Following Brutalism (2017) and Joy as an Act of Resistance (2018), two releases that garnered global critical acclaim, IDLES return with their highly anticipated third album – Ultra Mono. Sonically constructed to capture the feeling of a hip-hop record (including production contribution from Kenny Beats), the album doubles down on the vitriolic sneer and blunt social commentary of their past work. Not far beneath the surface of their self-admitted sloganeering lies a deeply complex and brutally relevant album that chews up clichés and spits them out as high art for the masses. This is momentary acceptance of the self. This is Ultra Mono.

FORMAT INFORMATION

Coloured LP Info: Limited edition Vortex Vinyl version.

Deluxe LP Info: Black vinyl in deluxe gatefold packaging with 28 page debossed Ultra Mono catalogue.

Following Brutalism (2017) and Joy as an Act of Resistance (2018), two releases that garnered global critical acclaim, IDLES return with their highly anticipated third album – Ultra Mono. Sonically constructed to capture the feeling of a hip-hop record (including production contribution from Kenny Beats), the album doubles down on the vitriolic sneer and blunt social commentary of their past work. Not far beneath the surface of their self-admitted sloganeering lies a deeply complex and brutally relevant album that chews up clichés and spits them out as high art for the masses. This is momentary acceptance of the self. This is Ultra Mono.

FORMAT INFORMATION

Coloured LP Info: Limited edition Vortex vinyl.

Deluxe LP Info: Black vinyl in deluxe gatefold packaging with 28 page debossed Ultra Mono catalogue.

Preorder the album from us for an invite to a very special album release show, filmed at 2FM Radio's studio in Dublin. "A Night In Montrose, Dublin" will air on Monday 3rd August at 8pm BST, 9pm CEST / 3pm EDT.

All you have to do is order the album from us before midnight on Sunday 2nd August and we will email you a link to the show. IMPORTANT!!!: Links will be emailed after 4pm on Monday 3rd August, make sure you check your junk mail if it hasn't arrived in your inbox.

Fontaines D.C. will perform new album A Hero’s Death in its entirety for the very first time, along with selected tracks from their award-winning debut Dogrel. A live Q&A with the band will also mark the occasion.

See you down the front!!!

You can also sign up to the bands mailing list for an invite.

Barely a year after the release of their hugely acclaimed debut album 'Dogrel', which earned a Mercury Prize nomination and Album of the Year 2019 at both BBC 6Music and Rough Trade record store, Dublin’s Fontaines D.C. have returned with an intensely confident, patient, and complex follow up album. 'A Hero's Death' arrives battered and bruised, albeit beautiful - a heady and philosophical take on the modern world, and its great uncertainty. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Well, well.. Fontaines follow up the stunning Dogrel with yet another killer LP. We get the brash distortion and rawkous chant-along melodies from the previous outing but imbued with a more mature songwriting focus and more refined sound. Stunner.

FORMAT INFORMATION

2xDeluxe LP Info: 45rpm cut double-LP on 180g black vinyl.
Cut at Abbey Road Studios.
Double gatefold LP.
Comes with 12”x12” photo/lyric book.

Laura Marling’s exquisite seventh album 'Song For Our Daughter' arrives almost without preamble or warning in the midst of uncharted global chaos, and yet instantly and tenderly offers a sense of purpose, clarity and calm. As a balm for the soul, this full-blooded new collection could be posited as Laura’s richest to date, but in truth it’s another incredibly fine record by a British artist who rarely strays from delivering incredibly fine records.

Taking much of the production reins herself, alongside long-time collaborators Ethan Johns and Dom Monks, Laura has layered up lush string arrangements and a broad sense of scale to these songs without losing any of the intimacy or reverence we’ve come to anticipate and almost take for granted from her throughout the past decade.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Laura Marling returns once again for more of her unmistakeable plucked guitars and brittle, Americana-tinged folk progressions and tender, effecting vocal. Song For Our Daughter is as much a progression as it is a comforting hark back to the songwriting of the early years. Beautifully orchestrated and an enchanting journey throughout.

FORMAT INFORMATION

LP Info: Single LP, black 140g vinyl, gatefold packaging.

CD Info: Digipak CD with booklet.

