We’re thrilled to announce the limited edition 12” vinyl release of Björk’s captivating collaboration with Rosalía, featuring a stunning remix by Olof Dreijer from The Knife!

But this release is more than just music—it’s a “call to arms” . Like the digital launch earlier this year, Björk, Rosalía, and their labels (Columbia Records & OLI Records) are waiving all commissions and royalties. That means 100% of the profits will go directly to AEGIS, the charity founded by Björk, dedicated to fighting intensive fish farming in Iceland and protecting our oceans and environment.

Be part of something bigger. Support this cause by owning a piece of this special edition vinyl and joining us in making a difference.

‘Oral’ dates back two decades - first written by Björk between 1997’s Homogenic and 2001’s Vespertine, the track was lost to her archives after feeling like it wasn’t the right fit for an album. Björk rediscovered the song after being reminded of its name whilst on tour in Australia in March 2023, the same month a report was released about the devastating impact of poorly regulated, Norwegian-owned commercial salmon farming operations on Iceland’s native ecosystems.

After deeply resonating with the cause, and as a passionate campaigner and protester for much of her life, Björk enlisted Rosalía to help bring the song to life and in turn raise awareness of the issue. The cruel practice of open-pen farming, introduced to Iceland after Norwegian businessmen began purchasing fish farms in the country’s fjords, involves intensively farming fish by penning them into open water nets that are anchored in natural waterways, where the fish are kept enclosed until they reach marketable size. This accelerates the fish’s development and in many cases creates genetic mutations in the salmon’s DNA, as well as being a breeding ground for a number of parasites and diseases. The industry in Iceland has grown tenfold since 2014, producing under 4,000 tones to 45,000 in 2021, with it now estimated that the annual production could be up to 106,500 tonnes. Iceland has the largest untouched natural area in Europe, and the waste and pollution associated with open-pen farming threatens to permanently damage its entire ocean ecology. Lack of regulation and the industry being largely unsupervised has also meant that thousands of these genetically altered, diseased salmon regularly escape the pens and swim upriver to Iceland’s highlands, where devastating genetic mixing occurs and endangers the future of Iceland’s wild salmon population.

All proceeds from “Oral” will be used to support a legal case against the fisheries, brought forth by residents of the town of Seyðisfjörður on the eastern side of Iceland.

TRACK LISTING

Oral
Oral (Olof Dreijer Remix)

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

‘First Sounds’, is the debut album from a trio made-up of cellist Rebecca Foon, violinist Sarah Neufeld and multi-instrumentalist Richard Reed Parry. The group originally met in Montreal, Quebec, during the late 1990’s while independently finding their footing in the local arts and culture community. For two years, Rebecca, Sarah and Richard collaborated in various capacities before embarking on their respective musical careers.

The LP collects nine compositions, with dynamic minimalism, sweeping crescendos and rich harmonies. The expressive instrumentation, experimental undertones, and ambient textures are crafted with expert musicianship and technical symbiosis.

Richard and Sarah’s musical careers have been deeply intertwined over the past twenty years; best known for their involvement in Grammy-award winning indie-rock group Arcade Fire (2001-present), and recently revitalized instrumental outfit and Juno-award winning Bell Orchestre (2002-present), both musicians have spent the better part of the past two decades writing and releasing music and touring the globe.

Similarly, composer and cellist Rebecca Foon has been a fixture of the Montreal music community for two decades, performing and recording in a wide array of contexts, most notably as co-founder of the modern chamber post-rock ensemble Esmerine, as a member of Thee Silver Mt Zion Memorial Orchestra (2001-2008) and Set Fire To Flames (2001-2004), and more recently at the helm of her electro-acoustic songwriting project Saltland. With these four entities, Foon has performed around the world and released over a dozen albums on various imprints. Esmerine’s 2013 album Dalmak won the Canadian music industry’s Juno Award for Best Instrumental Album and the band’s 2015 album Lost Voices was a finalist in this same category, along with winning the award for Best Album Package.

The ‘First Sounds’ album artwork is by Olafur Eliasson, an award-winning Icelandic–Danish artist known for sculptured and large-scaled installation art employing elemental materials such as light, water, and air temperature to enhance the viewer's experience. Since 1997, his critically acclaimed solo shows have appeared in major museums around the world, such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Tate Modern in London, Martin-Gropius-Bau in Berlin, SESC Belenzinho and Pinacoteca do Estado in São Paulo, Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris, and the Venice Biennale. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A few massive names here get together for One Little Independent to provide one of the most beautiful modern classical records i've heard this year. Foon's chamber-rock experience shines through here (or perhaps I recognise her sound the most) but honestly, there are few chances you'll get to hear an album like this. Stunning.

