"Strum & Thrum: The American Jangle Underground 1983-1987 is the first volume of Captured Tracks’ new venture into compilations – Excavations. Dedicated to compiling forgotten music from the 1970s – 1990s that has a connection to Captured Tracks’ sound and aesthetic, this series will bridge the past to our current roster and showcase the kinds of sounds that inspire us. As an American label, we’ve often wondered why British, Aussie, and Kiwi indie rock from the ‘80s has had the most infuence on modern acts and the collector’s market. Outside of bands like R.E.M., the Rain Parade, the Dream Syndicate, and a few others, most of these bands received little attention from national or international press outlets and markets. The acts on this compilation have a true DiY spirit that lead many of these bands to self-record and self-release within tiny local scenes in small cities and college towns across America.

Strum & Thrum aims to shed light on this forgotten era of jangly, melodic rock music that emerged from the ashes of post punk and helped kick start the indie rock boom of the early ‘90s that continues to this day. Indeed, many artists featured on Strum & Thrum went on to be part of this boom – Archer Prewitt from the Sea & Cake, Jon Ginoli from Pansy Division, Ric Menck from Velvet Crush, Brent Rademaker from Beachwood Sparks, Barbara Manning, and more went on to be in well known bands in the ‘90s. Spread across two LPs, Strum & Thrum includes an 80+ page booklet with an extensive oral history of the ‘80s indie scene, an introduction by Captured Tracks label head Mike Sniper, and tons of archival images and ephemera. Long live the jangle underground!"

TRACK LISTING

Disc 1:
1. The Reverbs - Trusted Woods
2. Start - Where I Want To Be
3. Cyclones - I’m In Heaven
4. Windbreakers - All That Stuff
5. Primitons - All My Friends
6. Bangtails - Patron Of The Arts
7. The Love In - Late As Usual
8. Sex Clark Five - She Collides With Me
9. Three Hits - 5 O’Clock
10. Crippled Pilgrims - Black And White (Alternate)
11. Vandykes - Breakin My Heart
12. Salem 66 - Seven Steps Down
13. The Outnumbered - I Feel So Sorry Now
14. The Darrows - Is It You

Disc 2:
15. Riff Doctors - Say Goodbye
16. The Ferrets - She Was Unkind
17. 28th Day - Pages Turn (Alternate)
18. Great Plains - When Do You Say Hello?
19. Downy Mildew - Purple Parlor
20. The Strand - You And Me
21. The White Sisters - Misery, Me, & You
22. Absolute Grey - Remorse
23. One Plus Two - Promise
24. The Springfields - Sunflower
25. Holiday - Change
26. Pop Art - The Meeting
27. The Reactions - Tomorrow’s Time Today
28. A New Personality - Essential Things

Erland Cooper’s new album Carve the Runes Then Be Content With Silence is set for release in June 2024 – 3 years from the day the only master tape was planted deep into the Orkney soil.

The album is a recording of Cooper’s brand new three-movement composition for solo violin and string ensemble. The work marks the centenary of celebrated Orkney poet George Mackay Brown, as 2021 marks 100 years since his birth.

Inspired by natural landscapes and ruminating on time, hope, community and patience, the sole recording of the work – on ¼ inch magnetic tape, with the digital files permanently deleted – has been planted to grow and be nurtured or “recomposed” by the earth, before being exhumed and released in three years’ time. Whilst Cooper will not be unearthing the tape until 2024, he has left a trail for anyone to search and find it if they wish. A map with clues to the location of the planting site will be released via his digital platforms. If the planted tape is found, Erland will invite the discoverer to his studio to embark on a journey together for the treasured first listen. It will then be released exactly as it sounds from the earth.

Erland Cooper says, “Music can so often feel undervalued and for some, being unable to perform live has at times felt like being buried. When an idea forms there is often an urge to share it as quickly as it develops but like spotting a bird, I want to let this fly and land in its own place and time. The work is one part remembrance and one part celebration of a landmark time.” He adds: “The material on the tape may erode naturally, disintegrate and create drops of silence or the peaty soil may preserve it perfectly well. It may or may not get better with age. I may or may not fall out of favour with my composition. Any alterations to the sound and music [when it comes out of the earth] will be reincorporated into the pages of a new score and live performance, as orchestral articulations.”

Single-LP Edit Of Piñata Lacquered At Half Speed Master By Metropolis Mastering In London For The Highest Fidelity. Featuring Danny Brown, Mac Miller, Earl Sweatshirt, Raekwon, Scarface, Domo Genesis, Ab-Soul, Polyester the Saint, BJ The Chicago Kid, Big Time Watts, G-Wiz, Casey Veggies, Sulaiman, Meechy Darko & Freddie Kane. “Piñata is a gangster Blaxploitation ­lm on wax,” says Gibbs. As a producer, Madlib, quite simply, is music. 

TRACK LISTING

A1. Supplier
A2. Scarface
A3. Deeper
A4. High (ft. Danny Brown)
A5. Harold’s
A6. Bomb (ft. Raekwon)
A7. Shitsville
A8. Thuggin’
A9. Real
A10. Uno
B1. Robes (ft. Domo Genesis & Earl Sweatshirt)
B2. Broken (ft. Scarface)
B3. Lakers (ft. Ab-Soul & Polyester The Saint)
B4. Knicks
B5. Shame (ft. BJ The Chicago Kid)
B6. Watts (ft. Big Time Watts)
B7. Piñata (ft. Domo Genesis, G-Wiz, Casey Veggies, Sulaiman, Meechy Darko, & Mac Miller).

Fuzz Club's King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard 'Live At Red Rocks' box set is a heavy-duty, 15 LP monster. Recorded over three nights of the Aussie psych-rock polymaths raining down on the Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, CO, USA, this bootleg captures nearly nine hours worth of live Gizz spread across 86 tracks and 30 sides of vinyl. Live At Red Rocks was recorded live Oct 10, Oct 11 and Nov 2 2022, mixed by the band's Stu Mackenzie and remastered for vinyl by James Plotkin exclusively for this edition.

Each of the three nights comes in its own 5LP slipcase, all housed together in one giant slipcase alongside a 60-page hardcover book with exclusive Red Rocks live photos by Cidney Bundon.

All 15 LPs come on 180g coloured vinyl (with a unique colour configuration for each night) in their own heavy card jacket with 3mm spine and a black poly-lined inner sleeve. The artwork for each jacket works as a puzzle and forms one giant artwork. Features collage album art and design by Elzo Durt with original elements by Virgil Finlay. Large fold-out poster included. The box-set is packaged in a bespoke foam-lined box to protect it during shipping.

Emotional Rescue takes another trip into the twisted world of post-punk dubs, electronics and oddities here at the hands of DJ, collector and radio host Gary The Tall. The original comes from German duo and new wave innovators Die Radierer whose pop-reggae jam 'Batman' is irresistibly catchy with its low-slung beats and lazy, sun-kissed melodies. It appeared on 1983's In Hollywood and was recorded at their home studio on a Tascam 4-track cassette recorder. Gary The Tall's remix finds him teaming up with Aaron Coyles under his new alias of Exotic Gardens and the results are loopy and dubbed out to perfection.

TRACK LISTING

Batman
Batman (Gary The Tall V Exotic Gardens Reversion)

Anyone who has followed Emotional Rescue knows it has always done a fine job of documenting punk and dub's early years, not least by showcasing the previously unheralded work of Skinbat Scramble. Now they back that up once more with a new compilation that puts together a selection of the band's previously unreleased recordings. It is a superb trip through a number of decades and finds core members Mark Eason and Fergus Crockford distilling slow tempos, experimental sounds, dub, and much more into leftfield rhythms for body and mind.

TRACK LISTING

Side 1
1. Submit
2. Submit (Dub)

Side 2
1. North By Northwest
2. North By Dub

Side 3
1. Skidaddle
2. Skidaddle (Daddy)

Side 4
1. Basement Voltaire
2. Pixie Boot (Dub)

Remotif is a fast-rising star with a sound being called 'trance fusion.' He makes his mark again to that end with a new one on Especial that brings more of his modern-day ethnic styles to the driving breaks of techno following outings on the likes of Coymix and Space Lab and sets everywhere from Fabric to Berlin's Warning parties. This one kicks off with 'U 15' which is a busy blend of shimmery timbres and sharp perc, spaced-out pads and psychedelic synths that are ever on the rise. More trance overtones define 'Glint's Pursuit' and 'The Elevated Place' is slick and sleek, ascending and always rising. 'The Sunken Place' shuts down with more slow and percolating dub mutations to round out a superb EP.

TRACK LISTING

U 15
Glint's Pursuit
The Elevated Place
The Sunken Place

McKeown creates a patchwork of dream sequences and woozy psychedelia that range from low key groove and floating-in-space cosmic horror. “Electronic folk horror” was how it was described to me, and I gotta say I can get on board with that description. But there’s much more happening here. Moments I’m reminded of Colin Stetson’s excellent Color Out Of Space score, while other times there’s a real Tangerine Dream vibe, ala their Legend soundtrack.

Compiled with guitarist PJ Court, this 2-CD compilation boasts re-mastered music as well as a beautifully annotated booklet boasting rare photos and personal memories from the band.

Back in the mid-80s, The Primitives combined the fuzz guitars of The Jesus & Mary Chain with the pop sensibilities of Blondie and a nod to cult heroes The Velvet Underground. They swiftly rose from being a popular Indie guitar outfit to charting worldwide with “Crash”, kickstarting a craze in bands fronted by blonde female singers (Transvision Vamp, The Darling Buds et al).

Between 1985 and 1987, the band issued five singles/EP’s on independent label Lazy Records (also home to My Bloody Valentine and later Birdland) before signing with RCA.

This 2-CD set also boasts their promo-only live album at the ICA; as such, it offers their entire Lazy output from that period.

TRACK LISTING

Disc 1
1. Thru The Flowers
2. Across My Shoulder
3. She Don't Need You
4. Lazy
5. Really Stupid
6. We Found A Way To The Sun
7. Where The Wind Blows
8. Stop Killing Me
9. Buzz Buzz Buzz
10. Laughing Up My Sleeve
11. Ocean Blue
12. Shadow (Guitar Version)
13. Thru The Flowers (New Version)
14. Everything Shining Bright
15. Nothing Left
16. Across My Shoulder
17. Crash
18. Spacehead
19. Nothing Left (Sounds Version)

Disc 2
1.I'll Stick With You
2. Dreamwalk Baby
3. Buzz Buzz Buzz
4. Nothing Left
5. Out Of Reach
6. Carry Me Home
7. Don't Want Anything To Change
8. Think I'll Stick With You
9. Dreamwalk Baby
10. Run Baby Run
11. Thru The Flowers
12. Nothing Left
13. Where The Wind Blows
14. Out Of Reach
15. We Found A Way To The Sun
16. Don't Want Anything To Change
17. Across My Shoulder
18.Everything's Shining Bright
19. Buzz Buzz Buzz
20. Stop Killing Me
21. I Wanna Be Your Dog

The debut album from The Supreme Dicks, available on vinyl for the first time.

Falling somewhere between Captain Beefheart, Throbbing Gristle and SALEM in the lineage of musicians who’ve found a muse in the nasty, brutish brevity of life, Supreme Dicks chose to cloak disarmingly real paranoia and grief in the contemporary trappings of late '80s and early '90s lo-fi college rock. They may have inhabited the same sonic and physical space as colleagues like Dinosaur Jr (Lou Barlow was an occasional Dick, and at least one early Dinosaur Jr show was actually played by Dicks in disguise), but they stripped away all youthful yearning and anticipation in favor of a bleak and unblinking certainty. Honest, frank, and free of ironic distance. Obtuse and yet so essential that it can’t help but feel familiar to anyone who’s ever spent a sleepless night wondering whether there's any point to all of this. And, on occasion, warm, intimate and lovely.

The Supreme Dicks formed while students at Massachusetts’ Hampshire College in the twilight of the Reagan era. The campus was a fractured posthippie free-for-all that many students theorized was a right- wing think tank experiment in pitting progressives against each other. The constantly revolving lineup centered around songwriters Daniel Oxenberg and Jon Shere, and whoever else was around and willing to torture an instrument. They advocated the teachings of Wilhelm Reich and were vocal about focusing their creative energy via celibacy. This may do much to explain the constant, unrelenting tension that provides the driving force behind the most powerful moments in their music. Regardless of tempo or arrangement, Supreme Dicks songs play like soundtracks to autoerotic asphyxiation, haunting tones that ring in the ears at the moment consciousness is lost and not guaranteed to return.

TRACK LISTING

In A Sweet Song The Arabian Song The Sun's Bells
Jack Smith
That I May Never Forget And Stay Garden Of Your
Past Jack-O-Lantern
River Song
The Fallout Song
Azure Dome
The Forest Song (or Especially When The October
Wind With Frosty Fingers, Punishes My Hair)
Hyacinth Girls
Ten Past Eleven
Woody Would've Wanted It That Way
Strange Song

The giant avalanche that is THE LONDON DIRTHOLE COMPANY is back with another slab of prime-time partisan punk noise. With a Futurist disdain and Dadaist sense of sardonic humour, the MODERN IST EP celebrates the realities of the Family Of Noise as a truly interactive social experiment. The genuinely odd bunch of protagonists that make up the bands personnel stretch the boundaries of conventional group structure and methods. A truly outsider approach that reverberates with its nebulous intensity and spirit of joy. The result is a fractious cacophony created (on this record) by four drummers, 3 guitarists a bass player and 2 different vocalists. Live the band rotate up to a dozen singers if occasion and availability conspire. The music has elements and attitudes in common with The Monks, Velvet Underground, Pussy Galore and The Fall without any direct plagiarism or imitation. These bands are but ships in the night to the Battleship Dirthole and its crew of desperate fellows. PROFESSOR THE CONFESSOR is an intimate memoir of utterances from the dark recesses of The Professor’s mind. CRYING ONIONS is a sleazy ballad of all-consuming pleasure, timeless romance, sensual purgatory, erotic possession, empty tears, disrobing and eating an onion. TOMORROW, TODAY faces up to the bleak realities of a passion consumed and the vagaries of the staring up from the gutter as you watch your former partner dance the same dance you fell for with someone else. The strapping fit and healthy London Dirthole Company pedigree on this recording; The Nuns, Pulkas, Echobelly, Headbutt, Felix Moment Power Trio, Lot Lizards, Project Dark, Headcleaner.

Skip James was a Delta blues enigma, whose mesmerizing guitar playing and haunting voice produced bluer than blue masterpieces. This beautifully re-mastered collection of his seminal 1931 recordings shows why his otherworldly blues cast its spell on many blues greats from Robert Johnson to Eric Clapton.
Arguably the greatest of the original Delta blues guitarists with his mesmerizing and truly unique style. 'The Rough Guide To Skip James' highlights his diverse repertoire of songs ranging from deep, dark Delta blues to upbeat barrelhouse piano tunes and spirituals.

TRACK LISTING

Hard Time Killin’ Floor Blues
I’m So Glad
Drunken Spree
If You Haven’t Any Hay Get On Down The Road
Cherry Ball Blues
Be Ready When He Comes
Little Cow And Calf Is Gonna Die Blues
Devil Got My Woman
How Long “Buck”
Jesus Is A Mighty Good Leader
Cypress Grove Blues
Illinois Blues
22-20 Blues

The holidays are weird, man. Ostensibly, they’re about family and fun and food and festivities, but more often they portend arguing with your family about politics- and that mental dance you have to do where you’re like “Should I get Trevor a gift even though my funds are dwindling and I’m not even sure if he’s going to get me one in return so this could end up being a whole awkward thing???”

The reality of the holidays lies somewhere more liminal, in the space between joy and depression, between excitement and boredom, between “peace on earth and goodwill toward men” and “I think I might murder my entire family.” So who better to teach us the true reason for the season than Dude York, a band whose music so often seems to exist in an in-between space of their own? Dude York are funny and serious and earnest and deeply ironic all at the same time. The three friends who comprise the band—Peter Richards (guitar, vocals), Claire England (bass, vocals) and Andrew Hall (drums, vocals)—have spent their four years together applying their particular Dude York-ian sensibility to topics like mental health, breakups, and the power of art and friendship.

Now they’ve returned with Halftime for the Holidays to pop some chestnuts right on your fire and tackle their most poignant theme yet; THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR. Halftime for the Holidays is a holiday record for how the holidays actually feel. Tracks like “Takin’ Care of Christmas” (it’s exactly what you think it is) and “Jingle Bells Rock” (it’s not) deliver the requisite tacky cheer. “Greatest Gift is You” and “My Favorite Part (Of This Time of Year)” soar like the greatest pop-punk love songs, with the added benefit of CHRISTMAS. And songs like “Long Distance Christmas” and “Break Up Holiday” testify to the loneliness that they can spring on you without warning. It’s a record that manages to wrap the strangeness of sleeping in your childhood twin bed and the soft wonder of waking up to snow into one delightful white elephant present that you won’t re-gift.

Halftime for the Holidays is self-consciously goofy, but refreshing in its willingness to tackle the misery and joy of the season with equal force. So deck the halls, engage in a regrettable make out session underneath the mistletoe, and rest assured that no matter what kind of reindeer games the universe is playing with you this year, Dude York has you covered.

TRACK LISTING

01. Break Up Holiday
02. Hollywood Holiday
03. The Greatest Gift Is You
04. My Favorite Part (Of The Time Of Year
05. Long Distance Christmas
06. Takin Care Of Christmas
07. Jingle Bells Rock
08. True Meaning
09. Silent Night

The Lumineers’ breakout debut album captured hearts of fans and critics worldwide in 2012, leading to two Grammy-award nominations and a #2 Billboard chart peak. It features the hit singles “Ho Hey” “Stubborn Love” and “Submarines.”

