Belgium’s sophisticated yet sometimes worldweary indie superstars return with their fifth album and follow up to 2019’s ‘Fever’.

Further pushing on from ‘Fever’’s shift into more soulful waters, ‘Sand’ presents a more cohesive body of work that flirts with a soulful indie vibe and an at times almost slow disco undercurrent, the two singles ‘Losers’ and ‘On A Roll’ perfectly capturing the mood.

Back when you could go to gigs the band were at the point where they were selling out the Scala in London and commanding decent size crowds regionally (especially Brighton, Bristol, Manchester and Glasgow).

TRACK LISTING

Moment
Losers
On A Roll
I Want You
You Won’t Come Around
Linger On
Hourglass
Passing Through
Leaving Antwerp
Halfway
Powerless

Burrows (Razorlight, We Are Scientists) says that ‘Company’ marks the first time he’s had to confidence to make a record “exactly how I felt musically and lyrically”. The Mark Ronson co-write ‘Keep On Moving On’ is proof of this.

Whilst the string swells and hazy, percussive march of ‘Company’, the bittersweet Lennon-esque ‘Somebody Calls Your Name’ and the atmospheric dreaminess of ‘Stars’ are delivered with a charming restraint, the incessant pound of ‘Shaking The Colour’ comes across like peak-era Supergrass. All are injected with Burrows’ way with an earworming hook.

TRACK LISTING

Company
Because I Know That I Can
Keep On Moving On
Maybe You
If I Had A Heart
Hometown
Somebody Calls Your Name
Stars
Shaking The Colour
Pet Air

‘Lonesome Dreams’ is the brilliant debut album from rising pop experimentalists Lord Huron, led by Michigan-born songwriting prodigy Ben Schneider.

A joyous collision of Appalachian percussion, rustic guitars and sumptuous harmonies lit up by lens-flare flashes of electronics, it’s a record inspired by the rust coloured canyons and characters of the Wild West, with the emphasis on wild.

Tales of the great American outback have always been an inspiration, according to Schneider. “Sometimes I feel like I’m living in one of those stories,” he confides. “I wanted to look at my life and lives close to me as though they were tales from some frontier novel.”

One thing that can’t be ignored with is the scale of Schneider’s ambition. Not content with writing an album of eclectic beauty, ‘Lonesome Dreams’ also encompasses short films, intriguing artwork and a series of imagined novels by a fictional ageing wordsmith, the mysterious George Ranger Johnson. “I'm interested in creating a world with its own mythology,” says the Michigan native. “I look at different media as ways to enrich the story.”

The result is an album as vast and easy to lose yourself in as a Sergio Leone cinescape. Field recordings loop and cavernous drums echo while Schneider’s layered vocals drift airily across its surface like tumbleweeds across a dusty desert sprawl. From galloping recent single ‘Time To Run’ to the gamelan groove of ‘The Man Who Lives Forever’, its charms are impossible to deny.

Lord Huron began as a solo endeavour in 2010 but Schneider has since enlisted some of his “best amigos” to turn his songs into a powerful live experience: Mark Barry (percussion, vocals), Miguel Briseno (bass, percussion), Brett Farkas (guitar, vocals) and Tom Renaud (guitar, vocals). “We’ve got a pretty good working relationship,” he says. “A good wrestling match can solve almost anything we disagree about.”

Gathering momentum in the States with a fantastic live performance on ‘Tonight With Jay Leno’, hoards of praise from the likes of Filter, Fader, Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly and USA Today, and a recent tour across the US with sold out shows in Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Boston, LA and NYC. They will visit Europe for the first time around the release of the album.

“Campfire strumming and robust vocal harmonies ghosted by tuneful howls” - Rolling Stone

“His music sails above those geographic and romantic landscapes as a thoroughly tuneful, reverberant extension of folk-rock” - New York Times

“The last true band you need to hear this year” - Esquire

“These songs are sturdy, and what marks they set for themselves, they hit” - Pitchfork

TRACK LISTING

Ends Of The Earth
Time To Run
Lonesome Dreams
The Ghost On The Shore
She Lit A Fire
I Will Be Back One Day
The Man Who Lives
Forever
Lullaby
Brother
In The Wind
Setting Sun *
Son Of A Gun *
When Will I See You Again *

* = Bonus Tracks Available On CD Only.

Recorded over two studio sessions, As I Try Not To Fall Apart is White Lies’ most expansive record to date, taking in explosive rock, electro-pop bangers, prog-inspired invention, funk-tinged grooves and some of their most indelible hooks yet.

Working with Mittendorfer, formative versions of swaggering album opener Am I Really Going To Die and the airy rock of the title track were captured, whilst another round of songwriting at Buller’s house ahead of a second recording session really got them firing. “It got us on the same page,” says McVeigh. Soon a coherent album was emerging out of the mist, a record that streamlined everything great about White Lies from across their career: razor-sharp hooks, dark lyrical wit, defiant singalongs, airy soundscapes and dynamic instrumentation.

Throughout they meld their love of pop and prog - opener Am I Really Going To Die features a ruminative lyric on mortality inspired by the 2000 film Ivans Xtc and is one of the funkiest things they’ve ever done, Chic guitars and a lithe bassline building under McVeigh’s quickfire vocals. “Me and Charles are big prog fans,” says McVeigh. The title track, meanwhile, is a euphoric pop gem. “That’s a really important song for us,” says Lawrence-Brown. “I think it will define what the next chapter is. It’s the poppiest thing we’ve ever done.” The rattling stomp of I Don’t Want To Go To Mars was inspired by Elon Musk and the billionaire space race and Blue Drift combines acid-house grooves with widescreen 80s production. There’s a sonic gear change with The End, which sounds like an atmospheric Cure song being sent into space, and There Is No Cure For It – lyrically, a sequel to the opener – ends the record on a soaring, scintillating high.

It’s well over a decade since the band’s breakthrough single Death introduced a group for whom the fragility of human existence has been a constant touchstone. Now in his 30s, chief lyricist Cave’s outlook on the great unknown has evolved. “I think the side of death or mortality that I always find interesting is the fact we all know it’s going to happen,” he says, “and how different people navigate that.”

“We’ll probably never make an album in the way we made this one again,” says Cave. “I think this could be one of our best” says McVeigh. White Lies tested their resolve to get there, but they didn’t fall apart. They have emerged with their most vital collection of songs in years.

TRACK LISTING

1. Am I Really Going To Die
2. As I Try Not To Fall Apart
3. Breathe
4. I Don’t Want To Go To Mars
5. Step Outside
6. Roll December
7. Ragworm
8. Blue Drift
9. The End
10. There Is No Cure For It

Of the album Joan Wasser says :

Damon Albarn introduced me to Afrobeat legend, Tony Allen, at the March 2019 Africa Express event “The Circus” and we hit it off. Tony and I played a version of Nina Simone's "I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free" and decided to record together. I asked my old friend and fierce musician, Dave Okumu, to join from London and that November, in a Parisian studio, we improvised all night. When the world shut down, I used those recordings to write a record entitled “The Solution Is Restless”. This first single, “Take Me To Your Leader”, is the most incendiary on the new record. I wrote it watching Jacinda Ardern, PM of New Zealand, navigate 2020. In my dreamworld, the US asks to meet her in order to learn how to better run the country. “Take me to your leader/ ‘cause I’m ready to play/ can’t hold my breath any longer/ word on the street is she’s a healer/ I’m know I’m down to obey/ and don’t we need a break in the chaos”

Tony Allen was the drummer and musical director of Fela Kuti’s band Africa '70 from 1968 to 1979, and was one of the primary co-founders of the genre of Afrobeat. Fela once stated that, "without Tony Allen, there would be no Afrobeat” and he was described by Brian Eno as "perhaps the greatest drummer who has ever lived". Besides many other musical milestones and collaborations, in recent years Tony teamed up with Damon Albarn, Paul Simonon and Simon Tong to form The Good, the Bad & the Queen.

Dave Okumu is best known for fronting the Mercury Music Prize band The Invisible and more recently announcing the release of a solo album ‘Knopperz’ due for release in September.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Barbarian
2. Get My Bearings (feat. Damon Albarn)
3. Take Me To Your Leader
4. Masquerader
5. Dinner Date
6. Enter The Dragon
7. Geometry Of You
8. The Love Has Got Me
9. Perfect Shade Of Blue
10. Reaction 

Enter Max Colombie’s world, and you’ll discover a uniquely dazzling and shimmering fusion of contemporary R&B and a more European electro-pop sensibility, uniting shivery melody, shifting beats and vocals steeped in drama, sensuality and yearning. Colombie hears, “a twilight zone where it doesn’t sound dark nor happy. It’s like the name Oscar and the Wolf; it’s a balance between light and dark, this perfect combination between the sun and the moon. It’s beautiful and scary at the same time.”

