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PHOENIX

Phoenix

Ti Amo - 2024 Reissue

    Ti Amo was Grammy-winning French act Phoenix's follow up to 2013's critically lauded Bankrupt! Produced by the band and recorded at La Gaîté Lyrique (Paris) with the help of long time collaborator Pierrick Devin, the band describes Ti Amo as "an album about simple pure emotions: love, desire, lust and innocence, it's also a record about our European, Latin roots, a fantasized version of Italy: a lost paradise made of eternal Roman summers (hyper-light, hyper-clarity, pistachio gelato), juke-boxes on the beach, Monica Vitti and Marcello Mastroiani, fearless desire and Antique marble statues." The New York Times calls Ti Amo "the band's most unabashedly romantic record yet" and it's ushered in by lead single "J-Boy," a brilliant, shimmering explosion. 

    TRACK LISTING

    1. J-Boy
    2. Ti Amo
    3. Tuttifrutti
    4. Fior Di Latte
    5. Lovelife
    6. Goodbye Soleil
    7. Fleur De Lys
    8. Role Model
    9. Via Veneto
    10. Telefono

    The Phoenix Foundation

    Horse Power - 20th Anniversary Edition

      When The Phoenix Foundation’s Horse Power first arrived - 20 years ago - I was compelled to do something I had never done before in my fifteen years as a music reviewer and haven’t done since. I picked up the phone and rang a member of the group. I didn’t know much about them and had never seen them live, but someone told me that Samuel Flynn Scott, one of the group’s two lead singers, could be found at Radio Active, the Wellington alternative station, and as I recall it was Sam who answered the phone. While I was ostensibly ringing to check a few technical details before writing my review for the Listener, I really just needed to tell someone in this band that they had made the best first album I had heard in years.

      Listening to Horse Power now, and knowing what The Phoenix Foundation went on to do - seven albums, numerous soundtracks, EPs and solo discs; as glorious a catalogue of alternative pop as any band has ever produced - I’m still struck by the things that made such an impression me on first hearing back in 2003. Here is a group, all just in their early twenties, with a real grasp of songwriting and all the emotional shades a lyric and melody can convey, and a wide instrumental palette which they employ sometimes lavishly, sometimes sparingly, but always at the service of the song. It is clear already that they have all the qualities of a great band.

      It is also clear that they have understood perhaps the most elusive element of record making: capturing an atmosphere. Some tracks are lush and widescreen, like ‘Let Me Die A Woman’, the album’s first single. Others like ‘The Swarm’ are almost hesitant, as if one is eavesdropping on a rehearsal that’s taking place inside the singer’s head. The cumulative effect is like that of the best albums from anywhere: it takes you a journey and you don’t want to stop until you arrive at the last note.

      “This album makes me think of old girlfriends, single bar heaters and draughty flats’, I wrote at the time, which a Listener subeditor compressed into the cryptic headline ‘The sound of old girlfriends’. Yet in many ways that sums it up. There’s sincerity and awkwardness and self-conscious masculinity all rolled together in songs that deal with the thoughts and feelings of sensitive young men looking for a way to be in the world. In ‘Sister Risk’, the album’s opener, Sam Scott voices the hope ‘that you and me could get it on, casually…‘cause you’re so pretty and I’m such a casual guy’, while everything - from the quaver in his voice to the clumsiness of the word ‘casual’ – belies the bravado.

      But there’s also a playful humour, even in a heart-tugging ballad like ‘Sally’, in which he sings: ’Forget that fella / your colour / you look like Kodachrome / you’ve gone a little yellow…’, while ‘Going Fishing’, Lukasz Buda’s upbeat vocal showpiece, gives a taste of their majestic garage pop, like The Clean with bigger choruses.

      Then there are the outliers. The elegant slow motion of ’St Kevin’ points towards the type of cinematic instrumental that would broaden the scope of their later albums, while ’Bruiser (Miami 4000)’ explodes in a garish arrangement of robotically processed vocals, swishing synths and squiggly metal guitars. Twenty years ago this track struck me as a weird interruption; these days it just seems to make the album bigger, funnier, more rich in its glorious unpredictability.

