‘Live In France: The 1966 Concert In Limoges’ is a previously unissued live solo recording of the ‘Godmother of Rock n’ Roll’, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, captured at the auditorium of the Grand Theatre in Limoges, France on November 11, 1966.

This is an official release on producer Zev Feldman's new Deep Digs record label, in partnership with Elemental Music, and in cooperation with the Sister Rosetta Tharpe Estate and INA France.

Transferred from the original tape reels, this recording was restored and mastered by multi- Grammy award-winning engineer Michael Graves at Osiris Studio, with lacquers cut by the legendary Bernie Grundman at Bernie Grundman Mastering Studios.

TRACK LISTING

1. This Train
2. When My Life Work Is
3. Ended
4. Didn’t It Rain
5. Mother’s Prayer
6. Up Above My Head, I Hear
7. Music In The Air
8. Moonshine
9. Sit Down
10. Down By The Riverside
11. When The Saints Go
12. Marching In
13. Joshua Fought The Battle
14. Of Jericho
15. Jesus Met The Woman At
16. The Well
17. Two Little Fishes, Five
18. Loaves Of Bread
19. Travelling Shoes
20. Beams Of Heaven
21. That’s All / Denomination
22. Blues
23. Going Home
24. Go Ahead
25. Bring Back Those Happy
26. Days
27. Give Me That Old Time
28. Religion
29. If Anybody Above Me
30. Nobody’s Fault By Mine

Sara Dobbs and Jenny Shore used to work summer stock theater in St. Louis, Missouri. They’d do the hand jive with TV stars past and future; they’d get coldly corrected by the ancient, legendary choreographer Gemze de Lappe. Sara went on to Broadway, including a run as Anybodys in West Side Story. Jenny went on to choreograph in the independent dance scene of early 2000s Chicago.

Julie Shore is Jenny’s sister. She’s always made music—playing Chopin, writing songs, making bands with her friends. She’s had the archetypal Millennial journey of entering adulthood in the ’08 financial crisis and figuring out what stupid series of jobs you have to take to pay rent while keeping an artistic life alive.

Miles Francis grew up in New York City with Backstreet Boys posters covering their walls. An extraordinary drummer since youth, Miles thrives in collaboration— whether producing artists in their West Village studio, performing with artists like Angelique Kidjo, or powering protests with a big marching drum.

These four—Miles, Julie, Jenny, and Sara—are Sister Squares. What made them a musical unit was working with Grammy winner and Oscar nominee Will Butler. They’ve all just finished a new record together: Will Butler + Sister Squares.

“After Generations, I considered making a weird solo record. Me alone in the basement, etc., etc. Mostly I realized that what I wanted was the opposite,” says Will. He increasingly turned to the band for feedback on lyrics and song structures. He asked Miles if they’d produce the record. The band played a run of shows in August 2022, airing out studio ideas in live rooms. After coming home, the band regrouped at Figure 8 Studios in Brooklyn.

“I had quit my band Arcade Fire very recently, after 20 years—maybe the most complex decision of my life. I had spent the preceding two years at home with my three children. I was 39 years old. I was waking up every morning and reading Emily Dickinson, until I had read every Emily Dickinson poem. I was listening to Morrissey, to Shostakovich, to the Spotify top 50. I had unformed questions with inchoate answers,” says Will. “But, honestly, I was feeling great about the record.”

The album projects widescreen emotional landscapes. Lead-off single “Long Grass” is like a Harry Styles song with 20 more years of life behind it. Standout track “Satur- day Night” has a beat, according to Miles, “with that robot-alien-dancing-at-a-haunted-dive-bar feeling that we were going for.” The back half of the album is a dance-able, weird choral record with harmonies both beautiful and dissonant. Closing song “The Window” is the comedown after the party—Julie playing a Chopin Nocturne on a three-years-out-of-tune piano, slowed to half-speed on tape with Will singing over it in a voice exactly as tired as he was. It’s a record with a warm, humane soul.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A beautifully presented, texturally rich mix of grand orchestral statement pieces and drum-machine rich indie-folk, brittle harmonies and syncopated percussion bursting into soaring choral lifts. The beautifully transcendent mix of all three vocal talents is the icing on the cake.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A
1. Open
2. Stop Talking
3. Willows
4. Long Grass
5. Me N My Friends 6. Saturday Night
7. Car Crash
SIDE B
8. Sunlight
9. Arrow Of Time
10. I Am Standing In A Room 11. Good Friday, 1613
12. Old Year
13. Hee Loop
14. The Window

Don Cherry's downtown Paris funk masterwork produced in 1985 by Ramuntcho Matta and originally released by Barclay in France only, finally gets a worldwide release on Wewantsounds. The album features French post punk muse Elli Medeiros (Stinky Toys, Elli & Jacno), avant garde poet Brion Gysin and cult Senegalese drummer Abdoulaye Prosper Niang (from the mythical group Xalam). Newly Remastered, the album is augmented by five bonus tracks culled from Matta's vauts and including the superb "Kick" featuring Gysin.

