Mike Reed’s Separatist Party sophomore effort and Thrill Jockey debut Sing the Color Blue is a recording assembled over numerous sessions, and a testament to persistence and transformation. The album reunites Mike Reed with Rob Frye, Cooper Crain, Dan Quinlivan (all of the trio Bitchin Bajas), Marvin Tate, and Ben LaMar Gay in a set that moves between composition, reconstruction, improvisation, and song form. Part of what gives Sing the Color Blue its character is the unusual length and shape of its creation. Elements of the album reach back across nearly a decade, starting in January 2022 at Constellation in Chicago and the majority of the recording completed between November 2023 and April 2024 at Electrical Audio. The record unfolded gradually, with Reed returning to the material repeatedly until the album’s final structure revealed itself. Reed reassembled fragments of Tate’s words and performances into new lyrical structures, often changing their original meaning completely. The results are a record where authorship feels layered rather than singular: songs emerge from live interaction, archival excavation, editing, rearrangement, and re-composition at once. The title Sing the Color Blue also reflects that spirit of transformation. Reed has said the phrase grew partly out of a friend’s critique of his nearly all-blue wardrobe and his longstanding attraction to Bauhaus aesthetics. He was also struck by a phrase from a documentary in which a historian described people being instructed to “dance the color blue.” Reed reshaped that line into Sing the Color Blue, a title that suggests synesthesia, instruction, abstraction, and also a subtle relation to the blues and to Chicago’s musical history. In that sense, the title names the album’s larger purpose: turning mood into form, color into sound, and fragments of lived time into music.

TRACK LISTING

Closing
New Angels
Nancarrow Study #6
Tea Leaves pt 1
I Want 7 To Be Around Forever
Last Night on Earth
A Minor House of Charity
Tea Leaves pt 2
Restless in Pieces
Ben’s New Hit
If I Were a Song

Some albums simply get better with time. Others wait patiently for the world to catch up. As it celebrates its 25th anniversary, The Joy of Sing-Sing feels less like an overlooked curiosity and more like one of the great lost British albums of its era.

When Lush came to an abrupt end in 1996 following the tragic death of drummer Chris Acland, guitarist and songwriter Emma Anderson wasn't looking to recreate the past. She was searching for an entirely new musical partnership. A mutual friend suggested she meet singer-songwriter Lisa O'Neill (not the Irish folk singer of the same name), who had recently appeared on Locust's Morning Light and was looking for a full-time collaborator. Unknown to either of them, Emma already owned - and loved - the album. Their first meeting, over a drink, sparked an immediate creative connection. Within weeks they were writing together, united by a love of sophisticated pop, dreamlike atmospheres and leftfield electronica. With producer Mark Van Hoen, who had worked with Lisa on Morning Light, they quickly forged the distinctive sound that would become Sing-Sing.

This 25th Anniversary reissue features newly remastered audio by Kevin Vanbergen (Lush, Pixies, Radiohead and numerous 4AD/Beggars artists) and brand-new artwork by Chris Bigg, celebrated for his long creative partnership with Vaughan Oliver.

Available as a limited pressing of 400, the custom Dinked Archive edition is pressed on translucent 'Delicious' orange vinyl, with a signed 12" x 12" print and a CD of bonus tracks.

Remarkably, Sing-Sing never sounded like a post-Lush band. Rather than revisiting shoegaze, Anderson and O'Neill created something altogether more understated and cinematic: shimmering electronic textures, hypnotic melodies and exquisitely restrained vocals that felt equally indebted to classic pop and forward-thinking electronica.

Released in 2001, The Joy of Sing-Sing quietly occupied a world of its own. At a time when British indie was still dominated by post-Britpop guitar bands, Sing-Sing offered something softer, stranger and effortlessly elegant. The album blended luminous electronics, intricate arrangements and timeless songwriting into a record that refused to follow prevailing trends -and as a result, has barely dated.

From the lilting, lullaby-like opener 'Everything' to the brooding pulse of 'Command', The Joy of Sing-Sing unfolds as a richly textured collection of intimate, cinematic songs. Delicate moments such as 'Tegan' sit alongside the noir-like sweep of 'Far Away from Love', while the surreal, off-kilter pop of 'Panda Eyes' adds a playful twist. Beneath the album's shimmering beauty lies an emotional depth that culminates in 'Underage', a moving tribute to Emma Anderson's former Lush bandmate Chris Acland. Critics recognised its quiet brilliance. Uncut hailed it as "a supernova in indie's imaginary universe of perfect pop," while NME praised its "electronic trip-hoppy vibe," describing Lisa O'Neill's crystalline voice as leading listeners "siren-like into the twilight netherworld where The Carpenters commune with Portishead." Q celebrated its "airy, breathy dreampop" and called it "a plaintive and persuasive debut that promises much."