Celebrate the 10th anniversary with a remastered and expanded 2xLP edition pressed on 180g heavyweight vinyl, featuring 6 tracks previously unreleased on vinyl, new liner notes, and all-new packaging exclusive behind the scenes photos.

TRACK LISTING

1. Flowers In Your Hair
2. Classy Girls
3. Submarines
4. Dead Sea
5. Ho Hey
6. Slow It Down
7. Stubborn Love
8. Big Parade
9. Charlie Boy
10. Flapper Girl
11. Morning Song
12. Ain't Nobody's Problem
13. This Must Be The Place (Naïve Melody)
14. Elouise
15. Darlene
16. Slow It Down (live)
17. Scotland

Multi talented UK Jazz Pianist Greg Foat has teamed up with Mercury Award nominated "The Bees" member and multi instrumentalist Warren Hampshire to collaborate on a new LP drawing on their diverse musical influences. Classic British library music, 60s Italian soundtracks & lost Americana combined with touches of modern classical, minimalism, Jazz and Folk. Featuring many members of Greg and Warren's previous bands and one of the U.Ks finest Jazz drummers, Clark Tracy, the LP also features an Edinburgh orchestra and soloists hand picked and scored by the boys. Recorded all analogue onto 2" multitrack in Edinburgh, mixed down by Mattias Glavå at his studio in Gothenburg, Sweden then mastered and cut in Helsinki, Finland, it's truly a European affair. 

TRACK LISTING

Galaxies Like Grains Of Sand 
Lullaby 
The Solar Winds (& Cadenza) 
A Long Way Home
End Song
All Washed Up 
How The Nights Can Fly 
End Song (Reprise)

Gregory And The Hawk returns with her second FatCat album ‘Leche’, a more mature and honest collection of songs than her previous releases, which sees her expanding instrumentally onto piano and harp yet conveying a sense of her bedroom recording roots.

Contributors include Jeremy Backofen (Felice Brothers), Rob Laakso (Amazing Baby, Diamond Nights, Mice Parade, Swirlies), and Adam Pierce (Mice Parade, Swirlies).

TRACK LISTING

For The Best
Landscapes
Over And Over
Soulgazing
Geysir Nationale
Frebeight
Olly Olly Oxen Free
A Century Is All We Need
Leaves
Puller Return
Hard To Define
Dream Machine

Iron & Wine's Sam Beam and the members of Calexico convened in December 2004 at Calexico's home base of Wavelab Studios in Tucson, Arizona. The idea of working together had been tossed around for over three years, though neither bands' schedule loaned itself into making it a reality until then. The resulting session "In the Reins", is a mini-album that is a truly harmonious affair sure to satisfy fans of both bands. The seven tracks are Sam Beam originals and were fleshed out by the full Calexico band. The record also features newcomer Natalie Wyants on vocals, Salvador Duran, a local fixture of the Tucson Flamenco scene, on vocals and Botas. Of course no Wavelab experience would be complete without the appearance of Nick Luca (NL Trio/John Doe Band) and Craig Schumacher, both of whom contributed to the record in the form of engineering and performance.

TRACK LISTING

He Lays In The Reins
Prison On Route 41
History Of Lovers
Red Dust
16, Maybe Less
Burn That Broken Bed
Dead Mans Will

In May 1976 a record was released that would have an unforeseen and lasting impact on the music industry “Ten Percent” by Double Exposure was an early release on the New York independent label Salsoul Records. America was in the grip of a disco explosion with new clubs opening on a weekly basis; Salsoul saw what was happening and swiftly created a sound for their label, heavily influenced by the music then coming out of Philadelphia, aimed directly at New York’s dance-floors. Records like “Salsoul Hustle,” “Tangerine” and “You’re Just The Right Size” by The Salsoul Orchestra borrowed heavily from the beautifully orchestrated Philadelphia International records but added a more percussive, bass heavy depth that New York’s DJs loved. So what was so special about this particular single then? Double Exposure was, after all, just another band, “Ten Percent” just another song; one of many “disco” records released that week. First of all Salsoul became the first record label to make a twelve inch single available to Joe Public - the exotic format was previously only available to DJs as promotional items or bought under the counter at certain record stores. Not only that though, the extended version was created by Walter Gibbons, a DJ at New York’s Galaxy 21 who’d built his reputation making exclusive versions of tracks to play in his sets.

In 1976 it was unheard of for a DJ to set foot in a recording studio, being seen as little more than living jukeboxes by the serious music industry. Recording studios were strictly the domain of recording artists and producers so Walter found himself in a unique position, gaining access to a world no DJ had been granted before.

Or so we thought...
The Men In The Glass Booth tells the full story. Featuring ground breaking re-edits and remixes by some of the Disco era's most influential DJs including Walter Gibbons, Bobby DJ Guttadaro, Tom Savarese, Jellybean Benitez, Tee Scott and John Luongo, this opulent release also includes a 40 page book which features exclusive photos and insights from some of the story's key figures.

STAFF COMMENTS

Patrick says: BBE answer the prayers of all us non-millionaire disco fans, taking us on a journey through the alternative 12" history via this exhaustive collection of acetates and DJ edits. Mega!

After an epic licensing odyssey that's taken us almost 20 years, we're finally able to announce the 5LP boxset release of the first ever official re-issue of all five of the iconic Lansdowne recording sessions by the legendary UK jazz combo, the Don Rendell/Ian Carr Quintet.
The five albums; Shades Of Blues (1965), Dusk Fire (1966), Phase III (1968), Change Is (1969) and Live (1969), have reached almost mythical status in the collector's world. Regarded as holy grail artefacts for even the seasoned aficionado, the collective second hand market value comes to an astonishing £6000.
Many have tried - and failed - to reissue these albums by legitimate means. However, two decades since our initial approach, Universal Music has gone to great lengths to research their vast archives, and we have finally managed to succeed.
The complete Don Rendell & Ian Carr Lansdowne recording sessions have now undergone a full and unprecedented boxset reissue. We located and acquired the original analogue master tapes from the Universal vaults and created masters at Abbey Road Studios to produce audiophile quality 180g pressings replete with replica artwork - shape, design, and even paper stock. No stone has been left unturned to deliver this absolute labour of love to the highest possible standard! The enclosed booklet contains never before seen photographs, interviews with the remaining living band members and liner notes from BBC Radio 3 presenter and award-winning jazz writer Alyn Shipton.
The band played together for seven years and during this fruitful time they made a plethora of deeply melodic, post-bop British jazz compositions that later on took influences from Indo and more spiritually guided jazz. Produced by the influential Denis Preston and recorded at his Lansdowne Studios in London, the band was primarily made up of saxophonist Don Rendell, trumpeter/composer Ian Carr, and pianist/composer Michael Garrick. This is UK jazz at its absolute finest, and the quality of our box set pays testament to that.

TRACK LISTING

1 Blue Mosque
2 Latin Blue
3 Just Blue
4 Sailin'
5 Garrison '64
6 Blue Doom
7 Shades Of Blue
8 Big City Strut
9 Ruth
10 Tan Samfu
11 Jubal
12 Spooks
13 Prayer
14 Hot Rod
15 Dusk Fire
16 Crazy Jane
17 On! [clip]
18 Les Neiges D'Antan (Snows Of Yesteryear)
19 Bath Sheba
20 Black Marigolds
21 Elastic Dream
22 One Green Eye
23 Boy, Dog And Carrot
24 Cold Mountain
25 Black Hair
26 Mirage
27 On Track
28 Vignette
29 Pavanne
30 Nimjam
31 Voices
32 You've Said It 

Debut album from The Goa Express, led by Clarkey alongside his brother Joe and best friends Joey, Naham and Sam.

They met as young teenagers in Burnley - growing up in the rural shadow of England's industrial north, music was a means of escape and a vessel for friendship. Their shared adolescent experiences shaped their collective attitudes and behaviours and, ultimately, the sound and spirit of their band. 6music playlists and Radio 1 support has followed along with a heavy touring schedule.

TRACK LISTING

Honey
It's Never Been Better
Good Luck Charm
You're The Girl 
Small Talk
Can't Stay Quiet
Better Than OK
Talking About Stuff
Portrait
Prove It

The Greatest Love follows the British trio’s critically acclaimed #1 selling album Californian Soil, which was released in 2021 and earned the band their second BRIT nomination for Best British Group. Arriving over a decade since the trio first entered our consciousness, the new album is a celebration; the sound of a band laying to rest the past and realising a newfound sense of freedom.

First single House embodies London Grammar’s new trajectory as frontwoman Hannah Reid delivers the uncompromising lyric: This is my place, my house, my rules. Speaking about the single Hannah said, “House is about drawing boundaries around yourself. When I hit my thirties, my mindset shifted, and I no longer felt like a victim of anything – it all felt within my power. I thought, making music should be fun, and we're gonna make that happen.”

Having first formed as teenagers at University, their seminal double-platinum selling debut If You Wait paved the way for what was to become a hugely successful career for the band, the rare longevity of which has firmly rooted London Grammar in British pop culture. Now over 10 years later, the band have sold more than 3 million albums world-wide, with two #1 selling records, 1 billion streams, an Ivor Novello and numerous BRIT Award nominations under their belts.

In November of 1980, post-punk legends The Sound released their debut album Jeopardy, a critically acclaimed yet often overlooked record compared to other releases in the musical soundscape of the early 80s. The Sound, which initially evolved from punk group The Outsiders, is a band that many musicians and many devoted fans alike consider to be one of the most underrated post-punk bands of all time. They sadly never had a huge following relative to their creative output despite being championed by famous Radio DJ John Peel, and Korova label mates Echo and The Bunnymen, as well as touring with The Comsat Angels.

On April 26, 2024 it will be exactly 25 years since Adrian Borland of The Sound passed away. We are commemorating this by organizing a special event at Poppodium Boerderij together with the Opposite Direction Foundation on this day. With a book presentation, film, concert and exhibition. It was December 5, 1987 that Adrian Borland walked off the stage halfway through the concert of The Sound at De Boerderij. It would later turn out that this had been The Sound's last concert. Adrian then made five more solo albums, but unfortunately his illness always slumbered in the background and on April 26, 1999 he decided to end his life.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. “I Can’t Escape Myself”
2. “Heartland”
3. “Hour Of Need”
4. “Words Fail Me”
5. “Missiles”
Side B
1. “Heyday”
2. “Jeopardy”
3. “Night Versus Day”
4. “Resistance”
5. “Unwritten Law”
6. “Desire”

From the Lions Mouth is the second studio album by English post-punk band The Sound, released in November 1981 on record label Korova. Following the release of their previous album Jeopardy, keyboardist Belinda "Bi" Marshall left the group and was replaced by Colvin "Max" Mayers. For their new album, The Sound worked with producer Hugh Jones, as well as co-producing the album themselves.

On April 26, 2024 it will be exactly 25 years since Adrian Borland of The Sound passed away. We are commemorating this by organizing a special event at Poppodium Boerderij together with the Opposite Direction Foundation on this day. With a book presentation, film, concert and exhibition. It was December 5, 1987 that Adrian Borland walked off the stage halfway through the concert of The Sound at De Boerderij. It would later turn out that this had been The Sound's last concert. Adrian then made five more solo albums, but unfortunately his illness always slumbered in the background and on April 26, 1999 he decided to end his life.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. “Winning”
2. “Sense Of Purpose”
3. “Contact The Fact”
4. “Skeletons”
5. “Judgements”
Side B
1. “Fatal Flaw”
2. “Possesion”
3. “The Fire”
4. “Silent Air”
5. “New Dark Age”

All Fall Down is the third studio album by English post-punk band the Sound, recorded from March to August 1982 and released in November 1982.

On April 26, 2024 it will be exactly 25 years since Adrian Borland of The Sound passed away. We are commemorating this by organizing a special event at Poppodium Boerderij together with the Opposite Direction Foundation on this day. With a book presentation, film, concert and exhibition. It was December 5, 1987 that Adrian Borland walked off the stage halfway through the concert of The Sound at De Boerderij. It would later turn out that this had been The Sound's last concert. Adrian then made five more solo albums, but unfortunately his illness always slumbered in the background and on April 26, 1999 he decided to end his life.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. “All Fall Down”
2. “Party Of The Mind”
3. “Monument”
4. “In Suspense”
5. “Where The Love Is”
Side B
1. "Song And Dance”
2. “Calling The New Tune”
3. “Red Paint”
4. “Glass And Smoke”
5. “We Could Go Far”
6. "The One And A Half Minute Song"
7. "Sorry"
8. "As Feeling Dies"

Leeroy Thornhill is an English DJ and music producer most famous for his time as a member of the popular electronic music act The Prodigy from 1990 - 2000.

Wildfire tells the story of the first decade of The Prodigy from the perspective of original member Leeroy Thornhill, fully illustrated with entirely unseen photography from the earliest raves, to Japan and the United States in the late ‘90s, by which point the band were one of the biggest on the planet.

Rave pioneers whose sound also encompassed hip hop, punk and rock, The Prodigy arguably had as much influence on contemporary pop culture as the Sex Pistols and these extraordinary images from Leeroy’s personal archives capture the wild energy, ecstasy and abandon from the moment they dropped their first hit ‘Charly’ through the three albums which became the ubiquitous soundtrack to the decade: Experience, Music for the Jilted Generation and Fat of the Land.

Beautifully designed in five colours with archival ephemera, and contextualised by Leeroy himself with candid and often hilarious stories describing the band’s wild adventures and eccentric encounters as their fame and popularity spread ‘like wildfire’, this is the ultimate visual journey into the world of the original ‘electronic punks’.

For 5 years after they'd swapped sought-after apprenticeships for life on the dole, brothers William and Jim Reid sat up till the early hours in the front room of their parents' East Kilbride council house, plotting their path to world domination over endless cups of tea, with the music turned down low so as not to wake their sleeping sister. They knew they couldn't play in the same band because they'd argue too much, so they'd describe their dream ensembles to each other until finally they realised that these two perfect bands were actually the same band, and the name of that band was The Jesus and Mary Chain.

The rest was not silence, and picking up those conversations again more than 40 years later, William and Jim tell the full story of one of Britain's greatest guitar bands for the very first time - a wildly funny and improbably moving chronicle of brotherly strife, feedback, riots, drug and alcohol addiction, eternal outsiders and extreme shyness, that also somehow manages to be a love letter to the Scottish working-class family.

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds return with new album, ‘Wild God’.

“I hope the album has the effect on listeners that it’s had on me,” Cave says. “It bursts out of the speaker, and I get swept up with it. It’s a complicated record, but it’s also deeply and joyously infectious. There is never a masterplan when we make a record. The records rather reflect back the emotional state of the writers and musicians who played them. Listening to this, I don’t know, it seems we’re happy.”

Across ten tracks, the band dance between convention and experimentation, taking left-turns and detours that heighten the rich imagery and emotion in Cave’s soul-stirring narratives. It is the sound of a group emboldened by reconnection and taking flight. There are moments that touch fondly upon the Bad Seeds’ past but they are fleeting, and serve only to imbue the relentless and restless forward motion of the band.

Produced by Cave and Warren Ellis, and mixed by David Fridmann, Cave began writing the album on New Year’s Day 2023. With sessions at Miraval in Provence and Soundtree in London, the Bad Seeds added their unique alchemy, with additional performances from Colin Greenwood (bass) and Luis Almau (nylon string guitar, acoustic guitar).

“Wild God…there’s no fucking around with this record. When it hits, it hits. It lifts you. It moves you. I love that about it.” Nick Cave

TRACK LISTING

1. Song Of The Lake
2. Wild God
3. Frogs
4. Joy
5. Final Rescue Attempt
6. Conversion
7. Cinnamon Horses
8. Long Dark Night
9. O Wow O Wow (How Wonderful She Is)
10. As The Waters Cover The Sea

In 2016, Foals frontman Yannis Philippakis was offered the opportunity of a lifetime: a two-day session working with the great drummer Tony Allen, who he admired intensely for his influential, multi-genre work with the likes of Fela Kuti, Sébastien Tellier and Jeff Mills.

Heading into a smoke-filled, ‘70s throwback studio in Paris, Yannis had expected them to make a nostalgic Afrobeat record. Yet something very different emerged. As the pair quickly established an intuitive telepathy, the music germinated from jams and loops, its varied touchpoints - rock, funk, jazz, dub and more - were complemented by a unique atmosphere of two cultures and creatives colliding, their expression liberated by making music in and for the moment itself.

Joined by Tony’s regular collaborators Vincent Taeger (percussion, marimba), Vincent Taurelle (keys) and Ludovic Bruni (bass, guitar) that first meeting resulted in a handful of near complete songs, which were further developed during a couple of subsequent sessions. But between scheduling issues and Covid restrictions, the recordings were never completed before Tony passed away in April 2020 at the age of 79.

Yannis felt a deep duty to complete the project, not only as a bittersweet way to honour and celebrate his friend, but also because Tony had been so eager to share these songs with the world. The result is the upcoming five-track EP, ‘Lagos Paris London’, under the Yannis & The Yaw umbrella - a project that he plans to return to in the future for further collaborations with inspiring musicians from across the globe.

‘Lagos Paris London’ EP is high-spirited, loose-grooved exuberance completed by the complex rhythms and unhurried style of the man who inspired it. It’s a communion with the past that provides an escape in the present day.

