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.

Originally released in 1998 this was the second single from the much acclaimed Moon Safari album. Released as a Picture Disc for RSD 2024

A rarity among Peel sessions in the mid-1990s as this one went out entirely live when the legendary DJ was sitting in for Mark Radcliffe and invited garage-punk stalwarts The Flaming Stars in to do the honours.

Never before released in any format, this outing at the BBC’s Oxford Road studios in Manchester finds the band in blistering form with a four-song blast featuring stunning versions of early singles ‘Ten Feet Tall’ and ‘Bury My Heart at Pier 13’.

TRACK LISTING

Ten Feet Tall
Spaghetti Junction
Bury My Heart At Pier 13
Down To You

Hailing from the rather more literate side of Camden’s garage-punk scene in the mid-90s, The Flaming Stars were Peel favourites over the years, recording no fewer than EIGHT sessions for the legendary DJ.

Six of them were collected on a Vinyl Japan CD at the turn of the century – but this fantastic final session is one of two never released before (the other one is PRE 042!). And what a session it is, featuring the brilliant ‘Cash 22’ (should’ve been a single!) and the noir vision of ‘Killer In The Rain’.

TRACK LISTING

Cash 22
Over And Done
Action Crime & Vision
Killer In The Rain

The new album from cosmic country rockers The Hanging Stars. 'On a Golden Shore' is the follow up to 2022's 'Hollow Heart' and is the band's second album on Loose. Produced by Sean Read at Clashnarrow Studio. On A Golden Shore arrives as The Hanging Stars reflect on a year of triumphs. With an Americana Music Association Bob Harris - sanctioned award and a Nashville sell-out in Third Man’s Blue Room with Jack White approvingly looking on, they’re a leading light in the UK Cosmic Americana cohort. Their standing has allowed them to pay less attention to any preconceptions of what they are ‘supposed to be’. On A Golden Shore - their fifth album and their second for the pioneering Loose Music, following 2022’s Hollow Heart - finds them definitively themselves and presents a set of disparate songs whose fundamental linkage is the band that made them. On A Golden Shore was recorded at Edwyn Collins’ Clashnarrow Studios with Sean Read producing. Singer/guitarist Richard Olson, drummer Paulie Cobra, multi-instrumentalist Patrick Ralla, plus freshman bassist Paul Milne – laid down the album’s backbone over eight days. Mostly recorded live, even the solos done as a piece. Much is first take because trying better, it never worked as well. Pedal-steel player Joe Harvey-Whyte created and added his parts at his London studio bringing ‘shimmery psychedelic goodness’. Smartly sequenced On A Golden Shore proceeds in clusters of songs; commencing with the free and easy choogle of ‘Let Me Dream Of You’, encompassing the sunny glam of ‘Sweet Light’, the baggy Balearic waft of ‘Happiness Is A Bird’, the pan pipes and bongos of the exotic ‘Golden Shore’, through to the rolling banjo of ‘No Way Spell’ and the celestial cascades of ‘Heart In A Box’. Fashioned instinctively On A Golden Shore is ultimately an album of sensation as much as thought, filled with fleeting moments of blissful excess, and stumbling, rushing flutters of sound; its evanescent psychedelia, divine choruses, and shards of strings combine into an infectious, compelling Cosmic Heartbreak Boogie.

TRACK LISTING

1. Let Me Dream Of You
2. Sweet Light
3. Happiness Is A Bird
4. Disbelieving
5. Washing Line
6. Golden Shore
7. Silver Rings
8. I Need A Good Day
9. No Way Spell
10. Raindrop In A Hurricane
11. Heart In A Box 

Re-issue of this obscure Bay Area, mid-80s Disco/Soul single produced by the late Harvey Scales & Cedrick Rupert

TRACK LISTING

1. (We Are The) Stars
2. Best Friend

Classic Lovers Rock version of a Keni Burke masterpiece. First ever repress of a high demand 1983 release!

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Huge lover's rock 7" with both the vocal and dub off this beautifully uplifting track provided across A and B sides of the 7". Don't let the soft smoochy vocals misguide you - this is UK soundsystem staple!

TRACK LISTING

A1. Dee Sharp - Rising To The Top
B1. Fashion All Stars - Give It All You Got

"Put simply, 'Tired Sounds Of...' is one of the most unremittingly beautiful albums I've ever heard." Drowned In Sound.

"Unspeakably beautiful." AllMusic.com.

"One of the most beautiful recordings we have ever heard." Aquarius Records

"A fantastic masterpiece, missing this would be foolish." Touching Extremes.

"Their relentless commitment to subtlety sets them apart, as does their masterful hand with tone… dissonance is doled out in small portions, perfectly coloring the sculpted fields of sound." Pitchfork.

"When all else fails and you need to shut the rest of the world out, this is a guaranteed mute button." Self- Titled.

TRACK LISTING

Requiem For Dying Mothers, Pt. 1
Requiem For Dying Mothers, Pt. 2
Down 3
Austin, Tx Mental Hospital, Pt. 1
Austin, Tx Mental Hospital, Pt. 2
Austin, Tx Mental Hospital, Pt. 3
Broken Harbors, Pt. 1
Broken Harbors, Pt. 2
Broken Harbors, Pt. 3
Mullohand
The Lonely People (are Getting Lonelier)
Gasfarming
Piano Aquieu
Fac 21
Ballad Of Distances, Pt. 1
Ballad Of Distances, Pt. 2
A Lovesong [for Cubs] Pt. 1
A Lovesong (for Cubs] Pt. 2
A Lovesong (for Cubs] Pt. 3

"I simply feel that they are making the most important music of the 21st century." Ivo Watts-Russell - 4AD label founder .