Oscar and the Wolf’s official debut, the 2012 EP Summer Skin, showed his gifts arrived virtually full-formed, but he truly came of age in 2014 with his debut album Entity. Balanced between dancefloor anthems and slow jams, Entity went 4 times platinum in his native Belgium and quickly jettisoned Colombie to superstar status. He sold out arenas in Belgium and the Netherlands, taking the penultimate headlining slot (behind Muse) at 2016's Lowlands festival before headlining Belgium’s Pukkelpop festival sharing the bill with Rihanna and LCD Soundsystem.

Released in 2017, the second Oscar and the Wolf album, Infinity went platinum at home, whilst amassing a huge Middle Eastern fanbase across Turkey (where his 2018 tour sold out inside minutes), Egypt, Israel and Iran. On stage, Colombie cut a commanding and lithe performer, often garbed in shimmering outfits that interacted with the dynamic lighting.

The new Oscar and the Wolf album The Shimmer distils the essence of Colombie’s sound and vision in its title and the image of Colombie on the album cover, bathed in starry light. The album is a benchmark of his transformation on record; whereas Entity was recorded in a barn, “very lo-fi with no access to gear,” he recalls, The Shimmer’s bold, rich and layered dynamics were captured at ICP Studios in Brussels, home to, “one of the best live rooms in Europe, with all this vintage gear.” More intimate moments were added at Colombie’s house outside the city, “those magic takes we made just after we’d written something, which are so hard to capture again.”

By ‘we’, Colombie includes producer Jeroen De Pessemier and multi-instrumentalist Ozan Bozdag, who had both worked on Infinity (and Bozdag on Entity too). “It’s a magical trio,” Colombie says. “Everyone is allowed to be themselves, and to explore themselves. I’m really happy with The Shimmer because I hear a more mature version of myself. I always want things to grow, and I’m proud that I allowed myself to not follow people’s expectations and reproduce what had been successful before. There are no four-to-the-floor clubby pop songs this time.”

Instead, The Shimmer more accurately reflects Colombie’s personality. “My emotions run from super-happy to super-melancholic in a split second,” he says. “To me, The Shimmer feels like the soundtrack to a blockbuster, with many types of tracks and themes. It’s always changing.”

TRACK LISTING

1. James
2. Ghost Of You
3. Crystalline
4. Your Choice
5. Ocean City
6. Transfixions
7. Nostalgic Bitch
8. Livestream
9. Oliver
10. The P.I.C.
11. The Shimmer

10th anniversary reissue of this wonderful LP from the finest purveyors of lush orchestral epic and widescreen baroque indie rock.

Taking over 14 painstaking months to put together, ‘Tamer Animals’ was inspired by Sigur Ros, Ennio Morricone and Godspeed You Black Emperor, and is sure to appeal to fans of Grizzly Bear, Kurt Vile and Fleet Foxes.

“Tamer Animals’ feels organic and lovingly crafted, a record whose lushness often invites you to simply collapse into it” – Pitchfork.

TRACK LISTING

1. Dark Horse
2. As I Lay My Head Down
3. For 12
4. Tamer Animals
5. Dust Bowl III
6. Weather
7. Old Statues
8. Woodwind
9. Desert
10. Landforms
11. Heading East

Bonus Download Tracks
Glass Leaves
Take Us Alive
Dead In The Water
Great Sky
Living Dead
Song Song
This Is Not
Dust Bowl 1 

With just a handful of singles under their belts, the Manchester band have already found support from the likes of Clash, DIY, Dork, The Forty-Five, The Line of Best Fit, NME and So Young, along with a Next Wave slot from Jack Saunders on BBC Radio 1, New Names feature from Annie Mac, a Ones To Watch pick from Huw Stephens, a track of the week from Shaun Keaveny @ BBC 6 Music whilst further support from Steve Lamacq, Tom Robinson and Marc Riley, plays from Matt Wilkinson on Beats 1, as well as playlist spots at NME Radio and Amazing Radio.

Back in March 2020, the band’s debut single “Taking You With Me” marked the arrival of a band full of ideas, and cut a boundless, energetically pop edge that saw them likened to early Blur. Follow-up “Beach Body” dialed up the urgency and distilled a swift insistence, on top of which vocalist Adam Hopper masterminded a trove of indelible melodies, dedicated to the ailing Brit-abroad. The band wrapped up 2020 with “Harold”, which brought with it a thumping, wonky and rowdy execution and then saw in the new year with "Leave The South". On the back of 12 months that has seen much made about the divide between the north and south of England, "Leave The South" seeks not to pit the regions against one another, and instead offers a far more nuanced look at the way the grass can always appear greener on the other side. It also acts as something of a love-letter of absent friends and an admission that nothing is perfect. National Trust looks at themes of feeling trapped and anxious, but also the hopes held toward eventual liberation from that feeling.

Lead vocalist and guitarist Adam Hopper elaborates:
"The song harks back to five years ago when I was living in Reading while at uni. While not a bad place, I found my final year tough and was becoming disillusioned with what I was doing and where I was. I was in a rut mentally and my friends had stayed up north and I found myself feeling increasingly isolated and skint. I managed to convince myself that moving back up North would solve all my problems like it was some kind of utopia and started blaming where I was for said problems. I laugh at that now and that’s what the song is about. Although the water really does taste better up North..."

Recent years have seen the band spearheading a burgeoning scene in Manchester as they gigged extensively throughout the city, performing their original brand of restless post-punk and cerebral indie-pop – all served with a sharper, more sardonic pop edge than many of their more po-faced peers. So sharp in fact that Steve Hanley, of The Fall and Brix Smith & Extricated, has performed live on stage with them a number of times already.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Is there no end to the wonderfully talented indie bands coming from around our fair shores? 'National Trust' sees Blanketman forging their own path adjacent to well known indie greats, via the jagged hooks and militant percussion of post-punk. It's a more upbeat take on the rigidity of the genre, with bright and airy hooks perfectly tempering the distorted guitars and satisfying droll vox.

TRACK LISTING

Beach Body
Leave The South
Harold
Dogs Die In Hot Cars
Blue Funk
National Trust
The Tie

Over nine years on from the distinctly wintery Funny Looking Angels, old mates Tom Smith and Andy Burrows return with a distinctly un-wintery follow up album ‘Only Smith & Burrows Is Good Enough’ Recorded in Nashville with Grammy Award winning producer Jacquire King ‘Only Smith & Burrows Is Good Enough’ is packed with songs for all seasons including the Summer ’20 single ‘All The Best Moves’ and new single ‘Old TV Shows’. As a whole this is uncontrived, timeless, adult pop music that wears it’s heart on it’s sleeve.

The adventure that started nine years ago as two drinking buddies popping into each other’s houses and home studios, putting down an idea here and a melody there, developed into a set of songs with a Christmas theme, then a theoretical album, then, following help from their friends a real album with a raucous tour of Xmas shows in Winter 2012.

The interim has been anything but idle with Smith on duty with Editors, and the band’s star rising to unprecedented heights since their inception at the onset of the noughties. Meanwhile Burrows has released several solo albums, seen collaborations on soundtracks including The Snowman and The Snowdog and last year composing the soundtrack for Ricky Gervais’ critically acclaimed After Life

TRACK LISTING

1 All The Best Moves
2 Buccaneer Rum Jum
3 Spaghetti
4 Old TV Shows
5 Parliament Hill
6 Bottle Tops
7 I Want You Back In My Life
8 Aimee Move On
9 Too Late
10 Straight Up Like A Mohican

As one of the many consequences of this year’s pandemic and ensuing lockdown, J. Willgoose found himself with some time on his hands. With the next Public Service Broadcasting album recording sessions delayed, and all the band’s equipment stuck in a different country, he cobbled together old synths, sequencers and pedals and set about creating something new. Originally intended as an experiment in ambient music, the recordings developed into something more fulsome culminating in an entire new body of work in the shape of a 4 track LP under the Late Night Final pseudonym.

With nods to the likes of Vangelis, Tangerine Dream, KLF’s seminal Chill Out album and contemporary artists such as Amulets and Kelly Lee Owens, Late Night Final retains Public Service Broadcasting’s playful ear for a tune which weaves understatedly through the record’s beautifully immersive cerebral soundscape

TRACK LISTING

1. Thank You
2. A Wonderful Hope
3. The Human Touch (ft. Teddy Hunter)
4. Slow Release

The two-time Mercury Prize nominee Ghostpoet (aka Obaro Ejimiwe) follows up 2017’s acclaimed 'Dark Days + Canapés’ with a record which couldn’t feel more prescient, a dystopian snapshot of the universal unease and anxiety we feel as we enter into this new decade, an uncertain future distilled across these 10 vital tracks.

