PRODUCED A SOFT ORGAN-LIKE MUSIC (långtråkigt)
7.  OH, SAID THE STRANGE MIND, YOU WANT ME TO THINK FOR YOU (det Blir Aldrig Bättre)
8.  HER EYES…WERE LIKE COLD FIRES (slut)

This 7” single is housed in a picture sleeve and pressed on black vinyl. The B-side features an exclusive etched design.

TRACK LISTING

A. Late March, Death March

Death and Vanilla return with ‘Flicker’, presenting their unique pop music that defies categorisation. Housed in a beautifully austere post-ironic de-constructed sleeve; ‘Flicker’ is a modern reflection on these difficult times. World crises notwithstanding, they return reborn, re-arranged and revitalised after assimilating dub reggae, the motorik spirals of Can, the modal meander of Philip Glass and The Cure’s dreamier pop sounds; plus the twice removed symphonic ambience of Spiritualized and Talking Heads under heavy manners from Brian Eno. By osmosis their period of transition since 2019’s much darker ‘Are You A Dreamer?’ has hatched new eclectic electronica anthems riddled with melody lines, and layered for lush love.

Forming in Malmö, Sweden, Death And Vanilla gravitated towards vintage musical equipment; from vibraphone, organ and mellotron, to tremolo guitar and Moog synthesisers. Soaking up soundtracks from the 60s and 70s, listening to library music, kosmiche, French Ye-ye pop and 60s psych, Marleen Nilsson, Anders Hansson and Magnus Bodin were fashioned by the city’s austere industrial past and flat pack present, and all in the shadow of the Orsesund Bridge that links their dreamworld to mainland Europe and a darker reality.

Death And Vanilla at once sound like everything is possible; but nothing else at all. There is a flicker of hope for everyone.

“Deploying vintage instruments in their quest for melancholic utopia.” - Electronic Sound

“Baroque pop through a dreampop filter.” - The Guardian.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: It's hard to define exactly what Death and Vanilla do. It's deeply psychedelic but rooted in classic songwriting, taking familiar progressions and twisting them into perfectly produced fever dreams. 'Flicker' has a ton of melody, is warm and brooding but remains resolutely listenable, and endlessly fascinating.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
A1. Out For Magic
A2. Baby Snakes
A3. Find Another Illusion
A4. Perpetuum Mobile
Side B
B1. Looking Glass
B2. Mercury's Rising
B3. Fearless
B4. Transparent Things
B5. Perpetuum Reprise

Liverpool art-rockers San Lorenz release their highly anticipated debut album ‘A Death At Sea’ following the success of previous EP releases; ‘The House That Doubt Built’ and ‘No Brain, No Pain’. A sonic rollercoaster that explores themes of grief, hopelessness and separation from oneself, ‘A Death At Sea’ is certainly the band’s most ambitious offering to date. Within this body of work, the band proves the thing that has kept them moving for so long; the desire to push themselves and their songwriting to the highest reaches of what they can be.

San Lorenz put their heart and soul into these 11 songs and their efforts should become more apparent on each subsequent listen. A true labour of love and a triumphant debut record that showcases the band’s deftness in crafting deep, multi-layered soundscapes beneath earnest and nuanced lyrics. Known for their explosive live performances and on their way to great things, the Covid pandemic dealt a catastrophic blow to the band’s momentum. But never ones to rest on their laurels, they began remote writing sessions and were eventually able to commence recording, albeit under less-than-ideal circumstances.

Self-producing and working out of their own Yellowbird Studio, they enlisted the help of Grammy award winning producer Mark Rankin (QOTSA, Adele, Bloc Party) to mix the record. Throughout their career, the band have consistently demonstrated their ability to wilfully dismantle themselves in the pursuit of pushing the boundaries of what can be achieved both sonically and emotionally with their music.

TRACK LISTING

Side One
1. Intro
2. Tightrope
3. Accessory
4. Adjust The Angle
5. Dijiste Adios
6. Where's The Shock?
Side Two
1. Wickerman
2. The Disappearing
3. (Don't Be A) Martyr
4. A Death At Sea
5. First To Know

A country songwriter from Brooklyn’s indie underground, Dougie Poole blurs the lines between genre and generation on his third solo album, The Rainbow Wheel of Death. Rooted in sharp songwritingvand the organic sounds of a live-in-the-studio band, it’s a classic-sounding record for the modern world.

The Rainbow Wheel of Death’s title nods to the colorful pinwheel that appears onscreen whenever a computer’s application stalls. For Poole — who found himself working as a freelance computer programmer once the pandemic brought his touring schedule to a temporary halt in 2020 — it’s also a reference to the holding pattern that’s left much of society feeling stuck, unable to move ahead in an uncertain world. That feeling was pervasive when he began writing these nine songs, finishing the first handful of tracks in his New York City bedroom and wrapping up the songwriting process in the recording studio itself.

Once hailed as the “patron saint of millennial malaise” for his sardonic wit and topical, tongue-in-cheek songwriting, Poole broadens his reach here. “High School Gym” builds a bridge between 2020s lo-fi textures and 1980s pop vibes, while “Must Be In Here Somewhere” — whose narrator sits at a lap top, searching through “every server burning in North Carolina” for a digital souvenir of a long-lost relationship — mixes modern concerns with classic country instrumentation. If records like 2017’s Wideass Highway and 2020’s breakthrough release The Freelancer’s Blues told stories about uninspired Millennials languishing in dead-end jobs and no-good relationships, then The Rainbow Wheel of Death focuses on more universal issues like mortality, love, and the passing of the time.

With The Rainbow Wheel of Death, Dougie Poole breathes new life into country music, retaining the acclaimed elements of his previous work — drum machines, synthesizers, and his deepset voice — while pushing toward something warm, organic, and prismatic

TRACK LISTING

1. The Rainbow Wheel Of Death
2. High School Gym
3. Nothing On This Earth Can Make Me Smile
4. Worried Man Blues 2
5. Nickels And Dimes
6. I Lived My Whole Life Last Night
7. Beth David Cemetery
8. Must Be In Here Somewhere
9. I Hope My Baby Comes Home Soon

For the better part of a decade, LA’s scrappy rock n’ roll mystics Death Valley Girls have used their music as a means of tapping into a communal cosmic energy. On albums like Glow In The Dark (2016), Darkness Rains (2018), and Under the Spell of Joy (2020) the band challenged the soul-crushing banality of modern society and celebrated “true magical in­nite potential” through a collage of scorching proto-punk riffs, earworm melodies, far-out lyrics, and lysergic auxiliary instrumentation. But on their latest album Islands in the Sky, Death Valley Girls’ songwriting mastermind Bonnie Bloomgarden uses the band’s anthemic revelries as a guidebook to spiritual healing and a roadmap for future incarnations of the self. And while these may be the loftiest aims of Death Valley Girls to date, the resulting music is also by far their most infectious and celebratory.

“Death Valley Girls are a gift to the world.” - Iggy Pop

“Harnessing the allure of the occult and the power of self-help, the Los Angeles garage rockers break free from their roots and ascend to the realm of spiritual psych-jazz rockestra.” - Pitchfork

“(Death Valley Girls) taps out of traditional songwriting and tune into a new spiritual consciousness…” - Spin

“An insistent Banshees like boom and groove.” - MOJO

TRACK LISTING

1. California Mountain Shake
2. Magic Powers
3. Islands In The Sky
4. Sunday
5. What Are The Odds
6. Journey To Dog Star
7. Say It Too
8. Watch The Sky
9. When I'm Free
10. All That Is Not Of Me
11. It's All Really Kind Of Amazing

Two tracks from Chicago’s mighty Salem Travelers, from their brief time on the Chess subsidiary Checker in 1968.

The A-side, ‘Tell It Like It Is’, goes for around £45 on seven, its follow up, an previously unheralded classic from the same year. Both tracks are a unique funky take on gospel.

‘Tell It Like It Is’ is filled with wah wah guitar chops and some excellent lead breaks that spice up the conga-adorned upbeat; a heady song grasping for the truth.

‘Give Me Liberty Or Death’ is slightly slower, with a Motown-styled backbeat behind a fist pumping anthem that reels in its churchy roots and some great vocal interplay, a message song filled with emotion.

Two fantastic tunes from a transient ever-changing group who, in the 1960s and 1970s, were known for soulful harmonies, glass-shattering lead singing.

Typical of their repertoire of songs that provided social commentary on the troubles of the world from the war in Vietnam, drugs, violence, prejudice, civil rights and child delinquency.

TRACK LISTING

1. Tell It Like It Is
2. Give Me Liberty Or Give Me Death

Gemma Ray takes an unexpected detour from her acclaimed psych-soul and torch song oeuvre with a hard-edged experiment in cinematic electronica.

Epic despite its underlying simplicity and groove, ‘Gemma Ray & The Death Bell Gang’ blends the funereal and the sinister with tenderness and yearning, with a dash of automaton-pop and a Dada-esque playfulness for good measure. Front and centre are Gemma’s trademark stirring voice and harmonies.

Released on eco-mix and splatter coloured vinyl formats, with download card and exclusive pull-out poster by British painter Deryk Thomas (Swans, Angels of Light).

The record was recorded at Tempelhof Flughafen in Berlin and features collaborations from sound designer Ralf Goldkind (Fantastichen Vier, Mona Mur), lap steel player Kristof Hahn (Swans), and syncussion by Andy Zammit (Jon Spencer).

Accompanying videos for the singles ‘Come Oblivion’, ‘Howling’ and ‘Procession’ by animator Lucy Dyson (Paul McCartney, Beyonce, Courtney Barnett).

TRACK LISTING

No Love
Procession
Be Still
Howling
Come Oblivion
Tempelhof Desert Inn
I Am Not Who I Am
The Point That Tears
All These Things
Blowing Up Rocks

Universally credited as the band that invented grindcore, it's no exaggeration to say that Napalm Death are one of the most important acts in metal history

Earache Records' third ever release (MOSH003), classic debut album 'Scum' had an immediate, seismic impact in 1987 and its influence can still be felt far and wide today. To celebrate its 35th anniversary, this essential album is repressed with limited edition Blue and Pink colour sleeves. An absolute 'must have' for any heavy metal collector.