"Crushingly sad, lightly melancholic, or even uplifting, depending on the state of mind of the hearer… a sound divorced from intention and its ambiguity is its strength." Pitchfork.

"The sound of deep sea disintegration… a work of art." Tiny Mix Tapes.

"Music of such quiet and devastating power it can silence a room in five minutes without the volume knob on the stereo being manipulated. Deeply moving…." AllMusic.

"Traces the fluid contours of a void through diaphanous lines that reveal all of its miasmal abstraction." Dusted "A two-hour juggernaut of careful dynamics and warm tones." XLR8R.

TRACK LISTING

Dungtitled (in A Major)
Articulate Silences Part 1
Articulate Silences Part 2
The Evil That Never Arrived
Apreludes (in C Sharp Major)
Don't Bother They're Here
Dopamine Clouds Over Craven Cottage
Even If You're Never Awake (deuxieme)
Even (out) +
A Meaningful Moment Through A Meaning(less) Process
Another Ballad For Heavy Lids
The Daughters Of Quiet Minds
Hiberner Toujours
That Finger On Your Temple Is The Barrel Of My Raygun
Humectez La Mouture
Tippy's Demise
The Mouthchew
December Hunting For Vegetarian Fuckface

Hard-hitting new collection succeeds the trio’s rampaging 2019 In The Red Debut EP Death Buy! Proving once again that “power trio” isn’t just a descriptive handle from the distant past but a louderthan- God 21st-Century reality, the devastating New York band Skull Practitioners bow Negative Stars, their first full-length album for In The Red Records. The eight-track collection is the second release for Los Angelesbased trio—guitarist Jason Victor, bassist Kenneth Levine, and drummer Alex Baker—who collectively produced the record, with Ted Young engineering (and Baker handling engineering on vocal sessions). Brooklyn Vegan said, “If you dig early ’80s L.A. dusty punk like Gun Club, X and Flesh Eaters, or the many works of Jon Spencer, you will want to check out these four ripping, ripped-up tracks.” Rock And Roll Globe described the music as “Gun Club fugues played by anxious Amphetamine Reptile Records ghosts deciding they’d prefer to continue to walk the earth.” Negative Stars is the culmination of years of work in New York’s clubs and studios. “I don’t like to say the date we started working together,” says Levine, “but the second Bush was still president.” At the time, Victor had already established himself as the dazzling co-lead guitarist for Steve Wynn and the Miracle Three; when Wynn revived his ’80s L.A. Paisley Underground consortium the Dream Syndicate in 2017, Victor took the guitar chair previously occupied by Karl Precoda and Paul Cutler. Baker had only recently arrived from Cincinnati. With their album finally complete and the pandemic lifting, Skull Practitioners have begun to take to the stage more regularly: in 2022 they have played shows with Lydia Lunch, Live Skull, the Art Gray Noizz Quintet, and In the Red label-mates the Wolfmanhattan Project (Kid Congo Powers, Mick Collins, and Bob Bert). They plan to get on the road in the near future.

TRACK LISTING

1. Dedication
2. Exit Wounds
3. LEAP
4. Intruder
5. What Now
6. Fire Drill
7. Ventilation
8. Nelson D
CD-only Tracks
9. Death Buy
10. Grey No More
11. The Beacon
12. Miami

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

The Lightning Seeds make a most welcome return this October on BMG with ‘See You In The Stars’, their first new album in over ten years.

This intoxicating 10 track collection will kick start a soundtrack to summer with the feel good warmth of ‘Sunshine’. Most of the songs are written by Ian Broudie. One of the album highlights, ‘Emily Smiles’, was co-written with Terry Hall while ‘Great to Be Alive’ is a co-write with James Skelly (the Coral). The Lightning Seeds will tour the UK later this year.

TRACK LISTING

Losing You
Emily Smiles
Green Eyes
Great To Be Alive
Sunshine
Fit For Purpose
Live To Love You
Permanent Danger
Walk Another Mile
See You In The Stars

"Music For The Stars is a collection of songs that may lend themselves to the end of the night in headphones, for me it’s an Ode to Horsenden Hill in West London, where we used to gather of an evening with the compilation tapes we had made introducing each other to new songs which we found; songs some of which would remain with us forever, we would sit there till late overlooking the West End’s City Lights but could lay back and watch the stars." - Ruben Windflower

From the Two-Piers label that brought you the acclaimed ‘Pop Psychédeliqué (The Best of French Pop 1964-2019) comes new compilation ‘Music for the Stars (Celestial Music 1960-1979), a collection of laid back, late night songs perfect for lying back, losing yourself in the moment and just staring at the stars. Includes tracks from legends such as Willie Nelson, Lonnie Liston Smith, and Nina Simone, the English folk sound of Bill Fay and Kevin Ayres, the tortured genius of Tim Buckley, from the 60’s West Coast scene The Electric Prunes, to the sonic sounds of Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band, and the soulful beauty of Shuggie Otis.

