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THRILL JOCKEY

BIG | BRAVE

A Chaos Of Flowers

    A Chaos Of Flowers is the follow on to BIG|BRAVE's 2023 album nature morte. "BIG|BRAVE’s music has been described as massive minimalism. Their fusillades of textural distortion and feedback emphasize their music’s frayed edges as much as its all-encompassing weight. The potency of the trio’s work is their singular artistry combining elements of traditional folk techniques and a modern deconstruction of guitar music. Gain, feedback, and amplitude are essential.

    For A Chaos Of Flowers guitarist/vocalist Robin Wattie drew heavily on the poems of artists whom Wattie found kinship in, their words resonant with experiences of those often sidelined by cultural norms. Guitarist Mathieu Ball and drummer Tasy Hudson help Wattie shape poetry into pieces as dense and impenetrable as they are vulnerable.

    BIG|BRAVE achieve their colossal sound through minimalist approaches, a deft understanding of dynamics and an inventive employment of percussion and distortion. The trio reconceptualize what it is to be heavy or minimal, challenging perceptions with their illumination of painfully overlooked perspectives. Guest guitarist Marisa Anderson lends earthen, blues-inflected atmospheres to the album, where guitarist Tashi Dorji and saxophonist Patrick Shiroishi amplify the squall. Working closely with frequent collaborator and producer/engineer Seth Manchester, the internal tumult of Wattie’s voice rings out in warbles, haunting echoes, and unearthly harmonies across bold immense walls of distortion."

    TRACK LISTING

    1. I Felt A Funeral
    2. Not Speaking Of The Ways
    3. Chanson Pour Mon Ombre
    4. Canon : In Canon
    5. A Song For Marie Part Iii
    6. Theft
    7. Quotidian : Solemnity
    8. Moonset

    Saicobab

    NRTYA

      Saicobab channels the vital energy of living music traditions through ecstatic performance. ‘NRTYA’, Sanskrit for ‘dance’, explores the shared roots of Japanese and Indian spiritual practices in a tangible, intoxicating form.

      YoshimiO’s experiments in this field are well documented and legendary, from her work in OOIOO to her work in the Boredoms.

      Multi-instrumentalist Yoshida Daikiti reveals the human hand that shapes living traditions, as much through his fluid playing as his own collection of handmade instruments, while percussionist and multi-instrumentalist Motoyuki ‘Hama’ Hamamoto embodies the metaphysical power of rhythm.

      YoshimiO’s wild vocal acrobatics and inimitable range shift from hypnotic chants to ethereal atmospherics and darting melodies, ducking and weaving around Daikiti’s serpentine sitar figures and basslines.

      Hama’s solid rhythmic architectures and deft polyrhythms are here enhanced by additional drums from Taketawa Yo2ro, slipping from subtle pulses to thundering grooves that drive the music.

      Saicobab’s music exudes a true reverence for living musical traditions while remaining unbound by orthodoxy.

      The electrifying energy of the quartet’s performance is palpable in every track, eliminating established hierarchies with performer and listener alike entwined in the same cosmic dance.

      “Compelling, fun and really very strange.” - Uncut Magazine

      “In Japanese experimental psych pop, more often than not, YoshimiO has been a beacon.” - FADER (cover feature)

      TRACK LISTING

      Nrtyaman
      Social This Dance
      Nachin Machine
      Amayoru Moon Dance
      Nachle Naatu Honey
      Death Nap The Dance
      Dancing Fish In The Rain

      Magic Tuber Stringband

      Needlefall

        Much like the North Carolina wilds it reflects, ‘Needlefall’ waxes and wanes from mysterious and unsettling to ecstatic and awe-inspiring, capturing the sacred dimensions of the natural world. Magic Tuber Stringband draw on a host of fellow travellers to realize Needlefall’s intricate arrangements, exemplifying the diversity of contemporary folk movements, placing their work in the tradition of modern innovators like Moondog, Harry Partch, Pauline Oliveros, and labelmate Sally Anne Morgan.

        Magic Tuber Stringband are Courtney Werner and Evan Morgan, accompanied by their regular bassist Mike DeVito. Morgan is an organizer within the local music community, and Werner is a dedicated naturalist involved in local land stewardship. ‘Needlefall’ answers the question “What does a modern string band sound like?” with powerful new arrangements of traditional songs and transcendent originals. The album is teeming with life, translating abundant ecosystems into arcing melodies and shimmering, mystic drones. The band explain: “If you spend enough time out in the woods you inevitably see or hear things that are hard to explain. I’ve been in caves where it’s total darkness and you’re enveloped by the disorienting sound of dripping water. The natural sights and sounds in these places are often repetitive, percussive, expressive, sometimes unsettling - the way that water carves patterns into rock or tree trunks appear in endless rows.”

        “Magic tuber stringband makes old-time music for postmodern people” - Indy Week

        “This Durham, North Carolina stringband intersperse shruti box drones with fervid Appalachian banjo and fiddle freakouts. Like fellow travellers Pelt, a band alive to the experimental possibilities of American roots music, both in its traditional forms and in where it can be stretched.” - Mojo

        “The duo’s music also engages in mythologies of people and their relationship with the natural world in an intoxicating fashion.” - Aquarium Drunkard

        For fans of Sally Anne Morgan, Daniel Bachman, Natural Information Society.

        TRACK LISTING

        A Dance On A Sunday Night
        Days Of Longing
        The Hermit’s Passage
        Water Dripped Upwards
        The Long-Suffering
        Needlefall
        Twelfth House
        Piney Woods Burn

        The Body & Dis Fig

        Orchards Of A Futile Heaven

          The Body & Dis Fig are a natural pair. Each has pioneered instantly recognizable worlds of sound all their own that defy any traditional categorizations or boundaries. The Body, Lee Buford and Chip King, continually challenge any conventional conception of metal, collaborating with myriad artists and from the folk-leanings of their work with BIG|BRAVE to their groundbreaking work with the Assembly of Light Choir to the intensity of their collaborations with OAA or Thou. Dis Fig, aka Felicia Chen, pushes electronic music into dark extremes, from warped DJ sets to avant production, from being a member of Tianzhuo Chen’s performance-art series TRANCE to being the vocalist with The Bug. The Body and Dis Fig find kinship in reimagining what it means to make “heavy music”. Their debut Orchards of a Futile Heaven is the perfect synthesis of two forces, twisting melodicism and intoxicating rhythms, layering a dense miasma of distortion with intense beats and a soaring voice clawing its way towards absolution.

          Orchards of a Futile Heaven’s walls of sputtering texture and tectonic booms are soaked in the reverence and melancholy of sacred spaces brought to life by palpable intensity by Chen’s voice. Crafted during a time of personal fragility, the album’s devastating force lies beyond any of the expected noise and abrasive textures typically associated with both The Body & Dis Fig. Suffused with a raw vulnerability and a longing for catharsis, Chen’s voice searches for escape in the midst of oppressive atmospheres as if determined to find relief from guilt. “Eternal Hours” patiently unfurls waves of surprising sounds, whispered undulations that are punctuated by sudden crashes, all beneath Chen’s haunting harmonies. “Dissent, Shame” evokes grief and shame with a minimalist drone dirge that gradually builds to an enchanting choral passage. King’s guitar on “Holy Lance” matches the uncanny drone of Chen’s accordion in an all-consuming blast, Chen’s voice transforming the moment from anguish to defiance and empowerment. The album’s arc finishes with “Coils of Kaa” acting as a kind of propulsive exorcism, breaking through a suffocating air before the funeral procession of “Back to the Water” lays the album to rest.

          While sampling has long been essential to each, The Body & Dis Fig deftly meld their differing approaches to sampling and creating extreme sounds until the boundaries are entirely blurred. The two found kinship in their desire to find new avenues to make heavy music that looked beyond tropes of metal and electronic music by merging the two. “I always wanted the heavier stuff but I also didn’t really like heavier guitar music,” says Buford. “None of it really felt quite heavy enough to me. A human can’t be as heavy as a machine.” Chen counters, “I love the balance. You could never connect to just a machine as well as you could a human. Which is why the combination is so potent for me. I don’t want to hide. I think nothing connects you more empathetically than another human's voice.”

          Orchards of a Futile Heaven affirms The Body & Dis Fig as skilled sound sculptors who have an exceptional ability to make deeply affecting music, bracing as it is touching, harrowing as it is awe-inspiring. Together, the two have harnessed their expansive artistry to make music that is profoundly emotional, and staggering in its beauty.

          TRACK LISTING

          1. Eternal Hours
          2. To Walk A Higher Path
          3. Dissent, Shame
          4. Orchards Of A Futile Heaven
          5. Holy Lance
          6. Coils Of Kaa
          7. Back To The Water

          Persher

          Sleep Well

            The English duo Persher - Arthur Cayzer (Pariah) and Jamie Roberts (Blawan) - take the same subversive, boundaryless approach to extreme music that underpins their electronic explorations. Their individual outputs are highly anticipated in the dance world, in part because of their affinity for expression beyond a trend.

            The debut album, ‘Sleep Well’, is ferocious and innovative. Cayzer and Roberts take a decidedly unconventional approach to writing, using the full potential of the studio in their exploration of extreme music. What sounds like a live band performance is, more often than not, an amalgam of many different sessions, the duo applying techniques from electronic music to heavier sonics.

            Recording in Roberts’ studio at Funkhaus, the home of the former East German state-owned radio station, Cayzer would improvise long takes on guitar and bass, contorted and mutated by Robert using his extensive modular setup to add weight and texture. This primordial ooze of raw sonics was then chopped up and reassembled into bristling hooks and corrosive atmospheres.

            The duo’s playful, exuberant approach to music is evident in their absurdist themes and lyrics. Much of the album is inspired by “really disgusting food.” ‘Medieval Soup From The Milkbar’ references the epically bad meal of grey, gruel-like soup, and seeps into the track’s noxious slurry and stomachchurning riffs. ‘Portable Aquarium’ was born of a cup of herbal tea overflowing with foliage. Their playful and often self-deprecating sense of humour allows them to find inspiration in the smallest of life’s events.

            Persher’s ‘Sleep Well’ provides a daring, revelatory expansion on heavy music’s myriad mutations. The duo use their production skills and their humour to embrace the powerful release they find in extreme. Persher’s debut album exudes the sheer joy of making music unconstrained by genre boundaries, as gleefully weird as it is visceral and primal.

            “The duo of Jamie Roberts (Blawan) and Arthur Cayzer (Pariah) leave behind the acid froth for some maggoty post-genre techsludge” - The Quietus

            “They’re embracing a lifelong fandom of more extreme sounds, blending death metal’s hellish riff worship with the freaky ferocity of crust punk and raw immediacy of hardcore.” - Crack Magazine

            TRACK LISTING

            Crumpled Man
            Elemental Stoppage
            Medieval Soup From The Milkbar
            Sycamore
            Desiccated Forgettable
            Hymn To The Tupperbird
            Portable Aquarium
            The Squiggles
            Sleep Well Night Time Forest Rain
            Celtic Froth
            Read Me Some Sci-Fi

            Maya Shenfeld

            Under The Sun

              Maya Shenfeld’s expansive, kaleidoscopic music is as illuminating as it is exquisite. Classically trained, Shenfeld has fast grown into one of contemporary music’s most exciting, vital voices. Every aspect of her dazzling, multifaceted output interrogates the way we experience the world around us - be it solo microtonal explorations, sitespecific installations, or commissions for leading New Music ensembles. Shenfeld balances orchestral ambition and compositional rigor with the joy of noise, and granular detail.

              ‘Under The Sun’ provides a daring expansion of that musical vision, a series of pieces exploring change and repetition, deep time and the ephemeral moment, equilibrium, and imminent threat. Composed and produced between a studio in Berlin and on-site at one of the world’s deepest marble quarries in Portugal, the album’s powerful sounds are a meditation on the natural world, wrestling with the looming threat of catastrophe and crisis, and the power of community and collaboration to enact change.

              Our environment is more than just an abstract theme, it is interwoven into ‘Under The Sun’’s very sonic DNA. Field recordings taken deep within the still-active quarry in Portugal were recorded, quite literally, under the scorching sun on one of the hottest days on record in the country. Shenfeld extracted sounds from this scarred, deeply mined landscape, and threaded these samples into rich arrangements of synthesizers and acoustic instruments. The atmospheres of Under the Sun evoke that push and pull through an eclectic and rich sonic palette, from the sacred sounds of the organ at St Matthew’s Church to the ethereal voices of the Ritter Youthchoir conducted by Ann-Kristin Mayr.

              Reflections of her punk and electronic forays bubble up in a collaborative composition with Emptyset’s James Ginzburg, summoning raw, primal energy. ‘Under The Sun’ encourages us to explore how we relate to our environment. Shenfeld’s slowly evolving, hypnotic pieces make canny use of repetition, space, and silence to play with our very sense of time and our relationship to our surroundings. A deep listening that enables us to better attune our ears to the world around us, championing collective listening and collaboration as a force for change.

              TRACK LISTING

              A Guide For The Perplexed
              Tehom
              Geist
              Interstellar
              Light, Refracted
              On Its Rounds The Wind
              Returns
              Sedek
              Analemma

              Eye Flys

              Eye Flys

                Eye Flys are a quintessential Philadelphian band whose aggressive brand of noise rock is leading a wave of bands that harken back to classic era AmRep noise rock. Their rage is palpable and their wit is biting. Eye Flys are unsparingly heavy, driven by the colossal rhythm section of bassist Kevin Bernsten and drummer Patrick Forrest. Vocalist / guitarist Jake Smith delivers sharp humour with a healthy dose of venom and bile with each bestial growl while his dirty riffs roar at you.

                Recorded by Bernsten at his own Developing Nations studio (Full of Hell, Integrity, Jarhead Fertilizer) and J Robbins’ The Magpie Cage, the band’s self-titled album features artwork drawn by artist and drummer John Herndon (Tortoise), known for his singular drawings and his band’s iconic ‘TNT’ cover. Eye Flys wades deeper into the muck and mire of modern living to take an unflinching look at the horrors of late-stage capitalism and offer a caustic remedy for its ravages.

                Expanding on their bludgeoning debut ‘Tub of Lard’, ‘Eye Flys’ is lean and aggressive, fast and unforgiving. ‘Trepanation Summer’’s ferocious riffs bore directly into the skull, mimicking the crude pressure release of the ancient surgical process of the same name, Smith crying to “release the pressure” from within a wall of feedback. ‘Sleep Forever’ throws down a thrashing, infernal groove, demolishing all in its path as Smith’s craggy guitar figures rise like toxic smoke from the devastation. ‘Draining Pus’ revels in septic sludge, while ‘Bananarchy Zoo’ manages to strip things down to an even more lean and incisive realization of the trio’s punishing sonic palette, in an exploration of Smith’s love / hate relationship with his Florida roots.

                Eye Flys offers a reassuring reminder that you haven’t gone mad and you’re not alone - that weird ‘n’ heavy music is still here as a respite from the madness of modern living and an outlet for righteous rage.

                TRACK LISTING

                Trepanation Summer
                Sleep Forever
                Tuck & Roll
                Draining Pus
                Feeding Regression
                What’s That Behind Your Ear?
                Tear Away Face Plaster
                Bananarchy Zoo

                Microstoria

                Init Ding + _snd - 2024 Reissue

                  Few records have weathered the fast-moving, fickle trends in electronic music like those of Microstoria. The duo brings together two of the most prescient, playful minds in the German electronic underground - Jan St. Werner (Mouse on Mars) and Markus Popp (Oval). Their albums as Microstoria are considered foundational texts in ambient music while equally sounding just as cutting-edge now as on their initial release. Continually cropping up in Best Of lists from the likes of Pitchfork and FACT, while finding new fans through remixes by Jim O’Rouke and Stereolab.After being long out of print and coveted by collectors, the duo’s cult classic albums ‘init ding’ and ‘_snd’ now receive the expanded reissue treatment as a double LP, featuring remixed sleeve artwork based on the original designs, and a full remaster of each by engineer Rashad Becker.

                  Microstoria’s creative process was as much about careful listening as composing, the duo working in a dialogue with their machines. Their first outing, ‘init ding’ (1995), captures the thrilling, anarchic energy of Germany’s experimental underground in the 90s, rendered in beautifully understated atmospheres. In those early studio sessions, Popp and Werner would cycle through synthesizer patches and effects settings while playing, sounds glitching and taking on new shapes with each turn to create moments of genuine surprise. Throughout the album the duo wrest paradoxically organic sounds from digital instruments, with everything from bird-like calls to aqueous washes of bass or fizzing strings that crest like rolling waves of warm analogue thrum.

                  The duo’s sophomore album, ‘_snd’ (1996), provided a subtle refinement of those earlier recordings, stripping back the dense layers of texture to play with space and tension, with an even greater contrast between light and dark. The album finds comfort in colder, deliberately digital soundscapes - the sound of neon lights illuminating the empty concrete of the city at night, or dial-up router glitch bathed in the warming glow of monitor screens. This is no mere wallpaper music, but living, breathing ecosystems of sound teeming with detail and tangible feeling.

                  Nearly 30 years on from their original release, both ‘init ding’ and ‘_snd’ still offer thrilling new revelations with every listen. Much like the nature of their creation, these are records that reward deep listening. The expanded reissue of these two classic albums highlights their enduring influence and uncanny genius, standing essential titles from two artists still shaping the landscape of contemporary music today.

                  TRACK LISTING

                  16:9
                  Slap Top
                  File Care
                  Ecclectrig
                  Fund
                  Zuhause
                  Edu
                  Pokus
                  Communerism
                  Dokumint
                  Sleepy People / Network Down
                  Teil Zeit
                  Per Formal
                  Feld 1
                  Endless Summer NAMM
                  Work Place
                  Bpi
                  Quit Not Save

                  Black To Comm

                  At Zeenath Parallel Heavens

                    Over the course of 20 years, German artist Black To Comm (Marc Richter) has pushed the limits of / and merged the aesthetics of art, conceptual installations, and music, coming in a wave of innovation alongside his peers Pita, Fennesz, and later Sarah Davachi to name a few.

                    Through it all, Richter as Black to Comm has challenged assumptions, explored identity, and confronted the concept of authorship itself. ‘At Zeenath Parallel Heavens’ finds Black To Comm contemplating the hybridity within each and every one of us, be it sexual, racial, cultural, or linguistic.

                    Richter mirrors personal dualities musically with a combination of sounds he created and manipulated samples, blurring their boundaries. “I always try to blur the line between sampling and my own recordings, also between ‘real’ instruments, MIDI, electronics, editing, between authenticity and theatrics/artificiality,” says Richter. When recording he became aware of how AI text programs processing resembles his own methods. “I had the realization recently that the way I compose is not too dissimilar to what AI software is doing nowadays - especially when the AI is hallucinating (this is the term used when the AI is overloaded / overcharged / inundated and comes up with made-up results).” Human behaviour reflected in a computer facsimile of human intelligence appealed to the ethos of Black To Comm, whose titles and concepts are often oblique and tongue-in-cheek.

                    TRACK LISTING

                    1. Then Began The Harp To Fashion
                    2. Steep Thy Plumage In His Sweetness
                    3. Never Heed The Tongues Of Wooers
                    4. Time Will Fly On Equal Pinions
                    5. La Société Des Rêves
                    6. Musik Im Schatten
                    7. Schleim Des Nichtwissens
                    8. On The Grass Her Shoes Of Deer-Skin

                    Colleen

                    Le Jour Et La Nuit Du Réel

                      Colleen’s mastery of the art of sound sculpting is fully displayed on Le jour et la nuit du réel, a beautiful 21 song double album that manages to explore the intersections of the material and the imagined, a sonic odyssey unearthing soul from synthesis. The album is organized into several movements. Each movement employs different synthesis settings, but with distinctive chords and motifs that provide a through line, guiding the listener through gorgeous sonic landscapes. Schott elaborates: “To me, the capacity of synthesis to alter - subtly or radically - the physical embodiment in sound of the same series of notes is akin to how, when given new information about a person or a situation, we can reevaluate our initial perception of what we thought was the “reality” of that person or situation, sometimes drastically so”.