Time has only strengthened the album's reputation. Long cherished by those who discovered it first time around, The Joy of Sing-Sing has steadily been recognised as one of the hidden gems of early-2000s British independent music. In today's landscape - where dream-pop, shoegaze and beautifully crafted alternative pop have found a new generation of listeners - it sounds remarkably contemporary.

More than twenty-five years after it was first recorded, The Joy of Sing-Sing finally receives the wider recognition it has always deserved: an elegant, emotionally resonant collection of songs that feels every bit as fresh, immersive and quietly captivating today as it did on its original release.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
Everything (2026 Remaster)
Tegan (2026 Remaster)
I'll Be (2026 Remaster)
Me And My Friend (2026 Remaster)
Far Away From Love (2026 Remaster)
Panda Eyes (2026 Remaster)

Side B
Command (2026 Remasater)
Feels Like Summer (2026 Remaster)
Émigré (2026 Remaster)
You Don't Know (2026 Remaster)
Underage (2026 Remaster)
I Can See You (2026 Remaster)

Bonus CD
01 . Hit And Run
02 . Western
03 . I’ll Be (Dub You Can Love Mix)
04 . Make It Mine
05 . Office Party
06 . Far Away From Love (Emma’s 1997 Demo)
07 . Cartoon (Emma’s 1997 Crown Demo)
08 . Everything (Lisa’s Audition Session)
09 . Feels Like Summer (Original Like Band Demo)
10. Tegan ( 8-Track Home Demo)
11. Émigré (Acoustic)
12. Fame (Acoustic)

Album opener 'Close Your Eyes' kicks things off in the best of ways, mixing pop hooks with songwriting that’s straight from the heart ala Alex Chilton. Lead single 'Bella' opens with jangly acoustic guitars before eventually building to an emotional climax of psych-punk energy, 'I Miss You' leans into Big Star influenced power-pop, and 'Arthouse' captures the thrill of a midnight movie with its garage-rock guitars and Farfisa organ, reminiscent of The Modern Lovers.

Meanwhile, the album’s B-Side is full of heavy hitters – 'Oh, How I’ve Missed the Sun!' recalls The Raspberries, 'Do You Wanna Be With Me?' co-written with bandmate Ben Jordan (The Private Eye) recalls the chiming folk-rock of the Byrds, and 'The Mountains' mines country-folk influences complete with high lonesome pedal steel.

TRACK LISTING

1. Close Your Eyes
2. Bella
3. Art House
4. I Miss You
5. Look To My Side
6. Closer Than Before
7. But I Loved Her
8. Oh, How I’ve Missed the Sun!
9. The Mountains
10. Do You Wanna Be With Me?
11. Goin’ Steady
12. Be Mine, Forever

Thee Heart Tones return with an instant classic. “Don’t Forget Me Love” sets the mood from the first snare hit, and lead singer Jazmine Alvarado’s unmistakable vocals cement the magic that only Thee Heart Tones can conjure. The band are all just about 20 years old, and having toured the US coast to coast sharing stages with everyone from Thee Sacred Souls to Lady Wray to Lexa Gates, the growth in their sound is undeniable. Teaming back up in the studio with producers Leon Michels (El Michels Affair / Clairo) and Tommy Brenneck (Menahan Street Band / Charles Bradley), with additional co-production from Kevin Martin (Brainstory), they bring back the chemistry that made their debut such a hit while pushing the whole sound forward. The B Side “Sing Your Song” is the instrumental version of the A side, and the track being used for the Big Crown 10 Year Anniversary Talent Contest. Contestants write their own lyrics to the track and submit a YouTube video of themselves performing it. Prizes for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place.

TRACK LISTING

Don't Forget Me Love
Sing Your Song

By the release of 'Songs To Learn & Sing', Echo & The Bunnymen were a force to be reckoned with, pioneering the post-punk, new wave scene having released four highly acclaimed albums, 'Crocodiles', 'Heaven Up Here', 'Porcupine' and 'Ocean Rain'. Originally released in 1985, 'Songs To Learn & Sing' is a comprehensive collection of Echo & The Bunnymen’s first four albums, from their second single 'Rescue', to 'The Cutter' and the anthemic 'The Killing Moon'. Also included is 'Bring On The Dancing Horses', a single launched at the time in conjunction with 'Songs To Learn & Sing'.

