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

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

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

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

TRACK LISTING

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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 limited pink vinyl Record Store Day exclusive 2LP pressing. The remastered 1999 album, which was Strummerís first album release in a decade, is spread over 2 LPís for optimal sound quality, and the original gatefold artwork by Damien Hirst has been meticulously reproduced.

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.

The cheekiest band in the land is back with ROCKMAKER, The Dandy Warhols' 12th studio album.

Produced and recorded by the band at their studio/funhouse The Odditorium in Portland, OR, ROCKMAKER sees the "Bohemian Like You\" hitmakers celebrate their 30th year together with a sprinkle of glitter on their grime. Accompanied by guests Debbie Harry, Slash, and Pixies' Frank Black, The Dandy Warhols wrangle paranoia, untangle anxious discontent, and lust after life while the dance grooves go deeper, heady drones get weirder, and riffage fit for bong rips hammers. ROCKMAKER is the Dandy's clearest statement yet, at no sacrifice to their outre leanings. This is the sound of outsider alt-psych fixtures looking in as the walls come down.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A soaring, grungy maelstrom of riffs and groove from Courtney and co, still very much full of the youthful fire that made them such a household name on the briliant 'Dandy Warhols Come Down'. Brilliantly dynamic, fiery rock and roll.

TRACK LISTING

1. Doomsday Bells 
2. Danzig With Myself (Feat. Black Francis) 
3. Teutonic Wine 
4. The Summer Of Hate 
5. I'd Like To Help You With Your Problem (Feat. Slash) 
6. The Cross / Root Of All Evil 
7. Alcohol And Cocainemarijuananicotine 
8. Love Thyself 
9. Real People 
10. I Will Never Stop Loving You (Feat. Debbie Harry)

The last of the Konduko series from Emotional Rescue arrives now and quite possibly it is the best of the lot from Noel Williams. His 'Fantasy' saw him work with Larry Dermer aka Der Mer on what is an effective and catchy electro jam that operates at the higher end of the tempo chart with some classic vocoder vocal action to really make it pop. Despite being released originally in 1984 this one still bangs with its emulated TR-808 beats and nagging melodies. The instrumental heightens that and then the Jonny Rock Discomix shuts down with long-form rework that shows why the DJ, editor and all-round amiable bloke is so well regarded.

STAFF COMMENTS

Mine says: Just when you thought Emotional Rescue had mined all the King Sporty gold they go an unearth a fresh seam! Jonny Rock's on hand to add to its karat, very nice!

TRACK LISTING

Fantasy
Fantasy (Instrumental)
Fantasy (Jonny Rock Discomix)

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)

Legendary international DJ, Keb Darge, fell under the spell of this music when his Japanese girlfriend forced him to go down to a ‘Rockabilly’ night back in 1989. As soon as the DJ dropped the needle on Johnny Burnette’s ‘Rockabilly Boogie’ Keb was mesmerized. He was soon hunting down the hideously rare top tunes and slipping thousands of pounds into specialist collectors like Boz Boorer’s back pocket, when the legendary guitarist was not recording or touring with Morrissey. Of course, Keb was then taking these records and introducing them to new audiences in his DJ sets worldwide.

Although it has taken an age to persuade him, Keb has now applied his perfectionist compiling skills to pick 14 killers to grace this fantastic collection. Ranging from the bopping Glen Glenn’s ‘Blue Jeans and A Boy’s Shirt’ to the almost hillbilly Jimmy Johnson’s ‘All Dressed Up’. This is a must-have compilation not only for those who have been oiling their quiffs for decades, but also those wondering what this “rockabilly” is all about. Keb drops you in at the deep end with no easy-going fillers, and you’ll be glad he did.

Keb has written the sleeve notes and with cover art by the legendary Robin Banks – this album looks as good as it sounds. 

TRACK LISTING

Side One
1. Blue Jeans And A Boy's Shirt - Glen Glenn
2. The Woman I Love - Gene Terry & His Kool Kats
3. Sweet Love - Orangie Ray Hubbard
4. Jello Sal - Benny Ingram
5. Lonesome Baby Blues - David Ray
6. Do Me No Wrong - Pat Cupp & The Flying Saucers
7. Cool Off Baby - Billy Barrix
Side Two
1. Let's Go Bopping Tonight –
Al Ferrier & His Bopping Billies
2. Jitterbop Baby - Hal Harris
3. Raw Deal - Junior Thompson With The Meteors
4. Nuthin' But A Nuthin' –
Jimmy Stewart & His Nighthawks
5. I'm Doing All Right - Jerry Hanson
6. Where There's A Will (There's A Way) –
Carl Trantham & The Rhythm All Stars
7. All Dressed Up – Jimmy Johnson 

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

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 the early 90s, a number of bands exploring the daring side of guitar pop and rock started to emerge in the UK. Most were new, some included members of 80s groups looking for new directions. They were supported by established independent labels such as Rough Trade and 4AD/Guernica and new ventures like Too Pure or Domino.

