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

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

TRACK LISTING

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

TRACK LISTING

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

Joni Mitchell turns 80: Ermitage celebrates the nine times Grammy winner with the release of this vinyl album featuring the artist performing live on the BBC in 1970

Star singer- songwriter of Canadian music and author of songs such as "Big Yellow Taxi", "River" and "A Case of You".

For all the fans around the world always eager for the releases of the great singer- songwriter and particularly since a few months ago she returned to the stage after the brain aneurysm that struck her in 2015 and left her unable to speak or walk let alone play the guitar.

TRACK LISTING

1. Chelsea Morning
2. The Gallery
3. Cactus Tree
4. My Old Man
5. For Free
6. Woodstock
7. All I Want
8. California
9. Big Yellow Taxi
10. Both Sides, Now

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

TRACK LISTING

Side 1
1. Submit
2. Submit (Dub)

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

Side 3
1. Skidaddle
2. Skidaddle (Daddy)

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

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

TRACK LISTING

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

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

The Mysticisms crew is back with a fifth instalment in their Deplete series and this time it takes the form of music from one of the inspirations for the series itself, namely the not-so-well-known but nevertheless influential Digi Dub label. It was headed up by Lee Berwick and echoed the sound of South London squat parties in the 80s and early 90s. Berwick himself got into music production later on and built a studio around the AKAI sampler before hooking up with other like-minded people to create the LZ Diesel alias. Opener 'For The Love Of' is a timeless digi-stepper with dancehall stylings, super sweet vocals and bongos tumbling freely. 'Suicidial Dub' is more busy and percussive with screwy synth energy and 'Skunk Funk' is a slow-motion melon-melter.

TRACK LISTING

Side 1
1. For The Love Of
2. Bad Boys

Side 2
1. Suicidal Dub
2. Skunk Funk

The Felice Brothers, recently signed to Conor Oberst's [Bright Eyes] new record label, Million Stars, release their new album, Valley of Abandoned Songs.

The 13 song collection consists of recordings primarily from sessions for the band's 2019 album, Undress, as well as their most recent release, 2023's Asylum On The Hill, both of which were captured live in an 1870s church with the band's current lineup of Ian Felice (guitar/ vocals), James Felice (piano/ vocals), Jeske Hume (bass), and Will Lawrence (drums).

TRACK LISTING

Crime Scene Queen
Flowers By The Roadside
New York By Moonlight
Younger As The Days Go By
So Long John
Black Is My True Love's Hair
Raccoon, Rooster And Crow
Stranger's Arms
Birdies
Tomorrow Is Just A Dream Away
Let Me Ride Away With The Horsemen
It's Midnight And The Doves Are In Tears
To Be A Papa

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

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

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

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

TRACK LISTING

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

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

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

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

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

TRACK LISTING

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

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

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

TRACK LISTING

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

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

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

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

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

TRACK LISTING

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

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

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

TRACK LISTING

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

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

TRACK LISTING

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

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

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

TRACK LISTING

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

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

TRACK LISTING

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

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

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

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

STAFF COMMENTS

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

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

TRACK LISTING

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

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

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

TRACK LISTING

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

This book is an oral history of the punk scene in Belfast from the mid-1970s to the mid-80s. It explores what it was like to be a punk in a city shaped by the violence of the Troubles, and how this differed from being a punk elsewhere. It also asks what it means to have been a punk – how punk unravels as a thread throughout the lives of the people interviewed, and what that unravelling means in the context of post-peace-process Northern Ireland.

In doing so, it suggests a critical understanding of sectarianism, subjectivity and memory politics in the North, and argues for the importance of placing punk within the segregated structures of everyday life described by the interviewees. Belfast punk and the Troubles is an intervention in Northern Irish historiography stressing the importance of history from below, and will be compelling reading for historians of Ireland and of punk, as well as those interested in innovative approaches to oral history. -- .

The first book about De La Soul, High and Rising is a stunning cultural biography of the era-defining hip-hop trio that touched millions of lives and changed rap forever. De La Soul burst onto the scene with the release of their groundbreaking 1989 album 3 Feet High & Rising, an "anything goes" hip-hop masterpiece. Between their dusty drums and obscure samples, De La's debut was received as a new masterwork from a bygone era of Black experimentation.

Formed in Long Island in 1988 by Kelvin "Posdnuos" Mercer, Dave "Trugoy the Dove" Jolicoeur, and Vincent "Maseo" Mason, De La Soul rebuked classification and appealed to the Black alternative. Their music was positive and psychedelic, their album art and music videos were full of flowers and peace signs. It was rap with a broad sonic palette, which would set a blueprint for artists like The Roots, Pharrell, Kid Cudi, Kanye West, and Kendrick Lamar.

But as quickly as De La ascended, they were faced with the pressures of a changing industry and legal battles around sampling. Written by the acclaimed journalist Marcus J. Moore, author of The Butterfly Effect: How Kendrick Lamar Ignited the Soul of Black America, High and Rising tells the whole story of one of the most influential rap groups of all time.

In the process the book unpacks the birth of hip-hop and the evolution of alternative rap. Marcus also weaves in a deeply personal coming-of-age story about his journey through life with De La as a backdrop. Completed in the wake of Dave's passing and the group's arrival on streaming platforms after a long and bitter legal fight, High and Rising is not just a hip-hop tale, it's a triumphant book about staying the course, and how moving with integrity can lead to dynamic results.

On December 31st, 2020, the world was shocked to learn about the death of hip-hop legend MF DOOM. Born in London and raised in the suburban enclave of Long Beach, New York, Daniel Dumile Jr.'s love of cartoons and comic books would soon turn him into one of hip-hop's most enigmatic, prolific and influential figures. Sweeping and definitive, The Chronicles of Doom: Unraveling Rap’s Masked Iconoclast recounts the rise, fall, redemption and untimely demise of MF DOOM. Broken down into five sections: The Man, The Myth, The Mask, The Music and The Legend, journalist SH Fernando, or SKIZ, chronicles the life of Daniel Dumile Jr., beginning in the house he grew up in in Long Beach, into the hip-hop group KMD, onto the stage of his first masked show, through the countless collabs and across the many different cities Daniel called home.

Centring the music, SKIZ deftly lays out the history of east-coast rap against DOOM's life story and dissects the personas, projects, tracks, and lyrics that led to his immortality. Including exclusive interviews with those who worked closely with DOOM and providing an unknown, intimate, behind the scenes look into DOOM’s life, The Chronicles of DOOM is the definitive biography of MF DOOM, a supervillain on stage and hero to those who paid attention.

This is Northumberland songwriter, poet, raconteur and old friend of Piccadilly Records, Peter Alexander Jobson's debut solo album and it's an absolute treat.

Recorded at his home studio and produced by Ben Christophers, the album is an extraordinary collection that blends genres as diverse as country-flavoured psychedelia and cocktail jazz with the spirit of the Northern variety circuit. His vocals answer the question: what if Serge Gainsbourg had been born in the North East of England? Inspirations include Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits and Scott Walker, blues and country legends like Robert Johnson and Hank Williams, and Northern entertainers of days past like Les Dawson and the great Jake Thackray.

Jobson made his name as bass guitarist and keyboard player in I Am Kloot. After six albums and 16 successful years together the cult trio of Jobson, drummer Andy Hargreaves and singer/guitarist John Bramwell broke up after a final triumphant performance at the Royal Festival Hall as part of the 2016 Meltdown Festival on London's South Bank. I Am Kloot were noted for their distinctive sound, the jazzy swing of Jobson and built a fervent following both in the UK and across Europe, culminating in a Mercury Music Prize nomination for their lavish fifth album, 'Sky At Night' - produced by Elbow's Guy Garvey and Craig Potter in 2010.

Heavily autobiographical in inspiration, the songs on 'Burn The Ration Books Of Love' are deeply rooted in Jobson's lived experience, and in his geographical roots in Northumberland, with its wild, windswept coastline, rugged hills and moors, and extensive agricultural farmland where his family have worked the land for generations.

TRACK LISTING

Holiday (Live)
Mountain
The Night Of The Fire
Taxi Supplies
Go Go
Foolish Boy
Please Please Please
Home
Kesta
Just 'Cause I'm Dead
Burn The Ration Books Of Love

Over three studio albums and nearly a decade, Wirral-born Louisa Roach has built She Drew The Gun into a project that fully lives up to its incendiary name. Her 2016 debut ‘Memories of Another Future’ was swiftly followed by a crowning as Glastonbury Festival’s Emerging Talent Competition winner; follow-up ‘Revolution of Mind’ was named one of BBC 6 Music’s Albums of the Year, while 2021’s ‘Behave Myself’ saw Clash praising the record as “some of her most finessed and contoured songwriting to date”. Having firmly carved out her niche of rousing, laser-sharp social commentary, it’s a side to Roach’s songwriting that will never leave her (not in this political climate at least). But sometimes, life sends you to a place where you have to finally turn your eye on yourself, and it’s with this in mind that She Drew The Gun presents fourth album ‘Howl’, out via Submarine Cat Records.

Recorded alongside producer Ash Workman (Christine & The Queens, Metronomy) who helped bring the tracks’ pop side to life during sessions at his Margate studio, Louisa Roach also worked with her son Cole on ‘Howl’’s demos: the beginning of a familial working relationship that they’ve already shaken hands on to continue. It’s a heartwarming note in an album story that’s been far from plain sailing. Roach doesn’t claim to be ‘healed’ (if such a thing exists), but as she prepares to release She Drew The Gun’s impressively vulnerable fourth, she’s somewhere along the journey with a document that shows just how far she’s come.

TRACK LISTING

A1 Howl
A2 Mirrors
A3 Became
A4 Shine On
A5 Rise
B1 Washed In Blue
B2 Nothing Lasts
B3 What’s The Matter
B4 Conjuring
B5 Ritual
B6 Out

The expression of hard-fought optimism encapsulates The Good Kind, an album exploring themes of sexuality, relationships, community, and illness. Our Girl’s trademark dynamics permeate the record, from heavy guitars and soaring lead lines to ear worm choruses and intimate vocal moments. Filled with warmth and honesty, The Good Kind is a celebration of determination – of choosing to recommit to what matters, against all opposition. “A lot of the songs are about taking setbacks and turning them into superpowers” says drummer Lauren Wilson.

“I only realised then, when I thought it out loud,” begins singer/guitarist Soph Nathan on ‘Relief’, the first single released from the album, “And I feel better now”. This song is aptly named, invoking a long-awaited exhale – the feeling of finally emerging from a long and lonely period of uncertainty and self-doubt. Beginning with a single airy strum, Nathan’s reverb-drenched guitar attaches itself to Joshua Tyler’s grounding bass chords, as Wilson’s quietly insistent drum beat throws its weight behind Nathan’s words of reassurance: “You’ve gotta see it to believe it/ Well, I see it in you already.”

This song speaks honestly to the life-giving importance of queer community. From the warmth and immediacy of her delivery, Nathan could be comforting a friend. But as ‘Relief’ builds from that cautious opening to a determinedly, driving force, it becomes clear: these aren’t empty platitudes. Nathan believes in you, because she’s learned to believe in herself.

This sentiment is at the heart of The Good Kind, recorded at Rockfield Studios and produced by alt-rock legend John Parish (PJ Harvey, Sparklehorse), Fern Ford (The Big Moon, Prima Queen) and Soph Nathan herself. For Our Girl, it mirrors the long and winding road to their sophomore release, and the lasting rewards of trusting in the process.

All three members recall moments of magic in the studio with Parish and engineer Joe Jones, who embraced the band’s spirit of experimentation and helped them to channel their electrifying live character onto tape. But despite these propelling creative moments, Our Girl struggled to fully realise the album exactly the way they wanted. “The way we work best is so based on feeling, and an instinct when we’re together,” says Wilson. “We see ourselves as a live band: that’s how we began, and where we feel fully realised,” says Nathan. Having not had an opportunity to play the songs live yet, the trio poured hours into making demos and rehearsing the songs, eventually arriving at Rockfield Studios almost “over-prepared”, says Josh. However, having recorded it under time pressure, all three members concluded the two-week session feeling as though some essential component had escaped them.

After hearing the recordings back, “It was the first time that we’ve all been on such different pages,” Nathan says, admitting that she even entertained painful thoughts of abandoning the project. Instead, Our Girl dug deep to reconnect with what had kept them together. It was a conscious decision to recommit to making the music they knew themselves to be capable of. “We all had to rediscover our connection – to the album, and to each other,” Wilson says.

Newly determined, the band spent six weeks with Fern Ford of The Big Moon at her home studio, pulling apart the Rockfield takes and recording more. Nathan recalls her bodily feeling of relief as they reopened and recommitted to the project “I couldn’t quite believe it” says Nathan “I felt a freedom I hadn’t experienced before. Fern really made that space for us and it was a real relief to be able to take the reins together”. With Ford’s help, Nathan took to the production, striving after the warm, comforting sound she’d envisaged. It was new territory for Nathan – but the attempt felt true to Our Girl’s shared ambition and commitment to breaking new ground.

