The wildly entertaining memoir of the legendary video director, whose work is synonymous with the glory years of MTV - and his long-standing relationships with such icons as David Bowie, Neil Young, Iggy Pop and The CureThe 1980s saw the birth of a new medium that took the world by storm: the pop video. And Tim Pope, a music fanboy-turned-video director, was at the forefront of this wild ride.

Shooting his first performance footage at a concert after smuggling a camera inside his trousers, Tim got his break directing the video for Soft Cell's follow-up to 'Tainted Love'. Work snowballed, and he was soon jetting back and forth across the Atlantic to feed the newly launched engine of MTV, making videos for The Cure, Queen, Talk Talk, Wham!, Hall & Oates, Siouxsie & the Banshees and The Bangles, among others. From dressing Freddie Mercury as a giant Mediterranean prawn to being called a 'funny little arsehole' by David Bowie; hanging out with Neil Young on his family ranch or locking The Cure in a wardrobe and launching it off a cliff, Tim had a front-row seat on the excesses, egos and larger-than-life characters of the era.

Capturing the improvisational mood of a time when directors worked guerrilla-style, money flowed freely and no idea was too wacky to pursue, I Shoot Rock Stars provides a fly-on-the-wall glimpse of an extraordinary cast of personalities, capturing the fizzing energy of this unique creative moment. More than anything, it's the hilarious and frequently moving story of a music-mad kid who ended up working with his heroes, and who here chronicles his - and his industry's - creative triumphs and follies in riotous style.

It’s the summer of 1996, and Andy is stuck in a dead-end admin job at a Soho picture library. His dreams of becoming an indie rockstar are over, but luckily, he’s found the Next Big Thing through promoting gigs in Camden: a Norwegian three-piece who sound like ABBA meets Nirvana. Plan B is simple, live the dream vicariously by managing them.

And when a record company shows interest, a door opens into an exciting new world. The only things standing in his way are a total lack of music industry know-how and his scary boss at work, who disapproves of his extracurricular activities. However, as the clock ticks towards his 30th birthday, success proves elusive.

Everyone else seems to be making it, rival bands, ex-bandmates, his old band manager, even the record shop where he once worked has become famous. Andy fears he’ll never escape the day job to live his daydream. But he also knows that in music, there’s always tomorrow.

Comedian Stewart Lee and director Michael Cumming (Brass Eye, Toast Of London) investigate a missing piece of punk history. Robert Lloyd, best known for fronting cult Birmingham bands The Prefects and The Nightingales, has survived under the radar for over four decades. But how, if at all, does Robert want to be remembered? The anti-rockumentary ‘King Rocker’ weaves the story of Birmingham’s undervalued underdog autodidact into that of the city’s forgotten public sculpture of King Kong, eschewing the celebrity interview and archive-raid approach for a free-associating bricolage of Indian food, bewildered chefs, vegetable gardening, prescription medicines, pop stardom and pop art. All of the highlights from the film are here, along with rarities which won’t appear on any of the deluxe reissues of the Nightingales’ catalogue, among them 7″ versions of “Use Your Loaf”, the Bob Luman hit “Let’s Think About Living” and “Black Country”, a glam remix of crowd favourite “Thick And Thin” and a version of Christy & Emily’s “Ghost” which rivals the Nightingales’ take on TLC’s “Unpretty” for sheer beauty. The only act with roots in the punk era that have gone on to make records more captivating, cutting and entertaining today than at any point in their past; 2022 will be a busy year for the Nightingales, with months of live dates planned, a limited edition remix 12″, deluxe reissues of both ‘Hysterics’ and ‘In The Good Old Country Way’, and a hardcover book collecting Robert’s lyrics.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A selection of brilliant Nightingales rarities and pieces from the film of the same name, written about Robert Lloyd of The Nightingales and The Prefects. A wonderful audio document in it's own right, and a perfect companion to a very funny film.

TRACK LISTING

A1 Use Your Loaf (7” Version)
A2 Surplus And Scarcity (Live)
A3 What A Carry On
A4 Let's Think About Living (7” Version)
A5 Black Country (7” Version)
A6 Ghost
B1 Born Again In Birmingham
B2 Overreactor
B3 Thick And Thin (Glam Version)
B4 Chaff
B5 The Desperate Quartet
B6 Gales Doc

The definitive story of the slackers and shoegazers who reinvented rock.

Twenty years after his acclaimed postpunk best-seller, Rip It Up and Start Again, Simon Reynolds tells the tale of what happened next: the underground explosion of noisepop, shoegaze, slacker rock and grunge that reverberated through the late Eighties into the early Nineties.

Capturing the musical exhilaration of the era along with the alienation of youth during a period of ascendant conservative politics and glitzy mainstream pop, Still in a Dream celebrates a golden age of guitar reinvention, a second psychedelia of mind-blowing sounds pioneered by bands like My Bloody Valentine and Sonic Youth. In Britain, groups like Cocteau Twins and Slowdive escaped into shimmering dreamworlds while American underground rockers like Dinosaur Jr. and Pavement blended apathy and urgency into thrilling noise.

A propulsive and personal account from a journalist who covered this music in real time from the frontlines, Still in a Dream vividly recreates a period that was the last blast for the analogue culture of vinyl records and music papers, before the Internet changed everything.

Reissued with a new Foreword as part of White Rabbit's prestigious Deep Cuts series, William S. Burroughs and the Cult of Rock 'n' Roll tells the story of a man Patti Smith described as 'up there with the pope' through the prism of his impact on pop music.

William S. Burroughs's fiction and essays are legendary, but his influence on music's counterculture has been less well documented - until now. Examining how one of America's most controversial literary figures altered the destinies of many notable and varied musicians, William S.

Burroughs and the Cult of Rock 'n' Roll reveals the transformations in music history that followed in his wake. 'Casey Rae's book is a labour of love that offers a map to understanding Burroughs' complex relationship to music and other art forms' CHRIS STEIN, co-founder of BLONDIE

Rock ‘n' Roll with the Modern Lovers is the second album released as Jonathan Richman and The Modern Lovers. The band, which is built around singer-songwriter and guitarist Jonathan Richman, almost totally focuses on the sound from the ‘50s. The lo-fi record breathes folky roots music and rock ‘n roll as it would sound ages ago. “Ice Cream Man”, “Egyptian Reggae” (earning them a UK Top 5 hit) and “Roller Coaster by the Sea” are all superb songs, uncomplicated and wonderful. This is one of the most remarkable projects recorded by Jonathan.

The Modern Lovers were formed in 1970 by teenage singer, songwriter, guitarist Jonathan Richman, augmented with Jerry Harrison (keyboards), Ernie Brooks (bass) and David Robinson (drums), with Richman’s friend and original band member John Felice joining them occasionally.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. The Sweeping Wind (Kwa Ti Feng)
2. Ice Cream Man
3. Rockin’ Rockin’ Leprechauns
4. Summer Morning
5. Afternoon
6. Fly Into The Mystery

Side B
1. South American Folk Song
2. Roller Coaster By The Sea
3. Dodge Veg-O-Matic
4. Egyptian Reggae
5. Coomyah
6. The Wheels On The Bus
7. Angels Watching Over Me

Beginning his career as a club DJ and disco producer in the early-70s in his native Boston, Arthur Baker moved to New York City in 1981 and in the summer of 1982 produced one of the genre-defining early hip-hop tracks "Planet Rock" by Afrika Bambaataa and Soulsonic Force. This began an illustrious career that has seen him work with artists including Bruce Springsteen, Diana Ross, the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Al Green, Pet Shop Boys, Quincy Jones, New Order, New Edition, Hall & Oates, Neneh Cherry and Damon Albarn. Looking for the Perfect Beat will tell Arthur's unique and inspiring story in his own words and features unheard stories about many of the world's best and most successful musicial figures, which together form a portrait of a man who has been quietly influencing the sound of popular music for over fifty years.

What's the point of the howl of string to speaker, the hammering of stick-on skin? Is it transcendence, elevating the human spirit by catharsis in sound? Or is it summoning chaos, a purgatory in which to bask in all that’s unclean, the better to feel alive?

Why not both? Because that’s what’s on offer on 'Diet Of Worms', the second Rocket release by The Shits, Leeds via Newcastle’s titans of disgust and deliverance. This is a feast for the senses in the worst way possible - primal rock boiled down to its essence and flung full in your face. Using repetition, tortured vocal invective and heads-down intensity as blunt instruments, these eight tracks are an unprecedented torrent of acidic salvation. Whilst lurking somewhere on the decadence-destruction axis between the nihilism of prime Stooges and the bloody blackout of Braimbombs, 'Diet Of Worms' is possessed of a legitimately uncompromising hostility that both elevates and debases it to co-ordinates unknown.

There are revelations here in the riffage and the rancour, even if they are the kind that occur in the bleary miasma of the lock-in, or witnessing the streetlight blur of the subsequent stagger home. Even more single-minded and remorseless than the band’s Rocket debut ‘You’re A Mess’, this is a record that demands full immersion. Whether it’s ‘Then You’re Dead’ hammering on a pulverising garage-stinking riff until it begs for mercy, or ‘Change My Ways’, whose Creedence-In-Hell swagger and lurch is that of abjection transmuted into joy, this is psychedelia forcibly removed from its comfort zone of pastiche, and thrust into a bad-trip realm of the vivid and nightmarish.

But rarely has the process of making beauty and horror indivisible seemed like so much fun. If Werner Herzog was right, and the only harmony in the universe is that of overwhelming and collective murder, then The Shits are the true music of the spheres.

TRACK LISTING

1. In A Hell
2. Tarrare
3. Then You're Dead
4. Change My Ways
5. Joyless Satisfaction
6. Diet Of Worms
7. Thank You For Being A Friend
8. Three O'Clock In The Morning

Beloved Scottish band The Twilight Sad make their long-awaited return with 'IT’S THE LONG GOODBYE', their sixth studio album released via Rock Action Records. 'IT’S THE LONG GOODBYE' is a cogent story of loss and personal crisis, rooted in specific experience. Set to urgent and guitar-rich arrangements from Andy MacFarlane, with James Graham’s distinct, raw and impassioned vocals, the result is a pinnacle for THE TWILIGHT SAD in a career of tremendous integrity and artistry, and a record that honours the band’s ability to turn lived experience into fully felt music.

Including the blistering single 'WAITING FOR THE PHONE CALL' and featuring the legendary Robert Smith of The Cure, 'IT’S THE LONG GOODBYE' was recorded in London’s Battery Studios with Andy Savours (My Bloody Valentine) and mixed by Chris Coady (Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Slowdive, DIIV).

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: An unbelievably candid but sonically incendiary new album from The Twilight Sad, sitting comfortably in the top echelons of their most effective sonic statements. Boldly moving through electronica, post-punk and easily delivering one of their greatest outings to date.

TRACK LISTING

1. GET AWAY FROM IT ALL
2. DESIGNED TO LOSE
3. ATTEMPT A CRASH LANDING - THEME
4. WAITING FOR THE PHONE CALL
5. THE CEILING UNDERGROUND
6. DEAD FLOWERS
7. INHOSPITABLE/HOSPITAL
8. CHEST WOUND TO THE CHEST
9. BACK TO FOURTEEN
10. TV PEOPLE STILL THROWING TVS AT PEOPLE

Long out of print 1994 EP 'The Real Janelle' repress by Bratmobile, with their Peel Session also tagged on!

TRACK LISTING

1. The Real Janelle
2. Brat Girl
3. Yeah, Huh?
4. Die
5. And I Live In A Town Where The Boys Amputate Their Hearts
6. Where Eagles Dare
7. There's No Other Way / No You Don't
8. Bitch Theme
9. Make Me Miss America
10. Panik

Thanks to a thrown beer bottle and a fan letter to a P.O. box, Melissa Auf der Maur's first band scored an opening slot for the Smashing Pumpkins in her bohemian home town, Montreal. Sensing Melissa's talent, Billy Corgan recommended her to Courtney Love.

Whisked from her local scene, Melissa joined Hole just after the deaths of Kurt Cobain and Hole's prior bassist, Kristen Pfaff, with the just-widowed Courtney Love at the centre of it all. That was only the beginning of Melissa's journey through alternative rock, a trip she undertook alongside 90s luminaries including Rufus Wainwright, Michael Stipe and her former boyfriend, Dave Grohl. Even the Good Girls Will Cry is a vivid dispatch from the last analogue decade, capturing that bygone era in all its messy, angsty glory.

The Dream Machine is back with their third studio album, 'Fort Perch Rock', following a successful few years of UK shows, multiple BBC 6 Music airplays (including a feature on Maida Vale with Steve Lamacq), and festival appearances at Kendal Calling, The Great Escape, and Sound City.

This Wirral five-piece has established itself as one of the most exciting new acts in the northern guitar music scene. Often compared to bands like King Gizzard, their live shows are chaotic, euphoric, and impossible to ignore. They have supported The Coral and The Lathums and gained recognition from Radio X and BBC Introducing.

'Fort Perch Rock' marks a new but familiar chapter for the band. The album is bold, cinematic, and deeply rooted in their origins. Named after the iconic New Brighton landmark, it serves as a gritty love letter to seaside life, brimming with raw emotion and fuzz-soaked guitars.

The Dream Machine is not just following trends, they are forging their own path, and it leads to 'Fort Perch Rock'.

TRACK LISTING

1. Fort Perch Rock
2. Flowers On The Razorwire
3. Things That Make Us Cry
4. Angel Heart
5. If I Could Be King
6. Duck Bone Fever
7. I Had A Friend
8. Joe
9. Julie On The Rocks
10. Night Owls
11. The First Bird
12. Best Days Of Our Lives

Produced and mixed by Roger Rivas (The Aggrolites), 'Home For Dinner' finds saxophonist David Hillyard and his genre-blurring Rocksteady 7 in peak form. The album blends ska, jazz, Afro-Cuban, and reggae influences with an all-star lineup including percussion legend Larry McDonald, vocalists Chris Murray and B Negão, and members of The Slackers and The Aggrolites. From hard-grooving originals to inventive takes on 'Ca Purange', 'Mack the Knife', and 'Jackpot', 'Home For Dinner' is a masterclass in groove, melody, and cultural fusion.

TRACK LISTING

1. This Day (Soul Of Africa)
2. Home For Dinner
3. Grazing In The Grass
4. Until Then
5. Jackpot
6. Let’s Get Lost
7. Ca Purange
8. Death In The Arena
9. Jazz Ska
10. Humungous Blues
11. Tenha Fe
12. Mack The Knife
13. Do It Good

Two killer tunes from The Soul Vendors. Absolutely seminal foundation groundbreaking late 1960s reggae cuts from Studio One.

The Soul Vendors (and their other incarnations as The Sound Dimension and Soul Bros) established the sound of reggae, their tracks replayed and sampled many times over throughout the 1970s, 80s, 90s and beyond.

‘Swing Easy’ and ‘Ringo Rock’ are two of The Soul Vendors’ toughest cuts, freshly pressed on this new 45.

TRACK LISTING

1. Swing Easy
2. Ringo Rock

The life of a psychonaut can take one to many plateaus of reality. Opinions vary as regards which of these are either desirable or optimal. All things considered though, it’s fair to say that once the average cerebral wanderer finds themselves a stoned skeleton on a motorbike, it’s a sign that they’re going places. Such were the movements of The Utopia Strong, in making their third and arguably trippiest full length album for Rocket Recordings. As the band explain: “When recording we tend to have books, bits of art and interesting things lying around the place. (Kavus) had recently bought the Paul Kirchner compendium, Awaiting The Collapse.” Paul’s character ‘Dope Rider’ (the skeleton in question) drives around the desert, getting into all manner of high jinx and spouting cosmic philosophy, highlighting the absurdities of life, death and the American mythos. “When we had created that particular track, one of our most beautiful and outré, it seemed to name itself.” Serendipity has always played a strong role in The Utopia Strong, with the improvisatory approach of Steve Davis, Kavus Torabiand Mike York - as well as the innate chemistry between the trio allowing them to evolve their approach to facilitate the most adventurous exploratory missions possible. In this realm, the band’s formidable history is transcended and usurped by their combined psychic intensity. 'Doperider' does indeed take the band down a variety of auditory pathways previously unexplored, and further into the realms of more surrealistic visions akin to the systems-built bliss of Caterina Barbieri, the unforgiving noisescapes of Hiro Kone or the alien soundtracks of latter-day Laurie Spiegel. Essentially however, the mission of The Utopia Strong remains intact - to offer a transformative pathway to wonders anew. As Steve notes: “Hopefully we’ve done justice to the comic book character Dope Rider and that he’d have loved riding along on his Harley Davison on another quest, with the wind blowing through his rib cage, listening to this album. if the audience choose the psychonaut road, then we are delighted to have been of service”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Love a bit of Utopia Strong, Steve came into the shop one time and we had a nice chat about modular synths like nerds (we had the same oscillator dealer - thanks Matt), and I was pretty excited about their burgeoning music even then. It's come a LONG way, growing in scope and familiarity, and we now get the deepest mix of Bureau B thump and boundary-melting psychedelic rave you ever did hear. A superb, chaotic behemoth.