TRACK LISTING

1. Call Me
2. Treat Your Lady Right
3. Butterfly Friend
4. I Walk
5. Art Deco
6. Rappin' Recipe
7. Reggae To The High Tower
8. Alphabet City
9. Bamako Love
10. Kick (Single Version) [feat. Brion Gysin]
11. Rappin' Recipe (Instrumental)
12. Benoego
13. Initiation (Demo)
14. Treat Your Lady Right (Bim Bam Bom)

Now a classic reggae anthem, 'Bam Bam' celebrates Sister Nancy's success as a woman in the male-dominated dancehall scene of the 80s. Nancy was the first woman to perform at Reggae Sunsplash, a Jamaican reggae festival, and the first female Jamaican DJ to tour internationally. The song's chorus has been sampled, remixed, covered, and interpolated in several songs after its release, including by Main Source, Pete Rock, Gang Starr, Lion of Judah (Congo Natty), Lauryn Hill, Madlib, Groove Armada, Dj Defkline (Deekline), Ed Solo, Stylo G, Jay-Z and many, many more! The hook is in fact sampled from the 1965 song of the same title by The Maytals.

TRACK LISTING

1. Bam Bam
2. Stalag Version

Y Gawres, the album’s title, is inspired by the ancient burial site on Anglesey, Barclodiad y Gawres, which translates to “The Giantess’ Apronful”. While giants are central to the nation’s folklore, it’s rare to hear of female giants. The idea led the Sheffield-based band — consisting of Donna Lee (vocals/keys/synths), Rose Love (vocals/bass), Liv Willars (vocals/guitar), Lisa O’Hara (vocals/drums) — to picture a devastating, nurturing, awe-inspiring, and most importantly feminine force of their own. The lyrics are divided between English and Lee’s native Welsh, and the country is deeply present across the album. It’s important to Lee to represent the Welsh language outside of Wales, with the band often making connections with Welsh audience members and showing others that singing in the language is viable and meaningful. All four members of Sister Wives began their respective journeys in music in the punk and DIY music scenes. However, the band is a vehicle for experimentation, with its members adopting a deeply collaborative and open-minded approach. Industrial, grating synth and guitar sounds form their foundation, while vocals are haunting and harmonic. “We try and make our music sound as powerful and primal as possible,” the band explain. ‘Writing music as women in our thirties means we have more life experience to bring to our songwriting, and we’re very supportive of each other’s ideas. Nothing is ever off the table.”

TRACK LISTING

1. O Dŷ I Dŷ
2. Ticking Time Bomb
3. Streets At Night
4. Another Day
5. Hares On The Mountain
6. Greater Place
7. Y Gawres
8. Y Merch Werdd
9. Baron Hill
10. Hwiangerdd
11. O Dŷ I Dŷ - Ail Rhan

Treviso, Italy-based two piece Kill Your Boyfriend are releasing their fourth album 'Voodoo' via Sister 9 Recordings (Europe), Little Cloud Records (North America) and Shyrec (Itay). A frantic and hypnothising bacchanalia of Psych & Industrial tinged soundwaves, the new album is a collection of reverb laden necromantic charms, summoning the souls and bones of the greats in the Rock & Roll pantheon of the 1950s. The duo delivers such glittery dark enchantment via 7 hoodoo hymns, travelling with a crumbling, ghostly and magically whizzing Rocket 88, in the company of Marie Laveau and madame Lalaurie. It's a relentless whirl of Voodoo-Psych, Industrial-Billy, Electro-GrisGris, which you can dance to.

The new LP follows 'Killadelica', where Kill Your Boyfriend had refined their debut signature sound, bridging the gap between the semi-obscure but hauntingly fascinating tradition of Veneto's PostPunk (Death In Venice, Evabraun, Pyramids, etc.) and contemporary Psych-Nouveau. With 'Voodoo', Matteo Scarpa and Antonio Angeli, explore new genres and expand the sonic borders, without losing their original intent. They replace the synth bass with a bass-guitar, adding more fluidity and weight to a renewed and punchier rhythmic section. Electronic and acoustic percussion are fuller and heavier, and the band's new stomp-machine is a hyper-convulsive version of the saturated Rock & Roll and R&B drumming, from the cheap garage studios of 1950s indie labels.

Sida A is the most Rock & Roll of the two, and it is inspired by Michael Ventura's essay "Hear that Long Snake Moan", which brought forward the idea that "the Voodoo rite of possession by the god became the standard of American performance in Rock’n’Roll" where the performers "let themselves be possessed not by any god they could name but by the spirit they felt in the music”. Each song invokes one or a set of the lost souls of the Rock & Roll era, with 'The Day The Music Died' referring to the infamous 3rd of February 1959. Side B descends deeper into the magic swamps of Creole magic, with music taking on a much more liturgical function, conjuring shamanic possessions via extra layers of tribal percussion. The band says of side B: "we see it as a one long ritualistic descent into a psychedelic underworld made of echoing voices, claustrophobic spaces populated by lost souls, enchanters and witchdoctors."

For fans of: Throbbing Gristle, The Soft Moon, Suicide, Cult Of Dom Keller, Sonic Youth, The Cramps, Sisters Of Mercy, Wall Of Voodoo

TRACK LISTING

1. The King
2. The Man In Black
3. Mr Mojo
4. Buster
5. The Day The Music Died
6. Papa Legba
7. Vodoo

Deep fried to perfection, Manuel Sahagun is next up to the plate for your favourite potato-based label Pomme Frite. A five-track disco house menu, served extra crispy with all the sauce you could ever need. Comfort cuts with summer firmly in mind.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: 'Pigeon tackle' as my friends and co-workers often remind me - repetitive concentric club shit that has you spinning around in circles with your eyes wide shut. As good an example as you'll ever find! Love the centre label too. 10 / 10

TRACK LISTING

A1. Get Closer
A2. Boogie Sister
B1. 1,2...
B2. Shit And Run
B3. Spoon

To celebrate the 30-year Anniversary of Shakespear's Sister’s seminal album. ‘Hormonally Yours’, London Records announce a special edition release across multiple formats.

