Season 2 formed in late 2024, bringing together seasoned Melbourne musicians with previous and current projects including Parsnip, The Stroppies and Phil and the Tiles. The five piece, comprising Carolyn Hawkins, Claudia Serfaty, Charlotte Zarb, Freya McLeod and Matt Powell, quickly set to work writing winsome, DIY, shimmer-pop hits that careen through your mind in a gratifying dizzy rush.

With a clear collective vision and little time to waste, Season 2 spent 2025 writing and recording, appearing live only a handful of times. Finally, this April, the band are primed for their debut release, a full-length album entitled 'Power of Now'. ‘Power of Now ‘is a cerebral explosion of melody, hooks, drones and rhythm. In the vein of The Feelies, The Vaselines and The Clean, Season 2 have whipped up a sonic whirlwind. It's a giddy thrill of snappy slap, catchy gang vocals and crystalline guitar refrains.

'Abundance of Power' is a bittersweet bop of ponderous bass, crisp chord flashes and grounded vocals that dwell on slighted futures and bored realities. 'Becomes a Dream' is a delirious race of scrappy strumming and flying phrases that unsettle as much as they pinball endorphins - "pour the ink into the sand, watch the dog it bites the hand". "Tell me something, elbows on the table, I'll tell you nothing, leave you tugging at the cable" they sing on the peppy future single 'Tugging at the Cable', capturing a certain innocent, wide-eyed expressiveness. Season 2 do sparky well, their songs are instant rewards, tunnelling into your subconscious and testing the dance floor. They keep everything moving, the beat and the conversation. Season 2 sound barely controlled and all the better for it, you have no choice but to be swept up.

'Power of Now' was recorded by Alex Macfarlane (The Green Child, Chateau) and mastered by Mikey Young. It will be released digitally and on LP (black vinyl) on April 24th, internationally via Upset The Rhythm and locally in Australia by Spoilsport Records.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A
01. What For
02. Becomes A Dream
03. Abundance Of Power
04. Looks The Same 0
5. Tugging At The Cable

SIDE B
06. Videos Are Gone
07. Lucky
08. In The Pits
09. Holiday
10. Nothing Affair
11. And Again

Way back in 2002 North Sea Radio Orchestra (NSRO) began rehearsing and performing in old churches, secreted away in the heart of the City Of London. At first their audience had to explore the lost alleys and lanes of old Londinium to hear their sounds.

NSRO then moved out into the world at large; performing in venues diverse – from churches to clubs to Freakzone sessions to festivals, opera houses, libraries etc etc. NSRO are very much a part of the 'Cardiacs Family' of bands and musicians; having personal and stylistic ties (harmonically and melodically) to Cardiacs and the music of the late Tim Smith generally; other bands in the 'scene' include Gong (and Kavus Torabi), Lost Crowns, William D Drake, Spratleys, Crayola Lectern etc. Special Powers is their ffth studio album and as ever, all material is written and produced by band leader Craig Fortnam.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Slo-mo jazzy drifters and twinkling hypnotic synths come together into an album that seals NSRO as one of the most innovative and talented takes on chamber classical / ambient folk I've ever heard*

*It's the only album like this I've ever heard.

TRACK LISTING

1. Mansions In Eternity
2. Hearty
3. Barrel
4. All Alice Like
5. Special Powers
6. Full Human
7. Guitar Miniature No.5
8 The Players Ask For A Blessing On The Psalteries And On Themselves

Released on the band's own Golden Chariot Records label comes this lovingly rendered reissue of 'The Decline of British Sea Power', the band's debut album, originally released in June 2003 to huge critical acclaim and available now on coloured vinyl for the first time

Over the course of their 5 studio LPs and three award winning film soundtracks, British Sea Power have become a true British institution: Top 10, Mercury nominated LP, 3 UK silver discs and renowned for their astonishing live shows in unique and unlikely locations - National History Museum, Great Wall of China, Cutty Sark, Cern Hadron Collider, Chelsea Flower show, down a Cornish mine, up in the hills in the highest pub in England, Jodrell Bank and at the John Betjeman centenary with Nick Cave, Barry Humphries, Ronnie Corbet and Prince Charles - as well as hundreds of more traditional sell out tours and festivals around the world.