TRACK LISTING

1. Rescue
2. The Puppet
3. Do It Clean
4. A Promise
5. The Back Of Love
6. The Cutter
7. Never Stop
8. The Killing Moon
9. Silver
10. Seven Seas
11. Bring On The Dancing Horses

'Sing Forever (Singing Is Free): Songs from 2021-2023' meets us as a foreword to 'A Profound Non-Event', Daily Toll's debut album from 2025. Offering an earlier chapter in the ever-growing songbook of the Sydney/Gadigal-based group, 'Sing Forever...' is a collection in demo-form that maps their initial formative period as a duo, largely marked by Covid-era isolation, diabolical housemates, sonic experiments and copious amounts of wine sourced from Kata's job at the time.

As bowerbirds of song, Kata and Jasper are making sounds from their own pocket - their world! - singing from nowhere to no-one from (in) a context of global upheaval, loss and mass confusion. Here we find the urge to sing forever, to share a morsel of spirit, and with it a mode of grounding one's humanity. The songs are loose, off-beat and textural, a period of "first thought, best thought" in boundless practice that finds inspiration from all over: a bracelet and a solo afternoon in Budapest; lyrics formed via a black-out poem scrawled across the page of a Neil Young biography; the scratch of paper daisies, toy drums, typewriters, and pots and pans all welcome melodies repeating and fumbling unto themselves until ultimately falling apart and into something else.

These songs were never initially intended to find a physical release or to even be distributed further than the Bandcamp void, and yet here we arrive at a kind of essence of Daily Toll, or at least one iteration thereof, before the studio, before the additional band members, and before being known (perhaps, even loved) by more beyond.

'Sing Forever (Singing Is Free): Songs from 2021-2023' was initially released as a seven song cassette that came with early copies of 'A Profound Non-Event'. Now with the addition of an extra song and a remastering by Mikey Young, it is now released as a limited 12" LP via Tough Love.

TRACK LISTING

1. Preamble
2. Cherry Tree
3. Summer Rain Murder Scene
4. Stuck in Thee Bath
5. U Can't Unhear What's Been Sung
6. The Virgin
7. That House On My Street
8. Tree People

Bill Frisell, Kenny Wollesen, and Carol Emanuel are The Gnostic Trio and their unique blend of minimalism, early music, and jazz has resulted in some of the loveliest music Zorn has ever created. 'Sing Me Now Asleep' is their first CD in over five years and not surprisingly it explores some unexpected new directions — notably two ambient-influenced pieces in the spirit of Zorn’s 'Absinthe' and 'Redbird', and a dramatic long form composition in the style of his cinematic file card works. Enhanced by the moody electronics of Ikue Mori on one hypnotic track, this ninth CD in the legacy of The Gnostic Trio is their most gentle and soothing to date, and heralds a striking new musical direction for this beloved super group.

TRACK LISTING

1. Such Sweet Sorrow
2. Nature’s Soft Nurse
3. Soft You Now
4. He That Thy Knowest Thine
5. Spirits From The Vasty Deep

The Umeå trio Barnet is back!

It’s been seven years since Barnet’s acclaimed debut album 'Tänk på döden' was released. It feels both like a long time ago and somehow quite recent…

Sing a Song Fighter is very happy to be releasing this fall the masterful upcoming album 'Galen och kär', which among other things includes a duet with Mattias Björkas (Vasas Flora och Fauna).

With three-part, heavenly lead vocals, direct and striking lyrics, and wonderful melodies, their music often becomes lofty and deeply enchanting. And since they have roots in the Swedish folk tradition, that naturally finds its way into the music—accompanied closely by their great love for pop music with glittering arpeggios, floating soundscapes, and analog keyboards and synths, all masterfully recorded here by Christian Gabel (1900, bob hund).

Welcome back, Barnet!

TRACK LISTING

1. Blå Planeter
2. Tomt Och Rent
3. Gröna Duvor
4. Halleluja
5. Bussen
6. Hjärtan I Skogen
7. Gå Hem
8. Grottan
9. Du Satt Bredvid Mig
10. Fåglarna Förstår

'Puzzle' is following up the praised 'Slow Summer' EP release earlier this year which saw the always evolving orchestra take on well-known tracks from Bananarama, The Kinks and Lana Del Rey and rearrange them in their own unique, slow and quirky instrumental mix. Now, to free themselves from doing covers and recording other's music (they've released two instrumental Christmas albums in 2023 and 2024 with traditionals etc, recorded as a backing band for Scottish maestro James Yorkston on his last two Domino records releases), the orchestra leader Karl Jonas set up some rules within this very free flowing orchestra, for this new project: - To compose original compositions and since the orchestra members are all amazing artists and musicians on their own, Karl Jonas asked everyone to bring a sketch/idea/track each to the recording sessions. And since the orchestra involved 13 musicians for this session,they needed to not get stuck on some parts as time in the studio was limited (two days). So, everyone was given one hour to present their track to the others, play it around a little and then put it on tape. Spontaneity over production! Of course, this could easily have turned into a chaotic recording, but since the orchestra is used to this recording method (more than five albums) and have devoted itself to improvisations and in the moment-recordings - this session turned into one of their greatest experiences so far. The vinyl version comes with extraordinaire artwork by artist Lisa Jonasson.

