“I imagine myself playing these songs in a small club that is slowly burning,” says A. Savage of his second solo record, Several Songs about Fire. After more than a decade in New York, the co-frontman of Parquet Courts has left the city, marking his exit with a masterpiece of maturity and a worthy corollary to his first solo venture, 2017’s Thawing Dawn. “Fire is something you have to escape from. This album is a burning building, and these songs are things I’d leave behind to save myself.”

Produced by John Parish on a 1” 16-track in just ten days in Bristol and studded by the support of Cate Le Bon and Jack Cooper (Modern Nature, Ultimate Painting) as well as saxophonist Euan Hinshelwood (Cate Le Bon), drummer Dylan Hadley (Kamikaze Palm Tree, White Fence), and violinist Magdalena McLean (Caroline), Savage’s outsize gifts as a lyricist and observer – a quality Parish calls “an emotional openness guarded by a laconic wit" – shine. Worrying questions of wealth and poverty, self and other, Savage displays the poet’s gift of knowing when to narrate and when to vanish, leaving the listener to their own emotional privacy rather than instructing them how to feel.

The end result is tantamount to psychic odyssey, with “Elvis in the Army” placing us in a subterranean venue where the livid, ratifying cymbal raises the room’s blood pressure and “Mountain Time”, evoking an austere waltz playing in a desolate house, returning those listening to life. Influenced by Sybille Baier and Townes Van Zandt, Savage joins a canon of songwriters constantly dilating aperture and perspective. In rendering the signage of laundromats and threats of debt collectors as glistering and totemic as the scope of mountains, rivers, seas, and skies, Savage finds hopes and curses in equal measure.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Parquet Courts' inimitable A. Savage once again sets off on his own path, with the help of jangle-giants and all-round good eggs, Jack Cooper and Cate Le Bon. It's another pointed and perfectly observed selection of snappy chord changes and wry lyrical turns, both reminiscent of Savage's parent band, but entirely existing (and necessary) outside of it. Ace.

TRACK LISTING

1. Hurtin’ Or Healed
2. Elvis In The Army
3. Le Grand Balloon
4. My My My Dear
5. Riding Cobbles
6. Mountain Time
7. David’s Dead
8. Thanksgiving Prayer
9. My New Green Coat
10. Out Of Focus

Love Record Stores Edition available from 9am on Saturday June 20th.
Limited to one per person.

Despite current circumstances – Speedy Wunderground have had a busy year. The London-based label run by producer Dan Carey alongside Alexis Smith and Pierre Hall were recently coveted with the ‘Best Small Label’ Award by AIM (Association of Independent Music) after being nominated for the second year in a row. When COVID hit – bringing bands into the studio wasn’t an option and so the label started an ongoing project called ‘THE QUARANTINE SERIES’ in which Carey under his ‘Savage Gary’ techno/electronic alter ego collaborated with artists and friends, old and new over the internet and then uploaded them to the labels Soundcloud/socials with little or no fanfare – no PR-ing or radio pluggers, just letting them do their own thing, organically.

First on the release is ‘Wait & See’ from rising Bajan artist RoRo. A hypnotic masterful flow which meanders seamlessly around Carey’s pulsating electronics. It’s bursting with attitude and originality. ‘I saw Dan Carey play with Kae Tempest on one of my first few times ever being out in London’ she says, ‘it was such an amazing show. I was extremely excited to then get the chance to work with him. I'd been trying to do so while in London, but it didn't quite work out that way. We did manage to make it happen remotely whilst I was back in Barbados though, and we knocked it out!’

Second is ‘Cigarettes Pt. 2’ from the enigmatic Londoner youngblackmale AKA Rutare Savage: ‘It’s a poem, transformed into a song by the ever amazing Dan Carey. It touches (lightly) upon the topics of fear of the police, drug and alcohol abuse, family, and pulling oneself out of a nihilistic worldview driven by a newfound lust for life. This is me trying to reason with the void.’

TRACK LISTING

1. Savage Gary Feat. RoRo – Wait & See
2. Savage Gary Feat. Youngblackmale – Cigarettes Pt. 2

Other Death was recorded in Santa Monica, Los Angeles as a collaboration with Agor, of Savage’s Arbutus labelmates Blue Hawaii, while Errhead of Doldrums plays on much of the record. Ramona Gonzalez, aka Nite Jewel, also makes an appearance, as do TOPS' Jane Penny and David Carriere. This is Savage’s highest fidelity recording to date, with daring, captivating, and as always minimal and soft production style. In contrast to his usual introspection, Other Death is immediately more upbeat, uptempo, confident, inspired and delivers more consistent pop singles than any of his previous records.

The record begins aptly with ‘Death’, a brief instrumental in the Joe Hisaishi vein. This is followed by ‘Propaganda’, a ballad in 7/4 timing and less political as the title suggests, with a more philosophical message comparable to Radioheads' ‘Creep'. 'Casablanca' is a Prince-esque pop tune, perhaps the poppiest on the record, with a seemingly simple sentiment: a short-lived relationship that, though full of passion, is doomed by life. 'Dont B Sad', produced by David Carriere with guest vocals by Jane Penny of TOPS, is smooth and circular; a gentle pat on the necks of sad folk everywhere, with a disco beat. 'Suburban Nights' is one of Savage’s finest ballads to date, with a special new 6 time beat, fusing reggae, house and bossa nova rhythms. Other Death concludes with another bossa nova derived, and shamelessly sensitive, song titled ‘Young Again’. Epic with strings, and ending the record in a spiritually possessed skat, the principal lyric has Savage crooning: “You make me feel like something i’m not; young again, growing old again”.

Savage is not playing to the middle. Here he gives his listeners, those who crave a harder SNS smack, the energy they crave. This is the release fans will turn to when they want to feel the sophisticated, delicate, and enchanted music of Sean Nicholas Savage at its most brave, free and loud. It’s as if upon being tossed a copy of Other Life, Savage reads the message; “Other Life?” and throws it back at us in blood red, “Other Death”.

TRACK LISTING

1. Death
2. Propaganda
3. Casablanca
4. Dont B Sad (prod. TOPS)
5. Promises
6. Romeo
7. 1 More Chance (feat. Nite Jewel)
8. Suburban Nights
9. Delta Fresh N Breezy
10. SOS
11. Why I Love U
12. Young Again

Anna B Savage has always asked questions in her music, but on new album in|FLUX answers are no longer her quest. Vulnerability and curiosity have consistently been operative words to describe her work and on her second album she ruminates on the complexities and variables of humanity, the pain or pleasure of love, loss and earthly connection, capturing it all in devasta- ting, elating and powerful ways. The key difference between this and previous releases: she’s not anxious about what’s on the other side. She’s come to appreciate staying afloat - basking even - in the open ended, uncertainty of the grey area.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: In|Flux is an inventive juxtaposition of near spoken-word ruminations and intricate, jazz influenced rhythms, soaring and mournful in equal measure. Wisps of acoustic instruments (like guitar and chimes) weave themselves into Savage's hypnotic vocals.

TRACK LISTING

A1 The Ghost
A2 I Can Hear The Birds Now A3 Pavlov‘s Dog
A4 Crown Shyness
A5 Say My Name
B1 In|FLUX
B2 Hungry
B3 Feet Of Clay
B4 Touch Me
B5 The Orange

Canadian cult songwriter Sean Nicholas Savage is renowned for his bitter sweet ballads, and beautifully raw live performances, his singing delicate and brave, full of energy and space. Each new record is an adventure in sensitivity and nuance. ‘Shine’ is a record about recapturing the will to live after a period of sadness and stagnancy, and the return to positivity and hope wrapped up in music that adds a sense of rhythmic guitar-based folk intimacy to Savage’s hallmark ebullient avant-pop.

TRACK LISTING

1. Feel Like A Child
2. Streets Of Rage
3. Shine
4. Ain't What It Used To Be
5. Comet
6. Your Secret World
7. Poetry's My Only Chance
8. Between The Eyes
9. Harmony 

Canadian cult songwriter Sean Nicholas Savage is renowned for his bitter sweet ballads, and beautifully raw live performances, his singing delicate and brave, full of energy and space. Each new record is an adventure in sensitivity and nuance. 'Trilogy' collects standouts from Savage's fan-favourite string of cassette releases: Magnifcent Fist (2016), Yummycoma (2017), Screamo (2018). Now available on LP for the first time, this pressing commemorates a remarkable era in Savage's career.

TRACK LISTING

1. Music
2. Screamo (Video Mix)
3. Let Me Out
4. Everything Baby Blue
5. Opposing Truths (I Want You)
6. Over The Night (Lost Mix)
7. Splash (Video Mix)
8. Abracadabra (Video Mix)
9. Maybe Chain
10. The Last Emperor (Lost Mix)

Bo Ningen and Savages announce a collaborative recording to be released by Stolen Recordings.

‘Words To The Blind’ comprises of one 37-minutes long track. Taking their cross fertilisation a step further, following occasional live appearances together and Savages’ Jehnny Beth guesting on Bo Ningen’s current album ‘III’, ‘Words To The Blind’ is an astonishing piece of work, a ‘sonic poem’ inspired by the Dadaist concept of the ‘Simultaneous Poem’.

“Montreal's best kept secret (...) sparkles like Elliott Smith hopped up on Arthur Russell's happy pills.” – NME.

“Much of the words to Bermuda (which I feel are the center piece) were written whilst travelling between one place I loved and another place/people I loved, and trying to describe my most potent dreams related to my most potent life experiences. There was a feeling of disappointment in communication with the people that I'm calling out to connect with through my performances and travels in the last year, a feeling of loneliness. I had to have faith with the meanings of the poetry because more then ever it was lifted from my life often without being understood, only knowing that they were events, truths I admired, truthfully complex as anything so haunting can be interpreted in so many ways, like any dream funny or sexual, or horrifying. Not so much knowing the reasons, but just the experiences as mysterious as they are to me. I promise that I was as straight forward with the words as possible in describing these nuances. Full of yin and yang, and just sitting back and taking a look at my life, something I'm happy with, and came naturally in the words of which I intended for the first time nothing. I'll have to wait a few years before I understand exactly what's going on in the record, in this time in my life, and I'm alright with that, cos I'm into mystery." – Sean Nicholas Savage.

*Sean Nicholas Savage is a gifted narrator, driven by his own melodic and emotional odysseys. A fixture of the Montreal music scene, Savage expresses both the strength and fragility of the human experience. In his writing, Sean has the keen ability to articulate the intricate emotions of everyday life and romance with a measure of specificity and maturity uncommon to most singer-songwriters.

A prolific and dynamic artist, Savage has released several albums since 2009, ranging from the classic confessional folk of Movin’ Up In Society (2010) to the trippy AM romance of Trippple Midnight Karma (2011) to the caribbean future punk of Won Ton Jaz (2011). This rapid rate of output mirrors that of the great songsmiths (Lee Hazlewood, Joni Mitchell, Scott Walker, David Bowie) that he follows in the footprints of. Savage chiefly works in service of what each song requires, never constrained by the barriers of a specific genre.

This is a collection of deep and personal songs, which showcases a focused, darker side not seen on his previous titles. Welcome to Savage's Other Life.


"Montreal's best kept secret (...) sparkles like Elliot Smith hopped on Arthur Russell's happy pills." -NME

"From his unforgettable chip-toothed smile to his serious eyes, Sean gives off an other-worldly vibe at every turn. But, it is also these things that make his quiet invasion of your heart inevitable." -PORTALS

"It simply is truest, passionate pop music, a graceful tribute to the Sexual Healing-era Marvin Gaye, drenched in lush melodies." -No Fear Of Pop

TRACK LISTING

01 She Looks Like You
02 Other Life
03 Lonely Woman
04 More Than I Love Myself
05 Like A Baby
06 You Changed Me
07 We Used To Live In A Dream
08 Bygone Summer
09 Change Your Mind
10 Look At Me
11 It’s Real
12 Chin Chin

It’s about change and the power to change. It’s about metamorphosis and evolution. It’s about sticking to your guns and toughing it out. It’s about now, not tomorrow. It’s about recognizing your potential. It’s about self-doubt and inaction. It’s about you. It’s about me. It’s about you and me and the others. It’s about the choices we make. It’s about finding the poetry and avoiding the cliché. It’s about being the solution, not the problem. It’s about showing weakness to be strong. It’s about digging through your dirt to look for diamonds. It's about claiming your right to think unacceptable thoughts. It’s about boredom and the things we do to drive it away. It’s about being on your own so you can be with people. It’s about knowing what it means to be human and what it might mean one day. It’s about the parts and the sum of the parts. It's about the music and the message: together, one and the same. It’s about bass, guitars, drums and vocals. It’s about opening-out and never, ever dying. But most of all it’s about love, every kind of love. Love is the answer.

Savages’ second album Adore Life was recorded in RAK Studios, London in April 2015. Johnny Hostile was the producer and Richard Woodcraft the engineer. Anders Trentmöller took care of the mixing in Copenhagen. 

TRACK LISTING

The Answer
Evil
Sad Person
Adore
I Need Something New
Slowing Down The World
When In Love
Surrender
TIWYG
Mechanics

Brooklyn’s Savoir Adore are Paul Hammer (vocals & guitar), Deidre Muro (vocals & keys), Tim McCoy (drums), Gary Atturio (bass) and Alex Foote (guitar).

The band’s releases to date have surveyed the world at a distance. ‘Our Nature’ zooms in, putting our inner landscapes and relationships at the core of every track.

The recordings themselves are intentionally more crisp, aurally expansive and intriguing. Lead single ‘Regalia’ is an utterly sunshine-filled headphones moment - combing gorgeous dreamscape synths with tropical yet tribal percussion, and of course the irresistible pop hooks Savoir Adore are best known for.

For fans of Broken Social Scene, Los Campesinos! and The Postal Service.

The band’s music has also been featured in numerous TV commercials, including Almay, Citi and Yoplait, plus TV shows including ‘Pretty Little Liars’, ‘Drop Dead Diva’ and ‘Huge’, and video games including ‘Kinect Adventurer’.

“Oozing charm and cool, they shine boldly as a much beloved group who have the world at their feet” - The Fly

“Charming and weirdly otherworldly” - NME

“They have mastered the art of combining sampled tracks with their own live performances so that it is flawless… It is just really fun, smile inducing music!” - This Is Fake DIY

“All the emotional gravity of a thousand heartbreaks” - Neon Gold

“Dreampop sound of the summer” - The Line Of Best Fit

TRACK LISTING

Dreamers
Loveliest Creature
Sparrow
Imagination
Anywhere You Go
Our Nature
Regalia
At The Same Time
Empire Of Light
Speed Bump
Wild Davie
Sea Of Gold

Sleep Dreamt a Brother is the new album from musician and artist Mathew Sawyer, due for release on Fire Records in October. Mournful, lush arrangements that sound almost medieval at times with stark strings, classical guitar and piano overlaid by Sawyer's bare, distinctive vocals and creepy foley sound effects. The record is a place. Not the representation of a place, but something inhabitable. With a clearer vision than his other records, the album is very notably about death. Sawyer wrote and recorded the majority of the album following the loss of three friends a few months apart in 2011 and completed it two weeks before his son was born. As Mathew explains: "When I talk about death or loss I want it to be the feeling itself, not just a representation of that feeling."

Mathew Sawyer is a renowned painter and artist and has a Masters from The Royal College of Art. He has exhibited all over the world (he was The Guardian's artist of the Week and his exhibition at the Rokeby Gallery was previewed in Time Out). He created a painting as cover art for Sleep Dreamt a Brother, which features a man raising his arms with death mirroring this action. They're a reflection of each other. They're brothers. In Greek mythology, Hypnos and Thanatos are brothers. They are Sleep and Death. The title Sleep Dreamt A Brother imagines Sleep dreaming his brother into being. The record views life and death as just a memory or a dream of the other, and tries to reconcile the gap between them. It considers the dream world to be just as valid an experience as the waking world, and that death is like a dream we'll have. Mathew says; "When I die, I'd like to die in the night time as dreaming in sleep is not of this world anyway. Lost in a dream is nothing to be afraid of." The album was recorded and produced by Sawyer at his home. "I like recording to be hand in hand with everyday living. The sound of cars come through the windows, the phone rings, floorboards creak. These sounds all played an important role in making this record. Studios are quiet and lifeless." Although this record is under his own name, previously he has gone by the name of Mathew Sawyer and The Ghosts, and before that just The Ghosts.