      The group has always been the sum of its idiosyncratic parts. Scott, Buda and Conrad Wedde first met at Wellington High School in the 1990s and have shared a musical mission ever since. I remember Sam telling me in that first phone conversation that people sometimes mistook him and Luke for brothers. But the multi-instrumental contributions of Wedde and percussionist Will Ricketts add much of the character and detail, while drummer Richie Singleton and bassist Tim Hansen (whose roles in the band have since been occupied by Chris O’Connor and Tom Callwood respectively) provide Horse Power’s sturdy rhythmic foundations. And one mustn’t overlook the sonic contributions of Lee Prebble, Horse Power’s co-producer and recording engineer extraordinaire.

      To mark its anniversary, Horse Power is seeing its first ever vinyl release, and for the first time it will able to be heard as the classic long player that it is. You will even have to turn it over between sides.

      The Phoenix Foundation will also be playing a series of shows in which they perform the album in full and it will be fascinating to hear them re-inhabiting these songs - older, perhaps wiser, certainly as mischievously musical as ever.

      Nick Bollinger, August 2023.


      TRACK LISTING

      A1 Sister Risk
      A2 Let Me Die A Woman
      A3 This Charming Van
      A4 The Swarm
      A5 St Kevin
      B1 Bruiser (Miami 4000)
      B2 Sally
      B3 Celebrate!
      B4 Going Fishing
      B5 Lambs
      B6 Wildlife

      7":
      A
      The Swarm (Live At Helen's 2004)
      B
      Bruiser (Live At WOMAD 2008)

      Kay-Dee Records is coming at you with a 45 double-hitter, presenting Bert Hector’s ‘The Phoenix’ and ‘The Kraken’ with Kenny Dope on remix duties.

      On the first record, we’re treated to ‘The Phoenix’: a sure-fire funk gem with a super warm sound. The beat is as cool as it gets, with a laid-back and funky attitude, sitting beneath a joyous intermingling of sitar, flute, brass and guitar - all performed at expert levels.

      ‘The Kraken’ has a killer groove, struttin’ along at 85 bpm with a real old-school sound on the beat. Joining the breaks is a huge brass section which pumps loud, while flute solos and funky Wah-wah guitar chops take things up a notch. This is a pure, unadulterated groove. 

      Both tracks are recorded juicy, fat and well into the red - making the vinyl snap, thud and crack in all the right places! 

      STAFF COMMENTS

      Matt says: Swagger and soul combine on this street-ready breakbeat funk double pack from Bert Hector. Just listen to those drums! Sure to be sampled, cut and scratched by all the old school heads doing their thing...

      TRACK LISTING

      1 - A. The Phoenix (Original Mix)
      1 - B. The Phoenix (Kenny Dope Fantastic Souls Mix)
      2 - A. Kraken
      2 - B. Kraken (Kenny Dope Fantastic Souls Mix) 

      Jim Vs Crooked Man

      Phoenix (Crooked Man Remixes)

        This release fills us with great pleasure…

        Vicious Charm’s first two artists come together to create musical magic.

        Crooked Man gives us Crooked Goth & Crooked Fire; 2 stunning dark, dubby interpretations of Phoenix - JIM’s interpretation of The Cult’s original track.

        Everyone comes out of this flurry of interpretations well…

        None more Vicious Charm!

        STAFF COMMENTS

        Matt says: One of the best Balearic jams of the year gets clubified by Crooked Man. I say clubified - we're not talking peak time acid techno ket bangers here - more a subtle, early evening warm up - with Parrot adding a weighted kick, delectable finger snaps and a beatdown bass groove; ensuring its continued rotation in backrooms, basements and after parties for the rest of the year and well into 2024!