Influenced by the legacy of post-punk, minimalism, 70s art rock and a growing electronic scene, their first releases were enthusiastically received by the media. This included a 1994 article in The Wire where journalist Simon Reynolds used the term “post-rock” to refer to some of them: Bark Psychosis, Disco Inferno, Moonshake, Seefeel, Main, Pram, Insides…

Even though these bands didn’t sound alike, they seemed to share an ethos of deconstruction and were interested in the possibilities of studio manipulation. Calling their music post-rock meant that it still had a link with established rock music, even as it picked it apart and made something new from its component parts.

However, 1994 was also the first year when Britpop dominated the UK charts and music press, and the contemporary artists featured on this collection felt their already-small window of exposure shrinking. Still, away from the limelight, they released innovative records that were lauded worldwide and have since acquired cult status.

The second part of the 90s brought a new crop of groups and “bedroom” labels that carried on this forward-thinking attitude to music, unburdened by genre notions and open-minded.

“In The Light Of Time” is the first compilation to survey this period and scene of UK music. If they were released today, these tracks would probably be described as post-punk, art rock or leftfield pop. But beyond any tags or labels, they remain as inventive and captivating as when they first came out.

TRACK LISTING

1. Second Language - Disco Inferno
2. Naturally Occurring Anchors – Spoonfed Hybrid
3. City Poison - Moonshake
4. Every Day Shines (D Mix) - Earwig
5. In The Light Of Time - Flying Saucer Attack
6. Starry Night - Laika
7. Spectra Decay - Main
8. Darling Effect - Insides
9. Loose Threads - Pram
10. A Cheery Wave From Stranded Youngsters - Mogwai
11. In The Event Of Just Looking - Appliance
12. (The) Weight - Hood
13. A Street Scene - Bark Psychosis
14. I Am The Sub-Librarian - Piano Magic
15. Play Away - Electric Sound Of Joy
16. Sun Drawing - Movietone
17. Through You - Seefeel 

Recorded with Andy Miller at Chemikal Underground and mixed by Gareth Jones at Castle Of Doom, ‘The Hawk Is Howling’ saw Mogwai return to a totally instrumental landscape on their sixth studio album. The album features the single ‘Batcat’.

To celebrate the 15th Anniversary of the release, the album is available as a newly remastered 2LP White Vinyl on September 22nd, fifteen years to the day since the album’s original release.

The album was remastered by Frank Arkwright at Abbey Road Studios.

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 

We Are Busy Bodies compiles songs from Murder Of The Universe live from Red Rocks 2022 performances - Part of the Bootlegger Series - On translucent white sparkle vinyl & comes with a 100-piece puzzle with artwork by Jason Galea.

TRACK LISTING

New World
Altered Beast I
Alter Me I
Altered Beast II
Alter Me III 
Altered Beast III
Altered Beast IV
The Lord Of Lightning
The Balrog
Digital
Black
Han- Tyumi
The Confused Cyborg
Soy Protein Munt Machine
Vomit
Coffin
Murder Of The Universe

We Are Busy Bodies compiles tracks from Infest The Rats Nest live from Red Rocks 2022 performances - Part of the Bootlegger Series on glow in the dark green vinyl.

TRACK LISTING

Planet B
Mars For The Rich
Organ Farmer
Venusian 1
Perihilion 
Venusian 2
Self-Immolate
Hell

“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

Rock 'n Roll With The Modern Lovers is the second album released by The Modern Lovers. The band was formed in 1970 by singer, songwriter, and guitarist Jonathan Richman, augmented with Jerry Harrison (keyboards), Ernie Brooks (bass), and David Robinson (drums). Richman's friend John Felice joined them occasionally. Their sound almost totally focusses on the sound from the Fifties. The lo-fi record breathes folky roots music and rock 'n roll as it would sound ages ago. The album features the popular tracks "Ice Cream Man", "Roller Coaster By The Sea", and "Egyptian Reggae". The latter was a cover version of Earl Zero "None Shall Escape The Judgement" and became a UK Top 5 hit.

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

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)

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 intended to be a demo they were planning to send to KRS in 2001 that
was never sent. 20+ years later they shared it and we loved it! Companion piece to their current reissue series. You will not want to miss this piece of history!

TRACK LISTING

1. Happy In Town
2. Diclomax
3. Melmac

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

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

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 Quireboys release a limited run of a totally new re-recorded version of A Bit Of What You Fancy to mark the albums 30th Anniversary - We live in strange times and from the darkness there is a beautifully shining beacon of rock’n’roll light. Our favourite hard-working quartet have been back in the studio re-recording their iconic first album with the current Gypsy Rock n Roll sound of The Quireboys. The new recording will prove to be powerful, inspirational and full of all the quality a modern-day recording can anticipate.

Following the incredible 35 & live show at The O2 Academy Forum London in September 2019, the boys were blown away at how the crowds still respond to the music after 30 years, the atmosphere was electric and hearing the whole crowd singing the timeless tracks cemented that unity between the audience, the band and the music. A Bit Of What You Fancy remains one of the greatest rock albums of all time, loved by fans and critics alike, the singles and many of the album tracks can be heard to this day on rock radio, the music remains timeless and is almost certainly guaranteed to fill the dance floor at any party or rock bar. At the time of release back in 1990 the band managed to score a very respectable Number 2 in the UK Album Charts, this time around they’re gunning for Number 1, everywhere they can.

