Greg Freeman thrives on finding emotional catharsis and present-day resonance in the eccentric ugliness of the past.

His songs all have a palpable sense of place thanks to his urgent delivery and evocative lyricism, which mines history for character-driven tales of violence, loss, and epiphany. On his second LP 'Burnover', the Maryland-born, Burlington, Vermont-based artist uses the complicated backdrop of the Northeast to sing of grief, alienation, and the clarity that comes from opening up yourself to love.

Explosive, unsettling, and undeniable, the 10 tracks here meld energetic indie rock with an ambling twang. It's Freeman's most adventurous and personal yet, cementing him as a singular songwriting talent.

TRACK LISTING

1. Point And Shoot
2. Salesman
3. Rome, NY
4. Gallic Shrug
5. Burnover
6. Gulch
7. Curtain
8. Gone (Can Mean A Lot Of Things)
9. Sawmill
10. Wolf Pine

Nestled somewhere between primal rock'n'roll live performance and transcendent ritual, there's an unmistakable alchemy that happens when Violet Farrer (guitar, violin, vocals), Nina Winder-Lind (cello, guitar, vocals), Kate Mater (bass, vocals) and Ella Oona Russell (drums, flute, vocals) step onto a stage together.

Now, they've distilled this visceral energy into their extraordinary debut album 'The New Eve Is Rising': a lighting rod of inspiration channelled by a quartet with the ability to create something greater than the sum of their parts. 'The New Eve Is Rising' was written in Brighton and at an artistic residency at The Cornish Bank, co-produced by The New Eves and Jack Osbourne (Bingo Fury) and recorded at Rockfield Studios and Bristol's Cotham Parish Church

TRACK LISTING

1. The New Eve
2. Highway Man
3. Cow Song
4. Mid Air Glass
5. Astrolabe
6. Circles
7. Mary
8. Rivers Run Red
9. Volcano

Johnny and Robert began work on the album in the first weeks of the pandemic, wanting to make music that sang of those dangerous, disorienting spring days; when birdsong was brighter –– and the sense of bewilderment more powerful –– than any of us had known before. They drew inspiration in part from The Epic of Gilgamesh, the oldest surviving work of world literature; an epic poem from Ancient Mesopotamia that contains the earliest version of the Flood Myth. To Johnny and Robert, Gilgamesh resonated eerily with the present moment –– and it catalysed their song-writing. For Gilgamesh is a story of friendship, love, loss, grief, bad governance and good dreaming; of natural disaster and environmental crisis. It also contains the first recorded act of human destruction of the natural world: when Gilgamesh and Enkidu travel to the Sacred Cedar Wood, slay the guardian spirit of the forest, and cut down the trees with their axes, thereby bringing catastrophe upon themselves. Johnny and Robert wrote the album between March 2020 and February 2021, during a year in which we all wandered unsure of our path, lost in the cedar wood. The songs were composed in large part as a correspondence, through a back-and-forth of notebook pages, voice-recordings and WhatsApp-messages, at a time when lockdowns made meeting in person impossible. The first eight songs were recorded in an off-grid cottage deep in a Hampshire forest, with the sounds of chainsaws felling trees drifting in through the windows along with the birdsong. The result is an album at once urgent and ancient, which fuses poetry, landscape, myth and music into something unique. These are songs that ring with hope, love and sadness –– and one need not know anything about The Epic of Gilgamesh to be touched by them.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE 1
1. Ten Degrees Of Strange - Johnny Flynn
2. The World To Come - Robert Macfarlane
3. Gods And Monsters - Robert Macfarlane
4. Bonedigger - Robert Macfarlane
5. I Can’t Swim There - Robert Macfarlane

SIDE 2
1. Nether - Johnny Flynn
2. Flood In The Desert - Robert Macfarlane
3. Tree Rings - Robert Macfarlane
4. Enkidu Walked - Robert Macfarlane
5. Home And Dry - Robert Macfarlane
6. Ferryman - Robert Macfarlane 

Most acts, by their seventh decade in the biz, would have slowed to a crawl, creakily playing their past hits on the heritage circuit and releasing nothing more than the occasional Greatest Hits collection. This is not the case for Sparks, who have triumphantly returned yet again with 'MAD!' (via Transgressive Records), proving their resilience and relevance in a modern world with a fresh record and summer world tour to accompany it.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Bristling with the energy of the club, Sparks' brand new outing continues down their synth-heavy trajectory but this time amps the energy up with a more high-octane set of stomping anthems. Wonderfully wry, presented with humour and a top listen all round.

