A limited edition first ever pressing of Arca’s iconic '@@@@@' mixtape, the scorching of earth that preceded the launch of her 'KICK' series. Delivering 62 minutes of quantum states, this is some of her most delicate and astonishing work to date - hard, soft, emotional, brutal, sincere and playful. Presented on double vinyl with an etched D-side.

TRACK LISTING

1. Diva
2. Construct
3. Turner
4. Devastation
5. Survivors
6. Recursion
7. Monstrua
8. Bebé
9. Amputee
10. Chipilina
11. In The Face
12. Predator
13. Pacifier
14. Psychosexual
15. Mujere
16. Cypher
17. Murciélaga
18. Phantasy
19. No Lo Digas
20. Amantes
21. Membrane
22. Apuro
23. Saintly Pride
24. Avasallada
25. Dysphoria
26. Gaita
27. Form
28. Travesti
29. Heaventsent
30. X

Tyler, The Creator is the 20 year old rapper, producer, writer, video director, visual artist, skater, cultural lightning rod and leader of LA’s acclaimed Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All (OFWGKTA). OFWGKTA are an eleven strong hip hop collective from Los Angeles who have self-released twelve solo albums over the last three years, including Tyler’s solo album "Bastard". Tyler, The Creator now delivers his second album ‘Goblin’ worldwide on XL Recordings. The 15 track album features the track "Yonkers", whose Tyler-directed video has already racked up nearly five million hits on Youtube.

TRACK LISTING

1. Goblin (song)
2. Yonkers
3. Radicals
4. She (featuring Frank Ocean)
5. Transylvania
6. Nightmare
7. Tron Cat
8. Her
9. Sandwitches (featuring Hodgy Beats)
10. Fish
11. Analog (featuring Hodgy Beats)
12. Bitch Suck Dick Featuring Jasper Dolphin And Taco
13. Window (featuring Domo Genesis, Frank Ocean, Hodgy Beats And Mike G)
14. AU79 (instrumental)
15. Golden

To celebrate its 25th anniversary, XL Recordings have released a special, expanded version of Leila’s acclaimed second album 'Courtesy Of Choice'. Originally released on 11th September 2000, the album followed the success of her Rephlex Records debut 'Like Weather' and felt like a broadcast from a futuristic radio station no one else could tune into. Twenty-five years on, alongside collaborations with the likes of Bjork, Aphex Twin and Terry Hall and iconic performances at the likes of the V&A and Venice Biennale, more and more listeners have found the frequency. While 'Courtesy of Choice's influence continues to transmit through contemporary culture. the Iranian-born, London-raised producer remains utterly singular:

"I realised very early on that people don't really belong anywhere. That's what gives me the freedom to do any kind of music...I don't feel any commitment or loyalty to anything. My commitment is to noise." – Leila

This new version, 'Courtesy Of Choice… asides and besides', re-presents the original 14 track album — including the previously vinyl-only 'Relax the Pleasuredome' — alongside a wealth of unreleased material. Leila chose to re-edit rather than remake the album (she has all the original data… midi and audio), choosing to set the parameters of only recovering buried details while preserving its spirit. “I wanted this reissue to be honest,” she explains. “Nothing added, just making sure the performances came through as they were meant to.” Among the twenty unheard tracks are Roya Arab’s striking collaboration on Cabaret classic 'Mein Herr', the surrealist collage 'A Reasoning' with a sample of Max Ernst, the hypnotic 'Acid Frog Fave', the digi rave blowout 'Birdie Rave', and 'techyarr’s future forever funk from the realm of primetime Neptunes. Together they reveal both the breadth of Leila’s vision and the enduring power of an album that continues to sound ahead of its time.

TRACK LISTING

LP Tracklisting:
1. Brave
2. Work
3. From Before... What?
4. Relax The Pleasuredome
5. Sodastream
6. Gush Goog
7. To Win Her Love
8. Thanks Mr Jones
9. To Tell A Lie
10. I Won't Forget
11. Be Clowns
12. Different Time
13. Different Time (Reprise)
14. Young Ones
15. Track 5
16. Existential Megamix
17. METHODOLOGIES
18. Lush Nova Elec
19. Old Dat Biz 1#46 (wakey Wakey)
20. Acid Frog Fave
21. Techyarr
22. A Reasoning
23. Old Tech 38
24. Sweets (bring U Back)
25. New Guardmeter
26. To Win Her Love
27. What I Offer
28. Mein Herr
29. Some Curious Joy (cute Tough Beat)
30. The Cuban Situation
31. Odds
32. The Gamble Room

CD Tracklisting:
1. Brave
2. Work
3. From Before... What?
4. Relax The Pleasuredome
5. Sodastream
6. Gush Goog
7. To Win Her Love
8. Thanks Mr Jones
9. To Tell A Lie
10. I Won't Forget
11. Be Clowns
12. Different Time
13. Different Time (Reprise)
14. Young Ones
15. Track 5
16. Existential Megamix
17. METHODOLOGIES
18. Lush Nova Elec
19. Old Dat Biz 1#46 (wakey Wakey)
20. Acid Frog Fave
21. Techyarr
22. A Reasoning
23. Old Tech 38
24. Sweets (bring U Back)
25. New Guardmeter
26. To Win Her Love S&g Asides
27. Cowboy Situation
28. What I Offer
29. Birdie Rave
30. Mein Herr
31. Some Curious Joy (cute Tough Beat)
32. The Cuban Situation
33. Odds
34. The Gamble Room

'Hail to the Thief Live Recordings 2003-2009' is a live album that allowed the band to re-evaluate their relationship with their 6th studio album, 'Hail To The Thief'.

The album comprises performances of songs in London, Amsterdam, Buenos Aires, and Dublin between 2003 and 2009. The album was mixed by Ben Baptie and mastered by Matt Colton.

Speaking about the new live album, Thom Yorke says:

“In the process of thinking of how to build arrangements for the Shakespeare Hamlet/Hail To The Thief theatre production, I asked to hear some archive live recordings of the songs. I was shocked by the kind of energy behind the way we played. I barely recognised us, and it helped me find a way forward. We decided to get these live recordings mixed and released (it would have been insane to keep them for ourselves). It has all been a very cathartic process. We very much hope you enjoy them.”

Thom Yorke recently co-created the critically acclaimed Hamlet Hail to the Thief, a frenetic adaptation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, set to a deconstructed score of reworked songs from 2003’s Hail to the Thief. Rolling Stone UK said of the new production, “The biggest testament to Yorke and his co-writers that these worlds collide so seamlessly, as if they were always meant to be together.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A wonderfully reimagined selection of live cuts of Radiohead's incendiary 6th LP, Hail To The Thief. Brilliantly bridging the gap between the original LP and their most recent foray into stage production. A wonderfully evocative display from one of the best live bands going.

TRACK LISTING

1. 2+2=5 (Live)
2. Sit Down, Stand Up (Live)
3. Sail To The Moon (Live)
4. Go To Sleep (Live)
5. Where I End And You Begin (Live)
6. We Suck Young Blood (Live)
7. The Gloaming (Live)
8. There, There (Live)
9. I Will (Live)
10. Myxomatosis (Live)
11. Scatterbrain (Live)
12. A Wolf At The Door (Live)

After five years marked by loss, grief, and transformation, keiyaA returns with new album 'Hooke’s Law' — a radiant statement of reinvention and healing. On lead single “take it”, the Chicago-born, NYC-based artist bends jazz, R&B, and hip-hop into something entirely her own, pairing raw vulnerability with visions of Black womanhood and liberation. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Silky smooth soul, dynamic R&B grooves and scattered loops on KeiaA's new odyssey for legendary label, XL. Wonderfully diverse soundworlds meet, mix and turn into something new in the hands of this super talented songwriter and producer.

TRACK LISTING

1. Waltz D'hethert
2. I H8 U
3. Stupid Prizes
4. Take It
5. Be Quiet!!!
6. Think About It/what U Think?
7. K.i.s.s.
8. Make Good
9. This Time (feat. Rahrah Gabor)
10. Lateeee
11. Get Close 2 Me
12. Fire Sign Oath
13. Motions
14. Motions (Reprise)
15. Break It
16. Thirsty
17. Devotions
18. Nobody Show
19. Until We Meet Again

Blawan’s new album 'SickElixir', released through XL Recordings, is a comprehensive realisation of the sound that he’s been pursuing for his whole career. It’s a record that he perceives to be his debut full-length and a deeply personal creative endeavour, one that helped him process family trauma, emotional upheaval, and the loss of friends.

Growing up in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, Blawan (real name Jamie Roberts) was obsessed with playing the drums, locking himself away for hours on end into an insular world of permanent percussion. When he was 14, he started working in a maggot farm and he credits the clanging sound of the farm’s industrial mincer as an influence on the way his music sounds – you can hear the echoes of rattling machinery in the fierce, meticulous drum programming that’s become his signature. After playing in various metal bands, Roberts’ musical horizons began to expand through visits to the West Indian Centre in Leeds, where he was introduced to techno, dubstep and everything in between.

Blawan emerged as a solo artist at the turn of the 2010s with EPs on cult labels such as Hinge Finger and Hessle Audio. He’s received widespread critical acclaim for his personal projects, while also forging a career as one half of live techno act Karenn and the metal-inspired band Persher, both formed in partnership with his close collaborator Pariah.

'SickElixir' cements his position as one of Britain’s most unique, pioneering artists, operating firmly in a lane of his own but in the same creative league as artists such as Aphex Twin, Bjork or Thom Yorke. It’s a manifesto for the way he sees music and sees himself, a journey through his own past but sonically a vision for the future.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A fractured, noise-led distillation of bass music, glitch and electronica mixed with a smattering of synthy melody. It's reminiscent of Oneohtrix Point Never in parts, and a little like Function's industrial momentum. Perfectly manicured, beautifully produced and absolutely mad.

TRACK LISTING

TBA

A truly unique voice, Giggs’ combination of slow flow, dark lyrics, a well-documented past and explosive street sales saw him hailed as one of the most exciting voices in British rap. He first burst onto the scene in 2008 with his debut ‘Talkin The Hardest’ a freestyle which has become one of British rap’s biggest anthems (over 12M views at YouTube). Giggs’ sold tens of thousands of copies of his mixtapes on his own SN1 (Spare No 1) label and won 2008’s BET Award for Best British Hip Hop Act before signing to XL Recordings for his iconic debut proper, ‘Let Em Ave It’ in 2010. 15 years on the album gets its first ever release on vinyl, featuring bonus tracks from the era that originally appeared as singles, including ‘Talking The Hardest’ and ‘Slow Songs’ featuring The Streets’ Mike Skinner.

TRACK LISTING

1: Intro
2: Hustle On
3: Look What The Cat Dragged In
4: The Way It Is
5: Bus Commercial
6: Get Your Money Up
7. Ner Ner
8. Reminiscing (featuring Joe Grind & Gunna Dee)
9. The Loves Still There (featuring Kyra)
10. Little Man & Me (featuring ML)
11. Life (featuring Shereen Shabana)
12. What More Do They Want
13. Matic (featuring Gunna Dee & Y Butch)
14. Signs
15. Up Up & Away (featuring J-Melo)
16. Have It Out
17. All I Know (Get Your Money Up Remix) (featuring Nathan)
18. Let Em Ave It
19. Don’t Go There (feat. B.O.B) [Bonus]
20. Talking The Hardest [Bonus]
21. Blow Em Away (feat. Shola Ama) [Bonus]
22. Slow Songs (feat. Mike Skinner) [Bonus]

One of his most sought-after gems from the last few years, XL Recordings finally release Four Tet's 'Into Dust (Still Falling)' - which features a mega sample of Mazzy Star’s 'Into Dust'. 

Taking Hope Sandoval's haunted, ethereal, fragile and nothing short of epoch-defining voice and stitching it delicately into one of his typically Four Tetian soundscapes, Hebden miraculously takes the song from around the campfires and early morning sunrises, and transports it into a glowing & gliding rush of nightclub euphoria. 

youtube user gamer7588 says: 'One of those tunes from the minute you first hear it you want to bottle it & save the feeling of escapism & drive off into the sunset'. We couldn't have said it better! 

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: An epic moment of dancefloor collectiveness and wide-eyed optimism that'll make its way into end-of-set closures by many a DJ across the board I reckon. Whodathunk Hebden and Mazzy Star would make such perfect bed fellows?

TRACK LISTING

1. Into Dust (Still Falling) (Extended Mix)
2. Into Dust (Still Falling) (Version)

A bold new twist on Everything Is Recorded’s “Porcupine Tattoo” – a standout track and the first single from this year’s acclaimed album "Temporary", now reimagined by none other than genre-defying sonic alchemist DJ Koze. Never one to follow convention, Koze turns the original (a collaboration with American musical icons Noah Cyrus and Bill Callahan) completely inside out. The result is a remix that’s both electrifying and gloriously unhinged. Invited by Richard Russell, the creative force behind Everything Is Recorded, Koze approached the track with trademark irreverence, merging his warped production sensibility with the raw energy of rave-era chaos. The remix nods to Russell and XL Recordings' embryonic musical roots. 'Richard asked me to approach this remix not with reverence – but with disrespect. It was liberating. Now it sounds a bit like a midlife crisis meets The Prodigy. You’ve been warned.' - DJ Koze

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Stonking bass-techno anthem which I imagine you'll be hearing quite a lot of if you frequent the larger, open-air electronic music gatherings. Monster stadium shudder from EIR and DJ Koze.