TRACK LISTING

1. Walk Through Fire
2. Rain Can't Reach Us
3. Night Green, Heavy Love
4. Under The Strikes
5. Clementine

For 5 years after they'd swapped sought-after apprenticeships for life on the dole, brothers William and Jim Reid sat up till the early hours in the front room of their parents' East Kilbride council house, plotting their path to world domination over endless cups of tea, with the music turned down low so as not to wake their sleeping sister. They knew they couldn't play in the same band because they'd argue too much, so they'd describe their dream ensembles to each other until finally they realised that these two perfect bands were actually the same band, and the name of that band was The Jesus and Mary Chain.

The rest was not silence, and picking up those conversations again more than 40 years later, William and Jim tell the full story of one of Britain's greatest guitar bands for the very first time - a wildly funny and improbably moving chronicle of brotherly strife, feedback, riots, drug and alcohol addiction, eternal outsiders and extreme shyness, that also somehow manages to be a love letter to the Scottish working-class family.

SPECIAL EDITION SIGNED BY BILLY CHILDISH & TED KESSLER.

BOUND IN LIME GREEN LINEN BOARDS, WITH FOILED TITLES DESIGNED BY BILLY AND HOUSED IN A CUSTOM KRAFT PAPER SOLANDER BOX WITH FOUR-COLOUR INSIDE PAINTING.

THIS EDITION ALSO INCLUDES AN EXCLUSIVE VINYL AND SIGNED WOODCUT PRINT BY BILLY CHILDISH.

STRICTLY LIMITED TO JUST 500 COPIES.

In 1977, 17-year-old Steven Hamper was a stonemason in the dockyards of Chatham, Kent. His heart, however, beat in sync with the punk rock tremors of the era, seduced by its celebration of amateurism. So, in a gesture of revolutionary defiance, he took a 3lb club hammer and smashed his hand, vowing to never work again. In doing so, Steven Hamper metamorphosed into Billy Childish, a true renaissance man.

Childish has since remained steadfastly true to punk's DIY cred, becoming one of the most recognisable and authentic voices in whichever artistic endeavour he undertakes. He has released over one hundred and fifty albums of raw rock and roll, punk, blues and folk, written many volumes of searing poetry as well as several autobiographical novels. But what he is perhaps best known for in recent years is his painting, for which he is now critically, commercially and internationally feted. He hasn't changed course in any of his disciplines, though. The world just caught up with the sheer volume of his brutally honest work.

To Ease My Troubled Mind is a mosaic portrait collated over a year of interviews with Childish, as well as with close family, ex-girlfriends, bandmembers past and present, friends, foes, collaborators, even his therapist. It is an unflinching, yet frequently spiritual and funny portrait of an artist whose obstacle-strewn upbringing formed the backbone of his work: raised in a broken home and abused as a child, Childish was an undiagnosed dyslexic in remedial class at school who is nevertheless now Britain's most prolific and uncompromising creative force.

Across the last 15 years, Ryan Gustafson of The Dead Tongues has emerged as one of modern folk’s most distinct voices. As idiosyncratic and spectral as the songs have sometimes been, Gustafson has always tied his visions and verses to the kinds of hooks you tuck away like talismans, pulled out in case of emergency. Dust, Unsung Passage, Desert: The Dead Tongues’ albums remain some of the more compelling and curious works in their field on this side of a century. The latest edition to The Dead Tongues’ catalog, the song-centric and magnetic Body of Light and the discursive and wonderfully elliptical I Am a Cloud, is 16 complete tunes split across interweaving and disparate albums.

The albums feature performances by Jenn Wasner (Wye Oak, Bon Iver), Mat Davidson (Twain), Matt Douglas (The Mountain Goats), Joe Westerlund (Califone, Megafaun), Jeff Ratner (Bing and Ruth), and more. Gustafson wanted to dedicate the studio time to not just recording songs but also making something new, with new improvisations.

The two albums, released digitally as distinct standalone releases, join together in the physical format as a beautiful, deluxe, double album. The 2LP package features a meticulously embossed cover, and gorgeous custom inner-sleeves for each album.

TRACK LISTING

Body Of Light:
Body Of Light
Dirt For A Dying Sun
Dreamer
Fading Away
Daylily
Moonshadow
Wolves
Big Nothing
Hard Times, Sore Eyes

I Am A Cloud:
Lightning
I'm A Cloud Now
Formations
A Bridge
Where Love All Happened
Letters Of Returning
Even Here, Even Now

Renowned composer Simon Fisher Turner presents his brand new album Instability of the Signal, released via Mute.

Recorded by Simon Fisher Turner and Music Producers Guild Awards winner Francine Perry, this 13-track album is an intricate exploration of sound, inspired by the creative minds of Breda Beban, Hrvoje Horvatic, and poet Harold Pinter, whose verses, 'Democracy' and 'The Special Relationship’, feature on the record. It pulls together four strands of Fisher Turner's sonic experimentation, which he identifies as Slivers, Sounds, Strings, and Singing. The 'slivers' are tiny snippets of audio he used as source material for the tracks, all originally created by Salford Electronics (aka David Padbury), and reworked by Fisher Turner into foundations for entire tracks. The record also includes beautiful string arrangements by the Elysian Collective, who have toured with Pulp and feature on the latest releases from The Last Dinner Party and Pet Shop Boys.

Like Fisher Turner's long and varied career, Instability of The Signal is an accumulation of experience, effervescent memories, sounds and textures. It contains hidden learnings. It is about how restorative singing of ourselves and to ourselves can be but is also a document of times and places delivered in beautifully impressionistic palettes of sounds and voices. It is also another document of Fisher Turner's remarkable life and unshakeable curiosity about sound.

TRACK LISTING

Barefeet
Turning Slowly
She Lowers Her Arms
I Can’t Hear Anything
Thrashing It Out
Fishscales
Boymanduet
Toast
Democracy
Tape Ends
The “Special Relationship”

The album features an array of guests including Depeche Mode's Dave Gahan, Midlake's Tim Smith, Isobel Campbell, and Ed Harcourt, amongst others.

Commenting on the album, Marshall says... "During a time when the world seemed to teeter off its axis, and I grappled with personal illness and losses, music became my lifeline once more. Like a soothing medication, each note and lyric offered a glimmer of hope in the midst of darkness. Collaborating on the tracks felt like a shared journey through the universal language of music, allowing me to find my voice amidst the chaos. The title, On The Edge Of A Lost And Lonely World, felt deeply fitting then and continues to resonate now, embodying the essence of this profound musical exploration. I truly believe this album represents my finest work yet, a testament to resilience and the power of art to illuminate even the darkest of times."

On The Edge Of A Lost And Lonely World will be released on July 26th via Bella Union.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Beginning Ft Carl Hancock Rux
2. Too Many Rivals Ft Tim Smith 
3. The Immortal Ft Ed Harcourt
4. This Holding Pattern Ft James Cox
5. Brother Ft Dave Gahan
6. Born To Be Ft Peter Hayes
7. Keep Me Safe Ft Rachel Fannan
8. Dark Side Of Your Window Ft James Allan
9. Love You More Ft Isobel Campbell
10. The End Ft Madman Butterfly

As Alex Izenberg was piecing together the sweeping, psychedelic opuses on his full-band debut Alex Izenberg & The Exiles, the Los Angeles artist was focused on a simple goal: making something built to last. At the heart of his songs are bold ideas that take inspiration from the heady musings of philosopher Alan Watts, the multi-layered storytelling of King Crimson, and the imagistic vistas of Fleet Foxes. While the subject matter may feel esoteric—“My unconscious named the tongue/Of the lights of closed eyes” goes a characteristic lyric—Izenberg and his band let the music drift pleasantly to earth. The melodies are romantic and warm, and the arrangements are invitingly expansive, making expert use of a new ensemble formed around the strongest songs of his career.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Gospel Of Exiles
2. An Obscured Odyssey
3. The Wraith Behind Our Eyes
4. Drinking The Dusk Away
5. Dreams Of Déjà Vu
6. Threaded Dances
7. Only The Moon Knows
8. Pareidolia
9. United States (of Mind)
10. Apophenia
11. As The Dawn Serenades The Dark

Newly signed to SO Recordings and with a debut album proper in hand, The Joy Hotel have become a word-of-mouth success story in the Scottish DIY scene, and have since taken their live show across the UK and Europe, playing festivals including Hidden Door, Doune the Rabbit Hole, Connect, TRNSMT, Twisterella, Latitude, Sound City and The Great Escape.

The band spent eleven days at Rockfield, the legendary studio in Monmouth, Wales, recording live-to-tape. When they left, they had a sound. It is often contradictory, in that it combines the songwriting sensibilities of pop and country with arrangements reminiscent of the psychedelic scene of the 60s, six-part vocal harmonies with elements of noise rock, beautiful balladry with a sense of humour, and a cinematic quality. The result of those eleven days is debut album 'Ceremony', a record that searches for the profound in the seemingly routine, and reaches out with arms wide open to wring celebration out of each moment.

TRACK LISTING

1. I Decline
2. Forever Tender Blue
3. First Joy
4. Jeremiah
5. Black Balloon
6. Rapid Eye Movement
7. Old Man's Eyes
8. While You're Young
9. No Use
10. Twenty Three (A Comedy) - Part 1
11. Twenty Three (A Comedy) - Part 2
12. Killing Time
13. Small Mercy

The critically acclaimed definitive biography of Kate Bush, revised and updated for 2024, with a new foreword by Sinéad Gleeson. Detailing everything from Bush’s upbringing to her early exposition of talent, to her subsequent evolution into a stunningly creative and endlessly fascinating visual and musical artist, Under The Ivy is the story of one woman's life in music. Written with great detail, accuracy and admiration for her work, this is in equal parts an in-depth biography and an immersive analysis of Kate Bush's art.

Focusing on her unique working methods, her studio techniques, her timeless albums and inescapable influence, Under The Ivy is an eminently readable and insightful exploration of one of the world's most unique and gifted artists. The text has been updated to include coverage of Bush’s return to the top of the charts in 2022 following the extraordinary resurgence of ‘Running Up That Hill.’ An eye-opening journey of discovery for anyone unfamiliar with the breadth of Bush’s work, Under The Ivy also rewards the long-term fan with new insights and fresh analysis.

TRACK LISTING

A1. This Version Of You
A2. Behind The Sun
A3. All We Need (ODESZA VIP Remix)
A4. Love Letter (ODESZA VIP Remix)
A5. Say My Name X Late Night

B1. In The Rain
B2. One Day They'll Know (ODESZA VIP Remix)
B3. Wide Awake (feat. Charlie Houston)
B4. Bloom (ODESZA VIP Remix)
B5. Equal X Boy

C1. All My Life
C2. Better Now (feat. MARO)
C3. Line Of Sight (feat. Mansionair & Naomi Wild)
C4. Forgive Me (feat. Izzy Bizu) (ODESZA VIP Remix)
C5. La Ciudad (ODESZA VIP Remix)

D1. Selfish Soul (feat. Sudan Archives) (ODESZA VIP Remix)
D2. TENSE
D3. KEEP MOVING
D4. Sun Models (ODESZA VIP Remix)
D5. Hopeful

E1. Across The Room X Falls (ODESZA VIP Remix)
E2. Loyal
E3. Don't Stop (ODESZA VIP Remix)
E4. Just A Memory (Interlude)

F1. Higher Ground (feat. Naomi Wild)
F2. A Moment Apart (ODESZA VIP Remix)
F3. The Last Goodbye

Originally released in 1994, Mother Earth’s ‘The People Tree’ is a gem of an album that encapsulates a love of soul, funk and folktinged ‘70s rock. To mark its 30th Anniversary, it is set for a special edition 2LP reissue that includes the original album, three previously unreleased tracks, and a further six that have neverbefore been on vinyl. It has been remastered from the original analogue recordings.

One of the best-loved albums in Acid Jazz history, it was the product of over a year of sessions, led by label-founder Eddie Piller, and features guest appearances from Paul Weller, Dee C Lee, and Brand New Heavies’ Simon Bartholomew. Bonus tracks include the previously-unreleased alternative ‘Apple Green’ with a distinctive female backing vocal, an alternative version of ‘Illusions’, and the title track.

First-time vinyl cuts include the alternate master of ‘Jesse’, ‘A Trip Down Brian Lane’ and the heavy funk of ‘Slide Sweet Baby’. The album is presented in a beautiful ‘wide-spine’ layout, with two printed inner sleeves, adorned with in-depth notes form Eddie Piller and unseen photos from the original cover shoot by Gerald Mankiewicz.

TRACK LISTING

1. Institution Man
2. Jesse
3. Startdust Bubblegum
4. Mr. Freedom
5. Dragster
6. Find It
7. The People Tree
8. Apple Green
9. Time Of The Future
10. Saturation
11. Illusions
12. A Trip Down Brian Lane
13. Jesse (Alternate)
14. Institution Man (Edit)
15. Warlocks Of The Mind (Pt. 1)
16. Time Of The Future (Alternate EP Mix)
17. Find It (Radio Edit)
18. Almost Grown
19. Apple Green (with Harmony Vocal)
20. Illusions (No Horns Mix)
21. A Trio Down Brian Lane (7” Mix)
22. Slide Sweet Baby
23. The People Tree (No Mellotron)
24. Jesse (Brendan Lynch Radio Mix)

Overmono first performed their version of The Streets’ seminal 'Turn The Page' at the 2022 edition of Lost Village Festival to a rapturous response. Hailed by Rolling Stone UK as a "glitchy techno banger”, it has since grown into a word-of-mouth phenomenon and a pinnacle moment in the duo’s critically acclaimed live show. From their Coachella debut to their viral Boiler Room and more recent sold-out headline show at London’s Roundhouse, the track continues to resonate across continents, solidifying its status as a timeless dancefloor anthem. Now available for pre-order on 12” black vinyl with laser etched lyrics on the b-side.

TRACK LISTING

1. Turn The Page

In 1977, 17-year-old Steven Hamper was a stonemason in the dockyards of Chatham, Kent. His heart, however, beat in sync with the punk rock tremors of the era, seduced by its celebration of amateurism. So, in a gesture of revolutionary defiance, he took a 3lb club hammer and smashed his hand, vowing to never work again. In doing so, Steven Hamper metamorphosed into Billy Childish, a true renaissance man.

Childish has since remained steadfastly true to punk's DIY cred, becoming one of the most recognisable and authentic voices in whichever artistic endeavour he undertakes. He has released over one hundred and fifty albums of raw rock and roll, punk, blues and folk, written many volumes of searing poetry as well as several autobiographical novels. But what he is perhaps best known for in recent years is his painting, for which he is now critically, commercially and internationally feted. He hasn't changed course in any of his disciplines, though. The world just caught up with the sheer volume of his brutally honest work.

To Ease My Troubled Mind is a mosaic portrait collated over a year of interviews with Childish, as well as with close family, ex-girlfriends, bandmembers past and present, friends, foes, collaborators, even his therapist. It is an unflinching, yet frequently spiritual and funny portrait of an artist whose obstacle-strewn upbringing formed the backbone of his work: raised in a broken home and abused as a child, Childish was an undiagnosed dyslexic in remedial class at school who is nevertheless now Britain's most prolific and uncompromising creative force.

It’s been over seven years since The Rifles released their previous record, but now the east Londoners are set to return with their new album ‘Love Your Neighbour’ on April 26 which they today preview with the new single ‘The Kids Won’t Stop’. Their previous two albums - ‘Big Life’ and ‘None The Wiser’ - achieved the highest chart positions of their career to date, while their cult-like popularity has continued in the intervening years with countless sold-out London shows at venues including the Roundhouse, O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire, O2 Kentish Forum, KOKO, Electric Ballroom and Electric Brixton. The triumphant reaction and electrifying energy of those shows inspired The Rifles as they sent about writing ‘Love Your Neighbour’. It’s a record which bursts with the traits that have inspired such devotion amongst fans: songs as gritty as they are anthemic, and full of lyrics which capture broadly relatable experiences and provide evocative snapshots of modern British life. The overriding message of the album is a plea to embrace the power of your local community

'Dancing On The Frontline' is the companion record to Enter Shikari's UK #1 album 'A Kiss for the Whole World'. The new record brings together remixes, non-album singles (featuring the likes of Wargasm, Cody Frost, AViVA and Fever 333’s Jason Aalon Butler), plus live recordings from the BBC Radio 1 Rock Show and Future Sounds shows.

'Dancing On The Frontline' also comes with a Blu-ray of the band's headline performances at Slam Dunk Festival 2023 and Germany's Vainstream Festival. Their much-lauded live show has since been all around the world, covering the USA, Australia, Europe, UK, Ireland and more. Audiences in the UK also witnessed the band's biggest ever headline tour to date of the country's arenas, an audio-visual spectacular that The Guardian awarded four stars and heralded as "the beginning of Enter Shikari’s greatest chapter."

TRACK LISTING

1. Goldfish (Shikari Sound System Remix)
2. Bloodshot (Shikari Sound System Remix)
3. The Void Stares Back
4. Bull
5. STRANGERS
6. Losing My Grip
7. It Hurts (BBC Radio One Future Sounds Session Version)
8. Bull Feat. Cody Frost (BBC Radio One Future Sounds Session Version)
9. 2 Be Loved (BBC Radio One Future Sounds Session Version)
10. (pls) Set Me On Fire (BBC Radio One Rock Show Session Version)
11. A Kiss For The Whole World (BBC Radio One Rock Show Session Version)
12. Bloodshot (BBC Radio One Rock Show Session Version)

The Owl & Posse EP brings together several artists on one fresh 12" that explores many Leftfield disco sounds and adjacent grooves. Pete Le Freq opens things up with the vocal-infused disco-funk of 'The Way Down' complete with splashy cymbals and elastic bass. The Owl's 'JBs Funk' is a horn-led jam that draws its samples from James Brown and Fingerman & Chewy Rubs's 'Revolution NY' has some big synth strings and unifying vocal calls over a nice organic rhythm. Monsieur Van Pratt's 'Guaranteed' is a pure good time groove with joy in its bones and soul in the lung-busting diva vocals.

