A fixture in LA’s music scene for over a decade, singer and songwriter Samira Winter found a home in the city’s DIY rock community, carving out her own niche of gloriously detailed and eclectic dream pop under the name Winter. Her newest record and Winspear debut, 'Adult Romantix', is a farewell love letter to LA—“a tunnel of summers and memories”—inspired by Mary Shelley’s gothic-romantic literature and ’90s rom-coms. After growing up in Curitiba, Brazil and playing in her first bands in Boston, she relocated to Los Angeles in 2013 and fell in love with the city. But at a certain point, Samira was craving a change of scenery to facilitate self-growth, a painful, but necessary realization that brought about a move to New York City.

Leading up to her emotional coast-to-coast move, she spent roughly two years writing songs in a transitory state: often in between tours, in different cities, and in various sublets. The resulting 13 tracks became her new LP, 'Adult Romantix'— the follow-up to 2022’s landmark 'What Kind of Blue Are You?' Nostalgic and wistful, the album blends swirling guitars, cigarette-glazed vocals and a few notable guest collaborators, like Horse Jumper of Love’s Dimitri Giannopoulos and Hannah van Loon of Tanukichan. Influenced by touchstones like Sonic Youth’s 'Rather Ripped', Elliott Smith’s 'Either/ Or' and 2010s sunkissed California shoegaze, 'Adult Romantix' vacillates between dewy, strummy ecstasy and moody, nighttime desire. Marked by swirling, drive-pedal squalls and open-tuned acoustic guitar, there’s a palpable bittersweetness to these raw, lovesick tunes.

TRACK LISTING

1. Just Like A Flower (Intro)
2. Just Like A Flower
3. Hide-A-Lullaby
4. Misery
5. Existentialism
6. Sometimes I Think About Death
7. Like Lovers Do
8. Without You
9. In My Basement Room
10. The Beach
11. Candy #9
12. Running
13. Hollow

Jessica Winter’s debut ‘My First Album’ is a fully realised bold, questioning album, full of personality sitting somewhere on the spectrum between therapy and the dancefloor. Musically there are shades of Kylie Minogue and the glitter of 80s Madonna, there’s the flamboyance of Prince and Queen, the energy and occasional snarl of punk and the dreamy arched eyebrow of psychedelia. In a world where maximalist pop is back and therapy memes rule supreme, My First Album is the perfect soundtrack.

Jessica Winter is a British singer, songwriter, and producer known for her experimental pop music that blends elements from various genres, including pop, industrial, and indie. To date, Jessica has released a series of EPs, including Limerence (2023), More Sad Music (2021), and Sad Music (2020), each showcasing her ability to infuse unconventional themes and introspective lyrics into pop song structures.

In addition to her solo project, Winter has an extensive list of credits as a co-writer and producer, having collaborated with artists like The Horrors, The Big Moon, Jazmin Bean, Phoebe Green, Lauren Auder, Pre Goblin, Sundara Karma, Walt Disco, and Brodka.


“a pure pop confection” – The New York Times.
“Jessica Winter is a pop-music obsessive whose sound and lyrics are high-concept experimentations that test how far she can take the genre” - Rolling Stone US
“The UK’s most exciting alt-pop oddball” - NME
“Moreish pop music that’ll be spinning around your head for days” - GQ
“Gothic, pop-centric cabaret” - The Guardian
“Weird, moreish pop music” - Dazed
“Rebellious alt-pop that feels both classic and utterly new” - CLASH
“The new face of outsider pop” - The Line Of Best Fit
“Vibrant, paradoxical, and all-in-all exuberant” - DIY
“Jessica Winter is an artist with an astounding talent” - So Young

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Bright, bold synth pop that sounds as influenced by modern synthesis and production techniques as it is the classic synth era, and shows a songwriter who is unafraid to embrace pop sensibilities while taking things a little outside the comfort zone. Hefty in parts, sugary sweet in others and wonderfully written throughout.

TRACK LISTING

1. Nirvana
2. L.O.V.E.
3. Feels Good (For Tonight)
4. Aftersun
5. Big Star
6. Worst Person In The World
7. I See The Robin
8. All I Ever Really Wanted
9. Wannabe
10. Just Like That
11. Got Something Good
12. Only Lonely
13. To Know Her

Underground Resistance's truly iconic Red Planet series is a collection of Mars-indebted techno records that no lover of Detroit techno should be without. Composed by the illusive The Martian alias - supposedly credited to Will Thomas but often referring to a number of producers working together - the series was described by one Discogs user as: 'Sounds like some brothers from Detroit and a bunch of Native Americans got together and decided they had enough of this world and went off to Mars to form a musical tribe that would beam back their creations to earth in the hopes of enlightening humanity'. It's certainly striking music with a strong audio fingerprint throughout and, considering its origins in 1992, has remained considerably ahead of its time even now.