From the beginning of the evening with Alexander “Skip” Spence, until later that night when Willie Nelson may end a tape and it’s time to walk home - sit back and lose yourselves in Music for The Stars.

STAFF COMMENTS

Laura says: As we drift from Summer to Autumn, and the nights draw in, this compilation provides a perfect soundtrack. Pour yourself a glass of something nice and lie back and watch the stars....

TRACK LISTING

A1. Alexander 'Skip' Spence - Broken Heart
A2. Fred Neil - I've Got A Secret (Didn't We Shake Sugaree)
A3. John Fahey - Jesus Is A Dying Bedmaker
A4. Bert Jansch - Poison
B1. Roedelius - Balsam
B2. Shuggie Otis - Jennie Lee
B3. Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band - Observatory Crest
B4. Kevin Ayres - May I?
B5. The Electric Prunes - Holy Are You
C1. Eden Ahbez - Edens Island
C2. Nina Simone - Come Ye
C3. Damon - The Night
C4. Lonnie Liston Smith & The Cosmic Echoes - Sais (Egypt)
D1. Kathy Smith – It’s Taking So Long
D2. Tim Buckley - Buzzin' Fly
D3. Bill Fay - I Hear You Calling
D4. Gene Clark - With Tomorrow
D5.Willie Nelson - Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain

In 1990 Ronald Lee Trent Jr. was the teenage creator of Altered States – a raw, futuristic techno-not-techno anthem, which in retrospect was something of a stylistic anomaly for the young artist. Across subsequent years, with time spent in Chicago, New York and Detroit, came the development of his signature sound, and renown as a world class purveyor of deep, soul infused house/garage. This story has already been told, and on casual inspection, the well-worn platitude ‘house music legend’ is an old shoe that still fits. However, in fact, he’s actually so much more, and has been for quite a while. A genuine musician, songwriter, and ‘producer’ in the proper, old-school sense, the artist today has more in common with Quincy Jones than he does your average journeyman DJ track-hack.

To those in the know, these broader skills haven’t gone unnoticed, which is why on the highly collaborative, career-topping new LP ‘What Do The Stars Say To You’, it took little persuasion to recruit serious star power. Brazilian royalty Ivan Conti and Alex Malheriros from Azymuth, violin maestro Jean Luc Ponty, ambient hero Gigi Masin, hype band Khruangbin and more performed, whilst NY cornerstone François K provided mastering duties. At various points Ron himself played drums, percussion, keys, synths, piano, guitar and electronics.

Harking back to the 70s and 80s boom in adventurous, luxurious albums, WDTSSTY is a love letter to the longplayer, where rich musicality and a liquid smooth, silky flow make seemingly odd genre bedfellows acquiesce harmoniously. Each song its own high-fidelity odyssey, Trent incorporated a broad range of live instruments and electronics into a sophisticated, euphonic whole. Described by him as being “designed for harmonising with spirit, urban life and nature”, this is aural soul food, gently easing you into balmy nights, where everything is alright.

Originally wanting to be an architect, Trent’s views his approach to collaboration and music in general as having the same principles. A firm believer in the nourishing qualities of sound, he sees direct parallels between the two disciplines, being as the purpose of good architecture is to improve quality of life. “With WARM, through sound design, I built frameworks for the musicians, who furnished and occupied these struc tures beautifully, which was a big compliment for me”, he comments.

The conditions required for a good collab are more than simply structural though, as Trent expounds, “I’m a huge fan of everyone on the record, especially Jean Luc and Azymuth, who’re part of my DNA. Each track was made with that guest in mind – for example, when I started writing ‘Sphere’, I immediately thought ‘this IS Ponty’. I played the keys in his style, and did a guide violin solo using a synth, which he then redid, amazingly. ‘Cool Water’ is based around Azymuth themes, so when I sent it to Ivan, he could immediately see himself in the piece; He got what I was going for straight away. For ‘Melt Into You’ I hit up Alex on Instagram, sent him the track, he liked it, and within 24 hours he’d sent back six different bass passes!”

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: The deep house legend’s downbeat and highly musical offering features a wealth of collaborators and sees him mature like good whiskey – full of flavour and depth.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Cool Water Feat. Ivan Conti (Azymuth) And Lars Bartkuhn
A2. Cycle Of Many
A3. Admira Feat. Gigi Masin
A4. Flowers Feat. Venecia
A5. Melt Into You Feat. Alex Malheiros (Azymuth)
B1. Flos Potentia (Sugar, Cotton, Tabacco) Feat. Khruangbin
B2. Sphere Feat. Jean-Luc Ponty
B3. WARM
B4. On My Way Home
B5. What Do The Stars Say To You

Following on from the reissues of ‘Everybody Else is Doing it… ‘ and ‘No Need to Argue’ – and 30 years after their debut release – UMC are proud to issue the band’s greatest-hits collection ‘Stars: The Best of 1992–2002’ on vinyl.