TRACK LISTING

A. Everything Is Recorded - Tattoo (DJ Koze Remix)

Crafted between Baltimore, London, and NYC, 'The Passionate Ones' is a sermon, a twelve-track catharsis, howled from the underbelly of late-stage capitalism, a blueprint for building your own altar in the ruins of the American Dream.

Initially created in Los Angeles' in late 2019, Nourished By Time emerged as Marcus Brown’s escape from the monotony of his day jobs and a continuously crushed spirit by an increasingly corrupt world. Channeling his deeply personal and sharply observational visions into songwriting, Brown has created a singular sonic world shaped by his hometown of Baltimore’s rich and eclectic musical heritage where jazz, punk, indie, hip hop, electronic and R&B collide in raw harmony. On 'The Passionate Ones', Brown tackles love, labor, existentialism, dreams, disillusionment, and hope through the lens of metamodernism, documenting an American story of an artist using their vices to keep them afloat while they follow their passions and dreams.

'The Passionate Ones' arrives in the wake of a radiant ascent. With 'Erotic Probiotic 2' (Scenic Route), Nourished by Time cracked open 2023—earning Pitchfork’s Best New Music and topping Gorilla vs Bear’s year-end list, while drawing praise from The Guardian, The FADER, Paste, and more. 2024’s 'Catching Chickens' (XL) only deepened the allure: CRACK Magazine placed him on its cover, naming ‘Hell of a Ride’ the track of the year. The song echoed across NPR, Resident Advisor, CLASH, The FACE, Mixmag, UPROXX, and Spotify’s Best Songs of 2024 lists, and he performed a magnetic live performance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert’s #LateShowMeMusic live series. Along the way, Nourished By Time’s voice threaded through collaborations with Yaeji, Kacy Hill, and evilgiane, a spectral remix of Dry Cleaning’s 'Gary Ashby', and tours with Metronomy, Panda Bear, and Toro y Moi, solidifying his position as one of contemporary music's most intriguing and vital new artists.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Nourished By Time's huge 'Erotic Probiotic 2' was one of the shop's heavy hitters all the way back in the distant lands of 2023. For his second LP for megalabel XL, Baltimore's Marcus Brown brings all the ravey rhythms and snappy 909's, crafting a comfortingly wonky base for his singular lysergic vocals. Drifty, dancey mayhem

TRACK LISTING

1. Automatic Love
2. Idiot In The Park
3. Max Potential
4. It’s Time
5. Cult Interlude
6. 9 2 5
7. Crazy People
8. Jojo Feat. Tony Bontana
9. BABY BABY
10. Tossed Away
11. When The War Is Over
12. The Passionate Ones

THE PICCADILLY RECORDS ALBUM OF THE YEAR 2024

Romance is the band’s first album with producer James Ford and is without doubt their most assured, inventive and sonically adventurous record yet. Its 11 tracks constellating ideas that have been percolating among Grian Chatten (vocals), Carlos O’Connell (guitar), Conor Curley (guitar), Conor Deegan (bass), and Tom Coll (drums) since they released Skinty Fia in 2022. These ideas crystalised while touring the U.S. and Mexico with Arctic Monkeys as the five band members shared music and found a throughline with artists that deftly build out their own sprawling creative worlds: the attitude and aesthetic sheen of artists like Shygirl and Sega Bodega, the bolshy sonic palettes of hip hop and heavy metal, Mos Def, A$AP Ferg, OutKast and Korn. They had time apart to build more singular visions for what future music could be: O’Connell went to Spain’s Castile-La Mancha and later became a new father, while Chatten spent time in LA, and Deegan in Paris. They laid deeper roots in London. Each member spent time pushing their boundaries – experimental riffs, chord progressions, and far-flung lyrical references without intentions for a record. After wrapping up the US arena tour in Autumn 2023, they spent a month writing together again, three weeks of pre-production in a North London studio, and a month in a chateau close to Paris, sleeping among studio equipment, completely immersed.

Of the album’s title, Conor Deegan says, “We’ve always had this sense of idealism and romance. Each album gets further away from observing that through the lens of Ireland, as directly as (Mercury Prize-nominated debut) Dogrel. The second album (the GRAMMY-nominated A Hero’s Death) is about that detachment, and the third (Skinty Fia) is about Irishness dislocated in the diaspora. Now we look to where and what else there is to be romantic about.”

Expounding on the theme, Chatten recalls Katsuhiro Ôtomo’s anime Akira, where the embers of love develop despite a maelstrom of technological degradation and political corruption around its characters. “I’m fascinated by that - falling in love at the end of the world,” he says. “The album is about protecting that tiny flame. The bigger armageddon looms, the more precious it becomes,” while O’Connell adds “This record is about deciding what’s fantasy – the tangible world, or where you go in your mind. What represents reality more? That feels almost spiritual for us.”

The sonic evolution of the band, who bared their teeth in early records with antagonistic punk sensibilities, is an ascent into grungier breaks, dystopian electronica, hip-hop percussion, and dreamy Slowdive-esque textures that may surprise fans. The shoegaze touchpoints first pressed on Skinty Fia unfold on Romance like a purpling bruise. But any “retro aesthetic”, as Chatten describes it, is left behind. Reflecting on the release, Chatten says, “We say things on this record we’ve wanted to say for a long time. I never feel like it's over, but it’s nice to feel lighter.” The fantasy is felt for better or worse, and Fontaines D.C. welcome either end of oblivion.

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: I obviously admired this band, in particular “Boys in the Better Land” and “Jackie Down the Line” (the big ones!) but I'd never committed to a full album before. To be perfectly honest, my feeling was that with their truckload of attitude and post punk urgency, they were more a band for the younger generation and not a boring old fart like myself! That's all changed with ‘Romance’ though. Mainly because the song-writing has gone up about ten notches! Grian Chatten proved himself a man of melody with last year's superb solo record, but here that's combined with his band's more dynamic, rambunctious and freewheeling vibe to make the perfect sound. Absolutely brilliant!

Liam says: Well, well, well, those boys from Dublin City have done it again. When we first heard the anxiety-inducing stomp of “Starburster” and the timeless indie jangle of “Favourite”, it certainly felt like Fontaines D.C. had something truly special on the horizon with 'Romance' - and oh boy were we correct. From the bombastic and cataclysmic synth-led opener of the title track, to the shoegaze tinged pairing of “Desire” and “Sundowner”, Fontaines' sonic palette is now at their most varied. “In The Modern World” is a sweeping Lana Del Rey inspired epic, whilst “Here's The Thing” and “Death Kink” go head first into grunge. Fontaines have always been massively popular in the shop with staff and customers alike, but there's no doubt that 'Romance' sets them on course to be the biggest band in the world and deservingly earning our album of the year title - absolutely incredible stuff!

TRACK LISTING

LP Tracklisting:
1. Romance
2. Starburster
3. Here's The Thing
4. Desire
5. In The Modern World
6. Bug
7. Motorcycle Boy
8. Sundowner
9. Horseness Is The Whatness
10. Death Kink
11. Favourite

7” Tracklisting:
1. It's Amazing To Be Young
2. Before You I Just Forget

2024 was a defining year for Dublin quintet Fontaines D.C., whose fourth album ROMANCE was lauded as one of the year’s very best, cementing their status as one of the most exciting bands in contemporary music. Topping multiple ‘album of the year’ lists around the world, ROMANCE was quickly certified gold in the UK and saw the band nominated for two GRAMMYs and a BRIT Award among a host of accolades; a celebration of Fontaines D.C.’s ambitious world-building and bold musical evolution.

Today, Fontaines D.C. - Grian Chatten (vocals), Carlos O’Connell (guitar), Conor Curley (guitar), Conor Deegan (bass), and Tom Coll (drums) - launch into 2025 with brand new single, “It’s Amazing To Be Young”. Produced by ROMANCE album producer James Ford, it’s Fontaines D.C. at their most anthemic and is set to soundtrack a huge year of live shows for the band. The single is accompanied by a video from acclaimed BAFTA-winning filmmaker Luna Carmoon (Hoard, Shagbands), who previously directed the videos for Fontaines D.C.’s “Here’s The Thing” and “In The Modern World”. “It’s Amazing To Be Young” completes the cinematic trilogy, bringing together “In The Modern World”’s Martin (Ewan Mitchell) and “Here’s The Thing”’s Spider (Grace Collender) in an unlikely but beautifully surreal love story.

The single release precedes a huge year of live activity for Fontaines D.C., who will perform to 100,000 people across four sold out UK outdoor headline shows in London, Manchester, Newcastle and Cardiff this summer, including a 45,000-capacity event at London’s Finsbury Park on 5th July.

TRACK LISTING

A Side:
"It's Amazing To Be Young"

B Side:
“Before You I Just Forget"

James Holden and Robert Stillman have regularly collaborated with both The Smile and Thom Yorke, each having previously supported The Smile live. Robert has also joined the band on stage to play saxophone and keyboards during their live performances and contributed sax to all three of The Smile’s records and to Thom Yorke’s recent original soundtrack, 'Confidenza'. James has also supported on tours for Atoms For Peace and Thom’s 'Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes' solo tour. He was also invited to remix Radiohead’s 'Reckoner'.

TRACK LISTING

1. Don’t Get Me Started (James Holden Remix)
2. Instant Psalm (Robert Stillman Remix)

'Temporary' features an incredible roll call of collaborators including Sampha, Bill Callahan, Noah Cyrus, Florence Welch, Maddy Prior, Berwyn, Alabaster Deplume, Jah Wobble, Yazz Ahmed, Laura Groves, Kamasi Washington, Rickey Washington, Roses Gabor, Jack Peňate, Samantha Morton, Clari Freeman-Taylor and Nourished By Time. Created over four years from 2020 to 2024, 'Temporary' was recorded at Russell’s own west London Copper House studio, alongside sessions in Tottenham, Cumbria, Dorset, Los Angeles and Las Vegas, and is set to build on previous acclaimed releases including 2018’s eponymous, Mercury Prize-nominated debut album.

On 'Temporary', Russell reboots his musical DNA: while his music had previously been about rhythm, words and melody in that order, on Temporary he swaps rhythm and melody, the rhythm taking up less space and the melody coming to the fore. Musically some songs are inspired by the sonic thought experiment “what if folk music had ‘gone digital’ in the 80s, just as reggae had?”, while spiritually and lyrically the themes encompass grief and loss. The results – elevated by an intriguing and diverse set of collaborators who sound like the best and freshest versions of themselves – are the most luminous and relaxed compositions of Russell’s career. Every song sounds washed in sunshine and graced by tenderness. More fragile and quieter than previous Everything Is Recorded output, it might be one of the gentlest records ever made about death. In Russell’s own words “making the album was joyous, a way of hallowing life.”

TRACK LISTING

1. October
2. My And Me (feat. Sampha, Laura Groves, Ricky Washington And Alabaster DePlume)
3. Porcupine Tattoo (feat. Noah Cyrus And Bill Callahan)
4. Never Felt Better (feat. Sampha And Florence Welch)
5. Ether (feat. Maddy Prior)
6. Losing You (feat. Sampha, Laura Groves, Jah Wobble And Yazz Ahmed)
7. Firelight (feat. Florence Welch, Berwyn And Alabaster DePlume)
8. The Summons
9. No More Rehearsals (feat. Roses Gabor, Jah Wobble, Jack Peñate And Yazz Ahmed)
10. You Were Smiling (feat. Samantha Morton)
11. Norm (feat. Bill Callahan)
12. Swamp Dream #3 (feat. Clari Freeman-Taylor)
13. The Meadows (feat. Roses Gabor, Kamasi Washington And Ricky Washington)
14. Goodbye (Hell Of A Ride) (feat. Nourished By Time)

Everything Is Recorded, the collaborative music project centred around producer Richard Russell, returns with a brand new single, 'Porcupine Tattoo' - a stripped-back lament featuring two American musical icons - Noah Cyrus and Bill Callahan - who appear on record together for the very first time.

The collaboration came together while Russell was hosting sessions for a forthcoming Everything Is Recorded album, one set to build on previous acclaimed releases including 2018’s eponymous, Mercury Prize-nominated debut album. Reaching out to Callahan - an artist he’s long admired and whose song “I’m New Here” was covered by, and provided the title for, Gil Scott-Heron’s final, Russell-produced studio album - Russell asked the simple question “who would you like to write a song for?”. “Noah Cyrus” was Callahan’s reply. The final single features Callahan’s original demo vocal, pitched down and resting on layers of sub bass and complemented by Cyrus’ crystalline counterpoint vocal. It was recorded during a rainy week of sessions in a bungalow at Los Angeles’ Chateau Marmont, which Russell described as “comfortable but haunted”. The song continues a lineage of Russell productions – from 'I’m New Here' to Bobby Womack’s 'Deep River' and Damon Albarn’s 'History of a Cheating Heart' – that explore a sparser, more acoustic side of his sound.