TRACK LISTING

1. Slow New Year
2. Duelling Flutters
3. Maria
4. Rosa Canina
5. Day Three
6. Clouding Clouds
7. First Sound
8. Circular
9. Georgia

'Lobster Coda’ incorporates dreamy, glistening synth-pop and melancholic ambience, created through layers of atmospheric keys, percussion, and groove-laden funk bass. Kaktus details his journey following a stress-induced nonepileptic seizure that halted his brain’s ability to communicate with the rest of his body, resulting in losing control of his legs, arms and causing involuntary facial tics. Crucially, he spent months on a course of physical therapy while also trying to care for his children and his partner, that by his own admission he then needed to reconnect with. With an occasionally brutal candour, Kaktus’s new album is about taking the time to reflect and recognise changes that need to be made, to listen to your body, and to trust the process no matter how long it might take.

Album standout ‘Be This Way’ merges the darker post-punk of his previous Fufanu material with glacial pop and additional vocals from Nanna, of the Icelandic band Of Monsters And Men.

‘Gumbri’ features long-time friend and collaborator Damon Albarn. The Blur/Gorillaz frontman and Kaktus have known each other for many years, Kaktus played trumpet on ‘Stop The Dams’ at age 15, and shortly after he was flown to London to work on Damon’s debut solo album ‘Everyday Robots’, which they then toured together. Kaktus also engineered ‘Maison Des Jeunes’ for the Africa Express project that Albarn launched. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Lobster Coda
2. Daze Gold Feat. School Of X
3. Be This Way Feat. Nanna
4. Saka
5. Heart Spell
6. Koddi
7. White Burn
8. Gumbri Feat. Damon Albarn

Breymer utilizes a rich array of instrumentation elevated by a standout vocal performance, raw lyricism, and textured production by Grammy winning Tyler Chester. Exquisite, layered vocal harmonies across the record enforce its reflective themes, and at times the conversation seems to be internal, with much of the record posing questions such as “Am I better now?”, “Am I on the wrong path?”, “Who am I?”. ‘When I Get Through’ examines a journey of self-discovery, it’s introspective and transformative, and it’s a testament to the strength of its lead; someone willing not just to make the choice, but to document the emotional experience in its entirety.

Revelatory and radically insightful, ‘When I Get Through’ bares all as Breymer takes listeners through every stage of their pursuit for self-acceptance. Unlike anything that has come before it, Walk’s ideas surrounding their own physical and mental progress are candid, authentic and ultimately breathtaking. Amidst a body of deftly constructed songcraft and extraordinary poeticism, Breymer has penned a companion piece for anyone in search for their true selves. 

TRACK LISTING

1. The Truth
2. Medication
3. Wrong Path
4. Darkness
5. The Feeling (When I See You)
6. Part Of Me
7. Better Friend
8. Who Am I?
9. When I Get Through
10. The Night Before
11. Anesthesia

Punk pioneers Crass continue their vinyl reissue series, re-pressing their limited releases by adjacent artists through Crass Records, in association with One Little Independent. The series, including over twenty bands and solo artists recorded at the legendary Southern Studios and produced by Penny Rimbaud, continues with two more historic pieces from the Crass Records catalogue; ‘Multi-Death Corporations’ by MDC and ‘Rub Me Out’ by The Cravats. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Rub Me Out
2. When Will We Fall

SHHE's, Scottish-Portuguese sound artist and producer Su Shaw, new mini-album ‘DÝRA’ is an ambient project that took form during a self-directed artist residency in the Westfjords of Iceland, influenced by the tranquillity of the Dýrafjörður fjord. Immersed in a distinct landscape with quietly monumental surroundings, Shaw began documenting her experience of the environment through field recordings and environmental data captured across several geographical locations.

‘DÝRA’ is an exploratory and mesmerising durational piece, evocative in its construction, inviting listeners to imagine their own space and scale within a landscape. Reflective, textured, and pensive, with expansive synths that further showcase Shaw’s deftness in sculpting immersive and introspective soundscapes.
 
‘DÝRA’ explores the connections between sound and landscape, liminal and meditative states. Responding to the enchanting effects the fjord had on her personally, Shaw began to explore ways to reimagine and evoke the
Dýrafjörður environment and ambience for an audience in a live setting. Expanding notions of performance and presentation, an immersive installation of ‘DÝRA’ was presented at Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2022. The exhibition of the composition in this way allowed her to communicate ideas of deep listening through sound spatialisation and immersive audio technologies including binaural and quadraphonic sound.

TRACK LISTING

1. Sandar
2. Hólar
3. Sandaá
4. Hjallar

Land of Talk, the influential Montreal-based outfit led by Lizzie Powell, today announced Applause Cheer Boo Hiss: The Definitive Edition, the expanded and remastered first vinyl reissue of the band’s beloved debut EP.

