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TENDER

Steve Jansen

Tender Extinction (Remastered)

    Steve Jansen, the co-founder of new wave legends Japan and bona fide collaboration multi-hyphenate, is reissuing his first two solo studio albums: Slope and Tender Extinction.

    But how to accurately parse Steve Jansen’s path through music? It’s a journey that’s taken him from 80s royalty as what The Guardian calls “a key component” of one of the UK’s premier new wave acts, releasing classic records like Tin Drum and Quiet Life, to a renowned collaborator, working with artists as diverse as Ryuchi Sakamoto, Anja Garbarek, Annie Lennox, and, most recently, Maiya Hershey. His is a career of ever-changing styles and genres, from blissed-out electronica made with YMO’s Yukihiro Takahashi, to his work with jazz-rock group Nine Horses, to the heavy atmospheres of his transcendent Exit North project, and far, far, beyond.

    Based on his consistently excellent creative output, it’s not surprising that he’s also had time to fit in a clutch of excellent solo albums. Although on first listens the music on Slope and Tender Extinction can seem austere and chilly, it certainly bears further listening. Songs that might seem impenetrable can shyly give up their secrets - a moment of tenderness, say, or soaring strings, or a wistful chord change. Slope, his debut, was described by The Observer upon its release in 2007 as “unclassifiable”, a description that goes some way to detailing the album’s crystalline synthetic peaks, dusty analogue depths, and wide experimental sweep. To hear the icy IDM of ‘Grip’ rubbing up against the drone-led modern classical in ‘Sow The Salt’, and the strange sound experiments in ‘Gap of Cloud’ juxtaposed with the fractured emotion of ‘Playground Martyrs’ is to hear an artist capable of ploughing his own unique furrow through music.


    Although nine years and another glut of projects (an ambient album called A Secret Life made with John Foxx and Steve D'Agostino, an array of instrumental pieces, Jansen and Japan bandmate Richard Barbieri’s fifth album, Lumen, and the list really does go on and on) came between Slope and second album, Tender Extinction, the same restive spirit remained that first prompted Jansen to go it alone. Tender Extinction is a more meditative affair than its predecessor, one where comet tails of synthesiser stretch across a song and fathomless sonic depths simmer and roll like an ocean. James Ginzburg’s brand new remaster will render the hiemal beauty and sumptuous arrangements of tracks such as ‘And Birds Sing All Night’, ‘Captured’, and ‘Her Distance’ even more perfectly than before.

    But why these albums and why now? Both are special pieces of work, and place the talents of an artist that often stays in the shadows front and centre. Jansen is someone whose every action is in service of The Project, shapeshifting and adapting in relation to how he can improve the music. He’s said in that past that “I remove myself from any references to other people or popular culture. I explore sound and composition without any preconceptions about the finished piece or its place in the world.” Though this is a humble approach that clearly pays dividends (as evinced by his mixing, session, and collaborative work) Slope and Tender Extinction allow for the full range of his influences, experimentation, and ideas to come to the fore. These reissues are timely and necessary, bringing particularly gorgeous high points of Steve Jansen’s sparkling oeuvre into new light.

    TRACK LISTING

    1. Captured 06:08
    2. Sadness 03:52
    3. Her Distance 06:43
    4. Memory Of An Imagined Place 03:24
    5. Give Yourself A Name 06:50
    6. Diaphanous One 05:58
    7. Faced With Nothing 05:31
    8. Mending A Secret 05:03
    9. Simple Day 02:37
    10. And Birds Sing All Night 02:28

    Tops

    Tender Opposites - 10th Anniversary

      Originally released in 2012,Tender Opposites is TOPS’ debut album, now celebrating it’s 10year anniversary with a special edition LP. A lush array of timelessly crafted songs, Tender Opposites gathers its strength through delicate intimacy. These are moving songs that succeed earnestly, disregarding trends and myth-making, focusing instead on pure pop craftsmanship.

      TOPS' tendency to opt towards making straight-forward, stripped down and honest recordings lets their pop songwriting shine out in the open. With a heart firmly attached to their sleeves, their songcraft delves into the emotional intricacy of personal relationships, asking questions about power and desire. Riley Fleck’s measured drumming and David Carriere’s trademark guitar licks work in tandem and in service of Jane Penny’s unmistakable, wistful voice.