The limited edition 7” vinyl single is released on XL Recordings in partnership with Drag City, Bill Callahan’s long term label home. The 7” exclusively features a second collaboration between Everything Is Recorded and Callahan in the form of 'Norm', a tribute to the Austin-based singer songwriter’s favourite comedian Norm MacDonald.

TRACK LISTING

1. Porcupine Tattoo - Everything Is Recorded, Noah Cyrus & Bill Callahan
2. Norm - Everything Is Recorded Feat. Bill Callahan

One of our absolute faves of 2023 gets a much appreciated reissue, here's what our Matt had to say about it in our 2023 End of Year review:

"Perhaps it's his amateur, 90-styled music videos, shot himself on a 4K iPhone; maybe it’s his awkward dancing coupled with his blue-collar Baltimore aesthetic; or his catch-all culmination of soul, electro, freestyle and R&B - but there’s something completely unfashionable yet utterly relevant and alluring about NBT. Landing somewhere between Arthur Russell, Dean Blunt and Frank Ocean, there's almost a spiritual element at work too – although (real name) Marcus admits that while he's prayed to Jesus, he’s “never heard a word back in plain English”. Instead he offers inspired commentary on consumerism and capitalism as the modern churches of religion (detailed brilliantly on album highlight “The Fields”), whilst also covering more intangible and existential subjects such as break-ups, longing and fighting despair. A truly original and enigmatic character that I’m sure we’ll be seeing a lot more of in the future."

TRACK LISTING

1. Quantum Suicide
2. Shed That Fear
3. Daddy
4. Interlude
5. The Fields
6. Rain Water Promise
7. Soap Party
8. Workers Interlude
9. Unbreak My Love

At the start of 2024 BADBADNOTGOOD were brimming with new creative energy. Having just come off a run of one-off international tour dates and a series of sessions for projects with artists Daniel Cesar, Charlotte Day Wilson, reggie, Baby Rose, and Turnstile, the Canadian-trio of Al Sow, Chester Hansen and Leland Whitty were eager to get back into the studio to simply create. The trio called on some of their closest friends and collaborators, BADBADNOTGOOD touring member Felix Fox-Pappas (keys) and a few key-players in the Toronto jazz scene including Kaelin Murphy (trumpet), Juan Carlos Medrano (percussion) and LA musician Tyler Lott (guitar), for an intensive and productive one-week of recording at Valentine Studios in Los Angeles in February 2024. The result of those sessions is the Mid Spiral series, originally released as 3 parts – Chaos, Order and Growth – digitally earlier this year and now collected altogether on a double LP and CD.

The 'Mid Spiral' suites see BADBADNOTGOOD return to their roots of instrumental jazz while once again pushing the boundaries of how they cross pollinate genres, incorporating their love of hip-hop, neo-soul, psychedelic, funk and more. For the sessions, the trio incorporated additional musicians to add more voices of instrumentation, resulting in a deeply collaborative and expansive new sound. As the trio sifted through the weeks’ worth of material, it was clear that three distinct moods emerged, a deeper reflection of where the musicians are within their own personal lives, along with the state of the wider world: Chaos, Order and Growth.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: 'Mid Spiral' sees the famously chill trio perfectly performing their usual brand of jazzy lounge and swooning instrumental funk, but this time sees a broader range of musical influences enter the fray. Airy 60's tropicalia, woozy surf rock and crisp percussive improvisations accent their usual, pretty fare.

TRACK LISTING

1. Eyes On Me
2. Take Me With You
3. Weird & Wonderful
4. Mid Spiral
5. Last Laugh
6. Your Soul & Mine
7. Playgroup
8. Juan's World
9. Taco Taco
10. Sétima Regra
11. Sunday Afternoon's Dream
12. Rewind Your Mind
13. First Love
14. Audacia
15. Celestial Hands
16. Ways Of Seeing
17. White Light

The Smile announce the details of a new album titled Cutouts, set for release on October 4th via XL Recordings.

The trio - Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood and Tom Skinner - debuted several songs from Cutouts during The Smile’s UK tour in March. Cutouts features 10 new-tracks and is produced by Sam Petts-Davies. It’s the band’s third studio album following Wall of Eyes, released in January, and the trio’s 2022 debut album A Light For Attracting Attention. Cutouts was recorded in Oxford and at Abbey Road Studios during the same period of time as Wall Of Eyes. The album features string arrangements by the London Contemporary Orchestra and the album art was painted during the recording process by Stanley Donwood and Thom Yorke.

This is the second studio album release from The Smile in under a year. In January, Wall Of Eyes charted at #3 on the UK album charts, receiving “Best Album of the Year so far” praise from Pitchfork, The Needle Drop, Consequence, Brooklyn Vegan, Treblezine and Spin.

Outside The Smile, Thom Yorke released the original score for Daniele Luchetti’s film Confidenza and announced solo tour dates in New Zealand, Australia, Singapore and Japan, Jonny Greenwood debuted a new work, ‘X Years of Reverb’ at the 268 year old Octagon Chapel in Norwich, and is writing the score for Paul Thomas Anderson’s upcoming film, The Battle of Baktan Cross. Tom Skinner released Voices of Bishara Live at “mu” and is touring the jazz summer festival circuit to perform his own solo music. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: The second outing from The Smile in one year! This time sees the dynamic trio working through some more off-kilter jazzy electronic gems. Though it was recorded at the same time as 'Wall Of Eyes', there's a little more mystery and uneasy syncopation behind 'Cutouts', like a moody and weird little brother. If you like the Smile already, you'll love this. If not, get stuck in!

TRACK LISTING

Foreign Spies
Instant Psalm
Zero Sum
Colours Fly
Eyes & Mouth
Don’t Get Me Started
Tiptoe
The Slip
UGcgWGFkcWE=
Bodies Laughing

THE PICCADILLY RECORDS ALBUM OF THE YEAR 2024

Romance is the band’s first album with producer James Ford and is without doubt their most assured, inventive and sonically adventurous record yet. Its 11 tracks constellating ideas that have been percolating among Grian Chatten (vocals), Carlos O’Connell (guitar), Conor Curley (guitar), Conor Deegan (bass), and Tom Coll (drums) since they released Skinty Fia in 2022. These ideas crystalised while touring the U.S. and Mexico with Arctic Monkeys as the five band members shared music and found a throughline with artists that deftly build out their own sprawling creative worlds: the attitude and aesthetic sheen of artists like Shygirl and Sega Bodega, the bolshy sonic palettes of hip hop and heavy metal, Mos Def, A$AP Ferg, OutKast and Korn. They had time apart to build more singular visions for what future music could be: O’Connell went to Spain’s Castile-La Mancha and later became a new father, while Chatten spent time in LA, and Deegan in Paris. They laid deeper roots in London. Each member spent time pushing their boundaries – experimental riffs, chord progressions, and far-flung lyrical references without intentions for a record. After wrapping up the US arena tour in Autumn 2023, they spent a month writing together again, three weeks of pre-production in a North London studio, and a month in a chateau close to Paris, sleeping among studio equipment, completely immersed.

Of the album’s title, Conor Deegan says, “We’ve always had this sense of idealism and romance. Each album gets further away from observing that through the lens of Ireland, as directly as (Mercury Prize-nominated debut) Dogrel. The second album (the GRAMMY-nominated A Hero’s Death) is about that detachment, and the third (Skinty Fia) is about Irishness dislocated in the diaspora. Now we look to where and what else there is to be romantic about.”

Expounding on the theme, Chatten recalls Katsuhiro Ôtomo’s anime Akira, where the embers of love develop despite a maelstrom of technological degradation and political corruption around its characters. “I’m fascinated by that - falling in love at the end of the world,” he says. “The album is about protecting that tiny flame. The bigger armageddon looms, the more precious it becomes,” while O’Connell adds “This record is about deciding what’s fantasy – the tangible world, or where you go in your mind. What represents reality more? That feels almost spiritual for us.”

The sonic evolution of the band, who bared their teeth in early records with antagonistic punk sensibilities, is an ascent into grungier breaks, dystopian electronica, hip-hop percussion, and dreamy Slowdive-esque textures that may surprise fans. The shoegaze touchpoints first pressed on Skinty Fia unfold on Romance like a purpling bruise. But any “retro aesthetic”, as Chatten describes it, is left behind. Reflecting on the release, Chatten says, “We say things on this record we’ve wanted to say for a long time. I never feel like it's over, but it’s nice to feel lighter.” The fantasy is felt for better or worse, and Fontaines D.C. welcome either end of oblivion.

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: I obviously admired this band, in particular “Boys in the Better Land” and “Jackie Down the Line” (the big ones!) but I'd never committed to a full album before. To be perfectly honest, my feeling was that with their truckload of attitude and post punk urgency, they were more a band for the younger generation and not a boring old fart like myself! That's all changed with ‘Romance’ though. Mainly because the song-writing has gone up about ten notches! Grian Chatten proved himself a man of melody with last year's superb solo record, but here that's combined with his band's more dynamic, rambunctious and freewheeling vibe to make the perfect sound. Absolutely brilliant!

Liam says: Well, well, well, those boys from Dublin City have done it again. When we first heard the anxiety-inducing stomp of “Starburster” and the timeless indie jangle of “Favourite”, it certainly felt like Fontaines D.C. had something truly special on the horizon with 'Romance' - and oh boy were we correct. From the bombastic and cataclysmic synth-led opener of the title track, to the shoegaze tinged pairing of “Desire” and “Sundowner”, Fontaines' sonic palette is now at their most varied. “In The Modern World” is a sweeping Lana Del Rey inspired epic, whilst “Here's The Thing” and “Death Kink” go head first into grunge. Fontaines have always been massively popular in the shop with staff and customers alike, but there's no doubt that 'Romance' sets them on course to be the biggest band in the world and deservingly earning our album of the year title - absolutely incredible stuff!

TRACK LISTING

1. Romance
2. Starburster
3. Here's The Thing
4. Desire
5. In The Modern World
6. Bug
7. Motorcycle Boy
8. Sundowner
9. Horseness Is The Whatness
10. Death Kink
11. Favourite

After spending years out of print, The Prodigy have re-pressed their fourth album in time for its 20th anniversary

TRACK LISTING

1. Spitfire
2. Girls
3. Memphis Bells
4. Get Up Get Off
5. Hotride
6. Wake Up Call
7. Action Radar
8. Medusa's Path
9. Phoenix
10. You'll Be UNDER MY WHEELS
11. The Way It Is
12. Shoot Down

keiyaA is a singer-songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist based in NYC. Raised in Chicago’s South Side, keiyaA synthesizes her jazz training, R&B sensibilities, and hip- hop upbringing to create new soul sounds inundated with her powerful, sultry voice and dense lyricism. She aims to center the narrative and intellect of the black woman in the late-stage capitalist world. Forever, Ya Girl enjoyed wide acclaim and landed on multiple Best of the Year lists, propelling her to the cultural vanguard and earning her the praise of artists like Solange, Jay-Z, Earl Sweatshirt, Blood Orange, and Moses Sumney and gaining the attention of brands like Apple, Nike, and Chanel, all who spotlighted keiyaA and her work in campaigns. Since its release, keiyaA has become an in-demand collaborator, working with MIKE, Armand Hammer, Loraine James, Nilüfer Yanya, Bartees Strange, Nick Hakim, Mount Kimbie, Nubya Garcia, and more.

TRACK LISTING

1. I Thot There Was One Wound In This House, There's Two
2. Way Eye
3. Rectifiyah
4. Hvnli
5. Hvnli (reprise)
6. Do Yourself A Favor
7. A Mile, A Way
8. I Want My Things!
9. Change The Story (Interlude)
10. Every Nigga Is A Star
11. I! Gits! Weary!
12. NegusPoem1&2
13. Forreal???
14. F.W.U.
15. Nu World Burdens
16. Keep It Real

In January it was revealed that Thom Yorke composed the original score for Daniele Luchetti’s film Confidenza, an adaptation of the Italian drama based on Domenico Starnone’s novel of the same name.

Confidenza follows Yorke’s previous full-length score and original soundtrack for Luca Guadagnino’s 2018 Suspiria remake, Suspirium receiving a GRAMMY-nomination for Best Song Written for Visual Media. Produced by Sam Petts-Davies (Suspiria, The Smile Wall Of Eyes), Confidenza sees Petts-Davies and Yorke working again with the London Contemporary Orchestra alongside a jazz ensemble which included Robert Stillman and fellow The Smile bandmate Tom Skinner. In 2019 Yorke contributed music to Edward Norton’s Motherless Brooklyn and in 2022 he wrote two original tracks for the series finale of Peaky Blinders.