Who is “Bobby,” you ask?

Enter Pottery. Enter Paul Jacobs, Jacob Shepansky, Austin Boylan, Tom Gould, and Peter Baylis. Enter the smells, the cigarettes, the noise, their van Mary, their friend Luke, toilet drawings, Northern California, Beatles accents, Taco Bell, the Great Plains, and hot dogs. Enter love and hate, angst and happiness, and everything in between. Beginning as an inside joke between the band members, Bobby and his “motel” have grown into so much more. They’ve become the all-encompassing alt-reality that the band built themselves, for everyone else. So, in essence, Bobby is Pottery and his motel is wherever they are.

But really, Bobby is a pilot, a lumberjack, a stay at home dad, and a disco dancer that never rips his pants. He's a punching bag filled with comic relief. He laughs in the face of day-to-day ambiguity, as worrying isn’t worth it to Bobby. There’s a piece of him in everyone, there to remind us that things are probably going to work out, maybe. He’s you. He’s him. He’s her. He’s them. Bobby is always there, painted in the corner, urging you to relax and forget about your useless worries. And his motel? Well, the motel is life. It might not be clean, and the curtains might not shut all the way. The air conditioner might be broken, and the floors might be stained. But that’s okay, because you don’t go to Bobby’s Motel for the glamour and a good night’s sleep, the minibar, or the full-service sauna. You go to Bobby’s Motel to feel, to escape, to remember, to distract. You go for the late nights and early mornings, good times and the bad. You might spend your entire life looking for Bobby’s Motel and just when you think you will never find it, you realize you’ve been there all along. It’s filthy and amazing and you dance, and you love it.

The 11 songs on ‘Welcome to Bobby’s Motel’ don’t just invite you to move your body; they command you to. Fusing reckless, manic energy with painstaking precision, the record is part post-punk, part art-pop, and part dance floor acid trip, hinting at everything from Devo to Gang of Four as it boldly careens through genres and decades. The music is driven by explosive drums and off-kilter guitar riffs that drill themselves into your brain, accented with deep, funky grooves and rousing gang vocals. The production is similarly raw and wild, suggesting an air of anarchy that belies the music’s careful architecture and meticulous construction. The result is an album full of ambitious, complex performances that exude joy and mayhem in equal measure, a collection that’s alternately virtuosic, chaotic, and pure fun." 

FORMAT INFORMATION

Coloured LP Info: 'Hot Dog yellow' vinyl.

Coloured LP includes MP3 Download Code.

Ultraísta are releasing their first new album since 2012's self-titled debut. "Tin King" is a collection that defies easy categorization, and one that proves that Ultraísta — Grammy-winning producer/engineer/musician Nigel Godrich, best known for his two decades helming Radiohead’s groundbreaking studio output; celebrated drummer Joey Waronker, who’s toured and recorded with everyone from R.E.M. and Beck to Roger Waters and Elliott Smith; and singer Laura Bettinson, an acclaimed solo artist whose work combines synth-driven electropop and dreamy vocal looping — is far more than just the sum of its remarkable parts.

‘A Beautiful Thing: IDLES Live at Le Bataclan’ is the brand new live album from IDLES, recorded at Le Bataclan in Paris on 3rd December 2018, at the close of a 90 date world tour. The album celebrates the band’s success over the last two years, featuring songs from ‘Brutalism’ and ‘Joy as an Act of Resistance’, and highlights their overall message of unity, and of healing through community.

“Our show at Bataclan was the end of a very long journey for us. On that tour we learnt so much about ourselves, each other and the audiences we have grown with over the past 10 years. That show was nothing short of catharsis and nothing more than love. We love what we do and the people who have carried us here, there was no hiding that at Bataclan and we are so very grateful that the moment was captured in all its glory, love and fatigue. Long live the open minded and long live the moment.” - Joe Talbot

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A beautiful thing indeed, Idles bring all of their vitriol and political fire to the legendary Bataclan, and it couldn't be more perfect a performance. Rawkous, huge and scathing, a live album not to be missed.

FORMAT INFORMATION

2xColoured LP Info: Neon Clear Orange Vinyl.

2xColoured LP includes MP3 Download Code.