The bluesy, gritty ‘Concrete Pony’ is the perfect entry point to the record – in Obaro’s own words; “It’s a snapshot of where we’re at as a society I feel, we seem to have everything and nothing at all. Infinite possibilities and choices galore but we seem set in stone, frozen in place, oblivious to the storm clouds in the distance…”

Recorded in London and written, arranged and produced by Ghostpoet, ‘I Grow Tired But Dare Not Fall Asleep’ incorporates a myriad of sounds and styles but is anchored by the more alt-rock sonics presented across his last two records. It features guest vocals from an eclectic mix of artists; Art School Girlfriend, Skinny Girl Diet’s Delilah Holiday, SaraSara and Katie Dove Dixon. Obaro has always had a keen ear for collaboration, having worked with the likes of Massive Attack, Nadine Shah, Melanie Di Biasio, Maximo Park’s Paul Smith and Damon Albarn’s Africa Express amongst others across his distinguished career.

TRACK LISTING

Breaking Cover
Concrete Pony
Humana Second Hand
Black Dog Got Silver Eyes
Rats In A Sack
This Trainwreck Of A Life
Nowhere To Hide Now
When Mouths Collide
I Grow Tired But Dare Not Fall Asleep
Social Lacerations

The much loved Portland band Other Lives return after five years away following 2015’s ‘Rituals’.

Recorded at their own Cooper Mountain Sound studios, ‘For Their Love’ is a ten track collection that nods to the past whilst progressing positively towards the future.

The band have a loyal following across the UK, as seen by their social engagement.

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: Other Lives return with their fourth and greatest record yet. ‘For Their Love’ combines their dark and doomy, widescreen baroque rock with the best set of songs they’ve written so far. Well worth the wait.

TRACK LISTING

Sound Of Violence
Lost Day
Cops
All Eyes - For Their Love
Dead Language
Nites Out
We Wait
Hey Hey I
Who’s Gonna Love Us
Sideways

German cult band Bohren & der Club of Gore release their eighth studio album via [PIAS] Recordings.

The band have built a loyal international fanbase on the back of their trademark ‘Doom Jazz’ sound and count musical icons such as Mike Patton and Stephen O’Malley among their fans.

Strictly instrumental, this band and their sound have the healing power to survive these hectic modern times.

For fans of Melanie de Biasio, Sunn O))) and the soundtracks of David Lynch.

The band played two sold out shows in London’s Round Chapel recently and will tour the UK again in 2020.

TRACK LISTING

Total Falsch
Verwirrung Am Strand
Glaub Mir Kein Wort
Patchouli Blue
Deine Kusine
Vergessen & Vorbei
Sollen Es Doch Alle wissen
Tief Gesunken
Zwei Herzen Aus Gold
Sag Mir, Wie Lang
Meine Welt Ist Schön

“In January 2019 I found myself stuck in a Chicago hotel room during the ‘Polar Vortex’. I was performing there with my duo Radnor & Lee over a few nights when temperatures dropped, leaving me unable to do much outside my hotel room for 4 days. Chicago is a city that holds a special history for me, and I found myself spending a good chunk of time staring out my hotel window, reflecting on my first trip there in 1993 to record my debut solo album ‘Grandpaw Would’ at Idful Studios with Brad Wood. But more than the details of that trip, I was struck by how vividly memories started flooding back to me of being a 15 year old mega fan of music, and in particular, indie rock. I LIVED for the records that I loved and the bands who made them. I’m not sure you are ever a fan of bands the way you can be as a teenager. It’s pretty sacred.

“I started re-listening to some of my favorite songs from that period in that hotel room, by the Beat Happening, Pavement, Fugazi, The Breeders, Guided by Voices. It struck me as crazy that these songs and the feelings that accompanied them were now over 25 years old. It started seeming odd to me that for some reason, indie rock hasn’t been canonized the same way ‘60s and ‘70s rock has. After all, Dinosaur Jr were my Led Zeppelin, Sonic Youth were my Grateful Dead and Built to Spill were my Steve Miller Band. These were my classics!

“I always travel with my portable studio gear, and I immediately sat down and started learning and recording a collection of my favorite songs. I spent my 4 days of the 2019 Polar Vortex creating the blueprint for what would become ‘Quarter Century Classix’. When I got home to LA, I invited my friends Julianna Barwick, William Tyler and Mary Lattimore to my home studio to add their magic to my recordings as I knew they grew up in reverence of the same records I did. These three genius musicians became the ‘band’ who you can hear framing these covers and I am eternally grateful for their talent and generosity. Later, Maria Taylor, Mike Watt, Petra Haden and Joey Waronker all showed up to play too.

“To some people these songs are just footnotes in pop culture history. But to me, they are the essence my own personal history. I wanted to make this record a tribute to these bands, to these songs, and to the irreversible way music can touch and transform the life of young person. I hope you enjoy ‘Quarter Century Classix’.” - Ben Lee

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: This is clearly a labour of love for Lee & co, and the dedication and appreciation for the source material shines through these covers. With his keen ear for melody, and addictive hints of alt-folk and classic indie, 'Quarter Century Classix' is a triumph.

TRACK LISTING

Web In Front (Archers Of Loaf)
Blueprint (Fugazi)
Divine Hammer (The Breeders)
Car (Built To Spill)
Sugar Kane (Sonic Youth)
Get Me (Dinosaur Jr)
In The Mouth A Desert (Pavement)
Goldheart Mountain Top Queen Directory (Guided By Voices)
Speeding Motorcycle (Daniel Johnston)
Brand New Love (Sebadoh)
Ingrown (Smudge)
My Noise (Superchunk)
Godsend (Beat Happening)

'Tommy' is a compilation album by The Wedding Present, originally released in 1988, collecting songs from the band’s first four singles, plus four tracks recorded for BBC Radio sessions. Bringing together material written in the band’s first two years of existence, 'Tommy' proved that The Wedding Present’s essence was in place from the start. These kinetic blasts of homespun high-velocity bedsit drama presaged the more finessed 'George Best', but represented the band’s definitive portrayal.

TRACK LISTING

1 Go Out And Get Em Boy!
2 (The Moment Before) Everything Spoiled Again
3 Once More
4 At The Edge Of The Sea
5 Living And Learning
6 This Boy Can Wait
7 You Should Always Keep In Touch With Your Friends
8 Felicity
9 What Becomes Of The Broken Hearted?
10 Never Said
11 Every Mothers Son
12 My Favourite Dress

'George Best' is the debut album by The Wedding Present, originally released in 1987. Hugely anticipated, 'George Best' saw indie heroes The Wedding Present refine the blitzkrieg pop brilliance of the band's early singles into a nuanced styled that was distinctively theirs: heartbreak at the bus stop, set to the soundtrack of a million jangling guitars. 

TRACK LISTING

LP Tracklisting
Everyone Thinks He Looks Daft
What Did Your Last Servant Die Of?
Don't Be So Hard
A Million Miles
All This And More
My Favourite Dress
Shatner
Something And Nothing
It's What You Want That Matters
Give My Love To Kevin
Anyone Can Make A Mistake
You Can't Moan Can You?

CD Tracklisting
1 Everyone Thinks He Looks Daft
2 What Did Your Last Servant Die Of?
3 Don't Be So Hard
4 A Million Miles
5 All This And More
6 My Favourite Dress
7 Shatner
8 Something And Nothing
9 It's What You Want That Matters
10 Give My Love To Kevin
11 Anyone Can Make A Mistake
12 You Can't Moan Can You?
13 All About Eve
14 Getting Nowhere Fast
15 Nobody's Twisting Your Arm
16 Nothing Comes Easy
17 Don't Laugh
18 I'm Not Always So Stupid
19 Why Are You Being So Reasonable Now?
20 Not From Where I'm Standing
21 Give My Love To Kevin (Acoustic Version)
22 Getting Better
23 Pourquoi Es Tu Devenue Si Raisonnable?

Joan Wasser’s first ever career retrospective, spanning the first fifteen years of her remarkable musical output.

Includes new, rare and unreleased material alongside more than thirty of her most loved songs.

Includes two brand new recordings - ‘What A World’ and ‘Kiss’, a cover of the Prince classic and live favourite.

Features her best-loved songs ‘I Defy’ (featuring Antony), ‘To America’ (featuring Rufus Wainwright) and ‘Honor Wishes’ (featuring David Sylvian).

Released as a great value deluxe triple CD set including ‘Live At The BBC’. 

‘Live At The BBC’ presents a collection of songs recorded in session for BBC 6 Music.

TRACK LISTING

CD1
My Gurl
The Ride
Real Life
Eternal Flame
I Defy (ft Antony)
We Don’t Own It
Christobel
Honor Wishes (ft David
Sylvian)
Hard White Wall
Start Of My Heart
To America (ft Rufus
Wainwright)
To Be Lonely
The Magic
Human Condition
Run For Love
Forever And A Year

CD2
What A World
Flash
Whatever You Like
Holy City
Get Direct
Good Together
Your Song
Myrrhman (TALK TALK)
Broke Me In Two
Valid Jagger
Steed
Tell Me
Silly Me
Warning Bell
Kiss

CD3
‘Live At The BBC’
To Be Loved
Start Of My Heart
Human Condition
She Watch Channel Zero
Sacred Trickster
Holy City
The Classic
Magic Lamp
Let It Be You
The Silence
Damned Devotion
Steed

Live At The BBC’ presents a collection of songs recorded in session for BBC 6 Music.