This collaborative process speaks to a wider theme - when choosing to carve out their own creative path, the band leant more on each other, and on friends and other musicians: Warpaint’s Stella Mozgawa helped bring the title track ‘The Good Kind’ to life in its early stages, whilst Nathan’s partner and friends including Marika Hackman and Art School Girlfriend joined the rallying cry at the end of Relief. There’s evidently real joy to be found in taking ownership of your own creative vision, and also trusting friends to share that vision with you.

Using songwriting as a processing tool, many of the songs reflect Nathan’s own experiences, expressed with her trademark precision and lyricism. ‘Absences’ is about the frightening “absence seizures” she suffered through childhood, culminating in an epileptic fit at age 17. Such private, often lonely struggles with chronic health issues are a theme of The Good Kind, as well as the moments of solace within them; ‘What You Told Me’ evokes the relief of feeling that weight lift, however briefly.

Through the process of making The Good Kind, Our Girl learned to trust themselves, persevere with the harder path and recognise it as the only one worth travelling. Deciding to chase after the sound they wanted ended up being the most empowering moment of their career thus far, and it paid off: The Good Kind is their most confident, moving and fully realised work yet.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
A1. It’ll Be Fine
A2. What You Told Me
A3. Who Do You Love
A4. The Good Kind
A5. Something About Me Being A Woman

Side B
B1. Relief
B2. Unlike Anything
B3. Something Exciting
B4. I Don’t Mind
B5. Sister
B6. Absences

The Rills have certainly shed a skin or two to reach this point, on the eve of their effervescent debut album ‘Don’t Be A Stranger’. Produced by Dave McCracken (the indie mastermind behind many Ian Brown solo records and key works by dEUS and The Rifles as well as lending a hand to albums by the likes of Depeche Mode, Sports Team, The Snuts and Beyoncé), ‘Don’t Be A Stranger’ sees these three young friends take that untapped energy that made them viral sensations and darlings of the grassroots scene and direct it something more considered, complete and heartfelt.

Warner-Webb and frontman Mitch Spencer met in their native Lincoln as young teens, losing their spare time in a skate park. A few years later, that same urge to kill smalltown boredom saw them pick up guitars and start jamming together. A brief stint living in Sheffield chasing some of that Arctic Monkeys magic saw them soon return home to university where Essex lad Mason Cassar joined as drummer and their line-up was complete. Often referenced in their music, there’s a Lincoln Imp spirit baked into The Rills’ DNA - notably in their ability to always see over the horizon and carve something out for themselves when no one else will.

TRACK LISTING

1. Seasick
2. I Don’t Wanna Be
3. Drive
4. Dads Car
5. Mistake
6. POV
7. Bones
8. Dream Of You
9. Sirens
10. Stranger
11. Angel In The Snow

First time on CD for this incendiary live set of greatest hits of The Bevis Frond circa 1998.

Featuring over an hour’s worth of prime Frond, it mixes the bittersweet melodies of Nick Saloman’s much-covered ‘Lights Are Changing’ and ‘He’d Be A Diamond’ with fuzz fuelled riffs and masterful solo-ing. Played as a power trio with Saloman enlists his long-time associate and former Hawkwind bass player Adrian Shaw, and Andy Ward, former drummer with 70s prog giants Camel. With a staggering ten-minute rethinking of Love’s come down anthem ‘Signed DC’ closing the show. This set also includes culled cuts from their debut ‘Miasma’ through to the groundbreaking ‘New River Head’ and beyond into the 90s.

TRACK LISTING

Hole Song #2
Maybe
Love Is
New River Head
Stoned Train Driver
Lights Are Changing
Red Hair
He'd Be A Diamond
Well Out Of It
Stain On The Sun
The Wind Blew All Around Me
Signed DC.

‘The Night The Zombies Came is Pixies’ tenth album, if you count their classic 1987 4AD mini LP Come On Pilgrim, and first new music since 2022’s acclaimed Doggerel LP. 13 new songs that find Pixies looking ahead to the most cinematic record of their career.

Songwriter, vocalist and guitarist Black Francis explains:

“Fragments that are related and juxtaposed with other fragments in other songs. And in a collection of songs in a so-called LP, you end up making a kind of movie.”

Druidism, apocalyptic shopping malls, mediaeval themed restaurants, 12th century poetic form, surf rock, gargoyles, bog people, and the distinctive dry drum sound of 1970s era Fleetwood Mac are just some of the disparate wonders that inform the new songs.

For the new album recording sessions the band returned to work with producer Tom Dalgety, who drummer David Lovering refers to as “a fifth Pixie” after producing 2016’s Head Carrier, 2019’s Beneath the Eyrie and 2022’s Doggerel. Early on in the recording process at Guilford Sound studio in Vermont, the band noticed the new songs were dividing into two camps: what they came to call the “Dust Bowl Songs” - country-tinged, ballad-esque numbers such as ‘Primrose’ and ‘Mercy Me’, and on the other side, the album’s furious punk numbers such as ‘You’re So Impatient’ and ‘Oyster Beds’. Only ‘Jane (The Night the Zombies Came)’ keeps its feet in both camps — reminiscent of early 60s Phil Spector, the band hitting the sweet spot between mushy and abrasive, it’s a track that Black Francis allegedly likened to being chased by a swarm of bees.

The Night The Zombies Came sessions also saw Pixies welcoming new bass player Emma Richardson (Band Of Skulls) to the line up; the first British band member to join the group. There’s also an expanded role for guitarist Joey Santiago. After contributing his first-ever Pixies lyrics on Doggerel, for the new record Santiago wrote the words to ‘Hypnotised’ by completing a complex lyrical riddle of sorts, known as a sestina.

TRACK LISTING

Side 1:
1. Primrose
2. You’re So Impatient
3. Jane (The Night The Zombies Came)
4. Chicken
5. Hypnotised
6. Johnny Good Man
7. Motoroller

Side 2:
1. I Hear You Mary
2. Oyster Beds
3. Mercy Me
4. Ernest Evans
5. Kings Of The Prairie
6. The Vegas Suite

Exploring late-night, after-hours meditations on sound; ‘Everything Above The Sky (Astral Travelling with Luke Una)’ is a new compilation by the titular DJ, promoter and enigmatic cultural curator. Off the back of the E Soul Cultura phenomena, this compilation comes at a timely point in Luke’s rich career as he soars the heights of playing all over the world. Avoiding any chance of his sound being pigeonholed, Luke has put together a tracklist of songs and music that have a transcendental feel, after coming off the grid, going back to source, outside the city walls .

Music has long been believed to aid out of body experiences and many of us have searched long and hard for a combination of those elusive ingredients that might alleviate some of the monotony of everyday life, our daily routines and obligations, and those things that seem to block us from the spirit of the universe. In this collection, Luke selects music with all the right ingredients in just the right quantities, allowing the listener to engage in an esoteric journey of enlightenment through sound. Being a prolific collector of music, Luke initially delivered enough tracks to compile several compilations, making the licensing process the biggest effort to date for the label. The music moves softly and slowly, never becoming too intrusive, exemplifying the wonderful elevating properties of simple songs played from the heart.

Luke’s Everything Above The Sky manifesto reads, “Astral Travelling in the meadowlands with acid folk, spiritual jazz, around midnight hocus pocus, cosmic psychedelic soul, magical spellbound whirling swirling love songs, Brazilian ballads of light into machine soul gospel utopia dreaming, Balearic bossa, Outer Space ancient African drum, the breath of trees, escaping the big bad modern world, gathering round winter fires, walking amongst the bracken in Padley Gorge in late summer twilight, overlooking the Hope Valley, escaping ego, detaching and finally letting go amongst the stars with the slowly floating people. It’s beautiful beyond. Everything above the Sky”.

Beginning his career as an original Sheffield house young blood in the mid 1980s, Luke’s move to Manchester and partnership with Justin Crawford saw the birth of Electric Chair, a cornerstone cult night in the UK underground club scene. Then came Electric Elephant, a Croatian festival paying homage to their wild eclecticism from Balearic to Brazilian to É Soul, house, disco and techno. Luke’s much loved, long-running Homoelectric night and more recently Homobloc sell out festival for 10,000 souls has been at the forefront of Manchester’s LGBTQ+ cultural landscape. Luke’s Friday evening show on Worldwide FM captured imaginations and became a cult four-hour must-listen monthly journey for fans all over the world. Today, Luke remains, as ever, at the forefront of a changing milieu, pairing the momentous legacy of Manchester’s 80s and 90s scene with the delivery of what today’s club communities need to get down. 

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A:
1. John Martyn - Small Hours
2. Stephen Whynott – A Better Way
3. April Fulladosa - Sunlit Horizon
SIDE B:
1. Sylvain Kassap - Plancoët
2. Manu Dibango - Night In Zeralda
3. Henri Texier - Hocoka Time
4. Nivaldo Orneleas - O Que Ha
5. 808 State – Pacific State (Massey’s Conga Mix)
SIDE C:
1. Magma - Eliphas Levi
2. Homelife - Stranger
3. Michael Gregory Jackson - Unspoken Magic
SIDE D:
1. Dora Morelenboum - Avermelhar
2. Simone - Tudo Que Você Podia Ser
3. Experience Unlimited – People
4. Otis G. Johnson - I Got It
5. Mel & Tim - Keep The Faith
* CD Will Contain Tracks Above + Bonus Tracks

The people. The love. These are the threads that came together to make the Haçienda great.

Celebrate the magic of the club that changed everything in this official book, told through evocative photographs and eye-witness accounts of the people who were there, from musicians, DJs and fashion designers to performers, clubbers and staff. Featuring contributions from Peter Hook, John Cooper Clarke, Bez, Noel Gallagher, Rowetta, Mani, Irvine Welsh, Andrew O'Hagan, Mike Pickering, DJ Paulette, Todd Terry and Roger Sanchez - as well as Haçienda staff, club-goers and many more.

Here comes No Obligation, the second full-length release from The Linda Lindas further advances their unironic, joyful, and exciting trajectory of mashing up LA punk with alt-rock, garage rock, power pop, new wave, rock en espanol.

'No Obligation' was written and recorded by the band during spring breaks, winter breaks, and long weekends (Lucia and Eloise are still in high school, Mila just fnished middle school, and Bela is patiently waiting for them to get done with it already) and was produced by Carlos de la Garza (Paramore, Best Coast, Bleached).

Known for their incredible musicianship and live performances, the band who has shared stages with and opened for Paramore, Japanese Breakfast, Jawbreaker, and Yeah Yeah Yeahs, are about to embark on a massive two-month tour across America with Green Day. Look for headlining shows at small clubs in between - including a sold-out gig at the famously DIY Gilman Street in Berkeley.

No expectations. No limits for The Linda Lindas

TRACK LISTING

1. No Obligation
2. All In My Head
3. Lose Yourself
4. Too Many Things
5. Once Upon A Time
6. Yo Me Estreso
7. Cartographers
8. Don't Think
9. Resolution/Revolution
10. Nothing Would Change
11. Excuse Me
12. Stop

Over half a century after their songs were recorded, ABBA's songs still make people the world over dance and sing every day, and their ability to evoke every emotion has made them the ultimate soundtrack to major life events, from birthday parties and weddings to heartbreaks and memorials. Since interviewing the four members of ABBA for an article in 2013 - at which time the band had not been interviewed for 30 years - a relationship was sparked between writer Jan Gradvall and the band, and he was granted unique access for the next decade. He has interviewed each of them exclusively for Melancholy Undercover, and they share their thoughts and opinions with him here more openly than ever before.

Gradvall places ABBA at the centre of the musical universe, and alongside his fascinating interviews, he gives readers the socio-cultural context of how the band's sound was formed - including the melancholic hints of Swedish folk music and the dansband culture of their formative years - and shows how the story of ABBA is also the story of Sweden and the internationalisation of pop culture. With around 2 million tickets sold to the ABBA Voyage experience in London since it opened in May 2023, it is undeniable that, in the history of pop culture and music, there has never been a group like ABBA. This remarkably intimate, approved biography brings readers a few steps closer to one of the world's most famously private bands.

Born to an American myth and raised in the wilds of Graceland, Lisa Marie Presley tells her whole story for the first time in this raw, riveting, one-of-a-kind memoir faithfully completed by her daughter, Riley Keough. In 2022, Lisa Marie Presley asked her daughter to help finally finish her long-conceived memoir. A month later, Lisa Marie was dead, and the world would never know her story in her own words; never know the passionate, joyful, caring, and complicated woman that Riley loved and grieved.

Riley got the tapes that her mother had recorded for the book, lay in her bed, and listened as Lisa Marie told story after story: about smashing golf carts together in the yards of Graceland; about the unconditional love she felt from her father; about being upstairs, just the two of them. About getting dragged screaming out of the bathroom as she ran towards his body on the floor. About living in Los Angeles with her mother, getting sent to school after school, always kicked out, always in trouble.

About her singular, lifelong relationship with Danny Keough, and about being married to Michael Jackson, and what they had in common. About motherhood. About deep addiction.

About ever-present grief. Riley knew she had to fulfill her mother’s wish to reveal these memories, incandescent and painful, to the world. To make her mother known.

This extraordinary book is composed of both Lisa Marie’s and Riley’s voices, a mother and daughter communicating across the chasm of life and death as they try to heal each other. Profoundly moving and deeply revealing, From Here to the Great Unknown is a book like no other – the last words of the only child of a true legend.