This is a must for all Quireboys fans worldwide and while this will be available on Vinyl, both will be on limited runs, with a new modern cover. The album will be available on Black Vinyl with a very special Vinyl Collector’s item in Blue Vinyl available too. The Quireboys frontman Spike commented, "It's where it all began, it was an incredible album that launched our careers, but the way we sound n play now doesn't give it the justice it needs. Henceforth, it's been a pleasure updating it to our modern-day Gypsy Rock n Roll Sound. I'm sure everyone will enjoy this new version in all its glory, marking its 30th Anniversary."

TRACK LISTING

1. 7 O’clock
2. Man On The Loose
3. Whippin’ Boy
4. Sex Party
5. Sweet Mary Ann
6. I Don’t Love You Anymore
7. Hey You; Mislead
8. Long Time Comin’
9. Roses And Rings
10. There She Goes Again
11. Take Me Home Tonight

"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

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

Brand new 7” from Leeds' finest! A taster from their next full-length LP due out later in the year Ever been interrogated by the punk rock police? Are you manufactured by a company? Is your band real or plastic? Have you ever paid a thousand quid for a poster? Can the kids be trusted with rock n roll? Answers on side A.

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.

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

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 

“It was before Covid, I had this big free empty studio in the hills, I was supposed to be painting, that was my initial plan, and I just began making songs on an old guitar, songs about being alone, songs about failed men, some dark tales of longing. I was reading some old western paperbacks, and I would go on these walks in the hills, come inside and write these kind of lonesome country songs. Then the pandemic began, and everyone was alone now, and it felt like it had been strangely prescient to write about being alone,” speaks Sonny Smith about the birth of his new record. It sounds like it’s part of a genre that should have happened: a sixties teen country music that merged with sixties pop.

New Day With New Possibilities, the latest “country” offering by Sonny And The Sunsets, is clearly a companion piece to the cult loved third Sunsets release Longtime Companion, the laid back country record which marked the beginning of the Sunsets as an explorative project and not just locked into one sound. New Day With New Possibilities joins with a kind of Michael Hurley homegrown sound but also leaning into Chelsea Girls baroque strings sound as on “Driftin” and “The Lonely Men”. Pedal steel maestro Joe Goldmark lifts the record into Doug Sahm and Buck Owens territory.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Lonely Men
2. Earl & His Girl
3. Ring My Bell
4. Driftin
5. Ride The Dark Trail
6. Love Obsession
7. Just Hangin Out By Myself
8. Keep Talkin Bout You
9. Palm Reader
10. I'm A Leaker
11. I'm A Dog
12. The Letter

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

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

Brand new album from Southend’s Matt Randall, his fourth for the Arlen label in his Plantman guise – following on from ‘To The Lighthouse’, ‘Closer To The Snow’ and the much-lauded ‘Whispering Trees’:

‘Making The Field Mice sound like Modest Mouse’ (The Guardian New Band of The Day)

‘Stands worthy of its forebears’ (4/5 Mojo)

‘English romanticism of the Nick Drake/Bill Fay school’ (7/10 Uncut)

‘Rich in melody…a less caustic Go-Betweens’ (Q)

In Matt’s very own words:
A couple of years back Andy at Arlen asked ‘When are you going to make your pop album?’; I started writing/recording this while Roy (Melodiegroup) was making his record, and we shared studio time and ideas, often just a note here or there, but definitely adding to the process, recognizing the common thread even though our records were heading in slightly contrasting directions. In my head, this was going to be my POP record but I’ve always written far more in winter months, when the melancholy tends to creep in. I allowed myself to be more nostalgic, honing in on distinct memories, and felt at ease in doing so.
I held the immediacy of Michael Head, Magnetic Fields and always Forster and McClennan as touchstones, used the input of Roy and Adam (Radmall) along with John Hannon to help pull it together, and left Amy to come up with more beautiful artwork, continuing the loose theme and identity of the previous Plantman releases.

TRACK LISTING

1. My Sister & Her Books
2. Room Of Flies
3. Animal Homes
4. Oval Time
5. Cold Air And Smoke
6. Candidly
7. High Hopes
8. Days Of The Rocks
9. Viaduct
10. John Clare
11. The Tic
12. With The Human Race
13. Villa Las Malpas

For all intents and purposes, “Her Majesty. . .” could best be described as the charming older brother to the band’s previous outing. And, while being recognizably related to its sibling predecessor, it is an altogether different beast. Present and accounted for are the Victorian literary tropes, the rakish mariners, and the Dickensian downtrodden that slouched their way across the lazer imprinted surface of “Castaways and Cutouts”; in “Her Majesty the Decemberists,” a new cast of characters is introduced as well, giving further depth to the richly bizarre songcraft of the band’s bespectacled leading player, Colin Meloy: an aristocratic Jewess, slumming it blindfolded among the exotic avenues of a Chinese bazaar, the coifed and coked-up bon vivants of greater Los Angeles, the writer Myla Goldberg, and a pair of affectionate soldiers, celebrating their comradery among the mortar blasts and trench mud of World War I Belgium. Musically, the band travels.