TRACK LISTING

1. New Bird To Be
2. Feeeeling
3. Don't Tell The Others What We Were Singing
4. The Forgetting Head
5. October All The Time
6. Sleep Dreamt A Brother
7. Death Is Like A Dream We'll Have
8. Another World
9. The Golden Heart
10. How To Work

These songs were recorded with the same team behind "Songs of the Saxophones" but after the album had been released.

MOJO – “David Lynch will swoon when he hears this exercise in etiolation.”

Uncut – “sparsely immersive, chiseled arrangements."

There’s a beautiful, mournful atmosphere to the EP, recalling the work of Antonio Carlos Jobim, and even parallels to some of Low’s recent work (see “Always Trying to Work It Out” from their latest album as a good reference point).

TRACK LISTING

1. Prelude
2. Singing Desperately
3. Crude Advance
4. You Seem Upset

The Saxophones began as the solo project of Erenkov - a project that was loosely started over a decade ago but gained full momentum and dedication in recent years - he wanted to bring in some primitive drum and percussion playing and couldn’t think of anyone more suited than his wife. “I wanted to share the band with her,” he says. “Plus, I would be devastated if I had to leave for weeks at a time to tour without her.”

The songs which make up the debut album were formed and written during a period in which the pair were living on a boat during a very wet winter in the San Francisco Bay Area. “Much of the music was written over rainy mornings on acoustic guitar inside the cabin of our boat and outside of the city in a little guesthouse in Pt. Reyes,” he reflects. It was then recorded in Portland over 10 days, the recording was an intense and occasionally tense process.

Taking inspiration from 1950s exotica and Hawaiian albums (Edhen Abhez, Buddy Fo, and Martin Denny), 1970s outsider Italian songwriter Vittorio Impiglia, and a host of third-stream and West coast jazz records, the result is a unique offering.

TRACK LISTING

1. Time Is Like A River
2. Picture
3. Aloha
4. Singing Desperately
5. Just Give Up
6. Alone Again
7. Work Music
8. Mysteries Revealed
9. Find I Forget
10. Afterglow

Returning after three years, the husband and wife duo of Alexi Erenkov and Alison Alderdiceaka. The Saxophones have announced the arrival of their third album, To Be A Cloud, for 2nd June 2023. Out today is the first single to be taken from it, Desert Flower, featuring a video directed by Rainbow Tunnel. "Alison wants me to try therapy, "says Alexi. “She’s a therapist herself, but I’ve never been to one. The idea of going makes me very uncomfortable. I don’t like being vulnerable in front of strangers. So, instead of confronting my discomfort, I look for an easier path. It’s never easier and it’s always unsatisfying or destructive. “Desert Flower” is about avoidance and fear impeding personal growth and the deepening of relationships. The album itself was recorded at Phil Elverum’s (The Microphones, Mount Eerie) Unknown Studio in Anacortes, WA last autumn.

A former Catholic church where the pair lived during 24/7 recording sessions, time was no object as they experimented and developed the sound of the record. Its magical setting and ample space provided natural acoustics for Alexi’s arresting vocals which were recorded live to 24-track tape, suspending them in an ambiguous historical and chronological context between analogue and digital. Enhanced by Alison’s percussion alongside the bass and keys of Richard Laws, together they made the most of the studio’s many instruments which fill out and bookend their exploration of the billions of years of evolution that have led to this moment in time. "The title was inspired by a passage of Zen monk Thich Nat Hanh’s writing in No Death, No Fear which both calms my own fear and leaves me with doubts, "explains Alexi, of the album channelling its influence of comforting yet disturbing limbo. "He uses clouds as a metaphor to illustrate the impermanence of all things, suggesting clouds are no different from people in their fleeting nature. Suffering arises when we try to preserve a person, a moment, or an experience and fail to recognize that all things are both fleeting and cyclical. Hanh contends the cloud does not die, it simply changes form, and if we look deeply, we can see the cloud in the rain.

"Now, led by Hanh’s pearls of wisdom, The Saxophones offer a further extension of grappling with mortality and the meaning of existence–this time via the second coming of parenthood. Whilst their melancholic debut Songs of the Saxophones was written amid the incessant rain of a northern Californian winter aboard the boat they lived on, and swells of emotion lapped upon buoyant follow-up Eternity Bay, their nocturnal third’s cyclical nature looks at love (fostering and growing familial and romantic feelings that eventually transform and fade with time), art and passing creativity, and self-reflecting as they consider the lifecycle of raising their two young children.

Written in their family home between calm moments once the kids had gone to bed, To Be A Cloud is attuned to the peaceful bay of Inverness, California where Alison’s family has lived for several generations. "It's where we are most at home and creative,” Alexi says. "There, the ocean and nearby beaches are endlessly inspiring. "So integral to the album, Shell Beach in Tomales Bay is also where the artwork photo was taken. "I love Alison’s expression-direct eye contact from the mysterious beauty... like the cover of a Martin Denny album. "Whether bringing the saxophone back into spotlight through instrumental solos and live performances, or delving deeper as they continue to explore the process of nurturing a new record as mindful as they do their own children, every step taken may be further from the start and yet, To Be A Cloud is another note closer to a reawakening of more good things to come.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Mist
2. Boy Crazy
3. In My Defense
4. Speak For You
5. Savanna
6. Conversation Soon
7. Goddess In Repose
8. Margarita Mix
9. Hunter
10. Desert Flower 

Experience the rebirth Of Jim Spencer’s musical vision through Piya Malik’s captivating rendition in say she she’s limited 45 rpm edition of ‘Wrap Myself Up’. Malik’s artistry infuses fierce elegance into the original tune, honoring spencer’s legacy, with spencer himself featured on the B-side.

TRACK LISTING

1. Say She She - Wrap Myself Up In Your Love
2. Jim Spencer - Wrap Myself Up In Your Love

For Fans Of... Clairo, Khruangbin, Lady Wray, Thee Sacred Souls, Chicano Batman, El Michels Affair, Lee Fields and the Expressions.

The female-led discodelic soul band Say She She, named as a silent nod to Nile Rodgers (C’est chi-chi!: It's Chic!”), release their sophomore album ‘Silver’ on the heels of an epic break-out year that grows brighter by the day.

The three strong voices of Piya Malik (El Michels Affair staple feature, and former backing singer for Chicano Batman), Sabrina Mileo Cunningham and Nya Gazelle Brown front the band. This harmonizing trio was formed in a classic New York tale of friends that met by following the music: the downtown dancefloors, through the Lower East Side floorboards and up to the rooftops of Harlem.

‘Silver’ was entirely written and recorded live to tape at Killion Sound studio in North Hollywood earlier this year and produced by Sergio Rios (of Orgone). While these analog recording techniques help root Say She She’s sound in a bedrock of tonal warmth that only tape can achieve, it is also their process of cutting the track in the moment and capturing the magic of communal creativity that has seen their sound described as “a glorious overload of joyful elation and spiritual elevation” (MOJO) and “infused with the wonky post-disco spirit of early '80s NYC” (The Guardian).

Silver, the element, is known as the metal of self-confidence and the mirror of the soul. With that, the 16-song double-LP projects not only their growth in writing with confidence, but also reflects a deeper exploration into their punk-chic, femmeforward sensibility.

Ultimately, ‘Silver’ oozes with quirk and adventure and embraces the multifaceted nature of what it means to be a modern femme. The She She's fully embrace their role as beauticians, actively reminding people of the inherent beauty in the world. They skillfully employ double entendres and humor to encourage open dialogue and fearlessly address important matters that demand attention.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A stunning mix of funky NY soul, snappy disco and woozy Balearic here from the cleverly named Say She She, channelling the spirit of Chic with a wealth of influence drawn from all over the musical spectrum. Brilliantly paced and endlessly funky.

TRACK LISTING

Side 1
1. Reeling
2. Don't You Dare Stop
3. Astral Plane
4. C'est Si Bon
Side 2
1. Entry Level
2. Passing Time
3. Think About It
4. Questions
Side 3
1. Forget Me Not
2. Never Say Never
3. The Water
4. Echo In The Chamber
Side 4
1. Bleeding Heart
2. Find A Way
3. NORMA
4. Silver

Sarabeth Tucek emerges from a decade-long hibernation with a new double-album ‘Joan of All’ under the new moniker SBT – a longtime nickname given to her by the many musicians she has worked with throughout her career.

After retreating from the fevered pace of the record business to concentrate on other creative endeavors, Sarabeth began to piece together the music that would eventually become her most ambitious, personal project yet – the sprawling double-album Joan Of All, which will be released world-wide on 19th May 2023 via her own freshly-minted imprint Ocean Omen.

Sarabeth Tucek officially broke onto the music scene 2003 performing a series of spellbinding duets with Bill Callahan on the acclaimed Smog album Supper. This was swiftly followed by a memorable appearance in the prize-winning Brian Jonestown Massacre documentary DiG! Sarabeth also contributed material to their 2005 EP release, We Are the Radio. One of Sarabeth's compositions covered by the band on that EP, "Seer," would later be retitled and released in 2006 as Tucek's debut single, "Something for You”, which became Steve Lamacq’s Single Of The Week on BBC Radio 6 Music.

Her self-titled debut album produced by Luther Russell and Ethan Johns hit stores the following year and garnered rave reviews in the press, leading her to supporting Bob Dylan and unfaltering support at the BBC.

In 2011, Sarabeth followed up her extraordinary debut with a raw, uncompromising album entitled Get Well Soon, praised as an unflinching meditation on the subject of grief. This release made many year-end lists and the title track was featured on the first season of HBO’s Girls. The new album features lead-off single “The Gift”, as featured heavily on Marc Riley’s BBC 6 Music show, which is taken from the double A-side 7”, “The Gift / 13th St. #2”. Also featured on the album is an entirely different, heavier version of the flip side, entitled “13th St. #1”.

Sarabeth will support the epic Joan Of All with a 18-date tour of the UK May/June 2023, including a BBC 6 Music live session for Marc Riley.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
Joan Says/Amber Shade
The Living Rool
Cathy Says
The Gift

Side B
The Box
Work
Make Up Your Mind
!3th St. #1

Side C
Swings
Happiness
Something/Anything
Sheep

Side D
The Tunnel
Unmade/The Dog
Creature Of The Night

American singer-songwriter Sarabeth Tucek re-emerges in 2023 after a decade-long hibernation with the new moniker SBT and a brand new double A-side 7” “The Gift / 13th St. #2” in advance of her long-awaited third album next spring, details to be announced in the new year. “The Gift” has already received heavy rotations on BBC Radio 6 Music courtesy of Marc Riley.

An extensive UK tour is lined up to support the impending album release that will be issued world-wide on SBT's own freshly-minted imprint Ocean Omen. The lead track “The Gift” is a magnificent and swoonsome pop song awash with its modern take on classic Americana. It is indeed, a timely reminder of how great songs can be, evoking the classic chiming guitar pop of the likes of Game Theory, or Australia’s The Church and melding with the contemporary choogle of the likes of Jeff Tweedy / Wilco, whereas the second side has and almost updated that seminal Velvets drone-pop chug that flows like it should be released on Creation or indeed Homestead / Sub Pop in the late 80s. Yes, both tracks are that good.. trust us.

400 only pressing, in 4 different wraparound sleeves, 100 of each randomly distributed.

TRACK LISTING

A: THE GIFT
A: 13TH ST. # 2

French gonzo-synth punks and intergalactic scuzzball house band. Miscreants from a future generation. Clad in white from head to toe, bug-eye shades peer out through a dirty water fog. They play a blistering set of songs that will propel, or had already propelled, them through the atmosphere on a fix of adrenalin in 2019. Is it the past or the future, for the present seems far away? Their second album, put simply, ‘II’, is a breakthrough moment, when the crawling Lo Spider once again takes control of this paranoiac, extra-terrestrial-abducted and abducting quartet and bounces the finished 12 doses into the hands of garage master Jim Diamond for mastering.

The result? Another bombastic, swirling garage acid trip through the stratosphere. Insane flights in the spiked punch bowl that is our galaxy. Destination: UNKNOWN. Lifeform: UNIDENTIFIED. Infection: CONFIRMED. Once again, as on their debut album, that which hit many ‘best of 2018’ lists, we are hurtling through space, kidnapped and unaware of where we head. With THE SCANERS as our only guides we’re tripping through on hyperspeed right from opener Please Abduct Me. Gonzo space punk a-go-go. The songs on II fly by full of alien abandon. More new-wave than their debut, but still an intergalactic riot. In 1947 they crash-landed. In 1977 they took off. In 2017 they returned and in 2019 they are preparing for a full invasion.

Finally the British Government are taking the imminent threat seriously. “The take-home message here is that there’s probably something out there, but we don’t know what it is. It’s an extraordinary revelation, not least because it directly contradicts the many specific denials that the US government has issued previously when asked about this subject, and their involvement in it. This isn’t quite the ‘spaceship in a hangar’ smoking gun the UFO lobby was hoping for. This is real!” Europe is on the move, succumbing to the infectious tractor beam-like tunes of The Scaners. All that is left is for the rest of the world to awake from their lucid dream state, shake off their shackles, and take flight. 

TRACK LISTING

1 Please Abduct Me
2 Catch Up With A UFO
3 Random City
4 Mars Attacks 5 Space X-ploration
6 Galactic Race 7 X-ray Glasses
8 Spin Like A Record
9 Don't Run, We're Your Friends
10 No Panic, No Stress
11 Pesticide Kids
12 Run DD Run

The Scantharies are a new band put together by Anglo Greek musician and producer Andy Dragazis, the artist formerly known as Blue States, who released albums on Memphis Industries and XL Recordings.

Dragazis, who splits his time between London and the Greek island of Evia, came up with the idea of an album influenced by the Greek garage rock scene of the 60s and 70s whilst driving to buy cigarettes with his uncle listening to his old compilation tapes, an eclectic mix of old Greek bands such as The Persons, The Forminx and Aphrodites’ Child, traditional Greek Rebetiko music of composers like Stavros Xarhakos and the mainstream instrumental guitar workings of The Ventures.

The album is an imagined ‘best of’ compilation of a band called The Scantharies, who he imagined bestrode the Greek music scene from the late 60s through to the end of the 70s.

Dreams Island is the island famously visited by The Beatles in the late 60s with their ‘fixer’ Magic Alex. Dragazis imagines that this visit inspired four local Eretrians to start a band called The Scantharies, a play on the Greek word for beetle. The band would morph from a simple guitar led instrumental garage group into a more widescreen and experimental ensemble absorbing more diverse musical influences, becoming increasingly religiously obsessed, before ultimately dissolving in acrimony, overdoses and obscurity.

This is the third studio album from The Scaramanga Six and it follows 2003's "Strike! Up The Band". Led by the Morricone brothers, the band go off on even more of a heavy direction with a full on swaggering sound, though there are still numerous moments of pure intense pop. Veering between lavish arrangement and scratchy, uncompromising alt. rock, The Scaramanga Six are a blazing beast who know a thing or two about writing a good song then forcing it into your face with all their might!

Scarlet Rascal release their much anticipated debut album; an ambitious, rough and ready achievement which marries driving guitars with dark, hazy sonic textures and a strikingly deep vocal sound.

Scarlet Rascal unite a distinct concoction of alternative ideas that tap into Joy Division, The Birthday Party and ‘Love’–era The Cult whilst also neatly neighbouring the likes of The Velvet Underground and The Jesus and Mary Chain.