2xColoured LP 2 Info: Neon Clear Lime Green Vinyl.

2xColoured LP 2 includes MP3 Download Code.

2xColoured LP 3 Info: Neon Clear Pink Vinyl.

2xColoured LP 3 includes MP3 Download Code.

Cigarettes After Sex return with their anticipated sophomore album. Recorded during night time sessions in a mansion on the Spanish island of Mallorca, the album is a lush, cinematic meditation on the many complex facets of love - meeting, wanting, needing, losing...sometimes all at once. The album was self-produced and engineered by Greg Gonzalez, and mixed by Craig Silvey (Arcade Fire, Yeah Yeah Yeahs).

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Much like their debut, 'Cry' is full of wistful moments of contemplative beauty and heady, rich waves of synth and restrained bass throbs. Classic chord progressions and tear-jerking vocal performances make for a more refined distillation of the sound that garnered them so much attention the first time around. Lovely stuff.

FORMAT INFORMATION

LP Info: Black vinyl, includes 12” x 12” poster insert (album art on one side, lyrics on the reverse).

From the cliffs of Big Sur to the North Carolina backwoods - Molly Sarlé (one third of Mountain Man) brings open-hearted, unflinching songwriting perfect for late-night karaoke comedowns, plaintive morning walks and conjuring the spirit world. West Coast incantations with a warm, Appalachian glow.

The work on ‘Karaoke Angel’ began in a trailer on a the pacific coast and continued with stints in Los Angeles and Durham, NC. Recorded in a church-turned-recording studio in Woodstock, NY with production by Sam Evian, a minimal but carefully assembled palette of guitar, bass and percussion form the foundation; an orchestra of unrecognizable atmospherics bounce off the high ceilings - but Molly’s delicate, expressive voice is always at the centre.

For fans of Laura Marling, Lucy Dacus, Wye Oak, Big Thief, Angel Olsen, Phoebe Bridgers, Molly Burch, Jessica Pratt, Julia Holter, Joni Mitchell, Weyes Blood, Tiny Ruins, Aldous Harding, Cate Le Bon.

FORMAT INFORMATION

LP includes MP3 Download Code.

Newly signed to Partisan Records (IDLES, Fontaines D.C., Cigarettes After Sex), Spike Fuck first came to prominence as a striking figure in the explosive flourishing of musical creativity that has recently occurred in Melbourne.

Partisan release ‘The Smackwave EP’ physically for the first time, including the bonus track ‘Body By Crystal’. Her debut album is due for release next year.

Drawing from a difficult period of heroin addiction, Spike creates beautifully infectious, Triffids-tinged rock and roll songs which describe, with unflinching candour and white hot urgency, the peaks and valleys of that lifestyle, recalling at times the febrile music scene of 80’s New York and cult heroes like Jim Carroll and Johnny Thunders.

Spike Fuck is inspired primarily by love and obsession, addiction, sexual disorientation, Catholic guilt and washed up 60s musicians who make overproduced comeback albums a decade later crying out for redemption and maybe even just a little bit of the limelight back. Spike Fuck describes her work as “smackwave” - a blend of late 80s new wave with equal parts late 70s post-punk, with a dash of country music/singersongwriter sensibilities delivered in Las Vegas Ballroom karaoke vocal style.

“Is Spike Australia's most exciting songwriter?” - Vice

“Meet Spike Fuck, Rick Owens’ new favourite musician” - Dazed

“With that first release she started a beautifully honest conversation about addiction, loneliness and gender identity” - i-D

“Honest and unvarnished, ‘Junkie Logic’ details its writers’ problems with drug abuse through the odd, yet apt lens of glistening, 80s power-balladry/loner-rock that patrols the darkest of tunnels, forever seeking the light at the end.” - God Is In The TV

Written in periods of health and optimism, ‘Heaven Is Humming’ has been a long time coming. Three years coming, to be exact: singer / guitarist / songwriter Kenny Becker, singer / guitarist Drew Eccleston, bassist Caleb Wicker and drummer Christian Koons started work on the album in the summer of 2016, right around the time Goon’s debut EP ‘Dusk Of Punk’ came ripping in from the Los Angeles sky, spilling from the brim with monster riffs and deep hooks. After spending some initial time in the studio with Chris Lynch and Adam Rasmussen of Gardens & Villa in their space in the Frogtown neighbourhood of LA, the first Goon LP could have easily been rushed out. Instead the band chose to get it just right.