The Cranberries rose to international fame in the 1990s with global smashes such as ‘Zombie’, ‘Dreams’ and ‘Linger’ – collected here alongside tracks from their five albums for Island – plus two tracks unavailable on other albums, ‘New New York’ and ‘Stars’

TRACK LISTING

Side A
Dreams
Linger
Zombie
Ode To My Family
I Can't Be With You
Side B
Ridiculous Thoughts
Salvation
Free To Decide
When You're Gone
Hollywood
Side C
Promises
Animal Instinct
Just My Imagination
You & Me
Analyse
Side D
Time Is Ticking Out
This Is The Day
Daffodil Lament
New New York
Stars

With Hollow Heart The Hanging Stars transcend their well-earned repute as masters of a captivating meld of blissful psychedelic folk and harmony-laden cosmic country. This fourth album from the accomplished London five-piece; recorded at Edwyn Collins' Clashnarrow Studios in North-Eastern Scotland; scales fresh artistic heights, as they conjure a record more sonically varied, more contemporary, and less in awe of its influences.

TRACK LISTING

1. Ava
2. Black Light Night
3. Weep & Whisper
4. Radio On
5. Ballad Of Whatever May Be
6. Hollow Eyes, Hollow Heart
7. You're So Free
8. Rainbows In Windows
9. I Don't Want To Feel So Bad Anymore
10. Red Autumn Leaf

One year after the release of Ignorance, The Weather Station returns with How Is It That I Should Look At The Stars. The album is intended to be heard as a companion piece to Ignorance; songs written at the same time that connect thematically and emotionally, songs that reveal the vulnerability at the heart of the body of work. Recorded live in just three days, How Is It That I Should Look At The Stars is achingly intimate; full of breath, silence, and detail.

How Is It That I Should Look At The Stars was written in the same fruitful winter of songwriting that gave rise to Ignorance, but were songs that Lindeman felt were too internal, too soft to fit on the album she had envisioned.

Not long after completing Ignorance, Lindeman decided to make this album on her own terms, fronting the money herself and not notifying the labels. She assembled a new band, and communicated a new ethos; the music should feel ungrounded, with space, silence, and sensitivity above all else.

On this record, there are no drums, no percussion; in the absence of rhythm, time stretches and becomes elastic. Lyrically, many of the songs return to what has often been a hallmark of Lindeman’s writing; a description of a single moment and all the meaning it might encompass. And this dilation of the moment occurs musically too; as the band moves through music so ephemeral it often incorporates stretches of near silence, and breaths, single notes, and brief solos take on greater importance in the absence of other sound. Whereas the recordings on Ignorance leaned towards ambition and grandeur, here the band reaches towards a different goal; grace perhaps.

How Is It That I Should Look At The Stars was recorded from March 10 - 12, 2020. When the band entered the studio, Covid-19 was a news item, not front of mind, but by the time they left, just three days later, everything had changed. Somehow, the music captures that instability; it is ungrounded and diaphanous, it floats and drifts. It is an album of immense sensitivity, a recording of a band and a person daring to reach towards softness without apology.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A mostly unadorned collection of swooning piano pieces, reminiscent of country rock but a lot more intangible. Otherworldly and veering towards modern classical in parts, but with a firm footing in the realms of folk and pop songwriting.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A
1. Marsh
2. Taught
3. Ignorance
4. To Talk About
5. Stars
SIDE B
1. Endless Time
2. Song
3. Sway
4. Sleight Of Hand
5. Loving You

John Murry’s third album is starlit and wondrous, like being wrapped in the softest black velvet. It’s an album of startling imagery and insinuating melodies, of cold moonlight and searing heat. It’s a record that penetrates to the very heart of you, searing with its burning honesty, its unsparing intimacy and its twisted beauty.

‘The Stars Are God’s Bullet Holes’ is not an album for an ordinary world, because it’s not an ordinary album. It’s an album to dive deep into and submerge yourself in, and to emerge from aware that this world is a remarkable place, and that John Murry is a remarkable artist.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: There's a palpable sense of rock and roll groove on this one from Murry, with the fuzzy bass and power-chord riffs being wonderfully offset with surprisingly light vocal accompaniments from the backing singers. Dynamically intricate but surprisingly simple audio constructions perfectly displaying Murry's unmatched songcraft.

TRACK LISTING

1. Oscar Wilde (Came Here To Make Fun Of You)
2. Perfume & Decay
3. The Stars Are God's Bullet Holes
4. Di Kreutser Sonata
5. I Refuse To Believe (You Could Love Me)
6. Ones + Zeros
7. Time & A Rifle
8. Ordinary World
9. 1(1)1
10. Yer Little Black Book

Guided By Voices’ long out-of-print ninth studio album repressed on vinyl - originally released in 1996 as the follow up to the breakthrough Alien Lanes, Under The Bushes Under The Stars further cemented GBV as one of rock music’s most lauded contributors

TRACK LISTING

Man Called Aerodynamics
Rhine Jive Click
Cut-Out Witch
Burning Flag Birthday Suit
The Official Ironmen Rally Song
To Remake The Young Flyer
No Sky
Bright Paper Werewolves
Lord Of Overstock
Your Name Is Wild
Ghosts Of A Different Dream
Acorns & Orioles
Look At Them
The Perfect Life
Underwater Explosions
Atom Eyes
Don't Stop Now
Office Of Hearts
Big Boring Wedding
It's Like Soul Man
Drag Days
Sheetkickers
Redmen And Their Wives
Take To The Sky

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

Conjuring a next-generation fusion of folk, soul, gospel, country and transcendental blues, The Moon and Stars, Prescriptions For Dreamers, Valerie June’s third full-length album for Fantasy Records is a deeply affecting work of genuine beauty and unassuming wonder.