TRACK LISTING

Shanty For The Arethusa
Billy Liar
Los Angeles, I’m Yours
The Gymnast, High Above The Ground
The Bachelor And The Bride
Song For Myla Goldberg
The Soldiering Life
Red Right Ankle
The Chimbley Sweep
I Was Meant For The Stage
As I Rise

The album was produced by Dave Fridmann (Mogwai, Mercury Rev, The Flaming Lips) and features guests Atticus Ross (Nine Inch Nails) and Colin Stetson (saxophonist who has collaborated with Bon Ivor, Arcade Fire). Recorded at Vada Studios, England by Tony Doogan (Grey Dogs, Mogwai, Belle & Sebastian) with Fridmann in full remote control from the US. 

This new album will please old fans and gain new as it has something for everyone. Both transcendent and surprising, As The Love Continues shows that Mogwai are still offering solace from the mundane, supplying the soundtrack to whatever movie you are making in your head.

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

“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

Big Joanie - This is the first demo version of Cut Your Hair we recorded. At this time we were thinking about potentially recording an album but weren't sure what to do. Thanks to Chris for giving us the time and space to consider our music in preparation for recording our debut album. Charmpit - Our bassist attended one workshop and then helped record Bad Attitude xoxo Without people looking at their individual and collective resources, and then inviting others to share in them, CHARMPIT would not have existed and thrived. Viva anarchism & solidarity forever, folx!

TRACK LISTING

1. Cut Your Hair (Kluster Rooms Sessions)
2. Bad Attitude (Kluster Rooms Sessions)

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2020 RELEASE AVAILABLE ONLINE ONLY AS PART OF THE AUGUST 29TH DROP DAY AT 6PM.
LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

Following the success of the transference to vinyl of the first five 'Scene' titles last RSD, Decca continues its celebration of its rich heritage with five more classic overviews of its catalogue.RECORD ONE Side 1 1.Billy Boyle My Baby's Crazy 'Bout Elvis 2.Joe Brown Comes The Day 3.Joey Castell Tryin' To Get To You 4.Ken Colyer's Skiffle Group Down Bound Train 5.The Bob Cort Skiffle School Day (Ring! Ring! Goes The Bell) 6.Michael Cox Too Hot To Handle Side 2 1.Terry Dene Pretty Little Pearly 2 .Jackie Dennis La Dee Dah 3.The Lonnie Donegan Skiffle Group Rock Island Line 4.Vince Eager And The Vagabonds Yea Yea 5.Billy Fury Collette 6.Wee Willie Harris Rockin' At The Two I's RECORD TWO Side 1 1.Eddie Hickey Plain Jane 2.Sally Kelly Little Cutie 3.Little Tony And His Brothers Foxy Little Mama 4.The Most Brothers Whole Lotta Woman 5.Danny Rivers & The Alexander Combo My Baby's Gone Away 6.Russ Sainty with The Nu-Notes Race With The Devil Side 2 1.Mort Shuman Turn Me Loose 2.Freddie Starr And The Midnighters It's Shaking Time 3.Tommy Steele And The Steelmen Elevator Rock 4.Robb Storme Transistor Sister 5.Screaming Lord Sutch I'm A Hog For You 6.Bobby Tempest Don't Leave Me 7.Terry White And The Terriers Rock Around The Mailbag

Montreal’s The Dears are in some run of form. Their music has always been quality but they have been releasing a steady flow of really excellent orchestral pop/rock music that began with 2015’s Times Infinity Volume One. The sister album, 2017’s Times Infinity Volume Two pushed the bar a little higher and here we are again, eighth album Lovers Rock is another superb collection of songs about love, romance, yearning and heartbreak. The core members Murray Lightburn (vocals/guitar/other) and Natalia Yanchak (vocals/piano) are joined this time round by longtime drummer Jeff Luciani, Steve Raegele (guitar) and Rémi-Jean LeBlanc (bass). Additional musicians making up their glorious sound are Sam Roberts (strings) and not one but two saxophonists, Alex Francoeur and the E Street Band’s Jake Clemons.

TRACK LISTING

1. Heart Of An Animal
2. I Know What You're Thinking And It's Awful
3. Instant Nightmare!
4. Is This What You Really Want?
5. The Worst In Us
6. Stille Lost
7. No Place On Earth
8. Play Dead
9. Too Many Wrongs
10. We'll Go Into Hiding

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

On 26th May 2016, The Flaming Lips performed their universally acclaimed 1999 album The Soft Bulletin in its entirety with the Colorado Symphony at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, Colorado. This particular event has been regarded by those in attendance as one of the most awe-inspiring, moving and magical moments of a lifetime. For the Lips and their fans, perhaps the apex of a magnificent interpretation that will remain as rewarding and emotionally-charged as it was that night in 2016. The Flaming Lips performed the 12-track album in its original sequence with new arrangements accompanied by a 69-piece orchestra and 56-strong chorus. The performance was conducted by the internationally celebrated conductor Andre De Ridder.

Now, the resulting live recording is being released to celebrate the 20th anniversary of The Soft Bulletin. The album was the band’s breakthrough moment and featured the hit singles “Race for the Prize” and “Waitin’ for a Superman.”