Mixed by Geoff Barrow of Portishead and Craig Silvey (New Order / Baxter Dury / The Horrors), Scarlet Rascal’s debut is a ringing, tense and unique proposition.

TRACK LISTING

Pearl
Woland
Strange
Here I Am
Venus
Sleep Take Me Down
Blood Orange
Last Day

Described by Radio One DJ Rob da Bank as “The Kate Bush of the 21st century,” Polly Scattergood is quirky, dark and ethereal. Her music, electronic and keyboard-centered, is accented by her intriguing voice. 

‘Arrows’ is the second album from Polly Scattergood, whose self-titled 2009 debut on Mute yielded earcatching, intimate, intense songs rippling with confessional candor. It also offered a simmering range of sounds, electronica in excelsis, all of which suggested that there were many divergent paths this young talent might yet choose to explore.

‘Arrows’ is an instantly addictive album. Inventive, forceful and restless, it is ripe with - as the title of the first single suggests - ‘Wanderlust’. As on her first album, her songs are marked by a mix of storytelling and soul-searching.

The album is produced by Ken Thomas, whose CV includes work with M83, Maps, Sigur Ros, Dave Gahan, Cocteau Twins and PIL.

“‘Arrows’ deserves to make Scattergood a star” - Mojo (****)

An escape into the cosmos, out of this world of the grey and the shallow into deep space, light and legend. ‘Absence of Light’ is the new EP from Polly Scattergood, a writing and production collaboration with Jim Sclavunos (Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Grinderman) and producer Glenn Kerrigan.

Written during last year’s lockdowns in ‘virtual’ writing sessions with Jim Sclavunos (Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds / Sonic Youth / Grinderman) and long-time collaborator Glenn Kerrigan, the EP evokes sounds from outer edges of the universe, celebrating the scientific wonder and mythological splendour of worlds and realms beyond our own. The EP characterised by a delight in science’s answers to the infinite questions of space, and the ancient Roman and Greek attempts to know the unknowable and explain the inexplicable.

Polly Scattergood’s debut album, released for the first time on vinyl, with two additional tracks, ‘Crystal Breaks’ and ‘Number 24’. Initially released in 2009, the record was produced by Simon Fisher Turner, with additional production from Mute’s Daniel Miller and Gareth Jones. Whilst powerful guitar riffs and glittering pianos create a bewitching base, Polly’s deeply personal lyrics take the forefront.

“A fantastically dark and unsettling debut” - NME.

“Polly Scattergood is worth the fuss.” - Loud & Quiet.

“Just fantastic” - The Guardian.

TRACK LISTING

A1 I Hate The Way
A2 Other Too Endless
A3 Untitled 27
A4 Please Don't Touch
B1 I Am Strong
B2 Unforgiving Arms
B3 Poem Song
B4 Bunny Club
C1 Nitrogen Pink
C2 Breathe In Breathe Out
C3 Crystal Breaks
C4 Number 24

We dare you not to smile ear-to-ear when listening to Oscar Scheller’s newest single, Interstellar Disco. Despite its cheerful disposition on the surface, the song’s cosmic alignment into existence actually occurred from a darker place. Oscar explains “The day I wrote it was probably one of the hardest days of my life and it means something very special to me. Luckily I was writing with Lucy (PAWWS) who is a musical soulmate and the perfect dance partner. We found a bittersweet escape. It’s there when you need it”.

“It’s a song about a two friends meeting at a fantasy location called the Interstellar Disco. It’s a place you go when the sky feels too low and the universe feels too big and you just wanna forget about everything and dance like Napoleon Dynamite”.

Oscar’s forthcoming HTTP404 project boasts a series of noteworthy collaborations with the likes of Lily Allen, Ashnikko, Havelock, and Kero Kero Bonito’s Sarah Midori Perri. The set of songs focuses on the importance of searching for something that no longer exists, not finding what you’re looking for. It’s philosophical & existential in places, but there’s an underlying message across the board to stop thinking about things so much & just start living!

Speaking about the project Oscar Scheller had to say “I’ve been gone for a minute, trying to find myself, and I think I did. I also found a lot of friends along the way. What you’re looking for may not exist how you think it does. It may not even be what you thought it was either. HTTP404 is where I’ve been. But now I’m back online with good enough WiFi and a heart full of love”.

TRACK LISTING

1 1Up
2 Picture Perfect
3 Interstellar Disco
4 1%
5 Confidence
6 Estate Of Mind
7 Runaway
8 Go
9 Happy Meals
10 Tidal Waves
11 Young

Initially sparked by a disappointing experience in Los Angeles, Europop is Carl Schilde’s first solo album. Feeling out of place and out of time in the music world, he started to embrace his own limitations, subverting themes like “making it” and preinternet nostalgia with a Jim O’Rourke inspired wink in his eye. While holed up in his Toronto basement, a lifelong obsession with outdated pop trickery and yesteryear’s preset sounds launched him into an alternate sonic universe—one where The Beach Boys’ late70s albums were big hits, and long-forgotten Italian soft rock is the style du jour. The resulting ten songs were given their final sheen by mastering impresario Dave Cooley (Tame Impala, Blood Orange, J Dilla).

Born and raised in West Berlin sometime in the 80s, Carl has already had several musical incarnations. From a Berlin Art Prize nomination for his single-note vinyl record (“The whole concept makes me upset” — VICE), to glimpsing the album charts by cowriting an aging crooner’s magnum opus (“Glamorous” — NY Times), he has always been more interested in exploring different angles than building a career. Since a transcontinental move to Canada, his focus has shifted from the conceptual to the immediate music-making process, with all its imperfections. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Top 40
2. John Stamos
3. Roadworn
4. Soft Dads
5. Landline Pt. I
6. Landline Pr. II
7. Phase
8. The Master Tape
9. Blue Rinse
10. Credits

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2017 EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

Theme Song from the “Deutschland 83” TV Series.

TRACK LISTING

Side A: Major Tom (Coming Home) 4:56   
Side B: Major Tom (Völlig Lösgelöst) 3:56   

Beautiful limited edition album from elusive NY indie/noise/new rave geniuses. This release combines tracks from their albums "Diamond" and "Just A Dimension Away" along with remixes including the epic single, "Dream of the Portugal Keeper (Waster vs Jet Paraclete Mix)", and exclusives just for this release. In total there's ten tracks.

"1,2,3,4" is two minutes of pure pop and roll perfection: multi-voiced, harmony stacked and bursting at the seams with Friday-night fun. The AA-side "Put Your Guitar Where Your Mouth Is" is the snarling sugar-crash of the morning after, featuring fighting talk and duelling guitars. The latest single from London's sassiest doo-wop dollies is a no-prisoners battle cry against all pretenders to their all-girl all-action crown.

‘Psychic Temple II’ is a labour of love envisioned by Chris Schlarb to bring his most far-ranging inspirations to life - as he puts it, “a dream ensemble that could never actually exist”.

The ensemble’s sophomore release was painstakingly constructed over more than a year with the cooperation of some of the most progressive musical minds from a staggering variety of genres.

‘Psychic Temple II’ reaches beyond the long-form experiments of its predecessor for a more tightly focused yet conceptually unrestrained approach.

Schlarb also includes three cover songs by composers who share his boundary-demolishing mindset: Joe Jackson’s ‘Steppin’ Out’, Frank Zappa’s ‘Sofa No. 2’ and Brian Wilson’s ‘Til I Die’, a gorgeous, lesser-known Beach Boys song that features vocals by Sufjan Stevens, Ray Raposa (Castanets) and Nedelle Torrisi.

TRACK LISTING

Seventh House
The Starry King Hears Laughter
Solo In Place
Bird In The Garden
Til I Die
She Is The Golden World
Steppin’ Out
All I Want Is Time
Sofa No. 2
NO TSURAI
Hyacinth Thrash Quarter

Another dose of whirring rhythms and dark drones courtesy of Stefan Schneider and Sven Kacirek. This time around they have introduced the beguiling tones of Swedish singer Sofia Jernberg on three pieces, taking their music to a new level.Since their debut release, they have toured extensively with the likes of John McEntire (Tortoise, The Sea and Cake).A fascination with repetitive rhythm is the common thread which runs through the musical development of both musicians: listen to Stefan Schneider in his other projects, the bands Kreidler and To Rococo Rot and his albums with Hans-Joachim Roedelius. Further evidence can be heard on Kacirek's solo albums, in particular on his much-lauded "Kenya Sessions". 

Another dose of whirring rhythms and dark drones courtesy of Stefan Schneider and Sven Kacirek. This time around they have introduced the beguiling tones of Swedish singer Sofia Jernberg on three pieces, taking their music to a new level.Since their debut release, they have toured extensively with the likes of John McEntire (Tortoise, The Sea and Cake).A fascination with repetitive rhythm is the common thread which runs through the musical development of both musicians: listen to Stefan Schneider in his other projects, the bands Kreidler and To Rococo Rot and his albums with Hans-Joachim Roedelius. Further evidence can be heard on Kacirek's solo albums, in particular on his much-lauded "Kenya Sessions". 

School of Language is David Brewis, who also makes music with his brother Peter as Field Music. This is the third School of Language album, following on from Sea From Shore in 2008 and Old Fears in 2014.

This is an album about Donald Trump - his dubious rise in politics, his capricious behaviour while in office and the motley cast of characters he has surrounded himself with.

It’s not exactly a protest record, though it is shot through with anger. It’s definitely not a joke, though some of it is darkly funny. It is a tragedy and it is a farce. The songs are sung from different points of view, almost as if it’s a Donald Trump funk musical. One advisor sells Trump on the idea of a border wall. Another one feels he can’t quit because of the chaos that might follow. Rex Tillerson fumes at his plummeting status. Psychiatrists fret about the President’s mental stability. Hillary Clinton laments her loss. Trump himself brags and equivocates in his own unique, blustering style.

45 was written and recorded in a little less than two months during gaps in the schedule at Field Music’s studio in Sunderland. It was inspired by Bob Woodward’s book Fear, articles in the Washington Post, The New Yorker and The New York Times and by Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight. It was also inspired by James Brown, Sly and the Family Stone, The Meters, Otis Redding and Free.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: It's an interesting approach to a catastrophic situation, but School Of Language's '45' handles the ridiculousness of the situation with a deserving amount of serious lyricism mixed in with a jaunty, funked-out instrumental focus. The lyrics here really speak volumes, and provide a wry and bleak juxtaposition to the whimsical playful funk.

TRACK LISTING

1. I’ve Got The Numbers
2. Nobody Knows
3. A Beautiful Wall
4. Rocket Man
5. Rex
6. The Goldwater Rule
7. Adult In The Room
8. And Even If I Did
9. Lock Her Up
10. The Best People

School Of Language, aka Field Music’s David Brewis, releases new EP ‘More Fears’ via Memphis Industries.

The EP features new song ‘Days Accelerate’ plus radical reworks of old tracks ‘Marine Life’ and ‘Keep Your Water’.

David Brewis is best known as a member of Sunderland group Field Music though he has been using the nom de plume School Of Language since the ‘Sea From Shore’ album released in 2008.

A pop polymath, the past twelve months have also seen David assemble and play in Eleanor Friedberger’s touring band, do production work for Maximo Park’s recent album and Futureheads-affiliates Rivals, Pea Sea and Frozen By Sight (a collaboration between brother Peter Brewis and Paul Smith), as well as remixes for Dutch Uncles, The Ralfe Band and The Phoenix Foundation.

With brother Peter, David also composed a score for 1929 silent documentary ‘Drifters’ which they performed at the Aldeburgh and Berwick Film Festivals. Field Music remain on hiatus since the release of their Mercury prize nominated album ‘Plumb’ in 2012.

“Simultaneously a classic and five billion years ahead of its time” - NME

“Should satisfy fans of Field Music’s tightly wound pop” - Pitchfork

The new School Of Language album is called ‘Old Fears’ and it’s set for release on Memphis Industries.

‘Old Fears’ is a pop record. A place of clipped falsetto, melancholic funk, iridescent electro, shimmering post-punk, futurist prog. A self-contained sphere of strange sensations. Beguiling textures. Lengthening shadows. At times it is both liminal and minimal, at others emotive and external. Ambiguous and ambient. Tantalising and tempered. Modern. Unique. And funny too. “I wrote a lot of notes and they seemed to distinctly split into things to do with love and things to do with fear,” says School Of Language’s David Brewis. “A lot of it has ended up with me looking back at when I was 19, 20 - my formative years. So though I wouldn’t want to call it a concept album it’s definitely themed.”

Here each song has been honed and polished into something pure, like a vast block of marble chiselled down into a perfectly tiny delicate egg of Fabergé-esque perfection. Recorded throughout 2013 in Field Music’s studio on the banks of the River Wear in Sunderland, synth flourishes sit alongside the staccato jarring guitars of ‘A Smile Cracks’ and the metronomic rhythms of ‘Dress Up’. Like a Ballard novel or a George Shaw painting, ‘Between The Suburbs’ offers perhaps the most lyrical and poetic moment, where “Dogs chase patterns, play to attention / Bulbs glare on greasy roads...”

The title track, meanwhile, is reminiscent of the haunting Giallo film scores of Goblin or Kosmische music at its most moving, while ‘Moment Of Doubt’ displays shades of Brian Eno and Robert Wyatt. Other oblique influences come in the form of early Justin Timberlake and N*E*R*D albums, “a bunch of disco records”, Canadian experimentalist Sandro Perri, Dr John, Fela Kuti and Shalamar.

School Of Language is the nom de plume of David Brewis, a member of Mercury prize-nominated pop group Field Music. His first album as School Of Language, ‘Sea From Shore’, was released to wide acclaim in 2008. A pop polymath, the past twelve months have also seen David assemble and play in Eleanor Friedberger’s touring band, do production work for Maximo Park, Futureheads affiliates Rivals, Pea Sea and a collaboration between brother Peter Brewis and Paul Smith, as well as remixes for Dutch Uncles, The Ralfe Band and Phoenix Foundation.

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: More jerk-pop brilliance from Mr. Field Music.

The School are back with their third album, and it's beautifully fresh, mature and (despite the sad title) brilliantly optimistic. Along with their traditional eight-musician line-up, led by Liz's omnipresent voice, there are three extra musicians this time, helping to create an album with lush instrumentation, and stunning completeness. Opener "Every Day" is a trademark song in every way. Sixties-inspired folk-pop with precious arrangements, delicious choruses, and delicate but brilliant melodies. Elsewhere there are bursts of ye-ye, walls of melody and fascinating brass arrangements. There are echoes of The Supremes and Wilson Pickett but also French pop such as France Gall, and Francois Hardy, plus a dash of Ennio Morricone.

Unique? Original? Most people associate true originality in the world of music with sounds and ideas they've met before, but, so as not to lose at least some handle of familiarity, rearranged in a new way of sorts. Dieter Schöön's reference points on "LaBlaza" are endless. After a while different textures appear; a sudden Cohenesque deviation; an early days Bowiesque sound coupled with sudden eruptions of Jens Lekman, or a pasted minute of breathless freeform DFA or a forlorn damaged Hot Chip with tales to tell. On top of it all, floating effortlessly, Dieter Schöön's melancholic, slackery voice, binding it all together. A voice filled with seemingly dead easy confidence, a character trait that all in all is the foundation of the whole record.

Jo Schornikow’s new album ALTAR is the perfect counterweight to 2019’s Secret Weapon. While that album was bare and scrappy bedroom folk, this new album is a joyful announcement of synthy indie-pop.

From Melbourne, Australia, Jo’s first job at 17 was as a church organist, a job she’s picked up again now in Nashville, where she lives with her husband Matthew Houck of Phosphorescent and their two children. She’s played keyboard in that band for over 8 years now, touring heavily all over the world as a full band, and ducking into BBC to record a duo session on their grand piano.

