The good time groove lovers at Pleased As Punch are back with another outing on vinyl that once again brings some irresistible energy across a cool house and disco spectrum. The Shapeshifters excel with one of their soulful, uplifting specials on 'Do What You Wanna Do' before Friendly Ghosts keep the flames burning but in a more low-key, intimate style on 'Fan The Flame.' Shaka Loves You shuts down with a churchy and gospel tinged vocal that's backed by florid Hammond organs and a traintrack groove finished with hefty bass on 'Hear Me Today'.

TRACK LISTING

The Shapeshifters - Do What You Wanna Do
Friendly Ghosts - Fan The Flame
Shaka Loves You - Hear Me Today

When Chuck D proclaimed "Bass, how low can you go?" on Public Enemy's anthemic 'Bring the Noise,' maybe he was pre-empting or inciting the 10,000 fathoms-deep, spine-bending basslines and sub-quake tremors of 'Implosion.'

Implosion is a crushing split album, appropriately released on The Bug's own PRESSURE label. Mapping out a new form of spectral dub, the sound is deliberately immersive, introverted, and yes, definitely implosive. In pursuit of heavy lids, blurred vision, and merciless bass bin punishment, it’s one part meditation, two parts low-end theory, and essentially a confession of devoted sound system addiction.

As expected from a tag team featuring British soundlab explorer and 'London Zoo' composer Kevin Martin, aka The Bug, and Michael Fiedler, aka Jah Schulz—a long-time graduate of Germany's new school of sound system reggae culture—the duo approaches their target differently yet share the goal of keeping their sound "raw" (Fiedler) and "brutally minimal" (Martin). This proves that opposites can attract, even if their tools are different and their methods sometimes diverge.

From such a disparate combo, hailing from different geographical and aesthetic backgrounds, contrasts are certainly on display, even within each artist's own contributions. From the melancholia and transcendence of 'Alien Virus (West Indian Centre, Leeds),' to the duality of ascension and descension on 'Hope,' or the Sunn 0))) in dub, visceral drone of 'Dread (The End, London),' to the tripped-out repetitions of 'Midnight,' which reinvents Chain Reaction for post-millennials, the result is both sacred and narcotic. Each track illuminates the emotional impact and atmospheric pressure being explored across this deceptively sparse album—a mastery of tone and texture.

This collection might be as reduced, minimal, and deep as The Bug has ever gone, perhaps echoing the solemnity of his recent Kevin Richard Martin Black release and invoking the futurist steppas self-pioneered on his previous Pressure album. Alternatively, Fiedler‘s Ghost Dubs project ventures into his most heavyweight direction yet, which is no mean feat considering his previous, the critically acclaimed album Damaged, was a monstrously massive triumph of analogue weight and enviable sound design.

Implosion is ice-cool, a stark contrast to the warmth and sociability of traditional Jamaican roots and the current trends in digi-dub. Instead, the mood is soaked in tension and intense dread, finding an unexpected melting point where classic dub's stark rhythm attack, isolationist ambience's eerie drift, dub techno's floatation strategies, and even the relentless riffs of doom metal collide. As the bass-obsessed pair drop what is arguably the heaviest ambient dub album to emerge from any electronic sector—a moody counterpoint to The Orb's fluffy clouds, etc, Martin has cited The Roots Radics, Black Jade, and On U Sound's Pounding System as heavily influencing his approach to the album, while Fiedler has expressed his admiration for Adrian Sherwood's productions and Rhythm & Sound's enchanting soundscape. Yet, the super heavyweight pulsations, emotive resonances, and bone-rattling vibrations detonated here effortlessly go far beyond these influences.

Shadowy and elusive, there’s a mysteriousness at this record's core. A haunting moodiness oscillating between nostalgia and future shock. Despite the deadly fixation with SLOW and HEAVY, the album maintains a totally hypnotic swing throughout. Implosion and its lead single 'Imploded Versions' are testaments to being enveloped in bass, seduced by bass, submerged in bass, and utterly crushed by bass, as The Bug and Ghost Dubs seek to craft a new form of dub for zonal headz and Babylon seekers.

Mastered by Stefan Betke (a.k.a. POLE) at Scape Mastering studio, this record is heavy as f-ck without resorting to continuous distortion. It’s low-end worship taken to an absolute extreme, yet remains highly listenable and definitely danceable, albeit at the slowest of paces. Sacred and narcotic, this is low-end worship amplified to the max. Dive in if you dare. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Living in a small block of flats, and being the considerate neighbour I am; I rarely get to fire up my separates subwoofer. This weekend however I will make an exception - as I simply cannot envisage listening to this mighty slice of tectonic bass meditation without detailed profiling of the 20hz - 150hz range. I suggest you do the same! An absolute beast for bass heads, and a real development of sound system dynamics.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
A1 THE BUG – Hooked (Hyams Gym, Leytonstone)
A2 GHOST DUBS - In The Zone
A3 THE BUG – Believers (Imperial Gardens, Camberwell)
Side B
B1 GHOST DUBS – Hope
B2 THE BUG – Burial Skank (Mass, Brixton)
B3 GHOST DUBS – Dub Remote
Side C
C1 THE BUG - Alien Virus (West Indian Centre, Leeds)
C2 GHOST DUBS – Down
C3 THE BUG - Militants (The Rocket, Holloway
Side D
D1 GHOST DUBS – Into The Mystic
D2 THE BUG - Dread (Mass Brixton)
D3 GHOST DUBS – Midnight

DINKED BONUS DINKED EDITION 12” / CD
A1. THE BUG - Spectres (Plastic People, Shoreditch)
A2. GHOST DUBS – Waterhouse
B1. THE BUG - Duppied (Brixton Rec)
B2. Ghost Dubs – No Words

Pingipung proudly introduces Iko Chérie, the experimental pop project of French multi-instrumentalist Marie Merlet. The 7" single "Ghosted Ghosters of the Holy G" offers a first glimpse into her forthcoming LP, Soft Centre (Nov 2025) - a hypnotic blend of dub-infused songwriting and blissful noise. On the flipside, French electro-dub visionaries Froid Dub unravel the track into a shadowy, slow-motion version, with a solid sub-bass. Beyond Iko Chérie, Marie Merlet tours globally and records with Gina Birch (The Raincoats) and is the guitarist in psychedelic cumbia outfit Malphino.

On their new album 'The Besnard Lakes are the Ghost Nation', Montreal’s The Besnard Lakes return with their post-rock psych; but this time around, with a lightness and optimism at play.

Unique among their furrowed brow peers, The Besnard Lakes are unafraid to marry textured, questing headphone sonics to the honeyed pleasure of radio hits past: the rapture of My Bloody Valentine entwined with the romance of Fleetwood Mac. Imagine dreamy Beach House riding Led Zeppelin dynamics, with unabashedly androgynous vocal harmonies; a melodic yet mountainous sound world.

In a crowded leaderboard of their own making, 'The Besnard Lakes are the Ghost Nation' might just be their best album yet; a strive for hope when it is needed most.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Like fellow Montrealers GYBE, The Besnard Lakes revel in the sort of slowly blooming wall-of-sound chaos we hear on their stunning new LP, but unlike GYBE there's a levity and melodic anchor in a soaring, haunting shoegazey vocal performance. A beautifully rich, endlessly growing wonder that draws on their established sound but pulls the peripheries out even further into rippling ambient and even in parts, noisy rock.

Andy says: This is a really beautiful album which combines post-rock with a touch of psych and even gently pulsing shoegaze. The band have created a warm and enveloping sound world studded with gorgeous twinkling songs.