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

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

New live album on coloured vinyl, 'Sung Tongs Live At The Theatre At Ace Hotel' is a recording of the 2018 concert in Los Angeles where Avey Tare and Panda Bear performed 'Sung Tongs' in full.

TRACK LISTING

1. Leaf House - Live
2. Who Could Win A Rabbit - Live
3. The Softest Voice - Live
4. Covered In Frogs - Live
5. Winters Love - Live
6. Kids On Holiday - Live
7. Sweet Road - Live
8. Visiting Friends - Live
9. College - Live
10. We Tigers - Live
11. Mouth Wooed Her - Live
12. Good Lovin Outside - Live
13. Whaddit I Done – Live

Afrobeat virtuoso Seun Kuti is gearing up to unleash his latest musical masterpiece upon the world with the upcoming release of his album that will be set to make waves globally via Milan independent label Record Kicks. Coming 6 years after the Grammy nominated album ‘Black times’, this album marks a pivotal moment in Seun Kuti's illustrious career, showcasing his evolution as an artist and activist.

Executive produced by legendary musician Lenny Kravitz and Fela Kuti’s original engineer Sodi Marciszewer (artistic producer), ‘Heavier Yet (Lays The Crownless Head)’ promises to deliver a sonic experience like no other. With both Kravitz's and Sodi’s expertise together with Seun Kuti's unmatched talent, the album is poised to redefine the boundaries of contemporary music while staying true to the roots of afrobeat.

Featuring a tracklist of six electrifying songs, each track on ‘Heavier Yet (Lays The Crownless Head)’ embodies the spirit of resistance, resilience, and revolution. Each song talks about standing up against challenges and fighting for change. Like the standalone singles ‘Dey’ feat reggae icon Damian Marley, described as “a song about embracing and championing who we are, regardless” and ‘Emi Aluta’, “a song about struggle (Aluta means struggle) that pays homage to all the great revolutionaries”, that features Zambian singer, rapper and songwriter, Sampa The Great, one of best and most innovative lyricists of our time.

The song ‘T.O.P.’ is about “how society values money and success more than people”. Seun Kuti wants to change this by promoting empathy and reconnecting with nature. In another song, ‘Love & Revolution,’ he expresses his love for his wife and believes that true love can inspire people to make the world a better place.

“This project has been very special to me from the moment I conceived it, speaking to Lenny Kravitz, who has shown me such a brotherly love and respect” Seun says. “He has brought me to his home. I met his daughter Zoe and he has guided us with fierceness. Since we spoke about the album, three years ago, as the executive producer of this project, he has always been by our side and very supportive”. “I want to thank Craig Ross and Sodi, the producer of this project. We had a great time. It was the first time for me in the studio with Sodi and I was really impressed by his work and his fatherly advice and dedication”.

Each song on the album is a testament to Seun Kuti's unwavering commitment to using music as a tool for social change and empowerment. Through his powerful lyrics and infectious grooves, he continues to carry on the legacy of his father, the legendary Fela Kuti, while carving out his own path in the world of music. As a musician and pan-African activist, Seun has been involved in a number of campaigns in recent years, including #EndSARS – a social movement against police brutality in Nigeria. Significantly, he’s revived the Movement of the People (M.O.P.), the political party his father set up in 1979, which was quashed by the military government not long after Fela’s failed presidential bid.

Fans can expect an album that not only entertains but also inspires and ignites a spirit of activism and liberation.

Seun Kuti is a Nigerian musician, singer, and songwriter renowned for his captivating performances and socially conscious music. He is the youngest son of Afro beat pioneer Fela Kuti. Seun has spent most of his life preserving and extending his father's political and musical legacy as the leader of his father's former band Egypt 80. As a developing saxophonist and percussionist, he entered the formal ranks of the band before he was 12. In 1997 when Fela passed, in fulfilment of his father's wishes, Seun assumed the mantle as head of Egypt 80 and he has run it ever since. During his career, Seun Kuti released 4 albums with Egypt 80: ‘Many Things’ (2008), ‘From Africa with Fury: Rise for Knitting Factory Records’ (2011), coproduced by Brian Eno and John Reynolds, ‘A Long Way Beginning’ (2014) and the Grammy nominated ‘Black Times’ (2018) that included a feature from Carlos Santana. They also released numerous EPs. Seun has played for enthusiastically receptive audiences globally and collaborated with many great artists. In 2022, he joined forces with Roots frontman and MC extraordinaire Black Thought in the EP ‘African Dreams’. In 2023, Seun collaborated on Janelle Monae's ‘The Age of Pleasure’ (Grammy nominee for Album Of The Year) with the two singles 'Float' and 'Knows Better', teamed up with Talib Kweli and MadLib for their album ‘Liberation 2’ on the song ‘Nat Turner’ featuring Cassper Nyovest and released a new version of the single ‘Bad Man Lighter’ with Black Thought, featuring Vic Mensa.

TRACK LISTING

1.T.O.P.
2. Dey (ft Damian Marley)
3. Stand Well Well
4. Emi Aluta (ft Sampa The Great)
5. Love & Revolution
6. Move

Charlie Manning is Chubby and The Gang. The 30 something year old born and bred Londoner, kicked off the project in 2019 with the intention of blending hardcore punk with the most infectious elements of ‘70s rock n roll and doo-wop. Charlie brought in a “gang” of rotating instrumentalists performing on the albums Speed Kills (2020) and The Mutt’s Nuts (2021), both released through Partisan Records. Fast forward to now and Chubby and the Gang joins long-running hardcore label Flatspot Records for the release of the upcoming album, And Then There Was… The album is 16 songs written and performed by Charlie, produced by Jonah Falco, and recorded and mixed by James Atckinson. It’s a mix of control and chaos, love and loneliness, rage and vulnerability. The songs scream to be heard in a live setting, but feel just as at home playing over the speakers of a dimly lit local pub. “There’s A Devil In The Jukebox” is a roaring punk track. “The Bonnie Banks” storytelling nature leads to repetitive refrain that is begging to be shouted along with. There’s the raucous and simply put “Anticop.” An expansive, drawn out moment of facing mortality on “To Fade Away.” And the record ends with an emotive piano ballad in “Cocaine Sunday.” Throughout And Then There Was… Charlie exposes his prowess for melody and exposition of true self. In the five years Chubby and the Gang has existed, the band has done more than most in the double that time frame. An extensive 65 date UK tour, sharing the stage with chief influence The New York Hounds, celebrating Christmas and Valentine’s Day with original anthems. It’s no surprise the band has garnered praise across the globe, and across media with features on Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, The Guardian, NME and more. Inching towards the release of album number three, Chubby and The Gang is primed to continue to be an enthralling voice of authenticity in the world of punk and beyond. For him though, the only goal is to “Play good shows. Have good times.”

TRACK LISTING

1. Neither The Day, Nor The Hour
2. There's A Devil In The Jukebox
3. To Be Young
4. The Bonnie Banks
5. The Ravelin
6. Anticop
7. Some To Make You Better, Some To Make You Sick
8. To Fade Away
9. Company I Don't Want To Keep
10. Love Song (A Response)
11. Since You Said Goodbye
12. Trepanning
13. A Lust For More
14. Wish You Were Here
15. Two Hearts 16. Cocaine Sunday 

The Last Flight is our version of the story of Amelia Earhart's final, ill-fated journey in 1937. Having successfully navigated over 20,000 miles and 5 continents on her round-the-world trip, her aircraft, the Electra, vanished without trace near Howland Island. Her whereabouts, and those of her navigator, Fred Noonan, remain a lingering mystery to this day.

Rather than focus exclusively on the flight itself, the record is as much an examination of Earhart's remarkable character. She was an extremely rare blend of grace, composure, technical aptitude and a fortitude that the rest of us mere mortals can barely dream of, all enveloped by the soul of a poet. She was possessed of a seemingly unquenchable thirst for life - in her words, 'to find beauty in living... to know the answer to why I’m alive... and feel its excitement every moment'. That thirst for the abundance of life, the sheer joy and privilege of living, long outlasts her disappearance and death. It should serve as an inspiration, almost an instruction, to the rest of us; this record is our attempt to translate that inspiration into music.

TRACK LISTING

1. I Was Always Dreaming
2. Towards The Dawn
3. The Fun Of It
4. The South Atlantic
5. Electra
6. Arabian Flight
7. Monsoons
8. A Different Kind Of Love
9. Howland

The Last Flight is our version of the story of Amelia Earhart's final, ill-fated journey in 1937. Having successfully navigated over 20,000 miles and 5 continents on her round-the-world trip, her aircraft, the Electra, vanished without trace near Howland Island. Her whereabouts, and those of her navigator, Fred Noonan, remain a lingering mystery to this day.

Rather than focus exclusively on the flight itself, the record is as much an examination of Earhart's remarkable character. She was an extremely rare blend of grace, composure, technical aptitude and a fortitude that the rest of us mere mortals can barely dream of, all enveloped by the soul of a poet. She was possessed of a seemingly unquenchable thirst for life - in her words, 'to find beauty in living... to know the answer to why I’m alive... and feel its excitement every moment'. That thirst for the abundance of life, the sheer joy and privilege of living, long outlasts her disappearance and death. It should serve as an inspiration, almost an instruction, to the rest of us; this record is our attempt to translate that inspiration into music.

TRACK LISTING

1. I Was Always Dreaming
2. Towards The Dawn
3. The Fun Of It
4. The South Atlantic
5. Electra
6. Arabian Flight
7. Monsoons
8. A Different Kind Of Love
9. Howland

Featuring photographs supplied by the Grant and lyrics from the albums BOY FROM MICHGAN; LOVE IS MAGIC; GREY TICKLES, BLACK PRESSURE; PALE GREEN GHOSTS; QUEEN OF DENMARK

Step into the tumultuous world of music stardom with this collection of obituaries from The Times. From the rock’n’roll pioneers of the 1950s, to the pop superstars of the 21st century, and lesser-known innovators with undeniable influence, this book brings to life the enduring spirits of music’s brightest stars. Discover the untold stories behind the music, the triumphs, the tragedies and the unforgettable songs that have shaped our cultural landscape.

With era-defining obituaries and behind-the-scenes photos from The Times archive, this collection is a captivating journey through the lives and legends of rock and pop’s most iconic figures.

Following last year’s JUNO award winning album 'When We Were That What Wept From The Sea', 'The Love It Took To Leave You' features 11 new pieces of emotionally scorching music.

The album was recorded over a week in 2023 at The Darling Foundry, a 144-year-old former metalworks facility in Montreal with a voluminous main room that still maintains its raw architecture of brick, concrete and steel. From the album’s opening track Stetson charts a carefully sequenced ride, travelling through intense territories punctuated with tragic melodies that seek transcendence, epic and frenzied shredders, and many shades of scary beauty, betrayal, and redemption. This is the art of storytelling wrought instrumentally. 'The Love It Took To Leave You' is a perfect storm of technical, musical and compositional complexity and achievement. 

TRACK LISTING

1. The Love It Took To Leave You
2. The Six
3. The Augur
4. Hollowing
5. To Think We Knew From Fear
6. Malediction
7. Green And Grey And Fading Light
8. Strike Your Forge And Grin
9. Ember
10. So Say The Soaring Bullbats
11. Bloodrest

A rock’n’roll sensation from the word go, Danish-Brazilian The Courettes are back with their fourth and best album to date – The Soul Of… The Fabulous Courettes. And this time, they’re bigger, wider and deeper than ever before as they add more to the blistering ramalama that’s seen them cause pandemonium across the venues, festivals and airwaves of the UK, Europe, USA and Japan.

Hitting the sweet spot that straddles garage rock, girl groups, doo-wop harmonies, heartache and all points in between, here The Courettes build on the momentum of predecessor ‘Back In Mono’ with a collection of songs that opens up their sonic scope while confronting dark, emotional matter to reveal ‘The Soul Of The Fabulous Courettes’. “We didn’t want to do Back In Mono 2’,” stresses drummer Martin Couri. “We always try to put ourselves into a zone of discomfort, which I think is where exciting things happen rather than just doing the same thing over again,” agrees singer, guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Flavia Couri. “I mean, I know some bands can do that but we don't see ourselves making the same album for the next 20 years. We thought ‘Back In Mono’ was our best album until this one!” She’s not wrong.

Having evolved with each album release, The Soul Of… The Fabulous Courettes draws inspiration from many of the duo’s numerous idols that have only previously been hinted at.“We wanted to show our love of the Spector Wall Of Sound and Motown,” reveals Flavia. “It was a clear mission and we’ve absolutely nailed it.” From the glorious opening beats and stabbing fuzz honks of ‘You Woo Me’ to the closing emotional tugs of ‘For Your Love’ via ‘SHAKE!’’s fuzzed-up urgency and ‘California’’s celebratory warmth, The Courettes have broadened their sound with an increased musical instrumentation and overall sophistication that’s evident in both their sound and songwriting. And crucially, they’ve achieved this without sacrificing any of the rock’n’roll grit that’s been scraped from Flavia’s guitar strings and Martin’s battered and pummelled drums.