TRACK LISTING

Side 1
1. Pete Le Freq - The Way Down
2. The Owl - JBs Funk

Side 2
1. Fingerman & Chewy Rubs - Revolution NY
2. Monsieur Van Pratt - Guaranteed

Jenifa Mayanja is a favourite amongst true deep house heads. Her work is smoky, jazzy, and emotive, and has come on labels like Underground Quality before now. Here she arrives on the sixth EP from fledgling but already cultured label Sole Aspect and shows off her sophisticated sound once more. 'Rise To The Top' is full of elegant harmonies and jazz melodies that dance on pulsing rhythms, 'Like A Dream' brings spiritual vocals to bold chords and dusty drums while 'Our World' has piano lines floating high over the languid drums and bass. 'Rose Colored Glasses' has fresh melodies and challenging synths that defy usual genre norms and bring all new ideas to deep house. This is music that elevates mind, body and soul.

TRACK LISTING

Rise To The Top
Like A Dream
Our World
Rose Colored Glasses

“Into The Blue is the clearest portrait of who I am as an artist. It’s me through and through,” says multi-instrumentalist Aaron Frazer. A daring blend of soul, psychedelia, spaghetti western, disco, gospel and hip-hop, Into the Blue represents the impressive range of Frazer’s sonic talents. Frazer maintains the unmistakable falsetto and classic songwriting he’s known for, but plants Into the Blue firmly in the now with a hip-hop mentality at its core, weaving together genres and production techniques to form something new.

Into The Blue was conceived, like so many classic records, out of actual heartbreak. Frazer moved cross-country from Brooklyn to Los Angeles and embarked on a journey that’s reflected in the album’s themes of grief, loneliness, and searching for healing. “Into The Blue really means heading into the unknown. That has been the last year of my life and I’m still in the blue,” Frazer explains. “But there are also songs here that celebrate love and the giddiness of a new relationship and all that. That’s part of a breakup to me, processing the whole thing, remembering the things that were right as much as the things that were wrong.”

Frazer wrote on every track and played several live instruments on the album. The title track, “Into The Blue”, is a haunting, resolute anthem, combining cinematic strings and tough-as-nails breakbeats as Frazer heads west. “Here I go, to a place where the broken heart knows,” he sings. “It’s all I can do. Back into the blue.” “Payback” is an explosive dancefloor heater, featuring shimmering tambourines and driving bass lines. Northern soul drums meet snarling fuzz guitar, hurdling towards its epic conclusion.

The album features moments of towering arrangements, recalling David Axelrod and Ennio Merricone, balanced by rawness, incorporating iPhone recordings and one-take vocals. For Into the Blue, Frazer enlisted Grammy-winner Alex Goose as coproducer, known for his crate-digging samples and collaborations with hip-hop artists like Freddie Gibbs, Madlib and Brockhampton. Frazer also experimented with samples for the first time on a record, drawing from unexpected sources like 90s R&B group Hi-Five. Though Into the Blue is born out of heartbreak, Frazer hopes it leaves listeners with a sense of optimism. “You know, you can still laugh on a day when you’re grieving,” he says, “there’s no peaks without valleys,” he says, but Into The Blue sees Aaron Frazer at new heights.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1) Thinking Of You
2) Into The Blue
3) Fly Away
4) Payback
5) Dime Feat. Cancamusa
6) Perfect Strangers

Side B
7) Time Will Tell
8) I Don’t Wanna Stay
9) Play On
10) Easy To Love
11) The Fool

2024 repress of the 2008 album on limited edition mustard yellow gatefold vinyl.

TRACK LISTING

1. Standing On The Shore
2. Walking On A Dream
3. Half Mast
4. We Are The People
5. Delta Bay
6. Country
7. The World
8. Swordfish Hotkiss Night
9. Tiger By My Side
10. Without You

2024 repress of the 2013 album on limited edition opaque blue vinyl.

TRACK LISTING

1. Lux
2. DNA
3. Alive
4. Concert Pitch
5. Ice On The Dune
6. Awakening
7. I'll Be Around
8. Old Flavours
9. Celebrate
10. Surround Sound
11. Disarm
12. Keep A Watch

2024 repress of the 2016 album on limited edition transparent green gatefold vinyl.

Recorded between Hawaii and Los Angeles, the album features the hit ‘High and Low’, as well as a contribution from the legendary Fleetwood Mac singer and guitarist, Lindsay Buckingham.

TRACK LISTING

1. Before
2. High And Low
3. Two Vines
4. Friends
5. There's No Need
6. Way To Go
7. Ride
8. Digital Life
9. First Crush
10. Zzz
11. To Her Door

“How the fuck are we going to turn this into a song?” That’s the question Lou Barlow and John Davis have asked themselves since co-founding The Folk Implosion in the early 1990s. Beginning with improvised jams featuring Barlow on bass and Davis on drums, the duo develop their beat-driven pop collages from the ground up. It’s the process they used on their debut cassette, Walk Through This World with the Folk Implosion, and one they’ve returned to 30 years later on their spellbinding, self-referencing reunion, Walk Thru Me.

Separated from their homes in Massachusetts and North Carolina, Barlow and Davis collaborated remotely, flashing back to their early friendship as penpals. A sweaty bass and drums session went down in Barlow’s attic, before they booked studio time with producer Scott Salter (St. Vincent, Spoon, The Mountain Goats).

Contrasts and comparisons are the keys to unlocking Walk Thru Me, and the Folk Implosion as a whole. Beyond the audible differences between Barlow’s soft voice and Davis’s urgent, reedy proclamations,

their approaches to songwriting are strikingly distinct. While Barlow approached his lyrics from a protective paternal perspective (“My Little Lamb”), Davis paid tribute to his late father, shining a light on their complicated relationship (“The Day You Died”). Finally, Davis’s Persian music studies in weekly Zoom lessons inspired him to integrate traditional Middle Eastern instruments such as the setar, oud, saz, and tombak.

“Because we’re so separate, part of this album is me desperately trying to telepathically communicate to John and Scott, who are 700 miles away from me,” Barlow concludes. “A big part of what I consider to be the Folk Implosion is taking disparate things and turning them into pop.”

TRACK LISTING

1. Crepuscular
2. The Day You Died
3. Walk Thru Me
4. My Little Lamb
5. Bobblehead Doll
6. The Fable And The Fact
7. Right Hand Over The Heart
8. Water Torture
9. O.K. To Disconnect
10. Moonlit Kind

In 1979, two school-kids all hopped-up on punk-rock started their own group in their hometown of Hawthorne, Los Angeles (birthplace of the Beach Boys) and soon found themselves opening shows for notorious scene pioneers Black Flag. Jeff McDonald was fifteen, his brother Steven McDonald only eleven. But that didn’t stop their group from becoming one of the most remarkable, enduring and unique outfits punk-rock ever belched up.

2024, then, marks Redd Kross’s forty-fifth birthday— an important anniversary for any group whose heart pulses at 45RPM—and the brothers are celebrating the event with a veritable multimedia extravaganza. There’s a memoir, Now You’re One Of Us, due in November, author Dan Epstein telling the group’s story in the McDonalds’ unmistakable (and occasionally contrary) voices. A brilliant rockumentary, Born Innocent, directed by Andrew Reich, will premiere later in the year. Most exciting of all, this new album—an eponymous double-album, no less, packed with eighteen of their sharpest, most addictive songs yet. These years of joyful service to rock’n’roll have seen Redd Kross evolve into a killer pop-rock concern, dealing in dayglo power-chords, choruses as tall as skyscrapers and a lyric sheet thick with acid couplets and arch popcultural references their loyal following will gobble up like quaaludes.

TRACK LISTING

1. Candy Coloured Catastrophe
2. Stunt Queen
3. The Main Attraction
4. Cancion Enojada
5. Good Times Propaganda Band
6. What’s In It For You?
7. I’ll Take Your Word For It
8. Terrible Band
9. Stuff
10. Back Of The Cave
11. Too Good To Be True
12. Way Too Happy
13. Simple Magic
14. The Witches’ Stand
15. Lay Down And Die
16. The Shaman’s Disappearing Robe
17. Emanuelle Insane
18. Born Innocent

Originally released in October 2000, The Coroner’s Gambit finds John Darnielle between physical and sonic spaces, five of its sixteen songs recorded in Simon Joyner’s Omaha, Nebraska, studio, five more at home in Colo, Iowa, and the rest in Ames.

The album came together slowly; the Mountain Goats had released music every year from 1991 to 1998, but between the release of that year’s New Asian Cinema EP and The Coroner’s Gambit, 1999 passed without an official Mountain Goats release. The additional time that went into The Coroner’s Gambit paid off: it is a breakthrough for Darnielle as a songwriter and practitioner of the full-length album. His characters are sharply drawn, the immaculately appointed lore of the worlds they occupy providing them some shelter from the storm.

He has grown as a guitarist and in voice, wringing moments of sweetness and humour from songs of fury and lament, nimbly modulating from mourning to longing, passing air through the lungs of the dead and survivors alike.

The mix of home and studio recordings grants The Coroner’s Gambit a thrilling sense of immediacy while pointing towards a future that is soon to break open with All Hail West Texas and Tallahassee. The Coroner’s Gambit is a masterpiece in its own right, an introspective epic that further burnishes Darnielle’s reputation as one of our greatest songwriters, one whose gift for confessional fabulism knows few rivals.

In the ensuing years since its original release The Coroner’s Gambit has become somewhat tricky to pin down in its entirety. Releasing the CD for the segment of the Mountain Goats massive who just wanted the songs, and the LP for those drawn to the ephemera of the album as a package, vinyl copies were housed in a paper bag that had additional Darnielle-penned liner notes printed on them. One thousand vinyl copies were issued, and, based on reports from the collector’s scene, far fewer than one thousand bags survive to the present, its text living on largely through Flickr albums and fan sites. The 2024 reissue marks the passage of time with new text and liner notes by Darnielle for CD and LP.

TRACK LISTING

1. Jaipur
2. Elijah
3. Trick Mirror
4. Island Garden Song
5. The Coroner’s Gambit
6. Baboon
7. Scotch Grove
8. Horseradish Road
9. Family Happiness
10. Onions
11. “Bluejays And Cardinals”
12. Shadow Song
13. There Will Be No Divorce
14. Insurance Fraud #2
15. The Alphonse Mambo
16. We Were Patriots

The Joy, a five-piece acapella group from South Africa is releasing their self-titled debut album which was recorded and captured on film in one take at Paul Epworth’s Church Studios in late 2023.

In Hammarsdale in South Africa, where the Zulu tradition of a cappella singing is central to the cultural identity of its people, you’ll have to transcend the sum of your constituent parts to truly command attention. But singing together as teenage boys for the first time, Pastor (Ntokozo Bright Magcaba), Duzie (Melokuhle Mkhungo), Guduza (Sphelele Hlophe), Sthombe (Phelelani Sithole) and Marcus (Sanele Ngcobo) have no reason to pause and consider that.

In Hammarsdale, Ladysmith Black Mambazo have been worshipped for decades – their Grammy-winning success an authentication of the fact that the magic of isicathamiya music isn’t restricted to the townships where it flourished. The Joy grew up on Ladysmith Black Mambazo, but their harmonies harks back to another vocal tradition. Mbube means ‘lion’, which gives some indication of the elemental power its practitioners summon when bursting into song. This seems to be the lineage into which lead vocalist Duzie seems to be tapping when he cuts loose from the intonations of his co-travellers, as if compelled to commune with the ancestral spirits whose music he invokes.

In the right hands, these songs can open the gates of heaven, so perhaps it’s not so surprising that, for The Joy, they open up the gates to places they’d never imagined they’d see with their own eyes. First prize in a municipality-wide singing contest earns them something in the region of $1,300, which they divided in five and sent straight to their families, where it’s most needed. Alicia Keys and Jennifer Hudson pronounce themselves fans, the latter calling them “my favourite group” and inviting them onto her US talk show. Sessions produced by longtime champion Two Inch Punch amass millions of streams either in spite or because of the fact that they correspond to nothing else competing for your attention in the modern musical firmament. And, displaying the brotherhood that they say bonded them together from that very first session, they insist that the music speaks to them all with one voice, telling them what to do before they themselves are even aware of it.

The Joy sing about the big stuff – the power of dreams, religious faith – but actually when they address the harrowing specifics of day to day life, sometimes these are the moments that assume even greater emotional magnitude.

TRACK LISTING

1. Uhlenge
2. Amaqatha Amancane
3. Mama Ka Nomthandazo
4. Bayang'khethela
5. Mama Uleli Kanjani
6. Ngiphuphe Ngilele
7. Mashaya Kancane
8. UBaba Uthwelekanzima
9. You Complete Me
10. Amandla Ka Moya
11. Jesu

This limited edition 12” serves as an accompanying piece to Fixmer’s brand-new album. The vinyl features 6 dark electronic tracks from the record, all infused with his signature energy and thoughtful sound design. This comes with an audio download code of the full-length record, including 6 additional tracks spanning across the landscape of techno music.

Terence Fixmer is celebrated for his innovative and genre-defying approach to music production. With a career spanning over two decades, he has released numerous albums and EPs on some of the most prestigious techno labels. His remixing talents have extended to tracks from industry giants such as Depeche Mode, Yann Tiersen, Sven Väth, Dave Clarke, Front 242, Nitzer Ebb, Indochine, and more.

This release underscores Fixmer's versatility and dedication to expanding his musical horizons, embodying the modest yet noteworthy influence he has had in the realm of electronic and techno music. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Ephemere
2. In Synthesis
3. Evolve
4. Shore Break
5. Glacier
6. Dark Enough?

In the last decade, Daniel Davies has become a lauded composer of atmospheric, synth-heavy instrumental music—for film and TV scores, alongside John Carpenter on the director’s Lost Themes albums, and on solo releases like Signals and Spies. But in his previous musical life, Davies was a rocker, touring all over the world with heavy bands like Year Long Disaster and Karma to Burn. After setting rock music aside to focus on his soundtrack and instrumental work, the multi-instrumentalist has found himself falling back in love with loud guitars over the past couple of years.

Ghost of the Heart, the first full-length alt-rock album Davies has ever released under his own name, captures the excitement of that rediscovered love. After a decade of making music that either had to match a filmed image or create a mental one, he sounds liberated by the concrete, reliable logic of verse/chorus/ verse. The songs on Ghost of the Heart don’t fit neatly into any one subgenre: they’re moody, heavy, and a little proggy, but with a strong pop sensibility and lots of melody. The album divulges Davies’ affinity for hooky, forward-thinking bands like Radiohead and Blur, but more than anything, Ghost of the Heart feels natural, like he’s tapping back into something fundamental about himself as a musician. “My first love is writing rock songs,” Davies says. “It just felt like the right time to get back to it.”

Ghost of the Heart is a special album for Davies. It sees him returning to his origins in rock music, but it also couldn’t have been made without the lessons of his time in the film world. In the truest sense, it’s a career-defining work, one that showcases everything he’s learned in his decades as a musician. It reveals a door that, now opened, can take Davies anywhere he wants to go.

TRACK LISTING

1. I Know Why
2. Presence On The Hill
3. In To You
4. It Takes A Lot
5. Ghost Of The Heart
6. Still The Servant
7. Big Crush
8. Wait
9. Those Eyes 

When Big Crown was brand new The Shacks were one of the rst bands we signed. Shannon was still 17, so we had to wait until her eighteenth birthday to sign the contract. Their introduction to the world was a feature on an El Michels Affair track "Strange Boy" and it did not take long for them to catch on from there. Next was the B side of that El Michels Affair 45 "No Surprise" and the momentum kept going for them. We followed up with their self titled debut EP and that's when things started to move faster. The Shacks got invited to tour the US and Europe with Chicano Batman and Khruangbin. It was during one of those runs that the Apple ad happened. Their cover of "This Strange Effect" got placed in a global ad campaign and the director insisted that Shannon star in the spot. That ad ran on every major TV network in the US, playing during the Superbowl, SNL, and every other high prole thing airing during that time. Then they rolled it out across the globe amassing something to the tune of a billion views. We released their highly anticipated rst full length Haze in 2018 and they were touring all over the country and Europe promoting the record and riding the wave of success from accolade to accolade.

As fate would have it though, before the next album was nished, things fell apart for the band. Choosing to part ways in 2020 for good, Shannon and Max set out on different paths to pursue separate careers and leave The Shacks behind. During the heyday for them when they were not on the road they were recording and they were very prolic in their output. A lot of those songs never saw the light of day. Here on Big Crown Vaults Vol. 2 we put some of the best of those unreleased tracks and some things that never saw a vinyl pressing together for the fans to enjoy. The Shacks catalog of music is incredible and will be here forever for us to enjoy. Keep an ear out for what is next from Shannon and Max, they are two very talented people that we loved working with.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
For Real
Trip To Japan
Wings
Smile Now, Cry Later
Gentle Feat. El Michels Affair
Sunday

Side B
Crimson & Clover
Wind
Bambi
Drone
My Guy
All I Could See

The Asylum Albums (1976-1980) delves into Joni Mitchell’s jazz-inflected sound on the late 1970’s studio albums – Hejira (1976), Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter (1977) and Mingus (1979) – and the live album Shadows and Light (1980). Famed bassist & composer—and long-time Mitchell collaborator—Jaco Pastorius appears prominently on each of the four albums in this set, alongside other noted jazz luminaries like Charles Mingus and Herbie Hancock. THE ASYLUM YEARS (1976-1980) is newly remastered and presented with premium packaging featuring abstract cover artwork from Mitchell’s private fine arts collection.