TRACK LISTING

To Be Loved
Start Of My Heart
Human Condition
She Watch Channel Zero
Sacred Trickster
Holy City
The Classic
Magic Lamp
Let It Be You
The Silence
Damned Devotion
Steed

An electronica-infused alternative version of Editors’ acclaimed Top 10 album ‘Violence’, ‘The Blank Mass Sessions’ casts the songs in a bold new light, offering a fascinating insight into the album’s creative process.

The eight track album, made up of producer Blanck Mass’ original productions of ‘Violence’, also includes the brand new single ‘Barricades’.

For ‘Barricades’, Smith’s hopeful lyrics combine with yearning synths over robotic drum machines and sweeping basslines, while ‘Cold’ is given a frostier edge through Blanck Mass’ harsh percussion and robotic directness.

‘Violence’’s stripped back beat builds and erupts into a synth-fuelled chorus brim-full of busy drum patterns and ‘Magazine’s jaunty, sweeping synths and rolling snares lend it even more electronic swagger than the original.

‘Hallelujah (So Low)’ gifts the greatest insight into the triangular relationship ‘Violence’ was born from. The warmth of the album version’s acoustic guitar and industrial fuelled chorus are replaced with sparse, ethereal synths, giving the track and ‘The Blanck Mass Sessions’ in general, a mechanical, other-worldly edge.

TRACK LISTING

Barricades - The Blanck Mass Recording
Cold - The Blanck Mass recording
Hallelujah (So Low) - The Blanck Mass Recording
Violence - The Blanck Mass Recording
Darkness At The Door - the Blanck Mass recording
Nothingness - The Blanck Mass Recording
Magazine - The Blanck Mass Recording
Counting Spooks - The Blanck Mass Recording

After their initial eight-minute sonic rollercoaster ILL on Dan Carey’s Speedy Wunderground imprint and their subsequent debut album Means, Fews return with a brand new ten-track studio album, Into Red.

Following extensive touring throughout 2016-17, including two tour runs as special guests of Pixies, the Anglo-American-Swedish quartet retired to Malmö with the Swedish city’s underbelly providing the perfect environment for unfettered artistic endeavours and the subsequent album recording.

Co-produced by Joakim Lindberg (Hater) and mixed by James Dring ‘Into Red’ sees Fews extricating their influences to reveal a band assuredly moving on from the template of their debut album Means with a confident post-punk swagger and no little addition of muscular heft on the song-writing front.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Throbbing distorted basses and screeching, echoing reverbs work their way below the vocals, at times delivered monotonally a-la post-punk gloom, and in other moments with the acrobatic intensity shadowed by the beautiful soaring instrumentals and richly constructed backline. It's safe to say, Fews are here to stay.

TRACK LISTING

1. Quiet
2. Paradiso
3. More Than Ever
4. Suppose
5. Limits
6. Business Man
7. 97
8. Anything Else
9. Over
10. Fiction

Mushonga doesn’t follow a linear path. The artist’s music - a blend of Afropop, indie and electro flourishes - is informed by her own zigzagging life journey: Mushonga emigrated from Zimbabwe to the Netherlands, then to the diverse South London suburb of Peckham, where she now lives and works. Having read ‘Metamorphoses’ for the first time, Mushonga’s self-confessed ‘year of transformation’ ensued, drawing upon myriad ideas and personal experiences.

Full of reflections on the cosmos and our place within it, ‘In A Galaxy’ is the musical embodiment of these musings, whilst Mushonga also admits there’s more than a passing nod to the opening text on ‘Star Wars’ but on the whole refers to how relative space and time are in how we interact. Four years in the making, ‘In A Galaxy’ was recorded in Mushonga’s adopted home in Peckham with producer Brett Shaw, whilst having laid much of the foundations of the tracks together with musical bestie and synth whisperer Frans Verburg in his Rotterdam basement studio. The resultant cornucopia of intelligent, diverse pop - that Mushonga herself describes as sounding like “Paul Simon in a sweaty, African dancehall club” - is a welcome introduction to 2019.

TRACK LISTING

Pipe Dreamz
Good Vacation
For A Fool
In A Galaxy
Narcisc0
Tropix
Glory_
4qrtrs
AtalantA
Hey Coach
I Miss U So Much
Jungles

New album from the West-London trio, which sees them scaling new creative heights with re-energised confidence.

The writing and recording process took in both sides of the Atlantic, including a creative sojourn to Los Angeles where they worked on new material with old acquaintance Ed Buller - producer of two previous White Lies albums including the band’s chart-topping debut To Lose My Life.

Enlisting engineer James Brown (Arctic Monkeys, Foo Fighters), renowned producer Flood who can also be heard contributing synths and keys on a couple of tracks. Whilst eminent Grammy Award recipient Alan Moulder (Smashing Pumpkins, Nine Inch Nails, The Killers) having worked on the band’s first two albums returns to mix the album.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Alan Moulder's production couldn't have been a more perfect fit for white Lies' mildly gothic Interpol-esque swagger and heavy synthy undercurrent. Distorted guitars are offset with tender breakdowns and perfectly measured instrumental passages.

TRACK LISTING

1. Time To Give
2. Never Alone
3. Finish Line
4. Kick Me
5. Tokyo
6. Jo?
7. Denial
8. Believe It
9. Fire And Wings

Fourth album from the acclaimed Belgian quintet.

‘Fever’ follows the band’s self-imposed hiatus, a break that saw frontmen and writing partners Jinte Deprez and Maarten Devoldere pursuing different individual interests from both a personal and creative perspective that has ultimately led the band to fashion their most cohesive album to date.

On reconvening the band had no plans, just a simple desire to better their previous works and to further the band’s story. Both primary songwriters agreed on a less serious vision leaning towards a looser, refreshed sound - less melancholic but retaining their unerring ability to create a hookladen armoury.

TRACK LISTING

Fever
Changes
Wrong Faces
Whatchu Doin’
Phone Number
Entertainment
I’m Never Gonna Let You
Down Again
Grapefruit
Wrong Vibration
Roller Coaster
You’re So Real

From their inception in 1981, Australian duo Dead Can Dance have long been intrigued by European folk traditions, not solely in musical terms but also by secular, religious and the spiritual practises. Taking its inspiration from this backdrop and shaped as Brendan Perry explored the long and established spring and harvest festivals that originated from the Dionysus religious practices, a journey that brings to the fore, the rites and rituals that are still practised to the present day.

Two years in the making, Perry has amassed an array of folk instrumentation and as often heard on previous albums takes inspiration from across the world, tracks evolve less like songs more akin to fragments of the cohesive whole. Dionysus follows a familiar path, witness to field recordings, that includes chanting, beehives from New Zealand, bird calls from Latin America and a Swiss goatherd. The aim in Perry’s mind is to not just invoke the atmosphere and symbolic reference points but to highlight that music can be found everywhere in some form or other.

The album consists of two acts across seven movements that represent the different facets of the Dionysus myth and his cult and takes the musical form of an oratorio, which has informed both spiritual and secular pieces of music as far back in history as the early 16th century. Retaining a prevalent hold on contemporary paganism in Europe, the voices used on these movements are imagined as communities celebrating, in communion with each other at times, chanting and call and response – the various voices are present to convey emotion beyond the boundaries of language itself.

Although taking its main inspiration from the Dionysus story, the album’s artwork resonates with links to rituals depicting a mask made by the Huizhou of the Sierra Madre Mountains in Mexico – famed for their beadwork and yarn paintings, whilst also partaking in peyote as a sacred rite and ritual for the purposes of healing and mind expansion – this is at heart of Dionysus, a celebration of not just humanity but humanity working hand in hand with nature with respect and appreciation.

TRACK LISTING

ACT 1
1. Sea Borne
2. Liberator Of Minds
3. Dance Of The Bacchantes

ACT II
4. The Mountains
5. The Invocation
6. The Forest
7. Psychopomp

Third album from Soap&Skin, the working moniker for the Austrian musician and producer Anja Plaschg. Her first record in six years.

The album belatedly follows the release of ‘Lovetune For Vacuum’ in 2009 and 2012’s ‘Narrow’ (an Austrian No 1) but in that time in between the artist has been busy, not least with the birth of her daughter and subsequent motherhood but as well with many other creative works such as composing for theatre and film productions, as well as film acting.

Encompassing a range of musical allegiances, the album is infused with tranquil electronica, militaristic percussion, whilst coupled with choral ambience and earthy ethereal grandeur. This is an expansive, stunning, wide-reaching piece of dynamic beauty.

Recorded mainly at her home in a quiet leafy corner of Vienna, the album is not only self-produced but selfplayed.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Encompassing the beautiful, softly spoken vocals of Rozi Plain or Icelandic electronic genius' Múm, Soap & Skin tread a fine line between choral ambience and soaring modern-classical, often within the space of a minute or two. A bogglingly competant, and ridiculously diverse smörgåsbord of sound.