Rolling Stone called her last album “excellent,” Pitchfork calls her piano playing “sensitive” and “impressionistic,” and Gorilla vs. Bear describes her songwriting as “gorgeous and smouldering.” But the songs on ALTAR take all of that a step further. There are still those moments of quiet beauty, but they are exploded through with joy. There are windows-down, anthemic pop moments on “Visions” and “Lose Yr Love.”

Jo Schornikow is a songwriter flexing her craft and sharing songs that have a special charm that allow them to somehow feel honest, open, intimate and funny all at the same time.

TRACK LISTING

1. Lose Yr Love
2. Visions
3. Comeback
4. Patient
5. Spiders
6. Plaster
7. Wrong About You
8. Semper Tigris
9. Altar

After turning heads with the densely orchestrated Riddles, produced by Dan Deacon, the Baltimore-based duo Ed Schrader’s Music Beat have given us another giant leap forward with their fourth record Nightclub Daydreaming. The whiplash-inducing stylistic shifts between aggressive noise rock and operatic gloom pop that have become the band’s trademark have given way to a single aesthetic that fuses both impulses. On Nightclub Daydreaming, menace teems just below the surface as propulsive, stark arrangements leave space that Schrader fills with strident, reverb-soaked narration.

When Ed Schrader and Devlin Rice began writing the record in 2019, the idea was to make a fun, danceable album, but an underlying moodiness proved unshakeable. As Schrader puts it, “The cave followed us into the discotheque.”

The duo road-tested the songs “This Thirst,” “Echo Base” and “Black Pearl” with drummer Kevin O’Meara on tour with Dan Deacon in February 2020. COVID restrictions cut the tour short, squashed plans to go immediately into the studio and sent the touring party on a sprint from LA to Baltimore. “We broke down outside Roswell,” Schrader recalls. “And these cops laughed at our dumb asses as we used all our pent-up stress and fear to propel our half-submerged bus out of the muck, yelling epithets to the sky.”

It was one of the last experiences they had with O’Meara, whose death in October 2020 weighed heavily on Rice and Schrader’s minds as they worked on the record. It was also a cathartic moment that presaged the aesthetic that would permeate the songs on Nightclub Daydreaming: “mad euphoria in the face of doom,” as Schrader puts it.

“This Thirst” is an alienation-fueled barn burner barely restraining itself through musically sparse, lyrically dense verses to culminate in a howling, synth-saturated chorus that beats horror punk at its own game. “Came from the north with a twisted planetarium, rock salt, nervous tic and novocaine,” Schrader sings, assuming the guise of a vagrant whose irresistible urges lead him through a fever dream of chemicals, back-alley bartering and existential threats.

The hyperactive “Echo Base” exudes agitated-cool, with breakneck drum fills and a relentless bass line. The narrator is stranded in a frozen landscape and running out of options. “She is just a night train away,” we are assured, and yet we sense that may not be an altogether good thing.

The band recorded and mixed Nightclub Daydreaming over a two-week period with Craig Bowen at Tempo House in Baltimore with David Jacober on drums, turning demos with artificial sounds and placeholder melodies into fully realized songs playable by a live band. The end result is not the album of “sunny disco bangers” that Rice says the band set out for, but something deeper, darker and more rewarding.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A
1 Pony In The Night
2 This Thirst
3 Eutaw Strut
4 European Moons
5 Hamburg
SIDE B
6 Black Pearl
7 Echo Base
8 Skedaddle
9 Berliner
10 Kensington Gore

Ed Schrader's Music Beat needed to make this record. 19 tours in the U.S. since the Baltimore-based duo’s formation in 2010, from headlining underground spaces to opening massive venues for Future Islands, had left vocalist Ed and bassist Devlin Rice exhausted—and hungry to take their music to the next level. Ed and Devlin dreamed of a fuller sound—layered, breathing arrangements their early rapid-fire compositions always seemed to imply, without yet having the tools to realize.

On Riddles, their first release for Carpark, the Music Beat begins their new life. In search of a fresh direction, Ed and Devlin invited their close friend, electronic-pop maestro Dan Deacon, to expand their sound and experiment with them as the album’s producer, arranger, and co-writer. Working steadily in Dan’s studio for two years in total collaboration, three evolving musicians pushed through an intense period of personal tumult and found purpose in the sounds they were committing to record. The result: a polished and passionate masterpiece of nuanced alt-rock. From driving opening track “Dunce” and the soaring single “Riddles” to the disarmingly gorgeous closer “Culebra,” Ed and Devlin unapologetically channel a personal pantheon of pop and rock gods while growing into the band—and people—they’d previously kept caged inside.

Dan, Ed, and Devlin all poured emotions produced by major life changes into these sessions. While in Puerto Rico on a rare vacation, Ed learned of the death of his stepfather, a charismatic but abusive figure who’d cast a dominant shadow on his formative years (feelings explored on the elegant “Tom,” and crucial to the flow of the album). Devlin sat at the bedside of his brother, who’d long lived with a terminal illness, as he saw through his choice to die with dignity. And Dan’s longest relationship, which had stretched across his entire career as a musician thus far, came to an end. “I looked forward to these sessions when everything else in life was a shit-show,” recalls Devlin, who began the record commuting from Providence to Baltimore, but moved into Dan’s studio as it neared completion.

TRACK LISTING

1. Dunce
2. Seagull
3. Riddles
4. Dizzy Devil
5. Wave To The Water
6. Rust
7. Kid Radium
8. Humbucker Blues
9. Tom

Ed Schrader's Music Beat needed to make this record. 19 tours in the U.S. since the Baltimore-based duo’s formation in 2010, from headlining underground spaces to opening massive venues for Future Islands, had left vocalist Ed and bassist Devlin Rice exhausted—and hungry to take their music to the next level. Ed and Devlin dreamed of a fuller sound—layered, breathing arrangements their early rapid-fire compositions always seemed to imply, without yet having the tools to realize.

On Riddles, their first release for Carpark, the Music Beat begins their new life. In search of a fresh direction, Ed and Devlin invited their close friend, electronic-pop maestro Dan Deacon, to expand their sound and experiment with them as the album’s producer, arranger, and co-writer. Working steadily in Dan’s studio for two years in total collaboration, three evolving musicians pushed through an intense period of personal tumult and found purpose in the sounds they were committing to record. The result: a polished and passionate masterpiece of nuanced alt-rock. From driving opening track “Dunce” and the soaring single “Riddles” to the disarmingly gorgeous closer “Culebra,” Ed and Devlin unapologetically channel a personal pantheon of pop and rock gods while growing into the band—and people—they’d previously kept caged inside.

Dan, Ed, and Devlin all poured emotions produced by major life changes into these sessions. While in Puerto Rico on a rare vacation, Ed learned of the death of his stepfather, a charismatic but abusive figure who’d cast a dominant shadow on his formative years (feelings explored on the elegant “Tom,” and crucial to the flow of the album). Devlin sat at the bedside of his brother, who’d long lived with a terminal illness, as he saw through his choice to die with dignity. And Dan’s longest relationship, which had stretched across his entire career as a musician thus far, came to an end. “I looked forward to these sessions when everything else in life was a shit-show,” recalls Devlin, who began the record commuting from Providence to Baltimore, but moved into Dan’s studio as it neared completion.

TRACK LISTING

1. Dunce
2. Seagull
3. Riddles
4. Dizzy Devil
5. Wave To The Water
6. Rust
7. Kid Radium
8. Humbucker Blues
9. Tom

"Schwervon's music is so original, inspiring, and full of dark humour. I just love it!!" - Frances McKee (The Vaselines).

"I'm not sure how just two people manage to make such a big sound!" - David Gedge (The Wedding Present/Cinerama).

SCHWERVON! is a two piece American rock band. Nan plays drums. Matt plays guitar. They both sing. Their band name is a warped variation of an urban slang, meaning: "to do something well in one's own way or in a unique manner, usually involving members of the opposite sex."

Their music is an expression of imperfect love through jagged rock minimalism. Schwervon have released six albums and four 7 inches. Their latest recording is a 7" out on Brokers Tip Records (a label run by Bob Nastanovich of Pavement, Silver Jews) It was recorded in Memphis, Tennessee with Doug Easley (Cat Power, Sonic Youth, Grifters).

"Sedition" is an ultra-high quality live recording from the legendary Scientists presented in souvenir packaging (like a moleskin book) with liner notes by Thurston Moore, Jon Spencer, Warren Ellis and Henry Rollins. Recorded on May 11th 2006 at Shepherd's Bush Empire, London, the superior sound quality and amazing setlist make this album more of a 'best of' than simply a live record.

For fans of The Scientists, The Flamin’ Groovies, Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers, The Undertones, The Boys, The Hoodoo Gurus, The Hollywood Brats.

The Scientists’ pre-“Swampland” days in Perth are brilliantly encapsulated on this collection of mostly unreleased live material from ’78 and ‘79. These were the days when former Victims and future Hoodoo Gurus drummer James Baker led the band alongside guitarist/singer Kim Salmon, and when their poster read "Rock’n’Roll in the tradition of The Groovies and The Heartbreakers".

The Perth-based line-ups of The Scientists recorded the brilliant "Frantic Romantic" single and self-titled EP highlighted by "Last Night." They also recorded a posthumously released LP - the 'pink album' - which came as a massive disappointment due to bad production and a reduced line-up. “Not For Sale: Live’ 78/79” is a collection of live and rehearsal tracks that captures the band making the same noises as on those 45's, and presents live versions of the fan faves and vastly superior versions of most of the LP tracks as well as coughing up a bunch of hitherto unreleased originals and covers to boot. This is "The Legendary Scientists" - as they were dubbing themselves within months of forming - as they should be heard.

The main set comes from late 1979; a live-to-air broadcast from Melbourne’s 3RRR. "Frantic Romantic" was in the shops and the EP was in the can. If you only know tracks like "It’ll Never Happen Again," "That Girl. "Making a Scene" and, "She Said She Loves Me" from the limp pink album versions you’ll be knocked sideways by the raucous and rocking versions here. Covers of The New York Dolls, the Groovies ("Slow Death" and their version of "Have You Seen My Baby") and The Undertones' "Teenage Kicks" are a bit throwaway but show where their heads were at. And yes, a couple of these appeared back on the 'fan club' cassette "Rubber Never Sleeps" back in '82 and have since appeared on other collections, but those were third or fourth generation cassette dupes. What we have here is the whole set, taken directly from 3RRR's master reels.

The same line-up is also present on a handful of primitive live recordings, made by a friend at one of the group's regular haunts, the Governor Broome Hotel in ‘79. What they lack in clarity they make up by letting us hear some otherwise lost original tunes. Play this really loud and it sounds like you're right there in the pub - shitty PA and all. The original "Kinda Girl" is maybe the pick here; it's James and Kim channelling their beloved Troggs. Also included, for the first time anywhere, is a Scientists’ version of "Drop Out", a Baker/Salmon song that its writers later made famous with The Beasts of Bourbon. 

TRACK LISTING

SIDE 1
1. Have You Seen My Baby?
2. Melodramatic Touch
3. That Girl
4. Shadows Of The Night
5. She Said She Loves Me
6. It's For Real
7. Last Night
8. Teenage Kicks

SIDE 2
1. Slow Death
2. Frantic Romantic
3. Shake (Together Tonight)
4. Makin' A Scene
5. Girl
6. Pills
7. It'll Never Happen Again

SIDE 3
1. Kinda Girl
2. There She Goes Again*
3. Make It
4. Drop Out
5. Walk In The Room*
6. Pretty Girl
7. Pleasure Boy
8. Turn Up Your Radio*
9. I?m Looking For You
10. Sorry Sorry Sorry

SIDE 4
1. She Said She Loves Me*
2. Girl *
3. Don't Lie To Me
4. Frantic Romantic
5. Walk The Plank
6. Baby You're Not For Sale

* LP Edition Only

Way back when (approx 12 years ago), in those glory days of dingy basements and gaffa taped trainers, a whole new genreration of dancers were taking a journey of musical discovery at the the invitation of one Erol Alkan and his banging clubnight Trash. Electroclash, nu-disco, post-punk, punk-funk, nu rave, techno, there was a fair bit of techno, and indie cuts all rubbed shoulders, pogoed and made out in the middle of the dancefloor, getting totally fucked up as Erol threw them into the blender. This series sees the Phantasy man showcase his ear for a tune and hand for a killer rework with retrospective series of his best reinterpretations.
There's a bit in the CD booklet for this series about 'rework vs remix', and Erol's Scissor Sisters remix is a case in point. It's not a makeover, it's a full on Kylie Jenner facial overhaul. Aptly dubbed "Carnival Of Light" rework, Erol replaces the disco sparkle of the original with Goa electronics, festival ready beats and a sort of Michael Mayer in Rio levity. VG. Turn the page and Erol takes on Metronomy single "The Bay" from the AOR-tinged "English Riviera", upping the electronics, pushing the bassline to the fore and coating the whole things in sequins. Disco delight!

Scissorgun are a two-piece soundscape project from Manchester comprising Alan Hempsall (Crispy Ambulance) on treated guitars, vocals and trumpet, and David Clarkson (Spectral Bazaar and solo projects) on synths, keyboards, drum programming and field recordings.

The duo came together in the summer of 2016 with a view to creating spontaneous music, and the following year unveiled debut release Assault Two, issued on 10” vinyl in 2017. An album of beats, fractured ambiance and spoken word, Electronic Sound magazine discerned an ‘attractive spell of narcotic delirium’, while Mojo praised ‘Northern electronic shanties and sound collages that feel like snapshots of a city at night, moving from drunken chaos to minicab grime reveries to a new dawn electronic beauty.’

The band’s influences range from post-rock to prog, jazz to electronic, and even occasional forays into experimental pop. Written and recorded in stages over an 18 month period, second album All You Love Is Need is a combination of cinematic and experimental landscapes led by bright, treated guitar. ‘The album reflects a subliminal shift in people’s perceptions of global events over the course of that time,’ explains Alan Hempsall. ‘The ability to translate new sensations into the act of creating is a state worth striving for. To do this we tried new ways (to us) of hearing, of listening. We work to subvert the narrative whilst keeping close to the one thing that unites us all. Hope.’

TRACK LISTING

1. Terminal Velocity
2. Salvia
3. Sub-Continent
4. Station Drift Pt 1
5. Forensic Dub
6. Bruise
7. Hybrid Threat
8. Station Drift Pt 2
9. Dark Routines
10. Pumpkin Face
11. Double Agent

First reissue since it's original pressing in 2018! The iconic debut LP from the Scone Cash Players. Hammond Organ Stylings By Organ Master Adam Scone. The Hammond Organ is lead singer on this soulful and orchestral journey about industrial decay and the death of the steel town. Deep from the rusted steel mills of Youngstown Ohio, we bring you the much-anticipated reissue of the melting debut from the Scone Cash Players. It's the same organist that brought you the screaming organ on all those Daptone favorites from The Sugarman Three. Scone was behind that organ bench on the modern classics as follows. "Sugar's Boogaloo”, “Soul Donkey”, “Pure Cane Sugar", and "What the World Needs Now." Adam Scone entered the studio on Dunham Street in Brooklyn.

He was wearing a blue Adidas jump suit. The studio had just opened. At the helm were his old compadres from The Dap-Kings. Namely Thomas Brenneck, Eric Kalb, Homer Steinweiss and lan Hendrickson-Smith. They make up the "Bliss Machine" behind Scones's groove. It was a truly rare moment to catch these masters of music and taste in between tours of Sharon Jones and Charles Bradley. Tommy put the mics around. Scone powered up the organ. The analog tape machine turned and turned until they couldn't turn any more. These songs were recorded. We worked all day and all night.

Tears were shed. Espresso was made. There was beer on tap. 3 days of life were taken to make this album. We will never get them back. They were distilled to 40 minutes of pure emotion. It's a tale of woe. It's a tale of leaving art for responsibility. It's a farewell to an era. It's a journey that the Hammond B3 organ wasn't accustomed to. You can't compare this album to any other organ record. Don't expect to hear what you want. Free your mind. Be open. Your world is going to feel the heat of the BLAST FURNACE! It never quite feels how you want it to. Don't get burned...

