Plastic Mermaids are a five-piece band from the Isle of Wight who, after building their own analogue studio, have self-produced one of the most genuinely original and sonically adventurous debut albums you’ll hear all year: ‘Suddenly Everyone Explodes’. They are brothers Jamie and Douglas Richards, who collaborate on vocals, synths and samples, along with guitarist Chris Newnham, bassist Tom Farren and drummer Chris Jones.

Born out of the ashes of previous bands Magic Octagon and Neon Fetus, Plastic Mermaids are not a band who have ever wanted for ambition. They started out as a three-piece - Jamie, Doug and Chris Newnham - although they realised after early shows that they needed more hands on deck. “I was there at thir first gig, not playing but just watching,” remembers Tom. “It was utter carnage. I really appreciated the audacity of them even attempting what they were doing. They had an audaciousness, and the willingness to try things and have them not pay off.”

“We just kept coming up with ideas and tried to make them happen,” recalls Douglas. “That’s all we did for ages. We didn’t really think about where it would all lead.”

In terms of musical influences, fans of The Flaming Lips, Arcade Fire, Sparklehorse and Tame Impala will all find something to love in Plastic Mermaids’ richly-textured sound. The Flaming Lips’ influence is also evident in their ecstactic live show.

UK dub scene pioneers Dub Pistols gear up to release new dub-quaking extravaganza "Crazy Diamonds". To celebrate 20 years of unhinged lunacy, the Dub Pistols return with their seventh studio album, a mix of dub, reggae, ska, punk, breaks and drum & bass. The production is up-to-date and suitably weighty and the album feature a plethora of vocalists, a who's-who from dancehall, jungle and rap.

“Guaranteed to nice up the place with some heavyweight bass and mash up the dance given half the chance - respect.” - Don Letts

When Lewes-raised newcomer Laucan began singing in falsetto after the break-up of his old band, he had his reasons. “I didn’t want anyone hearing my songs through the door of my room,” recalls Laurence Galpin, the man who is Laucan (pronounced Lor-can). The falsetto holds firm but the reluctance to be heard is changing with the arrival of the 27-year-old’s debut album, ‘FramesPerSecond’.

Building on the promise of his debut EP, ‘Up Tomorrow’, Frames sets impressionist lyrical images and heart-in-mouth reveries on innocence lost to sublime music: poised between spectral folk and immersive soundscapes, it’s the sound of a singer who found something special in his attic-based isolation.

With Andrew Phillips of Ninja Tune post rock duo Grasscut as a collaborator, Galpin composes with a cinematic auteur’s sense of shading and world-building and a flair for sound art that evokes a sense of environment. This shows on the Nick Drake-does-Radiohead-ish ‘I Want Out’, where hypnotic percussion and a coaxing cello accompany reflections on a theme of retreat: “Running away from the sound, disappear into the ground…”

FORMAT INFORMATION

LP includes MP3 Download Code.

With an avid following from the days in his former band Gomez, A Man Apart is singer/songwriter Ben Ottewell’s third solo offering and follows his albums Shapes and Shadows and Rattlebag. The album is a record that crosses musical genres such as Americana, blues and folk backed by Ben’s unmistakable gutsy and gravelly voice. Co-written with childhood friend and former Tunng member, Sam Genders, the album was recorded in Los Angeles and Sheffield and engineered and produced in the latter by Martin Smith (Richard Hawley).

A Man Apart delves into such relevant subjects as love and relationships, fame and politics. The album’s title track focuses on populist politicians exploiting people’s hopes and fears, with Bones touching on the realisation of not being worthy of someone, and opener Own It, sees Ben reflect on his time growing up in public in Gomez. New single Watcher is the perfect introduction to the album and despite its pensive meaning, is a melodic Americana led track that builds into a memorable bluesy and soulful chorus. A video for the track will be premiering soon.

