'Elephant Eyelash' is the second studio album from Why?. Originally released by anticon. in 2005, this reissue is in celebration of it's 20th anniversary. This release also contains the 'Sanddollars' EP, 'Dumb Hummer' EP, and a special unreleased song called 'Bangs'.

TRACK LISTING

1. Crushed Bones
2. Yo Yo Bye Bye
3. Rubber Traits
4. The Hoofs
5. Fall Saddles
6. Gemini (Birthday Song)
7. Waterfalls
8. Sanddollars
9. Speech Bubbles
10. Whispers Into The Other
11. Act Five
12. Light Leaves
13. Miss Ohio's Nameless
14. Fingernails
15. Sick 2 Think
16. Sanddollars
17. Vice Principal
18. Next Atlanta
19. Pantone Cyan
20. Mutant John
21. Dumb Hummer
22. Pick Fights
23. Deceived
24. Bangs

At last! TMBG has returned to the world of kids stuff! It's a fantastic set of 18 new songs called Why? What kind of album is Why? Well, it's not bad for you but it's not good for you either. It's just about fun, like TMBG's first kids album No! Why? is memorable songs in family-friendly package with none of that pandering aftertaste. Like previous TMBG kid productions it's a family affair with John Flansburgh's wife Robin "Goldie" Goldwasser singing a couple of tracks, while bassist Danny Weinkauf, joined by his daughter, steps up to the mic for the song Elephants. Alison Cowles, the daughter longtime video animation collaborator David Cowles (The Mesopotamians, We Live in a Dump, Science is Real) has contributed all the illustrations for the album. Right out of the gate TMBG hits the listener with the odd brilliance of "Oh You Did" through the folkie charm of "Out of A Tree," the full rocking of "Or So I Have Read" the perky "I Just Want to Dance," and wrapping things up with the optimism of "Then The Kids Took Over." Why? has everything to delight both kids and parents.

TRACK LISTING

1. Oh You Did
2. Omnicorn
3. I Am Invisible
4. Definition Of Good
5. And Mom And Kid
6. I Made A Mess
7. Moles, Hounds, Bears, Bees And Hares
8. Walking My Cat Named Dog
9. Or So I Have Read
10. Elephants
11. Long White Beard
12. I Just Want To Dance
13. Thinking Machine
14. So Crazy For Books
15. I Haven't Seen You In Forever
16. Out Of A Tree
17. Hello Mrs. Wheelyke
18. Then The Kids Took Over

Another double header of jazz informed covered from Nautilus who seems to be quite adept at this business! Up for re-interpretation on this excursion is Leon Ware's "Why I Came To California" and Bobby Caldwell's "What You Won't Do".

"Why I Came To California" is vocalized by Eki Shola & Denise M'Baye with Nautilus on instrumental and production duties. It's light, skippy, and filled with the bright optimism of west coast sunshine. A brilliant cover that'll lesser educatred listeners questioning who penned it first!

"What You Won't Do For Love" features vocals by Ryuto Kasahara and is, confusingly, additionally remixed by Soul Supreme. It's that organic, jazzy instrumentation from Nautilus that characterizes the track however, with any additional treatment from Soul Supreme remaining transparent (perhaps it's the heavy side chaining on the drums? - Ed). The team strip the arrangement back to vocal harmonies, wah-wah guitar, summery Rhodes and very jazzy drums placed well in the foreground. It's a different vibe to the deep soul of Caldwell's original, more summery, breezy; and perfectly suited to cooking up a selection of fine meats or veggies on the BBQ. Super stuff here, Nautilus defo one to watch. Recommended! 

TRACK LISTING

1. Why I Came To California
2. What You Won't Do

Blending analogue hardware and live musicianship with deep, groove-driven production, Declan McDermott showcases a confident and colourful voice in contemporary underground house.

Hailing from Sydney and now based in Berlin, Declan McDermott has quietly evolved into one of the most intriguing new names in left-of-centre house music. A lifelong instrumentalist and vintage gear authority he shifted from producer/musician-for-hire, to step into his own spotlight after falling in love with the hypnotic pull of late-night deep house and dub-influenced dance records. His studio work draws on analogue synths, vintage drum machines, field recordings, and his own understated vocal delivery, forming a sound that’s warm, textural, and effortlessly soulful. With his debut release turning heads among selectors who value emotion as much as groove, this EP marks his development as one to watch.

“Why Don’t You Believe Me?” is a slow-mo deep-house meditation wrapped in warmth and weight. Declan and his featured vocalists lay down their spoken and vocodered vocals across minimal, stripped-back house drums, weaving through DX7 and OBX-a melodies with subtle dubby inflections. It’s intimate but floor-friendly - an introspective nocturnal groove that sways rather than shouts.

Next up we have a remix from the revered French luminary I:Cube who lifts the BPM and launches the track straight onto the club floor. Leaning into cosmic-disco and classic filter house, the remix is propelled by a rolling, hypnotic bassline and warm Rhodes chops that drive the groove along. It’s a classy, elevated rework with the signature I:Cube balance of drive and dreaminess.

Flipping over we have the legendary NYC-based DJ Nature (founding member of Bristol’s Wild Bunch crew and sound system) who injects raw soul into the original, keeping things crunchy, real, and deeply felt. Clipped drums, dusty organ textures, and a warm, human touch guide this version - equal parts basement grit and emotive mood. It’s the kind of remix that feels like it could only come from a seasoned hand.

The EP floats to a close on a serene, atmospheric note with “Yara-Kimba (Lindeman Island)”. Echoes of Ron Trent’s spacious, spiritual deep house permeate the arrangement, with gentle percussion, tropical tones, and a calm-breathing groove. As Declan says ‘This track is a tribute to Yara-Kimba, inspired by childhood memories, the island’s natural soundscape, and my vision of a distinctly Australian / Oceanic house sound.’

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Get one up one your local disc jock by bagging this one for the weekend. Causing a fuss amongst the professionals, namely due to the DJ Nature and I:Cube remixes, the originals by Declan are also defo worth checking.

TRACK LISTING

A1 - Why Don’t You Believe Me?
A2 - Why Don’t You Believe Me? (I:Cube ‘Pourquoi’ Remix)
B1 - Why Don’t You Believe Me? (DJ Nature Remix)
B2 - Yara-Kimba (Lindeman Island)

Danish trio Smag På Dig Selv (Danish for Taste Yourself) return with 'This Is Why We Lost', their second album and most focused statement to date. Known for explosive live shows and a genre-defying sound built on two saxophones, drums, and electronic intensity, the band expands their palette across trance, gabber, eurodance, jazz, and punk. Where their debut thrived on chaos and irony, 'This Is Why We Lost' is more deliberate, more melodic, and more emotionally open–a coming-of-age record from a band entering a new chapter. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Like A Word I Never Knew
2. Let's Go!
3. Interlude
4. Vik's Rawcore
5. Ya Tal3een
6. This Is Why We Lost
7. Fitness Bro
8. Jeg Ved Ikke Hvad Jeg Siger
9. Hits 4 Kids Vol. 3000
10. Our Mothers Made A Punk Band

Tugboat / Star Creature star signing Saucy Lady coming correct here with a hot new 45 edit of her smash cover of the Carly Simon classic "Why". Staying true to her boogie via hip-hop roots, she cranks up the tempo, majorly upping the energy and feel for dancing (thankgod, 'cos the original always has me ringin a taxi! - Matt). B-side contains an instrumental version. Proper crowd pleasure! Bar DJs - this is your jam! 