Reflecting The Soul Of… The Fabulous Courettes, the album’s monochrome album cover was shot by celebrated photographer Søren Solkær, who’s previously immortalised Amy Winehouse, The White Stripes and Paul McCartney among many others. “It's such a cool contrast to the pop songs,” says Martin of the cover art, “but it's also hand-in-hand with the album’s dark themes.

He really goes into your soul. I think it’s amazing.” For all that, The Soul Of… The Fabulous Courettes is an album aimed as much for what’s below the neck as above it, for this is an album that dances through the darkness to celebrate the joy that is living.“Life is so fragile,” smiles Flavia. “But what are you supposed to do? I’d rather dance.” And what better album to do that to?

TRACK LISTING

You Woo Me
California (Feat.La La Brooks Of The Crystals)
Keep Dancing
Here I Come
Don’t Want You Back
Wall Of Pain
SHAKE!
Boom Boom Boom
Better Without You
Run Run Runaway (Feat.La La Brooks Of The Crystals)
Lies
Stop! Doing That
For Your Love

The Brand New Heavies revisit their seminal 1994 album Brother Sister for its 30 year anniversary. Replete with groove-driven, horn-splashed, hand-clapping funk, Brother Sister saw the band dig deep into their jazz grooves, with N'Dea Davenport in full flight as diva/lead vocalist.

Featuring some of their best loved songs including the chart hits 'Midnight at the Oasis', 'Dream on Dreamer', and 'Spend Some Time', Brother Sister debuted in the UK charts at #4 and went onto be a hit worldwide, the band rightly claiming their crown as Acid Jazz heavyweights, delivering knock-out punch after punch on this album.

TRACK LISTING

LP Tracklisting
A1 Have A Good Time
A2 Brother Sister
A3 Dream On Dreamer
A4 Midnight At The Oasis

B1 Back To Love
B2 Ten Ton Take
B3 Mind Trips
B4 Spend Some Time

C1 Keep Together
C2 Snake Hips
C3 Fake
C4 People Giving Love
C5 World Keeps Spinning

D1 Forever
D2 Day Break
D3 Los Burritos
D4 Baby Don't Use Me
D5 Touch Of Your Love

CD Tracklisting
Disc 1
1. Have A Good Time
2. Brother Sister
3 .Dream On Dreamer
4. Midnight At The Oasis
5. Back To Love
6. Ten Ton Take
7. Mind Trips
8. Spend Some Time
9. Keep Together
10. Snake Hips
11. Fake
12. People Giving Love
13. World Keeps Spinning
14. Forever
15. Day Break
16. Los Burritos
17. Baby Don't Use Me
18. Touch Of Your Love

Disc 2
1. Pocketful Of Bass
2. Put Yourself In My Shoes
3. Brother Sister (Stone One Vocal Remix)
4. Dream On Dreamer (Morales Extended UK Version)
5. Back To Love (Much Love Mix Feat. Bahamadia_
6. Mind Trips (SuperStar Remix)
7. Forever (Mellow Mix)
8. Midnight At The Oasis (Roger's Brand New Anthem)
9. Spend Some Time (Bobby D'Ambrosio Remix)
10. Spend Some Time (Malone & Mollison Full Club Mix)
11. World Keeps Spinning (Spen & Jo's World Mix)
12. Dream On Dreamer (T-Empo Club Mix)
13. Back To Love (Luke Mornay's Homecoming Mix)

Near-ambient arrangements that float in a space between The Durutti Column, Steve Cropper and Ashra, Down On The Road By The Beach also crowns Hiett the master of recontextualization with his zero-gravity blues visions of Roll Over Beethoven, Santo & Johnny’s Sleep Walk and the 1967 Eddie Floyd soul hit Never Found A Girl.

For the first time since its inception 36 years ago, Steve Hiett’s elusive Down On The Road By The Beach is finally made available outside of Japan. Most recognized in the fashion sphere as an English photographer and graphic designer, Hiett‘s transportive audio portraits amplify his serpentine guitar to the infinite blue, recorded across Paris, Tokyo and New York with no coastline in sight. Now widely celebrated as a desert island disc, very little is actually known of its unfathomable genesis.

A career devotee of Brian Wilson’s ground breaking harmonies, Hiett shot The Beach Boys for Rolling Stone - as well as The Doors, Miles Davis and Jimi Hendrix (in one of his final performances at the 1970 Isle Of Wight Festival) - while establishing himself as a fashion photographer. Decamping to Paris in 1972, he began what would become 20-year collaborations with Vogue Paris and Marie Claire, printing his signature warm, saturated and vibrantly hued snapshots.

In 1982, representatives from Tokyo’s Galerie Watari visited him to propose a solo exhibition. Asking if he could insert a 7” of original music into the back of the exhibition catalogue, Hiett laid down ‘Blue Beach - Welcome To Your Beach’ in a Parisian radio station, playing all of the instruments himself, and two more cuts in New York with Yoko Ono, The Doobie Brothers and Steely Dan hired-gun Elliot Randall. Once dispatched, the phone began ringing off the hook with requests for him to fly to Tokyo. Assuming these long-distance callers were wanting him to check proofs for the book, it wasn’t until he arrived that he discovered CBS/Sony had facilitated an entire album. Heitt hastily gripped some petty cash, bought a guitar and retreated to his hotel room to start writing.

Entering the studio the following day, he was further surprised by a waiting room of session players known as Moonriders - one of Japan’s most acclaimed rock bands of the 1980s. Intimidated by their indecipherable sheet music, Hiett suggested Randall join them and with money being no object for major labels at the time, his wingman was on the next plane out of New York to finalise the high production indulgence.

STAFF COMMENTS

Patrick says: An underground favourite amongst Balearic and Ambient collectors, original copies of this cool and contemplative LP from Steve Hiett dried up recently, making this reissue a must have. Hiett's soundscapes and reflective guitars are every bit as beautiful as his cover photo.

TRACK LISTING

1. Blue Beach - Welcome To Your Beach
2. Never Find A Girl (To Love Me Like You Do)
3. By The Pool
4. Roll Over, Beethoven - Out Of The Beach
5. In The Shade
6. Looking Across The Street
7. Long Distance Look
8. Hot Afternoon
9. Crying In The Sun
10. The Next Time
11. Miss B.B. Walks Away
12. Sleep Walk
13. Standing There

Formed in Bristol, 4-piece LICE have become one of UK experimental rock’s most inventive and ambitious outliers. Their second album ‘Third Time At The Beach’ – a three-part epic exploring our struggle to better understand the world around us – arrives on the 20th September via AD 93. Darting between minimalism, rock, techno and more, it sends us hurtling us through time and space: featuring a cast of astronauts, cavemen and dinosaurs.

This follows LICE’s internationally acclaimed debut album ‘WASTELAND: What Ails Our People Is Clear’ (2021). Praised as “exciting, alive, packed with musical ideas” by Financial Times and “a welcome lease of life for British avant-rock that plays with expectation at every turn” by CRACK, it also gained radio support across BBC 6Music, BBC Radio 1 and KEXP. The album led LICE to perform at major festivals including Reading & Leeds, Green Man and End Of The Road, embark on an extensive EU tour supporting Sleaford Mods, and tour across the UK & EU.

‘Third Time At The Beach’’s concept is expressed through three movements. The first (‘Unscrewed’, ‘White Tubes’, ‘Red Fibres’) presents the child being introduced to the world, hammered into shape through prevailing culture, and realising they have reached adulthood with a blinkered understanding of the world. The second (‘To The Basket’, ‘Wrapped In A Sheet’, ‘Scenes From The Desert’, ‘Mown In Circles’) is a disorientating, alien sequence: reevaluating fundamental concepts including money, time, nationhood and language. In the third (‘Fatigued, Confused’, ‘Third Time At The Beach’, ‘The Dance’), the individual embraces these new ideas – granting them a changed understanding of the world, and more agency in the path they take through it.

Everything is always changing in ‘Third Time At The Beach’. The album shifts from lush piano balladry to crushing industrial, and from swampy avant-garde compositions to triumphant rock freakouts. Employing vocal manipulation and field recordings, as well as cutting together studio recordings and home demos, the band produces a spatially elastic, collage-like effect. The album, like the ideas being reached within it, presents a work-in-progress. Lyrically, the record employs a scattershot style to present the experience of learning (or ‘unlearning’). The listener visits ancient civilisations, the Industrial Revolution, outer space and the land of the dinosaurs: encountering mediaeval farmers, silver miners, cavemen, Napoleon and Satan.

Speaking on the record, the band say: “This album’s about trying to understand the world and everything in it: history, science and the way we explain it all to each other. It’s a celebration of feeling confused or intimidated by the processes that shape our lives.”

Of the album’s muscular, agitated lead single ‘Red Fibres’, LICE explain: “This song is about realising you’ve reached adulthood with a blinkered understanding of the world, and feeling confused and frustrated. After visiting some key moments in the history of language, science and the human eye, we arrive at a campsite: where two shipwreck survivors are about to have a fight.”

TRACK LISTING

Side A:
A1. Unscrewed
A2. White Tubes
A3. Red Fibres
A4. To The Basket
A5. Wrapped In A Sheet

Side B:
B1. Scenes From The Desert
B2. Mown In Circles
B3. Fatigued, Confused
B4. Third Time At The Beach
B5. The Dance

Aesthetically, Ed Schrader’s Music Beat hates to tread water. At the same time, the Baltimore-based two-piece of vocalist Ed Schrader and bassist Devlin Rice won’t force their songs to fit a preconceived style. “The next album’s always gotta be different from the last one. We’re different people from record to record. So, writing authentically to ourselves will always bring our work to a place that we haven’t been to yet,” Rice said. Schrader added, “We’re terrified of turning into AC/DC. We never want to be married to one scene or time or sound. We want to be the Boba Fett of bands! Constantly altering the way in which we make records has been pretty key in that process.”

For Orchestra Hits, the band’s latest, that alteration was welcoming longtime musical comrade Dylan Going into the fold as a co-writer and co-producer. A songwriter in his own right, a guitar sideman for ESMB on their last two tours, and a collaborator with Rice in the noise riffage band Mandate, Going had both a unique vision and an intimate familiarity with the ESMB vibe.

“Dylan came to every show we’ve ever played in New York—no matter how weird it was,” Schrader said. “He’d be standing there ready to move an amp or feed us barbecued cactus after the gig and toss on some Golden Girls so we could decompress. It felt like family as soon as we began working, but I honestly had no idea how damn good he was at tossing out these hooks.”

According to Schrader, the songs “just poured out of us” over the course of a highly caffeinated three-day weekend in a tiny room in Devlin’s house while his cat, Sandy Goose, screamed continually. “It was like three kids hiding from the world to get into some lovely mischief,” they said. The lack of external pressure in the process gives Orchestra Hits an almost paradoxical vibe. For all of the album’s layers, that mix live and sequenced instruments, it never loses the raw energy of a small handful of friends in the same room plugging in, cranking up, and playing until they pass out.

Lyrically, the album finds Schrader, now 45, meditating on experiences in their youth to make sense of the present moment. “We are not into the garden,” Schrader wails on the relentless “Roman Candle,” a song about the sad debacle of Woodstock ’99, and a direct response to Joni Mitchell’s “Woodstock,” a utopian ode to hippie idealism. A 19-year-old Schrader, having snuck into Woodstock ’99 through a hole in the fence, was there the night members of the crowd used candles intended for a vigil for victims of the Columbine High School massacre to set fires all over the grounds. Even before the fires, Schrader remembered feeling disconnected from the music, the nostalgic cash grab, and the meatheads in the crowd. After watching a press tower collapse, they boarded a random shuttle bus and were dropped off near a Denny’s. “It was a far cry from the Garden of Eden,” Schrader said. “That experience defined what I didn’t want to be a part of, and yet America is more like Woodstock ’99 than ever.”

With percolating synthesizer arpeggios, and climbing bass grooves, “IDKS” is the album’s dance-floor slapper. “’IDKS’ is a funny one,” Schrader said. “We already had a pretty satisfying suite of songs when Dylan was packing up to head back to New York, but he missed the train because of a freak snowstorm. Realizing he’d be stuck in town another day, he says to me, ‘Here’s this other weird thing I have.’ It was ‘IDKS.’ The hooks were so good I felt like Homer Simpson at a free donut convention. I just dove right in, and we cranked that baby out in like 20 minutes.”

Lyrically, “IDKS” is a letter from the true self to public-facing self. “It’s an angry song,” Schrader said. “Because the public-facing self is always looking for an easy escape, but it forces the true self into a cage. I honestly thought my lyrics were corny and was about to change them, but Dylan was digging it just the way it was. So that’s what you hear.”

With the soaring “Daylight Commander,” the band went against all of their musty-basement-bred instincts. “I went full High School Musical with the vocals,” Schrader said. “At first it felt almost embarrassing, but I remember reading somewhere that Bowie recommended always floating a little bit above your comfort zone, and that’s what we did here.” The song is part exercise in absurdity and part pop Trojan horse. “If ever we had a ‘Shiny Happy People’ moment, I guess this is it,” Schrader said.