                      TRACK LISTING

                      1-3. Subterranean - Movement I,II,III
                      4-5. The Long Wait - Movement I,II
                      6-7. To Hold And To Be Held - Movement I,II
                      8-10. Mon Coeur - Movement I,II,III
                      11-13. Be Without Being Seen - Movement I,II,III
                      14-17. Les Parenthèses Enchantées - Movement I,II,III,IV
                      18. Les Parenthèses Enchantées - Epilogue
                      19-21. Night Looping - Movement I,II,III

                      Radian

                      Distorted Rooms

                        Vienna has a storied history as a ground zero for new music. Radian, who call Vienna home, embody the city’s spirit of innovation. Martin Brandlmayr (drums, electronics), Martin Siewert (guitar, electronics) and John Norman (bass) are stalwarts of the European contemporary music community.

                        ‘Distorted Rooms’ presents a dazzling new elevation of Radian’s employment and manipulation of microtones with a new emphasis on abstracted guitar motifs, often employing a more loop-based or electronic approach to the guitar’s sonics. Radian’s visionary approach to composition speaks to a lifetime of working in forward-thinking music. The trio expertly hone in on sounds often removed from the sheen of the recording process and mine them for unique, rich textural sound palettes which they then meticulously arrange.

                        ‘Distorted Rooms’’ creative process began with multi-stage recording of often the smallest sounds, from pick-scrapes to an amplifier’s latent hiss. These slivers of sound are then restructured and processed through a variety of techniques that transform them drastically. Radian have always been interested in sounds that might be considered byproducts and maximizing their creative and aural potential. More minor gestures like switching a pedal on and off or toggling the guitar’s pickup are miked and spun into textures that crackle and froth to fascinating effect.

                        Radian’s angular, expansive music delights in tension and contradiction, sound and silence, improvisation and composition. The trio employ a singular and wholly unique sense of microtonality. While their creation process is complex, the resulting music is emotionally affecting, creating an aura of suspense and at times unease. Brandlmayr, Siewert and Norman share an unconventional, wildly imaginative approach to sound.

                        “Radian [have] perfected a painterly approach to sound construction.” - Pitchfork

                        “With music like this, repeat listens always prove hugely rewarding, enabling stirring new passages and sounds to all of a sudden emerge, as if they’d been written in disappearing ink.” - The Quietus

                        “The visceral thrill of the trio’s sound increases in their live performances, where the tactile crispness of their music is heightened.” - Chicago Reader

                        TRACK LISTING

                        Cold Suns
                        C At The Gates
                        Cicada
                        Skyskryp12
                        Stak
                        S At The Gates

                        Sally Anne Morgan

                        Carrying

                          Multi-instrumentalist Sally Anne Morgan, known for her work as part of The Black Twig Pickers, and half of House and Land (with Sarah Louise), cultivates seeds sown by folk musics and psychedelia.

                          ‘Carrying’ tills the rich soil of Appalachian traditions and her rural North Carolina surroundings into warm, reflective songs about the weight people carry with them, as well as Morgan’s own pregnancy and the birth of her first child.

                          Bridging the more freeform, expansive leanings of 2021’s ‘Cups’ and the lucid beauty of her acclaimed 2020 debut, ‘Thread’, ‘Carrying’ finds Morgan imbuing her masterfully crafted songs with more subtle and intricate arrangements.

                          The album’s exploratory nature is anchored by a full band, comprised of some of the most thoughtful players in the psychedelic folk and ‘cosmic country’ spheres, including a guest appearance by Ripley Johnson (Rose City Band, Wooden Shjips, Moon Duo), and the foundational rhythm section of fellow The Black Twig Pickers collaborators: drummer Nathan Bowles (Steve Gunn Band, Pelt), guitarist Andrew Zinn, and bassist / engineer Joe Dejarnette.

                          Morgan finds unity in the burdens and joys, tensions, and releases of modern living as a common thread that people bear in their day-today lives. “So much of what we accumulate and carry around with us burdens us, but we also can’t or don’t know how to let go,” says Morgan. The profoundness and mundanity of that weight ran parallel for Morgan as she literally carried her child to term: the utter commonality of enduring what billions of parents before her had, and the awesome power of the human body and spirit, the complicated and unpredictable wash of emotions that come with nurturing and nourishing another life.

                          “Breathtaking, string-laden psychedelic folk” - Brooklyn Vegan

                          “Meditations on folk music, rather than the thing itself, stern and cerebral at times, but intermittently lush and beautiful...” - Dusted Magazine

                          TRACK LISTING

                          Beekeeper
                          The Center
                          Dawn Circle
                          Summerwater
                          Awake
                          Streets Of Derry
                          Diamond Joe
                          Song For Arthur

                          Tortoise

                          TNT - 2023 Reissue

                            1998: Tortoise’s third studio album, ‘TNT’, is released. In and out of print over the past decade, Thrill Jockey are happy to finally give everyone what they have been asking for - ‘TNT’ on vinyl again!

                            Pressed on high quality virgin vinyl, the double LP is packaged in a deluxe old-style tip-on gatefold jacket, fully replicating the original artwork, and includes a digital download coupon for the first time.

                            Tortoise’s third full-length release, ‘TNT’ was written and recorded during a 10-month interval in 1997. This longer-than-usual writing / production schedule was purposefully undertaken by the group in the hopes of crafting an expansive, diverse, yet thematically coherent offering. ‘TNT’ builds upon the spare, instrumental framework of the group’s first, self-titled album, and the extended edits, melodic adventures, and klangfarben of the subsequent full-length release, ‘Millions Now Living Will Never Die’.

                            Further to this, Tortoise’s interest in the possibilities offered by the remixing of tracks was realized within the actual production of ‘TNT’; individual elements, sections, or sometimes whole compositions mutate within the album’s shifting framework. These techniques were suitably realized thanks in part to the use of non-linear digital recording and editing methods, the first example of such work for the group.

                            TRACK LISTING

                            TNT
                            Swung From The Gutters
                            Ten-Day Interval
                            I Set My Fave To The Hillside
                            The Equator
                            A Simple Way To Go Faster Than Light That Does Now Work
                            The Suspension Bridge At Igazu Falls
                            Four-Day Interval
                            In Sarah, Mencken, Christ And Beethoven There Were Women And Men
                            Almost Always Is Nearly Enough
                            Jetty
                            Everglade

                            Upper Wilds

                            Jupier

                              On ‘Jupiter’, Brooklyn trio Upper Wilds voyage deeper into the cosmos, mapping out the overwhelming enormity of the universe in soaring hooks and blistering noise. The third instalment in the trio’s exploration of our solar system looks to its largest planet for a daring exploration of scale and perspective.

                              New York underground mainstay Dan Friel’s melodic gifts and wry lyricism are magnified and propelled ever outwards by the thundering rhythm section of bassist Jason Binnick and drummer Jeff Ottenbacher, all immersed in rippling fuzz. Just like its namesake, ‘Jupiter’ stands as Upper Wilds’ most colossal offering in their catalogue. The raw power of their music is amplified to titanic proportions, sky-clawing riffs invoking the sheer awe that the heavens inspire. More than any Upper Wilds album before it, Jupiter makes humanity’s endeavours in space exploration an inseparable part of its sonic DNA.

                              Recorded with Travis Harrison at his studio Serious Business in Brooklyn (Guided By Voices, Dope Body, The Men), the trio’s live recordings are inspired by the Voyager Golden Record - a double LP launched with the 1977 Voyager probe and spanning field recordings to compositions by JS Bach and Laurie Spiegel.

                              While the Voyager Golden Record’s intended audience may have originally been the extra-terrestrial beings that might encounter the probe, Upper Wilds bring cosmos-seeking sounds back to earth with a record made for and about humanity. Jupiter finds comfort in space’s unending expanse. Far from feeling defeated by the smallness of our existence in the face of an uncaring universe and ever-expanding infinite, Upper Wilds capture the power of creativity to extend our lifespans far beyond our limited time on earth.

                              “A continuous barrage of bass and drums, knocking [guitarist Dan Friel’s] inimitable fuzz-crusted hooks sideways and to pieces and rampaging on regardless.” - Dusted Magazine

                              TRACK LISTING

                              Greetings
                              Permanent Storm
                              Drifters
                              Short Centuries
                              10’9”
                              Jupiter
                              Voyager
                              Infinity Drama
                              Books About UFOs
                              Radio To Forever
                              Cerberrat

                              Pelican

                              The Fire In Our Throats Will Beckon The Thaw - Deluxe Edition

                                Pelican and Thrill Jockey are proud to present a deluxe edition of the band’s acclaimed 2005 album, ‘The Fire In Our Throats Will Beckon The Thaw’, newly remixed, remastered, and featuring special bonus rarities, including an early version of ‘Red Ran Amber’ (previously only available on a split with MONO) and demos of ‘Autumn Into Summer’, ‘Last Day of Winter’ and ‘Sirius’.

                                ‘The Fire In Our Throats Will Beckon The Thaw’ established Pelican as indisputable masters of their craft. Pelican’s ability to alchemize their influences into a sound so wholly original, and then expand on that sound into a work of captivating beauty, remains a marvel. The album indelibly shifted the paradigm of heavy music, and the ripples of that shift can be heard in the countless bands that have risen to prominence since its release.

                                The genre-busting nature of the album’s melodicism and refined dynamics was a harbinger of things to come in a genre whose strict boundaries were rapidly being shattered; a fact recognized and cemented by the album’s critical reception, which engendered everything from an Album Of The Year nod from Decibel, to pontifications about Pelican representing a rising wave of intellectualism in metal from the New York Times.

                                Nearly two decades since the album’s release on Hydra Head Records, ‘The Fire In Our Throats Will Beckon The Thaw’ has stood as not just one of the band’s most celebrated releases, but also as a watershed work of avantmetal.

                                The album arrives with a fresh mix by its original engineer Greg Norman and mastering by Josh Bonati, imbibing the songs with a new ferocity while also granting increased clarity, highlighting the developing interplay between each member.

                                The refreshed mix brings an additional punch to the rhythm section of bassist Bryan Herweg and drummer Larry Herweg, bolstering the brightened melodicism and interlocking riffing between guitarists Trevor Shelley de Brauw and Laurent Schroeder-Lebec. The more articulate presentation of the album showcases the power of each individual player while buttressing Pelican’s distinct sound as a unified force.

                                “The mixture of beauty and dread remains a defining feature of the band, as is its feel for dynamics” - Chicago Tribune

                                “For almost twenty years, the Chicago-based foursome has hosted excursions into the beautiful, bone-rattling boundaries of instrumental postmetal. The band’s music is often as visceral as it is cerebral, but it’s still largely abstract and measured enough to skirt emotion rather than dive right in.” - NPR

                                TRACK LISTING

                                Last Day Of Winter
                                Autumn Into Summer
                                March To The Sea
                                *
                                Red Ran Amber
                                Aurora Borealis
                                Sirius
                                Ran Amber (Remastered)
                                Autumn Into Summer (SGSII Demo)
                                Sirius (SGSII Demo)
                                Last Day Of Winter (SGSII demo)

                                Black Duck

                                Black Duck

                                  ‘Black Duck’ captures a band already deeply in tune with one another. The threepiece supergroup consists of Douglas McCombs, Charles Rumback and Bill MacKay. Each has a distinct musical voice that is instantly recognizable yet blends seamlessly with one another - their time performing together, playing to the moment and reading each other and the spaces they’re in formed a fluency between the trio which allows them to follow each other down winding paths and short tangents alike.

                                  Black Duck’s debut is a testament to that fluency, an expedition led by three veterans into alluring worlds bathed in myriad splendours. ‘Black Duck’ is a gallery of sonic tapestries, unbound by any genre constraints. Black Duck redefine what two guitarists and a drummer can do; pieces move from breezy shuffles to stormy blues rumbles to gorgeous textural drones.

                                  Playing entirely improvised live sets for years helped develop the trio’s acute senses for one another, knowing precisely how to listen to the others and bolster whatever direction they move in. In the short time the trio have played together, they have performed at Big Ears Festival and alongside acts like Yo La Tengo. 

                                  TRACK LISTING

                                  1. Of The Lit Backyards
                                  2. Foothill Daze
                                  3. Delivery
                                  4. Second Guess
                                  5. The Trees Are Dancing
                                  6. Thunder Fade That Earth
                                  7. Smells
                                  8. Lemon Treasure
                                  9. Light’s New Measure

                                  Sam Prekop & John McEntire

                                  Sons Of

                                    Pitchfork awarded ‘Sons Of’ an 8.3 and a spot in their Best New Music category in their review written by Philip Sherburne.

                                    The first full length collaboration from two artists who have expanded the field of rock through their work over the last three decades, both as individuals and in their time together in The Sea and Cake.

                                    John McEntire is known for his work as a musician playing with Tortoise, Jim O’Rourke, Stereolab and others. Owner and operator of Soma Electronic Music Studios, he is also known for his pioneering work as a producer and engineer, working with Stereolab, Archer Prewitt, Yo La Tengo, Bright Eyes, The Fiery Furnaces and Chicago Underground, among many others.

                                    ‘Sons Of’ finds two master craftsmen working at the nexus of pristine production and skilful improvisation, forging compelling narrative arcs into glistening metropolises of infinite pulse. The resulting sound is one of transformative fluidity; each passing beat marking a sense of familiarity while the surrounding atmospheres are in constant flux. Ever-shifting tonalities and magnetic grooves propel the music with persistent momentum without feeling hurried buoyed by the steady pace, creating the framework that allows space for new sounds to breathe and evolve.

                                    TRACK LISTING

                                    1. A Ghost At Noon
                                    2. Crossing At The Shallow
                                    3. A Yellow Robe (Part 1)
                                    4. A Yellow Robe (Part 2)
                                    5. A Drink At The Banquet
                                    6. Ascending By Night

                                    Helen Money And Will Thomas

                                    Trace

                                      Alison Chesley is an unparalleled cellist and composer who has been making boundaryless music for nearly three decades under the moniker Helen Money. From her work in Verbow to her solo releases, extending to her work as a highly sought after collaborator with Jarboe, Bob Mould, Steve Albini, Neurosis and many more, Chesley has remained a singular voice and a pioneer in expanding the scope and perception of the cello. Will Thomas is an active composer for commercials, TV, and film (GvsE, CSI, The Haunted Swordsman). He has also contributed to several of Helen Money’s solo albums and an ongoing collaboration with Roger Eno. Trace marks Thomas’s and Chesley’s first fully collaborative album, synthesizing their myriad skills as songwriters, performers, and sound artists into vivid, profoundly moving music.

                                      Helen Money and Will Thomas are masters of invoking emotional atmospheres. Their music paints in vibrant hues with outlines blurred, often using dense layers of processed instruments and textural ambience as a backdrop for harmonic tension and melodies. Trace is thrillingly cinematic. Each piece tells a compelling story through ratcheting suspense, twisting shifts, unfurling arcs, and blissful repose. “I don’t compose with a storyline in mind,” says Chesley. “I search for a feeling – a sound. It’s often not until the very end of the process that I realize what I was trying to express.” Chesley’s cello and Thomas’s synthesized textures converse with one another with a sense of curiosity. They each use their highly developed means of conveying emotion through sound and their collaborative natures to accentuate the emotional arc of the compositions. After years supplementing each other’s music and the long isolation of lockdowns, their collaboration’s conversational approach is rich with the electricity of old friends reconnecting. Chesley notes, “I was feeling grateful to be able to do this with someone I had worked with for so long – to be in the studio together again.”

                                      Trace is a masterclass in sound design. Chesley’s formidable skill as a cellist and composer ground the compositions with rich organic sounds of cello and bow. Thomas’s equally deft hand manipulated electronics, keyboards create potent frameworks that bolster the sense of mystery and searching across the album. “Thieves” applies a jittering rhythmic pulse and sampled cello harmonics that tug forward anxiously before distorted cello thrusts transform the piece into something more resolute. The duo of “Half Asleep” and “Half Awake” act as companion pieces, using lush arrangements of cello and piano, each intoning atop steady chordal figures that sound distant and familiar, like meeting a friend in a dream. Chesley and Thomas pursue harmony and discord in equal measure. A thrum of foreboding blurs the lines between their instruments on “Boulevard in Silence,” which embodies wisps of shadow and the cowl of nightfall. Industrial crashes and obliterated bass textures subsume “Tilt” and the gorgeous timbres of “Glass Shattered” swim in waves of dissonance without resolution. “Trace” moves from gentle nudges to a hypnotic thump as the piece grows more rhythmically and sonically dense; each deviation rewarding with unexpected textures and sounds.

                                      Chesley and Thomas’s unique voices as composers remain discernable and present throughout the album, but Trace is a celebration of connection of collaboration with an acute sense of details and the power they convey. On Trace, the duo utilize timbre, tone and dynamics as essential tools in crafting stunning emotive narratives. Together, the duo wield sound with inquisitive aplomb, burrowing into each other’s sonic aesthetics and unearthing irrefutable beauty. 

                                      TRACK LISTING

                                      1. Someone Out There
                                      2. Thieves
                                      3. Half Asleep
                                      4. Boulevard In Silence
                                      5. Abandon
                                      6. Trace
                                      7. She Never Suspected
                                      8. Half Awake
                                      9. Tilt
                                      10. Glass Shattered
                                      11. The Wheel

                                      Oval

                                      Romantiq

                                        Markus Popp is endlessly curious, and his music as Oval is delightfully inventive. Since pioneering albums in the 90s ‘systemisch’ and ‘94diskont.’, Oval has continually excavated new spaces in electronic music, leaving an indelible mark on the landscape.

                                        New album, ‘Romantiq’, finds Popp delivering his most light and delicate tones to date. Like the plucking of harp strings, Popp’s organic and playful approach to sound is warm and bright. Oval continually, confounds with his ability to conjure such lithe, evocative sonics from software. 

                                        ‘Romantiq’ evolved from an audio visual collaboration with digital artist Robert Seidel for the grand opening of the German Romantic Museum, where a huge outdoor projection covered the museum building. Popp sought a more expansive definition of the romantic, conjuring flickering images that glitch, evolve and collapse in on one another - opulent neo-chamber music lit by the paradoxically heart-warming screen glow of social media flirtations.

                                        Popp crafted dozens of short vignettes that each sought to evoke a specific mood or emotion. Processed period instruments trace luxuriant spaces that shift from low-lit chambers to glistening palatial grandeur, glitching through past, present and future. Swelling atmospheres emerge like perfume, rich scents flooding the senses before evaporating on the breeze. ‘Romantiq’’s musical oxytocin is made from ancient instruments processed and edited by a modern electronic master with the utmost deftness and delicacy.

                                        TRACK LISTING

                                        1. Zauberwort
                                        2. Rytmy
                                        3. Cresta
                                        4. Amethyst
                                        5. Wildwasser
                                        6. Glockenton
                                        7. Elektrin
                                        8. Okno
                                        9. Touha
                                        10. Lyriq

                                        Rose City Band

                                        Garden Party

                                          On Garden Party, Rose City Band’s country psychedelic rock evokes the wide-open spaces of the American west and free spirits who call it home. Lead by acclaimed guitarist and vocalist Ripley Johnson, Rose City Band are some of the best players in contemporary rock: pedal steel guitarist Barry Walker, keyboardist Paul Hasenberg, bassist Dewey Mahood (aka Plankton Wat), drummer Dustin Dybvig, and features Sanae Yamada of Moon Duo on Synthesizer. At its inception Rose City Band focused on what songwriter Johnson calls “porch music”. Recorded largely at Center for Sound, Light, and Color Therapy in Portland and mixed by John McEntire, Garden Party features guest appearances by Moon Duo bandmates John Jeffrey on drums and Sanae Yamada on synths, as well as Rose City Band live performers Hasenberg on keyboards and Walker on pedal steel. With the musicians in his life in mind, Ripley’s porch has opened up for each player to step into. Despite being tracked primarily as a solo endeavor the recordings capture the twists and bends of a fully realized ensemble, and in a nod to bands such as the Grateful Dead it doesn’t stop there. “The songs won’t really be finished until we play them on the road,” says Johnson. Like all great music, Garden Party taps into the listener’s emotional center and takes them to their happy place – their sunny spot. The album is an invitation to recalibrate, a joyous ride where the band’s sounds surround and embrace you. Ripley says it best: “I always like when an album starts in one place, and ends in another” What a beautiful journey it is.