As of late, Yorke has been touring with The Smile (Tom Skinner, Jonny Greenwood, Thom Yorke), who released their second studio-album Wall Of Eyes in January which follows the band’s 2022-debut album A Light For Attracting Attention.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Classic Yorke this, beautifully rendered sonic sculptures that morph and twist around a solid narrative core. There are moments of divine beauty, nestled amongst the brutalist electronics and shimmering modern classical unease. I'm sure it's a perfect match for the film, but it's certainly a grand listen on it's own merit.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Big City
2. Knife Edge
3. Letting Down Gently
4. Secret Clarinet
5. In The Trees
6. Prize Giving
7. Four Ways In Time
8. Confidenza
9. Nosebleed Nuptials
10. Bunch Of Flowers
11. A Silent Scream
12. On The Ledge

Sam Morton, the musical duo comprised of singer, songwriter and acclaimed actor and director Samantha Morton and music producer and co-songwriter Richard Russell release their highly-anticipated debut album. Titled Daffodils & Dirt. Over twelve startling tracks, the pair build a deeply personal musical world that feels simultaneously intimate and delicate yet powerful and tough. The part-autobiographical suite of songs see Russell’s spartan soundscapes providing a rich foundation for Morton’s gorgeous, ethereal vocal, aided by a cast of musical collaborators that include Alabaster DePlume, Laura Groves, Jack Peñate and additional vocalist Ali Campbell (on “Broxtowe Girl”).

Despite a lifelong love of, and involvement in, music, SAM MORTON is Samantha Morton’s first ever artist project. The collaboration came about after she appeared on Desert Island Discs in October 2020 and Russell happened to be listening. He was struck not only by her song choices (including a shared love of one song in particular: “I Remember” by Molly Drake) but by the way the music weaved through her lived experiences. The pair connected and corresponded, swapping ideas, sketches and stream-of-consciousnesses. Finally, months later, they met in the studio and engaged in a period of spontaneous, intense and open-ended collaboration, one which proved to be a cathartic musical process for both parties. Daffodils & Dirt, completed during 2023, is the captivating result.

The album cover artwork features an archive photograph from acclaimed British-American photographer and visual artist Nick Waplington, who documented life on Nottingham’s Broxtowe Estate at the same time Morton was growing up there in the mid-1980s.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Airy, drifting electronic backdrops akin to Bonobo or James Blake beneath Morton's sumptuous vocal lines, crisp percussion and hypnotic ambience. It's a dynamic mix of post-dubstep, electronica and r&b and it absolutely swims with vibe. Brilliant.

TRACK LISTING

1. Highwood House
2. Hungerhill Road
3. Purple Yellow
4. The Little White Cloud That Cried
5. Kaleidoscope
6. Cry Without End
7. Broxtowe Girl
8. Let's Walk In The Night
9. Greenstone
10. Double Dip Neon
11. The Shadow
12. Loved By God

Artist, producer, DJ and cultural trailblazer Peggy Gou announces details of her long-awaited debut album. One of the most hotly-anticipated debut records in recent years, I Hear You will be released on 7th June 2024 via XL Recordings. The ten track album is the culmination of years of work for the Korean-born artist, who’s uniquely revered as both an underground icon and global sensation, sticking by her own unwavering vision to become one of the most in-demand electronic music artists and DJs in the world. Featuring previous singles, the 2023 chart-topping global hit “(It Goes Like) Nanana” and her Lenny Kravitz collaboration “I Believe in Love Again”, the LP sees Gou stepping into the next level of her artistry and boldly claiming her voice through the kaleidoscopic lens of ‘90s house music.

Talking about I Hear You, Peggy Gou says:
“I Hear You is more than just my debut album. It embodies countless hours of dedication in my journey to create something timeless, and is a testament to the power of listening, to ourselves and to each other.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Nostalgia hits differently doesn't it? The shining clarity of modern house music certainly has something about it that's satisfying, but has anything in the past ten years come close to tickling the same nostalgic 90's rave / breaks / house receptor that Peggy Gou's music has? Definitely not. A brilliant and long-awaited debut album from one of the hottest names in the dance music world.

TRACK LISTING

Your Art
Back To One
I Believe In Love Again
All That
(It Goes Like) Nanana
Lobster Telephone
Seoulsi Peggygou (서울시페기구)
I Go
Purple Horizon
1+1=11

'Cyan Blue' finds Wilson crafting a smoothly woven cyan tapestry of her eternal influences; thumping gospel piano, warm soul basslines, atmospheric electronics, and penetrating R&B melodies. Yet, it possesses a sense of vastness that rings in a new era for Wilson, one in which she’s embracing collaboration and newfound creative openness tinged with wistfulness and yearning and a reflection on youthful innocence. “I want to look through the unjaded eyes of my younger self again,” Wilson explains of making 'Cyan Blue'. “Before there wasn’t as much baggage, before so much life was lived. But I also wish that my younger self could see where I am now. It would be nice to be able to impart some of the wisdom and clarity that I have now onto her.”

Working with producers like Leon Thomas (SZA, Ariana Grande, Post Malone), and Jack Rochon (H.E.R, Daniel Caesar), 'Cyan Blue' demonstrates Wilson’s sonic expertise while also showcasing the next evolution of her time-bending songwriting. Through 13 hypnotizing tracks, she continues to use music as a vessel for unpacking relationships, which in turn allows her to meet and understand herself in life-spanning, panoramic focus. But, on 'Cyan Blue', she challenged herself to kick her perfectionist tendencies. “Before, I was extremely intentional about creating music with a strong foundation, a bed of artistic integrity,” Wilson reflects. “But that was a bit stifling, like, ‘Let me just make a great piece of art that will stand the test of time, no pressure.’ Now, I think I'm getting out of this frozen state of needing everything to be perfect. I'm more interested in capturing feelings in the moment as they happen and leaving them in that moment.”

While this is only her second album, Wilson’s influence in music has made a major mainstream impact. Wilson broke out in 2016 with her critically acclaimed EP, 'CDW', followed by 2018’s 'Stone Woman' and made her debut studio album an official coming out moment in 2021 with the critically acclaimed, self-released 'Alpha'. Over the past decade, she’s been sampled by Drake, John Mayer, and James Blake, while Patti Smith has recently praised and covered Wilson’s 2016 breakout single “Work.” Additionally, she’s collaborated with artists like Kaytranada, BADBADNOTGOOD, and SG Lewis, demonstrating that there’s no sound Wilson can’t adapt to and sprinkle her cyan-colored magic over.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: There's a strong thread of soul through Charlotte Day Wilson's brilliant 'Cyan Blue', but it smoothly moves between jazzy chord progressions and blazing synthpop lead lines, forging a path entirely of her own. Brilliantly inventive, full of groove and brilliantly produced.

TRACK LISTING

1. My Way
2. Money
3. Dovetail
4. Forever (ft. Snoh Aalegra)
5. Do U Still
6. New Day
7. Last Call
8. Canopy
9. Over The Rainbow
10. Kiss & Tell
11. I Don't Love You
12. Cyan Blue
13. Walk With Me

Following on from 2022 debut LP 'A Light For Attracting Attention', which garnered a top 20 spot in our 2022 end of year review, 'Wall Of Eyes' sees Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood and Tom Skinner once again coming together for another art-rock opus that is inventive and boundry-pushing; whilst still remaining incredibly accessible and potent at it's core. With string arrangements by the London Contemporary Orchestra, 'Wall Of Eyes' comfortably shrugs off the burden of being "just another Radiohead side-project" and in the process leaves us hoping there's more from The Smile for years to come.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Though it's easy to compare The Smile to Radiohead (for obvious reasons), and there is a similarity to the sound that Yorke & Greenwood bring, the end result ends up quite drastically different. The Smile are a lot less rooted in rock music, ending up presenting something that's both beautifully organic and free-flowing whilst never straying too far into experimental territories. Lovely stuff.

TRACK LISTING

1. Wall Of Eyes
2. Teleharmonic
3. Read The Room
4. Under Our Pillows
5. Friend Of A Friend
6. I Quit
7. B7ending Hectic
8. You Know Me

The initial pressing was limited to 3,000 copies available exclusively via artist and label webstore, selling out in minutes. This second edition features a new XL house bag sleeve design and is now available via retailers globally.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Pretty mad story behind this one. Originally supposed to be out in 2013, it got leaked and consequently pulled and has been the subject of feverish urban folklore ever since. Still sounding remarkably fresh ten years later - the LP plays like a warped amalgamation of pop, r&b, dancehall, bass and beats; its slick, wavy, hi-gloss, big bass production the perfect formula for XL.

TRACK LISTING

1. One Of The Bredrins
2. Str8 Outta Mumbai
3. Zion Wolf Theme (Unfinished)
4. Garden Of Paradise (Instrumental, Unfinished)
5. Genevieve (Unfinished)
6. Raw Beat (Unfinished)
7. Crush (Unfinished)
8. Good Time
9. Jasmine (Demo)
10. 100,000 (Unfinished)
11. Vibin' (Unfinished)
12. Baby Beat (Unfinished)
13. Desert River (Unfinished)
14. Chix (Unfinished)
15. All Night (Unfinished)
16. BTSTU (Demo)

The long-awaited debut album from CASISDEAD, released via XL Recordings. Famous Last Words is a fully realised expansion of the dystopian futurism that has captivated audiences since CAS first announced himself in 2013. Over the past decade, he’s dipped in and out of the shadows, blessing fans with cult hits while maintaining his anonymity and shunning media attention; a rejection of the spotlight that’s helped to create folklore around a rapper who’s widely regarded as one of the UK’s most inventive lyricists.

Famous Last Words is as much a sci-fi film as it is a rap record, a labyrinth of vice, crime and faded glamour. The listener steps through a portal into a realm narrated by CASISDEAD, whose command of storytelling drops you right into the underground of a city where he is the main character in a shady network of gangsters, girls and drug deals. However, Famous Last Words isn’t a story of bravado or posturing; much of the album deals in themes of loss, regret and paranoia, a persona constantly self-reflecting amongst the madness that surrounds him. The album features a carefully curated roll call of collaborators including Pet Shop Boys’ Neil Tennant, Desire, and Connie Constance. The vocalists are immersed in CASISDEAD’s hallmark 80’s-inspired synthpop soundscapes, aided and abetted by a production cast that includes Stranger Things composer Kyle Dixon and ‘Italian’s Do It Better’ label founder Johnny Jewel.

TRACK LISTING

1. Do You Trust Me?
2. A Spark
3. Loosin’
4. Steptronic
5. DEADCORP
6. Pineapple Juice
7. I Wanna Go Home
8. Actin’ Up
9. Sarah Connor
10. Do You Remember What It Was Like?
11. Marilyn
12. Aghast 6
13. Boys Will Be Boys
14. Venom
15. Traction Control
16. The Ants
17. Matte Grey Wrap
18. Pat Earrings
19. Before This
20. Jane
21. Sugar Free
22. Access Denied
23. Skydive

The third BASEMENT JAXX album KISH KASH features an array of stellar guest vocalists including punk icon Siouxsie Sioux on the title track, London grime superstar Dizzee Rascal on “Lucky Star”, the mighty pipes of Rock n’ Soul diva Lisa Kekaula (of LA”s “The Bellrays” ) on “Good Luck” and rounds off with the mellow tones of Meshell Ndegeocello.

Released on XL Recordings in 2004, the album subsequently won the inaugural GRAMMY award for “Best Dance/Electronic Album” and was nominated for the UK’s prestigious Mercury Prize.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Good Luck (ft. Lisa Kekaula)
A2. Right Here’s The Spot (ft. Meshell Ndegeocello)
A3. Petrilude
A4. Supersonic Ft. Totlyn Jackson
B1. Benjilude
B2. Lucky Star (ft. Dizzee Rascal)
B3. Plug It In (ft. JC Chasez)
C1. Living Room
C2. Cish Cash (ft. Siouxsie Sioux)
C3. Tonight (ft. Phoebe)
D1. Hot ‘n’ Cold
D2. Cosmolude
D3. If I Ever Recover
D4. Feels Like Home (ft. Meshell Ndegeocello)

‘Friendly Fires’ was the debut album from the St Albans-three piece, Ed McFarlane, Edd Gibson and Jack Savidge. Featuring hit singles ‘Jump In the Pool’ and ‘Paris’, it was an era-defining record. It launched the band to huge critical and commercial success, nominated for The Mercury Prize and a Brit Award. The LP is now reissued for its 15th Anniversary on silver vinyl.

TRACK LISTING

1. Jump In The Pool
2. In The Hospital
3. Paris
4. White Diamonds
5. Strobe
6. On Board
7. Lovesick
8. Skeleton Boy
9. Photobooth
10. Ex Lover

Aeroplane’s remix of Friendly Fires’ ‘Paris’ has been out of print on vinyl for over a decade. A cover more than a remix, their version of Friendly Fires’ first big single was all over the radio waves when it was first released, surely due to its sweet female vocal provided by Au Revior Simone. Now reissued for its 15th Anniversary on gold vinyl, the 12” also contains a remix by Justus Köhncke.