TRACK LISTING

1. Prophecy
2. Spell Of Seven
3. Moths Of The British Isles
4. The Atavist
5. Unity Of Light
6. Harpies
7. Doperider

For Aesop Rock, the phrase “I heard it’s a mess there too” started out as a lyric, but it didn’t take long for that line to get its hooks into him. It felt familiar, like a line he’d said a thousand times in recent years while checking in with friends across different cities, swapping stories about where each other are, and what’s going on there. The more he sat with the phrase, the more it started to feel like the center of something bigger. 'I Heard It’s A Mess There Too' lives at the intersection of two personal urges for Aesop: the need to venture out and document your surroundings, and the desire to stay connected—especially when things feel uncertain.

Musically, Aesop Rock explores some new territory on the album. “I’d been building tracks the same way for many years,” he says, “but I made a conscious shift in my process here. I tried out some new tools and attempted to make my beats cleaner, more minimal. The drums are more stripped back, the bass lines are allowed to just sit, without layering ten things on top. I didn’t want the beat and the vocals competing for attention—I just wanted enough to get a wave rolling and not much more, just setting a mood I could move to.” These twelve songs mark different stops along that path of tinkering and looking for something new.

TRACK LISTING

1. Crystal And Herbs
2. The Cut
3. Full House Pinball
4. Bag Lunch
5. Spin To Win
6. Opossum
7. Oh My Stars
8. Potato Leek Soup
9. Pay The Man
10. Poly Cotton Blend
11. Call Home
12. Sherbert

Joe Banks’ Rock and Role is the definitive biography of Peter Hammill (leader of Van der Graaf Generator, and one of the most unique solo artists in rock). Coming in at over 500 pages, and illustrated with hundreds of images - many rare and previously unseen - Rock and Role is both a highly accessible biography and a serious critical appreciation of one of rock’s genuine visionaries, providing an in-depth look at PH's music and lyrics, investigating the ideas behind his songs, and presenting a portrait of Hammill as both artist and man. 

THIS IS A BLACK FRIDAY 2025 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON FRIDAY NOVEMBER 28th FROM 10AM ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

IF THERE ARE ANY REMAINING COPIES THEY WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE ONLINE AT 8AM ON SATURDAY NOVEMBER 29th).

Out of print 1994 EP 'The Real Janelle' b/w the first vinyl release of Bratmobile's 'Peel Session'. This is a 2025 Black Friday Record Store Day release.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Real Janelle
2. Brat Girl
3. Yeah, Huh?
4. Die
5. And I Live In A Town Where The Boys Amputate Their Hearts
6. Where Eagles Dare
7. There's No Other Way / No You Don't
8. Bitch Theme
9. Make Me Miss America
10. Panik

A blazing sunset melting into the horizon, an ice-cold cocktail in hand, and the bittersweet feeling of a moment hanging in time. With Love On The Rocks, I Coccodrilli take us on an emotional journey that drifts between nostalgia and euphoria, lazy golden afternoons and bursts of unexpected joy. A '90s-inspired Italo house project produced by R. Arcella and E. Fierro for the catalog of Futuribile, an iconic record store based in Naples and a true hub for local and Italian music. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Timeless beauty from Bel Paese! Everyone knows Italians do it better, proof hammered home here by I Coccodrillli who authentically replicate the feels of the 90s with a double headed 7" that'll get more spins than Mr. Vegas. Sleep at your peril!!

TRACK LISTING

A1. Love On The Rocks (Vocal)
B1. Love On The Rocks (Paradise Mix)

The taxidermy parrot had been a constant presence, there on the mantelpiece in Mike Bourne’s childhood home for as long as anyone could remember. No one was quite sure where it had come from – an heirloom? A chance find from an antique shop? All that seemed clear was that over time it had assumed mystical significance, watching calmly over everything that ensued. Following a troubled – and by some accounts haunted – sojourn in a museum, Mike became the ultimate owner of this parrot. There once again it sat, in his room and overlooking his home studio, as he sculpted music that took on unforeseen new dimensions. He pursued these uncanny vibrations right through to the creation of Bruise Blood’s debut 'You Run Through This World Like An Open Razor'.

The consequence is an album very much driven by supernatural forces – spectral influence moving through machine form to summon grandeur and abjection both. Whilst Bourne’s work with Teeth Of The Sea might give dystopian signposts to some, the soundscapes and explorations here – channelling techno, industrial, post-punk, minimalism and beyond – function to sculpt one singular vision. Recorded and mixed by Bourne himself and mastered by Amir Shoat (Dean Blunt, Klein, John T.Gast) it’s an audial realm as redolent of the disorientating world of a Harlan Ellison short story as bathing in the relentless strobe light of a 3AM dancefloor epiphany. Perhaps Bruise Blood’s vibrant, excoriating debut is the sound of humanity moving with slow inevitability towards darker times, alchemically transmuted into cinematic serendipity and beauty. Perhaps it’s merely the inspired work of one man, driven by forces he doesn’t entirely understand.

Perhaps only the parrot - the spirit animal still standing sentinel as we embark on an uncertain new aeon – really knows.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Pressure
2. Cede
3. You're In Control
4. Mindseye
5. Until The Sun Breaks Down
6. Oh But You Can, Oh But You Will
7. You Run Through The World Like An Open Razor
8. Glass Nine

In the world of Smote, going further out means going inward. Less a metaphysical journey into inner space, more a physical journey into the ground itself, converging with its roots and vibrations. Forged from repetition and mantric intensity and possessed of formidable psychic fortitude, Songs from the Free House - their fifth release for Rocket Recordings - proves that the only retro-chic Smote indulge in is liable to go back several centuries. The megalithic monomania of last year's A Grand Stream set a formidable precedent, and Smote's live shows in its wake have gradually built a reputation as visionary seers building audial monuments by cranked amplification and atmospheric intensity alike. Yet these five gnostic serenades offer portals and paradigms anew.

In terms of locating this album in place, this new foray also differs from Smote's past work in terms of its recording - although once again chief architect Daniel Foggin played and sang almost everything on this record (bar guest appearances from Sally Mason of the Smote live band on vocals and Ian Lynch from Lankum on Uillean pipes) his recording Songs From The Free House in Blank Studios with Sam Grant (Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs) marked a journey from the DIY minimal approach of yore into more widescreen visions without compromising the singular intent within.

Wrought from the earth, transposed to the ether, and now shared with the world at large, this album marks a transcendental journey where Smote render ancient and modern indivisible. Just as traditional music is passed down through generations, Songs From The Free House is where the primal collides with the eternal.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Cottar
2. The Linton Wyrm
3. Snodgerss
4. Chamber
5. Wynne

Bobby Caldwell may be best known for his timeless hit 'What You Won't Do For Love' but he has also penned a ton of other tunes that are just as great. Edit king Danny Krivit knows that and now shines a light on some of the hidden corners of the American's discography with a twist of Caldwell's first single, 'The House Is Rockin'. Opening with an extended, DJ-friendly drum break, Krivit stretches the track into the breezy, sunlit groover it always hinted at being and on the flip, he reworks Eddy Grant's 'California Style', teasing out its pre-house vibes and zeroing in on the bubbling synths and hypnotic bassline while trimming the vocals. As always with Mr K, these are both essential edits.

TRACK LISTING

The House Is Rockin
California Style (Part 2)

Formed in the early 1980s, Primal Scream paid their indie rock dues and experimented with their sound for almost a decade before finding their feet with the era-defining dance/rock hybrid 'Screamadelica' album.

It spawned their first hit singles, ‘Loaded’, ‘Come Together’ and ‘Movin’ On Up’, after which they became a chart regulars for over a decade.

This carefully curated 17-track collection, first issued in 2019, covers their fascinating journey from 1986 to 2000, taking in their most successful period but also detailing the evolution of their sound before they broke into the mainstream.

TRACK LISTING

1. Velocity Girl
2. Gentle Tuesday
3. Imperial
4. Ivy Ivy Ivy
5. Loaded
6. Come Together
7. Higher Than The Sun
8. Don't Fight It, Feel It
9. Movin' On Up
10. Rocks
11. Jailbird
12. (I'm Gonna) Cry Myself Blind
13. Kowalski
14. Star
15. Burning Wheel
16. Swastika Eyes
17. Kill All Hippies

On the 50th anniversary of Talking Heads, acclaimed music biographer Jonathan Gould presents the long-overdue, definitive story of this singular band, capturing the gritty energy of 1970s New York City and showing how a group of art students brought fringe culture to rock’s mainstream, forever changing the look and sound of popular music. “Psycho Killer.” “Take Me to the River.” “Road to Nowhere.” Few musical artists have had the lasting impact and relevance of Talking Heads. One of the foundational bands of New York’s downtown 1970s music scene, Talking Heads have endured as a musical and cultural force for decades. Their unique brand of transcendent, experimental rock remains a lingering influence on popular music—despite their having disbanded over thirty years ago. Now New Yorker contributor Jonathan Gould offers an authoritative, deeply researched account of a band whose sound, fame, and legacy forever connected rock music to the cultural avant-garde.

From their art school origins to the enigmatic charisma of David Byrne and the internal tensions that ultimately broke them apart, Gould tells the story of a group that emerged when rock music was still young and went on to redefine the prevailing expectations of how a band could sound, look, and act. At a time when guitar solos, lead-singer swagger, and sweaty stadium tours reigned supreme, Talking Heads were precocious, awkward, quirky, and utterly distinctive when they first appeared on the ragged stages of the East Village. Yet they would soon mature into one of the most accomplished and uncompromising recording and performing acts of their era. More than just a biography of a band, Gould masterfully captures the singular time and place that incubated and nurtured this original music: downtown New York in the 1970s, that much romanticized, little understood milieu where art, music, and commerce collided in the urban dystopia of Lower Manhattan.

What emerges is an expansive portrait of a unique cultural moment and an iconoclastic band that shifted the paradigm of popular music by burning down the house of mainstream rock.

'In Liverpool everybody wanted to be in a band. On every street corner and in every cellar there were young fellas practising with guitars. But it was rare to see any girls on the new Merseybeat scene.

It was inevitable that we would find each other . . .'In the early '60s, four friends from Liverpool formed a band.

But this is not the 'fab four' story we know. Mary, Sylvia, Valerie and Pamela - also known as The Liverbirds - were one of the world's first all-female rock'n'roll bands. At an early gig, backstage at the Cavern Club, a young John Lennon told them that 'girls don't play guitars'.

But they took that as a challenge. Despite the early scepticism, they won over tough crowds, toured stadiums, recorded two hit albums, and played with the Kinks, Rolling Stones and Chuck Berry - all in the space of just five years. Now, the two surviving members of the band tell their incredible story in full for the first time - capturing a lost era of liberation and rock'n'roll, as they thrived in the vibrant Merseybeat music scene and formed a friendship that has endured through the decades.

The reinterpreted traditional folk songs that make up Cold Blows The Rain are shaped by the land and the weather. Wrapped in mist and drizzle, the crawling drone of low heavy clouds on flat-top moors. The sound of the dark Calder Valley floor and sun starved hills in West Yorkshire in the North of England.

A must for fans of Karen Dalton, ØXN, Shirley Collins and Lisa O'Neill - it's found a home on local Todmorden label Basin Rock (Jim Ghedi, Myriam Gendron, Michael Chapman, Juni Habel, Trevor Beales).

In Todmorden, the oddly-named market border town in West Yorkshire with a habit for embracing the weird and wonderful, a burst of sunshine is a precious thing. Through the thick of Winter, through every season in fact, the town’s folk are used to the wind and rain, fog and mist. As much a part of the town as the trademark deep valley it sits in, here the lay of the land invites the weather in, just as it does the many musicians, artists, and unique characters that have come to call the place home over the centuries.
Bridget Hayden is one such soul who found a home among these hills. The experimental musician, who invites the ghosts in for the classic folk songs that make up her stunning new album, knows only too well about such weather, how rare and treasured the breaks from it are. Her favourite thing to do in the valley, she says, is “to make the most of every tiny minute of sunshine.”

Such aspirations nearly derailed the recording of Cold Blows the Rain, her new eight-song collection released via the Todmorden- based label Basin Rock. Having hired the town’s Oddfellow’s Hall to record these new songs in the late summer of 2022, Hayden says the weather was so good she ended up basking in every second of it, only moving inside to begin recording when the sun was setting, working deep into the night to make up the time.
There’s a good chance, however, that it had to be this way. The songs that make up Cold Blows the Rain are not made for the sunlight. They come, instead, wrapped in mist and coated with drizzle, those elements shaping the album as much as the voice and the instruments held within, as real but ambiguous as the ghosts that linger in the shadows. The sound of the dark valley floor.

Mostly centred around meditative and experimental improvisation, Bridget’s work to-date has seen her spend more than two decades recording and performing on the underground music scene. She’s also toured internationally both as a solo artist and as part of bands such as Schisms and The Telescopes, while working on various side-projects with the likes of Folklore Tapes.

For all of this sonic exploration, so much of her work has been formed around elements of traditional folk aesthetics and, over time, she began to piece together a collection of reinterpreted traditional songs that she absorbed as a child from her mother: through The Dubliners and Muddy Waters, to Bessie Smith and The Leadbelly Songbook. Harvesting her love for Nina Simone, Karen Dalton, Margaret Barry, and more, Bridget takes these traditional songs and transforms them into something uniquely evocative
"It goes back to the womb,” Bridget says of that connection. “I would not call it a memory as it is so deep within my blood and bones. My mum was the source, she sang all the time, as part of life. So it was a very lulling and natural introduction. It seemed common to hear her singing – unbeknownst to her – in time with a raindrop dripping at the window,” Bridget continues. “I’ve always wanted to do a folk record as I love these songs so much. It comes much more naturally to me to sing other people’s words, especially when they’re as beautiful as these old verses.”

Underpinned by waves of analogue reverb, and led by Bridget’s stirring and weather-beaten voice, the songs on Cold Blows the Rain drift and crawl like low heavy clouds on flat-top hills, shaped by the land. The backdrop is equally as arresting, all subtle gloom cast in shadow, a gentle but pronounced swirling of textures, crafted from harmonium and violin courtesy of The Apparitions (Sam Mcloughlin and Dan Bridgewood-Hill).
“The weather speaks the most eloquently about human loss,” Bridget says, articulating such sentiments. “It’s good to feel enveloped by something so much vaster than ourselves. The rain and the tears all become one.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Beautifully affecting folk songs, adorned with gorgeous strings and intense, ethereal vocals from Hayden. Brittle, unhurried compositions that slowly bloom and grow, moving gradually from the dark into blinding, bright light and back again.

TRACK LISTING

1 Factory Girl
2 Are You Going To Leave Me?
3 Blackwater Side
4 She Moved Through The Fayre
5 When I Was In My Prime
6 Lovely On The Water
7 Red Rocking Chair
8 The Unquiet Grave

The 25 songs presented in 'Roots Rocking Zimbabwe - The Modern Sound of Harare' Townships 1975-1980' showcase the birth of the modern music industry in Zimbabwe and the explosion of creativity bands of the 1970s and 80s endlessly delivered.

It was a time of wild experimentation before established genres had crystallised. Rock, rumba, soul and traditional grooves all collide beautifully in this collection, which also includes never before released tracks by Thomas Mapfumo, Oliver Mtukudzi and many other Zimbabwean artists!

TRACK LISTING

1. Chiiko Chinotinetsa
2. Amai A Kwatu
3. Soweto Mujibha
4. Soul Scene
5. Anoshereketa
6. Nyaya Dzinonetsa
7. Hangaiwa
8. The Towering Inferno
9. Joburg Bound
10. Nyamutamba Naziwere
11. Engelina
12. Funky Reggae
13. Introduction
14. Yarira
15. Baby Please
16. Chistiuiti
17. Kwakaenda
18. No Delay
19. Kumalila Ngwenya
20. Shanga Yangu
21. Give It
22. Musikana
23. Taj Mahal
24. Viva Zimbabwe
25. Porter

The Moonlandingz have returned, seven long years after their debut. When they first emerged from Valhalla Dale they were a semi-fictional band bringing us sticky squelchy pop songs to offer solace and punishment in the months following the Brexit vote and Trump’s first victory. Adrian Flanagan, Dean Honer and Lias Saoudi aka The Moonlandingz conspired with Yoko Ono, Rebecca Taylor, Phil Oakey and the Cowboy from The Village People to make one of the great albums of 2017, and we needed it. Interplanetary Class Classics was a dose of unreality equal to the unhinged times we were stumbling into.

The Moonlandingz have finally returned – not when we wanted them but now that we need them – galloping in on their four horses, bareback and howling, with their eagerly awaited forthcoming album No Rocket Required.