TRACK LISTING

1. Calling Ghostly Nations
2. Chemin De La Baie
3. Carried It All Around
4. In Hollywood
5. Pontiac Spirits
6. Battle Lines
7. The Clouds Are Casting Shadows From The Sunlight
8. Give Us Our Dominion

Swarming hymns of second generation psychedelic pop mastery. Main man Robyn Hitchcock, along with demon guitarist Kimberley Rew, bassist Matthew Seligman and drummer Morris Windsor manage to bottle 60s guitar pop, shake it up with caged teenage fury and cut it all with a healthy dose of lyrical levity.

"Underwater Moonlight" - seen as fatally un-hip when originally released – would go on to be seen as a seminal album and become a catalyst for 80s jangle pop and college rock, directly inspiring bands like R.E.M. and The Decemberists.

The Soft Boys mystified many in their day, but would now be categorized as psych-punk-meets-art-rock. Underwater Moonlight has long been considered a classic record: "Big Star and us were the rickety bridge between the Byrds and REM", says former SB's mainman Robyn Hitchcock.

TRACK LISTING

1. I Wanna Destroy You
2. Kingdom Of Love
3. Positive Vibrations
4. I Got The Hots
5. Insanely Jealous
6. Tonight
7. You'll Have To Go Sideways
8. Old Pervert
9. The Queen Of Eyes
10. Underwater Moonlight

On their 4th LP, 'Welcome to the Civilized World', Ghostwoman are a sharper beast than ever. Hypnotic spells of psych-grunge, decaying Americana and ragged blues instrumental make up the intuitive tracklist; Evan Uschenko’s filthy guitars and snarling, livewire vocals and Ille van Dessel’s caustic drum beats consolidating the album’s essence. Recorded on old instruments and tape machine, the force and feeling of the record is potent - reckless, illogical and free.

TRACK LISTING

1. Welcome To The Civilized World
2. Alive
3. That Jesus
4. 5 Gold Pieces
5. Levon
6. Dime A Dozen
7. When You All Were Young
8. Song For Sunny
9. From Now On
10. Anhedonia
11. Who Are You?

TOPS — musicians David Carriere, Jane Penny,Marta Cikojevic, and Riley Fleck — write timeless music that reliably threads immediacy and depth. 'Bury the Key', their first full-length since 2020 and with new label home Ghostly International, is a captivating reintroduction for the Montréal band:ever refined, undoubtedly masters of their melodic craft yet unafraid of evolving and testing themselves against different, at times darker tones.The album faces feelings once locked away,engaging the give-and-take between happiness,hedonism, and self-destruction. While often inhabited by fictional figures, their glowing,grooving, self-produced songs draw from personal observations: intimacy (both inside and outside theband), toxic behavior, drug use, and apocalyptic dread. When recording started, they noticed a shift and leaned in, jokingly dubbed "evil TOPS," says Penny. "We're always kind of seen as a soft band orlike naive or friendly in a Canadian way, but we made it a challenge to really channel the world around us." Through the lens of a looming epoch and the clarity that comes with age, TOPS dip into amore sinister disco realm with 'Bury the Key', giving their soft-focus sophisti-pop a sharpened edge.

TRACK LISTING

1. Stars Come After You
2. Wheels At Night
3. ICU2
4. Outstanding In The Rain
5. Annihilation
6. Falling On My Sword
7. Call You Back
8. Chlorine
9. Mean Streak
10. Your Ride
11. Standing At The Edge Of Fire
12. Paper House

Originally released in October 1981, the fourth studio album by The Police was no. 1 in the UK album chart and a multi-platinum best seller. It features three hit singles – Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic, Invisible Sun and Spirits in the Material World. Their jazz influences became more pronounced, but the album had a very strong, sophisticated pop appeal, in the song-writing talents of Sting. Highlights also include the vicious jazz-rocker Demolition Man (later covered by Grace Jones) the frantic Rehumanize Yourself, and a pair of album-closing ballads – Secret Journey and Darkness.

In his label debut on Ghostly International, Brooklyn-born, South London-based artist Goya Gumbani redefines his recording project with rich, full-band arrangements, crossing London's new jazz generation with New York City's hip-hop storytelling legacy. Warlord of the Weejuns is a triumph of taste, heritage, and pride from one of rap music's most dexterous talents. Guests include Fatima, lojii, Seafood Sam, and Yaya Bey. London-based Swedish soul singer Fatima appears in two singles; first, there's "Firefly," a cosmic R&B groove that captures the rawness of a recent breakup. "Fatima came and just laid the hook, and I was like, damn, you're embodying how I'm feeling," says Goya, who built it out with contributions from Swarvy, Omari Jazz, Les Lockheart, and his Ghostly labelmate quickly, quickly.

TRACK LISTING

1. Weejuns (intro) Ft. Will Stowe
2. Beautiful BLACK
3. One Hand Washes The Other Ft. Lojii
4. Crossroad(s)
5. Negroni (Skit)
6. FireFly Ft. Fatima
7. Nothin’ To Say
8. UPtown Mami (Skit)
9. Manuva(s) Ft. Joe Armon-Jones
10. Driftin’ Interlude Ft. Pearl De Luna
11. Chase The Sunrise Ft. Yaya Bey, Lojii, Fatima
12. First Dates
13. Quiz Interlude Ft. Salimata
14. Lizards / Dancin' With The Devil Ft. Jaydon Clover & The Hotel
15. Mind, Body, Spirit Ft. Seafood Sam
16. FOREVER POOH

Across a remarkable run of releases in barely half a decade, London’s Loraine James has established her identity through a blend of refined composition, gritty experimentation, and unpredictable, intricate electronic programming. While titles released under her given name on Hyperdub tend toward IDM-influenced, vocal-heavy collaborations, James reserves her Ghostly International-signed alias, Whatever The Weather, for an inward gaze that explores innate “emotional temperature” and environment (shown in degree-based track titling).

Her second full-length is a markedly warmer outing compared to its predecessor, as signaled by the shift from LP1’s arctic cover photo to LP2’s desert climes. Common to both albums is the mastering work of friend and collaborator Josh Eustis(aka Telefon Tel Aviv), who lends his keen ear to James’ complexities to craft a strikingly three-dimensional sonic experience. Flowing from hypnotic atmospheres to mottled rhythms to processed collages of diaristic field recordings, 'Whatever The Weather II' is a compelling union of organic and human elements from one of electronic music’s most imaginative talents.

The lead single and closing track to Whatever The Weather’s(Loraine James) new LP, '12°C', drifts from bustling human spaces into a concrete groove, weaving melody and texture into a truly unusual, soul-stirring fullness. In its final moments, a languid acoustic guitar and gentle, finger-tapped beat join her pitch-shifted voice. 'Whatever The Weather II' is full of such passages, where formal composition appears like a film in negative, and conventions are upturned with wit, intelligence, and skill.

TRACK LISTING

1. 1°C
2. 3°C
3. 18°C
4. 20°C
5. 23°C (Intermittent Sunshine)
6. 5°C
7. 8°C
8. 26°C
9. 11°C (Intermittent Rain)
10. 9°C
11. 15°C
12. 12°C

Dark Entries calls on Philadelphia experimental duo The Ghostwriters to resurrect their 1981 LP of minimalist mayhem, "Objects In Mirrors Are Closer Than They Appear". The late Buchla maestro Charles Cohen and multi-instrumentalist Jeff Cain joined up in 1971 to craft electroacoustic chaos as Anomali, later renaming themselves The Ghostwriters. Their collaborations with choreographers and visual media artists led to their singular style, straddling improvisation and composition, the oneiric and the immediate. 1981 saw the release of their debut album, "Objects In Mirrors Are Closer Than They Appear", a whirling, messy, telepathic slipstream cascading across an imaginary landscape. Recorded in Don Buchla’s childhood home, "Objects..." offers 8 cuts of minimalist electronic bliss, equal parts icy and quirky, with standout cuts including the grooving havoc of “Fix it in the Mix” and the otherworldly hymn “Moon Chant.” These angular pearls will be cherished by fans of John Bender, Ceramic Hello, and all strains of outsider 80s electronics. Objects In Mirrors Are Closer Than They Appear has been freshly remastered and includes an insert with photos and liner notes. Proceeds from the album will be donated to SOSA (Safe from Online Sex Abuse), a nonprofit that combats online child sex abuse and trafficking.

