Manta's Roundabouts in Therapy EP, an exciting blend of pristine pop melodies and hip-hop production values that come together to produce a unique sound. The record is described by Manta as the rollercoaster life cycle of a breakup, which includes singles Clementine, F.O.M.O & God Complex.

TRACK LISTING

1. F.O.M.O
2. Clementine
3. God Complex
4. Interlude
5. Poly
6. Thank Fuck

For Northern Ireland-originating rockers Therapy?, resilience and survival have become watchwords.

Enduring over three decades as the musical, cultural and social landscapes have shifted around them, the trio have forged and retained a powerful and lasting connection with a dedicated fan base around the world, doing so by putting their emphasis on the music, solidifying a hard-won reputation as forward-thinking writers and a fierce live proposition in the process.

As Therapy?'s fourth decade finally gets underway in earnest, sixteenth album 'Hard Cold Fire', written and pre-produced during an unprecedented time for music, is hefty, compact, and accessible, a distillation of everything that has made them what they are - hewn from County Antrim basalt, still possessed of their stoicism, but casting a renewed focus on catharsis and healing.

TRACK LISTING

1. They Shoot The Terrible Master 
2. Woe 
3. Joy 
4. Bewildered Herd 
5. Two Wounded Animals 
6. To Disappear 
7. Mongrel 
8. Poundland Of Hope And Glory 
9. Ugly 
10. Days Kollaps

Manchester band The Lottery Winners new album ‘Anxiety Replacement Therapy’, features collaborations with Boy George, Frank Turner, and Shaun Ryder.

A mammoth step forward, ‘Anxiety Replacement Therapy’ is on one level a set of 10 absolute anthems (and three interludes from a mystery narrator). These are mass singalongs in waiting from a band who’ve specialised in bringing people together over their previous two albums.

Scratch the surface, however, and there’s a world of empowerment and defiance, tackling subjects such as austerity, as well as of course, anxiety, mental health and its medications, and ADHD. It helps that these messages come wrapped with some of the best choruses you’re likely to hear all year.

“Each of the albums in my collection are a self-help tape for me,” explains singer Thom Rylance. “If I listen to Paul Simon’s Graceland, it’s because I know it’ll put me in a good mood. If I play The Queen Is Dead by The Smiths, it’s because I want to embrace feeling sad. We wanted to present ‘Anxiety Replacement Therapy’ as a self-help tape for anyone playing it.”

The album features guest spots with their friend and previous collaborator Frank Turner on the moving and stirring ‘Letter To Myself’ , as well as Boy George who puts in a bravura performance on the summery ‘Let Me Down’ which recalls the emotional intensity of his work with Culture Club, and Shaun Ryder who brings his freewheeling brilliance on the already incisive austerity anthem ‘Money’, reprising his iconic “Call the cops!” refrain from Happy Mondays’ 1990 classic ‘Step On’.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Featuring some pretty huge collaborators (including 'Not not Stephen Fry'), the Lottery Winners' newest LP is a heartfelt message to both those suffering from anxiety and those dealing with the results of it. Full of beautifully written songs and calming interludes, ART is rich and deep and excellently portrays an important message. Lovely.

TRACK LISTING

1. [PLAY]
2. Worry
3. Burning House
4. Money (ft Shaun Ryder)
5. Long Way Down
6. Sertaline
7. [PAUSE]
8. Letter To Myself (ft Frank Turner)
9. Jennie
10. Let Me Down (ft Boy George)
11. Not Alone
12. Anxiety Replacement Therapy
13. [STOP]

The newly revived Undaground Therapy Muzik label comes with one of the most sought after releases of the label... the 1999 classic Men From The Nile ft Peven Everett “Watch Them Come”. A highlight in DJ sets from people such as Theo Parrish, Kerri Chandler and many others. Standing the test of time and a testament to its dancefloor-ready grooves, “Watch Them Come” opens up the EP and still sounds as fresh as ever. Men From The Nile is a collaboration between Roy Davis Jr. and Jay Juniel, and for “Watch Them Come” they enlisted the legendary vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Peven Everett to complete the tribal cut. For the reissue, Men From The Nile are joined by some of the biggest names in dance music. Green Velvet aka Cajmere has been a mainstay in the Chicago circuit since the 90s, making a name for himself as a multifaceted artist as well as label head at Cajual Records and Relief Records. Key players in the club scene for over two decades, Boston duo Soul Clap add one of their tight, minimalist reduxes, while Matt N Ricky turn the swing up to +11 for a seriously wriggly Chi-town flavoured tweak. Recommended tribal pressure for every serious house head!