No Rocket Required delivers brassy squawks, motorik convulsions and sinister soothing vocals from a righteous line-up of guest singers and ranters: Nadine Shah, Iggy Pop, Jessica Winter and Ewen Bremner. Plus, of course, there’s The Moonlandingz’ own front man, Johnny Rocket aka Lias Saoudi, who has the wobbly-horny voice of R Whites’ secret lemonade drinker on Give Me More and then becomes basically Kris Kristofferson of the Pennines in the middle of epic Krack Drought Suite, imparting gnomic sawdust saloon wisdom from a barstool in Huddersfield. Mostly though he’s the man we know from Fat White Family with gravelly crooning (to especially great effect in Roustabout, his duet with Nadine Shah) and camp Working Men’s Club lead singer, Syd Minsky-Sargeant.

What to do, as we potter and fret, as we watch bodies, homes and lives destroyed every day while our elected leaders, so forensic and so sensible, use their weasel words, shrug their coward shoulders and saunter off to raise our bus fares. Dancing of course and togetherness, looking out for each other, and that’s not enough. What kind of fight are we bringing? We will always need to organise, to fight, to collaborate, to connect and to dance dance dance. And that is what The Moonlandingz do.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: More theatrical, athletic psychedelia from The Moonlandingz here, chanelling the spirit of 50's lounge jazz and woozy electronica into a camp and magnificently evocative whole. Brilliantly weird, but unsurprisingly brilliant.

TRACK LISTING

1 Some People's Music
2 The Sign Of A Man
3 Roustabout
4 The Insects Have Been Shat On
5 It's Where I'm From
6 All Out Of Pop
7 Yama Yama
8 Give Me More
9 Stink Foot
10 The Krack Drought Suite (Pts 1-3)

Queer musicians have long mined beauty from the darkest of seams – and today's artists are taking that treasure and using it to make magic. In Small Town Joy, trans writer, musician and broadcaster Carrie Marshall discovers the sometimes surprising ways LGBTQ+ artists changed Scotland's soundtrack, meeting Scots artists, industry insiders and music fans to celebrate the music and musicians that filled floors, opened minds and changed lives. Featuring interviews with Shirley Manson (Garbage), Lauren Mayberry (CHVRCHES), Sean Dickson (HIFI Sean), Maya Evan MacGregor and many more.

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2025 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON SATURDAY APRIL 12TH ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

IF THERE ARE ANY REMAINING COPIES THEY WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE ONLINE AT 8PM ON MONDAY APRIL 14th.

Playing their first gig supporting Goat at what was only the latter’s second ever show, the band have gigged relentlessly with kindred spirits including The Cosmic Dead and Luminous Bodies, not to mention gracing festivals like Supernormal and Portugal’s Reverence with their feral attack. Yet the time has come for this band to transcend the realm of word-of-mouth phenomenon and be judged on their feverish and demented collision of psych-drone dementia and riff-driven salvation alone.

The inarguable proof is Feed The Rats, the overwhelming first album the band have created for - equal parts righteous repetition, bludgeoning brute force and Sabbathian squalor, its alchemical charge has the power to transform bleary-eyed abandon into small-hours revelation. This three-track, forty-minute monument of chaotic catharsis captures the everythingon-eleven spirit of the band’s live manifestation whilst adding a level of finesse and texture often less easily accessible in a dangerous haze of flying hair, discarded clothes and spilt premium lager. Channeling the grimy trip hazards of Monster Magnet’s ‘Spine Of God’ through a prism of kraut-derived repetition and Part Chimp style bloody mindedness, the resulting hallucinatory vortex appears constantly on the realm of breaking point. Yet for Baty, the porcine realm is less about a nihilistic quest for fiery oblivion than one might imagine.

“You know, I think we’ve experienced it, many times. It’s those gigs where we can almost sense that everyone in the room is engaged. The energy created is so thick you can almost bite down on it and it feels like there’s no longer any barrier between band and audience. Those are the special shows, where there’s a solidarity and a very visceral bond. That, and being able to smell our amps melting”. Amps and brains alike, as these psychic omnivores bring seven times the joy, seven times the pain, seven times the dementia and deliverance. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Sludgy, psychedelic walls of throbbing guitar riffs and shouted vocals, a build up of drone before breaking into a Sabbathesque single note riff, as heavy as it is isolated before being ceremonoiusly descended upon by all manner of mayhem. Heavy, sludgy indie psych madness. Brilliant.

TRACK LISTING

1. Psychopomp
2. Sweet Relief
3. Icon

The followers - this book is not for you. The salt of the earth - this book is not for you. The worthy - this book is not for you.

The ideologists - this book is not for you. Hedonists and bohemians - this book is not for you. The middlebrow - this book is not for you.

The highbrow - this book is not for you. Dilettantes - this book is not for you. 1970s middle school RE teachers - this book is not for you.

The England football team (women's and men's) - this book is not for you. The litanists - this book is not for you. Gatekeepers - this book is not for you.

Gamekeepers - this book is not for you. (Not even for the poachers...)The curators - this book is not for you. The left, the right - this book is not for you.

The list-makers - lists are for shoppers not rockers, and this book is not for you. This is not a list - this is a manifesto, and this book is for ... the Freaks.

Musician and author Luke Haines embarks on an odyssey through the ages, exploring how the 'freaks' infiltrated modern culture - and almost won the rock 'n' roll wars - only to lose to the rise of Cool Britannia and TV 'talent' shows that turned the strange and the outsiders into fodder for laughter. In this ultimate celebration of freakdom, Haines tells the story of pivotal freaks - including Johnnie Ray, Gene Vincent, Hank Marvin, Syd Barrett, the Incredible String Band and Big Youth - through the prism of rock 'n' roll and explains how freaks infiltrated wider culture through history in the form of the Cathars, the Ranters, Hells Angels and the Yippies. Part memoir, part manifesto, Freaks Out! is a righteous alternate history of rock 'n' roll.

Alan Edwards, the godfather of British music PR, has worked with some of the most legendary artists of our time, from David Bowie to the Spice Girls via the Rolling Stones, the Stranglers, Prince and Amy Winehouse. In I Was There, he describes getting his break in the mid-'70s as a scruffy, stoned 20-year-old just back from the hippie trail; his encounter with London's thriving punk scene, which inspired him to set up his own PR company; broadening his horizons as his work with the likes of Blondie takes him to the US and beyond; and his move into the world of pop with the Spice Girls during the tabloid-crazed '90s.

At the centre of this story sits the defining relationship of Edwards' career: his close, thirty-year collaboration with David Bowie. He guides us through a series of vivid, funny, always insightful behind-the-scenes reports, whether he's playing a spontaneous game of football with Bob Marley, listening to Prince discuss the future of civilisation in a nightclub VIP area, or being used as a pawn in the power struggle between Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. Above all, we're treated to Edwards' fascinating observations about the brilliant artists he has worked with and what makes them tick, as he looks back on his role in the last five decades of music and culture.

Mogwai’s “The Bad Fire” was recorded at Chem19 studios in Scotland with American Grammy Award winning producer John Congleton (St Vincent, Angel Olsen, John Grant) joining the band in the studio for their eleventh album. A Scottish colloquialism for Hell, The Bad Fire draws inspiration from a series of tough personal moments that the band found themselves in following on from their chart-topping tenth album, As The Love Continues. All vinyl comes packaged in a gatefold sleeve, with MP3 download code and etching. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: I'd find it hard to say anything bad about a Mogwai album for two reasons. Firstly, I *LOVE* Mogwai, so it would feel wrong. Secondly, they're one of the greatest bands in the world and thus i'm convinced they'll never make anything less than astounding. The Bad Fire is thematically, visually and aurally impeccable. Beautiful, climactic crushing post-rock with bags of melody.

TRACK LISTING

1. God Gets You Back
2. Hi Chaos
3. What Kind Of Mix Is This?
4. Fanzine Made Of Flesh
5. Pale Vegan Hip Pain
6. If You Find This World Bad, You Should See Some Of The Others
7. 18 Volcanoes
8. Hammer Room
9. Lion Rumpus
10. Fact Boy

Dennis Bovell’s prolific and eclectic career encompasses a huge range of music: from dub poetry to lovers rock, to post-punk, to disco, to pop and beyond. His production work encompasses such diverse figures as The Slits, I Roy, Maximum Joy, Fela Kuti, The Pop Group, Janet Kay, Saada Bonaire, Orange Juice, Golden Teacher, Steel Pulse, and more.

This compilation focuses on the period during and immediately after Bovell’s involvement with the Jah Sufferer Sound System, digging deep to find deep cuts and lesser-known versions, mainly from 1976–1980, plus a killer and lesser-heard dub of the iconic 'Silly Games'. Painstakingly restored and remastered at Dubplates & Mastering in Berlin, these decades-old tracks sound pristine and dynamic, sequenced to take the listener on a journey through Bovell’s production and arrangement genius.

The accompanying sleevenotes are a result of a long conversation with Dennis about this period of his life, with track-by-track recollections and fascinating biographical asides. The vinyl and CD versions feature variant artwork, each format utilising a unique photo by Syd Shelton.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Dub Band - Dub Land 
2. Dennis Matumbi - Blood Dem 
3. Dennis Bovell Dub Band - Suffrah Dub (Sufferer Sound Disco 45)
4. Pebbles - Positive Vibrations
5. Cosmic Idren - Compelled
6. Dennis Curtis - Come With Me 
7. Matumbi - Dub Planet
8. African Stone - Run Rasta Run
9. Matumbi - Fire Dub 05:39
10. Errol Campbell - Jah Man
11. Young Lions - Take Dub
12. Dennis Bovell & Janet Kay - Game Of Dubs
13. African Stone - Dub Choice
14. Angelique - Cry 
15. DB At The Controls - Crying

Crankers of amp, torturers of fuzzbox and denizens of small-hours salvation, Thee Alcoholics dished out a rancorous and righteous debut in their decent ‘Feedback’ – one that filtered gnarled riffage and motorik malevolence through a uniquely debauched prism in pursuit of some extremely ill-advised audial dystopia.

Thee Alcoholics may have started life as the home-birthed brainchild of Rhys Llewellyn (Hey Colossus/Acidliner/Drmcnt) yet an evolution since has proven the ultimate form of this beastly creation to be the live arena. In assembling cohorts to turn these visceral jams into something to shake rafters and rattle pint-glasses, new frontiers of ornery intensity have made themselves manifest, and such is the form of the monstrous Bear Bites Horse Sessions, a live-in-the-studio document recorded with Wayne Adams at Bear Bites Horse studio in Haggerston, London, chronicling a band breathing life into a Stoogian paradigm, and doing so apparently whilst barely breaking a sweat.

Taking essential elixirs of in-the-red mania, hypnotic repetition and deathless swagger, these twelve jams walk a crooked path that neighbours the nihilistic vortex of Loop, the saturnine lurch of The Fall and the deadpan derangement of The Heads but remains possessed of a maverick charisma and mischief all its own. Lovers of lysergic heaviosity and the sound of a Marshall 4x12 violently spluttering its last will find much to satisfy here, but moreover Bear Bites Horse Sessions is a testimony to sonic punishment as a gateway to new horizons, audial excess as a path to wisdom, and answers, right or wrong, being found in the bottom of a glass.

TRACK LISTING

Baby I'm Your Man
It's So Easy
Power
The Hole I See
Feedback
A&E
Flick Of The Wrist
Turn On The Radio
Sweetheart
Politicians
SE23
Karen's God Plan

Dark Horse Records celebrates the 25th Anniversary of ROCK ART AND THE X-RAY STYLE, the debut album by JOE STRUMMER AND THE MESCALEROS, with a 2LP black vinyl pressing (including a limited lyric sheet reproduction) and CD. The remastered 1999 album, which was Strummer’s first album release in a decade, is spread over 2 LPs for optimal sound quality, and the original gatefold artwork by Damien Hirst has been meticulously reproduced. The LP also includes a reproduction of Joe’s handwritten lyrics to the song “X-Ray Style.” The CD includes a fold-out poster.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A
1.Tony Adams
2.Sandpaper Blues
SIDE B
1.X-Ray Style
2.Techno D-Day
3.The Road To Rock ‘N’ Roll
SIDE C
1.Diggin’ The New
2.Nitcomb
3.Forbidden City
SIDE D
1.Yalla Yalla
2.Willesden To Cricklewood

Dive deeper into the studio with the Alternate Version of The Velvet Underground's "Loaded" album. A track list that features early versions, demos, and alternate mixes of their iconic tracks like "Sweet Jane," "Rock & Roll," and "Oh! Sweet Nuthin'." These versions offer a glimpse into their creative process and the iconic sound of Velvet Underground.

Tommy Boy reissues exclusive limited edition pressing of Afrika Bambatta & Soulsonic Force's "Planet Rock"Considered one of founding fathers of rap, Afrika Bambaataa has long been considered a revolutionary, both within the music business and beyond

Raised in the South Bronx, Afrika Bambaataa made his name as a DJ, rapper and songwriter, eventually becoming the foremost DJ, event organizer and promoter of the large block parties that rocked the neighbourhood during the mid- to- late 70's. Leading into the 80's, Bambaataa had found acclaim for releasing countless genre-defining tracks, infusing Hip Hop and Electronic elements into a sound that would influence other artists for years to come.

With the groundbreaking release of Soulsonic Force assisted, "Planet Rock," in 1982, Afrika Bambaataa forever cemented his place in the history books as one of the most revered and innovative artists of his time. Since its release, "Planet Rock" has gone on to be recognized as one of the earliest Hip Hop hits and remains one of the genres most pioneering recordings. A long- time favourite amongst break-dancers, DJ's and music lovers alike, "Planet Rock" was ranked by Rolling Stone magazine at #240 on its list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, and has received Gold certification by the RIAA. Originally released in 1986 as a collection of previous singles, this highly sought after record has long since been out of production, until now. Ranked at #84 by Slant Magazine on their, "Best Albums of the 1980s" list and was also included in the book, "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die".

TRACK LISTING

LP Tracks:
Planet Rock (Original Twelve- Inch Version)
Looking For The Perfect Beat (Original Twelve- Inch Version)
Renegades Of Funk (Remix)
Frantic Situation (Frantic Mix)
Who You Funkin' With? (feat. Melle Mel)
Go-Go Pop (feat. Trouble Funk)
They Made A Mistake (Performed By M.C. G.L.O.B.E. And Pow Wow)

CD Tracks:
Planet Rock (Original Twelve- Inch Version
Looking For The Perfect Beat (Original Twelve- Inch Version)
Renegades Of Funk (Remix)
Frantic Situation (Frantic Mix)
Who You Funkin' With? (feat Melle Mel)
Go- Go Pop (feat. Trouble Funk)
They Made A Mistake (Performed By M.C. G.L.O.B.E. And Pow Wow)

To honour AC/DC’s 50-year reign as the world’s greatest rock and roll band, Columbia/Sony Legacy proudly announce that the band’s catalogue will be available as gold-coloured vinyl LPs. Each of these limited edition LPscomes with an album-specific 12”x12” print featuring newAC/DC 50 artwork,suitable for framing.

Initially released in Australia in March 1977, a modified international version featuring the first appearance of the iconic AC/DC logo was unleashed that Summer. It’s said that while recording the solo on the title track, Angus’s amp overheated and caught fire!

Soul Jazz Records’ classic, ‘Delta Swamp Rock’, features a killer all-star line-up of seminal artists who first blended rock, soul and country together to create a stunning new sound of southern American music in the 1970s.

Featuring the Allman Brothers, Dan Penn, Leon Russell, Tony Joe White, Johnny Cash, Bobbie Gentry, Big Star, Link Wray, Area Code 615 and loads more.

This album comes as a classic black vinyl edition complete with extensive original sleevenotes, interviews and exclusive photography, all spread over a 12-page fullsize magazine and two bespoke inner sleeves.

‘Delta Swamp Rock’ is an interstate southern road trip through the United States of America where country, rock and soul met at the crossroads - an exploration of the musical and cultural links between the cities of Memphis, Muscle Shoals and Nashville in the 1960s and 70s.

At the start of the 1970s, a new type of music emerged out of the southern states of Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, Mississippi and Florida. Southern rock, the creation of young blue-collar white Americans, blended rock, soul, country and blues music together to present a new vision of the south - a post-civil rights southern identity complete with a celebration of the regions natural landscape and its way of life.

The Allman Brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd epitomised the definitive southern rock groups - a mixture of blues-rock and country with a southern rebelliousness and attitude. Unfortunately, both The Allman Brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd were to be struck by tragedy, which would affect the movement’s rise and fall.

The backstory to southern rock is the fact that a number of the people involved in its creation had been central to the production of southern soul music in the 1960s mainly in Memphis, Tennessee, and the small town of Muscle Shoals (population around 10,000) deep within the Bible Belt, liquor-free, deeply segregated state of Alabama, creating 100s of R&B hits on an almost daily basis.

Here in Muscle Shoals, with its proximity to Memphis and Nashville, an all-white group of in-house musicians, (famously referred to by Lynyrd Skynyrd in the song ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ as the ‘Swampers’), created countless classic soul records for the likes of Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, Etta James, Clarence Carter and more during the 1960s.

This album charts the rise and fall of southern rock from its funky swamp roots in southern soul to its phenomenal success in the first half of the 1970s, including its influence on Nashville’s ‘outlaw’ country and tracing it right back to the arrival of rock and roll in the 1950s - the first meeting of black and white American music at the crossroads.