‘Heaven Is Humming’ is weird in its fearless abandon but it’s also comforting and familiar at the same time, taking the sounds of foundational groups like Pixies and Boards Of Canada and contextualizing them through a modern lens, placing Goon alongside contemporaries like Forth Wanderers, METZ, Young Jesus and Partisan labelmates Dilly Dally. Becker croons like Michael Stipe one minute and snarls like Frank Black the next but you never lose the sense of who these four guys are making a beautiful racket right in the here and now.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: From the heftier distorted guitar and thumping percussion to the more tender post-grunge revery, Goon have crafted a remarkable testament to a variety of genres without sounding like any single one. Brought together with perfect musicianship and an impeccable ear for a tune, 'Heaven Is Humming' is a superb and absorbing listen throughout. Awesome stuff.

Hailing from across Canada and the UK, Montreal’s Pottery consists of core writers Austin Boylan and Jacob Shepansky, along with Peter Baylis, Paul Jacobs and Tom Gould. Initially bonding over artists such as Orange Juice, Josef K and Devo, the band create a sound that combines eclectic traces of post-punk, pop and dance music, forming an unusual atmosphere that envelopes audiences.

While often shrill and jarring, Pottery’s songs simultaneously engage listeners into a hypnotic state. It’s this dualism that binds them together, uncovering harmony within discord. Hailed as one of the hottest acts at 2019’s SXSW and The Great Escape Festival, Pottery’s debut mini album, titled ‘No. 1’, is available for the first time on vinyl, via Partisan Records

Body Type patched themselves together in Sydney in 2016 and found they each contained pieces that perfectly complemented one another’s. They soon set about articulating their ideas through jangling guitars and scuzzy, lo-fi production, and found that audiences at home in and around the country were eager to get sucked in.

Following the debut release of ‘EP1’ in late 2018 and the sophomore ‘EP2’ both Body Type EPs are now available on vinyl.

Their music so far has received critical acclaim from the likes of the FADER, DIY Mag, NME, KEXP, Beats 1’s Matt Wilkinson, Radio 1’s Jack Saunders, triple j's Declan Byrne and more and it has seen them tour with the likes of Alex Cameron, Courtney Barnett, Frankie Cosmos, Big Thief and Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, to name a few.

In 2019, they played two shows at New York’s Union Pool with Fontaines D.C., embarked on their first SXSW run and completed their first ever hotly-anticipated UK / EU headline tour, including a headline show at London’s Moth club.

“Immeasurably cool” - Dork

“The Aussie gang making starry-eyed garage-pop to brighten your day” - NME

“If I die let me come back as a member of an Australian band capable of writing as many catchy bops as Body Type” - The Fader

FORMAT INFORMATION

LP Info: LP includes digital download card.

After a handful of singles (all of are included here), one of the most talked about new bands of the last 12 months finally release their debut album. Their visceral pop has drawn comparisons to Idles amongst others, but what really stands out and sets them apart is their roots. Straight from the off, there is no doubt where they’re from; Irish through and through. Their hometown of Dublin is a constant reference point throughout from it’s literary past to modern day life in the city. Considering the band have only actually been a band for three years, this is a remarkably assured debut that’s hard to ignore.

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: One of the year's most eagerly awaited albums did not disappoint when it arrived in April. A punk/post punk rock'n'roll band who actually sing about stuff, this record hits with the power of an early Smiths, Arctic Monkeys or even Oasis (more in attitude than anything else). It's like a poem to Dublin, getting out as much as revelling in, and singer Grian Chatten is the most authentic frontman we've heard in a long time.

Partisan Records are proud to release the upcoming 7” from Fontaines D.C., titled ‘Too Real’. Fontaines D.C. met as a quintet in Dublin, influenced and driven in equal measure by the rich history of their hometown’s counter-culture, their response has been to make concise and immediately authentic indie punk that has done anything but fall on deaf ears.