Pressed from the original master tapes, the album has been specially recreated using 'fdr' – full dynamic range mastering - allowing the music's nuances to shine through and giving the classic album a more ferocious and dynamic sound, enabling the listener to immerse in the full audio heaviness like never before.

TRACK LISTING

Multinational Corporations
Instinct Of Survival
The Kill
Scum
Caught In A Dream
Polluted Minds
Sacrificed
Siege Of Power
Control
Born On Your Knees
Human Garbage
You Suffer
Life?
Prison Without Walls
Point Of No Return
Negative Approach
Success?
Deceiver
C.S.
Parasites
Pseudo Youth
Divine Death
As The Machine Rolls On
Common Enemy
Moral Crusade
Stigmatized
M.A.D
Dragnet

Formidable psychic warriors, channelers of the mystic and proponents of a spiritual quest that transcends this realm, Goat remain a band shrouded in mystery. Travelling from their inscrutable origins in the Swedish village of Korpilombo across the stages and festivals of the world in the last decade, this band has created their incendiary music entirely according to their own co-ordinates.

With all this in mind, the casual observer might have guessed from its title that ‘Requiem’, their beatific and melancholic album of 2016, was to be their last. Yet the ancestral spirits summoned by their art are always restless. Thus the eternal cycles of rebirth have triumphantly produced ‘Oh Death’ - a ceremonial conflagration as powerful as any this band has made.Invigorated by forces we can only guess at the origins of, ‘Oh Death’ is a party to which all are welcome. Blithely waving away easy classification, these heat-hazed serenades are just as comfortable in the headspace of vicious ‘70s funk as they are in zesty ZE records post-punk.

Folk-haunted incantations and free jazz skronk here find common ground, buoyed by relentless forward motion and raucous energy. Yet all of the above is locked into a delirious gnostic groove that threatens to throw the whole shebang spiraling into orbit. ‘Oh Death’ is driven by a supernatural charge that unifies, invigorates and transcends borders, whether geographical, musical, or between this world and the next. In the hands of these sages and soothsayers, this is just the beginning. Goat Is ‘Oh Death’, Long Live Goat.

STAFF COMMENTS

Will says: Goat returns with another musical edict from above, a kaleidoscope of demented funk of which the human spirit is desperately in need, according to the band. The fuzzy psychedelia of cracking lead single ‘Under No Nation’ was a perfect mission statement for this phase of the band, so strap in for a wonderfully weird ride with the undeniable forebearers of oddity.

TRACK LISTING

01. Soon You Die
02. Chukua Pesa
03. Under No Nation
04. Do The Dance
05. Apegoat
06. Goatmilk
07. Blow The Horns
08. Remind Yourself
09. Blessings
10. Passes Like Clouds

Formed in Bellingham, WA in 1997, Death Cab for Cutie almost immediately entered the ranks of the era’s definitive bands, fueled in large part by the remarkable power of co-founder, vocalist, guitarist, and lead songwriter Benjamin Gibbard’s complex, often bittersweet songcraft. The band made their worldwide popular breakthrough with 2003’s RIAA gold certified Transatlanticism, later named by NPR as one of “The Decade's 50 Most Important Recordings.” Plans, their 2005 Atlantic Records debut release, saw Death Cab for Cutie ascending to even greater heights, earning RIAA platinum certification and a GRAMMY® Award nomination for “Best Alternative Album” while spawning the chart-topping singles, “Soul Meets Body” and “I Will Follow You into the Dark,” the latter of which was honored with a GRAMMY® nod for “Best Pop Performance By Duo Or Group With Vocals.” Their following albums – including Narrow Stairs (2008), The Open Door (2009), Codes and Keys (2011), and Kintsugi (2015) – all received various GRAMMY® Award nominations, bringing their total career nominations to eight overall. 

For Fans Of: Temples, Allah-Las, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Khruangbin, David Axelrod. Back in 2016, producer Seth Applebaum released two EPs that marked the inauguration of the band Ghost Funk Orchestra. ‘Night Walker’ and ‘Death Waltz’ were conceived as one-man-band, reel-to-reel tape recorded experiments that would bring together elements of all the sounds that Seth most adored at the time: tape-saturated drums, gratuitous spring reverb, surfy guitar, Latin-style percussion, odd time signatures, and Spanish-language female vocals. Initially released only in the digital domain and on a short run of cassette tapes, these two EPs that defined the early era of GFO are now finally available together on a single LP via Colemine Records. The tracks have been lovingly remastered by Doug Krebs. We invite you to take a dive into the humble beginnings of a project that has continued to grow, shape shift, and accrue new and exciting sounds for its sonic palette.

TRACK LISTING

1. Intro
2. Brownout
3. Dark Passage
4. Night Walker
5. Demon Demon
6. Blood Moon
7. Interlude
8. Franklin Ave
9. A Moment Of Clarity
10. The Death Waltz
11. Brain Fog
12. Spirit Dance
13. The Haunt Pt. 2
14. Lost Soul
15. Boneyard Baile 

Following on from his 2018 album "Sincerely, S. Love x", Tapete Records are proud to present Simon Love's new record "LOVE, SEX and DEATH etc"

Swinging from love songs to hate songs through all points in-between, the centrepiece of the album is the nigh on 7-minute long pop epic "L-O-T-H-A-R-I-O" "

Samantha Crain's critically acclaimed 'A Small Death' is a record that brims with hope and a deft wryness, packed with the sort of melodies and stories that have been warming the hearts of those so familiar with and fond of her work over the years. After a series of accidents that left the artist without the use of her hands, this album was her first release after she worked tirelessly to recover from her injuries.

TRACK LISTING

An Echo
Pastime
Holding To The Edge Of Night
High Horse
Reunion
Joey
Constructive Eviction
Garden Dove
Tough For You
When We Remain
Little Bits

"The words legendary, seminal, and classic get thrown around at will these days, but Rudimentary Peni’s debut album is all of them.

Recorded over two days at Southern Studios by John Loder and originally released in 1983 by CRASS off-shoot label Corpus Christi, “Death Church” showed a band moving away from the urgency of their two early 7”s and into their own realm. Creating a template that bands have been trying to replicate ever since, while ticking all the boxes to become a genre-defining album. Iconic artwork, a unique sound and their own lyrical universe. All merging seamlessly. Sonically the album is full of Nick Blinko’s extraordinary vocals and equally remarkable guitar, Grant Matthews’ big meandering driving basslines and Jon Greville's tight and relentless drum work which together made something intricate and hard hitting, with a sequence that makes the 21 songs on the album flow perfectly. Visually, the album is every outsider art lover’s wet dream.

A six-panel poster sleeve with every inch covered in Nick Blinko’s claustrophobic black and white line drawings, while lyrically the songs deal with madness, religion, death, and questioning humankind from a dark poetic place rarely found in any art form.

Remastered from the original master tapes by Arthur Rizk and housed in a replica poster sleeve, including the original insert, “Death Church” is back in print in LP, CD and cassette after nearly a decade of no official reissues."

TRACK LISTING

1. ¼ Dead
2. Blissful Myth
3. The Psycho Squat
4. Rotten To The Core
5. Poppycock
6. Cosmic Hearse
7. The Cloud Song
8. Vampire State Building
9. Blasphemy Squad
10. When You Are A Martian Church
11. Pig In A Blanket
12. Inside
13. Nothing But A Nightmare
14. Flesh Crucifix
15. Slimy Member
16. Love Is Not
17. Radio Schizo
18. Happy Farm
19. Alice Crucifies The Paedophiles
20. Army Of Jesus
21. Dutchmen

Is there a better pairing of kindred spirits than a split seven-inch single featuring Le Butcherettes and Death Valley Girls? We're hard pressed to think of one. Sure, the interaction is fleeting, but damn is it satisfying.

We've got Le Butcherettes on side A taking on one of Death Valley Girls' most cosmic numbers, the kaleidoscopic centerpiece off Under the Spell of Joy album, "The Universe." Le Butcherettes' fearless and charismatic mastermind Teri Gender Bender takes the tune into even trippier territories, replicating the original song's sonic tapestry of synth, sax, and guitars with layer upon layer of vocals. Only the sparse accompaniment of acoustic guitar and modest percussion keeps the song from being fully a capella. It's a perfect interpretation of Death Valley Girls' communal and choral aims.

On side B, Death Valley Girls offer up a new tune - the deliciously ecstatic "When I'm Free." Like every great Death Valley Girls song, it's a celebration of life bolstered by fiery rock n' roll riffage, spiritual organ, dizzying sax, and Bonnie Bloomgarden's defiant and triumphant vocals. Suicide Squeeze Records is proud to offer up this meeting of mystical minds on vinyl and digital platforms on February 11, 2022.

‘Sticky’, the new album from Frank Carter & the Rattlesnakes, is the sonic eruption of a year-plus of suppressed energy.

While it’s an escapist experience, recent reality is never too far away. It’s there in ‘Go Get A Tattoo’, which was inspired by Carter’s experience of having to shut his first London based tattoo parlour, Rose of Mercy, almost immediately after it opened.

It’s just as present in ‘My Town’, a suburban vignette of society’s collective mental health quickly unravelling.

TRACK LISTING

Sticky
Cupid's Arrow
Bang Bang
Take It To The Brink
My Town
Go Get A Tattoo
Off With His Head
Cobra Queen
Rat Race
Original Sin

Death Drives A Cadillac was Spike In Vain’s second album, never officially released and unheard in its final form until now. Like many hardcore bands circa ’84 and ’85, the group was ready to further expand its palette and ease off the thrash tempos. Recorded roughly a year after Disease Is Relative with a bigger budget, the album is even more wide-ranging, and the songs are more fleshed out. “Despair grew inside her, I grew inside her. She named me Spirit Death, and this is my song” sings Chris Marec, the vocalist on half of this LP.

Though less “young” than their debut, that album’s darkness lingers, but here has a more removed, observational quality, with many songs sung in character or in the third person, along with a tendency for anthropomorphic allegory. It has a bit less to do with screaming for death to come than with a growing resignation to being the other, a recognition of inescapable alienation and its relation to childhood trauma. —all with a heaping side of absurdity and a sense of wonder at the gradually unfolding endtimes.