TRACK LISTING

1. Sprouts
2. Ode To KJ
3. Bumpy Road, Go!
4. Horizon / Horisont
5. Divorce
6. Slow Dancing
7. Granvitmossa (Girgensohn's Bogmoss)
8. Na Na Na Na (na Na Na)
9. Östersjön
10. Keep On Building A World
11. The Conservative's Fault
12. Flintbacken
13. Solero

A comprehensive collection of the Bunnymen’s first four albums, from their second single 'Rescue', to 'The Cutter' and the anthemic 'The Killing Moon'. It also includes 'Bring On The Dancing Horses', originally released in conjunction with 'Songs To Learn & Sing' back in 1985.

ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN were formed in Liverpool in 1978 with Ian McCulloch on vocals and rhythm guitar, Will Sergeant on lead guitar and Les Pattinson on bass. They were soon joined by Pete De Freitas on drums and the rest, as they say, is history. By the time of 'Songs To Learn & Sing' original release the band were a force to be reckoned with, pioneering the post-punk, new wave scene with four highly acclaimed studio albums.

TRACK LISTING

1. Rescue
2. The Puppet
3. Do It Clean
4. A Promise
5. The Back Of Love
6. The Cutter
7. Never Stop
8. The Killing Moon
9. Silver
10. Silver Seas
11. Bring On The Dancing Horses

When Nathan Salsburg’s daughter was a baby, he often sang her to sleep in a rocking chair. At one point, he remembered a song he had taught himself as a teenager: “The Evidence” by Lungfish, the Maryland band who coined a singular brand of post-punk in the 90s and 00s. Salsburg realized he could play the guitar part with one hand, singing while holding Talya in his other arm. Though the original version of “The Evidence” is only five minutes long, it’s essentially a repetitive mantra, so Salsburg could extend it as long as he wanted–10 minutes, 20 minutes, even an hour. “It was therapeutic and calming and just lovely for me,” he says.

“And it worked on her.” Eventually Nathan and Talya moved on from their ritual, but his lullaby cover stayed in his head. So he proposed to his fellow Louisville collaborators Bonnie “Prince” Billy (aka Will Oldham) and Tyler Trotter that they record a version with Salsburg on guitar, Oldham singing, and Trotter adding drum machines and synths. They decided to pair it with a rendition of another Lungfish song, “Hear the Children Sing,” playing each tune for more than enough time to fill two sides of an album. The result is the beguiling Hear the Children Sing the Evidence, an album that displays the strengths and visions of the participants while showcasing how richly powerful Lungfish’s songs are.

TRACK LISTING

1. Hear The Children Sing (19:56)
2. The Evidence (21:08)

For the 6th Noonday Underground album which was recorded and mixed in Manchester, songwriter/producer Simon Dine has selected an incredible crew of diverse and wonderful vocalists. Each song is given its own skin and nuance without compromising the identity and focus of the album as a whole listening experience. Afrika Baby Bam from the Jungle Brothers, The Zutons’ Abi Harding, Francis Reader from Trashcan Sinatras, much-lauded retro chanteuse Iraina Mancini, Armagh surrealist singer-songwriter Conchúr White, rising London soul star Carmy Love and a host of others feature. Music that sounds of the moment but vintage, and yet unique and unusual, an album to return to again and again and find something new.

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER"Mark Lanegan-primitive, brutal, and apocalyptic. What's not to love?" NICK CAVE"A stoned cold classic" IAN RANKIN'Mark Lanegan writes like he sings, from the pained heart of a damaged soul with brutal honesty' BOBBY GILLESPIE"Powerfully written and brutally, frighteningly honest" LUCINDA WILLIAMSA ROUGH TRADE AND MOJO BOOK OF THE YEARFrom the back of the van to the front of the bar, from the hotel room to the emergency room, Mark Lanegan takes us back to the sinister, needle-ridden streets of Seattle, to an alternative music scene that was simultaneously bursting with creativity and saturated with drugs. He tracks the tumultuous rise and fall of Screaming Trees, from a brawling, acid-rock bar band to world-famous festival favourites with an enduring legacy, and tells of his own personal struggles with addiction, culminating in homelessness, petty crime, and the tragic deaths of his closest friends.