Walt Disco are taking new shape. Lead vocalist and songwriter Jocelyn Si, drummer and co-songwriter Jack Martin, synth player Finlay McCarthy, bass player Charlie Lock and guitarist Lewis Carmichael dismantled accepted narratives and restrictive norms on debut album Unlearning. On their new record the band hold a mirror up to many shifting faces, once again welcoming the listener into a theatrical world, at once euphoric and unsettling. The Warping makes permeable the barriers of time and self, passing back and forth between memory and the future, calling out to younger selves and imagined identities. We’re not in Kansas anymore.

Written on both sides of the Atlantic, from Los Angeles and Austin to Glasgow and London, The Warping is a significant step forward from a band who have already seen strong success. After its release in 2022, Unlearning picked up nominations for the Scottish Album of the Year (SAY) Award and AIM Independent Album of the Year, while shows at SXSW, festivals across Europe and support stints with Primal Scream and Duran Duran saw the band reach new fanbases and cross genre divides.

Taking the cinematic glam of their debut and pushing it further, the band brought in classically trained orchestral musicians. Sonically, the horns, woodwind and swelling string sections lend an entirely new level to the Walt Disco sound - one that feels both fantastically organic and technically accomplished. While the foundations were laid during pre-album recording sessions at Phil Manzanera of Roxy Music’s studio the songs themselves largely come together in collaboration. In comparison to the ‘Frankensteined’ recording process for Unlearning, stitched together across a digital divide of necessity during lockdown, The Warping was co-produced by the band and Chris McCrory, with engineering from The Vale studios’ Chris D’Adda, and the instrumentation is almost entirely analogue.

Deft lyricism takes in deeply personal issues and writes them large, transposing feelings of envy, fear, joy and hope out of individual experiences. Yearning for another self is a recurring dream on The Warping, as they explore gender dysphoria and envy with radical honesty, accepting them as two tangled threads in the same experience. The world, the band note, can feel like a hostile environment at the moment - especially for queer people, trans people, or anyone who is different. But they aren’t going to let that stop them. Jocelyn agrees. ‘If I’m beaten down by it, I’m not going to be able to pay it forward and act accordingly,’ they say. On The Warping, every moment changes with just a trick of the light.

TRACK LISTING

1. Seed
2. Gnomes
3. Come Undone
4. The Warping
5. You Make Me Feel So Dumb
6. Pearl
7. Black Chocolate
8. Jocelyn
9. The Captain
10. Weeping Willow
11. I Will Travel
12. Before The Walls

Following the runaway success of his last LP, Boy From Michigan, which crashed the UK Top 10 back in July 2021, legendary singer-songwriter John Grant returns with his hugely-anticipated sixth album, The Art Of The Lie.

Released 14th June via longtime label Bella Union, The Art Of The Lie is Grant’s most opulent, cinematic, luxurious album yet and confirms Grant’s status as a modern electronic auteur. Grant likens the musical flavours of The Art of the Lie to the sumptuous Vangelis soundtrack for Bladerunner or the Carpenters if John Carpenter were also a member. While undeniably a John Grant record, nestling humour into tragedy, bleeding anger into compassion, there is a musical ambition and nerve to ‘The Art of the Lie’ which offsets its most political and personal moments.

The Art of The Lie was produced by Grant and Grammy-nominated producer Ivor Guest who is perhaps best known for his work with Grace Jones & Brigitte Fontaine. The album features an array of celebrated musicians including Dave Okumu, Seb Rochford and Robin Mullarkey.

TRACK LISTING

1. All That School For Nothing
2. Marbles
3. Father
4. Mother And Son
5. Twistin Scriptures
6. Meek AF
7. It's A Bitch
8. Daddy
9. The Child Catcher
10. Laura Lou
11. Zeitgeist

Everything was just so intense. There was an alienation and awkwardness about Josef K, but that was actually very true to life for me. Listening today I find really difficult because it brings back so many memories, so many ghosts and characters from the past.

-- Paul Haig. A lot of what Josef K were about was as much to do with what not to play as what to play. Josef K could never have anything rootsy, no blues scale.

We were always looking for the modern. -- Malcolm Ross. Josef K are the great lost post-punk band.

Taking their name from the haunted protagonist of Franz Kafka s existentialist novel The Trial, they posed for photographs before brutalist and gothic architecture and produced visionary, often incendiary music that felt like the product of perpetual anxiety. And it really was. Through The Crack In The Wall is the first ever biography of the band, tracing their story from their origins in the leafy suburbs of Edinburgh through to their untimely implosion four years later.

It s a tale of fun and frenzy, filled with highs and lows. From their thrilling live shows, which left onlookers spellbound, to more anxious occasions confronting a baying audience of rioting anarcho-punks in Brussels; from a brief spell as press darlings of the inkies to the fateful decision to pull their debut album just as pop stardom beckoned -- one that continues to haunt them today. Drawing extensively on new interviews with the band members and those around them as well as contemporary press articles, the book explores the band s inner workings and analyses their relationships with Postcard Records supremo Alan Horne, labelmates Orange Juice, and manager Allan Campbell.

It re-evaluates their position in the pantheon of post-punk greats and considers how their music helped shape the UK independent scene of the eighties. More than anything else, though, the book s primary purpose is to celebrate the incredible music Josef K made and consider what makes it more vital today than ever.

The Return Of Tomorrow is Fu Manchu’s first new album in 6 years, and they made sure that it was worth the wait. Their 14th album is their 1st double LP of new material and it was conceived of as a vinyl listening experience. The first LP features 7 songs in their iconic heavy fuzz sound including the first single, “Hands Of The Zodiac” and the relentlessly catchy “Loch Ness Wrecking Machine.” The second LP sees the band mellowing out with 6 slower tempo jams including the synth inflected “Solar Baptized” and the title track. Both LPs are 45RPM for the thickest possible sound. CD listeners need not worry, as this version of the album was mastered specifically for the format.

Like the band’s most recent album, Clone Of The Universe, and the band’s 3 part Fu30 EP series, The Return Of Tomorrow was recorded at The Racket Room in Santa Ana, California by Jim Monroe (Adolescents, Ignite) and co-produced with Fu Manchu.

TRACK LISTING

1. Dehumanize
2. Loch Ness Wrecking Machine
3. Hands Of The Zodiac
4. Haze The Hides
5. Roads Of The Lowly
6. Time Is) Pulling You Under
7. Destroyin’ Light
8. Lifetime Waiting
9. Solar Baptized
10. What I Need
11. The Return Of Tomorrow
12. Liquify
13. High Tide

Earth Tongue, the brainchild of guitarist Gussie Larkin and drummer Ezra Simons, present their second full-length album Great Haunting. The duo, known for their heavy flavor of fuzz-soaked psychedelic rock, are also pleased to unveil their signing to In The Red Records.

Earth Tongue’s partnership with In The Red stems from a run of shows supporting the legendary Ty Segall throughout New Zealand. Larkin explains: “Ty’s band Fuzz was a significant influence for our sound early on. Ezra and I saw them play live in London about nine years ago, long before Earth Tongue existed. We absorbed a lot of music at that time, and in fact many of the bands we saw released records via In The Red.”

Great Haunting sees the duo draw inspiration from the eerie depths of ’70s and ’80s horror cinema, delivering a sonic concoction of dark and primitive songs with thick layers of fuzz and punchy, compressed drums. The album was engineered by Jonathan Pearce from The Beths at his studio on Karangahape road in Auckland.

TRACK LISTING

1. Out Of This Hell
2. Bodies Dissolve Tonight!
3. Nightmare
4. The Mirror
5. Grave Pressure
6. Miraculous Death
7. Sit Next To Satan
8. Reaper Returns
9. The Reluctant Host

Will Gregory Moog Ensemble present their debut album, Heat Ray: The Archimedes Project, made in collaboration with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.

This neo-classical electronic album is filled with spirals of melody, circular structures, sequences, and patterns inspired by the works of the Greek mathematician Archimedes. The ensemble, as the name suggests, is led by Goldfrapp’s Will Gregory and has been active on the live circuit since 2005. The members include Portishead’s Adrian Utley, a long-time collaborator of Will’s, who plays on the album and produced it. Also playing on the record are John Baggott, Graham Fitkin, Simon Haram, Vyvyan Hope-Scott, Ross Hughes, Hazel Mills, Daniel Moore, Hinako Omari, Eddie Parker, Harriet Riley and Ruth Wall. Their instruments include Minimoog, Moog Voyager, Korg 700s, Prophet 6, and Roland JX-3P, with their individual lines and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales coming together in intricate arrangements creating a stunning superstructure of sounds.

Heat Ray is an album that brings ancient history into the modern world, pushing us towards an endlessly curious and fascinating future.

Available on vinyl and CD, sleeve notes by Matt Parker, comedian, best-selling author and recreational mathematician, who’s YouTube’s channel Stand-up Maths has over 137 million views.

TRACK LISTING

1. Young Archimedes
2. Buoyancy Theory
3. Circles, Spirals And Pi
4. Law Of The Lever
5. The Claw
6. Archimedes’ Screw
7. Heat Ray
8. The Sand Reckoner
9. Archimedes’ Legacy

Goat Girl - Lottie Pendlebury (she/her), Rosy Jones (they/them) and Holly Mullineaux (she/her) are excited to announce their third album “Below The Waste” which is being released on Rough Trade Records. The album was co–produced by the band & John Spud Murphy (Lankum & black midi).

Pieced together like a collage over an extended period of time, the instrumentation was tracked mostly over a ten-day stint in Ireland at Hellfire Studios, in the shadow of the infamous Hellfire Club itself. They also used Damon Albans, Studio 13. Additional strings (Reuben Kyriakides and Nic Pendlebury), woodwind instruments (Alex McKenzie) and vocals (including a choir made up of family and friends) were added to this framework at a number of locations, from a barn in Essex to Goat Girl’s own studio in South London.

Singer Lottie on lead track: “I was listening to lots of music at the time by Phillip Glass and Deerhoof that plays with the relationship between tension and resolution which definitely influenced this song. I was yearning for honesty and authenticity in relationships I held with people, probably partly because at the time, like everyone, we were so isolated from one another. But it also felt deeper than that, like the conversations I dreamt of stripped away all of the etiquettes we desperately clung onto and went below the surface to where the most interesting parts of ourselves tend to be suppressed.”

TRACK LISTING

1. Reprise
2. Ride Around
3. Words Fell Out
4. Play It Down
5. Tcnc
6. Where’s Ur <3
7. Prelude
8. Tonight
9. Motorway
10. S.m.o.g
11. Take It Away
12. Pretty Faces
13. Perhaps
14. Jump Sludge
15. Sleep Talk
16. Wasting

Dinked Edition Tracklisting:
Side A:
Reprise
Ride Around
Words Fell Out
Play It Down
Side B:
Tcnc
Where's Ur <3
Prelude
Tonight
Side C:
Motorway
S.m.o.g
Take It Away
Pretty Faces
Perhaps
Side D:
Jump Sludge
Sleep Talk
Wasting

Dinked Bonus 7":
Side A:
Where's Ur <3 (demo)
Sleep Talk (fka Mellotron Improv)
Ride Around (fka Wavey Bye)
Side B:
Play It Down (sad Demo)
Wasting (demo)

The Mysterines are a four piece alternative rock band from Liverpool, England.
Formed in 2016, the angst-ridden, grunge-inspired indie quartet are fronted by vocalist, guitarist, and primary songwriter Lia Metcalfe.

Their imposing frontwoman melds together more than her lifetime’s worth of experiences with the kind of deep, impassioned vocal you won’t forget in a hurry. In her songs and stagecraft you’ll see and hear everything from PJ Harvey’s raw and ragged stomp to the crazed carnival energy of Tom Waits and eviscerating poetics of Patti Smith.

The first great British rock band of the post-pandemic era, The Mysterines let us in on Lia’s unfiltered look at life, the universe and everything, complete with serious riffs and an unflinching honesty. 

TRACK LISTING

1. The Last Dance
2. Stray
3. Another Another Another
4. Tired Animal
5. Jesse You're A Superstar
6. Hawkmoon
7. Sink Ya Teeth
8. Junkyard Angel
9. Goodbye Sunshine
10. Inside A Matchbox
11. So Long
12. Afraid Of Tomorrows

Recommended if you like: Hand Habits, Slow Pulp, Frankie Cosmos, Lomelda, Lucy Dacus, Big Thief.

“Bloomsday’s Iris James Garrison makes achieving sonic bliss look easy.” Consequence of Sound

Produced by Ryan Albert of Babehoven; features vocals from Babehoven, Richard Orofino, h. Pruz. Mixed by Henry Stoehr of Slow Pulp.

'The way Bloomsday’s Iris James Garrison writes songs feels like somewhere between a mirror and a memory. Spacious, full-bodied folk songs, they are an ode to things that are good no matter how small; they sometimes feel like the ghost of a Mary Oliver poem. Bloomsday’s new record, 'Heart of the Artichoke', is a relic of unfettered creativity and community. They recount the miracles of the mundane, the memories that become sacred, an ode to all that is holy: nightswimming, songs plucked from the ether, the ways friendship can endure.

Like earlier Bloomsday songs, the work here is threaded with warmth; it’s simmering, crisp and deeply human, an encapsulation of the present moment. Recorded across 10 days in June 2023 in upstate New York at duo Babehoven’s studio and co-produced by Babehoven’s Ryan Albert, with mixing by Henry Stoehr of Slow Pulp. The record was built out with a wide ranging group of collaborators, including inventive drumming from Andrew Stevens (Lomelda, Hovvdy), Alex Harwood, Richard Orofino, Babehoven’s Maya Bon, Hannah Pruzinsky (h.pruz, Sister.), and Chris Daley. It was an insulated and collaborative experience: all family dinners on the back porch, bonfires, feeling a full sense of joy, of friendship, of purity in the artistic self.

Collaboration is an integral part of Bloomsday’s musical process. Garrison is malleable in the studio, their songwriting generous and spacious. But in listening to the record, there’s a sense that Garrison leaves room for the players, for the listener; for songs to find the shapes they’re meant to take. Garrison’s role as maestro is crucial, singular – it’s a collaborative, exploratory spirit harnessed by Garrison’s intuition, and by an honest commitment to carve out creative space for play, to delve into what’s known – or pushing past that, into unknown. “The ghosts of the past still come up and haunt me,” Garrison says, “but I sit in what I have and see it. All of these songs are about loved ones, about personal struggles with getting out of my head and being present.” Heart of the Artichoke was written from a healed, matured place – written in a moment of safety from chaos. It’s a prayer for the present, an appreciation of tenderness and what happens once we give ourselves the space to really see, and really feel – becoming free and whole – an ode to the way healing allows us to bloom.

TRACK LISTING

1. Where I End And You Begin
2. Virtual Hug
3. Dollar Slice
4. Artichoke
5. Look After
6. Night Swim
7. Carefully
8. Bumper Sticker
9. Object Permanence
10. Old Friend

"Remembering is not the opposite of forgetting," Casey MQ sings at the start of Later that day, the day before, or the day before that, his new LP and Ghostly International debut. It's a phrase fittingly misremembered from something the LA-based, Canadian-born composer came upon as he spiraled into unconscious and subconscious-led writing sessions at the piano. Casey’s known for his 2020 breakthrough release babycasey, which gave voice to songs seen through the lens of childhood, various film score work and collaborations with artists such as Oklou (who returns here), Eartheater, and Vagabon. His gifts as a producer and songwriter are rooted in textural world-building and the excavation of personal truth. With Later that day... he questions what is true entirely, understanding our mind's tendency to bend and project onto pictures of the past. Across vivid, baroque pop balladry, Casey MQ reorients his recording project and point of view under the notion that memories are malleable. All the joy, pain, love, and loss housed within remembrance is open to interpretation and deconstruction, which he does deftly, with curiosity and complete artistic freedom.

"It's a memory album," Casey puts it simply, winding up for the deeper unpacking, "and it might be a breakup album, too...there are more questions than answers." Engaging his dreams and sitting with sheet music at his newly acquired piano, he looked to new and old inspirations including the works of Claude Debussy, Joni Mitchell, and Joe Hisaishi's beloved Studio Ghibli film scores. "Since I was young, I always wanted to write a piano album." babycasey's studied electronic sound isn't wholly abandoned on Later that day... instead, it comes through like an atmosphere, giving Casey's more spacious, minimal arrangements a distinct luster and sheen. The textures and tones shift from song to song as if mirroring the way our minds constantly recontextualize, remember, and forget.

Cathartic opener "Grey Gardens" — its title derived from a dream abstractly related to the Toronto restaurant, but not the 1975 film, which he cites as another coincidental false memory — presents the record's plaintive, haunted feeling. "Even if not reading into lyrics, sonically I wanted it to feel like you're being pulled into a universe. Not fantasy or otherworldly per se, something more tangible, of the body and mind,” Casey says. “Hearing it back, I realized this track was the key to unlocking it." His tender falsetto hovers above ambient washes and echoed keys, each word falling carefully in the crevices. "Asleep At The Wheel" unfolds on arpeggiated synth before a burst of symphonic color; the synth returns inverted to harmonize with the outro, "I love a car crash, I love a story, I love a memory, I swear it's real..."

Casey leans into digital imagination on the warm, introspective "Me I Think I Found It." Subdued, stuttered percussion underscores the singer as he cycles through pixelated imagery — screenshots, smiles, streetlights — searching for higher meaning through love. Built on ascendent chord distortions, "Dying Til I'm Born" gives the record one of its boldest pulses of emotion. The back half stretches out; "Is This Only Water" is sparse and foggy, "Baby Voice" is intimate and desperate for something to remain. "Words For Love" grooves on guitar, and "Tennisman9" aches in heartbreak. French musician Marylou Mayniel, aka Oklou, appears as the collection’s only guest for the closing duet, "The Make Believe," a bright and buoyant send-off that gives Later that day... both a sense of resolve and cyclical-motion. "We are young, under the sun," they sing together, a parting image brimming with lightness.