Produced by Jack Splash (Kendrick Lamar, Alicia Keys, John Legend) and Valerie June and recorded at Fresh Young Minds in Los Angeles, CA and Hit Factory Criteria in Miami, FL., the new album is her first release since 2017’s highly acclaimed The Order of Time and features 11 songs and three musical interludes, all written by Valerie.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: A nice mix of beautifully played instruments, delicate electronic flourishes and June's arresting and haunting voice make for a modern country-blues album that'll stand the test of time. Get those camera phones in the air folks!

TRACK LISTING

1. Stay
2. Stay Meditation
3. You And I
4. Colors
5. Stardust Scattering
6. African Proverb
7. Call Me A Fool
8. Fallin
9. Smile
10. Within You
11. Two Roads
12. Why The Bright Stars Glow
13. Home Inside
14. Starlight Ethereal Silence

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)

Also recorded at Famous Times for a never-released Bert Jansch tribute album, Fresh as a Sweet Sunday Morning sees the band cover the opening track from Bert’s 1974 album L.A Turnaround – an album hailed at the time for combining Americana with a playful English wistfulness. The Hanging Stars imbue Jansch’s song with a mean energy and their own signature cosmic psychedelia. The song ends with Joe Harvey-Whyte’s pedal steel sounding closer to a sitar whilst droning and distorted guitars seem to almost collapse in on themselves during a coda that sounds like it cannot bear to stop itself.

The Mountain sees the band enter entirely different territory. Bookended by Sam Ferman’s angular bass line and Paulie Cobra’s relentless drumming, what comes between recalls both the darkest sounds of The Doors and the ethereal psychedelia of early Verve, with Luke Barlow’s flute puncturing a haze of distorted guitars.

The Hanging Stars released their debut album Over the Silvery Lake in 2016, which received plaudits from broadsheets such as The Times, who described it as; "An album with enough of a hazy, sun-dappled charm to make the capital's dreariest weather bearable”, as well as The Guardian, who said; “Mersey-laced harmonies and just a whiff of the Gun Club.” They picked up a good amount of support at 6 Music and “The House on the Hill” scored a much-coveted 10/10 by John Robb on Steve Lamacq’s Roundtable.

TRACK LISTING

A. Fresh As A Sweet Sunday Morning
AA. The Mountain

Christmas is a time to spend with family and to feel a bit nostalgic, and exactly these two aspects of Christmas come together on the single the Swedish acid folk duo Us And Them recorded for the Snowflakes Christmas Singles Club. In 'When The Stars Are Brightly Shining', the fragile vocals of singer Britt Rönnholm recapture the get-together with friends and family on Christmas Eve, the return to the place where you have spend your youth and the memories it all brings back. Multi-instrumentalist Anders Håkanson uses a wide range of instruments to built an atmospheric soundtrack to Britt's meanderings. Their version of Tori Amos' 1992 single 'Winter' is much in the same vein. In the song, Tori remembers the winters of her childhood and the bond she built up with her father during her youth. Us And Them replace the intensity of the original with the same nostalgic mood that can be found on the A-side, making the songs on this single sound as the family they are.

Us And Them are the Swedish duo of multi-instrumentalist Anders Håkanson and singer Britt Rönnholm (who also happen to be a married to each other), that came together in 2006 when Anders, who had been playing in bands since being a kid, realized that he wanted to do something different. Influenced by British folk, baroque pop and the softer side of psychedelica, he started recording songs with Britt on vocals, and this developed into Us And Them. Since the start of the group, Us And Them have released singles EP's and albums on labels like Fruits De Mer and Mega Dodo. Most records feature a mixture of covers and originals, all in the distinct dreamy, fragile and otherwordly Us And Them style, an update of the sound of psychedelic acid folk for the 21st Century.

TRACK LISTING

A1. When The Stars Are Brightly Shining
B1. Winter

Stars Are the Light, the luminous seventh album by the American psych explorers Moon Duo, marks a progression into significantly new territory. From a preoccupation with the transcendental and occult that informed Ripley Johnson and Sanae Yamada’s guitar-driven psych rock, and reached its apotheosis in the acclaimed Occult Architecture diptych, Stars Are the Light sees the band synthesize the abstract and metaphysical with the embodied and terrestrial.

Branching out from Occult Architecture Vol. 2, the album has a sonic physicality that is at once propulsive and undulating; it puts dance at the heart of an expansive nexus that connects the body to the stars. These are songs about embodied human experience — love, change, misunderstanding, internal struggle, joy, misery, alienation, discord, harmony, celebration — rendered as a kind of dance of the self, both in relation to other selves and to the eternal dance of the cosmos.

Taking disco as its groove-oriented departure point, Stars Are the Light shimmers with elements of ’70s funk and ’90s rave. Johnson’s signature guitar sound is at its most languid and refined, while Yamada’s synths and oneiric vocals are foregrounded to create a spacious percussiveness that invites the body to move with its mesmeric rhythms. With Sonic Boom (Spacemen 3, Spectrum) at the mixing desk in Portugal’s Serra de Sintra, (known to the Romans as “The Mountains of the Moon”) the area’s lush landscape and powerful lunar energies exerted a strong influence on the vibe and sonic texture of the album.