TRACK LISTING

1. Sleedermauseman / Reference To Rota 
2. Emotional Momentum 
3. Swizzle 
4. Fix It In The Mix 
5. Moon Chant 
6. Quirks Of Quails
7. ON/OFF 
8. Tarpit 

"Funny, sardonic, and literate... it's impossible not to be swayed by these acerbically funny story songs " - Mojo Magazine.

The Burning Hell have been writing party anthems about the apocalypse since before the apocalypse arrived at the party. With "Ghost Palace," the band presents their most joyful collection of songs about death to date, always finding something to smile about in the decay. Mathias Kom's maximalist lyrics are underlined with fluorescent highlighter, with surprising twists and turns through pop culture, animal life, history, architecture, and science fiction.

Followers of Self’s work will still find familiar sonic forms on 'r∞L4nGc', from galvanizing electronic experimentations to Self’s lofty, soaring voice, undiminished after years of relative silence. 'Busy Walks Into the Memory Palace' is assthrowing dance music for corporeal forms that don’t yet exist, making Self a different kind of time traveller, the track primed to be played thousands of years hence. On 'Dissumlato', it sounds as if Self has been sealed into a wayward spacecraft, a synthesizer and their voice their only company, performing for themselves and whomever else in the beyond might be listening to them. Attending to more earthly concerns, and the fraying queer communities that Self has nourished for many years, 'Gajo' deploys a 2-step beat, interweaving chamber orchestral manoeuvres and electronic vocal modulation. As they sing, “Something calling out to me from the other side/It’s my own choice to make within this life,” you hear Self contemplate the ecstatic terror of reaching into the unknown in one another, no space to shapeshift without letting down the barriers separating ourselves from one another in the first place.

'∞', the album’s closing track, a nearly 11-minute suite (also released as lemniscate, a four-track EP to introduce Colin’s new music), is central to the album’s thematic core. The lemniscate, the formal name for the mathematical sign most of us know as the infinity symbol, has guided Self backwards and forwards through the endless quest to carry meaning from one realm to another. It’s a looping journey that requires immense humility and a willingness to shed the stability of the bounded self, instead opening to voices that cry out from a darkened corner, still too vulnerable to emerge in daylight.

“The lemniscate begins with a prayer and darkness being pulled into a portal in which I have to sort of face death, or face loss and grief and sadness, to then kind of come out on the other side with some clarity,” Self says. “Instead of thinking of the darkness being this place of fear, it’s often in the shadows where the important things are happening. We can’t know [these spirits], or we can’t see them, but we have to believe that they exist.” Many spirits present themselves on the album, and while Self’s rapturous singing ability is the medium for these transmissions, listen closely and you might meet someone you never knew existed.

TRACK LISTING

1. Respite For The Tulpamancer
2. Gajo
3. Doll Park Doll Park
4. Dissimulato
5. Losing Faith
6. {Canting}
7. Busy Walks Into The Memory Palace
8. Paraphrase Of A Shadow
9. Riddlecraft
10. Gaolbreaker’s Dream
11. Tip The Ivy
12. ∞

New on Outta Sight, an official reissue of the Gloria Jones classic “Tainted Love”. The song originates from 1964, then made a household favourite from 1981 when made a hit by Soft Cell. Gloria’s 1965 release in the USA was originally a B-side to a non-hit, and it took ten years for it to be discovered in the UK where it was played on the Northern Soul scene. It’s the Motown-like rhythms and arrangements that made it relevant. Gloria re-recorded it herself in 1976, and while still not a hit, the song in NME’s Top 500 greatest of all time and Gloria dubbted ‘The Queen Of Northern Soul’. She was in a relationship with Marc Bolan at the time of his fatal accident.

This single is coupled with another northern soul favourite, the Holland/Dozier/Holland song “There’s A Ghost In My House” by Motown artist R. Dean Taylor. It was originally recorded in 1966 and reached No.3 in the UK Charts (1974). It was covered in their own inimitable style by The Fall in 1987.

STAFF COMMENTS

Laura says: Two absolute killers here. I'm buying this for when I (in my dreams) buy a jukebox - a definite double A-side gem this.

TRACK LISTING

Gloria Jones - Tainted Love
R Dean Taylor - There's A Ghost In My House

New album from hip-hop legend Ghostface Killah, featuring guest appearances by Nas, Remy Ma, Kanye West and more.

TRACK LISTING

1. 6 Minutes (ft. Jim Jones, Sheek Louch, & HARL3Y)
2. Pair Of Hammers (ft. Method Man)
3. Skate Odyssey (ft. Raekwon & October London)
4. Scar Tissue (ft. Nas)
5. Kilo In The Safe (ft. Iceman)
6. Skit 1
7. No Face (ft. Kanye West)
8. Champion Sound (ft. Beniton)
9. Cape Fear (ft. Fat Joe & HARL3Y)
10. Skit 2
11. Plan B (ft. HARL3Y)
12. Bad Bitch (ft. Ja Rule & Trevor Jackson)
13. Locked In (ft. AZ & Bee-B)
14. Skit 3
15. Touch You (ft. Shaun Wiah)
16. Shots (ft. Busta Rhymes, Serani, & HARL3Y)
17. Trap Phone (ft. Chucky HollyWood)
18. Outro Skit
19. YUPP! (ft. Remy Ma)

Adored alt-pop duo Cults announce their fifth studio album TO THE GHOSTS out July 26 via IMPERIAL. The NY-based duo compromised of multi-instrumentalists Madeline Follin and Brian Oblivion, confidently and clearly perfect their vision with the cinematic new album.

To the Ghosts was meticulously crafted; the earliest ideas dated back to the pandemic when they wrote music on weekdays from 10am-5pm with no deadlines or distractions. The album was written and recorded in Brian’s apartment; in 2022 they traveled to Los Angeles to collaborate with longtime producer and trusted creative confidant Shane Stoneback, because “nobody can read our minds like he can,” jests Madeline. To the Ghosts was co-produced by Cults & Shane Stoneback, mixed by John Congleton, and mastered by Heba Kadry NYC.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Hazy emotional pop pieces, swimming with soul and bolstered with tastefully applied modern production techniques, Cults' fifth LP is their most dynamically rich yet. Wistful, hook-laiden and brimming with melodic beauty.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A
A1. Crybaby
A2. Left My Keys
A3. Onions
A4. Crystal
A5. Leave Home
A6. Eat It Cold

SIDE B
B1. Honey
B2. Knots
B3. Behave
B4. Open Water
B5. Cells
B6. You're In Love With Yourself
B7. Hung The Moon

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 

"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)

When Bob Vylan won the first MOBO award for Best Alternative Music Act in 2022, the punk-grime duo took to the stage and used the platform to speak about how they managed to achieve the impossible as independent artists in a genre-defying space. “We released an album this year that we produced entirely, mixed entirely, recorded entirely, all from my bedroom…so everybody that’s here, bigging up Atlantic and bigging up Warner, fuck that, us man did it ourselves”.