"Skypainter" and "Season Of The Solar Wind" are in this week, both taken from RP5. "Skypainter" (along with "Sex In Zero Gravity") is one of the key anthems from the series. A soaring, interstellar ascension into Detroitian synth star clusters it just grows and grows throughout its near 10 minute duration. A breath taking rocket ride you won't wanna get off!

"Season Of The Solar Wind" treads a more tense and foreboding path. Like the first explorers to set foot on a strange new planet, it veers aggressively from traditional dance music standards and has as much in common with the crazed sonics of Cabaret Voltaire or Throbbing Gristle.

Personally, I think every home deserves at least two Red Planet records in it. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Huge Detroit techno record from the early 90s which has more than stood the test of time - it still sounds futuristic today! "Skypainter" is up their as one of my favourite techno tracks ever made, so I'll take it quite personally if you shun this much needed repress!

TRACK LISTING

A1. Skypainter
B1. Season Of The Solar Wind

Leading this Winter 2024 issue are a typical Face mix of actor Nicholas Alexander Chavez, model Amelia Gray, rapper Yeat and the queer soldiers of Ukraine.

Composer and trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire’s honey from a winter stone, which he calls a “self-portrait”, features improvisational vocalist Kokayi, pianist Sam Harris, Chiquitamagic on synthesizer, drummer Justin Brown, and the Mivos Quartet (violinist Olivia Deprato and Maya Bennardo, violist Victor Lowrie Tafoya, cellist Tyler Borden). Akinmusire also says, “In many respects this entire work is inspired by and is an homage to the work of the composer Julius Eastman and his organic music concept.”

“This album is about the fears and struggles I personally face, as well as those many Black men endure: colorism, erasure, and the question of who gets to speak for my community, and why,” Akinmusire explains. “There’s also the constant negotiation of what happens when I don’t conform to certain expectations or when I choose to reject those imposed on me. These are the complexities I navigate daily.”

TRACK LISTING

1. Muffled Screams
2. Bloomed (The Ongoing Processional Of Nighas In Hoodies)
3. MYanx.
4. Owled
5. S-/Kinfolks

Lovely top quality black Russell Athletic 280g Authentic hoodie with front kangaroo pocket. Features a large distressed orange screen print of our classic logo on the front. 

10th Anniversary re-issue of Smoke Fairies’ seasonally themed masterpiece 'Wild Winter' on limited edition ‘Snowglobe Blizzard’ vinyl. Ten seasonal tracks from Smoke Fairies including 'Christmas Without A Kiss', '3 Kings' and Handsome Family cover 'So Much Wine' and their version of Captain Beefheart’s 'Steal Softly Thru Snow'. Smoke Fairies (Katherine Blamire and Jessica Davies) explained: "We have a love / hate relationship with winter and the Christmas holiday.

When it was suggested Smoke Fairies make a Christmas album the last thing we wanted to do was make a classic, jolly, celebratory album that can only be played once a year. Sometimes winter provides us with a sense of togetherness and love and sometimes it leaves us feeling alienated, cold and playing a glockenspiel alone in a darkened room. It's part of the year that will always be bittersweet and wild. This was the inspiration behind the record. We got together with our band, played around with the songs a few times then headed off to the studio to record them all live. It's buzzy and raw and not one tinkling of sleigh bells can be heard."

The result is a record that very much is its own world. Where chaos is carefully organized, where being able to ever actually chill out is totally illusory, a trick mirror.

TRACK LISTING

1. Christmas Without A Kiss
2. Steal Softly Thru Snow
3. Kings
4. Ive And Receive
5. Circles In The Snow
6. Bad Good
7. Wild Winter
8. Snowglobe Blizzard
9. So Much Wine
10.All Up In The Air

Lovely top quality black Russell Athletic 280g Authentic sweatshirt with a large distressed orange screen print of our classic logo on the front.

Lovely top quality black Russell Athletic 280g Authentic sweatshirt with a large distressed white screen print of our classic logo on the front.

‘Heavy Metal’ is the debut solo album from Geese frontman Cameron Winter. It’s an unexpected sonic left turn from Geese’s now-patented brand of jam-adjacent indie twang.

Winter mostly forgoes stadium-sized guitars in favour of a softer touch that puts his mystical, imaginative lyrical style on full display.

Occasionally confounding, endlessly rewarding, ‘Heavy Metal’ reveals Winter as a chameleonic master of his craft, a shapeshifting singer-songwriter in the mould of greats like Dylan, Cohen and Nilsson.