The last six months have seen Fontaines D.C. release three hotly received double A-side singles, both of which were named as Single Of The Week by many retailers and garnered early support from the likes of Steve Lamacq and others on 6 Music, as well as earning feature space from every major Irish publication. Similarly, the band have played a number of shows across Europe, Ireland and the UK earning a reputation for their brooding and trenchant live performances, supporting the likes of The Horrors, Girl Band and The Lemon Twigs, as well as playing festival slots at Electric Picnic, Hard Working Class Heroes and Other Voices.

Previous singles such as ‘Liberty Belle’, ‘Hurricane Laughter’ and ‘Chequeless Reckless’ call to mind the likes of the Modern Lovers, The Fall, Iggy Pop and The Strokes, seamlessly blending immediate lyrical hooks with melodic golden-era indie instrumentation and 70s Stooges punk thrust, all of which is strewn with defiant rock and roll overtones.

“The energy, the urgency and the emotion of these brilliant new songs made me stand up and take notice that this is the band I’ve been waiting for” - John Richards (KEXP, Seattle)

“Snarling, Swaggering Post Punk” - Stereogum

Bristol, UK 5-piece Idles (aka “the UK's best punk band" - The Guardian) release their sophomore LP - ‘Joy as an Act of Resistance.’ 

Produced by Space and mixed by Adam Greenspan & Nick Launay (Arcade Fire, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Kate Bush), ‘Joy as an Act of Resistance.’ takes aim at everything from toxic masculinity, nationalism, immigration, and class inequality - all while maintaining a visceral, infectious positivity. Singer Joe Talbot summarizes: “This album is an attempt to be vulnerable to our audience and to encourage vulnerability; a brave naked smile in this shitty new world. We have stripped back the songs and lyrics to our bare flesh to allow each other to breathe, to celebrate our differences, and act as an ode to communities and the individuals that forge them. Because without our community, we’d be nothing.”

There's something somewhat frightening, yet utterly freeing when leaving the confines of a successful band to venture solo — especially a band whose latest record was called "effortlessly brilliant" by critics. But, such is the case with Erika Wennerstrom who is taking a brief vacation from her Cincinnati-based rock band, Heartless Bastards, to deliver her solo debut Sweet Unknown.

But fans of Heartless Bastards need not worry. The band has not broken up. "We'd been going for so long and everyone in the band was just ready for a little break. But I had songs in me that needed to come out. I didn't think it was fair to push them to keep going and I didn't want to do it without them under the band name," explains Wennerstrom, who enlisted the help of HB's Jesse Ebaugh to play bass on 8 of the 9 tracks on Sweet Unknown.

While Wennerstrom has always been honest the Heartless Bastards songs she's written, the 9 tracks that make up Sweet Unknown are even more personal and reflective, and for her, quite transformative as well.

The album kicks off with the feel-good roadtrip vibes of "Twisted Highway," which Wennerstrom says sums up her musical journey on Sweet Unknown. On the somber psych-rocker "Staring Out the Window," the artist digs even deeper into the inner workings of her mind. The upbeat and optimistic "Letting Go" epitomizes that experience. "Good To Be Alone" is just one sonic outcome of a formative trip to Big Bend taken soon after the band decided to go on hiatus.

With Sweet Unknown, Erika Wennerstrom bravely invites the listener in to experience her trials and tribulations of life amist a cozy soundscape of deeply emotive vocals and melodies to what is ultimately the soundtrack to her soul.

Americana mainstays Deer Tick return to form with not one but two albums in 2017.

‘Vol. 1’ is quiet, ‘Vol. 2’ is loud - Deer Tick’s dual personalities, finally channelled onto two distinct and equally brilliant records.

Die cut covers that resemble picture frames with retractable disco jacket.

Americana mainstays Deer Tick return to form with not one but two albums in 2017.

‘Vol. 1’ is quiet, ‘Vol. 2’ is loud - Deer Tick’s dual personalities, finally channelled onto two distinct and equally brilliant records.

Die cut covers that resemble picture frames with retractable disco jacket.