      TRACK LISTING

      1. Evening
      2. Diamond Look
      3. She's So Bad
      4. VII Babies
      5. Double Vision
      6. Go Away
      7. Turn Your Love Around
      8. Rings Of Saturn
      9. TOPS Theme

      Tender

      Modern Addiction

        James Cullen and Dan Cobb formed TENDER in 2015, as the bedroom project of two flatmates tired of the design by committee nature of larger musical groups.

        TENDER’s ‘Modern Addiction’ provides fresh perspective to the idea of addiction, through the lens of love. It is unafraid to admit or to accuse, eager to confide and to provide, in direct, shimmering confessionals.

        Original pressing sold out - ‘Modern Addiction’ has been out of print for several years. Now available again, on black vinyl.

        TRACK LISTING

        Illuminate
        Nadir
        Hypnotised
        Crawl
        Erode
        Silence
        Machine
        Sickness
        Vow
        Blame
        Powder
        Trouble

        Rome Is Not A Town

        Tender Arms Power Heels

          Their sound bristles with raw, unbridled energy, recalling the fast tempos and furious chords of goo-era Sonic Youth.

          It's a rather apt comparison, as Thurston Moore himself has shared his admiration for the band (which he discovered via his daughter). In an interview with NME, Moore described the band's sound as "sorta post-Riot grrrl, post-No Wave, experimental music and completely engaging from beginning to end."

          Rudy De Anda

          Tender Epoch

            FFO: Chicano Batman, Brainstory, Drugdealer, Sugar Candy Mountain.

            Conceived in the 1980s in Mexico and brought to California through the border inside of his 6-month-pregnant mother, Rudy de Anda's debut solo record is a love letter to the long historical lineage of rock 'n roll music as interpreted through his multicultural lens. "I write my own story, I don't want to be defined by any scene" de Anda proclaims of his personal journey, and his ability to adapt and flit between cities and cultures is part of why L.A. Record has called his sound "deliberately difficult to classify, familiar but novel at the same time." Since 2005, De Anda has played thousands of shows in various musical projects, but with 'Tender Epoch', tellingly the first recorded under his own name, he has clearly found his own voice with a wealth of stories to spotlight. It's exquisitely crafted pop, with universal messages of heartbreak and loss that still feel appropriate played speeding windows-down on the highway in the coastal sunshine.

            Above all, De Anda likes to keep people guessing: from the album artwork to the multi-faceted textures of sound, 'Tender Epoch' feels ambiguous to any era, a perfect collusion of old and new that showcases a music historian's knowledge of both past greats and influential peers. Sculpting his own path through a wild ride that feels unlikely to let up, De Anda refuses to settle down or get comfortable, instead carving out a classic record that is sure to set a standard for songwriting to come. The whole Colemine and Karma Chief family is proud to welcome Rudy De Anda and to present Tender Epoch.

            TRACK LISTING

            1. The Mirror
            2. Los Canarios
            3. Me Revulco En Tus Arenas
            4. Tender Epoch
            5. Espume
            6. Cariño
            7. It Didn’t Have To Happen
            8. Helado
            9. Tres Boletos
            10. No Me Cruces
            11. Cavallet Del Mar
            12. I’m Still At The Bar
            13. Abrasive

            Ambrose Akinmusire

            On The Tender Spot Of Every Calloused Moment

              Ambrose Akinmusire follows his acclaimed, genre busting best of 2018 manifesto "Origami Harvest" with another visionary statement on his new album "on the tender spot of every calloused moment," which finds the trumpeter examining blackness on an uncompromising set of modern jazz laced with a heavy feeling of the blues. The album presents 11 new compositions by Akinmusire and features his quartet with pianist Sam Harris, bassist Harish Raghavan, and drummer Justin Brown with guest vocals from Genevieve Artadi and Jesus Diaz.

              Tenderlonious

              Tender Plays Tubby

                A chance sequence of events lead to Tenderlonious, getting his hands on Tubby Hayes' Piccolo, resulting in this outstanding re-interpretation of four classic Tubby Hayes tracks. Featuring some of London's finest jazz musicians, with the hope to introduce a whole new generation of jazz fans to a true great of British jazz.