Gritty, gripping and unflinchingly raw, SING BACKWARDS AND WEEP is about a man who learned how to drag himself from the wreckage, dust off the ashes, and keep living and creating. 'The most brutally honest rock memoir imaginable' DAILY TELEGRAPH

‘Inflatable Gravestone’ is the debut album by Mun Sing (aka Giant Swan’s Harry Wright). The motivating force of the album is the sudden loss of Harry’s father in 2020. Their father struggled with substance addiction and the album explores ideas of 'spirituality' and the ‘higher self’ in relation to addiction and its parallels with the coping mechanisms of grief. It also aims to highlight the importance of humour and distraction when coping with loss.

Serving as a narrative for their own experiences, the album is largely built around club-centred tracks (such as ‘Spider’ and ’Squabble’) broken up by moments of yearning and reflection in tracks like ’The Poison Garden’ and ‘Helhest (Azrael Smirks)’ and moments of dark anguish like 'Inheritor' with its heavy slab-like chords and pensive piano. Flirting with awkward and suggestive rhythms, Wright deliberately suspends moments of resolution and groove in favour of drama and jerky, unexpected cartoonish humour, taking as much influence from the likes of the Art Of Noise as Kyary Pamyu Pamyu.

Wright rewards the listener with moments of clarity and introspection like flags on the journey, recruiting vocalist MX World to deliver lyrics and melodic ideas created by them and their father. Their father’s journals in rehab helped inform most of the lyrics. Some take whole sentences as a way to physically ‘give life’ to his words for the first time. The lyrics describe feelings, revelations and apocalyptic hallucinations. MX World's clear, direct tone suggests folk music and the timelessness of the human condition.The album concludes with the title track ‘Inflatable Gravestone’ which features a chorus of giddy manipulated laughter from Wright’s friends and family to a truly maddening effect. This is then resolved by bright and clear piano chords and the sound of Wright’s father breathing in his sleep. A deeply affecting and personal record with corkscrew twists and turns and a healthy dose of absurdism.

TRACK LISTING

1. Waiting In The Car
2. Squabble
3. Spirit And Legacy And Muckiness (ft. MX World)
4. Trebuchet
5. Inheritor
6. Gliding
7. The Poison Garden (ft. MX World)
8. Spider
9. Mercy To Your Cadence
10. Helhest (Azrael Smirks) (ft. MX World)
11. Inflatable Gravestone

Mute and Young God Records present the first instalment of the Angels Of Light reissues, starting with remastered editions of The Angels of Light Sing ‘Other People’ and We Are Him.

Michael Gira formed Angels Of Light after the conclusion of Swans in 1997. The Angels Of Light Sing “Other People” was released in 2005, produced by Gira and featured Akron/Family (Dana Janssen, Miles Seaton Cooper, Seth Olinsky and Ryan Vanderhoof).

On the making of the album, Micheal Gira says “This album is different in many ways than what I’ve done in the past. There’s no general band “sound” here. The instrumentation is arranged in each song to fit the subject. Each song is its own world, a place for the people in the songs to live. I intentionally eschewed long instrumental passages, crescendos, that sort of thing – I’ve done enough of that, and I’m tired of it. The songs say what they have to say, then end.”

TRACK LISTING

1 Lena's Song
2 The Kid Is Already Breaking
3 My Friend Thor
4 On The Mountain
5 Destroyer
6 Dawn
7 My Sister Said
8 Michael's White Hands
9 To Live Through Someone
10 Simon Is Stronger Than Us
11 Purple Creek
12 Jackie's Spine

Echo & The Bunnymen’s first best-of compilation Songs To Learn And Sing is back on vinyl for the first time since its original release in 1985. The album is a comprehensive collection of the band’s first four albums, from their second single Rescue, to The Cutter and the anthemic The Killing Moon. It also includes Bring On The Dancing Horses, originally released in conjunction with Songs To Learn & Sing back in 1985. It arrives back on vinyl as Echo & The Bunnymen go back on tour to celebrate 40 years of magical songs throughout 2022.

ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN were formed in Liverpool in 1978 with Ian McCulloch on vocals and rhythm guitar, Will Sergeant on lead guitar and Les Pattinson on bass. They were soon joined by Pete De Freitas on drums and the rest, as they say, is history. By the time of Songs To Learn & Sing original release the band were a force to be reckoned with, pioneering the post-punk, new wave scene with four highly acclaimed studio albums.