                                          STAFF COMMENTS

                                          Barry says: Another languid slice of new country from the brilliant Rose city Band. Evoking a sense of hazy road trips and bristling summer sunshine, these pieces flow and bloom from dusty lounge jazz into full groove-led psychedelic territory. Another smash hit from Johnson & co.

                                          TRACK LISTING

                                          1. Chasing Rainbows
                                          2. Slow Burn
                                          3. Garden Song
                                          4. Porch Boogie
                                          5. Saturday’s Gone
                                          6. Mariposa
                                          7. Moonlight Highway
                                          8. El Rio

                                          Dommengang

                                          Wished Eye

                                            Power trio Dommengang deliver heavy psych rock on new album ‘Wished Eye’. The album delivers super tasty, dirty guitars, serpentine psychedelic grooves, and propulsive drumming with gleeful abandon. Guitarist Dan ‘Sig’ Wilson switches from explosive to expansive on a knife’s edge, laying down wailing hooks before evaporating into bristling fuzz. Bassist Brian Markham and drummer Adam Bulgasem (Black Mountain)’s foundations play with time, galloping forward or stretching out into the cosmos. ‘Wished Eye’ is an expression of the sheer joy of making music together.

                                            For fans of Blues Creation, Earthless, High Rise, and Acid Mothers Temple.

                                            TRACK LISTING

                                            Runaway
                                            Society Blues
                                            Last Card
                                            Myth Time
                                            Little Beirut
                                            Blue & Peaceful
                                            Petrichor
                                            Wished Eye
                                            Flower

                                            Mats Gustafsson & Joachim Nordwall

                                            THEIR POWER REACHED ACROSS SPACE AND TIMETO DEFY THEM WAS DEATH-OR WORSE’

                                              Mats Gustafsson is a key character in the modern jazz scene as a world-renowned saxophone player, and has collaborated with countless artists including Sonic Youth, Neneh Cherry, Peter Brötzmann and Merzbow.

                                              Joachim Nordwall has been creating psychedelic electronic music since the late 1980s, and has been in groups such as The Skull Defekts and Alvars Orkester, with work credited alongside Aaron Dilloway, Mika Vainio, Kevin Drumm, Christine Abdelnour and John Duncan.

                                              Nordwall founded and runs the lauded record label iDEAL Recordings, operating at the cutting edge of experimental and electronic music, and hosting festivals, exhibitions, concerts, and club nights.

                                              The duo create a sense of vast, three dimensional auditory expanses. “This is where acoustics and analogue synths meet. It is unique music. Unheard Vibes. Perfect for special venues and good PAs” - Gustafsson and Nordwall.

                                              TRACK LISTING

                                              1.  THERE ARE SOME WORLDS WHERE ALL DREAMS DIE (en Glad Stund)
                                              2.  THE DAY OF DAYS WAS THERE (vardag)
                                              3.  LOVE SHOWS IN HER SMILE: IT IS CONFIDENT (panik)
                                              4. THEIR NEW LIFE WAS THEIR FINAL LIFE (vilse)
                                              5.  BIRDBRAIN (olle ångest)
                                              6.  HIS FINGERS, MOVING IN THE AIR, PRODUCED A SOFT ORGAN-LIKE MUSIC (långtråkigt)
                                              7.  OH, SAID THE STRANGE MIND, YOU WANT ME TO THINK FOR YOU (det Blir Aldrig Bättre)
                                              8.  HER EYES…WERE LIKE COLD FIRES (slut)

                                              YoshimiOizumikiYoshiduO

                                              To The Forest To Live A Truer Life

                                                ‘To The Forest To Live A Truer Life’ is a deluxe LP with fully artworked custom design inner sleeve. All copies come with a poster insert designed by YoshimiO. Jacket design by lauded Japanese designer Ooido Syoujou.

                                                YoshimiOizumikiYoshiduO is comprised of YoshimiO (Boredoms, OOIOO) and modular synthesist izumikiYoshi.

                                                YoshimiO uses the piano as her primary instrument here for the first time, alongside her singular voice. Her every move is bent, stretched, and mutated by IzumikiYoshi’s modular synthesizer into cascades of brightly colored waves and dotted constellations of sound.

                                                YoshimiO, previously known as Yoshimi P-We, is a founder and drummer for Japanese rock band Boredoms, vocalist and multiinstrumentalist of OOIOO, and a member of supergroup Free Kitten alongside Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon.

                                                IzumikiYoshi is a highly regarded synthesist, having contributed synthesizer, sampler, and programmed midi instruments on Boredoms classics ‘Vision Creation Newsun’ and ‘Super æ’.

                                                YoshimiO worked as a session player and vocalist on The Flaminig Lips’ acclaimed album, ‘Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots’, which was named after her.

                                                TRACK LISTING

                                                1. YofuyO
                                                2. YO Me
                                                3. YoY 7
                                                4. OmimiO
                                                5. YosunnyO
                                                6. Sun19
                                                7. Mini YO
                                                8. Niminya
                                                9. Mull
                                                10. 1.yoO
                                                11. 33yOng

                                                Liturgy

                                                93696

                                                  Liturgy transcends the traditional parameters of what constitutes a rock band. Founded by Ravenna Hunt-Hendrix, Liturgy is a part of a shared discipline of composition, art, and philosophy that thrives on exploring the spaces between.

                                                  Liturgy’s signature use of rhythmic complexity and repetition are exponentially amplified to maximalist proportions on ‘93696’ ‘93696’ was recorded by Steve Albini at Electrical Audio and mixed by Seth Manchester at Machines With Magnets. Ravenna Hunt-Hendrix has remained at the vanguard of New York’s art world, composing music for art installations, as well as developing her own, and taking part in, guest lectures and producing her own philosophical lecture series, as well as a film in November 2020 tied to Liturgy’s fifth studio album.

                                                  Ravenna Hunt-Hendrix and Liturgy have been featured as the artist in-residence at New York City’s Issue Project Room several times, recently debuting ‘93696’’s title track and presenting her opera Origin of the Alimonies. “The band knows its virtues and works them hard: density, repetition,development, perversity, integration, catharsis.” - New York Times

                                                  “Liturgy is a unique heavy metal band that takes a cerebral approach to the form without stinting on any of the force that makes it so potent.” - The Wall Street Journal.

                                                  TRACK LISTING

                                                  1.  Daily Bread
                                                  2.  Djennaration
                                                  3.  Caela
                                                  4.  Angel Of Sovereignty
                                                  5.  Haelegen II
                                                  6.  Before I Knew The Truth
                                                  7.  Angel Of Hierarchy
                                                  8.  Red Crown II
                                                  9.  Angel Of Emancipation
                                                  10.  Ananon
                                                  11.  93696
                                                  12.  Haelegen II (Reprise)
                                                  13.  Angel Of Individuation
                                                  14.  Antigone II
                                                  15.  Immortal Life II

                                                  Sightless Pit

                                                  Lockstep Bloodwar

                                                    Sightless Pit is Lee Buford (The Body) and Dylan Walker (Full of Hell), two unparalleled artists at the forefront of redefining heavy music.

                                                    ‘Lockstep Bloodwar’ is Sightless Pit’s sophomore album, following the band’s acclaimed debut ‘Grave of a Dog’, which featured Lingua Ignota, as well as The Body and Full of Hell’s collaborative album, ‘Ascending a Mountain of Heavy Light’.

                                                    The album includes eclectic and celebrated guest artists, including Gangsta Boo (Three 6 Mafia), YoshimiO (Boredoms), Frukwan (Gravediggaz), claire rousay, Midwife, Lane Shii Otayonii (Elizabeth Colour Wheel), Foie Gras, and more.

                                                    TRACK LISTING

                                                    On A Knife (feat Midwife)
                                                    Calcified Glass (feat YoshimiO & Gangsta Boo)
                                                    Flower To Tomb (feat Lane Shi Otayonii)
                                                    Lockstep Bloodwar
                                                    Low Orbit (feat Frukwan & Industrial Hazard)
                                                    False Epiphany (feat Claire rousay)
                                                    Shiv (feat Crownovhornz)
                                                    Morning Of A Thousand Lights
                                                    Futilities (feat Foie Gras)

                                                    Oozing Wound

                                                    We Cater To Cowards

                                                      Oozing Wound are comprised of members Zack Weil (guitar, vocals), Kevin Cribbin (bass) and Kyle Reynolds (drums).

                                                      The members of Oozing Wound are veterans of Chicago’s underground scene, having played in Cacaw, Unmanned Ship, ZATH and Bad Drugs

                                                      TRACK LISTING

                                                      Bank Account Anxiety
                                                      Total Existence Failure
                                                      The Good Times (I Don’t Miss ‘Em)
                                                      Hypnic Jerk
                                                      Crypto Fash
                                                      Between Cults
                                                      Chudly
                                                      Midlife Crisis Actor
                                                      Old Sludge
                                                      Face Without Eyes

                                                      Pelican

                                                      City Of Echoes

                                                        15 years after the album’s release, ‘City Of Echoes’ is now available in a deluxe 2LP edition, newly remastered by Josh Bonati and featuring a full LP’s-worth of bonus material, including original album demos, alternate takes, and pieces originally only available on the rare ‘Pink Mammoth’ EP.

                                                        ‘City Of Echoes’, originally released in 2007 by Hydra Head Records, marked a paradigm shift for Pelican. Coming off the heels of the glacial ‘Australasia’ and their even more expansive and acclaimed follow-up, ‘The Fire In Our Throats Will Beckon The Thaw’, their third album is a study in precision.

                                                        Inspired by their non-stop tour schedule following ‘The Fire In Our Throats Will Beckon The Thaw’’s release, the quartet composed ‘City Of Echoes’ to be a lean powerhouse of non-stop melodic hooks and lurching rhythms that reflected the energy of live performance.

                                                        Guitarists Trevor Shelley de Brauw and Laurent Schroeder-Lebec trade crisp riffs that twirl in opposition before thundering together in monoliths. The sheer amount of potent interplay between the two, often borrowing from disparate edges of rock and metal at a whim before completely transforming, is mind-boggling. Bassist Bryan Herweg and rhythm section compatriot / drummer / brother Larry Herweg lock into a wider array of grooves than ever before. Their considered bedrock guides the band’s dynamics into some of the ensemble’s most tender moments as well as their most ferocious.

                                                        Recorded by Andrew Schneider at Electrical Audio Cover. Art designed by ISIS and SUMAC founder Aaron Turner, with photography by Robin Laananen.

                                                        STAFF COMMENTS

                                                        Barry says: One of my favourite post-metal bands of all time, Pelican so seeing this beautiful LP again a full FIFTEEN years after its original release is a big treat. Churning grooves, walls of sound and cathartic, doom-laiden noise. Unlike 'The Fire In Our Throats...' and 'Australasia', we see a lot more melody and melodic-leanings on this LP, and though they were both classics, the lightening of the instrumental palette works wonders for them. Ace.

                                                        TRACK LISTING

                                                        Bliss In Concrete
                                                        City Of Echoes
                                                        Spaceship Broken - Parts Needed
                                                        Winds With Hands
                                                        Dead Between The Walls
                                                        Lost In The Headlights
                                                        Far From Fields
                                                        A Delicate Sense Of Balance

                                                        Lightning Bolt

                                                        Earthly Delights - 2022 Reissue

                                                          Lightning Bolt’s ‘Earthly Delights’ receives a much desired reissue and is now available for the first time since 2009 as a double LP.

                                                          Packaged in a full colour gatefold-style jacket, ‘Earthly Delights’ features vibrant artwork and custom etching on Side D, designed by Brian Chippendale. Includes a digital download card.

                                                          Available to independent retailers on Sea Glass coloured vinyl.

                                                          ‘Earthly Delights’ is the metal album to Lightning Bolt’s genrestraddling discography, using the signature speed and volume reminiscent of past releases while centring around growling chords and monolithic rhythms commonly found in the foundations of metal.

                                                          Throughout their career, Lightning Bolt have toured the world, performing at numerous festivals, including Coachella, ATP, Pitchfork Music Festival, Austin Psych Fest and FYF Fest, to name a few.

                                                          Brian Chippendale has collaborated with artists including Björk, Boredoms, Andrew W.K. and Lee “Scratch” Perry.

                                                          In 2017, Brian Gibson developed the video game, ‘Thumper’, with his own company, Drool, which would go on to be awarded Apple’s Design Award in 2019, and be included in IDN’s Best of 2016.

                                                          “... beneath all the noise and fury, there are bona fide songs here, driven by giddy singalong melodies that settle into maddeningly tight runs and rhythmic loops then spin off into chasms of freeform noise...everything is focused on the extraordinary physicality of their sound: spasmodic, psychedelic, heavy, loud and lifeaffirming.” - The Guardian

                                                          “The whole point of their music is hypnotic repetition, magical moments sprouting from endless reiterations. They could stretch out further, but they’d likely lose access to those mini-epiphanies... Lightning Bolt are happy to grind out an eternal present, and few can dig deep into a moment quite like them.” - Pitchfork

                                                          TRACK LISTING

                                                          Sound Guardians
                                                          Nation Of Boar
                                                          Colossus
                                                          The Sublime Freak
                                                          Flooded Chamber
                                                          Funny Farm
                                                          Rain On Lake I’m Swimming In
                                                          S.O.S.
                                                          Transmissionary

                                                          The Soft Pink Truth

                                                          Is It Going To Get Any Deeper Than This?

                                                          Hot on the heels of the sold-out limited EP, ‘Was It Ever Real?’, The Soft Pink Truth release super catchy, sexy contemporary disco banger, ‘Is It Going To Get Any Deeper Than This?’. Throughout the ten songs of the album, the provocation to go deeper prompts promiscuous moves across the genres of disco, minimalism, ambient, and jazz, sliding onto and off of the dancefloor, sweeping higher and lower on the scale of frequencies, engaging both philosophical texts re-set as pop lyrics and wordless glossolalia.

                                                          Daniel’s romantic and musical partner MC Schmidt and friend Koye Berry play piano, Mark Lightcap (Acetone, Dick Slessig Combo) plays acoustic and electric guitar, Jason Willett (Half Japanese) plays bass, Nate Wooley plays trumpet, Brooks Kossover (Drugdealer) plays flute, John Berndt and Andrew Bernstein (Horse Lords) play saxophone, and shakers, shekere, tumba, triangle and cajon parts are played by Cuban percussionist Ayoze de Alejandro Lopez. There are chamber instruments as well: harpsichord by Tom Boram, harp by Obadias Guerra, Irish harp by Una Monaghan and, on many tracks, lush string arrangements by Turkish arranger Ulas Kurugullu for violin, viola, and cello that recall the Love Unlimited Orchestra found on classic Barry White albums.

                                                          Sidestepping retro kitsch but paying homage to highly personal interpretations of disco such as Arthur Russell, Don Ray, Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band, and Mandré, or the jazz funk of Creed Taylor and CTI Records. Its emphasis on slowly morphing deep house grooves will also appeal to fans of DJ Sprinkles, Moodymann, and Theo Parrish.

                                                          Gorgeous artwork designed by Robert Beatty, known for his work with artists such as Tame Impala, The Flaming Lips, The Dream Syndicate, Thee Oh Sees, Neon Indian, and Oneohtrix.

                                                          STAFF COMMENTS

                                                          Matt says: An alluring mix of moody and avant disco with rich, head-turning instrumentals which almost trip into live deep house jams. Somewhere between Manchester's See Thru Hands, The Rotating Assembly and 40 Thieves. Mega!

                                                          TRACK LISTING

                                                          Deeper
                                                          La Joie Devant La Mort
                                                          Wanna Know
                                                          Trocadero
                                                          Moodswing
                                                          Sunwash
                                                          Joybreath
                                                          Deeper Than This?
                                                          Toot Sweet
                                                          Now That It’s All Over

                                                          Douglas Andrew McCombs

                                                          VMAK

                                                            'VMAK' is the first ever solo album by acclaimed bassist Douglas Andrew McCombs.

                                                            McCombs is one of the most highly regarded bassists / guitarists working today, known for his pioneering band Tortoise, his bass playing in Chicago’s Eleventh Dream Day, and his innovative instrumental group Brokeback. He has released albums with guitarist David Daniell and collaborated with the likes of Tom Zé to Yo La Tengo, Stereolab to Daniel Lanois. In addition to being the touring bassist for The Sea and Cake, McCombs has somehow found time to form a new trio Black Duck with guitarist Bill MacKay, and percussionist Charles Rumback.

                                                            Douglas McCombs’ ‘VMAK’ is a window into one of the most distinguished and distinct voices in guitar music for the last three decades, effortlessly stretching the boundaries of the guitar while staying firmly grounded by blissful, uncanny melody.

                                                            McCombs’ debut solo album is a mix of improvisation, textural explorations and recurring melodic themes. The album title was lifted by the well-travelled McCombs from one of the visas packed into his current passport, the stamp a reminder of how far his music has taken him - literally all over the world. Not since McCombs’ solo outlet Brokeback blossomed into a full-fledged rock unit has his singular approach to solo guitar playing been exhibited in such striking detail. Taking after Brokeback’s classic ‘Morse Code in the Modern Age: Across the Americas’, ‘Two To Coolness’ is a piece that McCombs refined through a series of improvised performances and features Calexico drummer John Convertino, as well as singer / guitarist / synth player Sam Prekop (also of The Sea and Cake). ‘Green Crown’s Step’ was largely improvised working through melodies and patterns. The stately ‘To Whose Falls Shallows’ reshapes three key themes that Tortoise and Brokeback fans will find to be signature McCombs, buoyed by fellow Brokeback member James Elkington (Tweedy), who also engineered and mixed the album.

                                                            On the album, McCombs plays with spare instrumentation and primarily plays electric and acoustic guitars as well as the Bass VI, drawing out textures that stretch the scope of his instruments. McCombs’ work is pastoral and expansive, his playing is refined and nuanced, and his melodies often bely his admiration for Ennio Morricone as his guitar imbues endlessly sprawling fields of the Midwest with the same sense of magic. It is a true pleasure to hear him perform in such an intimate way. This is an absolute essential for followers of McCombs and newcomers alike, as the album lays bare his influence on each of his groups as well as firmly stakes McCombs as a force all his own.


                                                            TRACK LISTING

                                                            Two To Coolness
                                                            Green Crown’s Step
                                                            To Whose Falls Shallows

                                                            Marisa Anderson

                                                            Still, Here

                                                              ‘Still, Here’ emphatically makes the case for Marisa Anderson’s profound artistry, each piece intimately revealing a new aspect of Anderson as a player and as a human being navigating the path laid before her.

                                                              Marisa Anderson’s ‘Still, Here’ is for the listener an alchemical salve, the work of a gifted player with an exceptional ability to convey the complexities of the human experience through composition.

                                                              Marisa Anderson is one of the most eminent guitarists working today. Her lucid, eloquent approach to guitar music and composition has established her as an unparalleled artist and an insightful, coveted collaborator. Anderson’s work draws on a mosaic of folk musics and lives in conversation with myriad musical traditions.