TRACK LISTING

1. Do Things My Own Way
2. JanSport Backpack
3. Hit Me, Baby
4. Running Up A Tab At The Hotel For The Fab
5. My Devotion
6. Don't Dog It
7. In Daylight
8. I-405
9. A Long Red Light
10. Drowned In A Sea Of Tears
11. A Little Bit Of Light Banter
12. Lord Have Mercy

Gengahr’s 'A Dream Outside' reissue is pressed exclusively on transparent orange vinyl as part of Transgressive’s 20th-anniversary celebrations, limited to 500 copies.

On the surface, the hazy indie that this North London four-piece command seems a million miles from anything that might prompt sleepless nights, but it’s the slowly creeping scares that leave the deepest impression. Through their smog and psych, frontman Felix Bushe’s lyricism draws upon the darkest corners of both the supernatural and the more grounded. Breakthrough track ‘Fill My Gums With Blood’, for example, is a tale of “a little boy vampire who falls for a girl” whilst ‘Powder’’s instrumentation melts around a wistful ponderingon death.

“The fantastical side of the world is more exciting to me than the mundane,” he explains. He cites early exposure to Lou Reed and David Bowie and their respective constructions of alternate worlds within their lyrics as a huge turning point - “that was the point that I realised there was more than just writing about smoking cigarettes and drinking beers,” he smiles. David Lynch and Terry Gilliam are also confessed as influences on their cinematic take on indie pop.Those musical backdrops are building a legacy of their own too, with guitarist John Victor already being framed alongside greats of the instrument like Jonny Greenwood and Graham Coxon. Indeed, it was John who solidified these school-friends’ ambition with his effortless,virtuoso guitar-work, though it was perhaps more accidental a pairing than it might seem. John studied jazz bass at university, and only metthe rest of the band when playing bass in function bands – his guitar technique is entirely self-taught. With NME declaring his on-stagephysique “octopus-like”, there’s clearly something of that aforementioned otherworldliness seeping into the members themselves, as well as their effortless talents.

TRACK LISTING

1. Dizzy Ghosts
2. She's A Witch
3. Heroine
4. Bathed In Light
5. Where I Lie
6. Dark Star
7. Embers
8. Powder
9. Fill My Gums With Blood
10. Lonely As A Shark
11. Trampoline

New album from the South African musician and creative visionary, known
for her vibrant, inimitable style and afrming lyricism.

'Full Moon' is a collection of 12 songs which displays Sanelly's unique sonic fngerprint, joyous attitude, distinctive vocals + genre-bending hits.

Recorded in multiple locations while on the road, 'Full Moon' is an introspective yet kinetic display of her versatility. "I can make any genre, I have fun creating music because I'm not limited," she says. Its club-ready beats oscillate between electronic, afro-punk, edgy-pop, kwaito and hip-hop sensibilities.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A bristling collection of dancefloor-ready beats, jagged percussive mayhem and crisp, finely produced bass. Unerringly surprising, endlessly developing electronic music that warmly embraces a whole wealth of influences while never sounding like anything else.

TRACK LISTING

1. Scrambled Eggs
2. Big Booty
3. In My Kitchen
4. To Kill A Single Girl (Tequila)
5. Do My Dance
6. Falling
7. Gwara Gwara
8. Boom
9. Sweet & Savage
10. I Love People
11. Mntanami
12. I Was The Biggest Curse

Johnny Flynn’s sixth album, and the second co-written with his friend Robert Macfarlane gathers songs that Johnny and Robert have written together since finishing their first joint album, Lost In The Cedar Wood (2021). At its heart are the oldest themes of all: death and renewal, darkness and light. The first five tracks are songs of burial, shadows and memory, while the final four are songs of awakening, light and love. The album turns around a central song, ‘The Sun Also Rises’, which stands with a foot in both dark and light.

Fuses poetry, story, landscape, history, nature and myth into a series of rich, strange songlines that criss-cross time and place, joining winter to spring, ancient to present and birth to death. As the Sun sets, so the Moon rises as its echo; as one light dies, another, altogether different light is born.

Partly recorded in an old Methodist chapel –now the home of Johnny and Rob’s friends, Cosmo and Flora Sheldrake.

Produced by Charlie Andrew (Alt-J, Marika Hackman).