TRACK LISTING

Side A:
1. Rescue
2. The Puppet
3. Do It Clean
4. A Promise
5. Back Of Love
6. The Cutter

Side B:
1. Never Stop
2. The Killing Moon
3. Silver
4. Seven Seas
5. Bring On The Dancing Horses

The textbook American cult band of the ‘80s, Violent Femmes captured the essence of teen angst with remarkable precision; raw and jittery, the trio’s music found little commercial success but nonetheless emerged as the soundtrack for the lives of troubled adolescents the world over. Their self-titled 1983 debut was a blueprint for legions of sardonic alternative rockers that would follow, and they continued their blend of searing, darkly humorous lyrics and sharp-edged folk-rock on other standout albums like 1991’s Why Do Birds Sing.

Violent Femmes formed in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in the early ‘80s, made up of singer/guitarist Gordon Gano, bassist Brian Ritchie, and percussionist Victor DeLorenzo. After being discovered by the Pretenders’ James Honeyman-Scott while they were busking on the street, the band signed to Slash and issued their self-titled debut, a melodic folk-punk collection which struck an obvious chord with young listeners who felt a strong connection to bitter, frustrated songs like “Blister in the Sun,” “Kiss Off” and “Add It Up.” Though never a chart hit, the album remained a rite of passage for succeeding generations of teen outsiders, and after close to a decade after release, it finally achieved platinum status.

40 years on, Violent Femmes’ legacy remains strong, while their influence can be heard across multiple genres—from the anti-folk movement of the early 2000s to the chart-topping hits of Barenaked Ladies, and the indie-pop of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. In 2014, Popmatters declared that the folk-punk pioneers “may have very quietly been one of the most important rock bands of the 1980s, if not the past quarter-century…[They] celebrated the simplicity of pop music from the fringes, attacking convention with a mix of humour and violence.” Pitchfork argued that “The Femmes don’t signify an era so much as a time of life,” adding that “for young people growing up in the internet age” their music “is part of a shared language.”

Why Do Birds Sing? is the fifth studio album and their last studio album with original drummer, Victor DeLorenzo. Featuring the fan favourite “American Music,” which reached No. 2 in the Billboard Modern Rock Chart, as well as a cover of Culture Club’s “Do You Really Want To Hurt Me.”

TRACK LISTING

1LP
Side A
American Music
Out The Window
Look Like That
Do You Really Want To Hurt Me
Hey Nonny Nonny
Used To Be
Side B
Girl Trouble
He Likes Me
Life Is A Scream
Flamingo Baby
Lack Of Knowledge
More Money Tonight
I'm Free

2CD
Disc 1
1. American Music
2. Out The Window
3. Look Like That
4. Do You Really Want To Hurt Me
5. Hey Nonny Nonny
6. Used To Be
7. Girl Trouble
8. He Likes Me
9. Life Is A Scream
10. Flamingo Baby
11. Lack Of Knowledge
12. More Money Tonight
13. I'm Free
14. Me And You*
15. Color Me Once (Early Version)*
16. 4 Seasons (Early Version)*
17. Breaking Up (Early Version)*
18. American Music (Alternate Mix)*
19. Dance, M.F., Dance!

Disc 2
1. Look Like That (Live At The Boathouse, Norfolk, VA / 1991)
2. Out The Window (Live At The Boathouse, Norfolk, VA / 1991)
3. Fat (Live At The Boathouse, Norfolk, VA / 1991)
4. Blister In The Sun (Live At The Boathouse, Norfolk, VA / 1991)
5. Prove My Love (Live At The Boathouse, Norfolk, VA / 1991)
6. Country Death Song (Live At The Boathouse, Norfolk, VA / 1991)
7. Old Mother Reagan (Live At The Boathouse, Norfolk, VA / 1991)
8. Confessions (Live At The Boathouse, Norfolk, VA / 1991)
9. Girl Trouble (Live At The Boathouse, Norfolk, VA / 1991)
10. Add It Up (Live At The Boathouse, Norfolk, VA / 1991)
11. Good Feeling (Live At The Boathouse, Norfolk, VA / 1991)
12. More Money Tonight (Live At The Boathouse, Norfolk, VA / 1991)

“What Black Lips do so well is tease the horror out of wholesomeness and recast golden-age rock’n’roll in a strange, discomforting light” Pitchfork.

“Cosmic country that comes strutting off a dusty back porch with gritted teeth” Consequence Of Sound.