        TRACK LISTING

        Crooked Goth
        Crooked Fire

        Wayne Phoenix

        Soaring Wayne Phoenix Story The Earth And Sky

          soaring wayne phoenix story the earth and sky is the debut album from multi-disciplinary British artist Wayne Phoenix. Originally conceived over a decade ago as one part of an elaborate project encompassing music, film, and performance, story the earth and sky is not only a profoundly personal and vulnerable expression unbound by Phoenix’s exploration of creative potential and mystery, but a bridge beyond the artificial boundaries that separate us all from an unfiltered voice within us all.

          The impetus of this album formed around a musical improvisation that occurred in 2009 between Phoenix and Richard, a man who he was working with as a support client. Richard suffered from severe autism, and had been labeled as non-verbal. But as Wayne sat down to play the piano one day with Richard in the room, he was met with some surprising behavior. Richard began uttering some simple phrases over Wayne’s piano, his speech interplaying with the melancholic chords.

          Moved, if not transformed, by the event, Phoenix began developing a vocal style in tune with our natural, unmanufactured voice as a means to accomplish boundless interconnectivity. He searched for “the voice of the child within, which has no concept of the world it inhabits, nor any means to navigate that world.”

          This realization spurred a deeply creative period for the artist, spanning nearly fourteen years to date. Originally conceived as one part of a multimedia project, soaring wayne phoenix story the earth and sky, communicates the core of the artist’s creative intentions. Phoenix says that “all these works to date are the by-product of something else, which has manifested as music and has been spread over various artistic formats, not limited to any one specific discipline.”

          Phoenix perpetuates this hazy aura of his work, stating “if it came to finding the converging principle that ties it all together, one could find oneself in a position similar to Rumi’s story of the elephant in the dark, in which each person felt a different part of the elephant and considered it to be the whole”

          Mirroring this theme of subjectivity, the first half of story the earth and sky starts in abstract, words and thoughts left hanging in the ether. Phoenix’s broken, spoken word obscures itself in melodic white noise and distortion. As we reach the middle of the record, the smoky sound of the opening pieces begins to clear, making space for a melancholic yet musical manifestation of Phoenix’s work, that while still somewhat disarming, soars to higher heights. soaring wayne phoenix story the earth and sky focuses on the artist’s internal search and dissolves in the surrounding ambiance before eventually, and undeniably, arriving outside and beyond itself. A powerful, intentional debut from an artist determined to find and define a new form of expression.


          TRACK LISTING

          A1. Mood
          A2. Alone
          A3. Place
          A4. Home
          A5. ...and Sleepless Skies
          A6. Burn False Messages
          A7. I Gave You Power
          A8. Reserve
          A9. Death Is Pure Objectivity
          B1. Latika’s Grace (it’s Not What You Go Through, It’s How You Go Through It)
          B2. Gate
          B3. Nightswim Feat. Run Rivers
          B4. Cygnet
          B5. The Light The Lamb
          B6. One Man Island Feat. CrystalXulu

          Beck & Phoenix

          Odyssey

            Beck and Phoenix mark the kick-off of their hotly anticipated Summer Odyssey tour with the physical release of their collaborative sun-splashed banger, “Odyssey."

            Their collaborative single hailed by UPROXX as "an empowered, shimmering anthem" and by FLOOD as "a joyful slice of hedonistic disco-pop" is released as a limited edition yellow vinyl 7" single featuring the "Odyssey (Instrumental)" on its B-side.

            TRACK LISTING

            1. Odyssey
            2. Odyssey Instrumental

            Phoenix

            Alpha Zulu

              Grammy Award-winning band Phoenix returns with their next full length, Alpha Zulu. The project was recorded during the height of the pandemic in Paris, at the iconic Louvre museum.