TRACK LISTING

1. Race For The Prize
2. A Spoonful Weighs A Ton
3. The Spark That Bled
4. The Spiderbite Song
5. Buggin’
6. What Is The Light?
7. The Observer
8. Waitin’ For A Superman
9. Suddenly Everything Has Changed
10. The Gash
11. Feeling Yourself Disintegrate
12. Sleeping On The Roof

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

‘In The Silence Electric’, the latest record in Julie’s Haircut’s long history of sonic otherworldliness is notable for its deft balance between hypnotic radiance and extrasensory intensity, between beatific calm and palpable anger. Yet it’s also a record which has arrived through a strange process of osmosis from a band confident enough to let subconscious and metaphysical aspects steer them in the appropriate directions. “We embraced the incidents, letting the songs guide us to their final form rather than trying to force them in a precise direction” confirms the band’s Luca Giovanardi.

For all its divings, this is a collection of supremely confident and cohesive ditties that sees the deep-end diabolism and mantric intensity of the Italian-based band’s Rocket debut, 2017’s ‘Invocation And Ritual Dance Of My Demon Twin’ expanded into a righteous fury and incandescent splendour. Whether it’s the heavy-lidded rapture of ‘Lord Help Me Find The Way’ (like Spiritualized transposed to 1970s Berlin), the menacing dream-state of ‘In Return’ or the Suicide-damaged psychic assault that is ‘Sorcerer’, all is subsumed by a bold singularity of intent, amidst a colourful firestorm of electronic monomania, jazz-tinged atonality and indelibly memorable vocal hooks.

“There’s a theme springing from the title of the record and the (cover) photos of Annegret Soltau that deliver some sense of helplessness, suffocation, difficulty in communication” notes the band’s Luca Giovanardi. Yet for all this - and paradoxically enough - ‘In The Silence Electric’ is both this mysterious and rebellious band’s most adventurous and most direct record to date - not to mention an ever more compelling transmission from renowned experts in altered states

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: This arresting new LP from Julie's Haircut swims with the hazy psychedelic undercurrent label Rocket Recordings has become known for, having been home to titans Gnod, Josefin Ohrn, Goat etc. While there are definitely similarities in terms of influences, JH have maintained a singular sound and hypnotic otherworldliness, a precise and uncompromising vision, and a refined outcome only they could have produced.

TRACK LISTING

01 Anticipation Of The Night (5:24)
02 Emerald Kiss (6:56)
03 Until The Lights Go Out (4:18)
04 Lord Help Me Find The Way (4:40)
05 Sorcerer (4:17)
06 Darlings Of The Sun (4:02)
07 In Return (3:50)
08 Pharaoh’s Dream (3:40)
09 For The Seven Lakes (4:51)

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

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

“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

When London’s Teeth Of The Sea set about recording their fifth album, there seemed to be more than just the familiar spectres of the band’s collective and overactive imagination at their disposal - the unruly morass of ‘80s horror and sci-fi movies, industrial ballast, 2000AD terror, ‘70s-damaged experimental brinksmanship and atmospheric grandeur that they’d somehow conspire to sculpt into coherent structures - instead, these ghostly interruptions - or wraiths - were of a distinctly otherworldly nature. In Soup Studios, located in the liminal zone of East India Dock on the Thames under the auspices of Giles Barrett, all such influences contributed to form a collection of tracks that represented a fearsome and transporting marriage of the ferocious and the melancholic.

Alchemised trash, kitchen-sink surrealism, out-of-order intensity and ritualistic overtones collides and colluded into a monstrous hybrid - this was a world where Tetsuo-The Iron Man would happily share space with Judee Sill, and where the acid guitars of Helios Creed would happily conspire with the Acid Rock of Rhythm Device. Meanwhile, Erol Alkan helped sculpt a mixture of mariachi elegy and electro euphoria at his Phantasy Sound studios, whilst Valentina Magaletti (Tomaga/Raime), Chloe Herington (Knifeworld/Valve) and Katharine Gifford (Snowpony/ Stereolab) also willingly entered the fray to assist this unholy assemblage of inspiration, irreverence and otherworldly infiltration. Who knows where these voices and visions arrived from, yet we can only hope the resulting sounds help them gain safe passage into the beyond. Ladies and gentlemen, pray silence for the Wraith. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Never ones to shy away from a bit of a change in pace, Teeth Of The Sea take this opportunity to skilfully weave their way towards haunted minimalism, foreboding instrumentation and eastern melodicism all at once. Beautifully sparse in places and as heavy as you could imagine in others while maintaining their impeccable euphoric edge, TOTS have never sounded so relevant. A superb, hypnotic journey.

TRACK LISTING

1. I’d Rather, Jack
2. Hiraeth
3. Our Love Can Destroy This Whole Fucking World
4. Burn Of The Shieling
5. Fortean Steed  
6. VISITOR
7. Her Wraith
8. Gladiators Ready

From their unassuming origins as a group of school friends drawn together by a shared passion for music to the global touring force (supporting The Cure and Editors at arenas and stadiums), they have quietly become, The Twilight Sad’s ascent has been forged the old way with grit, graft and four exceptional studio albums. Now signed to Mogwai’s Rock Action Records, the bands fifth album does not disappoint and will certainly not disappoint fans of their previous works. It will also appeal to fans of The Cure, Frighten Rabbits, The National, Interpol and Editors.