TRACK LISTING

1. Lynyrd Skynyrd - The Seasons
2. Barefoot Jerry - Smokies
3. Joe South - Hush
4. Bobbie Gentry - Papa, Won’t You Let Me Go To Town With You
5. Area Code 615 - Stone Fox Chase
6. Cher - I Walk On Guilded Splinters
7. Cowboy - Please Be With Me
8. The Allman Brothers - Ain’t Wastin’ Time No More
9. Link Wray - Be What You Want To
10. Boz Scaggs - I’ll Be Long Gone
11. Lynyrd Skynyrd - Comin’ Home
12. Bobbie Gentry - Seasons Come, Seasons Go
13. Leon Russell - Out In The Woods
14. Tony Joe White - Polk Salad Annie
15. Barefoot Jerry - Come To Me Tonight
16. Dan Penn - If Love Was Money
17. Linda Ronstadt - I Won’t Be Hangin’ ‘Round
18. Waylon Jennings - Big D
19. Big Star - Thirteen
20. Bobbie Gentry - Mississippi Delta
21. Travis Wammack - I Forgot To Remember To Forget
22. Johnny Cash & June Carter - If I Were A Carpenter
23. Billy Vera - I’m Leavin’ Here Tomorrow, Mama

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2024 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON SATURDAY APRIL 20TH ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

IF THERE ARE ANY REMAINING COPIES THEY WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE ONLINE AT 8PM ON MONDAY APRIL 22ND.

The history of BBC Maida Vale Sessions is familiar to The Utopia Strong. As musicians, and lifelong music fans, the legacy - the importance - of such recordings is not lost on them. Space and place influence creativity, as is the case here, and the sleeve is a loving homage to those classic BBC releases, affectionately nodding to Strange Fruit Peel Sessions from days of yore.These pieces, originally recorded live at Maida Vale for a Marc Riley session on BBC 6 Music in September 2022, capture The Utopia Strong stretching themselves and continuing to develop their aural explorations.The five-track album opens with the analogue arpeggios of ‘Minature Citadels’, a title perfectly summing up the imagery provoked by the music; evolving, jagged patterns of skylines and castellations, turrets and towers. The closing outro of squarks and drones could be twice as long and not outstay its welcome.

The nagging refrain running through ‘Lamp Of Glory’ is Mike York on the pipes, which he handmakes himself. The overall effect is a sublime, warped concoction of balearic energy and non-Western modes. ‘Disaster 2’ (a piece initially recorded on their second studio album, 2022’s International Treasure) begins with a beautiful synth drone that maintains its position, overpowering the modular patterns pulsating behind it, augmented by yet more glorious, lamenting pipes. The last two tracks both exceed ten minutes and allow the band to extend out further. Release comes as the drums kick in after six minutes of ‘The Tower Is Locked’, emulating the live sets The Utopia Strong have become famed for.The final track, ‘Weather All’, was also honed across several live performances. Having been booked for Andrew Weatherall’s Conveanza festival pre-lockdown, the band finally performed there in September 2022, following his passing. While performing this piece, the heavens opened and the entire festival, band and audience, were drenched. “It felt absolutely biblical”, says the band. Steve Davis has a rich history with the Beeb, but on this occasion he is wrangling his ever-expanding array of analogue synths, dilating his musical imagination. The heritage of the location and overall experience was not lost on the band.‘

In the early '60s, four friends from Liverpool formed a band. But this is not the 'fab four' story we know . .

Mary, Sylvia, Valerie and Pamela - also known as The Liverbirds - were one of the world's first all-female rock'n'roll bands. At an early gig, backstage at the Cavern Club, a young John Lennon told them that 'girls don't play guitars'.

But they took that as a challenge. Despite the early scepticism, they won over tough crowds, toured stadiums, recorded two hit albums, and played with the Kinks, Rolling Stones and Chuck Berry - all in the space of just five years. Now, the two surviving members of the band tell their incredible story in full for the first time - capturing a lost era of liberation and rock'n'roll, as they thrived in the vibrant Merseybeat music scene and formed a friendship that has endured through the decades.

Thee Alcoholics are the brainchild of Rhys Llewellyn, a longtime Rocket Recordings alumnus whose background leans as heavily into the bassbin-shaking realms of electronic music as it does the tinnitus-inducing world of howling, cranked-up ampstacks. Not content with hammering drumskins for numerous floor-shaking records on the Rocket discography from the likes of Hey Colossus and The Notorious Hi-Fi Killers, he’s also been responsible for brain-rearranging electronic works under the Drmcnt and Acidliner monikers. Thee Alcoholics, however - which initially gestated as a result of Rhys himself wanting to pursue the somewhat hostile sound in his own head during lockdown - maps out a collision course between all of the above.

Cranky and cantankerous yet lysergically aligned, Feedback is mesmeric rock with swagger, warped into sci-fi shapes by the spirit and sonics of bass and soundsystem culture. The psychedelic shapes here are redolent of the ur-klang of The Fall and the monolithic lurch of The Heads, the motorik malevolence less an uplifting trip to the heavens than a drill down to the earth’s core. Discernible in these jackhammer beats, grimly murmured vocals and delirious dirges to certain heads may be the trash futurism of Chrome, the decomposed stomp of unsung legends Earl Brutus and the electro-punk attack of Six Finger Satellite, yet all of the above co-ordinates are waylaid effortlessly by a balls-out intensity and a fearsome intent on aural oblivion at all costs. Feedback may be elemental and primal, yet this is no psych comfort-blanket nor retro-fetishism, rather a repetition-driven journey headlong into intimidating territory unknown. Get on board, and strap yourselves in for a bumpy ride. 

TRACK LISTING

01. What’s The Crack? (What’s The Story?)
02. Baby I’m Your Man
03. Sweetheart
04. It’s So Easy
05. Pity Me
06. Feedback
07. You’re The Zero
08. Se23
09. Dumb & Happy

The Tastemaker charts the singular life of a man who has been at the beating heart of music's most iconic moments for over sixty years. Leaving school and starting his career at Decca Records in 1958 at the age of sixteen, Tony King would soon find himself becoming close friends with Elton John, rekindling John Lennon and Yoko Ono's relationship, mediating a quarrelsome Mick Jagger and Keith Richards and spending time with Freddie Mercury in his final days - a far cry from his childhood days in Eastbourne. Living in an era of seismic social, technological and cultural transformation, King experienced these defining moments as a stalwart in London and New York's gay scenes.

Alongside his heady life in showbusiness, he was witness to the AIDS crisis and its devastating consequences: the death of family, the death of friends and the stultifying weight of responsibility in being called upon to hold things together. At once profound and suffused with Tony King's disarming warmth and unparalleled charisma, The Tastemaker paints an intimate portrait of a music legend and captures the unpredictable world he stamped his indelible mark upon.

Kathryn Joseph releases a new EP featuring reworks of tracks taken from her critically acclaimed 2022 album for you who are the wronged, alongside a brand new song, all created with her long time collaborator Lomond Campbell. Described by Pitchfork as sounding like “unmeditated transpositions of feeling”, Joseph’s complex, quietly seething lyricism sees her songs give voice to those robbed of their own. for you who are the wronged is woven with pain, futility and stasis; delicately addressing subjects of abuse and trauma with peace and kindness and extending a comforting arm to those who seek it. The new EP takes the delicate instrumentation of the original record and builds it up to something bigger, bolder and stronger.

TRACK LISTING

side A

A1. What Is Keeping You Alive Makes Me Want To Kill Them For (lomond Campbell Remix)
A2. The Burning Of Us All (lomond Campbell Remix)

side B

B1. Long Gone (lomond Campbell Remix)
B2. Until The Truth Of You (lomond Campbell Remix)
B3. Call It Out (lomond Campbell Remix)

Irish Rock ’n’ Roll is due for release on October 6th and follows last year’s hugely acclaimed self-titled debut (“these youngsters are all about presenting vibrancy, saltiness and edge via roots music from a bygone age, at a moment when such qualities are all but absent form contemporary pop” Mojo).

If every album an artist makes offers a snapshot of where they stand at that point, then the picture presented by Irish Rock ’n’ Roll is one of a band preparing to go stratospheric. It’s an album that manages to perfectly capture the chaos, humour and excitement of the band’s recent live shows whilst also showcasing the incredible emotional of the traditional ballads that they play (both in songs passed down from previous generations and - for the first time on this record - their own songs that promise to be passed down to future generations). One of those traditional ballads - Wexford - is the second single from the album following The Holy Ground and it’s online everywhere now.

“Heirs to The Dubliners and The Pogues. Joyous, chaotic and irreverent” - Uncut.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Though there's an obvious inward-facing comedic slant to the Mary Wallopers' music but their focus on folk ballads, sing along harmonies and beautiful instrumentals is no joke. A perfectly crafted fusion of modern and traditional Irish music delivered with a wry and welcome smile.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. The Bauld O Donoghue
2. The Holy Ground
3. Rakes Of Poverty
4. The Rich Man And The Poor Man
5. The Idler
6. Madam I’m A Darlin’
Side B
7. Vultures Of Christmas
8. The Turfman From Ardee
9. Hot Asphalt
10. Wexford
11. The Blarney Stone
12. Rothsea O
13. Gates Of Heaven

In Frank Herbert’s 1973 novel Hellstrom’s Hive, the Dune writer tells of a sinister narrative surrounding the maverick scientist Nils Hellstrom, who has created a meticulously constructed Hive underneath his Oregon farmhouse. Therein, he oversees a subterranean order of 50,000 insect-human hybrid life-forms. Ultimately his plan being for the inhabitants of the Hive to usurp humanity and take over the world.

The decade thus far may not have seen anything quite so daunting, but it’s provided more than its fair share of challenges. Yet in such dystopian environments, Teeth Of The Sea flourish. This band has created a kaleidoscopic inner world all its own in Hive, their sixth and most outlandish album.

Fundamental to Teeth Of The Sea’s mission thus far is that this band can go anywhere and make short work of any obstacles in their path. Unfettered by genre distinctions or expectations, the only limits of this trio - comprising Sam Barton, Mike Bourne and Jimmy Martin - are those of its imagination. It therefore follows that inspiration flowed into Hive from all dimensions, with the band’s sphere of influence - the science fiction, trash culture and cinematic atmospherics by which they’ve fuelled their mission thus far - expanding to take in everything from Italo-disco to minimal techno, from dubbed-out studio madness to their most brazen forays thus far into pop songwriting. Here is a headspace where the psychic charges from records by Labradford, Nurse With Wound, Vangelis, The Knife, Nine Inch Nails and John Barry can happily co-exist.

These disparate pathways cohere and coalesce to create a vivid experience rich with emotion and intrigue. A commission to create a live soundtrack at London’s Science Museum for a documentary on the Apollo Moon Landings gave flight to the trilogy of tracks - Artemis, Æther and Apollo which are summarily imbued with the dreamlike wonder and existential peril of the mission itself. A collaboration with vocalist Kath Gifford (Snowpony, The Wargs, Sleazy Tiger) set loose Butterfly House, which transmutes synthpop stylings into something uniquely radiant, haunting and melancholic. Get With The Program - sung by Mike Bourne - is meanwhile no less than a noise-fuelled, speaker-shaking electro-industrial banger.

Megafragma, meanwhile, is the most experimental track this band has yet created, a collaboration with engineer and co-conspirator Giles Barrett that morphs form and structure in search of new epiphanies - ‘Simple Headphone Mind’ and Roxy Music’s ‘The Bogus Man’ may have formed some of the cues for this nine-minute avant-epic but its trajectory was one the band were happy to submit to external forces.

Hive is more than just a transformative force from subterranean origins. It’s an alchemical headspace where monochrome animates into vivid colour. It may not be a carefully ordered insectoid militia set to overthrow society, but it’s a transmission which transcends anything Teeth Of The Sea have thus far offered in their time on Earth.

Step inside Hive, if you dare.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Teeth Of The Sea are back! With bold strokes of post-punk and kosmische synthwork and swirls of psychedelic wonder, 'Hive' is their most compelling work to date. The ever-reliable Rocket Recordings on fire as always.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1: Artemis
2: Get With The Program
3: Butterfly House
4: Liminal Kin
5: Æther
Side B
1: Megafragma
2: Powerhorse
3: Apollo

Originally released in December 1971, this indispensable 21-track, greatest hits collection features five UK number one singles – (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction, Jumpin’ Jack Flash, Get Off Of My Cloud, Honky Tonk Women and Paint It, Black.

The second album by underground rock-and-beyond shapeshifters The Holy Family comes complete with a heavy concept for the psychedelically inclined, and pairs this with music which does this justice and then some. ‘Go Zero’ follows up the British group’s widely praised self-titled debut from 2021 and – says foundational member David Jason Smith – “is based on a hypothetical theory that there is no such thing as ‘the future’. We are continually moving forward into our past until we arrive at our birth – creation – the Tree Of Knowledge… or ‘Going Zero’, as I’ve termed it.” It figures, then, that over some 40 minutes the five musicians conjure a sound that exhibits an affinity with great experimental totems down the ages, in a manner that’s avowedly forward-facing and stamped with their own identity. All involved boast a pre-Holy Family CV to turn clued-in heads: Kavus Torabi (guitars), Sam Warren (bass) and Emmett Elvin (piano and Rhodes), along with Smith himself, were all members of the mighty Guapo. Finnish studio wizard Antti Uusimaki (Circle/Pharaoh Overlord etc), who co-sculpted the eight tracks on ‘Go Zero’ into their final form. Drummer Joe Lazarus is new to the band – taking over that role from Smith, who largely concentrates on vocals and synths here – and his versatility is never in doubt, as his rhythms pull in myriad directions, blurring the lines between jazz, prog and psych rock. If you dig anything from Can to Boredoms to Oneida, then step this way. Though The Holy Family’s musical inspirations are multitudinous, and rarely if ever obvious, the lyrics nod to a distinct literary source – namely ‘Vorrh’, the trilogy of fantasy novels by cult British author Brian Catling, who died in 2022 while ‘Go Zero’ was being assembled. In these books, the Vorrh is “an impenetrable sentient forest, older than mankind, believed to house all knowledge” – and in the same way that the name The Holy Family references an Angela Carter work, Smith explains, “the track titles ‘Chalky’s Eyes’ (had been eaten by flies) and ‘The Watcher’ are direct references to characters in the book.” With ‘Go Zero’, The Holy Family have returned with an album that unfurls elegantly, even while big time discombobulation is occurring.

TRACK LISTING

1. Crawling Out
2. Bad Travelling
3. Chalky’s Eyes
4. The Watcher
5. Hell Born Babel
6. Go Zero Suite: Pt. I
7. Go Zero Suite: Pt. II
8. Go Zero Suite: Pt. III 

“It took a few trips through the underworld, and cutting through the illusory to arrive at a more ripened version of true love and freedom.” Sitting amongst the fruit orchards of Corralitos, California, Angelica Rockne reflects on the recent past. Her forthcoming album “The Rose Society” has been in a process of distillation for five years now. “It sounds like a lifetime,” she remarks, “but really it’s been equally ephemeral as it has been eternal.” Going through some of life’s greatest rites of passage and the accompanying gravity of their transformations will do that to you.

TRACK LISTING

1. Age Of The Voyeur
2. The Rose Society
3. The Distance Is High
4. White Cadillac
5. Protection, Prayers And Vigilance
6. Crystalline
7. The Undoing
8. Path Of The Rose
9. Ripe To Ruin
10. The Night Dreams Of You

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2023 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON SATURDAY APRIL 22ND ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.



IF THERE ARE ANY REMAINING COPIES THEY WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE ONLINE AT 8PM ON MONDAY APRIL 24TH).





This vinyl debut captures one of the biggest names in jazz, at the peak of his powers, live in concert



This 180-gram double set features 18 selections from Charlie Parker, one of jazz's greatest saxophonists. All the recordings were captured in the late 1940s and early '50s at such storied venues as Carnegie Hall and Birdland in New York, The Jubilee in Los Angeles, and the Portland Civic Auditorium. Focused on experiments in Afro-Cuban fusion, Parker is joined by a dazzling array of jazz legends including Dizzy Gillespie, Milt Jackson, Art Blakey, Woody Herman, Stan Kenton, Red Rodney, and others. The track listing matches the cast of musicians; classics 'Cherokee' and 'A Night in Tunisia' are captured in pristine form, while maintaining the intimate jazz spontaneity of Parker's best recordings. The package includes an essay by rock keyboardist Keith Emerson. While these tracks have previously appeared on other albums, this is the first time they have been gathered in this package on double 180-gram vinyl.