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Tribal house zenith from '99 which Theo Parrish and many others got many dancing miles out of. Nothing epitomizes that red-lit, bassment buggin' house sound more than this. A true classic of the genre.

TRACK LISTING

Watch Them Come - Original Mix
Watch Them Come - Green Velvet Rmx
Watch Them Come - Soul Clap Rmx
Watch Them Come - Matt N Ricky Rmx

Faye Webster announces ‘Car Therapy Sessions’, an EP of new and re-imagined songs by Websterrecorded at Spacebomb Studios with a 24 pieceorchestra. The orchestra was headed by Trey Pollard,who was responsible for both conducting andarranging, and Drew Vandenburg produced and mixedthe EP.

“I have a vivid memory of walking around London in2018 listening to a mix of ‘Jonny’, which I had justwritten. I remember thinking ‘I want to perform thissong with an orchestra’. I truly have had my heart seton it since then, always talking about it and figuring outhow or when to make it happen,” says Webster.

On the EP, Webster reimagines three songs from hercritically acclaimed 2021 release, ‘I Know I’m Funnyhaha’, and 2019’s ‘Atlanta Millionaire’s Club’. Thesongs ‘Kind Of’, ‘Sometimes’ and ‘Cheers’ take on acinematic and glimmering new sheen.

In addition to the title track, she also shares asprawling and emotional work - ‘Suite: Jonny’ - whichcombines fan-favourites ‘Jonny’ and ‘Jonny (Reprise)’.The two songs originally appeared on the ‘AtlantaMillionaire’s Club’ tracklist, two different views on thesame narrative. Here they are presented together. It’s remarkable how beautifully Webster’s work cantake on this orchestral treatment. Like Cole Porter, orJudy Garland, her delicate and emotional deliverypacks a gut punch when dramatized by the EP’srobust arrangements.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Kind Of (Type Of Way)
A2. Sometimes (Overanalyze)
A3. Car Therapy
B1. Suite: Jonny
B2. Cheers (To You & Me)

Tenniscoats' 2007 album "Tan-Tan Therapy" for the first time on vinyl.

Just over a decade ago, Japanese indie-pop duo Tenniscoats recorded "Papa's Ear" (2012) and "Tan-Tan Therapy" (2007), two albums made with musical and production help from Swedish post-rock/folk trio Tape. They are beautiful documents of the exploratory music made by a close-knit collective of musicians, playing songs written by Tenniscoats and arranging them in gentle and generous ways. Released during a prolific phase of collaboration for Tenniscoats -, they would also collaborate with Jad Fair, The Pastels, Secai and Pastacas - they have, however, never been available on vinyl. In collaboration with Alien Transistor, Morr Music is now reissuing these albums with bonus material.

Talking Therapy Ensemble is the latest project from composer, bandleader, multi-instrumentalist and producer, Emma-Jean Thackray, following 2021’s acclaimed debut album Yellow. Talking Therapy Ensemble are something between free-jazz madness and groove, somehow between composition and improvisation, and exist somewhere between the public and the private. Through the cathartic process of improvisation they find a release of stress and suffering - their talking therapy - inspired by the blues, crusty punk, the confessional poets of the 50s and 60s, and artists such as Art Ensemble of Chicago, Sun Ra Arkestra, Albert Ayler, and Irreversible Entanglements.

TRACK LISTING

A1 I Didn't Want To Wake Up Today
B1 Too Much / Too Little
B2 Panic
B3 Shh

Music for Psychedelic Therapy is Hopkins’ first full-length since sister albums, the GRAMMY-nominated Singularity (2018) and Immunity (2013). For this collection, Hopkins wanted to make something that faced the opposite direction, something egoless and introspective, made with total, raw honesty. “It felt like time for a reset, to wait for music to appear from a different place,” says Hopkins. That place ended up being Tayos Caves in Ecuador, where Hopkins went on a life-changing creative expedition in 2018.

“‘Sit Around The Fire’ exists from one of the deep synchronicities that ushered this thing (Music For Psychedelic Therapy) into being,” comments Hopkins. “I was contacted by East Forest, who had spent some time with Ram Dass in Hawaii before he passed. He was given access to several lesser-heard talks from the 70s, and asked to set them to music. He sent me some starting points, including the beautiful choral vocals he recorded which open the piece. I put my headphones on and with Ram Dass’ voice inside my head, I sat at the piano and improvised. What you hear is the first thing that came out - it just appeared in response to the words.”