That said, many of the tracks wouldn’t be out of place on the debut, and some feature exotic tunings. Bits of roots music come into play as well—gospel, blues, and country figure to some extent in a third of the songs, sometimes in convoluted, Beefheart-esque ways, and at other times toying with genre archetypes as a cat does a mouse.

TRACK LISTING

1. Too Cool
2. Abysmal Child
3. Spirit Death
4. Dogsleds In Heaven
5. Rattlesnake's Wedding
6. Escape From The Zoo
7. Lady Luck Is Dead
8. Valentine's Day
9. Big Black Locomotive
10. Party In The Ground
11. Totem Fields
12. Gospel Motel
13. Count Basie's Ghost

Ever since Spirit Of The Beehive released their self-titled debut in 2014, they’ve developed a reputation for being your favourite band’s favourite band. Theirs is the music of immersion, of confrontation, the kind that makes a listener stop and wonder, “How are they even doing that?” And as the years wear on, that sense of bafflement has made room for Spirit Of The Beehive to quietly but steadily ascend, with their most recent album, 2018’s Hypnic Jerks, leaving them poised on the precipice of wider recognition.

Spirit Of The Beehive now release their fourth album and Saddle Creek debut, Entertainment, Death. The album signals new chapters for the band on multiple fronts, being the first to feature their new three-piece lineup, as well as the first to be entirely self-recorded and produced. Guitarist/vocalist Zack Schwartz and bassist/vocalist Rivka Ravede are now joined by new member Corey Wichlin, a multi-instrumentalist who relocated from Chicago to the band’s home territory of Philadelphia last year. In the spring of 2020, the trio began to write their new album at a distance by emailing les back and forth. “The process of making this album was basically the exact opposite of our experience creating Hypnic Jerks,” Schwartz explains. “We had to record that in seven days, because that was the studio time we had, whereas Entertainment, Death was made over the course of three, four months.”

An abundance of time wasn’t the only difference. Recording remotely offered the band an incentive to experiment with new possibilities for their sound, resulting in an album that is unlike any Spirit Of The Beehive has released before. Once the band finished recording and mixing the album digitally, they mastered it to tape, lending the collection a textured, dimensional quality. “We knew we wanted to use some new instrumental elements on this album,” Wichlin says. “We're not going fully electronic,” Schwartz adds, “But guitar, bass, drums just get kind of monotonous.” Though Entertainment, Death doesn’t cohere in a single, unifying theme, the band samples old obscure commercials throughout, many of which guided the process of writing a song instead of serving as an appendage. Schwartz describes his songwriting process as a stream-of-consciousness, while Ravede asserts that she doesn’t typically write vocal parts with any specific intention in mind. “When I write, the narrative usually doesn’t present itself until after the song is done. And even then, it depends on how the listener interprets the words,” she reflects. Regardless of how dreamlike Entertainment, Death’s lyrics can be, reality rears its head throughout Entertainment, Death. The album isn’t a metamorphosis, it’s simply the newest iteration of a longstanding project. “There’s a line in the Bee Gees documentary that I think applies to us. I’ll paraphrase: ‘We may not have always connected, but we always stuck around,’” Ravede says. Schwartz jumps in, “Entertainment, Death: we’re still here.”

TRACK LISTING

01. Entertainment
02. There’s Nothing You Can Do
03. Wrong Circle
04. Bad Son
05. Give Up Your Life
06. Rapid & Complete Recovery
07. The Server Is Immersed
08. It Might Take Some Time
09. Wake Up (In Rotation)
10. I Suck The Devil’s Cock
11. Death

The first new music since their 2017 release, Outrage! Is Now, Death From Above 1979 return with the unmistakably DFA album ‘Is 4 Lovers’. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Modern Guy
2. One + One
3. Free Animal
4. N.Y.C. Power Elite Part I
5. N.Y.C. Power Elite Part 2
6. Totally Wiped Out
7. Glass Homes
8. Love Letter
9. Mean Streets
10. No War

Following the release of her album ‘Warnings’ in May 2020 via Bella Union, I Break Horses announces details of a remix 12” featuring The Field and Mythologen.

TRACK LISTING

Death Engine (The Field Remix)
Turn (Mythologen Remix)

Building on the success of 2018’s ‘Filoxiny’ (listed as one of Q Magazine’s ‘354 Albums to Blow Your Mind’) and this year’s ‘Umoja’ (“a pleasure to listen to from start to finish” – Songlines magazine) – both of whose singles have peppered the playlists of BBC 6 Music and have lead to his helming of a Bandcamp takeover - Skinshape returns with the witheringly, prophetically titled ‘Arrogance is the Death of Men’. Written and recorded between November 2019 and July 2020, Skinshape bids to recreate something akin to the ‘old style’ of ‘Oracolo’ (2015) and ‘Life & Love’ (2017). With ‘Arrogance…’, Will Dorey’s blueprint points to a simple formula, aligning a bank of fresh drum breaks recorded at the end of 2019 to whatever he had to hand, for a long player recorded in the majority at home due to the COVID-19 lockdown.

Forever balanced between sweetness and a sigh, as per his position ‘Behind the Sun’, the Skinshape essence, intricate yet always reachable, at times tailored in a single session and sourcing archive bric-a-brac when required, is all around on the sweetly strummed ‘Tomorrow’ and ‘The Eastern Connection’, featuring Ivan Kormanak on drums. Maintaining an incisive knowledge of global sounds that keeps him in the filmic company of Khruangbin and El Michels Affair, Dorey’s listening to vintage Vietnamese music and Asian film scores provides the basis of ‘Sound of Your Voice’ and ‘Flight of the Erhu’, starring Wan Pinchu on Erhu violin. Acutely aware of the world’s ongoing health crisis without preaching about the whys and wherefores, the title track and ‘Losing My Mind’ reflect enforced confinement as tranquil songs of both quiet consideration yet powerful release. Dorey’s guitar pieces and wraith-like soul continue to flicker with fascination as Indian Summers and fireside retreats beckon, with ‘Watching From The Shadows’ - about “standing up for yourself, and avoiding the limelight for your own good”– and ‘Outro’ gently bringing the album to rest

TRACK LISTING

A1. Tomorrow
A2. Sound Of Your Voice
A3. Arrogance Is The Death Of Men
A4. The Eastern Connection
A5. Behind The Sun..
B1. Another Day
B2. Losing My Mind
B3. Flight Of The Erhu
B4. Watching From The Shadows
B5. Outro

Porto-based experimental duo Paisiel comprise Portuguese drummer João Pais Filipe and German saxophonist Julius Gabriel. Both full-time musicians across several genres and disciplines, with Rocket Recordings having just released a collaborative album between João and Salford hit squad Gnod titled ‘Faca De Fogo’, the vibe Paisiel achieve across their second album ‘Unconscious Death Wishes’ sounds specific, singular and ultimately unique.

The pair first met in 2014, began recording as Paisiel in 2017, released their first, self-titled album on cassette through local label Lovers & Lollypops in 2018 and had it pressed onto vinyl in 2019 courtesy of Rocket Recordings, who have maintained the partnership for this follow-up. A progression from what was already forward-facing music, ‘Unconscious Death Wishes’ is a single 39-minute piece recorded using improvisation based around composed structures, or what the drummer calls “instant composition”.

Beginning quietly and mournfully, an array of percussion, avantelectro synths (think Cabaret Voltaire or Muslimgauze) and expansive sax swiftly takes hold. At times, this could be a late 60s proto-Krautrock cafeteria jam, early 70s New York loft jazz happening or Brazilian street parade from whichever decade takes your fancy.Listeners might read all kinds of emotions or states of mind into this music: Paisiel themselves play to transcend such earthly concerns. ‘Unconscious Death Wishes’ is their way of evoking, in Julius’ words, “landscapes, shapes, colours, proportions and movements”.

TRACK LISTING

A. Unconscious Death Wishes Part 1
B. Unconscious Death Wishes Part 2

The album opens with “Hypnagogia,” an ode to the space between sleep and wakefulness where we are open to other realms of consciousness. The song slowly builds along a steady pulse provided by bassist Pickle (Nicole Smith) and drummer Rikki Styxx. Tripped out saxophone bleats from guest player Gabe Flores swirl on top of the organ drones laid out by guest keyboardist Gregg Foreman. The band’s choral objectives for Under the Spell of Joy are established right off the bat, with Bonnie Bloomgarden’s melodic invocations bolstered by a choir, giving the album a rich and vibrant wall-of-sound aesthetic. The song ominously builds on its hypnotic foundation until it opens up into a raucous revelry at the four-minute mark.

The portentous simmer of the opening track yields to the ecstatic rocker “Hold My Hand,” where verses reminiscent of Velvet Underground’s “I’m Waiting For The Man” explode into big triumphant choruses. From there the band launches into the title track, which marries the griminess of The Stooges with an innocence provided by a children’s choir chanting the album’s primary mantra “under the spell of joy / under the spell of love.”

Death Valley Girls have always vacillated between lightness and darkness, and on “Bliss Out” they demonstrate their current exuberant focus with a patina-hued pop song driven by an irrepressibly buoyant organ line laid down by keyboardist The Kid (Laura Kelsey). A similar cosmic euphoria is obtained on “The Universe,” where alternating chords on the organ help elevate soaring saxophone and keyboard lines out beyond the stratosphere. If you’re looking for transcendental rock music, look no further.

“Death Valley Girls are a gift to the world.” Iggy Pop.

“If Charlie Spahn Ranch girls had formed a band that was part-Stooges, part-Bikini Kill, all groove, then they’d have sounded like this.” Classic Rock Magazine.

“A striking record, all brazen fury and bratty beats, something resembling hard rock before Sabbath” Noisey.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A ruthless, but melodic jaunt through snarling punk riffs, snapping percussion and fists-in-the-air groove from Death Valley Girls here. Expertly toeing the line between distorted drive and more thoughtful, slow numbers. Utterly essential, and a superb early morning blast.