Let’s face facts here; we’re all a mess. Life in the 2020s thus far has been a litany of crushing indignities at best. Living standards plummet, lies carry the same currency as truth, and rock music - that racket that once served as countercultural force and revolutionary fire - has been neutered and subsumed into nullity.That’s unless you’re listening to The Shits. ‘You’re A Mess’ - the second album from Leeds’ filthiest sons - is a staggering assault of invective fit to reignite your ire, and a sound that constitutes a real and present threat to life and limb. Contained within these eight feral exorcisms is a merciless assault of Stoogian/stygian riffage, gloriously purgatorial abjection and intimidating aggro that takes a garage-rock blueprint and grinds its face in the dirt.If these grimy dirges and salvos of horror have a precedent, it’s in the menacing audial lineage that connects Fun House through the AmRep label, Brainbombs and

Drunk In Hell - the process where relentless negativity is alchemically transformed into profane primal salvation. Yet The Shits worship no heroes, obeying a thanatotic urge that sees no separation between death and glory.Listen to this album and you will believe once again in catharsis by way of heavy amplification. Psych-rock is dead, and The Shits are the executioners. Assume the position.

TRACK LISTING

01. In My Hotel Room
02. Waiting
03. You’re A Mess
04. The Venus (After Hours)
05. Bludgeoned To Death
06. Alone Ii
07. Ugly, Worthless
08. I Regret Nothing (Parts 1 & 2)

A rather obscure and fantastical 45 by American jazz clarinetistand tenor saxophonist Wendell Harrison. A moody dusty fingers style downtempo cover of Stevie Wonder's sleeper Rocket Love from the LP 'Hotter Than July'. This one seems to have passed by many collectors, including myself, I was only turned onto it recently despite loving Wendell's catalog.

TRACK LISTING

1. Rocket Love
2. No Turnin' Back

Releasing 100% independently, with no label backing, The Reytons have announced their second album is set for release following their debut album that rocketed to Number 11 in the Official UK Charts. Setting The Reytons apart from the competition is their fiercely independent approach to the way they work. Not exactly welcomed with open arms by the industry from the very start, the band channel their working class grit and determination to overcome every obstacle thrown at them. Aided by the masses of loyal fans, no achievement is out of reach.

TRACK LISTING

15 Minutes In The Algorithm
Istanbul
Avalanche
Love In Transaction
Little Bastards
Cash In Hand & Fake IDs
WMC
One More Reason
Monthly Subscription
Fading
It's A Fuck About
Uninvited

Originally released in 2018 and recorded live to tape in just five days by venerated underground engineer Steve Albini (Nirvana, Shellac, Pixies), ‘24-7 Rockstar Shit’ marked a return to The Cribs’ early roots with its raw, rough-around-the-edges approach and sonic aggression.

Originally conceived during recording sessions for the band’s fifth album, ‘In The Belly Of The Brazen Bull’, these recordings were elevated to quasimythical status amongst the band’s famously dedicated fanbase, with excitement building for a ‘punk album’ flipside to 2015’s more pop-leaning ‘For All My Sisters’.

TRACK LISTING

Give Good Time
Year Of Hate
In Your Palace
Dendrophobia
What Have You Done For
Me?
Sticks Not Twigs
Rainbow Ridge
Partisan
Dead At The Wheel
Broken Arrow

Kathryn Joseph releases her new album From When I Wake The Want Is, via Glasgow’s Rock Action Records. The follow up to 2015’s acclaimed debut Bones You Have Thrown Me And Blood I’ve Spilled, which was named the Scottish Album of the Year, this album is a captivating set that documents both life’s traumas and their resolutions. Produced by Marcus Mackay, who also worked on her debut album, 'From When I Wake The Want Is' mixes new songs with material gathered over the past ten years to create an intimate and often devastating portrait of Joseph’s world.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Echoing piano and dusty atmospheric washes with touches of jazzy percussion make for a beautifully mournful but immersive backdrop for Joseph's evocative vocal touches. A stunningly fragile but brilliantly immersive listen.

TRACK LISTING

1. IIII
2. From When I Wake The Want Is
3. And You Survives
4. Tell My Lover
5. And It Will Lick You Clean
6. There Is No God But You
7. Safe
8. We Have Been Loved By Our Lovers
9. Mouths Full Of Blood
10. Mountain
11. Weight
12. ^^

Alison Cotton presents The Portrait You Painted of Me, a new 6-track album – her first for Rocket Recordings (released on Feeding Tube in the USA). Like Alison’s previous solo albums, the touchstones of her immersive sound are viola, harmonium and voice, merged together to create a rich suite of songs. ‘Mumurations Over the Moor’ is a wordless piece of layered vocals, drifting like fog towards a sunset over the green undulations of North East England (from where she hails). ‘The Last Wooden Ship’ evokes the shipyards of Sunderland using droning harmonium and viola lines, laced with piano and percussion events, while her voice calls out like one of Tim Buckley’s Sirens urging listeners to a rocky demise. ‘I Buried the Candlesticks’ has a haunted, traditional feel with its dolorously folky viola melody laid across a thick carpet harmonium, and small bursts of percussion that sound like cannonade heard through the thick cold walls of a castle in winter. ‘That Tunnel Underground Seemed Neverending’ is a musical vision of Northumberland’s mining culture at the dawn of the 20th Century - labyrinthine, subterranean, dimmer than night. ‘Violet May’, the only traditional “song” on the album, was inspired by a trip to Vita Sackville-West’s Sissinghurst Castle.

Its plot deals with a reclusive artist who has forsaken all else for a life of solitary creation in her tower. The structure and sound reminiscent of a post-modern approach to lyrical concerns dealt with by folk singers of the British ‘60s, but the actual arrangement is closer to something John Cale might have done with Nico on The Marble Index. The closing track, ‘17th November 1962’, inspired by nearly-forgotten memories of disaster with a fishing boat, a storm and an ill-fated rescue attempt. The song (and album) ends with what sounds like a forlorn foghorn cutting across waves of night with Alison’s voice again evoking the Sirens.

As with its predecessors, The Portrait You Painted of Me was recorded at home in London, beautifully produced by Alison’s partner, Mark Nicholas, and it contains all the elements that result in the sombre, exquisite melancholy she creates. This is some serious and remarkable stuff.

TRACK LISTING

01. Murmurations Over The Moor
02. The Last Wooden Ship
03. I Buried The Candlesticks
04. That Tunnel Underground Seemed Neverending
05. Violet May
06. 17th November 1962

Two-Piers, the label that brought you ‘Pop Psychédélique (The Best of French Psychedelic Pop 1964-2019)’ bring you the second instalment in the series ‘Garage Psychédélique (The Best of Garage Psych and Pzyk Rock 1965-2019)’. A thrill a minute dive into the crazy awesome world of Garage Psychedelic Rock.

From the Psych sound explosion onto the Underground club scene in the US and UK in the mid 1960s, its discovery by a wider audience via the exceptional Nuggets and Pebbles compilation series in the 1970-1980s. Through its mainstream revival with the Garage sound of the late 1990- early 2000s, to the current crop of exceptional bands flying the Garage Psych flag today, ‘Garage Psychédélique’ takes you on a journey and gives you a little taste of some of the finest music from the scene and the bands that blazed a trail for others to follow…..Sit back and enjoy the ride!

From the opening bars of The Sonics ‘Have love Will Travel’ through the Psych workout that is Count Five’s ‘Psychotic Reaction’ to the joys of 60s Beat Psych groups from the US such as The Paragons, The Preachers, The Strangeloves, The Squires, and the eccentric stylings of The Monks. The album careers along at a blistering pace of Garage Psych brilliance, jammed packed full of Underground floor fillers a plenty.

US legendary underground acts such as The Electric Prunes, The Chocolate Watch Band and MC5 all deliver classic tracks for the cause, and singer-songwriter Harry Nilsson even makes a foray into the psych rock sound with ‘Jump into the Fire’.

In recent years such bands as Thee Oh Sees, Moon Duo and Allah-Las from the US have taken the Garage Psych influence and 60s sound and made it their own. A whole crop of bands such as White Hills, Gnod and Goat from the scene have evolved the music into a heavier ‘Pyzk Rock’ feel with a darker and heavier vibe, but crucially still with the joyous undertones that the scene brings to its devotees.

The Garage Psych sound has influenced groups from around the globe with bands like Liverpool’s The Stairs ‘Weed Bus’, Scotland’s finest The Poets with ‘That’s the Way It’s Gotta Be’, The Bogeymen, a largely undiscovered 90s Psych Hammond band from France with ‘Electrocution’. Hailing from Sweden Goat bring us ‘Gathering of Ancient Tribes’ and The Hives their dancefloor anthem ‘Main Offender’. From Perth, Australia Pond’s Psych leanings on ‘Fantastic Explosion of Time’ are clear to see. Finally, Kevin Parker’s band Tame Impala were very influenced by the whole garage psych sound in their early band incarnation, as perfectly showcased here on the epic wig out that is ‘Half Full Glass of Wine’ that closes the album.

This isn’t meant to be a ‘crate diggers’ album or a compilation of ‘obscure hard to find tracks’ to out-do your mates. It is quite simply a celebration of the Garage Psychédélique scene and a chance to revel in its brilliance and dance around your kitchen. If it means you go down a rabbit warren of discovery to unearth more gems and brilliant bands from the Garage Psych scene then job done! 

TRACK LISTING

2LP Vinyl Tracklist:
A1) The Sonics - Have Love Will Travel
A2) Count Five - Psychotic Reaction
A3) The Paragons - Abba
A4) Kim Fowley - The Trip
A5) The Preachers - Who Do You Love **
A6) The Strangeloves - Night Time
A7) The Monks - Oh, How To Do Now
A8) The Bogeymen - Electrocution
B1) Harry Nilsson - Jump Into The Fire (Single Version)
B2) The Eyes - When The Night Falls
B3) 13th Floor Elevators - Reverberation (Doubt)
B4) The Poets - That’s The Way It’s Gotta Be
B5) The Squires - Going All The Way
B6) The Electric Prunes - I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night)
B7) The Chocolate Watch Band - I’m Not Like Everybody Else
B8) MC5 - Gotta Keep Movin’
C1) The Stairs - Weed Bus
C2) The Hives - Main Offender
C3) Pond - Fantastic Explosion Of Time
C4) Novella - Somethings Must Change
C5) Thee Oh Sees - Web
C6) Allah-Las - Catamaran
D1) Moon Duo - Eye 2 Eye
D2) White Hills, Gnod - Run-a-Round **
D3) Goat - Gathering Of Ancient Tribes
D4) Tame Impala - Half Full Glass Of Wine
(** Exclusive To Vinyl)

CD Tracklist:
1) The Sonics - Have Love Will Travel
2) Count Five - Psychotic Reaction
3) The Paragons - Abba
4) Kim Fowler - The Trip
5) The Strangeloves - Night Time
6) The Monks - Oh, How We Do Now
7) The Bogeymen - Electrocution
8) Harry Nilsson - Jump Into The Fire (Single Version)
9) The Eyes - When The Night Falls
10) 13th Floor Elevators - Reverberation (Doubt)
11) The Poets - That’s The Way It’s Gotta Be
12) The Squires - Going All The Way
13) The Electric Prunes - I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night)
14) The Chocolate Watch Band - I’m Not Like Everybody Else
15) MC5 - Gotta Keep Movin’
16) The Stairs - Weed Bus
17) The Hives - Main Offender
18) Pond - Fantastic Explosion Of Time
19) Novella - Somethings Must Change
20) Thee Oh Sees - Web
21) Allah-Las - Catamaran
22) Moon Duo - Eye 2 Eye
23) Goat - Gathering Of Ancient Tribes
24) Tame Impala - Half Full Glass Of Wine

Rock Action Records are pleased to present Gentle Sinners, a project by James Graham of The Twilight Sad and....ta dah! Aidan Moffat of Arab Strap! "These Actions Cannot Be Undone" is the brilliant album from two pals who wanted to try something different musically. The outcome being an epic explorative set of songs that stands quite apart from their esteemed work with Arab Strap and The Twilight Sad.

TRACK LISTING

1 Waiting For Nothing
2 Killing This Time
3 Let Them Rot Feat. AKG
4 The Cries
5 Date & Sign
1 Rent Free
2 Shores Of Anhedonia
3 Face To Fire (After Nyman)
4 Don't Say Goodnight
5 Landfill

Call it synchronicity, call it happenstance, call it no more than three friends getting together to give their speakers a workout. Yet The Utopia Strong’s formidable conflagration of psychedelic radiance and beatific harmony has evolved way beyond all or any expectations since the band’s inception.. ‘International Treasure’ chronicles the collaborative collision of Steve Davis, Kavus Torabi and Mike York heading into unchartered psychic territory, seemingly with nothing but their instincts as co-ordinates.What’s resulted is a step beyond anything either band or audience might have expected - a deeply rewarding voyage into inner space which moves into darker and still more evocative sound-worlds whilst remaining fundamentally off the map. Influences know no bounds in this context, and the listener would be forgiven for locating the atmospheres and soundscapes of this album on some sonic promontory above and between the potent abstractions of Tim Hecker, the improvisatory excursions of The Necks, and the gothic allure of Bohren Und Der Club Of Gore.‘International Treasure’’ is the next chapter in a story which only grows more rewarding with every stop along the way - one in which three heads travel together deeper into their own musical journeys, and the resulting alchemical power transmutes its origins into gold. As no less a sage than Andrew Weatherall proclaimed, The Utopia Strong are “gnostic sonics in a nutshell”.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: The frankly astounding Utopia Strong return for another LP of lysergic synthlines and dreamy psychedelic electronica. It's full of hefty grooves and sonic waves, but never overwhelmingly heavy, opting instead for a perfectly balanced and wonderfully produced audio expedition. Lovely.

TRACK LISTING

01 - Trident Of Fire
02 - Persephone Sleeps
03 - Shepherdess
04 - Spirits From The Deep
05 - The Islanders
06 - Disaster 2
07 - Revelations
08 - International Treasure
09 - Castalia 

The follow up to Bad Reputation was Joan Jett's first record with The Blackhearts and the band gave her a tougher, more coherent sound. Their dynamic, glam rock sound gave her a worldwide hit with the classic title track "I Love Rock'n'Roll.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1 I Love Rock 'N Roll
2 (I'm Gonna) Run Away
3 Love Is Pain
4 Nag
5 Crimson And Clover
6 Victim Of Circumstance

Side B
1 Bits And Pieces
2 Be Straight
3 You're Too Possessive
4 Little Drummer Boy
5 Oh Woe Is Me
6 You Don't Know What You've Got

Originally released in May 1982, ‘Combat Rock’ is the final album from The Clash of Joe Strummer, Mick Jones, Paul Simonon and Topper Headon. Featuring two of the band’s most well-known songs, ‘Should I Stay Or Should I Go’ and ‘Rock The Casbah’. Now re-released as a 180g 3LP special edition and a 2CD special edition, with an additional 12-tracks compiled by The Clash.

Having returned to London following their pivotal 17-show residency at New York’s Bond’s Casino in 1981, the band rehearsed and recorded at The People’s Hall in the squatted Republic of Frestonia near Latimer Road in London and from there they embarked on a tour of the East and South East Asia, during which the album sleeve image was captured by Pennie Smith in Thailand.

The tracks on ‘The People’s Hall’ chart the period from what was their last single Radio Clash right up to the release of Combat Rock, including unheard, rare and early versions of tracks.

TRACK LISTING

Combat Rock - SIDE A
Know Your Rights
Car Jamming
Should I Stay Or Should I Go
Rock The Casbah
Red Angel Dragnet
Straight To Hell
Combat Rock - SIDE B
Overpowered By Funk
Atom Tan
Sean Flynn
Ghetto Defendant
Inoculated City
Death Is A Star
The People’s Hall - SIDE A
Outside Bonds
Radio Clash
Futura 2000
The People’s Hall - SIDE B
First Night Back In London
Radio One - Mikey Dread
He Who Dares Or Is Tired*
Long Time Jerk
The Fulham Connection [aka The Beautiful People Are Ugly Too]
The People’s Hall - SIDE C
Midnight To Stevens
Sean Flynn
Idle In Kangaroo Court
Know Your Rights*
NB: SIDE D IS BLANK

*Previously Unreleased

"for you who are the wronged" is the much anticipated follow-up to 2018’s "from when i wake the want is", and her 2014 debut "bones you have thrown me and blood i’ve spilled", which won 2015’s Scottish Album of the Year award. If "from when i wake…" was written for love to return, this is where she fights tooth and claw to protect it.

Written and co-produced by Kathryn Joseph, it was recorded at The Lengths Studio in Fort William, with producer Lomond Campbell (also a recording artist for Heavenly Records and has previously produced King Creosote). Kathryn is signed to fellow Scottish musicians, Mogwai's Rock Action Records. It will appeal to those that have bought Kathryn's earlier albums plus fans of Lana Del Ray, Laura Marling, Kate Bush, Aidan Moffat, and Erland Cooper.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: For her third LP, Kathryn Joseph brings all of the brittle balladry and off-kilter weirdness of her previous outings, but imbued with a confidence and cinematic intensity we've not heard before. Beautifully rich and the perfect follow-up to 2018's 'From When I Wake The Want Is'.