TRACK LISTING

1 [10 Good Reasons For Modern Drugs]
2 Shooting Dennis Hopper Shooting
3 The Arbor
4 VTr
5 Sunday Day13
6 I/m Not Here [missing Face]
7 Auge/Maschine
8 Keep It All To Myself
9 Girl Chewing Gum
10 Let/s Get Lost
11 Videograms

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

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. ^^

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.

Dean Ween - aka The Deaner - recorded the rock2 album at his dedicated studio facility in Lambertville, NJ, across the river from his native New Hope, PA. Here's how the Deaner describes the genesis of this new body of work: "These were written for this sole purpose and recorded with the entire lineup: the best band in the world, Ween -- Claude Coleman Jr., Dave Dreiwitz, and Glenn McClelland, also the other best band in the world, the lineup of the DWG -- Mike Dillon, Bill Fowler, Ray Kubian, Scott Rednor, and the other 50 members and usual suspects.

TRACK LISTING

1 Showstopper
2 Fingerbangin
3 Don't LetThe Moon Catch You Cryin
4 Waste Station 9
5 Love Theme From Skinheads Kicking Your Ass
6 Someone Greased The Fatman
7 The Ritz Carlton
8 This Heart Of Palm
9 Yellow Pontiac
10 Pussy On My Pillow
11 Sunset Over Belmar

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.

Largely unheard, criminally undocumented, but at their core, utterly revolutionary, the recordings of the diverse North American Aboriginal community will finally take their rightful place in our collective history in the form of 'Native North America (Vol. 1): Aboriginal Folk, Rock, and Country 1966-1985'. An anthology of music that was once near-extinct and off-the-grid is now available for all to hear, in what is, without a doubt, Light In The Attic’s most ambitious and historically significant project in the label’s 12-year journey.

Native North America (Vol. 1) features music from the Indigenous peoples of Canada and the northern United States, recorded in the turbulent decades between 1966 to 1985. It represents the fusion of shifting global popular culture and a reawakening of Aboriginal spirituality and expression. The majority of this material has been widely unavailable for decades, hindered by lack of distribution or industry support and by limited mass media coverage, until now. You’ll hear Arctic garage rock from the Nunavik region of northern Quebec, melancholy Yup’ik folk from Alaska, and hushed country blues from the Wagmatcook First Nation reserve in Nova Scotia. You’ll hear echoes of Neil Young, Velvet Underground, Leonard Cohen, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Johnny Cash, and more among the songs, but injected with Native consciousness, storytelling, poetry, history, and ceremony.

The stories behind the music presented on Native North America (Vol. 1) range from standard rock-and-roll dreams to transcendental epiphanies. They have been collected with love and respect by Vancouver-based record archaeologist and curator Kevin “Sipreano” Howes in a 15-year quest to unearth the history that falls between the notes of this unique music. Tirelessly, Howes scoured obscure, remote areas for the original vinyl recordings and the artists who made them, going so far as to send messages in Inuktitut over community radio airwaves in hopes that these lost cultural heroes would resurface.

With cooperation and guidance from the artists, producers, family members, and behind the scenes players, Native North America (Vol. 1) sheds real light on the painful struggles and deep traditions of the greater Indigenous community and the significance of its music. The songs speak of joy and spirituality, but also tell of real tragedy and strife, like that of Algonquin/Mohawk artist Willy Mitchell, whose music career was sparked by a bullet to the head from the gun of a trigger-happy police officer, or those of Inuk singer-songwriter Willie Thrasher, who was robbed of his family and traditional Inuit culture by the residential school system.

Considering the financially motivated destruction of our environment, the conservative political landscape, and corporate bottom-line dominance, it’s bittersweet to report that the revolutionary songs featured on Native North America hold as much meaning today as when they were originally recorded. Dedicated to legendary Métis singer-songwriter and poet Willie Dunn, featured on the anthology but who sadly passed away during its making, Native North America (Vol. 1) is only the beginning. A companion set featuring a crucial selection of folk, rock, and country from the United States’ Lower 48 and Mexico is currently in production.

