Thao & The Get Down Stay Down, the San Francisco-based band fronted by singer and songwriter Thao Nguyen, is set to release their fifth studio album Temple on 15th May via Ribbon Music. In celebration of the upcoming album, the band is debuting the title track alongside a video directed by Jonny Look, featuring choreography by Erin S. Murray

The album is among Thao’s most open and honest work yet, finding her coming out in her public life after a long career in which she kept her queer identity quiet in an effort to avoid turmoil with and alienation from a family and culture she deeply loves. “But that shit will kill you,” Thao says.

“I have divided myself into so many selves. I am nervous, but hopeful that in belonging to myself, I can still belong to my family, and my Vietnamese community, especially the elders.” She continues, “I believe that shame has made my work more general, when I’ve always wanted to be specific. This record is about me finally being specific. If you listen to my music, I want you to know who you are dealing with.”

Thao almost opted not to make another record, feeling that rock music no longer was capable of saying what she needed to express. But it turns out making a record was necessary; it forced her hand to create a space wherein she could finally exist as her entire self. Temple is an album compelled by love and the urgent need to live one full, whole life. Thao and her girlfriend got married recently, and she says, “I have my partner and our home to ground me in this life, in my one life. And everything I do now, everywhere I go, every time I present myself to people, it is finally all of me.”

Temple is the first Get Down Stay Down record to be self-produced. Thao teamed up with longtime bandmate Adam Thompson to produce the record; he shares writing credits on five songs. Mikaelin “Blue” Bluespruce (Solange, Carly Rae Jepsen, Mariah Carey) mixed the record. “Blue mixes more in the hip-hop and pop world and that’s what we wanted,” says Thao. “More fidelity, more upfront beat and groove-heavy mixes that are filled out and immersive…high highs, low lows, lush tones.”

Temple follows Thao & The Get Down Stay Down’s 2016 album A Man Alive, which was released to widespread critical praise. Over the past year, Thao also served as guest host of the acclaimed podcast Song Exploder.

TRACK LISTING

1. Temple
2. Phenom
3. Lion On The Hunt
4. Pure Cinema
5. Marauders
6. How Could I
7. Disclaim
8. Rational Animal
9. I’ve Got Something
10. Marrow

Four years since their critically acclaimed album, ‘Escape From Evil’, Lower Dens announce their newest creation - ‘The Competition’ - released on Domino’s Ribbon Music imprint.

‘The Competition’ is a pop album with a concept both emotionally and politically urgent. By design, competition is the driving force of modern capitalism and the title is lead singer and songwriter Jana Hunter’s (pronouns: they/them, him/his) term for a socio-psychological phenomenon this generates, a kind of psychosis that accelerates our insecurities and anxieties to the point of total overload, corroding our intimacies, our communities and our senses of self.

TRACK LISTING

Galapagos
Hand Of God
Two Faced Love
Young Republicans
Real Thing
Buster Keaton
I Drive
Simple Life
Empire Sundown
Lucky People
In Your House

John Maus lives in his birthplace of Austin, Minnesota. Whilst working towards his PhD in Political Science he also composes music that taps into melancholic fantasy and affirms that we are all truly alive. Questing synthesisers, tensely strung bass lines and chasing drum machines providing the perfect backdrop for John's deeply resonant reverb-drenched vocal. Born in the decade of synth pop and sharing his birthday with George Frideric Handel, John started making music when Nirvana posters went up on every teenager’s wall. It’s this curious conflux of influences that partially helps to describe John’s music. It’s a world where the Germs jam with Jerry Goldsmith, Cabaret Voltaire relocate to Eternia and Josquin des Prez writes a new score for RoboCop. The confrontation of punk, the fleeting poignancy of 80’s movie soundtracks, the insistent pulse of Moroder and the spirituality of Medieval and Baroque music all find salvation in John Maus.

After a spell working alongside Ariel Pink (whom Maus met whilst studying at Cal Arts in Los Angeles) and Gary War in Haunted Graffiti, 2006 saw the release of John’s debut album proper through Upset The Rhythm. It was a record permeated with aching memories; a perfect testimony to lost romance and longing. It’s awe-inspired follow-up ‘Love Is Real’ (released on UTR, 2007) proved a more cohesive listen in terms of focus and emotional depth. Like an apocalyptic journey through the nostalgic streets of a common hometown, deep into the recesses of the human heart, ‘Love Is Real’ still stands out as an impressive whole. Both albums made an impact which grew and grew during some quieter academic years for Maus in the Hawaiian heat, before he returned last year to the heavy snows of the Midwest to finish album number three, ‘We Must Become The Pitiless Censors Of Ourselves’.