TRACK LISTING

The Rolling Stones
Nausicaä (Love Will Be Revealed)
Love Takes Miles
Drinking Age
Cancer Of The Skull
Try As I May
We’re Thinking The Same Thing
Nina In A Field Of Cops
0$ Man
Can’t Keep Anything

Nearly two decades after it was first released, Norken’s sleek cult classic album ‘Our Memories Of Winter’ is being reissued on vinyl via Hydrogen Dukebox.

With its unique sonic blueprint of early 2000s electronica, ‘Our Memories Of Winter’ is a record that is at once both deeply reminiscent of a particular era and place, yet remains a timeless invocation of Norken’s idiosyncratic palette of minimal, techno, house and British IDM.

This vinyl reissue presents all 12 tracks from the original release, with the inclusion of 'Df23' and 'Flirt' making this the first time that ‘Our Memories Of Winter’ is available on vinyl with the complete album tracklisting.

Norken is one of the many pseudonyms of Lee Norris, a producer who is considered by those in the know as one of the unsung heroes of UK electronica. With a slew of releases throughout the years as Man-Q-Neon, Nacht Plank, Norken, Tone Language and Metamatics, this reissue shines a light on his soulful, immersive output under the Norken name.

As Norris explains, “The release of ‘Our Memories Of Winter’ has a nostalgic, warm feeling for me. I made his album in a garden shed with a wood burner, an Atari computer and a few synths in the depths of an English winter. I still had the thought process of making emotional style techno that would warm any soul on a cold day.”

First released in 2005, ‘Our Memories Of Winter’ carries the echoes of electronic luminaries such as the Detroit ambient techno of John Beltran, through to the immersive atmospherics of Biosphere and the innovative IDM of fellow British outfits Autechre and The Black Dog. Yet as Norken, Norris retains a distinctive musical voice that has continued to deepen in stature over the years since the album’s initial release.

Opening with the brief intro cut ‘Fern 2’, the album slides into the dreamlike groove of ‘Memories’, where rich, resonant chords wrap around cool, galactic-sounding synths and a compelling bass undertow.

On ‘It Might Have Been Rain’, that signature bass texture again propels a luxuriant mid-tempo rhythm, while Norken layers in hypnotic washes of string-like synths, gentle electronic pulses and the brief murmur of a vocal, across seven-plus immersive minutes.

Vocal textures, often subtly looped and distorted, also add a distinctive depth and personality to tracks like ‘Eastern Soul’ and ‘Here’. Throughout the album, there’s a feeling of intricate microcosms unfurling, as Norken coaxes a myriad of contemplative moods and emotions from his machines.

Whether shaping the smooth, lulling ambient gauze of ‘Ty Canol’, or letting the kaleidoscopic, dancefloor-leaning drive of ‘Audic Strable’ loose like a coiled spring, ‘Our Memories Of Winter’ presents the singular voice of an artist whose innovative contribution to UK electronic music has only become heightened with the passing of time.

TRACK LISTING

A1 Fern 2
A2 Memories
A3 It Might Have Been Rain
B1 Eastern Soul
B2 Ty Canol
B3 Df23
C1 Here
C2 Folio
C3 Flirt
D1 Nights Mixture 2
D2 Audic Strable
D3 Jude Says Goodbye

GRAMMY-winning Icelandic-Chinese artist, composer, producer and multi-instrumentalist Laufey brings her annual holiday series, A Very Laufey Holiday, to vinyl for the first time. The Winter Wonderland edition features a red 7 inch disc with the holiday classic on side A and "Christmas Dreaming" on Side B.

TRACK LISTING

Side A - Winter Wonderland
Side B - Christmas Dreaming

WAWBARC is Mathieu Ball (BIG|BRAVE) + Efrim Manuel Menuck (Thee Silver Mt Zion, Godspeed You! Black Emperor) + Jonathan Downs (Ada) + Patch (Ada). On “NO MORE APOCALYPSE FATHER” they present six modal lullabies drenched in seared distortion, slathered across striding electronic pulses.

Ball and Menuck began creating music in and for the bleakest moments of Montréal winters: “We’re honoring that idea of winter, when you come inside and your house is warm, a place that only exists because of how cold it is outside,” says Menuck. They later recruited Downs and Patch to flesh out their initial ideas. Menuck met them in 2015 when recording Ada’s final album at Montréal’s Hotel2Tango — where they reconvened to make this record.

“NO MORE APOCALYPSE FATHER” is an album about witnessing bleakness from a place of safety. Carrying newfound descriptive depth, thanks to the quartet’s open-ended songs freeing him from writing in meter, Menuck likens his lyrics to photorealism. On opener ‘Rats and Roses’ he sings of an unnamed city struck by an unknown cataclysm, but the details are local: specifically, his neighbors inadvertently poisoning birds when tackling a rat infestation. It’s backed by blown out synths and guitars reaching a soaring crescendo. “Seeing things from a distance and not being able to intervene happens a lot on the record,” Menuck explains. “If you’re a feeling and thinking person, that’s just part of the human condition. We watch horror unfolding from afar, unable to do anything concrete to change it.”