TRACK LISTING

01. Grey Gardens
02. Asleep At The Wheel
03. Me, I Think I Found It
04. Dying 'Til I'm Born
05. Is This Only Water
06. See You Later
07. Baby Voice
08. Words For Love
09 Tennisman9
10. The Make Believe (feat. Oklou)

This collaboration between Spanish producer Nueen and Manc vocalist / rapper Iceboy Violet - who has previously sprinkled their magic dust across Hyperdub releases from aya and Loraine James - traces the arc of a four year relationship, memorialising its highs and documenting its lows, processing, reflecting, and then ending with the ecstatic spark of new love. It’s a magical, intimate and heartfelt album, sometimes anguished but often enchanting. Nueen's music responds with foggy, but richly detailed, production. Smudgy drill-laced beats contrast with curdled, spiralling chords, at times drawing out a malevolent ambience. ‘You Said You'd Hold My Hand Through The Fire’ is an immensely affecting and lucid album, powerfully wrought, ultimately hopeful.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Heartbreak Of A Broken Stitch (ft Harriet Morley)
A2. SM_FID
A3. Everything Ends With An Inhale
A4. Cement Skin
A5. Pixel Petals
A6. Slammd (Interlude)
A7. Closer
B1. Terrence’s Time Bomb
B2. Fragmentary (Eraser)
B3. Inside My Head (Interlude)
B4. Still (ft Dawuna)
B5. Fawning (Interlude)
B6. Kiss Me Again (6am In Helsinki) (ft Bennettiscoming)

In 1984, pop came out of the closet - even if not all of the artists felt that they could - and, in the process, charted the course of the rest of the decade. In 1984: The Year Pop Went Queer, writer and musician Ian Wade charts where these artists, including Queen, George Michael, David Bowie, Pet Shop Boys, Frankie Goes to Hollywood and Madonna - who all enjoyed chart success in 1984 - were during that epoch-making year. It studies the impact these groundbreaking musicians had before, during and after on the gay community and popular culture, and it demonstrates how they were able to break down barriers, raise consciousness and set in motion the first nascent ripples in a pond that are still being felt today. As a backdrop, it explores the strides made in the name of the cause and how the wider surrounding culture reacted with equal parts glee, bafflement and disgust.

The first live release from The Murlocs is a career-spanning 22 song set recorded at The Teragram Ballroom in Los Angeles. The show capped off a busy 2022 for the Melbourne-based band, which saw the release of their 6th album (Rapscallion) as well as a performance at Red Rocks (supporting King Gizzard, with whom the band share two members) and their biggest US headlining tour to date.

TRACK LISTING

1. Living Under A Rock
2. The Royal Vagabond
3. Virgin Criminal
4. Francesca
5. Wickr Man
6. Withstand
7. Eating At You
8. The Ballad Of Peggy Mae
9. Bowlegged Beautiful
10. Bobbing And Weaving
11. Subsidiary
12. Bellarine Ballerina
13. Russian Roulette
14. Farewell To Clemency
15. What If?
16. Comfort Zone
17. Compos Mentis
18. Growing Pains
19. Skyrocket
20. Reassurance
21. Noble Soldier
22. Rolling On

Following their 'The Dangling Man' EP and 'Just South of Heaven' mini-LP, 'Room Of Lights' was originally released in 1986 and featured the "London lineup" of Simon Bonney, former Birthday Party stalwarts Mick Harvey and Rowland S. Howard, Rowland’s bassist brother Harry Howard, and drummer Epic Soundtracks (formerly of Swell Maps and Jacobites). The album includes the remarkable ‘Six Bells Chime,’ which caught the attention of acclaimed German filmmaker Wim Wenders who invited the band to perform the song live in his 1988 masterpiece Wings of Desire. The album showcases great creativity filled with tension and marks the last release featuring Crime’s “London line-up”.

TRACK LISTING

1. Right Man, Wrong Man
2. No Money, No Honey
3. Hey Sinkiller
4. Six Bells Chime
5. Adventure
6. Untouchable
7. The Brother Song
8. Her Room Of Lights (For Lisa)

Originally released in 1985, this mini-LP featured the "London lineup" of Simon Bonney, former Birthday Party stalwarts Mick Harvey and Rowland S. Howard, Rowland’s bassist brother Harry Howard, and drummer Epic Soundtracks (formerly of Swell Maps and Jacobites). The record presented a more refined sound compared to their self-produced EP and was recorded between Hansa Tonstudios, Berlin and The Strongroom, London, with sound engineer Flood (a-ha, Depeche Mode, Erasure). In an interview with Uncut, Harry explained, “The first EP, 'The Dangling Man,' was a bit raw. For 'Just South Of Heaven,' we tried to create a more elegant record, and it worked quite well.”

TRACK LISTING

1. Rose Blue
2. The Coal Train
3. Stolen & Stealing
4. Five Stone Walls
5. Trouble Come This Morning
6. The Wailing Wall

'Young Blindness' followed The Murlocs' 2014 debut LP 'Loopholes', built upon a solid foundation of distorted licks and melodic intuition. The hearty compositions are emboldened by the distinct vocal tremolo of singer Ambrose Kenny-Smith. Lyrically, themes of young paranoia and self-doubt are viewed through a lens of experience, exploring the blurred meeting point with an air of blues-borne world-weariness.

TRACK LISTING

1. Happy Face
2. Young Blindness
3. Adolescence
4. Rolling On
5. Wolf Creep
6. Compensation
7. Unknown Disease
8. Let Me Down Lightly
9. Think Out Loud
10. Improving Solutions
11. Reassurance

Following the success of their first release with Serpico’s ‘Just Can’t Stop’, Moonworks are reissuing a highly sought-after UK house 12” from The Outsiders, originally from 1995.

The Outsiders’ Beyond The Ego EP is a lost London gem born from the UK capital’s rich musical heritage and the transatlantic influence of deep house. Produced by two close friends Mark Mellor and Paul Murphy within 48 hours in their Westbourne Grove home studio, its fusion of US house production techniques with a myriad of UK influences has cemented its status as a timeless and unique treasure.

The record received few plaudits on release but has since become a sought-after underground rarity, with scarce original copies trading hands for hefty prices. Whether you draw for the euphoric Warp Factor 9 Mix, the stripped back Ego Dub or the sun-kissed grooves of Do Dat Scat and Shu Bop, the record epitomizes the tasteful and quirky sound of UK house music from the 90s.

Moonworks have once again worked closely with the original artists to restore and remaster these tracks to modern standards, as well as revamping the original artwork in their own style.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Beyond The Ego (Warp Factor 9 Mix)
A2. Beyond The Ego (Ego Dub)
B1. Do Dat Scat
B2. Shu-Bop

‘The Clocks' was originally issued in 2007 as a CD-only limited edition of 110 for members of 'The Bevis Frond Online Community'. It comprised 19 previously unissued tracks. Most of these were home demos featuring just Frond frontman Nick Saloman on all instruments and vocals. Since then, it has never been re-issued in any format. It is therefore with great pleasure that Blue Matter are re-issuing it for the first time, and now as a vinyl double album and limited CD. Due to certain circumstances, three of the original tracks could not be used, so these have been replaced these with another three previously unheard tracks from Nick Saloman's extensive archives. These songs include the seven minute 'She's Taken It All', originally intended for 2004's 'Hit Squad' album but dropped at the last minute due to timing constraints. The beautiful 'You Better Make Do' and the edgy 'Devil Doll' have also been added. We are delighted to be able to make this 'long lost' album available once again and think it will be a welcome addition to the Bevis Frond canon.

TRACK LISTING

Side One.
1 Worlde Is Older
2 The Clocks
3 Home Is Where The Head Is
4 Cut To The Quick
Side Two.
5 Bless Him
6 Anything You Say
7 Devil Doll
8 God
9 When I’m Gone
10 I Need The Rush.
Side Three.
11 Watch The Sun
12 You Better Make Do
13 Little Ray
14 She’s Taken It All.
Side Four.
15 Things He Said
16 I’ll Save Myself
17 I Wasn’t There
18 I’m Better Now
19 Shades 

‘The Dream Of Delphi’ is an ode to motherhood created in LA, Natasha’s second home, during the Covid-19 pandemic. It’s a sonic archive of a time when Natasha birthed her daughter Delphi earth side. The record weaves together ten song poems, documenting the polarity of navigating both an exterior world that was seemingly turning upside down, whilst also experiencing theprofoundly personal and transformational early moments of mothering Delphi, named after the Greek Oracle, the ancient future teller. The music became Natasha’s sanctuary, born out of stolen trips to the studio, where each track was improvised and completed in a few hours and chronologises her diary like offerings over a period of two years; from “TheMidwives Have Left”; to writing a “Letter To My Daughter”; and all the way through to “Waking up”, as well as a cover of her daughter’s favourite song, “Home”.

While the storytelling behind Bat For Lashes’ previous albums have traditionally used otherworldly narratives and female lead characters (e.g. ‘Laura’, ‘Daniel’ and ‘The Bride’), for the first time, ‘The Dream Of Delphi’ is about Natasha’s personal experience of themagical and sometimes melancholy intimacy of early motherhood. This record creates a more private form of mythology around the music than her previous work. ‘The Dream Of Delphi’ touches on more of an instrumental “Bat For Lashes” world, and shows Natasha to be both a confident composer and craftswoman of intimate landscapes. While the music creates a more womb-like, ambient space for the listener, it still leaves ample room for her signature dream pop songwriting to vibrate through. Natasha has worked with Brad Oberhofer, Mary Lattimore and Jack Falby on this record.

TRACK LISTING

The Dream Of Delphi
Christmas Day
Letter To My Daughter
At Your Feet
The Midwives Have Left
Home
Breaking Up
Delphi Dancing
Her First Morning
Waking Up
The Dream Of Delphi (Extended Strings Version)

After a 10-year hiatus, Balearic Mike and Kelvin Andrews return to continue the journey of the Balearic Beat with another edition of their distinguished Down To The Sea And Back compilation series, presenting a formidable new set of rare and obscure records.

With Vols. 1 and 2, the well loved duo showed us that not only are they serious collectors but chroniclers of a scene, assembling lost gems and unheard marvels into Balearic mythology. Reaping, along the way, accolades such as Piccadilly Records’ Compilation of the Year, and featured on Lauren Laverne’s BBC6 Music show. For Vol. Tres, Mike and Kelvin team up with Copenhagen-based Music For Dreams label – themselves no strangers to the Balearic archives. The compilation features 16 tracks, every selection accompanied by an essential background story in the liner notes of the gatefold vinyl and CD booklet.

As fellow comrade and beloved friend Luke Una puts it: “From Greek acid folk, Balearic bossa, outsider pop and electronic chug, to cosmic machine soul, majestic songs, odd numbers, proto-techno new wave to dubbed out 5am technoid, bass buggin deepness and ethereal outer-space Detroit via San Francisco. This album is a story. A story from the heart, with over three decades digging and grafting in the trenches. In a world of faux, pastiche, counterfeit and aggrorhythm fakes, it oozes a wholesome intuitive authenticity. Majestic songs, odd numbers, cosmic dreaming and late night astral travelling as we all hold on together.” 

TRACK LISTING

A1 Josete Ordonez - Objetos Perdidos (Dagobert Böhm Version)
A2 Robert Williams - I Believe You're The One
A3 Lee Ryda - Electro Eyes
A4 Francisco - Heal Yourself
B1 Vidderna - Villfarelser
B2 Meo - Cikuana
B3 The Emperor Machine - Dying By Wits (Original Mix)
B4 Tri Atma - Yummy Moon (Long Version)
B5 Pressure Drop - Unify /Rip Up (instrumental)
C1 Enzo Carella - Malamore
C2 Ad Vissar & Daniel Sahuleka - Giddyap A Gogo
C3 Le Couleur - Underage (Original Mix)
C4 Sunshine Jones - Fall In Love Not In Line (Extended Vocal Version)
D1 Car Crash Set - Fall From Grace
D2 Len - Steal My Sunshine (Version Idjut)
D3 Mcraft - She Sells Sanctuary

The Telescopes Radio Sessions collects together the essence of three live session recordings in 3 different countries over a three year period between 2016-2019. This is the third in a series of radio session releases from Tapete Records that have so far included The Monochrome Set and Comet Gain. More session releases are being lined up for the rest of the year and beyond - enjoy the sonics and stay tuned.

Over the years I have read a lot on people’s impressions of The Telescopes. Some folk think it’s a collective, others imagine it used to be a band and feel nostalgia towards what they consider to be the original line-up (even though many had come before, during and since) and some people refer to it as currently a solo career. In a way this is all true and none of it is. When faced with these kind of questions, along with questions about the style of music that The Telescopes make I often say The Telescopes house has many rooms, which explains things perfectly for me but for people on the outside looking in it only serves to increase their confusion. For me, confusion isn’t such a bad thing. Everything is born into confusion, the sense we try and make of that chaos is interesting and excites me. The universe often disorientates, it sends me a jumble of thoughts and impressions coupled with a feeling of something I need to express… if I could only decipher the encryption. This is how The Telescopes music comes to be and it is also how The Telescopes came to me.

I regard The Telescopes as an entity of it’s own that introduced itself in my darkest hour and I was chosen as its vessel. From the second it arrived I was obsessed to the point where there was nothing else. A bit like having an imaginary friend. As the obsession grew it began to infect others, everybody loved my imaginary friend and wanted a piece of it. As its success grew however, so did the corruption, until one day the entity fell silent. The silence lasted for years, I tried everything to reconnect but it was having none of it. I had been a bad caretaker, I had let the house become infested and I had lost my way. This epiphany served to remind me of simpler times when anything felt possible with this entity by my side. It had trusted me with something so simplistically profound and I had let it down. The realisation of this was a eureka moment. I am not The Telescopes, I never was and never will be, I am the caretaker, the lighthouse keeper and if a job is worth doing it is worth doing well.

With this dawning, I felt a crack open up in the cosmic egg and a familiar confusion in my head. The entity had returned. It was time to start untangling its tangled threads once more, to make sense of what it was saying, this time without corruption. It’s all about listening. I listen to what my cosmic friend sends me and channel this expression into what you hear through your speakers. It may take one person to achieve this, it may take more. There is no set line up or instru- mentation that can hold The Telescopes. Whatever it takes to hit the zone, whatever is available, absolute focus is imperative. Sometimes it takes sabotage to keep that line of vision intact, there is no room for preconceptions or complacency in making the music. The Telescopes music is the now incarnate and a state of total being is necessary to achieve. From the outside looking in... again, it’s all about listening. What comes through your speakers is the only thing that matters. The music either reaches you or it doesn’t. Everything else may seem interesting or confusing but ultimately it is corruption. So if you’ve bought the record, read the sleeve notes and bought a ticket to see a live show, don’t be surprised if the line-up is or isn’t the same as the recording. The only thing that is for sure is that The Telescopes as an entity is speaking to you in its own voice in every scenario. Of course the difference between albums and live shows is that you can play the record over and over again to the point where you know every line and every note that was played. Whereas with live events you are left with an impression that can only be replayed in your mind. It can be frustrating at times. When you are touring with a great line-up and feel like something exciting is happening, you want everyone to hear it, not just the people at the shows but the people that couldn’t make it on the night as well. There is no guarantee that there will be the same line-up at a live show as there is on the album. This is why live sessions are important, they document a side of things that is often fleeting.

Here we have three sessions, all different people transmitting The Telescopes sound on each. Some are regulars, some dip in and out and some were just passing through. In each case The Telescopes chose them as their vessel and as the lighthouse keeper I did everything I could to help them on that journey while trying to be a good caretaker to the house of many rooms. The Telescopes have been invited in for many sessions over the years, the first two were for John Peel on BBC Radio 1. We also recorded a session for Marc Riley and Mark Radcliffe before their celebrity when they had a show on BBC Radio Manchester. We could have compiled this album from those sessions, it was certainly considered but Tapete and myself believe this selection gives an exciting glimpse into that fleeting side of The Telescopes in a constant state of flux that is left mostly to myth and imagination. For those who listen to the records but have never had the chance to take in the live experience, welcome to the other side. For those that follow us live, here’s a little reminder and a keepsake. Infinite suns.

Stephen Lawrie
February 2024.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Handful Of Ashes (Radio Sessions)
A2. The Perfect Needle (Radio Sessions)
A3. Violence (Radio Sessions)
B1. Strange Waves (Radio Sessions)
B2. We See Magic And We Are Neutral, Unnecessary (Radio Sessions)
B3. You Can't Reach What You Hunger (Radio Sessions)
B4. Something In My Brain (Radio Sessions)

Deep Nyabinghi drumming and chanting on a version of the Ethiopian national anthem gets things underway on Slave Call, a majestic journey through the spiritual roots of reggae. Later songs add guitars, bass, keyboards, and horns to build a more standard reggae sound on that foundation, but there’s always a dignified restraint and the profundity of the nyabinghi beat. the entire album revolves around Leonard Dillon’s Rastafarian beliefs, with even the cover of the Beatles’ “Let It Be” rewritten to a religious end.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. Ethiopian National Anthem
2. Slave Call
3. Guilty Conscience
4. Hurry On
5. Nuh Follow Babylon

Side B
1. Train To Skaville
2. Culture
3. Obeah Book
4. Let It Be Me
5. I Love Jah

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

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

TRACK LISTING

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

Homosexuality has been a part of post-war popular music since its very inception. Until the early 70s, however, it wasn’t talked about openly in that world: it was coded, hidden, secret. This of course mirrored society - during the 50s and 60s, the gay community felt like outcasts: harassed by the police, demonised by the media and politicians, imprisoned simply for being who they were.