TRACK LISTING

A. Why
B. Instrumental 

Long-time NuNorthern Soul contributor, B.J. Smith is a man in demand, dividing his time between solo work, playing guitar in Crazy P man James Baron’s popular JIM outfit, collaborating in a variety of well-regarded projects (Smith & Mudd, Bison and White Elephant amongst them) and composing for TV. Due to this impressive list of musical commitments, solo releases have been few and far between of late, with Smith’s most recent NuNorthern Soul release, a stripped back version of his Big Sur single, dropping late 2023.

It's been ever longer since he delivered a volume in his popular and ongoing Dedications To The Greats series, where the singer-songwriter and composer successfully turns his hand to other people’s songs. Since debuting the series on NuNorthern Soul in 2013 via revelatory and inspired covers of tracks by Mos Def and the Pharcyde, Smith has covered cuts by Outkast, Prefab Sprout and Soul II Soul.

On volume four, Smith’s first volume in the series for five years, he delivers a “cover of a cover” – a revolutionary and imaginative interpretation of Billy Swan’s ‘Don’t Be Cruel’, itself a version of a song first made famous by Elvis Presley. It was their mutual love of Swan’s version that brought Smith together with the release’s most prominent guest artist, Joe Harvey-Whyte, whose lilting, bittersweet and deeply emotive pedal steel performances can be heard across the EP.

Smith provides three contrasting takes. The EP is led by the ‘Mother Earth’ version, a slowly unfurling epic in which waves of effects-laden pedal steel and sun-splashed picking acoustic guitars usher in Smith’s eyes-closed vocalisations, settling into a groove reminiscent of his collaborative work with long-time friend and collaborator Paul ‘Mudd’ Murphy that showcases Harvey-Whyte centre stage to joyful effect. As the 14-minute epic progresses, we’re treated to long, languid electric guitar solos, percussion-laden slow-motion builds and hazy, stretched-out organ solos. It’s a breathlessly brilliant concoction that’s a million miles away from either Swan or Presley’s versions.

In contrast, the similarly epic ‘Earth Heart’ version – available in full vocal and instrumental takes – pushes the song front and centre. Following an extended build up, where Tamar Osborn’s gorgeous and fluid flute motifs rub shoulders with languid guitar solos and Harvey-Whyte’s pedal steel, Smith takes to the mic, delivering an emotive performance of the song’s heartfelt lyrics over a hushed, slow-motion groove. The track builds in waves as it progresses, with Smith layering up instrumentation as it rolls towards a fine conclusion.

Completing a superb package is the ‘Root Heart Version’, a Balearic-meets-Americana take built around shuffling drums, toasty bass guitar, extended pedal steel instrumentation, flashes of flute and Smith’s sun-bright acoustic guitar. Loved-up and more than a little saucer-eyed, it’s a bona-fide sunset delight.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Mother Earth Version
B1. Earth Heart Version (Tamar Osborn On Flute)
B2. Root Heart Version

‘3, 10, WHY, WHEN.’ is the third studio album from Jamie Woon, his first since 2015’s Mercury Prize nominated ‘Making Time’.

Co-produced by Jamie and Grammy award-winning Swedish producer Martin Terefe, the release comes after Jamie’s notable time away from the public sphere, reminding us of his distinctive talent. Soulful and catchy as ever, this album sees Jamie explore themes of meaning and purpose with startling vulnerability. Tight songwriting meets expansive, genre-hopping moods. Woon’s previous work includes collaborations with Disclosure, Lil Silva, Elmiene, Holly Walker, and Burial.

Includes the singles ‘Heavy Going...’ & ‘When’.

TRACK LISTING

1. All (The Way)
2. Place N Time
3. Pulling On A Thread
4. A Velvet Rope
5. Heavy Going…
6. Peace Of Mind
7. When
8. The Heart’s Mountaines
9. Ghost
10. What’s The Matter

To say that the intervening 4 years since the arrival of their debut album had been tumultuous for Melbourne/Naarm’s Bananagun would be an understatement. Released during the height of lockdown in the summer of 2020, the group were forcibly “scattered” following the release of The True Story of Bananagun. Australia’s ultra-strict lockdown rules - declaring it illegal to travel beyond a 5km radius - made it nigh on impossible for the band to get together at all, with the only rehearsals requiring them to sneak past military checkpoints undetected.

Coinciding with this too was a great period of personal change for the band’s guitarist/vocalist/flautist, and songwriter Nick van Bakel.“ "I had a myriad of mountains to be crossed which was pretty challenging” he explains. “so I just cocooned into lots of spiritual side quests and soul seeking. Band members were travelling etc so it was ages before we got through the stop-start stop-start phase and regained some band momentum…”

This climate of upheaval does not go unheard on the band’s long-awaited follow-up, ‘Why is the colour of the Sky?’. While it’s by no means a pessimistic work - far from it - it’s an album that departs from the ultra-slick bursts of sunshine-pop and afrobeat that defined ‘True Story… ‘, and muddies the waters with a heavy blend of incendiary jazz and freak-beat experimentation. It’s Bananagun alright, but braver, bolder and more mysterious than ever…

With the only conscious musical dictum being that percussion and groove was brought “to the fore” - and, boy, is this album groovy - the band decamped to a Button Pusher studio Preston, Melbourne with equipment “on par with any 60's studio”, tracking with minimal takes - ‘warts’ n’ all’ - battling through the temperaments of analogue mixing equipment late into the night under the assertion that these more traditional methods provided “the most, organic pure way to record”. Also imperative was to manipulate the social conditions in which the takes were performed and nail the ‘vibe’ during recording: “It was all “attitude towards life and esoteric stuff, natural law, how energy transfers, sounds, chemistry between people”, explains van Bakel, “trying to foster an environment together where we can make some magic, capture the phenomena of energy and soundwaves interacting with each other in the room. And that was definitely what we wanted it to sound like - pro human”.

In many ways, “pro-human” captures the radical quintessence that Why Is the Colour of the Sky? is fulsomely jazz-shuffling towards. For a record that recognises, in it’s every breath and sinew the humbling, restorative and life-affirming power of collective creative endeavour - it’s also a work that resists an ever more technologically-driven and isolating world that can feel ever more dehumanising in its quests for ‘perfection’. A theme directly addressed in ‘Children of the Man’ with it’s “Robo-sapien” lyric, it’s a thread that runs across the entire record:
“I feel like a lot of human nature and tradition is worth preserving because we've probably evolved to be this way.”, van Bakel notes, “[Why is the Colour…] is all just about not losing your head and being over stimulated by the ‘goggle box’; the need for spirituality and nature; the need to be able to communicate and share ideas and adapt in a rapidly changing world without being judged and profiled. The preservation of human needs, so we don't all get homogenised and isolated and poisoned to stupidity and obedience. “
And what better way is there to feel human than by laying down a dynamite groove, or nine?