A powerless witness, able to describe but not intervene. ‘Dangling Blanket From A Balcony (White Phosphorous)’ references Michael Jackson holding his child over a hotel balcony in 2002 the bizarre media spectacle still lodged in Menuck’s psyche. This and the album’s closing track also elegize white phosphorous, a technology of war designed to light up battlefields but capable of inflicting horrific burns on those it touches. Illumination and horror in one, here underpinning scenes picturesque and terrifying. “The last song ‘(Goodnight)

White Phosphorous’ is deliberately like a lullaby,” says Menuck. “Written from the viewpoint of watching white phosphorous falling outside your window.”

Scorched and tarnished and laden with harrowing imagery, “NO MORE APOCALYPSE FATHER” is also a record bathed in light: the bewilderment of hopeful spirits witnessing despair, watching a blizzard of distress unfold outside from a place of relative shelter and comfort. You could call that emotional ambivalence, maybe numbness. But those words are too passive for the weight of conflicted feeling resonating through the album.

“I never know how I feel on an overcast day when the sun is still bright despite the grayness and the light is very flat. The colours become more saturated, and you see a single flower, say a morning glory, whose colour is so vibrant beneath the gray, I don’t know if that’s a lovely sensation or a terrible sensation. It’s both,” says Menuck.

TRACK LISTING

Rats And Roses
Tremble Pour Light
No More Apocalypse Father
Uncloudy Days
Dangling Blanket From A Balcony (White Phosphorous)
(Goodnight) White Phosphorous

In celebration of Weezer’s innovative SZNZ project - a collection of four EPs matching each season that have been made and released in real time throughout 2022 - the band is thrilled to share the final instalment, ‘SZNZ: Winter’.

Like SZNZ: Spring, SZNZ: Summer and SZNZ: Autumn before, the seasonal equinox on December 21 will arrive alongside a new Weezer EP. A stripped back, acoustic-leaning body of work, SZNZ: Winter encompasses the harrowing sadness that can so easily pair with the winter months.

SZNZ: Winter, the final part in Weezer’s four-EP song cycle, continues the narrative started on SZNZ: Autumn, SZNZ: Spring and SZNZ: Summer bringing Pagan myths, Shakespeare, Catholic rituals, Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, and more to life. Each SZNZ EP offers its own palette of colors, creatures, and emotions to explore. They were all created in real time, made in tandem with the season themselves. Once they’ve all been released on December 21, the EPs will create an incredible collection of some of Weezer’s best songs yet, no small feat for a band that never leaves the Zeitgeist.

TRACK LISTING

I Want A Dog
Iambic Pentameter
Basketball
Sheraton Commander
Dark Enough To See The Stars
The One That Got Away
The Deep And Dreamless Sleep

Celebrating the 10th Anniversary Edition of Olafur Arnalds For Now I Am Winter, the album has been remastered for vinyl and pressed in a limited edition clear colour with exclusive art prints inside.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
Sudden Throw
Brim
For Now I Am Winter
A Stutter
Words Of Amber
Side B
Reclaim
Hands, Be Still
Only The Winds
Old Skin
We (Too) Shall Rest
This Place Was A Shelter
Carry Me Anew

There was plenty of genuine discontent in Britain at the tail end of the 1970s, and it had little to do with bin strikes or dark rumours about overflowing morgues. In the world of popular music, the most liberating after-effect of the Sex Pistols was that anyone with something to say now felt they could make a 7” single. “Winter Of Discontent” is the sound of truly DIY music, made by people who maybe hadn’t written a song until a day or two before they went into the studio. It’s spontaneous and genuinely free in a way the British music scene has rarely been before or since.

“Winter of Discontent” has been compiled by Saint Etienne’s Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs, the latest in their highly acclaimed series of albums that includes “The Daisy Age”, “Fell From The Sun” and “English Weather” ("really compelling and immersive: it’s a pleasure to lose yourself in it" - Alexis Petridis, the Guardian). The era's bigger DIY names (Scritti Politti, TV Personalities, the Fall) and the lesser-known (Exhibit A, Digital Dinosaurs, Frankie’s Crew) are side by side on “Winter Of Discontent”. Mark Perry’s Sniffin’ Glue command – “Here’s one chord, here’s another, now start a band” – was amplified by the Mekons and the Raincoats, whose music shared a little of punk’s volume, speed and distortion, but all of its obliqueness and irreverence.

The discontent was with society as a whole. No subject matter was taboo: oppressive maleness (Scritti Politti); deluded Britishness (TV Personalities); gender stereotypes (Raincoats, Androids of Mu); nihilistic youth (Fatal Microbes); alcoholism (Thin Yoghurts); self-doubt and pacifism (Zounds). The band names (Thin Yoghurts!) and those of individual members (Andrew Lunchbox!) had enough daftness to avoid any accusations of solemnity.