TRACK LISTING

1. 1% Crown
2. Bliss Machine
3. The Slitter
4. Heavy Gauge
5. Necking
6. Blast Furnace
7. Jet Cool
8 Call & Receive No Call Back
9. Grinding Wheel
10. Structural Failure

Getting a Dog Will Never Save a Doomed Relationship, and Other Lessons Hidden in Cool Choices

“S started over a decade ago as a bedroom-based side project. Just a guitar, a four-track, and Jenn Ghetto’s heartbreaking voice.”.

At the start of 2012, in the middle of a break-up, I started writing this record. As with the others, the songs all started in my bedroom, but I convinced my metal drummer friend Zach McNulty to help me flesh them out (you guys, he uses a lot of restraint), along with my longtime friends Betsy Olson (bass) and Carrie Murphy (guitar) because I knew they were talented, I liked being around them, and they both had cars.

After many months of trying to get our schedules aligned, there we were, in the studio with Chris Walla. As he was setting up my guitar amp combo and pulling gadgets off the shelves and microphones out of boxes he said to me, "This is how you make a Van Halen record." And then we made Cool Choices. I feel pretty good about it and I hope you think it is okay.

• Featuring Jenn Ghetto of Carissa’s Wierd
• Produced, engineered, and mixed by Chris Walla of Death Cab For Cutie
• LP comes with MP3 Downloads of the entire album

The impeccably named Scott & Charlene’s Wedding are back with not so much a brand new album, as a generation's glimpse of love, home-sickness, basketball, alienation, rock and roll and all things that matter to an expatriate Aussie stranded in New York. Any Port In A Storm is fated to become your essential backdrop to the summer of 2013.

The brainchild of the amiable and unashamedly charismatic Craig Dermody, Scott & Charlene’s Wedding offer a sonically charged take on the Lemonheads’ ramshackle melodicism and Pavement’s lo-fi drawl. Following the success of Critical Heights' recent reissues of the band’s debut album Para Vista Social Club and the follow-up EP Two Weeks, the new album sees their first new recordings for over two years capturing Dermody at a pivotal time in his life. He has further developed his gloriously ragged anthems to reach new heights of nonchalant perfection.

Having uprooted from Melbourne, Australia to New York, New York, the Big Apple has replaced Melbourne as inspiration his latest trials and tribulations. His heart-on-sleeve lyrics reveal tales of everyday Dermody life, somehow more absurdly unhinged, humorous and poignant than the lives of his peers. All coming from a man with a clear mission to update the rock’n’roll template beyond his inspirations and influences as Scott & Charlene's Wedding effortlessly sprawl across the generations, linking the vintage swagger of the Velvets to the off-kilter pop perfection of the Only Ones by way of the Stooges and Television. The eleven electrifying tracks taking us on an intimate journey with Craig Dermody and his daily struggles, like a peak in to his personal diary.

He documents his move from Melbourne to New York to follow a girl. ‘Fakin NYC’ sees him adjusting to life in a new city, having to find a new job and feeling out of place as a security guard for a trendy bar. ‘Lesbian Wife’ sees him being caught in the middle of the biggest storm ever to have hit NYC and feeling homesick for Australia.

"... the execution for his frustration is point perfect-- his sleepily conversational vocals fold into his sunny, jangling guitars seamlessly" Pitchfork.

TRACK LISTING

1. Junk Shop
2. Lesbian Wife
3. 1993
4. Fakin' NYC
5. Clock Out And Leave
6. Jackie Boy
7. Downtown
8. Spring St
9. Gammy Leg
10. Charlie's In The Gutter
11. Wild Heart

Fat Possum are excited to announce the European release date of Jackson Scott’s debut album, ‘Melbourne’. The album is a refined bedroom pop record which pitches Jackson somewhere amidst the otherworldly stargazing of Sparklehorse and the determined singularity of Neutral Milk Hotel and Mellow Gold-era Beck.

Jackson Scott has developed out of a weird audacity; bending spoons with apocalyptic melodies, sugared with solipsistic textures. How did the world conceive this young cosmonaut? A college dropout with a 4-track and a one-track mind. A listener and a conceiver. His voice, whether pitched up or androgynous, speaks of a still life. But painting is meaningless, songs irrelevant, aura outdated if you are a revivalist. Jackson is not.

The upcoming debut ‘Melbourne’ - conspired it out of isolation, deprivation and hunger - shows we’re all alone together, sharing the same tragedies, ecstasies and phenomenon.

TRACK LISTING

Only Eternal
Evie
Never Ever
Sandy
That Awful Sound
Tomorrow
Wish Upon
Any Way
Together Forever
In The Sun
Doctor Mad
Sweet Nothing

The Junkyard 2 came into fruition when it was released in May of last year, as an intimate collection of what she considered her best material. Scott has been taking piano lessons since she was eight years old growing up in California, and that instrumental talent is one of the most striking elements on the record. The songs reckoned with touchy subjects -- emotional labor, insecurity, healthcare -- with razor-sharp wit and care. Even if it was recorded poorly, the brilliance of the writing and performance still resonated. After that, she realized she had to do better, and so she unveiled Public Void in September. She ditched the piano, played with software, and gave her music a texture that was bolder, weirder, and catchier. Together, the two projects and Scott’s other singles have combined to amass 150 million on-demand U.S. streams, according to MRC data. The landscape of TikTok is cluttered, and hits are ephemeral, but Scott’s strike a unique chord and her image is constantly growing. When asked if she considers that music will be her full time job, she pauses, reluctant to think too far ahead. “I think, for the near future, yes,” she ultimately answers. “I’m definitely not leaving college for it. But the next couple of years are locked in.”

TRACK LISTING

1. Sweet Hibiscus Tea
2. American Healthcare
3. Lavender
4. Baxter 3rd Is Under Fucking Siege
5. Mommy Fwiend
6. You Should Know
7. Hammerhead
8. Lukewarm
9. Montreal
10. Phones

A few months back we hosted one of our favorite comedians in the Third Man Blue Room, hand selected by Jack White to appear. Rory Scovel came, saw and destroyed any and all bad vibes within a 5 mile radius with an improv set of some of the best live stand up we've seen in years. Seriously, the man far exceeded even our lofty expectations for hilarity. Since then Rory has had a bumper few months, appearing on Conan O' Brien in a tuxedo performing uber-classy comedy with live LIberace-style piano accompaniment, co-starring on new TBS comedy Ground Floor and generally ruling the school and jettisoning jocularity into the universe in every town and festival he visits on tour.

Well if you missed his now legendary Third Man live show, fear not and save your tears, it is now available on LP and available in finer record retailers everywhere.

Oh, and one last thing for our UNUSUAL FORMAT collectors and fans… The sleeves and labels feature the track list all in braille. That's right. Braille. Trust us, it'll all make sense when you hear the album. It's another meta-comedy first from Third Man Records and Rory Scovel!

The music of Scraps is a unique cosmic universe of emotions, thoughts and bedroom sound. Utilising a minimalist set up of drum machine, keyboard and synth mixed with a life time obsession of the electronic pop music of yesteryear allow Laura Hill's ideas to come alive. These are not cute brainless love songs however. Although love is an inspiration in a lot of the songs, the lyrics and themes mostly deal with the darker painful side of that irrational emotion. Depth comes in the way Hill can effortlessly blend the banal drudgery of everyday living with the abstract and surreal. Meditations on the sadness of a fleeting human existence, strange attractions to machines and the technical world, to the ever present escapist allure of outer space and the dream world. All this set to some of the finest and (I dare say) catchy pop music this side of the 21st century.

Scraps is a distinctly unique artist borne directly out of her environment. Scraps has not gained her small but incredibly loyal and growing cult following through media saturation, blog hype, or a money backed promotional whirlwind. It has been acquired through the independent and uncompromising nature of her spirit, the authentic DIY quality of the music, and her honest approach to songwriting and performing. Strong releases on hometown Brisbane record labels Bedroom Suck and Disembraining Machine have complimented an already dense discography of hand made, self released material. Scraps has performed relentlessly all over Australia and abroad to a wide variety of people alongside an even wider variety of bands and artists. From drunken suburban house parties, inner city generator squat shows, art galleries, cafes and bookstores, museums, drug fuelled nightclubs, rural raves, reputable and disreputable pubs, to some of the biggest venues in town as international support. The fact that Scraps can effortlessly transcend these often starkly contrasting spaces is a testament to the quality of her abilities as a songwriter and performer.

Electric Oceans is a culmination of years spent lost in the independent music wilderness. Experience has been gained through Hill continuously pushing herself as a musician, artist and human. Scraps is not your typically modern spoilt rich kid flash-in-a-pan solo synth songsmith. Tough battles have been fought and either won or lost, both personally and creatively - the results of which are more than evident on this record.

TRACK LISTING

1. Mushroom Gods
2. Lonely Motorbike
3. Saphire Plaza
4. Electric Ocean
5. Asleep
6. Projections
7. Flying
8. Holiday
9. Gone

Critical Heights announce yet another great pop single, this time from Brisbane's enigmatic synth pop songstress Scraps (AKA Laura Hill). The 7 inch single Secret Paradise (out 23 July) was premiered on Radio One when Huw Stephens featured Critical Heights as his Label of Love.

Scraps has been acclaimed by the likes of Vice magazine, who said: Although it is pretty apparent Laura has a tight clench on what makes a pop song shine, it's not all rainbow pillow cases in the world of Scraps. Hill's entirely electronically composed music is as caked with pregnant intrigue and damaged beauty as an attic-found crazy glued together figurine. Laura wears her obsession with 80s synth rock on her sleeve, citing The Human League, Kraftwerk, Depeche Mode, Flock of Seaguls, OMD, Gary Numan and Devo as influences. The 80s loom large in her subject matter as well. Lead track 1982 is a love/tribute song to all the machines that didn't get the girl in movies like Short Circuit and Electric Dreams, where the machines are much more interesting than the men.

Self released 7" from this St Albans four piece who play spirited guitar tunes with a heavy dose of punk attitude.

Taking their name from the 1950s film adapted from Fredric Brown's novel of the same title, Screaming Mimi are fronted by the über-glamorous Loretta Chantry (a semi-wailing hybrid of Kate Bush and Deborah Harry) and backed up by four sharply suited guys, the Good Sons to Nick Cave's Bad Seeds. The Mimi's have already sent pulses racing with two earlier vinyl-only releases on Phantom Power. They return with a stunning new single in the shape "Electric Thighs", a prelude to next year's as yet untitled long player. A slight departure from previous outings, "Thighs" sees the band flirting with country and western as they tinge the song's disarmingly catchy chorus line with some fantastically black lyrical humour. Backed up by the equally fantastic and pacey "My Favourite Objects", a track most bands would kill for as an A-side, the Mimi's set sail for slightly more familiar waters with tales of galleons and sunken treasury. And there's more booty to be had on this single. Final track, the scifi-tastic instrumental "A New Cure For The Heartache" shows yet another side to the versatile Sheffield five-piece and features Loretta on theramin.

On their swansong 1996 album, grunge legends the Screaming Trees unleashed one of the greatest rock albums of recent years. Led by Mark Lanegan (now with Queens of the Stone Age) and the Conner brothers, "Dust" is a stunning blend of punk, classic rock and raw, bluesey vocals that recalls Hendrix, The Byrds, Zeppelin, Sabbath, Howlin' Wolf but at the same time, as with all great music, totally transcends crude comparisons. The songs veer from blasting rock'n'roll workouts, bruised ballads and mellotron-led drone workouts. Along with Nirvana and Mudhoney, the Trees deserve to be remembered as leaders of the grunge scene, regardless of matters such as record sales and gimmicky music videos.

The history of the Screaming Trees goes back to 1985 when brothers Van Conner on bass and Gary Lee Conner on guitar teamed up singer Mark Lanegan in rural logging town Ellensburg, Washington State in 1985. After recording a handful of EPs and LPs for various US indie labels, including SST and Sub Pop, they signed to Sony imprint Epic Records for 1991's "Uncle Anaesthesia”, co-produced with Soundgarden's Chris Cornell.

Geographically close enough to Seattle to benefit from the grunge scene that was about to explode with Nirvana in 1991, by the time they came to record “Sweet Oblivion” in 1992, they had been joined by Barrett Martin on drums (REM, Mad Season, Queens Of The Stoneage & Walking Papers). Whilst retaining the psychedelic elements that characterised much of their early output, their second major label album certainly leaned further towards a more commercial, hard rock sound.

Probably the band's most successful record, this was no doubt helped by the inclusion of lead single 'Nearly Lost You' on the 2,000,000 selling soundtrack to Cameron Crowe's grunge-era movie, "Singles", thrusting the band into the limelight with the attention brought by the film, and an MTV-friendly video. Produced Don Fleming, the album was mixed by Andy Wallace, who had brought a commercial sheen to the previous year's "Nevermind" by Nirvana. 'Nearly Lost You' was followed by the release of the more introspective 'Dollar Bill' as a single, with 'Shadow Of the Season' and 'Butterfly' also released as singles in certain international territories.

This edition now features a number of non-album bonus tracks. 'Maybe (Van's New One)' was sung by bassist Van Conner, whilst 'E.S.K.' is an outtake from the album sessions. Famed Seattle producer Jack Endino had previously worked with Screaming Trees on 1989's "Buzz Factory" for SST and the "Change Has Come" EP for Sub Pop before he came back on board to record an acoustic version of 'Winter Song', on which he guests on slide guitar. Prefiguring Americana, and to some degree a precursor to Mark Lanegan's solo album 'I'll Take Care Of You', their cover of Thomas A. Dorsey's '(There'll Be) Peace In the Valley (For Me)' was released a full two years before Johnny Cash's "American Recordings" comeback. Whilst their grunge-era peers hailed 70s punk and 70s metal as key influences, Screaming Trees' cover of Small Faces' 'Song of a Baker' ably demonstrates where the band's musical heart truly lay. Again produced by Jack Endino, their cover of Black Sabbath's 'Tomorrow's Dream', originally from the "Black Sabbath Vol 4" LP, rounds off this remastered 2CD collection in heavy style.

Screaming Trees would release one further album, "Dust", in 1996, before splitting in 2000. The members continue to pursue various musical ventures, with the prolific Mark Lanegan having now released 10 solo albums, as well as finding time to collaborate with artists as diverse as Isobel Campbell, Duke Garwood, Twilight Singers, Queens Of the Stone Age, Unkle and Soulsavers, whilst Van Conner releases records regularly with Valis, and guitarist Gary Lee Conner recently released the highly psychedelic "Unicorn Curry".

TRACK LISTING

Disc 1:
1. Shadow Of The Season
2. Nearly Lost You
3. Dollar Bill
4. More Or Less
5. Butterfly
6. For Celebrations Past
7. Secret Kind
8. Winter Song
9. Troubled Times
10. No One Knows
11. Julie Paradise

Disc 2:
1. Maybe (Van's New One)
2. E.S.K.
3. (There'll Be) Peace In The Valley (For Me)
4. Winter Song (Acoustic Version)
5. Song Of A Baker
6. Tomorrow's Dream

Naarm/Melbourne 4-piece screensaver is back with a double A-side 7-inch single just 6-months after delivering their 10-track debut album Expressions of Interest on Upset the Rhythm (UK) and Heavy Machinery (AU) to positive international response.

The band return with two distinctly different tracks that extend upon the blend of post-punk, new wave and synth-punk on their debut.

Side A, Clean Current is a burst of high-energy: nervy guitars and groovy bass underpinned with krautrock drums and cosmic synth noise, overlayed with delay heavy vocals. Repeats is the flipside of the coin, a moody post-punk stomper, led by gritty sawtooth synth, chorus-soaked guitar, textural percussion and soaring vocals. Lyrically Clean Current spits out retorts aimed at the engulfing nature of anxiety whilst Repeats critiques the repetition of modern life, languishing human existence.

