An unreleased gem from the Come Around and Love Me sessions, "Here to Stay" is a gorgeously breezy ballad that will most definitely appeal to fans of the sweet soul output from our Penrose imprint.

A standout track from the aforementioned long player, "If You Don't Want My Love" delivers a one-two punch of class and style that harkens back to the sounds coming out of Motown in the late sixties and early seventies.

Coupled with Jalen's uncommonly soulful voice and lyrical prowess you have another top-shelf composition that can hang with the very best of 'em. 

TRACK LISTING

Side A – Here To Stay
Side B – If You Don’t Want My Love

Marc Collin, the creator of Nouvelle Vague, never anticipated producing a fifth album for the project, originally envisioning it as a one-off tribute to post-punk through bossa nova. However, the unexpected success of their debut album, featuring unique covers of songs by XTC, Public Image Limited, Josef K, and Joy Division, propelled Nouvelle Vague into unforeseen popularity. Collin attributes their success to the timing of the post-punk revival and the emotional resonance achieved by blending bossa nova with melancholic music. He also suggests that their French identity played a significant role, as their willingness to reinterpret songs without treating them as sacred, along with French vocals, contributed to the project's appeal.

Despite initially considering Nouvelle Vague as a short-lived endeavor, Collin reflects on its enduring success over 20 years, marked by diverse albums covering French new wave artists, original compositions, and unique reinterpretations of various musical styles. The latest album, "Should I Stay Or Should I Go", continues the trend, featuring pop-infused renditions of post-punk classics. 

TRACK LISTING

1. What I Like Most About You Is Your Girlfriend
2. People Are People
3. You Spin Me Around
4. Only You
5. She’s In Parties
6. The Look Of Love
7. Shout
8. Should I Stay Or Should I Go?
9. Rebel Yell
10. Breakfast
11. Girls On Film
12. Rapture
13. This Charming Man

“Stay Close To Music”, the new studio album from Mykki Blanco, is unlike anything they have released before. Adventurous and expansive, it shatters any previously held assumptions about Mykki’s artistry, leaving them free to define their sound for themselves.

Throughout their evolution, poet, artist, musician Mykki Blanco has continuously blurred genres - pulling rave, trap, grunge and punk influences into a swirling pool of experimental hip hop that celebrated queer and trans experiences.

Ultimately Mykki concluded they wanted to create their own sonic universe from scratch. To facilitate this, they collaborated with producer and multi-instrumentalist FaltyDL, who allowed them to envision new soundscapes built from lush, live instrumentation.

The songs spun together through numerous jam sessions, with writing taking place in Lisbon, Paris, New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. By 2019, Mykki realized that they were working on two different records concurrently. The first became 2021’s lauded mini-album Broken Hearts & Beauty Sleep and now Mykki readies the second collection of the sessions via Stay Close To Music.

“I wanted to see what it would be like to go back and be a musician from another time where you had to start every ingredient raw from scratch. That process, ideology and that way of making has not only changed me as a musician, it has creatively changed me as a person.”

“Stay Close To Music” features contributions from from Michael Stripe, Saul Williams, ANOHNI, Dianna Gordon, Devendra Banhart, Jónsi and more.

Mykki Blanco is an artist revered for their fearless ability to evolve, placing their creative exploration at the forefront of their career. With “Stay Close To Music”, Mykki Blanco is leveling up. By stepping into unchartered territory untethered and free, they have fulfilled their ambitions and created a rich, complex and accomplished sound that belongs entirely to them and which only solidifies their status as one of the world’s most innovative musical pioneers.