                Personnel: Ed 'Tenderlonious' Cawthorne (piccolo, flute, soprano saxophone), Nick Walters (trumpet), Hamish Balfour (piano, vibes, Fender Rhodes), Pete Martin (bass guitar), Aidan Shepherd (accordion), Tim Carnegie (drums)

                TRACK LISTING

                1. Down In The Village
                2. Trenton Place
                3. Raga
                4. In The Night

                Michael Price

                Tender Symmetry

                  Emmy award-winning composer Michael Price releases Tender Symmetry, his second album with Erased Tapes. The ambitious musical project takes in a series of iconic National Trust locations across England as its inspiration, turning them into unlikely recording spaces. Michael and a host of musicians and collaborators — including soprano Grace Davidson (featured on Max Richter’s Sleep) and Shards (the choir on Nils Frahm’s All Melody) — travelled across the country in pursuit of places far removed from the traditional recording studio to create seven unique and moving pieces, straddling the past and the future.

                  The diversity of Michael Price’s choices ranges from the ruins of Fountains Abbey in Yorkshire to the Fan Bay WWII shelter, cut deep into the chalk cliffs of Dover. All owned by the National Trust save one, each venue became both the inspiration and the recording studio for Michael Price and his accompaniment of renowned musical ensembles, choirs and soloists.

                  "For Tender Symmetry, I stopped admiring and started participating in these buildings. This began as an exploration of writing and recording out in the world beyond the studio. I am interested in where we build our homes in an increasingly virtual world and the spirit of place we feel as we walk our local streets, our schools, temples and public spaces. Taking inspiration from a place, and the stories it told, then going back to that place to record, sometimes in less than ideal conditions, made the two-year adventure much more like shooting a film than making a record.” — Michael Price

                  Acoustics varied wildly as the artists moved from places designed with sound in mind to locations which demanded the use of miners’ helmets for light and battery-powered sound gear. The final recordings carry the genuinely unique sonic blueprints and spirit of each place – from the birdsong in the courtyard at Speke Hall to the steam-driven cotton mill accompaniment at Quarry Bank. “When we recorded the piece at Fan Bay in the World War II shelter deep inside the chalk cliffs of Dover, Peter Gregson’s cello wasn’t at all happy with the clammy, dank conditions; but to be in the tunnels where young soldiers spent months on end, constantly on alert for incoming bombers, gave the recording an extraordinarily intimate, moving quality. At each site, the human mixed with the historical, and the natural environment of each space comes through with each piece. I tried to leave an imprint of each location on the record.”

                  While each piece of music is named after the location in which it was created, William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience courses through them as well. Soprano Grace Davidson sings Blake’s poignant words about nature, religion and the industrial revolution on several of the pieces including the astoundingly beautiful album closer Shade Of Dreams, written after the birth of Michael’s daughter. “The final piece, Shade of Dreams, is part of a group of pieces I wrote for the birth of our daughter, Emilie. It, like all the works on the album, takes its text from William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience, in this case, A Cradle Song. As much as Tender Symmetry is about the past, it is firmly about the future, and all our of shared futures.”

                  Grace Davies, National Trust contemporary arts programme manager said:
                  “We were delighted when Michael approached us with this project as it directly draws on the extraordinary stories and history of these special places. The sheer variety of sites that Michael has chosen has resulted in a collection of new music that is sometimes surprising, sometimes poignant, and – above all – inspirational. I am sure that audiences will be enchanted both by Michael’s music and our places that have inspired him.”


                  STAFF COMMENTS

                  Barry says: Holding all the beauty of his inspirations' natural environments and brittle balance of ecological equilibrium within his pieces, Price fills the sonic room with delicate but grand strings, crystalline vocals and a breathtaking sense of organic space. Majestic and breathtaking, but imbued with a nerve-racking transience and innate delicacy.

                  TRACK LISTING

                  1. Sandham
                  2. Speke
                  3. Willow Road
                  4. Quarry Bank
                  5. Fan Bay
                  6. Fountains
                  7. Shade Of Dreams

                  Broadcast

                  Tender Buttons

                    Vinyl re-press of the third album by Broadcast, originally released in 2005.