TRACK LISTING

1. Hypnagogia
2. Hold My Hand
3. Under The Spell Of Joy
4. Bliss Out
5. Hey Dena
6. The Universe
7. It All Washes Away
8. Little Things
9. 10 Day Miracle Challenge
10. I’d Rather Be Dreaming
11. Dream Cleaver

From beyond the gutter, The Death Wheelers bring you their second album, the soundtrack to the fictional bikesploitation flick that never was: Divine Filth. Drawing inspiration from instrumental rock, proto- metal, punk and funk, the band embalms the listener in their sonic world of decay, groove and debauchery. Surfing the line between Motörhead, The Cramps and Dick Dale, the Canadian quartet uncompromisingly blends rawness and power in their riff fueled compositions. Recorded entirely in 48 hours in a live setting just like in the good old days, this second opus is a testament to what the band stands for: a no BS attitude spiked with a heavy layer of crass. Just like their previous offering, the album is devised to serve as a soundtrack loosely based on a plot synopsis of a B-movie:

It’s 1982. Spurcity is run-down. The crime rate is up and so is drug use. A new kind of kick has hit the streets and it ain’t pretty. DTA, a powerful and highly addictive hallucinogenic drug, is transforming its loyal citizens into undead trash. Its users experience an indescribable high, but it leaves them rotting away within days, craving human flesh. No one knows who is dealing this new potent drug, but rumour has it that the motorcycle cult, The Death Wheelers, is behind this concoction. Could this be the end of civilization as we know it? What is motivating this group of psychotic individuals?
The cycle of violence indeed continues with this sordid slab of sounds. So hop on, and enjoy one last ride with The Death Wheelers.

TRACK LISTING

01. Welcome To Spurcity
02. Ditchfinder General
03. DTA (Suicycle Tendencies)
04. Divine Filth
05. Lobotomobile
06. Corps Morts
07. Murder Machines
08. Motörgasm (Carnal Pleasures Pt. 1)
09. Chopped Back To Life
10. Road Rite
11. Nitrus

The Magic Gang made a stellar return with the joyous ‘Think’, which added some fleet-footed Northern Soul grooves to their melodic take on modern indie. It immediately made an impact at Radio 1 as it premiered as Annie Mac’s Hottest Record in the World, while Jack Saunders subsequently named it as Tune of the Week. Further radio play also came from Matt Wilkinson at Beats 1 and John Kennedy at Radio X.

The Magic Gang now build on that flying momentum with the news that their buoyant new album ‘Death Of The Party’. It follows their self-titled first album, which was hailed as one of the best debuts of 2018 as the band earned award nominations from NME and Q.

‘Death Of The Party’ was recorded in Atlanta with the Grammy-winning producer Ben H. Allen (Deerhunter, Animal Collective, Gnarls Barkley), whose work in alternative and pop matches for band’s own blend of genres.

The quartet approached the album with two objectives in mind. They aimed to broaden the scope of their harmony-rich, melodically focused pop. And inspired by Lou Reed, Alex Turner and especially Jonathan Richman they wanted to take a more observational lyrical approach.

The stories they tell reflect the experiences of many of their early-twentysomething contemporaries. They explore anxieties about money, relationships and the future, but also the fun moments that they use to escape from such issues. Two songs – Jack Kaye’s ‘Make A Sound’ and Kristian Smith’s title track – best encapsulate their flair for a narrative, with two radically different perspectives on a New Year’s Eve party. Meanwhile, the album closer ‘(The World) Outside My Door’ explores Jack’s guilt at writing music while the Extinction Rebellion protests were hitting the streets.

The album also finds The Magic Gang evolving their sound without losing what people loved them for in the first place. There are elements of disco in ‘Take Back The Track’ and ‘Make A Sound’, ‘Gonna Bounce Back’ hits somewhere between slacker rock and post-punk, while the piano, strings and vocal harmonies on ‘I Am Sunshine’ recalls their love of Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys.

TRACK LISTING

Intro
Think
Make A Sound
Just A Minute
What Have You Got To Lose
Death Of The Party
Take Back The Track
I Am Sunshine
Gonna Bounce Back
Fail Better
(The World) Outside My Door

Barely a year after the release of their hugely acclaimed debut album 'Dogrel', which earned a Mercury Prize nomination and Album of the Year 2019 at both BBC 6Music and Rough Trade record store, Dublin’s Fontaines D.C. have returned with an intensely confident, patient, and complex follow up album. 'A Hero's Death' arrives battered and bruised, albeit beautiful - a heady and philosophical take on the modern world, and its great uncertainty. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Martin says: Following the moody brilliance of the universally lauded ‘Dogrel’ was never going to be easy. Such a weight of expectation! Add to that a relentless schedule that goes with maintaining the momentum of success and a lifestyle that stretches minds and bodies to the limit (all too often beyond) and Fontaines D.C. could well be forgiven for buckling under the pressure. They certainly weren’t immune. Instead of blunting their creativity however, they channelled the world weariness and cynicism into their music, giving darker breadth and depth to the snarl and vigour of their debut. Grian Chatten is as poetic and articulate as ever, his wry observations irreplaceable, but here they are shot through with defiant nihilism and a wish for independence, from everything and everyone.

They cite the Beach Boys as an influence on this album, but, while their chopping, post punk growl certainly has added harmony and changes of pace for sure, this ain't surfing weather. Where they do throw in a ballad, the gorgeous drunken drawl of “No” that closes the record, it's under leaden Dublin skies. The glorious, rolling sneer of “Televised Mind” and the tortured glam of the title track are perhaps other standouts, but then this album is full of them. All killer, certainly that.

‘A Hero's Death’ is absolutely and identifiably Fontaines D.C., it couldn't be anyone else, but it’s a leaner, more layered and brooding upgrade. If ‘Dogrel’ was a victory, ‘A Hero's Death’ is a reflection on the cost. It’s just magnificent.

TRACK LISTING

A1 I Don't Belong
A2 Love Is The Main Thing
A3 Televised Mind
A4 A Lucid Dream
A5 You Said
A6 Oh Such A Spring
B1 A Hero's Death
B2 Living In America
B3 I Was Not Born
B4 Sunny
B5 No

“I love songs that make you want to cry and dance at the same time,” says Tony Donson, the London-based musician who records as SONIKKU. That sense of unfettered release and liberation drives his new album, Joyful Death. A fluent, fertile and full-colour hybrid of vibrant Italo-house, liquid synth-pop, righteous disco and French philosophical asides, it’s an album that signals the emergence proper of SONIKKU – a fully formed dancefloor artist. It’s also a farewell of sorts, perhaps, but with an emphatic rebirth at its heart. “This album feels like a transformation in the sense that I’m creating the music I’ve always wanted to make. A fully realised, coherent pop record that showcases my craft as a song-writer and producer.”

Total control of his craft is swiftly asserted on ‘Let the Light In’, where the influences of lost-in-music disco and the Pet Shop Boys merge under vocals from immersive, exploratory British singer-songwriter Douglas Dare. The pace accelerates as ‘WKND’ gets into a groove pitched somewhere between Madonna, Daft Punk and Indeep, with LA future-pop singer LIZ primed for dancefloor abandon on vocals. Meanwhile, SONIKKU’s independent intent is firmly asserted on the freestyle-inspired ‘Don’t Wanna Dance with You’, where singer Aisha Zoe coolly brushes off unwanted advances in favour of dancefloor pleasures.

LIZ assumes vocal duties again for ‘Sweat’, a song fully equipped to make dancefloor devotees do as its title suggests. Dreamily melodic evidence of SONIKKU’s dynamism (and love of melancholy Swedish electro-pop queen Robyn) beckons on ‘X Hopeless Romantic’, where Little Boots contributes a sweetly loved-up vocal over a sublimely infectious chorus.

Pummelling synths signal a dramatic shift of pace on the almost electro-darkwave dash of ‘Remember to Forget Me’, where actor/singer Chester Lockhart presides over a summit meeting between Depeche Mode and New Order. Performance artist Tyler Matthew Oyer takes the vocals for the Italo-disco-inspired title-track, a vividly imagined album manifesto – of sorts – inspired to varying degrees by an 1892 poem, French thinker Gilles Deleuze’s concept of the “body without organs” and a 1997 anime called The End of Evangelion. Finally, that grand piano takes over as Dare returns, presiding over an achingly stripped-back version of ‘Remember to Forget Me’.

With help from friends and artists he admires on vocals, Joyful Death is a hugely confident and self-contained leap forward for SONIKKU after his time as a feted DJ. Having moved from Derby to London at the age of 18, Donson worked as an intern (at MTV, Dazed & Confused, SHOWstudio and elsewhere) then turned to DJing (from London to Tokyo, Paris and Berlin) after he was signed to London label Lobster Theremin. Though he continues to DJ regularly at Tottenham’s LGBTQ rave-up Adonis, he has extra ambitions in mind: “I love DJing but I’m more looking forward to developing a live show.”

Brooklyn-based cellist Clarice Jensen’s gorgeous sophomore album and first for FatCat’s pioneering 130701 imprint, ‘The experience of repetition as death’ was recorded and mixed by Francesco Donadello at Vox-Ton studios in Berlin in late 2018 and mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri. Following up her hugely impressive 2018 debut, ‘For This From That Will Be Filled’, which included collaborations with Jóhann Jóhannsson and Michael Harrison, all of the material on this new album was written and performed by Clarice alone and all of the sounds on it were created with a cello through a variety of effects and effects pedals.

Clarice has recorded and performed for a host of stellar artists including Jóhann Jóhannsson, Max Richter, Björk, Arcade Fire, Nick Cave, Jónsi, Stars of the Lid, Dustin O’Halloran, Joanna Newsom, Nico Muhly, Dirty Projectors, Frightened Rabbit and Beirut. Receiving glowing critical acclaim, both her previous releases made it into Pitchfork’s End Of Year charts.

For fans of Jóhann Jóhannsson, Hildur Gudnadottir, Stars of the Lid, Max Richter, Pauline Oliveros, Harold Budd, A Winged Victory For The Sullen, Sarah Davachi, Resina, Maria W Horn, Ellen Arkbro, Kali Malone, Christina Vantzou, Abul Mogard, Galya Bisengalieva, Richard Skelton, GAS, Steve Reich.