It was an acceptance speech that rattled the room and built anticipation for their next projects.

Humble as the Sun, the forthcoming album from Bob Vylan continues with much of the rage and urgency that they have come to be known and loved for, but this latest project shows that they are now stronger and wiser, bolstered by the wins and learnings that they have fought hard for along the way. The resulting tracklist aims to leave the listener feeling power alongside their anger, and brings a fresh and compelling blend of punk, rock, grime and rap together in an experimental way.

Following on from the last album, Bob Vylan Presents the Price of Life, the message woven throughout Humble as the Sun remains dark in places but is high-energy, defiant and unapologetic in its critique of a broken social and political system that so many have fallen victim to, but feel powerless against.

This album is for the underdogs, the ones who come out swinging and those who refuse to be defeated in the face of injustice, and aims to remind listeners that anger is a fire that can be harnessed and put to use. The album creation started from a conversation with the sun, which is, after all, a big ball of fire that sustains life.

From masculinity to myths about the G Spot, the themes and topics explored on Humble As The Sun make for an often humorously empowering celebration of the people’s ability to endure, overcome and bring about change.

The lyricism on this album is even more layered than their previous projects, still darkly humorous, anti-establishment and unforgiving but at times pauses to deliver much-needed words of affirmation to listeners, “You are loved. You are not alone. You are going through hell but keep going.” Bobby assures the listener, offering an antidote to the state of the world, aiming to give some power and agency to those who hear it. At a time when so little trust or faith exists between the people and the powers that be, Bob Vylan offers out a hand in the despondent darkness that has overwhelmed so many in the shadow of a burning planet. They guides the listener to a place where they can see some light and feel empowered to do something, to fight back, to continue pushing forwards despite the challenges faced along the way.

Mixing all of the best quintessentially British - and Jamaican - musical elements from punk to drum and bass, grime and rock, Bob Vylan creates a sound that reflects the state of the nation, at once voicing the frustrations that normal people have, while also highlighting one’s ability to persevere, overcome hardship and to change.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Humble As the Sun is almost certain to bring Bob Vylan to the wider public consciousness. It's a momentum-filled, chaos embracing collection of grime-adjacent, punky rock pieces. Brilliantly propulsive and more than a little reminiscent of rap-rock superstars RATM.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Humble As The Sun
A2. Reign
A3. GYAG
A4. Dream Big
A5. Hunger Games
B1. Right Here
B2. Makes Me Violent
B3. He's A Man
B4. Ring The Alarm
B5. I'm Still Here 

Coming off the heels of 2022's A New Kind of Love, A Trip To The Moon sees Ghost Funk Orchestra diving even deeper in the worlds of film music, exotica, and psychedelic surf rock. The aim is to create a layered and collaged listening experience with more elements than you could possibly pick out in a single listen.

The guitars are fuzzy and flooded with spring reverb, and the horns are arranged in a studio big band fashion. It's full of big compositions with garage rock attitude.

Influences range everywhere from Eddie Palmieri and Esquivel to The Lively Ones, Dusty Springfield, and War. The tracks are tied together by real recorded transmissions from the Apollo moon missions. The concept for the album is a story about a woman stranded on earth by her cosmonaut partner, left to ponder his whereabouts and whether or not he'll make it back from the cosmos alive.

TRACK LISTING

Opening
Eyes Of Love
Where To?
To The Moon!
Achluo
Nova
Helios
Into The Abyss
Again
A Solar Wind
Space Walk
Casadastra
A Rare View
Totality
Infinite Dar

Pieced together with musty samples from children’s exercise records, vintage drama, clunky British jazz and library records, this is an archaeology of emotion, an exploration of the power of not only childhood memories, but of the collective unconscious.

Julian House’s own The Focus Group; oddly assembled sampledelic collages, stitched together from fragments of library cues and forgotten soundtracks. A beautiful, unhinged stream of consciousness that seems to prod at buried memories

REVIEWS

Julian Houses's Focus Group should appeal to anyone who grew up in Britain in the '70s: its a condensed memory of that decade's daytime and after hours television. These 19 soundbites ape the incidental music for The Tomorrow People, The Clangers and Follyfoot, jazz drums, bass flutes, continuity men and grubby science-lab electronica. Like Boards of Canada minus beats, the feeling of smothered innocence evokes powerful intimations of the uncanny.

TRACK LISTING

1. Icicle Wheel
2. You Do Not See Me
3. Clockbell
4. Echo Release
5. Xylophone Signal
6. Modern Harp
7. Inside The Rubber Box
8. Lifting Away
9. Today’s Rhythm People
10. Hey Let Loose Your Love
11. String Sine Romance
12. The Moon Ladder
13. Planning For Urban Green
14. Swinging Phantom
15. The Thre
16. Jam-jar Carnival
17. Baroque Face
18. The Leaving
19. Reflected Message

Following previous albums exploring British coastal quicksands, shorelines, caves and forests, Dave Clarkson takes his recorder into faded seaside towns and fairgrounds (including Rhyl, New Brighton, Blackpool, Porthcawl, Northumberland, Margate and Hastings) and applies his production technique to the results. Some tracks are melodic and rhythmic while others are more desolate, capturing the unique fading atmosphere for the locations. Music was generated from the source sounds he recorded of penny falls, onboard rides, fairground organs, demolition noise, electrics and location ambience. One track (Spectral Pier Ballroom) is a spliced and stripped composite of three separate old musical recordings from his family archive, featuring his late father, grandmother and grandfather.

Contains natural source sound ingredients, some left pure, some processed, some mangled, some untangled. Field recordings at funfairs and coastal ghost towns, plus voices, instrumentation and electronics.

Location recordings plus composition, production, mastering, photography, sleeve design, packaging and coordination by Dave Clarkson at Cavendish House studios between December 2021 and September 2022.

TRACK LISTING

1. Organ Donor 00:48
2. Rollercoaster Ghost 04:54
3. Illuminations (Dirty Electricity) 05:54
4. Sizzling Hot Dogs And Burnt Onions 02:54
5. Spectral Pier Ballroom 05:34
6. Penny Arcade In The Rain 05:18
7. Tiny Lights (Magic In A Child's Eyes) 03:12
8. Coastal Ghost Towns 04:06
9. Memories And Loss 06:04
10. Organ Transplant 02:44

In 2011 Gazelle Twin self-released ‘The Entire City’, a debut album that gathered rapid acclaim and sparked a decade of creativity during which its creator, Elizabeth Bernholz has built big upon her foundation of dark, cinematic energy. The album is now set to be reissued on deluxe CD, together with ‘The Wastelands’, a mini “twin” album of material made around the same period, though never released commercially. Where 'The Entire City’ remains intact with its original master and tracklisting, ‘The Wastelands’ expands on this shadowy, futurescape, featuring foreboding, percussive songwriting, with euphoric choral swells. The release features the captivating photo collage artwork of British artist, Suzanne Moxhay

TRACK LISTING

1 The Entire City
2 Concrete Mother
3 Men Like Gods
4 I Am Shell I Am Bone
5 Far From Home
6 Changelings
7 Bell Tower
8 When I Was Otherwise
9 Obelisk
10 Nest
11 Fight-or-Flight
12 View Of A Mountain

CD Version - CD 2 The Wastelands

1 Wastelands
2 Adrenalin
3 Hole In My Heart
4 Ascent
5 The Future
6 I Hear You Call

'The Wastelands' is an album of material made around the same period as 'The Entire City' though never released commercially. The album expands on 'The Entire City's shadowy, futurescape, featuring foreboding, percussive songwriting, with euphoric choral swells. 'The Wastelands' also features the captivating photo collage artwork of British artist, Suzanne Moxhay.