BIOG
Johnny Flynn is a singer, composer, musician and actor. His musical releases to date include the studio albums A Larum (2008), Been Listening (2010), Country Mile (2013), Sillion (2017) and Lost In The Cedar Wood (2021). He has released two full live albums, Live in Washington DC (2014) and Live at the Roundhouse (2018) and various EPs and soundtracks. As well as touring the world with his band, Johnny regularly composes music for film, TV and theatre –– including work for period instruments at the Globe Theatre. Johnny’s recent acting projects include Hangmen and True West (for which he also composed the music) on stage and Emma, Beast and The Dig on film. He is currently appearing as Richard Burton in Jack Thorne’s sell-out play The Motive and the Cue, directed by Sam Mendes.

Robert Macfarlane is a writer of books about nature, people, place and landscape including Underland (2019), Landmarks (2015), The Old Ways (2012) and, with Jackie Morris, The Lost Words (2017) and The Lost Spells (2020). He also writes films (inc. Mountain and River, both starring Willem Dafoe), operas, plays and screenplays, and collaborates widely, including with artist Stanley Donwood, and musicians Cosmo Sheldrake, Jocelyn Pook and Karine Polwart. His work has been widely adapted for film, stage, television, radio, dance, music and performance, and his books have been published in more than thirty languages. In 2023 he was awarded the inaugural Weston International Award for Non-Fiction.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A rousing collection of songs from the neo-folk troubador Johnny Flynn (whose Detectorists theme is forever etched in my brain) and frequent collaboration partner Robert Macfarlane. It's a warming, bucolic selection that's every bit as beautiful as 2021's stunning 'Lost In The Cedar Wood'.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. Uncanny Valley
2. Song With No Name
3. Burial Blessing
4. No Matter The Weight
5. Coins For The Eyes
Side B
6. The Sun Also Rises
7. The Wild Hunt
8. Through The Misty With You
9. Year-Long Winter
10. River, Mountain And Love

Baltimore’s Julien Chang writes music that tunnels toward a series of deeper truths, investigating everyday existentialism, love and life, art and the artist. Arriving in 2019 with his critically acclaimed album ‘Jules’, Chang set a precedent with his breezy, dreamy debut and is now exacting his focus on 2022 with forthcoming new music.

Chang’s second album ‘The Sale’ testify to his talents as he wrestles with enviable grace across his new 12-track catalogue, the idea of estrangement and the problematics of artistic creation. Chang leans sonically into indie-pop, with guitar-driven instrumentation burbling across punchy drums and his layered, ethereal vocals. Yet the album is still replete with touchstones of the psychedelic popcraft that enamoured listeners on his debut.

Recorded partially in his hometown of Baltimore and partially in his dorm room at Princeton, his new album ‘The Sale’ is a homegrown effort with Chang playing all instruments, bar the odd exception of a few notable cameos from Baltimore locals, classmates and old friends. Following his debut ‘Jules’ - which saw Chang earn praise from the likes of Pitchfork, Fader, The Guardian, NME, Loud & Quiet, DIY, Billboard alongside support from BBC Radio 1 & 6Music via Annie Mac Jack Saunders and Jamz Supernova - his new LP explores the discrepancy between two worlds, a struggle to get comfortable in either one of them, and ultimately an artistic fascination with this very struggle.

TRACK LISTING

1. Heart Holiday
2. Marmalade
3. Sweet Obsolete
4. Snakebit Side
5. Snakebit
6. Time And Place
7. Bellarose
8. Ethical Exceptions
9. Crossed Paths
10. Queen Of Sheba
11. Competition's Friend

Earlier this year, Transgressive reissued American-Canadian composer and activist Beverly Glenn-Copeland’s 1986 masterpiece, Keyboard Fantasies, marking the 35th anniversary of its original release. Today, he announces, Keyboard Fantasies Reimagined - a collection of songs from the now legendary album, re-worked and re-imagined by a collection of creative kindred spirits.

The remix album and reissue of the original work follows the Autumn 2020 release of Glenn’s album, Transmissions: The Music of Beverly Glenn-Copeland. Transmissions was a career-spanning album that includes compositions from his early works including selections from Keyboard Fantasies. It also included both new and archival unreleased tracks and live versions. This collection marked the first new release from Glenn-Copeland since 2004. The New York Times called it a “life-spanning mixtape that moves from the mournful torch songs of his youth to joyously soulful odes to survival.”