                                                              “[Anderson] the solo guitarist creates truly borderless music, fusing the diverse global traditions she favors without drawing too much attention to the act of juxtaposition.” - Pitchfork

                                                              TRACK LISTING

                                                              In Dark Water
                                                              The Fire This Time
                                                              The Low Country
                                                              Night Air
                                                              Waking
                                                              The Crack Where The Light
                                                              Gets In
                                                              La Llorona
                                                              Beat The Drum Slowly

                                                              Ellen Arkbro & Johan Graden

                                                              I Get Along Without You Very Well

                                                                Following their collaboration on the acclaimed ‘For Organ and Brass’, released on Subtext, new album ‘I get along without you very well’ expands on the duo’s intoxicating exploration of meditative, spiritual sonics in unexpected ways.

                                                                It is a beautiful meeting of two friends and inventive musical minds, resulting in the most affecting and surprising of pop albums. From its opening notes, ‘I get along without you very well’ delights in subtle tensions and contradictions.

                                                                Ellen Arkbro and Johan Graden embody the limitless curiosity and fearless innovation of the Swedish and Berlin new music scenes they inhabit. Arkbro is a composer and musician whose work has been presented around the globe at prestigious institutions such as the Barbican in London, GRM in Paris and the Kölner Philharmonie in Köln.

                                                                Graden is one of Sweden’s most sought-after pianists, moving freely between classical music and the European contemporary jazz scene. Currently living in Amman Jordan, he is an active member of the Jordanian experimental pop scene.

                                                                ‘I get along without you very well’ is a daring statement from two of the most progressive voices in contemporary music. In allowing themselves to be at their most vulnerable - with each other, their collaborators and with listeners - they have created some of their most powerful work to date.

                                                                TRACK LISTING

                                                                Close
                                                                Out Of Luck
                                                                All In Bloom
                                                                Never Near
                                                                Temple
                                                                Other Side
                                                                Love You, Bye
                                                                Waqt

                                                                Lightning Bolt

                                                                Oblivion Hunter

                                                                  Lightning Bolt redefine here what it means to be DIY. An utterly singular band in every way, unbridled creativity and energy propel them well past most categorical boundaries, least of which is the boundary between band and audience. Theirs is an immersive experience - a sound so huge it can swallow us all.

                                                                  “... it is hard to believe that all the glorious chaos of Lightning Bolt - a stalwart of the big noise-punk scene - is being made by only two people, the bassist Brian Gibson and the drummer and vocalist Brian Chippendale. Mr. Gibson and Mr. Chippendale toss back and forth gigantic metal riffs and giggly high notes, creating rainbows of dissonance.” - New York Times

                                                                  TRACK LISTING

                                                                  King Kandy
                                                                  Baron Wasteland
                                                                  Oblivion Balloon
                                                                  Fly Fucker Fly
                                                                  The Soft Spoken Spectre
                                                                  Salamander
                                                                  World Wobbly Wide

                                                                  Califone

                                                                  Roots & Crowns

                                                                    Available on vinyl for the first time in 10 years, with new cover design by the band’s Tim Rutilli. “Uniting where you come from - your roots - with what you strive to be or what you reinvent yourself to become - crowns,” explains Tim Rutili. “At the bottom of these songs are the memories and images you sift through in the process.”

                                                                    TRACK LISTING

                                                                    Pink And Sour
                                                                    Spider’s House
                                                                    Sunday Noises
                                                                    The Eye You Lost In The
                                                                    Crusades
                                                                    A Chinese Actor
                                                                    Alice Crawley
                                                                    The Orchids (Psychic TV)
                                                                    Burned By The Christians
                                                                    Black Metal Valentine
                                                                    Rose-Petal-Ear
                                                                    3 Legged Animals

                                                                    Mouse On Mars

                                                                    Radical Connector - Reissue

                                                                      Mouse on Mars are recognised as one of Germany’s most defining and versatile electronic music projects. With their anarchic mixture of sound that oscillates between uncontrollable chaos and meticulously arranged structures, Jan St. Werner and Andi Toma have forged a unique musical language which is readily decomposed by the unpredictability of its myriad mutations. Free from schools of thought, genre conventions andfrom the constraints of the music establishment, they have worked under the Mouse On Mars alias for 24 years, mapping their own idiosyncratic trajectory through a no man’s land between pop, art, club music and the avant-garde.

                                                                      TRACK LISTING

                                                                      Mine Is In Yours
                                                                      Wipe That Sound
                                                                      Spaceship
                                                                      Send Me Shivers
                                                                      Blood Comes
                                                                      The End
                                                                      Detected Beats
                                                                      All The Old Powers
                                                                      Evoke An Object

                                                                      Glenn Jones

                                                                      Vade Mecum

                                                                        Glenn Jones is a unique player in the world of solo guitar music. Steeped in both American Primitive guitar music as well as rock and experimental music, Glenn Jones creates rich sonic tapestries with a distinct and stirring voice.

                                                                        Endlessly curious, Jones has spent the better part of four decades exploring the boundaries of expression and storytelling with the guitar and banjo.

                                                                        On ‘Vade Mecum’, Jones draws on his personal history to tell stories with elaborate musical detail and emotional weight.

                                                                        Exploring the complexity of personal experience, emotions and our shared histories, ‘Vade Mecum’ finds Jones painting his music in boundaryless colours, captivatingly vivid.

                                                                        TRACK LISTING

                                                                        Vade Mecum
                                                                        Forsythia
                                                                        Base Harbor Head
                                                                        Black & White And Gray
                                                                        Each Crystal Pane Of Glass
                                                                        A Handful Of Snow
                                                                        Kathy Maltese
                                                                        Ruthie’s Farewell
                                                                        John Jackson Of Fairfax, Virginia
                                                                        Away

                                                                        Sally Anne Morgan

                                                                        Cups

                                                                          Multi-instrumentalist Sally Anne Morgan tills the soil of old timey music, folk practices old and new, and psychedelia to sow music that reaches out beyond its roots.

                                                                          ‘Cups’ dives headfirst into the waters of the Morgan’s unconscious mind and plumbs those depths for swells of fertile brilliance and awe.

                                                                          In stark contrast to the traditional and pop-informed structures of her previous album, ‘Thread’, ‘Cups’ adopts a free-flowing approach intuitive and receptive, brimming and shifting and changing across a fragile equilibrium of pieces both improvised and composed.

                                                                          The fluid pieces twirl from pensive, looped fiddle to tiptoed banjo to patient, sunny parlour guitar arpeggios to droning dulcimer and a litany of percussive ripples with gentle ease.

                                                                          By distilling her most immediate inspirations into layers of sparkling timbre and buoyant rambles, Sally Anne Morgan’s ‘Cups’ builds a sense of community from within, like a back porch jam with her own subconscious.

                                                                          “Meditations on folk music, rather than the thing itself, stern and cerebral at times, but intermittently lush and beautiful... [‘Cups’] captures essential bits of folk music, frames them in stark, repeating ways, and makes us look at them differently.” - Dusted Magazine

                                                                          “[‘Cups’ is] a totally charming album that bares the unspoiled essence of its creator, a thoroughly engaging artist forging her own singular path upon the resilient precepts of the past.” - No Depression

                                                                          “Morgan has created a record that’s a meditative idyll... If you need a bit of spiritual realignment, then ‘Cups’ is a necessity, a moment of peace in a punishing world.” - Raven Sings The Blues

                                                                          “breathtaking, string-laden psychedelic folk” - Brooklyn Vegan

                                                                          TRACK LISTING

                                                                          Night Window
                                                                          Prune
                                                                          Hori Hori
                                                                          Pythagoras
                                                                          Sandbox
                                                                          Through The Threshold
                                                                          Home Soup
                                                                          Angeline
                                                                          In Come A Bee
                                                                          Word For World

                                                                          Fred Anderson & Hamid Drake

                                                                          From The River To The Ocean

                                                                            Available on vinyl for the first time since its original CD-only release in 2007.

                                                                            The closest of relationships gives its members space to expand, change, develop and play. Tenor saxophonist Fred Anderson and drummer Hamid Drake have just that kind of partnership, one that has seen them periodically move apart and work extensively on other fronts - Anderson tending to the recent relocation of his major jazz venue the Velvet Lounge; Drake in a dizzying array of globetrotting ensembles - but always returning to the fold, digging in together and checking out what’s been learned in the interim.

                                                                            Over the course of some three decades, the master saxophonist and the prodigy percussionist have continued to reconfirm their commitment to their joint project.

                                                                            TRACK LISTING

                                                                            Planet E
                                                                            Strut Time
                                                                            For Brother Thompson
                                                                            Sakti/Shiva
                                                                            From The River To The Ocean

                                                                            Plankton Wat

                                                                            Hidden Path

                                                                              The music of Dewey Mahood is steadfast in its pursuit of transcendence.

                                                                              For the past two decades as Plankton Wat, Mahood has contoured his melodic guitar playing into wholly transfiguring pieces.

                                                                              His fluid compositions apply ethereal, elastic textures to grounded rhythmic grooves that recall the cosmic and the earthly in equal measure.

                                                                              ‘Hidden Path’ is an album built on reflection and discovery, turning the thrill of exploring obscured passages into inward revelations.

                                                                              Originally presented as a limited cassette in 2017, and now presented on vinyl for the first time, remastered by Amy Dragon, ‘Hidden Path’ is a distillation of Mahood’s musical practice as a way of life, a patient celebration of the unexpected, unhurried and exhilarating.


                                                                              TRACK LISTING

                                                                              The Inward Reflection
                                                                              Dream Cascade
                                                                              A Window In The Mirror
                                                                              Hidden Path
                                                                              The Everflowing Stream
                                                                              Solitude Amongst The Trees
                                                                              Awaken
                                                                              Fields Of Remembrance

                                                                              Bummer

                                                                              Dead Horse

                                                                                Kansas City trio BUMMER mirror the absurdity of modern life with a balance of dark humour, dejected nihilism and righteous fury. Their music spills out in torrents of skull-crushing riffs, gargantuan bass and caustic howls delivered at breakneck speed with gleeful abandon.

                                                                                Following their split 7” with long-time friends The Body, which teased a more focused, lean sound for the group, ‘Dead Horse’ hones BUMMER’s auditory desolation and scathing gaze to laser-point precision.

                                                                                In eleven short vignettes the quartet lay waste to everything in their path, penning a vitriolic overview of life in the American Midwest, a surprising blend of onestar Trip Advisor review and insightful cultural critique.

                                                                                “[BUMMER] puts the ‘power’ in power trio as they play a raw and primal form of aggressive music that splits the difference between ‘Bleach’-era Nirvana and the early, primitive thrash of Slayer. It’s aggressive and inyour- face, but doesn’t skimp on melody, making their songs memorable. So, there is power and a bit of precision to what they do. A whole lot of volume, too.” - New Noise Magazine

                                                                                TRACK LISTING

                                                                                JFK Speedwagon
                                                                                Barn Burner (You Boys Quit Whippin’ Those Whips)
                                                                                I Want To Punch Bruce Springsteen In The Dick
                                                                                E1M1
                                                                                Donkey Punch
                                                                                Juice Pig
                                                                                Kid Spock
                                                                                Quadruple ZZ Top
                                                                                False Floor
                                                                                Magic Cruel Bus
                                                                                Rareware

                                                                                The Body & BIG/BRAVE

                                                                                Leaving None But Small Birds

                                                                                  The Body and BIG|BRAVE are both bands possessed with an unequalled ability to convey overwhelming weight with simplicity, repetition and detailed sonic atmospheres; artists who continue to alter the definition of what it means to be a heavy band.

                                                                                  The Body are consistently prolific while increasingly ambitious as untethered producers and collaborators. BIG|BRAVE shape sound with dense waves of guitar and feedback, minimalist and hypnotic crashes and emotionally exacting vocal melodies. In collaboration, The Body and BIG|BRAVE shift the gravity of their compositions to woven layers of percussion and unspooling guitars that sprawl through stark frameworks of earthy folk.

                                                                                  Their debut collaborative album, ‘Leaving None But Small Birds’ distils the two ensembles’ pioneering approach to heavy music into psalms for the forgotten, threnodies of lost love and odes to vengeance.

                                                                                  Recorded, mixed and produced by Seth Manchester at Machines With Magnets (Liturgy, Battles, Mdou Moctar) and mastered by Heba Kadry (Björk, David Bowie).

                                                                                  “Emotionally coherent but tricky to categorize. BIG|BRAVE are the sound of the raw unconscious, turned up loud.” - Pitchfork

                                                                                  “The Body have become one of the most interesting and difficult to pin down groups in extreme music.” - Rolling Stone

                                                                                  TRACK LISTING

                                                                                  Blackest Crow
                                                                                  Oh Sinner
                                                                                  Hard Times
                                                                                  Once I Had A Sweetheart
                                                                                  Black Is The Colour
                                                                                  Polly Gosford
                                                                                  Babes In The Woods

                                                                                  Marisa Anderson & William Tyler

                                                                                  Lost Futures

                                                                                    Guitarists Marisa Anderson and William Tyler distil deeply rooted and varied traditions into distinctive voices all their own. Anderson and Tyler are each unyielding in their desire to extend through those traditions and the confines of ‘guitar music’ to craft music at once intimate and expansive, conversational and transcendent.

                                                                                    The duo’s debut collaborative album tethers together their singular voices into unified narratives that glisten, drive and sway. On ‘Lost Futures’, Anderson and Tyler’s guitars dance through lush arrangements and pastoral duets serpentine and reverent. 

                                                                                    ‘Lost Futures’ takes its name from writer Mark Fisher’s cultural theory of the loss of potential futures, the hopes and ideals which once felt inevitable but have since been interrupted. Anderson and Tyler’s use of textural drones, rhythmic repetition and harmonic shifts embody the building tensions of uncertainty created by profound loss: loss of life, experience, companionship, compassion. Across ‘Lost Futures’, Anderson and Tyler mold their instruments into breathtaking panoramas of blight and bliss. Each movement contains a dense biome of transportive sound. 

                                                                                    The duo’s music together reckons with mounting pressures as well as the joy of newfound friendship and gratitude for being able to play together. In tandem, Marisa Anderson and William Tyler have composed a work of remarkable breadth, brimming with resplendent odes of solace.

                                                                                    Marisa Anderson and William Tyler are both prolific solo artists. Tyler has also toured with groups including Lambchop and Silver Jews and Marisa has contributed to recordings by Beth Ditto, Sharon Van Etten and Circuit Des Yeux among others. 

                                                                                    ‘Lost Futures’ features guests Gisela Rodriguez Fernandez on violin and Patricia Vázquez Gómez playing quijada.

                                                                                    Package features artwork by Sam Smith. LPs include artworked inner-sleeve featuring photography by Marisa Anderson.

                                                                                    STAFF COMMENTS

                                                                                    Barry says: Both Marisa Anderson and William Tyler have impeccable form for crafting gorgeous acoustic guitar anthems, ranging from the beautiful simplicity of Anderson's plucked acoustic to Tyler's country-tinged Americana anthems, so I really couldn't imagine a better combination than the two of them. It works perfectly here with each artist's own voice coming through wonderfully while accentuating each-other perfectly.

                                                                                    TRACK LISTING

                                                                                    1. News About Heaven
                                                                                    2. Lost Futures
                                                                                    3. Pray For Rain
                                                                                    4. Something Will Come
                                                                                    5. At The Edge Of The World
                                                                                    6. Hurricane Light
                                                                                    7. Life And Casualty
                                                                                    8. Haunted By Water

                                                                                    Kid Millions And Jan St. Werner

                                                                                    Imperium Droop

                                                                                      Jan St. Werner is one-half of legendary electronic duo Mouse On Mars. Werner records music as well under the name Lithops and has released records with Oval’s Markus Popp as Microstoria. Jan has collaborated with a wide range of artists from Mark E Smith and Stereolab to The National.

                                                                                      Kid Millions, aka John Colpitts, is a prolific drummer, known for his work in Oneida and frequently performs with Laurie Anderson and Marnie Stern. Colpitt’s past collaborations include Philip Glass, Royal Trux, Boredoms, White Hills and Spiritualized. Under the moniker Man Forever, Colpitts collaborated with acclaimed groups So Percussion, Greg Fox, Tigue, Yo La Tengo and more.

                                                                                      Together, the works on ‘Imperium Droop’ are a joyful listen and an exhilarating foray into the unknown; Kid Millions’ (John Colpitts) tireless rhythms and subtle gestures mirror Jan St. Werner’s boundless textural palette and together drive each piece towards transcendence. Exploring a liminal space between improvisation and composition, the duo expand their musical dialogue beyond the physical limitations of space and time.

                                                                                      LP is available on opaque purple with white coloured vinyl with art by Frieda Luczak, whose designs have been featured on many classic Mouse on Mars albums.

                                                                                      “Kid Millions has become a ubiquitous force in a constantly changing scene.” - New York Times

                                                                                      “Mouse on Mars have never let their concepts eclipse the music; part of the pleasure of the duo’s output is its very inscrutability... the sounds beckon in their mystery.” - Pitchfork

                                                                                      “Mutant, microtonal... [Jan St. Werner] explores one area of sound with great intensity and nuance” - Uncut

                                                                                      “Experimental percussion genius” - Village Voice on Kid Millions

                                                                                      TRACK LISTING

                                                                                      Color Bagpipes
                                                                                      Apotropaic
                                                                                      Laffen’ Death
                                                                                      Hexaco Inversion
                                                                                      Dark Tetrad
                                                                                      Astral Stare
                                                                                      Nuclei Melodies
                                                                                      Sorrows And
                                                                                      Compensations

                                                                                      Rose City Band

                                                                                      Earth Trip

                                                                                        Rose City Band is celebrated guitarist Ripley Johnson. A prolific songwriter, Johnson started Rose City Band to have an outlet to explore songwriting styles apart from Wooden Shjips and Moon Duo, where he is often not the lead songwriter. Rose City Band allowed him to follow his musical muses as they greet him and not be bound by the schedule of bandmates and demands of a touring group. Stepping out from behind the psychedelic haze that envelops his other output, Rose City Band’s lean yet richly textured arrangements lay bare the beauty of his songcraft. On Earth Trip, Johnson reveals more of himself than ever before, coloring the project’s country-rock twang with a melancholic, wistful undertone. It charts a journey of personal growth and introspection with surprising honesty, from pining for summers spent with friends to meditations on space, stillness and the splendor of the natural world. It continues Rose City Band’s celebration of summer warmth and the great outdoors, seen from a new vantage point, and with newfound appreciation for the freedom and joy that nature provides.

                                                                                        Earth Trip was written during a period of sudden shocks and drastic lifestyle changes for Johnson. Forced to cancel extensive touring plans for 2020, the guitarist found himself home for an extended period for the first time in years. No longer in constant motion, he was able to experience and enjoy the simple pleasures of home life, of being in one place: hikes in nature, bathing outside, and waking with the dawn. Forming new connections to his surroundings, from tending to a garden to sleeping out under the stars, Johnson found hope and healing in a more mindful relationship with the natural world.

                                                                                        Themes of recalibration and finding personal space are equally mirrored in Earth Trip’s lean production. Recorded at his home studio in Portland and mixed by Cooper Crain (Bitchin’ Bajas, Cave), Johnson makes deft use of space while experimenting with new sonics. Shimmering pedal steel, woozy harmonica melodies, and stately piano enhance the album’s introspective tone without ever clouding arrangements. Psychedelic elements that nod to Johnson’s other projects and influences still appear throughout, but hover at the edge of perception, a subtle halo adding colour and texture to Johnson’s songwriting rather than taking centrer-stage. He elaborates: “I told Cooper I was trying to capture that feeling when you take psychedelics and they just start coming on - maybe objects start buzzing in the edges of your vision, you start seeing slight trails, maybe the characteristics of sound change subtly. But you’re not fully tripping yet. He got the idea right away and his mix really captures that feeling.” Johnson’s lithe guitar playing throughout treads a fine line between country and cosmic, taut melodies spiralling out into long reverb trails or free-form solos buoyed by a breeze, radiating summer warmth.