TRACK LISTING

1/Wastelands
2/Adrenalin
3/Hole In My Heart
4/Ascent
5/The Future
6/I Hear You Call

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2022 EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

10-year anniversary of POLICA 's classic debut album Give You The Ghost, repressed on limited edition white opaque vinyl and limited to 1,500 worldwide. Give You The Ghost was one of 2012's standout debut albums, marrying as it did post-rock and R&B to stunning effect, leading Bon Iver's Justin Vernon to describe them then as "the best band he'd ever heard".

Give You The Ghost's influence on sonics and production can still being felt to this day. Lead singer Channy Leaneagh's delicate yet visceral vocals, occasionally and subtly manipulated by a Helicon 5, formed a sweet harmonic partnership with Chris Bierden's bass riffs. This, matched with the twin attack of drummers Drew Christopherson and Ben Ivascu and the anti-production techniques of fifth member Ryan Olson, made POLICA a unique proposition, as demonstrated on singles Lay Your Cards Out, Dark Star and Wandering Star. A break out performance at 2012's SXSW saw them booked for TV slots on Jimmy Fallon and Later with Jools Holland, plus a plethora of festivals including Coachella and Glastonbury. 

TRACK LISTING

A1 Amongster
A2 I See My Mother
A3 Violent Games
A4 Dark Star
A5 Form
B1 The Maker
B2 Lay Your Cards Out
B3 Fist, Teeth, Money
B4 Happy Be Fine
B5 Wandering Star
B6 Leading To Death

Large Plants started as a solo project for Jack Sharp, the singer and guitarist for Wolf People. It was spurred on by a writing frenzy during the lockdown of 2020 when Sharp played and recorded all the parts for what would become the debut single, La Isla Bonita and the first album The Carrier. In summer of 2021 the tracks were mixed by songwriter Chris Cohen (formerly of Deerhoof & Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti).

Large Plants’ songs are immediate, heavy psychedelic rock belters filtered through a haze of analogue tape flutter. Sharp’s voice has an eerily distant and delicate tone that lends a strong folk sensibility to the album; like the scent of winter mornings and fresh soil mixed with the whiff of petrol. Though the songs are generally three-minute gems, they are lyrically more like ancient ballads; peopled with tragic youths, witches, lovelorn troubadours and femmes fatales. Sharp is now touring Large Plants as a four piece along with Ed Taylor on drums, Ollie Taylor on bass and Joe Wooley on guitar with dates booked so far at OSLO, Hackney -17th April and The Betsy Trotwood, Clerkenwell 5th May

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Swooning, progressive psychedelia from Jack Sharp bringing to mind the loose garage wooze of BJM or heady echoic psych a-la Jefferson Airplane all tinged with Ghost Box's distinctive and almost ever-present tape-distressed aesthetic. A beautiful addition to the label and a wonderful full-length for the Large Plants. A superb addition to any collection.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Carrier
2. No Difference
3. Don't Let Me Let You Down
4. Never Seen
5. How Far
6. Wreckers
7. Hold Onto
8. I Lie Awake
9. Marceline
10. The Witch

Haiku Salut, the acclaimed electronica trio from the Derbyshire Dales release their fifth album, ‘The Hill, The Light, The Ghost’ on Secret Name records.

A beautiful study of ghosts and memory, the gestation of the record began when Haiku Salut’s Sophie Barkerwood was given a Tascam field recorder. “I carried it around with me in case anything interesting happened. I guess I wanted to capture little pieces of the world in the same way we all take photographs,” explains Sophie. “It wasn’t immediately apparent that we would begin to use these sounds as the architecture for an album but as our writing process evolved the textures of these memories became a bank of inspiration.”

“We then began actively searching for ghosts in the world and framing the songs around their qualities,” Sophie continues. “Gathering recordings, removing them from their context and building worlds around them. Capturing and preserving personal experiences, and evoking vivid spaces. You could say the record is a miniature exploration of sound in relation to memory. Each piece is intimately connected to a place in time.”

Musically, the album marries the expansive vision of their third album, ‘There Is No Elsewhere’, which celebrated identity and community, with the darker, more contemplative feel of their fourth album, the trio’s original soundtrack for Buster Keaton’s ‘The General’. Building on the lessons learned working on ‘The General’, ‘The Hill, The Light, The Ghost’ is a cohesive suite, nine songs that combine to tell a larger story – that of experience and memory, of precious moments and echoes of past lives.

TRACK LISTING

(1) Wide Awake
(2) Entering
(3) We Need These Beams
(4) I Dreamed I Was Awake For A Very Long Time
(5) How The Day Starts
(6) All Watched Over By Machines Of Loving Grace
(7) Try Again And Again And Again
(8) Trespass
(9) All Clear

“The Black Angels bring the aura of mid-1966 the drilling guitars of early Velvet Underground shows, the raga inflections of late-show Fillmore jams, the acid-prayer stomp of Austin avatars the 13th Floor Elevators everywhere they go, including the levitations on their second album, Directions to See a Ghost. Mid-Eighties echoes of Spacemen 3 and the Jesus and Mary Chain also roll through the scoured-guitar sustain and Alex Maas’ rocker-monk incantations. But he knows what time it is. ’You say the Beatles stopped the war,” Maas sings in ‘Never/Ever.’ ‘They might’ve helped to find a cure/But it’s still not over.’ Even so, this medicine works wonders." – David Fricke, Rolling Stone

Last time we met The Black Angels, they were staring into the desert sun somewhere outside of Austin, Texas. Two years later, night has fallen and the spirits have come out. It’s time for The Black Angels to provide Directions On How To See A Ghost.

If you’re familiar with Passover, the band’s 2006 debut, you’ll know that The Black Angels’s music alone is enough to invoke spirits. There’s a name for the band’s sound; they call it ‘hypno-drone ’n roll’. It’s the sound of long nights on peyote, of dreams of a new world order, and of half-invented memories of the seamy side of ’60s psychedelia.

While the Iraq war is still a major influence on the band’s lyrics, there are new forces at work here, including Eugene Zamyatin’s dystopian novel We and in Christian Bland’s words “psychic information from the past and future.” See, The Black Angels really are in contact with ghosts.
“Civil War battlefields are prime spots for seeing ghosts,” says Bland. “One time at Kennesaw mountain in Georgia, I was climbing the mountain in the middle of June and it must have been close to 100 degrees, but in this one particular spot it was very cold. The hairs on my neck stood up and I knew something strange was happening. Then the wind whispered something like ‘retreat,’ and I did. I later learned that the spot where I was on the battlefield was known as ‘the dead angle’, the place where the fiercest fighting took place. The confederates ended up retreating from the mountain towards Peachtree Creek.”

The Black Angels formed in Austin, Texas, in 2004, comprising from six people (now five) from very different backgrounds. Singer/vocalist Christian Bland is the son of a Presbyterian Pastor and was raised in a devoutly religious household. Bassist / guitarist Nate Ryan was born on a cult compound and drummer Stephanie Bailey claims she’s a descendent of Davy Crocket. She and Alex Maas (vocals/guitar) believe a little girl in a red linen dress haunts the group’s home.

The band released Passover in 2006 to critical acclaim for both the album and the song “The First Vietnamese War”. Most of all, Passover established The Black Angels as a band with brains, balls and a strong message. And this time around, the message is there to read in a 16-page booklet that comes with the album.