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Woozy, dreamy psychedelic business here from Melbourne's Bananagun. Channelling the spirit of early Floyd / Syd Barrett into a modern distillation of folk, rock and folk. there are moments here that feel disorganised and loose, only to come together perfectly into a perfectly formed patchwork of emotion. Wonderfully loose, low-slung psychedelic rock.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
Brave Child Of A New World
Children Of The Man
Those Who Came Before
Feeding The Moon
Gift Of The Open Hand

Side B
With The Night
Hippopotamusic
Free Energy
Wonder Part I
Wonder Part II

Wish On The Bone' is Why Bonnie's sophomore LP and debut for Fire Talk. It's untethered from any landscape or genre, propelled by this freedom and resulting in Why Bonnie's most catchy, hopeful body of work to- date. Ranging from twangy country infused rock jams to more intimate and lo-fi arrangements, 'Wish on the Bone' is wide-eyed and waiting. It's a coming of age film in which the protagonist rejects the forces that have tried, and failed, to shape her into something other than herself. It leaves you with a hard- fought sense of hope, which is among songwriter Blair Howerton's greatest gifts. "You owe it to the people who are experiencing the worst to just keep pushing," Howerton says. That's the throughline of "Wish On The Bone", a record that rewards with repeated listens.

TRACK LISTING

Wish On The Bone
Dotted Line
Rhyme Or Reason
Fake Out
Headlight Sun
Green Things
All The Money
Peppermint
Three Big Moons
I Took The Shot

Light in the Attic, in cooperation with Laurie Anderson and the Lou Reed Archive, is thrilled to announce the forthcoming release of Why Don’t You Smile Now: Lou Reed at Pickwick Records 1964-65. Due out September 27th, the latest installment in LITA’s critically acclaimed Lou Reed Archive Series is a compilation of pop songs penned by Reed during his mid-60s stint as a staff songwriter for the long-defunct label Pickwick Records. The compilation follows on the heels of Lou Reed’s Hudson River Wind Meditations (2023) and Words & Music, May 1965 (2022).

One of the most original and innovative figures in music history, Reed (1942-2013) first gained recognition as co-founder and frontman of the massively influential Velvet Underground. Over the course of his five-decade career, the two-time Rock & Roll Hall of Famer brought his singular vision to an eclectic expanse of musical endeavors, including era-defining albums like 1972’s Transformer and wildly experimental works like the 1975 avant-garde noise classic Metal Machine Music. But before establishing himself as an enduringly iconic singer, songwriter, musician, and poet, Reed got his start as an in-house songwriter (and occasional session guitarist/vocalist) for Pickwick Records—a label specializing in sound-alike recordings that emulated the major pop hits of the day. Encompassing everything from garage-rock and girl-group pop to blue-eyed soul and teen-idol balladry, Reed’s output for Pickwick ultimately offers a fascinating early glimpse at his ever-evolving and truly limitless artistry.

The album has been restored and remastered by GRAMMY®-nominated mastering engineer John Baldwin. Both the 2xLP & CD editions feature in-depth booklets with unseen photos, liner notes by Richie Unterberger (renowned music journalist and author of such acclaimed titles as White Light/White Heat: The Velvet Underground day-by-day), and an essay by Lenny Kaye (the legendary guitarist, Patti Smith Group co-founder, writer, producer, and curator of seminal garage-rock anthology Nuggets). The double-LP package is designed by multi-GRAMMY®-winning artist Masaki Koike and pressed at world-renowned plant Optimal (Germany). A special color vinyl edition is pressed on “Oxblood” wax (A/B side) and “Gold” wax (C/D side). This release marks the first official anthology of Lou Reed’s work for Pickwick Records and features rarities, cult classics (The Primitives’ “The Ostrich”), & previously unreleased material (The Beachnuts’ “Sad, Lonely Orphan Boy”).

TRACK LISTING

The Primitives - The Ostrich
The Beachnuts - Cycle Annie
The Hi-Lifes - I'm Gonna Fight
The Hi-Lifes - Soul City
Ronnie Dickerson - Oh No Don't Do It
Ronnie Dickerson - Love Can Make You Cry
The Hollywoods - Teardrop In The Sand
The Roughnecks - You're Driving Me Insane
The Primitives - Sneaky Pete
Terry Philips - Wild One
Spongy And The Dolls - Really - Really - Really - Really - Really - Really Love
The Foxes - Soul City
The J Brothers - Ya Running But I'll Getcha
Beverley Ann - We Got Trouble
The All Night Workers - Why Don't You Smile
Jeannie Larimore - Johnny Won't Surf No More
Robertha Williams - Tell Mamma Not To Cry
Robertha Williams - Maybe Tomorrow
Terry Philips - Flowers For The Lady
Terry Philips - This Rose
The Surfsiders - Surfin'
The Surfsiders - Little Deuce Coupe
The Beachnuts - Sad Lonely Orphan Boy
The Beachnuts - I've Got A Tiger In My Tank
Ronnie Dickerson - What About Me

From the author of Abbey Road comes the story of how enduring rock icons like Pink Floyd, Bruce Springsteen and many more have remained in the ever changing music game. When Paul McCartney closed Live Aid in July 1985 we thought he was rock's Grand Old Man. He was forty-three years old.

As the forty years since have shown he - and many others of his generation - were just getting started. This was the time when live performance took over from records. The big names of the 60s and 70s exploited the age of spectacle that Live Aid had ushered in to enjoy the longest lap of honour in the history of humanity, continuing to go strong long after everyone else had retired.

Hence this is a story without precedent, a story in which Elton John plays a royal funeral, Mick Jagger gets a knighthood, Bob Dylan picks up the Nobel Prize, the Beatles become, if anything, bigger than the Beatles and it's beginning to look as though all of the above will, thanks to the march of technology, be playing Las Vegas for ever.

RIYL: Anticon, TV on the Radio, Animal Collective, Dirty Projectors, Modest Mouse. First album in 5 years, following AOKOHIO (Joyful Noise Recordings). Self released on Waterlines, the new record label from Anticon co-founder, Yoni Wolf.

For nearly three decades, WHY? have thrived in subverting expectations. Across seven unpredictable and adventurous studio albums, the band led by Cincinnati songwriter Yoni Wolf has stretched the fringes of psychedelic pop, hip-hop, and electronic music. No matter the genre experiments and thematic departures, their discography is remarkably consistent, anchored by Wolf's disarming lyrical transparency. His writing is provocative, self-lacerating, and always considered, coming from a place of blunt emotional openness.

The Well I Fell Into, the eighth full-length from WHY?, is Wolf at his most cohesive and poignant. An autopsy of heartbreak, the album charts the ups and downs of a devastating breakup while trading bitterness for healing. Self-released on Waterlines, Wolf's new label that follows in the footsteps of Anticon, the trailblazing artist-run collective he co-founded, its 14 tracks stand as the band's prettiest and most immediate work yet.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: I've long been a fan of Why's own brand of now almost-unrecognisable hip-hop. I played Alopcia and Eskimo Snow to death all those years ago, but 'The Well I Fell Into' seems like a much more mature, song-based display of melodic inventiveness and textural intrigue. It's got all of the appeal of those early years, with a much more evolved sonic palate.

TRACK LISTING

1. Lauderdale Detour
2. Marigold
3. Brand New
4. G-dzillah G’dolah
5. When We Do The Dance
6. Jump
7. Later At The Loon
8. Nis(s)an Dreams, Pt. 1
9. The Letters, Etc.
10. What’s Me?
11. Sin Imperial
12. Atreyu
13. Versa Go!
14. Sending Out A Pamphlet. 

‘Why Black Man Dey Suffer’, recorded in 1971, was originally deemed too controversial for release by EMI, his label at the time. Having recently been schooled in the American black power movement and having taken on a new Pan-African worldview, this album served as one of Fela’s first musical soapboxes on which he challenged the colonial injustices and corruption of the ruling elites of his time. The title track, also featuring Ginger Baker, is a history lesson on the oppression of the African man. It details the litany of abuses the black man has suffered - from being taken as slaves, to having an alien people impose a new culture upon them, taking their land, fighting them, and setting them against one another. ‘Ikoyi Mentality’ firmly expresses Fela’s identification with the downtrodden masses and his rejection of the ways of the ruling class inhabitants of the Ikoyi neighbourhood in Lagos.