TRACK LISTING

1. Willie Dunn – I Pity The Country
2. John Angaiak – I'll Rock You To The Rhythm Of The Ocean
3. Sugluk – Fall Away
4. Sikumiut – Sikumiut
5. Willie Thrasher – Spirit Child
6. Willy Mitchell – Call Of The Moose
7. Lloyd Cheechoo – James Bay
8. Alexis Utatnaq – Maqaivvigivalauqtavut
9. Brian Davey – Dreams Of Ways
10. Morley Loon – N'Doheeno
11. Peter Frank – Little Feather
12. Ernest Monias – Tormented Soul
13. Eric Landry – Out Of The Blue
14. David Campbell – Sky-Man And The Moon
15. Willie Dunn – Son Of The Sun
16. Shingoose (poetry By Duke Redbird) – Silver River
17. Willy Mitchell And Desert River Band – Kill'n Your Mind
18. Philippe McKenzie – Mistashipu
19. Willie Thrasher – Old Man Carver
20. Lloyd Cheechoo – Winds Of Change
21. The Chieftones (Canada’s All Indian Band) – I Shouldn't Have Did What I Done
22. Sugluk – I Didn't Know
23. Lawrence Martin – I Got My Music
24. Gordon Dick – Siwash Rock
25. Willy Mitchell And Desert River Band – Birchbark Letter
26. William Tagoona – Anaanaga
27. Leland Bell – Messenger
28. Saddle Lake Drifting Cowboys – Modern Rock
29. Willie Thrasher – We Got To Take You Higher
30. Sikumiut – Utirumavunga
31. Sugluk – Ajuinnarasuarsunga
32. John Angaiak – Hey, Hey, Hey, Brother
33. Groupe Folklorique Montagnais – Tshekuan Mak Tshetutamak
34. Willie Dunn (featuring Jerry Saddleback) – Peruvian Dream

'Sleater-Kinney is America's best rock band' - Greil Marcus, Time (2001)

Sleater-Kinney is an acclaimed American rock band that formed in Olympia, Washington in 1994.

The band's core lineup consists of Corin Tucker (vocals and guitar), Carrie Brownstein (guitar and vocals), and Janet Weiss (drums).

Sleater-Kinney were known for their feminist, left-leaning politics, and were an integral part of the riot grrrl and indie rock scenes in the Pacific Northwest.

‘The Hot Rock’ is the fourth studio album by Sleater-Kinney, originally released on February 23, 1999 by Kill Rock Stars.

It was produced by Roger Moutenot and recorded at Avast studio in Seattle, Washington in July 1998.

‘The Hot Rock’ reached number 181 on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart and number 12 on the Heatseekers Albums chart, becoming the first Sleater- Kinney album to enter the charts.

‘The Hot Rock’ appeared at number 23 in The Village Voice's ‘Pazz & Jop’ critics' poll for 1999.

Similarly, Spin placed The Hot Rock at number 18 in its list of 'The Top 20 Albums of 1999'.

In 2002, Rolling Stone ranked the album at number 17 on its list of 'Women in Rock: The 50 Essential Albums'.

“The expansive new sound gives Sleater-Kinney room to experiment with their Husker Du-style storytelling... They've earned the right to keep reinventing themselves” - Rob Sheffield, Rolling Stone.

“Tucker explores what her voice can do when it's not in overdrive, stretching vowels like a religious supplicant or spewing prosody like Patti Smith. At the same time, Brownstein blossoms as a singer herself [...] braiding lines with Tucker so artfully the result sounds like the voicings of a single restless mind” - Will Hermes, Entertainment Weekly (Grade A).

The album has been freshly remastered by Greg Calbi for this release.

TRACK LISTING

Start Together
Hot Rock
The End Of You
Burn, Don't Freeze!
God Is A Number
Banned From The End Of The World
Don't Talk Like
Get Up
One Song For You
The Size Of Our Love
Living In Exile
Memorize Your Lines
A Quarter To Three

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.

Eat Lights Become Lights (ELBL) were formed in London in the winter of 2007 by Neil Rudd. The ELBL sound orbits around those of late 1970’s German electronica artists and more contemporary sonic explorers.

2014 will see the release of the 4th album, 'Into Forever'. Taking the trade mark ELBL sound Neil has ventured further into the sonic stratosphere. Soaring melodies and a more organic feel are the order of the day. Neil approached the recording of 'Into Forever' from a different direction to previous works. Spending many weeks sampling percussive elements, thumb pianos, ethnic instruments etc in order to create a more grounded musical framework to hang his melodic synthesizer parts on. Exploring a more diverse set of influences has created a more adventurous sound allowing for space to breath and adapt the music to a new found love of differing time signatures and tunings. Citing minimalist composers such as Steve Reich and Moondog as big influences on the new long player Neil has produced a set of tunes that will have you accelerating to attack speed before easing back into Moog led melodic passages that are sure to please any sonic adventurer.

“Eat Lights; Become Lights mix Krautrock rhythms and celestial drones to heavenly effect” NME

TRACK LISTING

1. Velocet Vir Nesat
2. Bounce Synth
3. Time Enough
4. Shapes And Patterns
5. Vapour Trails
6. You And Disko
7. Into Forever

Without doubt, funk is the mother of hip-hop - and although disco is sometimes viewed as somewhat anathematic to that movement, it’s worth remembering that for a while at least, it provided the vehicle that brought rap out of New York and presented it to the world - and the results of these divergent musical styles crossing paths still resonate around the globe. It’s easy to forget or play down the importance of the Sugarhill Gang’s ‘Rapper’s Delight’ - an unusual, clever novelty record that was cocksure and playful, which burned up the commercial airwaves in 1979. It was followed swiftly by Kurtis Blow’s ‘Christmas Rapping’, which also charted and gave Top Of The Pops its first on-stage rapper in early 1980. Although it wasn’t yet referred to as hip-hop in the UK, rap had already made itself known to the record-buying public at large - and as the rap 12" single was barely a year old, this was an incredible feat for such a nascent scene. The largely independent rap releases which had been slowly but steadily trickling out of the US would occasionally, like Sugarhill’s appropriation of Chic’s ‘Good Times’, take their musical cues from popular club tracks of the day - and disco-derived rap records were plenty.