              For fans of:
              Old: Passion Pit, Two Door Cinema Club, Vampire Weekend, Ra Ra Riot, The Kooks, Cut Copy, The Shins, Friendly Fires, Miike Snow, Bombay Bicycle Club, Arctic Monkeys, MGMT, Grouplove, Arcade Fire, Matt & Kim, Metronomy, Starfucker, Local Natives, Peter Bjorn and John, Empire the Sun
              New: Tame Impala, Glass Animals, Foster the People, The 1975, Alt-J, Remi Wolf, Cannons, Rex Orange County, Soccer Mommy, Mitski

              STAFF COMMENTS

              Andy says: Phoenix do it again with another joyous pop record which combines the weird with the catchy to create what's now become their unique and distinctive sound. Love it!

              TRACK LISTING

              1. Alpha Zulu
              2. Tonight (feat. Ezra Koenig)
              3. The Only One
              4. After Midnight
              5. Winter Solstice
              6. Season 2
              7. Artefact
              8. All Eyes On Me
              9. My Elixir
              10. Identical

              Divine Horsemen

              Hot Rise Of An Ice Cream Phoenix

                Angeles, California—Divine Horsemen, the fiery, eclectic ’80s group that rode the unique vocal chemistry of Chris Desjardins (a.k.a. Chris D.) and Julie Christensen, return to the musical stage with Hot Rise Of An Ice Cream Phoenix, a collection of all-new recordings. Co-produced by Desjardins and Craig Parker Adams (who engineered I Used To Be Pretty, the 2019 release by Chris D.’s groundbreaking ’70s punk band the Flesh Eaters), this new 13-track album comprises the first new music by the Horsemen in thirty-three years.

                Founded after the dissolution of the Flesh Eaters and launched with the 1984 Enigma Records album Time Stands Still, billed as Chris D./Divine Horseman, the band released three albums and an EP on SST Records, all of which featured the searing harmonies of Desjardins and Christensen, who were married at the time. The couple split professionally and personally just prior to the release of their January 1988 EP A Handful of Sand. However, the two musicians remained in touch over the years, and Christensen contributed vocals to five tracks on I Used To Be Pretty, which reunited the 1980 “all-star” edition of the Flesh Eaters heard on the Ruby/Slash classic A Minute To Pray, A Second To Die. By then, the idea of reviving Divine Horsemen was already percolating.

                Featuring onetime Divine Horsemen guitarist Peter Andrus, who had appeared on A Handful Of Sand and the 1987 album Snake Handler, and Bobby Permanent, the 2021 Divine Horsemen lineup is completed by drummer DJ Bonebrake of the incomparable L.A. band X. Hot Rise Of An Ice Cream Phoenix stands as a bracing new achievement by a distinctive musical partnership that has always marched to the beat of its own drum. Like the Flesh Eaters’ recent reunion, it’s a welcome return that plays to the group’s historic strengths.

                TRACK LISTING

                1. Mystery Writers
                2. Falling Forward
                3. Ice Cream Phoenix
                4. Mind Fever
                5. Handful Of Sand
                6. Any Day Now
                7. 25th Floor
                8. Can't You See Me
                9. No Evil Star
                10. Strangers
                11. Barefoot In The Streets
                12. Stoney Path
                13. Love Cannot Die

                The Phoenix Foundation

                Friend Ship

                  The Phoenix Foundation have lived many lives. From high school distortion addicts to indie folk trippers to masters of motorik dream pop. It’s been five years since their last album, Give Up Your Dreams, but that downtime has been well spent. The New Zealand outfit have been writing, recording, touring with a Symphony Orchestra, creating the acclaimed soundtrack for Taika Waititi's Hunt For The Wilderpeople, building shrines to light, creating scores for VR, producing other bands and, that most lockdown-friendly activity, baking sourdough.

                  Slowly, when they could, the six old friends found time to work together in studios, garages, forests, and sheds to put together the concise ten song set of that is Friend Ship. “We took such a long break after Give Up Your Dreams that when we did decide to make a new record we all felt it needed to be in some esoteric sense different,” says co-lead singer Samuel Flynn Scott. “To me that meant returning to something more focused. Honing in on the songs before we went deep into the arrangements and freaky sounds.” And the results reflect this approach too. Whilst Friend Ship, as you would expect, weaves seamlessly between dreamy introspective pop, stretched out grooves and psychedelic rock, it also exists as a collection of masterfully crafted songs.