‘We Must Become The Pitiless Censors Of Ourselves’ breaks new ground for Maus. The shirt pulling and air punching of his impassioned live performance is finally captured in all its frenzied appeal alongside a tender inner space. After stretching muscles with opener ‘Streetlight’, arpeggiators bubble up to new levels with ‘Quantum Leap’, a song full of dead zones, glancing slaps and oscillating solos. “Heart to heart, mind to mind, we are the ones who seem to travel through time,” intones Maus resolutely through the mist. John’s lyrics are as likely to touch upon themes of Cronenberg gore just as much as the musings of Jacques Rancière. It’s this no-brow approach that makes things interesting, casting Maus as a savant and allowing his music to startle us in ways whereby we open up to the unimaginable.

John’s preoccupation with truth, love and eternity are perfectly suited to this treatment as seen with “And The Rain’ and the softly cascading ‘Keep Pushing On’ .The songs are devastatingly catchy, saturated with keyboards and overflowing with Maus’ allegorical summons. The hypnotic fugue ‘We Can Break Through’ treads new territories into minimalism for Maus, seeing the phrase “Break through this” repeated almost like a mind control procedure scored by Bach and Suicide.

‘Pitiless Censors’ as an album displays a more delicate touch than its predecessors. ‘Hey Moon’ is John’s first duet, performed with Molly Nilsson, who originally wrote the song. It’s a serene and elegiac song, which subtly weaves an impression of nocturnal loneliness and romantic dreams. Closing track ‘Believer’ is equally evocative with its bells, choral soaring and echoing sentiment. Of course, a John Maus album wouldn’t be a John Maus album without the same anthemic genius and dark humour that we’ve seen previously with songs like ‘Maniac’ and ‘Rights For Gays’ and this new album finds its succour in ‘Cop Killer’. The eerie waltz-time offspring of Body Count’s controversial 90’s protest track, ‘Cop Killer’ is dystopian, bleak and ridiculous and in short, classic Maus.

Unlike the last two albums, Pitiless Censors looks towards the future in all its absurdity. It’s a record where promise takes the lead for the first time, providing a counterpoint to John’s default existential calling. The cover of Pitiless Censors depicts an airbrushed lighthouse, thrashed by wave after wave, bringing to mind Beckett’s quote "Unfathomable mind: now beacon, now sea." The everyday realm where our lives seem both familiar and equally strange is where John Maus resides. His surreal touch is disarming, opening our eyes to the reality outside the four walls. Perhaps we’re all like “the human being who finds himself in the locker” in ‘Head For The Country’ in that if we surprise ourselves and open the door we can let the light in despite the storm.

Thao & The Get Down Stay Down, the San Francisco-based band fronted by singer and songwriter Thao Nguyen, release their fourth album, ‘A Man Alive’, via Ribbon Music.

Following the critical success of ‘We The Common’ (2013) - largely inspired by Thao’s volunteer work with the California Coalition for Women’s Prisoners and featuring a duet with Joanna Newsom - ‘A Man Alive’ is an evolution in both subject matter and sound. Thao says: “I wanted ‘A Man Alive’ to be beat and bass-driven - rather than guitar-based - extending and elaborating upon the hip hop influences of the previous record. ‘A Man Alive’ is more instrumental, more riff and loop-centric, and has more manipulated sounds.”

Mostly recorded at Tiny Telephone Studios in San Francisco, ‘A Man Alive’ was produced by Merrill Garbus of Tune-Yards. The songs are often punctuated by handclaps, singalong choruses and ass-shaking beats. While these songs come from a deeply personal origin, they have such an accessible quality that it is easy to imagine an engaged and participatory live audience.

The album presents a fiercely original group sound that is rife with experimentation and playfulness. It demonstrates Thao’s development as a songwriter and it achieves that most elusive quality in music - to create an album of songs that are dark yet buoyant, tragic yet redemptive, personal yet inclusive.

TRACK LISTING

Astonished Man
Slash/Burn
The Evening
Departure
Nobody Dies
Guts
Fool Forever
Millionaire
Meticulous Bird
Give Me Peace
Hand To God
Endless Love

Lower Dens are Jana Hunter (vocals, guitar), Will Adams (guitar), Geoff Graham (bass, vocals) and Nate Nelson (drums). On ‘Escape From Evil’, Lower Dens’ Jana Hunter emerges, cerebral and hot-blooded, rash and incorruptible and, crucially, possessing of a loud, clear voice. The album sees Hunter stepping up and taking centre stage and emboldening every aspect of the band.

‘Escape From Evil’ is a cinematic, tonally rich work. The sounds are clean and warm. The pulse of the album is strong. Melodies are potent and songs are physical. Lyrics are direct, frank confrontations with life’s common crises. The album title is brazen and, along with the grimly funny title of lead single, ‘To Die In L.A.’, almost theatrical.