TRACK LISTING

01. Roman Candle
02. Into The Knotted Trees
03. IDKS
04. Blue Garden
05. I Turn The Ocean Blue
06. Waterfront
07. Daylight Commander
08. Silver
09. Noonday Sun

The second set in Matadors 1984-1991 reissue series. Newly remastered by Golden under direction of the band.

TRACK LISTING

1. Moving To Florida
2. Comb
3. To Parter
4. Tornadoes

RIYL: King Krule, Interpol, The Smile, Amen Dunes, TV On The Radio, Nick Hakim, Yves Tumor, Rotsam, Nilüfer Yanya, Bon Iver.

Lutalo’s highly visceral folk goes electric on The Academy, the Vermont multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and producer’s debut LP. Recorded in January 2024 at the storied Sonic Ranch and self-produced along with Jake Aron (Snail Mail, Protomartyr, L’Rain), The Academy feels like watching the best underground film you’ve seen in years; establishing Lutalo as a singular voice of this generation of indie rock. Lutalo describes The Academy as their “first chapter” a time capsule of the lessons they’ve learned in their 20-something years of life. “This record is exactly that: a ‘record’ of my early life,” they say of their debut album, out via Winspear. “The experiences, thoughts and feelings I was holding at those times and am currently processing. To me, this is the first big stamp of my existence I’m sharing.”

While Lutalo’s 2022 EP Once Now, Then Again introduced them as a lo-fi acoustic guitar wunderkind, The Academy is bigger and bolder without compromising Lutalo’s inviting sense of emotional intimacy, inspired by alt-rock veterans like Thom Yorke and Rob Crow as well as electronic greats like Aphex Twin and Bowery Electric. The Academy’s grander arrangements are heard in the biting adrenaline rush of “Ocean Swallows Him Whole,” or the anti-war jangle of album closer “The Bed.” Their lyrics are often deeply intuitive, flowing as a stream of consciousness, albeit with weighty meanings. With their unique baritone and finesse for lyrical world building, Lutalo cuts to the bone while only just beginning to reveal the depth of their artistry and vision.

TRACK LISTING

Side A:
1. Summit Hill
2. Ganon
3. Ocean Swallows Him Whole
4. Broken Twin
5. Big Brother
6. Caster

Side B:
7. 3
8. Oh Well
9. About (Hall Of Egrees)
10. Haha Halo
11. Lightning Strike
12. The Bed

Graham Coxon (blur) + Rose Elinor Dougall return with the follow-up to last year's acclaimed eponymous debut (Top 30 UK OCC). Produced by James Ford (Fontaines DC, Arctic Monkeys), the record features both artists on vocal duties in addition to playing a host of instruments including saxophone, keyboards and drums. The WAEVE have established themselves as a songwriting partnership to watch and with City Lights they further push the boundaries of their collaborative creativity, using this album to chronicle the evolution of their relationship and forays into parenthood.

TRACK LISTING

City Lights
You Saw
Moth To The Flame
I Belong To...
Simple Days
Broken Boys
Song For Eliza May
Druantia
Girl Of The Endless Night
Sunrise

The latest in Fuzz Club's King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard official bootleg series arrives in the shape of 'Nonagon Infinity Live'. It's a live version of the cult Australian psych-rock band's breakthrough 2016 album 'Nonagon Infinity' compiled by Fuzz Club (with the help of the /KGATLW Reddit community) out of live recordings captured at Bonnaroo Festival (2022), Brussels' Ancienne Belgique (2019), the Red Rocks Amphitheatre (2022) and Chicago's The Salt Shed (2023).

All of the tracks have been mixed by King Gizz's own Stu Mackenzie and remastered exclusively for this Fuzz Club bootleg by James Plotkin. Limited to 999 copies, it arrives as a 'gold nugget'-coloured, nonagon-shaped double LP with printed inners and a handnumbered gatefold jacket with gold foil detailing and an exclusively licensed photo by Jamie Wdziekonski / Sub-Lation on the inside that nods to the inside-gatefold photo on the original studio album.

TRACK LISTING

DISC 1
SIDE A
1. Robot Stop (Live At Bonnaroo '22)
2. Big Fig Wasp (Live In Brussels '19)
SIDE B
1. Gamma Knife (Live At Red Rocks '22)
2. People-Vultures (Live At Red Rocks '22)
3. Mr. Beat (Live At Red Rocks '22)

DISC 2
SIDE C
1. Evil Death Roll (Live In Chicago '23)
SIDE D
1. Invisible Face (Live In Chicago '23)
2. Wah Wah (Live In Chicago '23)
3. Road Train (Live In Chicago '23)

After 25 years, The Get Up Kids’ classic second album, 'Something to Write Home About', is still recognizable as the same electrifying, scrappy album it was upon release, but also transformed by time into one of the most seminal records of the band’s scene. To celebrate the album’s 25th anniversary, Polyvinyl Records is thrilled to announce a special deluxe reissue. The album has been meticulously remastered from the original tapes and will be paired with a slew of bonus material, including rare demo versions of multiple songs from the album as well as never-before released rarities from the era. Originally released in September of 1999, Something to Write Home About has been established as an importan late-millennium rock-and-roll document; a convergence of power
pop, alternative rock, and punk, it provided the parameters for emo’s Midwest-centered second wave.

TRACK LISTING

1. Holiday
2. Action & Action
3. Valentine
4. Red Letter Day
5. Out Of Reach
6. Ten Minutes
7. The Company Dime
8. My Apology
9. I'm A Loner Dottie, A Rebel
10. Long Goodnight
11. Close To Home
12. I'll Catch You
13. One Year Later (Demo)
14. Close To Home (Demo)
15. Out Of Reach (Demo)
16. Holiday (Demo)
17. Valentine (Demo)
18. My Apology (Demo)
19. Red Letter Day (Demo)
20. Ten Minutes (Demo)
21. Central Standard Time (Four Track Demo)
22. Long Goodnight (Four Track Demo)
23. The Company Dime (Four Track Demo)
24. I'll Catch You (Four Track Demo)

"Get out! Fight!” The Lijadu Sisters’ 'Horizon Unlimited' is the insurgent afrofunk their second cousin Fela strived to create. Soulful, psychedelic, feminist, and revolutionary music already known worldwide, finally available again after a
decade with The Lijadus’ approval and deep involvement.

“The Nigerian twins who fought the elite with funk” - The Guardian

TRACK LISTING

1. Orere - Elejigbo
2. Erora
3. Gbowo Mi
4. Gbalo-Alogbalo
5. Come On Home
6. Not Any Longer

Deluxe Box Set Features 417 Previously Unreleased Performances, Newly-Mixed Recordings And Liner Notes by Elizabeth Nelson.

Celebrating the 50th anniversary of Bob Dylan’s return to touring that in 1974. Featuring all professionally recorded shows from the artist’s 1974 performances backed by The Band, the collection will be available as a deluxe box set across 27 CDs. The 1974 Live Recordings offers fans 417 previously-unreleased Bob Dylan live tracks – including 133 recordings newly mixed from 16-track tape, and every single surviving soundboard recording – along with new liner notes by journalist and critic Elizabeth Nelson.

A classically trained vocalist with a self-taught instrumentalist's spirit, Shara Nova has been releasing spellbinding music as My Brightest Diamond since 2006. Over the years, the band has released five groundbreaking albums, each showcasing a different musical landscape while always centering on Nova's distinctive voice.

Her journey took an unexpected turn in July 2023, when within hours of learning about Sinéad O'Connor's passing, a fierce storm plunged her Detroit home into darkness. As the city held its breath, Nova sat with her guitar, reflecting on O'Connor's iconic SNL performance where she repurposed Bob Marley’s "War" to address child abuse, urging viewers to “fight the real enemy.” Inspired by this act of artistic courage, Nova poured her emotions into a raw demo – the title track "Fight the Real Terror" – which opens the album in its original form.

Traveling from her home in Detroit to Chicago, Shara worked with Tom Schick at Wilco’s studio, The Loft, for five days. Initially expecting to re-record everything, she was surprised when Tom insisted on keeping the raw demo material. The week was spent overdubbing, with Shara playing bass for the first time, alongside pianos, guitars with gizmotrons, and re-amping some original guitar parts recorded in her studio.
More than just a collection of songs; Fight the Real Terror is a call to action, and a testament to the transformative power of music. Nova's powerful vocals and genre-bending compositions are simultaneously intimate and expansive, urging listeners to confront their fears, embrace their vulnerabilities, and fight for a better world.

TRACK LISTING

01 Fight The Real Terror
02 Rocket In My Pocket
03 Even Warriors
04 Imaginary Lover
05 Rule Breaker
06 Safe House
07 Have You Ever Seen An Angel
08 Sublime
09 There’s No Place
10 I Saw A Glimpse

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

TRACK LISTING

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

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

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

TRACK LISTING

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

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

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

TRACK LISTING

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

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

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

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

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

The Cure "Stills" follows the changing faces of one of the leading British rock bands during the post-punk and new-wave movements of the late '70s and '80s. As the band has continued over a period of nearly 50 years, front man and only constant member Robert Smith has maintained the band's popularity throughout the changing musical eras, while staying true to their individualistic style and quirkiness. Instrumental in the creation of the varying incarnations of The Cure is photographer Paul Cox, who first encountered the group on Top of the Pops in 1980.

Having established a creative, productive and trusting relationship with the band, Cox's resulting work is The Cure in all their glory. Including over 200 colour and 75 black-and-white images, with accompanying captions selected and written by Cox and Smith, this book is a celebration of a seminal band through the lens of a skilled photographer. 

‘The Forest is the Path’ is an album rooted in reflection, introspection and interrogation. One of its key building blocks, says Gary Lightbody – lead singer of Snow Patrol - was the idea of love from a distance. “I haven’t been in a relationship for a very long time, 10 years or more, so love from a distance to me meant the way a relationship sits in your memory from a distance of, say, 10 years. That’s not something I’d previously thought about as a way to write about love. So it’s like, when you’re in love, you’re standing in the lobby of the Empire State Building. When you’ve broken up with that person, you’re out in the street. You can still see the building, but you’re not in there anymore. And when it’s 10 years later, now you’re standing in Brooklyn looking at the Manhattan skyline.”



It’s a theme addressed unblinkingly and unflinchingly on lead single ‘The Beginning’. “That’s kind of a summing up of this album,” Gary continues. “It’s a way of looking at various mistakes, any pain I may have caused, from a place where nothing is hurting anymore, except the memory when you pull it back into your mind. The memory itself is full of hurt but everything around it isn’t. You’re holding in your hand this ball of fire, but now you’ve got gloves on.”

TRACK LISTING

1. All
2. The Beginning
3. Everything’s Here And Nothing’s Lost
4. Your Heart Home
5. This Is The Sound Of Your Voice
6. Hold Me In The Fire
7. Years That Fall
8. Never Really Tire
9. These Lies
10. What If Nothing Breaks?
11. Talking About Hope
12. The Forest Is The Path

Debut and breakthrough record The Balcony has become a career-defining album for Catfish and the Bottlemen, with Double Platinum status and 9 BPI Certified Singles including ‘Cocoon’ and ‘Kathleen’, it was originally released through Communion/Island Records on 15th September 2014. Written by Van McCann and produced by Jim Abbiss, the collection of songs on this album showcase McCann’s talent for posing everyday, easily identifiable observations through his lyrics. The album’s success and the many sold out shows resulted in a Brit Award for British Breakthrough Act.

Featuring inverted white artwork, this celebratory release includes singles such as ‘Homesick’ and ‘Rango’ and is available as an expanded edition on 2LP ultra clear vinyl & expanded 1CD.

TRACK LISTING

2LP Expanded
Side A
Homesick
Kathleen
Cocoon
Fallout
Pacifier
Side B
Hourglass
Business
26
Rango
Sidewinder
Tyrants
Side C
Kathleen (Acoustic)
Cocoon (Acoustic)
Pacifier (Acoustic)
Side D
Rango (Single Version)
ASA
Hourglass (Ewan McGregor Version)

1CD Expanded
Homesick
Kathleen
Cocoon
Fallout
Pacifier
Hourglass
Business
26
Rango
Sidewinder
Tyrants
Kathleen (Acoustic)
Cocoon (Acoustic)
Pacifier (Acoustic)
Rango (Single Version)
ASA
Hourglass (Ewan McGregor Version)

The Jesus Lizard have returned with 'Rack', their first record since 1998. The album features 11 tracks of brisk guitar rock you haven’t heard since… the last time the Jesus Lizard took over a stage in your town. The Jesus Lizard - vocalist David Yow, guitarist Duane Denison, bassist David Wm. Sims, and drummer Mac McNeilly - have returned with a record teeming with the kind of madness needed to beat down today’s AOR mediocrity and piss-perfect pop drivel alike.

Since their inception in Chicago in 1987, The Jesus Lizard has thrilled audiences all over the planet. The impeccable rocket-thrust rhythm section of Sims and McNeilly was the perfect launchpad for Denison’s jagged yet clean-toned riffing and Yow’s mercurial vocalizations manifesting as everything from panicked citizen, reality escapee or wounded sea mammal. the Jesus Lizard’s fury carried on through six studio albums, two live recordings and a brace of singles and EPs.