                  Friend Ship features vocals from Nadia Reid, Tiny Ruins’ Hollie Fullbrook and Anita Clark aka Motte plus sumptuous string arrangements performed by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.


                  STAFF COMMENTS

                  Barry says: Phoenix Foundation present a widescreen look at the blurred peripheries between dream pop, synthwave and good old fashioned indie music here with their latest outing, Friend Ship'. Beautifully smooth, soaringly melodic and deeply comforting, The Phoenix Foundation have done it again.

                  TRACK LISTING

                  1. Guru
                  2. Miserable Meal (with The NZSO)
                  3. Hounds Of Hell (with Nadia Reid)
                  4. Decision Dollars (with Hollie Fullbrook)
                  5. Transit Of Venus (with The NZSO)
                  6. Tranquility (with Hollie Fullbrook)
                  7. Landline
                  8. Former Glory (with Anita Clark)
                  9. My Kitchen Rules
                  10. Trem Sketch

                  5th of the RSD limited series for Vinalog and Mr. G. Handstamped limited release. Mr. G comes on strong like cough medicine - offering up the slow and gloopy deep house swoon of "Radio In The Kitchen" which utilizes sloppy pad stabs and even sloppier beats to devastating effect. Vinalog joins Eddie Danielle, Bastien Carrara and Tiger & Woods - effortlessly conjuring up a tape-friend, loopy disco edit that'll titillate the dancers and DJs in equal measure. Finally, "Bonus RSD" is a clever and catchy rhythm tool that's ruff around the edges but direct in approach - a lot like some of Anthony Shake's more rambunctious DJ tools. Recommended!

                  TRACK LISTING


                  A. Mr.G - Radio In The Kitchen
                  B1. Vinalog - Mad Disco
                  B2. Bonus RSD

                  The Phoenix Foundation

                  Give Up Your Dreams (Bonus Cassette Edition)

                  Indie exclusive bonus cassette ‘Transfatty Acid’ featuring 4 exclusive tracks with every order while stocks last.

                  New Zealand based The Phoenix Foundation are all set to return with their new and sixth studio album Give Up Your Dreams. It’s a shrewd and vibrant reminder that in The Phoenix Foundation’s gloriously absurd world of Technicolour pop, it’s the challenges you set yourself that reap the greatest rewards. “Give Up Your Dreams could sound like a defeat but it represents something quite defiant, joyous and celebratory” exclaims co-frontman Samuel Scott of the record’s infectious rhythmic driven sound and optimistic feel.

                  After huge success, sales and awards in their homelands it was 2011’s breakthrough album Buffalo and 2013's colossal double album 'Fandango' that saw the band reach a more global audience - 5 star reviews, ‘Later... with Jools Holland’ and Glastonbury followed. Which brings us to Give Up Your Dreams, the sound of a band with the pressure-off, embracing a freedom to explore and hone their sound at their own pace.

                  Channelling Fandango’s beauteous side, but this time fuelled by a spit ball of irrepressible energy, Give Up Your Dreams feels like the band’s most contemporary offering yet. With the new addition of drummer Chris O’Connor, the album was written taking its lead from the rhythm section for the very first time; paving the way for an all new creative process. “I was convinced we had to have a different sounding record,” explains Scott’s counterpart singer/guitarist Lukasz Buda. “So we completely removed any trace of acoustic guitar. It was important to leave room for the band to take it somewhere else and make way for a new vitality.”