TRACK LISTING

Men Together Today
Apologies To Insect Life
Favours In The Beetroot Fields
Something Wicked
Remember Me
Fear Of Drowning
The Lonely
Carrion
Blackout
Lately
A Wooden Horse

Rough Trade Records are excited to announce the reissue of Sea Power’s Mercury Prize nominated Do You Like Rock Music? album. The album is expanded for this 15th anniversary reissue with radio sessions and B-sides and extensive new sleeve notes. 

This kaleidoscopic record encapsulates Sea Power's true heart. "Easy, easy..." Only Sea Power could turn a football chant into art… with ease. From this bounding refrain of ‘No Lucifer’, via the serenity of ‘Waving Flags', the balm-like ‘No Need To Cry’ and the joyous ‘Trip Out’, 2008 album Do You Like Rock Music? reflects the band's ability to find glacial beauty in the commonplace, making soul-stirring epiphanies an everyday occurrences.

TRACK LISTING

Record 1 - Side 1
1.All In It
2.Lights Out For Darker Skies
3.No Lucifer
4.Waving Flags
5.Canvey Island
6.Down On The Ground

Record 1 – Side 2
7.Trip Out
8.Great Skua
9.Atom
10.No Need To Cry
11.Open The Door
12.We Close Our Eyes

Record 2 - Side 1
1.No Lucifer – Steve Lamacq ‘In New Music We Trust’ BBC Radio 1 Session
2.Waving Flags – Radcliffe & Maconie BBC Radio 2 Session
3.A Trip Out – Colin Murray BBC Radio 1 Session
4.Open The Door – BBC 6 Music Hub Session
5.Everybody Must Be Saved – B-side

Record 2 - Side 2
6.Ooby Dooby Do – B-side
7.Save The Purple House – B-side
8.Charlie Potatoes – B-side
9.Total Confusion – B-side
10.Elizabeth & Susan Meet The Pelican – B-side

In 2009 the band, then known as British Sea Power, were commissioned by the Edinburgh Film Festival to create their own soundtrack for the 1934 quasi-documentary, which they premiered by playing along live during a screening at the event.

A studio version of the album followed in May the same year, while more screening/performances took place at the BFI in London and at cinemas in Brighton and Sheffield, while events were also staged on a series of islands, including Jersey, the Hebrides and a Norwegian islet in the Arctic Circle.

Charting the activities of fisherman based on a remote outcrop in mouth of Galway Bay in western Ireland, Robert J Flaherty’ Man Of Aran captured a disappearing way of life as Aran’s inhabitants battled daily against the elements to survive, something that chimed deeply with Sea Power’s own curiosity for the past and their urgent, environmentally-driven concerns for the future.

The resulting, mainly instrumental score, proved to be a true artistic collaboration that stretched across the decades, earning the group widespread acclaim upon its release, both for the music’s simpatico relationship with the original film and as a stand alone work in its own right.

Declared by The Quietus on release as a “perfect symbiosis that should rightly be regarded as something of an understated classic,” Ireland’s Hot Press called it “Stunning... breath-taking” while NME encouraged listeners to “let it all gloriously wash over you.”

Fans will finally be able to experience that artistic and emotional depth on vinyl with this reissue.

TRACK LISTING

A1 - Man Of Aran
A2 - The South Sound
A3 - Come Wander With Me
B1 - Tiger King
B2 - The Currach
B3 - Boy Vertiginous
C1 - Spearing The Sunfish
C2 - Conneely Of The West
C3 - The North Sound
D1 - Woman Of Aran
D2 - It Comes Back Again
D3 - No Man Is An Archipelago

Sea Power (formerly British) announce what will be their first new album in five years – Everything Was Forever. Their music has won them some remarkable admirers – Lou Reed, David Bowie and London's National Mari- time Museum. Indeed, the BSP fanbase now includes Doctor Who, Harry Potter and Sherlock Holmes. Peter Capaldi is a con- firmed BSP fan. "A band of stark originality," he wrote in his foreword for the reissue of the band's 2003 debut album, The Decline Of British Sea Power. "BSP's songs bring you the bite of the wind, the fury of the sea, and music that is simply exhilarating." Daniel Radcliffe has talked in detail about his plan to get a BSP tattoo (featuring the 2002 T-shirt slogan Bravery Already Exists). Benedict Cumberbatch is also an admirer of the band.