“Winter Of Discontent” is the definitive compilation of the UK DIY scene, and a beacon in grim times. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Darryl says: A soundtrack to a generation of discontent in the late 70s. DIY music that spontaneously smashed through the British music scene in the wake of the punk revolution.
Mark Perry’s Sniffin’ Glue command, “Here’s one chord, here’s another, now start a band” was the fuse and these tracks are the light that shone through those dark days.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE ONE
1. WHERE WERE YOU? – The Mekons
2. VIOLENCE GROWS – Fatal Microbes
3. THE TERRAPLANE FIXATION – Animals & Men
4. WORK – Blue Orchids
5. SMALL HOURS – Karl’s Empty Body
6. SOMEBODY – Frankie’s Crew
SIDE TWO
1. CONFIDENCE – Scritti Politti
2. DRINK PROBLEM – Thin Yoghurts
3. LOW FLYING AIRCRAFT – Anne Bean & Paul Burwell
4. BROW BEATEN – Performing Ferret Band
5. NO FORGETTING – The Manchester Mekon
6. FAIRYTALE IN THE SUPERMARKET – The Raincoats
SIDE THREE
1. CAN’T CHEAT KARMA – Zounds
2. BORED HOUSEWIVES – Androids Of Mu
3. IN MY AREA (Take 2) – The Fall
4. THE SIDEWAYS MAN – The Digital Dinosaurs
5. ATTITUDES – The Good Missionaries
6. THE WINDOW’S BROKEN – Human Cabbages
SIDE FOUR
1. KING AND COUNTRY – Television Personalities
2. IN THE NIGHT – Exhibit ‘A’
3. NUDES - Performing Ferret Band
4. DIFFERENT STORY – Tarzan 5
5. THE RED PULLOVER – The Gynaecologists
6. PRODUCTION LINE – The Door And The Window

Talking about the single, Bob Stanley said:

We love Christmas, as you probably know, and it feels like it's been a while since our last really Christmassy Christmas record. But I think Pete has done a properly beautiful, icy, frosted, festive job on 'Her Winter Coat’. Alasdair's film for it is the icing on the yule log. I hope you love it as much as I do. We're really looking forward to playing it live!

Pete Wiggs added:

To complement 'Her Winter Coat', Sarah and Gus Bousfield have come up with the incredibly catchy 'A Kiss Like This', laden with swirling hibernal synths, and for a touch of Cold War frost we have the brooding melancholy instrumental 'Lillehammer' to complete the package. Hope you love 'em all!

TRACK LISTING

1. Her Winter Coat (edit)
2. Lillehammer
3. A Kiss Like This
4. Her Winter Coat 

Not many heavy metal bands have tried their hands on Christmas songs. Last year, Greek power metal band Silent Winter decided to give it a try, and recorded 'We Wish You A Merry Christmas' in full blown metal style, including high pitched yet melodic vocals and, of course, guitar solos. Given the more than 20.000 views of thei video, it did indeed find an audience in the metal community. And now the song found its way to vinyl, as B-side to Silent Winter’s single for the Snowflakes Christmas Singles Club. Songwriter and guitarist Kiriakos Balanos took up the challenge to write a new Christmas metal song, and came up with 'Holy Land Of Fire And Snow', the A-side of the single. It's five-and-half minute of fast paced power metal, that couples sleigh bells, an angel choir and church bells with heavy guitars, ultra fast solos and blast beats. The sometimes melodic and sometimes screaming vocals of Mike Livas tell the tale of this holy land of fire and snow, where Santa reigns, who doesn't seem to be as peaceful as we have been told, as he travels through the black and starry sky with his burning sleigh, causing panic and destruction along the way.

Silent Winter was originally formed in the mid-1990s in the Greek city of Volos, recorded two demo's and broke up in 2001. In 2018 the band reformed and now in 2020, Silent Winter consists of singer Mike Livas (also in Maidenance and Keepers of Jericho), guitarists Kiriakos Balanos and Vaggelis Papadimitriou, bassist Vaggelis Tsekouras and drummer John Antonopoulos. In 2019, Silent Winter recorded its first full length, 'The Circles Of Hell' for Sonic Age Records, to good reviews. Their 2020 lathe cut 7" 'Nightfall', sold out on the day of release.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Holy Land Of Fire And Snow
B1. We Wish You A Merry Christmas

The power of a Winter song is hard to describe, like how the delicate world building of a good book can be more compelling than real life. There's a make-believe, fairy tale surrealism that sets Winter's blend of shoegaze and psychedelia apart while existing in the same universe as the ethereal dream pop of Cocteau Twins and Melody's Echo Chamber.