A double Platinum and Top 3 UK album, ‘Hormonally Yours’ secured Siobhan Fahey and Marcella Detroit a place in British pop history - spawning the single ‘Stay’, which spent a staggering eight consecutive weeks at the top of the UK charts - and won the duo an Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Contemporary Song Collection.

‘Hormonally Yours’ also features singles ‘Goodbye Cruel World’ and ‘I Don’t Care’, tackles friendships gone wrong on ‘My Sixteenth Apology’, powerful, dangerous attraction on ‘Emotional Thing’ and documents a friend’s coming out on ‘Are We In Love Yet?’ Fan favourite ‘The Trouble With Andre’, the fullthrottle glam-blues of ‘Cat Woman’ and glorious finale ‘Hello (Turn Your Radio On)’ is the album’s glorious finale: an exhalation; a glorious, earthshuddering moment that recalls the epic melancholy of David Bowie’s ‘Five Years’ and The Beatles’ ‘A Day In The Life’.

Shakespears Sister’s second album, ‘Hormonally Yours’ provided the perfect encapsulation of the duo’s musical ying and yang; a deftly delivered balance of pop melody with a spikey alternative darkness.

TRACK LISTING

CD (LMS5521725)
‘Hormonally Yours’
Goodbye Cruel World
I Don’t Care
My 16th Apology
Are We In Love Yet
Emotional Thing
Stay
Black Sky
The Trouble With Andre
Moonchild
Catwoman
Let Me Entertain You
Hello (Turn Your Radio On)
Bonus Tracks
Cat Worship
Out To Groove [Demo]
The End [Demo]

DVD (LMS5521725)
‘Hormonally Yours’ Brighton Live Footage
Goodbye Cruel World
My 16th Apology
The Trouble With Andre
Emotional Thing
Black Sky
Stay
Are We In Love Yet
I Don’t Care
Catwoman
Hello (Turn Your Radio On)
Restored And Remastered Videos
Goodbye Cruel World
Stay
I Don’t Care
Hello (Turn Your Radio On)
My 16th Apology
Catwoman [Live]
Goodbye Cruel World (2022 Version)
Making Of / Behind The Scenes (Unseen Archive
Footage)

LP (LMS5521728 / LMS5521727)
Goodbye Cruel World
I Don’t Care
My 16th Apology
Are We In Love Yet
Emotional Thing
Stay
Black Sky
The Trouble With Andre
Moonchild
Catwoman
Let Me Entertain You
Hello (Turn Your Radio On)

Bones Shake are a scuzzy, fuzz enthused garage rock trio formed in Manchester in 2011. They play everything to the extreme; violent bottle-neck blues riffs, drums kicked, pounded and exploited and squeals of reverb drenched vocals which when combined, will help save your soul. With a relentless energy, they’ve never taken their foot off the gas. Those efforts have been rewarded by Sister9 Recordings who release second LP Bleed on 22 July.

Through tirelessly playing across the UK and Europe, they have attracted a cult following that sees them fill out venues wherever they go; including a sold-out performance at the infamous Raut Oak festival. With a string of previous releases under their belt, they have gone from strength to strength and their last EP Privilege was released via Belgian label Never Trust Hippies. First LP Sermons was released in May 2019.

If Nick Cave and Alan Vega has a musical baby, it would be Bleed. Talking about the LP, Bones say that “Bleed is a regurgitation of sins, regrets and remorse. Bleed came about over lockdown; we broke everything apart and tried to put everything back together again afterwards. We tried adding a bass, a second guitar: none of it worked but trying those things it inadvertently changed the sound, it became bigger, more urgent, more primal. It was us against the world again”

Opener ‘Hey Hey’ is a stomper which grabs an instant hold and doesn’t let go. Its intense and penetrating, grabbing your soul and daring you to ask for release; is there a purer embodiment of rock n roll? Title track ‘Bleed’ has one of the catchiest guitar riff openings you may ever find and ‘Psychotic & Sweet’ with its tongue in cheek lyrics and infectious hook is sure to linger in your head for days. ‘Give Me Something’ is the slowest track, it gives you a precious moment to catch your breath and take a beat, to revel in its splendour.

‘Unwell’ was the first single and to go with the track the band gathered a group of merry misfits and put together a video which is both a poignant sign of the times and a harsh take on reality. The track’s ferocious energy doesn’t let up and the intensity is only sated in the guitar interludes. They have come a long way from their inception and nowhere is this more prevalent than in ‘Come Home’, a Suicide-esq, post punk masterpiece which stands apart. Bones explain “Fundamentally this album sounds better because we were less lazy, I mean physically… We carted our own amps and drums to the studio, we utilised our own organic sound rather than relying on studio gear. We were also a lot more disciplined, In the end Bleed captures us live like no other recording has, every guitar note, every skin hit and every scream resonates more in the ears than any other Bones Shake Record ever has before”.

‘Cold Heart’ sees a return to the most familiar Bones sound and belongs firmly in the Mississippi dive bars. Closing off with ‘Car Crash’, a final kick in the teeth, a cacophony of noise that sees out the album and leaves you wanting more – so much so you just start it from the beginning and experience Bleed all over again. You know it makes sense.