On 'Rack', The Jesus Lizard have returned reconstituted, refreshed and positively revving. No tepid, bland tracks to show how they’ve “matured” as songwriters. No inane detours into unnecessary genre exercises.

The Jesus Lizard. They might not be young, but they will never, ever get fucking old.

Futurismo proudly present a celebration of the Paisley Underground scene with TWISTED DREAM MACHINE The Paisley Underground / California’s Psychedelic Renaissance: 1982-1986, the next volume in their Altered Vision compilation series.

This collection draws from the neo psychedelic movement that took hold in California during the early to mid 80’s, one that melded the psychedelia, country, garage rock, avant-garde and pop of the 60’s with the DIY ethos of the then burgeoning punk scene, a hypnotic amalgamation of sound that came in staunch contrast to the blown out sonic excesses of the time.

Twisted Dream Machine takes you on a trip from the city to the desert, as the kaleidoscope of noise drifts from the The Dream Syndicate’s Velvet Underground inspired take on Crazy Horse and The Three O’Clock’s chiming baroque powerpop, to Rain Parade’s dreamy Beatlesesque melodies and the Bangles hook-laden Love inspired pop. Also featured are the wondrous sounds of Green On Red, The Long Ryder’s, Game Theory, True West, Thin White Rope and others highly worth your attention. If you are not familiar with some of the bands here, you will surely question how that is possible. The Paisley Underground, if anything, encapsulated a certain musical mindset, an outlook where the past and the future would collide in the moment. This thread would bond the bands, yet each honed it’s own sound in a twisted incarnation of the seeds planted two decades earlier. Whilst the ‘scene’ did remain contained, its influence did in fact spread throughout mainstream culture as the Bangles stuck a chord into the heart of MTV, whilst Prince took inspiration from the movement in his own songwriting and the naming of Paisley Park, as well as signing The Three O’Clock to his label and writing one of the Bangles biggest hits.

As you listen to the tracks on Twisted Dream Machine you will be reminded that there is still music left to discover and inspire, this compilation is aimed to hopefully delight longtime fans, as well as ignite a passion for those new to the bands. The Paisley Underground was the sound of neo psychedelic rock, it was subterranean pop...in the classic sense, it was alternative rock before the term existed, a distillation of the fundamentals present at the dawn of rock ‘n’ roll, with a twist. The bands of the Paisley Underground may have been writing out of their own time, but as you listen to them in today’s context these songs should be heard as landmarks, rather than throwbacks. After all, nothing this good should stay underground. 

TRACK LISTING

1. The Three ‘O’ Clock - Jet Fighter
2. The Rain Parade - Don’t Feel Bad
3. True West - Lucifer Sam
4. Bangles - Going Down To Liverpool
5. Thin White Rope - Down In The Desert
6. Game Theory - 24
7. The Dream Syndicate - Definitely Clean
8. The Long Ryders - Too Close To The Light
9. Green On Red - Illustrated Crawling
10. 28th Day - Pages Turn
11. The Dream Syndicate - That’s What You Always Say
12. The Pandoras - In And Out Of My Life (In A Day)
13. The Long Ryders - Ivory Tower
14. The Three ‘O’ Clock - With A Cantaloupe Girlfriend
15. Bangles - All About You
16. The Rain Parade - Talking In My Sleep
17. The Three ‘O’ Clock - Her Heads Revolving
18. True West - Shot You Down
19. Wednesday Week - If Only
20. Thin White Rope - Exploring The Axis
21. The Rain Parade - Mystic Green
22. Green On Red - Lost World

Fleetwood Mac have had a chart-topping career that spans over fifty years and includes some of the biggest-selling albums and greatest hits of the 20th and 21st centuries. But the band's story is one of enormous triumph and also unimaginable tragedy. There has never been a band in the history of music riven with as much romantic drama, sexual tension and incredible highs and lows as Fleetwood Mac.

Dreams is a must-read for casual Fleetwood Mac fans and die-hard devotees alike. In this unique collection of mini-biographies, observations and essays, Mark Blake explores all eras of the Fleetwood Mac story to explore what it is that has made them one of the most successful bands in history. Blake draws on his own exclusive interviews with Mick Fleetwood, Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham and the late Peter Green and Christine McVie, and addresses the complex human drama at the heart of the Fleetwood Mac story, including the complicated relationships between the band's main members, but he also dives deep into the towering discography that the band have built over the past half-century.

Jade Hairpins waste no time fulfilling their second album’s titular demand. From its harmony-drenched opening note to its baroque-anthemic conclusion, Get Me the Good Stuff is positively loaded with musical ideas, an absurdist buffet of sound and aesthetic that comes with one hell of a floorshow as the Hairpins stack those ideas higher and higher, almost daring them to crash to the floor. Instead, those elements punksploitation, power pop, baggy, funk, and Italo disco are just some touchstones are not only held aloft, they defy gravity and convention.

These pyrotechnics are, in true Jade Hairpins fashion, something of a sleight of hand. While the music swaggers and gallops, Get Me the Good Stuff grapples with anxiety and self-doubt, obfuscating pain and alienation with sparkling wit and some straight-up ravers. Get Me the Good Stuff opens with one of those, “Let It Be Me,” in which Jonah Falco shouts lyrics about being alone with one’s shortcomings against guitars, synths, and harmonized vocals that are on the verge of closing in. The song is just over 90 seconds long, hitting with the gnarled-barb ferocity of punk and the gleeful insanity of theatrical art rock.

It is, in other words, overwhelming. Or it would be if Jade Hairpins Jonah Falco and Mike Haliechuk weren’t remarkably nimble in their ability to bring unity to sounds by placing them in competition against each other. When those sounds are adjacent, like the glam and disco that saturate “Drifting Superstition,” the thrill of those universes colliding in the heat of an absolutely filthy clavichord line turns its lyrics, about the habit of solving personal problems by ignoring them, into a winner’s anthem on the order of Bowie or Hot Chocolate.

Get Me the Good Stuff arcs towards unequivocal joy as Falco, Jade Hairpins’ primary lyricist, breaks these cycles and attempts to run away with his dreams. The arc is roughly analogous to how the album came to fruition. Four years removed from Harmony Avenue, an album of material that proved too strong to be contained within the narrative universe of Fucked Up’s Dose Your Dreams, Jade Hairpins have gelled as a live act with Tamsin M. Leach and Jack Goldstein centering them on stage and planted their flag in the UK punk scene in which Falco has embedded himself. Working out new material live, Falco noticed that crowds were digging into his unfinished lyrics, and the album tightened around the anxieties of being in the spotlight, of being worthy of attention.

At times, those songs are eager to please, like the album’s title track in which a winking self-deprecation rubs up against the self-congratulatory bombast of Freddie Mercury, Falco simultaneously turning heads as a shooting star and a burning car. Elsewhere, as in “Better Here Than in Love,” Jade Hairpins pitch themselves towards creating gorgeous soundscapes that exist nowhere else, channelling postpunk through the glimmering haze of ’80s Japanese electronic music.

Theatrical and personal, absurd and true-to-life, playful and serious, Get Me the Good Stuff is album of tremendous personal and artistic growth that signposts towards dozens of potential futures to come. It’s not only worth the attention, it continuously rewards it.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. Let It Be Me
2. Drifting Superstition
3. Our House That Doesn’t Change
4. Get Me The Good Stuff
5. Telltale Flyover
6. My Feet On Your Ground

Side B
7. Lost In Song
8. L. I. E.
9. Put Me In The Picture
10. Better Here Than In Love
11. Live Free Underwater
12. In The Heat Of The Sun

20 years of The Go! Team’s Thunder Lightning Strike, 20 years of lasers through tracing paper, orange tone oscillations, cable access hangover, music made through sunburnt circuits, a K-tel dream sequence, a haunted vision mixer, station wagon-core, straight to video, VHS in distress, something in the fog, fluff on the needle, chromakey constellations, a hovercraft on the fret board, maxing the minute maid, faxing a car alarm, a Morse code pep talk, etch-a-sketch jackknife, a daily Haley’s comet, light sound colour motion, a holiday from yourself…

TRACK LISTING

1. Panther Dash
2. Ladyflash
3. Feelgood By Numbers
4. The Power Is On
5. Get It Together
6. We Just Won't Be Defeated
7. Junior Kickstart
8. Air Raid GTR
9. Bottle Rocket
10. Friendship Update
11. Hold Yr Terror Close
12. Huddle Formation
13. Everyone's A V.I.P. To Someone

After many years working as a buyer for several record stores, DJ Chintam opened his own Blow Up shop in 2018 in Tokyo's Shibuya district. A member of the Dayjam Crew and a specialist of soul, funk, rare groove and disco music, Chintam is also an expert of the home-brewed Wamono grooves. He supervised and wrote the legendary Wamono A to Z records guide book together with DJ Yoshizawa Dynamite.

For this brand new chapter in the highly acclaimed Wamono series, our man Chintam goes digging into the vaults of one of the most revered Japanese labels: Trio Records. Established in 1969 by audio manufacturer Trio Electronics, now known as Kenwood, the label - and its subsidiaries such as Showboat and Trash - released high quality music spanning a large variety of genres including rock, jazz, fusion, soundtracks and popular songs, until its end in 1984. Through the eight tracks selected here, Chintam unearths some dope drum breaks, heavy bass lines and funky horns, for an essential selection of jazz funk fusion and rare groove vibes produced on Trio between 1973 and 1981.

Put the needle on the record, turn up the volume and dig right now into the Wamono sound - the cream of the Japanese jazz, funk, soul, rare groove and boogie music developed throughout the years since the sixties in Japan!

TRACK LISTING

1. Tonpei Hidari - Tonpei No Hey You Blues
2. Chu Kosaka & Ultra - Kimagure Party
3. Kazushi Inamura - Go Yojin
4. Fumio Karashima - American Tango
5. Takao Uematsu - Mysterious Jump
6. Maximum - Ashita Tenki Ni Nare
7. Jun Miyauchi - Heartbreak Highway
8. Hiroshi Murakami & Dancing Sphinx - Baby, It's Trivial

'Were you there? Well this is as close as it gets! Thurston Moore's compelling and spirited account of the streets, the songs, the clothes, the clubs and the contenders! A sensitive and authentic testimony to Moore's life lived through art and music. Beats with the heart of a true artist and mutineer.' Viv Albertine'Downtown scientists rejoice! For Thurston Moore has unearthed the missing links, the sacred texts, the forgotten stories, and the secret maps of the lost golden age. This is history-scuffed, slightly bent, plenty noisy, and indispensable.' Colson WhiteheadA music-obsessed retrospective, beginning with his childhood epiphany of rock 'n' roll in the early 1960s into an infatuation with the subversive world of 1970s punk and no wave blasting forth from New York City - where he eventually runs off to join a band in 1978.

By 1981 Moore would form the legendary and notorious experimental rock group Sonic Youth, who proceeded to record and tour relentlessly for almost 30 years, always progressing, always exploring. Along the way we meet a constellation of artists and musicians who colluded and collided with Sonic Youth including Velvet Underground, Stooges, Patti Smith, Television, Sex Pistols, Clash, Nirvana, Hole, Beastie Boys, Neil Young and a cavalcade of other musical visionaries, as well as figures from the art world - Jean Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring and Gerhard Richter. Simply put, Thurston Moore and Sonic Youth changed the sound of modern alternative rock music and opened the minds of a generation of artists to new possibilities within the form.

This is essential reading. 'I thoroughly enjoyed Thurston Moore's trip down the gauntlet of memory lane, dodging beer bottles and pools of blood as he balances the demands of art and survival. Plus I'm a sucker for anyone who name-checks Saccharine Trust.

A raw, rollicking document.' Nell Zink

From the author of the million-copy selling Shout!: The Beatles in Their Generation and the bestselling John Lennon: The Life comes a revealing portrait of George Harrison, the most undervalued and mysterious Beatle. Despite being hailed as one of the best guitarists of his era, George Harrison, particularly in his early decades, battled feelings of inferiority. He was often the butt of jokes from his bandmates owing to his lower-class background and, typically, was allowed to contribute only one or two songs per Beatles album out of the dozens he wrote.

Now, acclaimed Beatles biographer Philip Norman examines Harrison through the lens of his numerous self-contradictions. Compared to songwriting luminaries John Lennon and Paul McCartney he was considered a minor talent, yet he composed such masterpieces as 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps' and 'Here Comes the Sun', and his solo debut album 'All Things Must Pass' achieved enormous success, appearing on many lists of the 100 best rock albums ever. Modern music critics place him in the pantheon of Sixties guitar gods alongside Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Keith Richards and Jimmy Page.

Harrison railed against the material world yet wrote the first pop song complaining about income tax. He spent years lovingly restoring his Friar Park estate as a spiritual journey, but quickly mortgaged the property to help rescue a film project that would be widely banned as sacrilegious, Monty Python's Life of Brian. Harrison could be fiercely jealous, but not only did he stay friends with Eric Clapton when Clapton fell in love with Harrison's wife, Pattie Boyd, the two men grew even closer after Clapton walked away with her.