Samira Winter grew up in Curitiba, Brazil, where her Brazilian mother filled their home with the gentle melodies of MPB (música popular brasileira), and her father introduced her to the distorted sounds of American punk. At 18, she moved to Boston where she first released music as Winter, eventually moving to LA's Echo Park. Winter has built a cult following with a stream of bilingual releases and national tours supporting Boogarins, Broncho and Cherry Glazerr, not to mention dates in Mexico, South America and Europe.

“Winter’s breathy voice is pretty magical.” Brooklyn Vegan. 

“Winter makes cosmic dream-pop fit for stargazing. The languid motion of their soaring tunes are filtered through fuzzy sounds of slowly writhing guitar work.” AudioTree.

TRACK LISTING

Between You & I
Endless Space (Between You & I)
Here I Am Existing
Healing
In The Z Plan
Say
Bem No Fundo (feat. Dinho Almeida)
Constellation
Memoria Colorida
Wherever You Are
Pure Magician

Christmas is a time to spend with family and to feel a bit nostalgic, and exactly these two aspects of Christmas come together on the single the Swedish acid folk duo Us And Them recorded for the Snowflakes Christmas Singles Club. In 'When The Stars Are Brightly Shining', the fragile vocals of singer Britt Rönnholm recapture the get-together with friends and family on Christmas Eve, the return to the place where you have spend your youth and the memories it all brings back. Multi-instrumentalist Anders Håkanson uses a wide range of instruments to built an atmospheric soundtrack to Britt's meanderings. Their version of Tori Amos' 1992 single 'Winter' is much in the same vein. In the song, Tori remembers the winters of her childhood and the bond she built up with her father during her youth. Us And Them replace the intensity of the original with the same nostalgic mood that can be found on the A-side, making the songs on this single sound as the family they are.

Us And Them are the Swedish duo of multi-instrumentalist Anders Håkanson and singer Britt Rönnholm (who also happen to be a married to each other), that came together in 2006 when Anders, who had been playing in bands since being a kid, realized that he wanted to do something different. Influenced by British folk, baroque pop and the softer side of psychedelica, he started recording songs with Britt on vocals, and this developed into Us And Them. Since the start of the group, Us And Them have released singles EP's and albums on labels like Fruits De Mer and Mega Dodo. Most records feature a mixture of covers and originals, all in the distinct dreamy, fragile and otherwordly Us And Them style, an update of the sound of psychedelic acid folk for the 21st Century.

TRACK LISTING

A1. When The Stars Are Brightly Shining
B1. Winter

Blackwater Holylight, as the name suggests, is all about contrasts. It’s a fluid convergence of sound that’s heavy, psychedelic, melodic, terrifying and beautiful all at once.

As a heavy band, their songs aren’t anchored to riffs, but rather riffs come and go in waves that surface throughout the band’s meditative, entrancing songs. It’s a hypnotic sound, with orchestral structures that often build tension and intrigue before turning the song on its head — not by simply getting louder or heavier, nor by just layering elements. They expertly subvert the implied heaviness of a part, dissecting it and splaying the song's guts out to seep across the sonic spectrum.

Now, having toured together extensively following the band’s wildly-successful breakout self-titled debut in 2018, Blackwater Holylight has honed their sound and identity to a powerfully captivating beast. Their live set is all about the slow build, seeming to combine the melodic tension of early Sonic Youth crossed with the laconic fever-dream blues of the first Black Sabbath album, and wiry experimentation of post-punk and krautrock.

The lineup on this album is Allison (Sunny) Faris (bass/vocals), Laura Hopkins (guitar/vocals) and Sarah McKenna (synths), with new guitarist Mikayla Mayhew and drummer Eliese Dorsay fleshing out their sound in exciting ways.

“The process of this album was vastly different from our first record,” says Faris. “One, because we recorded it over the course of a few weeks, whereas the first record was over the course of about a year. And two, this album was a true collaboration between the five of us. Each of us had extremely equal parts in writing and producing, we all bounced ideas off each together, and we all had a say in what was going on during every part of the process.”

“One of our favorite things about this album is that because it was so collaborative, we didn't compartmentalize ourselves into one vibe.” She continues. “It’s heavy, psychedelic, pop, shoegaze, doom, grunge, melodic and more. The whole process was extremely organic and natural for us, we were just being ourselves.”