                                                                                        Through its daring honesty and masteful arrangements, Earth Trip cements Johnson’s place as a singular songwriter of inimitable skill. It’s message of mindfulness and our interconnectedness to the environment expands on a long country and blues music tradition that draws a symbiotic relationship between storyteller and the land, capturing the beauty of the natural world while also emphasising our responsibility in preserving it for future generations.

                                                                                        STAFF COMMENTS

                                                                                        Barry says: Rose city band go full country! Slide guitars, lap steel and tasteful reverb coalesce into a brilliantly evocative and wonderfully produced distillation of that Rose City sound into a country shell. It's a testament to Ripley Johnson's skill that his sound can be so successfully transplanted into a different shell while retaining everything that made him so great in the first place. Lovely stuff.

                                                                                        TRACK LISTING

                                                                                        1. Silver Roses
                                                                                        2. In The Rain
                                                                                        3. World Is Turning
                                                                                        4. Feel Of Love
                                                                                        5. Lonely Places
                                                                                        6. Ramblin’ With The Day
                                                                                        7. Rabbit
                                                                                        8. Dawn Patrol

                                                                                        Colleen

                                                                                        The Tunnel And The Clearing

                                                                                          Colleen is an aboundingly inventive composer and artist. For two decades Cécile Schott, as Colleen, has crafted welcoming, enchanting, and bewildering music. The multiinstrumentalist and vocalist’s timeless compositions make use of carefully selected tools to mold memories into transcendent splendor. The Tunnel and the Clearing finds Schott at her most vulnerable and confident, invoking contemplative and swirling organ processed through analog electronics, steady drum machine syncopations and her distinctive voice. On an album centered on processing the complicated washes of emotion through tribulations and revelations Colleen presents a vision of breathless clarity.

                                                                                          The Tunnel and the Clearing was developed over a period of transformative change. Colleen began work on the album in 2018 but was all but halted by extreme fatigue from a previously undiagnosed illness. Years of treatment and adjustment eventually led to relocating to Barcelona, soon followed by lockdowns and then the dissolution of her longtime partnership. Reflecting on these cumulative experiences she reimagined her compositional practices, spending months in near complete silence. Says Schott, “Never before had I felt so profoundly the power that music has, through harmony, melody, rhythm and sound itself, to express the whole range of human emotions.” The resulting seven pieces investigate the complex, at times contradictory relationship between excitement and fear, anger and understanding, struggle and triumph, all focused on a reconstruction of the self.

                                                                                          Colleen’s albums are unified by distinct and personal instrumentation, built around music boxes, viola da gamba, or electronics, they somehow all remarkably share a dreamlike modern quality. For The Tunnel and the Clearing Schott restricted herself to using analog electronic instruments including the Elka Drummer One, the Roland RE-201 Space Echo and Moog Grandmother synth, coupled with Yamaha organ keyboard. Stunningly, Colleen achieves the rich emotional intricacy and the lush density of textures on The Tunnel and the Clearing through almost entirely live performance and processing. These detailed and affecting compositions mirror Colleen’s grappling with her own psyche. Schott elaborates “I found direct correspondences between my internal discourse, its obsessive, frantic attempts at making sense of what I could not understand, and the music I was making, with motifs functioning as questions and answers, doubts and assertions.” Clicks, hums, warbles and throbs emulating our evolving internal worlds, an “emotional noise.” A musical journey through the tunnel toward the clearing at its end. The Tunnel and the Clearing is a work of lucid reverence, a constellation of marvels suspended in air.

                                                                                          STAFF COMMENTS

                                                                                          Barry says: A beautifully produced juxtaposition of Space Lady-esque echoing vocal shards and slowly pulled organ swells, flickering drum machines and psychedelic reverb, 'The Tunnel..' is both brilliantly propulsive and warmingly lysergic, ending up somewhere between an arm-waving midday festival slot and loose, chillout room ambience. Really lovely stuff.

                                                                                          TRACK LISTING

                                                                                          1. The Crossing
                                                                                          2. Revelation
                                                                                          3. Implosion-Explosion
                                                                                          4. The Tunnel And The Clearing
                                                                                          5. Gazing At Taurus - Santa Eulalia
                                                                                          6. Gazing At Taurus - Night Sky Rumba
                                                                                          7. Hidden In The Current

                                                                                          Plankton Wat

                                                                                          Future Times

                                                                                            As Plankton Wat, Dewey Mahood uses his considerable guitar prowess to deliver an album that encompasses both the wild, seeking energy of free-improvisation and the deliberate arrangements of more traditional composition.

                                                                                            With his deft and stylistically varied playing, Plankton Wat’s ‘Future Times’ escapes psychedelic tropes and chemical fuelled alterations and instead celebrates an escape into the natural world.

                                                                                            ‘Future Times’ taps into psychedelia’s counter-cultural heritage as music for protest, liberation and imagining new ways of being in this world.

                                                                                            “Pastoral drones and swirling psychedelia” - Pitchfork

                                                                                            Known for his guitar prowess in modern psychedelic music, specifically with Eternal Tapestry as well as Edibles, Elephant Factory Galaxy Research and Gärden Söund among others.

                                                                                            ‘Future Times’ was recorded at Mahood’s home studio Solar Commune, with additions from Dustin Dybvig (Horse Feathers & Edibles) and Victor Nash (Flash Hawk Parlor Ensemble). Features Ash Dybvig on flute.

                                                                                            TRACK LISTING

                                                                                            The Burning World
                                                                                            Nightfall
                                                                                            Modern Ruins
                                                                                            Dark Cities
                                                                                            Teenage Daydream
                                                                                            Sanctuary
                                                                                            Future Times
                                                                                            Defund The Police
                                                                                            Wind Mountain

                                                                                            Mouse On Mars

                                                                                            AAI

                                                                                              Mouse on Mars, the Berlin-based duo of Jan St. Werner and Andi Toma, approach electronic music with an inexhaustible curiosity and unparalleled ingenuity. ‘AAI’ (Anarchic Artificial Intelligence) takes their fascination with technology and undogmatic exploration a quantum leap further.

                                                                                              Emerging from a primordial ooze of rolling bass and skittering electronics, hypnotic polyrhythms and pulsing synthesizers propel the listener across the record’s expanse. Hidden in the duo’s hyper-detailed productions is a kind of meta-narrative.

                                                                                              Working with AI tech collective Birds on Mars and former Soundcloud programmers Ranny Keddo and Derrek Kindle, the duo collaborated on the creation of bespoke software capable of modelling speech; text and voice from writer and scholar of African Studies Louis Chude-Sokei and DJ/producer Yağmur Uçkunkaya were fed into the software as a model, allowing Toma and Werner to control parameters like speed or mood, thereby creating a kind of speech instrument they could control and play as they would a synthesizer.

                                                                                              The album’s narrative is quite literally mirrored in the music - the sound of an artificial intelligence growing, learning and speaking. This exploration of artificial intelligence as both a narrative framework and compositional tool, allowing the duo to summon their most explicitly science-fiction work to date.

                                                                                              Original artwork by Casey Reas, inventor of the computer graphics language Processing.

                                                                                              Recently, Mouse on Mars received the 2020 Holger Czukay Prize for Pop Music.

                                                                                              Mouse on Mars have been regularly streaming performances throughout 2020, partnering with organizations like Goethe-Institut, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Conditions of a Necessity and others and will continue these in 2021.

                                                                                              TRACK LISTING

                                                                                              Engineering Systems
                                                                                              The Latent Space
                                                                                              Speech And Ambulation
                                                                                              Thousand To One
                                                                                              Walking And Talking
                                                                                              Youmachine
                                                                                              Doublekeyrock
                                                                                              Machine Rights
                                                                                              Go Tick
                                                                                              The Fear Of Machines
                                                                                              Artificial Authentic
                                                                                              Machine Perspective
                                                                                              Cut That Fishernet
                                                                                              Tools Use Tools
                                                                                              Loose Tools
                                                                                              Seven Months
                                                                                              Paymig
                                                                                              Borrow Signs
                                                                                              New Definitions
                                                                                              New Life Always Announces Itself Through Sound

                                                                                              The Body

                                                                                              I've Seen All I Need To See

                                                                                                Over the course of two decades The Body - Lee Buford and Chip King - have consistently challenged assumptions and defied categorization, redefining what it means to be a heavy band.

                                                                                                On ‘I’ve Seen All I Need To See’, they test the boundaries of the studio to explore the extremes and microtonality of distortion to find its maximal impact.

                                                                                                Their most incisively bleak album to date, a towering monolith of noise, Buford’s booming, resolute drums paired with King’s obliterated guitar and howl.

                                                                                                Course, bristling distortion contorts every instrument, with samples of spoken word, cymbals, toms and King’s already noxious tone emerging from layers of feedback.

                                                                                                Features guests Ben Eberle (Sandworm) and Chrissy Wolpert (Assembly of Light Choir).  Recorded with long time engineer Seth Manchester at Machines with Magnets (Lightning Bolt, Battles, Daughters) and mastered by Matt Colton (Sumac, Brian Eno, Uniform, Sunn O)))).

                                                                                                The Body have collaborated with many, including Full Of Hell, Thou, Uniform and Bummer.

                                                                                                “The distortion has this ability to envelope you, and not push you away. It has this strange kind of beautiful timbre... once you give into the sheer power of it, and let it take you on a ride then it becomes this whole other kind of sonic experience.” - Matt Colton

                                                                                                TRACK LISTING

                                                                                                A Lament
                                                                                                Tied Up And Locked In
                                                                                                Eschatological Imperative
                                                                                                A Pain Of Knowing
                                                                                                The City Is Shelled
                                                                                                They Are Coming
                                                                                                The Handle/The Blade
                                                                                                Path Of Failure

                                                                                                Black To Comm

                                                                                                Oocyte Oil & Stolen Androgens

                                                                                                  The music of Black To Comm is as powerfully intoxicating as it is subtly unnerving. The solo project of shapeshifting German producer and sound artist Marc Richter, his mastery of sonic manipulation is matched only by his astounding clarity of vision.

                                                                                                  Following the acclaimed ‘Seven Horses For Seven Kings’ released just a year ago, ‘Oocyte Oil & Stolen Androgens’ applies Richter’s wild imagination to an exploration of the human voice, standing as some of his most immediate and affecting music to date.

                                                                                                  Each of his phantasmagoric works is meticulously constructed from an omnivorous array of smudged samples and other sonic detritus, painstakingly collected by Richter from across the history of recorded music or his immediate environment and altered into beguiling new shapes. Sound sources seem tantalizingly familiar and yet often just out of reach, flickering at the edges of the subconscious.

                                                                                                  TRACK LISTING

                                                                                                  Gustav Metzger As Erwin Piscator, Gera, January 1915
                                                                                                  Stolen Androgens
                                                                                                  Oocyte Oil
                                                                                                  Gepackte Zeit (für Hanne Darboven)
                                                                                                  Rataplan, Rataplan, Rataplan (Arms And Legs Flying In The Air)

                                                                                                  Holy Sons

                                                                                                  Raw And Disfigured

                                                                                                    The music of Emil Amos is at once intimate and expansive. Under the name Holy Sons, as well as with bands Om, Grails and Lilacs and Champagne, Amos harnesses boundless sonic textures to embellish delicately crafted songs, he plays the bulk of the instruments and sings the majority of the vocals throughout the album and is joined on a few pieces by drummer Steve Shelley (Sonic Youth).

                                                                                                    His music balances cues from classic and indie rock traditions with tenderness and sense of foreboding through unparalleled artistry. Holy Sons’ ‘Raw and Disfigured’ showcases Amos’ mastery of songcraft through a seemingly impossible combination of subtle yet potent gestures, bold arrangements and resolute vulnerability.

                                                                                                    Recorded at Sonic Youth’s studio Echo Canyon West, ‘Raw and Disfigured’ stands as Amos’ most ambitious and comprehensive album yet, a panoramic gallery of songs as beautiful as they are crushing.

                                                                                                    TRACK LISTING

                                                                                                    The Loser That Always Wins
                                                                                                    Lady Of The Hour
                                                                                                    Cast Bound King
                                                                                                    Hand That Feeds
                                                                                                    Permanent Things
                                                                                                    Four Walls
                                                                                                    Held The Hand
                                                                                                    Lost In The Fire
                                                                                                    Transformation
                                                                                                    Slow To Run
                                                                                                    Reach Out And Touch Something
                                                                                                    Cóiste Bodhar
                                                                                                    Nights Like This
                                                                                                    Up On That Hill
                                                                                                    Backslider’s Wine
                                                                                                    Bloody Strings

                                                                                                    Sumac

                                                                                                    May You Be Held

                                                                                                      Picking up where the band left off with their critically acclaimed ‘Love in Shadow’, the trio of Aaron Turner (ISIS, Old Man Gloom), Brian Cook (Russian Circles) and Nick Yacyshyn (Baptists) push further into the polarity of their sound with longform composition and freeform exploration.

                                                                                                      Meticulously detailed and complex one moment, rudimentary and repetitive the next and completely untethered and unscripted at seemingly random, ‘May You Be Held’ is an album that fluctuates between extreme discipline and control and an almost feral energy. “As an artist in this time of significant upheaval, society seemingly having reached the end of its current iteration, it’s of critical importance to absorb and interpret this process of dissolution - and of the transformation that hopefully follows it” says Turner, “While I don’t believe we’re on the brink of collective destruction precisely now, this is clearly a pivotal stage in the story of humankind - and there is something that feels right about this music at this exact and very uncertain moment.”

                                                                                                      Available on tan with black splatter vinyl, black vinyl and CD, packaged in wide spine jacket with high gloss slipcase. Vinyl formats include digital download cards.

                                                                                                      “Exacting, weapons-grade, military-trained, merciless” - Rolling Stone

                                                                                                      “One of this year’s most audacious metal statements” - Pitchfork

                                                                                                      “For over two decades, Aaron Turner has been on the front lines of intelligent forward-thinking heavy music” - Revolver

                                                                                                      STAFF COMMENTS

                                                                                                      Barry says: Aaron Turner has seen some action hasn't he? Lotus Eaters, Old Man Gloom, Mammifer and of course, Isis. All of them are uncompromising in their own way but Sumac is possibly his most scathing outlet yet. Brutal, beautiful and surprising.

                                                                                                      TRACK LISTING

                                                                                                      A Prayer For Your Path
                                                                                                      May You Be Held
                                                                                                      The Iron Chair
                                                                                                      Consumed
                                                                                                      Laughter And Silence

                                                                                                      Sam Prekop

                                                                                                      Comma

                                                                                                        Sam Prekop’s boundless imagination is guided by his strong sense of melody. For more than 25 years, as a solo artist or as part of The Sea and Cake, Prekop creates a singular sound that is both inventive and warm. New album ‘Comma’ takes Pekop’s electronic music experiments in a surprising new direction. Working extensively with beat programming for the first time, Prekop uses rhythm as a narrative tool, tapping into electronic music’s romantic and emotional qualities. ‘Comma’ embraces the analogue synthesizer’s often unpredictable nature, imbuing the record with a decidedly organic feel even while working within the relative rigidity of beat architectures.

                                                                                                        Prekop’s creative process is a combination of preparation and improvisation.Writing sessions for ‘Comma’ began with an open-ended exploration of sounds and textures from which the first fragments of songs would reveal themselves. The introduction of drum machines and additional synthesizer units to his modular setup shifted things in surprising new directions as he worked to bend them into more traditional pop song structures. Drum tracks and emergent rhythms provided the frameworks and narrative sketches to be fleshed out with lustrous widescreen synth pads and ribboning melodies. In approaching his writing with a completely open mind and letting himself be guided by the music, Prekop maintains a delicate balance between composition and chance, control and spontaneity.

                                                                                                        Prekop’s wide-eyed sense of discovery guides his exploration of beat-driven music, pushing him to use rhythm as a narrative tool and to embrace electronic music’s romantic and emotional qualities. With ‘Comma’, Prekop compiles an incredible breadth of ideas into a surprisingly coherent soundworld. It’s a modern minimal pop album that taps into the experimental heritage of the synthesizer. The album places Sam Prekop’s work squarely in the tradition of electronic music pioneers like Brian Eno and Yellow Magic Orchestra, who brought together the unrestrained ambition of the avantgarde with the immediacy and accessibility of pop music.

                                                                                                        TRACK LISTING

                                                                                                        1. Park Line
                                                                                                        2. Summer Places
                                                                                                        3. Comma
                                                                                                        4. September Remember
                                                                                                        5. The New Last
                                                                                                        6. Approaching
                                                                                                        7. Circle Line
                                                                                                        8. Never Met
                                                                                                        9. Wax Wing
                                                                                                        10. Above Our Heads

                                                                                                        Jim White And Marisa Anderson

                                                                                                        The Quickening

                                                                                                          The Quickening is an improvised work guided by emotional intuition and an ability to spin collective experience into music of potent and boundless beauty.

                                                                                                          Jim White and Marisa Anderson instrumental voices’ are unmistakable and spellbindingly lyrical. Anderson unravels global guitar traditions into atmospheres all their own through improvisations and transforming melodic lines. While White implements an array of sticks, brushes, and techniques that imbue each rhythmic percussion passage with its own distinct personality. Together their melodic flourishes cascade and twist upon one another, at times trading conversational exchanges, and at others drifting in unison as if lost in the same train of thought.

                                                                                                          White and Anderson share an abounding appetite for musical exploration. White, as a member of Venom P Stinger, Dirty Three, and Xylouris White, is well known for his creative and idiosyncratic drumming. His singular abilities have also led to collaborations with Cat Power, PJ Harvey, and Bill Callahan among others.

                                                                                                          Anderson’s prolific output as a solo performer, her mastery of traditional folk and blues forms and her abilities to make them entirely her own has established her as one of the most exciting and forward-thinking guitarists of the last decade.

                                                                                                          White and Anderson’s considerable technical skills are used in the most inventive and unconventional manner on their debut duo recording, The Quickening. The duo’ friendship and shared explorative nature inform these warm and daring improvisations. Their remarkable performances take the listener on a journey of exuberant discovery.

                                                                                                          The idea of a collaboration developed while on the road together in 2015, Anderson playing solo and White playing with Xylouris white. The Quickening began at the Portland studio Type Foundry in late 2018, where the duo initially agreed to meet and improvise and record. Happy with the recordings, the duo headed to Mexico City and into Estudios Noviembres, a time capsule of a studio from the 70’s that had been largely closed before some young engineers took it over. The “slight disorientation” of working in less familiar environments mirrored their willingness to plunge headfirst into exploring new sonic territory together. Anderson purchased a new nylon string Ramos-Castillo guitar from a Mexican luthier just ahead of recording which leant to the spontaneity of “The Lucky” and “The Quickening”. The duo did not rehearse or perform together prior to the recording sessions; as White puts it, “it’s good to suspend disbelief at this stage of playing.”

                                                                                                          TRACK LISTING

                                                                                                          Gathering
                                                                                                          Unwritten
                                                                                                          The Lucky
                                                                                                          The Other Christmas
                                                                                                          Song
                                                                                                          Last Days
                                                                                                          Diver
                                                                                                          The Quickening
                                                                                                          Pallet
                                                                                                          18 To 1
                                                                                                          November

                                                                                                          Rose City Band

                                                                                                          Summerlong

                                                                                                            It is impossible to talk about modern psychedelic music without mentioning Ripley Johnson. As bandleader of Wooden Shjips and half of Moon Duo, Johnson has continually charted new cosmic paths that expand on the language of the genre. With Rose City Band, Johnson’s songwriting and beautiful guitar lines take center stage. While his vocal treatment would be recognizable to any Wooden Shjips fan, the sparseness of the instrumentation lays bare the beauty of his writing. Shimmering guitar lines are free to shine, buoyed by driving rhythms. New to the mix are arrangements and instruments drawn directly from classic country, resulting in songs with more than a hint of twang. Buoyant and joyous, Summerlong is a captivating listen that leaves the listener yearning for more. The record is an ode to freedom, born of a musician stepping out of all routines and whose own liberation is communicated so completely in his music. Summerlong is a record that, taken in its entirety, is an emphatic statement on the songwriting power of Ripley Johnson. Johnson’s joy in every aspect of this album is delightfully infectious.