                    Blending their trademark influences of 60s pop, film soundtracks and psychedelia and avant noises, "Tender Buttons" stands out from their previous work in terms of its stripped back simplicity and emotional boldness.

                    TRACK LISTING

                    A1 I Found The F
                    A2 Black Cat
                    A3 Tender Buttons
                    A4 America's Boy
                    A5 Tears In The Typing Pool
                    A6 Bit 35
                    A7 Subject To The Ladder
                    B1 Corporeal
                    B2 Arc Of A Journey
                    B3 Michael A Grammar
                    B4 Minus 3
                    B5 Goodbye Girls
                    B6 You And Me In Time
                    B7 I Found The End

                    Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

                    Tender Prey

                      ‘Tender Prey’ is the fifth studio album from Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds and was released on 19th September 1988. The album was produced by Flood and recorded during several sessions over the course of four months in West Berlin - where the band were based at the time - and London.

                      The album opens with ‘The Mercy Seat’, which has been subsequently played at almost all of the band’s live performances since 1988 and was later covered by one of Cave’s biggest influences, Johnny Cash. ‘The Mercy Seat’ was released as a single in May 1988 as a precursor to the album and ‘Deanna’ was released shortly after the album hit the streets.

                      Cave later admitted that the album “was made at a difficult time in my life when things were spiralling out of control in a lot of areas.”


                      TRACK LISTING

                      The Mercy Seat
                      Up Jumped The Devil
                      Deanna
                      Watching Alice
                      Mercy
                      City Of Refuge
                      Slowly Goes The Night
                      Sunday’s Slave
                      Sugar Sugar Sugar
                      New Morning

                      Free School

                      Tender Administration

                        After their ‘Ranting & Raving’ and ‘Unraveling After The Lottery’ EPs, Tirk are proud to announce the debut album from maximalist Balearic indie band Free School.

                        The album sparks into motion with the aptly named ‘Theme From Free School’, a slow burning intro of drawn out pads and strange sounds layered over an enigmatic, distorted passage of spoken word. ‘Meet When The Moon Is Full’ is a galactic cruise through silken star belts, complete with an epic instrumental chorus and that fuzzy feeling. Track four is the 2011 single ‘Ranting & Raving’, but not as we know it. The new full string arrangement transforms the track into a billowing, spine tingling opus.

                        ‘I’m Not Nintendo’ follows, taken from their EP earlier this year. As momentous and eccentric as ever. ‘Spring Brings New Technology’ is a subtler record that lingers fluidly around the senses. Equally suited to the twilight hours or a lazy sunny afternoon. The duo’s enthralling nine minute sound-movie piece ‘Lemon’ comes next. It’s a profound offering that pushes all the right emotive buttons. ‘Time Breaks’ introduces the first sung vocal element to the album. The building, low-slung groove references early Moby as much as it does early Cosmic Disco from the likes of Daniele Baldelli et al.

                        Up next, from the second EP, ‘Unraveling After The Lottery’ pounds away with the vivacity of a marching drum gala, amidst android vocal cuts, pulsing strings phrases and synth loops. ‘Iberico’ initiates with arcs of synthetic organs and chirping electronic detritus before the hardest beat on the album drops, then reinvigorates the arps and synths for a full bodied middle. The album ends with ‘Theme From Free School (Repirse)’, a beautifully rich cinematic experience, full of Vangelis undertones and progressive string movements. A wonderful end.

                        There is protectiveness in the fist that holds a bag of wolf teeth. These incisors are each of the songs held inside Tender Forever’s fourth EP. To spend time with this magic while the first of the fall leaves suicide bomb your bare feet, and the cicadas are strangely silent, is like feeling the phantom sting of your own baby wolf fangs where they once bit into your most vulnerable parts.

                        The songs on Where Are We From [KLP237] are wise messages like barbwire around every bend of every word, intentional and concise. The intensity behind But you seem to love it all. You don’t struggle though you fall. Falling is not giving up, for you it’s just how we’ve met. in “The Road Was Unkind” shows beautiful belief in the tenacity of all of us. It compels us to be brave and braver still to find the light of community even if our days look dark.