TRACK LISTING

This Day
Athom
Italy
(This Is) Water
Surrounded
Creep
Heal
Foot Chamber
Safe With Me
Falling
Palindrome
What A Wonderful World

INITIAL COPIES COME WITH A FREE SIGNED ART PRINT.

Album VI from the British indie-rock 5-piece.

TRACK LISTING

1. Cold
2. Hallelujah (So Low)
3. Violence
4. Darkness At The Door
5. Nothingness
6. Magazine
7. No Sound But The Wind
8. Counting Spooks
9. Belong

The long forgotten yet seminal work of Basement 5 on CD for the first time in years. The CD includes both ‘1965 - 1980’ and ‘In Dub’, with rare and unseen images and quotes. The albums were produced by sonic alchemist Martin Hannett. ‘In Dub’ is the companion piece to the classic ‘1965 - 1980’.

Partly formed out of the Art Department of London's Island Records HQ in 1978, Basement 5 were an innovative and highly original black post punk group who created a kind of politically charged, futurist dub. Their lyrics were an attempt to reflect the situation of young people in Britain in the era of Thatcherism, high unemployment, strikes, racism and working class poverty. The seething resentment, dub noise and sheet metal riffage was welded into a mighty sound by Hannett that stands the test of time.

In an unparalleled age of crate digging and reissue programs, Basement 5 is one of the few remaining great untold stories of its time. CD out of print for 20 years.

“You have to play it very loud to enjoy it fully. It was the most difficult production, I must say, the heaviest. It was eighteen degrees in the shade, the end of August. As I recall it has been the most physical album that I’ve ever done. Made me feel like I’d been carrying bricks around. Heavy work. Putting the bass lines in the right place. But it was good.” - Martin Hannett, 1981

CD also includes 12 page booklet featuring rare and unseen images.

Partly formed out of the Art Department of London's Island Records HQ in 1978, Basement 5 were an innovative and highly original black post punk group who created a kind of politically charged, futurist dub. Their lyrics were an attempt to reflect the situation of young people in Britain in the era of Thatcherism, high unemployment, strikes, racism and working class poverty. The seething resentment, dub noise and sheet metal riffage was welded into a mighty sound by Hannett that stands the test of time.

In an unparalleled age of crate digging and reissue programs, Basement 5 is one of the few remaining great untold stories of its time. Vinyl has been out of print for over 30 years. 

“You have to play it very loud to enjoy it fully. It was the most difficult production, I must say, the heaviest. It was eighteen degrees in the shade, the end of August. As I recall it has been the most physical album that I’ve ever done. Made me feel like I’d been carrying bricks around. Heavy work. Putting the bass lines in the right place. But it was good.” - Martin Hannett, 1981

Témé Tan, the musical alias of multi-instrumentalist and producer Tanguy Haesevoets. Travelling is in his blood - born in the Democratic Republic of Congo, his family were constantly back and forth between Belgium and Kinshasa - something which is effortlessly reflected and at the heart of his debut long-player which is both ultra modern, reflecting the life of a man who can feel at home on four continents, and shot through with a deep respect for older traditions and identities. He grew up surrounded by the zouk and rumba music of his Congolese relatives, but it was in Brussels, while at school, that he started to make music and where it became clear he was possessed of some serious determination, and an unquenchable thirst to learn. Though he'd never played any instruments before his first band, he taught himself guitar because he'd fallen in love with Brazilian bossanova and tropicalia – unique and complex sounds both - and started learning to tap out rhythms on an MPC sampler because he wasn't hearing the beats that he wanted anywhere else. During this period of experimentation, people would call his tracks 'world music', which he felt very strange about. He was always happy to consider himself African ('that's where half of my origins are') yet in Congo he was perceived as white and European, so there was no easy identity for him. But as he travelled the globe during his studies - Latin America including Brazil, Japan, where he got deeply into sophisticated Japanese electronic pop by artists like Cornelius and Tujiko Noriko - he would discover a musical identity more complex than even his origins might have suggested. It was the release of a new Konono n°1 on Crammed Discs that eventually tied all the musical threads together. 'It spoke to me so much because of growing up in Congo, I was truly overwhelmed by that 'Congotronic' sound,' he explained. It was at this point that things came full circle, and all the influences from his world travels - whether 1990s rap on the Belgian radio, 1960s Brazilian grooves, 2000s Japanese experimentalism or modern bands like Animal Collective and cLOUDDEAD - connected to his very earliest musical memories, and he began to conceive of a clear voice and identity for himself among all of these sounds and strands. It was here that the name Témé Tan was first coined by his Japanese friends.

Happy now that there is a climate where acts like Jai Paul, Mo Kolours and El Guincho can unselonsciously join cultural dots without being branded 'world music'. He may have found a creative space for himself built on all the phases of his life, and all the nations and cultures he's experienced, but it's clear Témé Tan has only just begun learning and expanding.

Ghostpoet announces his return with the release of his fourth album ‘Dark Days + Canapés’ on Play It Again Sam. ‘Dark Days + Canapés’ is Ghostpoet's most defining album to date. A stunning and stimulating return, ‘Dark Days + Canapés’ is a record that captures the sense of unease felt by so many in recent times. After receiving recognition for the beat-driven arrangements of his first two albums, third album ‘Shedding Skin’ initiated a more alt-rock sound that saw Ghostpoet Mercury nominated for a second time. Produced by Leo Abrahams, best known for his work with Brian Eno and Jon Hopkins, delves even further into a fuller, guitar driven sound.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Grooving instrumental melodies meet with Obaro Ejimiwe's trademark rhythmic drawl, darkened funky jams, slowed down through a haze of reverb while groaning saturated samples morph into hypnotic rock abstractions. Urban improv jams break into hazy psychedelic grooves, which slow into eastern-influenced opium-den throbs and guitar trills. A welcome, and outstanding return for Ghostpoet.

TRACK LISTING

One More Sip
Many Moods At Midnight
Trouble + Me
(We’re) Dominoes
Freakshow
Dopamine If I Do
Live>Leave
Karoshi
Blind As A Bat…
Immigrant Boogie
Woe Is Meee
End Times

Danish art rock outfit Mew release their seventh album ‘Visuals’ through Play It Again Sam.

Unlike previous albums, ‘Visuals’ arrives fairly quickly on the back of 2015’s ‘+-’. Recorded and self-produced in Copenhagen, ‘Visuals’ was completed in under a year and sees Mew at their most concise, each song representing its own little chapter and narrative.

The first taste of the album comes in the shape of the mesmerising intricacies of the album’s finale ‘Carry Me To Safety’ and the first single ‘85 Videos’ - which from the outset exudes a familiar expansive backdrop, lush instrumentation coupled with rousing vocals, euphoric pop brilliance that is part of Mew’s DNA.

Combining influences from bands such as The Cure, Slowdive, Smashing Pumpkins and The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, Newmoon’s debut ‘Space’ is an album driven by melancholic, distorted guitars.

Through all the feedback and noise the band never lose sight of melody and clarity, creating an album that is both heavy and catchy at the same time.

For fans of My Bloody Valentine, Smashing Pumpkins, Nothing, The Cure.

“Ethereal intrigue & deeply delved audio dimensions.” - Impose Magazine

“A powerful aural assault” - The 405

“Lush textures allied to grinding tempos and almost industrial swathes of noise.” - Clash

TRACK LISTING

Helium
Head Of Stone
Life In The Sun
Skin
Coma
Everything Is
Hi
One Thousand
Liberate The World

Highly anticipated stunning third album from Danish born singersongwriter Agnes Obel, the follow up to her UK breakthrough record ‘Aventine’.

Recorded, mixed and produced by Obel in Berlin, where she currently resides, ‘Citizen Of Glass’ is a work of haunting beauty and an expansion of Obel’s mesmerising world.

The title surfaced in Obel’s mind while touring ‘Aventine’ and, inspired by modern composers, the album conceptually and thematically revolves around the leitmotif of transparency.

On this record Obel experiments with her vocals in inventive new ways, in order to manipulate them into alternative versions of her own voice, as can be heard on first single ‘Familiar’.

Obel also incorporates a number of different instruments, such as the Trautonium (an extremely rare instrument that possesses a glistening, glass-like sound), alongside vibraphone, cembalo, cellos and more.

STAFF COMMENTS

Martin says: Agnes Obel has a voice so exquisite, pure and crystalline it seems as if it might shatter into a thousand beautiful shards at any moment. Up until this release it has been given plenty of room by a simple, beautiful debussy/jazz inspired piano accompaniment; but while 'Citizen Of Glass' does share the same sparse framework, it is lent added texture and depth by the addition of rare and unusual instruments, again applied with sparing delicacy to frame, rather than intrude on Obel's beautiful intonation.