TRACK LISTING

Daily
Day Tonight
Metastable
Holy Mother
Final

“Massive slab of debut vinyl by a Brooklyn New York trio whose guitarist, Jason Victor, knows more than a little about the potential of psych-gush overload. In his position as the current guitarist of the Dream Syndicate, one might suppose that, by stepping into shoes formerly occupied by Karl Precoda, Mr. Victor was granted some sort of special legacy connection to the ur-root of string-excess in the post-punk era. But Jason seems to have been blowing the tops of people’s heads off with pure raunch vomona since before he ever met Steve Wynn.

“The Skull Practitioners have been active since 2013, garnering a reputation for bodacious live skronk, although the only graspable evidence of their existence has been a 2014 cassette, which was not widely distributed. Now, with the mighty In The Red empire behind them, only a sucker would think they won’t go far.

“Victor’s explosive guitar shards are the most obvious element of the trio’s sound, but bassist Ken Kenneth Levine can conjure up a throb as thick as Al Feedtime’s, and Alex Baker’s drumming mixes propulsion and motorik circularity with reckless grace. There are only vocals on half the tracks here— Gun Club-seasoned blow-outs called “The Beacon” and “Grey No More”—but I didn’t miss them on their other two tunes. The richness of the band’s psychedelic inventions obviates the need for overt human lingo. The music here communicates on a molecular level.

“Remember when Tim Leary said Peter Walker was ‘playing celestial strings on the DNA of musical being’? It’s the same here. I’ve never heard much of Jason’s studio work (often with pop engines like the Silos or Matthew Sweet), but if he plays this great, I might have to check them out. In the meantime, these four songs will be enough. For me. For you. Even for the late Tim ‘Fuckin’ Leary. C’est la.” —Byron Coley.

A master of samples, intelligent lyricism and beautiful vocal harmonies, Little Death Summer is the debut album from Tamu Massif. Reflecting on the process, he confesses “I went a little bit crazy recording this album. I deliberately worked on it with very little outside input and got lost in my own world. I find listening to music a sort of escapism. And that’s what I set out to create - something to get lost in”. Garnering attention over the course of two earlier EPs, Alba & Bala, as well as tours with the Japanese House, C Duncan and Shakey Graves and for producing much of Fenne Lily’s debut; Tamu is admired for his talent at gathering and warping field recordings as much as for his gift with harmonies and a distinct deep growl in his vocal. He embellishes his production, collecting sounds from his surroundings and using a phone to steal conversation from strangers and even a purring cat. Teaming up once again with long-time ally Ali Chant (Youth Lagoon, Perfume Genius, Aldous Harding) for his mixing sensibilities, the final result is not something as sparse or lo-fi as its parts, and instead feels beautiful, bold and unique.

TRACK LISTING

Little Death
F E E L G O O D
Senses
MT FE
Get Some Sleep
Niobe
The Water’s Good
You Better Stay
Milksop
Carapace
Gods
Woolf

Lucio Fulci directed this dystopian sci-fi epic in 1984. In 2072 the world is ruled by TV networks. Two of these networks are locked in a bitter rating battle and in finding more ways to outdo each other one of them decides to host a Roman centurion style battle to the death featuring convicted murderers fighting each other on motorcycles (wait is this a documentary?) As you would expect from Fulci it’s outrageous, silly, super entertaining and full of over the top violence. The score was composed by Maestro Riz Ortolani and here he delivers one of his most bombastic, striking (and fun) scores. Loaded with killer synth lines, chunky riffs and pounding synthetic drums.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Roma Imperial Rock (Titoli)
A2. I Guerrieri Dell'Anno 2072 (Love Theme)
A3. Roma Imperial Rock
A4. I Guerrieri Dell'Anno 2072 (Rock Fanfare)
A5. I Guerrieri Dell'Anno 2072 (Future Rome)
A6. The Fighter Centurions
B1. I Guerrieri Dell'Anno 2072 (Tension & Mystery)
B2. Roma Imperial Rock
B3. I Guerrieri Dell'Anno 2072 (Warrior's Action)
B4. I Guerrieri Dell'Anno 2072 (Labyrinth Of Death)
B5. The Fighter Centurions
B6. I Guerrieri Dell'Anno 2072 (More Tension)
B7. Roma Imperial Rock 

Death and Consolation is without a doubt a weighty album title. And, Austin, TX trio The Well is among the heaviest heavy psych bands in existence. So when we say that there’s even more darkness and intensity to the band’s third album than previous efforts, take heed. It’s a deep sea diving bell of enveloping heaviness and longing. “This one is a little more personal,” says guitarist/vocalist Ian Graham. “2018 was a strange, dark year. A lot of change going on in my life, there was a lot of depression and coming out of it over the last year. I wanted to call this Death and Consolation, because in life that’s a constant.” While The Well continue to walk an intriguing line between authentic early 70s doom/heavy psych and frayed weirdness of dark folk — especially with their haunting unison male/female vocals — the new album also adds the stark vibe of post-punk acts like Joy Division and early The Cure. “I feel like this album is almost more gothic. We’re big fans of post-punk,” Graham says. There’s also much less jamming, the songs are tight and concise. And, did we mention, heavy? The band tuned down a full step to C-standard tuning for this album, which gives the proceedings its monstrous sound. Sonically, Death and Consolation picks up where The Well — Graham, bassist/vocalist Lisa Alley and drummer Jason Sullivan — left off with their widely heralded 2016 RidingEasy album Pagan Science. The band once again recorded with longtime producer/engineer Chico Jones at Estuary Studio in 2018, who has turned the knobs for all three of their albums (Jones engineered the band’s debut album Samsara with producer Mark Deutrom [Melvins, Sunn0)))] in 2013.) Samsara, released late September 2014 was ranked the #1 debut album of 2014 by The Obelisk and Pagan Science among the Best of 2016 from the Doom Charts collective. Likewise, the band’s intense — some even say “possessed” — live performances have earned them featured slots at Austin’s Levitation Fest, as well as tours with Kadavar, All Them Witches, Black Tusk and more. “This album might be a little less produced, because I didn’t want to push technical stuff as much,” Graham says. “I’m so scared of getting too complicated when getting better at guitar. This is still kind of punk rock.”

New album from the Malmo-based trio of Marleen Nilsson, Anders Hansson and Magners Bodin.

Following the critically-acclaimed ‘To Where The Wild Things Are’ from 2015 and their haunting collection of soundtracks in between.

“Lush and enveloping, reminiscent of Curt Boettcher and Margo Guryan.” The Wire. 

“Fantastically eerie.” Clash.

Exposing the trio’s love of all things retro with a nod to everything from Fun Boy Three to Orchestre Poly Rythmo de Contonou, while still roaming somewhere between an ambient Eno and Cocteau Twins at a late-night soiree. A unique, individual sound: Longer, more plush and pampered; more hypnotic and haunting, mixing mellotron and affected guitar with a refined rhythm. Electronic melancholy at its most evocative, riddled with super-memorable motifs and melodies that nestle in reflective echo.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Death and Vanilla have eschewed their classic sound slightly for a more open and airy offering, channelling the vibes of 70's soundtracks, hazy psychedelia and tie-dyed synthplay as well as their more direct offerings mixed in for good measure. Definitely the soundtrack to the summer. Stunning stuff.

TRACK LISTING

1. A Flaw In The Iris
2. Let's Never Leave Here
3. Mercier
4. Eye Bath
5. The Hum
6. Nothing Is Real
7. Vespertine
8. Wallpaper Pattern

Announcing a reissue of The Oh Sees - The Cool Death of Island Raiders
We here at Castle Face are not afraid to get our shins dirty mucking around in the stacks and we’re well aware of an out-of-press gap of Oh Sees releases right before 2006 when we started the label with Sucks Blood. We’re rectifying that and first among these is The Cool Death of Island Raiders, a particularly dusty gem that we think merits another look.

Kicking off the record with what should have been the hit of the summer that year but for the hard C in the title, "The Gilded Cunt" seems to clearly preface Oh Sees’ later psych skewed pop sensibilities. At the time it was an obvious jam and I recall being floored by its shuffling beauty. Chirping birds, gently lapping tempos and the nascent harmonization of Bridgid Dawson and Dwyer detail what I consider to be a definitive highlight of their early quiet period of the band. The tree hangs heavy with Patrick Mullins’ handiwork, manning the musical saw, drums, and an assortment of home made electronics. It seemed a bit radical to be so quiet about it but the tunes are total earworms among the assorted drones, cut up bits of tape noise, and mellow front porch vibes, and the whole thing hangs together in a lovely hand-made way, helped in no small part by Dave Sitek’s production (he would later work on Master’s Bedroom as well). “

We flew Brigid out a fresh woman and literally sent her home on a plane with a trash bag of her clothes” says John. Evidently the whole record was accidentally erased at some point right around when the photo on the back of the jacket was taken, which makes it all the more remarkable that the result sounds so casually and confidently careworn. 

TRACK LISTING

1. The Gilded Cunt
2. The Dumb Drums
3. Turn Offs
4. Losers In The Sun
5. Drone Number One
6. Island Raiders
7. Cool Death
8. Broken Stems
9. We Are Free
10. Drone Number Two
11. You Oughta Go Home

Angel-Ho is known as one of the founders of Non Worldwide, alongside Chino Amobi and Nkisi. Highly regarded as a DJ and electronic music producer, on ‘Death Becomes Her‘ she shifts things up to another level. Pulling on inspiration from her flamboyant favourites from Lady Gaga, Missy Elliot, and Bjork through to Kanye West, this ambitious, artful and sometimes radical album of neo-pop pushes the pop framework even further, often teetering on the brink of vertiginous chaos and dissonance, whilst slowly revealing its depth and grandeur once you settle into its sound world. Alongside a cast of collaborators that include French producer Nunu, South African producer Baby Caramel, Asmara Maroof from Nguzunguzu, Bon and Gaika, Angel re-orientates the usual trans-atlantic pop sound to encompass a brace of experimental, diasporic producers to create beats that alternate between angular, propulsive, murky, loose, abrasive and breezy.