On embracing disco as an inspiration, Yamada says, “It’s something we hadn’t referenced in our music before, but its core concepts really align with what we were circling around as we made the album. Disco is dance music, first and foremost, and we were digging our way into the idea of this endless dance of bodies in nature. We were also very inspired by the space and community of a disco – a space of free self-expression through dance, fashion, and mode of being; where everyone was welcome, diversity was celebrated, and identity could be fluid; where the life force that animates each of us differently could flower.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: Formed in 2009 by Wooden Shjips' main man Ripley Johnson and his wife Sanae Yamada, Moon Duo had been chugging along quite nicely until 2017's two records in a month opus (‘Occult Architecture’ Volumes 1 and 2) signalled a slight detour, but here we are a further two years hence at a veritable fork in the road. Moon Duo now groove! Not rockin' grooves like Hawkwind of old (very cool still, obviously), but proper, disco and funk inspired, pitter-pattering grooves like Peaking Lights. Helped in no small part by Spacemen 3's Sonic Boom, a lot of the sounds here do actually recall the late 90s UK post rave scene in their blissed out, bubbling buoyancy and hippie, repetitive, lose yourself in nature vibes. This record glides! Synths are further to the fore but Ripley's ever evolving infinite ether guitar flickers and dances around them to maximum effect. Apart from one throbbing song which is a throwback to their previous records (“Eye 2 Eye”) this albums glows with a kind of contained euphoria, languid and laid back, looping and luscious. The beats here are never obtrusive, it still sounds exactly like them, but them that's swapped pot for ecstasy, a couch for a field! There has been the sneaking suspicion, of late, that Ripley Johnson was squirelling his better songs away to this, his so-called band on the side, and now, finally, with ‘Stars Are The Light’, the proof is in the pudding; he does! It's a majestic record.

TRACK LISTING

Flying
Stars Are The Light
Fall (In Your Love)
The World And The Sun
Lost Heads
Eternal Shore
Eye 2 Eye
Fever Night

Glasgow’s Spinning Coin are back with their first new music since their debut album ‘Permo’ was released in 2017. The quartet release new 7” single ‘Visions At The Stars’ via The Pastels’ Geographic Music imprint. ‘Visions At The Stars’ was produced by Gregor Reid and Stephen Pastel at Castle of Doom Studios, Glasgow.

TRACK LISTING

Visions At The Stars
Not A Dream

After a break of two years, Zefur Wolves return with a brand new album, beating a path to the promised 2019 follow up to their acclaimed debut. The three-piece’s distinct brand of languid, emotive, alt-rock takes the commanding role with Truth is in the Stars, released on Strangetown Records.

The band have once again teamed up with M h of human consciousness and empathetic resistance to injustice. r. Kobo who hasn't disappointed with the beautiful and intricate sleeve artwork and lovingly presented by Mark James Works. For the audiophiles the gorgeous deep berry coloured vinyl will be a feast for the eyes as well as the ears.

Studio sessions helmed by producer and former live band member, Super Furry Animal’s Cian Ciarán, have driven the band to greater intricacy and an audible sense of playfulness, toying with compositional and recording technique. Having crafted their debut album in California, evocative of their cited inspirations including Spiritualized and Beach House, the upbeat trailblazing first single Flying High, recorded at Strangetown Studios in Caridff, suggests new and fertile creative ground has been found to ‘one up’ an already glinting reputation

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: For all of you that love the thrashing, but cohesive madness of the Lovely Eggs, the Zefur Wolves are here to brighten up your day. Throbbing guitars and snapping percussion are coated in an entirely non-eggy haze of shoegazing distortion and extended reverb. Thoroughly brilliant.

TRACK LISTING

1) Truth Is In The Stars
2) Flying High
3) Letting Go
4) Contact High
5) Friend Of Mine
6) Under Waves
7) The Polygon
8) Revenir A Vous
9) Sunset In Mendocino
10) Strada Del Paradiso
11) Stars Of Omaha

Among the Never Setting Stars is the debut LP from Dorset based artist Matthew Shaw. Following a series of cd & cdr releases on various labels as well as home made art editions and a 7" ep on Sonic Oyster Records. The album contains six ambient pieces with each title being a lead into the mood the music takes on. Each title forming a poem across the lp. The artwork is a painting By Brian Catling (RA) titled Transi.

The painting deals with some of the same themes, life, death, and renewal moving in cycles. “His music delves deep in Hidden Reverse traditions, incorporating specific environmental soundings of occult landscapes into beautiful drone works that advance the oracular/hallucinogenic English underground tradition.” David Keenan These warm, melancholy undulations interfere with each chord’s gravitational pull, creating tonal fata morgana and melodies that may or may not not be there: a state similar to meditation where she is neither asleep nor awake. All said, it will take you places.” Charlie Frame, The Quietus Limited to 250 copies pressed on 180 gram Galaxite Stone coloured vinyl. The album includes a download code featuring three additional tracks not featured on the LP.

Bunnymen Classics Transformed & New Songs With Strings & Things Attached.

‘I’m not doing this for anyone else. I’m doing it as it’s important to me to make the songs better. I have to do it.’ Ian McCulloch

This new studio album sees The Bunnymen, still lead by the indominable Ian McCulloch and Will Sergeant, revisit some of their greatest songs to rearrange and transform them with co producer Andy Wright…and strings and things. Also included is two brand new tracks to accompany the classics.