TRACK LISTING

Stretch Your Eyes
Familiar
Red Virgin Soil
It’s Happening Again
Stone
Trojan Horses
Citizen Of Glass
Golden Green
Grasshopper
Mary

Sophomore ‘post reunion’ album from the alt-rock four piece, their first new music since 2014’s Indie Cindy. 

This 12 track record showcases the band’s unique mixture of surrealism, psychedelia, dissonance + surf rock. 

Produced by Tom Dalgety (Royal Blood, Killing Joke) and recorded at London’s Rak Studios.

Paz Lenchantin, the band’s touring bassist since early 2014 (and previously a member of A Perfect Circle and Zwan amongst others) is now a permanent member of the band and her cool vocals can be heard on the album, most notably on ‘All I Think About Now’ on which she takes the lead. 

All artwork designed by renowned graphic artist Vaughan Oliver at V23

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: The Pixies are back! Songs like 'Classic Masher' show a much more melodic leaning, harmonied chorus' and repeated one-note guitar squeals over Black's trademark vocals. 'Talent' is a moody and rocking punk number, driven and aggressive guitars power through their three-chord foundations while 'All I Think About Now' is sung exclusively by Paz Lenchantin (One time Corgan affiliate and one third of A Perfect Circle) and is instantly reminiscent of the early energy and vocal stylings of Surfer Rosa or Doolittle. A brilliant (second) comeback, and a great sign for the future.

TRACK LISTING

1. Head Carrier
2. Classic Masher
3. Baal’s Back
4. Might As Well Be Gone
5. Oona
6. Talent
7. Tenement Song
8. Bel Esprit
9. All I Think About Now
10. Um Chagga Lagga
11. Plaster Of Paris
12. All The Saints

‘Take Her Up To Monto’ is the follow up to Róisín’s critically acclaimed Mercury Prize nominated album ‘Hairless Toys’ and is billed as her most daring and creative yet.

Never an artist to stand still, ‘Monto’ features everything Murphy has always done but seen afresh, boasting disco fancy, dark cabaret, the sonorities of classic house and electronica and the joy and heartbreak of pure pop drama resulting in her most magnificent song structures so far.

The follow on from Roisin’s Mercury Prize nominated ‘Hairless Toys’ album last year, Róisín is at her most creative peak yet.

Released on embossed CD / double LP with digital download.

Swedish / American four-piece FEWS have been making some serious waves ahead of their debut album. Specialising in propulsive, motoric noise-pop, producer Dan Carey (Bat For Lashes, Sexwitch, TOY, Kate Tempest et all) discovered the band via a mysterious Soundcloud link and promptly invited the band to his South London studio where debut single ‘Ill’ quickly followed on Carey’s Speedy Wunderground label.

Having joined the ranks of the Play It Again Sam label their own brand of malevolent post-punk continues to evolve and thrill with follow up singles ‘The Zoo’ and ‘100 Goosebumps’ that has seen the band bear resemblance to DIIV and Faust.

“Sonically charged post-punk that’s equal parts Interpol, DIIV, The Walkmen and A Place To Bury Strangers. Anthems for the disaffected in waiting” - Drowned in Sound

Of Good Grief, vocalist Jess Wolfe says, “When we started writing for this record, we had been away from home for nearly two years. We had just returned from tour, having gone through such varied emotions—loneliness, sadness and exhaustion alongside excitement, fulfilment and some of the most joyful moments in our lives…Whenever one of us had an idea or a feeling, the other was already a witness to it and could help navigate through it—for the two of us, this usually came in song form.” Vocalist Holly Laessig adds, “…When considering titles, we wanted to be sure to acknowledge any serious subject matter, while simultaneously allowing ourselves a comic sigh of relief from any personal turmoil. Ha! The yin and yang of the record naturally unveiled itself and, so, Good Grief.”

Good Grief was produced by Shawn Everett (Weezer and The Alabama Shakes) and Lucius with Bob Ezrin (Alice Cooper, Kiss and Pink Floyd). The album was mixed by Tom Elmhirst (Adele and Beck). The new music follows the band’s critically acclaimed debut album, Wildewoman, The New York Times praised the record for its “luscious, luminous, lilting lullabies,” and the album was incorporated in various 2013 year end lists including, Rolling Stone, NPR and Paste.

The band is lead by its co-founders and vocalists Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig accompanied by multi-instrumentalists Andrew Burri, Peter Lalish and Dan Molad. Wolfe and Laessig met in 2005 while attending Berklee College of Music. Since forming, Lucius has toured extensively, playing headline shows worldwide, as well as major festival appearances including Reading and Leeds, Bonnaroo, End Of the Road, Lollapalooza, Pukklepop and Rock En Seine.

TRACK LISTING

1 Madness
2 Something About You
3 What We Have (To Change)
4 My Heart Got Caught On Your Sleeve
5 Almost Makes Me Wish For Rain
6 Gone Insane
7 Truce
8 Almighty Gosh
9 Born Again Teen
10 Better Look Back
11 Dusty Trails

Bonus Tracks Available With LP Download Only.
Strangers
You Were On My Mind
My Heart Got Caught On Your Sleeve (Demo)
Dusty Trails (Demo)
Better Look Back (Demo)
Let’s Dance

Fews mark their return with details of a new track and a new label. The band, last spotted wowing London’s Brixton Windmill as part of the Speedy Wundergound annual Summer shindig are pleased to announce that they have signed to Play It Again Sam. The first fruits of this new partnership arrives in the form of new single ‘The Zoo’.

Summer 2015; the Swedish / American four-piece unleashed their eight minute motorik-induced debut single ‘ILL’ courtesy of Dan Carey’s Speedy Wunderground, bringing them to the attention of more than a handful of parties, securing numerous Track Of The Week accolades along the way. The band’s DIY stance led them to Carey via an anonymous Soundcloud link which, in turn, had him hailing Fews as one of his favourite artists of the year and will see him overseeing the band’s debut album.

No less ambitious than its predecessor, ‘The Zoo’ rolls in at more conservative three and half minutes, unmasking a postpunk lineage conversing head on with more recent like-minded musical contemporaries.

‘The Zoo’, a fervent salvo of dark, brooding greatness that sees Fews continue their foray forwards heralding the arrival of their debut album in the first half of 2016. Carey assumes the role of the mad professor; subtle bleeps and codes punctuate the production, initiating their call to action.

Concrete Love - Extra Love features the original eleven track LP plus a nine-track bonus disc that features the brand new single alongside three rare EP tracks and previously unreleased acoustic versions of five Concrete Love tracks.

Following the surprise release of their first new music in two years via a secretive placing of ‘No Harm’ on a Play It Again Sam label sampler and a further taster in the form of the seven plus minutes ‘Marching Orders’ which saw 300 test pressings donated to Oxfam for sale in their stores around the globe, Editors release their fifth studio album, ‘In Dream’.

Recorded in Crear in the Western Highlands by the band, and mixed in London by Alan Moulder, ‘In Dream’ is the second album to feature the ‘new’ line-up of the band with Justin Lockey and Elliott Williams firmly in place alongside founding members Tom Smith, Russell Leetch and Ed Lay. After two years of global touring this five piece incarnation used the new album to stretch the Editors sound, swerving away from the rock dynamic of ‘The Weight Of Your Love’ and marking a return to a writing process influenced by electronic music that draws a line from their debut album through to prominence on the band’s third album, the UK Number One ‘In This Light And On This Evening’.

‘In Dream’ is an album created without preconception. The initial visit to Crear, an isolated artist’s retreat 8 miles from the nearest town down dirt track roads was envisaged as a writing and demoing exercise but sessions bloomed within the stunning live room (with floor to ceiling windows framing the Atlantic) and it soon became apparent that the recordings were staking a claim as finished works.

At the centre of ‘In Dream’ is a belief in collaboration. Thus the album was produced by all band members in an open studio environment, nowhere within Crear was cut off from the music being performed and recorded in the creative space. Downtime was soundtracked by a varied playlist that stretched from Todd Terje to 80’s Robert Palmer, John Grant to the Despacio three hour club mix.

‘In Dream’ is the first Editors album to feature duets, Slowdive’s Rachel Goswell sharing vocal duties on ‘Ocean Of Night’, ‘The Law’ and ‘At All Cost’ and is an album focused on allowing artistic interpretations outside of the band to flourish; Alan Moulder was left to mix the tracks without any band involvement whilst visual collaborator Rahi Rezvani has been given carte blanche with the photography and videography that will accompany the album and its attendant singles. It is a bold and expansive statement and is driven by, according to Tom Smith, a belief that music can be ‘both pop and experimental’.

Third full length from Oklahoma-turned-Portland trio Other Lives, their most lush, layered and striking musical creation to date.

‘Rituals’ reflects the change in location, the spontaneity of travel and feelings of isolation.

Produced by Jesse Tabish and Jonathon Mooney from the band with Joey Waronker (Eels, Atoms For Peace, Beck).