                                                                                                            Rose City Band started purely as a recording project, with Johnson’s role mostly obscured for the self-titled debut album. Released with no promotion, in the style of private press records, it was a liberating, a focus on music without any expectations. With a chuckle, Johnson elaborates, “I always would threaten to my friends that I’m gonna start a country rock band so I can retire and just play down at the pub every Thursday night during happy hour. I love being able to tour and travel, but I also like the idea of having a local band … more of a social music experience.” Freedom from expectation and obligation gave Johnson the space to experiment. The introduction of lap steel, mandolin, and jaw harp enhance Johnson’s lean guitar work with radiant overtones, placing Summerlong more overtly within the country tradition than its predecessor. Work on the album began at Johnson’s home studio in Portland during the summer, but, interrupted by touring, was not be finished until winter. The dark isolation of winter and the pining for summer’s easier days can be felt in the album’s few quieter moments. Summerlong was mixed by John McEntire (Stereolab, Broken Social Scene, Tortoise) at his newly minted Portland Soma Studios and mastered by Amy Dragon at Telegraph Mastering, also based in Portland.

                                                                                                            The aptly named Summerlong, born of Johnson’s own fondness for the season, delivers an emotional lift—an expression akin to the joy of getting out there on a warm day, be it gathering for a BBQ, hopping onto a bike, leaping into a swimming hole, or simply reading in a park.

                                                                                                            STAFF COMMENTS

                                                                                                            Barry says: Ripley Johnson once again brings the good stuff for his second album under this moniker. Swooning guitars and hazy atmospheric ambience underpin the solid backdrop of Ripley's sweet vocal delivery and syrupy, languid melodies. It's an enchanting and evocative collection, and one that continues the (very high) reputation set by last years' eponymous debut.

                                                                                                            TRACK LISTING

                                                                                                            1. Only Lonely
                                                                                                            2. Empty Bottles
                                                                                                            3. Real Long Gone
                                                                                                            4. Floating Out
                                                                                                            5. Morning Light
                                                                                                            6. Reno Shuffle
                                                                                                            7. Wee Hours >
                                                                                                            8. Wildflowers

                                                                                                            Eye Flys

                                                                                                            Tub Of Lard

                                                                                                              In just over a year since their initial inception, Eye Flys have established themselves as a force beyond reckoning. Their debut full-length ‘Tub of Lard’ is stunningly potency full of piss and vinegar, scientific in its ability to pulverize everything in its path. Due in part to the considerable pedigree of the band’s line- up (including members of Full of Hell, Backslider, Triac), the East Coast-based quartet chew through steel-barbed riffs and off-kilter rhythms with exponential force. Their 2019 debut EP ‘Context’ set an early precedent for just how lean and ruthless they can be. On ‘Tub of Lard’, Eye Flys launch that potential into 10 songs of maximum impact that find both raw power and subtlety in their simplicity.

                                                                                                              For fans of Unsane, Cherubs, The Melvins.

                                                                                                              TRACK LISTING

                                                                                                              Tubba Lard
                                                                                                              Guillotine
                                                                                                              Predator And Prey
                                                                                                              Not Ready For Tomorrow
                                                                                                              Reality Tunnel
                                                                                                              Nice Guy
                                                                                                              Chapel Perilous
                                                                                                              Extraterrestrial Memoradum
                                                                                                              BLS
                                                                                                              Perception Is Gamble

                                                                                                              Arbouretum

                                                                                                              Let It All In

                                                                                                                Arbouretum’s mystic folk-rock uses English folk, country blues, Americana and 70s psychedelia as touchpoints in their singular and distinctive sound and they’ve perfected the craft of storytelling, using a delicate interplay of melodies and prosaic lyrics.‘Let It All’ In is their most accomplished and evocative album yet. Guitarist and vocalist Dave Heumann’s melodies and solos remain a central focus, bolstered by the hypnotic rhythms of bassist Corey Allender and drummer Brian Carey, enhanced by Matthew Pierce’s substantial yet understated keyboard figures. Each song a vivid scene or tale; Heumann’s deep sense of spirituality and command of storytelling through myth and metaphor transports the listener to another world and time. Features guest performances from Mike Kuhl, Hans Chew and Dave

                                                                                                                TRACK LISTING

                                                                                                                1. How Deep It Goes
                                                                                                                2. A Prism In Reverse
                                                                                                                3. No Sanctuary Blues
                                                                                                                4. Night Theme
                                                                                                                5. Headwaters II
                                                                                                                6. Buffeted By Wind
                                                                                                                7. Let It All In
                                                                                                                8. High Water Song

                                                                                                                Sightless Pit

                                                                                                                Grave Of A Dog

                                                                                                                  Sightless Pit may be a new name in heavy music but its members are some of the most groundbreaking artist of the genre. Lee Buford (The Body), Kristin Hayter (Lingua Ignota) and Dylan Walker (Full Of Hell) recorded their debut ‘Grave Of A Dog’ at Machines With Magnets with Seth Manchester (The Body, Lightning Bolt). Fans will recognize immediately Buford’s singular percussion and production, Walker’s venomous howl and Hayter’s virtuosic voice. The three share a bleak vision of existence and a willingness to follow each other into the musical abyss. Sightless Pit are a group of expansive ideas, extensive experience working together and shared vision. Over the course of the eight tracks the trio reflect the extremes and emotional weight of their world view through elegiac dirges, driving beats and explosive crescendos. Together, three strong voices unite to create a work of remarkable clarity of expression of enormous sorrow, futility and, most of all, beauty.

                                                                                                                  TRACK LISTING

                                                                                                                  Kingscorpse
                                                                                                                  Immersion Dispersal
                                                                                                                  The Ocean Of Mercy
                                                                                                                  Violent Rain
                                                                                                                  Drunk On Marrow
                                                                                                                  Miles Of Chain
                                                                                                                  Whom The Devil Long
                                                                                                                  Sought To Strangle
                                                                                                                  Love Is Dead, All Love Is
                                                                                                                  Dead

                                                                                                                  OOIOO

                                                                                                                  Nijimusi

                                                                                                                    OOIOO is a name that should be familiar to anyone who’s waded into the world of rock - and so should their leader YoshimiO’s. Percussionist and founding member for the Boredoms and Saicobab and a longtime collaborator of Kim Gordon (of Sonic Youth), Susie Ibarra and Robert Lowe, among others.

                                                                                                                    It’s no surprise that each OOIOO record has been as energizing and enthralling as the last, which might be the most consistent thing about their eight records - each focus on and offer listeners something new.

                                                                                                                    ‘Nijimusi’ was mainly recorded using a conventional rock ensemble of two guitars, bass and drums but often feels more than that, the phrasing and rhythms becoming something new slowly and then all at once. It’s rock but hard to pin down exactly; psychedelic, shimmering distortion, shouts and tight instrumentation giving way to a controlled burn of instrumental breakdowns.

                                                                                                                    Founded in 1995, OOIOO continue to wow. After six years without releasing new music internationally they’ve created a new album that goes back to the roots of being a four-piece band.

                                                                                                                    OOIOO’s members came together as musicians who move freely between the audible and inaudible, rhythm and non-rhythm, noise and silence. ‘Nijimusi’ can be considered music but it is also a work of art that stimulates the sense of touch and smell, while being atmospheric and ethereal at the same time.

                                                                                                                    “A monument to the endless possibilities afforded by an improvisational spirit, but more importantly it highlights Yoshimi and her band’s tireless and ever-evolving voice.” - Pitchfork

                                                                                                                    “In the seemingly impenetrable, fantastic murkiness of Japanese experimental psych pop, more often than not, Yoshimi has been a beacon.” - FADER (cover story) 



                                                                                                                    TRACK LISTING

                                                                                                                    Nijimusi
                                                                                                                    Nijimu
                                                                                                                    Jibun
                                                                                                                    Tisou
                                                                                                                    Asozan5
                                                                                                                    Bulun
                                                                                                                    Walk For “345” Minutes, while Saying “Ah Yeah!” with A “Mountain Book” in One Hand, Until A shower Of Light Pours down
                                                                                                                    Kawasemi Ah

                                                                                                                    Lightning Bolt

                                                                                                                    Sonic Citadel

                                                                                                                      For their seventh full length, ‘Sonic Citadel’, Brians Gibson and Chippendale have done the daring, stripping away some of the distortion mask to reveal the naked pop forms as never before.

                                                                                                                      Throughout their 25-year history Lightning Bolt have toured the world, performing at Coachella, ATP, Festivals, Pitchfork Music Festival, Austin Psych Fest and FYF Fest, to name a few.

                                                                                                                      Brian Chippendale has collaborated with Björk, Boredoms, Andrew W.K. and Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry. Brian’s comics are published with Drawn & Quarterly and Picturebox. Brian is also in Black Pus.

                                                                                                                      Brian Gibson’s game Thumper, produced by his own company Drool, was awarded the 2019 Apple Design Award, was on Gamespot, Hardcore Gamer and IDN’s Best Of 2016 lists and won countless other awards.

                                                                                                                      STAFF COMMENTS

                                                                                                                      Barry says: With the grinding guitars and machinated percussive blasts, Lightning Bolt have always proved an intimating presence. 'Sonic Citadel' sees them embracing more of the rapid-fire punk aesthetic than their more dirgy stoner sludge, and is all the better for the glimmers of melody and old-school thrash-punk fire within.

                                                                                                                      TRACK LISTING

                                                                                                                      Blow To The Head
                                                                                                                      USA Is A Psycho
                                                                                                                      Air Conditioning
                                                                                                                      Hüsker Dön’t
                                                                                                                      Big Banger
                                                                                                                      Halloween 3
                                                                                                                      Don Henley In The Park
                                                                                                                      Tom Thump
                                                                                                                      Bouncy House
                                                                                                                      All Insane
                                                                                                                      Van Halen 2049

                                                                                                                      Eye Flys

                                                                                                                      Context

                                                                                                                        Eye Flys brings together the minds of four musicians known for their work in some of the most extreme, blistering bands today. The quartet was initially started by Full Of Hell guitarist Spencer Hazard and former Backslider drummer Patrick Forrest as an outlet to play aggressive music with equal intensity that would contrast the breakneck speeds of their other projects. After asking Backslider bassist Jake Smith to join on guitar and vocals and Triac’s Kevin Bernsten on bass, Eye Flys’ potential for crafting impossibly heavy songs was solidified.

                                                                                                                        Eye Flys’ debut ‘Context’ was written and recorded just a few short months from the band’s inception, drawing on each members’ considerable experience and driven by the excitement of playing in uncharted territory. This is an album of commanding, lean noise rock absolutely brimming with vitriol.

                                                                                                                        The direct, raw energy of Eye Flys’ music is simultaneously menacing and intoxicating. Drawing immediate comparisons to bands like Unsane, Cherubs and The Melvins (where they take their name), the quartet’s bludgeoning sound is underpinned by a razor sharp edge. Smith’s vicious lyrics are paralleled by his unrelenting barks with passages like the opening of ‘Weaponize’ literally spat through grinding teeth. Their taut, muscular riffing and pummelling drums lay atop a foundation of deceptively intricate arrangements.

                                                                                                                        Eye Flys’ ‘Context’ stands as a testament to its members’ abilities to produce music that is as ferocious as it is addictive. In just six songs Eye Flys not only prove their place among their peers but stand out as a force of sheer, immovable power.

                                                                                                                        TRACK LISTING

                                                                                                                        Stems
                                                                                                                        Dosed
                                                                                                                        Crushing Of The Human
                                                                                                                        Spirit
                                                                                                                        Weaponize
                                                                                                                        The Triumph Of Hagbard Celine
                                                                                                                        Fuckface

                                                                                                                        Umberto

                                                                                                                        Helpless Spectator

                                                                                                                          Umberto is an artist whose work is distinctly cinematic. Composer Matt Hill’s performances and delicate compositions taken together have the cumulative ability to surprise. Hill, whose Umberto moniker is an homage to director Umberto Lenzi, is an experienced and active film composer, most recently scoring the film ‘All That We Destroy’. In addition to film and commercial work, Umberto has released a number of lauded solo recordings.

                                                                                                                          On Umberto’s Thrill Jockey debut ‘Helpless Spectator’, his haunting music is otherworldly and affecting alike, leaving the listener with an unsettling and profound air of mystery. Umberto’s early recordings harken back to classic synth- driven sci-fi and horror soundtracks. ‘Helpless Spectator’ uses synthesizers in an entirely different manner. Cold, looming monolith tones are now warm, softer pads that envelope the listener while guitar, cello, banjo and pedal steel add movement and light. Still, Hill unsettles with his arrangements and melodic phrasing. Unexpected shifts and turns in even the most tender movements of ‘Helpless Spectator’ are inflected with a contemplative melancholy and fragility.

                                                                                                                          Umberto makes masterful use of varied textures throughout the album, blending supernatural effects and grounded instruments to create distinct atmospheres. ‘Helpless Spectator’ is inquisitive and moving in equal measure, an album of sombre elegance and delicate arrangements whose cumulative effect of unease is entirely unexpected.

                                                                                                                          TRACK LISTING

                                                                                                                          Hidden Thoughts
                                                                                                                          Leafless Tree
                                                                                                                          Spontaneous Possession
                                                                                                                          Reflection
                                                                                                                          The Higher Room
                                                                                                                          Sadness, Happiness,
                                                                                                                          Disgust, And Surprise
                                                                                                                          Absent Images
                                                                                                                          Arroyo

                                                                                                                          The incomparable duo, Matmos, have done it again! Their new album, Plastic Anniversary, was created using only plastic. Highlighting the crises of convenience, the Duo make music from our refuse. True to form, the band have assembled a promiscuous array of examples of this sturdy-yet-ersatz family of materials: Dominos, Styrofoam coolers, police riot shields, polyethylene waste containers, PVC panpipes, pinpricks of bubble wrap, pills, silicone gel breast implants and most horrifically synthetic human fat. Where did this idea come from? Drew Daniels and M.C, Schmidts own “plastic” anniversary as a couple.

                                                                                                                          Matmos glide from the tongue-in-cheek fun of “Breaking Bread” (literally smashing Bread LPs) to Cronenbergian body-horror of “Interior with Billiard Balls & Synthetic Fat.” The album is playful and poppy while conveying a very serious message and on the darker implications of ignoring the havoc we are imposing on the earth all for the sake of convienience

                                                                                                                          A super special limited edition set will come with a sculptural album, embedded with plastic bottles, that while is the actual album, is rendered viruatlly unplayable by the pastic floating within. This edition also includes the album on a exclusive multi color mashup vinyl, a t-shirt, and a bonus track, all exclusive to the box. All proceeds from this special edition will benefit The Ocean Cleanup.

                                                                                                                          TRACK LISTING

                                                                                                                          1. Breaking Bread
                                                                                                                          2. The Crying Pill
                                                                                                                          3. Interior With Billiard Balls & Synthetic Fat
                                                                                                                          4. Extending The Plastisphere To GJ237b
                                                                                                                          5. Silicone Gel Implant
                                                                                                                          6. Plastic Anniversary
                                                                                                                          7. Thermoplastic Riot Shield
                                                                                                                          8. Fanfare For Polyethylene Waste Containers
                                                                                                                          9. The Singing Tube
                                                                                                                          10. Collapse Of The Fourth Kingdom
                                                                                                                          11. Plastisphere

                                                                                                                          Oozing Wound

                                                                                                                          High Anxiety

                                                                                                                            Chicago’s Oozing Wound are a mass of contradictions: weed lovers whose music hits you with its breakneck head banging force. The band deal with nihilism, yet remain addictively fun. Their music is equal parts sludge and thrash, noise and riff-loaded rock. High Anxiety is an unabashed mocking of the madness of modern living, its chemical induced adventures and establishment absurdity, deriding the industrial complex behind established institutions such as NASA while savaging those who deny science. Oozing Wound on High Anxiety are nihilistic pied pipers making us laugh our way to the apocalypse. The album finds guitarist and vocalist Zack Weil drummer Kyle Reynolds and bassist Kevin Cribbin blending their ferocious energy, sonic experiments and blunt lyricism for a pummeling enjoyable head-banger with an irresistible sneer.

                                                                                                                            On High Anxiety, Oozing Wound’s songs have become more complex, their attacks more ferocious, and bass and guitar lines more captivating. The album was recorded in four days at Steve Albini’s Electrical Audio studio. The trio ripped through live-tracking and overdubs, leaving space to experiment with new sounds and effects. The band, having an affinity for the complexities of prog music, managed to bring prog elements to High Anxiety without sacrificing any of their songs punch. Subtle layers of saxophone, flutes and synths were blended into guitar tones, adding depth and texture without cluttering arrangements. Fist-pumping blasts of whitehot riffing become a Trojan horse for sonic weirdness. The resulting recordings are at once some of their most sonically rich, immediate, and impactful.

                                                                                                                            High Anxiety drips with a caustic vitriol that is both riotous and intoxicating

                                                                                                                            TRACK LISTING

                                                                                                                            1. Surrounded By Fucking Idiots
                                                                                                                            2. Filth Chisel
                                                                                                                            3. Tween Shitbag
                                                                                                                            4. Die On Mars
                                                                                                                            5. Birth Of A Flat Earther
                                                                                                                            6. Riding The Universe
                                                                                                                            7. Vein Ripper

                                                                                                                            Endon

                                                                                                                            Boy Meets Girl

                                                                                                                              Endon is a band as mercurial as they are ferocious. Comprised of the quintet of vocalist Taichi Nagura, guitarist Koki Miyabe, drummer Shin Yokota and electronics/noisemakers Taro Aiko and Etsuo Nagura, Endon’s music is contained chaos, bending and colliding genres into one another atop a bed of thunderous distortion, feedback, and unearthly squeals. Vocalist Taichi’s voice embodies an unreal number of personalities with wordless howls seething one moment and agonized cries the next, before desperate gasps for air. It comes as no surprise that they have been credited as the most extreme band in Tokyo.

                                                                                                                              ‘Boy Meets Girl’ was envisioned as a soundtrack to an imagined horror film about love. The core of the ensemble’s song structures are often built around Koki’s fuzz-laden guitar and Shin’s drum bombast which propel torrents of hisses and squelches from Taro and Etsuo. Taichi’s largely lyricless screams, moans and whimpers are potent messengers of the songs’ emotional heft. There lies an ecstatic, excited energy amidst the anarchic defiance Endon's music exudes. Born of the same Japanese scenes that gave rise to the likes of Merzbow and Boredoms, their sound is equally diverse and abrasive. ‘Boy Meets Girl’ demonstrates Endon’s singular faculty to produce music that is at once tortured and transcendent.

                                                                                                                              TRACK LISTING

                                                                                                                              Boy Meets Girl
                                                                                                                              Heart Shaped Brain
                                                                                                                              Born Again
                                                                                                                              Doubts As A Source
                                                                                                                              Love Amnesia
                                                                                                                              Final Acting Out
                                                                                                                              Red Shoes
                                                                                                                              Not For You

                                                                                                                              Through his output both as a sound artist and through his eclectic Dekorder record label, Black To Comm (Marc Richter) has established himself as a singular voice of new music. His Thrill Jockey debut, "Seven Horses For Seven Kings", is Richter’s most direct and visceral to date.

                                                                                                                              A relentless sonic explorer, he approaches the studio as his instrument, using sampling, analogue production and digital manipulation to sculpt audio fragments into surprising new shapes. Samples from Richter’s contemporaries like German composer Nils Frahm are bent and compounded with elements of early recorded music and medieval song, creating pieces that transcend time and genre. Richter blurs the lines between organic instrumentation and digital production to the extent that the two become inseparable.