TRACK LISTING

Why Black Man Dey Suffer
Ikoyi Mentality Vs Mushin Mentality

'Why Does the Earth Give Us People to Love?' is the debut album by Chicago-based Poet Laureate & singer-songwriter Kara Jackson.

'Why Does the Earth Give Us People to Love?', is a sonic invitation to process our grief. The title is a question the author is always answering. How do we give ourselves permission to yearn for the people we miss? How do we find the courage to let go of what begs to be released? How do we have the audacity to love in spite of everything invented to deter us from it?

Kara wrote and recorded the original demos in her childhood bedroom during the early days of the pandemic, drafting lyrics in bed and singing into a mic propped up on her dresser. From there she brought in Nnamdi, Kaina and Sen Morimoto to re-record the demos and help shape the production.

Wielding her voice like a honey-coated blade, Kara Jackson crafts a blend of emotional folk music and poetic alt-country. With the radical honesty of Nina Simone, the intricate lyricism of Fiona Apple and Joanna Newsom, and the straightforward, no-frills delivery of artists like Kimya Dawson, Kara’s writing blurs the line between poetry and song, demanding an attentive ear and a repeat listen.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Jackson's music is both intensely powerful and wildly understated, often relying upon an unadorned guitar and single vocal, before flourishing into orchestral swells and beautifully harmonised melodies. An arresting, cohesive debut LP with a singular sound.

Chicago’s Magic Touch label gets the Numero treatment. Legendary rare groove selector & DJ Red Greg’s edit of Disco Holy-Grail “Why Do I Love You” is now available on 7” for the first time and housed in official Magic Touch Double Disco Smash 7” Company Sleeve. This tune has been making waves in the DJ community for years only after Red Greg introduced his crucial edit eliminating the studio fluff and dialing in the raw disco meat. Certified Floor Filler with a groove guaranteed to answer all questions on love.

TRACK LISTING

A. Why Do I Love You (Red Greg Edit)

B. Why Do I Love You (Instrumental)

RIYL: Sarah Records, Galaxie 500, Algebra Suicide, Mazzy Star, early Low.

“Everyone’s hoping that nobody sees/all our little efforts at dignity”

This last line of the title track from Cindy’s fourth LP Why Not Now? works as a slogan for Karina Gill's evolving musical vision. Her music is simple out of necessity and introverted in delivery, but the songs contain vivid worlds and are quietly ambitious. With this latest batch, Gill pulled the process of making Cindy music even more inward. “Some of these songs were first recorded as demos alone in my basement. I think that process set the tone for the record…Maybe it set up a kind of starkness,” she says.

Moving on from the fixed quartet that performed the first three albums, Gill worked alongside original keyboardist Aaron Diko to develop the songs and they enlisted players from the ever-blossoming SF pop scene to realise her minimalist vision -- members of Flowertown, Telephone Numbers, April Magazine, Famous Mammals, and Sad Eyed Beatniks to name a few. The collective sounds fill out the record perfectly with John Cale-esque viola on ‘August’, lo-fi fairground organs, and a tasteful full-band sound that crops up throughout. ‘A Trumpet on a Hillside’ is the most triumphant Cindy has ever sounded, all ascending chords and a wedding march melody tumbling out of an old synth. Still, some of the best moments are Gill alone, as on ‘Playboy’, just naked guitar and voice, and when the forlorn whistling solo kicks in, it feels like the loneliest star is imploding in a distant galaxy.

While the dream-pop tag is probably still relevant, this isn’t algorithm-fed genre ambience. Gill’s vocal/lyrical presence can be as gently momentous as Leonard Cohen or as intellectually potent as any ’79-’80 Rough Trade post-punk. “In writing a song”, Gill says, ”all the disparate parts of being me momentarily correspond, like car alarms and party music momentarily matching beats.” Cindy’s Why Not Now? is that muffled street symphony inside a passing daydream.

STAFF COMMENTS

Martin says: In possibly their most stark, minimalistic statement to date, Cindy present 'Why Not Now?'. Swimming with slow psychedelic guitar and haunting echoic vocals, it's both heartfelt and deep while not eschewing the keen sense of melody they've become known for.

TRACK LISTING

1. Why Not Now (02:33)
2. Standard Candle #3 (03:02)
3. Earthly Belonging (01:27)
4. August (02:48)
5. Wednesday (02:13)
6. A Trumpet On The Hillside (04:19)
7. The Price Is Right (02:54)
8. Playboy (03:26)
9. Et Surtout (01:55)
10. Standard Candle #4 (01:49)

“This Is Why was the very last song we wrote for the album. To be honest, I was so tired of writing lyrics but Taylor convinced Zac and I both that we should work on this last idea. What came out of it was the title track for the whole album. It summarizes the plethora of ridiculous emotions, the rollercoaster of being alive in 2022, having survived even just the last 3 or 4 years. You’d think after a global pandemic of fucking biblical proportions and the impending doom of a dying planet, that humans would have found it deep within themselves to be kinder or more empathetic or something.

The public sphere we find ourselves re-entering after 4 years at home, in our comfort zones, is an entirely different thing than the one we knew. The restlessness, the anxiety, and the compulsion to take action— it all feels like a contradiction. On one hand, we have a legitimate platform to use which makes me want to march at every protest for social justice and devote every waking second to every single cause I believe in. On the other, I just want to go home, plant a garden, and become a distant memory to the outside world.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Liam says: Ditching their pop-punk and synth-pop sound of previous records in favour of 2000s math-infused indie, 'This Is Why' certainly represents a new chapter for Paramore. The title track takes things to 'Total Life Forever' era Foals, whilst elsewhere there is shades of early Bloc Party and 90s emo. Not gonna lie, really liking a Paramore record in 2023 certainly wasn't on my bingo card this year.

EPs, 7"s, Compilation Tracks and some other Songs 1998-2022. Long time no hear: after an extended hiatus and just the occasional gig, Robocop Kraus have rewired and reunited. They’re back in the game. Almost a quarter of a century has passed since the band was formed, a period which saw them release on labels like L’Age D’Or, Epitaph, and Anti. Now they have put together a compilation featuring all of the tracks which, for one reason or another, were not available on their regular albums, with an intriguing number of rarities and previously unreleased material.

New-York-by-way-of-Texas transplants Why Bonnie announce their debut album, 90 in November, on their new label Keeled Scales. “90 in November” is a sunny guitar pop song about lead singer and songwriter Blair Howerton’s hometown of Houston, packed full of sparkling snapshots—”a technicolor sun” and “a cardboard cutout cowboy waving me goodbye.” “I wanted to capture the bittersweet feeling of saying goodbye to the landscape that shaped you while still dealing with the anxieties of what lies ahead,” says Howerton. “Nostalgia always hits with a flash of disjointed memories - like speeding down the highway or sweating in the Texas heat.” 

Following their 2020 “Voice Box” EP, 90 in November crashes into existence with a squeal of feedback and a burst of distorted guitar. Inspired by fellow Texans Townes Van Zandt, Blaze Foley, alt-rock like the Lemonheads and the Replacements, the eccentric pop of Sparklehorse, and Sheryl Crow, the album is a dynamic introduction to an evolutionized Why Bonnie. 90 in November is a meditation on the pains and pleasures of nostalgia and a lesson in learning how to look back at the people, places, and experiences that have shaped us, with room for both unvarnished honesty and rose-tinted melancholy.