Supported by their ever loyal fans who have very generously crowd funded the making of the next studio LP, BSP were able to get through the ravages of Covid and are on course to release their 7th studio LP later in 2021 and hopefully get back on the road.

Fifteen years on from their first concert, British Sea Power continue to make bold, galvanising, idiosyncratic marks on the world. Race horses and massive ocean-going yachts have been named after the band. London's National Maritime Museum recently opened a new £35m exhibition wing. Visitors are greeted by huge, sculpted quotations from Shakespeare and Coleridge – and a lyric from British Sea Power.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Sea Power return, with 33.3% less name and at the very least 85.6% more dedication to angsty, cinematic rock a-la Arcade Fire / Sufjan / Codes In The Clouds et. al. It's a vibrant and rousing selection, and one that is as beautiful as it is nuanced. Really lovely stuff.

TRACK LISTING

Scaring At The Sky
Transmitter
Two Fingers
Fire Escape In The Sea
Doppelganger
Fear Eats The Soul
Folly
Green Goddess
Lakeland Echo
Vestiges *
Amsterdam *
We Only Want To Make You Happy 

* Bonus Tracks For Deluxe 2LP Editions.

The expanded reissue includes additional live sessions, B-sides and rarities from the period and extensive new sleeve notes.

The majority of the original album was recorded by Mads Bjerke (Spiritualized, Primal Scream, Girls Aloud) and mixed by Bill Price (Sex Pistols, The Clash, Sparks). Two tracks were recorded and mixed by Graham Sutton (The Delays, Bark Psychosis) and Phill Brown (Sly Stone, Led Zeppelin, Talk Talk).

TRACK LISTING

LP1/CD1
It Ended On An Oily Stage
Be Gone
How Will I Ever Find My Way Home?
Like A Honeycomb
Please Stand Up
North Hanging Rock
To Get To Sleep
Victorian Ice
Oh Larsen B
The Land Beyond
True Adventures

LP2/CD2
It Ended On An Oily Stage (recorded For The Mark Radcliffe Show On BBC Radio 2 – First Broadcast On 31st March 2005)

How Will I Ever Find My Way Home? (recorded For The Mark Radcliffe Show On BBC Radio 2 – First Broadcast On 31st March 2005)

Don’t You Want To Be A Bird? (recorded For The Gideon Coe On BBC Radio 6 – First Broadcast On 28th March 2005)

When I Go Out (recorded For The Gideon Coe On BBC Radio 6 – First Broadcast On 28th March 2005)

Crystal Horse (originally Appeared On ‘It Ended On An Oily Stage’ CD Single 2)

Over In The Corner (originally Appeared On ‘Please Stand Up’ CD Single 1)

How Will I Find My Way Home? (Organ Version) (originally Appeared As A Hidden Track On Open Season CD)

How Animals Work (Mike Hedges Version – Previously Unreleased)

Runaway (originally Appeared As ‘Gale Warnings In Viking North’ On ‘Please Stand Up’ 7”)

Green Grass Of Tunnel (originally Appeared On ‘It Ended On An Oily Stage’ CD Single 1)

Grey Goose (originally Appeared On ‘Please Stand Up’ CD Single 2)

Chicken Pig (True Adventures Instrumental Demo) (originally Appeared On ‘Please Stand Up’ CD Single 2)

I Am A Cider Drinker (originally Appeared On The Split 7” Single By British Sea Power And The Wurzels)

Having toured Britain with full, competition-standard brass orchestras, including a sell-out night in the main hall at London's Barbican Centre, British Sea Power - described by The Sunday Times as "the best band in Britain" - now present 'Sea Of Brass', a new studio album born out of these live brass-backed shows.