TRACK LISTING

01 - Pink Diamond Bezel
02 - Steps (feat. Saul Williams And MNEK)
03 - French Lessons (feat. ANOHNI And Kelsey Lu)
04 - Ketamine (feat. Slug Christ)
05 - Your Love Was A Gift (feat. Diana Gordon)
06 - Family Ties (feat. Michael Stipe)
07 - Your Feminism Is Not My Feminism (feat. Ah-Mer-Ah-Su)
08 - Lucky
09 - Interlude
10 - Trust A Little Bit
11 - You Will Find It (feat. Devendra Banhart)
12 - Carry On (feat. Jónsi)
13 - French Lessons [Single Version] (feat. Kelsey Lu)

This album grew out of the recording sessions that produced the “Mystery / Poetry” LP, adding brass & violin parts, new songs, new recordings of three audience favourites, & reworking three songs that appear on the LP. Core Irregulars John Forrester (bass), Arvin Johnson (drums & percussion) & Fae Simon (vocals & percussion) are joined by Sian Allen (trumpet), Linze Maesterosa (saxophone) & Lorsey Tillbrook (violin). Together they create a truly fine album showcasing some of the best of Robb’s songwriting for electric band performance. “The most joyous & life affirming set that I watched over the weekend” – audience response to recent Irregulars festival appearance.

TRACK LISTING

1: Win, Lose Or Draw
2: From Tolpuddle To Timbuktu,
3: Brown & Black In The Union Jack
4: One Day We Go To Wembley
5: Fiddler In The Rain
6: Start Counting *
7: When I Look Up*,
8: The Summer Time Is Coming
9: Be Reasonable
10: My Very Best Of Friends.

* Lead Vocal Fae Simon

Stay Proud of Me is the debut album from LA-based Korean-American artist NoSo (real name, Abby Hwong). Their stage name is shorthand for North/South: a nod to their Korean heritage, and the inane origin question ("Which Korea are you from?") that so many Korean Americans inevitably face at some point in their lives. Across 10 tracks, NoSo indirectly grapples with the insecurities and frustrations that can arise from the Asian American experience, with the end result feeling like a balm for the alienated. Stay Proud of Me offers a deeply earnest coming-of-age story, a nuanced introduction to NoSo’s universe and Hwong’s rapidly expanding musical abilities. The marriage of their lyrics and captivating guitar performance feels magical, as if NoSo can open up portals to fantastic new realms, guided by an emotional honesty that breaks you down in one moment and fills you with joy in the next.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A beautiful collection of warm instrumentals and hazy percussion topped with Hwong's evocative vocals. Though the pieces often begin minimally, It ends up somewhere near the post-rock indebted orchestral fare of Daughter and the hypnotic electronic soundscapes of Jon Hopkins or modern 80's influenced synthpop.

Far Out Recordings presents a double bill of two monumental Brit funk classics. Keep In Touch and Stay were the first two 12” singles by the iconic Freeez, both self-funded passion projects of its founding member John Rocca, for his own Pink Rhythm imprint.

It all started over the counter at Derek’s Records on Petticoat Lane, London in the mid-70s. Rocca - at the time a budding teenage percussionist - met the prolific guitarist, composer, producer and all round brit funk fixer Jean-Paul “Bluey” Maunick (also the father of Far Out producer Daniel Maunick). Best known as the founding member of Light of the World, Incognito, and more recently Str4ta, Bluey’s involvement in the origins of Freeez are lesser known, but no less crucial. Bluey invited Rocca to a weekly jam session in an East London basement, where they would develop their craft, form their first band Freeez and develop the idea for ‘Keep In Touch’: “Back in the basement there was this one particular track we were playing that I really loved. It had a groove that I thought I could sell” Rocca reminisces.

Going against the advice of all the musicians involved, who thought he was mad and set to lose all his money, John decided to go full DIY, hire out a high end studio in the West End to record ‘Keep In Touch’ and release it as a private press, birthing his now famed Pink Rhythm label. Featuring Bluey on guitar, Peter Maas on bass, Paul Morgan on drums, Jason Wright on keyboards, and John Rocca on percussion, Keep In Touch was a surprise underground hit selling over 5000 copies and reaching #49 in the UK, leading Freeez into a record deal with Pye / Calibre.

Still giddy from the experience of having produced and pressed his first record at the age of just 19, John set out to do it all again with ‘Stay’ and ‘Hot Footing It’, enlisting Bluey & co once again. This time Rocca attempted to take things to the next level by adding vocals into the mix. Though this new arrangement initially backfired and cost John the deal with Pye / Calibre who weren’t feeling the slight change of vibe, original copies of the Stay 12” have become one of the most in demand from the brit funk canon.