‘Rock It… Don’t Stop It!’ features a selection of forgotten or relatively obscure rap singles from the ’79-‘83 period, universally known as ‘old school’, which fall into the hip hop-disco category. Inspiration for these vignettes from hip-hop’s evolution range from classic party rockers by Cheryl Lynn, through to Yazoo (and, no doubt, ‘Rapper’s Delight’) and the featured MCs give it their best shot with humour, earnestness and everything in-between. Although most of these hail from New York state, the under-represented Massachusetts shines alongside a prominent player which at the time had yet to find its own distinctive voice - Los Angeles. Hip hop and rap are now a dominant force in contemporary music and have constantly adapted to stay relevant, drawing on and absorbing all around them. ‘Rock It… Don’t Stop It!’ goes back over 30 years to their collective big bang moment.

“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

‘Dancing Time - The Best of Eastern Nigeria’s Afro Rock Exponents 1973 - 77’ by The Funkees is the latest title on Soundway to mine the rich musical output of 60s and 70s Nigeria. For the five year period this compilation spans The Funkees output crackled with dancefloor fire. Presented here are 18 slices of funky Afro-rock grooves hand picked by Soundway’s Miles Cleret from a selection of the bands 45s and 2 long players.

In the early 1970s The Funkees were the number-one east Nigerian band and the only outfit to seriously challenge the popular Lagos based rock combos MonoMono and BLO. It wasn't long before promoters in the UK came calling and The Funkees packed up their instruments and moved to London where they quickly established a fierce reputation on the live circuit.
Here they recorded two seminal albums before finally breaking up in 1977 amidst some controversy. This collection features for the first time all of their Nigerian 45s alongside the best of their UK album material and is accompanied by a full interview with original member Sonny Akpan, who still lives in the capital.

"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.

King Tubby and Producer Bunny ‘Striker’ Lee are intertwined in the birth of Dub Music. After discovering a mistake that made a ‘serious joke’ they went on to release the first pressings of this new musical genre namely ‘Dub Music’. Tubby’s vast knowledge of electronics and Bunny’s vast catalogue of rhythms would lay the foundations of what today is taken as a standard...the Remix / Version cuts to an existing vocal tune. Sit back and enjoy this historic set of sounds. These releases were the first to carry the name of King Tubby and the first to credit the great musicians that contributed so much to the rhythms that made these albums possible.

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 Bottle Rockets new album absolutely nails a sound and a vibe with a palpable sense of place - "Lean Forward" is suffused with the determination and resilience of their distinctly MidWestern roots, and oh, it's a flat out, smoking rock record, too. Reunited with producer Eric 'Roscoe' Ambel (who ran the knobs on their seminal albums "The Brooklyn Side" and "24 Hours A Day"), the Bottle Rockets do what no other band does better - populist anthems with the sympathetic eye of Woody Guthrie and sonic stomp of Crazy Horse. They are songs that demand the windows be rolled down and the volume turned up - "Lean Forward" has the locked down groove of a band on top of its game.

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

This third album from Silver Mt. Zion, is by far the most melodic album released by any Godspeed You Black Emperor project. On this release, they expand on their core six piece line-up, to include guests on drums and a couple of dozen folk on choral duty! Dense layers of strings collide, blend and differentiate against a backdrop of ragged repeating guitar figures and noise treatments. Their long instrumental passages are there as ever, but there's a much stronger vocal presence than before.

Although this Canadian outfit may not like the emocore epithet these 11 songs have all the hallmarks of the genre.

New album from this Canadian duo. All the songs were written over a year ago, the band then took them out on tour to refine the songs and get them exactly how they wanted before recording them with Unwound's live sound engineer and Swearing At Motorists frontman Dave Doughman.

"Performance - Rockin' The Filmore" was recorded in 1969 as Humble Pie took America by storm. Peter Frampton is at his lyrical best on guitar and Steve Marriott is totally committed, giving it everything he's got. The rock solid bass and drums of Jerry Shirley and Greg Ridley also help to make this a live rock classic.

Vocalist Jolie Lindholm has worked with Dashboard Confessional and she's taken their ethos into Rocking Horse Winner whose brand of emocore is as haunting and relevant as anything released this year. It's unusual to have a female lead vocalist in an emo band and Lindholm makes the most of the chance. Prepare yourself for upbeat tempos and fragile ballads in a release that promises to be one of the best indie-pop albums you will hear this year.

Second full length album from this Washington DC trio. For fans of Q And Not U, Delta 72 and Fugazi.

Bubblegum indie pop at it's best from America. If you like hiding behind your fringe then this sing-a-long classic for you.

Straight from the streets of Reno, Nevada comes Big In Japan and new to the Honest Don roster! Singer Zac was frontman in Zoinks and was in Screeching Weasel for a bit. A mix of classic new wave and modern pop/punk. The 12 hook laden tracks here touch on every subject from the likes of small towns to girl troubles and this is truly pop/punk for the new decade!