TRACK LISTING

01. Clean Current
02. Repeats

Melbourne/Naarm synth-punk five-piece screensaver return with ‘Decent Shapes’, their second album. ‘Decent Shapes’ is loaded with bubbling tension, a low grade but growing fever, a rising rage. The frustration is so tangible you can taste it. Detachment and dissociation become survivalist coping mechanisms.

Thematically, screensaver's latest offering finds them exploring existence on an ever-growing trash heap where we’re desperate for the new, the nice and the shiny. A world where materialism reigns supreme and corporate niceties litter the public dialogue but behind closed doors the sentiment is warlike, total domination is the only answer to the bottom line. All of which is underpinned by the band's sonic sense of urgency and a commitment to creating a sound that taps into the mood and spirit of post-punk whilst also allowing space for new wave elements and electronic experiments to shine through.

‘Decent Shapes’ was recorded and mixed by Julian Cue, who was also the recording engineer for Expressions of Interest. Defined by a kinetic energy, dynamic range and brooding atmosphere, the 10-track release comprises some tracks that were mainstays within the band's live shows - featuring in their US tour set-list - alongside others which were written later in the recording process. During the creation of ‘Decent Shapes’, the band also experimented with swapping instruments, allowing for different playing styles and song-writing approaches.

screensaver was formed in 2016 as a trans-Pacific project between Krystal Maynard (Bad Vision/ex Polo) and Christopher Stephenson (Spray Paint/Exek). Their debut album Expressions of Interest received support from the likes of Brooklyn Vegan, Beats Per Minute, DIY and Post-Trash and last September the band played a 12-date tour across the US.

TRACK LISTING

01. Red Lines
02. The Guilt
03. Party Interest
04. Future Trash
05. Drainer
06. Severance Pay
07. Direct Debit
08. Cancellation Notice
09. No Vacation
10. Signals

‘Expressions of Interest’ is the debut album from Melbourne/Naarm post-punk group screensaver.

Sonically, the 10 track album is rich and detailed, and pays homage to its era of inspiration (late 70s-mid 80s post-punk and new wave) with gripping vocals, dissonant guitar, melodic basslines, washes of synths and motorik drumming. Engineered by Julian Cue alongside band member Chris Stephenson and recorded over multiple studio sessions between 2020-2021

The album opens with the ominously titled ‘Body Parts’, an immediately arresting song that showcases the bands penchant for blending classic post-punk elements, leaning into a sound somewhere between the Banshees and Protomartyr.

Maynard doubles down on these themes in the frenetic second track, ‘No Movement’. Guttural organ tones swim under overdriven guitar, jagged and intense. Additional textures and sound effects are used percussively to embellish the dynamics, creating a feverish atmosphere with some Martin Hannett like flourishes.

The album takes a surprising turn into electronic driven krautrock on track three with 'Buy, Sell, Trade' - a rollicking piece of danceable ephemera, dominated by swirling synth sounds and punctuated with electronics reminiscent of Sparks/Moroder collaborations. Chris Stephenson's masterful guitar work begins with Greg Sage-esque determination before a crescendo into a lush Frippertronics outro.

'MEDS' transports us back to the foundation established on 'Body Parts', a gothy piece, full of tribal toms and dirge-y synths. Industrial punk rock nearly swallowed whole by the keys in the middle and slowly building back to complimentary guitar and vocal hooks.

It's from this point in the album that the band let's their other influences rise to the surface, as they explore touches of EDM on 'Static State' - a brutal, death-disco style track, Krystal Maynard's lead synth and gloomy vocal complimenting the pounding drums and dub-esque bass line culminating in a track worthy of the dancefloor.

Opening side two we have 'Skin', beginning with a solid and simple backbeat, James Beck’s post-punk percussion provides a steady and minimal framework for the rest of the band to colour in with great depth and detail. Giles Fielke’s bass guitar wobbles brilliantly leading the verse melody, whilst Chris Stephenson’s guitar drives the chorus that folds neatly in on itself.

In ‘Attention Economy’, Krystal Maynard is flexible with her lyrical style, and knows how and when to lend her voice to the greater backdrop of the composition. ‘Attention Economy’ has an almost Kraftwerkian structure - repetitious, but engaging with its constant tom driven beat, lush synth lines and minimal bass tones.

Just when you thought things had slowed down, screensaver ramp things right back up again with ‘Overnight Low’ - a no holds barred thumper. Giles Fielke underpins the hard-edged sound with his bassline, keeping things smooth and tight. It brings to mind a hybrid of PiL’s ‘Annalisa’ and Wire’s ‘Two People In a Room.’

Before you can catch your breath, we have ‘Regular Hours’ - another industrial track, and perhaps the sister song to ‘Static State’ heard earlier on side one. Seething electronic drum samples cut through an abyss of growling synths, Giles Fielke hanging up the bass temporarily to accompany Krystal Maynard on synth duties.

The album closes with the fittingly titled ‘Soft Landing’, literally bringing the listener back down...softly. The song is heavy on atmos, and resembles the aesthetics previously encountered on ‘Attention Economy’ a few tracks earlier.

‘Expressions of Interest” was recorded at various locations across Melbourne, with a handful of songs being captured before the start of the Covid pandemic in January 2020. With the recording timeline being drastically altered, the band shifted focus to work on what would become their first single ‘Strange Anxiety’, throughout the first months of the Melbourne 2020 lockdown. 

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A
01. Body Parts
02. No Movement
03. Buy, Sell, Trade
04. MEDS
05. Static State

SIDE B
06. Skin
07. Attention Economy
08. Overnight Low
09. Regular Hours
10. Soft Landing

11 years after the release of previous album Provision, Scritti Politti erupted back into life with 1999’s Anomie & Bonhomie. Recalibrated, re-evaluated, re-imagined and, eventually, rewarded. Anomie & Bonhomie is the heady results of this artistic rebirth. Illuminated by the band’s stylish pure pop spotlight, collaborations with Mos Def, Lee Majors and Wendy Melvoin give the record a neon-lit, nocturnal shimmer. Hip hop flourishes sit side-by-side with heart-hitting balladry, as truly touching melodies match moments of uncompromising musical grit with their emotional impact.

TRACK LISTING

Umm
Tinseltown
First Goodbye
Die Alone
Mystic Handyman
Smith ’N’ Slappy
Born To Be
The World You Understand (Is Over & Over & Over)
Here Comes July
Prince Among Men
Brushed With Oil, Dusted With Powder

From a bedsit in London to New York recording studios… Alternative acclaim to mainstream adulation… Indie label hopefuls to major signings… Despite the series of radical shifts that underpinned its creation, Scritti Politti's second album Cupid & Psyche 85 achieved the virtually impossible. While everything was scaled up – the ambition, the sound, the audience – the singular artistic vision that drove the group not only remained intact and undiluted in these bigger surroundings, but became more inventive, more adventurous and, ultimately, more beloved. Introduced to pianist and programmer David Gamson while making of the band's debut album Songs To Remember, Green Gartside realised he had found a creative foil to help him achieve the ambitions he had for Scritti Politti.

Partially recorded in New York, with several tracks produced by Arif Mardin (who had worked on Aretha Franklin's I Say A Little Prayer, a track Green beautifully commemorates on this record) and partially in the UK, with Green and Gamson directly overseeing the process, Cupid & Psyche 85 is infused shimmering synths and the heat of classic funk. Yet weaved together by Green's intoxicating melodies, it is also embroidered with ideas from philosophical writings, while taking cues from myths and fables.

TRACK LISTING

The Word Girl
Small Talk
Absolute
A Little Knowledge
Don't Work That Hard
Perfect Way
Lover To Fall
Wood Beez (Pray Like Aretha Franklin)
Hypnotize

Early brought together a series of formative recordings from the late 70s and early 80s, for an America-only vinyl release in 2005. The collection, accompanied by sleeve notes from Green Gartside, included the band's debut single Skank Bloc Bologna, along with seminal tracks including The "Sweetest Girl", 28/8/78 and Lions After Slumber, and offered a stunning chance to enjoy the long-overlooked musical foundations of Scritti Politti again.

Emerging from the scene around Leeds Art School, with fellow travellers The Mekons and The Gang Of Four, and recorded while the band were residing in a Camden squat organised along Marxist principles, these post-punk rallying cries which prefigured Green and co's pop-leaning rebirth several years later, were the songs that grab the attention of John Peel, Rough Trade founder Geoff Travis and a generation of music fans who helped bring the indie music scene – and the labels that accompanied it – into existence. A musical community in which Scritti Politti played an influential and formative role.

TRACK LISTING

Skank Bloc Bologna
Is And Ought The Western World
28/8/78
Messthetics
Hegemony
Scritlocks Door
Opec - Immac
Bibbly-o-tek
Doubt Beat
Confidence
P.A.s
The "Sweetest Girl"
Lions After Slumber

Fittingly, for the release of White Bread, Black Beer, which was a beautiful expression of the creative energy Gartside had sustained over two decades at that point, Scritti Politti returned to Rough Trade for the first time since the mid-1980s.

Humbly described by Green on release as "an album of me playing around in the back room... just me alone at home", White Bread, Black Beer was universally acclaimed. Described as "a return to the top" by The Guardian, "the best record of this restlessly self-critical career" by Uncut and "a sophisticated, gloriously gentle thing" by Pitchfork, the record was duly nominated for the 2006 Mercury Prize (and was only pipped by Arctic Monkeys' debut).

TRACK LISTING

The Boom Boom Bap
No Fine Lines
Snow In Sun
Cooking
Throw
Dr. Abernathy
After Six
Petrococadollar
E Eleventh Nuts
Window Wide Open
Road To No Regret
Locked
Mrs. Hughes
Robin Hood

Do You Love the Sun is the first new Scud Mountain Boys album since Sub Pop released the critically acclaimed Massachusetts in 1996.

After being out of contact for many years, original Scud Mountain Boys band members Joe Pernice (vocals, acoustic and electric guitars), Stephen Desaulniers (vocals, acoustic guitar, bass) and Bruce Tull (electric guitar, lap steel, pedal steel) returned to the scene in late 2011, playing an almost-impromptu reunion in Cambridge, Mass. Soon after, the band announced more shows and reissued The Early Year, a compilation of their first two albums Pine Box and Dance the Night Away. Do You Love the Sun fulfills the promise of a full-fledged recorded comeback. Their latest offering features Pernice’s inimitable marriage of graceful vocals and a resigned tone that the NME (in a 9-outof- 10 Massachusetts review) once described as “the golden voice of the damaged, regret oozing from every word like wounded honey… rendering glorious the utter inevitability of failure.” Though the band was initially lumped in with the alt-country scene helmed by Son Volt, Wilco and the hordes of other disciples of Hank Williams, the Scud Mountain Boys have always taken their inspiration as much from hooky ’70s AM-radio pop as from the dirty country road of Johnny Cash.

For the legions of Scud Mountain Boys fans that have been holding out hope for a followup to the brilliant Massachusetts, Do You Love the Sun is a welcome ten-track return from a band that has been away for too long.

TRACK LISTING

1. Do You Love The Sun
2. Double Bed
3. Crown Of Thorns
4. Learn To Love Him
5. The Mendicant
6. Orphan Girl
7. She Falls Apart
8. Theme From Midnight Cowboy
9. Drew Got Shot
10. You're Mine

New for 2021, Mancunians Sea Fever are a group with instantly recognisable pasts.

The band is fronted by Iwan Gronow who previously cut his teeth in HAVEN before joining Johnny Marr’s band. Iwan is joined by Bethany Cassidy, daughter of Larry Cassidy and member of Factory Records legendary band SECTION 25. Alongside them is Tom Chapman, previously the bass player for BAD LIEUTENANT, now for NEW ORDER and as well as Sea Fever and Phil Cunningham, previously a member of Britpop stars MARION and now also a member of NEW ORDER. The quartet are joined on drums by newcomer Eliot Barlow, however the track CROSSED WIRES features the human drum machine that is Stephen Morris, famed for being a founding member of both Joy Division and New Order.

Formed in 2019, Iwan explains that their coming together as a unit felt inevitable: “We’d wanted to work with each other for ages, so when we finally sat down in the studio, the band just seemed to come together naturally.” “It felt like we were really free to explore the kinds of music that have always inspired us,” says Tom, “we dug right through the record crates of our minds to shape the sound of Sea Fever.

TRACK LISTING

1. Crossed Wires
2. Under Duress
3. Afterthought
4. Built To Last
5. Folding Lines
6. Satellite
7. Le Coup
8. De Facto
9. The Finder
10. Programme Your Life

A band well and truly into their stride, Homesick sees Sea Girls, Henry Camamile, Rory Young, Andrew Dawson and Oli Khan, deliver thirteen measures of guitar driven pop brilliance including 2 bonus Deluxe tracks.

A deeply personal record, lead singer Henry Camamile returned to his childhood home in Lincolnshire at the wake of the pandemic, finding himself having to address and reflect on events from his past, both good and bad. A cathartic process, Henry leaves nothing to the imagination with his astute storytelling and candid lyrics. Delving into some of his darkest moments, the uplifting album comes as a sense of relief, a gratefulness for survival. Lyrically raw and packed to the brim with hooks, the band step into new realms with an added sense of maturity and a bigger ambitious sounding record.

Teaming long-term producer Larry Hibbitt with Grammy Award winning Producers Jacknife Lee, Jonny Coffer and Cass Lowe to co-produce the record, Henry reflects on the process: “Imagine us locked down in the studio in rainy Brixton working with the producers remotely on the album in California’s Topanga Canyon. That clashing of worlds is the sound of this record, the DNA. Making an album this way, remotely and 5000 miles apart, was a crazy idea and shouldn’t have worked, but it did”

Premiered by Arlo Parks as the ‘Hottest Record’ on BBC Radio 1 and debuted live on the band’s frenetic mainstage slot at Latitude Festival, the band drop the album’s first taste with the infectiously honest ‘Sick’.

“Sick is me listing things I’m pissed off with and feeling sorry for myself, it’s a growing up song where I realise I’m no longer a young child. It’s me in my bedroom at home ranting with my thoughts and going down the hole of being pissed” Henry said of the track. “I am sick of everything - from things I used to love through to things that feel vacuous, like consuming and buying. All these emotions are piling up and it's me just asking for a reset, a childish solution”

“It was a turning point in the writing for this album where the songs became about worrying for other people and how they were feeling. The pivot where I started writing clearly with a bigger perspective. I literally feel myself growing up throughout this song”

Sea Girls, one of the most exciting guitar bands to have emerged in recent times, are the torchbearers for the next wave. Delivering sing-along anthems for the masses, the band’s journey is well and truly on its way.

TRACK LISTING

CD & Vinyl Tracklist
Hometown
Sick
Lonely
Someone’s Daughter Someone’s Son
Sleeping With You
Paracetamol Blues
Again Again
Lucky
Higher
Cute Guys
Friends

Deluxe - Track Listing
HOMETOWN
SICK
LONELY
SOMEONE’S DAUGHTER SOMEONE’S SON
SLEEPING WITH YOU
PARACETAMOL BLUES
AGAIN AGAIN
LUCKY
HIGHER
CUTE GUYS
FRIENDS
WATCH YOUR STEP
I GOT YOU

Sea Girls come of age on their new album 'Midnight Butterflies' delivering on the promise of their first two Top 3 records

Since roaring onto the scene, the band has cemented themselves as one of British indie's most consistent and successful groups. The immediacy and carefree attitude are the driving motivations of this superb new release via the band's own independent label, Alt. Records. With creative collaborations including Matt Schwartz (YungBlud), Benjy Gibson (Fred Again), Kid Harpoon (Harry Styles) and The Nocturns (Mimi Webb), this record is for fans of guitar music who are not afraid of big hooks and massive choruses. The result is their first album without compromise, reflecting the joy and energy they brought to the scene with their debut 'Open Up Your Head' and hit songs like 'Call Me Out' and 'All I Want To Hear You Say'.