Hopkins elaborates on Music For Psychedelic Therapy: “What grew from this experience is an album with no beats, not one drum sound, something that is closer to a classical symphony than a dance / electronica record. Something that is more like having an experience than listening to a piece of music. Maybe something far more emotionally honest than I had been comfortable making before - a merging of music, nature and my own desire to heal.  The freedom from traditional rhythmic structures unlocked so much - it felt like I was free to explore a new form of rhythm, one that you discover when you just allow things to flow without letting yourself get in the way. 

“Music For Psychedelic Therapy is not ambient, classical or drone but has elements of all three. For me it’s a place as much as it is a sound. It works for the sober mind, but takes on a new dimension entirely when brought into a psychedelic ceremony. In my own psychedelic explorations testing this music, I found a quote I had read would keep coming to mind. ‘Music is liquid architecture, architecture is frozen music.’ I love this idea of music as something you inhabit, something that works on you energetically. In fact, it was while in that state that the title appeared to me. Psychedelic-assisted therapies are moving into legality across the world, and yet it feels like no one is talking about the music; the music is as important as the medicine.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Jon Hopkins presents a beautiful suite showing the other side to his more electronic / experimental excursions from his superb last few studio LP's. Here we get a brittle, all-encompassing selection of beautiful lysergic pads and shimmering, twinkling ambience.

TRACK LISTING

1.Welcome
2. Tayos Caves, Ecuador I
3. Tayos Caves, Ecuador Ii
4. Tayos Caves, Ecuador Iii
5. Love Flows Over Us In Prismatic Waves
6. Deep In The Glowing Heart
7. Ascending, Dawn Sky
8. Arriving
9. Sit Around The Fire (with Ram Dass, East Forest) 

Therapy? are an alternative metal band from Northern Ireland. The band was formed in 1989 by guitarist-vocalist Andy Cairns and drummer-vocalist Fyfe Ewing. To complete the lineup, the band recruited bassist Michael McKeegan.

1994 saw the release of the commercially successful Troublegum album which earned the band appearances at a string of rock and indie festivals, including Reading, Donington and Phoenix in the UK alone, as well as a clutch of top 40 singles. It achieved a string of nominations in end-of-year polls, including a Mercury Music Prize nomination, and success at the Kerrang! Awards.

The album has a melodically dark, metal-like sound. Troublegum is generally considered to be Therapy? at their musical and commercial peak and has since sold over one million copies worldwide.

The album includes singles and videos for “Screamager”, “Turn”, “Nowhere”, “Trigger Inside”, “Die Laughing” and “Isolation” (Joy Division cover).

Therapy With Colour is the Constellation debut by Montréal-based producer and sound artist T. Gowdy, who has released three prior albums of exquisitely textured, predominantly ambient electronic music (most recently Pachira Aquatica via Shimmering Moods Records in 2019). His sublime audio/visual performances have featured at MUTEK (Montréal and Barcelona) and Spektrum (Berlin), alongside his ongoing work as an in-demand producer/engineer with over fifty album credits to date, including Suuns (Secretly Canadian), Ensemble (Fat Cat) and Ada Lea (Saddle Creek) to name just a few.

Therapy With Colour is Gowdy’s most sonically and conceptually acute solo work to date, inspired by experiments with the Nova Pro 100 Light and Sound Mind Machine (among the best-known home hypnosis ‘mind machine’ devices, first released in the late 1990s). For Gowdy, the ritualized therapeutic reprogramming of consciousness promised by this technology has two primary personal dimensions: “to explore psychological ‘debiasing’ and decorrelation of heteronormative narratives that exist within my familial, intimate and economic relationships; to let flow neutral communication with the self and others” and to circumvent the technical biases and temporal blockages endemic to digital audio workstations and the computer-based editing that governs production of most electronic music. The album’s five tracks are extracted from live, linear, real-time stereo recordings that have their origins in an audio/visual collaboration between Gowdy and light artist Laura Buckley (whose scanner artwork features on the album cover and packaging).


The music on Therapy With Colour is indeed meditative, but in a resolutely contemporary and highly engaging way, eschewing gauzy New Age or environmental music tropes and instead conveying the rigour and empiricism of controlled experiments. Consistent with theories of ‘mind machine’ brainwave synchronization, these tracks involve oscillating, shimmering Minimalist pulse and techno-adjacent rhythm that reward active listening, while working coequally as dissociative concentration music. Each of the five songs has a distinct vibe but constitute a deeply satisfying and cohesive flow. From the day Gowdy dropped this record on us a few months ago, devoid of context or background notes, we’ve probably listened to it more than anything else – not realizing we’d been self-medicating. But we can see everything so much more clearly now. 

TRACK LISTING

01 Therapy With Colour
02 Depse
03 Up CTRL
04 No Wave II
05 Excavating Air