TRACK LISTING

Ever New (Reworked By Bon Iver & Flock Of Dimes)
Fastest Star (Julia Holter Remix)
Let Us Dance (Arca Remix)
Old (New) Melody
Ever New (Kelsey Lu’s Transportation)
Sunset Village (Blood Orange Remix)
Ever New (Reworked By Joseph Shabason & Thom Gill)
Ghost House (Performed By Jeremy Dutcher)

‘Lost In The Cedar Wood’, Johnny Flynn’s much-anticipated fifth album, is co-written with his friend Robert Macfarlane.

Johnny and Robert began work on the album in the first weeks of the pandemic, wanting to make music that sang of those dangerous, disorienting spring days; when birdsong was brighter –– and the sense of bewilderment more powerful –– than any of us had known before.

They drew inspiration in part from The Epic of Gilgamesh, the oldest surviving work of world literature; an epic poem from Ancient Mesopotamia that contains the earliest version of the Flood Myth. To Johnny and Robert, Gilgamesh resonated eerily with the present moment –– and it catalysed their song-writing.

For Gilgamesh is a story of friendship, love, loss, grief, bad governance and good dreaming; of natural disaster and environmental crisis. It also contains the first recorded act of human destruction of the natural world: when Gilgamesh and Enkidu travel to the Sacred Cedar Wood, slay the guardian spirit of the forest, and cut down the trees with their axes, thereby bringing catastrophe upon themselves.

Johnny and Robert wrote the album between March 2020 and February 2021, during a year in which we all wandered unsure of our path, lost in the cedar wood. The songs were composed in large part as a correspondence, through a back-and-forth of notebook pages, voice-recordings and WhatsApp-messages, at a time when lockdowns made meeting in person impossible. The first eight songs were recorded in an off-grid cottage deep in a Hampshire forest, with the sounds of chainsaws felling trees drifting in through the windows along with the birdsong.

The result is an album at once urgent and ancient, which fuses poetry, landscape, myth and music into something unique. These are songs that ring with hope, love and sadness –– and one need not know anything about The Epic of Gilgamesh to be touched by them.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A beautifully evocative and wonderfully weighted collaboration between two of the most talented voices in folk music today. Both Flynn and Macfarlane are right at home here, crafting warm melodies and richly woven harmonies around a solid instrumental core.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. Ten Degrees Of Strange - Johnny Flynn
2. The World To Come - Johnny Flynn
3. Gods And Monsters - Robert Macfarlane
4. Bonedigger - Robert Macfarlane
5. I Can’t Swim There - Robert Macfarlane

Side B
6. Nether - Robert Macfarlane
7. Flood In The Desert - Johnny Flynn
8. Tree Rings - Johnny Flynn
9. Enkidu Walked - Robert Macfarlane
10. Home And Dry - Robert Macfarlane
11. Ferryman - Robert Macfarlane

Debut solo album from Dave Okumu - who you probably don't know from producing and guesting on projects with Arlo Parks, St. Vincent, Tony Allen and Jesse Ware (amongst others). You might recognize him as singer and guitarist from the Mercury nominated band, The Invisible.

However this isn't anything like anything he's made before. An ode to early electronica, downbeat and instrumental hip-hop, it combines elements of glitch, boom-bap, and warped sample heaven to create something with soul, identity and, more important, something that'll sound amazing in your living room as the dark nights draw in.

Playing with a tantalizingly organic palette of sounds, it's jazz-indebted, with lots of dusty piano, upright bass and brushed drums strung up with an elastic, head-bobbing groove which I can't workout is some expert MPC trickery or some other kind of beat-production voodoo. Either way it pulls you in and out, fast and slower as it nods through its movements and is a guaranteed H I T for anyone with penchant for stoner, instrumental hip-hop in the vein of Madlib, J Dilla and Your Old Droog. 

TRACK LISTING

Intro
Son Of Emmerson
Ballpark
Trouble
New Dawn
Brother
Reprise
RTN
Don’t Die

The Antlers release ‘Familiars’, their fourth studio album and first since 2011’s ‘Burst Apart’. (In between, they released the ‘[together]’ and ‘Undersea’ EPs.) ·

‘Familiars’ was recorded, produced and engineered by the band at their Brooklyn studio and mixed by Chris Coady (Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Future Islands, Beach House) and follows 2011’s critically lauded ‘Burst Apart’, which The Sunday Times described as “some of the most beautiful music in years” and The Independent heralded as “a spine tingling triumph.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: Absolutely gorgeous, mellow record.

TRACK LISTING

1. Palace
2. Doppelgänger
3. Hotel
4. Intruders
5. Director
6. Revisited
7. Parade
8. Surrender
9. Refuge