Veils of Winter opens with fuzzed-drenched, drop-tuned bass and baritone guitar leading a dirge riff on “Seeping Secrets.” Faris’ lilting and funereal vocals drop in, adding to the mournful atmosphere until a short turnaround progression hints at changes to come, as Faris and Hopkins harmonize eerily and the tune suddenly turns into a krautrock charge. “Motorcycle” kicks off deceptively with a heavy grunge riff building up for about 40-seconds before the song abruptly shifts gears into a synth-led post-punk harmony, sounding something like Lush meets Syd Barrett era Pink Floyd. “Death Realms” is perhaps the poppiest track, based around soaring shoegaze guitars and interwoven light vocal harmonies. Soft piano notes, occasional woozy whammy bar dives and a driving tom-tom beat solidify its hooks. “Spiders” is a creepy-crawly guitar riff and counterpoint keys, while “Moonlit” explores prog-structures with a shredding guitar solo crescendo. The penultimate track, “Lullaby” is exactly that, a lulling, expansive tune exemplifying Blackwater Holylight’s genre smashing sound as it subtly moves across a vast sonic landscape atop a hypnotic 6/8 beat and repetitive 3-note motif. Throughout the album, their songs shirk traditional verse-chorus-verse structure in favor of fluid, serpentine compositions that move with commanding grace.

TRACK LISTING

Seeping Secrets
Motorcycle
The Protector
Daylight
Death Realms
Spiders
Lullaby
Moonlit

Davey Woodward has been a prolific songwriter with his bands The Brilliant Corners and The Experimental Pop Band. An indie pop legend to some, obscure outsider to most. He approaches his fourth decade making alternative music with the same enthusiasm and single mindedness as he did in the first. Julian (guitar) had not been in a studio for over a decade. Steve (drums) was playing in a million other bands but found time. Steve knew Mark who was a guitarist. Davey said well he can play bass and piano then! Davey played them the songs. The band said they liked the songs. They told Davey the songs sounded very personal, were they? They said it reminded them of English Folk, Courtney Barnett, The Velvets, The Band and Johnny Cash. 

Pantha du Prince's new EP 'The Winter Hymn' features the titular album cut along with the exclusive track “Post Human Palisades (feat. Bendik & Kassian)” and an extended mix of the album track “Dream Yourself Awake".

Brilliant new Ltd 7" single taken from their third album "Get To Heavern" which charted Top 5. The follow up to "Distant Past" & "Regret", this single is set to follow onto radio playlists across all major networks, plus ad campaign. Backed with exclusive track "Live Intro".

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

EXCLUSIVE WHITE VINYL RSD FORMAT HAND NUMBERED!

Limited to 250 copies.

For Now I Am Winter is Ólafur Arnalds’ third full-length studio album. His earlier albums, soundtracks and EPs, have been released through the Berlin based cult label Erased Tapes.

Building and expanding on his previous more minimalist work, Arnalds’ new album is his first to involve a full orchestra (coarranged by Nico Muhly) and a vocalist (Agent Fresco lead singer Arnór Dan) on selected tracks, making it his most broadly appealing work to date.

With his previous recordings, extensive touring activities and prominent synch placements of his music he has managed to build up a dedicated fan base in Europe, North America and China.

TRACK LISTING

1. Sudden Throw - Ólafur Arnalds
2. Brim - Ólafur Arnalds
3. For Now I Am Winter - Ólafur Arnalds, Arnor Dan
4. A Stutter - Ólafur Arnalds, Arnor Dan
5. Words Of Amber - Ólafur Arnalds
6. Reclaim - Ólafur Arnalds, Arnor Dan
7. Hands, Be Still - Ólafur Arnalds
8. Only The Winds - Ólafur Arnalds
9. Old Skin - Ólafur Arnalds, Arnor Dan
10. We (Too) Shall Rest - Ólafur Arnalds
11. This Place Was A Shelter - Ólafur Arnalds
12. Carry Me Anew - Ólafur Arnalds

A masterwork of minimalism, 'Winter Lady' - Alicia Merz's sophomore solo effort as Birds Of Passage sees an return to the desolate and melancholic soundcscapes of her highly acclaimed debut, 'Without The World'. With 'Winter Lady', Alicia presents us with an endearing invitation into her fragile world, a captivating through the landscapes of her emotional euphoria and agony, a further commitment to musical experimentation, a worthy addition to the oeuvre of Birds Of Passage. The cold minimalist-drones, distorted field recordings, and sparse instrumentation, illustrate an icy, desolate and dark. It's as if we are listening to the sound of winter itself; an audio exposure to the unforgiving elements of winter. With allusions to dark-pop and classic broken-folk, the reverb drenched instrumentation, metaphorical fairytale lyrics, and anti-climactic compositionsi remind us that Alicia Merz is a singer songwriter for people who don't like singer songwriters. With 'Winter Lady', Alicia re-establishes herself as a true musical maverick - who is able to capture the imaginations of audiences as diverse as those of Sigur Ros, Grouper and Zola Jesus. In short, Birds Of Passage's ''Winter Lady' is an album of authentic experimentation, masterful minimalism, immense tragedy, and glacial beauty. It is not surprising that already after the first album Nils Frahm and Peter Broderick (Efterklang) belonged to the fanbase of Birds Of Passage.