These foundational DIY 12” singles paved the way for Freeez to become a household name in the history of British funk who went on to record hits like ‘Southern Freeze’ and ‘IOU’ as well as underground cult classics like ‘Melodies of Love’ and ‘India’ as Pink Rhythm, John Rocca’s later formation of Freeez named after his imprint.

Far Out will be releasing a very limited run of the two 12”s (1000 copies of each), both redesigned in the style of the original private presses.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Another essential Brit-funk group headed by John Rocca. You probably know "Southern Freez" but I think "Stay", featured here, pips it to the post. Either way, these fresh reissues are a welcome addition to any boogie / funk / disco record collection.

TRACK LISTING

1. Stay

2. Hot Footing It

The Blinders have announced their new album, 'Fantasies Of A Stay At Home Psychopath' via Modern Sky UK.

The follow-up to their critically acclaimed debut album, Columbia, released in 2018, the album explores existential despair, mental health and society’s ills in a time of planetary crisis, and is both a riposte to, and commentary on, the rise of populist ideology. Delivering a blistering collection of powerful tracks, Fantasies Of A Stay At Home Psychopath is imbued with the visceral energy of IDLES, the twisted melodies of solo-era Lennon and the darkness of the Bad Seeds.

In the shadow of Brexit and the climate crisis, The Blinders return with their unique brand of outspoken anthemicism and a sensational album to rouse awareness and inject vital energy into a bleak 2020. Combined with their blistering live energy, get ready for The Blinders to accelerate furiously into the limelight. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Something Wicked This Way Comes
2. Forty Days & Forty Nights
3. Lunatic (With A Loaded Gun)
4. Circle Song
5. I Want Gold
6. Interlude
7. Mule Track
8. Rage At The Dying Of The Light
9. From Nothing To Abundance
10. Black Glass
11. In This Decade

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

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

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

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

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

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

TRACK LISTING

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

When Poliça’s Channy Leaneagh fell off her roof while clearing ice in early 2018, she smashed her L1 vertebrae and battered her spine, leaving her in a brace with limited mobility for months. Yet Poliça’s fourth album, When We Stay Alive, is not about one debilitating accident. It’s about the redemptive power of rewriting your story in order to heal, and reclaiming your identity as a result.

When We Stay Alive possesses a new confidence in its sound, reflected in its fierce, determined songs and anchored by the heavy synths and punctuating beats of Poliça co-founder and producer Ryan Olson. Over the last several years Olson and Leaneagh have widely collaborated with musicians from all over the world: both with Bon Iver, and Leaneagh individually with Boys Noize, Lane 8, Sasha, Leftfield, and Daniel Wohl; Olson with Swamp Dogg in addition to countless musicians from the Aaron Dessner and Justin Vernon’s 37d03d collective. As a result, When We Stay Alive features one of the largest musical casts of any Poliça record to date. To create the album, Olson brought his favorite collaborators into his studio for all-night sessions. He’d then send Leaneagh the files to write lyrics to while recovering at home, which she’d record alone or with engineer Alex Proctor. Drummers Drew Christopherson and Ben Ivascu colored the songs with a new approach – drastically changing the rhythmic dynamic from previous efforts by creating an indistinguishable hybrid of live and electronic instrumentation--and bassist Chris Bierden provided a melody-laden low-end as well as more layered backing vocals than ever before.

On Poliça’s first three albums, Leaneagh focused on restructuring the world and her relationships within it. On When We Stay Alive, she realizes the power in restructuring her inner self. The album’s title references the idea of moving forward through life – our experiences, both good and bad – and what happens next with the strength we find. “I had been living unconsciously in past trauma,” Leaneagh says. “I don’t want to deny something happened – this is not about repression – it’s about taking the power back from the past, holding the power in the present, and creating a new story for myself.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Brilliantly bold and beautifully textured, Poliça's 5th LP has a perfect mix of downbeat, percussive synth numbers and more propulsive, shadowy offerings. Dynamically astute and beautifully rendered, this is a disparate but never obtuse triumph from the superb Poliça.