This compilation spans the time before and after Bowie, reflecting both the coded nature about the topic in the 50s and 60s and the greater openness that occurred in the early 70s. It begins in late 1955, with the extraordinary success of Little Richard; continues through early-60s pop and pop art; Tamla and soul, glam rock, the early 70s funk and disco that was played in the underground New York clubs, and then moves on to the omnipresence of disco, in the late 70s.

This double CD compilation is about freedom - and freedom for all. Whilst some of the artists identify as LGBTQ+, then or now, some are included simply because they were played in gay or lesbian clubs — where their lyric or sound proved useful and enjoyable to the patrons - or because they were shaped in some way by the gay aesthetic or gay managers. It’s a love letter to the entwined world of music and sexuality in all its many guises and we hope you enjoy the ride.

TRACK LISTING

Disc One
1. I Hear A New World - Joe Meek & The Blue Men
2. Tutti-Frutti - Little Richard & His Band
3. Esquerita And The Voola - Esquerita
4. Wondrous Place - Billy Fury
5. Strawberry Blonde (The Band Rocked On) - Frank D'rone
6. Foot Stompin' - The Dovells
7. Johnny Remember Me - John Leyton
8. Peppermint Twist (Part 1) – Joey Dee & The Starliters
9. Sally, Go ‘Round The Roses - The Jaynetts
10. You Don't Own Me - Lesley Gore
11. Needle In A Haystack - The Velvelettes
12. Get Down With It - Bobby Marchan
13. I'll Be Your Mirror – The Velvet Underground & Nico
14. Heaven Must Have Sent You - The Elgins
15. Stand Up Straight And Tall - Jackie Shane
16. Women Is Losers – Big Brother & The Holding Company
17. No Stranger Am I - Norma Tanega
18. Pretty Golden Hair - Al Stewart
19. David Watts - The Kinks
20. Nothing But A Heartache - The Flirtations
21. Stand! - Sly & The Family Stone
22. Life & Death In G & A - Abaco Dream
23. Nathan Jones - The Supremes
24. Walk On The Wild Side - Lou Reed
25. Coochi-Coo - Polly Perkins
26. I'm A Man - Jobriath
27. Soul Makossa - Manu Dibango
28. Law Of The Land - The Temptations

Disc Two
1. Get Dancin' Part 1 – Disco Tex & The Sex-O-Lettes Featuring Sir Monti Rock Iii
2. Lady Marmalade - Labelle
3. Nobody's Gonna Change Me – The Dynamic Superiors
4. Ain't Nobody Straight In L.A. - The Miracles
5. I Need A Man (12-Inch Version) - Grace Jones
6. I Feel Love - Patrick Cowley
7. Orgasm Addict - Buzzcocks
8. Fuck Off - Jayne County & The Electric Chairs
9. Glad To Be Gay - Tom Robinson Band
10. I Was Born This Way (12-Inch Version) - Carl Bean
11. Prison (12-Inch Version) - Space
12. Disco Dance (Mega Mix) (12-Inch Version) - Michele
13. I Need Somebody To Love Tonight (12-Inch Version) - Sylvester

Introducing a musical treasure from the enigmatic Sun Ra's expansive discography, Strut Records proudly presents "Inside The Light World: Sun Ra Meets The OVC”.

This extraordinary album unveils previously unreleased recordings from the year 1986 for the very first time, showcasing a unique chapter in the Sun Ra catalogue. Crafted by the forward-thinking technological innovator and rocket scientist, Bill Sebastian, during the mid-1970s, the Outer Space Visual Communicator (OVC) stood as a groundbreaking invention. Instead of producing traditional sound, this keyboard-triggered "instrument" harnessed the power of light, casting mesmerising kaleidoscopic, multicoloured patterns onto a screen suspended above performers on stage. Ra first performed with the idiosyncratic fractal light projector in the late ‘70s

and, in 1986, two grainy VHS tapes surfaced featuring Ra performing ‘Calling Planet Earth’ and ‘Sunset On The Nile’, both accompanied by the OVC’s radiant light painting.

“I was curious about the performances,” explains Irwin Chusid, administrator of the Sun Ra catalogue. “I couldn't locate these terrific versions and wondered from where they originated. I discovered that not only was Bill Sebastian alive but he was still in Boston developing advanced iterations of the OVC, which by then incorporated Virtual Reality (VR) technology.” Sebastian and Chusid embarked on the intricate task of assembling the session tapes sourced from Sebastian's archives. These recordings, which took place on August 25, 1986, at Mission Control studios in Westford, Massachusetts, were originally spontaneous and never intended for a formal album release. Although the tape transfers yielded remarkable material, the recordings remained in an unmixed state, prompting Chusid to collaborate with engineer Joe Lizzi. Together, they embarked on the journey of reconstructing each track with painstaking precision.

The end result is nothing short of a revelation, featuring exceptional performances by the Arkestra. This release unveils previously unheard renditions of Sun Ra classics such as 'Love In Outer Space,' 'El Is A Sound Of Joy,' and 'Calling Planet Earth.' Additionally, it offers a complete performance of 'Discipline 27-II,' making it a musical gem for fans and collectors alike.

The package features stills from the original OVC videos, extensive liner notes and a full interview with Bill Sebastian. The album is fully remastered from the original reel to reel tapes by Joe Lizzi and Peter Beckmann.

TRACK LISTING

1. Calling Planet Earth
2. Theme Of The Stargazers
3. Love In Outer Space (DX7 Interlude)
4. Love In Outer Space
5. Stardust From Tomorrow
6. El Is A Sound Of Joy
7. Sunset On The Nile (DX7 Interlude)
8. Sunset On The Nile
9. East Of The Sun
10. Saturn Rings
11. Calling Planet Earth (Piano Interlude)
12. Discipline 27-II

Vegyn releases his emotionally rich sophomore album, The Road To Hell Is Paved With Good Intentions. Sublimely crafted songs, each allowing for a dose of human imperfection, wobbling on a tightrope between elation and an eerie melancholia. The record includes guest features from John Glacier, Léa Sen, Matt Maltese, Lauren Auder and Ethan P. Flynn, and is released through his own imprint, PLZ Make It Ruins.

The producer's shape-shifting musical output has so far tended towards excess, whether working with some of the world’s biggest rap and R&B artists (Frank Ocean, Travis Scott, Kali Uchis), or unleashing 70 track mixtapes, letting light into his creative process by sharing scraps from the cutting room floor. By contrast, this new album emerged from a space of free-flowing experimentation, with a lighter touch to the productions. His trademark flourishes and BPM changes take a backseat to melody and clear structure. As Vegyn himself puts it: “I’m just trying to make interesting songs – feeling was the focus.”

TRACK LISTING

1. A Dream Goes On Forever (feat. John Glacier)
2. Another 9 Days (feat. Ethan P. Flynn)
3. Turn Me Inside (feat. Léa Sen)
4. Halo Flip (feat. Lauren Auder)
5. Everything Is The Same
6. The Path Less Travelled
7. Makeshift Tourniquet
8. Time Well Spent
9. In The Front (feat. John Glacier)
10. Trust (feat. Matt Maltese)
11. Stress Test
12. Last Night I Dreamt I Was Alone
13. Unlucky For Some…

Funkyjaws Music keeps on keeping on with its Let's Dance series, which now hits volume number three. It is another doozy that follows the tradition of bringing together four different and equally able artists on one 12". Jacques Renault kicks off with some funky and disco-fried fun on 'Such A Tease' and The Patchouli Brothers take it old school with their steamy disco burner 'Wishin' U Would Call.' The flipside keeps the good vibes alive with some lovely cowbell action and mad-funky riffs on Paul Older's 'Dancin' On Your Mind' and then a little steamy psyched-out guitar magic defines the glorious closer 'House Of Rising Sun.'

TRACK LISTING

Jacques Renault - Such A Tease
The Patchouli Brothers - Wishin' U Would Call
Paul Older - Dancin' On Your Mind
Elado - House Of Rising Sun

Back in 2019, Emotional Rescue began a series where it licensed some all-time favourites, remastered them and pressed them up with new remixes by modern producers. It now draws to a close after many fine instalments with early 80s band The Impossible Dreamers. Their cult 'Spin' arrives here with an epic nine-minute extended reversion that is heavy on the dub and percussion and also an even more dubcentric reprise from regular label artist Dan Tyler of Idjut Boys and Noid fame, her under his NAD guise. There is plenty of raw and raucous rhythm to this 12" that will enliven any dancefloor and round out this series in style.

TRACK LISTING

Spin
Spin (NAD Reversion)
Spin (NAD Riddim Reprise)

‘Empires into Sand’ is the first album of new material from Normil Hawaiians in 40 years. The group first refined their sound during the early 80s, hitting on a pastoral experimentalism that drew on ambient drone, motorik impulse and post-punk pep.

‘Empires into Sand’ came together in the familiar manner of their original three albums, with improvisation and nuance informing the blueprint of the tracks. It was with the official release of this last record ‘Return of the Ranters’ (originally recorded in 1984/85, but then unconsciously shelved) in 2015 by Upset The Rhythm that led to the group reconnecting with the intention of playing music together again. Normil Hawaiians played a launch show for that ‘lost album’ and followed that up with more concerts, including an appearance at Supernormal, a residency at the Edinburgh Festival, gigs at Cafe OTO. They were even chosen by Richard Dawson to perform with him in London.

Throughout this time, Normil Hawaiians revisited their original songs for live performance. However for a group always so interested in evolving their sound, it came as no surprise that they shirked at the idea of a faithful retread. The band pushed their songs into new inventive dimensions, still progressive at core, but now imbued with a cosmic uncanny. A cinematic approach that was always quietly present has come to the fore. The quaint weirdness of folk song, the humanity of communal practice and the group’s ecological mindedness have all found a place in Normil Hawaiians’ current sound world.

When Normil Hawaiians write and record music they prefer to gather in a remote location and live together for a while, such is their communal ethos. Being far-flung across the UK, the Family Hawaii (numbering seven key members) decided to encamp to Tayinloan, a small village on the west coast of the Kintyre peninsula in Scotland. They set up their own studio in an isolated, windswept house overlooking the sea and started the tape rolling. Noel Blanden from the band explains the process neatly: “we set up and began playing, slowly and patiently, allowing the music to take its own shape based on where we were staying and our ongoing friendship. We recorded for days, capturing everything. A lot of new and rich ideas began to emerge”.

Normil Hawaiians took their time to develop these threads at their own pace, allowing songs to mutate and settle over months. Simon Marchant deftly produced and recorded the album whilst also performing in the band, this marked the first time the band had total control of their own sound. The last few years has seen the band reconvene in Herne Bay, Faversham, London and Leith to record new parts, constantly responding to the changing form of these quietly spectral songs of defiance.

‘Empires into Sand’ incorporates samples from old rehearsals and live music into the new finished pieces, this is in continuum with their previous records. Snippets of sound from the static of short wave radio and satellite transmissions also embellish the work. In fact the whole album is stitched together with interludes, creating an acutely immersive 45 minutes. ‘Exiles’ opens the album amid swirling atmospheres, synth flights and recordings of Vilnis Egle (father of Zinta Egle from the band) retelling his experience of fleeing his home in Latvia during Soviet occupation in 1942. George Bikandy also features on this track talking about his flight from Syria in 2014. ‘Ghosts of Ballochroy’ is a winding river of a song featuring a lively discourse in Scots courtesy of Rodney Relax. There’s a commitment to truth telling present across this hopeful album populated with angels, incoming tides, long shadows and the rose-washed sun. “From our broken windscreen, we feel the breeze” soars Guy Smith triumphantly over the driving beat of ‘Waterfalls : Bedford 330’. ‘Big City Sky’ flutters and sparkles with rapid synth runs, tape-looped drums and Jimmy Miller’s commanding vocal. With ‘In The Stone’ Zinta’s melody is deliberately jagged and blunt, exaggerated by octave-layered vocals and interjections from Guy.

This is thought-provoking, boundary-bothering music. Honest in intent, a solidarity of vision. The album’s title is derived from a poem by band member Mark Tyler, who sadly passed away during the recording process and the transience of life is felt heavily throughout. Noel best coins the group’s wish for the album: “we wanted to create an album that acknowledges our history and also reflects who we are today. We remained true to ourselves and we wanted to make something beautiful without removing the edges.” ‘Empires into Sand’ certainly does that, it’s an echo from the past, an echo from the future.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A
01. Exiles
02. Ghosts Of Ballochroy (ft. Rodney Relax)
03. Waves NR728524
04. Back Home To The Stars
SIDE B
05. Waterfalls / Bedford 330
06. We Stand Together
07. Big City Sky
08. In The Stone (Luddenham Mix)
09. North Atlantic

CD Bonus Tracks
(The LP Version Will Also Feature These Via The Download Card.)
10. Where Is Living?
11. Ornament Of The Tribe
12. In The Stone (Scratch Mix)
13. Deep Beneath Snow

John Rossiter (Young Jesus) had quit music to study permaculture and to work in landscapes and gardens. His last album, 'Shepherd Head', was too much time spent on the computer. Working with soil and plants gave him some life back. He said, “You know, when gardening, the right decision to make for the landscape is usually the one that is already happening. It just takes time to read what that is."

So, John left the orchard to meet Shahzad Ismaily (Feist, Lou Reed, Arooj Aftab) for lunch. They instantly bonded, talking about improvisation, rhythm, the heart. On a lark, Shahzad invited John to New York.

Songs started to form, songs about shame and grief, love and redemption. They came fast, a song a day for two weeks. It was different from past albums, which felt like years of hammering out lyrics and ideas. This one came in the wake of a long illness, where tunes came in a rush, as if they were physical, as if the body couldn’t heal without them. An almost involuntary outpouring, overrunning his usual self-consciousness.

Rossiter had to sit and transcribe without judgment: let the ideas grow on their own. Shahzad was in LA one day when John sat down at the piano and played them for him. They decided to record them at Shahzad's Figure 8 Studios in Brooklyn – these songs would blossom into Young Jesus’ album, 'The Fool'.

Inner landscaping requires presence and bravery. It can get pretty dark and strange the deeper you walk into that jungle. And it’s from the absolute pits of that inner landscape that the truest music rises from.

At the end of the last session, Rossiter and Alex Lappin sat down and drew tarot cards. John drew The Fool.

TRACK LISTING

1. Brenda & Diane
2. Two Brothers
3. Rabbit
4. Rich
5. Moonlight
6. MOTY
7. The Weasel
8. Am I The Only One?
9. Sunrise
10. Dancer
11. God's Plan

“I was in a dream, but now I can see that change is the only law.”

With a credo adapted from science fiction author Octavia E. Butler, an album title from a collection of metaphysical poetry, and an expansion in consciousness brought on by personal crisis, guitarist and songwriter Shana Cleveland learns to embrace a changing world with unconditional love on 'News of the Universe', the new full-length from California rock band La Luz.

'News of the Universe' is a record born of calamity, a work of dark, beautiful psychedelia reflecting Cleveland’s experience of having her world blown apart by a breast cancer diagnosis just two years after the birth of her son. It’s also a portrait of a band in flux, marking the first appearance for drummer Audrey Johnson and the final ones from longtime members bassist Lena Simon and keyboardist Alice Sandahl, whose contributions add a bittersweet edge to a record that is both elegy for an old world and cosmic road map to a strange new one.

But is there any band in the world more suited to capturing the chaos of change in all its messy beauty than La Luz? Formed by Cleveland in 2012, La Luz is beloved for their ability to balance bedlam and bliss, each new record another fine-tuning of the band’s mix of swaggering riffs with angelic vocals borrowed from doo-wop and folk; a band so reliably great that it makes the huge step forward in confidence and sheer musicality that is 'News of the Universe' all the more formidable. Cleveland, also a writer and painter, has developed into a truly original songwriter with her own canon of haunted psychedelia. Yet if Cleveland has spent years writing songs about ghosts, what lurks in the shadows of 'News of the Universe' is nothing less than death itself. “There are moments on this album that sound to me like the last frantic confession before an asteroid destroys the earth,” says Cleveland.

The powerful sense of openness that permeates 'News of the Universe' is at least partially due to the fact that it is a record made entirely by women—from the performing, writing, and producing all the way through to the recording, engineering, and mastering. Working with producer Maryam Qudos (Spacemoth), the all-female environment allowed Cleveland to feel safe tapping into difficult places and expressing hard emotions women are socialized to suppress.

Unashamedly vulnerable, unabashedly feminine, and undeniably triumphant, 'News of the Universe' is another knockout record from a band so reliably great that it has perhaps led people to overlook how pioneering La Luz really are: women of color in indie music forging their own path by following their own artistic star into galaxies beyond current musical trends, always led by an earnest belief in the cosmic power of love and a great riff. Never is that more true than on 'News of the Universe', which might be La Luz’s most brutal record to date but also their most blissful.

TRACK LISTING

1. Reaching Up To The Sun
2. Strange World
3. Dandelions
4. Poppies
5. Good Luck With Your Secret
6. Always In Love
7. Close Your Eyes
8. I'll Go With You
9. Blue Moth Cloud Shadow
10. News Of The Universe
11. Moon In Reverse
12. Blue Jay

Following a series of meditative explorations in the form of the Singularity Zone series of releases, The Oscillation have returned with a new sense of vigour and purpose. Refreshed and re-energized, the result is ‘The Start Of The End’, an album that casts more light and shade than ever before to create a mood of hope and re-birth. Be it the celestial majesty of the title track, the melodic infusions that drive opening track ‘War On The Mind’ or the pulsing grooves underpinning ‘Faraway’ and ‘Body Electric’ or even hypnotic repetition at the heart of ‘Mantra’ and ‘The Eternal’, this music brimming with zeal and confidence. And to crown it all, closer ‘Sovereign’ is akin to communing with angels.