The release stems from live shows, including sell-out main hall Barbican show, which gained coverage in The Guardian, Evening Standard, The Independent and more and follows the 12th anniversary re-issue of their indie classic debut 'The Decline Of British Sea Power'.

Including re-workings of much loved tracks from previous albums including 'Machineries Of Joy', 'Valhalla Dancehall' and 'Do You Like Rock Music?', the studio versions of the brass arrangements were recorded with the Foden's Band, a renowned Cheshire-based brass ensemble, formed in 1900. Foden's Band have won numerous international prizes and in 2012 won a rare brass-band double, being crowned both British Open champions and National Champions of Great Britain.

A deluxe, expanded and lovingly rendered reissue of 'The Decline Of British Sea Power', the band's debut album, originally released in June 2003 to huge critical acclaim.

'The Decline Of British Sea Power' will be re-issued on multiple formats including a deluxe collectable 2CD + DVD casebound book and featuring a re-mastered version of the original studio album along with B-sides from the band.

'The BSP Handbook (Vol 1)' - A hardback book with 2CDs and DVD

This image-laden high-quality hardback book comes with dustjacket and integral wallets containing two CDs and one DVD – a marvellously multi-media combination that tells the story of the Decline album in compelling audio-visual style.

The CDs feature the acclaimed original 'Decline' album and B-sides from the Decline era. The DVD features live BSP footage from the UK and Japan, alongside Decline-period videos and bonus features. Please note: the Handbook narrative and images are completely different to those in the book in the Compleat box-set. Text by Roy Wilkinson, author of the acclaimed BSP-themed memoir Do It For Your Mum. Stuart Maconie on Do It For Your Mum: "As different from the usual rock biography as British Sea Power are from the usual rock band. Funny, literate, touching, ambitious and engaging. A quirky, brilliant story –quirkily, brilliantly told.”

British Sea Power’s new, fifth album ‘Machineries Of Joy’ will be released on Rough Trade Records. The album release will be accompanied by a full UK tour.

‘Machineries Of Joy’ was written in the Berwyn mountains in north Wales and recorded in Brighton with Dan Smith and mixer Ken Thomas (David Bowie, Sigur Ros).

“We’d like to think the album is warm and restorative,” says singer Yan. “Various things are touched on in the words - Franciscan monks, ketamine, French female bodybuilders turned erotic movie stars. The world often seems a mad, hysterical place at the moment. You can’t really be oblivious to that, but we’d like the record to be an antidote - a nice game of cards in pleasant company.”

Given that this album was produced by Howard Bilerman (drummer on Arcade Fire's "Funeral Album"), Efrim Menuck (Godspeed You! Black Emperor) and Graham Sutton (Bark Psychosis), it's epic grandeur is really no surprise. With its layers of soaring guitar, thundering drums and chanting vocals comparisons to Arcade Fire are inevitable, particularly on tracks like "Waving Flags" and album opener "All In It". There is much more to this album though: although the big surging sound is pretty much full on, there's some lovely intricate instrumentation, lots of clever pace changes to keep you on your toes, and unlike pretty much every indie band around lately, they actually have a story to tell too. With "Do You Like Rock Music?", they've finally fulfilled the promise shown on their previous albums. Already an album of the year contender!

Their first album did really well, as a word-of-mouth thing, and back then BSP stood alone in the old-school indie quirky art-pop stakes. They were a refreshing leftward turn. Now everyone's at it, but the good news is that this second album is a huge step on from their debut. It has a controlled, powerful splendour which recalls the dark, melodic wonder of Joy Division and features less of the jerky wackiness of old. This is a beautiful record and whilst the words 'epic' and 'soaring' aren't usually associated with leftfield pop, BSP manage to be both those things. But they do it cleverly, with grace and good taste. This will be a contender for Album Of The Year.