TRACK LISTING

1. What Is Keeping You Alive Makes Me Want To Kill Them For
2. The Burning Of Us All
3. Only The Sound Of The Sea Would Save Them
4. How Well You Are
5. Until The Truth Of You
6. The Harmed
7. Bring To Me Your Open Wounds
8. Flesh And Blood
9. Of All The Broken
10. For You Who Are The Wronged
11. Long Gone

The classic second line up of The Fall, classic material too. Mark E. Smith (vocals), Martin Bramah (guitar), Tony Friel (bass), Una Baines (keyboards), Karl Burns (drums). Tony Friel’ s last gig before he went off to join Dick Witts in The Passage. The Fall set was recorded on cassette by Chris Hewitt , a copy was given to Bernie Wilcox RAR gig organiser who passed it on to Mark. Mark thought it was such an important gig recording despite not being brilliant quality that he asked Chis could The Fall release it – so it first appeared on CD in 1999. In 2013 Mark E Smith told Chris Hewitt it was now due a release on vinyl and would he sort it out on Ozit. It has taken a bit of time since Mark’s suggestion but here it is.

TRACK LISTING

Side One

1 Psycho Mafia
2 Last Orders
3 Repetition
4 Dresden Dolls
5 Hey Fascist
6 Frightened
7 Industrial Estate.

Side Two

1 Stepping Out
2 Bingo Masters Breakout
3 Oh Brother
4 Cop It
5 Futures And Pasts
6 Louie Louie 

THE PICCADILLY RECORDS ALBUM OF THE YEAR 2021.

“To The Bin My Friend, Tonight We Vacate Earth'' seems an overwhelmingly prescient phrase to begin an album with, almost as if Benjamin John Powers knew Mogwai would use it for what is certainly their most celestially euphoric and soaringly majestic album to date. It's taken 25 long years since their first single, but it's entirely unsurprising that the people have recognised As The Love Continues as a masterpiece worthy of a UK No.1 album spot, and I would absolutely hasten to agree. Turns out the rest of the staff did too, so here we are.

From the first moments of “To The Bin My Friend..”, it's clear that Mogwai's melodic blend of instrumental rock has undertaken a significant shift towards brighter climes in this instance, with gigantic walls of distortion piercing through the flickering percussion and synth swells below, bringing to mind the tectonic heft of Young Team but with the pop sensibilities brought about on Happy Songs.. or the unbelievably brilliant Mr. Beast.

We've described this album as a 'Best Of' a few times, but that's clearly not in the traditional sense, it's not a compilation by any means and flows like a well sequenced album, but the themes explored are in every way the pinnacle of their sound and encompass everything that Mogwai fans love to hear. The difference here is that EVERYONE is welcome, with the more pop elements like “Ritchie Sacramento” (my song of the decade without a doubt) taking the heavy hitting instrumentals and injecting them with a moody, spine-tingling vocal melody. Later, pieces like “Fuck Off Money” bring things down a little before hitting us with the punky octave athleticism and rolling bass of “Ceiling Granny” or the cinematic orchestration of “Midnight Flit”. It's an absolute triumph, and in my opinion, the most worthy end of year winner yet.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Now, I love Mogwai, and have done since their earlier less melodic moments, but probably one of my favourite Lp's of theirs thus far has been Mr. Beast. this has all of the bombastic heft of their earlier work with the more melodic, spine-tingling minimalism/crushing distortion vibe of the aforementioned LP, beautiful and then punishingly heavy. Quintessential Mogwai.

TRACK LISTING

1. To The Bin My Friend, Tonight We Vacate Earth
2. Here We, Here We, Here We Go Forever
3. Dry Fantasy
4. Ritchie Sacramento
5. Drive The Nail
6. Fuck Off Money
7. Ceiling Granny
8. Midnight Flit
9. Pat Stains
10. Supposedly, We Were Nightmares
11. It's What I Want To Do, Mum

Pete Rock And CL Smooth’s Full-Length Debut Is Presented Here As A Double LP Pressed On Clear Vinyl! Get On Down proudly present Mecca And The Soul Brother, the critically acclaimed 1992 full-length debut from Pete Rock & CL Smooth. The album is considered as one of the greatest Hip Hop albums of all time. Boasting tracks such as the first single, “They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y.)”, a dedication to their deceased friend; “Trouble T-Roy”, which went on to become not only their signature hit, but also one of Hip Hop’s all-time great songs. The album is propelled forward by Rock’s quick, soulful interludes; usually bits of old R&B tunes layered with his signature trumpet and sax loops. Smooth’s liquid freestyle delivery pieces together the perfect vocal match that, together, creates a sprawling, nearly 80-minute-long album on which not a single song or interlude is a throwaway or a superfluous piece. Mecca And The Soul Brother has stood the test of time. The release has been named one of the essential recordings of the 90s by Rolling Stone, appears on Ego Trips listing of the Top 25 Hip Hop albums released from 1980-1998, and appeared on The Source’s 100 Greatest Rap Albums of all time.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Return Of The Mecca
A2. For Pete’s Sake
A3. Ghettos Of The Mind
A4. Lots Of Lovin
A5. Act Like You Know

B1. Straighten It Out
B2. Soul Brother #1
B3. Wig Out
B4. Anger In The Nation
B5. They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y.)

C1. On And On
C2. It’s Like That
C3. Can’t Front On Me
C4. The Creator (Remix)

D1. Mecca And The Soul Brother (Remix)
D2. The Basement
D3. If It Ain’t Rough, It Ain’t Right
D4. Skinz

“We are the planters of the weeds or roses in our garden. Take the plunge within yourself to find The Main Ingredient.” So reads CL Smooth’s album dedication in the liners to Pete Rock & CL’s underrated, soulful and deeply grooving sophomore album. For fans, it was bittersweet, as it would be their last as a duo. By 1994, Pete and CL were darlings of both fans and critics, still on a high after 1992’s Mecca & The Soul Brother and the album’s emotional smash single “They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y.).” Two years later, they had grown even more as men and artists. Gone was some of the righteous striving of their earlier work, replaced by mature – yet still righteous – wisdom. And a lot more love as well, bringing a larger female constituency into their fanbase. They were adults now, reveling in the plateau they had reached. The duo’s ‘90s swan song is a powerful double album that still resonates with Golden Era hip-hop fans: 16 cuts deep and full of intelligence, fire and warmth.

Beats-per-minute-wise, the album mostly clocks at a comfortable strutting pace, bolstered by Pete Rock’s pioneering use of filtered basslines and a recently-hatched obsession with Rhodes piano. The new tracks filled speakers and headphones with soul, as CL continued to assert his lyrical prowess all throughout. The lead single, “I Got A Love,” is a perfect example of the group’s ‘94 steez: a super-catchy and respectful, but far-from-soft love track, suitable for any rap fan’s romantic needs. “Take You There” and “Carmel City” cover similar ground. Considering CL Smooth’s top-level brag rapper status, cuts like “I Get Physical,” “Get On The Mic” and “Check It Out” effectively reminded competitors not to test him. Pete also gets in the game on the mic several times on the album, acquitting himself nicely (and solo) on the cloudy day soul of “Escape,” alongside other cuts. Add more pensive lyrical forays like “All The Places,” “Searching,” and – perhaps the album’s sleeper cut – “It’s On You” and you have one of the more complete rap full-lengths of the mid-1990s. This isn’t surprising, considering the wonder twins-esque skills of Pete and CL. But it does make fans wonder what would have happened if they had stayed together longer

TRACK LISTING

A1. In The House
A2. Carmel City
A3. I Get Physical
A4. Sun Won’t Come Out

B1. I Got Love
B2. Escape
B3. The Main Ingredient
B4. Worldwide

C1. All The Places
C2. Tell Me
C3. Take You There
C4. Searching

D1. Check It Out
D2. In The Flesh
D3. It’s On You
D4. Get On The Mic

BUFFET LUNCH are a Scottish group who make it their mission to craft satisfyingly imperfect pop songs filled with imagery and humour.The group’s elementary parts are Perry O’Bray (Vocals/Keys/Guitar), Neil Robinson (Bass), John Muir (Lead Guitar) & Luke Moran (Drums), united by a shared love of music on the ABBA-to-Beefheart axis.

These four ricochet between Glasgow and Edinburgh, creating music that bristles with DIY spirit and upbeat wonkiness. Their tracks are vigorous excursions, meandering into clattersome terrain as often as hiking up into the breezy, melodious foothills.The desire to lead the listener along a curious tale helps tie things together, showcasing a lyrical playfulness that pins down their puzzle of sound.

Having been an active band for a few years, playing regularly north of the border with like-minds such as Irma Vep, Robert Sotelo and Kaputt, Buffet Lunch spent early 2020 working on the follow-up to their two EPs on Permanent Slump.The fruits from such labour bore out as the band’s debut album ‘ThePower of Rocks’, out may 7th on Upset The Rhythm.

‘ThePower of Rocks’ was recorded in a Crofters cottage/studio on the banks of Upper Loch Fyne in Argyll, over four nights and five days at the beginning of March 2020, before Covid-19 made itself such an ongoing concern. Back then four people could occupy the same space and make music, lunch and dinner together. Days fell into a pattern of long sessions and long meals.The album came together as a luminous mix of Buffet Lunch’s live chestnuts, some sparky recent songs and some new material entirely written and recorded in situ. All tracks were recorded by Neil Robinson acting as the in-house engineer.

As the seriousness of the virus and talk of national lockdowns developed - there was a feeling of anticipation more than fear in the air, but being holed up in cottage in a wild corner of Scotland surrounded by snowy mountains still took on an apocalyptic feel, albeit an apocalypse where the band were safe and overdubbing vocals. After leaving the cottage, reality (as it must) set in and finishing the album became a more remote task.

Over the following months, an extended period of listening awarded the recordings a deeper realisation, as they bounced between band members computers. Perry also started writing on his Casio keyboard and collaborated on a couple of songs (‘Ten Times’ & ‘Ashley’s New Haircut’) with Jayne Dent (of electronic music project Me Lost Me), drawing on her ethereal singing voice as a counterpoint to his own more ‘spoken’ vocals on the album. These gauzy, dreamlike tracks were then sent to other members of Buffet Lunch to add their respective parts, creating evocative new dimensions to close each half of the album with.

The Power of Rocks’ rattles along like a short-story collection, exploring a variety of narratives. When it comes to the music itself, Perry describes their approach as “see what happens” but admits to a preference for simple synth melodies, plenty of percussion, and prickly guitar-parts. ‘Red Apple’ opens the album with a dizzy swagger, guitars and keyboard notes swirling in forays whilst its lyric tackles notions of social bravado. ‘Orange Peel’ follows equally serpentine with its blattering tune and jagged, yet jolly melodic twists.The themes across the album are wide-ranging and personal, from irritation with out of touch politicians (‘Pebbledash’), to love letters to seaside living (‘Bladderwrack’), to even the frailty and confusion of old age (‘Said Bernie’, ‘It Helps to Know’). Title track ‘ThePower of Rocks’ is an ode to the power of nature sunk within a rolling wave of cheery jangle. “Do you believe in the power of rocks when the sun is too hot on your face?” sings Perry as the song zigzags with consequence. ‘He Wore Two Hats’ sports similarly bop-worthy riffs and addictive nods as it deals with its story of savvy man who’d bitten off more than he could chew.

Buffet Lunch’s debut album accomplishes a lot in its brief 38 minutes. It stuns and startles, intrigues and entwines, drawing the listener further into its characterful world. When asked about any intent posed with this debut record Perry confides that “we hope people can hear the joy the band had making the album and the curiosity and frustration that went into the writing. There was no process or design, but there is detail, and deliberateness in our wish to explore and create.” It’s this attentive focus alongside a keen sense of humour that really sets Buffet Lunch apart, with ideas darting wilfully to and from the poignant truths at hand.

TRACK LISTING

01. Red Apple
02. Orange Peel
03. Pebbledash
04.ThePower Of Rocks
05. Bladderwrack
06. Ten Times
07. Looking At Liz Talent’s Chair
08. Said Bernie
09. Helps To Know (Time Moves)
10. He Wore Two Hats
11. Ashley’s New Haircut

“Instead of landscape sketches I wanted to go into more personal areas of my reality,” says Jim Ghedi of his third album In The Furrows Of Common Place. “To hold up certain aspects of society that were laying bare in front of me.”

Whilst Ghedi’s previous idiosyncratic take on folk has often been instrumental, exploring the natural world and his relationship to it through his music as seen on 2018's A Hymn For Ancient Land. His new album In The Furrow Of Common Place is a deeper plunge inside himself to offer up more of his voice to accompany his profoundly unique and moving compositions. “There were things I was seeing around me and being affected by in my daily life,” he says. “Socially and politically I saw defiance but also hopelessness. I wanted to be honest with the frustration and turmoil I was experiencing.”

The decision to include more of Ghedi’s vocals was a conscious one and driven by a need to say something. However, this isn’t a brash raging political polemic. As is now customary with Ghedi’s work, it is rich in nuance, history, poetry and allegory. Musically, the album is equally locked into this ongoing sense of evolution. Ghedi’s intricate yet deft guitar playing still twists and flows its way through the core, weaving in and out of gliding double bass, sweeping violin, gentle percussion and vocals that shift from tender solos to overlapping harmonies.

As with much of Ghedi’s work, there’s a rich connection between the past and the current. Musically, he continues to sit in a singular position of sounding distinctly contemporary yet also with a touch of traditional flair. This expands itself into the lyrical terrain here too. “I've been exploring contemporary issues and in that process discovering sources that correlate with similar issues in the past,” he says. “Which proves that these issues throughout history - environmental destruction, working class poverty etc - are ongoing.”

For all the socio-political and historical backdrop to the record it is not one that feels overwhelmed by it. Much like Ghedi’s work when it was largely instrumental - and some of it still is here - it flows and unfurls thoughtfully, with space still being utilised masterfully, creating room to pause and reflect. It’s another inimitable record from an artist that truly sounds like nobody else right now. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: An intoxicating mix of traditional folk, hazy psychedelia and classic rock progressions all enriched with Ghedi's distinctive vocal affectations. It's a heady and transportive affair, and one that will reward richly on repeated listens. Gorgeous.

TRACK LISTING

1. Common Thread
2. The Lamentations Of Round Oak Waters
3. Mytholm
4. Stolen Ground
5. Ah Cud Hew
6. Beneath The Willow
7. Beneath The Willow Part II
8. Son David

Break-outs of individual LPs from the half-speed master boxset “Studio Albums Vinyl Collection 1971-2016”.

Packaging has been simplified from the originals in the box set.

Every album was remastered & cut at revelatory Half-Speed at Abbey Road Studios from vinyl specific original tape transfers designed to get the very best possible sound from the format.

Each album is pressed on heavyweight 180-gram black vinyl.

Originally released in 1974, now remastered & cut at revelatory Half-Speed at Abbey Road Studios from vinyl specific original tape transfers designed to get the very best possible sound from the format.

Pressed on heavyweight 180g black vinyl, this album features the singles ‘It’s Only Rock ‘N’ Roll (But I Like It)’ and ‘Ain’t Too Proud To Beg’.

TRACK LISTING

Side A

If You Can't Rock Me
Ain't Too Proud To Beg
It's Only Rock 'n' Roll (But I Like It)
Till The Next Goodbye
Time Waits For No One

Side B

Luxury
Dance Little Sister
If You Really Want To Be My Friend
Short And Curlies
Fingerprint File

Beloved Scottish band, The Yummy Fur, are releasing a 14-track ‘best of’ album, Piggy Wings, on Glasgow's Rock Action Records. Singer / guitarist, John McKeown, fronted the band from their 1992 inception (scores of cartoon melodies under a minute long delivered at high velocity) until their demise in 1999. Along the way they recorded three albums: Night Club (1996), Male Shadow at Three O'Clock (1998) and Sexy World (1999). Firm favourites of John Peel, they recorded two sessions for the much revered DJ and regularly featured on his show.

TRACK LISTING

1. Department
2. Plastic Cowboy
3. In The Company Of Women
4. Kirsty Cooper
5. The Canadian Flag
6. Roxy Girls
7. Sexy World
8. Policeman
9. St John Of The Cross
10. The Career Saver
11. Supermarket
12. Colonel Blimp
13. Chinese Bookie
14. Death Club

The Black Keys’ long-awaited ninth studio album, “Let’s Rock”, their first in five years, is a return to the straightforward rock of the singer/guitarist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney’s early days as a band. Auerbach says, “When we’re together we are The Black Keys, that’s where that real magic is, and always has been since we were sixteen.” 

“Let’s Rock” was written, tracked live, and produced by Auerbach and Carney at Easy Eye Sound studio in Nashville and features backing vocals from Leisa Hans and Ashley Wilcoxson. “The record is like a homage to electric guitar,” says Carney. “We took a simple approach and trimmed all the fat like we used to.”

Rolling Stone named ‘Lo/Hi’ a “Song You Need to Know” and said, ‘the Keys have officially returned, louder than ever’ and the New York Times calls the song ‘the kind of garage-boogie stomp that the band never left behind.’ In the words of the NME, ‘It’s the soundtrack to the type of party that doesn’t exist anymore, but one you still wish you were cool enough to get the invite to.’