TRACK LISTING

1. Midnight Butterflies
2. I Want You To Know Me
3. Come Back To Me
4. Horror Movies
5. Does Only God Know That We're Lonely?
6. Scream And Shout 
7. Weekends And Workdays
8. Superman
9. First On My List
10. Young Strangers 
11. Polly
12. After Hours

Sea of Bees is the musical project of Julie Ann Bee, or Jules as everyone calls her. She sings, writes the songs, and plays lots of musical instruments. She is the kind of singer-songwriter you come across only a few times in a lifetime – special, unusual, leaping out at you like an alien, her character fully-formed, her uniqueness intact.

Following the acclaim of debut album, Songs For The Ravens and follow-up Orangefarben, Jules is leaving the darkness for brighter horizons, gathering the good things up, leaving the bad behind and moving forward. The music has moved forward sonically too, with a full band sound after Jules bought a drum set and spent as much time playing it as she played guitar, much to her neighbour's dismay.

Working with long-time producer John Baccigaluppi she again visits a variety of styles across the album – folk, Americana, pop and rock. The album was mixed by Jesse Lauter (The Low Anthem).

Charlotte Oleena began writing simple soundscapes as Sea Oleena in early 2010, shaped by melancholy and never wanting to leave her bedroom. With an initial focus on recording, she began playing shows by herself regularly a year after the release of her first EP. Since then she’s played shows with a handful of musicians but has recently been playing alone again, moving pointedly in the direction of wide and open ambient worlds.

At the end of 2012, following two self-released EPs, Oleena began writing what would become her first label-released album, ‘Shallow’. The album was finished in the fall of 2013, having been recorded and mixed in various bedrooms and studios, with unrelenting and indispensable help from her brother, Luke Loseth.

‘Shallow’ finds Oleena at her most focused, compelling state yet. Her tactful use of textures and instrumentation make for a blissful, cinematic listen that’s centred on what matters most: her captivating voice.

Lyrically, she’s unafraid to dive into heartbreaking experiences, which are riddled throughout the album but feelings of hope and optimism blossom in their wake. ‘Shallow’ is music to drive to, music to daydream to, music to become immersed in. Because once you let go, these are the songs you can’t help but cling to.

TRACK LISTING

If I’m
Shallow
To Hold
Shades Of Golden
Everyone With Eyes
Closed
Vinton, LA
Paths

Sea Power (formerly British) announce what will be their first new album in five years – Everything Was Forever. Their music has won them some remarkable admirers – Lou Reed, David Bowie and London's National Mari- time Museum. Indeed, the BSP fanbase now includes Doctor Who, Harry Potter and Sherlock Holmes. Peter Capaldi is a con- firmed BSP fan. "A band of stark originality," he wrote in his foreword for the reissue of the band's 2003 debut album, The Decline Of British Sea Power. "BSP's songs bring you the bite of the wind, the fury of the sea, and music that is simply exhilarating." Daniel Radcliffe has talked in detail about his plan to get a BSP tattoo (featuring the 2002 T-shirt slogan Bravery Already Exists). Benedict Cumberbatch is also an admirer of the band.

Supported by their ever loyal fans who have very generously crowd funded the making of the next studio LP, BSP were able to get through the ravages of Covid and are on course to release their 7th studio LP later in 2021 and hopefully get back on the road.

Fifteen years on from their first concert, British Sea Power continue to make bold, galvanising, idiosyncratic marks on the world. Race horses and massive ocean-going yachts have been named after the band. London's National Maritime Museum recently opened a new £35m exhibition wing. Visitors are greeted by huge, sculpted quotations from Shakespeare and Coleridge – and a lyric from British Sea Power.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Sea Power return, with 33.3% less name and at the very least 85.6% more dedication to angsty, cinematic rock a-la Arcade Fire / Sufjan / Codes In The Clouds et. al. It's a vibrant and rousing selection, and one that is as beautiful as it is nuanced. Really lovely stuff.

TRACK LISTING

Scaring At The Sky
Transmitter
Two Fingers
Fire Escape In The Sea
Doppelganger
Fear Eats The Soul
Folly
Green Goddess
Lakeland Echo
Vestiges *
Amsterdam *
We Only Want To Make You Happy 

* Bonus Tracks For Deluxe 2LP Editions.

In 2009 the band, then known as British Sea Power, were commissioned by the Edinburgh Film Festival to create their own soundtrack for the 1934 quasi-documentary, which they premiered by playing along live during a screening at the event.

A studio version of the album followed in May the same year, while more screening/performances took place at the BFI in London and at cinemas in Brighton and Sheffield, while events were also staged on a series of islands, including Jersey, the Hebrides and a Norwegian islet in the Arctic Circle.

Charting the activities of fisherman based on a remote outcrop in mouth of Galway Bay in western Ireland, Robert J Flaherty’ Man Of Aran captured a disappearing way of life as Aran’s inhabitants battled daily against the elements to survive, something that chimed deeply with Sea Power’s own curiosity for the past and their urgent, environmentally-driven concerns for the future.

The resulting, mainly instrumental score, proved to be a true artistic collaboration that stretched across the decades, earning the group widespread acclaim upon its release, both for the music’s simpatico relationship with the original film and as a stand alone work in its own right.

Declared by The Quietus on release as a “perfect symbiosis that should rightly be regarded as something of an understated classic,” Ireland’s Hot Press called it “Stunning... breath-taking” while NME encouraged listeners to “let it all gloriously wash over you.”

Fans will finally be able to experience that artistic and emotional depth on vinyl with this reissue.

TRACK LISTING

A1 - Man Of Aran
A2 - The South Sound
A3 - Come Wander With Me
B1 - Tiger King
B2 - The Currach
B3 - Boy Vertiginous
C1 - Spearing The Sunfish
C2 - Conneely Of The West
C3 - The North Sound
D1 - Woman Of Aran
D2 - It Comes Back Again
D3 - No Man Is An Archipelago

"On Fire, With Love" is the second album by Nottingham sextet Seachange, a warmer, more personal record than 2004's "Lay of the Land". An over-ambitious attempt to make a double album stretched resources beyond breaking point. Dropped by their old label Matador, the band retreated to their Nottingham hideout, completed the record, condensed it to a single album, and tried in vain to find a UK label to release it. Enter Glitterhouse records. Knowing a good thing when they see it, the German label released the album to massive critical acclaim on the European mainland. ('Album of the year? If not it's damn close .. The saviours of alternative rock' - Spex. 'Feel-good indie hit of the summer, after this it's impossible to ignore Seachange' - Visions). All this has made the record the most successful Glitterhouse have released since Mudhoney over a decade ago. Spurred on by this success, the band release "On Fire, With Love" in the UK on their own A Is For Artist imprint.

After John Squire left The Stone Roses, he formed The Seahorses in 1996 together with Stuart Fletcher, Chris Helme and Andy Watts. The year after they released their debut album Do It Yourself, which was produced by Tony Visconti. Visconti had his first hit with T. Rex' “Ride A White Swan” and was involved in many David Bowie productions.

The album was well received and entered the UK Album Charts at #2 and received a Platinum status. It featured three popular singles: “Love Is The Law”, “Blinded By The Sun” and “Love Me And Leave Me”. The latter was Liam Gallagher's first song writing credit. Their success resulted in support slots with The Rolling Stones, U2 and Oasis. Unfortunately, The Seahorses aborded the recordings of their follow-up album to split up due to musical differences.

Do It Yourself is celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2022

TRACK LISTING

I Want You To Know
2 Blinded By The Sun
3 Suicide Drive
4 The Boy In The Picture
5 Love Is The Law
6 Happiness Is Eggshaped
7 Love Me And Leave Me
8 Round The Universe
9 1999
10 Standing On Your Head
11 Hello

Sean Na Na is back in action as a full-time project. Many people might suspect that this is a side project to Har Mar Superstar, but it's actually quite the opposite. 2007 is the year of Sean Na Na. Late last year the band completed recording on what many tastemakers are already saying is the record that will define the new world of American indie rock. Akin to the golden days of Guided By Voices, the Replacements, "Family Trees Or: Cope We Must" brings back the coolness of American indie rock that we haven't seen in over a decade. As a band, they've been chugging along since 1997 releasing full length albums on such labels as French Kiss, Troubleman, and Kill Rock Stars. If they were pressed to compare themselves to anyone they would say that they come off like Elvis Costello and Thin Lizzy partying and writing together all night only to hand off the songs to the Replacements in the morning.

It's been almost 20 years since Seasick Steve's celebrated appearance on Jools Holland's Hootenanny launched the unknown American singer-songwriter to worldwide fame, and his beat-up three-string Japanese guitar and old wooden stompbox made musical history. The overwhelming response surprised nobody more than Steve himself, and was like a lightning strike; the impact of which is still being felt close to two decades later, as he has gone onto play almost every major festival in the World, rack up over 2 million album sales, and release three UK Top 10 albums.

His new record A Trip A Stumble A Fall Down On Your Knees is released on 7th June 2024 via So Recordings and available to pre-order now. It's a record he proudly says is his favourite to date, and is announced alongside a run of UK instore and outstore shows. Steve says: “This album was made by mistake, as the title suggests we just tripped and stumbled into it, and it became my favourite album ever and the piece of work I’m most proud of to date. There’s not a week goes by that I don’t thank my lucky stars for that night on the Hootenanny which has brought us here to this record”.

TRACK LISTING

1. Move To The Country
2. Internet Cowboys
3. San Francisco Sound '67
4. A Trip And A Stumble (For Leya)
5. This Way
6. Backbone Slip
7. Let The Music Talk
8. Funky Music
9. Cryin' Out Loud
10. Elisabeth

‘Love & Peace’ sees Steve mixing up all of his much-loved ingredients to deliver a fresh new record that offers the perfect antidote for the troubled times in which we live. Full of hope for the future, it’s a great mix of boogie, blues, rock, Americana and folk – all delivered in Seasick Steve’s unique style. It’s a sizzler of an album that he can’t wait to release.

“In these crazy times seems to me there just ain’t enough love and peace to go around,” says Steve. “I ain’t exactly sure what this here record got to do with love and peace, but I figured I’d call it that anyways!”

Produced and written by Seasick Steve, this album sees him breaking with tradition. While some of it was recorded in his barn, the majority was recorded in Los Angeles at Studio 606 and at East West Studio 3. The album was mixed by Vance Powell (Jack White, Chris Stapleton) and Steve at East West.

Steve’s long-term drummer Dan Magnusson (a.k.a. Crazy Dan) is of course featured on the record, along with some amazing contributions from guitarist Luther Dickinson (North Mississippi Allstars) and harmonica player Malcolm Arison (The BossHoss).

Steve adds, “This was recorded on 2” analogue tape, mixed to analogue tape and for the vinyl it was cut from the 1/2” master tape direct to lathe. ‘Old skool’, no computer, hear what I’m sayin’? I hope you like it ok. Adios amigos!”

TRACK LISTING

1. Love & Peace
2. Regular Man
3. I Will Do For You
4. Clock Is Running
5. Carni Days
6. Church Of Me
7. Toes In The Mud
8. My Woman
9. Ain’t Nothin’ Like The Boogie
10. Travelling Man
11. Ready Or Not
12. Mercy

7" (Love & Peace) limited to 475 units packaged in Kraftboard sleeve with white inner bag.

7" (Travellin’ Man) – Love & Peace (green cover) Kraftboard sleeve w/ white inner bag 475.

The inventors of lo-fi indie rock return with a 15-track blast of melodic melancholy, all delivered by the smudged middle finger of Dinosaur Jr original Lou Barlow - 'The auteur of the subterranean lovesick blues.' (Houston Press).

Their first studio album since 2013’s "Defend Yourself" and their first release with Fire Records, Lou Barlow and team return with a smorgasbord of beautifully dysfunctional tunes harking back to their finest college rock anthems.

It’s Barlow at his introverted songwriting best; matter-of-factly delivering a stream of self-questioning stories, punctuated by detuned guitars, spine-tingling time changes and throwaway one liners. A grainy post grunge postcard wrapped in bittersweet melodies with an aftertaste that’s pure heartbreak.

More songs about growing up wrong for those who continue to act surprised at life itself - all illegibly handwritten and lovingly submitted to vinyl.

TRACK LISTING

1. Phantom
2. Celebrate The Void
3. Follow The Breath
4. Medicate
5. See-Saw
6. Vacation
7. Stunned
8. Fool
9. Raging River
10. Sunshine
11. Act Surprised
12. Battery
13. Belief
14. Leap Year
15. Reykjavik

This remix 12" features three unique reworks of Kit Sebastian tracks. Each of the producers featured in this package created their own interpretation of the ‘lo-fi-hi-fi’ originals and have taken the duo’s sound into bold new directions. When it came to choosing who should remix Kit Sebastian, Natureboy Flako (Flako / Dario Rojo Guerra) was a producer at the top of the list. Keeping true to the original, whilst leaving his own stamp on the track, his mix adds breakbeat drums and middle-Eastern guitar riffs that transform the track into a more cinematic piece. It sounds like the music from an exotica dive-bar scene in a David Lynch film - which of course, is a very good thing. Producer and DJ Baris K, who was behind the awesome ‘Istanbul 70’ series (re-edits of classic Turkish gems), takes ‘Durma’ in a very different direction. Totally reconstructing the track, his remix has flipped the original and totally run wild. The results are an epic left-field electronic workout. By bringing the spoken-word vocals to the forefront and giving the track a darker industrial vibe, it wouldn’t sound out of place bouncing around the walls of a Berlin basement club at 5am on a Sunday morning. The pairing of Kit Sebastian and Halal Cool J grew after DJing together at the alternative Great Escape party at the Mr Bongo HQ in May 2019. They share a love for dusty old psychedelic Turkish records. Halal Cool J (aka Aly Jamal / Don Leisure) has released records on First World and is a co-member of Darkhouse Family with Earl Jeffers. For his interpretation he has delivered a mix-tape-collage with a hip-hop aesthetic, and rather than focusing on remixing a specific song, he has cut and paste his favourite elements of tracks taken off the band’s ‘Mantra Moderne’ album.

STAFF COMMENTS

Mine says: Featuring a dreamy stomper courtesy of Natureboy Flako, a 10-minute dub beast by the one and only Baris K and, my personal fave, an uber groovy medley by Halal Cool J. More of that please!

TRACK LISTING

Durma (Baris K Dub)
Senden Baska (Natureboy Flako Remix)
Kit Sebastian Vs Halal Cool J

Adrian Borland and Graham Bailey might be better known as members of legendary post-punk group The Sound, but the two were childhood friends and had been playing together even earlier in The Outsiders, and continued their deep musical rapport as a duo, creating these intense and engaging songs as Second Layer at the same time as their higher profile band output. Following the release of Courts Or Wars, combining their early material, 1972 is proud to reissue their only full length album, World Of Rubber.

Fuelled by experimentation in both song construction and recording techniques, the duo leave you enveloped in what The Quietus described as “a monochrome worldview morbidly obsessed with the dehumanizing effect of war, nuclear weapon annihilation, and the fracturing and negation of the self within an increasingly distorted and technologically mediated society.” Indeed, the goal had been to make each album a concept album, with this to be titled: Second Layer’s World Of Rubbe. Alas, this was to be the first and last of those efforts. New detailed liner notes from Graham Bailey shed considerable light on the creation of this cold classic and its immediate aftermath.

Bailey’s inventive construction and deconstruction of various electronics, effects boxes and tape loops form the propulsive base for these songs. Borland’s guitar playing is jagged and unleashed. Above it all is an undeniable sense of melody and Borland’s distinctive vocals. Soon, they would wonder where Second Layer ended and The Sound began, but World Of Rubber would stand as a document of this fertile period. It would also be a lasting testament to their desire to push the boundaries of their creativity. Dark and brooding the result is what Bandcamp described as “brutally bleak, blank-eyed post-punk that remains chillingly compelling.”