TRACK LISTING

1. Paris (Aeroplane Remix)
2. Paris (Justus Kohncke Remix)

Archy Marshall announces Space Heavy, the fourth studio album under his King Krule alias, via XL Recordings. Coming 10 years on from his debut album, Space Heavy presents King Krule at his most articulate; using his years of experience to create a dynamic body of work that reveals something new with every listen.

Written from 2020 to 2022, between London and Liverpool, Space Heavy took shape over the course of commutes between the two cities where Archy Marshall was splitting his time. Befitting an album quite literally written on the commute between the two places he called home, Archy found himself fascinated by the notion of “the space between” - the space haunted by dreams of love, touching a narrative of lost connection, losing people and situations to the guillotine of the universe. Once written by Archy, the music was developed by frequent collaborator and producer Dilip Harris and long-time band mates Ignacio Salvadores (Saxophonist), George Bass (Drummer), James Wilson (Bass Guitarist) and Jack Towell (Guitarist).

The result is a 15-track full-length by the musical polymath that inhabits the deepest reaches of the subterranean sonic world that Archy has constructed over the course of his career as King Krule. In it you hear a generational artist stepping into the height of their artistic powers – the auteurism apparent on his debut 6 Feet Beneath The Moon, the shapeshifting sonic palette of The OOZ, the primality of Man Alive! and the raw vulnerability expressed on You Heat Me Up, You Cool Me Down all coalesce into a wizened, dynamic body of work that reveals new elements with each listen. In line with Archy’s interest in the space between, it is an album wherein the negative space demands the same attention as the positive space. If one is willing to wade into the mire the reward is rich.

STAFF COMMENTS

Liam says: The gravely voiced troubadour is back! Following on from 2020's 'Man Alive', 'Space Heavy' showcases King Krule masterfully balancing his trademark mix of scatty punk and lo-fi jazz - resulting in some of his most dynamic and impressive work to date. Superb stuff!

TRACK LISTING

Flimsier
Pink Shell
Seaforth
That Is My Life, That Is Yours
Tortoise Of Independency
Empty Stomach Space Cadet
Flimsy
Hamburgerphobia
From The Swamp
Seagirl
Our Vacuum
Space Heavy
When Vanishing
If Only It Was Warmth
Wednesday Overcast

Remedy is Basement Jaxx’s joyous debut album from 1999. It was one of the most assured, propul-sive full-lengths the dance world had seen since Daft Punk’s Homework. A set of incredibly diverse tracks, Remedy is indebted to the raw American house of Todd Terry and Masters at Work, and even shares a penchant for Latin vibes (especially on the horn-driven “Bingo Bango” and the opener, “Rendez-Vu,” which trades a bit of salsa wiggle with infectious vocoderized disco).

TRACK LISTING

A1. Romeo
A2. Breakaway
A3. SFM
B1. Jus 1 Kiss
B2. Broken Dreams
B3. I Want U
C1. Get Me Off
C2. Where’s Your Head At
D1. Do Your Thing
D2. Freakalude
D3. Crazy Girl
D4. All I Know

Named after their infamous Brixton club night, Basement Jaxx’s second album Rooty saw Basement Jaxx continue to push the boundaries of pop and club music. The album mixes classic house with generous lashings of punk, funk, R&B, jazz, hip hop, 2-step and pop song-craft in a mad genre crash that works like a charm. It features the massive tracks “Where’s Your Head At”, “Romeo” and “Do Your Thing”.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Romeo
A2. Breakaway
A3. SFM
B1. Jus 1 Kiss
B2. Broken Dreams
B3. I Want U
C1. Get Me Off
C2. Where’s Your Head At
D1. Do Your Thing
D2. Freakalude
D3. Crazy Girl
D4. All I Know

Mere weeks before the world went into lockdown, King Krule had performed a handful of European shows which featured tracks from his critically acclaimed third album Man Alive! Performed with a ferocious intensity, the recordings offer fans a glimpse into a live tour that never was, while also reminding them of the artist's unique stage presence and incredible performances delivered across his entire catalogue. Available on double LP and CD, You Heat Me Up, You Cool Me Down features a setlist of 17 songs that span the acclaimed artist’s entire discography including fan favourites “Easy Easy,” “Baby Blue,” “Out Getting Ribs” and more.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: 'You Heat Me Up..' perfectly displays the energetic live show that Marshall has become so known for, and includes some of the biggest tracks from the past couple LP's we've sold so many of in the past few years. A wonderfully immersive and thoroughly worthwhile listen.

TRACK LISTING

Out Getting Ribs
Emergency Blimp
A Slide In (New Drugs)
The Ooz
Cellular
Stoned Again
Slush Puppy
Rock Bottom
Comet Face
Perfecto Miserable
Alone, Omen 3
Baby Blue
Half Man Half Shark
Underclass
Energy Fleets
Please Complete Thee
Easy Easy

Radiohead announces KID A MNESIA, a multiple format triple-album release marking the 21st anniversary of Kid A and Amnesiac, out via XL Recordings.

KID A MNESIA collects Radiohead’s fourth and fifth albums alongside the debut of a newly compiled third disc titled Kid Amnesiae. Exclusive to this release, Kid Amnesiae is comprised of unearthed material culled from the Kid A / Amnesiac sessions. Along with alternate versions and elements of Kid A and Amnesiac album tracks and B-Sides, Kid Amnesiae features the never-before-heard "If You Say the Word” and a previously unreleased studio recording of "Follow Me Around." 

TRACK LISTING

Vinyl Tracklisting:
Kid A:
Side A:
1. Everything In Its Right Place
2. Kid A
3. The National Anthem
4. How To Disappear Completely
5. Treefingers
Side B:
1. Optimistic
2. In Limbo
3. Idioteque
4. Morning Bell
5. Motion Picture Soundtrack

Amnesiac:
Side C:
1. Packt Like Sardines In A Crushd Tin Box
2. Pyramid Song
3. Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors
4. You And Whose Army?
5. I Might Be Wrong
Side D:
1. Knives Out
2. Morning Bell/Amnesiac
3. Dollars And Cents
4. Hunting Bears
5. Like Spinning Plates
6. Life In A Glasshouse

Kid Amnesiae:
Side E:
1. Like Spinning Plates (‘Why Us?’ Version)
2. Untitled V1
3. Fog (Again Again Version)
4. If You Say The Word
5. Follow Me Around
Side F:
1. Pulk/Pull (True Love Waits Version)
2. Untitled V2
3. The Morning Bell (In The Dark Version)
4. Pyramid Strings
5. Alt. Fast Track
6. Untitled V3
7. How To Disappear Into Strings

CD Tracklisting:
CD1 Kid A:
1. Everything In Its Right Place
2. Kid A
3. The National Anthem
4. How To Disappear Completely
5. Treefingers
6. Optimistic
7. In Limbo
8. Idioteque
9. Morning Bell
10. Motion Picture Soundtrack

CD2 Amnesiac:
1. Packt Like Sardines In A Crushd Tin Box
2. Pyramid Song
3. Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors
4. You And Whose Army?
5. I Might Be Wrong
6. Knives Out
7. Morning Bell/Amnesiac
8. Dollars And Cents
9. Hunting Bears
10. Like Spinning Plates
11. Life In A Glasshouse

CD3 Kid Amnesiae:
1. Like Spinning Plates (‘Why Us?’ Version)
2. Untitled V1
3. Fog (Again Again Version)
4. If You Say The Word
5. Follow Me Around
6. Pulk/Pull (True Love Waits Version)
7. Untitled V2
8. The Morning Bell (In The Dark Version)
9. Pyramid Strings
10. Alt. Fast Track
11. Untitled V3
12. How To Disappear Into Strings 

BADBADNOTGOOD return with their highly anticipated album, "Talk Memory", the sixth full length excursion from this Canadian trio if you count their collaboration with Ghostface Killah amongst their discography. Collaborators include legendary composer Arthur Verocai and contemporary icons such as Terrace Martin, Karriem Riggins and Laraaji.

It's high octane, ambitious and noisy, modern jazz set firmly in present times and holding no punches with its delivery. The boys can play, make no mistake, effortlessly drifting from languid passages to all-out throttle. Considering there's only three of them, it's a full and realized sound; slightly gritty but sophisticated in its execution; with each musician challenging the next to out-better themselves. As the songs swirl into a mighty cresendo you can almost picture them trying to compete with each for dexterity and flair... I'm sure they'd be an amazing prospect live.

Favourite moment for me is the opener of disc two, "Love Proceeding", featuring Arthur Verocia, which glides in on optimistic and cinematic sax before erupting into an explosion of augmented 7s and frenzied drums; the ultimate example of jazz's fusion of tension and release; a formular that's executed with aplomb throughout the album.

Advanced and highly accomplished, "Talk Memory" finds these bastions of modern jazz in exquisite form. Recommended. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: BadBadNotGood return for their first LP for XL Recordings, with their trademark enthusiastic jazz fusion sound in full force, bolstered with a number of huge music industry names. It's yet another groundbreaking juxtaposition of loungey downbeat jazz and rhythmic hip-hop, both innovative and warmingly familiar.

TRACK LISTING

1. Signal From The Noise
2. Unfolding (Momentum 73) Featuring Laraajii
3. City Of Mirrors Featuring Arthur Verocai
4. Beside April Featuring Karriem Riggins, Arthur Verocai
5. Love Proceeding Featuring Arthur Verocai
6. Open Channels (physical Only)
7. Timid, Intimidating
8. Beside April (Reprise) Featuring Arthur Verocai
9. Talk Meaning Featuring Arthur Verocai, Terrace Martin And Brandee Younger

‘Still Slipping Vol.1’ is the debut full length project from Joy Orbison. Fans of Joy O’s DJ sets and radio shows will already be aware of his diverse tastes and inspirations, represented here through a roll call of delicately curated, mainly UK, collaborators that include Herron, James Massiah, Bathe, Léa Sen, Goya Gumbani and TYSON.

Just as important are the voices of Joy Orbison's family - mum, dad, sister Sarah, uncle Frankie, uncle Keith (recently departed), auntie Helen and cousins Lola and Mia, as well as Leighann, who was the first person to introduce him to drum and bass and garage as a kid and stars on the mixtape’s cover art.

They appear throughout the record via a series of voice notes, his only contact with his family during this year of worldwide lockdown and an intimate, vicarious glimpse into the personal world of an artist who has generally side-stepped the public gaze. 

It's a long time coming since 2009's "Hyph Mngo" revolutionized and married the worlds of bass and techno together. Instrumental in advancing dance music and merging tribes of different electronic genres together, his Sunklo items have become treasured artifacts of dance music lineage and it seems utterally bewildering that it's taken him until now to release a full length album.

Painfully succinct, delicately poised and highly advanced; all the trademarks that mark this singular and innovative producer / DJ. Sequenced to perfection and playing more like a mixtape tape than a collection of individual tracks, you'll struggle to take the needle off the record until its completion I can assure you! Highly recommended!  

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Can you believe this is Joy-O's first long player?! His tracks seem to have influenced and soundtracked the better dancefloors of the last decade on a near-permanent basis. Over a transient, constantly-morphing LP we get the skitty, advanced kinetics; emotive washes and his shadowy, blurred vox all showcased at their most intimate and astonishing. One of our royal treasures of electronic music.

TRACK LISTING

W/ Dad & Frankie
Sparko (feat. Herron)
Swag W/ Kav (feat. James Massiah & Bathe)
Better (feat. Léa Sen)
Bernard?
Runnersz
Rraine (feat. Edna)
Glorious Amateurs
S Gets Jaded
Froth Sipping
Layer 6
In Drink
Playground (feat. Goya Gumbani)
Born Slipping (feat. TYSON)

The Avalanches’ era defining debut album ‘Since I Left You’ has finally come of age. Now 20 years old, ‘Since I Left You’ gets a timely reissue along with an additional record of fifteen remixes from the likes of MF DOOM, Stereolab and Carl Craig. The Avalanches made ‘Since I Left You’ out of hundreds of vinyl samples, the grand finale and biggest climactic triumph of the Sampladelic Decade. Containing classic singles ‘Frontier Psychiatrist’ and ’Since I Left You’, the reissue’s remixes give each track a new lease of life, while still maintaining the sunny disposition of the originals.