“Our central theme is that people need to open up their minds and let everything come through, and to learn from past mistakes,” says Christian. “Only then will we understand the reality of this world and progress beyond where we are now as humans. We’ve built upon that theme with Directions to See a Ghost. We want people to study the booklet we are providing with the album in hopes that they will be able to relate each song to something in their life.”
_"War is Peace.

Freedom is Slavery.
Ignorance is Strength.
Keep Music Evil."_

TRACK LISTING

You On The Run
Doves
Science Killer
Mission District
18 Years
Deer-ree-shee
Never/ever
Vikings
You In Color
The Return
Snake In The Grass

THE SPECIALS are one of the defining bands of the late 70’s/early 80’s along with Jerry Dammers iconic label Two Tone Records. They combined Jamaican ska and Rocksteady mixed with the energy of punk and launched a whole Ska Revival which paved the way for fellow likeminded bands Madness, The Beat and The Selecter to release their first singles.

Having had seven top 10 singles and two Gold albums over the course of two years, the band released Jerry Dammers’ Ghost Town in June 1981, backed by Lynval Goldings’ Why? and the Terry Hall penned Friday Night Saturday Morning. The beginnings of the song were written around the closure of the Larcano dancehall in Coventry, but also reflecting what was happening in other towns and cities with urban decay, unemployment and ongoing racial tensions of the period. Themes which are still relevant today.

The single, which was recently voted the second greatest UK single of all time by Alexis Petridis in the Guardian, reached Number One in the UK singles charts and stayed there for a further 3 weeks, becoming one of the biggest selling singles of 1981 and has remained one of the classic UK singles of all.

This 40th Anniversary Edition has been mastered and cut at half-speed by Miles Showell at Abbey Road Studios using the original production tapes for optimum audio quality.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: There's no denying that 'Ghost Town' is one of the most well known singles from one of the greatest Ska bands of all time, and what better way to hear it than on this brand new half-speed mastered definitive pressing? Essential purchase.

TRACK LISTING

7" TRACK LISTING
Side A
1. Ghost Town (Single Version)
Side B
1. Why? (Edit)
2. Friday Night, Saturday Morning

12" TRACK LISTING
Side A
1. Ghost Town (Extended Version)
2. Why? (Extended Version)
Side B
1. Friday Night, Saturday Morning

As the final act before their hiatus ñ coming after three critically praised albums in a decade - 'Live at the Trades Club Hebden Bridge' is Cherry Ghost performing an intimate, starkly arranged set at the 2015 Heavenly Weekender.Released now for the first time ñ on double vinyl and download ñ this is perhaps the best realised collection of songs from Cherry Ghost, the alias of the Ivor Novello award-winning songwriter Simon Aldred. The instrumentation ñ Aldred is joined on keyboards and light percussion by Christian Madden and Grenville Harrop ñ brings to the fore Aldred's peerless songwriting, his oak-aged, prematurely wisened baritone.'History' wrote the Quietus in 2014, 'will be kind to Aldred', and this collection proves exactly that ñ with a bit of time and distance, the songs presented here show a highly singular, highly accomplished songwriter, aspiring to the pop classicism of Glen Campbell or Bill Callahan. All of human life is here ñ tracking a drizzly Northern gothic of last bus loneliness, late-night Spars, solitary drinkers, factory floors and Gods that betray.And yet, there's more than meets the eye.There's magnetic renderings of his best known songs - '4AM', 'People Help the People', the soaring 'Mathematics' - but surprises reveal themselves.'All I Want' and 'Herd Runners' candidly examine Aldred's sexuality, whilst the seldom heard b-side 'Bad Crowd' reveals Aldred to be a much funnier songwriter than remembered. What runs right through Aldred's work, however, is a yearning ñ a much tested faith in romance ñ so no wonder that the album ends on its most optimistic notes, at the darkest point of winter nestled in the West Yorkshire valleys, promising clear skies ever closer.

Ghosteen is the seventeenth studio album from Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, following 2016’s Skeleton Tree, and will be released via Ghosteen Ltd. The album was recorded in 2018 and early 2019 at Woodshed in Malibu, Nightbird in Los Angeles, Retreat in Brighton and Candybomber in Berlin. It was mixed by Nick Cave, Warren Ellis, Lance Powell and Andrew Dominik at Conway in Los Angeles.

"The songs on the first album are the children. The songs on the second album are their parents. Ghosteen is migrating spirit." - Nick Cave.

STAFF COMMENTS

Darryl says: Spread across two albums, "The songs on the first album are the children. The songs on the second album are their parents. Ghosteen is migrating spirit." Nick Cave, ‘Ghosteen is a deeply introspective and at times an emotionally devastating listen exploring his personal grief following the death of his son. A melancholic yet beautiful masterpiece.

TRACK LISTING

Disc 1:
1. The Spinning Song
2. Bright Horses
3. Waiting For You
4. Night Raid
5. Sun Forest
6. Galleon Ship
7. Ghosteen Speaks
8. Leviathan

Disc 2:
1. Ghosteen
2. Fireflies
3. Hollywood

A. Swayze & The Ghosts are an exhilarating new garage punk band from Hobart, the capital of Tasmania. They are comprised of lead singer Andrew Swayze, alongside high school friends Hendrik Wipprecht (guitar), Zackary Blain (drums) and Ben Simms (bass). ‘Suddenly’ is backed with the epic, 10 minute jamfest known as ‘Reciprocation’.

Tasmania is known around the world as The Island of Inspiration and it’s no secret that the albums that have inspired A.Swayze & The Ghosts came from classic artists such as Iggy & The Stooges, Television, Fugazi, The Ramones and Australia’s kings of punk The Saints. Elements of these masterful artists from an early era can be found in the band’s DNA and have allowed them to grow into their own world, to create their own scene, on an island that also has much deep and meaningful history with potential to have some new rock & roll history too.

TRACK LISTING

Suddenly
Reciprocation

This is a record born through time; seasoned and erudite Indie auteur, ex leader of Creation Records favourites The Loft and The Weather Prophets, Pete Astor brings together strands and tributaries in his work over the years, mining timeless guitar pop to frame wry lyrical insights and melodic hooks, making music for today, with a true line from the past and an eye to the future. Having released Spilt Milk (Fortuna Pop!) in 2016 to an overwhelmingly positive response, Astor continues the musical spirit of that album with James Hoare (Ultimate Painting, Proper Ornaments, Veronica Falls) remaining a mainstay on guitar. He is now joined by The Wave Pictures rhythm section of Franic Rozycki on bass and Jonny Helm on drums; Pam Berry of Withered Hand and Black Tambourine contributes vocals. 

The Pattern Forms is a collaborative project between Ed Macfarlane and Edd Gibson of Friendly Fires and Jon Brooks of The Advisory Circle.

Peel Away the Ivy is the culmination of a fruitful collaboration that followed on from a debut single for Ghost Box’s Other Voices series in 2015.

On the surface this is a romantic pop album, but its roots lie in both bands’ shared love of soundtracks and electronic library music of the 70s and 80s.

The artists bring their own distinct sensibilities to the project but find a common ground that conjures up something entirely new to both. A balance of powerful pop hooks and sonic experimentation that masterfully evoke the melancholy of lost summers and lonely outsider reveries.

Heartrending ballads are lifted away on soaring electronics with beautiful pastoral and kosmiche instrumentals forming perfect atmospheric interludes.

Brooks and Macfarlane both have proven track records as outstanding producers and the sound here is, unsurprisingly, breath-taking.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A perfect mix of Jon Brooks' impeccably realised library/synth sound and the ethereal echoing vocals of the Ed(d)'s. Triumphant arpeggios and silky saw basses are injected with beautiful pad sweeps and delightfully neon synth solos. Melodic and thoughtful, resplendent with shine and exhibiting a how-to in perfect songwriting, this is a dreamy and breathtaking synth-pop masterpiece.