For fans of The Antlers, The War On Drugs, Interpol, Grizzly Bear.

Danish art rock outfit Mew announce a welcome return with their sixth studio album ‘+-’ (pronounced ‘plus minus’). 

Recorded in Copenhagen alongside producer Michael Beinhorn (Hole, Marilyn Manson), ‘+ -’ is skewed pop sensibility coupled with an ever expansive musical backdrop, denoting the extremities of the band’s creative DNA and showing once more a band treading their own unique path. 

Guest contributors include Bloc Party guitarist Russell Lissack.

For fans of Sigur Ros, Wild Beasts, M83, Radiohead, Arcade Fire.

TRACK LISTING

Satellites
Witness
The Night Believer
Making Friends
Clinging To A Bad Dream
My Complications
Water Slides
Interview The Girls
Rows
Cross The River On Your Own

Bonus CD 
Coffee Break (Live)
Satellites (Live)
She Spider (Live)
Hawaii (Live)
My Complications (Live)
Silas The Magic Car (Live)
Water Slides
Cross The River On Your Own (Live)
Special (Live)
The Zookeeper’s Boy (Live)

The stunning follow-up to 2012’s ‘Lonesome Dreams’, recorded at the band’s own Whispering Pines Studio in deepest LA.

For fans of The War On Drugs, Deerhunter, Wilco, Jack White, Fleet Foxes.

Ghostpoet is pleased to announce his forthcoming album ‘Shedding Skin’.

The first fruits of the album, the track ‘Off Peak Dreams’ has already been premiered on Zane Lowe’s Radio One show and sees Ghostpoet, London-based Obaro Ejimiwe moving on from the cathartic musings of 2013’s ‘Some Say I So I Say Light’ album.

‘Shedding Skin’ is the manifestation of a new challenge of fresh thinking and a brave confident stride into previously uncharted waters. Ten songs that embrace, unite and narrate observations that are designed to sit beside each other through bright peaks and dark shallows.

Unlike his previous albums, ‘Shedding Skin’ was recorded with a traditional live set up with what has become his touring band; Joe Newman on guitar, bass player John Calvert and John Blease on drums.

The self-produced album also features guest vocals from Nadine Shah, Etta Bond, Melanie De Biasio, Lucy Rose and Maxïmo Park’s Paul Smith, amounting in a collection that sets a new precedent as his very best work yet.

TRACK LISTING

Off Peak Dreams
X Marks The Spot
Be Right Back, Moving House
Shedding Skin
Yes, I Helped You Pack
That Ring Down The Drain Kind Of Feeling
Sorry My Love, It's You Not Me
Better Not Butter
The Pleasure In Pleather
Nothing In The Way

Melanie De Biasio received the Best Session Award at the 10th Worldwide Awards, which took place recently in London. The award is for De Biasio’s stunning 2014 live session on Gilles Peterson’s BBC 6Music show.

A huge fan of the Belgian singer, Peterson has curated a new remix version of her acclaimed album ‘No Deal’. He called upon some of the most exciting names across the jazz, electronic and indie worlds for ‘No Deal Remixed’, including EELS, The Cinematic Orchestra, Hex and Seven Davis Jr.

Says Peterson; “To my mind, of all the new artists around, the most remix friendly has to be Melanie De Biasio. For a person like me with a DJ mind, the minimalism of ‘No Deal’ makes it perfect. I’ve been dropping ‘I Feel You’ on top of beats anyway and even played ‘I’m Gonna Leave You’ in its original form when the moment arose - it’s such a pure track. In fact the first thing I did on meeting Melanie for the first time this year was to ask her who produced the album. It was me she replied... so not just a pretty voice!”

TRACK LISTING

I Feel You (EELS Remix)
The Flow (Hex Remix)
No Deal (Seven Davis Jr Remix)
With Love / Sweet Darling Pain (Gilles Peterson & Sinbad Remix)
Sweet Darling Pain (Chassol Remix)
I’m Gonna Leave You (Clap! Clap! Remix)
With All My Love (Jonwayne Remix)
I’m Gonna Leave You (The Cinematic Orchestra Remix)

Following on from Dury’s acclaimed 2010 album ‘Happy Soup’, ‘It’s A Pleasure’ is a series of conflicted emotions, stark drum beats, comic vignettes and strung out synths coming together to present one man’s wry take on the battle with existence. It’s metaphysics meets morose disco.

TRACK LISTING

1. Pleasure
2. Palm Trees
3. Other Men's Girls
4. Police
5. Lips
6. Whispered
7. Petals
8. White Men
9. Wintery Kisses
10. Babies

'No Deal' is the new album from Melanie de Biasio. Album of the week recently on Gilles Peterson’s BBC 6 Music show, 'No Deal' has already achieved Gold status in her native Belgium, and is approaching Silver in France.

Originally from Charleroi and currently based in Brussels, De Biasio is a classically trained flautist and the possessor of an extraordinary voice - she has been called the Belgian Billie Holiday. The minimalist, semi-improvised 'No Deal' will reward any music-lover willing to take the time to immerse themselves in its subtle splendour. The album should appeal to fans of late-period Talk Talk, who’s Mark Hollis is a huge figure for De Biasio. She also cites Frank Zappa and Pink Floyd as formative influences, plus Nina Simone and Abbey Lincoln, two icons of the civic rights fight and spokeswomen of an aggressive jazz stripped of any affectation.

'No Deal' comes in at 33 and a third minutes and contains just seven songs, through which De Biasio’s voice drifts gracefully, at times disappearing altogether. With Pascal Paulus on keyboards, Pascal Mohy on piano, and Dre Pallemaerts on drums, De Biasio has streamlined everything to give more space to her extraordinary vocals. There is a natural flow to the album, from the intimate beginnings of 'I Feel You' to the farewell note of 'With All My Love'. The final song intimates the reconciliatory, redemptive powers of song, the calm after the storm, yet bristling with emotion, a ‘frisson‘, as they say in French. Rarely has a record unfurled as many dark beauties and hidden luminescence, speaking a thousand musical languages while remaining completely accessible.

The follow up to Manchester songbird Liz Green’s rapturously received debut ‘O, Devotion!’ (2011).

Recorded at London’s legendary Toe Rag Studio with producer Liam Watson, Liz’s sophomore album displays a wonderful array of sounds and styles, from the ‘drone-blues’ of ‘Battle’ to the sea shantyinfluenced title track.

In a departure from its predecessor, ‘Haul Away!’ sees Liz bringing the piano to the forefront, influenced by such artists as Thelonius Monk and Nina Simone.

Artwork designed and conceived by Liz herself, including the iconic cover image.

Includes self-styled single and ‘wonky circus tune’ ‘Where The River Don’t Flow’, a jaunty dance of life and death.

TRACK LISTING

Battle
Haul Away!
Rybka
River Runs Deep
Where The River Don’t Flow
Empty Handed Blues
Into My Arms
Island Song
Little I
Penelope
Bikya

Double A-side single pressed on white 7” vinyl and limited to 385 copies for the UK.

First single to be taken from ‘Haul Away!’, the follow up to Liz Green’s rapturously received debut ‘O, Devotion!’ (2011).

Recorded at London’s legendary Toe Rag Studio with producer Liam Watson.

Artwork designed by Liz herself.

‘Rybka’ translates as ‘little fish’ in Polish, and that’s precisely what the song is about, says Liz: “the little fish getting lost in the big pond. A boy who tries to do right but always seems to end up on the wrong side of the glass.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Laura says: Two wonderful tracks from Liz Green, ahead of her new album. Title track Rybka's swaying, clarinet led rhythm provides the perfect accompaniment to her distinctive, dramatic voice. Lovely stuff.

TRACK LISTING

Rybka
Where The River Don’t Flow

Fourth original album from New York’s dazzlingly original Joan Wasser aka Joan As Police Woman, the follow up to 2011’s critically acclaimed ‘The Deep Field’.

Features fellow New Yorkers Reggie Watts and Joseph Arthur, most notably on the album’s joyful doo-wop accapella title track.

Watts can also be heard scatting at the end of ‘The Classic’s lead single ‘Holy City’, a Motown influenced number inspired by new love and a trip to Jerusalem.

Elsewhere on the album other ‘classic’ influences are audible, such as the Barry White-esque sensuality of ‘Good Together’ and the gentle reggae of album closer ‘Ask Me’.

‘Aventine’ is the second album release from Berlin-based Danish phenomenon Agnes Obel, the follow up to her critically acclaimed debut ‘Philharmonics’ of 2010 which has sold close to 500,000 worldwide since release.

Originally from Copenhagen, Agnes has lived in Berlin since 2006, where ‘Aventine’ was recorded at her Chalk Wood Studios between January and May 2013.