TRACK LISTING

1. Driving
2. TATA
3. Fold Up
4. Feel Life
5. Little Threads
6. Be Again
7. Steady
8. Forget Me Now
9. Blood Moon
10. Sea Without Blue

Brooklyn Funk Essentials have been fusing soul, hip hop, spoken word, jazz and, of course, funk for 25 years and over 6 albums, and now they're back with new LP ‘Stay Good’. During this time they have made a name for themselves as electric performers, exhilarating their loyal and broad fanbase with performances on every continent.

Established in the early ‘90s by Arthur Baker and Lati Kronlund, Brooklyn Funk Essentials were regulars of New York’s vibrant club scene when their debut album, ‘Cool & Steady & Easy’, hit the shelves. Released by pioneering funk and electronic taste-makers Dorado Records and combining classic funk’s raw, mind-bending basslines, peak-era disco’s euphoric vocals and early hip-hop’s observational lyricism, the album and its follow up, ‘Make Em Like It’ topped charts around the world.

Fast forward to 2019 and following 2015’s reunion with Dorado and the success of ‘Funk Ain’t Ova’, the band are set to release ‘Stay Good’, a fun, funky and fresh collection of tracks featuring throughout are the powerful and soulful vocals of Alison Limerick, now a full time member of the band. Lati wrote and produced her debut hit ‘Where Love Lives’. They begin a European tour in September and visit the Americas early next year.

TRACK LISTING

CD Tracks:
Stay Good
Ain’t Nothing (Extended Version)
No Strings (Extend­ed Version)
Watcha Want From Me (Extended Version)
Miss Mess
Keep The Love (Extended Version)
Funk Ain’t Ova
Breeze On Me (Extended Ver­sion)
Bakabana
Y Todavia La Quiero
Steps
Where Love Lives (Extended Version)

LP Tracks:
Stay Good
No Strings (Extended Version)
Watcha Want From Me (Extended Version)
Miss Mess
Funk Ain’t Ova
Ain’t Nothing (Extended Version)
Y Todavia La Quiero
Where Love Lives (Extended Version)

New limited 7" single from the enigmatic production duo St Francis Hotel.

Their recent track 'Modello' debuted by The Line Of Best Fit, who described it as "a classic pop track that hints at raw talent".

TRACK LISTING

Stay As You Are
You'd Gotta Be Alive

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

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

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

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

TRACK LISTING

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

"Something sinister is looming in the mist…"

Following the success of last year's debut album, "Electric Hell", London’s occult metal monsters POSSESSOR are back with a highly-anticipated follow up in the shape of their new EP, “Stay Dead”.

Maintaining the trio's love for all things vintage and terrifying, the four tracks on display here crackle and explode like it’s the band's last day on earth. Malevolent high speed thrash riffs tumble and crash into a swamp of sludgy old school British doom, bringing to mind the savage lo-fi lunacy of Bathory and Venom with the hooks and claws of vintage Electric Wizard and 90s filth such as L7 and early Nirvana - all as if beamed to us straight from the set of Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Cloaked in a black and white sleeve that brings to mind both Black Sabbath and the hammiest of Hammer Horror flicks, “Stay Dead” will secure Possessor's place in the mysterious annals of British heavy metal, and is a delicious taster for the band's next full length which currently lies festering in the crypt…ready to be resurrected.

“Stay Dead” will be released on 12” clear vinyl in an edition of 500. this is the second release on the Creepy Crawl label…

“Something was creeping and creeping and waiting to be seen and felt and heard.” H.P. Lovecraft.

For Those Who Stay is PS I Love You's third album, and it was made after Paul quit Kingston for a different big smoke. It was encouraged by the girding strength of love but of course it's still dredging and confused, of course it's still resplendent in its churn. Of course the band had to go back to Kingston to record it - working at a place called the Bathhouse, the duo's first time in "a proper studio".