The songs for 90 in November were mostly written in Brooklyn, where Howerton moved from Austin in 2019. Already in the midst of a major life change, her feeling of being between worlds was compounded when quarantine hit and she found herself, like so many others, stuck in her apartment—about as far away from the wide-open spaces of Texas as one can possibly get. It was in this environment that she began to write songs parsing out the complicated, mixed emotions associated with building a new home while attempting to make sense of the one she had left behind.

There’s a deep sense of place across 90 in November. The band—Howerton, keyboardist Kendall Powell, guitarist Sam Houdek, bassist Chance Williams, and drummer Josh Malett—considered making the record in New York or California, but ultimately decided that it had to be done in Texas. In early 2020, Why Bonnie headed down to the town of Silsbee (population: 6,634) to spend two weeks recording with Tommy Read (Lomelda, alexalone) at Lazybones Audio. Howerton describes it as an idyllic period of time where days were spent walking around with cows and evenings drinking Lone Star beer and looking at the stars.

90 in November is a trip through Howerton’s inner world, but it’s also a road trip through Texas. Often it is both at once. The songs are full of poetic, cinematic lyrics that flash like colorful scenes glimpsed from the window of a car as it barrels along an interstate highway cutting through the Lone Star State, each one a road stop revealing a different facet of Howerton’s experience. The album is a dynamic introduction to a more raw-edged indie sound from a band who have matured from bedroom dream pop into a sophisticated rock act, their evolving sound a reflection of the journey undertaken by Howerton on this vividly rendered collection of songs.

TRACK LISTING

1. Sailor Mouth
2. Galveston
3. Nowhere LA
4. Hot Car
5. Silsbee
6. 90 In November
7. Healthy
8. Sharp Turn
9. Lot’s Wife
10. Superhero

Cassia find escapism in bright, blissful melodies, but beneath the surface is a deep well of introspection. 2022 brings ‘Why You Lacking Energy?’, the trio's vivid follow up to the 2019 album ‘Replica’.

From lush, spacious piano ballads to crisp, synth-driven anthems, the self-produced record digs into the tension in Cassia's music: these are songs that feel like living in the moment, but are caught up in thoughts of the past and anxieties for the future.

The soaring new single Motions "feels like sand slipping through your fingers," they say, "and that wave of relief when you realise you're not alone." Empowering for the band as much as their listeners, Cassia make songs that turn fears into fuel.

TRACK LISTING

1. Morning's Coming
2. Similar
3. 16-18 (Why You Lacking Energy?)
4. Motions
5. Colossal Happiness
6. Seasons
7. Boundless
8. Dreams Of My Past
9. Drifting
10. Not Enough Time To Think
11. Right There
12. See Myself

The textbook American cult band of the ‘80s, Violent Femmes captured the essence of teen angst with remarkable precision; raw and jittery, the trio’s music found little commercial success but nonetheless emerged as the soundtrack for the lives of troubled adolescents the world over. Their self-titled 1983 debut was a blueprint for legions of sardonic alternative rockers that would follow, and they continued their blend of searing, darkly humorous lyrics and sharp-edged folk-rock on other standout albums like 1991’s Why Do Birds Sing.

Violent Femmes formed in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in the early ‘80s, made up of singer/guitarist Gordon Gano, bassist Brian Ritchie, and percussionist Victor DeLorenzo. After being discovered by the Pretenders’ James Honeyman-Scott while they were busking on the street, the band signed to Slash and issued their self-titled debut, a melodic folk-punk collection which struck an obvious chord with young listeners who felt a strong connection to bitter, frustrated songs like “Blister in the Sun,” “Kiss Off” and “Add It Up.” Though never a chart hit, the album remained a rite of passage for succeeding generations of teen outsiders, and after close to a decade after release, it finally achieved platinum status.

40 years on, Violent Femmes’ legacy remains strong, while their influence can be heard across multiple genres—from the anti-folk movement of the early 2000s to the chart-topping hits of Barenaked Ladies, and the indie-pop of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. In 2014, Popmatters declared that the folk-punk pioneers “may have very quietly been one of the most important rock bands of the 1980s, if not the past quarter-century…[They] celebrated the simplicity of pop music from the fringes, attacking convention with a mix of humour and violence.” Pitchfork argued that “The Femmes don’t signify an era so much as a time of life,” adding that “for young people growing up in the internet age” their music “is part of a shared language.”

Why Do Birds Sing? is the fifth studio album and their last studio album with original drummer, Victor DeLorenzo. Featuring the fan favourite “American Music,” which reached No. 2 in the Billboard Modern Rock Chart, as well as a cover of Culture Club’s “Do You Really Want To Hurt Me.”

TRACK LISTING

1LP
Side A
American Music
Out The Window
Look Like That
Do You Really Want To Hurt Me
Hey Nonny Nonny
Used To Be
Side B
Girl Trouble
He Likes Me
Life Is A Scream
Flamingo Baby
Lack Of Knowledge
More Money Tonight
I'm Free

2CD
Disc 1
1. American Music
2. Out The Window
3. Look Like That
4. Do You Really Want To Hurt Me
5. Hey Nonny Nonny
6. Used To Be
7. Girl Trouble
8. He Likes Me
9. Life Is A Scream
10. Flamingo Baby
11. Lack Of Knowledge
12. More Money Tonight
13. I'm Free
14. Me And You*
15. Color Me Once (Early Version)*
16. 4 Seasons (Early Version)*
17. Breaking Up (Early Version)*
18. American Music (Alternate Mix)*
19. Dance, M.F., Dance!

Disc 2
1. Look Like That (Live At The Boathouse, Norfolk, VA / 1991)
2. Out The Window (Live At The Boathouse, Norfolk, VA / 1991)
3. Fat (Live At The Boathouse, Norfolk, VA / 1991)
4. Blister In The Sun (Live At The Boathouse, Norfolk, VA / 1991)
5. Prove My Love (Live At The Boathouse, Norfolk, VA / 1991)
6. Country Death Song (Live At The Boathouse, Norfolk, VA / 1991)
7. Old Mother Reagan (Live At The Boathouse, Norfolk, VA / 1991)
8. Confessions (Live At The Boathouse, Norfolk, VA / 1991)
9. Girl Trouble (Live At The Boathouse, Norfolk, VA / 1991)
10. Add It Up (Live At The Boathouse, Norfolk, VA / 1991)
11. Good Feeling (Live At The Boathouse, Norfolk, VA / 1991)
12. More Money Tonight (Live At The Boathouse, Norfolk, VA / 1991)

Love Record Stores Edition available instore from 10am on Saturday September 4th, any remaining copies will be available on online from 9pm on the same day.
Limited to one per person.

Foot are: Don Fleming, Jim Dunbar and Thurston Moore – vintage analogue synthesizers. This album has been Remodelled by Tim Newman and his associates from the Track ‘Early Foot’, which originally appeared on the God Bless Records CD ‘foot’ in 1998, recorded as part of the Canal Street Series at Jimbo’s Pad, NYC in the early days of Nemocore, winter 1996. Liberated from the traditional constraints of time signature and key signature and fixed changes. Where sound responds to music. 

The dramatic story of Solange: a musician and artist whose unconventional journey to international success was far more important than her family name.