At once warm and welcoming, ‘The Start Of The End’ is an album quite unlike anything that The Oscillation have ever released before. Fuelled by optimism and taking stock of what’s good about life and what needs to be jettisoned, the record is a result of spiritual and physical re-charging and cleansing.

Leaving the claustrophobic environs of the big city for a more bucolic backdrop, the change in location has left a profound mark on Demian Castellanos, the creative force behind The Oscillation. Where the exorcism of dark emotions of previous album ‘Untold Futures’ left Castellanos wondering if he’d ever make music again, his new surroundings stirred something within him.

“When I made my new home, I allowed myself time to do nothing for a while,” says Castellanos, “and I then started some new songs without worrying about them being on an album. I just wrote with the mindset to put out something positive.”

He continues: “I did a lot of reflecting on the past and really wanted to change something in myself, but not knowing how and thinking that a lot of people must be feeling the same way.”

Recalling the creation of ‘The Start Of The End’, Castellanos says, “Writing and recording in an environment where I had little contact with people, no hanging out or partying or even having conversations was very interesting.”

The result is an album that’s recognisably the work of The Oscillation while pointing to a variety of new directions. ‘The Start Of The End’ is a line in the sand and one that points to a better tomorrow.

For fans of : Spectrum / Recurring Era Spacemen 3, Loop, AR Kane, MBV, bdrmm, Cocteau Twins , Telescopes and early 90s Creation records..

TRACK LISTING

Side A
War On The Mind
Far Away
The Start Of The End
The Eternal
Side B
Body Electric
Mantra
Sovereign

Bonus Dinked Edition CD Tracklisting:
Sovereign (Celestial Mix) 26.53
The Eternal (Unseen Mix) 09.17
Body Electric (Magnetic Mix) 08.26
The Start Of The End (Around And Around Mix) 07.38
Aftermath (Fade In) 04.03

Saxophone master Sean Khan presents a brand new album project on Acid Jazz – The Modern Folk & Jazz Ensemble. The album explores the sounds of the late-’60s/early-’70s folk revival, recast and reimagined in a jazz setting with featured guest singers, including compositions by Pentangle, Sandy Denny, John Martyn and Nick Drake.

Featured vocalists are the legendary Pentangle lead singer Jacqui McShee, acclaimed singer-guitarist Rosie Taylor-Frater, and emerging artist Kindelan. Sean Khan meanwhile is known as one of the UK’s premier saxophonists, and particularly his ‘Supreme Love: A Journey Through Coltrane’ LP. His distinctive Soprano playing can be heard throughout.

Presented in a beautiful, evocative sleeve and inner-sleeve layout on LP and gatefold-style CD.

TRACK LISTING

1. She Moves Through The Fair
2. Solid Air
3. Light Flight
4. Parasite
5. Things Behind The Sun
6. Who Knows Where The Time Goes
7. I’ve Got A Feeling
8. Ode To Nick Drake

After a hiatus of five years, The Pearlfishers, Glasgow’s finest, return with their ninth album for Marina – most probably their best and most immediate one so far.

Driven by main man David Scott’s exceptional songwriting and sophisticated arrangements, Making Tapes For Girls is a goldmine of pop gems – full of witty & colourful lyrics about the affirmative & healing power of music and pop escapism. 

The title track evokes memories of those days of compiling a C-30/60/90 for your loved one or secretly adored one: “I didn’t know how to say the right thing / So I left it to Joni and Paul...”. Those mix tapes that came straight from your heart & soul – “the nub of it, the truth of it, the ‘you’ of it.” It is another Pearlfishers classic in the vein of My Dad The Weatherfan and Even On A Sunday Afternoon and also David Scott’s nod to Terry Hall’s The Colour Field.

All of these 12 new tracks could have made it easily onto such a tape. Kisses On The Window is a very personal and straightforward love song, with a beautiful string quartet arrangement. Hold Out For A Mystic, most definitely the only song in pop history which references Henri Matisse and Billy Childish in the same line (“The Fauve and the Stuckist man”), is built around a cosmic ELO acoustic guitar sound, while Put The Baby In The Milk channels Carole King jumping through some harmony hoops à la Laura Nyro. We experience more name dropping in The Word Evangeline, a rumination on all songs featuring that name, from The Cocteau Twins to Emmylou Harris to Matthew Sweet. Yellow & The Lovehearts is a wonderful two part suite that takes us from full-on shiny pop to a glacial Simon & Garfunkel soundscape. We are even visiting a Fleetwood Mac-ish vibe in Until I Knew Happy – listen to that great cosmic country banjo solo which creates a fantastic widescreen sound! The super poppy We’re Gonna Make A Hit Record, Boy features the great line: “And we’ll sing it out for Judee Sill and Tony Bourdain”.

Oh yes. When The Sun Comes Back To The West Coast definitely lives up to its title – a return to the catchy Byrds harmonies of The Pearlfishers’ Marina debut The Strange Underworld Of The Tall Poppies.

Most of the album was recorded at La Chunky Studios in Glasgow where everything is vintage – from an old Ludwig kit, old Wurlitzer electric piano and Fender Rhodes keyboards to tons of vintage microphones and compressors. It made a big stamp on the overall sound to an album which is most probably the best one by The Pearlfishers yet.

TRACK LISTING

01. Making Tapes For Girls
02. Kisses On The Window
03. Hold Out For A Mystic
04. Put The Baby In The Milk
05. Until I Knew Happy
06. The Word Evangeline
07. We’re Gonna Make A Hit Record, Boy
08. Yellow & The Lovehearts
09. The Wild Lives
10. Protect The Heart That’s Beating
11. When The Sun Comes Back To The West Coast
12. Sweet Jenny Bluebelle

Tetsu Shibuya, better known as simply Tetsu or Brisa is a Japanese producer and DJ known for works on the iconic Japanese Jazzy Sport imprint, King Street sub-label Nite Grooves and his own Brisa Music. Leading the EP is title-track 'Stir', in collaboration with Turbojazz Brisa delivers a classic slice of deep house built upon layers of bright stab sequences and loose organic percussion. Detroit's beloved Jon Dixon turns his hand to 'Stir' next, encapsulating the soul of his hometown in reshaping fragments of the original composition. The original of 'Reverie' opens the B-side, laying down a broken rhythm, low-pitched vocal hooks and elongated bass grooves for a more bruk tinged feel. Byron The Aquarius then extracts the core of 'Reverie' and spins it into bumpy, subtly nuanced house workout. Lastly the third original 'Flux' rounds out the release, shifting deeper in funkinfused realms with a playful plucked bass groove and heavily swung drums.

TRACK LISTING

Stir (feat Turbojazz)
Stir (feat Turbojazz) (Jon Dixon Remix)
Reverie
Reverie (Byron The Aquarius Remix)
Flux

Members of The Chats, EU pressing of their second LP in anticipation of their debut Euro Tour. FFO: Cosmic Psychos, The Saints, Stiff Richards, The Chats. Australia never misses.

European release of The Unknowns second LP, released on Bargain Bin Records in Australia. "There have already been some monster LPs released in 2023, and the sophomore album from The Unknowns just might be the best of the lot. The Brisbane-based then-trio released one of the greatest punk albums of the roaring twenties (so far) with Nothing Will Ever Stop back in late 2020. Now a foursome following the addition of The Chats' Eamon Sandwich on guitar, The Unknowns have returned with an even better follow-up. East Coast Low manages to take most of the musical genres I hold dear and mash them together in the most delightful way. Basically the sound is classic punk rock with a ton of energy and catchy tunes (what else would you expect from Australia?). Yet at the same time, this album aligns beautifully with modern-day garage punk, power pop, and straight-up rock n' roll. East Coast Low packs ten tracks of punchy sing-along punk rock into 23 and a half minutes of pure fun. Songs like "Dianne," "Rid of You," "Thinking About You," and "I Don't Know" prove once again that there's a certain kind of itch that only old school punk rock n' roll can scratch. These guys are doing nothing new. But man, they do it so freaking well! If we're talking about the cream of the contemporary Aussie punk crop, The Unknowns have earned a place in the conversation." - Josh / Faster and Louder blog.

TRACK LISTING

1. Shot Down
2. Dianne
3. Rid Of You
4. Crying
5. Beat Me
6. Thinking About You
7. Know It All
8. I Don’t Know
9. Deleted
10. Supersonic Love

This One Is For The Party is the final studio album by The Trammps, originally released in 1984. The Trammps, hailing from Philadelphia, were a prominent fixture in the disco scene of the 1970s. Consisting of Earl Young, Harold Wade, Jimmy Ellis, Robert Upchurch, and Stanley Wade, they were known for their infectious grooves and energetic live performances. The Trammps earned their place in music history with hits like “Disco Inferno” and “Hold Back the Night”, but also “Shout” and “Move” became disco classics.

40 years after its original release, the tracks of This One Is For The Party continue to fill dance floors at parties and their influence can be heard in modern dance and pop music. The album also features a guest performance by the Dutch female group Mai Tai on “I Don’t Know (One For The Party)”.

In celebration of its 40th anniversary, This One Is For The Party is available as an expanded edition, including the extended version of the Top 40 hit “Move” as a bonus track. Also, the album has been completely remastered at Artone Studio in Haarlem, The Netherlands.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A
1. Are You Ready
2. I Will Be Here For You
3. Twenty-Five Miles
4. Truly Wonderful
5. Shout

SIDE B
1. Move
2. Shine A Light
3. I Don't Know (One For The Party)
4. Fantacity
5. Move (Extended Version) (bonus Track)

“Everything’s been fucked since David Bowie died or they started up the Hadron Collider” say The Janitors. This feeling is epitomised in the title of their riveting new album: An Error Has Occurred. Marking over two decades of activity for the Swedish psych-rockers, the recording is informed by heartbreak and loss as well as the dismal state of the entire planet. For The Janitors, these two polarities intertwine constantly: “What’s personal is political and vice versa.” To channel their frustration and anger, the band revived certain songs they’d shelved during the pandemic when working on the acclaimed Noisolation Sessions. They added others, written since, that suited the mood of sticking a middle finger up to the oppressive world around us. Whereas previous recordings were often layered up gradually, this time the full band (Henric Herlenius, Jonas Eriksson, Anders Thorell and Wilhelm Tengdahl) rehearsed intensely together before laying down everything live, over two days and nights, in a converted missionary church. The songs on Side A have the menace of Melvins, the swagger of The Stooges and the cosmic heft of The Heads. These are the more simply constructed and poppier pieces... or so the band believe. (One friend of theirs did consider this “delusional”.) ‘In A Bliss’ acts as the album’s radiant centrepiece. A palette-cleansing love song which recalls The Jesus And Mary Chain at their most starry eyed, it finds The Janitors searching for solace and strength in straightforward companionship. After this come the dronier numbers, drawn out with soundscapes and textures influenced by The Velvet Underground’s sonic experiments and the equally immersive atmospheres of electronic acts like Massive Attack. Hence, ‘Operator’ swings threateningly like a space-rock Swans, while the approach on ‘Farewell Spacegirl’ is jazzier and more meditative. “It can be hard to muster up some, or even any, positive energy at this point in time,” says Henric. “We are eternally grateful to have the creative output that this constellation gives us. Neither me or Jonas would probably be here, or be the same people we are, if it wasn’t for The Janitors. We’ll leave you with a quote from an old anarchist: ‘Every society gets the criminals it deserves.’”

TRACK LISTING

Anger The World
Kalfjället
Lies
In A Bliss
Operator
What Is Real?
Farewell Spacegirl

TRACK LISTING

Side A (Act 1: Getting Honest)
1. The One That Loves You
2. It’s Alright Kevin (Manhood 2023)
3. I’m Going To Get Free
4. Coming Home

Side B (Act 2: Attitude To Women)
1. The Feminine Divine

Side C (Act 3: The Relationship)
1. My Goddess Is
2. Goddess Rules
3. My Submission
4. Dance With Me

Side D (The Concert: Part 1)
1. Soon/Plan B
2. I’ll Show You
3. All In All (This One Last Wild Waltz)

Side E (The Concert: Part 2)
1. Until I Believe In My Soul
2. Free
3. Come On Eileen

Side F (Encore)
1. Geno
2. Jackie Wilson Said (I’m In Heaven When You Smile)
3. Tell Me When My Light Turns Green
4. Carrickfergus

Dave Lee's Z Records looks back to go forward as it offers up a spiffing new 12" of contemporary reworks of 4 classics cuts of various vintages from the ZR back catalog. Kicking things off in fantastic fashion is a slap bass and wah clav powered take on Raven Maize's 'Forever Together', originally released in1989, this was the first house cut to feature the now iconic keys riff. Dave's Heavenly Star mix of 'One Kiss' (first out in 1991) is pure hip-swinging soulful disco. Joey Montenegro (who could that be?) offers two classic cuts on the flip side. 'Make A Move On Me' (Original Disco Mix) sees the crossover hit from 2005 get a Chic like makeover with its zippy leads and timeless diva vocals. Whilst the special 25th Anniversary Mix of 1998's 'Can't Get High Without U' closes things off with some peak time, tension filled, disco house action!

TRACK LISTING

Side 1
1. Raven Maize - "Forever Together" (Closer To The Source Mix)
2. Pacha - "One Kiss" (Dave's Heavenly Star Mix)

Side 2
1. Joey Montenegro - "Make A Move On Me" (Original Disco Mix)
2. Joey Montenegro - "Can't Get High Without U" (25th Anniversary Mix)

Loyle Carner has Mercury and Brits nominations, NME Awards, global brand campaigns, and 2 top #3 albums! After performing at a SOLD-OUT Royal Albert Hall on his 29th birthday, the multi-talented artist is looking to make history once again with this release.

Loyle Carner has been announced as a headliner for 2024’s All Points East. His only London live date for 2024 and his biggest yet, he’ll be playing on Saturday 17 August, joined by special guests including Nas, André 3000, Lianne La Havas, Ezra Collective and Flying Lotus across the East, West and North stages that Carner himself has curated.

TRACK LISTING

Hate
Plastic
Georgetown (feat. John Agard)
Polyfilla
Desoleil (Brilliant Corners) (feat. Sampha)
Homerton (feat. JNR Williams)
Blood On My Nikes (feat. Wesley Joseph & Athian Akec)
Nobody Knows (Ladas Road)
Still
Loose Ends (feat. Jordan Rakei)
A Lasting Place
Speed Of Plight
The Cycle
HGU
Ottolenghi (feat. Jordan Rakei)

In October 2017, ex-Hurricane Ophelia and Storm Brian hit the British Isles. These weather systems had formed separately over the Atlantic before moving north-east and converging. In addition to 100mph winds and widespread damage and disruption, the storms brought dust from the Sahara Desert that turned the skies orange over much of the UK. This otherworldly meteorological phenomenon serves as a fitting backdrop to Chimet.

Chimet charts the progress of the two storms over the course of a week, utilising data from Chichester West Pole Beacon a weather station in the Solent which stands in some of the most treacherous waters in the UK.

The album was created using 2,016 sampled data streams, translating seven days of information into 67 minutes and 12 seconds of detailed and evolving music. With mother nature orchestrating the piece, she is joined by intuitive and powerful improvisations on piano, cello and synthesiser. The recording captures the sense of building expectation and tension, the dropping air pressure, the rising winds, the interlocking storm systems and the serene aftermath. The shifts are seamless, monumental and open to the elements.

Chimet is a record to lose yourself in. Like the sea itself, it doesn’t give up its secrets easily. The listening experience seems to change depending on your state of mind, and resonates on a primal level which belies its data led compositional approach. For generations, artists and musicians have been drawn to the sea for their inspiration. That emotional response to the vastness of the ocean is a powerful force. While the origins of Chimet lie in the numbers, the resultant record sits proudly in that artistic tradition. Music to watch the horizon to.

Craig Kirkpatrick-Whitby: project concept, artistic direction, data sourcing, analytics & programming PJ Davy: sound design & programming Matthew Bourne: piano, cello & Lintronics Advanced Memorymoog (LAMM) synthesiser

TRACK LISTING

A1. Ophelia (14:40)
A2. Petrichor (5:58)
B1. Latent (4:40)
B2. Chimet 50º 45’.45 N, 00º 56'.59 W (7:59)
C1. Arise (12:20)
C2. Force 10 Pt. 1 (2:19)
D1. Force 10 Pt. 2 (15:00)
D2. Debris (6.29)

62 years of music, loves, losses, long summer days and longer, darker nights are vividly recalled by ‘our greatest living songwriter’, Michael Head and The Red Elastic Band as he plays out flickering scenes from his life on new album, Loophole, set for release on Fri 3 May 2024 on Modern Sky.

12 evocative and autobiographical songs to be accompanied by the written word as Michael Head prepares his memoirs for release with an autobiography with Nine Eight Books. 

TRACK LISTING

1 Shirl's Ghost
2 Ambrosia
3 Ciao Ciao Bambino
4 Tout Suite!
5 The Human Race
6 You Smiled At Me
7 A Ricochet Moment
8 Connemara
9 Merry-Go-Round
10 You're A Long Time Dead
11 Naturally It's You
12 Coda

7" - Exclusive To Dinked Edition
Side A
1. Connemara - Acoustic (Live From Hebden Bridge)
Side B
2. Tour Suite! (Live Acoustic From Hebden Bridge)