As always, PS I Love You's songs were the result of collage and experiment: "Advice" and "Friends Forever" were still being written until the moments they were recorded. But in the studio, Paul Saulnier says, with "fancy gear" and tons of time, they could wait until they "really nailed" the perfect part. "And I think we made a very indulgent and decadent album because of it."

TRACK LISTING

1. In My Mind At Least
2. Advice
3. Bad Brain Day
4. Limestone Radio
5. For Those Who Stay
6. Afraid Of The Light
7. Friends Forever
8. More Of The Same
9. Hoarders

With Stay Gold, First Aid Kit - sisters Klara and Johanna Söderberg – have honed their musical skills and blossomed as vivid storytellers in creating an ambitious 10-song collection. Recorded at ARC studios in Omaha and produced by Mike Mogis (Bright Eyes, Monsters of Folk), the duo also enlisted The Omaha Symphony Orchestra to play on the record, with arrangements by Nate Walcott (Bright Eyes, Broken Bells, Rilo Kiley). They say of the recording process, “We took new directions and turns with the arrangements, building them up and creating more dynamics, yet always following where the songs wanted to go.”

TRACK LISTING

1. My Silver Lining 
2. Master Pretender  
3. Stay Gold
4. Cedar Lane  
5. Shattered & Hollow  
6. The Bell  
7. Waitress Song  
8. Fleeting One  
9. Heaven Knows  
10. A Long Time Ago

‘Stay True’ is the fourth album from Danny & The Champions Of The World. It's also Danny George Wilson’s eleventh album which includes six long players from the much loved Grand Drive plus a solo outing (as Danny George Wilson) entitled ‘Famous Mad Mile’. Danny has been touring the world and making critically acclaimed records for nearly 20 years now, the first Grand Drive release was on Loose back in 1997.

‘Stay True’ was recorded this year over five days at North London’s Reservoir Studios with Champs bass player Chris Clarke (ex Rockingbirds) and Danny at the helm. Danny describes the scene: “catching sleep on the control room sofa, recording deep into the night, friends and musicians dropping by, inspired by the great soul, country and rock n roll of Stax, Muscle Shoals, The Band, Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham, Dion DiMucci, Van Morrison…Ronnie Lane meets Ronnie Spector!”

Stay return to Fruits de Mer! Spain’s leading psych band Stay are back on FdM after almost five years away. They’ve taken a break from gigging (including playing support to Beady Eye and Ocean Colour Scene) for record three ‘new’ sixties covers exclusively for FdM, and kick off with a new Stay song, Mersey Beat’ for good measure. Three 60s songs - The Beatles’ ‘If I Needed Someone’, Marmalade’s lost-classic ‘I See The Rain’ and the never-found ‘Guess I Was Dreaming’ by The Fairytale – get the Stay treatment...lovely stuff.

Stay is a psych pop band from Barcelona formed in 2005. Cosmic Rough Rider's Daniel Wylie, a friend of the band (he collaborated on the third Stay album Passport to Freedom) encouraged the band to record new stuff in the UK.

Stay decided to move to Liverpool to work with the producer Fran Ashcroft (Damon Albarn, Abbey Road,..) and record their fourth album 'The Fourth Dimension LP (2012)' in a semi-analog old school way, with great international reviews.

This album, full of groovy retrorock, jangly acidic guitars, 60s-90s inspired pop soft psych, excellent guitar-organ interplay and tunes, made Liam Gallagher (Beadye Eye) and Ocean Colour Scene contact the band to have Stay as their support band in both tours in Spain.”

TRACK LISTING

1. Mersey Dream (Stay) 3:42
2. Guess I Was Dreaming (The Fairytale)3:55
3. If I Needed Someone (George Harrison/The Beatles) 3:35
4. I See The Rain (Marmalade) 4:09

Ribbon Music are set to release ‘We The Common’, the third full-length album from critically acclaimed artist Thao & The Get Down Stay Down.