Do you remember what you were doing twenty years ago? I do. I was a fifteen year old kid from the burbs, spending my summer playing football and recreating WWF classics in the back yard while dressed like a nerdish Eminem (bleach blonde hair and everything). Then a wacky-ass radio track packed with film snippets and horse noises worked its way into my teenage brain and changed things for good. The Avalanches were insane, inspired and in full effect; following the 'horse song' ("Frontier Psychiatrist") with a soulful and swooning summer jam ("Since I Left You") which has played in my head ever since. Family Allowance firmly in hand I took my privileged ass off to the Market Hall, picked up a CD copy of this album and spent the whole bus journey home feasting my eyes on the liner notes and sleeve artwork. As I hit the play button on my naff home stereo, I was whisked away Dorothy-style and taken on a head spinning journey through 50 years of popular music. Leaving the monochrome mundanity of Bolton behind, I soared through technicolour stage sets of paradise islands, Brooklyn block parties and countryside BBQs, Sci-Fi spectaculars and rewired romances as 3,500 samples were sticky taped together before my very ears. The plunderphonic sound of six men who spent their adolescence rummaging through the bargain bins of Melbourne's record shops, "Since I Left You" applies hip hop's cut'n'paste mentality to the full gamut of weird and wonderful pop, from exotica to erotica, disco and funk to lounge and psych. Unlike anything I'd ever heard before, and better than any imitators I've heard since, The Avalanches are truly in a class of their own. 

TRACK LISTING

4LP
Disc 1
Since I Left You
Stay Another Season
Radio
Two Hearts In 3/4 Time
Avalanche Rock
Flight Tonight
Close To You
Diners Only
A Different Feeling

Disc 2
Electricity
Tonight May Have To Last Me All My Life
Pablo's Cruise
Frontier Psychiatrist
Etoh
Summer Crane
Little Journey
Live At Dominoes
Extra Kings

Disc 3
Since I Left You (Cornelius Remix)
Tonight May Have To Last Me All My Life (Edan Remix)
Frontier Psychiatrist (Mario Caldato Jr's 85% Remix)
Close To You (Sun Araw Remix)
Since I Left You (Stereolab Remix)
Flight Tonight (Canyons Travel Agent Dub)
Radio (Sinkane Remix)

Disc 4
Since I Left You (Prince Paul Remix)
Electricity (Harvey's Nightclub Re-edit)
Summer Crane (Black Dice Remix)
Extra Kings (Deakin Remix)
Tonight May Have To Last Me All My Life (MF DOOM Remix)
Tonight May Have To Last Me All My Life (Dragged By Leon Vynehall)
A Different Feeling (Carl Craig's Paperclip People Remix)
Thank You Caroline (Original Avalanches Demo Tape)

2CD
Disc 1
Since I Left You
Stay Another Season
Radio
Two Hearts In 3/4 Time
Avalanche Rock
Flight Tonight
Close To You
Diners Only
A Different Feeling
Electricity
Tonight May Have To Last Me All My Life
Pablo's Cruise
Frontier Psychiatrist
Etoh
Summer Crane
Little Journey
Live At Dominoes
Extra Kings

Disc 2
Tonight May Have To Last Me All My Life (MF DOOM Remix)
Summer Crane (Black Dice Remix)
Frontier Psychiatrist (Mario Caldato Jr's 85% Remix)
Electricity (Dr. Rockit's Dirty Kiss Remix)
Electricity (Original Avalanches Demo Tape)
Thank You Caroline (Original Avalanches Demo Tape)
Thank You Caroline (Andy Votel Remix)
So Why So Sad (The Avalanches Sean Penn Mix) – Manic Street Preachers
The Shining (The Avalanches Good Word For The Weekend Mix) – Badly Drawn Boy
Pablo's Cruise (Original Avalanches Demo Tape)
I'm A Cuckoo (The Avalanches Remix - DJ Edit) – Belle And Sebastian
Chico (The Avalanches Wernham Hogg Mix) – The Concretes
Fade Together (The Avalanches Remix) – Franz Ferdinand
Since I Left You (Stereolab Remix)
Flight Tonight (Canyons Travel Agent Dub)
Radio (Sinkane Remix)
A Different Feeling (Ernest Saint Laurent Remix)
A Different Feeling (Carl Craig's Paperclip People Remix)
Two Hearts In 3/4 Time (Jackson & His Computer Band Remix)
Tonight May Have To Last Me All My Life (Dragged By Leon Vynehall)
Tonight May Have To Last Me All My Life (Edan Remix)

dvr is Dillon van Rensburg, a seventeen year old songwriter and producer from North Berwick, Scotland. In 2020, he self-released an EP (“tape_01) and single (“thru the city”) that quickly became organic, word-of-mouth success stories, racking up streams in the millions. With influences ranging from Tyler, The Creator, Frank Ocean and Kaytranada to Jimmy Hendrix and the Foo Fighters, dvr already counts the likes of Kenny Beats (who discovered dvr via fan enthusiasm on his Discord channel), Snoop Dogg and Joy Orbison (who recently gave "tape_01”’s “lonely” its first national radio play on his BBC Radio 1 Residency show) among his growing fanbase. On March 26th, dvr will team up with XL Recordings for the first physical release of “tape_01/thru the city”, bringing the two releases together onto one limited edition, pink vinyl format. Building on the success of dvr’s recent “u can call me dillon” EP (released January 2021), “tape_01/thru the city” is the unfiltered sound of an exceptional new talent beginnings his ascent.

STAFF COMMENTS

Patrick says: This one time I took too many valium and passed out with YouTube autoplay on. When I looked at my history I'd gone on a voyage through 'lo-fi hip hop I chill to', Jamie XX lockdown dubs and Pavement B-sides. Seems like I wasn't the only one to take that trip. Now whether 17 year old dvr (lowercase please) is a real person or an industry algorithm (or both, true-binary is on the horizon) this seems like the definitive sound of the Tik Tok generation.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Lonely
A2. Muscles
A3. Am Sleep
B1. Wys 
B2. Turpentine
B3. Thru The City

Norwegian duo Smerz have announced the release of ‘Believer’, their forthcoming debut album that pushes Smerz far beyond their previous EP releases, 2017’s Okey and 2018’s Have Fun. Since releasing the ‘Believer’ trailer back in October 2020 followed by a video for the tracks ‘I don’t talk about that much/Hva hvis’, the duo of Catharina Stoltenberg and Henriette Motzfeldt have slowly revealed a new auditory world. The duo meld sonic touchstones from their youth, like musicals and classical music, with swirling, trance-indebted synth lines and hip-hop plus R&B vocals that is distinctly Smerz.

Last fall the duo performed at Oslo’s Ultima festival; in early 2020 they scored a performance by Carte Blanche, the Norwegian national company of contemporary dance, as well as performed at Mira festival in collaboration with legendary visual maverick Weirdcore.

TRACK LISTING

Gitarriff
Max
Believer
Versace Strings
Rain
4 Temaer
Hester *
Flashing
The Favourite
Rap Interlude
Sonette
Glassbord
Grand Piano
Missy
I Don’t Talk About That Much 

New album from Jungle which follows on from 2014's award winning and acclaimed debut album. Jungle highlighted the aspirational sound of young London at a turbulent time in the city's history. Shunning the dark, claustrophobic sound of grime, or the frenetic, inhuman electronics of (ironically) jungle or its many mutations; for a much sunnier, dare-I-say friendlier sound, indebted to soul and pop music.

Masterminded by Josh 'J' Lloyd-Watson and Tom 'T' McFarland, a production and multi-instrumentalist duo who never expected to leave their bedroom studios, far less become the core of a talent-filled seven-strong collective that morphed into a killer live outfit. "Jungle" garnered rave reviews, untold amounts of hype and a Mercury Music Prize nomination; Noel Gallagher declared the album 'fucking amazing' and it achieved half a million sales.

"For Ever" follows up with a lot of prove. Less dreamy and more direct, it's 'inspired by real life experiences of places they've always dreamed of'. Swapping Shepherds Bush for the Hollywood Hills, J and T set up camp in Los Angeles to write and record the album. Over time however, their romanticization of The Californian Dream clashed with the reality of actually living it, the feeling of being adrift on the West Coast compounded by the collapse of long-term relationships. Returning home to London, they teamed up with highly regarded young producer Inflo where they sought to create a 'post-apocalyptic radio station playing break up songs', whittling down loads of ideas this concept spawned into the core 13 tracks you have before you. "For Ever" is for real, deeper and higher, more intimate and more expansive, feel-good and, just occasionally, feel-bad. It is, then, a proper second album and solidify Jungle as a true UK talent to cherish.

TRACK LISTING

1. Smile
2. Heavy, California
3. Beat 54 (All Good Now)
4. Cherry
5. Happy Man
6. Casio
7. Mama Oh No
8. House In LA
9. Give Over
10. Cosurmyne
11. Home
12. (More And More) It Ain’t Easy
13. Pray

After two feverishly received albums as King Krule, plus another low-key outing under his own name, this extraordinarily gifted 25-year-old from Peckham in South London adds further depth and substance to his oeuvre with another wondrous long-player called ‘Man Alive!’. It arrives packed full of his trademark sonic ambition and compositional skill, as well as the now-familiar corrosive lyricism and lurid social observation.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Following on from his riotously well received LP's, and equally desirable solo album, Marshall returns with his darkest and most clashing outing yet. Snappy percussion and jazzy breaks work their way skilfully below the shadowy vocals and post-punk distortion. Experimental but cohesive, this is definitely the best Krule album yet.

TRACK LISTING

1. Cellular
2. Supermarché
3. Stoned Again
4. Comet Face
5. The Dream
6. Perfecto Miserable
7. Alone, Omen 3
8. Slinky
9. Airport Antenatal Airplane
10. (Don't Let The Dragon) Draag On
11. Theme For The Cross
12. Underclass
13. Energy Fleets
14. Please Complete Thee

Everything Is Recorded by Richard Russell features an eclectic international and inter-generational cast of collaborators and musicians who include (in order of appearance on the album) Sampha, Obongjayar, Kamasi Washington, Giggs, Ibeyi, Wiki, Syd, Rachel Zeffira, Infinite, Green Gartside, Peter Gabriel and Owen Pallett. The twelve track album features previous singles ‘Close But Not Quite (feat. Sampha)’, ‘Mountains Of Gold (feat. Sampha, Ibeyi, Wiki and Kamasi Washington)’ and ‘Show Love (feat. Syd and Sampha)’, which have been described as “the embodiment of pure, creative freedom” by Noisey and “a celebration of artistic freedom” by Dazed, while The New Yorker stated “Russell’s vision, it seems, is about the power of collaboration … a grand synthesis of XL’s stylistic history."

Everything Is Recorded by Richard Russell was recorded at Russell’s west London studio, The Copper House. Over the past couple of years, the studio became a creative second home for the revolving cast of both new and established artists who passed through to write, record and share ideas, mixing traditional recording sessions with extended, uninhibited live jams that lasted long into the night. With Russell at the production helm, a spirit of soundsystem-inspired collaboration and experimentation runs through the heart of an album that is born out of some spontaneous moments of togetherness and periods of intense personal reflection for its creator, and is at once soulful, timeless and boldly modern.

TRACK LISTING

1. Intro
2. Close But Not Quite (feat. Sampha)
3. She Said (feat. Obongjayar & Kamasi Washington)
4. Wet Looking Road (feat. Giggs)
5. Mountains Of Gold (feat. Sampha, Ibeyi, Wiki & Kamasi Washington)
6. Show Love (feat. Syd & Sampha)
7. Echoes In The Bone - Interlude (feat. Rachel Zeffira)
8. Bloodshot Red Eyes (feat. Infinite & Green Gartside)
9. Cane (feat. Ibeyi)
10. Purify - Interlude (feat. Infinite & Peter Gabriel)
11. Be My Friend (feat. Infinite)
12. Everything Is Recorded (feat. Sampha & Owen Pallett)

Taken from Powell’s upcoming album Sport, the Frankie/Jonny 12” contains two tracks of signature Powell style but with the added luxury of vocals from Jonnine Standish of the lauded minimal electronic duo HTRK.Powell belongs to a very small pool of dance artists whose music is a style in itself.” Resident Advisor

“The whole thing is a giddy mess, slathered in squelchy bass synth, broken-Bontempi drumming, drunken-bumblebee arpeggios, and even gnarly hard-rock guitar riffing, just because.” Pitchfork

“Class A wind-up merchant and new beta techno mutant, Powell bends expectations to the fullest with a remarkably emotive, hook-riddled and tumultuous debut album called Sport for the original rave mongrels at XL.” BOOMKAT

Powell recently announced his debut album ‘Sport’ via e-mail to fans. Billboards featuring the producer’s email address appeared in London and New York and fans got in touch seeking details about his next record. Now he’s made a proper announcement.

Emerging five years ago with little announce but an instantly strong aesthetic both musically and design-wise, Powell’s sound immediately stood out in a world of producers making techno that sound took its cues from post-punk, turning the style on its head he made post-punk that had techno ideals.

‘Sport’ is an album that sounds like the perfect snapshot of his eclectic DJ sets and live gigs, Melon Magic NTS shows and the Diagonal imprint he co-runs with Jamie Williams (home to the releases from the likes of EVOL, Russell Haswell and Not Waving).

On the subject of ‘Sport’: “I called it that because I wanted it to be fun and playful, hence the games we’ve been having via these billboards,” Powell wrote in an email to one fan. “People think of my music in certain terms I think, but I don’t agree with them most of the time.