On top of these often advanced rhythms, she also raps and sings for the first time with lyrics about love, sex, glamour and struggle, universal fantasies, treated with an ambiguity that restructures the narrative within a trans-identity. Her choice of guest MCs also reflects this energetic queering with K-$ and Qweezy from Cape Town, plus underground Asian American rapper K-Rizz laying down assertive bars. On ‘Death Becomes Her’, Angel-Ho carves out a new space with her unique take on contemporary pop. Overflowing with charisma, sometimes reminiscent of Grace Jones, this album is fiercely sassy and celebratory. It feels like the start of something very exciting.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Business
A2. Drama
A3. Like A Girl Ft. K Rizz
A4. Jacomina
A5. Muse To You
A6. Good Friday Daddy Ft. Queezy

B1. Cupido
B2. Live
B3. Desity
B4. Pose
B5. Bussy
B6. Baby Tee Ft. K-$
B7. Like That
B8. Parachute

Soundwalk Collective is an experimental sound collective founded by Stephan Crasneanscki in New York City (2000 – present), and joined by Simone Merli in 2008. Following the participation of Dug Winningham and Kamran Sadeghi throughout the years, the Collective currently operates in a continuously rotating constellation of sound artists and musicians.

Their approach to composition combines anthropology, ethnography, non-linear narrative, psycho-geography, the observation of nature, and explorations in recording and synthesis. The source material of their works is always linked to specific locations, natural or artificial, and requires long periods of investigative travel and field work.

Distinguished collaborators include American singer, songwriter and poet Patti Smith, Ethiopian Jazz musician Mulatu Astatke, American photographer Nan Goldin and French-Swiss film director Jean-Luc Godard. The Collective have also written original scores for contemporary dance choreographer Sasha Waltz.

Their recent projects include a collaboration with Patti Smith and reworking the archive of recordings on Jean-Luc Godard's film set. For the 8th Marionette publication, Soundwalk Collective present 'Death Must Die'. A sound piece that began in 2004 and ended up as a composition for the PS1 radio in NY. For this New release the Collective has revisited the piece in a more musical way.

'Death Must Die' is based on Stephan Crasneanscki’s multiple visits to the sacred Indian city of Varanasi, originally known as Kashi and Banares. Sacred texts maintain that Varanasi isn’t even a city, but rather a lingam of celestial light, the subtle and cosmic form of Lord Shiva which manifested itself as a city for the sake of seekers of liberation. To bathe in the holy Ganga is to be purified of your sins. To die in Varanasi, is to attain liberation and to bring an end to the cycle of rebirth known as transmigration. Determined to capture the elusive reality of this ancient city, Stephan has day by day recorded and re-imagined his understanding of how to perceive the continuously moving stream of the holy Ganga; performing a simple form of sadhana, which request is to be very alert but also to allow your mind to be quiet, making it easier to slip into the streams, and into the current that both the city and the river are offering.

‘Death Must Die' begins before the rising of the sun and reproduces the cycle of a day in Varanasi, going down the river that is believed to be the divinity descended to this Earth in the form of water. She grants us happiness and salvation. The composition attempts to emulate the vibration of Kashi that encourages the kind of interiority that enables a person to get a better perspective on reality than one might have, while constantly being in the current of human life. A vibration dedicated to eliminating the distinction between human and non-human, between alive and dead, between light and dark.

TRACK LISTING

01. Kingdom Of Kashi
02. Object Of Human Pursuit
03. Garden Of Deeds
04. Tandav
05. Agni
06. Hymn Of Creation
07. Shiva Mother Ganges

Heavily inspired by the aesthetics and ethos of bikesploitation movies such as The Wild Angels, Werewolves on Wheels and Psychomania, The Death Wheelers seek to glorify this unsung era of movie making through their sordid sounds. Taking musical cues from rock’s greats such as Davie Allan, The Cramps, Motörhead, The Stooges and Grand Funk Railroad, the Death Wheelers perpetrate the tradition of heaviness by making zero compromises when it comes to laying down the groove. Through their bare bone, stripped down, jammy approach of their very own brand of sleaze n’ roll, this instrumental Canadian quartet pushes the listeners to their deepest, filthiest carnal/sexual desires. I Tread On Your Grave is more than just an album — it’s devised to serve like the soundtrack to a wild B-movie in your mind, following this truly awesome plot synopsis:

Decimated in 1972 by local authorities, all members of The Death Wheelers, a notorious motorcycle club, have been buried at the Surrey cemetery. But the time has come and they have risen for their last ride. They’re back from the grave and they’re hungry for blood! Nothing can stop this gang of living dead from recruiting new members as they travel coast to coast to find the filthiest, nastiest, trashiest individuals to join their ranks. Their goal, assemble a legion of 13 “discycles” (disciples+cycles) to seek revenge on the pigs that dismantled the club and send them to their graves. The cycle of violence continues…

Yes, please! Their debut LP, a sonic desecration dedicated to the dead, is an ode to the earlier days of rock ’n’ roll when lust and danger were an integral part of the scene and culture. This violent offering of pure aural aggression, recorded full band with no bells and whistles or studio trickery, is a testament to what The Death Wheelers stand for: rawness and power.

Reverend & The Makers release their sixth album, ‘The Death Of A King’, through Cooking Vinyl. Reverend & The Makers played a storming set at Wirral Live (May 20th) where Jon McClure proudly welcomed Jeremy Corbyn to the stage, to make what many commentators agree his most impassioned speech of the 2017 campaign to date. 

The dual albums find the trio of Buzz Osborne, Dale Crover and Steve McDonald showcasing two distinct sides to the band’s music: Death, a proper Melvins’ release and Love, the score to the Jesse Nieminen directed, self-produced short also titled A Walk With Love and Death

“This was a huge undertaking,” explained band ringleader Buzz Osborne. “All three things: the album, the soundtrack and the film are benchmarks for us.”

Drummer Dale Crover added, “A Walk With Love and Death is one giant, dark, moody, psychotic head trip! Not for the faint of heart. You'll sleep with the lights on after listening.”

The albums, which include guests Joey Santiago (The Pixies), Teri Gender Bender (Le Butcherettes/Crystal Fairy) and Anna Waronker (That Dog), were co-produced with engineer Toshi Kosai.

TRACK LISTING

DISC 1: DEATH
1 Black Heath
2 Sober-delic (acid Only)
3 Euthanasia
4 What's Wrong With You?
5 Edgar The Elephant
6 Flaming Creature
7 Christ Hammer
8 Cactus Party
9 Cardboa Negro

DISC 2: LOVE
1 Aim High
2 Queen Powder Party
3 Street Level St. Paul
4 The Hidden Joice
5 Give It To Me
6 Chicken Butt
7 Eat Yourself Out
8 Scooba
9 Halfway To The Bakersfield Mall
10 Pacoima Normal
11 Park Head
12 T-Burg
13 Track Star
14 The Asshole Bastard

A Standard LP and CD release will follow later. Now re-issued as a double vinyl package, ‘Vampyr’ is full of “eerie haunted ambience” (©The Guardian), an atmospheric and spaced out 78 minutes that galvanizes Moog, glockenspiel, zither and vibraphonette in a beautiful piece of claustrophobia, a timeless slice of suitably scary sound filled with an unnerving sonic vibe that sticks in the psyche. “The retro leaning Scandi duo fire up their Moogs and mellotrons, sonic archaeologists with a hauntological bent.. there is an alluring sexiness to their avant-Kraut Moog-pop excursions.” 

TRACK LISTING

A1. Vampyr Pt.1
B1. Vampyr Pt.2
C1. Vampyr Pt.3
D1. Vampyr Pt.4
D2. Vampyr Rehearsals

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2017 EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

One off pressing for Record Store Day 2017 featuring 180g coloured vinyl and a DVD featuring the short film Abdullah housed inside a 425gsm sleeve complete with a download card.

Maiovvi’s score is a powerhouse tour de force featuring his signature raw electro sound blended with traditional Turkish sound structures and instruments. He has managed to create something totally unique, dark disco that is familiar yet totally alien. The perfect follow up from his last short Yellow. We are very proud to highlight the short film Abdullah included here as a bonus Blu Ray, shot on 35mm the film looks magnificent and the dark tale is perfectly suited to Maiovvi’s delirious take on Turkish standards.

UK = 500 Red Vinyl

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. For Glory
2. Work
3. Wandering
4. Diner
5. Pick Up

Side B
1. Your Throat
2. Mountains Of Delirium
3. Magician’s Guilt

Written and recorded in large part during the recent election cycle, the music on ‘Death Song’ serves as part protest, part emotional catharsis in a climate dominated by division, anxiety and unease. “Currency,” a strong contender for the heaviest song the band has ever put to wax, meditates on the governing role the monetary system plays in our lives, while slow-building psychedelic earworm “Half Believing” questions the nature and confusing realities of devotion.

Recorded between Seattle and Austin, ‘Death Song’ features production from Phil Ek (Father John Misty, Fleet Foxes, The Shins). The 11-track collection offers a sharply honed elaboration on their signature sound - menacing fuzz guitar and cutting wordplay, steeped in a murky hallucinatory dream.

The band will tour extensively behind ‘Death Song’, including a headline set at one of the first-ever shows at new NYC venue Brooklyn Steel on May 2nd. Full itinerary below for “The Death March Tour”, which begins in Nashville. The band will be supported by A Place to Bury Strangers.

Since forming in Austin in 2004, The Black Angels have become standard-bearers for modern psych-rock, and the New York Times has said they “play psychedelic rock as if the 1960s never ended, and they are absolute masters of it”. The band has toured with Queens of the Stone Age, Brian Jonestown Massacre, The Black Keys + more, and played festivals such as Glastonbury, Fuji Rock, Primavera, Coachella and Bonnaroo. Two of the band members co-founded Levitation Festival (formerly Austin Psych Fest) in 2008, which has since grown into one of the best-reviewed and expertly-curated festivals in the country (returning in 2018).