It’s country music but not as we know it which begs the question: Have these Bad Kids of 21st Century rock ’n’ roll finally grown up on their ninth studio album? Are they at peace with themselves? Have they made a record their parents could listen to? The Black Lips new album ‘Sing In A World That’s Falling Apart’ continues to flick the middle finger to one and all. This ain’t another gaggle of bearded southern sons fleeing their collective suburban upbringings and collegiate music education. There aren’t the usual clichés about drinking, honkytonks, and heartbreak. These are, after all, the same Black Lips who rescued the waning garage punk subgenre by not sounding or dressing their musical predecessors. They also dug contemporary hip-hop and punk and actualized themselves Like so many dramatic moments in the Black Lips career, ‘Sing In A World That’s Falling Apart’ was born out of crisis. The band’s stylistic evolution through decades of prolific touring and recording took them where no garage punk band had gone before - huge venues, network television shows, and major music festivals. Here Black Lips are at their grimiest, most dangerous and equipped with the best collection of songs since the aughts. Skidding onto the asphalt in a shower of sparks, they roll on with an unapologetic southern-fried twang, pacing the beast, every now and then dropping a psycho howl into the rubber room madness lurking underneath the truckstop fireworks. This ain’t your granny’s country album. And conversely this ain’t your mama’s Black Lips.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Just as the thigh-slapping hoedown starts, it fades away into rich psychy rock and swinging blues riffage. Black lips have always been one of the most distinctive bands that start with 'Black___' (of which there are A LOT), and 'In A World That's Falling Apart' provides a feelgood alternative to that exact scenario. Turn it up and don't stress. Black Lips got this.

TRACK LISTING

1. Hooker Jon
2. Chainsaw
3. Rumbler
4. Holding Me Holding You
5. Gentleman
6. Get It On Time
7. Angola Rodeo
8. Georgia
9. Odelia
10. Dishonest Man
11. Locust
12. Live Fast Die Slow

Efrim Manuel Menuck, founding member of Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Thee Silver Mt. Zion and Kevin Doria from Growing and Total Life, are now officially a duo. Menuck recruited Doria to help him translate his acclaimed 2018 album Pissing Stars from the studio to the stage, and the pair have been touring under the Efrim Manuel Menuck moniker for the pastyear (often with Doria’s latest solo project KGD opening the proceedings). They’ve also been co-writing piles of new material, diving deeper into whirling maximalist electronics,still shot through with Menuck’s incantatory singing awash in plaintive distortion and hope. Efrim Manuel Menuck & Kevin Doria are SING SINCK, SING presents the first volume of songs forged from this febrile and fertile merger: an antifa poetics of sound that unspools across five crushing, keening tracks driven by thick sweeping drones and ostinatos, battered by inscrutably searching, ricocheting vocals. Anguish,yearning, and desperate conviction combine in these saturated survivalist electro-hymns, for as long as the power stays on to overload the amplifiers

TRACK LISTING

A1. Do The Police Embrace?
A2. Fight The Good Fight
B1. A Humming Void An Emptied Place
B2. Joy Is On Her Mount And Death Is At Her Side
B3. We Will

The Sound Wizard behind the name The Small Crowd is Martin H. He's been remixing, producing, arranging for other artists in Sweden for some time now - This is his solo project where he blends his heavenly, mostly instrumental mix of dancey electronical music with a classical string quartet (Rosa Kvartetten).
Adventurous and beautiful. His influences are all over the map, but early listeners have tried to compare The Small Crowd to artists like: Nicolas Jaar, Jon Hopkins,Kornel Kovacz, Vitalic, James Holden and The Avalanches".. Album artwork by US artist Noah Lyon.

TRACK LISTING

A1. 7 Things
A2. Not Yet
A3. An Endless Line Of Connections Reveals Itself
A4. Sounds Like Another Day
B1. Life (As Some People Know It)
B2. Fast Wave
B3. Unsure
B4. TELLUSWHY

LUH began 2016 by releasing ‘I&I’, a song about daybreak, new beginnings and fresh starts and with a sound so bold and unflinching, it served as perfect way to describe the shape of things to come.

Today they announce details of the their debut album ‘Spiritual Songs For Lovers To Sing’ available for pre-order now and out on 6 May 2016 on Mute. The album was produced by The Haxan Cloak (known for his own genre-bending experimental compositions and work on Björk’s Vulnicura album) on the remote island of Osea.

LUH (which stands for Lost Under Heaven) is Ellery Roberts and Ebony Hoorn. Over the past two years, they have been releasing music, art, photography, film and manifestos into the world, including 2014’s ‘Unites’ video and the expansive ‘Lost Under Heaven’ music and artwork package at the end of last year.

Ellery’s name might be familiar as the frontman of WU LYF, whose raw and primal voice helped create a sound that shaped a new model for the untamed fury of youth. Ebony is an audio-visual artist based in Amsterdam, where the pair now live, and co-directed the new video for ‘I&I’ with Florian Joahn.