                        There is no mistaking that this new EP is about strength and the grit that carries us and others over monoliths and into our life journey. There is such sweetness in the heightened vocal pitch of ”You Have The Woods”: We got safety. We got knives. We got the world that’s what we got. We get buried in the ground whenever people think it’s time. We got rationality. We got boredom and that’s free. You got the woods, you don’t have to choose. Pay heed to her timbre listener, Tender Forever has got your back.

                        While the underside of Tender Forever’s heart is still in full view for anyone to rest under and breathe raggedly until the hard stuff slides out of focus, there is something more steely wrapped around her ribs as each of these songs clinks against them. The raw and syrupy swell of the vocal talents poured over the near wildness of the percussion holds fast to the balled up fists and clenched jaw of the lyrics. It is a truly unique and perfect union.

                        Tender Forever’s new album takes lost souls by the hand to create a chain of blinding light that leads to freedom and togetherness. I know you know what love is like, I held you near, I held you tight and I don’t understand it and I don’t want it in “Runaway” illuminates her usual heart out approach to lyrics, but also shows us her battle scars and flexes her survivor muscles. Each song is impeccably different from the last and yet together, the collection is undeniably holistic and tightly interlaced.

                        This is what you listen to on a road trip to your new self, louder than everything as the interstate ahead of you ribbons into dust and the blur of life is a distraction of sparkly lights. This is what makes your hands beat into your steering wheel and your head throw backwards to a sing along. This is what you listen to when you need to shrug off an old armor in order to be reborn and washed clean while a steady hand gently pushes you in the direction of growth. Where Are We From is your new path, should you be brave enough to walk it.

                        TRACK LISTING

                        1. Where Are We From
                        2. The Road Was Unkind
                        3. Blue
                        4. Wrestle
                        5. You Get Into My Face
                        6. Runaway
                        7. You Have The Woods

                        Tender Trap are now a proper girl-group! In contrast with earlier Tender Trap, which had a more electronic bent, the newly revitalized 'Trap has stronger links to the pop lineage of its founder members; Amelia Fletcher and Rob Pursey were in influential indiepop originals and John Peel favourites Talulah Gosh and Heavenly, who released records on such indiepop labels as Sarah Records, K and Stephen Pastel’s 53rd and 3rd. Neither Talulah Gosh nor Heavenly (Amelia's previous bands) had this much vocal harmony going on. With two extra girl voices (from new guitarist Elizabeth Morris of Allo Darlin' and new drummer Katrina Dixon) the band now combines the harmonies, oohs, ahs and sha-la-las of classic girl-pop with the stripped down beats and dirty guitars of the Shop Assistants and The Vaselines.

                        Following their albums "Film Molecules" and "6 Billion People", Fortuna Pop! bring us "Dansette Dansette", the band's excellent third album. Bristling with crunchy guitars and effortlessly catchy tunes, "Dansette Dansette" is ample proof of why Amelia and Rob's bands have been such a huge influence on today's generation of pop bands. Revered by today's revitalized indie-pop scene, their records are floor-fillers at indie dance clubs and their influence can be heard in bands such as Los Campesinos! (who namecheck Fletcher in their song "International Tweexcore Underground"), The Pains of Being Pure at Heart and Dum Dum Girls (who asked Tender Trap to support them at a recent London gig). Even US rockers The Hold Steady reference Heavenly in the title track of their new album Heaven is Whenever.

                        "Dansette Dansette" kicks of the record in fine fashion, morse feedback bleeps leading into a melodic ode to the bedroom record player. Being the first single from the album, "Do You Want A Boyfriend?" is a perfect chunk of pop, but it's not as innocent as it seems - it celebrates the girl-pop phenomenon, but deconstructs it too. "Girls With Guns" and "2 To The N" are more punk-inspired, hearkening back to Amelia's Talulah Gosh roots. Slower tunes like "Suddenly" and "Counting The Hours" give plenty of room for Amelia's vocal interplay with Elizabeth and Katrina, and "Capital L" wraps up the album in epic fashion, a tambourine-driven slow-dance which builds to a glorious crescendo.