TRACK LISTING

1. Fatal Melody
2. Highwaymen In Midnight Masks
3. Away With The Night
4. Disaster Of Dreams
5. Hollow
6. The Monster Inside You
7. Waltz While We Sleep

Cats For Peru's latest EP "We Had This Problem Last Winter" follows on from their debut album "Attack of the Pitching Machine" released at the end of 2009. The EP feature 4 news songs full of texture and emotion.

Speaking about the new EP, Ad from the band said: "Since the album, guitars have given me terrible nightmares; so I bought a synth and played that instead. This meant we had even more scope to, not to change direction as such, but to spout off like a musical tree."

TRACK LISTING

1. Open House
2. Duck In The Oven
3. Sleeping On Tightropes
4. Fear Of Better Things

PE Hewitt was just 16 years old when he recorded and released his debut album "Jawbones", in a run of just 50 copies. By the time he sold out of the 100 press of his third album, "Winter Winds", he was approaching the ripe-old age of 20. The three albums he and his group of young compatriots wrote, recorded, pressed and - in a sense - distributed are some of the very best late 60s / early 70s jazz records you could hope to hear. That’s why, despite a 40 year gap and the tiniest of private presses couldn’t suppress their re-emergence. Rather than offer us just an anthology Now-Again decided to give us all three albums as they were made, out of respect for Hewitt’s monstrous achievements. The label have recreated the albums as they were released, down to the hand-painted covers. Also included is a 44-page booklet which includes the original liner notes, an essay on Hewitt and his career, an interview with him and never-seen-before photos.

TRACK LISTING

Disc One – Jawbones
1. Free
2. Ihadmyheadoverthechickensouppot
3. Mary
4. Don’t Judge Your Brother
5. Cat House Blues
6. The Ones Left Behind
7. Betrayed
8. Bullheads In My Shoes Blues
9. Karen

Disc Two – Since Washington
1. Alone And Watching
2. Sad Sunday
3. Now Is Here
4. Donna
5. 3am
6. It Doesn’t Matter…Yes It Does…But I Can’t Stop
7. Tender Morning

Disc Three – Winter Winds
1. I’m Wondering Why
2. More Than Anything
3. It’s Got Two Names And That’s Alright
4. Ill Love Song
5. Oma Rakas
6. Bada Que Bash
7. Tuija

"Everything Last Winter" is the debut album from Fields, and it features re-recorded versions of their singles "If You Fail We All Fail" and "Song For The Fields". It also contains some of the most visually arresting artwork to grace a musical release in recent times. In keeping with the tone of the rest of their work the band have eschewed hiding behind computer trickery and all other mod cons and chosen to work with a real human being, a pen and a pad of paper.

"Gadzooks!" is the first album by new 6-piece experimental group The Broken Blackbird Ensemble. It features James and David from Big Eyes, but there the comparison ends. TBBE feature players previously and currently immersed in noise / sound experimentation, klezmer, folk, classical and acid-rock, but this, their first album, contains nothing that could be specifically classified under any of these categories. The album was recorded and improvised in one day (in September 2004), with some tracks from the vaguest principle, others conceived from scratch. Theirs is the sound of creaking wood, gothic ragas, horrored drones, a choir of pipes and oh-so hushed melody. Is free-folk the right term? Who knows, but there is definitely some music common ground between the New Weird America artists and TBBE.

James Green is a member of the Manchester / Leeds / Sheffield ensemble Big Eyes who've previously released stuff on Pickled Egg. "Tempers" is James' first solo outing and comprises of 14 delicate instrumental guitar pieces. All are first or second take and are either solo guitar or two tracks maximum. The CD is limited to 250 copies, and comes beautifully packaged in a lino-print sleeve. A must for fans of John Fahey, Bert Jansch, Jack Rose and The Dirty Three.

She's been described by Q magazine as 'West Country's first lady of noirsh guitar blues', and who are we to argue with that!!!

This Canadian outfit might be named after a Thomas Hardy novel, but they are a very long way from genteel. Their searing full length debut is a dissonant, driving, metal edged nightmare cut through with moments of dark, fragile and subtle beauty - ever changing riffs, crunching rhythms and a vocal style that ranges from entrancing, discordant harmony to visceral, desperate, spastic screaming. For fans of Converge and Cave In, and anyone else who gets off on intensity.

The moody NYC angst-pop duo Parker & Lily compose simple melanchic indie rock melodies, similar to Galaxie 500 and Stephen Merritt's Magnetic Fields, with dreamy atmospheric woozy instrumentation. Comparisons have been made to both Tindersticks and Mazzy Star's noir-ish pop and Arab Strap or Broadcast's smoky minimalism.