FFO: The Stooges, The Cramps, The Birthday Party 

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A:
Hey Hey
Bleed
Psychotic & Sweet
Give Me Something

SIDE B:
Unwell
Come Home
Cold Heart
Car Crash

Communion, the debut album by Sister Ray, is a raw, meticulously-crafted portrait of momentous, ordinary moments; experiences that define your past, and instruct how you move through the world. The record is anchored by guitar melodies that bear an undercurrent of turmoil, and echoes with the wisdom of hard-won lessons. It’s a break-up album invested in exploring the motivations behind actions, rather than attempting moral judgment. Out May 6 via Royal Mountain Records.

What does it take to not only become unburdened by your past, but to embrace its many contours? Sister Ray, the project of Edmonton-born songwriter Ella Coyes, was conceived out of necessity; a self-designed vehicle built to examine trauma with unflinching honesty. Armed with a voice that soars and scrapes in equal measure, Coyes converts first-person recollections of big, complicated love into universally potent allegories. The result is an unyielding, spacious, and commanding form of indie rock, rooted in the folk tradition, that transforms unvarnished, interior reflections into a generous public offering.

Born and raised on the expansive prairies of Sturgeon County, Sister Ray’s music is steeped in a wide range of cultural influences. With gospel blue grass and 90’s country playing in the background of their youth, it was the traditional Métis music played at home that not only brought them closer to their heritage, but taught them a form of storytelling rooted in collective value, resilience, and safety. Through the existential questions that came with examining contradictory identities, Coyes came to understand music’s ability to archive personal histories while also unpacking overwhelming emotions with the support of a community.

Bones Shake are a scuzzy, fuzz enthused garage rock trio formed in Manchester in 2011. They play everything to the extreme; violent bottle-neck blues riffs, drums kicked, pounded and exploited and squeals of reverb drenched vocals which when combined, will help save your soul. With a relentless energy, they’ve never taken their foot of the gas. Through tirelessly playing across the UK and Europe, they have attracted a cult following that sees them fill out venues wherever they go; including a sold-out performance at the infamous Raut Oak festival. They have released 4 EPs and 3 LPs to date which has seen them go from strength to strength. Their last EP Privilege was released via Belgian label Never Trust Hippies and new album 'Bleed' is out on 8th July 2022.

TRACK LISTING

1. Privilege
2. Cracked Lips
3. King Dick
4. Fryin' Line
5. Bucket O' Blood
6. Girl
7. Cops
8. Kicks

Included in Craig Charles’ Funk and Soul ‘Ones to Watch 2022’ list. From London via Lagos, charismatic chanteuse Sister Cookie will take you on an eclectic excursion into the roots & fruits of black music. Old sounds, new tricks. Sensuous, seductive and moody. As well as possessing a distinctive voice that's tender and sweet when it needs to be, she’s a composer and self-taught pianist who writes honest and raw songs about pain, heartbreak, suffering - all that bad (meaning-good) stuff. 

Craig Charles is a big supporter on BBC 6 Music and has played current single ‘Ain’t No Good (But It’s Good Enough For Me)’ several times. Steve Lamacq and Lauren Laverne have also given the track multiple plays. The track has also been playlisted at Jazz FM. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Can’t Get It When You Want It
2. (You’re Never More Than) Seven Feet Away
3. Crucify
4. Nothing Left To Do But Cry
5. Night After Night
6. It Don’t Come Cheap Side Two
7. You Know I Do
8. Ain’t No Good (But It’s Good Enough For Me)
9. You’re Bad For Me (But I’m Worse For You)
10. Long Time No See
11. The Sins Of The Father

As Midnight Sister, multi-disciplinary LA artists Juliana Giraffe and Ari Balouzian make motion pictures. Yes, sometimes with moving images - but most often only with the music they create together. Balouzian’s serpentine, string compositions are movie scenes that allow Giraffe, a brilliant character actor, to cloak herself in a new roles and voices. A bit of Jon Brion’s score work; some old Hollywood strings; a solid dose of glam and outsider disco from 70s independent cinema. Any perceived artifice is always matched by an indelible human fingerprint, something perfectly off. Giraffe and Balouzian’s respective work in fashion, visual art, video and film scoring - along with the gang of virtuosos with which they surround themselves - all wonderfully coalesce as Midnight Sister. If 2017’s ‘Saturn Over Sunset’ was their collection of short films about outcast life in The San Fernando Valley, then their new album ‘Paining The Roses’ is the inventive, meta motion picture that cements them as auteurs.

‘Painting The Roses’ is in many ways a fairy tale -- not so much the sweet-and-happy ending kind as something richer, packed with imagination and rooted in the complex human messiness beneath a story’s artifice. Frontwoman Giraffe describes it as “this tightrope of being real yet synthetic, organic yet staged, light yet dark, logical yet irrational, beautiful yet dilapidated. Joyful nonsense.” Here, disguises like masks and paint are not meant to hide but to liberate, to “set a part of us free” and Midnight Sister often embody this themselves, appearing highly stylized, curious, warm and inviting but a little askew. ‘Painting the Roses’ is a story told through the looking glass, one where we examine ourselves in a funhouse mirror but find clarity in its twists.

Giraffe travelled to visit family in Argentina during the making of the album and reconnected greatly with that part of her family history, art and culture. Balouzian created the core album opener ‘Doctor Says’ during a session in the desert outside of LA. The guitar, which reminded Giraffe of South America, has a slow, sweltering surf-tango to it, like Dick Dale doing Carlos Gardel. And even though the song was inspired by Giraffe’s reconnection with Argentina, the song is about the fading of some close friendships during the making of the album. “Man, you have changed,” Giraffe sings, unclear if it’s directed to a friend or to herself.