                        TRACK LISTING

                        1. Dansette Dansette
                        2. Fireworks
                        3. Do You Want A Boyfriend?
                        4. Suddenly
                        5. Girls With Guns
                        6. Danger Overboard 
                        7. To The N
                        8. Counting The Hours
                        9. Grand National
                        10. Capital L

                        "No Snare" is less a rejection of things that have been, as it a reconfiguration. Take away the snare and there isn't loss, just a new song. As we pass through the flood of moments that is our lives we make a constant stream of decisions as to what to hold on to and what to let go of. But – even as it changes radically – it is always our life. It will be said that this new collection of songs from Tender Forever is a departure, a turn away from an older sound. To say that wouldn't do justice to the subtle transition of this album. Here we see a songwriter at that most delicate moment of transformation. Holding on to some things, letting go of others; always building a new world, looking forward, looking back, always singing: 'I gave it all I got/Held onto everything tight/I know I'm not coming back/I'm not erasing this track'.

                        Melanie Valera's third full length album moves away from some of the more exuberant dance oriented songs of past years into a darker and more melancholy direction. Maybe it's her current residence in the damp and dirty Pacific Northwest, maybe its a little adulthood. Whatever it is, we get a deeper, denser sound. These songs push through the forest as the evening comes, dripping wet, the lights of a little house up ahead. What "No Snare" retains is Valera's emotional clarity and eloquence. We are always invited to her world, feeling what she feels without exception. Valera keeps her lyrics light on their feet, moving with ease around the complexities of her compositions, her vocals rolling hard with the strength of conviction.

                        Throughout Tender Forever’s work there is a commitment to understanding feelings and desires and seeing them through to completion. "No Snare" pushes through the wake and lays the turmoil to rest. What comes next is still unknown. In this darkness of loss and change there is a beat, a drive. Feel the shake from those little computer speakers, hear it grow and pulse through the woods. Watch as the evening comes and look toward the morning.

                        'Tender Forever causes you to feel heartbroken and awesome all at once ... (Melanie Velera) is sweet like Cat Power with lyrics that'll make you feel like one tough bitch. Somewhere between the piano, guitar, keyboards and saucepan, her quiet yet intimidating powerful voice will grab you and send your finger to the repeat button over and over'. - Playgirl Magazine.

                        STAFF COMMENTS

                        Laura says: I love the stripped back simplicity of this album. The stark melancholy is lifted by simple warm electronic pulses. Lovely stuff.

                        TRACK LISTING

                        1. Got To Let Go
                        2. Like The Snare That’s Gone
                        3. Only The Sounds You Made
                        4. Nothing At All
                        5. Day Number
                        6. But The Shape Is Wide
                        7. Nowhere Good Enough
                        8. Unfortunate Friends
                        9. When I’m In The Dark And You Take Away The Dark

                        Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

                        Tender Prey (2010 Digital Remaster)

                          ‘Tender Prey’ is the fifth studio album from Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds and was released in September 1988. The album was recorded during several sessions over the course of four months in West Berlin and London and was produced by Flood.

                          The album opens with ‘The Mercy Seat’, which has been subsequently played at almost all of the band’s live performances since 1988 and was later covered by one of Cave’s biggest influences, Johnny Cash. ‘The Mercy Seat’ was released as a single in May 1988 as a precursor to the album and ‘Deanna’ was released shortly after the album hit the streets.

                          Cave later admitted that the album “was made at a difficult time in my life when things were spiralling out of control in a lot of areas.”

                          This CD and DVD version includes the original album in 5.1 surround sound, five bonus tracks and three videos.

                          TRACK LISTING

                          CD
                          The Mercy Seat
                          Up Jumped The Devil
                          Deanna
                          Watching Alice
                          Mercy
                          City Of Refuge
                          Slowly Goes The Night
                          Sunday’s Slave
                          Sugar Sugar Sugar
                          New Morning

                          DVD
                          Audio
                          Tender Prey (Dolby Digital Surround Sound / DTS Surround Sound / Stereo)
                          The Mercy Seat (Video Version)
                          Girl At The Bottom Of My Glass
                          The Mercy Seat (Acoustic Version)
                          City Of Refuge (Acoustic Version)
                          Deanna (Acoustic Version)
                          Video
                          Do You Love Me Like I Love You (Part 5: Tender Prey)
                          The Mercy Seat
                          Deanna


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