Echo & the Bunnymen's dark, swirling fusion of post-punk and The Doors/The Velvets-inspired pop psychedelia has brought the group twenty top 20 hits and nine top 20 albums in the UK so far in their 40 year career. The band have come a long way from the group's infamous first concert as a three-piece with a drum machine in 1979 at the legendary Erics club in Liverpool, The Bunnymen still perform sell-out concerts across the world today.

Their seminal albums 'Crocodiles', 'Heaven Up Here', 'Porcupine' and 'Ocean Rain' have been a major influence for acts such as Coldplay, The Killers and The Flaming Lips whilst later albums 'Evergreen' and 'What Are You Going To Do With Your Life?' and 'Siberia & Meteorites' demonstrate what an amazing body of work the band have.

The Bunnymen are still revered by those in the best of popular culture. In the past year alone, the highly acclaimed and culturally phenomenal Netflix series 'Stranger Things' has used the song 'Nocturnal Me' whilst the equally comparable '13 Reasons Why' has used 'The Killing Moon', a song also used on another Netflix show, 'Dead of Summer'. 

TRACK LISTING

Bring On The Dancing Horses
The Somnambulist
Nothing Lasts Forever
Lips Like Sugar
Rescue
Rust
Angels & Devils
Bedbugs & Ballyhoo
Zimbo
Stars Are Stars
Seven Seas
Ocean Rain
The Cutter
How Far?
The Killing Moon

Gruff Rhys presents the soundtrack to the film Set Fire To The Stars. The album is released on Finders Keepers on September 30th 2016.

Although recorded around the same time as Gruff’s last LP (2014’s hugely acclaimed American Interior), Set Fire To The Stars paints a very different picture to that of the Welsh explorer John Evans. Equal parts cocktail jazz, hazy Americana and Atomic Age bop, it’s a love letter to New York in all its hopeful, post war glory – a gorgeous diversion of a record to add to Gruff’s increasingly brilliant solo catalogue.

Gruff on Set Fire To The Stars:

“This is an album of music written for a film directed by Andy Goddard concerning the poet Dylan Thomas’s first week in the USA in 1950 and his uneven friendship with fellow poet - and agent of sorts - John Malcolm Brinnin. As the film is shot in black and white and set in the Jazz age, I decided not to use any instruments unavailable in that era. I also keep the recordings as live takes. Beyond that - I didn’t try and ape the style of that era in particular apart from the song Atom Bomb which on screen, plays on a jukebox in a cafe and needed to be true to the year sonically and lyrically in some way.
“Playing the guitar, I formed a short lived Agro-Jazz quartet (you got a problem with that?) called Video Loss with Chris Walmsley on drums, Jim Barr on double bass and Osian Gwynedd on piano. I wrote a bunch of songs and instrumentals. Some other bits were improvised to picture by Osian Gwynedd and myself. Chop Shop features Video Loss on max Moon-Ra improvisational setting. Gruff ab Arwel arranged all the strings and Gavin Fitzjohn played and scored the brass. It was recorded and mixed at Toybox, Bristol by the incredible Ali Chant - apart from the strings which were recorded at Metropolis, London.”

Gruff Rhys is currently recording his next proper solo album – it is due for release in 2017

TRACK LISTING

1 John Malcolm Brinnin
2 Set Fire To The Stars
3 After Hours/Panic
4 Tremble (Down)
5 Tremble To The Light
6 Tremble (Up)
7 After Hours/Tension
8 Log Cabin 1
9 Log Cabin 2
10 Log Cabin 3
11 John Adoring At Yale
12 Set Fire To The Strings
13 After Hours/Tender
14 John & The Poem
15 B Chop Shop
16 Atom Bomb
17 After Hours/Contentment
18 Ticking Clock
19 Military Madness
20 Caitlin’s Theme
21 Tremble (Joy)
22 Dylan’s Demons
23 It Was Hot That Summer

Talk about high concept: 'Dub Side Of The Moon' features the house band of noted New York reggae label Easy Star covering Pink Floyd's 'Dark Side Of The Moon' in the same sequence and in recognisable but reggae fashion. Here, the All Stars turn Floyd's strangely surreal world even stranger and more surreal, adorning the band's dark psychedelic music with slow reggae beats and head-spinning dub-style production that is both inspired and effective. "Money" opens with the sound of bong hits and coughing instead of the cash register, then grooves to a reggae beat as guitar and organ churn out the classic riff - there's even the mandatory sax break in the middle. The group hits it just right on "Great Gig in the Sky", retaining the soaring gospel voice, while the remake of the chiming bells on "Time" reveals a bit of irreverent humour. Tearing away at the alienation of the original, this infusion of new personality makes it all work, elevating the album's concept from the half-baked to visionary.

Celebrate a decade plus of this timeless and ingenious musical experiment with this release, which includes two new bonus tracks (including a new version of “Breathe” that features Rebelution’s Eric Rachmany along with Metric Man, Ruff Scott and Sluggy Ranks) and new artwork.

If you imagine a group walked from Brittany to the Isle of Wight along to Cornwall to the end of Scotland, to America and the Americas, taking in all influence of music along the way, then you’d get somewhere to knowing what is hidden in the foothills of this album.