TRACK LISTING

Doctor Says
Satellite
Foxes
Sirens
Escalators
Dearly Departed
Tomorrowland
My Elevator Song
Wednesday Baby
Limousine
Song For The Trees
Painting The Roses

The third full-length from Mina Tindle, SISTER is an album populated by mythic creatures of all kinds: lions on parade, lovers turned to cannibals, kings and Sirens and women with wings. Like any great fabulist, she threads her storytelling with a fragile wisdom, revealing essential truths about all the danger and wildness within the human heart. With each moment elevated by her spellbinding vocal work — a gift she’s shown in recording and touring as a singer for The National — SISTER ultimately makes for a transportive listen, at turns impossibly dreamlike and profoundly illuminating.

Mina Tindle is the project of Parisian singer/songwriter and multiinstrumentalist Pauline De Lassus. Mostly made in New York City with producer Thomas Bartlett (Yoko Ono, Florence + the Machine), the album’s elegant detail balances the odd magic of the songs with a fierce emotional realism. “Give a Little Love,” written and produced by Sufjan Stevens, channels intense longing, its soulful melancholy magnified by Stevens’s warm background vocals. On “Belle Pénitence,” she shares a tender love letter to her husband (The National’s Bryce Dessner), twisting the mood of lovely surrender with some fantastically brutal hunting imagery rendered in her native tongue. And on “Lions,” with its shimmering grooves, De Lassus offers up a bit of soft-hearted encouragement in the face of self-doubt: “If the roads are made for a parade/Go march with the lions.” She adds, “You need to keep going, even if sometimes you feel like you’re just pretending to be brave. It’s all about the march.”

After the gloriously sprawling “Triptyque”— partly written with Dessner — SISTER closes out with a stark rendition of “Is Anything Wrong” by Lhasa De Sela, the late artist whom De Lassus names among her most enduring influences. Mina Tindle’s version originally featured as part of a tribute to the late singer that she conceived and organized in 2019 with another of her longtime heroes Canadian singer Leslie Feist. They would later perform the tribute at London’s Barbican and the Cork Opera House.

De Lassus later appeared as a featured soloist on The National’s 2019 album I Am Easy to Find and toured extensively with the band. During the last few years as she was writing and recording SISTER, De Lassus has also been an integral part of the PEOPLE Festivals at the historic Berlin Funkhaus in 2016 and 2018, where she worked with a vast range of musicians and artists in the community.

SISTER achieves a potent complexity, arriving as her most imaginative selection of songs to date while wholly embracing the sometimespainful truth-telling she’s long treasured in her most beloved artists. “All the people I love the most have this beautiful way of singing their truth, and I hope these songs give that same kind of honesty.”

TRACK LISTING

1/ Jessa
2/ Lions
3/ Give A Little Love (feat. Sufjan Stevens)
4/ Indian Summer
5/ Louis / QMB622001005
6/ Belle Pénitence
7/ Fire & Sun
8/ Triptyque
9/ Is Anything Wrong

The King & City reissue series continues with Paul Robinson's disco boogie jam Come On Sister. Moving from the Lovers sound of his early productions, his first solo recording was aimed straight at the blues, clubs and pirate stations of South London and beyond - a prolific artist on the rise.

Appearing as a 13 year old protegee drummer in The Simeons, recording for the legendary Freedom Sounds label out of Kingston; to forming the influential Roots / Lovers Rock outfit One Blood; then vocalist in the Nick Straker Band; and through to a 30 year career as "dubplate" producer / singer Barry Boom, Robinson is a man of talents and serious legacy.

This highly sought after debut, part of Neville King and Lee Laing's family of labels, followed releases in One Blood and productions for female Lovers groups Blood Sisters and Charisma. A pure disco boogie party cut, Come On Sister sees the Robinson family hit the Brit funk.

In label style, the flip is given the Discomix treatment, here by up and coming digger, dealer and producer, Bruno (Perfect Lives). Letting the horns, dub bass and drums build in anticipation before the keys and guitar join and it all drops to Robinson's vocals - Come On Sister.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Come On Sister
A2. Come On Sister (instrumental)
B1. Come On Sister (Bruno Discomix) 

Ultraísta are releasing their first new album since 2012's self-titled debut. "Tin King" is a collection that defies easy categorization, and one that proves that Ultraísta — Grammy-winning producer/engineer/musician Nigel Godrich, best known for his two decades helming Radiohead’s groundbreaking studio output; celebrated drummer Joey Waronker, who’s toured and recorded with everyone from R.E.M. and Beck to Roger Waters and Elliott Smith; and singer Laura Bettinson, an acclaimed solo artist whose work combines synth-driven electropop and dreamy vocal looping — is far more than just the sum of its remarkable parts.

TRACK LISTING

1. Tin King
2. Harmony
3. Anybody
4. Save It ’til Later
5. Ordinary Boy
6. Mariella
7. Water In My Veins
8. Bumblebees
9. The Moon And Mercury

Continuing the band's interest in experimenting with the post-punk song, No Sister's upcoming release is an acknowledgement of an elemental, unavoidable creative facet: influence.