                                                                                                                              "Seven Horses For Seven Kings" was completed during a particularly prolific period for Richter. Working on a broad range of commissions since his last album - from writing for film and theatre works to composing for art installations, apps and sleep music - generated a flurry of new ideas and influences. Extensive touring would equally come to inform a key shift in Richter’s music, simulating the raw, unpredictable energy of live performances on record. While rhythm has been largely absent from previous Black To Comm releases, here the music seems totally bound to it. The album’s breathtaking pace drives Richter’s music to new levels of intensity.

                                                                                                                              'Black To Comm is... like an abandoned museum of late-Twentieth Century instruments whose exhibits are still running at half power.' - New Yorker


                                                                                                                              STAFF COMMENTS

                                                                                                                              Barry says: Pulsing doom-laiden ambience, rickety industrial echoes and foreboding strings form the backbone to Black To Comm's most evocative and absorbing work to date. Stunning stuff.

                                                                                                                              TRACK LISTING

                                                                                                                              Asphodel Mansions
                                                                                                                              A Miracle No-Mother Child At Your Breast
                                                                                                                              Lethe
                                                                                                                              Ten Tons Of Rain In A Plastic Cup
                                                                                                                              Licking The Fig Tree Threshold
                                                                                                                              Fly On You
                                                                                                                              Double Happiness In Temporal Decoy
                                                                                                                              If Not, Not
                                                                                                                              The Deseret Alphabet
                                                                                                                              Semirechye
                                                                                                                              Rameses II
                                                                                                                              Angel Investor
                                                                                                                              The Courtesan Jigokudayu Sees Herself as A Skeleton In The Mirror Of Hell

                                                                                                                              Jack Rose

                                                                                                                              Luck In The Valley

                                                                                                                                ‘Luck In The Valley’ is the 10th and final album by Jack Rose and is the yardstick by which many contemporary acoustic guitar albums are measured. This 2018 re-issue makes this contemporary classic available again for the first time since 2010.

                                                                                                                                Jack Rose first rose to prominence with the drone/noise/folk unit Pelt. Pelt can be counted among the early influential new music underground bands such as UN, No Neck Blues Band, Charalambides, Tower Recordings and Six Organs Of Admittance. Along with the influences of John Fahey and Robbie Basho, Rose also incorporated North Indian classical, early American blues, bluegrass and minimalism into his singular style.

                                                                                                                                ‘Luck In The Valley’ came right as Rose’s influence was just beginning to take flight but was sadly his last album before his unexpected death in December of 2009. Still, his music and influence, much like his person, bold, hearty and rooted in traditional American music continues to be a source of reference for guitarists and musicians carrying traditional American music into modern times.

                                                                                                                                “Jack Rose, Versatile Master of the Guitar” - New York Times

                                                                                                                                “The energy behind ‘Luck In The Valley’ all emanates from Rose himself: you can almost see his fingers flying across his guitar strings... energy resonates from within his melodies and his songs, giving ‘Luck In The Valley’ a radiance.” - Washington Post

                                                                                                                                “It’s a big, bold work, just the way Rose was a big, bold guy - confident, honest, and forthright.” - Pitchfork

                                                                                                                                “Jack Rose is acoustic music... Without ever singing a word. Jack Rose could communicate in a way few musicians can.” - PopMatters

                                                                                                                                TRACK LISTING

                                                                                                                                Blues For Percy Danforth
                                                                                                                                Lick Mountain Ramble
                                                                                                                                Woodpiles On The Side Of The Road
                                                                                                                                When Tailgate Drops, The Bullshit Stops
                                                                                                                                Moon In The Gutter
                                                                                                                                Luck In The Valley
                                                                                                                                Saint Louis Blues
                                                                                                                                Tree In The Valley
                                                                                                                                Everybody Ought To Pray Sometime
                                                                                                                                West Coast Blues

                                                                                                                                Brendon Anderegg

                                                                                                                                June

                                                                                                                                  The music of Brendon Anderegg is a hall of mirrors, multi-layered and self-obscuring. Largely filtered through Mountains - his pioneering electronic project with Koen Holtkamp - Anderegg emerged as a solo artist in the late 90s. He returns now with ‘June’, a vinyl-exclusive release on Thrill Jockey.

                                                                                                                                  The music on ‘June’ is a complex network of layers, paradoxically a calm and soothing listen. Collapsing history into its own contemporary sonic movements, Andregg’s methodically created work falls in the lineage of electronic pioneers like Bernard Parmegiani and early ambient projects like Tangerine Dream, Popul Vuh and Cluster and puts his solo work in the realm of New Age figures like Michael Stearns and JD Emmanuel. ‘June’ is a singularly beautiful and challenging work that marks the long overdue re-emergence of Brendon Anderegg as a solo voice.

                                                                                                                                  Brendon Anderegg is a Brooklyn-based, Emmynominated composer with clients ranging from Pitchfork to ESPN.

                                                                                                                                  Available only on vinyl, ‘June’ is pressed on virgin vinyl and includes a free digital download coupon.

                                                                                                                                  OOIOO

                                                                                                                                  Gold & Green

                                                                                                                                    OOIOO’s seminal album ‘Gold & Green’ is finally widely released on vinyl for the first time. Presented as a deluxe double LP in a gatefold jacket with spot metallic ink and full colour inner sleeves featuring glorious artwork. Pressed on virgin vinyl with free digital download coupon.

                                                                                                                                    OOIOO have always created a musical language all their own. Under the leadership of Yoshimi, a founding member of Boredoms, the group have recorded six albums that have subverted expectations and warped perceptions of what constitutes pop and experimental music.

                                                                                                                                    ‘Gold & Green’ features guest appearances from Sean Lennon, Seiichi Yamamoto (Boredoms) and Yuka Honda (Cibo Matto).

                                                                                                                                    OOIOO’s Yoshimi is to release an exhilarating new album this Autumn with her group SAICOBAB, featuring sitarist Yoshida Daikiti, bassist Akita Goldman and percussionist Hama.

                                                                                                                                    “‘Challenging’ music doesn’t get more fun than this.” - NPR Music

                                                                                                                                    “OOIOO traffic in a crafty kind of post-punk primitivism… the synths, power chords, polyrhythmic drumming and wordless chants building into an irresistible, throbbing whole” - The Wire

                                                                                                                                    “An extraordinary band.” - New York Times

                                                                                                                                    “OOIOO is tight, lithe and anything but robotic.” - Washington Post

                                                                                                                                    TRACK LISTING

                                                                                                                                    Moss Trumpeter
                                                                                                                                    Á

                                                                                                                                    Oozing Wound are a thrash trio featuring veterans of Chicago’s underground scene who have played with High On Fire, The Body, Ash Borer, Wolf Eyes, Nazoranai and Black Pus, among many others.

                                                                                                                                    A horrifying concoction of apathy and malaise wrapped in a delectable sheet of hatred drowned in a bath of contempt.

                                                                                                                                    “Oozing Wound are the Chicago trio ripping up the rule book of thrash.” - The Guardian

                                                                                                                                    “Chicago trio Oozing Wound play loud, brash and snotty crossover thrash with a penchant for the kind of big, obnoxious riffs that can’t fail to plaster a huge grin across your face.” - Terrorizer

                                                                                                                                    “Their songs barrel along like Iron Lung bitch-slapping the first Megadeth album or meaty Testament-like guitar gallops infused with an air of frenetic power violence irreverence.” - Metal Hammer

                                                                                                                                    “A whole sweaty, stinking ruck of basement smashing fun” - The Quietus

                                                                                                                                    “So refreshingly anti-bullshit are Oozing Wound that they could conceivably turn out to be the Nirvana of thrash.” - Noisey

                                                                                                                                    TRACK LISTING

                                                                                                                                    Rambo 5 (Pre-Emptive Strike)
                                                                                                                                    Diver
                                                                                                                                    Deep Space
                                                                                                                                    Mercury In Retrograde Virus
                                                                                                                                    Weather Tamer
                                                                                                                                    Everything Sucks, And My Life Is A Lie
                                                                                                                                    Eruptor
                                                                                                                                    Tachycardia
                                                                                                                                    You Owe Me, Iommi
                                                                                                                                    Sky Creep

                                                                                                                                    Entrance

                                                                                                                                    Promises

                                                                                                                                      ‘Promises’ is Entrance’s debut for Thrill Jockey Records, featuring four astonishingly unforgettable new songs. ‘Promises’ is the introduction to a fresh chapter in the story of Entrance.

                                                                                                                                      Entrance is the multi-talented singer-songwriter Guy Blakeslee. An artist’s artist, Entrance is a musician with the blues running through his veins. His newest creations add up to a set of rich, cinematic songs featuring expansive orchestration and imaginative storytelling, as unique to himself as they are, at times, evocative of Townes Van Zandt, Scott Walker and Gene Clark.

                                                                                                                                      Among his fans, he counts the likes of Spike Jonze, who featured Entrance’s interpretation of Skip James’ ‘I’m So Glad’ in the film ‘Her’. Players on the EP include Paz Lenchantin (Pixies) and Emily Kokal (Warpaint).


                                                                                                                                      TRACK LISTING

                                                                                                                                      Promises
                                                                                                                                      Answer Within
                                                                                                                                      Waking Up
                                                                                                                                      Make Believe

                                                                                                                                      Grumbling Fur are the UK based duo of Alexander Tucker and Daniel O’Sullivan.

                                                                                                                                      Alexander Tucker’s solo releases on Thrill Jockey include ‘Third Mouth’ and ‘Dorwytch’. A prolific artist, his latest graphic novel, the acclaimed ‘World In The Force Field’, is out now via Breakdown Press.

                                                                                                                                      Daniel O’Sullivan has been at the core of the wildly successful This Heat reconstitution and with Massimo Pupillo of Zu recently realised Laniakea. As part of Norwegian experimental collective Ulver he released the ‘ATGCLVLSSCAP’ album and later this year there’ll be a new album from Æthenor, his ongoing project with Steve Noble and Stephen O’Malley of Sunn O))).

                                                                                                                                      ‘Furfour’ is the band’s second release on Thrill Jockey, with previous releases on Aurora Borealis and Latitudes alongside their last highly successful output on The Quietus Phonographic Corporation.

                                                                                                                                      On ‘Furfour’, Grumbling Fur are joined by This Heat’s Charles Bullen and Isobel Sollenberger from Bardo Pond. The band have also recently collaborated with Charlemagne Palestine.

                                                                                                                                      ‘Furfour’ gradually emerged over three years of writing and recording at 147 Tower Gardens, the mystical, ivy-shrouded house that Tucker and O’Sullivan once called home.

                                                                                                                                      The band’s music is shaped all this are their long-standing shared musical affections, encompassing orchestrated poptones, collage, dub and beatmaking as well as experimental and drone elements - touchtones might include Faust, Arthur Russell, Penguin Cafe Orchestra, Moondog, Michael Nyman, Gate, Syd Barrett, Stereolab, Vibracathedral Orchestra, Ashtray Navigations, CC Hennix and Madlib.

                                                                                                                                      TRACK LISTING

                                                                                                                                      Strange The Friends
                                                                                                                                      Acid Ali Khan
                                                                                                                                      Heavy Days
                                                                                                                                      Molten Familiar
                                                                                                                                      Milky Light
                                                                                                                                      Pyewacket’s Palace
                                                                                                                                      Perfect Reader
                                                                                                                                      Silent Plans / Black Egg
                                                                                                                                      Golden Simon
                                                                                                                                      Sapien Sapiens
                                                                                                                                      Come Down And Watch Them
                                                                                                                                      Suneaters

                                                                                                                                      Jan St. Werner, the well-respected artist and musician known for his solo compositions, his work with Mouse On Mars and art pieces, has created a beautifully rhythmic, instantly gripping work with his new album ‘Felder’.

                                                                                                                                      Werner has created sounds that are listenable and inviting, complex but approachable and, mostly, completely unidentifiable. ‘Felder’ means ‘fields’ in German and here the word refers to conceptual frameworks and subjects and sound fields. Werner mixes organic sounds from French horns and cellos seamlessly with synthesized notes created with one-of-a-kind programs. He builds layers of sound with differing cadences upon one another, creating intricate patterns that connect with each other structurally, rhythmically, semantically and historically. Suggestions of jazz, industrial music, drone and even folk float in and out of the electronic compositions in a seemingly effortless manner; paradoxically, ‘Felder’ was meticulously constructed over the course of four years.

                                                                                                                                      “Music that makes you hyper-aware of your place in relation to it and something that removes you from thinking about yourself altogether” - Pitchfork

                                                                                                                                      Werner has collaborated with Markus Popp (Oval), Mark E Smith (The Fall), Damo Suzuki (Can), the scientist / writer Oswald Wiener and the theorist Siegfried Zielinksi on pieces that were premiered at the Chicago Symphony, Phiharmonie Cologne, Barbican London, Radialsystem Berlin, HAU Berlin, Akademie der Kunste Berlin and the German public radio stations WDR, SWR, BR, and DLF. Werner has also shown works at Kunstverein Munich, Neue Nationalgalerie Berlin, Museum Abteiberg Monchengladbach, Cubitt Gallery London, Kunsthalle Dusseldorf and Cornerhouse Manchester.

                                                                                                                                      In addition Werner has worked with the visual artist Rosa Barba on pieces premiered at London’s Tate Modern, the MIT List Visual Arts Center and the Reina Sofia in Madrid.

                                                                                                                                      TRACK LISTING

                                                                                                                                      Beardman
                                                                                                                                      Kroque AF
                                                                                                                                      Osho
                                                                                                                                      Foggy Esor Pt. 1
                                                                                                                                      The Somewhere That Is Moving
                                                                                                                                      Slipped Through Heaven
                                                                                                                                      The Abstract Pit
                                                                                                                                      Foggy Esor Pt. 2
                                                                                                                                      Singoth
                                                                                                                                      Rain Deer

                                                                                                                                      Tortoise

                                                                                                                                      Beacons Of Ancestorship

                                                                                                                                        "Beacons Of Ancestorship" is Tortoise's sixth full-length album, and their first release of new material in five years, since 2004's "It's All Around You". A characteristic Tortoise album is one that traverses an encyclopaedia of styles and reference points, a document of where musical intersections and dialogue are occurring at a given moment in time. "Beacons Of Ancestorship" is no different, with nods to techno, punk, electro, lo-fi noise, cut-up beats, heavily processed synths, and mournful, elegiac dirges. We see these ideas working out in compositions like "High Class Slim Came Floatin' In", an eight-minute track which playfully references the world of ecstatic rave and dance culture with a curiously ambivalent, multi-part suite overlaid with robotic, machine-sounding melodies that stop and start in several different time signatures before the song's ultimate resolution; and again in "Yinxianghechengqi", which begins as a straightforward uptempo math-rocker before steadily accelerating into a wall of fuzzy atonal sqwonk.

                                                                                                                                        Tracklisting
                                                                                                                                        1. High Class Slim Came Floatin' In
                                                                                                                                        2. Prepare Your Coffin
                                                                                                                                        3. Northern Something
                                                                                                                                        4. Gigantes
                                                                                                                                        5. Penumbra
                                                                                                                                        6. Yinxianghechengqi
                                                                                                                                        7. Fall of Seven Diamonds Plus One
                                                                                                                                        8. Minors
                                                                                                                                        9. Monument Six One Thousand
                                                                                                                                        10. De Chelly
                                                                                                                                        11. Charteroak Foundation

                                                                                                                                        Revered Chicago-based instrumental group Tortoise, comprised of Dan Bitney, John Herndon, Doug McCombs, John McEntire and Jeff Parker, have spent 25 years making music that defies description. While the quintet have nodded to dub, rock, jazz, electronica and minimalism throughout their acclaimed and influential six-album discography, the resulting sounds have always been distinctly their own.

                                                                                                                                        It’s a fact that remains true on the hotly anticipated forthcoming new album ‘The Catastrophist’ (Thrill Jockey) and Tortoise’s first studio album in nearly seven years.

                                                                                                                                        Recorded at McEntire’s famed Soma Studios, it’s an album where moody, synth-swept jams like the opening title track cosy up next to hypnotic, bassand- beat missives like ‘Shake Hands With Danger’ and a fantastic cover of David Essex’s 1973 hit song ‘Rock On’ sung by U.S. Maple’s Todd Rittmann. Throughout, the songs on ‘The Catastrophist’ transcend expectations as often as they delight the listen’s eardrums.

                                                                                                                                        ‘Rock On’ isn’t the only vocal moment on the album. Yo La Tengo’s Georgia Hubley distinctive tones are on the bittersweet classic soul/R&B vibe ballad ‘Yonder Blue’. this also marks the first time a Tortoise album will feature a guest vocalist singing original lyrics.

                                                                                                                                        ‘Gesceap’, the first track premiered from ‘The Catastrophist’, is a stunning seven-minute long, minimalist rhythmic piece, morphing from two gently intersecting synth lines into a pounding, frenzied full-band finish.

                                                                                                                                        There’s a deeply intuitive interplay between the group that comes only from two decades of experimentation, revision and improvisation. At a time when our minds are constantly bombarded by myriad distractions, ‘The Catastrophist’ reminds us that there’s something much greater out there. All we have to do is listen.

                                                                                                                                        TRACK LISTING

                                                                                                                                        The Catastrophist
                                                                                                                                        Ox Duke
                                                                                                                                        Rock On
                                                                                                                                        Gopher Island
                                                                                                                                        Shake Hands With Danger
                                                                                                                                        The Clearing Fills
                                                                                                                                        Gesceap
                                                                                                                                        Hot Coffee
                                                                                                                                        Yonder Blue
                                                                                                                                        Tesseract
                                                                                                                                        At Odds With Logic

                                                                                                                                        Dan Friel creates intense, colourful and intricate instrumentals that, for all their complexity, are melodic pop songs. Equally at home in the DIY scene and the contemporary art world, Friel has been at the forefront of a movement of musicians who create dance music with a clear affinity for the extremes of noise and metal, eschewing the traditional dance clubs and adhering to the ethics of the underground.

                                                                                                                                        On his second Thrill Jockey album ‘Life’, Friel uses his surprisingly small arsenal of gear to distort and manoeuvre his beloved Yamaha Portasound into an expansive sound that is incredibly varied in tone and texture. This toy keyboard, his first instrument, is manipulated beyond recognition to create songs that are frenzied and epic.

                                                                                                                                        ‘Life’ also has moments that are incredibly sweet, idyllic, and fragile - sentiments that make perfect sense coming from a new father whose instrument of choice is his childhood keyboard.

                                                                                                                                        All throughout ‘Life’, Friel exploits his intentionally simple set-up to ever surprising effect, using simple electronics to mirror the sounds of guitars, drums and harmonicas. It is an irresistible and genrebending collection of underground anthems.

                                                                                                                                        ‘Life’ was written and recorded by Friel at his home studios in Brooklyn and was mixed by Jonathan Schenke (Parquet Courts, Liturgy).

                                                                                                                                        ‘Life’ is Friel’s sophomore Thrill Jockey release following ‘Total Folklore’.

                                                                                                                                        “Punchy instrumentals instilled with the raw energy of punk” - Pitchfork

                                                                                                                                        “Full of technicolor chirp, sugar-rush whoosh, and a bucket of adrenaline” - Stereogum

                                                                                                                                        “A merry onslaught” - New York Times

                                                                                                                                        “It’s pretty much bottled raw power” - Tom Ravenscroft, BBC

                                                                                                                                        “Fucking great” - Kurt Braunohler

                                                                                                                                        TRACK LISTING

                                                                                                                                        Lullaby (For Wolf)
                                                                                                                                        Cirrus
                                                                                                                                        Rattler
                                                                                                                                        Lungs
                                                                                                                                        Sleep Deprivation
                                                                                                                                        Life (Pt. 1)
                                                                                                                                        Jamie (Luvver)
                                                                                                                                        Bender
                                                                                                                                        Theme
                                                                                                                                        Life (Pt. 2)

                                                                                                                                        Dommengang

                                                                                                                                        Everybody's Boogie

                                                                                                                                          Dommengang are a Brooklyn-via-Seattle rock trio fronted by Pacific Northwest psych mainstay Sig Wilson (Holy Sons, Castanets, Scout Niblett) and Brooklyn musicians Brian Markham and Adam Bulgasem (currently members of Holy Sons’ live band).