Unprecedented in scope and filled with numerous colour photos, this rich biography captures George Harrison at his most multi-faceted: devoted friend, loyal son, master guitar-player, brilliant songwriter, cocaine addict, serial philanderer, global philanthropist, student of Indian mysticism, self-deprecating comedian and, ultimately, iconic artist and man beloved by millions.

The Mystery Lights return with their most ambitious offering to date. With Wayne Gordon back in the producer's chair, the group delivers an eclectic mix of real-deal psychedelia, punk, art rock, and even a splash of country via the Kinks(y) pop earworm "I'm Sorry I Forgot Your Name".

The psychedelic highlights of the album, "Purgatory", "Cerebral Crack" and "Can't Sleep Through the Silence", are dark and trippy, landing somewhere between the guitar-driven, lysergic mayhem of the 13th Floor Elevators and the punked-up, tongue-in-cheek insanity of The Monks. But throughout there's a cohesiveness threaded by the elevated musicianship, earnest lyrics and attention to detail that make for a fiercely raw, yet unabashedly catchy album–dripping with all of the sing along hooks that have made Mystery Lights one of the most exciting live bands on the scene.

TRACK LISTING

1. Mighty Fine & All Mine
2. Memories
3. Purgatory
4. In The Streets
5. Together Lost
6. Trouble
7. Sorry I Forgot Your Name
8. Can't Sleep Through The Silence
9. Cerebral Crack
10. Automatic Response
11. Don't Want No, Don't Need No
12. Snuck Out

The compositions on this album, written between 2022 and 2024, form a conceptual suite and an observance of the mental dances that we construct to understand acts of passage; the ways that we commune and memorialize and carry symbols back into the world beyond representation. To this end, 'The Head as Form’d in the Crier’s Choir' engages two references to the ancient Greek myth of Orpheus: Rilke’s Sonnets to Orpheus, a collection of poems from 1922, and Monteverdi’s l’Orfeo, an early baroque opera from 1607. 'The Head as Form’d in the Crier’s Choir' follows on from the last two albums, which were attempts to begin bridging the gap between the fixed electroacoustic pieces that emerge in Davachi’s home studio and her slow paced, somewhat open-form chamber writing, in which each performance presents a new structure and in which each iteration offers the path to a new composition and deeper meaning.

Alongside Davachi, featured musicians on this album are Andrew McIntosh (viola, Los Angeles), Mattie Barbier (trombone, Los Angeles), Lisa McGee (mezzo-soprano, Los Angeles), Pierre-Yves Martel (viola da gamba, Montréal), Eyvind Kang (viola d’amore, Los Angeles), and Rebecca Lane (bass flute, Berlin), Sam Dunscombe (bass clarinet, Berlin), Michiko Ogawa (bass clarinet, Berlin), M.O. Abbott (trombone, Berlin), and Weston Olencki (trombone, Berlin) of the Harmonic Space Orchestra (Winds).

TRACK LISTING

1. Prologo
2. Possente Spirto
3. The Crier’s Choir
4. Trio For A Ground
5. Res Sub Rosa
6. Constants
7. Night Horns

Released on 12th September 1994, the band’s sixth single was 'We Are The Pigs'. The first song to be released from the 'Dog Man Star' album, The Times commented "Propelled by one of Bernard Butler's finest riff chord sequences and fuelled by the nightmare visions of Brett Anderson's lyric, the song romps home with a glorious chorus that combines old-fashioned sing-a-long appeal with an intriguingly sinister edge." The single peaked at number 18 in the UK charts.

The B-side was 'The Killing Of A Flash Boy'. This song did not appear on the 'Dog Man Star' album, but in recent times, Brett has commented that in hindsight, he would have included the song in the album’s tracklisting.

TRACK LISTING

1. We Are The Pigs
2. The Killing Of A Flash Boy

Allysha Joy is a deeply-expressive singer, songwriter, producer & keys player hailing from Naarm (Melbourne), known for both her solo work and as front woman for 30/70. A uniquely-talented artist, her husky soulful voice, formidable Fender Rhodes prowess and raw poeticism has garnered legions of attentive fans the world over.

As an integral performer in the modern day jazz-soul scene, previous support has included selectors Gilles Peterson & Jamz Supernova (BBC 6 Music), Jamie Cullum (BBC Radio 2), China Moses (Jazz FM) & Laurent Garnier (PBB France), along with stations such as NTS, Lot Radio, KEXP & KCRW, and publications including OkayPlayer, Dazed and The Vinyl Factory.

Along with a recent foray into the USA market with a string of successful shows, Allysha Joy has performed alongside acts such as Snarky Puppy, PJ Morton, The Teskey Brothers, Kokoroko and Children of Zeus, to name a few.

Joy has previously released two full-length solo albums 'Acadie : Raw' in 2018, 'Torn : Tonic' in 2022 and an EP, 'Light It Again' in 2020, along with countless collaborations and features over the past few years.

Entirely self-produced and affectionately poured over, 'The Making of Silk' is about a new understanding of the meaning of love.

Joy says, "it's the kind of love that bell hooks writes about, that lives in the poetry of Mary Oliver, Hafiz and the passionate dreaming of a Koryusai painting. It's about a love that is compassionate, that lives in open conversation, deep listening, the front lines of social movement and would never seek to stifle the light in you. It's about accepting our aloneness, the impermanence of all things and still forever wanting to prove it wrong, to say that I understand that all things change, all things end, hurt exists, but I will love regardless."

Riding on the waves of rich string arrangements, layers of vocal harmony and the raw poeticism she is known for, Allysha Joy's next album is embodying love.

TRACK LISTING

1. Nothing To Prove
2. Dropping Keys
3. Reset : ____
4. Raise Up
5. Hold On
6. Silk
7. David
8. ____ : Float
9. Your Touch
10. Learning To Love
11. Stay

For Beginners: The Best of M. Ward is a collection for M. Ward fans of any vintage. Gathering together 14 tracks from across his Merge Records discography, including the newly recorded song “Cry,” For Beginners is both a primer and a mixtape of favorites sequenced in a way that gives them new life.

Beginning with “Chinese Translation” and “Poison Cup” from 2006’s Post War, For Beginners drops in on Ward as he expands his prowess in the studio.

His singular cover of David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance,” from 2003’s Transfiguration of Vincent, breaks out into the exuberant “Never Had Nobody Like You” from 2009’s Hold Time. Rather than the neat evolutionary line suggested by a chronological arrangement, what holds For Beginners together is Ward’s impeccable skill as a songwriter, which remains in focus as his sound expands from low-fi home recordings to electric, radio-ready stompers.

Serendipitously timed for release during Merge Records’ 35-year anniversary, this celebration of one of the label’s most beloved artists includes “Cry” his first new recording on Merge since 2018 a stripped-down cover of the Godley & Creme pop classic featuring Melbourne, Australia’s Folk Bitch Trio. M. Ward on “Cry”:

“Cry” was recorded in a Tasmanian modern art museum called MONA. I sat at the end of a long hallway a few feet away from Anselm Kiefer’s sculpture of a 20-foot-high stack of lead books, and standing to my left and right around a single microphone were Melbourne’s Folk Bitch Trio; we rehearsed and recorded “Cry” in about 30 minutes. A pleasure to add this song to a collection of some of my favorite memories of music-making during the first decade of record-creating with my friends at Merge. The song is the perfect capstone for a collection of this nature, summing up much of Ward’s power as a musician: the richness he’s capable of achieving in sparse recordings, his knack for collaboration, and his ability to see through to the soul of a meticulously crafted pop song as much a means of looking forward to what’s to come of his own work as it is a callback to his past.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A
1. Chinese Translation
2. Poison Cup
3. Let’s Dance
4. Never Had Nobody Like You
5. Lullaby + Exile
6. Duet For Guitars #3
7. Vincent O’ Brien

SIDE B
8. For Beginners
9. Magic Trick
10. Outta My Head
11. Undertaker
12. Roller Coaster
13. Hold Time
14. Cry

The The’s first studio album of new songs in a quarter century!

The 12 songs on Ensoulment encompasses characteristic topics ranging from love & sex, war & politics, life & death – to the meaning of what it is to be human in the 21st century.

Singer-songwriter Matt Johnson is joined by long-standing THE THE members James Eller (bass), DC Collard (keyboards), Earl Harvin (drums), and Barrie Cadogan (lead guitar). The album also marks the return of co-producer and engineer Warne Livesey, who previously worked on landmark THE THE albums Infected (1986) and Mind Bomb (1989). Additional performances include Gillian Glover (backing vocals), Terry Edwards (horns), Sonya Cullingford (fiddle) and Danny Cummings (percussion).

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A
1. Cognitive Dissident
2. Some Days I Drink My Coffee By The Grave Of William Blake
3. Zen & The Art Of Dating

SIDE B
4. Kissing The Ring Of POTUS
5. Life After Life
6. I Want To Wake Up With You

SIDE C
7. Down By The Frozen River
8. Risin’ Above The Need
9. Linoleum Smooth To The Stockinged Foot

SIDE D
10. Where Do We Go When We Die?
11. I Hope You Remember (The Things I Can’t Forget)
12. A Rainy Day In May

September 2024 sees the release of Ishmael Ensemble’s third longplayer ‘Rituals’, which marks a significant leap for the Bristolian musicians. With their live-instrumentation-meets-electronic merging of styles, the group were always broader than the ‘new UK jazz’ tag which they were often given, but here their scope and boundary-pushing ambition is more evident than ever before.

Still maintaining a blend of spiritual jazz, dub, experimental and electronic soundscapes, here those elements are vigorously whipped-up into huge cyclones of sound, more song-based and accessible than before, but also almost psychedelic in its euphonic blend of colours, textures, facets and moods. 

  

TRACK LISTING

1. C'mon
2. Blinded
3. Dust
4. Cold Light
5. Ezekiel
6. Fever Dream
7. Grounded
8. Madrid
9. Leviathan
10. The Rush / Let Go
11. Butterflies
12. In Time 

Zy The Way hail from Taiwan and are a jazz ensemble that interlaces their dynamic sounds with ancient Chinese poetry compiled by Confucius. They also bring in more contemporary compositions which results in an utterly original sound and great gateway to some of the world's oldest literary works. They recently finished a debut full-length album and now the single 'Blue Collar' from it comes on limited edition vinyl. The track tells the ancient tale of young scholars in love with a powerful narrative and moving melodies. The one and only DJ Spinna steps up on the flip to offer his own classy deep-house remix.

TRACK LISTING

Side 1
Blue Collar

Side 2
Blue Collar (DJ Spinna Galactic Soul Remix)

A rich and revealing examination of the legendary pop duo Soft Cell. Soft Cell are not your average pop band. Marc Almond and Dave Ball may be best known for the string of hits they released in 1981, but the powerful first phase of their collaboration embraced a staggering array of sounds, influences and innovations that would change the face of music to come.

In Bedsit land, Patrick Clarke plunges into the archives and interviews more than sixty contributors, including the band members themselves, to follow Soft Cell through the many strange and sprawling worlds that shaped their extraordinary career. They lead him from the faded camp glamour of the British seaside to the dizzying thrills of the New York club scene. From transgressive student performance art to the sleaze and squalor of pre-gentrified Soho.

From the glitz of British showbiz to the drug-addled chaos of post-Franco Spain.

Having spent two years on stage (Bonnaroo, Boston Calling) and on TV (Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert), Brighton, UK's The Heavy Heavy now draw listeners even deeper into their dreamworld with their long-awaited debut album, 'One Of A Kind'. Written entirely by co-founders Georgie Fuller and William Turner, the album expands the sunshine psych-pop & folk sound of their debut EP which won massive acclaim from the likes of NME (who named them an essential emerging artist for 2023) and The Guardian.

TRACK LISTING

1. One Of A Kind
2. Happiness
3. Because You're Mine
4. Miracle Sun
5. Feel
6. Wild Emotion
7. Everything
8. Cherry
9. Lemonade
10. Dirt
11. Lovestruck
12. Salina

On their seventh long player The Breaks – their second for Joyful Noise Recordings – SUUNS are lost in limbo. For some artists, being caught in flux may result in songs that are either naive, out of touch or both, simply as a consequence of being cut off from human civilization. But for SUUNS, a band who have grown more than comfortable in the oblique and the intermediate, it actually had the opposite effect. The Breaks marks the Montreal experimental rock outfit’s most emotionally resonant and tonally rich collection of music to date.

The trio of Ben Shemie, Joseph Yarmush and Liam O’ Neill leans more zealously than ever into their pop instincts. Yet remarkably enough, with that same dauntless abandon, SUUNS have mined a more extreme sonic palette this time around, one that stretches far beyond their core fundamentals as a band. The Breaks finds Shemie, O’Neill and Yarmush gleefully experimenting with loops, synths, samples and MIDI-instruments like a post-millennial Tangerine Dream messing with downtempo triphop beats. O’ Neill took point in the producer’s chair for The Breaks, arranging, structuring and editing many of Shemie and Yarmush’s ideas from sporadic rehearsal sessions into Pro Tools, reimagining the songs over and over during a two-year time frame.