“Also, like sport, I think of this record as being something for mind and body. I mean, you’re shit at sport if you don’t bring both things to it, so yeah, the music is physical and you can dance to it, but I also want to drag people’s brains along for the ride too.

“It’s not a techno record, a dance album, a ‘no-wave techno’ thing, whatever the fuck that is. It’s just the sound of what goes in my head.”

Vocals on ‘Frankie [feat. Frankie]’ are by Jonnine Standish. Jonnine is a musician and visual artist bestknown as one-half of the lauded minimal electronic duo HTRK.

In a collage of fuzz guitars, tuning radios, pitched up soul samples, pitched down exotica records, and a whole lot of background chatter, The Avalanches return after an unprecedented 16 year wait. Created by the band’s core duo - Robbie Chater and Tony Di Blasi – "Wildflower" is nothing less than The Beach Boys’ "Smile" reimagined in the Daisy Age - a mind-bending cartoon road movie that’s best viewed with closed eyes and an open mind. Unmistakeably the work of Australia's sample kings, "Wildflower" is a Technicolor kaleidoscope of everything great and groovy about music, blessed with the warm and dreamlike aesthetic we first fell in love with on the sublime "Since I Left You". A throwback to those halcyon days when artists made albums, as opposed to a couple of radio singles and eight tracks of filler, The Avalanches sophomore LP drifts from one track to the next, taking us on a tripped out tour of downtown Melbourne in the summer time.

Lead single "Frankie Sinatra" divided the critics on its initial release, making a marmite statement with its oddball calypso samples, oompah brass and unhinged lyrics from Danny Brown and MF DOOM. Here, nestled comfortably between the gorgeous summertime soul of "Because I'm Me" and the sampledelic disco of "Subways", the track makes perfect nonsense. The inner city synth pop of "If I Was A Folkstar" strolls through the sunshine like a laid back relative of Cut Copy's "Bright Like Neon Love", while the spectral "Colours", featuring some heavily treated vocals from Mercury Rev's Jonathan Donahue, is as dreamy and doped up as pop music gets. Elsewhere Ariel Pink, Father John Misty, Warren Ellis (Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds)  and Toro Y Moi’s Chaz Bundick make cameos, as does Biz Markie on the light-hearted, full stomached old school hip hop of "Noisy Eater". The dusty sixties soul of "Harmony" leaps out the grooves in the middle of a succession of dreamy sketches (in a day-glo Dilla style) before the triple threat of "The Wozard Of Iz", "Over The Turnstyles" and "Sunshine" form the apex of an outstanding LP. "Kaleidoscopic Lovers" and "Stepkids" serve up a pair of pastoral love songs before the driving haze-gaze of "Saturday Night Inside Out" leads us off into the sunset with the widest smile of our lives. Against all odds and expectations, The Avalanches have done the impossible, following up an instant classic with a second album which is even better than the first. If we have to wait another sixteen years for the next one, at least we'll be waiting in the company of two flawless records. 

TRACK LISTING

01. The Leaves Were Falling
02. Because I’m Me
03. Frankie Sinatra
04. Subways
05. Going Home
06. If I Was A Folkstar
07. Colours
08. Zap!
09. The Noisy Eater
10. Wildflower
11. Harmony
12. Live A Lifetime Love
13. Park Music
14. Livin’ Underwater (Is Somethin’ Wild)
15. The Wozard Of Iz
16. Over The Turnstiles
17. Sunshine
18. Light Up
19. Kaleidoscopic Lovers
20. Stepkids
21. Saturday Night Inside Out
22. Frankie Sinatra (Extended Mix)

Radiohead's ninth LP proper sees them once again couple with mega-producer Nigel Godrich. Together they have created possibly the band's most coherent record of their whole career.  Some of these songs date well back in time and that coupled with the accessibility of comeback single Burn The Witch and their recent  dare-I-say fan-pleasing set-lists suggest a group finally comfortable in their own skin, embracing all that they really are.  So you do still get electronica, but less of the fractured kind. Sure, Thom still sings of alienation, doubt and paranoia, but  in the most beautiful way imaginable. These songs  build and build, swept into shape by Johnny Greenwood's London Contemporary Orchestra strings, peppered with psych-folk and even dub reggae vibes. It's heavy, (let's face it) depressive, but eminently listenable. One for diehards, but crucially, the casual listeners too. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: These songs build and build, swept into shape by Johnny Greenwood's London Contemporary Orchestra strings, peppered with psych-folk and even dub reggae vibes. It's heavy, (let's face it) depressive, but eminently listenable. One for diehards, but crucially, the casual listeners too. One of the last bands standing that truly matter to their people. They just don't disappoint!

TRACK LISTING

Burn The Witch
Daydreaming
Decks Dark
Desert Island Disk
Ful Stop
Glass Eyes
Identikit
The Numbers
Present Tense
Tinker Tailor Soldier Sailor Rich Man Poor Man Beggar Man Thief
True Love Waits

Kaytranada presents his highly anticipated debut album ‘99.9%’ via XL Recordings. The album finds the Haitian born, Montreal raised producer delivering on the promise of his early self-released EPs and remixes.

Since the age of fourteen, when he first began to DJ and when his brother introduced him to music production software, his output has been relentless. He explains, “after he showed me the basics, from that day on I couldn’t stop making beats,” pumping out a handful of tracks per day for the next couple of years.

Single releases like ‘Drive Me Crazy’ with Vic Mensa and ‘Leave Me Alone’ with Shay Lia soon spread his name like wildfire. With that release Kaytranada cemented his reputation and his sound; an undeniable swing of the drums comparable to Dilla’s, a signature soulful touch in the melodies and a healthy dose of funky basslines.

Spread across a wide range of genres including house, bass, hip hop and R&B, '99.9% continues that tradition. The album features a wealth of guest talent, including acclaimed percussionist / producer Karriem Riggins, rising Toronto vocalist River Tiber, UKG favourite Craig David, AlunaGeorge, Badbadnotgood, Anderson .Paak, Little Dragon and many more.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Following ley-lines laid by Anderson.Pak and Kendrick Lamar, Kaytra takes musical genres and flips them on their head - taking the gangstas out of hip-hop and adding the raving club-goer to pop music. The result is an album both welcoming and challenging in equal measure.

TRACK LISTING

Track Uno
Bus Ride (ft Karriem Riggins & River Tiber)
Got It Good (ft Craig David)
Together (ft AlunaGeorge & GoldLink)
Drive Me Crazy (ft Vic Mensa)
Weight Off (ft BADBADNOTGOOD)
One Too Many (ft Phonte)
Despite The Weather
Glowed Up (ft Anderson .Paak)
Breakdance Lesson N.1.
You’re The One (ft Syd)
Vivid Dreams (ft River Tiber)
Lite Spots
Leave Me Alone (ft Shay Lia)
Bullets (ft Little Dragon)

Southport-raised, London-based 19 year old singer, songwriter and producer Holly ‘Låpsley’ Fletcher releases her debut album ‘Long Way Home’ on XL Recordings.

The twelve track album features new versions of her previous acclaimed releases ‘Hurt Me’, ‘Falling Short’, ‘Painter’ and ‘Station’, as well as brand new single ‘Love Is Blind’. Sitting somewhere in the intersection of the Venn diagram that includes Adele, Rosie Lowe and James Blake in the outer circles.

‘Long Way Home’ documents a turbulent time in Låpsley’s life - a period in which she revelled in her new-found music career as it took her from Liverpool to London to Los Angeles and back again. “It’s an autobiography of my emotions and events over the past year,” she says. “Everything that’s happened, I’ve channelled in some way into a song - whether that’s the theme of a long distance relationship, or something that he’s said, or the way that I’ve felt, or an argument. I only revisit the memories of that relationship when I go into the studio. I think it’s helped me, to be able to collect everything for those moments when I’m writing. I think that’s what’s driven this album.”

Låpsley’s determined views on her own production have ensured her involvement in every element of these songs, a fact that in the early days seemed to confuse many of the producers she met. “They didn’t want to listen to me,” she says, “or they think a girl’s just there to add a top line, or they come to the table with ideas already. Straight away if I come in to a studio and someone says ‘I’ve written something for you’, then I’ll just walk out. I don’t care. I’m not there for that.”

For the bulk of ‘Long Way Home’ she worked with XL’s in-house producer Rodaidh McDonald. “This album wouldn’t be how it is if it wasn’t for Rodaidh,” she says. “He’s at the top of the thank yous.” There were two tracks recorded with Paul O’Duffy, a producer she admired because “the way that he thinks is different to anybody else. He’s not tainted by a commercial idea, it’s so creative and beautiful and what I aspire to be like in the future.”

TRACK LISTING

Heartless
Hurt Me
Falling Short
Cliff
Operator (He Doesn’t Call Me)
Painter
Tell Me The Truth
Station
Love Is Blind
Silverlake
Leap
Seven Months

“My last record was a break up record and if I had to label this one I would call it a make up record. I’m making up with myself. making up for lost time. making up for everything I ever did and never did.”

So says Adele about her new long player '25'. "Highly anticipated" doesn't quite cut it, with the video for lead single 'Hello' clocking in at 404,293,556 views the last time I looked (and undoubtedly more by the time you read this). '25' might be the event record of 2015, but really it's a continuation of the sound that brought '21' 9 x platinum global sales. The intimate piano ballads, epic swelling choruses, R&B pop hints and BIG production are all present and correct on '25', along with the emotional catch in Adele's voice - the thing that lifts her head and shoulders above all the melisma-ing X-Factor wannabes. The album features co-production from Greg Kurstin, Tobias Jesso Jr ('When We Were Young'), Danger Mouse ('River Lea') and Swedish pop svengalis Max Martin & Shellback ('Send My Love (To Your New Lover)') 

TRACK LISTING

1. Hello
2. Send My Love (To Your New Lover)
3. I Miss You
4. When We Were Young
5. Remedy
6. Water Under The Bridge
7. River Lea
8. Love In The Dark
9. Million Years Ago
10. All I Ask
11. Sweetest Devotion

Following a BBC Sound Of 2015 nomination and signing to XL Recordings, the hotly-tipped talent Shamir comes correct with his debut album "Ratchet". The Las Vegas-based singer crept slowly into the awarenesses of music fans with a steady rise in popularity following the release of debut EP "Northtown", which was put out on the Godmode Records label. Hypnotic single "On The Regular" marked the transition to the indie label giant XL and promised an album of addictive rhythms and bold pop magic.

Dismissing any questions of over hype straight off the bat, Shamir opens the LP with the Sylvester "I Need Somebody To Love Tonight" stylings of "Vegas", delivering the best low tempo cut of the year so far. From that point forward there's no looking back as the young gun unites Larry Levan-era house, DFA-style beats and strikingly sincere and lyrics into a ménage à trois which calls to mind the finest work of Hot Chip, Holy Ghost! and Tiga. Alongside the pure pop majesty of "Make A Scene" and "On The Regular", there's the thumping house hit of "Call It Off" and "Hot Mess" before the smooth R&B stylings of "Demon" closes the A-side. As we dive to the flip, LP standout "In For The Kill" goes woozy and wonky in an explosion of brass backed 'Arthur Russel goes house' genius. "Youth" channels Hot Chip at their dancefloor best (think of "My Piano") before "Darker" heads off on an emotive FKA Twigs-esque crank anthem. And how better to finish this glorious artistic statement off than with a high camp, high energy house slammer, which is exactly what "Head In The Clouds" is.

"Ratchet" sees Shamir live up to the hype and reset the bar for danceable pop music - get involved.

TRACK LISTING

Vegas
Make A Scene
On The Regular
Call It Off
Hot Mess
Demon
In For The Kill
Youth
Darker
Head In The Clouds

Over the last year, London-based East India Youth has combined strikingly original music with euphoric live performances and has quickly become recognised as one of the most experimental and captivating artists around.

Here he delivers brand new album, titled ‘Culture Of Volume’; his first since signing to XL Recordings. The record follows his critically acclaimed debut album ‘Total Strife Forever’ (released in January 2014 on Stolen Records) that went on to be nominated for the Mercury Prize.

‘Culture Of Volume’ opens with the synth sweep of instrumental track 'The Juddering', which does indeed judder. It then switches tack to 'End Result', an emotive, melancholic number featuring live instrumentation. 'Beaming White' and 'Turn Away', while 'Hearts That Never' and 'Entirety' head to the peak-time dancefloor with 90s rave beats, fidgeting keyboard lines and a touch of an unrelenting Underworld feel to it. Wearing its heart on its sleeve, solo vocal / synth number 'Carousel' sounds like a number U2 should have written for the Spiderman musical, but didn't. Firing up the club rhythms again, jittery 2-stepping drum & bass-ish cut 'Don’t Look Backwards' is catchy pop with fancy footwork. The album closes with the sparkling machine-pop of 'Manner Of Words' and 'Montage Resolution', which, like 'The Juddering', does exactly what it says on the tin. 