While Tiarney Miekus sings 'Burning News', she took influence from band member Mino Peric's childhood experience of clearing out an old, family house in suburban Tokyo. When Mino's family lit a backyard bonfire, burning newspaper floated into the sky, covering the neighbourhood in small black specks. Musically and aesthetically, the song was especially influenced by Phil Collins' 'In The Air Tonight' and the Prophet 5 synthesiser, alongside a desire, at the song's finale, to attempt to capture a moment of overwhelming, largely cinematic awe.

No Sister's new EP draws from a variety of influences including writers Sheila Heti and Anne Boyer, and musicians ranging from David Sylvian, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Prince and other 80s fascinations - the band endeavor to expand their post-punk sound to include influences from both sides of the Atlantic (and Pacific). Influence was recorded by John Lee and Pat Telfer at Phaedra Studios (Beaches, Love of Diagrams, Lost Animal, Stonefield), mixed by Mino Peric and mastered by David Walker at Stepford Audio. Opposite Number will release the EP in UK + Europe to partner with the bands self-release in Australia.

TRACK LISTING

1. My New Career
2. Pacific
3. Something (All At Once)
4. Burning News

What is at stake in the seduction of Kansas? Like a gavel or hammer, the question rattles across the second LP from Washington, D.C. rock iconoclasts Priests: Entering their eighth year as a band, Priests—drummer Daniele Daniele, vocalist Katie Alice Greer, and guitarist G.L. Jaguar—remain an inspired anomaly in modern music. A band on its own label—jolting the greater music world with early releases by Downtown Boys, Snail Mail, Sneaks, and Gauche—they are living proof that it is still possible to work on one’s own terms, to collectively cultivate one’s own world. Priests enlisted two primary collaborators in writing, arranging, and recording The Seduction of Kansas. After playing cello, mellotron, and lap steel on Nothing Feels Natural, multi-instrumentalist Janel Leppin (Mellow Diamond, Marissa Nadler) returned to breathe air into Priests’ demos, serving as primary bassist and a fourth songwriting collaborator on The Seduction of Kansas.


The band also found a kindred spirit in producer John Congleton (Angel Olsen, St. Vincent), recording for two weeks at his Elmwood Studio in Dallas. It marked the band’s first time opening up their creative work to collaborate with someone outside of their DC-based community—a decidedly less hermetic approach. Priests found a third collaborator in bassist Alexandra Tyson, who has also joined the touring band. The songwriting process found the group once again analyzing the textures and scopes of albums as aggressive as they are introspective, like Massive Attack’s Mezzanine, Portishead’s Third, and Nine Inch Nails’ Downward Spiral. The first single, "The Seduction of Kansas," is Priests’ purest pop song to date. It is dark and glittering—though there is still something fantastically off about it, decadent and uneasy at once.

As journalist Thomas Frank explored in 2004’s What’s the Matter With Kansas?, the ideological sway of Kansas has often predicted the direction in which the U.S. will move—whether leaning socialist in the 1800s or going staunchly conservative in the 1980s. Illustrating Kansas’ potent place in our national imagination—as well as “a chorus of whoever is trying to persuade the social consciousness of Kansas”—Greer sings brilliantly of a “bloodthirsty cherub choir” in a cornfield, of “a drawn out charismatic parody of what a country through it used to be,” beckoning that “I’m the one who loves you.” The song does what Priests do best: They make us think, stir us with complexity. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: There is something inherently DC about Priests, displaying the gloomy syncopated rhythms of Fugazi or the minimalist charm and throbbing bass of The Evens, but with a hypnotic take on post-industrial rhythms and crescentic synth melodies. Unnervingly fluid in parts, skittering between 4/4 and 7/8 before launching into a soaring anthemic chorus. Brilliantly fresh sounding and completely addictive pop.

TRACK LISTING

1. Jesus' Son
2. The Seduction Of Kansas
3. Youtube Sartre
4. I'm Clean
5. Ice Cream
6. Good Time Charlie
7. 68 Screen
8. Not Perceived
9. Control Freak
10. Carol
11. Interlude
12. Texas Instruments

Right now, the world needs a warrior. Town by town and tour by tour, She Makes War has been widening her battle stance and soothing tortured souls with her no holds barred, peaceful protest music. Armed with songs to persuade and words that bite then linger with the sweetest aftertaste, She has a message – wake up world and Brace for Impact.

“People still live in fear of persecution and violence every day for the “crime” of being themselves,” attests the nom de plume of melodic visualiser, storyteller and creator Laura Kidd. “With everything that’s going on in the world, adopting a brace position to protect ourselves from external forces is more important than ever.”

From broken hearts to broken bones, Laura was given plenty of time for rumination when she broke her right foot moments before supporting The Brian Jonestown Massacre. Tumbling off a darkened stage during soundcheck, adrenaline kicked in and, ever the fighter, the show went on. With barely enough time to visit A&E, a face full of glitter and steely resolve, she performed a slew of summer festival sets and a BBC 6Music Marc Riley session sporting a fetching knee crutch.

“Having my mobility stolen from me was exhausting and depressing. I’d come up with the album title while driving on tour, daydreaming about what it must be like to be in a high-speed car crash – I’d wondered whether there would be time to apologise to my passenger if we got in an accident…it was a bit dark”, she recalls. “After struggling through the summer with that phrase in my mind, then finding it written in the venue toilets at the end of a tour in Brighton, it just had to be the album title.”