TRACK LISTING

1. I&I
2.Unites
3. Beneath The Concrete
4. Future Blues
5.  Someday Come
6. $ORO
7. Here Our Moment Ends
8. Loyalty
9. Lost Under Heaven
10. First Eye To The New Sky
11. Lament
12. The Great Longing

The title is about as self-explanatory as could be: ‘Seth Avett & Jessica Lea Mayfield sing Elliott Smith.’ 12 songs originally written by the acclaimed and well-loved Smith, performed by 2 artists, currently known for their contributions to the indie folk rock landscape. The recordings are, in many cases, defined by bare instrumentation, driven by a simple yet bold vocal delivery, the depth of feeling complimenting that of the subject matter. This album is an obvious labour of love; a comment based on the genuine reverence which Avett and Mayfield clearly hold for Smith. At times, the songs feel light as a feather, while in others, thematically leaden with heartache, they are given a deep breath, a different dimension, a new colour. In modern fashion, melodies intensely whispered by Elliott Smith are sung in a harmonious way, akin to the folk aesthetic of Gillian Welch and David Rawlings.

A relationship with, and a love for the songs of Elliott Smith is a feeling shared by many. Avett and Mayfield are among those who view his music as an under-celebrated body of work, reduced by some to a footnote in the canon of 1990's alternative rock. However, for any lover of music who may appraise his work in a dedicated way, the beauty and depth of it is crystal clear. For Seth Avett and Jessica Lea Mayfield, the nature of this album distinguishes itself as a labor of love, more pronounced in this respect than anything either has previously recorded. At the heart of a genuine musical interpretation, there must be an emotional connection. In this regard, the care and feeling for the music is apparent, even from the first moments of the opening track.

Aesthetically, the record is defined by simple vocal harmonies, bare instrumentation, and an approach which takes its time. Avett and Mayfield’s voices play against each other in a natural and effortless manner, giving Smith’s darker themes a new and bright dimension. In a commercial landscape, where albums are made for the sake of selling, Seth Avett and Jessica Lea Mayfield sing Elliott Smith is an anomaly, a collection of songs recorded for the sole purpose of saying thank you; a gesture of musical gratitude for an original voice, one which so brilliantly whispered such beautiful melodies.

Fifth album from this psyche-pop troupe following two previous releases on Unsound and an album released on Dan Deacon's label, Lamb City. Alone to themselves, Bird Names has been singing a strange sweet song for four years. The song tells about the horror and wonder of truth in an acid-scrambled brogue pieced together from old pop and country music. In their singing they celebrate the honesty of the grotesque, the spirituality of ambiguity, the joy of singing. The band produced the album themselves (as they have most Bird Names albums), engaging their 1/2" tape studio with the amateur's imagination, inspiration and crudity. "Sings The Browns" is folk in its frankness, privacy, melancholy; psychedelic in its conjuring the displacement of drug experience; pop in its melody, stickiness, demand of obsessive listening.

Taken from the forthcoming album "Left".

The long-awaited and much anticipated funk record from Mick Collins (the Dirtbobms / Blacktop / Gories / Detroit legend!) has finally arrived. The Voltaire Brothers' album is a project Mick Collins has been thinking about doing for many years. Fall Of Rome hooked up with him and fellow booty shaker Jerome Gray a couple years ago and the recording began. After a delay here and there (OK and few more delays...) Mick and Jerome's dream is ready to go. It's a homage to some of the artists the two of them grew up listening to in Detroit- George Clinton, Sly Stone, Bootsy Collins, Marvin Gaye and others.

Since By Man have the intensity of Converge and Poison The Well plus the melodic sensibility of emocore. From Milwaukee USA, Sam Macon (vocals), Justin Kay (guitar), Kevin Herwig (guitar), Jon Kraft (drums) and Bryan Jerabek (bass) have created a storm of an album. Together this five-piece form a cohesive, powerful unit "We Sing The Body Electric" has a maturity unusual in a debut full-length with a genuine power and desperate passion.

Anne Briggs is regarded as one of the greatest vocalists to emerge on the English folk scene but she never craved fame and certainly had no 'career plan'. This 'lost' album from 1973 is a case in point. Recorded when 8 months pregnant and disatisfied with her own vocals through being 'too breathy' the album was virtually shelved as Anne moved to a remote part of Scotland and even refused to have any further photos taken for the front cover. Ragged Robin who played on the album featured Steve Ashley and Barry Dransfield also sat in on the sessions.

Recorded by Steve Albini at his electrical audio studios, this dark and addictive music that will appeal to fans of Low, Tortoise, Papa M, Codeine and Yo La Tengo.