                  Recorded within the pow-wow setting of the band’s Car Club HQ in Wellington, it's the first time the band felt totally comfortable and confident in taking on production duties entirely themselves. “The mood when we were recording was so easy, so cordial,” recalls Scott. Taking a free form approach from Chris and bass guitarist/vocalist Tom Callwood’s experiences in the city’s improv and experimental scene, the album’s cosmic vibes are an upshot of utilising gadgets to shapeshift each sound. Whilst synths were always built into the Foundation’s musical make-up, this time around they’re placed centre stage; “we spent a great deal of time messing with an old Eventide H3000. There would be very few sounds we didn’t try to mess with,” says Scott. “We turned all the cool and interesting sounds up loud so nothing was competing in the mix and you can actually hear the trippy shit.”

                  Thematically and lyrically the group typically took inspiration from various of sources. The dazzling title-track is a frank deglamourisation of life on the road spurred on by a conversation with dear friend, collaborator, and fellow New Zealander Lawrence Arabia. The energetic ‘Mountain’ is the ultimate counterpoint; an afro-kraut groove with layers of Television-inspired guitars and dreamscapes about the 'money men' controlling the world. ‘Playing Dead’ nearly didn’t make it further than the cutting room floor but was revived thanks to the photographs in a 1950s Time Life essay on the Ona people of Tierra Del Fuego in southern Chile and their ghost rituals. Elsewhere in 'Jason' Luke sings about both the mother of his children and his ‘band wife’ (Samuel Scott) being struck down with sciatica and being reliant on string painkillers to function, touching on the fear of ageing in the process. Album closer 'Myth' was inspired by the writings of St. Isidore of Seville who in the 19th Century attempted to compile all human knowledge.

                  “After 15 years together, this album feels like a total rebirth to us" reveals Buda "it's uplifting feel comes as an act of defiance against all our fears in life.” Take The Phoenix Foundation’s advice then: give up your dreams and good things will happen to you too. Scott concludes “It’s a mantra about letting go, worrying less, and enjoying your reality instead of always wanting more.”

                  STAFF COMMENTS

                  Andy says: A more muscular, propulsive take on their trademark chiming, Flying Nun style otherness. Tunes still intact!

                  TRACK LISTING

                  Mountain
                  Bob Lennon John Dylan
                  Playing Dead
                  Prawn
                  Jason
                  Celestial Bodies
                  Silent Orb
                  Sunbed
                  Give Up Your Dreams
                  Myth

                  Cathal Smyth

                  A Comfortable Man

                    From Skinhead to Renaissance Man…

                    Perhaps better known to many as Chas Smash of the much loved national pop institution Madness, Cathal Smyth releases his debut solo album. Recorded at Sarm, Iguana and The Premises studios in London with producer Charlie Andrew (Alt-J), the album was mixed by longtime Madness collaborator, the renowned Alan Winstanley.

                    An honest, moving and deeply human record about discovery and ultimately recovery, the gestation of the album goes back to 2005 when Cathal found himself in the Cottonwood rehabilitation facility in Tuscon after the break up of a 28-year relationship.

                    The 12-track album also features string and choral arrangements from Royal Academy Of Music trained composer Joe Duddell, who has previously worked with Elbow, Richard Hawley, Jimi Goodwin and the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, amongst others.

                    Features ‘Do You Believe In Love’, ‘You’re Not Alone’ and ‘Are The Children Happy?’.

                    TRACK LISTING

                    You're Not Alone
                    Shabat She Comes
                    A Comfortable Man
                    Goodbye Planet Earth
                    Do You Believe In Love?
                    Love Song No.7
                    She's Got The Light
                    A Requiem For Common Sense
                    Are The Children Happy?
                    Love Song No.9
                    All My Lovin’
                    The Wren's Burial

                    Phoenix

                    Alphabetical - Vinyl Edition

                      Fans of Phoenix will rejoice that global indifference to their last album hasn't prompted any major changes in their sound. On 'Alphabetical', their second attempt to revive the soft AM rockisms of a bygone era, the mood remains pretty much the same. Blended against crème fraîche harmonies and treated with subtle filters, it straddles each song with enough personality to carry the project, although you can't help feeling stronger melodies might have helped. For comparisons think Ben Folds Five, Hall & Oates, Eels even. There's even a hint of Dean Freidman in there somewhere, but that's no bad thing.