Growing up in the shadow of her superstar sister, Beyonce, and defying an industry that attempted to bend her to its rigid image of a Black woman, Solange Knowles has become a pivotal musician and artist in her own right. In Why Solange Matters, Stephanie Phillips chronicles the creative journey of Solange, a beloved voice of the Black Lives Matter generation.

A Black feminist punk musician herself, Phillips addresses not only the unpredictable trajectory of Solange's career but also how she and other Black women see themselves through the musician's repertoire. First, she traces Solange's progress through an inflexible industry, charting the artist's development up to 2016, when the release of her third album, A Seat at the Table, redefined her career. With this record and, then, When I Get Home (2019), Phillips describes how Solange has embraced activism, anger, Black womanhood and intergenerational trauma to inform her remarkable art.

'Why Solange Matters is a significant and sober treatist on popular music . . . This book is more than necessary.' - THURSTON MOORE

Blair Howerton started songwriting as a coping mechanism during her formative years. Her vivid lyricism has bloomed into the dazzling, full-band emotional release known as Why Bonnie. The band's Fat Possum Records debut EP Voice Box celebrates unhindered expression via beguiling, propulsive guitar pop. In a decisive step to start performing her backlogged material, Howerton moved back home to Texas after graduating college in 2015. In Austin, Howerton joined lifelong best friend Kendall Powell, who she met in preschool. Powells classical piano chops swapped to synth for the new project. Both active in the Austin scene, guitarist Sam Houdek and bassist Chance Williams later joined to complete the lineup. In 2018, the band emerged on petite indie outlet Sports Day Records with In Water. The EP eulogized Howertons older brother, who passed away years prior. Intimately bristling tracks explored the grieving process, introducing the groups uncanny ability to stir up huge catharsis in a seamless rise. Follow-up Nightgown expanded the effort, pulling lush Mazzy Star and Cranberries influences.

Embarking on their first DIY tour the same year, Why Bonnie quickly landed opening runs for the like-minded sounds of Snail Mail and Beach Fossils. The sum of those experiences culminates in the sweeping, layered rock sound of third EP Voice Box. Fuzzed-out guitars and crystalline vocals drive a tough-edged struggle in the space between suppression and artistic liberty. Howerton explains: It encapsulates a disconnect between my inner and outer world, and not being able to express myself authentically because of that. But, ultimately knowing I will crash and burn if I dont The intense effort isnt always pretty. The title track fumes with quiet wisdom, urging: I know it's easier to bury your uncertainties in a cloud of masculinity / Guess is the curse you bear to talk over me. Breeders-inspired Athlete endeavors self-doubt in a blistering metaphor of failed sportsmanship. Fiery No Caves rises to a forceful album finale, unleashing the full windswept power of Howertons vocals, padded by Houdek. Of the ending ascent, the lead singer decides about the freedom of realizing that you can't hide anymore. You have to put yourself out there.

TRACK LISTING

1. Jetplane
2. Bury Me
3. Voice Box
4. No Caves
5. Athlete

Whyte Horses, whose sound is at once timeless and thoroughly modern. With a back-catalogue of multi-faceted jewels that gleam with a blinding, intoxicating light, Whyte Horses’ reputation is one of being able to piece together gloriously individual pop strands in an endlessly creative fashion.

If the music seems passionate, then that’s precisely because the people behind it are passionate. Fronted by Manchester’s Dominic Thomas - who moonlights as founder of the vinyl reissue label Finders Keepers - Whyte Horses often operates as a welcoming revolving door for talented vocalists in their own right, but on ‘Ça Plane Pour Moi’ we get to glimpse pure Whyte Horses performing within their own capabilities and hinting at the album to come names ‘Hard Times’ and scheduled for release next year.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Feel-good Piccadilly pop favourites Whyte Horses return with an instantly satisfying and beautifully produced suite of swooning jangles and glittering harmonies. Reminiscent of 60's sunshine psych and classic Britpop, 80's synth and a tasteful touch of everything inbetween, and now with a host of top guests too. Unsurprisingly brilliant.

TRACK LISTING

1. Red Lady
2. Mister Natural (W/ La Roux)
3. Ca Plane Pour Moi
4. Hard Times (W/ John Grant)
5. Bang Bang (W/ Chrystabell)
6. Seabird
7. I Saw The Light (W/ Melanie Pain)
8. Satellite Of Love (W/ Badly Drawn Boy)
9. Up In My Mind (W/ Traceyanne Campbell)
10. Tocyn (W/ Gruff Rhys)
11. Want You To Know

After many delays, Sorcerer is please as punch to finally reissue the debut LP from 1987 by Milwaukee space-rock gods, F/i: Why Not Now?… Alan! Available for the first time on the format since its initial release, it remains a Holy Grail item for lovers of cosmic rock & roll sounds from Underground Amerika in the 1980s. F/i had been churning out tape upon tape of experimental electronics since the early ‘80s. Influenced by Krautrock (particularly Cluster, Tangerine Dream, Ash Ra Tempel) and the harsh noise of Industrialists Throbbing Gristle and early SPK, by the mid ‘80s they morphed into a fully-fledged “rock” band, albeit one incorporating all of the above. This LP is the perfect synthesis of these sounds: grimy, lo-fi ‘rock’ with elements of industrial clang and extended, Hawkwind-ish space-rock jams; from the two-step cosmic churn of “Electric Waltz” to the ‘Neubauten-style bang & bash of “Zombie Theme”. Remastered by Mikey Young, the sleeve perfectly replicating the original, our edition is a limited edition of 500 copies.

This month has seen Liam Gallagher make a typically full-throttle return. Super intimate sold-out show at Hackney Round Chapel? Biblical. Premiere and release of the long-awaited ‘As It Was’ documentary? Completed. Featured on the cover of Q, who described him as “rock’s finest frontman”? Naturally.

Liam wrote lead single ‘Shockwave’ with two of the key collaborators behind the all-conquering ‘As You Were’ album: Andrew Wyatt, who won the Academy Award for Best Original Song as co-writer of ‘Shallow’ from the film ‘A Star Is Born’, and the multiple Grammy-winner Greg Kurstin who also produced the track. It was recorded in Los Angeles.

Liam Gallagher’s debut solo album ‘As You Were’ was a critical and commercial smash. It debuted at #1, out-selling the rest of the Top 10 in the process, and was soon certified Platinum. Liam was back where he belonged, selling out huge outdoor shows and earning major awards from Q, NME and GQ.

More details regarding ‘Why Me? Why Not.’ will be revealed imminently. “It’s a better record than As You Were,” promises Liam. “Which is saying something, as that was epic, wasn’t it?”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: He's back! Liam's newest album sees him co-writing with a duo of talented musician pals, and retains all the charm and momentum of his previous outing, but with more OOMPH. Why not indeed.

Yoni Wolf has spent the last two decades traveling the remote sonic terrain where underground hip hop, avant-pop, and psych-rock meet. On AOKOHIO, Yoni Wolf condenses the essential elements of WHY? into a stunningly potent musical vision. Co-produced by Wolf and his brother Josiah, the record presents a rich palette of musical voices that emerge and disappear into a constantly shifting kaleidoscope of sound. And while AOKOHIO features many notable guest contributors, from Lala Lala's Lillie West, to Nick Sanborn and Amelia Meath of Sylvan Esso, the listener's attention remains squarely directed on Yoni's voice and vision. AOKOHIO finds Yoni rethinking fundamental aspects of his approach to creating and delivering his music. The album is presented as six movements comprised of two to four songs each, with some segments appearing as brief fragments that dissolve within seconds.