Ben says; "A Man Apart is a transatlantic affair written and recorded both here and in the states. It continues to explore my deep love of Americana through a British filter with themes of love, escape, responsibility and loss, written against the unfortunate backdrop of the populist political upheavals and demagogues that have come to dominate here and in the states.:

Already being tipped as one to watch out for this year and with Amazing Radio voting her in at No.9 for this year alongside Shura, Spring Kings and Glass Animals, Alice Jemima is set to release her self-titled debut album via Sunday Best Recordings.

The record includes her breakthrough cover of ‘No Diggity’ by Blackstreet featuring Dr Dre, which went viral and now stands at over 3 million plays, as well as Radio 1 favourite ‘Dodged A Bullet’, which was playlisted at the station after her stand out performance at Radio 1’s Big Weekend in Exeter last year.

Irish electronic duo Solar Bears - fresh from releasing their critically acclaimed third album ‘Advancement’ earlier this year - receive the remix treatment from seminal DJ, producer and IDM techno forefather Andrew Weatherall. 

Reimagining ‘Separate From The Arc’, ‘Advancement’s’ climactic, swirling and masterfully cathartic closer, Weatherall delivers a leftfield, darker-toned re-shift that preserves the track’s central energy whilst propagating and expanding its percussive elements via glitched-out rhythms and syncopated nuances.

Kitty, Daisy & Lewis return with their new album, three years on from their hugely acclaimed ‘Smoking In Heaven’.

Described as “a gift to those of us who still believe in magic” (The Observer), the band have used those three years wisely, building a new 16 track analogue studio in a derelict Indian restaurant in Camden Town, resulting in an album and a sound all of their own making. With new space and equipment, the band knew they could take their third album to another level, with the songwriting, instrumentation, styles, production and sound.

An early fan, Mick Jones of The Clash was keen to get involved as producer. He spent four months rehearsing in their home. “With Mick on board, it was the first time we have worked with a producer,” says Lewis. “Just having someone else in the room meant we could start bouncing ideas off other people and that was great.”

“Our song writing has definitely changed over the three years,” adds sister Kitty. “Through life experience and expanding our musical influences, we have now incorporated more of our musical loves into our music.”

Kitty, Daisy & Lewis’ ‘The Third’ was recorded and finished in the summer of 2014, setting them apart by embracing a spread of influences from blues to disco but always sounding unmistakably Kitty Daisy & Lewis.

The stories in this album resonate with moods and melodies that touch you in ways that are both uplifting and unnerving. With three different writers and multi-instrumentalists in the band, each track is a sparkling gem that reflects a different facet of experience.

Joining Kitty, Daisy & Lewis live on stage during their forthcoming tour will be their mum, former Raincoats drummer Ingrid Weiss on bass, the original Bombay Bad Boy Daddy Grazz on rhythm guitar and Jamaican trumpet legend Eddie ‘Tan Tan’ Thornton. At their packed shows they each take turns on vocals and jump from one instrument to another.

FORMAT INFORMATION

Ltd LP Info: White vinyl LP format exclusively available to independent retailers. Include bonus track ‘I Should Have Known’.

Ltd LP includes MP3 Download Code.

Wild Smiles release their brilliant debut album, ‘Always Tomorrow’, on Sunday Best Recordings.

The fast-rising trio, comprising brothers Chris and Joe Peden with drummer Ben Cook, have enjoyed a run of live shows across Europe throughout the summer (including festival dates at Bestival and Southampton’s Psychedelia Weekend).

Championed by NME, Fred Perry Subculture, Farah Vintage plus many more. Endorsed by Gibson Guitars throughout the world, due to their devastatingly catchy songwriting.

A video for ‘Girlfriend’ has been directed by famous rock ‘n’ roll photographer Steve Gullick.

‘The Rainy Kingdom’ is the sophomore album from Lucky Elephant, released on Sunday Best.

Following the success of their self-titled debut in 2009, with syncs in TV adverts for Laterooms.com, Dannon and many more, Lucky Elephant are back with their follow up.