TRACK LISTING

1. A1. Devastate Me
2. A2. London Bites
3. A3. Strong Enough
4. A4. Undone
5. A5. Then The Quiet Came
6. A6. Fortify
7. B1. Weary Bird
8. B2. Let Me Down
9. B3. Dear Heart
10. B4. Love This Body
11. B5. Hold On
12. B6. Miles Away

Midnight Sister - the project of intense creatives Juliana Giraffe and Ari Bazoulian - is brought to you by the isolating landscape of the San Fernando Valley - its colours, diners, lunatics and neon lights. Both lifelong residents of this storied valley, Giraffe and Bazoulian have only become more inspired by the area’s mythology over the years: its two-faced magical wonderland and tragic circus. Their debut, ‘Saturn Over Sunset’, works almost as an album version of Altman’s ‘Shortcuts’, each song a character study of the valley’s odd personae.

Giraffe, 23, the daughter of an LA disc jockey, was raised almost exclusively on disco and Bowie. Her lyrics and lyrical melodies, informed very much by her film-making background, were composed gazing out from a tiny retail window on Sunset Boulevard. Her ‘Rear Window’-like longing allowed her imagination to run wild and cook up the wild narratives that would fill Balouzian’s compositions.

Balouzian, 27, is classically trained and already a go-to arranger for odd-pop names like Tobias Jesso Jr. and Alex Izenberg. Midnight Sister represents a first for both of them. It’s Giraffe’s first time writing and performing music and it’s Balouzian’s first foray into playing true pop music.

‘Saturn Over Sunset’ is a shared musical vision of Hollywood’s oddest corners. It is the baroque, eldritch alley you must pass through to find the speakeasy night of your life. You’ll come out bleary-eyed and the sunrise will be pouring all pink and orange through the smog and palm trees.

TRACK LISTING

Canary
Leave You
Blue Cigar
Showgirl
The Drought
The Crow
Daddy Long Legs
Neon
Shimmy
So Young
The View From Gilligan’s Island
Hitman
Clown
Their Eyes

Classic 1987 album is one of the band’s most beloved releases. Includes a cover of Crime’s “Hot Wire My Heart”. 

There is no album in the entire corpus of indie rock—not Loveless, not Surfer Rosa, not Psychocandy— that reaches the heights of invention, joy, and magic of Sonic Youth’s sublime fifth album.... The haunted reveries of Sister remain with you for years, even if you only hear them once…. Sister is the sonic manifestation of refracted light. It’s a record that changes you.” Stereogum.

One of Sonic Youth’s most beloved albums, 1987’s Sister incorporated the dissonance of their earlier releases into more traditional song structures. It’s an innovative and thrilling work assuredly delivered by a band at the peak of their powers. Reissued on the band’s Goofin’ imprint, this 2016 pressing includes a digital download card with the vinyl edition. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Schizophrenia
2. Catholic Block
3. Beauty Lies In The Eye
4. Stereo Sanctity
5. Pipeline / Kill Time
6. Tuff Gnarl
7. Pacific Coast Highway
8. Hot Wire My Heart
9. Cotton Crown
10. White Cross
11. Master-Dik (download-only)

Mozart’s Sister - the solo project of Montreal’s Caila Thompson-Hannant she started back in early 2011 - delights in making glittering, celebratory pop with an underlying strain of brittle, claustrophobic energy. By marrying the accessible with the decidedly off-kilter, she displays a similar vigor and charisma to female contemporaries Grimes and tUnE-yArDs, both of whom too learned their trade among the same fertile hometown scene as her.

Since attracting a ton of buzz for her entrancing live shows and for first EP ‘Hello’, Mozart’s Sister has been head-down in her bedroom writing her debut album. For anyone who’s been following her work - and for new listeners - ‘Being’ is Mozart’s Sister expressing macrocosmic ideas about life with panache and abundant hooks.

Inspired by ‘Discovery’-era Daft Punk, ‘Post’-era Bjork, and Betty Davis, Caila produced, recorded and wrote the album using a cheap soundcard and Ableton software, approaching it with a do-it-all-by-myself ideology.

Being is fundamentally a pop record. If you’re looking to catalogue her music more than that, you’re going to have a hard time; Caila describes Being as an intentionally fractured album. “It was far reaching. Things didn’t always connect, but that was part of the whole idea,” she says. Which is representative of the best music, and maybe the best of life: looking for order in chaos, not always finding it, and living with whatever happens next.

TRACK LISTING

Good Thing Bad Thing
Enjoy
Faif
Lone Wolf
A Move
Bow A Kiss
Salty Tear
Do It To Myself (Run Run)
Don’t Leave It To Me
My House Is Wild
Chained Together

Thrilling Cardiff-based noisepop five-piece Joanna Gruesome will be releasing their terrific debut album Weird Sister via Fortuna POP! (Europe) and Slumberland (USA) in September.

Brimming with irresistible pop melodies and spiked with dissonant fuzzy jangle, their songs are shot through with loud discordant feedback and super-fast, hardcore punk drumbeats. This album sees their first foray away from recording in a living room to a proper studio under the guidance of producer MJ of the much lauded Hookworms. Kicking it against sexism and homophobia, nothing is off-limits, drawing inspiration from DIY scenes such as Riot Grrrl/noisepop/C86 /K-Records as well as post hardcore like Drive Like Jehu/Converge and the art rock of The Velvet Underground and My Bloody Valentine, Joanna Gruesome offer a staggeringly diverse album, unexpectedly quiet and surprisingly loud.