The concept of sharing AOKOHIO in segments over time has been preserved with the release of an accompanying visual album-with the first three segments directed by Sundance award-winner Miles Joris-Peyrafitte, who is also the mastermind of the overarching video project. AOKOHIO feels like a consequential addition to the WHY? catalog, possibly even an artistic turning point. But its creator remains circumspect when asked to comment on the album's significance within his discography, instead preferring to characterize the work as the latest iteration of his deep commitment to his artistic practice. "I have no idea if this record is good or not," Yoni says. "But I never really know. I know that I've never written a song that's indispensable to the American songbook. But in terms of what it is, it's a piece of art. I put blood, sweat, and tears into this album, and struggled through the creative process as I always do. As far as where this sits with the rest of my albums? I can't answer that. I just know that my career is a lifelong career, and I'm working it. Every time it feels right, it makes me feel good." 

TRACK LISTING

1. Apogee
2. The Rash
3. Peel Free II: I’ve Been Carving My Elbows, I Might Just Take Flight.
4. Reason
5. Deleterio Motilis
6. Stained Glass Slipper III: Please Take Me Home, I Don’t Belong Here.
7. The Launch
8. High Dive
9. Mr. Fifths’ Plea
10. Good Fire IV: The Surgeon Nervously Goes On, He Never Claimed To Be God.
11. Narcissistic Lamentation
12. Krevin’
13. The Crippled Physician
14. Ustekinumab V: I Want To Live With Conviction, In Silence And Diction.
15. My Original
16. Rock Candy
17. Once Shy VI: Though I’m Tired, I’m Still Trying.
18. The Shame
19. Bloom Wither Bloom (for Mom) 

As thrilling and unpredictable as anything in Deerhunter’s near 15-year career, Why Hasn’t Everything Already Disappeared? was recorded in several strategic geographic points across North America, and produced by the band, Cate LeBon, Ben H. Allen III, and Ben Etter. Forgetting the questions and making up unrelated answers, Deerhunter’s eighth LP is a science fiction album about the present. Exhausted with the toxic concept of nostalgia, they reinvent their approach to microphones, the drum kit, the harpsichord, the electromechanical and synthetic sounds of keyboards. Whatever guitars are left are pure chrome, plugged straight into the mixing desk with no amplifier or vintage warmth.

STAFF COMMENTS

Javi says: Is it a guitar? Is it a synth? Is it some old-time harpsichord-y thing plugged through a sh*t-ton of reverb? Your guess is as good as mine. The only thing for sure is that indie darlings Deerhunter have created their most consistent and nuanced album since 2010’s ‘Halcyon Digest’ in their seventh LP, ‘Why Hasn’t Everything Already Disappeared?’.
With fellow Top 20 maverick Cate Le Bon at the production helm, there’s nothing the band can’t do—whimsical groove-laced indie and atmospheric expansiveness are married perfectly on songs like the opener “What Happens to People?” and penultimate bop “Plains”, and just as the voice of God bids us good morning on “Detournement”, guitarist Lockett Pundt’s sole offering “Tarnung” is already preparing to tuck us into bed.
Every song is a stutter-funk gem, a space-age exploration of pastoral life, a strutting jaunt into the end of days. Every song is a grower, and boy, how big they grow…

TRACK LISTING

1. Death In Midsummer
2. No One’s Sleeping
3. Greenpoint Gothic
4. Element
5. What Happens To People?
6. Détournement
7. Futurism
8. Tarnung
9. Plains
10. Nocturne

Half Japanese have returned to peel further layers from their onion. They have a new album that's a square further on in their unpredictable musical snakes and ladders board. ‘Why Not?’ is a magical thing – it’s Springsteen’s ‘Born To Run’ recorded in a cupboard, it’s an ode to love, it’s a Wire song with two duelling guitarists being Zappa on helium, it’s Parquet Courts in a tantrum, it’s The Crickets contorted into? and The Mysterians, it’s everywhere and nowhere, baby, it’s where it’s at. On ‘Why Not?’ nuances are mused, situations explained, questions asked.

Outside, zombies and demons roam and everyday aliens emerge from spaceships: it’s a technicolor film transcribed by Jad Fair and friends John Sluggett, Gilles-Vincent Rieder, Mick Hobbs and Jason Willett, their faces at the cracked window of their subterranean habitat looking out at the real world. They’re on a high from their last release: “After all these years, his wiry voice still hits every song with a shock that’s equal parts joy buzzer and defibrillator, each barely in-key bleat alternating between laughable and life-affirming,” said Pitchfork of their last opus ‘Hear The Lion Roar’.

To which All Music added that “after nearly 40 years of music-making, they're still creating some of the most engaging recordings of their lives, and that's truly something to believe in.” ‘Why Not?’ goes further. It’s an even more intense concoction, it’s further out there. It contains pieces of fluffy thought-provoking music, a bag of sentiments delivered with a real sense of wonderment at how the normal world revolves; all powered with heart and soul, some crunchy guitars, a cello and reverb set-to-kill infiltrating their storytelling. ‘Why’d They Do It?’ quizzes track 11. Because they can. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Why not indeed?

TRACK LISTING

1. The Future Is Ours
2. The Face
3. Why Not?
4. Amazing
5. Demons Of Doom
6. A Word To The Wise
7. Bring On The Night
8. Zombie Island Massacre
9. Better Days
10. Spaceship To Mars
11. Why'd They Do It?
12. Magic
13. Falling

Pissed Jeans have been making gnarly noise for 13 years, and on their fifth album, Why Love Now, the male-fronted quartet is taking aim at the mundane discomforts of modern life—from fetish webcams to office-supply deliveries. "Rock bands can retreat to the safety of what rock bands usually sing about. So 60 years from now, when no one has a telephone, bands will be writing songs like, 'I'm waiting for her to call me on my telephone.' Kids are going to be like, 'Grandpa, tell me, what was that?' I'd rather not shy away from talking about the internet or interactions in 2016," says frontman Matt Korvette.

Pissed Jeans' gutter-scraped amalgamation of sludge, punk, noise, and bracing wit make the band—Korvette, Brad Fry (guitar), Randy Huth (bass) and Sean McGuinness (drums)—a release valve for a world where absurdity seems in a constant battle trying to outdo itself. Why Love Now picks at the bursting seams that are barely holding 21st-century life together. Take the grinding rave-up "The Bar Is Low," which, according to Korvette, is "about how every guy seems to be revealing themselves as a shithead. It seems like every guy is getting outed, across every board of entertainment and politics and music. There's no guy that isn't a total creep."

No Wave legend Lydia Lunch shacked up in Philadelphia to produce Why Love Now alongside local metal legend Arthur Rizk (Eternal Champion, Goat Semen). "I knew she wasn't a traditional producer," Korvette says of Lunch. "I like how she's so cool and really intimidating. She ended up being so fucking awesome and crazy. She was super into it, constantly threatening to bend us over the bathtub. I'm not really sure what that entails, but I know she probably wasn't joking.” The combination of Lunch's spiritual guidance and Rizk's technical prowess supercharged Pissed Jeans, and the bracing Why Love Now documents them at their grimy, grinning best. While its references may be very early-21st-century, its willingness to state its case cement it as an album in line with punk's tradition of turning norms on their heads and shaking them loose.