The album was produced by Hunter and co-produced and mixed by Chris Coady (Beach House, Cass McCombs). Other production elements came from Ariel Rechtshaid (Sky Ferreira, Vampire Weekend) and Lower Dens’ Walker Teret. Additional recording and production was done in Dallas, TX with John Congleton (St. Vincent, The Walkmen).

Lead singer of The Walkmen releases debut album ‘Black Hours’ on Ribbon Music.

In its orchestrated rhythms, dynamic vocals and generous production, ‘Black Hours’ speaks from one booming voice. Inaugurating a new chapter in an already remarkable career from The Walkmen frontman, the album brings Leithauser full circle and then some, from lonely midwinter piano-and-vocals sessions to a loud, live rock ‘n’ roll group and back again.

Performers on the album include Rostam Batmanglij (Vampire Weekend), Paul Maroon (The Walkmen), Morgan Henderson (Fleet Foxes), Richard Swift (The Shins / solo), Amber Coffman (Dirty Projectors).

TRACK LISTING

5 AM
The Silent Orchestra
Alexandra
11 O’Clock Friday Night
St Mary’s County
Self Pity
I Retired
I Don’t Need Anyone
Bless Your Heart
The Smallest Splinter

Omar Souleyman - the Syrian artist who not only changed the vibe of weddings throughout the Middle East with his Shaabi street sound but also brought it to the West through his notorious late night festival slots - has finally recorded a proper album. After three compilations and a live release, 'Wenu Wenu' is his first album to be recorded in a studio.

Produced by Kieran Hebden (Four Tet), 'Wenu Wenu' combines aspects of Middle Eastern dabke dance music and traditional songs with his own contemporary style. Often described as “Syrian techno”, Souleyman records and performs live with long-time collaborator Rizan Sa'id.

Citing Hebden and Bjork as fans, Souleyman’s audience has expanded, no longer just appealing to those interested in Middle Eastern music and tradition. His festival performances including this year’s Primavera Sound in Spain has seen appreciation for his well-crafted, hectic and - at times - intense music grow and transcend not only language, but cultural barriers.

Recorded in Brooklyn primarily live in the studio, 'Wenu Wenu' distils Omar's enthralling live performances into a fury of ascending and descending techno scales punctuated by his iconic voice.

Ribbon Music releases, on behalf of John Maus, a sixteensong collection of music spanning eleven years of creative output, titled ’A Collection Of Rarities And Previously Unreleased Material’.

Of the sixteen songs showcased, five (‘This Is The Beat’, ‘Castles In The Grave’, ‘Bennington’, ‘My Hatred Is Magnificent’, and ‘No Title (Molly)’), have appeared on previous compilations. Most notably ‘No Title (Molly)’ was originally released on a flexi disc as part of Domino/Ribbon Music's Record Store Day release ‘Smugglers Way’.

Two songs (‘Angel Of The Night’ and ‘Lost’) have never been released on any format, nor across any media. The same cannot be said of the remaining nine songs, the majority of which initially appeared on ’Demos 2011’, a bundle of tracks originating from mausspace.com where they had been uploaded by their creator (John Maus) to be appreciated, if not reviewed, by those eager enough to search them out.

‘A Collection Of Rarities And Previously Unreleased Material’ has been entirely remixed and remastered and features artwork and design by Turner Prize winning artist Wolfgang Tillmans.

Ribbon Music release the long-awaited second album from Baltimore’s Lower Dens, ‘Nootropics’.

The band released their beguiling debut album ‘Twin-Hand Movement’ in July 2010. ‘Nootropics’ is the next step, with its sleek, metronomic pulse and vast meticulous vision.

“Lower Dens make music that seems to seep in through your pores. Music to be immersed in” - Clash

“Slow burn charms from a brainy band” - The Independent

“Lower Dens know when to hold back and when to push forward, how to manipulate the dynamics of a rhythm for maximum effect” - Drowned in Sound

Special edition vinyl in hand screen printed sleeve. Exclusive to independent stores. 350 copies only!

‘Mr Impossible’ is the sixth full length album from New York Noise vets Black Dice.

This record is irreverent and aggressive - for fans of speedy, industrial-tinged electronic experiments.

Animal Collective’s Noah Lennox says "I feel like the wisest things I've learned about being in a band I learned by watching them."

TRACK LISTING

Pinball Wizard
Rodriguez
The Jacker
Pigs
Spy Vs. Spy
Out Body Drifter
Sh*thouse Drifter
Carnitas
Brunswick Sludge

'Mr Impossible' is the sixth full length album from New York Noise vets Black Dice.

This record is irreverent and aggressive - for fans of speedy, industrial-tinged electronic experiments.

Animal Collective’s Noah Lennox says "I feel like the wisest things I've learned about being in a band I learned by watching them."