Mostly recorded and produced in his bedroom at home in London and named after a fragment of verse from the poem ‘Monument’ by Rick Holland, ‘Culture Of Volume’ was mixed by Graham Sutton (Bark Psychosis, Boymerang) and the artwork was created by visual artist Dan Tombs (inspired by Andy Warhol’s experiments with computer technology).

Ibeyi (pronounced “ee-bey-ee”) is Naomi and Lisa-Kainde Diaz, daughters of the late Cuban percussionist 'Anga' Diaz of Buena Vista Social fame. Naomi plays percussive instruments, the Cajon and the Batas, while Lisa plays piano. Together the twins have learned the songs of their father’s culture, Yoruba. Their love of Yorùbá choirs was inspired by their mother.

Yoruba travelled from West Africa to Cuba with slavery in the 1700s. The Yoruba people have the highest twinning rate in the World and twins occupy an important position within Yoruba culture.

Ibeyi sing in English and Yoruba and they have created a minimalist sound that merges elements of their heritage with their natural love of modern music as teenagers brought up in Paris. This self-titled debut album, produced by XL’s Richard Russell, is an inventive collision of the old and the new - stark electronic atmospherics, heartfelt soulful vocals and melodies inspired by slave chants to produce what Ibeyi themselves have dubbed “contemporary negro spirituals”.

For fans of James Blake, Bjork etc.

Jungle are based around a core musical duo of lifelong friends known simply as ‘J’ and ‘T’, who expand to a thrilling seven piece live, and make mesmeric, kaleidoscopic modern alt-soul-pop that’s unmistakably born in the UK but has true global appeal.

Debuting on Chess Club 45 with ''Platoon' and 'The Heat' back in 2013, Jungle gained instant praise for their seductive sounds and equally mesmeric videos of a breakdancing child and rollerskating duo. Minus the striking visuals Jungle are just as impressive with a delicate yet immediate music that brings to mind the likes of Prince, the Bee Gees, The xx, Bon Iver, Portishead, krautrock, Curtis Mayfield, ELO, P-Funk, MGMT psychedelia, Disclosure and more, all fed into the Junglist blender creating a refreshing soul-pop smoothie. Now signed to XL Recordings the duo / septet's debut long player looks set to be the crossover album of summer 2014.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Heat
2. Accelerate
3. Busy Earnin’
4. Platoon
5. Drops
6. Time
7. Smoking Pixels
8. Julia
9. Crumbler
10. Son Of A Gun
11. Lucky I Got What I Want
12. Lemonade Lake

"Fans of Radiohead's 1993 single "Creep" basically divided into two camps: those who loved it as a dynamic slice of self-loathing rock & roll, and those who just enjoyed the skrakunk-skrakunk guitar distortion before every chorus. On their later albums, Radiohead would throw their lot in with the skrakunk-skrakunk crowd, pushing the boundaries of sonic experimentation. But for one record, they demonstrated how good they could be when they stuck to guitar rock. Singer Thom Yorke explored the expressive power of moaning, while guitarist Jonny Greenwood proved equally gifted with restrained strumming and electric flare-gun solos. When critics describe bands such as Coldplay as sounding like Radiohead, they usually mean that they sound like Radiohead's brilliant second album.

The title of The Bends refers to decompression sickness, when deep-sea divers come up too quickly — a comment on the band's sudden fame. The lyrics are filled with Yorke's unhappiness rendered as health metaphors: He makes himself a cripple who can't climb the stairs in "Bones," and with "My Iron Lung," he immobilizes himself even more completely and complains, "This is our new song/Just like the last one/A total waste of time."

The record is filled with lovely ballads, full of longing, jealousy and critiques of consumer culture. But the best is the last: "Street Spirit (Fade Out)." Over chiming guitar arpeggios, Yorke sings a hymn to his own claustrophobia and insignificance, making them sound like exalted states of being. When he intones, "Cracked eggs, dead birds scream as they fight for life," he finds solace in the vowels, transforming them into a melody of hope. By the end of the song, with harmonies swirling around, the beauty has touched even him: The final words on an emotional, bleak album are "Immerse your soul in love." - Rolling Stone.

Bobby Womack is a funk and soul legend with more hits under his belt than we can count. 'The Bravest Man In The Universe' is his first album for 18 years. It was recorded and co-produced by Damon Albarn, which came about when he did guest vocals for The Gorillaz's 'Plastic Beach' album, and XL label boss Richard Russell who was behind the controls on Gil Scott Heron's final album 'I'm New Here'.

Recorded at Albarn's Studio 13 in west London and New York's Manhattan Center between October and December 2011, the album occupies a similar space to Russell's work with Gil Scott-Heron, letting Womack's heart-rending soul vocals ride over more contemporary electronic backing tracks. The album also features vocal contributions from African singer Fatoumata Diawara and Lana Del Rey.

The Horrors make their eagerly awaited return with the release of a new album on XL Recordings. ‘Skying’, self-produced and recorded in The Horrors’ own self built studio in London’s Dalston, was mixed by Grammy Award winner Craig Silvey. It features ten brand new tracks and includes the forthcoming single ‘Still Life’, also released on 11th of July. ‘Skying’ is the band’s third long player, and follows 2009’s Mercury Prize nominated ‘Primary Colours’ and their debut ‘Strange House’ which was released in 2007.

TRACK LISTING

1. Changing The Rain
2. You Said
3. I Can See Through You
4. Endless Blue
5. Dive In
6. Still Life
7. Wild Eyed
8. Moving Further Away
9. Monica Gems
10. Oceans Burning

About its release Adele says 'I'm very excited, nervous, eager, anxious but chuffed to announce my new album! It's taken a while and it knocked me for six when writing it. It's different from "19", it's about the same things but in a different light. I deal with things differently now. I'm more patient, more honest, more forgiving and more aware of my own flaws, habits and principles. Something that comes with age I think. So fittingly this record is called "21". The whole reason I called my first album "19" was about cataloging what happened to me then and who I was then, like a photo album you see the progression and changes in a person throughout the years.'

Most of the album was made in Malibu with the legendary Rick Rubin (Johnny Cash, Jay Z, Red Hot Chilli Peppers) and back in Kensal Rise in London with Paul Epworth (Plan B, Bloc Party, Florence). Adele cites Wanda Jackson, Yvonne Fair, Andrew Bird, Mary J Blige, Mos Def, Elbow, Tom Waits and Kanye West amongst others as key influences on "21".

Critically acclaimed by many of her musical contemporaries, Adele well and truly made her mark with "19". Chapter two begins here.

After two hugely acclaimed albums (2005’s "Arular" and 2007’s "Kala"), the global success of "Paper Planes", Oscar nominations, and that Grammys performance, MIA is back with a brand new album "/\/\/\Y/\" ("MAYA" in slashes!), which sees her as incendiary and forward thinking as ever. Recorded in Los Angeles, the album features production from Rusko, Diplo, Blaqstarr and Switch, a collaboration resulting in dubstep bass and grinding industrial noise being added to MIA’s unique armoury of electro sounds. Just as shouty and in yer face as ever, this is pop music as a polar opposite to the polished sheen of Lady Gaga and Kylie. "MAYA" draws influence from our technologically changing world, now that our every thought and action is documented and posted for everyone to see. The album is an uncensored screen-grab of 2010.

After two hugely acclaimed albums (2005’s "Arular" and 2007’s "Kala"), the global success of "Paper Planes", Oscar nominations, and that Grammys performance, MIA is back with a brand new album "/\/\/\Y/\" ("MAYA" in slashes!), which sees her as incendiary and forward thinking as ever. Recorded in Los Angeles, the album features production from Rusko, Diplo, Blaqstarr and Switch, a collaboration resulting in dubstep bass and grinding industrial noise being added to MIA’s unique armoury of electro sounds. Just as shouty and in yer face as ever, this is pop music as a polar opposite to the polished sheen of Lady Gaga and Kylie. "MAYA" draws influence from our technologically changing world, now that our every thought and action is documented and posted for everyone to see. The album is an uncensored screen-grab of 2010.

THE PICCADILLY RECORDS ALBUM OF THE YEAR 2011

'I’m New Here' sees proto-rap pioneer Gil Scott-Heron still looking forward, still challenging conventions and expectations, with his first album in 13 years. Without doubt one of the most important voices in 20th century music, Gil Scott-Heron’s unfailingly sharp and ironic eye spared neither Black Power phonies or scheming presidents. In 1971 he laid out the blueprint for the whole rap genre with his slinky anthem "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" while, throughout a career spanning five decades, his deep, soulful voice spoke of nukes, Reaganomics or apartheid, always from deep inside the tradition. "I’m New Here" sees Gil Scott-Heron sounding as vital as ever; a record that reveals something unexpected at every turn; one that sees Scott-Heron pushing, probing and testing the boundaries just as he always has. Alongside his "I’m New Here" collaborator – producer and XL Recordings head Richard Russell – Scott-Heron has made an album that eschews the cosy arrangements and retrospective leanings one might expect from an artist over forty years into their career.

STAFF COMMENTS

Laura says: A truly remarkable album, and an almost permanent fixture on my turntable this year. Gil's storytelling is second to none; from the melancholy of opening track, "On Coming From A Broken" home, to the raw blues-stomp of "Me And The Devil" to the dark brooding "Where Did The Night Go" he paints vivid pictures of his world. He even takes a Bill Callahan (Smog) song and makes it his own. (It's so good in fact that it gives the album its name!) Sad, witty, melancholic, uplifting and thought provoking - this is Gil on top form.

TRACK LISTING

1. On Coming From A Broken Home (Pt. 1)
2. Me And The Devil
3. I’m New Here
4. Your Soul And Mine
5. Parents (Interlude)
6. I’ll Take Care Of You
7. Being Blessed (Interlude)
8. Where Did The Night Go
9. I Was Guided (Interlude)
10. New York Is Killing Me
11. Certain Things (Interlude)
12. Running
13. The Crutch
14. I’ve Been Me (Interlude)
15. On Coming From A Broken Home (Pt. 2)

Vinyl Bonus Disc:
1. Piano Player (Intro)
2. Home Is Where The Hatred Is *
3. Winter In America *
4. Jazz (Interlude)
5. Is That Jazz *
6. A Place To Go (Interlude)
7. My Cloud **
* Live Studio Version
** Previously Unreleased

Basement Jaxx are back with their fifth long player, "Scars". The set features a host of special guests including Yoko Ono, Sam Sparro, Santigold, Kelis and Chipmunk, and is as innovative in its sound as it is in its vision. Their sound still remains as urgent and as impactful as ever – there's no need for Basement Jaxx to try and embrace any kind of retro outlook to their music. From the Top 20 smash hit summer anthem of "Raindrops" featuring Felix's twisted vocals, to the string-drenched, grime-esque title track "Scars2 and the gorgeous "My Turn", which features Lightspeed Champion on vocals, Basement Jaxx deliver an album that outshines any dance act in the UK.

Having wowed us with a 45 and a couple of ace 10"s on People In The Sky, Friendly Fires now deliver their full length debut album. Two years in the making, this long player is a heady mixture of dancefloor friendly monsters, amidst beautiful washes of understated lo-fi pop music. The album opens with "Jump In The Pool", a mixture of angular punk-funk jerkiness and big emotion-drenched chorus, while "In The Hospital" mixes post-punk disco with guitar slashes and all sorts of alt-funkiness. "Paris" opens with frenzied percussion before morphing into a sing-along stadium favourite, and "Strobe" pushes the indie envelope further with its jangly guitars before adding a nice dose of sparkling electronics. And so the album continues, blending disco-punk rhythms with an emotional intensity to work both the feet and the brain.

Dizzee Rascal returns with new album "Maths & English". On the one hand it's easily his most accessible record to date. On the other, it's as brutally honest and confrontational as anything he's done to date. Check out first single "Sirens" – with its Korn-inspired metal guitars. Or the Lyn Collins-sampling "Pussyole", which is the straightest hip hop track he's ever done. The album also features a host of special guests, including the vivacious backchat of Lily Allen on "Wanna Be", the Shy FX-produced "Da' Feelin", and the gangster rap anthem "Where's Da G's" with US legends Bun B and Pimp C (UGK). Then there's the reggae infused "Temptation" which samples Alex Turner of the Arctic Monkeys. While "Maths & English" may have been inspired by a huge number of different styles and influences, the album retains its distinctively British identity and only goes to enhance that Dizzee Rascal really is one of the country's best musical talents.

Over the past twelve months, Dizzee has travelled the world, and been on a rollercoaster ride of new experiences. "Showtime" is a bigger-sounding album than his acclaimed debut "Boy In Da Corner" but it's equally individual. It's a force of nature; a volcanic ride of crazy wordplay, ghetto techno and bottom-heavy bass. "Boy In Da Corner" was stunning because of it's penetrating power and singular evocation of inner city life, and "Showtime" hits the spot for similar reasons – but with added bass rumble and, crucially more tunes. What Mills has dropped in neurosis he has gained in precision-guided anger.