Forged between countless plane rides, road trips, van tours and text threads, The Breaks became a product of endurance and a lot of trial-and-error. It’s a record forged in tight fissions of freedom, where spells of whispered intimacy – like on the stunning ballad “Doreen” – are allowed to branch out into the vast glacial dreamscapes of the album’s majestic title track. It captures SUUNS at their most panoramic, curious and exuberant: a constant relay of being adrift and enlightened anew, geared up to eleven. And guess what: the wheels keep on spinning.

TRACK LISTING

Vanishing Point
Fish On A String
Rage
Road Signs And Meanings
Overture
Wave
Doreen
The Breaks

A real people music masterpiece, D.R. Hooker’s 1972 debut meets at the be-in of drug-addled hippy psychedelia and evangelical Christianity. Conjuring visions of an L.S.D.-damaged Frank Sinatra or Lou Reed playing the role of a divorced suburban dad, The Truth is a religious midlife crisis disguised as a private press LP. Forge your own chains, indeed.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A
1. The Sea
2. Fall In Love
3. A Stranger’s Smile
4. Weather Girl
5. This Thing

SIDE B
1. Forge Your Own Chains
2. I’m Leaving You
3. The Truth
4. The Bible
5. Falling Asleep

Cass McCombs’s 2002 debut EP Not The Way, a song-suite of narcotic lullabies, acutely observed lyrics, and preternatural hooks, introduced the world to a gifted songwriter possessed with a fully-formed vision and mission. His first release, the self-recorded 6-track EP was originally released on CD and was subsequently pressed by 4AD in the UK as a double 7” a few years later. Now finally getting the 12” pressing that will make collectors happy.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Not The Way
A2. So Damn Pure
A3. Opium Flower
B1. Your Mother And Father
B2. Nobody’s Nixon
B3. It’s Getting Colder

The Undreamt-of Centre is the fourth solo album by prolific Australian drummer/composer/producer Laurence Pike, an evocative, contemporary reimagining of the requiem mass.

The album draws on the sounds of modern classical music, Japanese environmental ambient music, fourth world electronics, free jazz and the choral traditions of Estonia, with particular influence from Tallinn-based composer Tonu Korvits.

Produced in collaboration with the Vox Sydney Philharmonia Choir, conducted by Pike’s childhood friend, composer Sam Lipman and recorded in a 19th century Gothic church.

Laurence Pike on The Undreamt-of Centre:
I first had the thought of working with voices a number of years ago. I had the strange notion of making a requiem mass for drums, electronics and choir. It sat with me since then, until it felt the time was right to realise the idea.
Why a requiem? Initially I simply liked the idea of a structural format that had existed and been reimagined again and again over hundreds of years. Ultimately, it’s a ritual set to music. The processes and ecstatic outcomes of rituals, were something I had explored in making the Holy Spring album in 2019. I became interested in subverting the religious musical construct of a requiem into something far more contemporary, using language and sounds not readily associated with it. It also seemed a ready-made vehicle to explore the sound of a choir with my electro -acoustic drum kit performances. I had begun searching for a narrative structure or text that I might set a choir to, while not adhering to the text of a Latin mass. I began reading the poems of Rainer Maria Rilke, in particular his ‘Sonnets to Orpheus’, inspired by the classical Greek myth of Orpheus.

TRACK LISTING

1. A1. Introit
2. A2. Orpheus In The Underworld
3. A3. Mountains Of The Heart
4. A4. Universal Forces
5. B1. The Undreamt-of Centre
6. B2. Eurydice
7. B3. Requiem Aeternam
8. B4. All Is Distance

Originally released in 1982, ‘They Could Have Been Bigger Than The Beatles’ was the influential band’s third album. A collection of singles, demos, outtakes and rarities that was intended to mark the band's breakup in 1982, had they not got back together again so soon. This 2024 reissue comes with faithfully restored artwork, from one the album’s original hand painted sleeves.

The record features ‘David Hockney's Diaries’, ‘The Boy In The Paisley Shirt’ and ‘Psychedelic Holiday’. With the formidable Daniel Treacy at its core, Television Personalities remain one of new wave’s longest serving and seminal artists, with a career spanning over three decades. The indie pop visionaries have influenced many people across the industry including Pavement, The Lemonheads, Fat White Family, MGMT and Creation Records’ Alan McGee.

“Its scope is incredible, its ambition outstanding and its heart damn near broken.” Melody Maker.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
A1. Three Wishes
A2. David Hockney's Diary
A3. In A Perfumed Garden
A4. Flowers For Abigail
A5. King And Country
A6. The Boy In The Paisley Shirt
A7. Games For Boys

Side B
B1. Painter Men
B2. Psychedelic Holiday
B3. 14th Floor
B4. Sooty's Disco Party
B5. Makin' Time
B6. When Emily Cries
B7. The Glittering Prizes
B8. Anxiety Block
B9. Mysterious Ways 

To celebrate the release of the new book 'Passing a Message: The Lyrics and Artwork of Conor J. O'Brien', Domino is repressing Villagers' back catalogue with a new range of coloured vinyl. 'Passing a Message' presents the lyrics of over 80 songs from the Villagers songbook with Conor's drawings, photographs and previously unseen notebook lyric drafts.

Pressure Drop chronicles reggae’s most tumultuous and influential decade. Beginning in 1970 and unfolding both in Britain and Jamaica, reggae flourished against a backdrop of political upheaval, gang warfare, Black Nationalism, racial and class discrimination and grinding poverty.

The music that developed as rocksteady and early reggae gave birth to deejays, dub, rockers, lovers rock, early dancehall and 2 Tone was by turns brutal and revelatory.

Including an extensive analysis of the decade’s major singles and albums, Pressure Drop includes eyewitness accounts and experiences of the decade from the likes of Burning Spear, Chris Blackwell, Gregory Isaacs, Bunny Wailer, Jimmy Cliff, Black Uhuru, U-Roy, Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, Augustus Pablo, Toots and the Maytals, Desmond Dekker, Sly & Robbie, Dennis Bovell, Don Letts and members of the Specials, as well as first-hand anecdotes of Bob Marley and Peter Tosh.

Rex Orange County announces his new album The Alexander Technique for release via RCA Records. The album was produced entirely by Rex himself alongside Teo Halm (Rosalía, SZA, Beyoncé) and Jim Reed, the latter a member of the Rex Orange County touring band since its inception, in addition to James Blake who produced and features on “Look Me In The Eyes.”

To coincide with the announcement, Rex is sharing two new singles with accompanying music videos, "Alexander" and "Guitar Song," that showcase two distinctly different sides of the album. Album opener "Alexander" arrives with a Nick Walker-directed music video that introduces the inspiration for the album's title while the video for "Guitar Song" features footage of Rex filmed by Alexandra Waespi at Decoy Studios in England during the album's creation.

The Alexander Technique is named for a therapeutic practice in which back pain is treated in order to address deeper health problems, and it’s an apt name for Rex's most raw album to date: what may have begun as a simple exercise in changing the purview of his writing ended up becoming his most confessional, open-hearted album. Stripping back his sound to a skeletal mixture of stream-of-consciousness R&B and indie-folk, while retaining the orchestral lushness that’s become his trademark, The Alexander Technique marks the beginning of Act Two of Rex Orange County's career: a new chapter on which he lays everything bare, no matter how painful that might be.

“The Alexander Technique is very much a look into my own brain and experiences over the last few years – it’s almost a diary,” he says. Longer than any project he’s ever made and more musically varied, The Alexander Technique was made over a matter of years, started before and finished after 2022’s WHO CARES?; listening to it feels like watching an artist grow in real-time, and face all the attending growing pains that come alongside. “I’ve made a lot of love songs over the years, and I feel as though this is the first time I’m trying to make a project about everything in life. In my mind, it’s exactly what I’ve always wanted to make.”

TRACK LISTING

1. Alexander
2. Guitar Song
3. 2008
4. Therapy
5. 4 In The Morning
6. Jealousy
7. The Table
8. Pure
9. One Of These Days
10. Carrera
11. Much Too Much
12. Sliding Doors
13. Lost For Words
14. Look Me In The Eyes Featuring James Blake
15. New Years
16. Finally

“Strawberries, cherries, and an angel’s kiss in spring…” were the immortal words sung by a twenty-five-year-old Nancy Sinatra on a frigid spring day in a London recording studio during the sessions for her third LP in four months! The 1966 album was cut in three days at Pye Studios where The Kinks, Petula Clark, and David Bowie recorded their songs in the mid-1960s. By going directly to the source and choosing songs like “On Broadway,” “Wishin’ and Hopin’,” and “This Little Bird,” the album has an unequivocally British feel. The LP includes the timeless Nancy & Lee Hazlewood duet “Summer Wine.”

TRACK LISTING

On Broadway
The End
Step Aside
I Can't Grow Peaches On A Cherry Tree
Summer Wine
Wishin' And Hopin'
This Little Bird
Shades
The More I See You
Hutchinson Jail
Friday's Child
The Highway Song
Are You Growing Tired Of My Love
Zodiac Blues
Colors Are Changing (previously Unreleased)

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

TRACK LISTING

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

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

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

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

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

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

TRACK LISTING

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

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

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

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

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

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

TRACK LISTING

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

FINALLY! The very first commercial release of two legendary remixes of Arthur Russell's "In The Light Of The Miracle". Both are widely regarded as transcendent masterpieces and very much befitting of the title “holy grails”.

These long-beloved mixes are the types you'd wish would last for eternity. With almost 30 minutes of music here, we very nearly get our desires granted. At last, these jaw-dropping mixes are widely available to every Arthur fan in the world. This is musical perfection.

The deep Loft classic "In The Light Of The Miracle" remained unreleased during Arthur's lifetime, finally discovered when Phillip Glass included the original version on Another Thought on Point Music in 1993. As Steve Knutson told us, when Another Thought was being put together, the plan was to release a companion album of remixes that was overseen by Steve D'Aquisto but the project only got as far as these two remixes of "In The Light Of The Miracle".

Some dodgy scans of some centre label designs suggest that Point Music might’ve been planning to release these on a 12" but it didn’t happen. The story goes that Gilles Peterson heard the remixes on a visit to the Point Music offices and wanted to release them on Talkin’ Loud. We’re not sure how many white label copies made it out into the wild, but again, these remixes didn’t make it to a proper release.

These remixes both extend and undeniably enhance the original, elevating it to new heights. The 13 minute remix on the A-side is by Danny Krivit & Tony Smith with editing duties performed by Tony Morgan. As ever with Arthur, the music is almost impossible to describe: is it Disco? Garage House? Avant Garde? None of these tags do full justice to its sheer majesty. You best just listen. Stretching out the original with some unbelievably great percussive elements, until we're in a deeply spiritual, otherworldly realm, it's just too beautiful for words. As many have claimed, it's the prototype for EVERYTHING.

The "Ponytail Club Mix (Part 1 & 2)", produced by Tony Morgan in the mid-90s, is in a more up-tempo style, with vocals higher in the mix, the BPM upped to 120 and the addition of a housey 4/4 kick drum. A 14 minute epic, you could say this is a more straight ahead "club-friendly" mix (but can things ever be that straightforward with Arthur?!) It also has some really interesting vocal parts not used in the other versions, including some vocals from guest poet Allen Ginsberg.

These remixes are part of the same original project that also produced the Another Thought album so it seems only right that they have a sleeve that matches. Thanks again to Janette Beckman for letting us use another of her photos of Arthur and the rest of the design follows what Margery Greenspan, Tina Lauffer and Michael Klotz did for Another Thought back in 1994.

Simon Francis remastered the original audio for both tracks and Cicely Balston's precise cut for Alchemy at AIR Studios ensures this 12" well and truly slaps. The immaculate Record Industry pressing will ensure this incredibly sought-after treasure finds a home in many more collections, this and every year.

TRACK LISTING

A1 In The Light Of The Miracle (13:26 Min)
B1 In The Light Of The Miracle - Ponytail Club Mix (Parts 1 & 2) (14:10 Min)

Secrets Of Sound sold out their first release in quick fashion and now they return with a second instalment in the Exotic Origins series, designed to take you a million light years away from your current reality and deep into the far depths of space with eight superbly cosmic explorations of ambient and downtempo magic. Italians Do It Better man Johnny Jewel kicks off with some sultry sax-laced sounds, David Lynch's musical partner Dean Hurley crushes on shimmering pads and Pye Corner Audio bring a little intergalactic tension. Elsewhere there are sugary synths from Legowelt, suspensory pads from TM Solver and plenty more to help you escape to another dimension. Add to that the fact it arrives on a random variety of different vinyl colours and comes with a download code, and you've got rather a nice package.

STAFF COMMENTS

Mine says: Secrets Of Sound follow up 'The Last Resort: Balearic At The End Of Time' with another compilation showcasing a variety of new electronic sounds. SOS 001 didn't hang around long so don't snooze on this one!

TRACK LISTING

Side 1
1. Johnny Jewel - Many Moons
2. Dean Hurley - Outlands
3. Pye Corner Audio - Jupiter Orbit 707
4. RAMZi - Existenz

Side 2
1. Legowelt - Nebia Vera Pelliccia
2. TM Solver - Serious Ambient (SOS Edit)
3. State Azure - Azimuth
4. Lord Of The Isles - Meet Me At The Portal