Applause Cheer Boo Hiss: The Definitive Edition is a collector’s dream, with bonus music spread out across two LPs housed in a gorgeous gatefold jacket with new and updated artwork. The first LP features a remastered and expanded 10-song version of the original EP, along with five additional downloadable bonus tracks of live material and remixes. The second LP features a remastered version of L'Aventure Acoustique, the limited and adored 10-track release featuring acoustic versions of all seven original Applause Cheer Boo Hiss tracks, as well as acoustic versions of “Young Bridge,” the future Land of Talk track “Some Are Lakes,” and a cover of Wintersleep’s “Weighty Ghost”—all on vinyl for the first time.

“I feel like I’m never going to be fully satisfied with anything I do, but having said that, I’m super proud of the whole EP. If that’s my legacy, I’m good,” says Powell. The urgent and raging Applause Cheer Boo Hiss opener “Speak to Me Bones” is also out today alongside a stripped-back acoustic version–one of five L'Aventure Acoustique songs mixed/engineered by Justin Vernon (who would go on to produce and play guitar on Land of Talk’s debut full length, Some Are Lakes, the following year). “[Fugazi’s] ‘Smallpox Champion’ is a song that definitely inspired the outro to ‘Speak to Me Bones,’ which is a song that I would love to play live again, especially because I wrote it long before MeToo, and since the MeToo movement a lot of people have been naming their abusers, and the abuse of powers in the music industry,” Powell explains.

TRACK LISTING

1. Speak To Me Bones
2. Sea Foam
3. Summer Special
4. Breaxxbaxx
5. Magnetic Hill
6. All My Friends
7. Street Wheels
8. Young Bridge
9. Two Ships
10. Dark Nature Places
11. Speak To Me Bones (Acoustic)
12. Sea Foam (Acoustic)
13. Summer Special (Acoustic)
14. Breaxxbaxx (Acoustic)
15. Magnetic Hill (Acoustic)
16. All My Friends (Acoustic)
17. Street Wheels (Acoustic)
18. Young Bridge (Acoustic)
19. Some Are Lakes (Acoustic)
20. Weighty Ghost (Acoustic Wintersleep Cover)

‘Willson Williams’ witnesses the meeting of two likeminded musicians who’ve built their successful, independent careers on inventive folk instrumentation, reflective and sincere lyricism, and not a small amount of self-deprecation. Their modest confessionals, written poetically and over nostalgic and atmospheric melodies, are as relatable as ever, and together they find new ways to unpack their feelings.  

One overarching theme on the album is that of grief, when the writing process saw them both, tragically, in mourning for separate loved ones; Dan for his brother Karl and his friend Scott Hutchinson of Frightened Rabbit, and Kathryn for her friend, comedian and BBC Radio 4 presenter Jeremy Hardy. They explain that “the initial premise and starting point for us was discussions and open conversations on bereavement. We’d both recently lost friends who were also in the public eye, and we talked about the strange place between personal loss and the communal grieving of a public figure”. Contrastingly, the music on ‘Willson Williams’ is warm, heartfelt and even cheerful, an opposing nature that is completely in keeping with both their humour and candidness.

TRACK LISTING

1. Arrow
2. Grace
3. R U 4 Real
4. Our Best
5. Shelf
6. Wish
7. Sweetest Wine
8. Weekend
9. Sing Out
10. Elvis
11. Big Nothing

Musically the collection ranges from industrial club anthems and delirious beats to atmospherically produced moments of euphoria. Glitchy electronics blend with Delilah’s trademark art pop and crisp trip hop rhythms. Delilah’s authenticity is distinct in her delivery and lyrics, which continue to probe class and societal issues as she guides the listener through her realm of realisations. A key theme that follows from ‘Vol. 1’ is that of identity and roots. Growing up on Holloway Road and beginning her creative endeavours with family members continues this sense of community and groundedness.

TRACK LISTING

1. Steel Charmed
2. Burn Money
3. Silent Streets
4. Everything I Ever Wanted
5. Looking Over My Shoulder
6. Heaven’s Waiting Room
7. Hesitate
8. Liquid Pearl
9. 1000 Transformations
10. Drugs, Again?
11. Travelled
12. Long Time Coming
13. On My Own Wave

Following her signing to One Little Independent Records, London-based multidisciplinary artist and producer Laura Misch announces the release of her long-awaited debut album, ‘Sample The Sky’.

An enchanting journey through London’s wild edgelands, the LP is an ode care, connection and listening to the natural world.

‘Sample The Sky’ responds to nature’s patterns through organic electronic productions, embodied lyrics, wind inspired saxophone, singing and synthesis all woven into intricately crafted leftfield pop songs. 

TRACK LISTING

1 Hide To Seek
2 Light Years
3 Portals
4 Outer Edges
5 Listen To The Sky
6 Widening Circles
7 City Lungs
8 Sax Rise
9 Wild Swim
10 Birdseye