TRACK LISTING

1. Peel Away The Ivy
2. Black Rain
3. Don't Let Me Dream
4. A Simple Walk
5. Daylight
6. Sparrowhawk
7. Man And Machine
8. Fluchtwege
9. Polymer Dawn
10. First In An Innocent World

We've managed to get our hands on a few copies of this European Tour CD compilation from Santiago, Chile's psyche rockers The Ganjas. 

TRACK LISTING

1 Ghost River
2 Moonrise
3 Cuadro Desierto
4 Trip In The Eye
5 After Dark
6 Riot Dub
7 Darkside
8 Come-up
9 Sonic Redemption
10 Resistance
11 Frozen Borderline
12 La Lluvia No Quiere Caer
13 Dance Hall
14 100 Ways

To shift shapes, much less become shapeless, the Moondoggies had to change: their line-up, the way they communicated, recorded, and wrote. They would have to push beyond the public pigeonhole of being a bearded band from Seattle singing in harmony to give the breadth of their influences a space in the spotlight. For Adiós I’m a Ghost they drew from a diverse list of musical influences from Pink Floyd to Blonde Redhead, Mississippi John Hurt to Nirvana.

Though they are oft compared to Laurel Canyon crooners or Southern swamp boogiers, Adiós I’m a Ghost is a quintessentially Northwest record. It speaks, with more than words, of tumultuous transformation -- changing pace as often as the weather on a Seattle spring day. Musically and lyrically, it balances light and dark, marrying the boisterous blues of their debut album Don’t Be a Stranger, the symphonic sadness of Tidelands, and a temperamental timbre previously unheard from the band.

Recorded with producer Ryan Hadlock at Bear Creek Studios.

TRACK LISTING

1. I'm A Ghost
2. Red Eye
3. Annie Turn Out The Lights
4. Midnight Owl
5. Pride
6. A Lot To Give
7. Stop Signs
8. Start Me Over
9. One More Chance
10. Back To The Beginning
11. Don't Ask Why
12. Adi's I'm A Ghost

TV Ghost’s third full-length for In The Red, Disconnect is a journey to the center of dreams. The Lafayette, Indiana, band displays a newfound maturity, incorporating churning rhythms and psychedelic drone into a lush torrent of gaseous keys, sprawling guitars and eerie melody. Think Porcupine-era Echo and the Bunnymen and Tago Mago-era Can run through a Cure Pornography blender.

“TV Ghost’s 2009 debut LP, Cold Fish, is a maelstrom—10 hectic songs ripped out in 25 minutes. Stuffed to the seams with wiry guitars, trembling keyboards, crashing beats, and Tim Gick’s mad-man warble, it has the creepy tension of a post-punk haunted house where the Cramps, the Scientists, or Pere Ubu might leap out from the shadows at any moment. The band deftly balances precision and abandon—every moment sounds lunatic and unhinged, yet no track collapses into complete anarchy. “That abandon has subsided a bit on Mass Dream, which doubles the length of its predecessor despite having only one more track. That’s by design—Gick says that his intent was to “space things out more, let the songs breathe.” And while I miss Cold Fish’s farther-flung moments, the band has countered that loss with songs that are deeper and more open. Now, along with all the post-punk echoes rattling around, unexpected reference points pop up. At times I hear the enervated drama of Echo & the Bunnymen’s Ian McCulloch, or the stridency of Ian Svenonius during his Nation of Ulysses days. And TV Ghost prove as adept at stark dread as they are at fevered bedlam....” —Pitchfork.

TRACK LISTING

1. Five Colors Blind
2. Veils
3. Placid Deep
4. Stranger
5. Dread Park
6. Elevator
7. A Maze Of Death
8. Cloud Blue Moments
9. Others Will Be Born
10. Siren

A fascination with taxidermy, a love of Krautrock, and interests ranging from vintage synths to gothic Victoriana - Ghosting Season embody the eccentric and the ethereal. ‘The Very Last Of The Saints’ is the debut album from the Manchester-based duo, aka Gavin Miller and Thomas Ragsdale.

Stepping off the path laid by the great British leftfield tradition (Eno, Aphex, Seefeel, Global Communication, Burial, Lone et al), Ghosting Season fuse elements of ambient techno, musique concrete, IDM and post-rock into the kind of textured soundscapes that have won them much critical acclaim via a handful of releases, remixes (Radiohead, Cloud Control) and their formidable live show (Fields, SXSW and beyond).

Ghosting Season’s sound first emerged as tangents from Gavin and Tom’s previous band project, worriedaboutsatan. While the latter took its cues from the likes of Explosions In The Sky and Mogwai, the pair’s music began to head off into a different direction, one that was informed far more by electronic music, but still incorporated their love of guitars, vocals and found sounds. This new identity bore its first fruit with 2011’s ‘Far End Of The Graveyard EP’.

‘The Very Last Of The Saints’ is a breathtaking debut, moving from beautifully crafted cerebal electronica to tripped out house, glitchy drone collages and more strobe-friendly peaktime techno.

‘The Very Last Of The Saints’ is the first album release on Sasha’s Last Night On Earth label.

TRACK LISTING

CD 1
01. Ghost Drift
02. Far End Of The Graveyard
03. A Muffled Sound Of Voices Feat. Knox
04. Follow Your Eyes Feat. Gregory Hoepffner
05. Lie
06. Through Your Teeth
07. Lost At Sea
08. Time Without Question
09. Pio
10. 13 Feat. Birds Of Passage

CD 2
The Forgotten Saints Mix

‘The Ghost In Daylight’, an evocative and potent alchemy of mournful guitar work and haunting vocals, follows a four year silence from Bristol’s Gravenhurst.

Gravenhurst (aka Nick Talbot) is a respected artist, lyricist, poet and satirist; part of a truly British lineage stretching through Jarvis Cocker, Neil Hannon and Morrissey to name a few. It’s been almost five years since the release of his acclaimed third album ‘The Western Lands’, yet support at media for Gravenhurst has only grown. The album is evocative of a dark and atmospheric place, ever-changing and conjured from disparate ingredients.

Gravenhurst’s roots lie in the melodic noise of My Bloody Valentine, the lush vocal harmonies of Simon & Garfunkel, the alchemical guitars of Richard Thompson and Johnny Marr, and the widescreen ambient visions of Brian Eno.

“Seriously wonderful” - Lauren Laverne, 6Music.

“‘The Ghost In Daylight’ is a wondrous thing” - Quietus.

“It sounds so beautiful” - Laura Snapes, NME.

STAFF COMMENTS

Darryl says: Beautiful and evocative new album from Nick Talbot AKA Gravenhurst on Warp Records. 'The Ghost In Daylight' is an intricate and mournfully atmospheric gem!

Taking their name from the phenomenon of analog television frequency disturbances, Lafayette, Indiana’s "TV Ghost" conjures an especially sludgy and punishing brand of art-punk. They began making a name for themselves in 2007, when their first 7-inch, "Atomic Rain", was released by Die Stasi Records, also home to the noisy likes of Pink Reason and Zola Jesus. TV Ghost's sinister sound - which echoes the Scientists, Suicide and The Cramps’ ’70s output - and frantic live show won them an underground following; a 12-inch EP on Die Stasi, a single on Columbus Discount Records and their debut album, "Cold Fish", followed in 2009 with several rounds of touring the US in support. The band’s trek across Europe in 2010 left a trail of busted gear, annoyed booking agents and new fans behind them.