The album was produced by John Congleton (St. Vincent, Bill Callahan, The Walkmen, Explosions In The Sky) and features a duet with Joanna Newsom on the track ‘Kindness Be Conceived’.

TRACK LISTING

We The Common (For Valerie Bolden)
City
We Don’t Call
The Feeling Kind
The Holy Roller
Kindness Be Conceived
The Day Long
Every Body
Move
Clouds For Brains
Human Heart
Age Of Ice

Who needs the summer when the next three Outta Sight R&B collectables are as hot as these?

The Northern end of R&B continues to pack the dancefloors across Europe and it is showcased - at its best - in these in-demand cuts. Six top tunes that would set you back a month’s wages if you’re lucky! All hard to find on their respective original labels which, incredibly, date from as early as 1952.

On side A Little Arthur Mathews hooks up with the Johnny Otis Band for the horn honking skiffle-like cut "’m Gonna Whale On You". On the flip Willie Wright belts it out on rhythm & blues roller "I’m Gonna Leave You Baby, And I’m Goin’ Away To Stay".

TRACK LISTING

1. I’m Gonna Whale On You - Little Arthur Mathews With The Johnny Otis Band
2. I’m Gonna Leave You Baby, And I’m Goin’ Away To Stay - Willie Wright

‘The Icypoles’ Story…The Icypoles grew out of a soundtrack to an experimental film. Here is the scene: a girl writes into a magazine with a problem about her teenage love life. She doesn’t know if she’s too young for love. The magazine is from a by-gone era, the music sounds something like Sixteen Candles with backing vocals to a ‘Dear Editor’ soliloquy. During the recording Isobel Knowles discovered a love for 60s girl group garage bands and film music that creates a particular dark ambience. She work-shopped some band names with her best friends Tara Shackell and Kim White and together with them created the idea of The Icypoles. Suddenly there was a new reason to write music and a small repertoire emerged. The songs featured on debut release, 'Promise To Stay' represent this first collection. Tara and Isobel were invited to join Architecture in Helsinki soon after The Icypoles started playing to audiences and there was a long pause in the development of the band while AIH toured the globe. But the idea stayed strong and more songs showed their faces over the years. The time came to take The Icypoles more seriously. The girls found a new drummer, Lani Sommer, and together went into the recording studio (a kitchen in a temporary house). The recordings were interspersed with shows around Melbourne and small tours (Sydney, Stockholm and New York City!). A cassette came out in London with Sexbeat ‘zine. Eventually some more recordings were made with producer, Haima Marriott and the mixing process began. Isobel and Haima had worked together on those first soundtrack recordings and revisited their recording experiments to come up with a sound for The Icypoles.

Philadelphia's The Capitol Years return with this new single on new label SOE. "You Can Stay There" is wonderful sunkissed pop that has similar shimmering pop dynamics to The Shins: Melodic, intricate guitars, vocal harmonies, and dreamy vocals. Over on the flip, "1000 Guns" employs the same melodic guitar work, over a lolloping drum beat again topped with gorgeous dreamy vocals. Reminiscent of Piccadilly favourites Ambulance LTD. Lovely stuff!

From the same Detroit-based family that gave birth to the Sights, White Stripes, Dirtbombs, and Electric Six comes another rabble of Detroit mainstays: Outrageous Cherry. Ballads, outer space atmospherics, distorted rock'n'roll wig-outs and symphonic arrangements.

Brooklyn trio Parts & Labor combine tumultuous noise with enormous, triumphant melodies on their latest album, "Stay Afraid". Malfunctioning electronics howl in agony, drums rupture like fireworks, battle cries are belted through a monolithic layer of distorted bass and guitar. Parts & Labor revel in day-glo noise, charred drones, punk velocity and phoenix-like hooks - a unique blast influenced by the clamour of Husker Du, the bluster of Boredoms and the homemade spirituals of Neutral Milk Hotel.

Seattle's Stay Gold blend a great mix of straight forward hardcore with melodic singalongs akin to a cross between bands like Bane and Good Riddance. This is a mid-price six track mini album that's a powerful introduction to a great new hardcore band.