Sudden Death of Stars are from the medieval city of Rennes, France, which may explain why they sound like monks playing modern day Velvet Underground, Os Mutantes and Pentangle. Formed in 2010, they were complete as a band when they happened upon the only sitarist west of Paris.

James Endeacott A&R guru who signed The Strokes & The Libertines says: “garage, Nuggets, mushroom tea and a head full of dreams - heaven.”

“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

Available for the first time on vinyl, ‘Julie Doiron And The Wooden Stars’ is Doiron’s most critically acclaimed album, going so far as to win the 2000 Juno Award (the Canadian equivalent to the Grammy) for Best Independently Released Album Of The Year.

Recorded and released in 1999 by Tree Records and Sappy Records (reissued by Jagjaguwar in 2002), the album finds Ottawa-based quartet The Wooden Stars playing Doiron’s back-up band, helping her step out of the solitary, introspective robe she’d been wearing and venture into a more urgent and upbeat - albeit still fundamentally Spartan - direction.

Combining elements of rock and jazz a la Joni Mitchell’s early 70s work, Julie And The Wooden Stars somehow translated the coldness of the Canadian winter into one of the warmest and most tender records to be produced in the Eastern province in years.

The much-in-demand vinyl version of the second (or third, depending on how you calculate) Stars of the Lid album, their ?rst for Kranky, is ?nally being reissued.

The original 4 track cassette recordings (yes, 4 track cassette my friends) were remastered and new lacquers were cut, and the original artwork has been updated.

The music itself shows Sotl with one of their ?rst major transitions, from the found sound and guitar abstractions of their previous Music for Nitrous Oxide to a much more de?ned and re?ned compositional structure which would soon develop into the full blown miniature symphonies heard on later works.

As an added bonus, the double LP vinyl version has 9 additional minutes of material not on the CD or digital versions.

SOTL?s ?rst major statement as a sonic force to be reckoned with is now available on the analog format once more.

El Perro Del Mar is the alter ego of Sarah Assbring. Her second album is an opus, chock full of non-traditional folk songs that explore the world at large. She's joined at times on the record by members of the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra and the Gothenburg Symphonic Choir.

This is The Stars 'lost' album - a record with a somewhat chequered history. Recorded on the first two days of Spring 2002, and then found to be in an impossible format, converted, confused, lost, found, forgotten, sampled, resampled, pieced together, tampered with, undone, overdubbed, redone, left on the bottom shelf of a cool oven, mashed with rare spices, buried, unearthed, sent out, forgotten again, and finally discovered by Onomatopoeia records. Numbering as many as 30 in the past, they've now trimmed down to a more manageable four-piece, but their music is still as astonishingly catchy as ever, somehow combining krautrock, space rock, free jazz, soul and funk into a pure pop concoction with brilliant titles and wonderful, hypnotic singalong tunes.

"Release The Stars" is a 12-track masterclass in songwriting and production - this is his first new material since 2005's remarkable "Want Two". The album is written and produced by Rufus himself, with Neil Tennant as executive producer. Long time collaborator, Marius de Vries, has also sprinkled magic dust over the tracks in the mix.

As you'd expect from Cosmic Rough Riders, this album is laden with the kind of irresistible melodies they're loved for, backed by a toughened-up guitar crunch and the kind of pin-point vocal harmonies that give you tingles in all the right places.

Mark Stoney writes, records, produces and plays nearly all the instruments on his records himself (all but the drums). Since his debut release early this year he's been getting rave reviews for both his records and his live shows. This double A-side single looks set to continue this acclaim. Two finely crafted songs that meld 60s brit-pop influences with fuzzy, psychedelic keyboards and quirky, off kilter melodies that hint at Super Furry Animals and Beck amongst others.

Originally released on Sub Rosa in 2000, this ultra classic Stars Of The Lid album has been out of press for years. An expansive and ambitious album, this at the same time is probably Stars Of The Lid's most cohesive and accessible album, a moving work struck through with subtle melodies and a compositional aesthetic.

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.

That's All Folks! rightly claim that psychedelia is an art... and they are certainly well versed in the matter. Their debut album "Soma...Third Way To Zion" released 1999, officially launched the Italian style of stoner-rock, but their new "Psyche As One Of The Fine Arts" is a much more successful and mature work. This is hard psych at its best that never exceeds its limits, even when experimenting with space blues like in "Soul Vent".

Great melancholic Americana from the ex Green On Red / Giant Sand man. Dark, sparse tales of pain, loneliness, regret and loss.

This the ?rst time this monumental album has been available on the vinyl format in ?ve years.

The album is split into six suites combining texture, atmosphere and melody. Expansive melodic structures, created with field recordings, strings, guitar and horns.

"Put simply, 'Tired Sounds Of...' is one of the most unremittingly beautiful albums I've ever heard." Drowned In Sound
"Unspeakably beautiful." AllMusic.com
"One of the most beautiful recordings we have ever heard." Aquarius Records
"A fantastic masterpiece, missing this would be foolish." Touching Extremes
"Their relentless commitment to subtlety sets them apart, as does their masterful hand with tone… dissonance is doled out in small portions, perfectly coloring the sculpted ?elds of sound." Pitchfork
"When all else fails and you need to shut the rest of the world out, this is a guaranteed mute button." Self-Titled.