TV Ghost’s sophomore full-length was recorded by Greg Ashley (Gris Gris), and "Mass Dream" is by far their clearest and most coherent release to date. While sacrificing none of the band’s scuzz-punk dementia, this album is far less dense and impenetrable than its predecessor; Ghost frontman Tim Gick’s lyrics are clearer and his complex song structure a bit easier to get a handle on. That said, this is still blood-boiling, spastic and down right evil music by anyone’s standards. Live, there are few who can match them. Their sets are explosive, destructive and out of control. Gick howls as if his bowels are being extracted through his gluteus, while his eyes roll back in his head and the rest of the band pummels away in noisy ecstasy. Every show they play is psychotic and chaotic perfection. "Mass Dream" is the first time it’s been captured on wax to perfection.

TRACK LISTING

1. Wired Trap
2. Sleep Composite
3. The Winding Stair
4. Cancor
5. An Absurd Laceration
6. The Inheritors
7. Doppleganger
8. Subterfuge
9. The Degradation Of Film
10. Tropes
11. Mass Dream

Karen Elson's transformation from fashion’s favourite redheaded ingénue to beguiling chanteuse has been something of a slow burn. In 2003 she provided vocals for a version of Robert Plant's "Last Time I Saw Her" and in 2006 she recorded an English language version of "Je T’Aime… Moi Non Plus" ("I Love You… Me Neither") with Cat Power for a Serge Gainsbourg tribute album, but her main musical outlet has been as a founding member of New York City cabaret The Citizens Band, a downtown collective of musicians, performers, artists and acrobats whose lively Weimar-esque performances have enjoyed successful theatrical runs of their politically thematic shows.

The 11 original compositions on "The Ghost Who Walks" were all written following Karen Elson’s 2005 relocation from New York City to Nashville. While making her home – and raising two children - in the city of country music, Karen took to writing songs for The Citizens Band and found she had plenty of other melodies in her head. Her and spouse Jack White quickly put a band together: Karen’s cabaret cohort Rachelle Garniez on accordion and vocals, The Dead Weather's Jack Lawrence on bass, My Morning Jacket's Carl Broemel on pedal steel and brother-in-law Jackson Smith on guitar. Jack White took the role of producer and provided drums. Karen added a cover of Garniez's "Lunasa" to the recordings and within a matter of weeks she had an album's worth of material. Two of her more theatrical tracks, "100 Years From Now" and "Mouths To Feed", inspired in part by author Tim Egan’s dust bowl saga "The Worst Hard Time", were originally penned for her cabaret troupe. The rest of the album richly evokes the lonesome feel of country ("Cruel Summer"), the tormented side of the blues ("The Truth Is In The Dirt") and the haunted stories of traditional folk balladry ("Stolen Roses").

Graphic artist Rob Jones took inspiration from Karen’s penchant for peach and black to create gorgeously smoldering album art.

STAFF COMMENTS

Darryl says: A surprisingly excellent album from Jack White's missus, awash with sweet country tinged melodies.

In the six years since the Wu Tang Clan's last LP, Ghostface Killah has been a busy MC, putting out a regular supply of albums, "The Big Doe Rehab" being the latest. Featuring fat beats, tales from the hood lyrics and guest spots from Wu's Raekwon and Method Man, Kid Capri, Ox, Masta Killa, Beanie Sigal and more, this is another solid set from the Clan member.

‘Whiskey For The Holy Ghost’ is the second solo album from Mark Lanegan, originally released in 1994.

The album builds upon the roots-music foundation Lanegan established with his debut ‘The Winding Sheet’.

Released during the grunge explosion of the early 1990s, ‘Whiskey For The Holy Ghost’ showcases Lanegan’s growing maturity as a songwriter and vocalist. Lyrically, Lanegan continues to delve into the darker side of the human experience on songs like ‘Borracho’ and the biblical ‘Pendulum’.

Dan Peters of Mudhoney guests on the album, playing drums on the songs ‘Borracho’ and ‘House A Home’.

TRACK LISTING

The River Rise
Borracho
House A Home
Kingdoms Of Rain
Carnival
Riding The Nightmare
El Sol
Dead On You
Shooting Gallery
Sunrise
Pendulum
Judas Touch
Beggar’s Blues

With influences ranging from Simon and Garfunkel, Jackson C. Frank, The Band, Spirit and Family to Funkadelic and Kraut-rock Findlay has a deep vein to mine for musical inspiration. These solo acoustic songs were recorded in the bedroom of his producer, Simon Lord, formerly the singer with psyche rockers Simian. They illustrate Fin's understanding of the craft of song-writing, an understanding he shares with the likes of David Crosby or Jose Gonzalez. Blessed with a voice that will inevitably melt hearts, Findlay drapes "Losing The Will To Survive" in lush vocal harmonies, reminiscent of a long lost classic. "I Will (Ghost Ship)" is a heart breakingly beautiful and intimate ballad. This is the first release on new label All Good Things, whose philosophy is to release accessible records big on personality, right across the musical genres.

Originally released in 1981, this critically lauded album was the one of the first major label releases to heavily incorporate sample-heavy 'found sounds' and global beats. Lebanese mountain singers, preachers, exorcism ceremonies, Muslim chanting, Egyptian pop and radio talk shows all make an appearance, spread over hypnotic percussive rhythms and layered instrumentation.

Overseen personally by Brian Eno and David Byrne, this new version has been remastered by Greg Calbi at Sterling Sound (Interpol / Kings Of Leon) and features seven previously unreleased bonus tracks of out-takes and ideas from the album's original sessions from 1979 and 1980. The enhanced CD also includes Bruce Conner's film to "Mea Culpa". The packaging differs from all previous Eno reissues – a jewel case within a slipcase, plus very special added extras. The slipcase and artwork have been designed by Peter Buchanan Smith, and 28 pages of sleevenotes have been provided by David Toop and David Byrne.

TRACK LISTING

America Is Waiting 3:36
Mea Culpa 3:35
Regiment 3:56
Help Me Somebody 4:18
The Jezebel Spirit 4:55
Qu'Ran 3:46
Moonlight In Glory 4:19
The Carrier 3:30
A Secret Life 2:30
Come With Us 2:38
Mountain Of Needles 2:35

This debut full length from one of the most important bands in the contemporary hardcore scene. "Background Music"? It's anything but, in fact it's the sort of music that comes right up to you and pokes you in the eye, rips your arm off and clubs you with the bloodied stump. The band changed its name to Give Up The Ghost after the original American Nightmare, a band based outside of Philadelphia, objected to the use of their name and trademark. Wes Eisold has a voice from the primordial slime and Tim Cossar and Brian Masek use their guitars like lethal weapons. Oh boy they're nasty. It's fast-paced, heavy music with throaty vocals and intense, angry lyrics. A blend of traditional hardcore, punk and metal that takes no prisoners and expects no mercy.

Some Records continue their fine pedigree of releasing top quality emo like Hot Water Music with the debut album from young Californians The Ghost. Recorded by Steve Albini combination of emo songwriting and pop sensibility. Loud, urgent and intense. Emocore at it's finest and most creative.

New project from Jeff Kelly, songwriter of cult psych prog outfit Green Pajamas, joined here by new member Laura Weller. Goblin Market continues Jeff's fascination with pre-Raphaelite painters, poets and Victorian writer Christina Rossetti and the music is an inspired blend of acoustic acid folk with winsome prog-psychedelic elements and utilises as lyrics the poetry of Lizzie Siddal, Rossetti and Emily Bronte.

An engaging mix of psychedelia and americana with strong songs and really good vocals by Jeff Kelly. This remastered CD issue has bonus singles and is full of little gems.