TRACK LISTING

1. Definition Of Honour
2. In Bits
3. Fixation
4. Save Our Souls
5. Distortion
6. Underneath The Gloss
7. Zero
8. Japanese Headset
9. Black Flowers

In the wake of their 2011 album "Strange Hearts", the three members of Secret Cities branched off in different directions. Charlie Gokey delved into Roy Orbison's ballads about losers in love while becoming a civil liberties attorney in Washington, D.C. Alex Abnos locked in to New Orleans soul masters like King Floyd & Dr. John as he became a journalist in New York City. And Marie Parker became a teacher in the band's spiritual home of Fargo, North Dakota.

Having met at band camp and on an internet message board, the trio had made music together for nine years without ever living together in the same city. After recording two albums and a handful of singles via email, they decided it was finally time to enter a real studio where they could play and record together in real time. They chose San Francisco's Tiny Telephone studio, where Jay Pellicci manned the controls for a week-and-a-half of the most spontaneous, democratic, and visceral recording of their lives. They emerged with Walk Me Home, an album that finally reflects their live chemistry and their diverging lives and musical tastes.

"The bass is dewey. The harmonies are starlit. The theremin is ripe…The racket they're able to muster together in the process is enough to set them apart from the pack." PITCHFORK.

TRACK LISTING

01. Purgatory; 2:17
02. Bad Trip; 2:24
03. Paradise; 4:24
04. The Rooftop; 2:26
05. Interlude; 1:49
06. Thumbs ; 3:28
07. Playing With Fire; 3:50
08. Walk Me Home; 3:46
09. The Cellar; 4:04
10. Interlude 2; 1:36
11. It ’s Always Summer; 2:45
12. It ’s Always Winter; 3:42
13. Sun Enclosure; 3:30

This is powerful stuff, especially if you like your rock to disorientate you. Locked into churning grooves but always tuneful, you could lump these in with the Nu Prog heads because this is certainly psychedelic. It's shifting, spatial heavy music.

Originally released in 2008, Secret Machines highly acclaimed self-titled third album has been remastered by Simon Scott (Slowdive) and is released on their TSM Recordings imprint. The album includes a revamped version of "The Fire Is Waiting," featuring Tony Visconti on recorder.

Speaking on "The Fire Is Waiting," Brandon Curtis wrote: "When we recorded the demo for this song, everyone told us it was too long. We decided it wasn't long enough. Sometimes you wait for the fire. Sometimes the fire waits for you."

Secret Machines helped define the rock sound of the 00's, alongside contemporaries Interpol, Spiritualized, and TV on the Radio. Their 2006 release Ten Silver Drops won them further critic love and the attention of David Bowie, who became a serious fan. With sprawling arrangements occasionally pushing the 9 minute mark, their grandiose sound was alternately labelled as prog, space rock, and occasionally shoegaze. In 2010 their unreleased fourth LP was put on pause, and as time marched on, with no official breakup announcement, fans were left wondering if they'd ever hear from the band again. What should have been their follow up to this 2008 s/t, "The Moth The Lizard & The Secret Machines" is also being released for the first time simultaneously.

TRACK LISTING

Disc: 1
1 The Fire Is Waiting
2 Last Believer, Drop Dead
3 Have I Run Out
4 Underneath The Concrete
Disc: 2
1 Now You're Gone
2 Atomic Heels
3 The Walls Are Starting To Crack
4 I Never Thought To Ask

Much like a frantic movie about "unfinished business" or "the one that got away," Secret Machines spent the past few years finally putting the finishing touches on what should have been their fourth LP. Long regarded as a lost album, The Moth, The Lizard and the Secret Machines was actually put on pause in 2010 and massaged in the aftermath of 2020's return-to-form record Awake in the Brain Chamber. This essentially makes it the missing link between that effort's brash pop songs and 2008's sorely overlooked self-titled LP.

"If you listen to them in order," says singer/multi-instrumentalist Brandon Curtis, "Awake in the Brain Chamber is basically a reaction to the Moth record - very tight and verse/chorus/verse/chorus rather than loose, sprawling and unconventional."

One key reference point of the Moth sessions was something Garza and Curtis bonded over back in their early days: the Buddhist philosophy of "first thought, best thought." A guiding principle of everyone from Beat poet Allen Ginsberg to downtown icon Arthur Russell, it's the idea that you're better off cutting riffs, beats and chords straight to tape than arranging or composing anything concrete beforehand. In other words, it's music made of fleeting moments and memories rather than rearranged verses and melodies - about as pure as a creative endeavor can be. Their long-awaited fourth LP is full of winding ear worms and hummable hooks, from its fearless, thunderstruck opener ("There's No Starting Over") and the Fripp & Eno-esque outro of "Crucifixion Time" to the broken-hearted balladry of "Run Out the Silver Light" and the sombre instrumental sequence that is "Last One Out."

TRACK LISTING

1. There's No Starting Over
2. I Think It's Light Outside
3. You Want It Worse
4. Even Out The Overflow
5. Last One Out
6. The Answer
7. Crucifixion Time
8. Run Out The Silver Light
9. The Finalizer

"Our fifth chapter is the one where we seek, savor, and settle The muse found us in the depths of raising children, nurturing relationships, surviving a world- changing virus, bidding farewell, shifting our mindsets, and discovering a sense of peace heretofore unseen. Our third decade of life has proven to be one of routine, rest, and realization, and these songs are about the lessons we've learned. We've learned to be space-holders and defenders of the people we hold close. We've learned from deep, steady love in various forms. We've learned to let go of people and perceptions and priorities that just didn't make the cut as we weighed what is right and important and worth keeping. We've learned how all the things we've always treasured continue to withstand the pressure of time. If you notice an upward trend to the mood and emotions, you're on target-we have found calm waters, for now."

TRACK LISTING

Space
Paperweight
If The World Was A House
All The Ways (feat Ray LaMontagne)
Planted
Never Walk Away
I Needed You
Bear With Me
Same Water
I Can Never Be Without You Anymore
I’ve Got Your Back

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2015 EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

Factory Benelux presents Mirror b/w You Leave Me No Choice, the brand new single by Section 25 issued in a special limited edition of just 500 copies to mark Record Store Day on Saturday 18 April 2015
Coinciding with a deluxe double disc remaster of classic debut album Always Now (originally released by Factory Records in 1981), the single features brand new recordings of two songs performed live by the original trio line-up of Section 25 in 1980/81, but never studio recorded. Bridging past and present, Larry Cassidy’s vocals and lyrics are now handled by Factory colleague Simon Topping, previously a member of A Certain Ratio, Quando Quango and T-Coy.
The artwork is based on the original cover design for Always Now by Peter Saville, with the colour scheme now reversed.
Section 25 are Vin Cassidy, Beth Cassidy, Steve Stringer, Jo Cassidy and Simon Topping. “A revelation. The best old/new band in Britain” (The Guardian, 2014).

TRACK LISTING

Side A: Mirror
Side B: You Leave Me No Choice

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

Factory Benelux presents Reflection (Young Image) b/w Change, the brand new single by Section 25, issued in a special limited edition of just 500 copies pressed in orange vinyl to mark Record Store Day on 19 April 2014
Taken from the forthcoming release From The Hip (30th Anniversary Edition), Reflection is a brand new version of this driving dream-pop anthem from side one of the classic 1984 album, which maybe should have been a single at the time. “On first listening Reflection is a whimsical yet heartfelt expression of true love,” says Beth Cassidy. “But strip this back and we discover an inner core which explores the surreal nature of life itself. Even after 30 years there are layers to this song that conceal its true meaning.”

Flipside 'Change' is exclusive to this 7” single and will not be made available elsewhere. “The lyric is the narrative of a changing relationship wrapped up in the music of a changing band,” explains founder member Vin Cassidy.

The fluorescent artwork and packaging is based on original designs by Peter Saville for SXXV’s classic 1984 club single Looking From A Hilltop.
Section 25 today are Vin Cassidy, Beth Cassidy, Steve Stringer and Jo Cassidy. “Metamorphosing from the glummest, most dour group ever into progenitors of House, Blackpool’s SXXV are, inevitably, one of the groups of this very post-punk moment” (Chris Bohn, The Wire magazine).

TRACK LISTING

Side A: Reflection (Young Image)
Side B: Change

Factory Benelux presents Dark Light, the brand new album by post-punk trailblazers Section 25, Factory workers since 1979.

Recorded in 2012, Dark Light is their first collection of new material since the tragic loss of founder Larry Cassidy in 2010, and marks a return to the smooth electro and synth-pop textures first explored on their seminal 1984 album From the Hip. These echoes are amplified by the presence of co-vocalists Beth and Jo Cassidy, and a sublime cover image by iconic artist/designer Peter Saville.

Much of Dark Light was produced in collaboration with remixer Derek Miller (aka Outernationale), and includes new versions of recent single tracks Colour Movement Sex & Violence and Inner Drive. Other stand-out cuts include future pop classic My Outrage, which will also be made available as a limited edition 7” single (7 FBN 62) to mark World Record Store Day in April 2013. There are also two hidden tracks.

Section 25 are: Vin Cassidy, Bethany Cassidy, Steve Stringer, Stuart Hill and Joanna Cassidy. “Metamorphosing from the glummest, most dour group ever into progenitors of House, Blackpool’s SXXV are, inevitably, one of the groups of this very post-punk moment” (Chris Bohn, The Wire magazine)

TRACK LISTING

Vinyl Tracklist:
A1. World’s End
A2. My Outrage
A3. Pitch Black Box
A4. Love Cuts
A5. Colour Movement Sex & Violence
B1. Inner Drive
B2. 78

CD Tracklist:
1. World’s End
2. My Outrage
3. Pitch Black Box
4. Love Cuts
5. Colour Movement Sex & Violence
6. Inner Drive
7. 78
8. Letter To America
9. Memento
10. Early Exit
11. CMSV Dub Mix
12. Program For Light (Outernationale)

Tracks from the classic Factory Records album "From The Hip", captured live in LA and California in 1985.

Section 25 release their 10th studio album ‘Move On’ via Nine X Nine records. Originally formed in Lancashire in 1977 they are best known for their work with iconic Manchester label Factory Records. Fusing elements of post-punk, electro and synth-pop their sound is unmistakable and influential.

‘Move On’ has optimism at its core. It is a reflection of the past and a meditation on the present. Emotionally engaging with the here and now by understanding what has passed.

Section 25 have built a lasting legacy as one of Britain’s most important bands in electronic music. Younger audiences may be familiar with their work through it being extensively sampled, including by Kanye West. The band were also namechecked in LCD Soundsystem’s breakout single ‘Losing My Edge’.

TRACK LISTING

1. Move On
2. Human Puppets
3. Gun For Hire
4. Form Is Void
5. CV1
6. Graduate From Boredom
7. The Boy From The A Shed
8. We Are On Our Own
9. Pubs, Clubs And Drugs
10. Back In The Day

Formed in Blackpool (UK) by brothers Larry and Vin Cassidy in 1978, the band were initially mentored by Joy Division, and went on to record four albums with Factory Records. The first of these, "Always Now", offered Krautrock and psychedelia produced by Martin 'Zero' Hannett. Their third, "From The Hip", produced in 1984 by Bernard Sumner of New Order, explored techno and electronica, and spawned the oft-sampled club hit "Looking From A Hilltop". Now recognized as a leading genre band, three Section 25 tracks were included in the recent Warners box set "Factory Records: Communications 1978-1992", with "From The Hip" lauded as one of '1000 albums to hear before you die' by The Guardian newspaper.

After a decade apart, Section 25 released "Part-Primitiv" in 2007 and "Nature + Degree" in 2009, as well as playing a string of powerful live shows across Europe and America. "Retrofit" was recorded before the untimely death of Larry Cassidy in February 2010, and sees the group revisit 10 key tracks from their estimable back catalogue, remade and remodelled using new technology, and closing with a compelling remix of "Looking From A Hilltop" by New Order member Stephen Morris. "Retrofit" also includes an exclusive brand new track, "Uberhymn".

TRACK LISTING

Vinyl Tracklist:
A1. The Process
A2. Looking From A Hilltop
A3. Beating Heart
A4. Reflection (Young Image)
B1. Dirty Disco
B2. Girls Don’t Count
B3. New Horizon
B4. Wretch

CD Tracklist:
1. The Process
2. Looking From A Hilltop
3. Beating Heart
4. Desert
5. Uberhymn
6. Garageland
7. Dirty Disco
8. Girls Don’t Count
9. New Horizon
10. Wretch
11. Another Hilltop (Stephen Morris Mix)

Justin Moyer – a.k.a. Edie Sedgwick, the Warhol starlet who died of a barbiturate overdose in 1971 –spent much of the last decade schlepping around the globe in a wig and a dress, imparting his/her wisdom on celebrity culture to the masses. Sometimes, he brought a live band. Other nights, he made do with an iPod.

But following the release of his third LP, Love Gets Lovelier Every Day, in 2011, Moyer understood that it was time to change that shit up. After all, ten years is a long time, man. Since Edie first stepped to the mic in 1999, four of Moyer’s other bands – El Guapo, Supersystem, Antelope, and SPRCSS – came and went. Entire scenes, genres, and record labels were born and passed from this Earth.

So, Edie became E.D. And the group became Moyer’s central musical outlet, rather than a side-project indulged between tours. He recruited a full-time-ish backing band, including bassist Kristina Buddenhagen, drummer Jess Matthews (America Hearts), and singer JosaFeen Wells. And he consigned that tattered silver frock to the closet. Now, E.D. wears white.

Incidentally, We Wear White is also the title of his new record. Recorded by TJ Lipple at Inner Ear and mixed by Trans Am’s Phil Manley at his San Francisco HQ, Lucky Cat Recording, We Wear White is a more aggressive, dirtier batch of songs. In fact, the first song is called, “Dirty.” E.D.’s lyrics have drifted away from the pages of People magazine and toward topics relevant to the here and now – retro-fetishism, gentrification, and why it was totally a mistake for you to get that DC flag tattoo. It includes Moyer's first ever song about smoking marijuana (full disclosure: Justin Moyer has never smoked marijuana).

Why wear white? Because red means blood. Because blue’s no good. Because you get to be born again. It’s the color of renewal - and the perfect pigment in which to rendezvous with your preferred higher power

TRACK LISTING

1) Dirty
2) Hex Of Sex (For Minimal Man)
3) Rockin’ The Boat
4) Goddam
5) Mina
6) We Wear White
7) He’s The One
8) It Wasn’t Me
9) DNA
10) Ghost Dick
11) Weatherman

Less than a year after releasing their debut, and with their lineup now settled, The See See return with their second album for Dell'Orso. With this new release, The See See have created an album far more dynamic than its predecessor. Aligning a brash love of U.S. West Coast psychedelia to latter-day European influences (Spacemen 3 particularly), ‘Fountayne Mountain' weaves harmonized laments through McGuinn-esque guitars.

This is a band who have now become a lush sum of their parts. Led by Richard Olson (who previously fronted acid folk rock band Eighteenth Day Of May) this London based group have on this record pooled their influences together to make an album of a perfect two halves, dishing up spun out ballads (Big Wheels, Fix Me Up), alongside euphoric, lazer guided instrumentals (Sunbleached) and ritualistic, daisy-chained rollercoasters (The Day That Was The Day).

This album will be released on compact disc and through digital formats on Dell'Orso and on limited edition tri-coloured vinyl via our friends at Great Pop Supplement.

GPS will also be releasing the first single from the album, Gold & Honey' on 7" only backed by a superb kraut-remix of Sunbleached by Eat Lights Become Lights. To coincide with this single release The See See have just supported one of our all time favourites, Olivia Tremor Control at Cargo, London.

STAFF COMMENTS

Darryl says: Like a sweet psyche dappled mix of The Byrds and Spacemen 3. Highly recommended!