Cigarettes After Sex frontman Greg Gonzalez had a clear vision for his band’s gorgeously cinematic debut album. After the phenomenal online break-out success of “Nothing’s Gonna Hurt You Baby”, from the band’s debut EP 1, the Brooklyn transplant (originally from El Paso) wanted to project his worldview on to a bigger screen, a broader canvas. As Greg explains, “This is like the novel or feature-length version of Cigarettes. I wanted it to feel like a complete work, where some of the imagery repeats – like it’s all in the same world. It’s very much a fulfilment of the feelings in the short works.”

That sense of fulfilment is richly felt on Cigarettes After Sex, which unspools like the most achingly romantic of movies: immersive, cohesive and transporting. Swooning in the spirit of influences such as Mazzy Star and Red House Painters, its sumptuous songs of love elevate Cigarettes to the ranks of those acts who create worlds of their own, exciting the most devoted kind of following.

Alongside keyboardist Phillip Tubbs, bassist Randy Miller and drummer Jacob Tomsky, the ability of Gonzalez and his band to set a scene and sustain a mood reels you in deeply. On album opener ‘K’, a tale of blossoming love etched in tiny details luxuriates over chiming guitars; on the hymn to romantic compulsion of ‘Each Time You Fall in Love’, the suspended animation of Angelo Badalamenti’s heart-stopping Twin Peaks music is echoed. ‘Sunsetz’ and the gently lilting ‘Sweet’, meanwhile, showcase Gonzalez’s ability to weave impressionistic snapshots of romance into melodies that haunt like memories of past loves, all coalescing around his melting vocals.

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: Gorgeous, slow-mo, late night heart-breakers drift by with classic chords, beautiful vocals and not one bad song in sight.

‘Awake And Pretty Much Sober’ is the debut full-length album from multi-instrumentalist and producer Jeremy Larson - AKA Violents - and vocalist Monica Martin (of PHOX).

Colourful, effervescent, honest and emotive, the record turns the traditional duets album on its head, offering up its own version of electronic-influenced pop music along the way.

Stacked with string arrangements, electronic samples, pop melodies, bursts of piano, layers of vocal harmonies and blasts of brass, their collaboration bridges the gap between two musicians from different ends of the musical spectrum.

Craig Finn (of The Hold Steady) will release his new solo album 'Faith in the Future' through Partisan Records on 11th September. Josh Kaufman produced the record in the cosy, rustic confines of Woodstock's The Isokon recording studio and helped Finn stretch the boundaries of his songwriting with confidence, invention and ambition to realise what will be a defining moment in his career.

At times stark and spare, at other times vibrant and dynamic, 'Faith in the Future' is Finn's most compelling collection thus far, each song a powerfully alluring and subtly nuanced composition wedded to his distinctive short story narratives.

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

While Deer Tick have been rightfully hailed for their raucous rave-ups, their last album ‘Negativity’ placed considerable focus on the band’s nuanced and tender side.

At once heart-breaking, fist-pumping, and indeed, life-affirming, ‘Negativity’ stood as a genuine high water mark for Deer Tick – a defining collection from a band driven by an undying faith in rock‘n’roll’s evergreen power of redemption and transcendence.

The band now present this collectible 7” exclusively edited for RSD with previously unreleased B-sides of those recordings.

Comes in 4c sleeve and polybag.

Includes download card.

Limited to 300 copies for the UK and Ireland.

Ages And Ages first came together in 2009 thanks to Portland’s ever-fertile music community. An ardent audience surfaced for their US debut, ‘Alright You Restless’, including committed cohort Barack Obama, who added (without permission, mind) the album’s ‘No Nostalgia’ on his 2012 campaign playlist.

Ages And Ages spent much of the subsequent two years in wilful isolation following a barrage of unhappy events that befell some of the band members. As a result, they have composed an emotive and emotional song set that sees a band wrestling with many of the contradictions and confusion that life has to offer.

Fraught with heartfelt drama, celebratory spirit, and sonic ingenuity, ‘Divisionary’ shows a band torn and frayed but optimistic, empowered and transcendent in spite of their turmoil and trials.

Ages And Ages recently played their first ever European dates, including gigs in Berlin, Copenhagen, Paris, Amsterdam, London, Brussels and Haldern, preceding the band’s scheduled shows at this year’s SXSW Festival in Austin, with more festivals expected in summer 2014.