                      Phoenix

                      United - Vinyl Edition

                        "Heatwave", the funk-flavoured track on 1999's Source Rocks compilation, suggested Phoenix were another product of the French filtered disco wave. On the basis of United, it was a red herring because the album is suffused with breezy, retro-flavoured rock numbers. One of the band, keyboard player and guitarist Branco, was in Darlin - the indie act that spawned Daft Punk - but if they went one way, he surely went the other. United is reminiscent of West Coast American FM pop rock, with nods to everyone from Crosby Stills Nash and Young to "Jump"-era Van Halen. The thrilling "Too Young" and swooning "On Fire" are rattling good pop songs that fall on the right side of affectionate pastiche. "Summertime" is an enthusiastic power pop thrash, "Embuscade" a Steely Dan-styled jazz rock instrumental and "Summerdays" a carefree country-tinged trip to the beach.


                        Crippled Black Phoenix release a brand new studio album which marks not only the band’s tenth anniversary, but also the start of a new chapter in the intriguing and sometimes confusing history of CBP.

                        Following 2012’s “(Mankind) The Crafty Ape” studio album, the mini-album “No Sadness Of Farewell” and “Live Poznan” in 2013, “White Light Generator” brings us right up to date. The album features new vocalist Daniel Änghede as well as the usual suspects, Justin Greaves, Mark Furnevall, Christian Heilmann, Ben Wilsker, Karl Demata and Daisy Chapman, plus guest performances from Belinda Kordic (who featured on the last two CBP albums and works as a team with Greaves in Se Delan) & Chrissie Caulfield (who played violin on past CBP tours). “White Light Generator” is split into two quite distinct halves, with the first half (Black Light) bearing the heavier side of the music, and the second half (White Light) with the more simple, dark and melodic songs. The Limited Edition first run of the vinyl format comes with a 7” (with 2 bonus tracks), and is pressed on 180 grams vinyl (1 black and 1 white) in gatefold with full colour sleeves.

                        Fandango is the follow up to The Phoenix Foundation’s 2011 album Buffalo. Having made their reputation in New Zealand, Buffalo, their fourth album and the first to be released in Europe, was a critical and commercial hit, and 2011 saw sold out shows across the UK, with a storming set at Glastonbury leading to their UK TV debut on ‘Later... with Jools Holland’.
                        Fandango, an expansive, ambitious and gloriously rich 78 minutes, was recorded at four studios over 15-months. From opener ‘Black Mould’ (perhaps the first motorik-influenced song about respiratory problems induced by inadequate building standards in New Zealand) to the 18 minute closing behemoth ‘Friendly Society’ (almost certainly the only psychedelic epic named after the Quaker movement and which features Neil Finn and Bella Union signed Lawrence Arabia on backing vocals), Fandango is un-coy about its lofty ambitions in an age of digital disposability.
                         
                        The album draws on the band’s collective love of the rock canon (Dr John, Black Sabbath, The Carpenters, Can, Talk TalK, ELO, Television,), but also from some of music’s more obscure corners (Harmonia, The Clean, Aphrodite's Child, Erkin Koray, Baris Manco, Georges Zamfir, Hayao Miyazaki). Check the balladeering yacht rock of ‘Sideways Glance’, the end-of-the-party psych-folk of ‘Modern Rock’, and ‘The Captain’ a 3-minute slice of melancholic melodic joy featuring the vocal talents of co-frontman Lukasz Buda. ‘Thames Soup’ finds the band stretching the pop tropes of mid 70s FM radio to near breaking point while ‘Evolution Did’ channels Sly and Robbie production into an oblique rant on creationism.
                         