                                                                                                                                          While the trio’s affection for electric blues and proto-punk bombast is clear, their music abandons traditional song structures and replaces their recognizable tropes with progressive frameworks. The band’s debut, ‘Everybody’s Boogie’, pivots between gloriously inventive riffs and fuzzed-out experimentation, a combination so potent that the listener hardly notices that they rarely sing.

                                                                                                                                          ‘Everybody’s Boogie’ was recorded live in the studio in Greenpoint, Brooklyn with minimal overdubs.

                                                                                                                                          Recommended for fans of Pontiak, Endless Boogie, Earthless and Goat

                                                                                                                                          TRACK LISTING

                                                                                                                                          Everybody’s Boogie
                                                                                                                                          Hats Off To Magic
                                                                                                                                          Slow Hat
                                                                                                                                          Her Blues
                                                                                                                                          Wild In The Street Blues
                                                                                                                                          Extra Slim Boogie
                                                                                                                                          Burning Off The Years
                                                                                                                                          Have Luck Will Travel
                                                                                                                                          CC
                                                                                                                                          Lost My Way

                                                                                                                                          White Hills

                                                                                                                                          Glitter Glamour Atrocity

                                                                                                                                            'Glitter Glamour Atrocity' is a snapshot of the band in the midst of an incredible burst of creativity, and was recorded during the same sessions that produced 'Heads On Fire' and 'Abstractions & Mutations'. Sonically, it is radically different from anything else coming out of the New York underground at the time, and it set the template for the singular concoction of heavy psychedelic music, krautrock, and a worship of pure sound they have explored in different variations ever since.

                                                                                                                                            Throughout the album the band explores themes of greed, misinformation, war, hypocrisy and their outcomes within the world’s political and economic systems, presenting these weighty topics with the same air of mystic understanding that underpins their music. Glitter Glamour Atrocity includes the song “Under Skin Or By Name,” the longest running staple in the band’s live set, which the band performed in the acclaimed film Only Lovers Left Alive at the request of director Jim Jarmusch. It is one of only two performances in the movie, which is enamored with the music making process and record collector culture.

                                                                                                                                            Following the mood-setting intro track and the meditative bombast of “Under Skin or By Name,” WHITE HILLS settle into the sparse groove of “Spirit of Exile,” an expression of a desire to live apart from a culture that one does not fit into. These songs glow with the burning vitality and passion of free thinkers trapped in the waning years of the Bush administration. Those sentiments are perhaps most compellingly expressed on “Love Serve Remember,” a warped, surreal vision of life after 9/11 seen through the eyes of someone who witnessed the event first-hand, interspersed with a brilliantly edited speech by Bush himself in which he admits “I was a threat to the United States.”

                                                                                                                                            Glitter Glamour Atrocity was recorded with the first iteration of the trio line-up with Dave W on vocals, guitar, synthesizers, and sound collage, Ego Sensation on bass and vocals, and Bob Bellomo on drums. It was recorded at Bellomo’s studio in Passaic, NJ, and produced by Dave W.

                                                                                                                                            TRACK LISTING

                                                                                                                                            01. Air Waves
                                                                                                                                            02. Under Skin Or By Name
                                                                                                                                            03. Spirit Of Exile
                                                                                                                                            04. Distance
                                                                                                                                            05. Somewhere Along The Way
                                                                                                                                            06. Long Serve Remember
                                                                                                                                            07. Passage
                                                                                                                                            08. Glitter Glamour Atrocity

                                                                                                                                            The Soft Pink Truth is the solo alter ego of Drew Daniel, one half of celebrated Baltimore-based electronic duo Matmos.

                                                                                                                                            After a decade of silence in which Daniel concentrated on Matmos and becoming a Shakespeare professor, The Soft Pink Truth is set to release ‘Why Do The Heathen Rage?’, whose subtitle ‘Electronic Profanations Of Black Metal Classics’ reveals its bizarre agenda as an unrequited love letter to a justly divisive genre.

                                                                                                                                            A gleeful queer travesty of black metal’s undying obsession with kvlt authenticity, ‘Why Do The Heathen Rage?’ is also a formally precise homage executed with a scholar’s obsession. With the guitar chord transcription assistance of Owen Gardner (Teeth Mountain, Horse Lords) and a coven of guest vocalists including Antony Hegarty (Antony And The Johnsons), Terence Hannum (Locrian), Jenn Wasner (Wye Oak) and M.C. Schmidt (Matmos), Daniel meticulously transposes the riffs, structures and patterns of black metal chestnuts and deep cuts by Darkthrone, Venom, Mayhem, Sarcofago, Beherit and more into oddly hybrid new forms. Cruising camp absurdity by forcing a sticky tryst between the two mutually incongruous early 90s subcultures of rave and black metal, the results are bracingly strange on first listen but curiously addictive as the album sinks in.

                                                                                                                                            TRACK LISTING

                                                                                                                                            Invocation For Strength
                                                                                                                                            Black Metal
                                                                                                                                            Sadomatic Rites
                                                                                                                                            Ready To Fuck
                                                                                                                                            Satanic Black Devotion
                                                                                                                                            Beholding The Throne Of Might
                                                                                                                                            Let There Be Ebola Frost
                                                                                                                                            Buried By Time And Dust
                                                                                                                                            Maniac
                                                                                                                                            Grim And Frostbitten Gay Bar

                                                                                                                                            Glenn Jones

                                                                                                                                            Welcomed Wherever I Go

                                                                                                                                              THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2014 EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

                                                                                                                                              Brand new 16 minute 12“ EP from Glenn Jones pressed on virgin vinyl and packaged in a full colour LP jacket with free download coupon.

                                                                                                                                              Limited to only 1,000 worldwide.

                                                                                                                                              All exclusive, never before released material.

                                                                                                                                              Limited to 120 copies for the UK and Ireland.

                                                                                                                                              TRACK LISTING

                                                                                                                                              Medley : Island III / Against My Ruin
                                                                                                                                              From A Forgotten Session
                                                                                                                                              The Orca Grande Cement Factory At Victorville (with Cian Nugent)

                                                                                                                                              A Minor Forest

                                                                                                                                              Flemish Altruism / Inindependence

                                                                                                                                                THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2014 EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

                                                                                                                                                Classic albums from the early days of Thrill Jockey.

                                                                                                                                                Originally released in 1996/1998 - these have been out of print on vinyl for nearly a decade.

                                                                                                                                                Both albums are being re-issued and will be sold as a 4xLP set.

                                                                                                                                                ‘Flemish Altruism’ will feature new/updated artwork.

                                                                                                                                                Both will include download coupons for the first time.

                                                                                                                                                A Minor Forest recently reunited and played a very well received show in San Francisco (with a Bay Guardian cover story)

                                                                                                                                                The band will tour the US in April & May of this year.

                                                                                                                                                Limited to 60 copies for the UK and Ireland.

                                                                                                                                                TRACK LISTING

                                                                                                                                                Flemish Altruism
                                                                                                                                                ...But The Pants Stay On
                                                                                                                                                Bill's Mom Likes To Fuck
                                                                                                                                                Ed Is 50
                                                                                                                                                So Jesus Was At The Last Supper...
                                                                                                                                                Jacking Off George Lucas
                                                                                                                                                Speed For Gavin
                                                                                                                                                Perform The Critical
                                                                                                                                                Straw Transfer
                                                                                                                                                Dainty Jack And His Amazing Technicolor Cloth Jacket
                                                                                                                                                Beef Rigger
                                                                                                                                                The Loneliest Enuretic

                                                                                                                                                Inindependence
                                                                                                                                                The Dutch Fist
                                                                                                                                                Erik's Budding Romance
                                                                                                                                                Look At That Car, It's Full Of Balloons
                                                                                                                                                ... It's Salmon!
                                                                                                                                                The Smell Of Hot
                                                                                                                                                Michael Anthony
                                                                                                                                                Discoier

                                                                                                                                                D. Charles Speer & The Helix

                                                                                                                                                Doubled Exposure

                                                                                                                                                  D. Charles Speer, aka Dave Shuford, is a founding member of both Rhyton and No Neck Blues Band, and also known for his work with Enos Slaughter, The Suntanama, Egypt Is The Magick #, and Coach Fingers.

                                                                                                                                                  On ‘Doubled Exposure’ The Helix take their loose and free country rock boogie and enhance it with the blistering psych Speer explores in Rhyton, and the traditional Greek melodies delved into on the Speer solo album, ‘Arghiledes’ (also on Thrill Jockey).

                                                                                                                                                  ‘Doubled Exposure’ was recorded by Jason Meagher at the increasingly legendary Black Dirt Studios in upstate New York, where Blues Control, Expo 70, Jack Rose and Psychic Ills have also recorded.

                                                                                                                                                  The Helix band member Hans Chew (keyboards) has released solo music on Three Lobed, while Marc Orleans (pedal steel) has performed with Catherine Irwin, Steve Gunn, Meg Baird and Chris Forsyth.

                                                                                                                                                  ‘Drifter’s Temple’ is Plankton Wat (aka Dewey Mahood)’s second album for Thrill Jockey, following last year’s ‘Spirits’.

                                                                                                                                                  Mahood utilized 6 and 12 string guitars, lap steel, bass, organ, and synth to realize these richly detailed songs. ‘Drifter’s Temple’ harkens back to Mahood’s childhood in Northern California, both sonically and conceptually. A loose narrative is woven through these ten instrumental tracks, touching on the Gold Country and Mt. Shasta that populate his native countryside.

                                                                                                                                                  The album unfolds with the grace and contour of the landscape that inspired it, with fingerpicked melodies slowly growing to gigantic peaks of lysergic bliss. His guitar style is as far reaching as ever on ‘Drifter’s Temple’, which shows him seamlessly integrating his love of the Appalacian folk music of Dock Boggs and Roscoe Holcomb into the subtle Grateful Dead-isms, nods to 70s cosmic music, and overt Crazy Horse moves he has explored on recent releases.

                                                                                                                                                  ‘Drifter’s Temple’ features contributions from Dustin Dybvig (Horse Feathers and Edibles), Matt McDowell (Sagas) and John Rau (Royal Baths and Edibles).

                                                                                                                                                  Dewey Mahood was a founding member of Eternal Tapestry and has performed in Gärden Söund (with Barn Owl), Edibles, Bloodbiker, and Jackie-O Motherfucker.

                                                                                                                                                  TRACK LISTING

                                                                                                                                                  Toward The Golden City
                                                                                                                                                  Changing Winds
                                                                                                                                                  Klamath At Dusk
                                                                                                                                                  Nightfall
                                                                                                                                                  Empire Mines
                                                                                                                                                  Hash Smuggler’s Blues
                                                                                                                                                  Dance Of Lumeria
                                                                                                                                                  Western Lament
                                                                                                                                                  Bread Of Dreams
                                                                                                                                                  Siskiyou Caverns

                                                                                                                                                  Peals

                                                                                                                                                  Walking Field - Bonus 7" Edition

                                                                                                                                                    Limited deluxe LP edition (150 copies for the UK, exclusively available to independent retailers) includes a bonus 7” with two unreleased non-album tracks (‘Night Train To Tuscan’ / ‘Believers II’). The 7” is packaged in its own jacket and included with the LP.

                                                                                                                                                    Peals is a new band led by William Cashion (Future Islands) and Bruce Willen (Double Dagger), members of two of Baltimore’s most dynamic live bands.

                                                                                                                                                    The instrumental music on ‘Walking Field’ was created with acoustic and electric guitars, keyboards, tambourines, toy pianos, and other sonic tools to create a stripped-down, warm living room atmosphere.

                                                                                                                                                    The music that sprang from these sessions, simultaneously exultant and cerebral, took the duo into unexpected territory. While the emotional intensity of their other projects is on full display here, a more gentle, melancholic and often abstract expression recalls Robin Guthrie and minimalist recordings from the sonic pioneers of the 1970s German scene - all direct inspirations for Peals as the songs that would become ‘Walking Field’ took shape.

                                                                                                                                                    ‘Walking Field’ was recorded with no bass guitars or drums - all percussion sounds were generated by contact with guitars and microphones - the emphasis here is placed on texture and feeling.

                                                                                                                                                    TRACK LISTING

                                                                                                                                                    Floating Leaf
                                                                                                                                                    Blue Elvis
                                                                                                                                                    Belle Air
                                                                                                                                                    Pendelles
                                                                                                                                                    Tiptoes In The Parlor
                                                                                                                                                    Lonestar
                                                                                                                                                    Believers
                                                                                                                                                    Koan 1

                                                                                                                                                    Peals is a new band led by William Cashion (Future Islands) and Bruce Willen (Double Dagger), members of two of Baltimore’s most dynamic live bands.

                                                                                                                                                    The instrumental music on ‘Walking Field’ was created with acoustic and electric guitars, keyboards, tambourines, toy pianos, and other sonic tools to create a stripped-down, warm living room atmosphere.

                                                                                                                                                    The music that sprang from these sessions, simultaneously exultant and cerebral, took the duo into unexpected territory. While the emotional intensity of their other projects is on full display here, a more gentle, melancholic and often abstract expression recalls Robin Guthrie and minimalist recordings from the sonic pioneers of the 1970s German scene - all direct inspirations for Peals as the songs that would become ‘Walking Field’ took shape.

                                                                                                                                                    ‘Walking Field’ was recorded with no bass guitars or drums - all percussion sounds were generated by contact with guitars and microphones - the emphasis here is placed on texture and feeling.

                                                                                                                                                    TRACK LISTING

                                                                                                                                                    Floating Leaf
                                                                                                                                                    Blue Elvis
                                                                                                                                                    Belle Air
                                                                                                                                                    Pendelles
                                                                                                                                                    Tiptoes In The Parlor
                                                                                                                                                    Lonestar
                                                                                                                                                    Believers
                                                                                                                                                    Koan 1

                                                                                                                                                    Survival are a New York trio featuring Hunter Hunt-Hendrix (Liturgy), Greg Smith, and Jeff Bobula.

                                                                                                                                                    This self-titled debut was recorded by Colin Marston (Krallice, Dysrhythmia) at The Thousand Caves and mastered by Heba Kadry at Timeless Mastering.

                                                                                                                                                    ‘Survival’ is an album of dark and meditative heavy rock. Syncopated riffs, intricate rhythms and atypical time signatures create dramatic and complex melodic lines that provide a bed for chant-like lyrics. The group operate as a collective, writing lyrics, riffs and singing with one voice. The album is a unique document that harkens back to post-hardcore, Black Sabbath, Magma, Aphrodite’s Child, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Aaron Copeland, The Smashing Pumpkins, and the first wave of math rock.

                                                                                                                                                    Survival were formed out of the ashes of Birthday Boyz, whose 2007 tour of China was documented by Vice TV for an instalment of the Music World show ‘Rock Under The Red Flag’.

                                                                                                                                                    TRACK LISTING

                                                                                                                                                    Tragedy Of The Mind
                                                                                                                                                    Original Pain
                                                                                                                                                    Freedom 1
                                                                                                                                                    Second Freedom
                                                                                                                                                    Since Sun
                                                                                                                                                    Our Way
                                                                                                                                                    Freedom 3
                                                                                                                                                    Tragedy Reprise
                                                                                                                                                    Triumph Of The Good

                                                                                                                                                    Stygian Stride is the solo guise of the New York based musician Jimy SeiTang, who was a member of Psychic Ills and is currently a member of New York experimental / improve / psych trio Rhyton with Dave Shuford (D. Charles Speer & The Helix, No Neck Blues Band) and Spencer Herbst (Messages, Matta Llama). Rhyton released albums on both Thrill Jockey and Three Lobed in 2012.

                                                                                                                                                    Stygian Stride is an album of gauzy electronic music reminiscent of Gas and the classic era of Mille Plateaux and Chain Reaction, with nods to Manuel Göttsching, Tangerine Dream and Popul Vuh.

                                                                                                                                                    The album artwork was created by Arik Roper (Sleep, Sunn O))), Howlin Rain, Earth, High On Fire, Weedeater).

                                                                                                                                                    The album was recorded entirely on analogue equipment, without MIDI synching, at Black Dirt Studios by Jason Meagher (D. Charles Speer, Jack Rose, Expo 70, Blues Control).

                                                                                                                                                    TRACK LISTING

                                                                                                                                                    Celestial Stems
                                                                                                                                                    Hindsight
                                                                                                                                                    Drift
                                                                                                                                                    Taiga
                                                                                                                                                    Athanor Ascension
                                                                                                                                                    Fade Into Bolivian

                                                                                                                                                    Matmos

                                                                                                                                                    The Ganzfeld EP

                                                                                                                                                    Matmos deliver their first material for Thrill Jockey in the form of ‘The Ganzfeld EP’, which is nearly 30 minutes in length. A new full length album, ‘The Marriage Of True Minds’, is to follow in 2013.

                                                                                                                                                    The EP and the album have the same conceptual basis: Telepathy. ‘The Ganzfeld EP’ features two new Matmos tracks that are explicitly based upon psychic session material, and a throbbing minimal techno remix by RRose of the Matmos song ‘You’. Careening from widescreen electronic pop to eerie choral music, the results are eclectic, fun, and disorienting in equal measure. Matmos are one of the most prominent experimental electronic artists of the last decade. Their seven albums have been some of the most significant and acclaimed in the genre, and their high profile collaborations and shows with artists like Bjork and Kronos Quartet have given them definite exposure that extends far beyond the world of heady electronic music.

                                                                                                                                                    “Matmos are an innovative electronica duo... playing their tactile and thunderously crunchy work” - The New York Times

                                                                                                                                                    “Matmos have always heard symphonies in life’s smallest details, sampling things like thawing streams and liposuction vacuums and building busy pop tapestries out of them” – Pitchfork

                                                                                                                                                    TRACK LISTING

                                                                                                                                                    Very Large Green Triangles (Edit)
                                                                                                                                                    You (Rrose Mix)
                                                                                                                                                    Just Waves

                                                                                                                                                    White Hills newest and most energized recording to date is bursting with raw energy packed into their most concise songs to date. Fear not long time White Hills fans, there is still loads of killer guitar work and fuzzed out psychedelia on 'Frying on this Rock. The album opens with an under five minute scorcher and closes with a 15 minute track that reminds us why space rock gatekeepers like Julian Cope were very early supporters. The end result, Frying on this Rock, is an invigorating deep space rock album. An album that is at once able to channel the energy born of a collective anger into a swirling psychedelic, brutalizing musical statement that mainlines the thrill of defiance straight to the listener’s heart.

                                                                                                                                                    “...White Hills have established themselves as some of America’s foremost proponents of fuzz-driven space rock... Its latest effort H-p1 expands upon the the legacies of Hawkwind, Can, and early Tangerine Dream with synapse-frying deepspace epics” - SF Weekly; “A darkly hypnotic mix of churning guitar, distant vocals and swirling synth drones, this record conjures a riff-heavy psychedelic vibe that picks up where the Velvet Underground and Spacemen 3 left off. Far out.” - Los Angeles Times.

                                                                                                                                                    STAFF COMMENTS

                                                                                                                                                    Darryl says: More epic fuzz-psyche onslaughts from the current leaders of the pack, the White Hills. Molten guitars and a pummelling rhythm section, create a swirling wave of noise taking space rock to new dimensions.

                                                                                                                                                    TRACK LISTING

                                                                                                                                                    1. Pads Of Light
                                                                                                                                                    2. Robot Stomp
                                                                                                                                                    3. You Dream You See
                                                                                                                                                    4. Song Of Everything
                                                                                                                                                    5. I Write A Thousand Letters (Pulp On Bone)


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