Formed in Akron, Ohio in 2001, The Black Keys have released eight studio albums: their debut The Big Come Up (2002), followed by Thickfreakness (2003) and Rubber Factory (2004), along with their releases on Nonesuch Records, Magic Potion (2006), Attack & Release (2008), Brothers (2010), El Camino (2011), and, most recently, Turn Blue (2014). The band has won six Grammy Awards and headlined festivals including Coachella, Lollapalooza, and Governors Ball.

Since their last album together, both Auerbach and Carney have been creative forces behind a number of wide-ranging artists:
Dan Auerbach formed the Easy Eye Sound record label, named after his Nashville studio, in 2017, with the release of his second solo album, Waiting on a Song. Since its launch, Easy Eye Sound has become home to a wide range of artists including Yola, Shannon & The Clams, Dee White, Shannon Shaw, Sonny Smith, Robert Finley, and The Gibson Brothers; it also has released the posthumous album by Leo Bud Welch as well as previously unreleased material by Link Wray.

Patrick Carney has produced and recorded new music with artists such as Calvin Johnson, Michelle Branch, Damns of the West, Tobias Jesso, Jr., Jessy Wilson, Tennis, *repeat repeat, Wild Belle, Sad Planets, Turbo Fruits, and more. He also created the theme music for the Netflix TV show BoJack Horseman with his late uncle, Ralph Carney.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Having always epitomised the fuzzy groove-led party vibe, it's no surprise that their latest is the most danceable and head-nodding instalment yet, but here it is. Bluesy, sleazy and heavy but crisp and beautifully presented. Black Keys do it again!

TRACK LISTING

1. Shine A Little Light
2. Eagle Birds
3. Lo/Hi
4. Walk Across The Water
5. Tell Me Lies
6. Every Little Thing
7. Get Yourself Together
8. Sit Around And Miss You
9. Go
10. Breaking Down
11. Under The Gun
12. Fire Walk With Me

Run Around The Sun is the follow-up to Strike A Match, Sacred Paws' SAY Award winning debut. It includes the previously shared ‘Brush Your Hair’, an infectiously fun listen. The album will appeal to fans of their previous work plus fans of Shopping, Girl Ray and Aldous Harding.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: In keeping with their superb LP from 2017, Sacred Paws have crafted a brilliantly nuanced but hugely listenable combination of jangling indie-pop, driven post-rock atmospherics and angular punky attitude. Completely brilliant, once again.

TRACK LISTING

1 The Conversation
2 Almost It
3 Life's Too Short
4 Shame On Me
5 What's So Wrong
6 How Far
7 Is This Real
8 Write This Down
9 Brush Your Hair
10 Other Side

STAFF COMMENTS

Mine says: Primal Scream probably don't need an introduction but if you think they do, you should get this record and play it to death. Andy and I certainly will (much to the annoyance of everyone else in the shop...)!

TRACK LISTING

CD 1
1 Velocity Girl
2 Gentle Tuesday
3 Imperial
4 Ivy Ivy Ivy
5 Loaded
6 Come Together
7 Higher Than The Sun
8 Don't Fight It, Feel It
9 Movin' On Up
10 Rocks
11 Jailbird
12 (I'm Gonna) Cry Myself Blind
13 Kowalski
14 Star
15 Burning Wheel
16 Swastika Eyes
17 Kill All Hippies

CD 2
18 Accelerator
19 Miss Lucifer
20 Autobahn 66
21 Some Velvet Morning (with Kate Moss)
22 Country Girl
23 Dolls (Sweet Rock And Roll)
24 Sometimes I Feel So Lonely
25 Can't Go Back
26 Uptown (Weatherall Mix )
27 2013
28 It's Alright, It's OK
29 Goodbye Johnny
30 Where The Light Gets In (with Sky Ferreira)
31 100% Or Nothing

Vinyl
VOL 1 A
1 Velocity Girl
2 Gentle Tuesday
3 Imperial
4 Ivy Ivy Ivy
5 Loaded

VOL 1 B
6 Come Together
7 Higher Than The Sun
8 Don't Fight It, Feel It
9 Movin' On Up

VOL 1 C
10 Rocks
11 Jailbird
12 (I'm Gonna) Cry Myself Blind
13 Kowalski

VOL 1 D
14 Star
15 Burning Wheel
16 Swastika Eyes
17 Kill All Hippies

VOL 2 A
18 Accelerator
19 Miss Lucifer
20 Autobahn 66
21 Some Velvet Morning (with Kate Moss)

VOL 2 B
22 Country Girl
23 Dolls (Sweet Rock And Roll)
24 Sometimes I Feel So Lonely

VOL 2 C
25 Can't Go Back
26 Uptown (Weatherall Mix)
27 2013
28 It's Alright, It's OK

VOL 2 D
29 Goodbye Johnny
30 Where The Light Gets In (with Sky Ferreira)
31 100% Or Nothing

London-based psychedelic stalwarts Josefin Öhrn + The Liberation are proud to reveal their third album 'Sacred Dreams' for Rocket Recordings. Continuing to dive into the deeper waters of experimentation, ‘Sacred Dreams’ is both a musically hefty amalgamation of reverb drenched space-rock and retro centric electronics, as well as an emotionally cathartic release for the band, marking a new direction and fresh approach.

Since their critically acclaimed album 'Mirage' was released, Josefin and writing partner Fredrik have relocated from Stockholm to London and have created a new Liberation around them - this new band consists of the powerful and intuitive assemblage of musicians; Maki (Go Team), Patrick C Smith (Eskimo Chain), Matt Loft (Lola Colt) and Ben Ellis, who’s worked with both Iggy Pop and Swervedriver. ‘Sacred Dreams’ was largely recorded at Press Play Studios (King Krule, Fat White Family, Yves Tumor, Stereolab, High Llamas and many others) run by Andy Ramsay of Stereolab, who also produced and even programmed his non synced drum machines adding a lot of inspiration to the album.

‘Scared Dreams’ invites you into the bands own dimensional soundscape, a world built with transcendental guitars, driving grooves and otherworldly, enchanting vocals, altogether seeped in layers of blissfully produced synths. Opener and lead single ‘Feel The Sun’ encapsulates this new direction perfectly before the anthemic ‘I Can Feel It’ makes the bands intentions known. Elsewhere playful 80s electronics sit alongside a shoegaze sensibility effortlessly and amongst the textured flow of the LP emerge pop hooks like the infectiously bluesy ‘Baby Come On’.

Josefin tells us “This album comes out of a period of heartbreak, loss and dissolution, but also of deep love, warmth and beauty unveiled in the middle of it. A sacred dream, the way we see it, is not necessarily a golden fluffy cloud river, but instead also contains all the shadows that need to be seen and felt in order to drop what has to go in order to truly live. And the dissonance of such a dream may not be immediately apparent, let alone the meaning of it. In a way all of these tracks seem to emanate from that place where we have almost reached a new shore, or maybe we missed it and are headed somewhere else entirely, but there’s no way of telling until afterwards.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Mine says: After the experimental krautrock LP ‘Horse Dance’ (2015) and the pulsing psychedelia on shop-favourite ‘Mirage’ (2016), London-based Swedes Josefin Öhrn + The Liberation return with their most diverse album to date, showcasing a variation of sounds, including, but not limited to, 80s synths, trippy, reverb-laden guitars and dreamy, 60s inspired pop. ‘Sacred Dreams’, which was written during a ”period of heartbreak, loss and dissolution”, is less of a sonic journey than its predecessors and instead seems to show that Josefin and her band don’t want to be confined to a particular genre. After opening with the electronic and motorik dance tracks “Feel The Sun”; “I Can Feel It” and “Desire” the Spiritualized-esque “Hey Little Boy”, the transcendental “Only Lovers” and the blues stomper “Baby Come On” lead the album into a hazier, mellower and more psychedelic direction.

TRACK LISTING

01/ Feel The Sun
02/ Honey Slumber
03/ I Can Feel It
04/ Desire
05/ Hey Little Boy
06/ Only Lovers
07/ Baby Come On
08/ New Horizons
09/ Caramel Head
10/ Let It Come
11/ Whatever You Want
12/ Floating Away

Recorded live in November 2018 on a 5-date tour of England, the album features new and intimate stripped-back arrangements of album tracks as Aidan & Hubby are joined for the first time by violinist and vocalist Jenny Reeve. It also includes completely reworked versions of Party On and Wolves of the Wood, the latter being a particular highlight for the band: "As we walked on stage, we decided to ask the audience in Oxford to join us for the new version of Wolves and howl as best they could all through the song – they were brilliant and it turned out lovely, and it's probably my favourite track of ours we've ever released," says Aidan. There's also a cover of Rosalie Allen's post-war anti-fascist song Hitler Lives, while the album ends with Car Song, the first track the duo wrote together back in 2012. Available on heavyweight clear vinyl with download code.

“Nitro. Astro. Boogeyman from space. My name is Sonny Smith. This is a Sonny And The Sunsets recording. We started a label. Rocks in Your Head Records, named after a record shop I used to spend time in, in Soho New York two decades ago that uplifted me in a way only old record stores can. The first release is this record, Hairdressers From Heaven. We are going to put out some records that would end up in that old store. Some weird bands, some fictional bands, some real bands. San Francisco has taken hits. Clubs have closed. Artists have left. People have made eulogies— this is something up which we cannot put! There are good bands in this city. There are great artists making bizarre shit. There are underground happenings. There are secret shows. There are artists in the streets duking it out with Nazis. Shit is going down. The corporate bulldozers ran through the city and they are still driving around demolishing the place. These tanks are called Death and they bring a foul stench. I don’t mean maybe the city will drift into a long sleep with a hollow snore. Humbly, this label is our version of throwing nails at the tank tires.” —Sonny Smith

A double CD of wild and irreverent music as preferred by The Cramps’ Lux and Ivy. A vintage splattering of thunderous rock ‘n’ roll, deranged teen pop, juvenile delinquent idealism, ridiculous new dance trends, jump blues, demented rockabilly and simply strange instrumentals. Covering high school etiquette, sensually transmitted rock ‘n’ roll fever, angst and radicalism via plenty of maniacal performances, Destination Crampsville is a steamy sax-powered assault on the senses begging the question – how did these three minute salvo’s ever get thought up. Featuring The Ikettes, Little Eva, Tiny Bradshaw and Bobby Parker amid the oddball Don Eee (real name!), Guitar Gable and the wonderful Gin Gilette; it’s a cavalcade of rare and rambunctious tunes. Also includes several indecipherable lyrical excursions. Remastered from the original sound sources with sleevenotes by MOJO magazine’s Dave Henderson

TRACK LISTING

Disc One:
1. CHICKEN ROCK – Scott Wood And His Band
2. SHE CAN ROCK – Little Ike
3. BIG FOOT – Googie Rene
4. BLACK SAXS – Danny Zella And His Zell Rocks
5. CHEROKEE DANCE – Bob Landers With Willie Joe & His Unitar
6. HEAD-HUNTER – Johnny Otis
7. CONGO MOMBO – Guitar Gable And The Musical Kings
8. CERTAINLY ALL – Eddie Jones (Guitar Slim)
9. THE TINGLE – Jackie Weaver
10. JOHNNY GET ANGRY – Shelley Fabares
11. WYATT EARP – The Marquees
12. FLIP, FLIP – The Vons
13. THE SPOOK – Pete Drake
14. STRANGE ENCHANTMENT – Leo Diamond’s Orchestra
15. KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF MY BABY – Little Eva
16. MYSTERIOUS TEENAGE – The Vels (with The Tim Whittset Imperials)
17. WADLLE, WADDLE – The Bracelets
18. I’M BLUE (THE GONG GONG SONG) – The Ikettes
19. LITTLE JOE – Jack Day
20. CHILI WITH HONEY – Danny Bell And The Bell Hops
21. NATIVE – Bob Callaway & The Chicks
22. THE ROACH – Gene & Wendell (With The Sweethearts)
23. GUMBO MAMBO – The Larke Sisters With Freddie Johnson And His Orchestra
24. SHE’LL NEVER LET HIM GO – Gin Gillette
25. LOVE SLAVE – Bart Mattson
26. KOKO JOE – Don And Dewey

Disc Two:
1. SHE’S MINE – Johnnie Strickland
2. THE GORILLA WALK – Sascha Burland
3. ROCK & ROLL FEVER – Gene Ray
4. STOP AT THE HOP – Don Eee
5. ARROW OF LOVE – The Six Teens (featuring Trudy Williams)
6. SUGAR GIRL – Sonny Til’s Orioles
7. SKIN TIGHT – The Basil Kirchin Band
8. HARDTOP RACE – George Stogner
9. I GOT SCHOOL – Scott Miller
10. SMOOCHIN’ IN THE SEWER WITH LOUIE – The Empalas
11. CRAZY BILLBOARD SONG – The Miller Sisters
12. CRAZY TALK – The Loafers
13. COOL IT – The Mad Plaids
14. HIDE ‘N’ GO SEEK, PARTS 1&2 – Bunker Hill
15. THE TRAIN KEPT A-ROLLIN’ – Tiny Bradshaw
16. WATCH YOUR STEP – Bobby Parker
17. THE BIRD – The Dutones
18. THE CAT – Rod Willis
19. MR WERE-WOLF – The Kac-Ties
20. BLOOD RARE – The Mad Plaids
21. WOMEN AND CADILLACS – The Nite Riders
22. WILD KISSES – Hal Hooper (with Danny Goul And His Quintette)
23. PRIMITIVE LOVE – Tom Reeves
24. I’M BUGGIN OUT, LITTLE BABY – Donny Lee Moore
25. YOU YUM YUM YITTY YITTY YEA – The Dodd Sisters
26. TRAIN TO SATANVILLE – Gin Gillette

Born in Cabbagetown, Georgia, the Rock*A*Teens carved their signature echo-wrapped, wounded-heart music on the edges of the Atlanta music scene more than 20 years ago. Led by songwriter and lead singer/guitarist Christopher Lopez, the band released a handful of reverb-drenched singles and full-lengths on the independent Daemon and Merge labels in the late '90s and early 2000s. Following their reunion at the Merge 25 festival and the reissue of their last LP Sweet Bird of Youth (Merge, 2000), the group returned to touring and playing live. Restless with the need to move forward, the band began writing and recording new music. Guided by a batch of home recordings and demos, Lopez, guitarist Justin Hughes, bassist William R. Joiner, and drummer Ballard Lesemann convened with Tim Delaney at Electron Gardens Studio and Rafael Pereira at Tribo Studios to shape their ideas into the glorious, bombastic new album Sixth House.

These days, Lopez and the R*A*Ts are turning towa rds a more refined approach to recording and performance while preserving their distinctly unvarnished lyrical and musical perspective. "In the past we hid behind walls of reverb, noise, production tricks," Lopez says. "We wanted these particular songs to stand in the light." On Sixth House, the gauze is removed—the anthems are illuminated, the ballads are clear-eyed, and the stories are in sharp focus. Mixed by Pereira and engineer Spencer Willis and mastered by Bob Weston at Chicago Mastering Service, the album features artwork by NYC photographer Chris Verene. Sixth House stands out as the band’s most musically distinct, vibrant, and soulfully rendered album of its career. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Billy Really 
2. Lady Macbeth
3. Turn And Smile
4. Go Tell Everybody
5. Baby’s On To Me
6. Closest To Heaven 
7. Count In Odd Numbers
8. Lost In Sound, Listen
9. Sonny Boy
10. Crystal Skies.

Fans of all good music to come out of Scotland will be familiar with the name Aidan Moffat. A stalwart of Glasgow, one half of Arab Strap & Scottish Album of the Year winner among many other accolades joins fellow SAY Award winner and Chemikal Underground label mate RM Hubbert for this new album, this time out on Mogwai's Rock Action Records. The album features guest appearances from fellow Glaswegian Siobhan Wilson, who sings and plays cello (and who released her own There Are No Saints album last year to great acclaim); Louisville, Kentucky’s Rachel Grimes on piano; and veteran jazz saxophonist John Burgess.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A new one from Moffat and Hubbert is never going to disappoint, but this one is thoroughly transcendent. Stunning folk flourishes, off-kilter syncopated rhythms and simmering,loungey woodwind. Stunner.

Mamuthones may have originally taken their name from the death-masks used in rituals in their native Sardinia, and initially emerged from the Italian occult psychedelic movement alongside the likes of Father Murphy, Mai Mai Mai and their labelmates Lay Llamas. Yet now, in the wake of their Rocket Recordings debut album ‘Fear On The Corner’, the band find themselves undergoing a metamorphosis from mystical and ceremonial realms into a direct connection with the everyday, the personal and the political.