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Twisting psychedelic passages, heavy wig-outs and tripped-out percussion. Brilliantly sedate in parts, only to soar into a mind-bending sunny haze of reverbed vocals and astral delay. Taking influence from all over the psychedelic spectrum, with throbbing single-note guitar lines meeting rolling, pulsing bass distortion and pitch-shifted screaming guitar.

TRACK LISTING

1. Currency
2. I’d Kill For Her
3. Half Believing
4. Comanche Moon
5. Hunt Me Down
6. Grab As Much (As You Can)
7. Estimate
8. I Dreamt
9. Medicine
10. Death March
11. Life Song

Clark's "Death Peak" drops on Warp, a concept the esteemed producer has been working towards since August 2016. Contrasting jagged and smooth textures, working on ancient rhythms beamed from the future and intertwining euphoric melodies and visceral rhythms of warehouse rave with new vocal and choral elements; Clark sets out a distopic and environmentally degraded world, where space station groans meet ghosts of cyborgs and radioactive new life forms. The record deftly weaves together the various threads of his extensive work exposing the tension in Clark’s musical vocabulary. Grandiose and chamber like in its sound, this could well soundtrack church rituals on new planet systems, and is as vast as it is impressive.

Artwork by Alma Haser, a continuation of her work for Clark that began with the cover for his eponymous 2014 album.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Clark has long been a love/hate relationship for me, I've been disappointed at points with what I now believe I just didn't understand, but THIS is another matter. Full of the same sort of spine-tingling seismic shifts that made 'Growls Garden' such a standout track, Death Peak is an absolute stormer. Future leftfield genius this, classic Clark.

Too Pure present the third instalment of the 2017 edition of the Singles Club with the awesome Unqualified Nurse band.

Derby’s Unqualified Nurse Band follow up 2016’s debut album ‘Debasement Tapes’ with the two headed beast that is ‘Death Surf A52’ / ‘White Dove’.

‘Death Surf A52’ is a one note juggernaut that opens up into Dream Surf bliss, weaving its way through 50 shades of rock and roll with no intention of slowing down for anybody.

Significant other ‘White Dove’ staggers and struts and then before you know it you’re howling at the Harvest Moon.

Both songs recorded by Rich Collins at SNUG Recording CO, Derby and mastered at Abbey Road Studios by Alex Wharton. 

TRACK LISTING

Death Surf A52
White Dove

D.O.A., Canada’s punk pioneers know when to take a stand against bullshit. So that’s why they have come up with their new instant single Fucked Up Donald. Joey Shithead, the godfather of hardcore recently said "It did not take too long to realize that Donald Trump, with his anti-Mexican, anti-women, antipeople message was just too much. You can dress a pig up, but in the end you realize it’s really just Donald Trump".

So D.O.A. arranged a quick recording session. It’s a vitriolic take off of a big part of D.O.A’s history from the 80’s. The now released video has 3 million hits and counting.

How does it sound when you’re slowly being driven insane? Death Waltz Recording Company is proud to bring you a soundtrack that aurally illustrates this in great detail in the form of Giona Ostinelli’s mesmerising score to DARLING. Written and directed by Mickey Keating (POD) and starring Lauren Ashley Carter (THE WOMAN) and genre favourite Sean Young (BLADE RUNNER), the film is a psychological horror in the vein of pictures like such Roman Polanski’s REPULSION, and features a young woman who becomes a caretaker of an isolated New York mansion and is driven slowly insane while walking the corridors.

TRACK LISTING

A1. NYC Pt. 1 (1:23)
A2. Darling (1:22)
A3. The City (2:17)
A4. Why Did You Come Here Tonight ( 2:04)
A5. Abyssus (2:22)
A6. Dragging The Body (2:18)
A7. James Abbott (1:51)
A8. Crucifix (2:04)
A9. Falling ( 2:29)
A10. Pacing Around ( 1:56)
A11. Coming To Life (1:06)
A12. The Phone Call (1:31)
B13. Invocation (1:33)
B14. NYC Pt. 2 (1:13)
B15. The Door (1:34)
B16. The House (1:13)
B17. Conversation (3:43)
B18. Following Him ( 1:10)
B19. Henry Sullivan ( 4:46)
B20. Abyssus Pt. 2 (2:05)
B21. Inferno (1:07)
B22. Makeup (1:17)
B23. Encounter (2:39)
B24. Exploring The House (4:48)
B25. Scriabin Preludes Op. 11 (3:28)
B26. NYC Pt. 3 (1:05)
B27. Demon (0:49)
B28. Second Phone Call (1:12)
B29. I Couldn't Let Him Live (3:21)
B30. Darling Reprise (1:09)

Near the icy waters and snow-covered shores of Brighton Beach in Brooklyn, New York, Jeff Klein locked himself in a rental house and did nothing but write for a month. A few blocks away, in the Midwood area, sits the home in which his mother grew up. A prolonged illness had claimed her life a few years earlier.

“That was me coming to terms with the whole situation,” the My Jerusalem frontman explains of his attempt to embed himself within his family history after many years of being on the road, touring. “I kept walking by this house my grandparents used to live in on Avenue H. I’ve never been very connected to family. I’ve romanticized the idea of family, but I think I was just trying to connect with something.”

Klein, who normally resides in Austin, felt an immediate inspiration there and was prolific during these winter weeks near his mother’s childhood neighborhood, producing 14 songs, 12 of which would come to be the band’s forthcoming album, A Little Death.

“The little death,” or “la petite mort” in French, refers to, well, an orgasm, and somewhere between the literal definition and the slang is where Klein situated the album. “Like any kid, I was obsessed with death and obsessed with sex. Some people grow out of it and start families and become normal people and some of us just stay the same,” he laughs. “I’m still obsessing about the psychology behind death and sex.”

TRACK LISTING

1. Young Leather
2. Rabbit Rabbit
3. It's Torture!
4. No One Gonna Give You Love
5. Done And Dusted
6. Flashes
7. Dominoes
8. Eyes Like A Diamond Mine
9. Candy Lions
10. Jive For Protection
11. Young And Worthless
12. Chrysalis

The first release for the Swedish Psychedelic dream-pop band, their self-titled EP caught the attention of French label ‘Hands In The Dark’. They originally released EP in 2010 on CD an extremely limited edition run of 100 copies. The EP is reissued on blue vinyl to match the cover alongside the ‘From Above’ 7” and their self-titled debut long player.

TRACK LISTING

01 Ghosts In The Machine
02 Godspeed
03 Run Rabbit Run
04 The Colour Of Space
05 Ascend And Descend
06 The Dödens Vaniljsås Theme
07 Between The Circles

Marleen Nilsson and Anders Hansson AKA Death and Vanilla released their first full length self-titled eponymous debut LP in 2012. It radiates sophisticated retro-futuristic psych-pop whilst channeling their passion for hauntology, library, krautrock and radiophonic music. Mastered by Linus Sjölund at RED audio it was initially released on French label ‘Hands In The Dark’ which like their EP sold out on pre-order.

Fire Records now release the album on black/yellow splatter vinyl and CD alongside the ‘From Above’ 7” and their self-titled debut EP. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: Krauty, moog, hushed, library baroque pop that breezes along in a sultry fashion.

TRACK LISTING

01 Rituals
02 Dreams Of Sheep
03 Cul-De-Sac
04 Somnambulists
05 The Unseeing Eye
06 From Elsewhere
07 Library Goblin
08 The Clearing
09 The Unseeing I

Other Death was recorded in Santa Monica, Los Angeles as a collaboration with Agor, of Savage’s Arbutus labelmates Blue Hawaii, while Errhead of Doldrums plays on much of the record. Ramona Gonzalez, aka Nite Jewel, also makes an appearance, as do TOPS' Jane Penny and David Carriere. This is Savage’s highest fidelity recording to date, with daring, captivating, and as always minimal and soft production style. In contrast to his usual introspection, Other Death is immediately more upbeat, uptempo, confident, inspired and delivers more consistent pop singles than any of his previous records.

The record begins aptly with ‘Death’, a brief instrumental in the Joe Hisaishi vein. This is followed by ‘Propaganda’, a ballad in 7/4 timing and less political as the title suggests, with a more philosophical message comparable to Radioheads' ‘Creep'. 'Casablanca' is a Prince-esque pop tune, perhaps the poppiest on the record, with a seemingly simple sentiment: a short-lived relationship that, though full of passion, is doomed by life. 'Dont B Sad', produced by David Carriere with guest vocals by Jane Penny of TOPS, is smooth and circular; a gentle pat on the necks of sad folk everywhere, with a disco beat. 'Suburban Nights' is one of Savage’s finest ballads to date, with a special new 6 time beat, fusing reggae, house and bossa nova rhythms. Other Death concludes with another bossa nova derived, and shamelessly sensitive, song titled ‘Young Again’. Epic with strings, and ending the record in a spiritually possessed skat, the principal lyric has Savage crooning: “You make me feel like something i’m not; young again, growing old again”.

Savage is not playing to the middle. Here he gives his listeners, those who crave a harder SNS smack, the energy they crave. This is the release fans will turn to when they want to feel the sophisticated, delicate, and enchanted music of Sean Nicholas Savage at its most brave, free and loud. It’s as if upon being tossed a copy of Other Life, Savage reads the message; “Other Life?” and throws it back at us in blood red, “Other Death”.

TRACK LISTING

1. Death
2. Propaganda
3. Casablanca
4. Dont B Sad (prod. TOPS)
5. Promises
6. Romeo
7. 1 More Chance (feat. Nite Jewel)
8. Suburban Nights
9. Delta Fresh N Breezy
10. SOS
11. Why I Love U
12. Young Again

Since the discovery of Death in 2008 and the release of the archival album ‘...For The Whole World To See’, the story has been often told. Three African-American brothers - David, Dannis and Bobby Hackney - tapped into the surging energy of their hometown rock-and-roll scene (mid-70s Detroit) to produce a style and a set of songs that, while completely unappreciated in their day, proved later to be a powerful missing link in the evolution of punk rock. All this was predicted by their leader, older brother David, on his deathbed, ten years before their rediscovery. His stubborn insistence on keeping the name Death instead of signing a record contract under a more palatable name is, in itself, a defining act of true rebellion. The power, precision and passion of the music says everything else that need be said.