Joanna Gruesome comprise Alanna on vocals, Owen on guitar, Max on bass, George on guitar and Dave on drums. They all met in an anger management counselling group. During the course they were told that writing, making music, dancing or painting could relieve tension and help reduce feelings of anger. One initiative involved a project where they were assigned a group to compose and perform a song in front of other members. Initially they found each other infuriating but gradually acknowledged their musical chemistry and decided to continue with the band outside the therapy group. Most of the album was written during a month long stay in a seedy west Brighton hotel (now closed down) called The Hell House. The residents were pretty strange, kept attempting occult rituals/using Ouija boards etc and many of the songs were written to distract from the weirdness.

Heartwrenching and exhilarating in equal measure, these are not cheerful songs. Awash with nods to mental illness and the dark recesses of the mind, the record is littered with references to the devil or zombies and allusions to comic books. “Secret Surprise”, in which mental illness takes a physical form and is fought using razor blades. Or “Anti-Parent Cowboy Killers”, which is about stealing a scooter and driving it into the ocean when you should be in school LEARNING. Or “Sugarcrush”, about spending a summer burning knitwear. They have built-up a phenomenal live reputation, blending obnoxiously loud guitars and the occasional band uniform, with a high energy performance dispersed with quieter reflection, boy/girl vocals and teenage angst.

STAFF COMMENTS

Ryan says: An incredible debut from Cardiff based Joanna Gruesome. Fantastic indie-pop full of hooks and tucked away in there is everything you need from fuzzy pop melodies to hardcore blastbeats.

TRACK LISTING

1. Anti-Parent Cowboy Killers
2. Sugarcrush
3. Wussy Voidm
4. Madison
5. Lemonade Grrrl
6. Secret Surprise
7. Do You Really Wanna Know Why Yr Still In Love With
8. Candy
9. Graveyard
10. Satan

Sister Rosetta Tharpe was one of the great gospel guitarists and singers, male or female, of all time. Her amazing vocal performances brought gospel music to life and her incorporation of blues, jazz, as well as traditonal sanctified guitar techniques, brought pop sensibilities to gospel helping it to become a much more popular and influential musical genre. This compilation contains all of the important and groundbreaking songs in Sister Rosetta's songbook.

TRACK LISTING

Disc: 1
1. My Man And I
2. The Lonesome Road
3. I Looked Down The Lane (And I Wondered)
4. Saviour Don't Pass Me By
5. Sit Down
6. Stand By Me
7. Trouble In Mind
8. Shout, Sister, Shout
9. Rock Me
10. That's All
11. Just A Closer Walk With Thee
12. Precious Lord, Hold My Hand
13. I Want A Tall Skinny Papa
14. What He Done For Me
15. All Over This World
16. Let That Liar Alone
17. Sleep On Darling Mother
18. What Is The Soul Of Man?
19. I Claim Jesus First
20. Strange Things Happen Every Day
Disc: 2
1. Two Little Fishes And Five Loaves Of Bread
2. Don't Take Everybody To Be Your Friend
3. How Far From God
4. When I Move To The Sky
5. Jesus Is Here To Stay
6. Jonah
7. God's Mighty Hand
8. This Train
9. Didn't It Rain
10. When I Come To The End Of My Journey
11. Beams Of Heaven
12. Up Above My Head, I Hear Music In The Air
13. My Journey To The Sky
14. Teach Me To Be Right
15. I Heard My Mother Call My Name
16. Heaven Is Not My Home
17. Ain't No Grave Hold My Body Down
18. Lay Down Your Soul
19. Down By The Riverside
20. Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?

North Carolina’s The Annuals have had a whirlwind ride. They released their first album, "Be He Me", in 2006 while each of their six members were only around nineteen years old. Bloggers, critics, and fans alike fell in love with the album. Two years later, they released their second album "Such Fun". The Annuals are currently embarking on their most dynamic and creative project yet, a 2010 EP release "Sweet Sister", which has been written, recorded and produced entirely by its founder, Adam Baker, in the band’s own hometown recording studio. "Sweet Sister" encompasses the pure energy that Annuals are known for: the quirky experimentalism, the intrinsic pop sensibility, the impeccable production, and the boundless independent spirit. It is electrifyingly alive, and promises to be yet another highlight in this young band’s successful and blossoming career.

TRACK LISTING

1. Loxtep
2. Turncloaking
3. Sweet Sister
4. Holler And Hawl
5. Flesh And Blood

Formed two years ago in East London, Sister - Gemma (vocals, guitar) Alzy (guitar) Steve (bass) Jamie (keys) Matt (drums)- honed their intense, stripped down rock'n'roll in a squatted disused warehouse in East London, home to an artists collective and a graveyard for old industrial machines (and where the "Satellite" video was filmed). There they created a sound that is by turns, beautiful and explosive - think Velvets' "Sunday Morning" meets Mazzy Star and you'll be pretty close.

Back in their homeland of Brazil, Wry have released three albums over five years and they have toured Brazil with the likes of Man Or Astroman?, Superchunk, Mudhoney and Make Up. Now splitting their efforts between London and Sao Paulo, they have recently toured with The Subways and played with The Rakes, The Morning After Girls, The Cribs and Air Formation. This limited edition 7" features two shiny pop songs covered in layers of white noise. Both tracks are taken from their "Whales And Sharks" CD EP. An irresistibly gutsy racket to hold close to your heart!

Shingai and the boys deliver another short sharp blast of their feisty blues-punk-rock'n'roll.

Sister Sonny formed in Bergen, Norway in 1994, and this, their 3rd album. Features contributions from Mona Mørk of Ai Phoenix and the author Ib Kleiser. For fans of Spiritualized, Mogwai, and Brian Eno.