                        The band recorded Fandango partially at Neil Finn’s Roundhead studios, partially at a barn in the depths of the New Zealand countryside (in the middle of winter, fire blazing in the recording studio, cardigans on) but mostly at the band’s own HQ, The Car Club in Wellington. The album was then mixed with the assistance of long-term associate Lee Prebble at The Surgery (earthquake warnings taped to the front door). Lee and the band mined the depths of vintage studio effects in a quest to create new aural chimera.
                         
                        Let’s leave the final word on Fandango to co-frontman Samuel Flynn Scott:
                         
                        "Damn the zeitgeist, I still rejoice in the pan-sexual opulence of a double gate-fold vinyl album. Honestly, I'm thoroughly satisfied that we have made 80 minutes of tripped-out pop oddities that pays absolutely no attention to the short form game of contemporary music. This is Test Match music - maybe it's prog or psyche-folk - whatever it is, it's music that we thought about a lot, worked on a lot and cared about in the minutiae."

                        STAFF COMMENTS

                        Andy says: Phoenix Foundation stretch out in a glorious way. Deep and lush!

                        TRACK LISTING

                        CD Tracklisting:
                        A1. Black Mould
                        A2. Modern Rock
                        A3. The Captain
                        A4. Thames Soup
                        A5. Evolution Did
                        A6. Inside Me Dead
                        A7. Corale

                        B1. Supernatural
                        B2. Walls
                        B3. Morning Riff
                        B4. Sideways Glance
                        B5. Friendly Society

                        LP Tracklisting:
                        A1. Black Mould
                        A2. Modern Rock
                        A3. The Captain
                        A4. Thames Soup

                        B1. Evolution Did
                        B2. Inside Me Dead
                        B3. Corale

                        C1. Supernatural
                        C2. Walls
                        C3. Morning Riff
                        C4. Sideways Glance

                        D1. Friendly Society

                        "Buffalo" is the latest album from kaleidoscopic pop group The Phoenix Foundation, whose last album "Happy Ending" (originally released on the legendary Flying Nun label), had critics hailing them as New Zealand’s best kept secret.

                        From intelligent and infectiously catchy pop / rock gems, to epic, psychedelic prog rock, "Buffalo" combines sun bleached harmonies, chiming guitars, progressive synth scapes and subliminal rhythms to glorious effect.

                        “Surely the most potent band to come out of New Zealand since the far-off days of the Chills… Gorgeous” - The Independent (5 stars)

                        “The future, and the past, seldom sounded so delightful” - Q.

                        STAFF COMMENTS

                        Martin says: While most bands are supernovae, all explosive energy and creativity expended in one brilliant moment before quickly fading, there is another rarer form that reaches maturity more slowly, honing and developing its craft and tending to have a much longer productive life. Auckland’s Phoenix Foundation have taken 10 years to realise the sublime, effortless meander of “Buffalo”, and it’s quickly apparent from the album’s opener, “Eventually” that it’s been well worth the wait. Its drifting, captivating languor sets the scene for the rest of the LP, which manages that difficult balance of being entirely good natured without being trivial and laid back without being soporific. Their engaging psychedelic pop is easily carried by vocal harmonies and hooks that stick, earworms that caress rather than annoy. If you haven’t been reeled in by the gentle glow of “Golden Ship”, which closes the album, then you probably never will be and, frankly, there’s probably something wrong with you.

                        TRACK LISTING

                        1. Eventually
                        2. Buffalo
                        3. Flock Of Hearts
                        4. Pot
                        5. Bitte Bitte
                        6. Skeleton
                        7. Orange & Mango
                        8. Bailey's Beach
                        9. Wonton
                        10. Golden Ship

                        Breaking Pangaea

                        Phoenix

                          Breaking Pangaea's dynamic marriage of soaring guitars and sweeping vocals is reminiscent of New Found Glory and Jets to Brazil or Jimmy Eat World. Toured/touring with Coheed & Cambria, Further Seems Forever, Hey Mercedes and Elliot. Recorded at Big Blue Meenie studios (Thursday, Taking Back Sunday). Dropped enough names there have I?????


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