It has been an epic time since 2008: Death began playing live again to large and grateful audiences, meanwhile issuing two additional archival records, ‘Spiritual-Mental-Physical’, and ‘Death III’. The release of the documentary ‘A Band Called Death’ took the band farther into the public consciousness than it appeared even the music could and Death followed the paths to more and more listeners, eventually bringing their explosive show all around the world. During this time, the question always asked was, “Will there be a new record?”

Inspired by the positivity brought to them by ever-increasing numbers of new fans, the current performing Death (Bobby Hackney, Dannis Hackney and Bobbie Duncan) completed several songs started back in the late 1970s by Bobby and David, as well as composing entirely new songs that continue the timeless vibe, feel and resolve of Death with remarkable drive and vigour. For many years after disbanding the original Death Bobby and Dannis played different styles of music but with the same deep spiritual investment. Bringing that spirit back to Death, their ability to make new songs in the same vein is fantastic.

‘N.E.W.’ surveys the whole Death story, making a statement that screams to the soul, even when reviewing the tracklisting. That statement says: If you want ‘Relief’, ‘Look At Your Life’, it’s the ‘Story Of The World’ in ‘The Times’ that we are living in, things moving so fast. It’s ‘Playtime’, but remember we are ‘At The Station’ where we must ask ourselves ‘Who Am I?’ Well, ‘You Are What You Think’, preparing for a ‘Resurrection’, which will bring about ‘Change’.

John Barrett returns with his second full length for LA label Innovative Leisure as Bass Drum of Death. Elevating Bass Drum of Death from the scrapheap of garage rock challengers fighting for attention, 'Rip This' is BDoD’s most impressive record yet, combining the best elements of the American rock underground with a raw approach that’s original and exciting.

Bass Drum of Death’s appeal has always transcended the band’s roots in the local Oxford, Mississippi touring circuit where John Barrett first cut his teeth. Since his debut 7-inch on Fat Possum back in 2008, he’s realised this potential again and again, most notably with his genre-bending collaboration with Odd Future’s Mellowhype and a slot on the infamous Vinewood Boulevard radio station on the GTA V videogame. But it’s with 'Rip This' that Barrett has really hit his stride.

The process has been markedly different throughout. For previous albums 'Bass Drum of Death' (Innovative Leisure, 2013) and 'GB City' (Inflated Records, 2011), Barrett wrote all the material himself at home and recorded it on a basic GarageBand setup. This time around, he enlisted drummer Len Clark as a fulltime member and collaborator and UMO bassist Jacob Portrait as producer. Over a two-week stint at Prairie Sun Studios in Sonoma County, California the trio created the first BDoD studio album.

TRACK LISTING

1: Electric
2: Left For Dead
3: For Blood
4: Everything's The Same
5: Sin Is In 10
6: Black Don't Glow
7: Burns My Eye
8: Lose My Mind
9: Better Days
10: Route 69 (Yeah)

Jagjaguwar and Death Waltz Recording Company are proud and excited to release a true masterpiece into the world with the soundtrack to Panos Cosmatos' 'Beyond The Black Rainbow'. Posited as a "lost film" of the 1980s, the film is inspired by classic dystopian fiction and the obscure SF movies you used to see on the shelves of the local video store when you were a kid. As such, the brilliant soundtrack by Sinoia Caves - aka composer Jeremy Schmidt - blends seamlessly amongst its influences of Tangerine Dream, Wendy Carlos, and of course John Carpenter, with the latter's mark heard on the oppressive synth percussion of the main titles and the catchy melodies heard throughout.

Schmidt’s score is many things – haunting, uncompromising, intense – but is always a fascinating listen. While the seemingly retro-modernist sound is almost its own genre now, the music doesn’t come across as an imitation, and instead stands on its own as a genuinely original work. Using familiar elements such as the mellotron and the processed vocal samples, Schmidt puts it in that 70s-80s aesthetic and then builds a beautiful and terrifying score with those tools. Simply put, 'Beyond The Black Rainbow' is an astounding piece of work and must not be missed. Do you read me?

The Death Waltz Recording Company version is exclusive to Europe and housed inside a super glossy Stoughton tip on (Casebound) sleeve complete with an Obi strip and sleevenotes From Jeremy Schmidt.

TRACK LISTING

Side A:
1. Forever Dilating Eye
2. Elena's Sound-World
3. Run Program: Sentionauts
4. Arboria Tapes- Award Winning Gardens
5. 1983- Main Titles

Side B:
6. 1966 - Let The New Age Of Enlightenment Begin
7. Sentionauts II

Alternative pop / folk.

Second release on new London label Happy Death.

Alice Boman’s voice hits with the emotional force and haunting fragility of Nina Simone.

Recorded in a cabin in the woods near her home town of Malmö, Sweden.

Boman has a penchant for creating beauty through simplicity, her lyrics are direct and incredibly revealing.

“Muffled microphones and ghostly vocals… racked with an unplaceable nostalgia” - The Guardian

“Alice Boman’s voice wavers between ethereal and ghostly, but its fragility doesn’t limit the force of her songs” - The Huffington Post

For fans of Stina Nordenstam and Joanna Newsom.

Five years after the second life of Death was started with the release of their revelatory 1976 album, ‘For The Whole World To See’, Death’s ‘III’ slams the door on the vault with a powerful set of songs that bring equal amounts of rock and ethereal soul-searching, in high-fidelity, rich bottomed, studio-grade sound.

Alongside songs from 1975, 1976 and 1980, ‘III’ contains two songs from 1992, as the Hackney brothers reconvened nearly a decade after they’d stopped playing together. ‘III’ serves as a companion piece of sorts to the ‘A Band Called Death’ documentary, tracking the band’s movement from spiritual young rockers to older and wiser, bruised-but-undefeated brothers, in pure musical terms.

David Hackney’s visual representation of Death was a triangle, where ‘spiritual’, ‘mental’ and ‘physical’ formed the three angles. With this in mind, ‘For The Whole World To See’ is clearly the physical corner, with its undeniable proto-punk power. ‘Spiritual-Mental-Physical’ explores the mental axis, with Death working through some of their influences - including The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, The Who and even ELO - in their practice space. ‘III’ is the spiritual end of the portrait, bookended by the dreamlike rock visions of David Hackney that created and propelled the band called Death.

‘III’ starts with David inside a deep 1975 guitar improvisation, rising up through atmospheres and prehistoric guitar murk to coalesce in jagged monster-riff-dom. The whole exercise recalls Funkadelic’s great Eddie Hazel while reflecting the pure essence of David Hackney’s guitar style. This jump-cuts perfectly five years into the future, with the funky staccato of ‘North Street’, which finds the band’s punkish approach at its most aggressive. From there, the album moves back and forth from 1975 and 1976 (including two songs recorded at Groovesville in Detroit with the other ‘For The Whole World To See’ songs) to 1980, showing the band streamlining their frenetic core and maximizing the power.

The lyrical focus of the songs ‘Open Road’, ‘We Are Only People’ and ‘Free’ is more in the spirit / soul side of Death as heard on ‘Let The World Turn’ and ‘Where Do We Go From Here???’ - sensitive, searching, reflective.

‘We Are Only People’ is an epic journey that begins with another Funkadelic-styled spoken-word moment, progressing through a spacious solo-guitar-with-harmonies section and into the inevitable rock conclusion. Dark hues are generated by the relentless and speedy ‘Restlessness’, while remaining at a philosophical remove, and ‘Free’ is a heavy duo piece with Bobby and David exploring the meaning of the word.

The album’s climax is provided by a trio (once again, the triangle) of David songs, two of which hail from 1992. All three pieces together form a release of the soul of Death from its dark origins, building optimism upon the harsh realities they’d experienced in their lives, more relaxed without losing the spark and bite of those former times. The unaccompanied guitar instrumental ‘First Snowfall In Detroit’ is David Hackney at his most soulful, which gives way to ‘We’re Gonna Make It’, first featured as an emotional climax to the documentary and no less powerful here. With these songs, ‘III’ pays final tribute to David Hackney’s thoroughly original voice and vision, now stilled, but captured forever as a part of the remarkable story of Death.

The album’s cover was created in 1976 by Don Schwenck, working from David’s design and intended to be the cover of the album they were recording. Once that album failed to materialize, the brothers forgot about the commission, and when ‘For The Whole World To See’ was eventually released, Bobby Hackney Jr.’s distinctive image fronted the design. However, when Death returned to Detroit to play in 2010, Don Schwenck was there, with the artwork he had created 35 years earlier. Bobby Jr. added the logo to the image and it was ready to go. With the release of ‘III’, the final record from the vault, all things come full circle for Death.

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2014 EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

Includes the rare Monitor Mix of Death Disco and the Extended Dorrell Mix of Warrior.

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2014 EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

Death Waltz Recording Company are extremely proud to present their first release by major Hollywood composer Clint Mansell (REQIUEM FOR A DREAM, NOAH), the score to the award-winning 2007 horror short IN THE WALL. Telling the surreal story of a man who accidentally kills his pregnant wife and hides her body in a cavity wall, only to be haunted by visions of her corpse escaping, the film deftly moves from psychological horror to creature feature propelled by Mansell’s intense music. The score is anchored by the main theme, a versatile string melody that moves from sinister to emotional to tragic to perfectly match the shocking events of the film. Mansell’s work continues in the same vein as the music composed for Darren Aronofsky’s films with the Kronos Quartet, expertly mixing the stripped-down string sound with electronic elements and percussion to create a vivid colour palette. The music plays with the conventions of the genre, at times Bernard Herrman-esque high strings pierce the silence, while intense electric guitar and feedback alternate with sparse, echoing drums. The electronics slowly undulate beneath the surface, winding up the tension and used more as a textural device until the final trip-hop rendition of the main theme takes your breath away. A classic score from a truly brilliant composer.

Featuring exclusive cover art by Jay Shaw and sleeves notes from Clint Mansell.

Package includes a 48 x 48 poster and 12 x 12 lithograph.