Like ‘Philharmonics’, the new album was written, arranged, and produced by Agnes, who provides piano and vocals. The album features a small ensemble including cellist Anne Müller, who has also played with Nils Frahm, along with Mika Posen of Timber Timbre playing the violin and viola on ‘The Curse’, ‘Pass Them By’ and ‘Fivefold’. Robert Kondorossi of Budzillus plays guitar on ‘Pass Them By’.

Building on the sonic template of her debut, ‘Aventine’ is a deeper and darker (though none the less elegantly sublime) affair, with songs of genuine heart stopping beauty in the likes of first single ‘The Curse’, ‘Dorian’ and ‘Fuel To Fire’.

The second single from Editors fourth album ‘The Weight Of Your Love’ sees the band returning to the familiar terrain the band’s myriad fans know and love with an edgy, anti-love song with a soaring chorus.

Already a live favourite, standing shoulder to shoulder with the band’s bonafide hits like ‘Munich’, ‘Papillon’ and ‘Smokers Outside The Hospital Doors’, ‘Formaldehyde’ has been singled out in album reviews as a stand-out from the album, and an obvious choice for a single to take to radio.

‘The Weight Of Your Love’ entered the UK album charts at No 6 in the UK and, 5 weeks on, still holds a Top 75 position. Having lost founding member Chris Urbanowicz and in the process nearly packing it all in before gaining two new members, the new album is, in some ways, a transitional record, with the band reborn, shackles off, making their most ambitious music to date.

The single is backed with an unreleased acoustic version of the band’s opening single from the album, ‘A Ton Of Love’.

The 7” is limited to just 200 copies in the UK and Eire.

TRACK LISTING

Formaldehyde
A Ton Of Love (Acoustic)

Dead Can Dance release ‘In Concert’, a document of their tour for the ‘Anastasis’ album, released through [PIAS] Recordings.

Originally released last August, ‘Anastasis’ is Dead Can Dance’s first album since 1996’s ‘Spiritchaser’, and has sold over 150,000 copies worldwide.

“I would say without hesitation that this has been the most rewarding tour that we have ever undertaken,” notes Brendan Perry. “On one level it has been an absolute pleasure to perform in such beautiful locations with such a wonderful band and crew, but also to be able to connect on a personal level with the many devoted admirers of our art both old and new. It would seem in our case absence has certainly made the heart grow fonder and it has been an absolute joy to be given the opportunity to be able to share our music in the ultimate setting of the living work.”

Balthazar are the brainchild of songwriters Maarten Devoldere and Jinte Deprez. Meeting as teenage buskers, the two embarked on a whirlwind writing partnership that led to the quick formation of the band and initial acclaim in mainland Europe. Resisting the temptation to cash in on that wave of interest, Balthazar took the best part of five years to record their debut album, experimenting with different genres and approaches until they were sure that they had the sound they were looking for.

With ‘Rats’, that sound has been honed to a focus on melody and subtlety, avoiding the current fashion for bombast to create songs that burst forth in horns or sweep by on strings, underpinned with delicate rhythms that draw on both the pair’s love of the work of Serge Gainsbourg and Leonard Cohen and the hip hop production of the likes of Dangermouse.

TRACK LISTING

Oldest Of Sisters
Sinking Ship
Later
Joker's Son
The Man Who Owns The
Place
Lion’s Mouth (Daniel)
Do Not Claim Them
Anymore
Listen Up
Any Suggestion
Sides

The Middle East’s highly anticipated debut album, the follow up to their critically acclaimed ‘Blood’ EP.

Features "Jesus Came To My Birthday Party" and "Hunger Song".

Agnes is a Danish singer, songwriter and musician. She began playing the piano when she was a child and in her late teens she founded the Copenhagen based band, Sohio, together with the Danish musician and producer Elton Theander. The two worked together for several years but nowadays she writes, plays, sings, records and produces her material on her own.

Feeling musically related to Roy Orbison, Agnes currently lives in Berlin and possesses the rare gift of a songbird’s voice, bringing to mind Ane Brun, Joanna Newsom or even Ricki Lee Jones.

STAFF COMMENTS

Darryl says: Beautiful and delicate piano led folk from this Danish starlet. The arrangements are kept simple and minimal allowing her amazing vox to take centre stage.

TRACK LISTING

1. Falling Catching
2. Riverside
3. Brother Sparrow
4. Just So
5. Beast
6. Louretta
7. Avenue
8. Philharmonics
9. Close Watch
10. Wallflower
11. Over The Hill
12. On Powdered Ground

Tim Robbins, Oscar winning actor, director and writer, releases his debut album.

Produced by the legendary Hal Willner, the album features a host of world class musicians, including Kate St John, Leo Abrahams, Roger Eno and Rory McFarlane, amongst others.

TRACK LISTING

1. Book Of Josie
2. You’re My Dare
3. Dreams
4. Time To Kill
5. Toledo Girl
6. Queen Of Dreams
7. Crush On You
8. Moment In The Sun
9. Lightning Calls

Only a very small handful of DJs and producers have the ability to transcend all styles and genres, rising above fleeting trends and cliques creating their very own sonic landscapes. Laurent Garnier is one such producer. His latest opus "Tales Of A Kleptomaniac" pushes his already vast musical boundaries further than ever before, showcasing a devilish diversity that has made him one of dance music's greatest assets. From the album's opening track, Laurent takes no prisoners with block party chants, handclaps, thundering 808s, lilting horns, screaming guitars, cut-up vocals, tribal percussion, film noir soundtrack vibes, huge drums, crushing bass and laidback twisted jazz flavours.

One of the most acclaimed films in the Cannes Film Festival, 'Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait' is Turner Prize winner Douglas Gordon's and Philippe Parreno's sensational cinematic portrait of the world famous French football hero Zinédine Zidane. The soundtrack was written and produced especially by Mogwai after the release of the "Mr Beast" album and the music is by turns moving, evocative and perfectly suited to the film – it has been singled out for praise time and again by critics and cinema goers the world over and finds Mogwai in a more contemplative mood than usual and quite possibly making a record that could appeal to a whole new raft of people that would usually be scared off by some of the heavier songs in their arsenal.

TRACK LISTING

1. Black Spider
2. Terrific Speech 2
3. Wake Up And Go Berserk
4. Terrific Speech
5. 7:25
6. Half Time
7. I Do Have Weapons
8. Time And A Half
9. It Would Have Happened Anyway
10. Black Spider 2

"Mr Beast" is the band's fifth album and the follow-up to 2003's "Happy Songs For Happy People" and was recorded in the band's new Castle Of Doom studio in Glasgow. As the title suggests, this is a record of considerable size and weight - a monster creation that started out as a return to the heady, bone-crushing volume and intensity of earlier recordings, and then mutated into a many headed, many mooded beast. It opens with "Auto Rock" - whose sweetly melancholic, central piano motif is gradually engulfed by a swell of fulsome guitars and pummelling drum beats - and closes with lurching, psych-rock behemoth "We're No Here". In between are eight future Mogwai classics, including the heads-down "Glasgow Mega-Snake", where what must surely be a dozen guitars swarm around a molten metal core like crazed killer bees, the drum machine-driven country gospel of "Acid Food", which features pedal-steel guitar, the wintry splendour of "Friend Of The Night" and the impossibly poignant "I Chose Horses", featuring guest vocalist Tetsuya Fukagawa (of Japanese hardcore band Envy) and a keyboard contribution from composer/arranger Craig Armstrong. Whether light and lean or dark and monstrous, however, these songs underline Mogwai's belief that to have meaning, rock needs both mass and monumentality. If "Mr Beast" has one thing, it's presence.

TRACK LISTING

1. Auto Rock
2. Glasgow Mega Snake
3. Acid Food
4. Travel Is Dangerous
5. Team Handed
6. Friend Of The Night
7. Emergency Trap
8. Folk Death 95
9. I Chose Horses
10. We're No Here

"Paradisiac" is a beast of a record with nods to the hardcore (rock) sounds of Seattle, Texas and NYC but with a heart all its own and an underlying groove that's very Millionaire. Produced by Josh Homme, the record is as you would expect, punchy, very direct and has been compared favourably with QOTSA.

Soulwax are back with their second studio album, following up their phenomenal "2 Many DJs" mash up CD, which went on to sell 148k copies in the UK, by word of mouth alone! "Any Minute Now" is a collision of fierce rock guitar riffing (Kerrang are big fans) and electro rhythms, with tracks swinging between the rock element and the electroclash element. Play loud!

Fourth album from Glasgow cosmic post-rock band, following 2001's "Rock Action". Expanding on that album's more melodicsound rather than the loudness of their "My Father My King" EP, this record is subtler, more expansive and organic than anything they have done. It is modestly described on the band's website as 'forty one minutes fifty seconds of total unadulterated brilliance'.

TRACK LISTING

1. Hunted By A Freak 
2. Moses? I Amnt
3. Kids Will Be Skeletons
4. Killing All The Flies
5. Boring Machines Disturbs Sleep 
6. Ratts Of The Capital
7. Golden Porsche 
8. I Know You Are But What Am I?
9. Stop Coming To My House