TRACK LISTING

1. Waiting On My Horrible Warning
2. The Bar Is Low
3. Ignorecam
4. Cold Whip Cream
5. Love Without Emotion
6. I'm A Man
7. (Won't Tell You) My Sign
8. It's Your Knees
9. Worldwide Marine Asset Financial Analyst
10. Have You Ever Been Furniture
11. Activia
12. Not Even Married

Manchester’s Whyte Horses have ambitiously re-recorded the entirety of their debut album Pop or Not – released earlier this year through CRC Music - with the talented children of St Bartholomew’s School Choir taking full reign of the vocals. Recording the vocals for the album at the historic RAK Studios in London earlier this November, the seventeen children, aged 6-11, have added a sense of pure unadulterated joy and their own fresh interpretation of this brilliant psychedelic pop album that is so completely and happily at odds with the current music industry.

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: Joyful kids' choir belting out the album of the year from 2016. With gusto! Absolutely brilliant!

TRACK LISTING

1. Pop Or Not (St. Barts Choir Version) - St. Barts Choir, Whyte Horses
2. The Snowfalls (St. Barts Choir Version) - St. Barts Choir, Whyte Horses
3. Promise I Do (St. Barts Choir Version) - St. Barts Choir, Whyte Horses
4. Relance II (St. Barts Choir Version) - St. Barts Choir, Whyte Horses
5. Peach Tree Street (St. Barts Choir Version) - St. Barts Choir, Whyte Horses
6. La Couleur Originelle (St. Barts Choir Version) - St. Barts Choir, Whyte Horses
7. She Owns The World (St. Barts Choir Version) - St. Barts Choir, Whyte Horses
8. When I Was A Scout (St. Barts Choir Version) - St. Barts Choir, Whyte Horses
9. Elusive Mr Jimmy (St. Barts Choir Version) - St. Barts Choir, Whyte Horses
10. The Other Half Of The Sky (St. Barts Choir Version) - St. Barts Choir, Whyte Horses
11. Wedding Song (St. Barts Choir Version) - St. Barts Choir, Whyte Horses
12. Alone At Last (St. Barts Choir Version) - St. Barts Choir, Whyte Horses
13. The Dream Before (St. Barts Choir Version) - St. Barts Choir, Whyte Horses
14. Astrologie Siderale (St. Barts Choir Version) - St. Barts Choir, Whyte Horses
15. Back To Earth (St. Barts Choir Version) - St. Barts Choir, Whyte Horses
16. Feels Like Something's Changing (St. Barts Choir Version) - St. Barts Choir, Whyte Horses
17. Natures Mistakes (St. Barts Choir Version) - St. Barts Choir, Whyte Horses 

Owen, the acclaimed solo musical guise of singer / songwriter / multi-instrumentalist Mike Kinsella, has made an astonishing leap forward with ‘The King Of Whys’, the first work in his two decade-plus career to be made entirely outside of the greater Chicagoland area.

Produced by S. Carey over 18 days last winter at April Base Studios in Eau Claire, WI, the album is Owen’s most inspired and evocative thus far, interpolating a group dynamic into what has long been an intensely intimate sound.

Songs like ‘The Desperate Act’ and ‘Sleep Is A Myth’ remain spare but with a distinctly outward shift in scope, their open-armed sonic range a perfect foil to Kinsella’s evocative explorations of marriage, melancholia and modern middle age.

Fraught with hurt and wry humour, ‘The King Of Whys’ is a portrait of a restless artist grappling with doubt and ghosts of the past but searching for meaning through candour, creativity and an ardent need for emotional release.

TRACK LISTING

Empty Bottle
The Desperate Act
Settled Down
Lovers Come And Go
Tourniquet
A Burning Soul
Saltwater
An Island
Sleep Is A Myth
Lost

• Second ever vinyl pressing from Her Records
• Hand-Stamped edition of 400 copies.
• Mastered and cut by Matt Colton

Essential club pressure from Her Records, courtesy of label co-capo, MM (fka Miss Modular), including a dancehall flip of CYPHR’s Brace and arriving hard on the heels of Kid Antoine’s Bodypaint killer. Uptown, with Why You All In MY Face, he essentially picks up where their last white label, Fraxinus’ flip of DJ Diamond’s B-More classic Hey You Knuckle Heads left us; warping a bouncing B-more chassis with eye-quivering FX, handbrake turns, and the kind of sustained subbass tremors that make your clem fandango. Downtown, he performs dancehall voodoo on CYPHR’s Brace, screwing the ting to a slower tempo meshed with I-Octane & Bounty Killer’s vocal to Double Trouble for maximum danger. Trust these are tried and tested for all DJ and dancer...

TRACK LISTING

1. MM - Why You All In My Face
2. CYPHR - Brace (MM Trouble With I-Octane & Bounty Killer)

And just like that, with the sleazy sound of a robotic vocal, Hot Chip are back to defend their crown as undisputed electro-pop lotharios. Now onto their sixth album, the oddball outfit are in vintage form, hitting us with this energetic LP, which reflects all that's come before it without simply treading water. Opening track "Huarache Lights" is as well formed a pop song as you're likely to hear all year, combining breakbeats and disco samples with loose white funk, miami freestyle elements and classic Hot Chip shimmer. For those who've been down since day one, the quirky synth-funk of "Love Is The Future" and "Started Right" offer a more mature take on the sounds first heard on "Coming On Strong", while "White Wine And Fried Chicken" and "So Much Further To Go" are classic Hot Chip ballads in the same vein as "In The Privacy Of Our Love". At the top of the B-side, "Dark Night" sees the group heading into new territories, adding sweeping symphonic strings and distorted guitar to a sublime 80s styled pop groove. If you come to the record looking for the dancefloor stylings of "One Life Stand" and "In Our Heads", the synth heavy lilt of "Easy To Get" and the housed up magic of "Need You Now" should do you nicely, softening you up for the big psychedelic finish of "Why Make Sense?". And coming from one of the world's most unconventional pop acts, why indeed? 

Due to a unique and bespoke printing technique which has never been used before, the album will come in one of 501 different colours. Combined with subtle variations of the design, this means that EVERY copy of the album, on both CD and LP, will feature completely unique artwork. Visually and sonically adventurous and innovative, this is a giant leap forward for a band with plenty more to give.

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

Announcing 'Golden Tickets' - the latest mini album from WHY? The Wolf brothers' pop-inflected psychedelic folk-hop was nominally referred to as hip-hop at the beginning of their career. At this point - certainly on 'Golden Tickets' - the project has outgrown any easy genre-categorization. With the musical eclecticism, pop-twist, and experimental bent of artists like the Flaming Lips or Beck. WHY? shimmers on this album in vibraphone stippled, sweetly riffed songs with characteristically gut-wrenching subtext.

TRACK LISTING

1. Hunter Van Brocklin
2. Banana Mae
3. Fogg
4. GM Hearts AB
5. Murmurer
6. Dropjaw
7. Peta Godfrey

Hot Club de Paris mark their eagerly-awaited return in 2010 with a brand-new 6 song EP entitled “With Days Like This As Cheap As Chewing Gum, Why Would Anyone Want To Work?” (A phrase generously loaned by acclaimed British poet Matthew Welton). Still operating with their usual punk-rock ethic and still proudly flying the flag for British DIY, Hot Club are now self producing and recording themselves in their Liverpool rehearsal space.

STAFF COMMENTS

Laura says: Scouse three piece Hot Club De Paris return with this superb collection of acrobatic, articulate pop songs, neatly packaged into a limited edition 10" in a hand numbered sleeve.