This vibrant reinvention also sees Mamuthones transcending their roots in Italian prog and soundtrack work and shifting their modus operandi firmly in the direction of a distinctly New York-based headspace - a realm of mirrorballs and black-clad basements both As the band’s Alessio Gastaldello tells it, this is a groove-based. eclectic style that finds its metier in the realm of two albums which are paid direct homage in the record’s very title - the bleak and kinetic ‘Fear Of Music’ by Talking Heads and the iconoclastic, heat-haze repetition of Miles Davis’ ‘On The Corner’. “The songs deal with fear.” he clarifies. “Fear of the present, of human situations, fear of the new political situation, but also fear of relationship breakdown, fear of not finding “a place in the world”, fear of fear itself”

Yet this is principally an aural landscape whereby the eclectic mischief of ZE Records, the sonic brinksmanship of ‘Tago Mago’ era Can and the post-punk songwriting flair of LCD Soundystem can happily form communion in a post-2AM reverie. “it is a big dance party for very sad events” clarifies Alessio, on the disparity between the serious nature of this record’s subject matter and its distinctly hedonistic atmosphere. “We are a kind of Titanic orchestra playing and dancing while the ship goes down. The party must go on

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Sitting comfortably between the art-rock angularity of Devo and the spoken word aesthetic and visceral drive of Sleaford Mods (as well as the already mentioned Talking Heads and Miles Davis influences). Mamuthones manage to take us through a tour of a wide variety of impeccably absorbed influences without sounding like any of them. Fascinating and ultimately brilliant weirdo rock.

TRACK LISTING

01/Cars (4:47)
02/Show Me (4:53)
03/Fear On The Corner (5:34)
04/The Wrong Side (5:27)
04/Alone(8:11)
04/Simon Choule (4:45)
04/Here We Are (10:08)

Fresh off the back of a sell-out spring tour celebrating the 10 year anniversary of the bands much lauded third album 'Men's Needs, Women's Needs, What-ever' (which saw them headline their largest show to date at Leeds First Direct Arena), The Cribs are excited to announce the impending release of their new record '24-7 Rock Star Shit' on the 11th of August 2017.

Recorded live to tape in just 5 days by venerated underground engineer Steve Albini (Nirvana, Shellac, Pixies) '24-7 Rock Star Shit' marks a return to the bands early roots with it's raw, rough-around-the-edges approach and sonic aggression. Originally conceived during recording sessions for the bands fifth album 'In The Belly Of The Brazen Bull' these recordings were elevated to qua-si-mythical status amongst the bands famously dedicated fan-base, with ex-citement building for a "punk album" flipside to 2015's more pop-leaning 'For All My Sisters'. Originally intended as an EP, once sessions were completed the band found that they had recorded enough material for an album and decided it should be released that way instead - "That approach just really suits us, we were just having too much fun I guess" laughs the band.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Is there anything that Steve Albini can't do?! This is the second thing (that I know of) produced by him in as many weeks.. and this time round, it's a rawkous chug-a-thon from legendary rockers, The Cribs. Snarling vox, blazing riffage and more twists than that twirly pasta, it's a riot.

TRACK LISTING

1. Give Good Time
2. Year Of Hate
3. In Your Palace
4. Dendrophobia
5. What Have You Done For Me?
6. Sticks Not Twigs
7. Rainbow Ridge
8. Partisan
9. Dead At The Wheel
10. Broken Arrow

Chain & The Gang are different than the rest—you won’t see their name on the garbage heap of hyped bands pushed by paidoff web-zine tastemakers. They’re not “jingle-core,” tattooed onto your subconscious via Madison Avenue mind-control ad campaigns. They’re not middle brow NPR indie-listening for Prius-owning cubicle rockers or a tiresome teenage retread of ’90s surrender sludge. No, Chain & The Gang are singular, terrifying, and unparalleled. Not only the most ferocious live combo ever witnessed but also the world’s only anti-liberty rock ’n’ roll group. Their motto? “Down with Liberty … Up with Chains!”

This band doesn’t care about grades, likes, traffic or hits. They don’t petition publicists for goofy hype or pander to the corrupt institutions who molest rock ’n’ roll and use it as their plaything. Chain & Co. don’t play that game. They want total destruction of the insipid rock ’n’ roll status quo and the foul system from which it purports to offer relief, but in fact keeps afloat. They’ve released five uncompromising records, each one a brilliant, tossed-off sketchbook of insolence and provocation: Down with Liberty … Up With Chains!, Music’s Not For Everyone, In Cool Blood, Minimum Rock ’n’ Roll, and Experimental Music.

Now only one is needed: Best Of Crime Rock. Just recorded, it’s easily the best record, with the most passion, the most accuracy, the most cunning, and the most vigor. Every song on these records is a classic, each lyric an anthem. The tunes are simplistic to the point of parody; call and response rhythm chants which infiltrate the consciousness and leave the listener forever transformed. Each group member is a star. But together they’re something greater than the parts. An irresistible combo that provides the best hope for the future and the only answer to the embarrassing slime pit called “culture.”

TRACK LISTING

1. Devitalize
2. Certain Kinds Of Trash
3. Why Not?
4. The Logic Of Night
5. I See Progress
6. What Is A Dollar?
7. Mums The Word
8. Free Will
9. Come Over
10. Livin Rough
11. Nuff Said
12. Deathbed Confession

Josh Ritter is the definition of an experienced songwriter. After graduating from Oberlin College in 1999 Ritter devoted his life to a songwriting career, releasing albums independently and garnering word-of-mouth popularity. He eventually caught the attention of Irish-songwriter Glen Hansard (writer of the song “Falling Slowly” from the movie Once) and was invited to be the tour opener for his band The Frames. This then resulted in Josh gaining international success, with his third record “Hello Starling”, becoming a charting hit in Ireland. His songs have been featured on the TV show Parenthood, and in movies like The Other Woman and Typeface. Josh Ritter has so far released 7 studio albums, is an author, husband, father, and is considered one of the best living songwriters by Paste Magazine.

Afrika Bambaataa & Soul Sonic Force “Planet Rock” 12-inch re-issue on glow-in-the-dark vinyl (Limited edition of 1982 copies) B-Boy anthem from 1982 lights up any dancefloor…literally! First time ever on glow-in-the-dark vinyl! Fresh off Bambaataa’s historic donation of his vinyl collection to the Cornell University Hip-Hop Collection and the Fall 2014 “Renegades of Rhythm” tour by DJ Shadow & Cut Chemist celebrating his unparalleled contribution to hip-hop, Get On Down celebrates the song for which the Godfather of Hip-Hop is best known: 1982’s “Planet Rock,” a Kraftwerk-meets-Bronx-B-Boy anthem. Renowned the world over as a never-fail floor-filler, this new 12-inch pressing of the single is pressed on glow-in-the-dark vinyl for the first time ever. Although Bambaataa may have gotten top-billing on the release, it was a team effort, with crucial contributions by a team including DJ Jazzy Jay, Afrika Islam, Arthur Baker, John Robie, a Roland TR-808 drum machine (aka Planet Patrol) and of course MCs Mr. Biggs, G.L.O.B.E. and Pow Wow. This edition is housed in a clear, custom-embossed Get On Down poly-bag to let the glow show through.

Brand new studio album from Remember Remember, following on from their Scottish Album Of The Year shortlisted ‘The Quickening’ (2011).

"Forgetting The Present shares all the essential DNA of its precursors; thick waves of emotive guitars, piano and synth are punctuated by lovely melodic through-lines and delicate trickles at the top end that, in their fragility, make the big sounds even bigger. But each element feels more in-synch than ever before, from the chilly, Tubular Bells-referencing flow of opener “Blabbermouth” to the final strains of echoing electronics on “Frozen Frenzy”, the distant but soothing lullaby that closes the album." - Best Of Line Fit.

Recorded in Glasgow at Castle Of Doom Studios by Tony Doogan (Belle & Sebastian, Mogwai, The Pastels, The Delgados, Super Furry Animals) and mastered at Abbey Road by Frank Arkwright (Mogwai, Johnny Marr, Rudimental, Arcade Fire), ‘Forgetting The Present’ will be released on CD, heavy pressed gatefold double LP and digital download via Mogwai’s Rock Action Records label.

“Nippon Rock’n’Roll” documents the rise of Masaaki Hirao. Dubbed “The Japanese Elvis”, Hirao was one of the famed Rokabirii Sannin Otoko (Three Rockabillies), alongside singers Mickey Curtis and “Kei-chan”, Keijiro Yamashita. In early 1958, the rokabirii buumu (rockabilly boom) was born, the first youth music tribe in the Land Of The Rising Sun.

Rokabirii may resemble US rockabilly, but this Nipponese version is a more varied dish. Hirao and his band’s covers of Eddie Cochran, Elvis Presley and Little Richard are not kitsch renditions, but raw, desperate rockers. Hear a Paul Anka makeover, but put through a rocking mangle; a smattering of jazz; a twist of New Orleans; and some Japanese folk songs with a greased-down quiff. American occupation a distant memory, these boys wanted to party.

Country and hillbilly music was a mainstay of young Japanese musicians working the GI base and jazz café circuit of the 1950s. Following the runaway success of a Japanese cover of ‘Heartbreak Hotel’ (Hirao’s version here has dynamite in its teeth), demand grew for more of this strange, new music. The need was met with a huge gala, the Nichigeki Western Carnival, which showcased the new rokabirii groups to thousands of screaming Japanese teenagers. Wild footage of the concerts, alongside that of burgeoning radical student movements, put fear of a wave of delinquency into the heart of the establishment.

The studio numbers here are hardboiled, with unkempt live recordings that really rock. Tough drums back up honking sax, in a pedal steel pandemonium with slap bass. In the words of Elvis: these guys “get real gone”.

TRACK LISTING

01. Lawdy Miss Clawdy (Live)
02. Itsuki No Komoriuta Rock
03. Hoshi Wa Nandemo Shiteru 2 (Live)
04. Crazy Love (Live)
05. Jailhouse Rock

Side 2
01. Jenny Jenny (Live)
02. Ooh My Soul (Live)
03. One Way Ticket
04. Miyo-chan
05. Blues De Memphis

"Pardon us for living, but the graveyard is full." Or so goes the title of a new documentary film telling the tale of The Fleshtones. While that sentiment is a bit tongue-in-cheek, it's also true. The Fleshtones have been grinding out garage rock before garage rock was even called garage rock, and turning rock clubs like Max's Kansas City into impromptu discos for over 30 years.

While chart hits and magazine covers weren't to be their fate; a reputation as the hardest working, most sincere rock band on the planet was cultivated in the process. The result of that distinction is their new album Brooklyn Sound Solution featuring the legendary Lenny Kaye. In addition to his role as long-time guitarist for Patti Smith, Kaye also curated the seminal garage and psychedelic music compilations Nuggets. Have a problem you can't solve? The Fleshtones offer you a Brooklyn Sound Solution.

TRACK LISTING

Comin’ Home Baby
I Wish You Would
Day Tripper
Bite Of My Soul
You Give Me Nothing To Go On (Instrumental Version)
I Can’t Hide
Solution #1
Rats In My Kitchen
Back Beat #1
You Give Me Nothing To Go On
Solution #2
Lost On Xandu

By day John Stirratt and Patrick Sansone sell thousands of albums and tour the world as members of indie juggernaut Wilco, while lending their writing, playing and producing abilities to dozens of high-profile recordings. But by night these renowned pros are able to sit down, relax and create something special that comes straight from the heart of why they pursued music as a career - and that's the Autumn Defense.

After releasing 2007's The Autumn Defense on their own Broadmoor label, Stirratt and Sansone have teamed up with North Carolina's Yep Roc Records to release their latest full-length effort, "Once Around".

For the past nine years, this pair of Southerners-turned-Chicagoans has quietly been nurturing the reverent, classic pop of the Autumn Defense. Though the outset of the band saw Stirratt handling the bulk of the songwriting while Sansone lent his talents to production, the duo has steadily evolved into a partnership in both respects. From 2000's debut effort "The Green Hour" to the critically lauded, salt-of-theearth folk rock of 2003's "Circles", the Autumn Defense developed its late afternoon kickback sound like a fine wine develops and deepens - with time.

"Once Around" is a formidable tapestry of thoughtful, intricate sunshine wrapped around a core of timeless, experienced songwriting. It's the kind of record that needed to be made, for the audience but also for the artists. The result is a distinctly Autumn Defense record, full of lush melodic textures, invitingly delicate pop arrangements and frequents nods to the AM gold, soul and radio rock that dominated the group's formative years.

Harmony Rockets is a Mercury Rev side project which has been gigging again in New York this year. "Paralyzed Mind of the Archangel Void" consists of ONE track, which runs to 41:40 minutes, recorded live at the Rhinecliff Hotel in upstate New York in 1995. It was initially released in 1995 as a limited edition of 500 copies, then a limited re-release on CD in October 1997 on Big Cat.

The album starts out sweetly enough, then builds and builds, until finally arriving at a sublime conclusion. Said Jonathan: 'Basically, what it is, is most of Mercury Rev, that you see up there (stage), we're trying to kill a Friday night in the mountains, got really wasted and wandered down to a local Civil War bar. Yeah, just made up on the spot'. The line-up for this recording: Jonathan Donahue, Grasshopper, Adam Snyder, Jason Russo, Jimy Chambers, Suzanne Thorpe, Mark Marinoff .

The Sleeping Years is the new project from Dale Grundle, formerly of the Catchers. Now signed to innovative indie-label Rocket Girl, the debut album "We're becoming Islands One By One", is a gorgeous exploration of melody and melancholy. A gifted lyricist, Dale's exquisitely crafted songs tell of people trying to stay connected in a world seemingly designed to keep them apart. He is heavily influenced by the language and culture of his home in Ireland, providing a distinct character to this highly personal collection of songs.

Unlike the minimal acoustic guitar and vocals of his breakthrough "Makers", "The Brag And Cuss" is very much a band record. Featuring a group of exceptionally talented musicians - James McAllister (Sufjan Stevens), Bill Herzog (Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter), Casey Foubert (Pedro the Lion), and Rick Steff (Cat Power, Hank Williams Jr.) - the album ventures at times into the classic country territory of lovers, drinkers and the distant oasis of a truck stop on a stretch of dark highway.

Kaleidoscopic country-rockers The Gourds continue defining their own unique musical genre with "Noble Creatures". 'Gourds music' is by now a generally accepted term that fans and critics alike are forced to use when attempting to describe the effortless blend of American musical forms the band has employed since its birth in Austin in 1992. On "Noble Creatures" songwriters Kevin Russell and Jimmy Smith continue their quirky ramble down the mountain, past dusty delta back porches and through the hanging moss of southwest Louisiana.

Second release in this series of three limited edition EP's from Rises. The five track EP kicks of with "Saved My Skin" with its simple drums pounding a lazy beat and guitars playing intricate rhythms amidst crackles and feedback, all topped with fragile vocals. "The Rock" is a more straight forward fuzzy, lo-fi strummed acoustic song, while "Has It All Come To This" is a huge soaring epic, with heavy guitar reminiscent of Radiohead at their noisiest. On the B-side, "Sunday Nite" is a gentle slowie with strummed acoustics, while "She Told Me" has heavy guitars building and building until they finally reach their peak and sink into a gentle fade out. Stunning!

The word legendary gets bandied around with increasing frequency, but in house music circles that aren't many more worthy of that particular epithet than Larry Heard. The man's forays onto vinyl are ever more occasional since his well-documented withdrawals from the scene, so when an Alleviated 12" comes along it's a big deal in our book. "You Rock Me" conveys all the classic Heard sounds with its gentle tempo, careful textures and understated, old school vocals from Mr Chris. "The Sun Can't Compare" is instantly different, drawing on Mr Fingers acid for a faster and wholly electronic backing with those ageless drum sounds. Originally released back in October 2006, this 12" is one of the most requested records we've had in eons - back again for 2024 they don't get much more timeless than this.

TRACK LISTING

A. You Rock Me
B. The Sun Can't Compare

Local Manchester band that are an unholy alliance of the Warlocks, early Butthole Surfers, Monster Magnet and the Stooges, descibed by the band as 'Motorhead meets the Sex Pistols with a big dose of 70s rock'.

On August 30, 1986, The Cramps played the final night of their 'Date With Elvis' World Tour. The venue was The Galaxy in Auckland, New Zealand. Sleazing it up live, the band rated this their best gig of the whole tour (and it had been a great tour!). After the gig, the sound engineer gave the band a tape he had run off during the concert. Back at their hotel, The Cramps were amazed to discover that the recording was, unusually for these things, of almost studio quality. For a band that had been heavily bootlegged at live gigs, it gave The Cramps the chance to challenge the shoddy sound of the pirate recordings by putting out a top quality official bootleg album of their own. A deal was sorted out with Big Beat's Roger Armstrong and a one drop pressing arranged. There were no promos and the album was never advertised but the pressing of 40,000 copies sold out immediately. The original vinyl album came out on Vengeance, which, in the early days, had been The Cramps label for their first 2 singles. This version of The Cramps (with Lux Interior, Ivy Rorschach, Candy del Mar and Nick Knox) was one of the best and "Rockinnreelininaucklandnewzealandxxx" once again, offers the opportunity to catch one of rock music's greatest bands in scorching form.

TRACK LISTING

Side 1
01 The Hot Pearl Snatch
02 People Ain't No Good
03 What's Inside A Girl
04 Cornfed Dames
05 Sunglasses After Dark

Side 2
01 Heartbreak Hotel
02 Chicken
03 Do The Clam
04 Aloha From Hell
05 Can Your Pussy Do The Dog?
06 Birdfeed