The album was inspired by and conceived around Ken Ashton’s 1971 film ‘We Was All One’, which focuses on a part of London affected by community upheaval during the development of Old Kent Road in Elephant & Castle in the 1970s and 1980s.

‘The Rainy Kingdom’ is to be used as the soundtrack to a two hour BBC documentary celebrating 50 years of comedy on the channel, with special guests including Ricky Gervais, Monty Python, The League Of Gentlemen, Stewart Lee and Miranda Hart, among many others.

Four years on from their massive 'Thou Shalt Always Kill’, with a gap for respective solo outings and radio show fronting, Dan Le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip return with their third album, ‘Repent Replenish Repeat’, on Sunday Best.

Beat heavy, sparse yet effective, ‘Repent Replenish Repeat’ is their most complete work yet. Ploughing a sharply defined furrow of glitched, sharp hip hop, with Pip producing his most lucid vocals whilst dan reaches for a tight production pallet of hard beats, dark strings and layered melodic reverb.

Lead off track ‘Stunner’ set the tone perfectly, premiered on Pip’s own weekly XFM radio show - the video has already clocked up over 170K plays and their Autumn tour is a sell out. Lead single Gold Teeth features production props from Flux Pavilion - an attack on consumerism with a huge beat and hook to match.

Elsewhere, there’s the atmospheric ‘Terminal’ and ‘Porter’ tackling terminal illness and mental health, the club bouncing ‘Nightbus Sleepers’, grinding ‘Heroism’ and Pip’s “last political song” ‘Stiff Upper Lip’, featuring Itch, formerly of King Blues.

The success of their solo albums and their continued live profile suggest ‘Repent Replenish Repeat’ is set to repeat the trick.

Legendary multimedia artist David Lynch returns with the follow-up to ‘Crazy Clown Time’, his acclaimed 2011 solo debut. The new album sees Lynch returning to primary songwriting and performance duties, writing 11 out of the album’s 12 tracks. Also included is Lynch’s signature take on the Bob Dylan folk classic ‘The Ballad Of Hollis Brown’.

‘The Big Dream’ was recorded over several months at Lynch’s own Asymmetrical Studio with engineer Dean Hurley, who also contributes production and instrumentation to the album

Describing his style of music as ‘modern blues’, Lynch says the songwriting process for his new album was similar to his debut. “Most of the songs start out as a type of blues jam and then we go sideways from there. What comes out is a hybrid, modernized form of low-down blues.”

‘The Big Dream’ also includes an additional bonus download track, ‘I’m Waiting Here’, a collaboration with Swedish singer-songwriter Lykke Li. The double LP set, pressed on heavyweight vinyl, will be accompanied by a bonus 7” that contains the Lykke Li track on Side A, and a visual etching on side B that was hand-inscribed directly into lacquer by Lynch exclusively for this release. Lynch praised Lykke Li as a natural songwriter with a great intuition for lyrics and melody: “She brought her own style to this song, which has a doo-wop sort of thing going on, but in a way it’s far-removed from the 50s.”

As you would expect from an accomplished film director, the songs are cinematic in scope. Lynch uses his reverb-drenched guitar and processed voice to summon primal moods and melodies that colour a strange world populated by character archetypes familiar to fans of his films: the irresistible femme fatale in ‘Star Dream Girl’, the tender romantic in ‘The Big Dream’ and ‘Are You Sure’, the smooth psychopath in ‘Say It’, and the quirky oddball in ‘Sun Can’t Be Seen No More’.

While Lynch touches on modern electronic production (Wishin’ Well’ and ‘Last Call’) and classically dreamy material (‘Are You Sure’, ‘Cold Wind Blowin’’), the album always manages to keep one foot rooted in the blues - a style of music he loves. “The Blues is an honest and emotional form of music that is thrilling to the soul. I keep coming back to it, because it feels so good,” Lynch says.

FORMAT INFORMATION

2xLtd LP Info: Heavy double vinyl in gatefold sleeve with bonus heavyweight 7” and full vinyl size 12 page booklet and download code.